Dolphins Linebacker Draft History: The Hits, Misses and Trends

The Miami Dolphins have selected 86 linebackers in their history, including five in the first round

Zach Thomas / Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

As we head into the homestretch to the 2024 NFL draft, it's a good time to revisit the Miami Dolphins draft history at every position.

In this draft series, we break down each position with number of picks since the start of the "common draft" in 1967, first-round selections, hits and misses, and any trends that might apply.

We continue with the linebackers (as always, hits and misses are determined by gauging production versus draft position):

DOLPHINS LINEBACKER DRAFT HISTORY

Number of picks: 86

Number of first-round picks: 5 (Larry Gordon, 1976; Kim Bokamper, 1976; Jackie Shipp, 1984; Marco Coleman, 1992; Jaelan Phillips, 2021)

The last five picks: Cameron Goode, 2022, Round 7; Channing Tindall, 2022, Round 3; Jaelan Phillips; Curtis Weaver, 2020, Round 5; Andrew Van Ginkel, 2019, Round 5)

Hits: Mike Kolen (Round 12, 1970), Steve Towle (Round 6, 1975), Mark Brown (Round 9, 1983), John Offerdahl (Round 2, 1986), Bryan Cox (Round 5, 1991), Zach Thomas (Round 5, 1996), Channing Crowder (Round 3, 2005), Jerome Baker (Round 3, 2018), Andrew Van Ginkel (Round 5, 2019)

Misses: Jackie Shipp (Round 1, 1984); Jay Brophy (Round 2, 1984); Rick Graf (Round 2, 1987); Aubrey Beavers (Round 2, 1994); Brad Jackson (Round 3, 1997); Ronnie Ward (Round 3, 1997); Eddie Moore (Round 2, 2003)

Trends: The thing that jumps out here clearly is that the Dolphins don’t invest in pure linebackers early in the draft very often. The last one taken before the third round was Raekwon McMillan in 2017 and before that it was Koa Misi in 2010. And of the five first-round picks at linebacker, three — Bokamper, Coleman and Phillips — were more edge defenders/outside linebackers than off-the-ball linebacker.

HOW THE DOLPHINS HAVE DONE WITH LINEBACKERS IN THE DRAFT

As is the case for every team at just about every position, there have been some big-time hits and some egregious misses, but what sticks out are the middle-to-late-round gems the Dolphins unearthed.

It starts, of course, with getting Hall of Fame finalist Zach Thomas in Round 5 in 1996 in Jimmy Johnson's first draft. But four years before that, Don Shula landed three-time Pro Bowl selection Bryan Cox in the same round and long before that he got No-Name Defense starter Mike Kolen all the way back in Round 12.

The Dolphins defense of the late 1980s had its struggles and part of that stemmed from the draft whiffs of 1984 when they took Jackie Shipp and Jay Brophy in the first two rounds, even after trading up from 26 to 14 to get Shipp out of the University of Oklahoma.

The selection of Moore in 2003 was really painful because not only did Moore himself think he went a lot earlier than expected, but the Dolphins also passed on the chance to draft Anquan Boldin at a time when they had a clear need for a wide receiver.

Jerome Baker and Van Ginkel) were good choices more recently, but the Dolphins got very little out of McMillan (though injuries were a factor) and the selection of Tindall hasn’t looked very good so far considering he was solely a special teams player in his first two seasons.