Dolphins Mock Draft Roundup: What's The Consensus for Round 1?

Breaking down the multitude of national mock drafts and what they predict for the Miami Dolphins in the first round

The Miami Dolphins are going to go big in the first round of the 2024 NFL draft. At least that appears to be the consensus when it comes to national media mock drafts.

The Dolphins currently are scheduled to make the 21st overall selection, returning to the first round for the first time since 2021, and the overwhelming sentiment is they'll be taking an offensive lineman with that first pick or a defensive lineman.

We examined 32 mock drafts from national media outlets ranging from ESPN to Yahoo.com to Sports Illustrated, and exactly two-thirds predicted the Dolphins' first pick would be a lineman.

BREAKING DOWN THE DOLPHINS MOCK DRAFTS

Offensive linemen accounted for 17 of the 32 first-round Dolphins mock selections, with defensive linemen being the choice seven times.

What's interesting here, though, is that there were seven different offensive linemen projected as going to the Dolphins but only one single, solitary defensive lineman, that being Jer'Zhan Newton from the University of Illinois.

"I feel like the Dolphins are in a less than enviable position of having to draft for immediate needs as they carry the Mike McDaniel experiment into Year 3," SI's Conor Orr wrote in his mock draft. "In a perfect world, they could start to search for ways to diversify the offense with Tyreek Hill starting to approach his mid-30s. But right now, we’re looking at an attempted one-for-one replacement for the departed Christian Wilkins. This defense, on paper, doesn’t look great. And while there aren’t a ton of world-beating backs within the division, Miami can’t afford to keep its high-scoring offense on the sideline for large chunks of a game."

When it comes to offensive linemen, the list of projected new Dolphins included Graham Barton from Duke, Olumuyiwa Fashanu from Penn State, Amarius Mims from Georgia, Troy Fautanu from Washington, J.C. Latham from Alabama, Jackson Powers-Johnson from Oregon, and Taliese Fuaga from Oregon State.

Among those, Barton was the most popular choice with six mentions, followed by Mims with four, Fashanu and Powers-Johnson with two apiece, and Fautanu, Fuaga and Latham with one each.

This was NFL.com analyst Charles Davis' reasoning behind his Barton pick: "Agile physically and mentally, Barton moves from college left tackle to NFL center (he did start five games at the pivot early in his Duke days) and anchors Mike McDaniel's lightning-speed offensive attack."

NON-LINEMAN PROSPECTS MOCKED TO MIAMI

Continuing with the trend of winning in the trenches, the 32 mock drafts surveyed also included six picks for an edge defender.

That included four mentions for Florida State's Jared Verse and two for Laiatu Latu, the Jaelan Phillips comp from UCLA.

The final two mock selections for the Dolphins among our 32 national mock drafts went to cornerback Nate Wiggins from Clemson and Iowa defensive back Cooper DeJean, who played cornerback in college but is projected by many analysts as a safety in the NFL.

Interestingly, not one of the 32 mock drafts we surveyed had a wide receiver pegged for the Dolphins at number 21, though the names of Brian Thomas Jr. from LSU and Xavier Worthy from Texas have been mentioned as possible Miami targets in recent weeks.

Keep in mind there are countless other mock drafts floating around, and they've included projections for the Dolphins ranging from quarterback Michael Penix Jr. to tight end Brock Bowers.

But the wheelhouse certainly seems to center around the offensive or defensive line.