The big question around Miami Dolphins heading into the 2018 NFL Draft is whether or not they should draft a quarterback in the first round.
The Miami Dolphins are in a tough situation heading into Thursday’s 2018 NFL Draft. On one hand, they have Ryan Tannehill under contract at a very reasonable price. He has shown promise and is currently the 18th highest paid quarterback in the league after restructuring his contract. Head coach Adam Gase also seems to love him.
However, the team hasn’t been overly successful with him and he is coming off a major ACL injury which cost him the end of 2016 and all of 2017. So what should the Dolphins do?
The first question has to be determining why weren’t the Dolphins successful with Tannehill under center for most of his career. Was he the problem or was a victim of circumstance? After all, the offensive line allowed him to be sacked at a league high rate and their had been a miserable rotation of coaches and coordinators around him. They also must consider how much success he had with Gase in leading them to the playoffs prior to his knee injury.
On the other hand, that kind of sounds like a bunch of excuses for a guy who just hasn’t gotten the job done. His numbers have been solid but not great and there is a legitimate question of whether or not he is a guy that can ever lead a team to the Super Bowl or even a deep playoff run. Dolphins’ fans have already watched this movie starring Jay Fiedler. Is it even better to be plagued with mediocrity and maybe fight for a wild card spot on occasion than to just go all in even if it could result in disaster?
We have seen teams win in recent years with less than elite quarterbacks. So perhaps with the right supporting case Tannehill can get the job done. Last season Nick Foles outdueled Tom Brady and we saw a Denver Broncos defense drag a decrepit Peyton Manning across the finish line as well. Maybe the Dolphins should roll with Tannehill and fill in the gaps around him. After all, highly paid studs like Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees aren’t exactly piling up Super Bowl rings or even appearances.
The most important thing to consider is are any of these quarterbacks even worth it. Why take a quarterback just to take one if you don’t even believe he’s better than the quarterback in place? It seems ridiculous to pass up on elite player at a position of need just to say you got a quarterback.
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Because of this, the Dolphins need to be true to themselves and trust their research. If they think their guy is sitting there, than by all means go get him and build the team around him. They just can’t go and draft some guy for the sake of drafting him and set the franchise back another half decade.