After a crazy, unexpected first fourteen selections, the Dolphins make a safe pick by drafting Mike Pouncey. Unfortunately, Jeff Ireland and company weren’t able to find a trade-down partner, even with a stud cornerback like Prince Amukamara still on the board.
The Dolphins also resisted the trend of taking a quarterback with Andy Dalton, Colin Kaepernick, and Ryan Mallett still available, after an unforeseen run of four quarterbacks in the first twelve picks.
As far as Pouncey goes, he’s a player I wasn’t very high on headed into the draft. I just feel like his stock was skyrocketed by the success of his brother Maurkice with the Steelers. But it can’t be argued that the Dolphins desperately needed to upgrade their interior offensive line.
Yes, I feel like Chad Henne’s wildly inconsistent ways held the Dolphins back in 2010, but the problems on offense started with not being able to run the football. And it didn’t matter if the Dolphins retained Ronnie and Ricky, signed DeAngelo Williams, or drafted Mark Ingram, they weren’t going to improve the running game until the interior O-line was remolded. So taking the highest rated interior offensive lineman makes sense to some degree.
I am interested to see if the Dolphins keep Pouncey at center or allow him to move back to guard. Most believe they resigned Richie Incognito to play center, where he showed some promise in relief duty in 2010. We have plenty of time to discuss that, though.
I will have more to come on the pick later tonight or tomorrow morning. Enjoy the rest of the first round.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
