Kelly: Dolphins rebuild got derailed with 2021 draft class | Opinion
Exactly when did the latest Miami Dolphins rebuild get off its track?
That’s an important question the organization’s circle of decision-makers should be asking themselves before scavenging to put a job saving run together this offseason.
Clearly the coach swap — going from Brian Flores to Mike McDaniel after the 2021 offseason — was the first hiccup. But I would argue we saw the first derailment months before that.
While there are massive misses and second-guess specials in the 2020 Dolphins draft, it’s hard to argue against a draft class that produces six NFL starters — Tua Tagovailoa, Austin Jackson, Noah Igbinoghene, Robert Hunt, Raekwon Davis and Brandon Jones — five years into their career, even if more than half of those players are starting for other teams.
Sometimes that’s just part of doing business in the NFL.
The Carolina Panthers wanted to pay Hunt $100 million and the Dolphins couldn’t afford it.
Replenishing the roster with young, inexpensive players with upside is how successful franchises build solid foundations, and Miami has failed to do that during this rebuild, which was led by general manager Chris Grier from its start.
Allow me to argue that this rebuild officially got off the rails in the 2021 Draft.
The 2021 draft class was the last of the treasure chest of draft picks the Dolphins squirreled away for the purge of 2019.
That was the year that followed the Tank for Tua draft class of 2020, and these were supposed to be the finishing pieces for Flores’ team, which had just been enhanced through free agency the year before.
It was a pivot — time to win — season, with the expectations being that Miami would build on its 10-6 finish in 2020. But Grier and the team’s talent evaluators bobbled the snap with his very first draft move.
Miami traded down from pick No. 3, which they had previously acquired from Houston for sending the Texans stud offensive lineman Laremy Tunsil and Kenny Stills, a starting receiver, for picks and a collection of players not worth mentioning anymore since most were space fillers.
Miami sent pick No. 3 to San Francisco, putting the 49ers in position to draft quarterback Trey Lance. The Dolphins then moved back up the draft, going 12 to six by packaging one of its first-round picks to the Philadelphia Eagles and selected Jaylen Waddle.
Pair Waddle with a 2022 late-round first (pick No. 29 they got from the 49ers, and that was the last of the gifts that unloading Tunsil provided.
Problem with that approach is that the Dolphins could have stayed where they were, pick No. 3, and selected JaMarr Chase fifth overall.
Anyone with eyes knew Chase was going to quickly become a top-five receiver in the NFL, and the Bengals weren’t going to pass up the opportunity to reunite him with Joe Burrow, his college quarterback.
Waddle has had an impressive NFL start, but Chase is arguably the biggest young stud in the NFL that’s not a quarterback.
Miami then took pass rusher Jaelan Phillips with the second of two first-round picks that year.
That pick was on brand for Grier because he drafted an athletic freak at a premium position, and overlooked his durability/medical issues. Phillips was the first pass rusher taken that year, going ahead of Kwity Paye (Colts), Payton Turner (Saints), and Greg Rousseau (Bills).
My main objection to that selection was that it should have been tailback Najee Harris, who was taken 24th overall. Tailback was an even greater need for Miami at the time, but the Dolphins stuck to their board, which I respect, and even though Phillips has battled injuries throughout his career he flashed the potential to become a difference-maker.
Questioning that pick would be irresponsible because injuries happen to every team, and sometimes they have more to do with bad luck than short-circuiting bodies.
Phillips isn’t why the 2021 draft class derailed this rebuild. The rest of this class is.
Miami selected the first safety taken in 2021, drafting Jevon Holland with the 36th pick, and he has had a lukewarm Dolphins career the past four seasons.
Holland, who will likely become an unrestricted free agent later this spring, where he’s expected to sign with the highest bidder, will probably go down in history as one of the greatest teases the franchise has had on defense in decades because his skill set hasn’t matched his production.
Then Miami started feeling desperate, saw a run on offensive linemen happening and traded the 50th pick in 2021, and a 2022 third-round pick to the New York Giants to move up eight spots to select Liam Eichenberg.
The Dolphins had fallen in love with the former University of Notre Dame standout at the Senior Bowl and just knew Eichenberg would become a reliable NFL starter.
It only took the Dolphins four seasons, and 52 starters at all five positions for the franchise to realize Eichenberg was a swing and a miss.
No offensive linemen in Dolphins history got more second and third chances than Eichenberg, who was a disaster in 2024, consistently rated one of the NFL’s worst offensive guards the entire season.
Miami then targeted what they thought was going to be Mike Gesicki’s successor in Hunter Long, selected in the Boston College tight end with the 81st pick in that draft.
Long sparingly contributed for two seasons before Miami packaged to the Los Angeles Rams in a trade that delivered Jalen Ramsey to Miami. During his four-year NFL career, Long has caught all of eight passes for 68 yards and no touchdowns.
That’s another swing and miss.
Miami also selected offensive tackle Larnel Coleman and tailback Gerrid Doaks in the seventh round, and both had a cup of coffee with the Dolphins, and one other team in Doaks’ case, before eventually exiting the NFL.
That draft class also featured three picks that got swapped for veteran players — a fourth-round pick for Lynn Bowden Jr., a sixth-round pick for Benardrick McKinney, a sixth-round pick for DeAndre Washington, a sixth-round pick for Adam Shaheen, a seventh-round pick for Isaiah Wilson, and a seventh round pick sent to Washington for unloading Ereck Flowers on the Commanders — who all were duds.
And the biggest problem is that 2021 draft class isn’t even the worst of Grier’s work.
The reason this recap of the 2021 draft is important is because the Dolphins have another treasure chest of 10 draft picks this year, one that features six selections expected to be among the NFL’s top 150 picks.
If the Dolphins have another draft class like 2021 it will basically guarantee we’re headed towards another massive reset as an organization, and hopefully this time it will be led by individuals who are actually good at drafting.
This story was originally published February 5, 2025 at 8:58 AM.
