No matter what we see the Miami Dolphins choose to do with their NFL Draft strategy in April, the team is going to have a rare opportunity to haul significant talent and help speed up the team’s reclamation project. And despite the demand that could exist for a prized quarterback possession, the Dolphins would be wise to know their limits for potential trade scenarios and not compromise those standards.
And with the Dolphins owning three 1st-round selections, you can be sure that opposing teams are going to try to milk them from the Dolphins and play on Miami’s need to find a long-term answer to the quarterback position.
But here’s the deal: there are only two other teams in the 2020 NFL Draft who possess multiple 1st-round selections, and neither of them pick particularly close to where Miami’s first 1st-round selection falls in the order.
The other two teams with multiple 1st-rounders?
The Jacksonville Jaguars (9th and 20th) and the Las Vegas Raiders (12th and 19th). Even if either team were interested in jumping the Dolphins to target a quarterback, Miami owns the trump card by picking 5th. According to the NFL Draft trade value chart, the difference between the 5th and the 9th pick in the NFL Draft is the value of the 55th overall pick. The difference between 5th and 12th? The value of the 40th overall pick.
So just by owning the 5th overall pick, the Dolphins automatically have the value of an extra 2nd-round pick built until their potential offering to a team like the Detroit Lions, who pick 3rd.
And if the Lions were to ask Miami for two 1st-round picks as part of a bidding war, Miami can compromise without costing themselves their premiere picks in 2020 — by offering the 5th pick and one of the team’s two 2021 1st-round selections.
Miami has no shortage of options and it will be fun to see how it plays out. But their expectation, given the draft capital of the rest of the 1st-round contenders, should be to own three 1st-round picks in 2020 — no matter what.
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