Kelly: Dolphins hope 2025 draftees help team shed soft reputation

Miami Herald

27-04-2025

There's a common thread about the Miami Dolphins' 2025 NFL draft that sews just about every pick together as if it were a quilt being assembled by your grandmother.
There's size. There's power. There's a nastiness that most of Miami's eight draft picks possess.
'We wanted physical, tough kids that loved football,' general manager Chris Grier said.
The Dolphins added three nose tackles, selecting Michigan's Kenneth Grant in the first-round, Maryland's Jordan Phillip in the fifth round, and Georgia Tech's Zeek Biggers in the seventh round, and collecting 3-4 rush stuffers like they were Infinity stones was aimed at helping Miami own the line of scrimmage.
'I go about my business like a grown man and I'm mature enough to do so,' said Phillip, a 20-year-old who is respected as a hard worker, unlike the former Dolphins nose tackle, who coincidentally shares the same name. 'I'm violent, I'm aggressive.'
And that means he fits the theme of what coach Mike McDaniel wanted to achieve in the 2025 NFL draft, transforming the identity of the team he's spent the past three seasons leading.
The Dolphins also added one of the draft's beefiest, and toughest offensive guards, trading up in the second round to select Arizona's Jonah Savaiinaea, a 6-foot-4, 324 pound Polynesian, who will become the personal protector for Tua Tagovailoa, the quarterback he grew up idolizing as a child in Hawaii.
And in the sixth round the Dolphins selected one of the biggest, and toughest tailbacks, Oklahoma State tailback Ollie Gordon II, who was projected as a fourth round pick during the draft process, but slid deep into the third day, possibly because of a DIU arrest he had last summer.
Gordon, the 2023 winner of the Doak Walker Award, which is annually given to the nation's top college tailback, rushed for 2,920 yards in his 537 carries in his three collegiate seasons.
He also caught 80 passes and turned them into 585 yards and scored 40 touchdowns during his collegiate career, where he had a reputation for being a hard-nose runner, a physical back who punishes runner.
'They want to get physical,' former NFL tailback turned NFL Network analyst Maurice Jones-Drew said about the Dolphins after Gordon's selection was announced. 'He's a downhill runner who can catch the ball a little. But he's huge.'
By huge, Jones-Drew is referring to Gordon's 6-foot-2, 225 pound frame, which makes him an inch taller, and 7 pounds lighter than Dolphins fullback Alec Ingold.
'I'm a bruiser. I'm going to run through you. I'm going to make you not want to tackle me,' said Ollie Gordon, who could potentially help the Dolphins end the three-year streak of being the worst short yardage conversion team in the NFL. 'My mindset is you vs. me and I'm banking on me every time.'
That's how dawgs think, talk, and conduct business, and it appears Miami's targeting players who might potentially bite, which would help the Dolphins shed the soft and finesse reputation the team's gained during the McDaniel era.
Between Grant, Phillips, Biggers and Savaiinaea, the Dolphins added more than 1,300 pounds of beef in the trenches, and that should help the Dolphins do a better job winning the battle that takes place in the trenches.
'Setting the pocket for protection is something he is very, very skilled at,' McDaniel said about Savaiinaea, whom the Dolphins gave away a valuable 2025 third-round pick to acquire in a trade that moved Miami up 11 spots. 'The idea of adding not only a fierce competitor, but someone who plays with a tonality of violence and aggression, that's something Chris [Grier] and I talked with length about. How many people can fit that bill?'
Not every selection made Sunday fit the mold. Maryland safety Dante Trader Jr., one of the nation's top lacrosse player, Florida cornerback Jason Marshall Jr., a former five-star recruit who was an inconsistent starter for the Gators, and Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers addressed other roster voids.
And the Dolphins traded away two of the team's better draft picks (a third-round and a fourth-round) to move up for Savaiinaea, and to acquire a 2026 third-round pick from the Houston Texans in a trade Miami dominated according to the trade value chart.
But this meat loaf and mashed potatoes of this draft class makes it clear that McDaniel intends on changing this team's soft identity.
'Everything starts up front,' Grant said. 'If you can't get [things going] up front it's going to be a long day.'
And a long, and painful season, which nobody in the organization can afford.