Dan LeBatard of the Miami Herald followed around Dolphins’ No. 1 pick Jake Long on draft day and it was quite the experience. The question is – is Long ready to help turn around a sinking ship in Miami?
Can Long play? No one knows. I don’t know. You don’t know. Mel Kiper doesn’t know. And Parcells doesn’t know. Rare is the business that spends this much money on something this inexact and unscientific. Long may be bust Robert Gallery or Hall of Famer Johathan Ogden or something in between. There is nothing in sports that has this kind of disparity between how little we know and how much we talk about it. You won’t know if what the Dolphins did Saturday is good or bad for a very long time. Years, maybe. There is nothing guaranteed except Long’s $30 million.
All you can do is hope.
Those six words are what Saturday’s big party was all about.
Actually, that’s five words to many.
All you need is the last one.
Hope, for a betrayed and hostile fan base, is the beginning of the bridge back from sickness to health.
LeBatard is right – no one knows if Long can play in the NFL. Nobody really knows if any of these prospects can play in the NFL. But the Dolphins did make a solid, safe pick and they invested a ton of money (and eventually time) in a young man that’s worth it in my opinion. He’s got a great work ethic and excellent character – he should become a pretty damn good player, too.
