The college football all-star games start this weekend with the East-West Shrine Game kicking off at 4pm Saturday afternoon. There has not been a lot of news out of the Shrine Game this week, with most coverage of the Miami Dolphins focusing on their building of a coaching staff, rather than on their scouting of Draft prospects this early in the offseason. That does not mean the Dolphins are not out there looking at players.
According to NFL.com's Chase Goodbread, the Dolphins have already met with at least two linebacker prospects, spending time with Florida's Anthony Harrell as well as talking with USC's Anthony Sarao.
Harrell is a 6-foot-1, 238 pound red-shirt senior at Florida, primarily working as a reserve linebacker and special teams player for the team. He was a graduate transfer to Florida this year after playing at Georgia Tech for the first part of his college career. He recorded 57 career tackles with one forced fumbles.
Sarao is 6-feet tall, 230 pounds and is considered a very intelligent player, but is probably a 6th or 7th round draft pick at best at this point. He is a high effort player, but may not have the speed to play at the NFL level.
Neither of these players are going to be be dramatic difference makers day one if Miami drafts or signs them as undrafted free agents. The fact that Miami is at least talking to linebackers already could be a sign that they are going to key in on trying to upgrade the position this offseason, and it could mean they are going to be looking for as many options at adding starters and depth players as possible. Both linebackers played at big schools, have experience on defense and special teams, and can likely be grabbed fairly cheaply as the Draft ends or just after the final picks are made.