Miami Dolphins will try to make good on promise they can draft any player they want
The Miami Dolphins love Joe Burrow.
If the Dolphins had the first overall selection in the NFL draft, they would pick the Heisman Trophy-and national championship-winning quarterback with that pick, according to a person familiar with the team’s thinking.
The problem is the Dolphins don’t have the first overall selection. That currently belongs to the Cincinnati Bengals. The Dolphins currently have the No. 5 overall selection.
And so in the weeks between now and that moment the Bengals are on the clock during the 2020 NFL Draft, the Dolphins will try to trade up to the top spot to pick Burrow, according to the source.
There is, however, a problem.
Although Bengals owner and general manager Mike Brown has said nothing definitive about keeping or trading the top pick (meaning Burrow), it’s considered an extremely long shot any team will be able to pry that pick from him.
Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin told reporters at the NFL Combine last month it was “doubtful” the Bengals would make such a trade.
Beyond that, the Bengals have had discussions about trading incumbent quarterback Andy Dalton. And teams don’t usually make plans to move their current franchise quarterback unless they have a new franchise quarterback on the immediate horizon.
(Well, maybe the Dolphins do, but you get the general idea.)
But despite the high likelihood the conversation with Brown will not yield the answer they want, the Dolphins still expect to try.
And one source said recently the door remains open until Cincinnati officially turns in the draft card for Burrow. So the Dolphins have a Hail Mary ready for use.
I would say the chances of the Dolphins actually getting this done is about one in 100. So don’t go purchasing any Burrow jerseys online, Dolphins fans.
But assuming reality prevails over the dream, it should be noted this is not how the Dolphins thought it would go.
Not at all.
Because the Dolphins promised fans something at the beginning and throughout all of 2019. This was the promise in loose terms: We will be in a position in the 2020 draft to get any player we want and if we’re not in that spot, we’ll have enough resources to get there.
Remember that?
“We can do anything we want. Whether it’s free agency, as well, and the draft,” general manager Chris Grier said in September of 2019. “For us, we’ve positioned ourselves where we think we can do anything or get whatever player we feel that will help us as soon as possible.”
Grier said this to justify trading offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil and defensive Minkah Fitzpatrick within a couple of weeks of each other.
He said this because he felt comfortable the three first-round picks and two second-round picks he got in those trades would combine with Miami’s own draft picks to give the Dolphins so much draft treasure, no team would be able to resist Miami’s trade overtures as it searched for a quarterback.
That was a bold calculation that comforted a lot of fans about the controversial trades of two players who ended up in the Pro Bowl. And we have slightly more than five weeks to see if that calculation by the Dolphins is right.
The Dolphins will attempt to make it all ring true by getting that trade for Burrow.
Unfortunately for them, the Cincinnati Bengals have the final say in the matter.
This story was originally published March 9, 2020 at 1:31 AM.
