Chris Grier’s Miami Dolphins draft decisions over the past five seasons haven’t been awful, but there’s a history Grier doesn’t want to see repeated. In 2024, Grier drafted Chopp Robinson, Patrick Paul and traded up in the fourth round to select Jalen Wright. Each player comes with their own question marks, but it’s the middle rounds where Grier needs to work harder to change this trend.
From Wright to fifth-round pick Mohamed Kamara to sixth-round cornerback Patrick McMorris and the first of two wide receivers selected in this year’s draft, Grier can only hope his coaching staff can develop these players.
So yes, 2023 was not a good year for Grier. With only four draft picks, the margin for error is much smaller. Grier looked good getting Devon Achan, but second-round pick Cam Smith is still a question mark, Ryan Hayes is holding up, but Elijah Higgins is gone. Looking a little more closely at the past five years, there is a clear trend of mistakes with mid-round picks.
Thompson is acceptable as a third quarterback but has started in the playoffs. Blake Ferguson is acceptable because he’s a specialist. Van Ginkel has done a great job, which is what Miami needs with a mid-round pick in 2024. A Gaskin-like performance would also benefit Miami.
The Dolphins have relied too much on one-year deals to fill out their roster. Part of the reason is that they didn’t have deep draft classes and failed to develop the players they had. That being said, 2020 could have been a great draft with Tua Tagovailoa, Austin Jackson and Robert Hunt, but the only players left on the Dolphins roster are Tua, Jackson and Ferguson.
This will be the first training camp for several Dolphins draft picks, so fans will be excited to see performances from Malik Washington, Taj Washington and Kamara, but they should temper their enthusiasm a little as the Dolphins have rarely drafted such players in the past.
Experts believe the Dolphins could make a case for drafting a “bargain” player like Kamara or Malik Washington, but they would need to perform to break the draft trends that are not good for Grier and the Miami organization.
