It was at this time five years ago that the Miami Dolphins began rebuilding their roster following the reset/tank — whatever you want to call it — that was the 2019 season.
That 2020 offseason saw the team sign a whole bunch of veterans in free agency before attacking the draft with the surplus of picks that came from the dumping of a few stars, most notably Laremy Tunsil.
That would be followed by another big draft haul in 2021 and then the “F them picks” approach that brought in superstar talent via trade.
Five years later, the Miami Dolphins (and their fans) still are looking for that elusive playoff win.
So clearly, something went wrong?
And it wasn’t the blueprint.
The best method for building a consistent contender/winner in the NFL is through the draft, which is what the Philadelphia Eagles demonstrated this past season, and the Dolphins put themselves in a great spot to do that by accumulating a total of nine picks in the first two rounds of the 2020 and 2021 drafts.
The Dolphins had three picks in Round 1 in 2020, and then two picks in the 2020 second round, 2021 first round and 2021 second round.
That should have been enough to build a solid foundation.
And then the Dolphins went the L.A. Rams route with the “F them picks” approach by trading multiple picks for Tyreek Hill, multiple picks for Bradley Chubb and a third-round pick plus tight end Hunter Long for Jalen Ramsey. That approach helped produce a Super Bowl title for the Rams; for the Dolphins, not so much.
Those three Pro Bowl players maybe should have been the finishing touches on a team at the very least capable of winning a playoff game, particularly after they complemented the signing of another high-priced Pro Bowl player, tackle Terron Armstead.
The rebuilding project, to be clear, was not a complete failure because the Dolphins did make the playoffs in 2022 and 2023, accomplishing a back-to-back feat not done in 20 years.
But considering the resources spent, topped off by the huge contracts given to the newcomers, it’s been a failure at least to a certain degree.
So why did it not pan out?
This clearly would be a case of picking the wrong players.
And in a lot of instances, it was relying on oft-injured players or hoping their injury issues were a thing of the past.
And it also just happens that the Dolphins picked players in the draft who would become good NFL players, but maybe not quite good enough.
The 2023 season served as the perfect microcosm for what’s happened to the Dolphins in recent years.
That was the season when the team built an 11-4 record but then stumbled at the end with losses against the Baltimore Ravens, Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs — the gold standard of AFC competition.
The Dolphins collapsed because, yes, they were hit by injuries (some to players with lengthy injury histories) but also because they simply weren’t good enough to be among the AFC elite.
Good but not quite good enough.
That most definitely would apply to those premium picks in 2020 and 2021.
Nobody is going to say that the Dolphins whiffed on Tua Tagovailoa, Austin Jackson, Robert Hunt, Jaylen Waddle, Jaelan Phillips or Jevon Holland, but Noah Igbinoghene and Liam Eichenberg were misses (unless Eichenberg revives his career after re-signing with Miami this offseason) and Raekwon Davis was closer to a miss than a hit.
The Pro Bowl certainly isn’t the end-all, be-all in determining a player’s value, but it’s nonetheless pretty startling that those nine premium picks have produced exactly ONE Pro Bowl invitation to this point — Tagovailoa’s nod for the 2023 season.
And Tagovailoa can’t even be considered a draft hit because the durability concerns he had coming into the NFL have materialized and because he really hasn’t yet been able to elevate his game or his teammates at key moments.
Jackson, meanwhile, took a few seasons to find his groove, and now he’s had two of his past three seasons cut short by injuries.
Hunt became a Pro Bowl-caliber guard in his fourth season, but he battled injuries that year and then he was gone because he became too expensive for his position.
The 2021 draft was equally painful — for what might have been.
Again, it’s not an indictment on Waddle, who’s been a very productive player for the Dolphins.
But he’s not transcendent like Ja’Marr Chase or Penei Sewell. And the Dolphins could have had Chase simply by staying put at number 3 instead of making the big draft-related trade with the San Francisco 49ers and they could have had Sewell even after moving from 3 to 12 to 6 because he was still on the board.
Sewell has gone on to anchor one of the best offensive lines in the NFL, while the Dolphins continue to look for answers up front year after year.
While Holland was fine as the 36th overall selection in 2021, he wasn’t fine enough for the Dolphins to pay up to keep him from leaving as a free agent and he also wasn’t finer than offensive lineman Landon Dickerson, who made the Pro Bowl the past three years for the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles after being selected one spot later.
And the apparent Eichenberg miss was more painful because the Dolphins gave up a 2022 third-round pick to move up from 50 to 42 to get him when they could have drafted safety Tre’Von Moehrig instead or simply stayed put at 50 and taken linebacker Nick Bolton.
With the big trades, the Dolphins have gotten a lot of production out of Hill (constant distractions and all), as well as Ramsey, though Chubb has battled injuries and that has kept him from justifying what the Dolphins gave up to get him.
More than anything, though, it’s those 2020 and 2021 drafts that have been the problem.
The Dolphins put themselves in position to assemble some impressive front-line talent that, supplemented by the big trades that would come, should have put the team in position to be serious Super Bowl contenders — or at the very least produce one stupid playoff win.
In the end, there was nothing wrong with the plan. It’s the execution that came up short.
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