Dolphins fans deserve a playoff win. Are these rookies ready to help in 2024? | SCHAD

MIAMI GARDENS — No fan base in the NFL has gone as long as the Miami Dolphins fan base without experiencing a playoff victory.

This needs to be a win-now window.

Tua Tagovailoa is not making $50 million in 2024 but in the very near future you know he's going to make $50 million and there will be less money to spread around to others.

This needed to be a win-now NFL draft for general manager Chris Grier, coach Mike McDaniel and owner Stephen Ross. And the fans.

Now.

Now.

Now.

It's not about a long-term vision, a long-term plan, a long-term play.

It really shouldn't be about upside and development and high ceilings.

And it sure as heck, ideally, should not have been about projects.

There is every chance in the world that raw edge rusher Chop Robinson and unripe offensive tackle Patrick Paul — both extraordinary athletes without the benefit of having fully formed — eventually develop into quite good NFL players.

But to what extent does eventually help the Dolphins win a playoff game or playoff games in 2024?

This is the moment. Miami must meet this moment in time.

Grier says Dolphins trying to win this year

Near the very end of the draft on Saturday, Grier pushed back in a meeting with reporters on the notion that they selected players mostly with an eye toward the future.

"We feel strongly in the players and believe in them," Grier said. "This isn't, you know ... we're still trying to win this year. This is not about worrying about two, three years down the line. This is ... we're all about having the best team possible to win games this season."

Grier and McDaniel pushed back on any negative connotation of a player having potential.

"Just because the player has upside, you know, we had a very deliberate approach to the entire draft on getting guys on the team that would compete and make us better right now," Grier said.

McDaniel essentially added that the players will demonstrate to the coaches how much they're ready to do and how quickly. There are not predeterminations.

But surely Miami could have lucked into the availability of a few more ready-for-2024 players.

It's a darn shame that one of the seven players taken just ahead of Chop did not fall to Miami.

Troy Fautanu, taken one spot ahead of Miami by Pittsburgh, could have played guard for the Dolphins in 2024 and shifted to left tackle in 2025.

He's a tough guy, a scrapper, a mauler, a brute force.

The guys Miami drafted early — talented, no doubt — are, well, sort of more defined by speed and twitch.

Unlike Fautanu and some other higher-rated guard/tackles in this draft, Paul — with long arms like Giannis Antetokounmpo — is projected purely as a tackle.

And yes, it's great that Paul has the physical attributes that may make him an ideal successor to Pro Bowler Terron Armstead. Though that's not guaranteed, of course.

Edge rushers Laiatu Latu (15th pick) and Dallas Turner (17th pick) and Jared Verse (19th pick) may all be a bit more pro-ready than Robinson, who still needs to work on his array of pass-rush moves as well as his ability to be stout against the run.

So while edge was, in fact, a need for Miami, there may have been others who could have had a greater immediate impact on snapping this playoff-winless streak. We'll see.

The Dolphins could also have benefited if defensive tackle Byron Murphy of Texas (16th pick) had slid enough to make a replacement for Christian Wilkins seem obvious.

Grier knows edge (Robinson) and left tackle (Paul) play positions that are best solved in the draft, not free agency.

Once players at those positions hit free agency, they cost boatloads of money.

And let's remember — Miami isn't going to have a lot of money to spend in its next window.

That window includes big raises for Tua, Jaelan Phillips, Jaylen Waddle and Jevon Holland.

Here's the thing. Miami has been pretty good since the front office tore it down to the studs in 2019.

In 2020-2021-2022-2023, the Dolphins won 39 and lost only 28 games.

That's very good. But not good enough.

Zero playoff wins. All those wins in the regular season.

Now, look, the high ceilings of Robinson and Paul mean that Grier and Co. are shooting for the stars, hoping to strike big with multi-time Pro Bowlers that will make their scouting and decision-making appear elite.

But what McDaniel and Miami's staff need is for those players — especially Robinson, as Paul is probably a 2024 redshirt candidate — to make a quicker pro impact than evaluators expect.

Dolphins can shore up guard, defensive tackle, safety in late free agency

Yes, there has long been the notion that guard, defensive tackle, safety, and receiver are positions that one can shore up in late-wave free agency. That does provide Miami some hope.

There should be enough spare change in Miami Gardens to add a somewhat solid veteran at each of those positions before the season kicks off in September.

In general, we are understanding of the notion that one should not dramatically reach for a position of need if a player one really, truly, deeply believes in, is on the board.

We get that while edge and left tackle and running back — yes, Miami traded into the fourth round for a running back! — are not critical needs for 2024, they will, like all needs, eventually be.

Robinson and Paul and that running back — Jaylen Wright of Tennessee — have remarkable physical traits. They're fast. They're twitchy. They're ideally athletic.

More: Dolphins now have 2 Cheetahs: Jaylen Wright also used name, will acquiesce to Tyreek Hill

But how ready are they to help give McDaniel, Grier, Ross and the fans what they have been desperately longing for since 2000? That's an absurd length of time without experiencing even one playoff victory.

Since 2000, there have been 10 Dolphins coaches — count 'em, 10 — who have failed to deliver that playoff win.

Since 2000, there have been 27 Dolphins quarterbacks to start — count 'em, 27— and not one has delivered a playoff win.

The time to win is now.

The time to add players who can help Miami win in 2024 was Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

We know Grier tried his best to do that.

We'll all learn together whether his best was good enough.

Joe Schad is a journalist covering the Miami Dolphins and the NFL at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at jschad@pbpost.com and follow him on Instagram and on X @schadjoe. Sign up for Joe's free weekly Dolphins Pulse Newsletter. Help support our work by subscribing today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Miami Dolphins 2024 NFL Draft shows talent added but enough? Schad