Here’s hoping that teams hoping to tack on some extra talent for the 2020 season weren’t banking on the 2020 supplemental draft to get it done. The news broke yesterday that the NFL announced to teams that there will be no supplemental draft later this month, a decision that will prevent college talent from flocking into the NFL en masse amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the uncertainty that looms over the 2020 college football season as a result. For the Miami Dolphins, the prospect of the supplemental draft was attractive for what may come as a result of the unknowns of college football.
Could we have seen prominent college players jump ship and avoid the potential bottoming out of college football this season? After all, many players decided to return to school in order to hone their craft and improve their stock — but how much can stock really be improved if there are no games to be played?
But it is all a moot point now — and that is for the best for the Dolphins. Because Miami has already been quite aggressive with their added talent. Yes, the Dolphins stayed patient in the 2020 NFL Draft to not leap up the draft board and give away a bunch of picks, but the team spent heavily in free agency and welcomed aggressive selections and trades on the 2020 draft’s third day in order to make the most of their picks.
The presence of college talent in the 2020 supplemental draft would have given Miami a new chance to add talent but that would have come at a key cost to team flexibility throughout their rebuild. Everything the Dolphins have done to date has been done with the intent of being flexible in the long-term. Miami’s cash commitments were paid out in a way that allows the team to avoid getting trapped in bad contracts. And when some players bust on Miami — and it will inevitably happen — the team will have the ability to pivot as needed because of the plethora of resources Miami has pooled in their first year of the rebuild. If, for example, Miami spent a high pick on a player in the supplemental draft, that’s one less pick to make after the 2020 season — after the Dolphins have a chance to assess the state of their roster through another 16 game season. This is a long-term project for the Dolphins and spending too many of their assets too quickly is the fastest way to cut down on the team’s flexibility to take adversity in stride.
So while it may be a bummer to hear there will be no supplemental draft, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing for the Miami Dolphins, given all the change they’ve already introduced to the team this year.