MIAMI GARDENS \u2014 One glaring hole the Miami Dolphins had after the first two days of the draft was edge defender, and they finally addressed it Saturday in the process of capping their massive 13-pick haul.<\/p>\n
The Dolphins got the draft\u2019s third and final day<\/a>, which brought in seven new players, started by selecting Texas edge rusher Trey Moore in the fourth round, No. 130 overall.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t fix it all in one weekend,\u201d new Miami general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan<\/a> said late Friday night about the void that remained on the edge after the first three rounds of the draft.<\/p>\n He and coach Jeff Hafley, who has a defensive background, took a shot at filling that need with the selection of Moore, who is 6-1 5\/8, 243 pounds and ran a 4.54-second 40-yard dash at the NFL scouting combine.<\/p>\n They followed the Moore pick by selecting Pittsburgh linebacker Kyle Louis<\/a>, who was a surprise drop out of the first three rounds, with their next fourth-rounder, No. 138 overall.<\/p>\n Moore, who wasn\u2019t the last edge defender chosen and was far from the last Texas player to join Miami on Saturday, had 8 1\/2 sacks over the past two seasons for the Longhorns, where he transferred after he was Conference-USA Defensive Player of the Year at Texas-San Antonio in 2023 with 14 sacks.<\/p>\n Dolphins assistant GM Kyle Smith said the team likes the versatility Moore possesses to line up at different spots.<\/p>\n The Dolphins needed to address edge defender after they did not select one in Thursday\u2019s first round, passing up on Miami Hurricanes defensive end Rueben Bain Jr. with their top choice and then going linebacker in the second round.<\/p>\n Miami released Bradley Chubb earlier this offseason and traded Jaelan Phillips at last season\u2019s trade deadline. The unit hopes for development out of 2024 first-round pick Chop Robinson as Hafley\u2019s will go to more looks with four down linemen.<\/p>\n In free agency, the team added Josh Uche, David Ojabo and Robert Beal Jr. for help on the edge.<\/p>\n Louis, who is 6 feet, 220 pounds, is undersized as a linebacker but has also been projected as an in-the-box safety. Smith said he will be in the linebacker room.<\/p>\n He was highly productive for Pitt, posting 24 tackles for loss, six interceptions, including four last year, and 10 sacks in the past two seasons.\u00a0Smith mentioned the team likes him in coverage.<\/p>\n Once the fifth round rolled around, the Dolphins pulled off a trade with the Carolina Panthers, moving back from pick No. 151 seven spots to 158. Their early seventh-rounder (227) became a sixth-rounder, No. 200 overall.<\/p>\n To start the fifth, Miami took Texas safety Michael Taaffe at 158.<\/p>\n Taaffe went from walk-on with the Longhorns to first-team All-American as a senior in 2025.<\/p>\n \u201cThat says a lot about how he was raised,\u201d Dolphins senior personnel executive Jon Robinson said. \u201cI think that speaks in volume about his passion for the game.\u201d<\/p>\n Taaffe is undersized at 6 feet, 190 pounds but had seven interceptions over his past three seasons with the Longhorns.<\/p>\n Later in the fifth, the Dolphins picked up two players within four picks. At No. 177, they took Missouri wide receiver Kevin Coleman, and at 180, it was Mississippi State tight end Seydou Traore.<\/p>\n Coleman is 5-10, 179 pounds and is more explosive on the field than his 4.49-second 40-yard dash indicates. He\u2019s good in the open field and can help in the return game.<\/p>\n Coleman had 732 receiving yards for Missouri last season and 932 yards for Mississippi State in 2024. He was at four different schools in four seasons, playing at Louisville in 2023 and Jackson State in 2022.<\/p>\n Traore (6-4, 235) is from London and moved to Clearwater, Florida in hopes of landing a college football scholarship offer in his high school senior year. He started off at Arkansas State before playing the past three seasons for Mississippi State and had 35 receptions for 369 yards and five touchdowns last year with the Bulldogs.<\/p>\n In the sixth round, using the pick Miami moved up from the seventh with in the Carolina deal, the Dolphins chose Texas guard DJ Campbell at pick No. 200.<\/p>\n Campbell is a 6-3, 313-pound blocker with 43 starts at right guard who has previously blocked for Dolphins quarterback Quinn Ewers with the Longhorns.<\/p>\n Robinson said he has positional versatility and could get a look at both center and tackle.<\/p>\n With the Dolphins\u2019 final pick Saturday, No. 238 overall, a seventh-round choice, Miami secured Iowa edge defender Max Llewellyn.<\/p>\n Senior national scout Ron Brockington said the team was surprised Llewellyn, who is 6-5 and 258 pounds, was still available in the seventh round as a strong 4-3 defensive end who can set the edge and play the 5-technique between the tackle and tight end. He also had 12 sacks over the past two seasons for the Hawkeyes.<\/p>\n Miami\u2019s Day 3 selections are largely strong candidates for immediate special teams contributions if they don\u2019t start defensively.<\/p>\n The Dolphins started the first draft under new Sullivan and Hafley by picking Alabama offensive lineman Kadyn Proctor<\/a> and San Diego State cornerback Chris Johnson<\/a> in the first round.<\/p>\n They then picked up a future leader for the middle of the defense in Texas Tech linebacker Jacob Rodriguez<\/a> in the second round, and later Friday night<\/a>, chose Texas Tech wide receiver Caleb Douglas, Ohio State tight end Will Kacmarek and Louisville wide receiver Chris Bell in the third round<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI GARDENS \u2014 One glaring hole the Miami Dolphins had after the first two days of the draft…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[70538,123,1763,125,124,108418,46388,108417],"class_list":{"0":"post-246778","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami","8":"tag-kyle-louis","9":"tag-miami","10":"tag-miami-dolphins","11":"tag-miami-headlines","12":"tag-miami-news","13":"tag-michael-taaffe","14":"tag-nfl-draft","15":"tag-trey-moore"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}