Rookies: A Little Perspective, Draft Grades, and "Impact Scores."

The #1 problem with rookies in the NFL, is that out of the gate, their expectations are far too high. Sure you will get the rare Jake Long or Adrian Peterson who comes in and makes an immediate, huge impact, but the majority of rookies must be developed into NFL players. Good examples of this for the Dolphins are players like Koa Misi, Vontae Davis, and Sean Smith. Vontae and Sean were ok their first season, did much better last season, and are poised to be one of the best corner tandems in the league this coming season. Koa did ok his first season, is poised to do much better this season, etc.

So in addition to my Grades, each position is going to get an addition score that I call my "Impact Score." On a scale of 1-10 this score measures how quickly I think this player can make an impact for the Dolphins. A 10 is a player who I think can make an "Adrian Peterson" impact in his first year, 9 is someone who can make the Pro Bowl first year, 7 or 8 is someone who can start immediately and be a solid player, 5 to 6 is someone who can start if we don't have better options but is better suited for a backup, 3 to 4 is a developmental player with potential to start in the future, and 2 is a practice squad and 1 is "WTF were we thinking?" player.

Another issue with the game of football in general that people tend to forget, is that the success of any one player is highly predicated on the supporting cast he has around him. With the exception of Barry Sanders, I think you would be hard pressed to name many Running Backs who excelled with bad offensive lines. I feel like the biggest reason high-first round QB picks fail is because the majority of the time they are going to teams with poor defensive lines, poor rushing attacks, and mediocre receivers, and are immediately expected to turn the team around. That's like asking somebody to build a house with these:

I've said in on this site a hundred times before, I am a believer in Chad Henne. I'll be honest, when we first drafted him I wasn't too high on him, but I've watched him grow and improve over the years, and now I believe.

I blame the majority of last season's lack of production on O-line injuries and a complete lack of running game production. I'm not sure what happened to Ricky and Ronnie last year, and some of their troubles may also be attributed to the offensive line, but they sucked. Sure their average yardage of 3.7 and 4.5 is about in the right range and all that, but it seemed like every time we needed them to make a play - they never could. Couldn't get first downs, couldn't get into the endzone, couldn't turn a second and long into a third and short, they just lost that "playmaker" feel completely.

I do feel like if we put all the right tools in Chad Henne's hands, then this could be a terrific football team.

So with that all said, what my take on the picks for the 2011 Draft Class?

Round 1, Pick #15 - Mike Pouncey. (Disclaimer: I'm a Gator Fan.)

Grade: B+ Impact Score: 9

I think Mike Pouncey is a very good Guard. While next to his brother Maurkice at Florida when Maurkice was the center, they were a great tandem, but once Mike was moved to Center.... ouch. He can't snap. I don't like his snapping motion and accuracy at all, and I feel like when he was required to start snapping he completely lost his explosion on the line. My brother played Center from the time he was 7 years old, through middle school, high school, and 2 years of college. In that entire time, he had 2 botched snaps. Mike Pouncey has 13 in one game, and consistently had between 2 and 4 per game for the rest of the season. On average you only get around 55 offensive snaps per game, if you are right off the bat ruining 7.2% of those chances, then you aren't going to be a very good football team. In addition, the Center knows when the ball is going to be snapped, so he should be the most explosive off the ball. Watch some of his tape from last season, and you'll notice that he is often the last offensive player to "pop-up," most centers should be the first.

However, when he isn't playing Center, Mike is an explosive, very strong, very agile Guard, and has the potential to Pro Bowl in his first season. Just putting him at Center completely wastes his potential in my opinion. Between this addition and injuries from last season clearing up, I feel like we will have a very good O-line this season.

Round 2, Pick #30 - Daniel Thomas

Grade: C Impact Score: 6

My jury is still out on this kid. He looks ok. I can definitely see the knocks against him in that he runs a little too upright, seems a little too stiff, doesn't have great vision, and has some ball control issues. But I can also see flashes of explosiveness and a good combination of size, speed, and power. I feel like he is going to very much fall into the "it depends on his supporting cast" category because if he does have a good offensive line in front of him, and Daboll uses him correctly, a "one-cut" runner as Matty described him can be dangerous. Just look at Denver, Mike Shanahan made a million "one-cut" runners look like super-stars.

Round 4, Pick #14 - Edmund Gates.

Grade: A Impact Score: 7

I love this kid. First off he was a huge steal for us for him to fall this low. Second he has blazing-fast football speed. The term "football speed" is important here because that is how he looks on the field in full pads. How many guys have we seen turn in sub 4.40 40-yard dashes at the combine and that speed doesn't translate to the field? Watching this guy on tape he just made it look easy, corners had to play 5-7 yards off of him because they were so afraid of his speed, and when they backed off enough, the team just threw a screen to him for an easy 5 yards. He is exactly the kind of weapon we needed on our offense, and this is a terrific pick. Yes, he is still very raw in terms of routes, and I'm not terribly impressed with his intelligence, so I don't see him becoming a super star, but he should greatly help our offense if he can fill the role he is intended for.

Round 6, Pick #9 - Charles Clay.

Grade: D Impact Score: 2

I'm not impressed. At all. This is one of those guys that if you watch only his highlight tapes then he looks amazing, but then you look at the rest of the game and he's ehhhhhhh. I watched a few of his games and he is very much the kind of guy that doesn't try very hard if he isn't getting the ball. His blocking is lazy and lackadaisical, he frequently gets confused by blitz, he doesn't "sell" the fakes at all, he doesn't play to the snap, and he generally just looks "lost" on the field quite often to me. People keep talking about him as a "H-back" or a "mismatch TE," but to play in either one of those positions you have to be just as good of an actor as you are a player, and I just don't see that in him...... at all. I see a "me first" player who won't be on the team in 3 seasons. The only reason this grade isn't an F is because it was the 6th round.

Round 7, Pick #28 - Frank Kearse.

Grade: B Impact Score: 4

This grading gets a B just because it was the 7th round, and I feel like we got a decent value for where he landed. He has very good size and performed well, and has the frame and build to be a good player if he has the attitude and work ethic to achieve it. Being named to the second-team all-SWAC is ok, but if a player is coming from a small conference, you would hope he would be dominating it to play at the NFL level. Developmental pick for sure, and likely to end up on the practice squad, but with decent potential if he wants it bad enough.

Round 7, Pick #32 - Jimmy Wilson.

Grade: B+ Impact Score: 6

At the very least this kid will be an outstanding special teams player and will add some depth at CB as the #4 or #5. That kind of value in the 7th round is incredible. He has the skills and potential to be a solid CB, but fell pretty far due to his "character concerns." I've read a lot about this kid and I really do believe that it was in self-defense, and I feel like the kid really does have a good character. Even if he doesn't work out though, it's not that bad of a waste because it was a 7th round pick. Win/Win for the Dolphins.

Overall: B.

I think we filled some positions on offense that we desperately needed with Pouncey and Gates, got some good value in Kearse and Wilson, and got someone who could be a serviceable back in the right circumstances with Daniel Thomas. If all works out as planned, this really was a terrific draft and is really going to help Chad Henne succeed in the future. I just hope the FO proves me wrong with Clay.