Dolphins pick Texas Tech WR Erik Ezukanma in fourth round of NFL Draft and add QB late
Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel sat next to general manager Chris Grier after an often monotonous NFL Draft weekend had come to a close.
With just four picks used, all of them coming in the final two days of the draft, McDaniel was asked to reflect on the completion of his first draft as a head coach.
“It was nice to get my feet wet, doing nothing,” McDaniel joked.
The Dolphins were more than happy to sit out the opening rounds of the draft after trading much of their 2022 picks for All-Pro wide receiver Tyreek Hill. And after using their first pick in the third round on Georgia linebacker Channing Tindall, the team was a little more active on the final day of the draft.
This started with the Dolphins’ selection of Texas Tech wide receiver Erik Ezukanma with the No. 125 overall pick Saturday, adding another pass-catcher to a revamped position group.
Ezukanma, 6-1 and 209 pounds, caught 48 passes for 705 yards and four touchdowns in 2021, earning second-team All-Big 12 honors. A three-year starter, he recorded 138 receptions for 2,165 yards and 15 touchdowns in his college career and led Texas Tech in receiving yards in three consecutive seasons.
Ezukanma, 22, joins a wide receiver room that is headlined by Jaylen Waddle, along with new additions Tyreek Hill and Cedrick Wilson. New Dolphins wide receiver coach Wes Welker is a Texas Tech alum like Ezukanma.
Ezukanma, a native of Fort Worth, Texas, said he had a formal meeting with the Dolphins at the NFL Scouting Combine and they “showed love throughout the process.”
He described himself as a versatile player who can get touches out of the backfield, catches passes downfield and provides yards after the catch.
“You can put me anywhere on the field and I feel like I can help the team in any situation,” he said.
Ezukanma said contested catches are one of his “strong suits.”
“I feel like throughout my career I’ve really worked on contested catches, bang-bang plays,” he said. “I feel like in the beginning of my career at Tech, that was one of the places I struggled at, but I gained more confidence with that and just getting bigger in the weight room, buying into the weight room and being able to make those contested catches even if a defender is on my back or hitting me at the same time. So I feel like that’s one of my high points of my game.”
Ezukanma, who is of Nigerian descent, also said he has extensive experience on special teams, where he’ll likely have to prove himself initially before becoming a factor on offense.
Entering the draft, wide receiver was not a position high on the Dolphins’ needs. Along with the trade for Hill and signing of Wilson, the team re-signed Preston Williams and signed Trent Sherfield. The addition of Ezukanma gives the position group a bit more size after the departure of DeVante Parker, who was traded to the New England Patriots.
“With us, you always go down the board, we always talk about taking the best players available,” Dolphins general manager Chris Grier said after the draft. “So, we got to that pick and he was a player we had talked about. We visited with him. Wes worked him out, went there and he was on Mike from Day 1 about getting a Red Raider in here. So, we dealt with Wes all spring talking him up. We had a good workout with him, did a private workout with him as well and did a nice job for us.
“So, we got to know him and he was the kind of player that fit our profile for what we were looking for. Good kid, tough. Catches the ball well. He blocks. Run after catch. When he was there and we looked at the board, we said we had to take him.”
The Dolphins also used their pair of seventh-rounders on California outside linebacker Cameron Goode with the No. 224 overall pick and Kansas State quarterback Sylar Thompson with the No. 247 overall pick.
Throughout a Saturday afternoon that was a bit, not much more, busier, the Dolphins didn’t address arguably their largest need, offensive line. Grier had previously said the team would add competition at center for Michael Deiter, who started games in 2021.
But with just a four-player draft class and close to 20 roster spots open, the Dolphins are expected to sign a large pool of undrafted rookies, including multiple offensive linemen.
“With us, all through the draft, we try and look at every position,” Grier said. “We follow our board. We don’t reach for people. We did try and move up a couple times but we had limited resources in terms of being able to move around. As we said before, just because the draft is over doesn’t mean we’re going to stop looking to improve the roster. So, we’ll keep working with that all spring and through the summer.”
This story was originally published April 30, 2022 at 1:15 PM.
