The Dolphins are currently playing the waiting game. With the rumored apple of their eye, Alabama QB Tua Tagovailoa, getting good news at his latest medical check up, the sense of urgency you feel is the public perception that the Dolphins are engaged in risky business as they sit outside the top three in the 2020 NFL Draft order.
With the NFL Combine looming on the horizon, the Dolphins and the rest of the NFL will gather to collect information on over 300 prospects — including additional medical evaluations of Tagovailoa. But the Combine is not just a slew of on-field workouts, interviews and doctor visits. It’s also a time to talk business.
Walk into any restaurant in Indianapolis and odds are you’ll find someone of relevance on the NFL landscape — and the odds are even greater that you’ll see them talking to someone from another team. The Combine is the birthplace of many trades, brokered over drinks or ignited with a question to another decision maker.
For the Dolphins? This is where the groundwork can be laid for a potential trade. There’s no sense in eagerly pursuing Tagovailoa via trade between now and then — the Dolphins are going to want to wait to get their eyes, ears and hands on Tagovailoa in Indianapolis before deciding it is full steam ahead.
And if Miami comes out of the Combine confident that Tagovailoa is there guy and that his medical prognosis is going to check out, then it will be time to turn up the heat on the Detroit Lions, who pick 3rd. The New York Jets struck their deal two years ago for Sam Darnold in mid-March. With the Combine wrapping the first week of March this year, look for Miami’s window to execute a trade to open around the same time.
The only question from there is how aggressive they are going to be in finalizing a potential deal.
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