Miami Dolphins

Miami Dolphins: 5 Worst First-Round Draft Picks Since 1990

Updated Mar. 5, 2020 12:05 a.m. ET

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The Miami Dolphins have made some truly terrible NFL Draft choices lately. Who are the top 5 worst draft picks since 1990?

In their long and illustrious history in the NFL, the Miami Dolphins have selected some of the best players in NFL history thanks to the NFL Draft. In just their second draft ever, they selected future Hall of Fame quarterback Bob Griese. They followed that success up the very next year by choosing Hall of Fame running back Larry Csonka.

The 80’s saw the Dolphins draft two more Hall of Fame players. In the second round of the 1980 draft, the Dolphins selected one of the all-time great centers, Dwight Stephenson. In what many consider the greatest draft class of all-time, 1984, the Dolphins nabbed future Hall of Famer, and arguably the best quarterback to ever play, Dan Marino.

However, drafting players is far from an exact science. Every team has made a multitude of terrible picks in the early rounds of the draft, and the Miami Dolphins are no exception.

With that in mind, let’s take a trip down memory lane and look at some of the worst first-round draft picks the Dolphins have made in recent memory. Just who is the worst first-rounder in recent Miami Dolphins draft history?

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5. Ted Ginn, Wide Receiver – 2007

We start our look at the worst picks in recent Miami Dolphins draft history with a guy who has done well for himself outside of Miami. It took a while, but Ted Ginn has settled in Carolina quite nicely and has seemed to finally find his place in the NFL. That was certainly not the case for Ginn or the Dolphins when he was drafted in the first round of the 2007 NFL Draft.

To this day, I’m still not convinced that Ginn, the speedy wide receiver and return man from Ohio State, was a bad selection. Ginn came into the NFL with a very particular skill set and one that could have been useful to the Dolphins. The problem with the Ginn pick was that the Dolphins never really had a solid plan for what to do with Ginn.

The adjustment to the NFL is a tough one, and the Dolphins organization didn’t do Ginn any favors with the turmoil they were going through. Splitting duties between the special teams game and trying to learn the offense just did not work out for Ginn. It didn’t help matters that they paired Ginn with a quarterback, Trent Green, who was on his last legs—quite literally. Green would not make it through the season, playing only five games. He would start only one more game the following year in St. Louis before retiring.

Ginn’s second year in Miami was easily his best. Ginn was transitioned to have a more primary role in the offense, and it showed. He had almost 20 more catches and more than 300 more yards. Ginn would spend one more year in Miami, before shipping off to San Francisco for three years. Now Ginn has landed what seems like a permanent home (with a one-year stint in Arizona thrown in the middle) in Carolina.

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4. Randal Hill, Wide Receiver – 1991

The story of Randal Hill is easily one of the more bizarre stories in Miami Dolphins draft history. Coming into the 1991 NFL Draft, the Dolphins were looking for help at the wide receiver position to re-tool from the Mark’s brothers era. Both Mark Clayton and Mark Duper were still on the team, but both were in the twilight of their career, and fresh legs were needed.

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Enter Randal Hill from the University of Miami. The Dolphins selected Hill with the 23rd overall selection in the draft and were planning on him being the guy to take the torch for the next era of Dolphins football. However, it was evident from the beginning that this was not going to pan out.

Hill’s Dolphins career started out with a contract dispute that saw him miss the first four weeks of training camp. Eventually, both sides came to an agreement and Hill signed with the team. After the first game of the 1991 season, legendary coach Don Shula had already seen enough from the young receiver.

Hill was unceremoniously traded to the Phoenix (yes, Phoenix) Cardinals for a first-round selection in the 1992 NFL Draft. Hill would play for the Cardinals for four seasons before, surprisingly, finding his way back to Miami. Hill had meager at best production in two seasons with the Dolphins before spending his final NFL season with the New Orleans Saints.

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3. John Avery, Running Back – 1998

If you’re a Dolphins fan born after 1980, you came at an unfortunate time. You weren’t born yet to see the Dolphins heyday of the 1970’s. You’re not old enough (or in my case, weren’t yet born) to remember the days of prime Dan Marino. You’ve had to struggle through year after year of disappointment, without the memories of yesteryear to fall back on.

For those of us in this age bracket, one of the lasting impressions we have of this franchise is watching famed coach Jimmy Johnson squander Dan Marino’s glory years with some truly horrible draft choices. The worst of those selections came in 1998 by way of a running back from Ole Miss, John Avery.

One of the biggest tragedies of Marino’s career is that the Dolphins could never give him an effective running game to help him out after the departure of the Mark’s brothers. The worst solution for the running game woes came when Johnson and the Dolphins traded down with the Green Bay Packers and selected Avery.

In Avery’s rookie season with the club, he never started a game and ran for a paltry 503 yards and two touchdowns. Avery would play one more game in a Dolphins jersey before being traded to the Denver Broncos. Avery played in six games that season for the Broncos, before being released and out of the league. He would attempt a comeback in 2003 with the Minnesota Vikings, but would only play in six games, managing one carry and two receptions total.

What hurts more than the measly numbers Avery put up is what could have been for the Dolphins. Thanks to the trade, the Green Bay Packers were able to select defensive end Vonnie Holliday. Holliday would go on to have some great years in Green Bay, before eventually finding his way to the Dolphins himself. The killer, though? Just two picks later, the Minnesota Vikings selected Randy Moss.

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2. Yatil Green, Wide Receiver – 1997

Though he’s not the worst first-round pick in Dolphins history, Yatil Green is far and away the most painful one—at least for me. I can remember watching Green during his college career at Miami and thinking: Wow, this kid is going to be special at the next level.

Green had it all. He had good hands. He was fast. And he was a good route-runner. By all accounts, at least as I remember it 20 years later, Green was going to be a star. Unfortunately, he never got that chance. His career was essentially over before it even began.

Green suffered one of the most gruesome injuries I’ve heard of on his very first day of practice. Not only did Green blow out his knee, tearing the ACL and cartilage, but he also tore his quadriceps muscle in his right leg. To his credit, he didn’t let the injury defeat him, rehabbing his leg in time to come back for the next season.

At least that was the plan. Unfortunately for Green, the next training camp was a near-carbon copy of his rookie season. Green again tore his ACL and was forced to miss the season. Green finally saw the field in his third and final year with the Dolphins, but the damage was irreversible. All told, Green would only manage 18 receptions for 234 yards for the Dolphins. He never caught a single touchdown. After two unsuccessful stints in New York (Jets) and Oakland, Green was out of the league. A tragic ending for a player who could have been a star in this league.

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1. Dion Jordan, Defensive End – 2013

If you asked 10 Dolphins fans who is the worst first-round selection in Miami Dolphins draft history, I’d be willing to bet that at least seven of them would immediately say Dion Jordan. And they would be right.

The 2013 NFL Draft will be a class known as the draft of the left tackle. Coming into the draft, there were three highly-heralded players at the position, each thought to be a sure-fire top-10 pick. The position was one of need for the Dolphins. After both the first and second picks had both been left tackles, the Miami Dolphins made a trade with the Oakland Raiders for the third pick. Any fan worth their salt thought for sure the team would make it three-for-three and select Lane Johnson.

Then the Dolphins threw a curve ball. “With the third pick in the 2013 NFL Draft, the Miami Dolphins select Dion Jordan.” That’s possibly the most devastating sentence in recent memory for a Dolphins fan. Jordan was a talented player coming out of Oregon and had a lot of traits to like, and the Dolphins fell in love with the potential dominant pass rusher.

Unfortunately for the Dolphins, thanks to injuries and numerous drug suspensions, Jordan has barely seen the field in the three years since being drafted. By all accounts, it looks like his time with the Dolphins has come to an unceremonious end.

But it’s not only poor performance and off-the-field issues that land Jordan the top spot in this countdown. What pushes him over the edge is what landed John Avery on this list; what the pick could have become. The Dolphins traded their first round pick (No. 12 overall) and a second-round selection to the Raiders to get Jordan. At the time, it seemed like a steal. History would prove otherwise.

If the Dolphins had stayed where they were and not made the trade, they could have selected the player the Raiders did, cornerback D.J. Hayden. Which also would have been a terrible first-round pick. However, just a few picks later, the Jets selected Pro-Bowl defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson. With Ndamukong Suh not yet in the picture, defensive tackle would have been a reasonable pick at 12.

The pick that really hurts, and lands Jordan at number one, is what the second round pick could have become. You can choose a handful of excellent players that the Dolphins didn’t get the chance to draft thanks to losing that pick. One stands out among the crowd. Le’Veon Bell.

Bell has had some off-the-field issues of his own. However, he is one of the best running backs in the league since being drafted 48th overall. For that reason, Dion Jordan is the worst first-round pick the Dolphins have made since 1990.