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Dolphins News: John Avery is First Pick
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Dolphins News: John Avery is First Pick
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*** DOLPHINS NEWS ***
Apr 18, 1998: -- John Avery is First Pick --

The Dolphins have selected John Avery with their first pick of the 1998 draft. To get Avery, the Dolphins traded their first pick to the Green Bay Packers for the Packers' first round and second round picks.

John Avery is a running back from Mississippi with terrific speed and acceleration, who can make players miss with his ability to cut and dart and then outrun them to the endzone. The only knock on Avery is that he's not very big and he might not be able to take the pounding as an every-down back in the NFL.

At 5'9" and 183 pounds, Avery is very small by modern running-back standards. During his college career at Miss., he averaged 5.5 yards per carry and 33.7 yards per kickoff return.

The Dolphins will let him compete with KAJ and Lawrence Phillips for the starting running back position, but will probably be more interested in having return kicks. In 1996, he returned 17 kickoffs and broke 2 for touchdowns. In 1997, he returned 13 kickoffs, including 1 for a touchdown.

My Comments:

When JJ traded down with the Packers, I thought that it might be to take Avery. Given the way Avery's stock has risen over the last few weeks, I didn't think that Avery would last until the 44th pick of the 2nd round and JJ clearly wanted him badly enough to take him as high as 29th.

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with this pick. Given the talent available at #19 today, trading down to get Avery and another 2nd round pick was a good move.

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Curt Fennell, curt@phins.com, DOLFAN in New Rochelle (almost)
     
   

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Curt Fennell
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DOLFAN in New England