The Phinsider
The 2025 NFL Draft saw the Miami Dolphins add eight new rookies. ESPN’s Mel Kiper, Jr., was not a fan of what the team did.
The Miami Dolphins’ 2025 NFL Draft included eight picks being made and several trades across the draft order. They landed players who should be day one starters at several areas of need and systematically attacked the draft to ensure they were adding the players they wanted when they wanted.
At the end of the three days of the draft, the Dolphins had added Michigan defensive tackle Kenneth Grant, Arizona guard Jonah Savaiinaea, Maryland defensive tackle Jordan Phillips, Florida cornerback Jason Marshall, Jr., Maryland safety Dante Trader, Jr., Oklahoma State running back Ollie Gordon II, Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers, and Georgia Tech defensive tackle Zeek Biggers. Grant and Savaiinaea should immediately assume a starting role this year, Phillips, Marshall, and Trader could battle their way to the top of the depth chart during the summer, and Gordon, Ewers, and Biggers provide the depth the team needs. Miami also added a 2026 third-round pick during a draft day trade.
It was a solid draft and one the Dolphins clearly wanted to use to bolster size and physicality for this season.
ESPN’s Mel Kiper, Jr., released his immediate draft grades on Sunday morning and he was not a fan of what Miami did. Kiper rated each team’s performance over the last three days by the value they picked based on his “big board” rankings of the prospects. Using his own ranking of the prospects to then assign grades does add some bias into the system, however.
For example, the Cleveland Browns earned an A+ grade for their draft in large part because they selected Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders with the 144th overall pick. Kiper had Sanders listed as his fifth-ranked process. Sanders lasted 144 picks, with every team in the league having numerous chances to pick him, for a reason - but Kiper sees that as a positive 139-position value pick for the Browns, giving them the A+ mark.
But, he has to have some way to provide snap grades, and using his big board as the basis is as effective as any other method when most of the players have not even made it to their team facilities yet.
Kiper’s grades typically range from A+ to C each year, which makes his C+ grade for the Dolphins’ draft a rough one; he only ranked the Atlanta Falcons and Cincinnati Bengals below Miami this year.
He introduced his thinking of the Dolphins’ draft writing:
This is a team in need of a spark, and it was a good year to have a bunch of picks. But then Miami used its first-round pick on ... a nose tackle.
The Browns received an A+ grade, including with a pick of a defensive tackle with their first pick (the trade back factors into that, but it is still a defensive tackle with their opening pick). The Dolphins receive a C+...
