The last several months have largely consisted of working through scenarios for the Miami Dolphins — who might be available at a certain point in the NFL Draft, which player to pick if it came down to two primary options, so on and so forth. And while much attention has been given to the Dolphins’ seemingly endless combinations at their disposal, the other side of the coin absolutely needs to be discussed as well.
What if the 2020 NFL Draft goes off the rails in all the worst ways possible? What would that look like? How can the Dolphins respond? The Dolphins must be prepared for everything — including absolutely chaos.
Here’s the Dolphins’ absolutely worst case scenario for the 18th overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft.
Five offensive tackles are off the board.
This would be a cruel twist of fate. How do we get here? All we need is for five of the New York Giants, Los Angeles Chargers, Carolina Panthers, Arizona Cardinals, Cleveland Browns, New York Jets, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Denver Broncos to settle on offensive tackle help in the 1st round. And that’s a scary proposition because it really isn’t all that unlikely. We’ll need to see some of these top end wide receivers help push the demand on tackles down, but the expectation is that at least four of these teams will draft tackles.
If there’s a 5th? Yikes. Especially if Michigan interior offensive lineman Cesar Ruiz is also off the board, a possible scenario after the retirement of Dallas center Travis Frederick (the Cowboys pick 17th).
Miami is now looking at the prospect of drafting USC OT Austin Jackson at 18 if they want to check the box at tackle — which isn’t good value considering how raw Jackson is as a player. He’s got a great ceiling, but this feels like poor value and unnecessary risk for the Dolphins. You can’t panic.
And so the silver lining for the Dolphins in this scenario is that if five tackles are gone, that means there is sure to be a steal somewhere waiting to be picked. It might be a pass rusher like LSU’s K’Lavon Chaisson. It might be a wide receiver like Alabama’s Henry Ruggs III or Jerry Jeudy. But no matter how you slice it, there are more than 17 good football players in this class — Miami just needs to avoid panic if they get on the board at 18 and find the top tiers of offensive tackle have rapidly dried up.