Dave Hyde: Why this draft showed Dolphins finally have a chance to win again

“It’s important to me that this team looks a certain way and moves a certain way,” Sullivan said. “I believe it’s a big man’s game. That’s not to say that there’s not really good players in the league that are on the smaller side … but yeah, we want to build this team big, physical at all positions and have a size advantage.”

4. Health and durability count. Another no-duh idea, right? But previous GM Chris Grier said he wasn’t concerned with injury history and it showed in big draft investments (first-rounders DeVante Parker, Tagovailoa …) and free-agent buys (Bradley Chubb, James Daniels …). Bell is recovering from knee surgery this offseason. But he was a measured third-round pick because of that. Look at the top investments. Proctor started 40 of 42 games at Alabama. Johnson started 47 games in college. Rodriguez started the final 28 games of his Texas Tech career.

5. There are no absolutes. Yeah, there’s some wiggle room as each player is his own story. Sullivan went into the draft saying it was better to hit a double off the wall than swing for a home run. He then drafted Proctor, who has some boom-or-bust to him. He had weight issues through a senior season in which he started at 390 pounds and was noticeably out of shape. That’s something to follow. It was Parcells who said, “If you make an exception, you soon have a team of exceptions.”

6. They’re drafting a team, not just good players. Muted, perhaps, in the noise over the Proctor pick was the desire to get Willis help. Look what Proctor and Kacmarek bring just to the run game’s power and versatility. Consider what De’Von Achane’s 5.7-yard average might be with even better blocking. Now wrap your head around a team that’s had trouble winning in the cold or just windy north might fare in those conditions when it grows up.

7. Accountability is back. It’s been gone for too long around the Dolphins. When’s the last time anyone stood up and took ownership of a failed decision, much less a botched, multi-year plan? Sullivan articulated what needed to be said publicly around this franchise for years.

“At the end of the day, the buck stops with me,” he said. “I take responsibility for every player we pick. Whether it turns out the way you want it to or whether it goes south, it stops with me. I’m not hiding from it.”

The personnel guy is usually most important figure in any organization. Sometimes that’s the coach, other times someone behind the scene. Here it’s Sullivan. The Dolphins past couple of struggling decades show a franchise goes nowhere if it doesn’t draft well.

Sullivan sounds like he has a good plan and developed ideas. That represents a change around this team. You should’ve seen that at work this first draft.

But put your feet up on the table and rest a bit. The real answers of his decisions won’t start coming until these draft picks become NFL players.