The Miami Dolphin’ 2021 NFL Draft class got off to a roaring start on Thursday evening with the team’s selection of WR Jaylen Waddle and DE Jaelan Phillips, giving the team one of the most dynamic playmakers on each side of the football in this year’s class. But the Thursday night selections were honestly just the tip of the iceberg.
Jevon Holland is an explosive ‘do it all’ option on the back end and Liam Eichenberg is a smooth operator along the offensive front. Add in TE Hunter Long in the third round and Miami’s 2021 draft class has plenty of athletic ability at their disposal.
According to NFL’s Next Gen Stats? The Dolphins are tied for the most athletic draft class of the 2021 NFL Draft:
Top 5⃣ Most Athletic #NFLDraft Classes
These teams prioritized athleticism in their selection strategy according to the Next Gen Stats Draft Model.
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— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) May 1, 2021
This is the big question for Miami: can you find better playmaking threats to help push close games into your favor without compromising on the other dynamics that the team covets: intelligence, passion and effort. It would seem as though the Dolphins believe that they’ve managed to do exactly that this past weekend with their personnel direction: the braintrust of the Dolphins offered ample praise for the class. So, too, have nearly any pundits to have a microphone held in front of their place .
And now we have the seal of approval from NFL’s Next Gen Stats as well.