Get excited because this is the first time in years the #MetLifeTakeover recap video came out before the season was over. Luckily our director and editor, Curtis Edward Paul, has some free time right after the Takeover and was able to finish the whole things in a couple of weeks. That being said, this video was released on social media before the Cowboys game and I am just now getting around to putting the video thanks to visiting family for the holidays and then not wanting to think about football for a few days after the butt kicking the Ravens put on us. Pain.

But yeah, the video is up and it’s amazing. It features interviews with a lot of the regulars like Nat Moore, Joe Rose, Solo D, 2023 Fan of the Year Chris Barker, plus interviews with Frank The Tank, Mary Martinez, the viral elementary school teacher and more. Another viral Dolfan, Kickball Dad, made the video as well. This year wasn’t officially our biggest event ever, but only because the Jets would only sell us around 950 seats. It was the first time we have ever sold out before the season even started, the most busses we have ever had and I know our section had thousands of Dolphins fans because people bought up every ticket in section. The secondary prices in our section was like $80 more than anywhere else in the upper decks. The video very much reflects how amazing our party was.

Shout out again to Urban Tailgate for helping us throw this party, DJ D Rell and crew for the music, Oscar Collazos for hosting the video, all our volunteers and of course all of you guys who came out to party with us.

Now hopefully the Raven’s game has been pushed down into the deepest parts of your brain and you can actually enjoy this video. We worked really hard on it. Phins up!

The #MetLifeTakeover was a huge success this year and I just want to thank all of you for making it amazing. We weren’t able to get as many tickets this year because the Jets thought they were gonna be good this year (lol), but we sold out before the season even started and gave out our section number to the hundreds and hundreds of people who emailed us requesting tickets too late. I wouldn’t be surprised if we had 2500 Dolphins fans sitting together because our sections were packed. With the great tailgate and the Dolphins dominating on the field it was just an amazing day.

Speaking of the tailgate, we had a huge crowd all day and a video I took from the top of our U-Haul went viral, being reposted by tons of national media outlets, and even a local TV station reached out about using it, although I have no idea if they actually did. Speaking of TV, the film crew from HBO’s Hard Knocks came out to the tailgate, interviewed Michelle and I as well as some other fans and did a short segment during episode two of the show. If you didn’t watch the episode you can watch the short segment here.

We had some cool guests at the tailgate this year. Dolphins legends Joe Rose and Nat Moore never miss a tailgate but we also had a couple of social media stars, with Kickball Dad returning to the Takeover to film some videos, and elementary teacher extraordinaire Mary Martinez celebrated her 30th birthday with us. We had two Miami Dolphins Fans of the Year in attendance, Dolphreaky and the newest Fan of the Year Chris Barker. Solo D performed as he always does and my cousin came out because her husband is a huge Dolphins fan and that was really cool for me.

On the charity front, we raised over $6000 just from raffle and merch sales and that doesn’t include the money we made from ticket sales. We are unfortunately dealing with some possible unexpected expenses because of an unfortunately incident that we won’t get into, but we should be able to donate over $10,000 to charity this year. We will be announcing donations as they happen on Twitter but hopefully at the end of the year I can do a run down of the good that money is doing. By the way, all donations to us are tax deductible so if anyone is interested in donating please reach out.

Shout out to DJ Drell, our new regular Slattery’s DJ for killing it at his first #MetLifeTakeover and Solo D for his yearly performance. Solo came to the second or third one of these we ever did and hasn’t missed one since. He’s become such a huge part of our tailgate experience. Thanks as always to our tailgate partners Urban Tailgate. Those guys take everything off our plate and handle all the food, drinks, games and simple stuff like getting there hours before the gates open to make sure we get our regular spot. And lastly, huge thanks to all our volunteers who we couldn’t do any of this without. From our bus captains, to the people selling merch and raffle tickets, to just random people who grab a bin from the bus and bring it over to the tailgate for us, we appreciate you guys a ton.

Anyway, I did a terrible job of documenting the event, but I did technically take some photos, so I got a gallery of stuff for you guys to look through. Don’t worry though, we will have one hell of a recap video for you guys coming a lot sooner than last year’s video. I can’t wait for you to see it.

I went to the NFL Draft for the first time back when it was in NYC every year and Jake Long was our first pick and for some reason I just kept going back. I’ve missed a few years here and there but I think I have been to nearly a dozen of them over the years. Last year we didn’t have a first day pick so I almost didn’t go but I was already going to be out in LA and it’s a nice drive to Vegas from there so I decided it was worth extending my trip by a couple of days. This year we once again didn’t have a first round pick, and it was in Kansas City, but for some reason I signed up again and at least I got to eat a bunch of BBQ.

As many of you know, I am a photographer for a living and I love the access I get as a member of the “Inner Circle” the area in front of the stage where 24 fans from each team get ot sit. The Dolphins offer these spaces to the people who run fan clubs so I have been lucky to get seats there several times now. A lot of the same fans go every year so it’s been great to have a little reunion every year and take a ton of photos.

I guess I should say something about how I feel about our actual draft picks in a blog about the draft. With only four of them it was going to be hard to make a huge impact but I was really hoping to get offensive line help early. I am less concerned about tight end because we have so many other weapons but when Washington was still on the board at 84 I was a little disappointed we took a running back. I was kinda hoping we would trade for Cook so that sort of took him off the table (or did it?) After the disappointment wore off I came around to the first two picks a lot more. We have had such issues with secondary depth in the past and if Cam Smith is as good as he looks, that problem is solved. Plus with our aging corners, he’s obviously the future at an incredibly important position. Achane was easier to get excited about. Total BPA pick who is electric and makes so much sense in a McDaniel offense. Is he big enough? Will those ankle breaking moves work against NFL talent? I have no idea but there is huge upside for a player taken that late in the draft. In the sixth and seventh we addressed TE and the oline and I don’t know if either of those guys will pan out, but I am glad they addressed some needs… and Higgins seems he could have a huge upside as well (big, fast, smart, breaks tackles).

Anyway the Draft was a blast even without a first round pick and thanks a ton to the Dolphins for continuing to invite me to these things. I a bunch of photos so I hope you get a chance to look through them. I got photos of a bunch of the draft picks, all the superfans and even a couple of famous YouTubers if you (or your kids) are into that kinda thing. Check out the gallery via Flickr below…

Despite the loss the Dolphins took on the field, the #MetLifeTakeover weekend was absolutely incredible. I cannot believe how much we have grown and it’s been so great to hear from so many people about how much fun they had despite the game. It means so much to us that you guys keep coming back and we can’t wait to do it again next year, hopefully even bigger. So let’s get to some numbers.

We had over 1400 people sitting together across four sections. We had over 500 people pay for our tailgate with a lot more people just coming to hang out around us in lot L4. We had five busses and gave out 800 rally towels for free. Between two raffles we raised over $5000 for charity and our friends at Ticketboard raised another $1000 with their raffle. We were able to donate $2500 to the Miami Dolphins Foundation, $2000 to the Jason Taylor Foundation, $500 to the Concern Foundation for breast cancer awareness month and we will be matching Ticketboard’s $1000 donation to the Dolphins Cancer Challenge at the end of the season (The DCC is in February 2023).

Next up we have some thanks to give out. First of all thanks to everyone who volunteered to help out,  donated raffle prizes and just showed up. Only two of us run this whole thing, but we couldn’t do it without you all. We need to thank our bar Slattery’s Midtown Pub, our catering company Urban Tailgate, The Dolphins, The Jason Taylor Foundation, DJ Syckturtle, Solo D & Miami Sports Music for providing music (and a live podcast). We need to thank Liquid Death, Sailor Jerry, Reyka Vodka & Fistful of Bourbon for providing beverages for our tailgate. Thanks to Oscar and RizeOptix for our recap video (hopefully coming soon – check out last year’s here). Thanks to Antwan Staley for writing about the event for the NY Daily News (if anyone has a copy of Saturday’s paper let us know) and big thanks for Nat Moore & Joe Rose for making it out to the tailgate to sign some autographs and take some pictures.

Between the party at Slattery’s Saturday night and the tailgate on Sunday we had so much fun this weekend. If only the Dolphins could done their part and won. But this isn’t just about football, it’s about friends and doing some good for the community, and on those levels we came out with a huge win. Thanks again for coming out and check out some of the photos I took on Sunday below.

This recap video is very late, but honestly after three huge wins and the next takeover less than two weeks away, maybe it’s the perfect time to release it. Last year was such a blast. We had a really fun pre party at Slattery’s where we raised a ton of money for charity, then we had one of our smoothest tailgates ever, good weather and a huge win. We also had a bunch of the Dolphins media crew show up including Dolphins legend OJ McDuffie, his The Fish Tank podcast co-host and our old friend Seth Levitt, Travis Wingfield from Drive Time and Johanna Torres from Dolphins Today.  Check out the video below to see interviews with all of them and a bunch of Dolfans, a mini Solo D music video, and tons of shots of Dolfans taking over MetLife Stadium.

This is also a great time to let you guys know that we are only about 50 tickets away from the most tickets ever sold to a #MetLifeTakeover EVER. We want to break our record of 1250, so if you have been thinking about going, now is the time! This is going to be our best event ever. Phins up!

Get your tickets to the 2022 #MetLifeTakeover here!

I have no idea why I go to the NFL Draft nearly every year. It’s a complete mystery. I don’t watch college football so I don’t know who any of the players are and yet I have gone to 10 out of the last 15 Drafts. One of those Drafts was a virtual Draft and I actually was shown on TV via Zoom for that one so I think that actually makes it 11 out of 15.

It all started as a marketing decision. Back in 2008 we didn’t even exist yet, we had a small group of Dolphins fans that watched together but we were hoping to find more. The Dolphins had the first pick in the NFL Draft and back then the Draft was in New York every year so we figured it would be a fun experience and maybe we could find some new local Dolphins fans. By 2009 our crew had grown bigger and just before the Draft Michelle and I set up social media accounts for a new “official” NYC Dolphins fan club called Dolfans NYC. We hadn’t watched a game as Dolfans NYC yet, but we were building. We made flyers and brought them to the Draft to hand out to every Dolphins fan we could find. It was great outreach.

After that we went to every NFL Draft in NYC using it to try and get on TV, not for the “fame” but so that Dolphins fans at home watching might realize that there was a club of Dolphins fans in NYC and maybe they should type Dolfans NYC into google and try and find us. Our group got bigger and bigger every year. One year a cop stopped me at the Draft and I thought I had done something wrong. Turns out he just wanted to know where he could get a new Dolfans NYC shirt because his old one got damaged in the wash.

In 2015 the NFL Draft left New York and for the next three years there was no Dolfans NYC representative at the Draft, but in 2018 the NFL introduced something called the “Inner Circle” where a handful of die hard fans from each team would be sat in special seats near the stage where cameras could film them whenever that team would draft a player. The idea was that it would give the team’s biggest fans a great experience while also giving the NFL great footage to use on TV. The Draft was in Dallas that year and half my family lives there so I had a place to stay and Dolfans NYC had a bunch of airline miles so I flew to Dallas, put on as much Dolfans NYC merch as possible and did whatever I could do get Dolfans NYC on TV. I missed the 2019 Draft, but I got on TV for the 2020 virtual Draft. In 2021 I got a chance to go to Cleveland for the Draft. Everyone had to be vaccinated and wear a mask and there were only 12 people allowed per team, but it was still a great experience.

This year we ended up trading all of our picks for Hill and I probably wouldn’t have gone but unfortunately I booked my ticket to Vegas about a week before the trade so I was kinda stuck. After the Dolphins traded their first round pick I actually decided not to go to the first day of the Draft and spend it with my girlfriend who had never been to Vegas.

On Day 2 I went down to the Draft a bit early to check out the NFL Experience which features a bunch of different NFL related activations. There are some autograph signings and games where you do football skills and you could see the Vince Lombardi trophy and all the Super Bowl rings. I feel like it would be really fun for a family, but maybe not so much for a middle aged punk rock dude with a herniated disc and torn hip. I also got to check out a lot of this stuff last year in Cleveland.

The Draft itself was very Vegas with a bunch of celebrities and Raiders cheerleaders and for some reason Criss Angel.  The famous faces were a good mix of old and new, plus a lot of legendary players. Barry Sanders was a crowd favorite. The crowd around me was pumped about Donny Osmond but had no idea who MERO or Sean Evans were (I was pumped for them) and I am sure the kids there were really happy to see pro gamers FaZe Rug & Dr. DisRespect and the TikTok duo who I didn’t recognize. The Dolphins Draft choice was announced by the legendary Larry Csonka who I didn’t photograph because I was too busy cheering for him. It worked, and once again Dolfans NYC got on the broadcast.

As far as the actual draft picks, you can read a million site that will tell you about them, this post is about the experience of going, and some Dolfans NYC history. I will say that I wasn’t surprised that they didn’t pick a lineman. I think the Dolphins are a lot happier than we are about center and right tackle. I am not sure why that’s the case but I hope they are right. I guessed our first round pick was going to be a pass rushing LB and I was right. I don’t know anything about Tindall but a player that had a second round grade with a ton of upside and is fast as hell is perfect for a late third round pick. I have no idea why we drafted a WR in the 4th but he’s very fast, so that makes sense with our offense.

Click here to see all my pictures from day two of the 2022 NFL Draft in Las Vegas!

Thanks you all for coming out to the 2021 #MetLifeTakeover. What an absolute blast! From the party at Slattery’s to the tailgate to the Dolphins play on the field everything went off without a hitch. Despite a slightly less than normal turnout (the team’s record, the pandemic and the Jets only selling us 700 tickets didn’t help) we still had one of our most successful years. Thanks to you guys we raised over $6000 for charity between raffle, auction and merch sales. And that doesn’t even include the money we made off the tickets sold. That money is going back into our war chest to make new merch, raffle prizes and other expenses for next season, but it will all eventually be turned into even more money that we can use to do more good. The merch/raffle/auction money will be going to the Miami Dolphins Foundation, The Dolphins Cancer Challenge and the Jason Taylor Foundation.

So here’s a quick breakdown on the weekend. On Saturday night we had a great crowd at our bar Slattery’s Midtown Pub. We had DJ Syckturtle spin both that night and the tailgate the next day. We had a live auction that raised over $1000 on just three items and we had a big raffle as well for a bunch of great signed stuff. One of our members even brought a team signed ball from the Philbin era that had some great signatures on it despite how we may feel about those years. Another one of our members donated a Marino jersey that raised $275 in the live auction. Special shout out to Robert who bought it AND the Christian Wilkins signed jersey for $500!

One of the coolest parts of Saturday night, and the tailgate, was that the Miami Dolphins entire podcast network came out. We had Dolphins legend OJ McDuffie and his The Fish Tank co-host Seth Levit (and DJ DJ Prēc), Drive Time’s Travis Wingfield and Dolphins Today host Johanna Torres all come out and party with us both days. Nat Moore and Jason Jenkins also came out during the tailgate… those guys never miss one. Want to give a special shoutout to OJ who signed autograph after autograph and posed for picture after picture the entire time he was there. And another shout out to Seth who also runs the Jason Taylor Foundation who donated the Jason Taylor jersey to our game day raffle. He told us to give all the money to the Miami Dolphins Foundation in the DCC but we raised so much that we had to surprise him with donation to the JT Foundation as well.

The tailgate itself was an absolute party. We took over the entire parking lot between L4 and L7. It was massive. Our partners at Urban Tailgate killed it again. They were a little understaffed at the last minute and that led to some long lines, but the food was incredible. We will get that worked out for next year and make sure the lines aren’t nearly as bad. Huge shout out to our friends at Sailor Jerry for providing not only Sailor but also some bottles from their sister brands Reyka Vodka and Fistfull of Bourbon.

The game couldn’t have gone much better. The Jets hung around for a bit, but in the second half the Dolphins put them to bed and you could hear our “Let’s Go Dolphins!” chants on TV. Several of the Dolphins players Tweeted about us after the game and the #MetLifeTakeover hashtag absolutely exploded on Twitter. I couldn’t even keep up with it. We even got a little write up in the Miami New Times. Very cool.

So thanks again everyone for making this year one of the best years ever. I can’t wait to do it all again next year. I got a pretty good gallery of photos for you too. I have a back injury so I didn’t do a great job documenting it, but there are still some fun shots here. Also we have the 2021 #MetlifeTakeover video coming soon. That should be amazing. Now go check out the photos below! (Click here to view the gallery directly on Flickr where it looks less wonky than the embedded gallery viewer.)

I almost called this post a 2021 NFL Draft recap, but we aren’t going to be getting into the actual picks very much, more just my experience in Cleveland and then we can take a look at some of my photos from the weekend (well, technically it was Thursday). I will say this about the picks, I am very excited about all of them. I would have loved Harris at 18 because that would have been really fun, but RBs are the most replaceable position in football and if you had asked me what the Dolphins needed without knowing any of the players in the draft I would have told you pass rush and receiver and we got two great players at those positions plus a beast at OT and apparently the best safety in the draft (which happens to be my favorite position) so I am pretty happy with it. But that’s enough of my second rate analysis, let’s talk about the trip.

When the NFL Draft was in NYC we started organizing group trips starting with the 2008 Draft when we picked Jake Long with the first pick in the Draft. We didn’t even have a club yet. The next year we printed a bunch of flyers and handed them out to everyone to promote the club which we had just started. We kept doing this and using it as outreach for the club until the Draft moved out of NYC. In 2019 I got invited to go to Dallas to be part of the Inner Circle and it was a great experience and I couldn’t wait to do it again in Vegas last year. Michelle was coming too and we had a bunch of plans for meet ups and fun things like that, and then Covid happened. I did get to be part of the screen behind Goodell instead, but not quite the same thing.

This year I think I lucked out. The NFL only allowed 12 people per team into the Inner Circle this year and you had to be vaccinated by April 15th. Finally my high blood pressure helped me out in life and I got my second shot in early April. I also happened to be holding my phone in my hand when I got the email from the Dolphins. I am not exactly sure who else was on the mailing list, but I bet it was all of the fan clubs, but when I saw it was first come, first serve I emailed back within seconds before even looking at flights or hotels. I ended up staying at a horrible motel out by the airport because of it, but it was well worth it in the end.

I don’t watch college football and I try not to dig to deep into Draft stuff because I don’t want to get excited about a player and watch him go right before we pick to the Jets or something. I remember after the Chiefs drafted Eric Berry I was so god damn disappointed I stopped following the Draft from then on, but I still love the Draft experience. I love having a reason to get excited about the Dolphins again, I love interacting with fans from the Dolphins and talking some smack to rival fans and just being part of this group experience of the most die hard fans in the world coming together for this admittedly kinda boring event. I mean can you imagine explaining it to someone who doesn’t like sports? It’s crazy how much we love it.

I personally do not care one way or another about getting on TV but I do care about getting the Dolfans NYC logo on TV. Our group trips to the Draft were such a good way to grow the club and my hope is that if people at home in NY see a Dolfans NYC hat or t-shirt on ESPN they might look up the club and realize that there are Dolphins fans in their backyard and they had no idea. It’s all about spreading the word. So I thought it was very cool that I got some TV time during the first pick, what I didn’t expect was getting even more TV time on the actual Draft stage!

I have no idea why they introduced this fan sitting in Goodell’s seat thing, but they picked one person out of the Inner Circle for each pick to sit on stage. After the first pick I started to look around and realized of the 11 remaining Dolphins fans who hadn’t been on stage, there were only a few of us in Dolphins gear that wasn’t just your standard jersey. I figured if I was a producer I wouldn’t pick someone who was just in a jersey if I could help it. I sort of figured I had a chance to get our logo on TV in a bigger way so when it got close to the 18th pick I stood up and started looking around for NFL employees, and I made eye contact with a guy who immediately called me over and that was that, I got to go into the chair.

When they brought me up I thought I was going to be really nervous so I just tried to be as chill as possible. Goodell shook my hand and told me to enjoy the seat and a producer came over and told me the Dolphins had already made their pick and my time in the chair would be short. She told me that after the pick I would be handed a jersey and once I got it I would stand up and either hand it to the pick if he was there or just hold it up to the crowd. After that I just got to sit there and relax. The chair was comfy as hell and I saw people taking my photo so I crossed my legs to get the Jordans in the pictures. When Goodell came back out he showed me the pick and asked me if I like it. I didn’t even see who was picked 17th so I wasn’t sure if Harris was even still on the board. When I saw Philips I was pumped because we desperately needed a better pass rush and he’s a beast. I almost flashed The U symbol to the crowd before Goodell read of the pick but I absolutely chickened out. I didn’t want to get in trouble for signaling the pick before it was announced. After that I got handed a jersey and a screen came down with Philips on it and I was told to hold it to the screen which was weird because there wasn’t a camera there and Philips was hugging his family and not looking at the screen so Goodell just told me to show it to the Dolphins fans. After that someone took the jersey and told me to exit stage right and that was it. Later round picks got to keep their players Draft card so kinda jealous I didn’t get mine, but over all a very cool experience.

I also met some great Dolphins fans but I just wanted to shout out my dude Alex who picked me up from my hotel and brought me home from the draft on Thursday. It saved me like $70 on Ubers cause that’s how much I spent on Friday and it was great talking football with him at the NFL Experience before the Draft. Thanks man! Huge shout out to TPP as well for the challenge coin. Means a lot!

I am not sure what else I should add, but the whole event was very cool from the NFL Experience stuff (I got to see all the Super Bowl rings and managed to hurt my shoulder trying to throw a Hail Mary) to the gift bags (I got some new raffle prizes for the club next season) to getting to sit in the chair. I got a bunch of photos for you guys too, all from Thursday since I didn’t bring my camera back for Friday and I left Saturday. Check them out below!

I just wanted to give everyone a quick update on our virtual #MetLifeTakeover event. I think yesterday went just about as well as we could have possibly planned. We had a ton of people watching the game live with us, the Dolphins won and we raised almost $3000 for the Miami Dolphins Foundation Food Relief Program!

Huge congratulations to everyone who won our raffles and social media giveaways. It was great to be able to do something that felt a little like #MetLifeTakeover week even if we didn’t actually get to be together. We gave away three Don Shula memorial Yearbooks/ Dolfans NYC swag packs, a Mercury Morris signed photo, an actual seat back from the Dolphins stadium, ball signed by Dwight Stephenson, a Flo Knows shirt and of course the incredible Brian Flores signed game used helmet. I honestly am pretty upset I wasn’t allowed to buy tickets.

On the football side of things it was great to see the Dolphins play a pretty mediocre game and still win. That’s not something Dolphins fans are used to and a sign of a good team. I know the Jets are one of the worst teams in NFL history but even when we made huge mistakes at no point was I ever worried that we were going to lose. It’s nice to have that feeling during a game, especially when I was having to help moderate the Zoom meeting as well. Let’s do it again next week.

And finally check out this video RizeOptix put together for us from his last two years of filming #MetLifeTakeovers for us. As always shout out to Solo D for our Dolfans NYC anthem that we used for the video.  Phins up!

I love the NFL Draft. Dolfans NYC used to do group trips every year when the Draft was in NYC. I went to Dallas a couple of years ago and I was supposed to be in Vegas for the Draft before the coronavirus messed everything up. Even with the virus I still ended up on TV when Tua was picked! But with all that said, I am the last person who should be doing a Draft recap.

I don’t watch a lot of college football, and even if I did I still could never be one of those Draft obsessed fans. I learned years ago that any time I get obsessed about a player they would end up on another team. Even this year I got really into the Tank for Tua thing and started watching Alabama games only to be crushed when he got injured. Ironically him getting hurt was the only way we were able to land him, but the point remains. I try not to pay any attention to the Draft, until it starts.

That being said, I might not be an expert on the Draft, but I do know a lot about the problems the Dolphins have and I think the Dolphins did a great job of addressing them. I had a few disappointments, but nothing I can complain about too much. For example I would love to have seen us keep trading picks back to pick up 2021 selections. But we have a lot of holes and already had nine picks next year so it’s hard to complain. We did end up trading one of our 7th round picks for a 6th rounder next year which I was happy to see.

Before I give you my quick take on the picks I should mention that it’s cool to see an obvious strategy from Grier as he picked a number players who either didn’t live up to their potential or had injuries that caused them to fall. It’s a risky strategy but you can see that the Dolphins are really focusing on 2021. They picked players that they could spend a year molding. I have a feeling our 2021 Draft picks are going to be much more polished day one starter types. The three year plan is really taking shape. Even the trade for running back Matt Breida is a perfect example. He’s a player who did really well with limited touches on a one year contract. If he plays great you can resign him and if not you have a stop gap and can draft his replacement early next year. It was a perfect solution to not being able to get one of the top tier RBs early.

Okay, let’s do this.

Pick #5: QB Tua Tagovailoa, Alabama – I have no interest in any more arguing about what QB the Dolphins should target. Tua has more upside than any other player in the draft and we didn’t even have to give anything to move up. Let’s just pray he works out and the Dolphins their answer at quarterback for a long, long time. What a moment.

Pick #18: OT Austin Jackson, USC – While I loved the Tunsil trade, giving up Minkah Fitzpatrick was hard to swallow, but I thought the Steelers were going to be a lot worse than they were. The 18th pick was a tough one with all the elite OTs gone and my personal pick Jerry Jeudy gone as well (OL is way more of a need but how fun would a Tua/Jeudy combo been?). It seems like a consensus that the Dolphins reached here with Jackson, but we got a very good player that had an off year after donating bone marrow to his sister. My hope is that by 2021 he will be much stronger and ready to protect Tua’s strong side for years to come.

Pick #30: CB Noah Igbinoghene, Auburn – I don’t know anything about Igbinoghene but people I trust seem to absolutely love him. He was a WR two years ago and was still a shutdown corner. He could improve so much with that one more year under his belt. And for those upset we picked a CB when we have Howard and Jones already, just remember how many injuries we have had in the secondary in the past and how often we are in nickel and dime defenses. Plus a dominant secondary makes up for a questionable pass rush.

Pick #39: OL Robert Hunt, Louisiana-Lafayette – I was saying on Twitter that if the Dolphins drafted nothing but linemen after Tua I would be happy and I am not sure that I was joking. This is how you build a football team. Hunt is a versatile lineman who can play tackle or guard and if he works out he could be protecting Tua’s blind side for years, and if not that versatility gives us a great depth option like Jesse Davis.

Pick #56: DL Raekwon Davis, Alabama – I am very happy to see us drafting linemen on either side of the ball. We have some players I like up front but we were still garbage against the run and hopefully Davis will help with that. Plus being the second player on our team named after the rapper Raekwon is honestly incredible. Wu Tang forever!

Pick #70: S Brandon Jones, Texas – I was hoping we would get a safety earlier but please do yourself a favor and watch some Jones highlights. The man can tackle. Safety is my favorite position on the field and I just love seeing people get crushed by a safety who is running full speed up field. Nothing would make me happier than Jones making me forget that Fitzpatrick was ever on the team. (BTW Reshad Jones is still a free agent and if we resigned him that would give us 3 Jonese in the secondary.)

Pick #111: G Solomon Kindley, Georgia – Keep drafting linemen! Kindley is an absolute beast and the Dolphins must love him because they gave up two picks to get him. He’s apparently a fantastic pass blocker only giving up four sacks in over 900 attempts. He’s also very fast and very mean and will hopefully become a fixture at left guard for the Dolphins.

Pick #154: DL Jason Strowbridge, North Carolina – Strobridge is an athletic run stopping lineman who can play inside or out. He’s also from South Florida which is always cool. He should perfectly compliment the man who was chosen 10 picks after him. He also blocked four kicks in college which could be a great added bonus.

Pick #164: EDGE Curtis Weaver, Boise State – A lot of people are talking about Weaver being the steal of the draft. PFF had him as the 26th player on their draft board and we got him 138 picks later. An undersized pass rusher who can come in on passing downs to spell a player like Strowbridge and just line up and go after the QB. We got one of the best pass rushers in college football in the 5th round (although we did give up a 7th to move up for him) and hopefully he will turn out a lot better than some of our recent DE selections.

Pick #185: LS Blake Ferguson, LSU –  This was the only pick I had a problem. I loved John Denney so much and I was so disappointed to see him go, but he was replaced by a hilarious dude named Taybor who is a big gamer and Tweets constantly. He was so much fun to have on the team, especially because I don’t remember him making any mistakes as a long snapper and I presume on a league minimum salary. Drafting someone, even with a 6th round pick, means you are spending more money and way more resources on a position that can be filled cheaply. I was hoping Taybor would have a chance to compete but I literally got a text in the middle of writing this article telling me he had been cut. Farewell young prince!

Pick #246: WR Malcolm Perry, Navy – If you want to enjoy some highlights watch Perry’s. He played QB, WR and RB in college and does nothing but take footballs to the house. The guy is a scoring machine. 7th round picks don’t usually work out so you might as well draft a guy with a ton of upside. If his game could translate to the NFL he could be so much fun to have as a slot receiver or a third down back…. and just think of the trick plays!