MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — There’s no guesswork regarding the Miami Dolphins’ plan for Kadyn Proctor this season. General manager Jon-Eric Sullivan cleared it up before the rookie was even fitted for his shoulder pads.
During an appearance on the Joe Rose Show in South Florida, Sullivan said the first-round pick will start out playing left guard. While the 6-foot-7, 355 pound Proctor was believed throughout the draft process to be versatile enough to play multiple positions, he played offensive tackle at Alabama — which begged the question of why the Dolphins didn’t take a natural guard like Olaivavega Ioane or even a highly ranked player at another position of need, like safety Caleb Downs or defensive end Rueben Bain.
Sullivan answered that question, as well, on draft night.
“He’s unique. He’s rare,” Sullivan said of Proctor. “He’s a 350-pound man with unique athletic traits that can play four spots across the line of scrimmage — left tackle, right tackle, both guards. The athletic traits for a man his size are through the roof.
“We brought him in on a 30 visit. I could feel his conviction and his desire to be a good football player and do the things that he needs to do to be the best pro that he can be. All I can tell you is that there wasn’t another one in the draft like him, period.”
Miami traded down one spot with the Dallas Cowboys to take Proctor with the 12th overall pick, with both Downs and Bain on the board. It was a scenario Sullivan and the Dolphins prepared for.
The first-year general manager said the team ran through simulations in the weeks leading up to the draft to make sure its “numbers are right,” and figured Proctor would fall to them.
“[He fell to pick 11 in] most [simulations], to be honest with you. Most, and we were good with that,” Sullivan said. “There were some teams that were trying to move up (on draft night). I’ll keep those teams to myself, but there were some teams trying to move up and we felt pretty good, at least about one of them coming to get him.
“All the analytics told [us] this guy is a unique, rare guy. Again, I understand the questions, that’s just the way this business goes. Like whoever you pick, you guys are going to have questions about why you didn’t do this and why you didn’t do that and that’s OK. You’ve got a job to do, I understand that. I’m not mad at you for it, but just know we feel really good about who we invested in tonight.”
Proctor is considered one of the top physical talents in the draft, and was ESPN’s 17th-ranked player overall. But questions about his weight and work ethic left some draft pundits skeptical about whether he could reach his full potential.
The 20-year-old admitted his weight got up to 400 pounds during his freshman season at Alabama, in part due to poor dieting. Former Alabama coach Nick Saban said Proctor was “not a self-starter” but added that his shortcomings were “manageable.”
Proctor said he’s since learned how to keep his weight under control, including doing HIIT style workouts inside a heated sauna.
“I didn’t like walking on a treadmill seven days a week for two months straight like that. That was just not fun,” he said. “So I found something in HOTWORX that I enjoyed going in there, felt good to get a nice sweat in. It’s 130 degrees in there and do a workout and it doesn’t take long — 15, 30 minutes and you’re out of there. You’re done. That’s kind of how I lost 20, 30 pounds because I was going there, day in and day out and I was finding success from it.
“I would say another thing, not eating after 7 p.m. is probably the biggest thing because you’re not giving your body enough time to digest. I found out when I don’t eat after 7 p.m., I come in, I have a good weigh-in and it just felt good. Like it just started feeling good for me to have great weigh-ins in the morning.”
Reaction to the Proctor pick was mixed, not because of Proctor himself, but because of who else was available.
Downs, who the Cowboys selected with the 11th overall pick, was ESPN’s sixth-ranked player while Bain, who played for the Miami Hurricanes and was drafted 14th overall by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, was ranked ninth.
Both players play positions of need for the Dolphins but Sullivan said their decision wasn’t about a lack of belief for either Downs or Bain.
They just felt that strongly about Proctor.
“Downs and Bain are marvelous players … I think those guys will go on to be very successful in this league, no doubt about it,” Sullivan said on draft night. “We thought Proctor was rare. His height, weight, speed, production, the things that he can do on the football field for a man his size, he’s an outlier. There’s not many like him.
“That’s no shot at Caleb Downs, a phenomenal, phenomenal football player, and he’ll have a great career, and we would have loved to have him here, but we had a lot of conviction on Proctor being a very unique player in this draft and one that that we can build around for years. We invested in (quarterback) Malik (Willis), and it was important for us to protect him, to make sure that he has time to do the things that he needs to do and keep him healthy, so that was part of the conversation as well.
“We’re thrilled with the pick. We’re happy to add him. We have a lot of faith in the person, and we think he’s going to be a really good player here, no apologies.”
