Dolphins, Chargers GMs either hinted at their QB choices, or somebody’s using a smokescreen
Two NFL general managers. In one corner, Miami Dolphins GM Chris Grier holds the No. 5 overall pick in the first round of Thursday’s NFL draft. In the other corner, Los Angeles Chargers GM Tom Telesco holds the No. 6 pick.
Both need quarterbacks.
Neither is likely to get Joe Burrow, because he’s going No. 1 to the Cincinnati Bengals. So Tua Tagovailoa and Justin Herbert are quite possibly going to fill the quarterback needs in Miami and L.A.
And if you believe these two men, they view the priorities about the players they want on their roster, even at quarterback, in quite a different manner. And that’s important now because their priorities could speak loudly about their quarterback choices.
Grier first:
“For us, you always weigh the talents,” he told reporters last week on a video conference. “You talk about the kid, the person, the work ethic and then you do look at injuries. You take in the factor of the position he plays and such. For us, every decision has to be weighed with that.”
So Grier’s priority is the ability, the makeup, and then the injury history and durability.
Telesco seemingly has a different set of priorities. He places injury history and durability at higher importance than Grier:
“Very, very high,” Telesco said during his predraft video conference. “I can’t even estimate the amount of hours we put into the medical portion of it. Our team doctors, both orthopedic and general medicine, do a ton of work for us. Our trainers, [head athletic trainer] Damon Mitchell and [associate athletic trainer] Marco Zucconi, do a lot of work, so we have the information not just on what injuries a player has had, but how they’ve healed.
“Then really trying to predict out what the risk may be down the road. That’s a big part of the whole process. No matter how good a player is, if he’s not available to you, he doesn’t help the team. That’s a big part of the process. I don’t think anybody wants to have a team where you can’t rely on players.
“So yeah, it’s a big part of the draft process that isn’t probably talked about as much, but yeah, it’s a major part.”
This isn’t to say durability’s not important to the Dolphins. It is. But during his conference call, Grier downplayed that importance.
Consider:
“Like I said, I’ve been around great people, players like Jake Long who was unbelievable and unfortunately he had the injury bug and it caught him,” Grier said. “Then I told you about Curtis Martin. No one would’ve guessed he would be a Hall of Famer. They thought he was a great football player there, but he was hurt all of the time. Then he ended up having a Hall of Fame career and basically never missed time.
“Again, you just never know. For us, we factor in all of that stuff; but we’ll make a good decision for us in terms of what we think is best for the Dolphins.”
And back to Telesco in the other corner:
“You do have to make some projections moving forward as far as medical risk and as far as injuries are concerned,” he said. “We do that with every single player. Football is a collision sport. When you get to this level, it gets even faster, bigger and there are more collisions.
“It’s an important part of the process of putting that whole puzzle together on every single player. The good thing is I don’t feel like we’re missing medical information on anybody, at this point.”
So I’m listening to both these men who hold the same job within their respective organizations, who both need a quarterback out of this draft, whose teams had the same record last season, and I’m stunned by the difference in how they talked about durability during their press conference last week.
Telesco made it seem like nothing’s more important. And Grier made it seem like it’s no biggie compared to performance ...
“The tape really tells you what the player is and then the Combine and all of the other stuff maybe gives you a little bit clearer picture,” he said. “But at the end of the day, it’s what the guys do on film.”
Grier, again, stressed the injury histories on Jake Long and Curtis Martin in college and how that failed to predict their NFL durability — because Long was never hurt in college but broke down after three years in Miami, while Martin was hurt at Pitt but rarely hurt in the NFL.
So either Chris Grier and Tom Telesco are as opposite on the importance of durability as their geographic location on a map ...
... Or somebody is laying down a major smokescreen.
How so?
Because Herbert and Tagovailoa, the two quarterbacks likely left to the Dolphins and Chargers offer two different draft-day choices.
Tagovailoa seems more accomplished and has better tape. But he is only 6 foot and 217 pounds and has an extensive and even worrisome injury history. Herbert is less accomplished and not quite as dynamic despite obvious physical gifts. But he’s 6-6 and 237 and he has not struggled with injuries on the same scale as Tua.
So if Telesco and Grier are being straightforward with what’s important to them, they have provided us with major hints who they like more. Telesco would lean to the player with better durability (Herbert), while Grier would lean to the player with better tape (Tagovailoa).
But if this is about smokescreens that changes things.
Maybe Telesco is telegraphing that he is so worried about durability so that no one would believe he would be interested in Tagovailoa and his long injury history.
Or maybe Grier is trying hard to dismiss the injury and durability risk talk to throw everyone off a scent — such as he wants Herbert.
Remember, these GMs pop smoke in an effort to make you believe they’re thinking the opposite of what they’re really thinking. They do this to make other teams believe they’re going to do the opposite of what they want to do.
That is why Telesco droning on about the importance of durability leads to Tagovailoa.
And why Grier acting nonchalant about durability concerns leads away from Tua and toward Herbert.
Of course, maybe these two gentlemen are being totally forthright and transparent with reporters. It can happen.
Right?
This story was originally published April 19, 2020 at 9:47 PM.
