A Different Way of Looking at the Rookie Struggles

There is no polite way to say this, but the Miami Dolphins' top two picks in the 2025 NFL draft are off to very difficult starts in their rookie season.

And the performances of Kenneth Grant and Jonah Savaiinaea look even worse when you consider the early success of the player selected right after Grant (Indianapolis Colts tight end Tyler Warren) and the next guard picked after Savaiinaea (Tate Ratledge of the Detroit Lions).

Because the Dolphins have stumbled to a 1-5 start in the 2025 regular season and because we live in a microwave society where folks want results right away — if not sooner — the combined performance of Grant and Savaiinaea has drawn a lot of scrutiny.

At a time when the Dolphins and their fans are grasping for anything positive, we come with this important message.

Grant and Savaiinaea are the not the first early draft picks to have a difficult introduction into the NFL. And it's certainly not the first time it's happened with Dolphins draft picks.

And this is where we point out that some of those first- or second-round picks who struggled at the onset of their NFL career went on to become very productive players for the Dolphins.

The bottom line is that not all is lost when it comes to Grant and Savaiinaea, and the Dolphins certainly shouldn't give up this early on either of them.

THE DOLPHINS DRAFT PICK HISTORY

Start by looking at the Dolphins' current roster and the players Miami selected in the first or second round to see what we're talking about.

We can start with 2024 first-round pick Chop Robinson, who was a non-factor in the first half of the season before he really came on. Second-round pick Patrick Paul, meanwhile, spent most of his rookie season learning from veteran left tackle Terron Armstead.

Then go back to the 2021 draft and first-round pick Jaelan Phillips, who had 1.5 sacks and five QB hits in the first six weeks of his rooki season before going on a run of seven sacks and 11 QB hits over the next seven games.

Wide receiver Jaylen Waddle actually had a bit more success early on than his counterparts, though he plays a position where rookies traditionally have more early success. Even then, when Waddle set the NFL rookie record with 104 catches in 2021 after being the sixth overall pick, his top five games in terms of receiving yards came after Week 6.

Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa began his NFL career as a backup to veteran Ryan Fitzpatrick and made his first start in the seventh game after throwing his first pass at the end of a Week 6 victory against the New York Jets.

Austin Jackson, meanwhile, struggled out of the game as the 18th overall pick in that same 2020 draft before landing on injured reserve after four starts.

Before Tagovailoa was selected in 2023, the previous Dolphins draft selected to the Pro Bowl was cornerback Xavien Howard, a second-round pick in the 2016 draft. And at the start of his career, not helped by a minor knee injury in training camp, Howard simply wasn't the Xavien Howard who became one of the top cornerbacks in the NFL.

The same goes for the first-round pick in that 2016 draft, Laremy Tunsil, who was solid but not spectacular at the start of his NFL career when he was used as a guard because of the presence of veteran left tackle Branden Albert on the roster. Tunsil, of course, would go on to become an elite left tackle and be part of one of the biggest trades in Dolphins history.

BIG JUMP FOR THE BIG GUYS

Another factor in judging the early work of early-round picks has to be the position because linemen — offense and defense — do tend to need a bit more seasoning than, say, running backs, wide receivers or cornerbacks.

Think about it, who's the last Dolphins offensive or defensive lineman drafted in the first or second round who was impactful from the start?

Maybe center Mike Pouncey in 2011? If not him, then it would be Jake Long in 2008. But those guys, and tackle Richmond Webb needs to be included here, have been few and far between.

Even Dwight Stephenson didn't make an impact at the start of his career as a second-round pick and he went on to become a Hall of Famer and maybe the greatest center of all time.

Christian Wilkins was solid in the first six games of his NFL career in 2019, though it was easy to lose him in the stench of the team's 0-6 start in the tank/rebuilding year.

And he certainly wasn't anywhere near the player he would become for the Dolphins before he left as a free agent.

The lesson here is simple: As hard as it might be, it's only fair to have some patience with Grant and Savaiinaea in the hope that things will get better, hopefully much better, and sooner rather than later.

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