2027 Dolphins Way-Too-Early Mocks: Clear Favorite Has Emerged

An annual tradition around the NFL at the conclusion of one draft are the obligatory early predictions for the next draft, and so it is that we've already got a collection of 2027 mocks to analyze.

And when it comes to the Miami Dolphins, there's a clear pattern, a common name that has emerged, and that is Ohio State wide receiver Jeremiah Smith.

Of nine national sites that produced a mock over the past two days, five have the Dolphins selecting Smith, who was born in Miami Gardens, home of Hard Rock Stadium.

Texas quarterback Arch Manning was the choice in two of the other mocks, with the last two votes going to Notre Dame cornerback Leonard Moore and Oregon quarterback Dante Moore.

Those mocks use a draft order based on odds for the 2026 season, which not surprisingly projected the Dolphins to have an unsightly won-loss record and end up nowhere near the Super Bowl. The mocks had the Dolphins with the first overall pick twice, the second pick six times, and the third pick once.

THE RATIONALE FOR SMITH AND NOT A QUARTERBACK

The big question in looking ahead and evaluating what the Dolphins might do if they indeed wind up with a very high pick in the 2027 draft is why they wouldn't take a quarterback considering that position is expected to produced a lot of high-end prospects.

And logic says that if the Dolphins indeed wind up having a record bad enough to have the first, second or third overall pick, it very well could mean that free agent Malik Willis didn't have a great first season as the Miami starter and therefore the team should go after a franchise quarterback.

Here's what SI national draft analyst Daniel Flick wrote in explaining his choice of Smith: "If the Dolphins are, in fact, picking No. 2 next spring, it’s fair to wonder what that means for Malik Willis’s first season as the team’s starting quarterback. But Willis is set to earn $21.5 million guaranteed in 2027, and Miami certainly hopes he’ll be its starter at that price. Smith is nothing short of a phenom. At 6- 3 and 223 pounds, he’s big and strong but also fast and fluid in space, and he has tremendous ball skills. Smith would’ve been WR1 in 2026 had he been eligible, and he’ll likely end as the best overall player in 2027."

Dane Brugler of The Athetic offered this rationale in taking Smith at number 2: "This scenario reminds me of the 2004 draft — there were multiple quarterbacks in play at the top, but the Arizona Cardinals stayed put and drafted Larry Fitzgerald. A Miami native, Smith is too special a prospect for the Dolphins (or anyone) to pass on him here."

THE VIEW FROM HERE

Playing along with the idea of the Dolphins having a high pick in the 2027 draft — because, let's face it, the roster still has some clear deficiencies — what would we project from this vantage point?

It should be pretty simple, really, and it will come down to the Dolphins having collected enough data on Willis to make an informed decision on whether he can be their long-term quarterback.

Plain and simple.

If the Dolphins are comfortable that Willis indeed is the guy — and, yes, it's possible that Willis could show he's the answer even with a bad team record in 2026 (see Drake Maye, circa 2024) — then Jeremiah Smith would make sense to a certain degree even that early in the draft because he projects as a wide receiver prospect along the lines of Calvin Johnson, Ja'Marr Chase and the aforementioned Fitzgerald.

If the Dolphins don't have that kind of conviction on Willis after his first year as Dolphins starter or if he gets injured and the sample size becomes too small to make a clear determination, then they absolutely should go the quarterback route.

The only caveat there would be if they end up with, say, the third or fourth pick and the 2027 QB class winds up not anywhere near as good as projected — you know, kind of like what happened this year.

The bottom line is the Dolphins should have their quarterback answer after that 2027 draft at the latest, whether it be Willis or their next first-round pick.

And if it's Willis, then you could sign us up for Jeremiah Smith and we'd be good with that.

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