Jeff Ireland is having a great draft so far

[Brian Fein]

As much as fans hate to admit it, he has addressed the Dolphins' 4 most dire needs in the first three rounds with some pretty darned good prospects (even though I stand by Tannehill being overrated).  Give some credit where its due, Dol-Fans - Is Jeff Ireland winning any brownie points out there so far?

[MikeO]

He really hadn't lost too many brownie points with me but I agree, outstanding job with this draft.

Martin and Egnew are 2 GREAT picks! And he traded back and got Egnew and added a pick to boot. Outstanding job. 5 more picks today and I think WR and G are gonna be on the menu for the Fins!

[Thundergod]

No.

[Doc-phin]

One of our best drafts ever, so far.  IMO

Since rounds 4-7 get shaky for anyone, I would go ahead and rate our draft a low A or high B.

Tannehill - Didn't have to move to get him.  Didn't risk not getting him by moving back.  Kept their mouths shut on how they felt about him.  Don't even need him to start right away because we have two servicable QBs on the roster.  Most important position in football.  Already knows most of our system.  Tons of upside.

Martin - Best O-lineman in the draft for our team.  We didn't need Kalil.  Atheletic.  Will start day one but will likely get stronger and be better at handling bull rush next year.  Has enough potential to replace long in a few years if it comes to it.  More important than a guard.  Got to handle the outside rush from Buffalo and now we can.  Very smart and professional player.

Vernon - A bit worried about his sack production in college, but certainly the potential and atheleticism is there.  Fills a need.  Answers questions as to how much 4-3 we will run and it appears we will be running it a lot.  If that is the case, he is an outstanding pick.

Egnew - As much receiver as he is tight end.  Seriously upgrades offensive speed without giving away our intentions via personel package.  Great red zone target.  Almost fills a need at two positions instead of one and both of them equally considering we already know Fasano and Clay can block.  West coast tight ends don't have to block for long, so he will be fine.

On top of that we pick up an extra pick to use on depth and/or special teams.  Love it!

[Fins4ever]

One of our best drafts ever, so far.  IMO

Vernon - A bit worried about his sack production in college, but certainly the potential and atheleticism is there.  Fills a need.  Answers questions as to how much 4-3 we will run and it appears we will be running it a lot.  If that is the case, he is an outstanding pick.

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I love the draft so far. The only thing I would have liked to seen different is taking Curry over Vernon.

[Pappy13]

As much as fans hate to admit it, he has addressed the Dolphins' 4 most dire needs in the first three rounds with some pretty darned good prospects (even though I stand by Tannehill being overrated).  Give some credit where its due, Dol-Fans - Is Jeff Ireland winning any brownie points out there so far?

Absolutely. I LOVE this draft so far.

The one thing that stands out in this draft to me is that a lot of the players he has chosen actually had better years in 2010 than 2011. I think Ireland has had his eye on some of these guys since 2010. That shows an ability to look beyond just the raw numbers for 2011 and look at the whole body of work of the player. I like that.

And if you give Ireland a little credit, then you have to give Ross a little credit too for sticking with Ireland when alot of fans were telling him that he needed to go too. I'm happy with the coaching staff Miami has put in place, I'm happy with what they did in free agency and now I'm happy about the draft. Maybe I'm just stupid and none of it will work out, but at least things are going the way I wanted them to go, other than getting Peyton.

[AquaandOrange]

I agree. I think this is a very good draft. He has addressed many needs. If he would have waited on a pass rusher, he would have gotten a sure dud. It was smart to wait on WR's due to the fact the position is so deep in this draft.

[tepop84]

a great draft?  ill wait to see if the players suck like the rest of the players he has drafted.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

As I said in the Pats draft grade thread, you can't grade a draft until you see what the players do. 

Time to grade the 2008 draft. 

Jalen Parmele RB Toledo MAC from Detroit
 2 57 Miami Dolphins Henne, ChadChad Henne QB Michigan Big Ten from San Diego
 6 195 Miami Dolphins Thomas, DonaldDonald Thomas G Connecticut Big East from Dallas
 1 1 Miami Dolphins Long, JakeJake Long† OT Michigan Big Ten [8]
 3 66 Miami Dolphins Langford, KendallKendall Langford DE Hampton MEAC from Detroit via Kansas City
 4 110 Miami Dolphins Murphy, ShawnShawn Murphy OT Utah State WAC from Chicago
 6* 204 Miami Dolphins Hilliard, LexLex Hilliard RB Montana Big Sky 
 7* 245 Miami Dolphins Dotson, LionelLionel Dotson DE Arizona Pac-10 
 2 32 Miami Dolphins Merling, PhillipPhillip Merling

[Brian Fein]

You can't make picks in hindsight.  You pick based on info you have today.  You can't grade a draft in 3 years.  With what we know, I think he's doing pretty damn good.

In three years, we'll see if Jeff Ireland is good at predicting the future as well.

[Sunstroke]

...You can't grade a draft in 3 years...

As long as "picking players that can help your team win football games" is the primary goal, 2-3-4 years down the line is the only time you can accurately grade a draft.

[Doc-phin]

All this can't grade a draft stuff is silly. 

First of all it is obvious that these are just projections, so you are just stating the obvious. 

Secondly, it is still relevant that these decisions are made based on information available at the time.  Circumstances change and situations that players are drafted into are different.  The grade is for the decision and the information available at the time of the decision.

Example:  I draft a shitty running back to a team with an awesome O-line and good deep threats.  The shitty running back performs like a great running back due to the circumstances.  It doesn't make the pick of the shitty running back good, it just means I had a circumstance that were good enough to compensate for my error in evaluation.

Based on the information that is pretty much available to everyone and the choices made on how to use the draft picks, Ireland/Philbin get a low A or high B from me regardless of the outcome because I am grading the use of decision making and the utilization of resources to make the decisions.

[Brian Fein]

^^ Someone gets it...  Thanks.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

All this can't grade a draft stuff is silly. 

You have less info than any of the teams.

You are handing out grades based on how the teams drafted in comparision to how well ESPN scored the draftees. 

[EKnight]

I'm agreeing with Doc-phin. High B. While this might be a good draft in comparison to previous years for Miami, it's not a "set the world on fire" draft. Maybe two starters this year and two more by the end of 2013. The first two days were solid. Today not so much. Miami needed help in the secondary badly and drafted no one. They needed help at WR and drafted a RB with no hands when there's already 5 RB's on the roster. That one puzzles me. Overall, they got three big positions filled at QB, RT, and DE, but as a whole, and because the RT is going to have to change his natural position from one side of the line to the other, I can't get as over the top as some of you guys. -EK