Where Does Dolphins GM Chris Grier Rank Among His Peers?
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The Miami Dolphins have put together three consecutive winning seasons, ended their playoff drought in 2022, and have the makings of a team capable of a deep postseason run in the upcoming season, so General Manager Chris Grier obviously has done some good things.
But so have other GMs around the NFL, and that was reflected in a ranking of those decision-makers put together by NFL.com.
Wrote Rosenthal: "The hiring of Mike McDaniel and the acquisition of Tyreek Hill has Grier's roller-coaster tenure in Miami looking up. The top picks of the 2022 draft class were spent in trades, but the 2021 class (Jaylen Waddle, Jaelan Phillips, Jevon Holland) is good enough to make up for that. The Jalen Ramsey trade and David Long signing look like steals, although there are still questions about the offensive line. Grier may have lost valuable draft currency because of Miami's tampering with Tom Brady and Sean Payton, but there's no guarantee he'd still have a job if that plan had somehow come to fruition, with Payton taking over as head coach. So this timeline is working out pretty well for him."
Rosenthal explained in setting up his rankings that the list "attempts to evaluate each current NFL decision maker on how he built his roster for the present and future, with past accomplishments weighed to a lesser extent. Draft record, coach hiring, free agency spending, cap management, trades and even handling of the press were all taken into consideration."
GRIER'S HIGHLIGHT MOVES AS DOLPHINS GM
Grier officially became general manager of the Dolphins in 2016, though exactly when he became the chief decision-maker certainly can be debated — remember that Mike Tannenbaum had the title of executive vice president of football operations from 2015-18 and also remember that Adam Gase said upon being hired by the New York Jets in 2019 that he had been given personnel control by the Dolphins.
That aside, we also would argue that any discussion about Grier's performance absolutely, positively has to include the Laremy Tunsil trade because of all it ended up producing as an offshoot.
And Grier deserves big points there for initially resisting Houston's trade offers until the Texans kept making them better and better until it reach a point where a deal became too good to pass up.
Grier also deserves a lot of credit for what already is a very good 2021 draft class, one that has the potential of becoming an all-timer for the Dolphins.
There's also something to be said for the Hill and Ramsey trades, though it certainly helped that Miami was a preferred destination for both players once the Chiefs and Rams, respectively, made the decision to move them.
With the three straight winning records, Grier clearly has done some things right and his ranking has a chance move up significantly if the Dolphins deliver another playoff season with a playoff win on top of it.
But there can be some discussion about the 2020 draft when the Dolphins had five picks in the first two rounds, and that discussion will turn very negative if Tua Tagovailoa's injury issues flare up again next season and fellow first-round picks Austin Jackson and Noah Igbinoghene continue to fail to perform like first-rounders. And, yes, what happens in Los Angeles with Justin Herbert will be considered because the Dolphins chose Tua over Herbert.
But if Tua continues the progress he showed last year and stays healthy — or at least relatively injury-free — then Jackson and Igbinoghene not living up to their draft status easily could be forgiven.
Bottom line: Grier didn't get any favors in the NFL.com rankings based on the Dolphins' last three seasons (even though, yes, two of them ended without playoffs), but he's looking at some significant moment (up or down) depending on what happens in 2023.
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Alain Poupart has covered the Miami Dolphins on a full-time basis since 1989. You can follow him on Twitter at @PoupartNFL. Feel free to submit questions every week for the All Dolphins mailbag via Twitter or via email at fnalldolphins@yahoo.com.
