By Any Measure, Waddle At Six Is A Disaster

Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty ImagesSo, how many different ways did Miami Dolphins GM Chris Grier manage to screw up the team’s first pick in the 2021 draft, which was sixth overall? Well, for starters, right out of the box, he broke one of the oldest and truest roles of drafting players in the first round, by selecting a wide receiver. This unwritten but irrefutable axiom is both true and provable for two reasons: first, year in and year out, there are, by far, more players performing at a high level at that position than any other in football. To make matters worse, Waddle would almost certainly have been available at the twelfth pick, and certainly at ten. If Grier had to have the Alabama WR so badly, why couldn’t he have traded up from 18, rather than reaching for him at six? Then, he could have had a player actually worth taking at six, which Waddle most assuredly wasn’t.

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