Tuesday, April 22, 2008

With the first pick in the 2008 NFL Draft...

The Miami Dolphins have signed offensive tackle Jake Long to a five year, $57.75 million contract, with $30 million of that guaranteed. Not bad for a kid who hasn't played a down in the NFL yet. Signing Long early will also avoid a holdout the likes of which the Oakland Raiders had last year in signing JaMarcus Russell.

After unsuccessfully trying to trade the top draft pick, the Dolphins went after the guy they had at the top of their draft board. Offensive line is just one of many needs the 'fins have going into the 2008 draft, however, but new coach Tony Sparano was the offensive line coach in Dallas last year, and now has the #1 overall offensive lineman in the draft. It seems as though Miami is going to try to improve the big uglies first, then work on the playmaker positions. Surely, there is no other way to go for the Dolphins. Without an O-line, there is no hope for any kind of offense to perform effectively. I'll be more interested to see where the 'fins go with rounds 2-5, and who may still be available.

3 comments:

ASponge said...

I definitely like the pick. The interesting question will be whether the Dolphins go QB in the 2nd round:

Joe Flacco, Chad Henne, Brian Brohm all might be upgrades over John Beck.

Personally, I'd like to see them keep going in this direction and build the lines.

Pasik said...

See my article on Pasik's Right blog about Jake Long signing.

http://pasiksright.blogspot.com/

Rate said...

With the first pick of the second round, I really think we should next address the defense. Either a strong CB like Antoine Cason or a good DE/OLB like Chris Lofton or Quention Groves.

The second pick of the second round should then be whichever one we didn't address with the first pick of the second round. Or maybe a wide receiver.