The national media has been hot and heavy in their projections for the Miami Dolphins to draft Oregon quarterback Justin Herbert in the first round of this year’s NFL Draft. But with kickoff to the draft just hours away, you’re starting to see some swaying of the perception that Miami will draft the big-armed quarterback and will instead target the long rumored target, Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa.
ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. flipped his own projection for the Dolphins this morning during the network’s “Get Up!” programming to Tagovailoa after several weeks of teasing that might not be the case.
It's smoke screen season. Here's why I flipped back to Tua Tagovailoa for the Dolphins at No. 5. https://t.co/8z8svdjWJE pic.twitter.com/uiZFbRW9qv
— Mel Kiper Jr. (@MelKiperESPN) April 23, 2020
Kiper’s last minute swap seems to echo that of the 2018 NFL Draft, when former Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield made a late push in the final 48 hours before the draft to become the popular choice for the Cleveland Browns and the No. 1 overall selection instead of Sam Darnold. Darnold was long-considered the consensus favorite but the Browns’ favoring of Mayfield bubbled out into the public in the final moments before the draft.
If that is the case here, then Miami’s intentions are finally peaking through the smokescreens that the Dolphins have left in every corner of the media over the course of the past 4 months — a clinical approach by Miami to keep other teams off of the scent of their intentions.
There’s only one thing left to do for Miami: finish the job. Hopefully that can be done without having to trade up in the NFL Draft order, but if Kiper’s hearing things just before the opening bell, it may be a sign that Miami will need to turn up the heat to get their man.