DAVIE, Fla. -- There will be 253 players selected in next week's NFL draft. But according to the Miami Dolphins, there are only about 140 players of interest this year who fit their system.

The Dolphins are in the final stages of pairing down their big board heading into next week's draft. This will be the second year running head coach Adam Gase's offense. There will also be some tweaks on defense under new coordinator Matt Burke, but the scheme will mostly remain the same.

2017 NFL DRAFT Round 1: April 27, 8 p.m. ET

Rds. 2-3: April 28, 7 p.m. ET

Rds. 4-7: April 29, noon ET

Where: Philadelphia NFL draft home page » • 2017 NFL draft order »

• Mel Kiper Jr.: Mock 3.0 »

• Todd McShay: Mock 3.0 »

• Todd McShay's Top 32 »

• Mel Kiper Jr.'s Big Board »

• McShay: Top prospects by position »

• Mel Kiper Jr.: Top 10 by position »

• Pro day schedule for prospects »

• Underclassmen who have declared »

• NFL draft player rankings »

According to Dolphins general manager Chris Grier, their final board will get squeezed even more in the final week.

"That's probably a little heavy for us," Grier said of the list of about 140 players.

The Dolphins believe in being as flexible as possible heading into the draft. The goal is to be in position to draft the best players available as opposed to fishing for needs. It isn’t always easy.

Last year was a good example of Miami following that strategy. Former Ole Miss left tackle Laremy Tunsil's stock surprisingly dropped on draft night, when he fell from a potential top-5 pick to Miami at No. 13 because of a video that posted on Tunsil's hacked social media account moments before the draft.

The Dolphins didn’t need a left tackle last year with veteran Branden Albert on the roster, but they took the best player on their board, which was Tunsil. As a rookie Tunsil played left guard, but in 2017 Tunsil is moving to his natural left tackle position after Miami traded Albert to the Jacksonville Jaguars.

"Entering the draft, we always talk about you want to be in as much of a position of strength as you can be," Grier said. "We don’t have to draft for need necessarily in the first couple of rounds. When Laremy fell to us, you take him instead of being locked in, like 'we have to have this position.'"

The Dolphins are coming off a 10-win season that included a postseason berth in 2016. With those kinds of results, naturally their roster has fewer issues entering the draft.