Why the Dolphins Were So High on Rodriguez

The name Zach Thomas never came up when Miami Dolphins assistant general manager Kyle Smith spoke about Jacob Rodriguez after the team made him its second-round selection in the 2026 draft Friday night.

He didn't need to.

It's too obvious.

And, no, nobody is saying that Rodriguez will become the same kind of defensive star that Thomas was on his way to the Hall of Fame, but the similarities also are impossible to ignore.

And it goes way beyond playmaking ability and the fact both attended Texas Tech. Rodriguez brings to the Dolphins a lot of the same intangibles that Thomas did as a fifth-round pick in 1996 that head coach Jimmy Johnson noticed quickly enough that he made Thomas as a starter early in his rookie camp.

Rodriguez is a superior athlete with better size than Thomas was 30 years ago, though again nobody should put the pressure of those kind of expectations on him.

That said, the Dolphins have very high hopes for him.

WHY THE DOLPHINS LOVED RODRIGUEZ

After rumors that they might look to trade up in the second round, the Dolphins ended up staying put at number 43 overall, taking Rodriguez at that spot.

"Yeah, we're buzzing in there, in the room," Dolphins assistant GM Kyle Smith said after the pick. "Jacob is a guy we we've coveted it for a long time. (GM) Jon-Eric (Sullivan) has talked about good football players and bringing good football players in. Jacob is one of those guys, that flag bearer captain, going to walk in day one and be that type of guy, takes the ball away, run game, pass game, three-down player, go down the list of every single attribute that you want an inside backer, that's what this guy is."

Asked to run down a list of Rodriguez attributes, Smith basically listed everything.

"I mean, he hits all the marks," Smith said. "Through the evaluation process, obviously it starts with the tape. Tape screams to a guy that's just a good football player. He's physical. He's tough. At the inside linebacker position in today's game, you want to see guys that can play on third down. And obviously, with his production, he proves that. He's a blitzer, he's coverage, it's forced fumbles, it's PBUs, it's interceptions. He does it all. And then on top of that, from a skill set you put you throw in the intangibles, and it's through the roof. Like I said, this guy's a flag bearer. He's a captain, and we expect, in short order, he's going to do the same thing here, and he's one of those guys going to earn the respect pretty quickly."

Taken where he was in the draft, the immediate expectation is that Rodriguez will be in the starting lineup as a rookie, where he will team with yet another Texas Tech alum, Jordyn Brooks.

Rodriguez's stellar instincts come in part from his time as a quarterback and offensive player before he transitioned to defense.

It has produced, as Smith called it, great "spatial awareness" and leads to takeaways, which became Rodriguez's calling card at Texas Tech.

"Yeah, I think he just sees the game," Smith said. "Whenever you get guys like that, you see it, sometimes safeties, similar when they played wideout. And you see the game from the other side of the ball. And I think from a quarterback perspective, you're learning what the defense is doing to you, know what I mean to affect you, and then you understand what you're trying to do to affect the defense. Now, you flip it around, and he knows automatically. Going through reads and where your eyes are, and so he affects the game that way. He kind of sees, and you feel it in his tape. It looks like he's not running sometimes because he's already there. He's a step ahead. And that's going to take time at our level. The game is different game, different speed. But I think in short order, he's going to figure that out pretty quick."

Add us as a preferred source on Google