2019 NFL Draft: Should the Dolphins select a QB in 1st round?

The Miami Dolphins have been shut out of the QB market in free agency and may have no choice but to turn to the 2019 NFL draft to find their short- and long-term answer at the position.

The Miami Dolphins are in quite the quarterback quandary. The Ryan Tannehill era is obviously over, and their attempt to land free agent Teddy Bridgewater fell short; Bridgewater re-signed with the New Orleans Saints on a one-year deal Thursday.

With Bridgewater off the market, Nick Foles settled in with the Jaguars and Tyrod Taylor signing with the Chargers to be Philip Rivers’ backup, there aren’t many options left in free agency who the Dolphins could possibly feel confident in as a potential long-term option under center.

In fact, who the heck is going to start in Miami in 2019? Luke Falk?

The “best” veteran options still on the market include Blake Bortles, Ryan Fitzpatrick and A.J. McCarron. There’s always that Mark Sanchez guy, too.

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Look, it’s painfully obvious the Dolphins are in full rebuild mode. And that’s OK. New coach Brian Flores will be given plenty of time to right the ship in South Beach and even though the players may not want to hear this, next season is already a lost cause.

But that doesn’t mean Miami should pass on a quarterback in the first round of the 2019 NFL draft simply because the short-term outlook isn’t great. The real question the Dolphins have to answer is whether there’s a quarterback graded high enough to justify using the 13th overall pick on him.

Here’s what we know about this year’s quarterback class:

1. Kyler Murray will be off the board before Miami’s first-round pick. He has a really good shot at being the first player drafted, and if the Dolphins identify him as a must-have franchise passer, they’ll have to make an aggressive — really aggressive — trade to move up to the top pick. And that isn’t going to happen.

2. Dwayne Haskins is the next-best option in this year’s class, but it’s not by a wide margin. The gap between Haskins, Drew Lock and Daniel Jones is closer than a lot of analysts are projecting right now and even if Haskins is projected to come off the board before Miami’s selection, they don’t have to feel desperate to move up for him. In fact, and as bizarre as this might sound, there’s a chance all three quarterbacks will still available when Miami picks. And if that happens, the pressure’s on.

3. The 2020 quarterback class is expected to have several prospects who could end up grading higher than any passer available this year. And if the Dolphins are really committed to blowing things up in Year 1 of the rebuild, they may want to hold off on investing in a quarterback in this year’s first round in order to avoid the same fate the Cardinals are facing with Josh Rosen (and Murray).

Dolphins fans should be excited about the direction the team is going in with Flores at the helm, but they also need to prepare themselves for a bumpy ride at the game’s most important position. It can take years to find the right guy, and in the case of a team in phase one of a rebuild, it may be wiser to go through a series of veteran retreads before investing a critical draft asset in a quarterback simply because one is available.

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