The Miami Dolphins, a professional American football team based in Miami, Florida, are part of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference (AFC) in the National Football League (NFL). The Dolphins were founded by Joseph Robbie and Danny Thomas in 1965. They began playing in the American Football League (AFL) as an expansion team in 1966 and joined the NFL as part of the AFL–NFL merger in 1967.
They first participated in the 1966 AFL Annual Player Selection Meeting, more commonly known as the NFL draft. In the annual NFL Draft, each franchise seeks to add new players to its roster. Teams are ranked in reverse order based on the previous season's record, with the worst record picking first, the second worst picking second and so on. The two exceptions to this order are made for teams that appeared in the previous Super Bowl; the Super Bowl champion always picks 32nd, and the Super Bowl loser always picks 31st. Teams have the option of trading away their picks to other teams for different picks, players, cash, or a combination thereof. Thus, it is not uncommon for a team's actual draft pick to differ from their assigned draft pick, or for a team to have extra or no draft picks in any round due to these trades.
As an expansion team in the AFL, the Dolphins were granted the first two picks in the 1966 American Football League Draft. They selected Jim Grabowski and Rick Norton with the first and second picks, respectively. The Dolphins' first selection as an NFL team was Bob Griese, a quarterback from Purdue. The team's most recent first-round selections were Kadyn Proctor, an offensive tackle from Alabama and Chris Johnson, a cornerback from San Diego State in 2026.
Key +Table key^ Indicates the player was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. * Selected number one overall— The Dolphins did not draft a player in the first round that year.Year Each year links to an article about that particular AFL or NFL Draft.Pick Indicates the number of the pick within the first roundPosition Indicates the position of the player in the NFL†Indicates the player was selected for the Pro BowlCollege The player's college football team
Player selections
+Miami Dolphins first-round draft picksYearPickPlayer namePositionCollegeNotes 1966 *RBIllinois QBKentucky 1967 ^ Purdue 1968 ^FBSyracuse OTIndiana 1969 †DEGeorgia 1970 — — No pick — — 1971 1972 DTNotre Dame 1973 — — No pick — — 1974 DEJackson State 1975 OTTampa 1976 LBArizona State †San Jose State 1977 †DELouisiana State 1978 — — No pick — — 1979 OTMichigan 1980 DBAlabama 1981 RBOklahoma 1982 †GUSC 1983 ^QBPittsburgh 1984 LBOklahoma 1985 RBFlorida 1986 — — No pick — — 1987 DEBoston College 1988 Ohio State 1989 RBFlorida State SFlorida 1990 †OTTexas A&M 1991 WRMiami (FL) 1992 †DBWisconsin LBGeorgia Tech 1993 WRPenn State 1994 †DTMississippi 1995 OTHouston 1996 DTBaylor 1997 WRMiami (FL) 1998 RBMississippi 1999 — — No pick — — 2000 2001 DBWisconsin 2002 — — No pick — — 2003 2004 OTMiami (FL) 2005 †RBAuburn 2006 DBTennessee 2007 WROhio State 2008 * †OTMichigan 2009 † CB Illinois 2010 DT Penn State 2011 † C Florida 2012 † QB Texas A&M 2013 DE Oregon 2014 OT Tennessee 2015 WR Louisville 2016 † T Mississippi 2017 DE Missouri 2018 †S Alabama 2019 DT Clemson 2020 †QBAlabamaOTUSCCBAuburn 2021 WRAlabama DEMiami (FL) 2022 — — No pick — — 2023 2024 DE Penn State 2025 DTMichigan 2026 OTAlabama CBSan Diego State
Footnotes
References General
Specific