Dave Hyde: Dolphins team needing to win today drafted projects for tomorrow
Chop Robinson and Patrick Paul aren't projected to have much of an on-filed impact as rookies for the Dolphins. Instead of getting starters, a Miami team with a small window to win drafted players who need time to develop.
You expect questions with any draft pick in any year. You just don’t want this question with the Miami Dolphins top picks this year:
Can they help much this coming season?
You see the speed of first-round pick Chop Robinson. You see the size of second-round pick Patrick Paul. You don’t doubt each can create good NFL careers for themselves.
But can they realistically impact much this season?
There’s a salary-cap tsunami coming at this team for its recent ways. The payments have already started. That’s why defensive tackle Christian Wilkins, tackle Rob Hunt and four other defensive starters went out the door this offseason.
General manager Chris Grier had to thread the front-office needle between getting talent this draft and getting immediate help to fit the self-imposed timeline of his plan. The Dolphins got talent in the draft. But immediate help?
Robinson is a third-down edge rusher who can’t play the run according to the scouting reports. He didn’t at Penn State. He had 15 tackles in 10 games last season. Four of them were sacks. He also led the Big Ten in quarterback pressures, which coupled with his off-the-charts combine numbers tells why he was drafted.
So, the Dolphins got a pass rusher to develop his complete game. That’s how it falls sometimes. But understand what clay you’re getting to mold. Robinson’s 15 tackles ranked seventh among Penn State defensive linemen. That’s because his impressive speed for rushing the quarterback isn’t matched by impressive strength to combat the run.
“He’s not real strong and that’s evident when you watch the tape because he’s one of those that get up the field and attacks guys but when he attacks, he’ll get pushed out of the hole in the running game,” said Mike Smith, the former Atlanta coach who was a defensive coordinator for Jacksonville and Tampa Bay. “He doesn’t have the girth and the strength to sit down at the line of scrimmage and make plays.
“So, he’ll run up the field and run himself out of plays in the run game. He has to improve that, but I can see him being a third-down guy who you’re going to want on the field in passing situations.”
NBC analyst Phil Simms, who liked the pick, was more direct: “They’re going with the physical freak who didn’t produce.”
The Dolphins needed an edge rusher thanks in part to late-season injuries to Jaelan Phillips and Bradley Chubb. The other part is playing Buffalo’s Josh Allen and the Jets’ Aaron Rodgers in the AFC East four times a year. Then there’s the rest of the AFC’s quarterbacks: Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert and C.J. Stroud.
If some time and hands-on developing is needed with Robinson, the thought doubles with second-round pick Paul. You see roster-planning here as the Dolphins will eventually need a replacement for left tackle Terron Armstead.
They also need someone ready now considering Armstead has missed roughly half the snaps of the past two seasons in line with his larger career of injuries. Veteran Kendall Lamm looks again like that guy this season.
Paul, by all draft analyses, is a project. At 6-7, 331 pounds, the size is there. The technique has yet to match the talent, though. He can’t ask for a better NFL education than to park behind Armstead for a year.
But …
“This is kind of a developmental guy,” as former Alabama coach Nick Saban said on the ABC draft broadcast, “but the kind of a developmental guy you like because he’s got all the attributes you’re looking for. So when he develops, he can be really good.”
I’m getting whiplash from the Dolphins blueprint. They tanked for tomorrow for two years starting in 2019, trading players for draft picks, sacrificing wins to build a roster. Then came the U-turn in 2021 of trading draft picks and spending money for veteran stars to win in a small window starting last year. Only they haven’t won.
Now comes a draft where they’re looking at tomorrow again.
No one expects too much any season from rookies. But getting starters out of the first two picks isn’t too much on a team that lost several starters, is it?
Instead, a team with little time drafted players who need time.