Top Target Emerging for Dolphins?

The Miami Dolphins have a lot of needs they could fill with the 13th overall selection in the 2025 NFL draft

Miami Dolphins GM Chris Grier | Alain Poupart/Miami Dolphins On SI

The Miami Dolphins have enough needs heading into the 2025 NFL draft that they could go in a variety of directions with their first-round picks.

That's been evident from the large numbers of players who have been connected with them in various mock drafts.

But new reporting from Sports Illustrated NFL writer Albert Breer suggests they might be enamored with a top prospect besides the most popular mock projections like Will Johnson, Jahdae Barron or Kelvin Banks Jr.

That player is Kenneth Grant from Michigan.

"The Dolphins have a lot of needs, and have the look of a team in the midst of a soft reset," Breer wrote. "One area where rival teams have seen Miami doing a lot of work is with the interior defensive linemen, and one name in particular that’s come up for them is Michigan’s mountain of a DT Kenneth Grant. He’s another one you might not see this high in a lot of mock drafts, but is part of the next group after his ex-teammate Graham at the position, along with Nolen and Oregon DT Derrick Harmon."

As Breer described, Grant is a very large defensive lineman, but he moves like someone much smaller, which makes him one of the most intriguing prospects in the draft.

Grant's athletic skills alone would make him a potential top 10 pick, but he was a full-time starter at Michigan for only one season and has been knocked for being inconsistent. Because of those two factors, some projections have Grant lasting deep into the first round and his selection no doubt would raise eyebrows at number 13.

This is where perhaps the idea of the Dolphins trading down a few spots to pick up an additional pick in the first half of the draft and still get Grant could make sense, though we wouldn't discount the possibility of him being taken at 13.

The reason, again, is that big guys like that just aren't supposed to move that well. One best-case scenario had Grant becoming somebody like Dexter Lawrence of the New York Giants.

This was the comment from the NFC area scout to NFL.com on Grant's draft profile page: “He was a little inconsistent on tape (in 2024), but he’s going to be a freaky tester and guys with that size and those numbers are really hard to find.”

THE DEFENSIVE TACKLE NEED

Grant certainly would fill a big need for the Dolphins, who have very little on the defensive line besides Zach Sieler.

The Dolphins also might be influenced by their success the last time they took a defensive tackle in first round, which happened in 2019 when they selected Christian Wilkins — with the 13th overall pick.

If the Dolphins go another route in Round 1, such as taking a cornerback like Barron or Johnson or an offensive lineman like Banks, they would take the chance on missing out on a high-end D-tackle because Nolen and Harmon both are projected as first-round picks after top 10 likelihood Mason Graham.