Riley Reiff to Dolphins at No. 8? Are you kidding?

Riley Reiff is a good football player, OK? I have nothing against the offensive tackle from the University of Iowa. I have watched a couple of games in which he has played and he's always performed well enough.

And that, coupled with his size and ability and smarts, is a reason he's considered a top of the first round type of talent. But to the Dolphins? Are you kidding me?

God, I hope not.

Seems Reiff to the Dolphins is a popular stream of thought among NFL draft analysts. ESPN's Mel Kiper penciled Reiff to Miami in his first and only (so far) mock draft. NFL Network talent analyst Bucky Brooks similarly has Reiff going to the Dolphins with the eighth overall selection. And NFL Network reporter Steve Wyche has the Dolphins picking Reiff as well.

I get it.

Reiff is an offensive tackle. He's perfect for the Dolphins to fill the void at right tackle -- even though he played left tackle at Iowa. And, of course, his connections to Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz makes him a natural for the Dolphins because Miami coaches Joe Philbin and Mike Sherman know and respect Ferentz and value his players.

But ...

Riley Reiff, for all his attributes and gifts and the logic of filling an obvious void, would be a terrible pick for the Dolphins at No. 8. Why?

Value.

There is simply not a great deal of value of picking a right tackle in the top 10 selections of the draft. No, there's no rule that says this is a fact. No, there's no philosophy or statistic that has proven this to be the case. But work with me for a second and let me state my case ...

{UPDATE: Since posting this, I got a call from an NFL scout who reads the blog and he told me he has Reiff as a guard. And he said he's not alone in the thinking. So there's that.]

The draft is not only picking the right players, but also getting them in the right round to maximize their value. And in the top 10 a team with so many needs as Miami has should not be investing on a player that neither will score points, nor prevent points from being scored. The offensive right tackle will never, not even on his best day, throw a TD pass, or intercept a pass, or sack the quarterback, strip him of the ball and run it in for a TD. He will never make a game-changing play.

And that game-changer is the only kind of player that brings value to a team in the top 10 picks.

Said another way, I want my team to pick a quarterback, a cornerback, a wide receiver, a 3-4 OLB or 4-3 DE. I want playmakers drafted in the top 10.

I do not want grunts.

Grunts are wonderful additions later.

Why?

Because grunts don't lead a team to the playoffs or the Super Bowl. Playmakers lead teams to the playoffs or the Super Bowl.

That doesn't mean I am against drafting offensive linemen later in the first round or anytime after that. And some special offensive linemen deserve top 10 consideration depending on a team's relative needs and whether the player is a left tackle or center.

But a right tackle? Or a guard?

In the top 10?

Quick, who was Green Bay's right tackle this year while they went 15-1? Quick, who was the last right tackle to be named NFL MVP or even his own team's MVP?

Yeah, thought so.

A top 10 pick is a premium, premium draft choice. It should be used to select premium, premium NFL playmakers.

And right tackles, no matter how gifted, do not qualify. Reiff, by the way, is No. 77 in the video below.

Comments

[Phins78]

David Lee Roth is why Van Halen doesn't get more respect. If Eddie and his brother had found a singer that could actually sing there's no telling what the band may have been like or how the sound would have changed. Say what you want about Eddie Van Halen but much like Hendrix, Eddie had his own style and revolutionized how electric guitar was played. Hes the father of the hammer on pull off sliding solos. He copied no one but many copied him and that is the mark of a musician who deserves respect. You don't have to like what he did but you do have to respect it.

[Hiram]

odinseye

if you pay 1 dollar for a 1 dollar that leaves you with 1 dollar, net change? 0

if you pay 2 bucks for 1 buck, net change? 1

if you pay 3 bucks for 1 buck, net change? 2

HOWEVER....we traded not 3 equal picks, we traded 3 lesser value picks for a higher value pick, so the real net value change is almost a wash. You can say it cost 2 picks, but you can't say it cost 3 picks.

[truth]

Mark you are way stupider than I thought. Also you are too young to be on the internet if you like Foo pop music over Nirvana. Regarding life, you just don't get it.

Love Dave, by the way, but foo music sucks.

[GetAClue]

Newsflash.

Manning will not sign with Miami.
Flynn will not sign with Miami.
Miami will not trade up for RG3.

Henne will start elsewhere.
Moore is a career backup.
Miami will have a losing season.

[The Crusher]

hey truth i just googled "Dinosaur Jr Live in the Middle East" and listened to the 5:16 long song. good stuff. the man definately has some nice chops.i also liked the monster in the beginning. he looks like something out of a jim henson acid trip.

NY"G" @ 2:44 i too just want to see the phins win. a superbowl would be awesome but even deep into the playoffs for a change would be great

[Kris]

NY "G"....

Its all good....I'm just glad your slowly getting on the Manning train.....

I don't know if most on here realize it....but Manning to Miami is probably gonna happen....so as I used to say....in the words of Ric FLAIR......

YOU DON'T GOTTA LIKE IT....BUT YOU HAD BETTER LEARN TO LOVE IT....WHOOOOOO!!!!!

[Professor Lou]

I was just reading FinsNation and they are convinced that Manning will be playing for Miami this year. It appears a reporter from 640 sports tweeted from the combine Manning only wants to play in either of two places: Indy and Miami. He doesn't want to play anywhere else.
It'll be interesting to see how true this is when he's released and the money starts flying around.

[odinseye]

get your phones out,smoke some of odins sweat leaf and listen to eruption @ 11

Posted by: The Crusher | March 02, 2012 at 02:06 PM

I have to agree with Crusher AGAIN! Sweet Leaf is a Classic for the AGES!

Crusher, a cool story on Eddie VanHalen. After the sucess of their 1st album, a lot of critics(the ignorant ones anyway)were saying Eddie's Guitar playing was more the product of electronics than skill.

So, the first cut on their 2nd album is an instrumental. It's Eddie, an accoustic guitar and a microphone. No electronic effects.

The name of the intrumental is "Spanish Fly". Check it out if you're not already familiar with it. I SWEAR! When you listen to it, you can smell the accoustic starting to catch fire!

[orenthal james]

Man, what a collection of mental midgets. Is the Sun-Sentinel blog just as bad?

[truth]

One baby, to another, said, "I'm lucky to have met you!"

"I don't care what you think, unless it is about me."

"It is now my duty to completely drain you."

"I travel through a tube, and end up in your infection."

Compare that with Dave's bubble gum pop lyrics:

I'm learning to walk/fly/breath again.
There goes my hero.
Watch him as he goes.
What if I say I'm not like the others?

Gay.

[Timmy]

It is not even the slightest bit difficult to remember to spell Peyton "Peyton."

Unless one is uneducated and never reads anything but spouts off at the lip too much.

[Hiram]

phins

Van Halen was not the father of the hammer, it was around before he was born. With super quality guitars allowing much lower action. it became much easier to do during his time, so he made it more popular with the masses. He invented nothing. He is not musical, just a bunch of fast trash. Jimi was a true pioneer and stylist. Van Halen only influenced metal heads to make more noise and less music. Pyrotechnics should not be confused with music.

[Timmy]

odin, picks always disappear after they are used.

[wolfman13]

PEYTON... Thanks Kris. My spelling mistake which i seem to always do.
Posted by: NY "G" | March 02, 2012 at 02:46 PM

______________________________________________________

LOL....for a second there, I thought we were talking about bringing in the great general.

[Rolling Stone Magazine, Inc.]

Nobody who was there in the early 1990s likes Foo Fighters better than Nirvana. Not one person. Even Dave Grohl likes Nirvana better than Foo Fighters.

This point is not even debtable.

Dave Grohl is one of the greatest rock musicians of all time. But Nirvana > Foo Fighters.

[MJ]

Anyone thinking we didnt give 3 picks for DT needs to put on the Dunce Hat! LOL

[Kris]

LOL @ the Wolfman.....

[Phins78]

Foo Fighters Rule. Their new stuff,,,,,agreed way to much pop. But Nothing to Lose in the 90 s was a rock triumph. The self titled album is heavy,heavy, no pop there and then more recently echoes patience and silence was a guitar masterpiece. Dave Grohl is a more polished musician than Kurt ever could have hoped to be. Kurt was a poet, and very bright individual with tons of ideas and potential but he was lazy due to being an addict.

[The Crusher]

hey odin, i was just listening to "we sold our souls for rock and roll this morning". what a great great cd.sabbath at their best. i had the album when i was a kid and i know if i pulled it out i woud find remnents of sweat leaf in the crease(we used those double albums to clean it in the day).i'm quite sure if we all had some more sweat leaf we woud care a wee bit less about who the next dolphin QB will be. also you sir are absolutely correct. spanish fly is an awesome song by a guitar virtuoso.

[Hiram]

There are 12 year old kids on the streets of spain ripping on the acoustic with far more fire than van halen on spanish fly. It only sounds impressive to some Americans who have extremely narrow musical tastes and don't really know whats out there beyond mainstream crud.

[Hairspray Flamingo]

I'll bet odin looks and dresses like the mother on Bewitched.

[Rolling Stone Magazine, Inc.]

Foo Fighters is bubble gum pop that is more closely related to Christina Aguilera's first hit, "Genie in a Bottle" or Britnes Spears circa 1998 than it is to rock music such as the great Nirvana.

[Rolling Stone Magazine, Inc.]

The greatest solo of all time, however, is Van Halen's contribution to Michael Jackson's "Beat It."

This point is also not debatable.

VH is a great guitarist, for sure.

[Phins78]

Favorite Sabbath album, toss up between Vol.4 and Master of Reality. Funny story about using the album jackets to clean your stuff. Flashed me back to my younger years!

[Gator]

Vick hasn't won squat and neither has any other Quarterblack.

Draft for value at #8 ... if Richardson falls, trade the pick ... if Claiborne falls, draft him and if we are stuck there, take either Ingram or Couples.

[Guy]

You punks dont know anything about rock unless you have listedn to slipknot, now thats a group worh discussing, you freaks and loving Nirvana is nauseating.

[Guy]

Vick went to a cNFC hampionship game, when was the last time the Dolphins were in a AFC championship game gator?

[The Crusher]

hey hiram, i like just about all musical genre's hell my wife even got me to go to a willie nelson concert (i've been to 2 more since & that old fkkr can play !).the thing is these great ones dont get exposed while we get a bunch of crap like american idol,x factor, the voice, any boy band(i think i heard new kids on the block is back...for who? there mothers). but i do agree with you on hendrix. jimi and the beatles are and always will be my all timers

[jeff]

Give me interesting music from Wire, XTC, Husker Du, Replacements, X, early Elvis Costello, etc. before any of the mass-appeal dreck like Van Halen.

I remember the ones who were into that stuff in High School also tended to be the really dense, socially and sexually immature kids.

[Phins78]

Hiram thats ridiculous to say the least. The fact is who gives a f#@k about some kid on the street? We're talking about musicians who have made it in the business aren't we? Come on with that nonsense, ofcourse there are very talented musicians every where. The fact we don't talk about them doesn't make us ignorant it just means we don't know them! And neither do you so why don't you put your foot in the stirup and come down off of your high horse before you get a nose bleed.

[Mark in Toronto]

Hiram, give it up, math is not your strong point. If you use one draft pick to select that player, you are out one draft pick. What don't you get???

Anyway, to the poster who claimed I was too young to know nirvana, know that I was in high school when the Seattle sound hit and I was listening and buying music way before then. There was a lot of good music that came from that scene but Nirvana was not it. Stone temple pilots, Alice in chains, soundgarden, they made kick ass music. Nirvana just gave losers a voice. And man, nirvana gave rise to so many fugly looking chicks at the time.

And phins is right, grohl is a million times the musician Cobain ever was. Foos music is much more diverse and just honestly, its better music for my tastes anyway.

Music is personal and we all listen ti what we like but I own hundreds of CDs and only own one nirvana CD and I'm quite happy with that content. Again, the day Kurt offed himself like the loser he was, it was a great day for music.

[Aunt Fancy of China]

I would like to see Leonard Nimoy's penis.

[NY "G"]

No b astard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb b astard die for his country.

[Kris]

Thats the Patton I thought you were talking about...lol....

[NY "G"]

General Patton if alive today would have made an excellent NFL commissioner or Dolphin GM.

No longer would we see players play and hit and expected to be in the commissioners office the next week to say why he hit so hard and walk out with a fine.

SMASH MOUTH good old fashioned football. The only fines would be if a player hits like a wussy.

No b astard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb b astard die for his country.

[odinseye]

HOWEVER....we traded not 3 equal picks, we traded 3 lesser value picks for a higher value pick, so the real net value change is almost a wash. You can say it cost 2 picks, but you can't say it cost 3 picks.

Posted by: Hiram | March 02, 2012 at 02:49 PM

Ah..........NO!

ROTFLMAO! You can spin it and twist it. You can CHANGE your argument to dollars and/or value. Or you can simply remain in your ignorant bliss. I could give two squats how freaking stoopid you are.

The simple FACT is, we SPENT 3 picks on Thomas.

Case Closed - Conversation OVER!

[NY "G"]

Have fun gents,

I'm out.

[NY "G"]

General Patton's Speech to the Third Army

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uE5UFLoBlBA

[Phins78]

Kurt needed Dave more than Dave needed Kurt. There was never a question as to who the more talented musician was as it is known Dave played guittar,bass,violin,keyboards, and excelled as a drummer.

The lyrics in Smells Like Teen Spirit are mindless ravings of a heroin addict.

And how about Something in the Way? Sounds like it was written by a 5 year old. Or never will anyone forget the genius of "Rape Me". "Iiiimm the only one,,,,iiiiiiiiiimm the only one" over and over until you want to stick the shotgun in your own mouth.

[wolfman13]

In RE to the whole grunge rock thing....I was always more of a Pearl Jam guy. Still really like Pearl Jam.

[oscar canosa]

600-700 strokes? Man, I don't want to kill anybody(myself included).

[Phins78]

There goes my hero is a song about his friend who died from cancer but lived the rest of his days helping others cope with their cancers.

Yeah, how "gay".

Im done in here until the adults come back. See ya

[Kris]

Armando.....

Looks like its TIME for a new post.....

[Hiram]

Phins your argument is senseless. Just because VH made it in the business means nothing at all, not squat. So did dumb joker illiterate rappers make it. So did Lady Gaga, doesn't mean they are great musicians. VH has talent to fly around the fretboard, but he isn't saying anything. If you studied music, he is just flying up and down a bunch of scales with no imagination at all.

You don't know music, you just know 'wow that dude plays fast and he is famous so he must be good.

Typical for most Americans stuck on the narrow options mass media force feeds down your throat.

[oscar canosa]

Spock's little head has pointed ears.

[oscar canosa]

Like a French tickler.

[Guy]

$lipknot!!!!!!

Whhhyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy should i try yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. oooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

[odinseye]

Crusher - Phins 78,

It's hard for me to pick a favorite Black Sabbath Album. At least out of the ones with the original line up(stating the obvious-Duh).

Can you believe Tommy Iommi made all that music with most of his fingertips amputated?

[oscar canosa]

Trade down nothing. Up or death!

[Rolling Stone Magazine, Inc.]

I'm tired of foreign kids born after 1990 trying to tell me something about Nirvana or Kurt Cobain. Aussies and Canadians are disqualified from expressing an opinion. You had to be a United States Citizen teen in the early 1990s to get it. I didn't say "American" because I do realize that Canada is in America.

[oscar canosa]

After taking a course in Classical Music appreciation(which I never understood before), from Bach to Arnold Schoenberg and beyond, I understand it now. I just don't appreciate it.

[odinseye]

Mark,

I know what you mean when you say "Seattle Sound".

But for me, Jimi Hendrix is the Father of Seattle Sound. He is by far the Greatest MUSICIAN to have EVER come out of Seattle.

[Rolling Stone Magazine, Inc.]

phins, Kurt was a musical historian and rape me referenced the famous John Lennon/Beatles line.

You may say I'm a dreamer...but I'm not the only one.

you kids are even stupider than I thought. I should not have brought up music.

I'm out of here because it is frustrating to know that my fellow fins fans are so stupid.

yes dave is great but he was a kid in nirvana--he said it himself

kurt had only been playing guitar for 6 years when nevermind was recorded...he woudl ahve improved too.

also SLTS is an alltime great era song for a reason. it and the video were pure genius

[The Crusher]

soundgarden & stp are both awesome bands. my favorite of the early 90's was rage against the machine. i could not stop listening to their first album when it came out(what better cover for a protest band than the monk self immolating...the ultimate protest against oppression).there 4th album of cover songs was f-in awesome (ghost of tom joad & maggies farm are just flat out heavy)

[Rolling Stone Magazine, Inc.]

Anyone who does not own all 4 of Nirvana's studio albums and listen to each of them at least twice per week is doing himself a severe disservice.

Also get your hands on the live stuff.

Start with Incesticide.

[Mark in Toronto]

For someone disqualified from having an opinion, you sure like responding to mine ...

[Rolling Stone Magazine, Inc.]

agree rage also ruled

[oscar canosa]

When music videos came out in the mid-1970's, I said(that's the end of Music)(for us). Until now, it has been True.

[Rolling Stone Magazine, Inc.]

y'all see the taxslayer.com banner ad at the top of the page? that chick's got a nice set of fun bags.

[Timmy Couch]

Who's getting laid tonight? I am, and my GF is 5'7", 118 pounds, ballet dancer.

#winning