Amid an abundance of excitement surrounding the Miami Dolphins’ offseason, the 2023 NFL draft is a painful reminder that the team was stripped of its first-round pick due to tampering violations.
That’s why Thursday night’s first round will only consist of 31 picks, instead of the usual 32 — one for every NFL franchise. The league found Miami had “impermissible communication” with quarterback Tom Brady and coach Sean Payton while they were employed by other teams.
The NFL, in August, docked the Dolphins their 2023 first-round draft selection and 2024 third-round pick. Owner Steve Ross was fined $1.5 million and suspended for the first six weeks of the 2022 regular season for the tampering findings.
The Dolphins once held two first-round selections in the 2023 draft. They had another one from a previous trade with the San Francisco 49ers, but that one was later sent to the Denver Broncos at last season’s trade deadline for Pro Bowl outside linebacker Bradley Chubb.
Miami, after finishing 9-8 and reaching the AFC playoffs as the final wild card, would have had the No. 21 pick in Thursday’s first round. Instead, the Dolphins will first select a rookie at pick No. 51, their second-round choice, while later making picks in the third, sixth and seventh rounds.
The NFL’s penalty handed down on the Dolphins was the result of an independent six-month investigation led by former U.S. Attorney and SEC Chair Mary Jo White. It looked into allegations made by former Miami coach Brian Flores in a class-action lawsuit against the NFL and multiple teams — filed after he was fired by the Dolphins in January 2022.
The league report said the Dolphins communicated illegally with Brady and his agent from 2019 through a point following the 2021 season, which would’ve meant early 2022, between the time where he was under contract with the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It added Miami had impermissible communication with Payton in January 2022, while Payton was with the Saints, about him serving as the team’s coach during its search following the Flores firing.
“The investigators found tampering violations of unprecedented scope and severity,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in the release. “I know of no prior instance of a team violating the prohibition on tampering with both a head coach and star player, to the potential detriment of multiple other clubs, over a period of several years. Similarly, I know of no prior instance in which ownership was so directly involved in the violations.”
Bruce Beal, a New York real estate executive who was Dolphins vice chairman and partner, conducted the talks with Brady, according to the league report, while keeping Ross and other Dolphins executives abreast. Beal was in line to succeed Ross as team owner but is no longer.
In an alternate universe, instead of being coached by Mike McDaniel and quarterbacked by Tua Tagovailoa, the Dolphins could’ve been led by a Payton-Brady combination.
Flores’ lawsuit also claimed he was offered financial incentive by Ross to intentionally lose games — or tank — in the 2019 season, his first of three at the helm for the Dolphins, as a means of improving draft position in 2020. The investigation found “differing recollections about the wording, time and context” in clearing Ross of that allegation.
“The Dolphins competed hard to win every game, including at the end of the season when they beat Cincinnati and New England, despite worsening Miami’s position in the 2020 draft,” the league’s report said, while noting Ross expressed belief that the Dolphins’ position in the 2020 draft should take priority over the team’s record.
“I am thankful that the NFL’s investigator found my factual allegations against Stephen Ross are true,” Flores said then in a statement. “At the same time, I am disappointed to learn that the investigator minimized Mr. Ross’s offers and pressure to tank games especially when I wrote and submitted a letter at the time to Dolphins executives documenting my serious concerns regarding this subject at the time which the investigator has in her possession.”
Said Ross in a statement: “The independent investigation cleared our organization on any issues relating to tanking and all of Brian Flores’ other allegations. As I have said all along, these allegations were false, malicious and defamatory, and this issue is now put to rest. With regards to tampering, I strongly disagree with the conclusions and the punishment. However, I will accept the outcome.”
The Dolphins enter a second consecutive draft with just four selections. They’re taking a win-now approach and have been willing to trade early picks for proven talent. The team’s 2022 first- and second-round selections were part of a five-pick package sent to the Kansas City Chiefs for star wide receiver Tyreek Hill before last season’s deal with the Broncos for Chubb.
This offseason, they have made major acquisitions in signing coveted veteran defensive coordinator Vic Fangio to lead their defense and trading for star cornerback Jalen Ramsey.
While stacking the roster with talented players at various positions, Miami could benefit from adding a young tight end, offensive lineman or running back in the draft. Had the Dolphins never been found to have committed the tampering penalties, their first selection would be 30 picks earlier. It also could’ve been used as a valuable trade piece for another proven veteran.
Part of the reason that owning two first-round picks in this draft was once valuable was that it offered a contingency plan if Tagovailoa was uneven during the 2022 season. Multiple draft picks could’ve been used in a trade for a quarterback or to move up for a rookie passer of their choosing.
While Tagovailoa missed 5 1/2 games due to two separate stints in concussion protocol, his play when healthy — plus the forfeiture of one first-rounder — made it easier for Miami to move on from the other in the trade for Chubb.
The Dolphins still could move up or down in this week’s draft, and general manager Chris Grier has said teams with picks in the second half of the first round have reached out asking if Miami is interested in a move back into the first round Thursday night.
Grier often sticks to a best-player-available approach in the draft, but if he focuses more on need, he could opt to bring in whoever’s available between such options as Alabama running back Jahmyr Gibbs, Georgia tight end Darnell Washington, Iowa tight end Sam LaPorta, TCU offensive lineman Steve Avila or any of a number of other offensive tackle or defensive line options.
