Miami já sabe quem vai escolher no draft.

FINS’ DRAFT BOARD IS SET
Posted by Mike Florio on March 31, 2008, 10:13 p.m.

There’s an interesting item from Armando Salguero in his Miami Herald blog (i.e., the place where he posts all the crap that isn’t good enough for the fish wrap).

The Miami Dolphins, per Salguero, locked in their draft board last week. Thus, if they don’t trade out of the top spot in the draft, they know the name of the player whom they’ll pick, if they don’t trade down.

But that doesn’t mean that they’ll ultimately pick the person currently at the top of the board. The next step for the Fins presumably will be to launch contract negotiations with the first two or three players on their board, in the hopes of working out in advance of the draft a contract with the man who’ll be the No. 1 overall selection.

In such circumstances, it’s possible that the Fins would move on to the player currently at No. 2 or No. 3, if that guy will take a deal that the team regards as sufficiently favorable.

Last year, the Oakland Raiders didn’t do that with quarterback JaMarcus Russell, and as a result didn’t sign him until September. And there were strong rumors in April that the Raiders had made a lowball (as No. 1 overall picks go) for Brady Quinn.

In hindsight, accepting a lowball offer to be the No. 1 overall pick would have been a far more desirable outcome for Quinn, who plunged past No. 20 and will only play in 2008 if one or more pieces of Derek Anderson’s body parts tear, break, and/or shatter.

FINS TO KEEP NO. 1 PICK
Posted by Mike Florio on April 1, 2008, 9:40 a.m.

Miami Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga has acknowledged the obvious: No one wants to trade for the No. 1 overall pick in the draft.

More accurately, no one wants to have the No. 1 overall pick.

Why would they? There’s no clear-cut, must-have, football stud in this year’s draft. And so the team with the first shot at the board will get to pay $35 million or so guaranteed to a guy who hasn’t worn an NFL uniform since he was five.

And so Huizenga also has declared that he’s willing to pay to one of those unproven (and arguably undeserving) former college players a huge pile of money based only on their potential. What else can he do?

But he realizes the risk. “[I]t’s important not to make a mistake [because] it could screw up your whole program,” Huizenga said.

Um, Mr. Huizenga? The program is already screwed up. But we get your point.

”It is tough when you take a talented player who has never been in the NFL and give him a bunch of signing bonuses and a guaranteed contract and huge dollars,” Huizenga said. “If you pay $35 million to a person who does not work out, you are stuck with that for five or six years, which means you can’t get rid of them — which means someone else could be there taking the money. We always pay to the cap. We’re not trying to save money. It’s a matter of being prudent in putting money in the right place.”

We agree with him completely, and his comments are further evidence of a clear need to change the system that the NFL has in place to compensate rookies.