Proctor or Gamble

Proctor or Gamble

When I was growing up, and something bad happened, my mum would always reassure me by saying:

“Don’t worry, darling, you’ll feel better in the morning.”

And she was often right. After all, things don’t always look quite as bad as they do at 2.50 am when your team passes up on a potentially transcendent talent for one of the more polarising, boom or bust prospects in the draft with their first-ever pick as a front office/head coach combination.

And breathe.

Most people were shocked that the Dolphins took Kadyn Proctor 12th overall, dealing down from 11 with the Cowboys, who selected the aforementioned potentially transcendent talent, Caleb Downs, for a pair of 5th-round picks. Albeit I don’t think it can be seen as altogether surprising. Based on what GM Jon-Eric Sullivan has said during his time in Miami, they wanted to build from the inside out, a conceit I have no issue with. Of course, whilst we all thought Chris Grier ignored the offensive line for years, the reality is very different. Chris Grier just chose bad players.

In many ways, this felt more like a Chris Grier pick than one we perhaps expected.

Let’s get Downs out of the way first. For me, he was comfortably the best player in the draft. A force multiplier on the backend who could play multiple roles on a snap-to-snap, drive-to-drive, game-to-game basis. For a position that has taken on the level of importance that it has, you only have to look at the top defenses in the league by EPA per play to see that they all have a player like Downs. Whether that’s Baltimore with Kyle Hamilton, Detroit with Brian Branch, Houston with Jalen Pitre, the Chargers with Derwin James, Arizona with Budda Baker, etc. To me, he’s the archetype of a modern NFL defender, a problem solver, and those players are really rare. And his tape is rare, too. At Ohio State, he had the license to freelance within the structure, but not to the detriment of the defense. He went where his instinct took him, but never hurt the fundamentals of the scheme. That is rare. I sincerely hope for the Dolphins’ sake we don’t look back at those two 5th-round picks as some sort of future quiz question about the players we ended up with when we traded out of the best player in the 2026 Draft.

But, as my mum also used to say: “No point crying over spilt milk.”

I predicted on this very site 48 hours ago that Kadyn Proctor could be the surprise pick in round one because he possesses a lot of traits that Sullivan and the front office admire. He’s a true height/weight/speed guy, a Planet Theory athlete – the idea that there are only so many people on the planet of his natural size. He’s also a career left tackle with no starts at any other position on his resume. But of course, Miami is set at LT with one of the better young prospects in the league in Patrick Paul, who, for the benefit of the hindsight crew, I wasn’t a fan of either when we took him. Suffice to say that he went 40 picks later, and Caleb Downs wasn’t on the board.

But I digress.

Interestingly, Sullivan was unable to answer the very pertinent question about where he saw Proctor playing, saying, in what was a significantly more testy press conference than I suspect he expected, that he was a four-position player. I think in many ways that’s to be applauded. It’s a very Green Bay way of thinking, and if we’re praising the potential versatility of Spencer Fano as I was on Dolphins Talk a few days ago, we have to do the same here.

However, my concerns with that are as follows:

1) Taking a guy 12th overall and moving his entrenched collegiate position is a concern, no matter how you slice it. (He’s clearly not going to play LT in the NFL because Paul’s there).

2) I assume they think he’s going to be the long-term replacement for Austin Jackson, which makes sense. Except that he’s never played the right side, and as we know, shifting sides – opposite foot, opposite hand – can be a significant challenge for some players.

3) He’s clearly starting at LG, allowing them to move Jonah Savaiinaea back to his more natural right-sided position.

4) If they view him as a G long term – which many people and I do – why wouldn’t you take Vega Ioane, who’s just a better player at this point? I understand there are more limits in terms of his positional versatility, but again, I argue that the reason to take a player 12th overall shouldn’t be because you like the fact that he can be versatile.

5) He’s 6’7, and that’s really tall for a guard, especially with a 6’1 inch QB behind.

Make no mistake, Proctor is a fascinating prospect. And it was clear over the last three weeks that his star was in the ascendancy as draft boards were finalized and NFL Insiders reported he could make it all the way into the top ten. But his evaluation was also very difficult. I watched nine games of his over two seasons, and there are some real highs in there. But there are also some bad lows, especially in 2025. His tape was much better in ’24 and although he looked to be playing slimmer in ’25, he came out of the gates really slowly and was abused by FSU edge Mandrell Desir.

I think ultimately he’s probably going to be better suited to G to protect some of his issues in pass protection, unless he loses considerable weight. He clearly has outstanding athleticism for his size but I would certainly argue that he doesn’t have the movement skills of a guy in his 310’s. His testing scores, especially the explosive ones, were outstanding, but I don’t see that manifesting across his tape each game. And that to me is an issue, as is the fact that I rarely saw him use his overwhelming power to his true advantage on a consistent basis. For a 39-game starter in the SEC, I do wonder how many of his issues are solvable when he’s almost 6’7 and 353lbs. And whilst I continually see people describing him as a ‘Dancing Bear’, I’m not always sure that’s a compliment. (Proctor has always been a big human: he weighed 10.4lbs at birth and was wearing size 18 shoes by the time he was a 15-year-old sophomore, although I certainly don’t think he’s fat).

He explodes off the ball, and there are times when he demonstrates an excellent kick slide, jumping out and staying balanced, with really patient hands, displaying good ability to work the edge past the landmark of the QB and around the top of the arc. He also protects his chest really well. But for a man of his size and power, I found it somewhat frustrating that he wasn’t consistently using it. He creates way too many short and soft corners because his initial punch isn’t strong. Against Missouri, he allowed Zion Young – and others – to get the better of him as they attacked that outside shoulder, and he simply couldn’t coordinate body, mind, and feet, and it all collapsed in, struggling to unlock his hips to recover and redirect. Other times, when pressed, he overcompensates to get back in the rep, causing him to get past his landmark and creating opportunities for inside counters, and overall, he’s susceptible to inside moves, in part because he can get so unbalanced.

When he gets his hands on an opponent, he can steer and control because he has outstanding grip strength and torque, and when he wants to use them, when he’s really switched on, there is no doubt about it, he’s an absolute menace to society physically. The hands can be extraordinarily powerful.

In the run game, he can be a monster. He’s a line collapser on down blocks – although he can occasionally lose balance again – but can maul with the best and biggest of them, able to unlock his phenomenal lower body power. On the move, he generally does a solid job, and there are certainly some highlights: against Tennessee, he pulled out on a sweep at the goal line and shoved one defender into another like a bowling ball hitting the pins and taking them both out.

He’s also a baby at just 20, one of the youngest players in the draft, and you hope that he can lock in immediately. There have been significant questions about his weight – he was 400lbs as a freshman – his work ethic, and how he handles himself away from the facility. Patrick Paul had Terron Armstead as a mentor, and Paul, who didn’t have the off-field concerns Proctor has, bought into what the former New Orleans standout was selling. He transformed his body last off-season, and hopes are high he can take the next step up. But he’s going to have to take Proctor under his wing quickly. Miami isn’t the city for guys with weight and work ethic question marks.

I think his ceiling might be Rodger Saffold, one of the most underrated players in the league over the last decade, and if they can get him in between Paul and Aaron Brewer and he’s connected straight away, then he absolutely has Pro Bowl+ potential because the skillset is as enormous as the frame.

But he could also be Mekhi Becton.

Whatever you think about Proctor’s future – and the truth is that none of us know – I found it a fascinating risk proposition from Sullivan. Your first-ever first-round pick is a guy who won’t play his natural position. That’s a bold, bold move for anyone, let alone a first-time GM.

Make no mistake, there are lots of likable things that Kadyn Proctor can bring to Miami, and if he turns into a Peter Skoronski type – who followed the same LT to LG path that Proctor will almost certainly take in year one – then quietly they’ll have a very fine young player. For me personally, what’s most galling is it felt like they had a home run in their hands and they fumbled it. In many ways, Downs is the antithesis of Proctor in approach, a player Hafley will know extremely well via the Ohio State coaches he spent a year working with.

I hope Downs becomes the player I think he is.

I hope Proctor becomes the player Sully thinks he is.

I applaud their mindset, even if I find it harder to applaud the pick. And if he turns into an All-Pro, then maybe mothers really do know best.