the Miami Sports Dude

This draft will always be remembered for the Dolphins passing over Brady Quinn. In future draft broadcasts, when they show those past draft montages, the first clip of 2007 that they’ll show is commissioner Goodell saying “With the 9th pick of the 2007 NFL Draft, the Miami Dolphins select Ted Ginn Jr …” Quinn uttering, “That’s surprising” under his breath and Chris Berman making some kind of hippopotamus mating sound as he expresses his shock.

This draft will make or break Cam Cameron and Randy Mueller’s tenure with the Miami Dolphins. This draft will either get us where we want to go, or set us back another decade.

In ten plus years, passing on Quinn will either have people calling Mueller and Cameron geniuses, ala Scott Pioli and his drafting backup Michigan QB Tom Brady in the 6th round of the 2000 draft … or they’ll be calling it our Sam Bowie moment.

Fair or not, Ted Ginn Jr. will always be compared to Brady Quinn, even though they don’t even play the same position. And if QB John Beck doesn’t pan out and he becomes the next Jim Druckenmiller, the fans and media will always look back and say, “We coulda had Brady Quinn” just before setting torches to the practice bubble in Davie.

I’ll say one thing about Mueller and Cameron: they have balls the size of the Goodyear airships that fly over Dolphin Stadium during every game.

No matter what happens, this draft will never be looked at as trite. Not for the Dolphins. It will always be looked at as the draft where we had Quinn delivered to our door step and we refused to sign for the package. If Quinn goes on to have a Hall of Fame career while Ginn and/or Beck turn out to be just average or worse, 2007 will be the defining moment for this franchise in the new millennium. If this draft class doesn't pan out, these Dolphins will fall from the NFL's summit of “franchises with rich tradition” like the Cowboys, Redskins, Steelers and Packers and will be hurled into the pile of refuse of incompetent perpetual losers like the Cardinals and Lions.

So grading this Dolphins draft class can’t really be done today.

Check back in 3 to 5 years. Where we’ll either be looked at with envy, like we all do with New England. Or we’ll be the laughing stock of the NFL for years to come.

Cam, Randy … you better know what the hell you’re doing!

But for now, I’ll give this Dolphins draft a grade of C.

(C is good. I was a C student and look how I turned out!)