Blockbuster: Dolphins Get Bounty for No. 3 Pick
The Miami Dolphins pulled off a blockbuster trade Friday when they agreed to send the third overall pick in the 2021 NFL draft to the San Francisco 49ers in exchange for four draft picks.
More significantly, the Dolphins will get first-round picks in 2022 and 2023 in addition to the 49ers' 12th overall selection in 2021, along with a 2022 third-round pick.
The idea of the Dolphins trading out of the third pick made sense all along, given that the Dolphins didn't have a pressing need for a quarterback if they felt comfortable with 2020 first-round selection Tua Tagovailoa.
With four quarterback prospects identified as having franchise-type potential, there figured to be a market for that third overall spot, given the likelihood that the top two picks in the draft will be Trevor Lawrence going to Jacksonville and Zach Wilson going to the New York Jets.
The Jets always could trade the second pick and keep Sam Darnold, but it's financially more sound to give with a rookie quarterback and the presence of GM Joe Douglas, Saleh and offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur at Wilson's Pro Day on Friday seems to indicate that Wilson will be their choice.
With the 12th overall selection, the Dolphins still will be able to land a top prospect with their first of two first-round picks (the second one is the 18th).
It's a borderline amazing haul for the Dolphins, especially when you look back at the 2013 NFL draft when the team holding the 12th pick moved up to third overall.
Yes, that was the draft that involved Miami and Dion Jordan.
While every Dolphins fan bemoans the outcome of that draft because Jordan flopped in Miami, let's not forget that all it cost for the Dolphins to move up those nine spots was a second-round pick that same draft, the 42nd overall.
While there were no elite quarterbacks in that 2013 draft, therefore driving down the price to move up, the contrast is still quite startling.
The Dolphins absolutely made out fabulously with this trade, and we've said all along that the need here was for Miami to maximize the value of that third overall pick.
Mission accomplished.
And then some.
