{"id":724476,"date":"2026-02-02T20:04:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T20:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/724476\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T20:04:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T20:04:15","slug":"dolphins-predicted-to-pick-top-wr-of-fernando-mendoza-in-2026-nfl-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/724476\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolphins predicted to pick top WR of Fernando Mendoza in 2026 NFL Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/nfl\/miami-dolphins\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Miami Dolphins<\/a> are entering a pivotal offseason after a rough 2025 season. With a new general manager and head coach in charge, the Dolphins will be retooling the roster.<\/p>\n<p>Tyreek Hill is almost certainly gone, leaving only Jaylen Waddle as a strong option in the wide receiver room. Taking a WR in the 2026 NFL Draft is a very real possibility for the Dolphins.<\/p>\n<p>And <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/draft2026\/story\/_\/id\/47756543\/2026-nfl-mock-draft-two-rounds-64-picks-matt-miller-senior-bowl\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">ESPN&#8217;s Matt Miller<\/a> has the Dolphins doing just that in his most recent 2-Round mock draft. Miller has the Dolphins taking Fernando Mendoza&#8217;s top WR to pair with Waddle in a new-look WR room for 2026 and beyond.<\/p>\n<p>Dolphins predicted to draft top WR of Fernando Mendoza to pair with Jaylen Waddle<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;43. Miami Dolphins: Omar Cooper Jr., WR, Indiana,&#8221; Miller predicts. &#8220;Cooper is one of the best ball-tracing receivers in the class and can make an immediate impact from the slot.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Adding a star wide receiver like Cooper makes a ton of sense for Miami, especially since this would be the Dolphins&#8217; second-round pick.<\/p>\n<p>Miller predicts the Dolphins take shut-down cornerback Jerod McCoy in the first round, and combined with Cooper Jr., the Dolphins could revamp two questionable positions in one draft class.<\/p>\n<p>More:\u00a0<a target=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/nfl\/miami-dolphins\/news\/dolphins-split-tyreek-hill-stems-back-awkward-2024-incident\/991bb00d36063e20f89b685e\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Dolphins&#8217; looming split with Tyreek Hill stems back to awkward 2024 incident<\/a><\/p>\n<p>This past season with Mendoza at Indiana, Cooper Jr. caught 69 passes for 937 yards and 13 touchdowns. It was a breakout year for the Junior WR, and he&#8217;s now heading to the NFL Draft and should be an early pick.<\/p>\n<p>Elijah Sarratt is also in this draft class, and while he finished with 65 receptions for 830 yards and 15 TDs, Cooper Jr. is a bit younger and might be a better fit with Waddle in the Dolphins offense.<\/p>\n<p>With the Dolphins in need of WR help thanks to Hill&#8217;s future in Miami being all but over, Cooper Jr. would be a great Day-2 option for a Dolphins team seeking another dominant WR opposite Waddle going forward.<\/p>\n<p>More Dolphins news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Miami Dolphins are entering a pivotal offseason after a rough 2025 season. With a new general manager&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":724477,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2049],"tags":[217,7,216,251,2087,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-724476","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami-dolphins","8":"tag-dolphins","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-miami","11":"tag-miami-dolphins","12":"tag-miamidolphins","13":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=724476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/724477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=724476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=724476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=724476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}