The 2019 NFL Draft is complete and the Miami Dolphins came away with six rookies selected over the three day process. The Dolphins also added 2018 tenth-overall pick Josh Rosen on Friday with a shrewd use of trades to move back from the 48th position to the 62nd spot, adding a 2020 second-round pick in the move, then using the 62nd pick to meet the Arizona Cardinals’ demand for a second-round pick to acquire Rosen. It was a great way to play chess with pieces, and it landed Miami a potential franchise quarterback with little risk. Were the trades and the picks enough to push Miami among the top draft grades from analysts around the web? What do they think of Miami’s 2019 draft class? Miami Dolphins 2019 Draft Class Round 1 - 13 - Christian Wilkins, DT, Clemson Round 3 - 78 - Michael Deiter, G, Wisconsin Round 5 - 151 - Andrew Van Ginkel, LB, Wisconsin Round 6 - 202 - Isaiah Prince, OT, Ohio State Round 7 - 233 - Chandler Cox, FB, Auburn Round 7 - 234 - Myles Gaskin, RB, Washington Draft Grades Dan Kadar, SB Nation The Dolphins fleeced the Cardinals. First Miami dropped down from No. 48 to No. 62. Then it used the No. 62 pick to trade for quarterback Josh Rosen, a potential franchise quarterback. If he’s not, he’s cheap and the Dolphins can move on easily. In the first round, the Dolphins helped fortify their defensive line with Christian Wilkins at No. 13. He specializes at getting pressure. Guard Michael Deiter, taken at No. 78, fills a big need. He’s experienced, playing four years at Wisconsin, and should step into the starting lineup. He’s one of the better picks inside the top 100. Miami’s last pick, running back Myles Gaskin, has a real chance to stick on the roster. He’s a slippery back who will make tacklers miss. Grade: B Mel Kiper, Jr., ESPN Miami is undergoing a complete rebuild this offseason. It might have the least-talented roster in the league after Ja’Wuan James, Robert Quinn, Cameron Wake, Danny Amendola and Ryan Tannehill, among others, departed. It has needs at almost every position. New GM Chris Grier has started the rebuild in the right way, though, stripping spare parts (and big contracts) and starting fresh while picking up future assets, like a 2020 second-round pick from the aggressive Saints on Friday. And since we thought the Dolphins were more interested in the 2020 quarterback class -- they passed on both Dwayne Haskins and Drew Lock in Round 1 -- the low-risk trade for Josh Rosen makes an awful lot of sense. They gave up just a late second-round pick (No. 62) and a 2020 fifth-rounder to add a supertalented signal-caller who went No. 10 overall a year ago. He’s also on a cheap deal for the next few years with his signing bonus already paid, so even if he’s not the long-term answer, it will be easy to move on. I wouldn’t rule out Miami still being in the 2020 QB sweepstakes, but I like the Rosen deal. Miami added an underrated interior pass-rusher in Christian Wilkins at No. 13 overall, and for a team desperate for sacks, he will provide a boost. He’s also going to be a great locker-room presence. Michael Deiter (No. 78) was my third-ranked guard, but he started games at tackle, center and guard for the Badgers. Isaiah Prince (No. 202) is a sneaky candidate to start at one of the tackle spots. Myles Gaskin (No. 234) was extremely productive in college, but you wonder what all those carries have done to his body. Again, this is going to be a long process for the Dolphins, and they’re just beginning. This draft will be remembered for the Rosen deal, but Wilkins could be a steal. Grade: B Pete Prisco, CBS Sports Best pick: It was their first one, defensive tackle Christian Wilkins. He will be a star. He got my only A+ in my first-round grades. Worst pick: They really didn’t have any, but fifth-round linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel was probably taken a little too high. The skinny: Landing Wilkins was a great move and fills a major need, but I also loved that they traded their second-round pick to land Josh Rosen from Arizona. He could be their long-term quarterback. Grade: B Andy Benoit, MMQB / Sports Illustrated There really was no wrong direction for the Dolphins to go in this draft—with an all-new coaching staff and mediocre roster, the team is undergoing personnel overhauls on both sides of the ball. First-time head coach Brian Flores, having spent his entire career until now in New England, is expected to employ a Belichick-style scheme which would mean an emphasis on size and strength along the D-line. Interestingly, Christian Wilkins, though a highly regarded first-round talent, doesn’t completely fit this profile. Wilkins’s game is built more on movement than force. He can, however, align at multiple spots, which is key in Flores’s system. Getting Josh Rosen with the 62nd overall pick (plus a fifth-rounder next year) is incredible value. Rosen was in a no-win situation with the Cardinals last year and should not be viewed any differently than he was coming out of UCLA. He will almost certainly start right away and play behind Michael Deiter, who started every game the last four years at Wisconsin and fills a left guard spot that was devoid of any starting caliber options prior to this draft. Grade: A Chad Reuter, NFL.com Wilkins is a quality person and an excellent player with the versatility to play anywhere on the line. The team never really replaced Ndamukong Suh, and Wilkins has the ability to be really disruptive inside. We absolutely take the Friday acquisition of Josh Rosen into account in this grade. Landing the second-year QB for a late-second-round pick this year and 2020 fifth-rounder was an absolute bargain. Trading down in Round 2 in a deal with the Saints before making the Rosen deal was also a great move. Deiter meets an important need at guard, especially with Rosen in place.<doc-sep>The talk of the Miami Dolphins 2019 NFL Draft class is actually 2018 top-10 pick Josh Rosen, but how did they fare with the selections they actually made? Free from Mike Tannenbaum and Adam Gase, Miami Dolphins general manager Chris Grier had the spotlight in the 2019 NFL Draft. Fans can get excited for the future of their franchise. Grier made some major moves, including trading to gain some draft capital for 2020. Another trade also landed them what could potentially turn the Dolphins franchise quarterback. After the Arizona Cardinals drafted Kyler Murray first overall, Grier and the Dolphins played chicken with the Cardinals general manager Steve Keim. Grier refused to give up the No. 48 pick for Josh Rosen, the top-10 pick from 2018 for the Cardinals who was promptly replaced by Murray. Instead, Grier traded down from 48 to 62 with the Saints, giving up their fourth-rounder as well for a 2019 sixth-rounder and 2020 second-roun pick. Now that they had a second-round pick valued closer to a third-rounder, Grier was ready to talk business. So the trade of the draft happened and the Dolphins got Rosen, the quarterback they needed. With Rosen on the roster, the Dolphins have a young, cheap talented quarterback. They can use the 2019 season to evaluate Rosen who could: A. become their cap-friendly franchise quarterback, B. become a solid backup option or C. be trade bait in the Tua Tagovailoa/Justin Herbert sweepstakes. Without a second-round pick, the Fins relied on depth. However, the Grier/Flores era kicked off with their No. 13 pick. At that spot and throughout the rest of the draft, let’s evaluate how this new regime fared.<doc-sep>The Miami Dolphins may not have hit a home run over last weekends NFL Draft but they came pretty close to setting a tone for the future. If there is one thing that has some fans debating relevance in post-draft articles it is doing draft grades and future mock drafts. So yeah, I’m going to grade the draft. It is of course subjective because as we all know there is no way of knowing how any player drafted or acquired will pan out. So much goes into a player have success. A player who is a bust on one team could become a star on another. Dolphins fans know this well. Ted Ginn, Jr. was graded poorly when he was drafted and labeled a bust within a couple of years but here we are so many years later and Ginn is still in the NFL. Again, you just never know. Regardless, we all like to give our opinions on what we think about draft picks and why the make sense or do not make sense. Here is a look back at the Miami Dolphins 2019 draft but instead of grading the players, I’m grading the rounds by what the Dolphins did.<doc-sep>NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA - JANUARY 01: Keaontay Ingram #26 of the Texas Longhorns is tackled by Jonathan Ledbetter #13 of the Georgia Bulldogs during the first half at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome on January 01, 2019 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images) The Miami Dolphins had a pretty good draft to kick-off their 2019 rebuilding project and they continued to add more from the undrafted rookie pool. With the draft over on Saturday, the Miami Dolphins turned to the next phase of adding roster bodies by tapping into the undrafted rookie pool and by doing so, adding quality camp competitions across the roster. For the Dolphins, the undrafted rookies mean more that simply filling out a roster that has holes across the team. It was a matter of finding players that could potentially compete for a 53 man roster spot. Make no mistake, these 14 additions are not simply camp fodder. When the Dolphins started the 2019 off-season purge there were going to be holes from defensive end to offensive line but the Dolphins had a plan and they stuck to it. Getting rid of high paid veterans who were not pulling their weight but getting younger required patience. It required Chris Grier and company and Brian Flores and his coaching staff to sit back and let free agency unfold while they prepared for the draft. None of these players are locks of course to make the roster and in fact they are all long shots whose best chances are to make it on special teams but some of them have a shot given the fact that they have potential and many thought they would be drafted. Here are three followed by the rest of the signings. LB – Jonathan Ledbetter – Georgia Ledbetter was expected to go in rounds six or seven and has a chance to provide valuable depth to a unit that lacks quality behind the starters. He could make an impact on special teams. Preston Williams – WR – Colorado State A long shot but this kid has great hands and speed. Chad O’Shea will be able to work with the kid and he could end staying on the teams practice squad for 2019 while he develops. Dewayne Hendrix – DE – Pitt Miami is lacking in the defensive end department and did little to add depth during the draft. How fast he can pick up the system and how well he performs on special teams could indicate where he lands on the Dolphins after training camp. The rest Terrill Hanks – LB – New Mexico State Tyler Horton – CB – Boise State Deion Calhoun – OL – Miss. State Nik Needham – CB – UTEP Montre Hartage – CB – Northwestern Ryan Anderson – OL – Wake Forest Wes Farnsworth – LS – Nevada (Can he push for John Denney’s job?) Trenton Irwin – WR – Stanford Aaron Monteiro – OL – Boston College Rob Rolle – S – Villanova Tre Watson – LB – Maryland<doc-sep>
The 2019 NFL Draft has come and gone, and the Dolphins roster now looks dramatically different than it did just one week ago. The team garnered national media attention with its trade for last year’s 10th overall draft pick, Josh Rosen, and his landing in Miami will absolutely be factored in to my overall grading of Miami’s draft class. Aside from Rosen, the Dolphins added some quality players at a number of positions, but how does it all stack up? First, let’s lay out all of the picks. Below is Miami’s full list of 2019 draft selections (including Rosen): Round 1 (13th overall) - Christian Wilkins, DL, Clemson Trade - Josh Rosen, QB, Arizona Cardinals Round 3 (78th overall) - Michael Dieter, OL, Wisconsin Round 5 (151st overall) - Andrew Van Ginkel, LB, Wisconsin Round 6 (202nd overall) - Isaiah Prince, OT, Ohio Round 7 (233rd overall) - Chandler Cox, FB, Auburn Round 7 (234th overall) - Myles Gaskin, RB, Washington The Dolphins began the draft by selecting Wilkins, one of the top defenders in all of college football last season. He routinely caused havoc for opposing offenses and helped lead Clemson to a College Football National Championship. He was also the recipient of the William V. Campbell trophy (often called the “Academic Heisman”) for his achievements off the field and in the classroom. He received his degree from Clemson in just 2 & 1⁄ 2 years. On the field, his performance culminated in being named a first-team All American for the 2018 season. Wilkins accumulated 57 tackles, including 15 for loss, six sacks, and two forced fumbles last season. He’ll be an immediate contributor on Miami’s d-line and should start as early as Week 1. His presence in the locker room should result in Wilkins becoming one of the leaders of Miami’s defense, and the team as a whole, very early in his career. Round 2 is where Miami’s draft become most interesting. After intense negotiations with the Arizona Cardinals for quarterback Josh Rosen resulted in Miami’s top brass feeling as though the 48th overall selection was too steep a price for the QB, the Dolphins initiated a trade with the New Orleans Saints. Miami sent its 48th overall selection and a 2019 fourth-round pick to New Orleans in exchange for the 62nd overall selection, a 2019 sixth-round pick, and a 2020 second-round pick. Now holding an extra second-round pick in next year’s draft, and having maximized the value of this year’s second-round pick, Miami traded the 62nd overall selection and a 2020 fifth-round pick to the Cardinals in exchange for Rosen, who just last year was picked 10th overall by Arizona. In essence, the Dolphins traded a 2019 second-round pick, a 2019 fourth-round pick, and a 2020 fifth-round pick in exchange for Josh Rosen, a 2020 second-round pick, and a 2019 sixth-round pick. No matter what you think of Rosen and his potential, the fact of the matter is that he is just one year removed from being the 10th overall pick, has a load of potential, and will cost the Dolphins virtually nothing on the salary cap for the next three years. When the draft compensation is taken into account, it’s only fair to say this was a masterful move by general manager Chris Grier. Even if Rosen doesn’t pan out as a franchise QB, the Dolphins paid proportionally very little to test him out when compared to what most teams spend on QB’s of his stature (often first-round picks). In the third round, the Dolphins selected Dieter, one of the top interior linemen in this draft class. Given the fact that this draft class was top heavy on the defensive side of the ball, some top tier offensive talent got pushed down the draft board, and Miami took advantage. Dieter may not be the most athletic lineman on the field, but his versatility is unparalleled, something head coach Brian Flores has mentioned he values in his players. Dieter has played double-digit games at tackle, center, and most recently, left guard. He earned first-team All-Big Ten honors in both the 2017 and 2018 seasons. He will likely compete for the starting left guard spot right away. Dieter’s durability has also been a big asset, as he played in 13 or more games in four straight collegiate seasons. Van Ginkel will likely start out as a developmental player for the Dolphins.