Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Dolphins LB Chatter

Just saw that both the Herald and Sentinel Dolphins blogs address the Dolphins' options at linebacker in the upcoming NFL Draft. Both suggest that Chris Long may no longer be the frontrunner as the #1 selection because Miami has been bringing in guys like Quentin Groves and Tavares Gooden for workouts.

I would agree with their assessments. Long is great, but is he that much better than the next level of guys available in rounds 2 or 3? I personally think Lawrence Jackson is a beast and would be a great pickup in the 2nd round. Same for Gator-killer Quentin Groves. I support Tavares as he is a Cane, but I don't think he is an option for this team because he doesn't fit the bill as an outside linebacker in a 3-4. Not big enough.

Assuming this is where the Dolphins are going, I would hope this means they are seriously considering Jake Long or trading down at a bargain price instead of drafting Matt Ryan. At this point I don't care if we get equal value according to some dumb trade value chart. I just want to stockpile picks and fill the holes in our roster. Jake Long would be a fine pick. Nothing special, but a good addition to the line. Matt Ryan would be disastrous. For some reason, I keep seeing a number of mock drafts that have Matt as our #1 selection. I don't know why anyone would think we are interested in an interception machine, especially considering he isn't a consensus 1st-round grade, much less Top 5 material.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Aldo, what are the chances of us trading down? I'm ok with drafting Ryan in the draft... just not at the first pick. If we draft Ryan at the first pick I'll hang up my dolphin wear for a season and rout for oakland or atlanta (the other scrubs of the league)

The Bull Gator said...

I think in the end they won't trade down. I think they'll look, but not get enough. It's so hard to trade out of that #1 spot because of the salary associated with it. No one wants to pay it. Ideally, they trade down. If that can't work, they have to go with someone else. If they take Ryan #1 overall...well say hello to Alex Smith 2.0. Ryan could prove us all wrong, but at this point I doubt it.