MIAMI — Cam Smith and Noah Igbinoghene should have both been reliable starting cornerbacks for the Miami Dolphins if their careers hadn’t flamed out in Miami.

In an ideal world, Liam Eichenberg would be one of Miami’s top backup offensive linemen, at least, and Hunter Long would handle significant snaps at tight end for the Dolphins.

Not every team’s draft picks will pan out, no matter the round, but the Dolphins squandered six years of drafts lead by ousted general manager Chris Grier.

As a result, the team’s management — newly hired general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan and head coach Jeff Hafley — is paying a steep price for Miami’s talent shortfall considering the roster the Dolphins have taken into training camp is paper thin, and needed to be fortified by 40 journeyman veterans signed to one-year contracts.

Absolutely nobody from the Dolphins’ 2019 draft is on the roster, and five of the six players Miami selected in that draft class is out the league, with Andrew Van Ginkel, a Pro Bowler, being the lone success story.

Austin Jackson is the last man standing from the Dolphins’ 2020 NFL draft class. However, Tua Tagovailoa, who is competing for Atlanta’s starting quarterback role, Robert Hunt, a Pro Bowl guard with the Carolina Panthers, and Brandon Jones, who has started 28 games for the Denver Broncos the past two seasons, remain starters in the NFL.

Nobody is left from the 2021 draft class after Miami traded Jaylen Waddle to the Broncos for a 2026 first-round pick, and moved Jaelan Phillips to the Philadelphia Eagles at the trade deadline last season, months before he signed a four-year, $120 million contract with the Panthers. Safety Jevon Holland, who signed a massive free agent deal with the New York Giants, also defected from that draft class.

Cameron Goode is the last draftee left from the 2022 draft class, and De’Von Achane is the last man standing in the 2023 draft class.

Most of those two draft classes are fringe NFL talents, or out the league heading into the 2026 season.

Chop Robinson, Patrick Paul, Jaylen Wright, Malik Washington and Tahj Washington are the draftees who remain from the 2024 class.

Three of them — Robinson, Paul and Malik Washington — should be starters on the 2026 team.

All together, that’s eight players leftover from the six draft classes that occurred during Chris Grier’s reign over the franchise as the top football executive.

That’s a ton of wasted resources, no matter how we slice it.

And the fact that Tyreek Hill, Bradley Chubb and Jalen Ramsey, the three Pro Bowl talents Miami traded draft picks to acquire during Grier’s run as the team’s top executive stretch, are gone doesn’t make the roster mismanagement easier to stomach.

These talent shortfalls, and the $179 million in dead cap the Dolphins are carrying this season because of salary cap mismanagement under Grier’s reign, are the reasons Sullivan and Hafley were forced to sign 40 players to one-year deals, so they could patchwork the training camp roster.

Maybe some of those players — tight end Ben Sims, offensive lineman Jamaree Salyer, pass rusher Josh Uche and David Ojabo, and safety Zayne Anderson — pan out and become reliable starters for MIami. But if we’re being honest, they are nothing but bandaids, responsible for stopping the bloodshed.

So much is being made of what the Dolphins don’t have. But why are there so many holes on the roster?

This isn’t about selecting the wrong player. Every team whiffs on draft picks. Even Eagles general manager Howie Roseman missed on players (see former Eagles first-round pick Jalen Reagor for an example).

It’s about finding the right kind of players, and developing them properly, which is the challenge Hafley and his staff have accepted for the leftovers from Grier’s drafts, which includes the 2025 class that features defensive tackles Kenneth Grant, Jordan Phillips and Zeek Biggers, offensive guard Jonah Savaiinaea, safety Dante Trader Jr., cornerback Jason Marshall Jr., tailback Ollie Gordon II and quarterback Quinn Ewers.

Six of those players are competing for starting spots in Miami, and the other two — Gordon and Ewers — will serve as important backups at their positions.

If this team has a chance to be good the Dolphins have to squeeze all the juice they can get out those players, and hope there’s no more rotten fruit spoiling what’s left of the bunch.

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