{"id":887040,"date":"2026-05-10T01:03:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T01:03:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/887040\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T01:03:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T01:03:23","slug":"dolphins-coach-explains-why-he-was-surprised-to-get-player-in-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/887040\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolphins coach explains why he was surprised to get player in draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dolphins<\/a><\/p>\n

Mike Masala, Dolphins Wire<\/p>\n

Sat, May 9, 2026 at 11:42 PM UTC\"\"<\/p>\n

Dolphins coach explains why he was surprised to get player in draft<\/p>\n

The Miami Dolphins<\/a> added two talented players in the first round of the 2026 NFL draft, but fans of the team seem to be more excited about their second-round pick, Texas Tech linebacker Jacob Rodriguez.<\/p>\n

Even Dolphins<\/a> head coach Jeff Hafley was surprised to get Rodriguez in the second.<\/p>\n

“One guy I didn’t think would be there when we took him was probably Rodriguez,” Hafley told future Hall of Fame cornerback Richard Sherman on his podcast<\/a> this week. “I thought he would have been picked sooner.\u00a0Just his college tape, I think the upside, I think the potential, I think the leadership\u00a0capability, the playmaking ability, the production. I thought he would have been gone by that pick. So when he was still there, that one, we were all pretty excited about that pick.”<\/p>\n

Rodriguez, 23, spent one year at Virginia before transferring to Texas Tech for the final four years of his college career. He earned All-Big 12 honors twice and All-American honors once. In 56 games between the two schools, he recorded 317 tackles, 13 forced fumbles, 12 passes defensed, six sacks, six interceptions and five fumble recoveries.<\/p>\n

While Jordyn Brooks and Tyrel Dodson are likely Miami’s starting linebacker duo in 2026, Rodriguez could certainly earn rotational snaps as a rookie before taking over one of the spots in his second year.<\/p>\n

More Dolphins: Coach Jeff Hafley is doing something Mike McDaniel could’ve benefited from<\/a><\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Dolphins Wire: Dolphins coach explains why he was surprised to get player in draft<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mike Masala, Dolphins Wire Sat, May 9, 2026 at 11:42 PM UTC Dolphins coach explains why he was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":887041,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2049],"tags":[4955,217,7,35794,8628,216,251,2087,6,19604,23351,2299],"class_list":["post-887040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami-dolphins","tag-2026-nfl-draft","tag-dolphins","tag-football","tag-jacob-rodriguez","tag-jeff-hafley","tag-miami","tag-miami-dolphins","tag-miamidolphins","tag-nfl","tag-richard-sherman","tag-talented-players","tag-texas-tech"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116547592346033905","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887040","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=887040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/887041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=887040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=887040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=887040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}