Three DEEP Positions In The 2026 NFL Draft That The Miami Dolphins Should Cash In On

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Mami dolphins have no shortage of needs, but also no shortage of picks.

And there are several positions in which this draft breaks in their favor.

We're exploring those and more here on Lockdown Dolphins.

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We have some new signings, some competition and some spots for that.

The draft a little lean at a few spots early for the dolphins to know, but we're going to

start with three position rooms, in which I think the dolphins are going to have plenty

of bites at the apple as far as addressing some of their team needs with how the talent

is available in this year's NFL draft.

It is important to note, don't think we should be drafting for need in year one, right?

And best player available is a very popular phrase, but a very ambiguous one because it

means something different for every team, right?

You have to do your character profiles and your culture backgrounds, and you have to

do who you have on your roster as far as personalities and making sure that the personality of your

coach and your GM and your players all mesh with the players that you're talking about

bringing into that ecosystem.

And then there's the talent element of it of it.

It's not best talent available, it's best player, right?

So there's a talent element, there's a physical ability element, there's a scheme defining

element, but then there's also, you know, who are these people?

And that makes it challenging for every team to universally agree on a best player available

type approach.

But you look at the options that the dolphins are going to have at some of these spots,

you feel good about the ability of dress addressing several needs on the roster because

this draft is deep at several spots where the dolphins need some help.

So the first one that stands out to me, none of the dolphins have two picks in the first

round.

They've got a pick at 43 and then they've got four picks in the third round.

The first position that stands out to me as being very deep in that top 100 where the dolphins

have seven draft choices is the wide receiver position.

And we've talked a little bit this week about kind of a Green Bay Packers philosophy at

wide receiver and projecting that with John or Sullivan into this draft class and where

the dolphins have their picks, pretty easy to project, probably a double dip is going

to happen at wide receiver.

I would assume.

And if you told me they both came in the top 100, great, I'm gassed up about.

You have kind of this upper trio that's constantly mocked in the top 15, right?

Cartel Tate, McCoy, Lemon and Jordan Tyson, those are the three popular names at the top

of the draft order.

But then you've got like a tear a little bit further down that has like Denzel Boston

from Washington, Omar Cooper, Jr. from Indiana and KC conception from Texas, and we're going

to do some some player presentations starting here very shortly because we're about a month

out in the draft.

So it's it's go time in that regard, we're about five and a half weeks out or what five,

six weeks, five weeks out today because it's Thursday.

So night one, I think is five, five weeks from today, I believe.

You've got that second tier of guys that like if any of them is there at 30, whether Omar

Cooper is my personal favorite, KC conception is a electric playmaker whose physical ability

I don't think has been matched by his raw production, but the passing games that he had

at NC State and Texas A&M weren't necessarily going to optimize who he is as a wide receiver.

And then Denzel Boston, who's a little bit more of a bigger body guy.

But then like even you look through the day two guys, if you want to include any of them

in that bucket, you've probably got 13 to 15 additional names at wide receiver.

That whether it's at 43 and it's Chris Bell from Louisville, who's six, two, two, 20 big

time run after catch guy, a little bit more Raw's a route runner has a medical tag because

he had an ACL tear at the end of the year last year, but he's already doing workout stuff.

So do you want to go with that kind of receiver?

Do you want to go with a big body long guy like Jacobi Lane or a Malachi fields or a Ted

Hurst?

Do you want to go with a shifty type like Antonio Williams from Clemson or Dehamburgs?

There are so many options like the wide receiver group really is going to give you a lot of

wiggle room.

There's a lot of margin for error to find contributors in a wide receiver room that desperately

is going to need some guys to take targets and staffs.

The next one that stands out to me is Titan and the day two, like it was what six months

ago, it was kind of just like Kenyans to Deek and like the also Rans and everybody else

was kind of like late day two fringe bubble guys.

It really feels like this Titan group has a lot of guys that are up on the rise.

Because you do have Kenyans to Deek who's probably going to be a top 25 pick when it's

all set and done.

But then you have Eli Stowers from Vanderbilt who is 1400 receiving yards over the last

two years, set several combine records as a big time catch radius is a little bit more

of like a flex Titan type.

He's more explosive than what Mark Andrews was, but like the role that he played at Vanderbilt

kind of reminds me of what Mark Andrews was at Oklahoma when Lincoln rallies.

Mark's obviously going on to have a very productive career for himself as an NFL Titan

in Baltimore.

That's a player that's probably going to be top 50.

You'd probably get three bites at the apple not that you would draft him at 11, not

that you would probably draft him at 30.

But if he was there at 40, I think the gap between 43 would be your last chance to get

him because you have to wait till 75 for your next pick.

But then you've got guys like Oscar Delp from Georgia is on the up and up and just

ran, played this whole season with a airline fraction his foot and played through it.

They found it at the combine and then he came out as pro day.

I think it was yesterday and ran a 448 under utilized in the passing game.

Another one of those passing off fences, Georgia's passing offense just frankly hasn't

been what it's needed to be for those guys to showcase themselves to the best of their

ability.

And you have Sam Roush who's a personal favorite from mine because he feels very packersy like

the inline guy.

He's got a lot of NFL assignments in his blocking resume and he's got sufficient athleticism.

I don't think he's ever going to be a runaway guy.

But as a guy who plays holes in zone coverage underneath the Dalton Schultz type role, but

I think a better blocker, but Dalton Schultz was with Bobby Slowick and Houston.

I see the vision there.

I think that's a great target for the dolphins with some of those day two picks.

Sam Roush from Stanford.

And then you got guys like Michael Trigg from Baylor and you got Justin Jolie from NC State.

There's a plethora of options and then that's before you get into like the fullback H

back types.

Brett is in from Michigan, now a Kowski from Indiana.

So again, we will over the course of the next month really ramp up.

We'll do some overtime stuff overtime is going to be like bonus like 10 minute shows and

we'll do presentations on some of these guys for prospects on top of our regular programming

to make sure that like we're really cute up because we have 7% of the top 100.

It feels good to say I have a thought on that we'll get into it after the break as well

as my last position that the dolphins I think are going to get a lot of help with having

depth available at this position for the 2026 NFL draft for those top 100 picks.

That's a position of need.

We're going to get into that next here locked on dolphins.

Make sure you guys stick with us.

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The last position at no, you know, I'm going to do my thought first.

The dolphins are currently scheduled for 11 draft choices next month, which is cool.

I could ask you probably wins the last time the dolphins had 10 plus draft picks in a draft

class and you'd be able to tell me because it wasn't that long ago.

It was 2020 with the three first round picks and then the Robert Hunt and Rayquan Davis

and the Brandon Jones and the Solomon Kindling, the fourth round and that collection of talent

that was kind of the launch point for the last version of the team 2020.

So last time the dolphins had double digit draft picks.

Do you know the time before that?

2007.

It's the last time before 2020 that the dolphins had double digit draft picks in a class.

And then the time before that was 1998.

The dolphins in the last 28 years have had one draft with 11 draft choices.

They currently have 11 scheduled for this year.

And as a point of reference on that front, the team that the new GM comes from John

Erick Sullivan and Green Bay, they had 11 or more draft picks in three consecutive years

from 2022 to 2024.

So the Packers had three times as many draft classes with 11 draft picks as the dolphins

had in nearly 30 years and the dolphins now have 11 draft picks scheduled for this year.

Now it's what you do with those picks that matters most.

He's going to dispute that, but it's really hard to give yourself a chance to have success

in the draft when you don't draft in surplus.

The last speaking of surplus and drafting in surplus and positions available.

The last position group that I want to shout out here is having significant depth is

I'll include the nickels in here, but like the safety position, everybody knows Caleb

Downs.

Right, you've probably heard a Dylan Theaneman from Oregon.

He was one of the darlings of the Combine with his testing.

You've probably heard of Emmanuel McNeal Warren from Toledo because he was getting top

20 buzz from Daniel Jeremiah at the beginning of January, but even behind of that group

of three, you've got some really compelling names like AJ Halsey from LSU who we've put

in some of our seven round mock drafts that we've done here on the program.

It's a key Wheatley from Penn State.

You can include Jalen Kilgore from South Carolina, who's, oh my God, a habits list with a

day to pick 2, 10, 6, 1, 2, 10, ran a 4, 4 flat, has length plays in the nickel is kind

of the nickel, but can play deep half and play over top of wide receiver some really compelling

skill set there trade on Stukes from Arizona is another name to know in that regard is a

big corner and more of a he's more of a nickel than he is like an outside corner and he's

more of a nickel than he is at like a true safety, but he blurs the lines between the two.

You've got Genesis Smith.

You've got options at safety, you've got Kamari Ramsey from USC who wasn't as good this

past year as he was in 2024 when he chose to come back to school.

But the verse telling the football queue is apparent.

So you're looking at the 7 top 100 picks and I'm looking at safety, I'm looking to tight

in and I'm looking at a wide receiver, I'm saying, hey, you know, maybe, maybe we don't

go that with 11, maybe we don't go that with 30.

But I see that talent that's still available and I feel really good about your ability to

get some meaningful football players and players that are going to have successful NFL careers

on your roster.

As far as positions that are on the other side of the fence, I like the offensive liner,

but I think the run on like guys, I feel good about a starters is going to happen fast.

That's my worry about offensive line is that it's the well is going to run dry.

Now that's where I think the added 30 is monumental with the waddle deal is that puts you back

in a position where you should have another swing to get a starting calendar offensive

lineman because if I'm looking at the top of my offensive line board and it's all of

I Vega, you want a from Penn State is the guard and he's a guard exclusive.

And I know that hurts him from some folks.

He's my personal favorite offensive lineman in the class.

And then it's Frances Malino behind those if I'm projecting projecting Spencer Fano from

Utah and I'm projecting him at center.

I think he's an electric player projecting the center.

Now I still have he's still top 15 top 20 player my board as a tackle.

I just like the ceiling higher at center.

But you get past those three Monroe Freeling from Georgia.

I think we jumped the shark a little bit with some of that conversation a little bit.

But now you're in decayed impractor and Blake Miller and here's a stay kid who I want

to make sure I continue to practice his name before I take the umbridal swings at it.

Chase Besontis the guard from Texas A&M.

I really like Jalen Farmer.

I know I'm higher on them than the league, but like I wouldn't predictably say that he's

going to go in that top 50 range.

You get past that group of players maybe a manual pregnant goes in that range of top 40.

I don't think Jennings Dunker is going to go as early as like the media coverage of

the guy with the big mustache and the mullet and the red hair would have you think.

I think you could be a sufficient starter in the right environment with a gap scheme

and playing inside at guard.

I think you could be a quality starter, but I think it's a scheme specific guy.

But you think about we just got done talking about depth at safety, depth of tight end,

depth of wide receiver.

I think corners pretty deep.

I don't think it's as deep.

I think you get kind of role specific and scheme specific starters pretty quick there.

If you told me that the tackle and guard run happened and by the time the dolphins came

off the became up on the board again at 43, no, and pretend you don't have 30 from the

Waddle deal.

If Maui Noah, Reeling, Proctor, Miller, Ihan H or probably Caleb Lomu that's six.

Vega, Yawane is seven, Chase, Byzantis is eight, maybe a manual pregnant on his nine

and Spencer, Fano is 10.

If you told me they were all gone by 43, I would not be stunned.

And once you get past that juncture, it's scary hours for offensive lineman.

We obviously know quarterback is thin with Mendoza's the presumed topic and Tyson Simpson's

kind of out in the stratosphere and who knows when he goes.

I'm not buying the Dan Orlovsky sales pitch that the dolphins should draft him.

There's investment and then there's over investment and then there's recklessness.

And that's where that one would fall for me.

You need these assets that you have to, especially because you took the swing on a guy

Malik Willis who could kind of pseudo be classified as a draft pick with how much proof of

concept there is and how little actual playing experience he is and where the dollars line

up.

It's a little bit of a shorter contract, but it's a comparable amount of guaranteed money

to a rookie quarterback contract, but you didn't have to use a first round pick to get

the guy in the building.

So now use your first round picks to go get guys that can play because you're going to need

them.

I actually thought the defensive tackle group and I don't know that the dolphins are going

to be huge players in this end of the pool.

And I think it's lean at the top like I don't have any of these guys with bonafide first

round grades, but there's a group of guys that include Christian Miller from Georgia,

Kayla Banks from Florida, Caden McDonald from Ohio State, Peter Woods from Clemson, Grayson

Holt and from Oklahoma, Lee Hunter from Texas Tech, Dominique Orange from Iowa State.

I have all those guys in second and third round rates.

And I know Peter Woods is kind of the the darling of that group and it might surprise some

to hear that I'm a little bit lower on them there.

But I didn't think the film was particularly consistent this year and kind of a weird

body type right six, two and a half, two ninety eight, short arms, didn't really do a lot

of penetration three technique stuff.

When he did the consistency of it was a little scatter shot.

So it's just a big projection for me.

And I he's a little bit more of the shades of gray than I would like with where some

of the conversations with him as a player.

I see the appeal.

It's very apparent.

You just I think you need an inspired vision to get the most out of him.

But I like I think that group has, you know, if you told me that Grayson Holt and was on

the board with one of the third round picks, I know you've got a bunch of defensive tackles,

but maybe he's ax on the trade block come June, June, right?

And that's the one spot I do think you still need a pass rush player on the interior and

Holt and guys got nitrous up as we were, man, he can really scoop, he's a really explosive.

And then you got a discount version of that a couple of discount versions of that with

like Zane Durant from Penn State and Albert Regis from Texas saying him.

So I like the defense attack class a bit.

I would say, you know, the offensive line run is going to happen fast in my opinion and

that'll create scary hours there and then obviously quarterback a little, little, little

shaking.

We're going to talk about a couple new signings to bring this thing home today here on Lockdown

Dolphins.

Make sure you guys stick with us.

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This is how you know the dolphins are really promoting the heck out of the competition

in every room.

And John Arxelman says competition in every room.

You might hear we want to have a lot of competition, but what he means is we want to have competition

in every room.

The dolphins two signings today have been reported.

A second punter and a second long snapper.

So Bradley pinion who's a vet, pretty well tenured, he had 53% of his punts last year

were down inside the opposing 20 yard line on nearly 70 punts.

So it does kickoffs and from a pinned punt perspective, there's some some nice numbers

there for Bradley pinion, I don't think he is the biggest booming leg, but him competing

with Seth Vernden who actually got a two year deal when he signed, you've got competition

there to go along with the kicker position with Zayn Gonzales and Riley Patterson to veteran

kickers.

And then Tucker Addington is getting competition in the long snapper room with the name that

you might recognize.

I believe he's the one who took over for John Denny.

Tucker Pepper is coming back for the dolphins sign a contract at long snapper.

So no holds bar literally no holds bar.

So as I look across the roster, my question becomes less of where do you where you done?

And it becomes more of it is funny to see it laid out.

I have my spreadsheet up here and I have all the color codes for players in different

buckets, whether they're cornerstones or sufficient starters or quality starters or quality

depth or incomplete evaluations, the quality depth players are coded in purple.

And then incident or incomplete evaluations are coded in pink.

It is objectively hilarious to scroll vertically up and down the roster and see the amount

of pink and purple that is in here as compared to sufficient starters or yellow and quality

starters are light blue and then your cornerstones or your navy blue, like your blue chip type

players.

The headcat on that front, Devon HN, Aaron Brewer, Jordan Brooks.

I have bucketed as franchise cornerstones, Patrick Paul.

I have as a quality starter if he takes another leap from what he had like next year, then

he will last year, then he will be in the quality starter or the cornerstone bucket.

Zach sealer is the only of the light blue as a quality starter.

And I know he didn't have as prolific of a production season and I know he was kind

of rough in the first half of the year, but I give I give Zach some grace because that

came with playing with a lot of young guys and trying to figure out what the rotation

looks like and a lot of the things that he does best or chemistry oriented things, setting

pick stunts and playing off of pick stunts and that takes time.

But the vast majority of this roster, incomplete evaluations and quality depth players, you

need guys to become starters and that's where this draft class and having 11 draft picks

become so important.

But if I were to look it up and now and say, hey, what position rooms, not do we, not

are we done, but where do we need more competition?

I think quarterback, obviously, Malik Willis coming in, Quinn Ewers, I'm expecting a mid-round

probably early day three, quarterback selection to go with that and obviously Cam Miller is

a guy who was a six-round pick last year.

I think between Oli Gordon and Jalen, right, you've got good competition behind H&N and

that's again, assuming that Devon H&N is going to be here.

I think you have plenty of competition, a wide receiver.

I think the floor needs to be higher and the ceiling needs to be higher, but you're going

to get more competition.

But already, 2-2 at well, Jalen, Tollberg, Malik Washington, Taj Washington, TheoEast,

Terrace, Marshal June.

And you've got six guys that like legitimately could tell me we're part of a no-holdsbar

competition and earn a roster spot.

I think we need more competition at tight end with Greg Dullsich Ben Sims as the top two

guys.

I think we need more competition for a starting guard.

I think we need more competition on the edge.

And we need more competition at safety, where it's Dante Trader, Zane Anderson, Lonnie

Johnson, Omar Brown.

But if we're going to promise and deliver on competition in every room, we are well on

our way because now we have two long snappers, two punters, two kickers, and I would not

be surprised if after the draft happens and they get undrafted rookies if that shakes

itself out a little bit.

And maybe you don't have two of all those guys when it's time to open up for Oak TAs.

We'll see.

That's it for us here on today's episode of Lockdown Dolphins.

It is your team every day.

I appreciate you guys as always for checking the show.

Make it a great rest your day and I, we back to talk to you all again tomorrow, fins

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