Kelly: NFL insiders second-guess Dolphins’ 2026 draft class | Opinions
Premature opinions about NFL draft classes are the norm this time of year.
Who doesn’t need to make a projection about how a crop of 20-something college football players, all wet behind the ears, will transition to professional sports in a new environment?
They’re usually playing for a new city against superior talent, and walking a tight rope between knowledge and ignorance.
And so are those making the projections, these knee-jerk assessments of draftees, and draft classes.
While it’s irresponsible to judge a draft class until its third season, good evaluators, the people who actually have success scrutinizing football talent and building teams, can provide hints about the Miami Dolphins’ bountiful 2026 draft class.
That brings me to my favorite unsolicited second-guess special about new general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan and new head Jeff Hafley’s first draft class together.
“Very on brand for the Dolphins to draft Proctor,” a former Dolphins elite texted Friday morning about the trade-down, and first-round selection of former Alabama offensive lineman Kadyn Proctor, who is labeled by just about everyone respected in the evaluation world as a boom-or-bust first-round talent.
In fairness to Sullivan and Hafley, the “on-brand” comment was a low blow because Miami’s new circle of trust has been part of South Florida’s NFL franchise for four minutes, or four months.
But who’s really counting?
“Weight and motivation issues?!” the former Dolphins player continued in his criticism of the Proctor pick. “That’s fine for a fifth-round project. Not the 12th overall pick.”
That was/is a valid concern, and they were first raised during the draft by former Dolphins head coach Nick Saban, who recruited and coached Proctor in his final season at Alabama.
Let’s hope the Dolphins did extensive work making sure Proctor has the right kind of makeup, diet, internal drive to thrive in South Florida, and the pros.
This regime better be right about Proctor because not selecting Hurricanes edge rusher Rueben Bain Jr., who was drafted 15th by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, could be a blemish on Sullivan’s resume that never goes away.
All we can hope is that the rest of Miami’s draft class isn’t as risky, as second-guessed as Sullivan’s first draftee as a team’s top executive.
Fortunately, Miami’s next two picks — San Diego State cornerback Chris Johnson and TExas Tech inside linebacker Jacob Rodriguez - were two very popular selections in NFL circles.
“The entire league was buzzing when Miami took Rodriguez. Nobody saw that coming,” an AFC East executive said after the draft, referring to the All-Everything inside linebacker, who won every postseason award he was up for but the Heisman Trophy.
“They got a good player. We had him high on our board,” the executive shared about Rodriguez, who was taken 43rd overall, and was the third inside linebacker drafted in 2026. “When Zach Thomas endorses you that’s one hell of an endorsement.”
He’s referring to Thomas, a former Hall of Fame linebacker who spent all but one season of his NFL career with the Dolphins, praising Rodriguez, a fellow Texas Tech alum, as a superior player to himself.
Hafley praised Johnson, labeling the draft’s 27th pick, a player the Dolphins traded up for, as his favorite cornerback in the draft because of his combination of size, speed, athleticism and footwork.
But that’s where the praises for the Dolphins ended.
Just about every draftnik claimed Texas Tech receiver Caleb Douglas was drafted too high since he was taken 75th overall, and most insiders had him projected as a fifth- or sixth-round talent.
I’ll make the argument that 6-4 receivers who run sub 4.4 40-yard dash times, high-point the ball consistently and move with the fluidity of a flanker, are hard to find.
“They reached,” an AFC executive said Douglas, who was the first of three receivers Miami took in the 2026 draft. “They got outmaneuvered by the [New York] Giants [who took Notre Dame receiver Malachi Fields] and reached. Then followed it up by taking a more polished, but injured receiver we had going in the fourth round.”
He’s referring to Louisville receiver Chris Bell, whom the Dolphins drafted 94th overall after taking Douglas with pick No. 75, one spot after the Giants took Fields, a comparable receiver.
I actually love the fact all three of the receivers Miami drafted last weekend play entirely different spots.
Bell is a split end. Douglas is a flanker with deep speed and Kevin Coleman Jr. is a slippery slot weapon, a shake-and-bake player who had a knack for making defenders miss in college.
If this trio pans out for Miami they will have an arsenal of receivers, and a return specialist for the next four years.
However, expecting them to prop new quarterback Malik Willis up as rookies is unrealistic, so the Dolphins better find a veteran receiver with starter capabilities because that receiver room could turn into the blind leading the blind.
And the same can be said about the cornerback and safety rooms moving forward.
“Show me a 190-pound safety that has had success in the NFL?” one former GM asked, referring to Texas safety Michael Taaffe, who is listed as 6-foot, 190 pounds.
In defense of Taaffe, the 158th pick in the fifth round, he seemingly has the makeup of the players — overachieving, try-hard, culture guy — the Dolphins targeted throughout the entire draft.
But if he’s not ready to challenge Dante Trader Jr. or Lonnie Johnson Jr. for the starting free safety role, exactly what was Miami thinking waiting till late in the fifth round to select a safety, where there are two glaring vacancies at the starting spot?
And for our last second-guess special, not taking a quarterback in this draft class gets a “come on man,” from me, especially when Hafley and Sullivan couldn’t mention Cam Miller, Miami’s third-team quarterback, by name when asked why they didn’t address the quarterback position in the draft after its final day.
Are you telling me the Dolphins just had to take Coleman, a slot receiver at 177, where he went one spot ahead of North Dakota State quarterback Cole Payton, whom the Philadelphia Eagles drafted at 178?
Coleman’s selection couldn’t wait till 180, which is when Miami took Seydou Traore, the Mississippi State tight end, who is an International import, because he’s a converted soccer player from London?
Payton was one of the few quarterbacks that fit the athletic profile Hafley wants, and the Dolphins should have known he fits the athletic profile the Eagles covet.
If not Payton, then Arkansas’ Taylen Green, a quarterback Miami’s new quarterback coach developed in college, who was taken by Cleveland as the first pick in the sixth round.
In fairness to the Dolphins, this regime will probably get a shot at poaching both Payton and Green if they don’t make their team’s initial 53-man roster cut, which is possible, and have to go through the waiver wire.
Sullivan hinted that Miami’s going to be a bottom-feeding, poach friendly NFL team for a year or two, which is ideal and healthy when your talent base is filled with unproven rookies, and NFL journeymen.
So expect the bottom of the roster to keep churning. But that’s an indicator that Miami didn’t squeeze every ounce of juice out of the team’s first draft because it seems the team’s decision-makers already knew holes in the roster still exist, and will weigh this 2026 team down like an anchor.
