The Miami Dolphins made the decision to turn the 2021 NFL Draft order on its head when the team traded out of the No. 3 overall pick. And before all of the breaking news stories were completely written that day, the Dolphins had finalized yet another deal — this one to move back up the board to the No. 6 spot.
When the dust settled, Miami had conceded valuable draft position to both the Atlanta Falcons and the Cincinnati Bengals — two teams who could end up taking players that would benefit the Miami Dolphins in their bid to upgrade their offensive weaponry. The Dolphins have long been assumed to be drafting the best available pass catcher for their second year quarterback, Tua Tagovailoa with their top pick, but what “best available” looks like now versus when Miami owned the No. 3 pick are two totally different things.
If the Atlanta Falcons are unable to find a trade partner for the No. 4 pick, the odds are heavily skewed that the team would selection Florida tight end Kyle Pitts. And the momentum out of Cincinnati these days seems to indicate the Bengals are leaning into reuniting their own quarterback, Joe Burrow, with his top target from 2019, WR Ja’Marr Chase.
And so the question begs to be asked: if that’s how the board falls, will general manager Chris Grier have any regrets?
He was asked exactly that during Wednesday’s press conference with the media.
“No. I think when we made our move, we had targeted a number of players that we liked that we’re comfortable with getting. So I think with us, when you make a move like we did and doing what we did to get back up, we’re very comfortable where we are; but again as I said, we’ll always evaluate it and drafts change as you know,” said Grier.
“People fall for some reasons unknown or people select players for their roster based on their needs. We’re comfortable where we are. We feel very good where we are and we won’t have any regrets.”
Here’s hoping that the Dolphins won’t need regret and can lay claim to their preferred choice either way. But Grier’s comments confirm the team’s thought process in making the deal: they had at least three players they were comfortable targeting with the No. 6 overall pick — and trading up from No. 12 overall guaranteed at least one of them would be on the board for the Dolphins next week.