In 3 years, Ireland has made 26 selections in the NFL draft.
I broke these picks down into 6 categories to get an outline of how he has done.

Great picks:
just 1. Jake Long. And that was a fairly easy pick to make when sitting at the #1 spot

Good to solid selections:
Vontae Davis
Kendell Langford
Sean Smith
Koa Misi
Brian hartline

Solid late round picks:
Lex hilliard
Chris Clemons
Nolan Carroll
Reshad Jones

Misses:
Chad Henne
Shawn Murphy
Jalen Parmele
Donald Thomas
Lionel Dotson
John Nalbone
Andrew gardner
JD Folsom
Chris McCoy

High Round Busts:
Pat White
Philip Merling
Patrick Turner

Too early to tell yet:
Jared Odrick-could become a good pick
AJ Edds
John Jerry-could become yet another busted lineman pick
Austin Spitler


Breakdown analysis:

The Good: signed Davone Bess as an undrafted free agent
signed Dan Carpenter as an undrafted free agent
signed Cameron Wake from the CFL
Ireland seems to do better outside of the common draft.

The Bad: Has missed on 3 of the 5 offensive linemen he has selected. very close to missing on 4 with John Jerry

He does not value playmakers, Often passing on true gamechangers to select offensive linemen and defensive ends.



Some interesting facts about Ireland's draft decisions:

in 2008 passed on Matt Ryan for Jake Long
passed on Desean Jackson for Philip Merling

in 2009 passed on Clay Matthews and Hakeem Nicks for Vonta Davis
passed on Lesean McCoy and Mike Wallace for Pat White
passed on Austin Collie for Patrick Turner and Brian Hartline

in 2010, with his team needing a serious upgrade at tight end, passed on every tight end in one of the strongest classes in years, yound talents Rob Gronkowski, Ed Dickson, Jimmy Graham and Aaron Hernandez

I believe that his drafts so far leave alot to be desired.
When I think of the kind of weapons we could have drafted, it wouldnt have been necessary to part with two 2nd round picks for Brandon marshall, which in turn could have also made us better.

Hartline is 2X the WR that Austin Collie is. Not sure why you mention we passed on him.

Ireland was not responsible for the Henne or Pat White picks. He was responsible for Pat Turner though.

I think he's had tremendous drafts. With Parcells/Henning/Lee out of the way, I think he can really put together a great draft class this year.

I wouldn't call Jake a great pick considering we passed on Ryan. But at least we didn't go with Chris Long or Vernon Gholston.

It is nice to break down his drafts and throw in who he could have drafted but reality is that drafting seems to be educated guessing at best. How do his drafts compare to other GMs?

When saying we drafted so and so and we could have drafted the other so and so who looks like a hit, how many others were drafted higher that failed?

I personally think he has done pretty well especially as compared to our past drafts.

...and Henne in the long run will not be considered a miss.

I wouldn't group Vontae Davis with the others mentioned (maybe make him great and Long elite), and will disagree with Henne as a miss. If he is cut or declared a backup this offseason then I'll agree, but I think he is going to be Miami's QB again in 2011 whether it be from improved play or bridge status to a QB of the future.

Remind me again how these are "Irelands" drafts???

Guess Parcells had no say in any of the draft picks??

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There is one small tiny little annoying problem with the original post in this thread.

Those were Bill Parcells's drafts.... not Jeff Ireland's.

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so what has Ireland been doing these past 3 years?
I thought Parcells was a VP and consultant, just guiding Tony and Jeff as coach and GM. This Trifecta makes no sense to me.

You are delusional my friend.

I don't think Henne should be in the miss section either... especially when you have Austin Spitler in the "too early to tell"...

How is Hartline better than Collie? Collie was leading the NFL in receiving the first month of the season before suffering a serious concussion. He's a reception and Touchdown machine.

I don't think tremendous is the word I would use for these drafts.
Who knows, which picks he is responsible for. This next draft will go along way toward Ireland proving his worth.

Only because most analysts are predicting Henne to be a career backup after 3 years,
and Austin Spitler is a rookie

now that's guesswork

Who throws the ball to Collie?
Either way I think Hartline was a good pick, he has already turned out to be an asset to our offense. And we need all the help we can get...


And as far as I know, Ireland can only be held partly accountable for these drafts...

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If you look back at the last decade of draft selections you will quickly see that this is a primary reason the Dolphins are in the current shape they are in. When Parcells and company arrived this team had little depth and even fewer players that had been drafted by Miami by previous staffs. Here are the last 3 years drafts which Parcells was involved with. If you look at how many of the picks selected in rounds 1 through 4 are even still on the team you will quickly see what the problem is and has been over the last 10 years.

2010
1 Jared Odrick
2 Koa Misi
3 John Jerry
4 A.J. Edds
5 Nolan Carroll
5 Reshad Jones
7 Chris McCoy
7 Austin Spitler

2009
1 Vontae Davis
2 Pat White
2 Sean Smith
3 Patrick Turner
4 Brian Hartline
5 John Nalbone
5 Chris Clemons
6 Andrew Gardner
7 J.D. Folsom

2008
1 Jake Long
2 Phillip Merling
2 Chad Henne
3 Kendall Langford
4 Shawn Murphy
6 Jalen Parmele
6 Donald Thomas
6 Lex Hilliard
7 Lionel Dotson


The fact that Pat White 2009 round 2, Patrick Turner 2009 round 3 & Shawn Murphy 2008 round 4 are not even on the roster are proof that these were blown draft choices. Miami has spent the last 10 years throwing 2nd through 5th round draft choices at getting a legit QB and all they have to show for it today is Henne and Thigpen. If Jerry turns out to be a bust, then that is another first day pick that didn't work out for a team that is still thin on talent that was drafted by the Dolphins. When the draft doesn't work out you have to fill your roster with free agent signing. But if you really want to analyze why the Dolphins are still a mediocre team at best you don't need to look any further than the first 4 selections of the last 3 drafts to see why Miami is void of talent. There is no excuse for not having used those selections on players that can come in and stick on a roster so thin on talent. Go back through the draft selections from 2000 through today and you can see how bad Miami has done in selecting talent in the last decade. It isn't just Parcells and company that have struggled at making picks that make the roster and contribute.

As I've documented multiple times on these forums, Ireland was in charge of scouting for the draft and Canada until September 2010, when he took full control and started having final say on personnel decisions.



Parcells was the Vice President of football operations until September 2010. The VP of Football Ops has final say on ALL football decisions in most organizations. It was no different here for Parcells.

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Rich, at this point your just yelling at the wall... Some people just dont want to accept the fact that Bill Parcells is a senile old fool that drove our hopes up, and then pulled the rug from beneath us the next year....

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Does anyone remember what the controversy was when Ireland was hired away from Dallas? Wasn't it something about that in order to accept the Dolphins job (without Miami having to compensate Dallas) it had to be a promotion from his position with Dallas?

I do remember Huizenga putting Parcells in charge of anything to do with football when he snapped Parcells away from the Atlanta Falcons. Off topic, I wonder if the Falcons' owner offered to pay Bill his entire contract regardless of time served.

In any case, I think 2011 should be considered Ireland's first draft.

Pretty good write up, but a few things I definitely disagree with.
I put VD in the great picks category. For where he was drafted, it's a great pick.
Merling I wouldn't label as being a high round bust. He was #32 overall, and he has done a fair job when on the field. I'd say if he doesn't provide something meaningful this year, then we can throw him in that category. Until then I have him in with Odrick and others in the "yet to be determined' category.
I also don't agree with docking a guy based on who he passed on. As if we have a crystal ball that tells us who is going to be a superstar in this league. I mean if we are going to do that, we should give everyone an F for not drafting Tom Bray the year he came out. I base drafts on how well the player did commensurate to his draft position. I think that is the only fair and true way to judge a draft.

And your prediction isn't?
Classic.

Terrible write up on the last 3 drafts, obviously the poster has a veiw that Ireland sucks and twists the facts to convince others of that.

First of all, Merling is not a high round bust, and actually not a bust at all. Remember, we wouldn't have won the AFC east a couple years ago without him. He has been a solid player for us.
And actually, most draft people don't count 3rd rounders as high draft picks, that's typically for 1st and 2nd rounders only. 3rd and 4th are mid round picks and 5,6 and 7 are late rounders. You can't call late round picks really bad picks as the chances of a 5th, 6th or 7th rounder becoming a starter in this league are few and far between ( actually believe it is less then 1% of them become starters). So picks like Nlabone etc are not bad picks because basically 1 in 100 of those picks become starters. Clemmons and Jones look like they will be great picks, as if we get 2 starters from those draft slots, those are home runs!!!!! Henne is not a bust yet, so to be fair he needs to be in the too early to tell yet. the White pick, as has been well documented on this site was pushed by Lee and Parcells over rode Ireland to make it. So there really have been ZERO high round crap or bust picks by Ireland. Obviously with Turner and Murphy, there have been a couple crap mid level picks, but with picks like Langford and Hartline, some good s picks as well !!! As the late round picks are a complete crap shoot he does done great there, and obviously a home run with non draft FA signings of Bess and Wake.

A fair assessment would be for the picks so far that he is a good GM and drafter, but hasn't had a stupendous draft yet either. This will be an interesting draft as all the decisions will be his

Philip Merling is not a bust, he's a good starter for us. If the guy didn't have a bad string of luck this year he would have been our starter across from Langford. His charges were dropped and now he's right back on track. Get ready because he's going to have a good year for us next season. The guy is a horse and he plays with a high motor, he'll continue to put up steady numbers just like Langford.