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Turnaround may hinge on Dolphins' late-round picks

Ethan J. Skolnick
Sports columnist

May 4, 2008

DAVIE - Before he became the NFL Defensive Player of the Year, the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year, one of People magazine's 100 Most Beautiful People and Sir-Dance-A-Lot, Jason Taylor was just a skinny third-round pick from Akron.

"I knew that," rookie defensive lineman Kendall Langford said Saturday, moments after his second minicamp practice.

South Florida didn't know what it was getting in Taylor back in 1997. Yatil Green, taken No. 15 overall, was the local obsession, the big, strong receiver the Dolphins desperately needed. Sam Madison, taken No. 44 overall, not only talked a good game but quickly showed signs of playing one. The training camp revelation was not Taylor but, rather, fellow third-round choice Derrick Rodgers.

Yet look what Taylor became.

Look at what has become of the Dolphins since, while failing to draft another blue-chipper from the third round on. Randy McMichael, Rex Hadnot and Yeremiah Bell have been the best of a forgettable lot.

So, for all the talk about Jake Long, Phillip Merling and Chad Henne, the development of the Dolphins' last six draft choices (starting with Langford) will largely determine whether the team becomes consistently competitive anytime soon.

The NFL's better teams of late all have been great late in the draft.

The Patriots took Tom Brady in 1999's sixth round and Asante Samuel in 2003's fourth round. The Colts took Robert Mathis and Cato June in 2003's fifth and sixth rounds. The Chargers landed Shaun Phillips, Michael Turner and Shane Olivea in the fourth through seventh rounds in 2004.

The Giants might not have won Super Bowl XLII without Jay Alford, Kevin Boss and Ahmad Bradshaw, drafted Nos. 81, 153 and 250, respectively.

"We put a lot of pressure on our scouts to get the right information we're looking for because you've got to hit in those rounds," Giants GM Jerry Reese said. "Everyone wants home run hitters, but it's really not reality. You've got to get some guys who can hit singles and doubles."

Reese said the later picks are "where we earn our money." It is also where astute general managers save the most money against the salary cap. Later-round picks are cost-efficient, alleviating the need to overspend for outside help.

So Dolphins fans should take comfort in the Cowboys' 2005 draft, when Bill Parcells and Jeff Ireland found a Pro Bowl runner (Marion Barber) and two solid defensive linemen ( Chris Canty, Jay Ratliff) with picks 109, 132 and 224.

The Dolphins chose Langford at No. 66. That's seven spots higher than Taylor went in 1997.

So Langford isn't the prototypical sleeper in every sense. He is in other ways. He isn't the No. 1 overall pick, a quarterback or even the highest-drafted defensive lineman in camp, so he won't feel the same pressure as Long, Henne and Merling.

He, like Taylor, wasn't produced by a collegiate football power. Langford said Saturday that his largest crowd while a Hampton Pirate was roughly 20,000. The Virginia school didn't have anything close to these facilities.

"Beautiful," Langford called the Dolphins' weight room.

Good. Even at 285 pounds, he'll need to get comfortable in there.

"I see strength at the point of attack," said coach Tony Sparano, while acknowledging that he will need to see more. "I see a kid who moves his feet pretty well for a big guy, which is what we thought when we drafted him."

They drafted five others after him, and all have a unique opportunity. As Sparano said when asked whether Langford was a developmental project, "We were 1-15 last year. We don't have many developmental projects. ... The best players on our team are going to play. If he is the best, he'll play."

Langford insisted that he has proven himself every time he has had the chance. That was at Hampton. This isn't the MEAC.

"They draft players and not decals," Langford said of NFL executives.

Last Sunday, with the third pick in the third round, the Dolphins drafted a Pirate. They can only hope they found buried treasure — like Jimmy Johnson did in Akron, of all places, 11 very long years ago.

I think that, in regards to personnel, it's logical to assume that both are important to success:

1) Not botching your early draft picks...so you don't have a shit load of salary invested in non-performers

2) and striking gold on a few mid-late round draft picks, so you have some high performers at low salary.

And the Dolphins have failed at that for years. 

From the 1996 - 2004 drafts, there are only three players left on the team...... JT, Vernon Carey, and Yeremiah Bell.