Miami Dolphins

The Miami Dolphins may not be done making moves leading up to the 2021 NFL draft.

According to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, the AFC East team has "received calls from teams looking to trade up to No. 6, and it is something they're considering."

Miami has already been quite busy leading up to the draft.

It landed the No. 12 pick along with first- and third-round picks in 2022 and a first-round pick in 2023 from the San Francisco 49ers in exchange for the No. 3 overall pick in this year's draft. It then traded the No. 12 pick it acquired from the 49ers, a 2021 fourth-rounder and a 2022 first-round pick to the Philadelphia Eagles for the No. 6 pick and a fifth-rounder in this year's draft.

The Dolphins are in something of a unique position selecting so early this year because they don't necessarily need a quarterback in a draft that could have five taken in the early going.

They selected Tua Tagovailoa with the No. 5 pick in last year's draft and went 10-6 during his rookie season.

Continuing to make trades would allow Miami to build more draft capital as it looks to build a consistent winner around Tagovailoa.

The B/R NFL Scouting Department projected the Dolphins to take tight end Kyle Pitts with the No. 6 pick in the draft, but they could still land a pass-catcher such as Jaylen Waddle or DeVonta Smith if they trade down while addressing other positions with additional picks they acquire.

For now, Miami remains a primary storyline in the lead-up to the draft as a team that has already proved it is willing to make deals.

Miami Dolphins players announced their intention to exercise their collective bargaining agreement right to not take part in voluntary offseason workouts this year amid the COVID-19 pandemic, per a statement released through the NFLPA:

Nearly half of the 32-team league has announced that intention, with the Dolphins being the 14th team. The others are the Cleveland Browns, Chicago Bears, New England Patriots, Detroit Lions, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Seattle Seahawks, Denver Broncos, New York Giants, Las Vegas Raiders, Pittsburgh Steelers, Atlanta Falcons, Los Angeles Chargers and New York Jets.

Presumably, more teams will join that group given the wave of announcements over the last two days.

Miami was the fifth team to state its offseason plans Friday, with the Steelers, Falcons, Chargers and Jets also belonging to that group.

The Dolphins are entering their third season under head coach Brian Flores. They doubled their win total from five to 10 victories in 2020 and fell just one game short of the AFC playoffs, losing their last game to the Buffalo Bills in Week 17.

Miami will look to reload its roster via the 2021 NFL draft, as it currently owns the sixth and 18th overall picks.

Tua Tagovailoa could get set up with a player he's familiar with in this year's draft, according to a new report from Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports.

La Canfora said Wednesday that there's "a strong buzz" that running back Najee Harris is in the mix to be selected when the Miami Dolphins are on the clock with the No. 18 pick on April 29.

Harris, who won two national titles during his time at Alabama, is the program's all-time leader in rushing yards (3,843), total scrimmage yards (4,624) and touchdowns (57). 

The Dolphins are in strong position to rebuild heading into 2021, with eight total selections and two in the first round, at Nos. 6 and 18. 

They prioritized the running back position in the offseason, with Malcolm Brown joining the group in free agency, but The Athletic's Josh Tolentino reported Monday that the team is expected to add reinforcements at the position in the draft. 

Bleacher Report's NFL Scouting Department ranked Harris as the 28th overall prospect in the draft but tabbed him as the top player at the position, ahead of a field that also includes a pair of talented North Carolina rushers in Javonte Williams and Michael Carter. 

Harris will be able to make an immediate impact wherever he lands, but a reunion with Tagovailoa could help the Dolphins pull everything together after a 10-6 season that saw them rank 11th-worst in the league in total offense with 339 yards per game.

There hasn't been a team in the NFL that has done more moving and shaking in the first round of the draft over the past few years than the Miami Dolphins.

Back in 2019, general manager Chris Grier conducted a fire sale of sorts, trading veteran assets like safety Minkah Fitzpatrick and offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil in an effort to accumulate draft capital. The following year, that haul helped to bring in a trio of potential impact players in quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, offensive tackle Austin Jackson and cornerback Noah Igbinoghene.  

In 2021, Grier appears to be doing a bit of both, first dealing the third overall pick in this year's draft to the San Francisco 49ers, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter. He then moved back up to sixth overall in a trade with the Philadelphia Eagles.

The pair of transactions brought in significant draft-day compensation and kept the Dolphins in contention to select one of the best non-quarterbacks in this class. The moves were a continuation of a steady rebuild that has already seen the Dolphins go from 5-11 in 2019 to 10-6 last season.

And if Grier makes good use of all the draft picks he has accumulated and the team's young quarterback continues to progress, the Dolphins could be on the verge of not just contending for a playoff spot in 2021 but of also becoming a force in the AFC for years to come.

After narrowly missing the postseason in 2020 despite a 10-win campaign, the Dolphins weren't nearly as active in free agency as they were a year ago. Their biggest acquisition on the open market was former Houston Texans wide receiver Will Fuller V, who came in on a one-year deal. But thanks in part to all of Grier's machinations in 2019, the 2021 draft is set to be a different story. 

Courtesy of the trade that sent Tunsil to the Texans, the Dolphins were sitting on two first-rounders: Houston's pick at No. 3 and their own at No. 18. With Tagovailoa just one year removed from being the fifth overall pick, it was unlikely that the Dolphins would spend the third selection on another signal-caller.

That led to a couple of theories. The first was that the Dolphins were one of the best-positioned teams to take a run at disgruntled Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson. The other was that a trade down with a team looking to add a young quarterback was a real possibility.

On Friday, the latter came to pass. As Schefter reported, the 49ers sent a package that included three first-rounders (including the 12th overall pick in 2021) to the Dolphins for the right to move up nine spots and ostensibly draft a replacement for Jimmy Garoppolo under center.

Keiana Martin of the team's official website later reported the 2021 third-rounder was in fact a 2022 third-round compensatory selection. 

Still, it's a massive haul. 

And when you consider that pick was part of the Tunsil trade that landed the Dolphins first-rounders in 2020 and '21 and the 36th overall pick this year, it effectively means that Miami netted two players (cornerback Johnson Bademosi and tackle Julien Davenport) and five picks, including four in the first round, in exchange for the offensive tackle, a Day 3 pick in 2020, another in 2021 and wideout Kenny Stills.

That is staggering.

Grier wasn't done either. Just minutes after the league was rocked by news of the deal between Miami and San Francisco, the Philadelphia Eagles relayed that the Dolphins had made another trade to move back into the top 10.

Confused yet?

Essentially, the Dolphins moved back three spots on April 29 and gave up a fourth-round pick in exchange for a third-round compensatory pick in 2022, a fifth-round pick in 2021 and San Francisco's first-round pick in 2023.

In technical terms, that's called a good deal—one that should allow Grier to continue markedly bettering the team's roster in both the short- and long-term.

As evidenced by Miami's drastic improvement last year, there aren't as many holes on the Dolphins roster as there once were. But there are still areas to improve. And last year's free-agent spending spree didn't quite go according to plan. One year after handing substantial contracts to edge-rusher Shaq Lawson and outside linebacker Kyle Van Noy, both players are no longer on the team.

However, filling the team's needs through the draft is both more cost-effective and potentially offers a more long-term solution. And whether it's at edge-rusher, along the interior of the offensive line or at running back, off-ball linebacker or in the receiving corps, the Dolphins have the ammo to improve in a number of areas before the dust settles.

Given what Grier gave up to get up to the sixth overall pick, it's a pretty safe bet that the Dolphins have a player in mind. As things stand, at least three of the five picks ahead of Miami will all but certainly be quarterbacks.

Everyone (and I do mean everyone) believes that Clemson's Trevor Lawrence is headed to Jacksonville. The 49ers didn't mortgage the future to pick an offensive tackle. And the tea leaves are pointing hard toward the New York Jets drafting BYU's Zach Wilson at No. 2.

If Oregon tackle Penei Sewell is selected by either the Atlanta Falcons or Cincinnati Bengals (assuming those teams stand pat), it means that either LSU wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase or Florida tight end Kyle Pitts (if not both) will be on the board. So will every edge-rusher and O-lineman (except Sewell).

Josh Edwards of CBS Sports has Miami taking Pitts with that sixth selection and Michigan edge-rusher Kwity Paye going at No. 18. Combined with 2020 breakout Emmanuel Ogbah, Paye would add some much-needed punch to Miami's pass rush.

It's possible that one of this year's top two running backs (Alabama's Najee Harris and Clemson's Travis Etienne) will be available when the Dolphins pick early on Day 2. Later in that second round, the offensive line could be the focus, with a prospect like North Dakota State tackle Dillon Radunz, Ohio State guard Wyatt Davis or Alabama center Landon Dickerson.

That would fill four needs with young players who have better-than-average chances to start in 2021. And they'd be on affordable rookie deals. 

The wild card in all this is Tagovailoa. The Dolphins will go as far as the young southpaw takes them, and Tagovailoa admittedly had his ups and downs in 2020. But uneven first seasons are hardly unheard of from rookie quarterbacks (especially one working his way back from a dislocated hip), and there's been nothing to indicate that the Dolphins are any less confident in Tagovailoa than they were when they drafted him.

Tagovailoa posted a 6-3 record as starter last season, completing 64.1 percent of his passes with 11 touchdowns against five picks. He might not have been Patrick Mahomes, but he wasn't Ryan Finley either.

And Miami is quietly building a very good team around him.

This isn't to say that the Dolphins are destined for a deep playoff run in 2021 and years of success afterward. Last season, the Buffalo Bills won the AFC East by three games and swept the Dolphins. The AFC North fielded three teams with better records than Miami. And the Kansas City Chiefs (who beat the Dolphins in a wild Week 14 affair) are the kings of the conference until someone knocks them from their perch.

To challenge (or surpass) those teams, Grier needs to hit on all of those 2021 draft picks—or at least most of them.

But Grier and head coach Brian Flores have done a remarkable job over the past couple of seasons. Less than two years ago, the Dolphins were being talked about as arguably the worst team in the history of the NFL.

Now, those same Dolphins are heading into the 2021 draft with the ammo to improve considerably, with the look of a legitimate playoff contender. And the resources to stay one for a while.   

Editor's note: After publish, the Miami Dolphins traded the No. 3 overall pick to the San Francisco 49ers for the No. 12 pick, first-round picks in 2022 and 2023 and a 2022 third-round pick, per ESPN's Adam Schefter.

The Miami Dolphins find themselves in a rare and awesome situation. Despite winning 10 games last year, they own the No. 3 overall pick, the No. 18 overall pick and two more top-50 picks in the NFL draft. 

No other team coming off a double-digit-win season has close to as much draft capital as the Dolphins, who own two picks that belong to a Houston Texans team that went off the rails in 2020 and two picks that are located more or less in the middle of the first two rounds because they conveniently missed the playoffs. 

The Washington Football Team and Chicago Bears won fewer games than Miami, but each organization has just one pick in the top 50 even though neither has traded any early picks away. 

That might cause some to believe that the Dolphins should simply hang on to that third overall pick that originally belonged to Houston and select a potential game-changing player like Ja'Marr Chase or DeVonta Smith at wide receiver or Penei Sewell at offensive tackle.

After all, how many rookies does a strong team like Miami have room for anyway? 

But the Dolphins have already invested heavily in DeVante Parker, Will Fuller V and emerging tight end Mike Gesicki to work as 2020 No. 5 overall pick Tua Tagovailoa's pass-catching core, and they used first- and second-round selections on tackles Austin Jackson and Robert Hunt last offseason. 

The players most likely to be on the table third overall—Chase, Smith, Sewell, Jaylen Waddle, Kyle Pitts, Justin Fields, Zach Wilson—play positions already occupied by Parker, Fuller, Gesicki, Jackson, Hunt or Tagovailoa. 

Besides, the fact that there's an open debate regarding the top receiver in a class that contains little separation between Chase, Smith and Waddle means standing pat makes little sense when quarterback-needy teams will likely be clamoring for a shot at whichever quarterbacks remain available after the Jacksonville Jaguars have presumably taken Trevor Lawrence and the New York Jets (or whoever trades into Gang Green's spot) have presumably taken Fields, Wilson, Mac Jones or Trey Lance. 

Worst-case scenario, you take Sewell—a potential generational tackle—with the knowledge that the jury's still out on both Jackson and Hunt. But it shouldn't be hard to land a king's ransom here.

ESPN's Adam Schefter recently predicted that four quarterbacks will go off the board in the first six or seven picks, which implies that certain teams slated to select beyond that range—the Carolina Panthers at eight, the Denver Broncos at nine, the San Francisco 49ers at 12, the Minnesota Vikings at 14, the New England Patriots at 15 and possibly even Washington and Chicago at 19 and 20, respectively—will fight for the right to swap first-round spots with Miami in exchange for extra picks or even veteran players. 

After trading edge defender Shaq Lawson for off-ball linebacker Benardrick McKinney and cutting veteran Kyle Van Noy, the Dolphins' top need is clearly a pass rush that right now looks too reliant on Emmanuel Ogbah and Andrew Van Ginkel. 

But this class lacks an edge worthy of the third overall pick. The first big board of the new B/R NFL Scouting Dept. contained zero edge defenders in the top 25, with Michigan product Kwity Paye standing as the only player at that position to crack the top 35. 

The Dolphins can manipulate the draft board to land whichever edge they want without much trouble, and trading back from the third spot will only make it easier to do that and still wind up with a primo receiver in a deep wideout class as well as any tackle not named Sewell (Northwestern's Rashawn Slater comes to mind). 

For years, the Cleveland Browns loaded up on as many dice as possible for the crapshoot that is the draft, essentially admitting to the football world that they're not under the impression they're significantly better at talent evaluation than their peers. And that eventually paid off. Now, a Browns team built primary with a "take as many swings as possible" mentality is a contender. 

Miami has been following suit, and there's no reason to ditch that strategy now.

Now's the time for the Dolphins to forge and demand competition throughout the roster. Chase or Sewell would be exciting additions, but they'd move to the front of the line sheerly because of the onus that is attached to using a No. 3 overall pick on a guy.

But what if instead, they could wind up with, say, Waddle (creating an open battle with Parker and Fuller), Slater (creating a similar competition with Jackson and Hunt) and—that's right, AND—Paye or fellow highly rated edge Gregory Rousseau (either of whom would immediately push Ogbah, Van Ginkel and others on the pass-rushing hierarchy). 

That's an entirely plausible scenario in the event of a trade down into the middle of the first round—a move that would likely land the Dolphins at least another Day 2 pick and likely another premium selection in 2022. 

The window is open now, so it's fair if they don't want to keep kicking the draft can down the road, but it's worth noting that Washington has an extra third-round pick and the Patriots appear to be going all-in for 2021.

If I'm Miami and the WFT offers me 19, 51, 74 and a 2022 first-rounder for the third pick that wasn't even mine in the first place, there's no hesitating. Ditto for if the Patriots offer up 15, 46, 96 and a 2022 first. Better yet, all it would take from Denver would be the ninth pick along with the Broncos' 40th and 71st selections this year. Carolina? Give me eight, 39 and 73 and call it a day. 

It's not complicated. More early-round picks, especially in a deep draft like this, increase your odds of hitting on difference-makers. And considering the state of Miami's roster along with the dynamics associated with the first round of this particular draft, a trade down should be a no-brainer. 

Brad Gagnon has covered the NFL for Bleacher Report since 2012. Follow him on Twitter, @Brad_Gagnon.