The Dolphins GM met with the media ahead of next week's draft.
Dolphins General Manager Jon-Eric Sullivan met with the media Wednesday for his pre-draft press conference. The Dolphins have 11 total picks, which is tied for the second-most in this year's draft, with seven of those slated within the first 100 selections. Sullivan spoke about the team's approach to the draft, its outlook and much more.
Miami's offseason program kicked off last week and the building has been abuzz since. The key for Sullivan and the Dolphins will be to mix in the incoming rookie class with the veterans who are already hard at work establishing a standard and culture.
"I can't say enough about the energy this last week. Having the players in the building, the energy and the excitement, the work ethic, those guys have been here getting after it," Sullivan said. "I'm excited about taking these 11 draft picks and throwing them in the equation with what we already have."
Sullivan has made clear his desire to prioritize players who will assimilate to the standard and culture being set by the veterans. That's an essential part of the draft evaluation process, a process that takes Sullivan back to one central concept.
"We're in this thing to draft good football players. That's what wins games, good football players," Sullivan said. "It's great to have a lot of picks, but I'm not going to fall into that trap of trying to be smarter than the process and pass on good players to acquire picks. We've got to get good football players into the equation."
A key part of that process is evaluation. Sullivan emphasized the importance of weighing numerous factors when assessing a player, but it all comes back to one thing.
"[It's] the film. They've got to be able to play. The film will talk to you and the film doesn't lie," Sullivan said. "Typically if guys show up week-in and week-out, certainly against the better competition and they play well, that's a telltale of what you're buying.
"But then the other layers come in. How do they compete? How do they carry themselves … What are their metrics? This game is played by men with certain traits – height, weight, speed, all that comes into play. Sometimes you run into where guys are really good football players at the college level, but they don't have the traits, the physical traits, to do the same to play at the same level here. So you have to take all that into the equation and make a responsible, educated decision based on the information that you have."
This will be Sullivan's first draft as general manager, just as it'll be the first go-round for Jeff Hafley as an NFL head coach. The two have spoken about alignment since their arrival in South Florida, and their shared vision and collaboration are already bearing fruit.
"We're tight as ever, thick as thieves. We're in lockstep," Sullivan said. "The cool part for me is if we're watching offensive guys and he's a defensive guy, I'll ask him or sometimes he just offers it up like, 'Hey, this guy wouldn't scare me. If I'm game planning against this guy, I'm not worried about taking him out,' and that's valuable for me to hear."
The energy Sullivan referenced extends beyond the locker room. The new GM has been transparent about the process and the long-term vision, and despite the challenges, the Dolphins believe competition and collective motivation can give them an edge in the long run.
"You've heard me say a thousand times over again, we're going to be a draft and develop team," Sullivan said. "I think any time you can accumulate as many picks as you like – we walked into this thing, we had 30-plus UFAs. It was a unique situation, and we won't be like that every year, but we had to go sign a bunch of guys on one-year deals, minimum contracts. … we've got a lot of guys, veterans, that feel like they're better than the deal they signed, which is good. They're chasing something, they're chasing the carrot and I'm good with that. Then we're going to dump these 11 rookies in here and an undrafted free agency class and they've got something to prove. You've got a first-year GM who hasn't done anything in this league and a head coach who is the same. We're all chasing this thing together, and I think that can be dangerous in a good way."
You can find Jon-Eric Sullivan's entire pre-draft press conference on the team's YouTube channel, as well as highlights and analysis on the Drive Time Podcast with Travis Wingfield.
