Should taking a cornerback in Round 1 be off the board for the Miami Dolphins?

Perhaps the most significant addition to the Miami Dolphins roster in free agency was that of former Dallas Cowboys cornerback Byron Jones.

It was big enough that the Dolphins made him the highest-paid corner in the NFL, with $46 million fully guarantee in his five-year contract, according to overthecap.com.

The idea is for Jones to team up with Xavien Howard, who emerged as one of the top cornerbacks in the NFL in 2018 before he dealt with knees issue last season.

If Howard can regain his previous form, the Dolphins would have one of the top cornerback duos in the league.

But you need more than two quality corners in today's NFL.

Along with Jones and Howard, the cornerbacks on the Dolphins roster include 2019 starter Nik Needham, Ken Webster, Tae Hayes, Ryan Lewis, Jamal Perry (previously known as Jomal Wiltz), Linden Stephens and Cordrea Tankersley.

That group is young and mostly unproven.

In addition, and equally important, Howard has had two procedures done on the same knee since he joined the Dolphins as a second-round pick in the 2016 draft. That clearly has to be a bit of a concern.

That alone might be enough to entice the Dolphins to think long and hard about taking a cornerback in the first round, even though they have more pressing needs at other positions, such as quarterback, offensive tackle, running back, pass rusher and safety.

Here's another factor to consider: When the New England Patriots won the Super Bowl in 2018 when Dolphins head coach Brian Flores was the de factor defensive coordinator, the defense that shut down the Los Angeles Rams in the big game was built on the strength of the secondary.

That group included Stephon Gilmore, the McCourty twins (Devin and Jason), Patrick Chung and Duron Harmon.

Logic says the Dolphins would look to build their current defense the same way. Already, the two best players on the defense are Jones and Howard. And Eric Rowe was really good at safety last season after he was moved to that position after a difficult start to his season at cornerback.

Given their other priorities, it would be surprising to see the Dolphins taking a cornerback at No. 5 overall, though Jeff Okudah of Ohio State would be awfully tempting if he's available at that spot.

Or maybe the Dolphins would think about using one of the other two first-round picks, at 18 and 26, on one of the other top prospects at the position, such as C.J. Henderson of Florida, Kristian Fulton of LSU or Trevon Diggs of Alabama.

Unless I missed something, none of the mock drafts have the Dolphins taking a cornerback in Round 1. It says here not to dismiss that possibility.