Peter King sheds light on Dolphins’ predraft trade in weekly column

Kyle Crabbs
·3 min read
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Few things in the 2021 NFL Draft cycle shook things up as significantly as the Miami Dolphins did. Entering the league calendar year in March, the Dolphins owned the No. 3 overall selection courtesy of the Houston Texans and were facing a critical decision:

  • Take someone at No. 3 overall

  • Trade the pick and try to maximize your assets

Of course, what the team did was a hybrid maneuver. The team did indeed trade out of the No. 3 overall pick, but quickly followed that up with a trade back up to No. 6 overall. Some of the more analytic minds in the football space bemoaned the move — suggesting that surrendering a future 1st-round draft selection in order to draft a non-quarterback was a foolish maneuver.

But when you begin to better understand exactly what the Dolphins’ mentality was in making the decision it helps brings things into clarity.

And thanks to NBC Sports’ Peter King and his weekly ‘Football Morning In America’ column, we now have our best peek behind the curtain yet. King spoke with both Chris Grier and Brian Flores about their major decision — and helped solidify that Miami did not ‘settle’ for Jaylen Waddle with the No. 6 pick.

King pieced the entire timeline together, starting on March 4th. That was the day 49ers general manager John Lynch offered three San Francisco first-round picks to move up.

This part of Miami’s trade isn’t breaking news. Neither is Miami putting that offer on ice and proceeding to then speak with a number of other teams across the top-10 landscape to get a feel for any other buyers and, eventually, any other sellers Miami could tap into if they did move back to No. 12 overall.

The Dolphins did, of course, find a seller to move back to San Francisco’s original pick in Philadelphia and the deal was made. But why Miami ultimately made the decision to jump up? That’s an indicator of where the hierarchy of this team thinks they currently are.

“‘One player we knew, we felt very strongly, would be there at six,’ said Flores. The intimation, to me, was that player was Waddle. I got the feeling Grier and Flores were all-in on Waddle, though they never said that specifically.

Grier probably wouldn’t move back to 12 unless he could move back up to get Waddle, or one of the offensive impact players. So when the initial 49er offer came in, Flores was clear what he wanted. “Right away,” said Grier, meaning right after the 49er offer, “Brian was like, ‘If we do this, go down to 12, we need to figure out a way to get back into the top 10.’” — Peter King, Football Morning In America

This is the most important revelation from King’s column and it comes straight from Chris Grier. Miami was never going to make a move that took them out of the strike zone of their preferred target. So viewing those late March trades as two separate deals may not be best indicative of how the Dolphins themselves view the exchange.

For the Dolphins, it was a succession of transactions with a single objective in mind — almost like a three-team trade instead of two separate deals. And when you view their move from No. 3 to No. 6 as a single collective transaction, the perspective changes. Miami got their guy all the same and in doing so they saved on financials and added multiple future picks in the first three rounds of future NFL Drafts.