Miami Dolphins: Team needs entering the 2021 NFL draft
By Ian Higgins
Miami Dolphins 2021 NFL Draft needs: Linebacker
’20 Starters: Elandon Roberts (FA), Jerome Baker
After an impressive defensive campaign that saw Brian Flores make the absolute most of his linebacking group in both the pass-rush and underneath coverage, the Miami Dolphins will need to replace lost talent to continue 2020’s performance.
Led by former New England linebackers Kyle Van Noy and impending free-agent Elandon Roberts, the unit places an emphasis on personnel who can operate as front-seven swiss-army knives capable of both pressuring the passer and dropping into coverage against mismatch receiving target.
Entering the 2021 offseason though, the collection of inside linebackers playing off of the line of scrimmage in their conventional 3-4 front will be thin. Run-stuffer Elandon Roberts is set to hit free agency, and developing thumper Raekwon McMillan was traded to Las Vegas during the regular season.
With a first-round selection at the back half of the first round of the 2021 NFL draft though, the Miami Dolphins have the chance to directly replace lost talent with one of a handful of new-age inside linebackers capable of adding coverage capabilities to the unit.
Combined with athletically-gifted prospects such as Virginia’s Charles Snowden standing at six-foot-seven, the 2021 NFL draft provides a cornucopia of young options for the position group.