Dolphins general manager Chris Grier makes this clear about the quarterback search
A six-pack of Miami Dolphins notes on a Friday:
▪ Dolphins general manager Chris Grier will speak to South Florida reporters on Monday, but he got a head start in the past week by doing an interview with The Ringer web site.
And there one particular comment that stood out — and should be reassuring for Dolphins fans.
Grier suggests the Dolphins aren’t going to take a quarterback that they don’t have a strong conviction about, merely because of the need at the position.
“Mistakes are made because you have to have it,” Grier said of quarterbacks. “You say, ‘We’re going with this guy,’ and you put all your eggs on this one, even though, in the back of everyone’s mind, it’s ‘Well, maybe it’s not quite the guy..’..
“Quarterback is obviously a very, very important piece, and we know we need to add competition there, and we’ll do everything we can to find the right guys.”
If Miami bypasses a quarterback in the first round in April, it could wait until 2021 to use its two first-rounders and two-second rounders that year to trade up for Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence or Ohio State’s Justin Fields.
That would actually be the prudent move if Tua Tagovailoa’s medicals raise concerns, if Miami has doubts about Justin Herbert after his uneven senior season and if Grier and his colleagues conclude that nobody else in this draft has a decent-to-better chance of becoming an above-average long-term starting quarterback.
(And you don’t need another backup. You already have two of those in Ryan Fitzpatrick and Josh Rosen.)
The view here: Draft Tagovailoa with your first pick if doctors believe the health risk doesn’t outweigh the potential rewards. If not, don’t be afraid to wait a year if you have doubts about the others.
▪ Miami is at some risk of being jumped by another team for Tagovailoa.
It’s unlikely that the teams positioned to draft ahead of Miami would select him, a group including Cincinnati (likely to take LSU’s Joe Burrow), Washington, Detroit and the Giants.
The Lions owe Matt Stafford a lot of money over the next three seasons and likely will feel compelled to draft a player at another position who’s ready to help them win now.
The Redskins and Giants already have their young quarterbacks. But if Miami wins at New England and Jacksonville loses at home against the Colts, then the Jaguars would jump Miami and could draft Tagovailoa, who’s coming off hip surgery but is still expected to be a high pick if he turns pro. There’s also a risk of the Chargers trading up ahead of Miami for Tagovailoa.
The Dolphins could still move as high as second in draft order with a lot of help. And there’s still a good chance they can get Tagovailoa. But if they badly want Tagovailoa, they need to tell the teams drafting in front of them not to trade their pick without allowing the Dolphins to beat any offers.
▪ Unless Miami can move up in draft order, their coaches won’t get to coach in the Senior Bowl, losing a big advantage of getting to work with these draft prospects, as Senior Bowl executive director Jim Nagy pointed out on Twitter.
Teams that have coaching changes usually don’t coach in the game, but teams with returning staffs do. The Bengals staff will coach in the Senior Bowl and the Lions’ staff will too if Detroit finishes with a worse record than the Dolphins.
▪ The Dolphins are eager to see if defensive tackle Zach Sieler can match his impressive debut as a starter last week against Cincinnati, when he had seven tackles, a sack and two passes defended.
“He’s big, got length, got athleticism, plays hard,” coach Brian Flores said. “When you get a player like that, you move him around and see the different things he can do. You can play him inside or at the edge if the game plan needed that.”
Sieler is listed as questionable for Sunday’s game at New England because of ankle and thumb injuries, but Flores expects all five players listed as questionable to be available to play. The others are receiver Allen Hurns, defensive linemen Christian Wilkins and Taco Charlton and linebacker Vince Biegel.
▪ Flores has said he likes players to be “tough, physical, smart, disciplined.” So he was asked this question this week: What if there’s a talented player who is missing one of those four qualities? Would that eliminate the player from consideration here?
Flores said it would not. “It’s case by case,” he said. “I’m not writing anybody off for being deficient in one area.”
But... “I need my guys to be tough though.”
▪ Quick stuff: Flores on Friday praised Patriots coach Bill Belichick, his former boss, as “one of the greatest coaches of all time. I was fortunate to work under him - learned a lot of football, situationally, having smart, tough, disciplined team.” He said he studies not only what other former Patriots assistants do as head coaches, but also the approaches and techniques of Pete Carroll, John Harbaugh and Mike Tomlin, of others...
And speaking of Tomlin’s Steelers, keep in mind that if Tennessee fails to clinch the final AFC playoff spot by losing at Houston, the Steelers would have a decent chance to win the sixth spot in Baltimore because the Ravens plan to rest Lamar Jackson and several others in Sunday’s game. Miami owns Pittsburgh’s first-round pick from the Minkah Fitzpatrick trade and will be rooting for a Titans win in Houston, which would clinch a playoff spot for Ryan Tannehill’s new team.
Here’s my Friday piece with a look at how Dolphins assistant coaches have extracted more from these players.
This story was originally published December 27, 2019 at 4:01 PM.
