Ok, after watching Dolphins GM Chris Grier’s press conference I calmed down and started to look at the “Big Picture” and considering how devastated or secondary was due to injuries last season as well as the age of our top two CB’s it starts to make sense that they took the talented young CB from South Carolina who some projected to be a first-round selection.
“He’s a very talented football player,” Grier said (transcribed by Palm Beach Post’s Joe Schad). “We want to add competition at every position. A really talented player. You can never have enough corners. Versatile. Instinctive. Where he was in the draft we couldn’t pass.”
Grier also pointed to the 2022 season as another reason.
“Teams can never have enough corners, as we experienced last year,” Grier explained (transcribed by the Miami Herald’s Daniel Oyefusi).
In 2022, Miami lost Trill Williams and Nik Needham to season-ending injuries while Byron Jones never played a snap due to Achilles surgery from the prior offseason. Even Xavien Howard, who played most of the season, was doing so with multiple injuries.
This forced undrafted free agent Kader Kohou, and special teams aces Keion Crossen and Justin Bethel into much larger roles.
That shouldn’t be a problem in 2023. ( Thanks to Dolphinswire)
If looking to the future is the reason they selected Smith, and he turns into a top CB then all will be forgiven, one cannot help but look back at the 2020 NFL draft where they took CB Noah Igbinoghene when he was not a need. I will always have that debate about BPA vs PON and I fall on the PON side. The Smith pick has been graded between an A+ – C by many sports writers more like a B+ on average.
It still stings that we did not take a young TE at 51 because there were some talented TE’s in the draft, but hopefully they will address that need today in rounds 4-7 today?
Also, Chris Grier said that they still have players on their radar that are NFL free agents that they can address needs after the draft.
I will produce my yearly “Getting to Know our Rookies “ where I give in depth information about our picks and grade the picks after the draft.
The Dolphin Seer 
Chances are, this is Howard’s last season.