Miami Dolphins general manager Chris Grier revealed this week that he cried the day he traded franchise left tackle Laremy Tunsil to the Houston Texans before the 2019 season for an array of draft picks.
If he has cried again at any point since, they’re probably tears of joy.
The picks received in that deal were either directly used or played a role in the Dolphins acquiring wide receiver Jaylen Waddle, safety Jevon Holland and — the latest — star receiver Tyreek Hill.
“I still remember the day we traded him, I was crying,” Grier said on Monday from NFL owners meetings at The Breakers in Palm Beach. “We both were because he’s such a good guy, and every once and a while he’ll text me just like, ‘Hey.’
“In terms of the return, I never would have guessed that it would have led to all of this. … You just keep trying to do what’s best, you hope, for the organization and what we feel good about in terms of trying to build a team that competes for Super Bowls here.”
Sending Tunsil, wide receiver Kenny Stills, a fourth-round pick and a sixth-round pick got the Dolphins the Texans’ 2020 first-round pick, 2021 first-round pick and 2021 second-rounder. Also acquired by the Dolphins in the Tunsil trade were tackle Julie’n Davenport and defensive back Johnson Bademosi, neither of whom are still with Miami.
The early return in the 2020 draft was underwhelming. Houston was still a playoff team the previous season, so it was a later selection. The No. 26 pick was traded back to No. 30 with the Green Bay Packers as the Dolphins drafted cornerback Noah Igbinoghene, who has started only three games in his first two NFL seasons and had just 78 defensive snaps last year. From the Packers, the Dolphins got back a fourth-round pick that they later traded up within the round to draft guard Solomon Kindley. Kindley started 13 games his rookie season, but he barely saw action in 2021, only starting the first two games at left guard.
Then, it starts to pick up with what the Dolphins got out of the trade in the 2021 draft. The Texans’ first-rounder was the No. 3 overall pick. It was then traded back with the 49ers to No. 12 for San Francisco’s 2022 and 2023 first-round picks and a 2022 third-rounder.
The Dolphins subsequently traded back up to 6 with the Philadelphia Eagles, where they chose Waddle, giving up their own 2022 first-round pick while keeping that of the 49ers. With the early second-round selection, Miami picked Holland. Both he and Waddle were standout rookies last season and building blocks for the franchise moving forward.
Trading their own pick to the Eagles instead of the 49ers’ didn’t always look great. San Francisco advanced all the way to the NFC Championship Game last season, dropping the pick to 29 while Miami’s own pick was slotted at 15.
But that pick was then the centerpiece of five draft selections sent to Kansas City to bring Hill to the Dolphins. The team’s second-round pick and fourth-round pick in the late April draft, plus fourth- and sixth-round picks in the 2023 draft, were also shipped.
Had the Dolphins never traded back from 3 in the past draft, they could’ve taken either wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase or tight end Kyle Pitts instead of Waddle. Both Chase and Pitts were Pro Bowl selections while Waddle wasn’t, although Waddle set an NFL rookie receptions record with 104. But they also wouldn’t have the extra 2023 first-round pick.
If Miami traded its own pick to Philadelphia instead of the 49ers’ pick that ended up being 14 slots lower, the Dolphins still likely would’ve used it in the same Hill trade, but maybe they wouldn’t have had to give up as many picks to make it happen.
Regardless, three of the Dolphins’ top players, two reserves and a 2023 first-round pick were all acquired, at least in part, from trading Tunsil.
The Dolphins were only able to select Tunsil with the No. 13 pick of the 2016 draft because the highly rated prospect fell to that spot after a video leaked on social media of Tunsil wearing a gas mask attached to a bong in one of the most shocking draft-day moments. His first three seasons were spent in Miami while he was a Pro Bowl left tackle in 2019 and 2020 for the Texans.
After the Hill trade, internet memes resurfaced, whether it be of a fake Tunsil statue photoshopped to appear as if it stood in front of Hard Rock Stadium or one of a small domino, labeled with Tunsil hitting the bong, leading to progressively larger dominoes, the last of which was of the Dolphins landing Hill.
Tunsil tweeted the day of the trade, March 23: “I’m blessing y’all.”
Of course, the Dolphins, minus Tunsil, had to go the past three seasons without strong tackle play, despite multiple efforts to fix the offensive line through the draft. That downfall may have finally been corrected this offseason with Miami’s acquisition of elite left tackle Terron Armstead in free agency.
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