Before the season started, I made a suggestion fo a new post series entitled "What if?" It would look at possibilities for this and upcoming seasons topics, and give a hypothetical situation for us to ponder about our team. This is my first post, so please be kind,lol.  Another thing it would look at is the past. This topic will delve into the past a bit and ask the question, What if we would have drafted Matt Ryan instead of Long in that years draft? More after the jump.

In the 2008 NFL draft, Miami made the decision to draft Jake Long with the first overall pick. Passing over then highly touted Matt Ryan. But what if we would have drafted Matt Ryan instead? How would our team look? Would it have made a difference? Who knows? Here is what our draft may have looked like:

Rd 1: Matt Ryan: The QB situation would have been solved with this pick, or it may be debatable due to the fact that at this point, Vernon Carey wouild  still be our LT, so it is hard to fathom that we may have seen Ryan end up like Matthew Stafford at this point.

Rd 2: Brandon Flowers: At this point, our secondary is in need of a complete overhaul. With the top Safety already off the board, we move to pick Flowers, who does nothing for our no existant pass rush, but is likely the best value at this point in a position of need.

Rd 2b: Martellus Bennett: Seeing as we took our QB with the first overall pick, we no longer have a need to draft Henne, so we get our young QB a tight end to grow with, we have now addressed two positions of need, but still no LT, however one that can come in and start at LT immediately is not available to us.

Rd 3: Pat Sims: If only we would have thought this far ahead, we may have seen our defensive tackle that would not have cost us 12.5 million for a sub par performance. If only, but still,we lucked out and got Langford with this pick.

Rd 4: Shawn Murphy: I would not have changed this pick, perhaps not a good candidate to play LT, but after a few years, could possibly have maintained our RT spot and left us without our current problem.

Rd 6: John Sullivan: We did not have a fifth round pick, here we nab a backup center that could fill in i n a pinch

Rd 6b: Tom Santi: We double up on TE's here, and hopefully find a pairing that could give Ryan an opportunity to grow.

Rd 6c: Pierre Garcon: While we cover both tight end spots, we take a flier on a less known speedster to help our team, and allow us to get rid of Ginn the next year.

Rd 7: Chris Horton: With Bell and Wilson at free safety, we draft Bells future replacement.

Without answering our LT need, at least we filled several other positions, but would it be enough? Would we have still had the turnaround and went 11-5? I dont know, but i belive this is what our draft would have looked like. Can you say you would have liked this? Would you have done anything different? Feel free to comment, and tell me what you would have done different.