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Fins: What they want

Wrote a story that appeared in today's paper, about the ways in which the Dolphins under Bill Parcells and Jeff Ireland will shrink their draft board. They will have roughly 100 to 120 players on that board, when more than 250 will be picked. And they don't traditionally deviate from their list.

To summarize:

-- They like captains, because it is one way to assess leadership ability. In 2005, six of their eight selections were collegiate captains.

-- They have size requirements for every position. If they had been selecting last season, I doubt that Ted Ginn Jr. or John Beck would have been Dolphins.

-- They put a premium on fit. They did not have Jon Beason high on their board last year, even though they liked him as a player, because they didn't see him as a good fit for their scheme.

-- They don't just put alerts on injury risks. They often take them completely off the board.

-- They prefer tested players from big schools. In 2005 and 2006, 12 of their 16 picks came from schools like LSU, Ohio State, Tennessee, etc. But they will make exceptions: DeMarcus Ware came from Troy. It should be noted that Parcells strongly considered taking Marcus Spears before Ware, and ended up getting both. Spears is OK. Ware is great.

-- They are wary of one-year wonders, assessing productivity over two or three year period. 

-- In the late rounds and college free agency, they look for a player who has at least one above-average skill, and hope that the player can stick around along enough to develop others. They took Patrick Crayton late because of his hands.

> Posted by Ethan J. Skolnick at 2:31:24 PM

I like this.  Instead of the more risky "gut feeling" they are more driven by facts and history.  I prefer this method than some arrogant "genius" thinking he knows football inside and out.

Doesn't that take Henne completely off the board for the top of the second?

For the record, I think Henne's going to be at least a solid NFL quarterback. From everything I've seen and read, the kid has what it takes to succeed at the next level.

Maybe they are talking about players that continually get hurt. As far as I recall, Henne played injury free for three years and only suffered an injury his senior year.

I don't know if Parcells wouldn't really be the one driving gut feelings into the selection, that is compared to Saban for example. I think Saint Nick actually had a pretty decent evaluation process, and probably Cam Cam was sort of a backslider for all you Fin fans.