Speaker 1: What is up Dolphins and welcome to the Draft Time Podcast.
Speaker 1: I am your host, Travis Wingfield. And on today's show,
Speaker 1: you guys know what time it is. We are still
Speaker 1: rolling through the free agency class. Here. We have two
Speaker 1: more players to analyze, two more interviews to get to,
Speaker 1: and some additional activity over the end of the week
Speaker 1: and the weekend to cover. Here from the Baptist Health
Speaker 1: Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.
Speaker 2: This is the Draft Time Podcast.
Speaker 1: We'll get to my chats with Nick Westbrook, Akine and
Speaker 1: Ashton Davis here in just one second, as well as
Speaker 1: the breakdowns for kJ Britt and Alexander Madison. But first,
Speaker 1: the news that Shent shockwaves down at Dolphins Twitter on
Speaker 1: Thursday night. The Dolphins brought back Liam Eichenberg to round
Speaker 1: out some depth on the offensive line. Just a couple
Speaker 1: of things here, real quick. Trust me, I get it.
Speaker 1: I've seen the reps that make everyone lose their minds,
Speaker 1: the reps that are out and out losses that result
Speaker 1: in big hits on the quarterback, negative runs, all that stuff.
Speaker 1: I think that the outrage that you are experiencing and expressing,
Speaker 1: which I see all of it. If we go into
Speaker 1: week one, and Liam is the starter. I think all
Speaker 1: of that would be justified, every single ounce of it,
Speaker 1: but I highly, highly, highly highly doubt that's the case.
Speaker 1: I think that this is like your eighth or ninth
Speaker 1: offensive lineman, And if the Dolphins signed a player who
Speaker 1: was a lesser player than Liam and had a different name,
Speaker 1: I think Dolphins fans would have an opposite reaction. So
Speaker 1: I understand the PTSD attached to it there, and I
Speaker 1: thought that alf Artiega from the Three Yards per Carry
Speaker 1: podcast really put it well that Liam's not about like
Speaker 1: volume losses, it's when he does lose it tends to
Speaker 1: have a major impact on the game, can almost wreck
Speaker 1: the game because some of those losses can be so bad,
Speaker 1: where James Daniels is a guy that when he loses
Speaker 1: his reps, it's like, rather than an eight yard run,
Speaker 1: a three yard run. I thought that was a very
Speaker 1: apt comparison there. So yeah, frustration understood, but maybe a
Speaker 1: little bit strong here in the month of March, but
Speaker 1: I do totally understand it. I think that I also
Speaker 1: get the sense, like Dolphins fans or on Twitter at least,
Speaker 1: kind of feel like the order of how you sign
Speaker 1: guys is like means anything like as if you know
Speaker 1: we can't sign someone better because we just went down
Speaker 1: the pecking order. I don't know, that's kind of the
Speaker 1: sense that I get, so Liam Mikenberg. We also I
Speaker 1: had to come in here and redo this because the
Speaker 1: Dolphins also on Friday it was reported agreed to a
Speaker 1: contract with tight end Pharaoh Brown, who just off the
Speaker 1: top before I get into analysis there. To me, I
Speaker 1: think is probably competition for Julian Hill as kind of
Speaker 1: that why tight end or number two possibly number three
Speaker 1: tight end. So Leam Mikenberg and Faraoh Brown. Let's go
Speaker 1: ahead now and get to my chat with new Dolphins
Speaker 1: wide receiver Nick Westbrook. Akine, It's Dolphins and welcome back
Speaker 1: into another edition of the Draft Time podcast. Free agency addition,
Speaker 1: I'm joined by new Dolphins wide receiver Nick Westbrook a
Speaker 1: keyne Nick, Welcome in, man, how.
Speaker 3: You doing doing well? Doing well? Thank you?
Speaker 2: I get the name right, last name right?
Speaker 3: Yeah, got it right? Yeah, you got.
Speaker 1: I watched some Titans radio broadcast to hear them say
Speaker 1: your name after touchdowns, and so I really focused on
Speaker 1: that to get that in and then really hammer in
Speaker 1: on the pronunciation on your last Yeah.
Speaker 3: Put in the work. I love it.
Speaker 1: A little preparation you a little bit something about that
Speaker 1: as well. So first off, welcome home, man. I know
Speaker 1: Lake Mary is what about a four hour drive from here?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah.
Speaker 1: Have you spent any time in South Florida in your
Speaker 1: life besides you know right now?
Speaker 3: Yeah, a little bit.
Speaker 4: We were actually just down here a couple of weeks ago,
Speaker 4: which is cool. Took the bright Line down. He came
Speaker 4: in early, saw my family and then took the bright
Speaker 4: Light down. That was awesome. That was pretty cool experience. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I love it, love it.
Speaker 1: My neighbor is like a big manager at bright Lines.
Speaker 1: I'll be happy to hear that is that we get
Speaker 1: a lot of use out of that train system there.
Speaker 1: What do you think is the biggest difference between South
Speaker 1: Florida and northern slash at Central?
Speaker 4: I mean, for me, it's the beaches right there. In
Speaker 4: Central Florida, you gotta go a little bit to get
Speaker 4: to the beach, but you know, down here, the beach.
Speaker 3: Is right there. So yeah, it's it's different.
Speaker 4: Probably a little bit hotter, maybe we'll see, but I'm
Speaker 4: excited to be here.
Speaker 2: Yeah. The humidity definitely creeped up on you.
Speaker 1: Down here, especially on training camp time for sure, so
Speaker 1: it is definitely toasty. So going back to the football here,
Speaker 1: getting to the football, I should say, watching you on tape, man,
Speaker 1: like your route running is really pure and clean and
Speaker 1: smooth and fun to watch to me. And so I
Speaker 1: was curious if you could just kind of take us
Speaker 1: through the progression of learning to become a great route runner,
Speaker 1: which is obviously one of the biggest things that the
Speaker 1: receiver can do in the league. And if you thought about,
Speaker 1: like when you came into the NFL, like what would
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five Nick tell twenty nineteen Nick at Indiana
Speaker 1: about the progression of six years of learning how to
Speaker 1: run routes.
Speaker 3: It's a process. Trust the process.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I feel like to me, it's just about like
Speaker 4: being as efficient as you can, you know, explosion and
Speaker 4: all that.
Speaker 3: That really is really helpful.
Speaker 4: But when you can take out the the things that
Speaker 4: are gonna, you know, get in the way of you
Speaker 4: being efficient, I feel like that's what helps out the most.
Speaker 4: So yeah, a lot of credit to you know, my
Speaker 4: receiver coaches over the years, Rob Moore, Tyke this past year,
Speaker 4: they really you know, helped me out and work with
Speaker 4: me put in that work.
Speaker 1: A lot of that duance to your game too, like
Speaker 1: where you kind of head g nob like peak one way,
Speaker 1: break off the other way, Like that was a big
Speaker 1: part of what helped you get open with the Titans.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, one hundred percent and stuff like that. That's
Speaker 4: the stuff that I learned kind of as as I
Speaker 4: went along and I was watching guys, watching you know,
Speaker 4: teammates of mine, and what they use, the tricks they use,
Speaker 4: and I feel like that's you know, one thing I
Speaker 4: try to do is just be a sponge trying to
Speaker 4: absorb as much knowledge as I can from the game
Speaker 4: because there's so many great guys that I played with.
Speaker 2: Well that will fit in well here.
Speaker 1: So will your run blocking real, which, again on the
Speaker 1: tape I had, I was like fist pumping watching you
Speaker 1: block some guys down the field, some combination blocks like
Speaker 1: hitting the edge and then climbing to the linebackers and
Speaker 1: getting those guys like, this guy's gonna fit in well.
Speaker 1: Because we have a bit of a saying here, at
Speaker 1: least I've heard it a few times, no block, no rock, Right,
Speaker 1: So I'm curious, what do you think makes a really
Speaker 1: good blocking wide receiver position? Where sometimes maybe guys turn
Speaker 1: that that part of the job down and choose to
Speaker 1: kind of, you know, maybe take those plays off a
Speaker 1: little bit.
Speaker 3: I just gotta be willing to do it. I feel
Speaker 3: like that's what it is.
Speaker 4: I mean, I pride myself in the dirty work, and
Speaker 4: I feel like, you know, you do it enough and
Speaker 4: it's not as dirty. You know, you realize there's an
Speaker 4: art to it. So yeah, you just gotta be willing
Speaker 4: to do it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's it's awesome to watch Man's that part
Speaker 1: of your game, the route running. And then also you
Speaker 1: play all over the formation, right. I think I saw
Speaker 1: a stat that you were in the slot like forty
Speaker 1: percent of the time with the Titans, so good inside
Speaker 1: outside game. Was that something you've always done, going back
Speaker 1: to Indiana High school playing all over the formation?
Speaker 3: Yeah, a little bit. You know.
Speaker 4: I feel like I just try to get a full
Speaker 4: grasp of a game plan, the playbook so that I
Speaker 4: can be plug in whatever I need to need to be.
Speaker 3: That's kind of how I.
Speaker 4: Earned just to be able to carve out a role
Speaker 4: early on in my career was just being able to
Speaker 4: know every position and go in and play. But that's
Speaker 4: really helped me because then I get a full grasp of,
Speaker 4: you know, the plays that we do have, knowing where
Speaker 4: I fit in it, or knowing where I fit in
Speaker 4: the progression and just kind of just you know, thinking
Speaker 4: about it from a bird's eye view.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the more you can do, right, undrafted guy kind
Speaker 1: of had to learn that probably right away that the
Speaker 1: more you can do is the best chance to make
Speaker 1: a football team and make a career and be here
Speaker 1: for your second contract with the Dolphins, right exactly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So how valuable is that though? Like the ability to
Speaker 1: play multiple positions across the offense. I'm sure they've told
Speaker 1: you that that's a pretty big part of the offense
Speaker 1: down here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's huge.
Speaker 4: I think it's a huge, huge, just to be able to,
Speaker 4: like I said before, like be plug and play and
Speaker 4: you know, if a guy goes down, because.
Speaker 3: That's unfortunately the nature of the business, and sometimes.
Speaker 4: Guys go down and you need to be able to
Speaker 4: have a guy that you knows what to do. So, yeah,
Speaker 4: just being versatile, reliable, that's what I try to hang
Speaker 4: my hat on.
Speaker 1: So you're a six foot two receiver. We have a
Speaker 1: bunch of guys that are very good receivers down here.
Speaker 1: They're all very fast, but we don't have anybody of
Speaker 1: that size. What do you think that your size brings
Speaker 1: to the Dolphins wide receive her room.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean it's a god given thing. I can't
Speaker 4: you can't coach it, you can't, you can't create it.
Speaker 4: I mean, you can get a surgery, but I feel like,
Speaker 4: you know, you can't play football if you get.
Speaker 3: A heighth extension surgery. Yeah.
Speaker 4: So yeah, it's just trying to use the gifts that
Speaker 4: he gave me, and yeah, I try to, you know,
Speaker 4: maximize it as best as I can.
Speaker 1: I mean, nine touchdowns on thirty two catches last year, right,
Speaker 1: It sounds like that's probably a pretty big part of
Speaker 1: your game is going up and catching the football and
Speaker 1: down the red zone.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, I definitely love the red zone. Yeah, I
Speaker 3: love the red zone.
Speaker 2: We can always use it, always can use guys that
Speaker 2: can score touchdowns down the red zone. So went to Indiana.
Speaker 1: You're a Hoosier for for five years, correct, got your
Speaker 1: business marketing degree there. What was that like and how
Speaker 1: do you plan to maybe use that down the road
Speaker 1: at some point?
Speaker 3: Yeah, we'll see, hopefully not any time soon. But but
Speaker 3: we'll see. It was great. Kelly School of Business is
Speaker 3: a really good business school up there in Indiana.
Speaker 4: Met my wife down or up there, and that's, you know,
Speaker 4: blessing in itself. I love her so much and she's
Speaker 4: honestly a huge reason of just me even being in
Speaker 4: this right now talking to you. So yeah, we'll see
Speaker 4: what it takes or where it takes me that degree,
Speaker 4: but hopefully.
Speaker 3: Don't use it soon.
Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe like ten twenty years down the road.
Speaker 4: Yeah, maybe something like golf related. Really into golf, so
Speaker 4: we'll see.
Speaker 1: All right, So just stop the whole in you because
Speaker 1: now you're talking. I mean I was just watching the
Speaker 1: players before I came down to talk to you, so, like,
Speaker 1: I love golf. Have you looked into the region at
Speaker 1: all about what's out there? Because there is golf everywhere
Speaker 1: you go down here in South FORTHA.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that was that was something I realized, you know,
Speaker 4: once sign and I was like, there's golf year round,
Speaker 4: there's no off season. Yeah, so I'm excited for that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's really cool.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 2: What's the handicaff You'm me asking?
Speaker 4: I mean, so I just had a nine month old son,
Speaker 4: so I haven't played in probably like a year, like
Speaker 4: maybe once or twice. So we're definitely in the team's
Speaker 4: probably somewhere right now.
Speaker 1: Okay, we'll get you dialed in here real quickly. You
Speaker 1: mentioned the son, so nine month old. You mentioned you
Speaker 1: said it's a little boy, little.
Speaker 3: Girl, So yeah, son boy.
Speaker 2: Okay, cool.
Speaker 1: So what's what's been the I guess the biggest learning,
Speaker 1: the biggest thing you've taken away from being a father
Speaker 1: for nine months?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it goes fast.
Speaker 4: I mean he's already nine months and I'm just like,
Speaker 4: I missed the times and I could just fit him
Speaker 4: right here in my forearm. Yeah, I just I love
Speaker 4: him so much, it's awesome.
Speaker 3: He's really such a gift.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so there really hasn't been learning other than just
Speaker 4: like patience and really I feel like I'm learning sacrifice
Speaker 4: for the first time and really understanding. You know, I
Speaker 4: understand it for myself, but sacrifice for someone else is
Speaker 4: definitely different.
Speaker 1: Definitely sacrifice and sleep. I'm sure here and there. Just wait,
Speaker 1: take a little bit older. They try to take the
Speaker 1: food off your plate like my kids are. I was like,
Speaker 1: can I have it? I'm like, yeah, I guess you can,
Speaker 1: because you're up next. So you're always always trying to
Speaker 1: take something from you and you give him back all
Speaker 1: the love and return. Man, that's great to hear. So
Speaker 1: you also have a little dog named Winston. And I
Speaker 1: was kind of reading about your background in Indiana and
Speaker 1: how you download this app called Rover where you can
Speaker 1: babysit dogs, and you were like very into that.
Speaker 2: Can you tell us about that a little bit?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I grew up always having dogs, love dogs.
Speaker 4: When I was in Indiana, I was like, I would
Speaker 4: love to have a dog, but didn't make sense.
Speaker 3: With schedule and all that. So in the off.
Speaker 4: Season I would do Rover and I would dog sit
Speaker 4: for people and you know, there was one dog I remember,
Speaker 4: I took him into the facility with me, had to
Speaker 4: run around, run around for me, stuff like that, and
Speaker 4: the owners just loved it.
Speaker 3: They got it. They got a big kick out of it.
Speaker 4: So yeah, that was that was my fix because I
Speaker 4: couldn't have a dog.
Speaker 1: And you did some work with the Tennessee Humane Society
Speaker 1: is where the National Humane Society as well, right, correct?
Speaker 2: What was that like?
Speaker 3: That was cool? It was?
Speaker 4: It was really awesome that you know, there was a
Speaker 4: dog I was able to go take on a walk
Speaker 4: and kind of just create some awareness for a pet
Speaker 4: adoption week and then ended up getting adopted, So it
Speaker 4: was it was really cool.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a really cool part thing to be a
Speaker 1: part of. You also won the ed Block Courage Award
Speaker 1: back in twenty twenty twenty one with the Titans.
Speaker 2: Can you tell us about that a little bit.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I had an injury at the very end. It
Speaker 4: was almost like basically the last play. It was the
Speaker 4: last play for me. We had the wild card game
Speaker 4: against the Ravens and it was two minute drive and
Speaker 4: got tackled and you know, had an injury with my ankle,
Speaker 4: and yeah, it was tough, especially right at the end
Speaker 4: of the season, was you know, finishing up my rookie year.
Speaker 4: I feel like it was a high note to end
Speaker 4: it like that was tough. But yeah, it was just
Speaker 4: put in the work and just was in there all
Speaker 4: the time, getting rehab, doing everything I could I could
Speaker 4: do to get back, and came back next year and
Speaker 4: had an even better year than the year before and.
Speaker 2: Just kind of kept it going from there.
Speaker 1: Now with the Miami Dolphins, I wasn't going to close
Speaker 1: with what are you most excited about to be in
Speaker 1: South Florida for but it sounds like maybe that might
Speaker 1: be golf.
Speaker 4: But maybe football first, but outside of football golf.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, So the way I will ask you the
Speaker 1: final question is if you could just tell Dolphins fans
Speaker 1: what are they going to get? What can they expect
Speaker 1: to see on Sundays with Nick Westbrook It.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm gonna work my tail off.
Speaker 4: I feel like that's what I've done since I've been
Speaker 4: in the league is just try to find a way.
Speaker 4: First it was finding a way onto a team, and
Speaker 4: then once I was there, I don't want to leave,
Speaker 4: and so just kept working, kept working. And I feel
Speaker 4: like that that in itself too is a gift that
Speaker 4: God has given me, just to just work hard and
Speaker 4: just put my head down and grind it out and
Speaker 4: see how see how it ends up.
Speaker 2: With that there great stuff, New Dolphins wide is here.
Speaker 1: Nick Westbrook a kin, thank you for your time today
Speaker 1: and we'll see you out there on Sundays. Man, Thank you,
Speaker 1: and off he goes. Let's go ahead and pause for
Speaker 1: our first break right there. Come back on the other
Speaker 1: side and hear from new Dolphins safety Ashton Davis. That's
Speaker 1: next Draft Time Podcast. Your host Travis Wingfield brought to
Speaker 1: you by AutoNation. What's Up, Dolphins? Welcome back into an
Speaker 1: edition of the Draft Time podcast Freeency edition, And my
Speaker 1: guest today is new Dolphins safety Ashton Davis.
Speaker 2: Ashen, what's up and how you doing?
Speaker 3: Doing well?
Speaker 5: Happy to be here, Excited.
Speaker 2: You came over to the good side. Check rivalry.
Speaker 1: I guess that got you down here. Now, what do
Speaker 1: you remember most about playing those games?
Speaker 5: Uh? Shoot, the warm weather when we were down here?
Speaker 6: Sure, yeah, at that stadium and you know it always
Speaker 6: you guys are always sitting in the shade and we're
Speaker 6: sitting there cooking in the sun.
Speaker 5: That's a that's the most memorable thing I think.
Speaker 2: But now you are you guys?
Speaker 1: Now, now I am you are one of us, But
Speaker 1: you've also got a few picks off of us. I
Speaker 1: think I've mistaken two or three. So yeah, four actually
Speaker 1: quarterbacks down four?
Speaker 5: Who's counting?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess you are. I mean it makes sense. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I remember being like, yop, there's Ashton David's another pick
Speaker 1: for the Dolphins. You Ashton, And then like I think
Speaker 1: Brandon Eckles got a few times too. Yeah, so he
Speaker 1: also signed somewhere else as well. So making the Dolphins
Speaker 1: better and maybe the Jets a little bit worse too.
Speaker 1: So welcome in man. How's how's it treating you so far?
Speaker 1: The building there, that's great.
Speaker 6: Flew in this morning, kind of just getting the lay
Speaker 6: of the land. Still introduced a lot of names, Probably
Speaker 6: going to have to have some reintroductions, but it's been
Speaker 6: great so far.
Speaker 2: Santa Cruz Kid, right.
Speaker 5: Santa Cruz Kid.
Speaker 2: So, beach is probably calling your name a little bit.
Speaker 6: Beach is calling my name. Yeah, I actually don't surf
Speaker 6: at all.
Speaker 2: The really never been.
Speaker 1: I'd surprised me. I would have thought maybe that's like
Speaker 1: a part of the world where everyone yeah, yeah, absolutely
Speaker 1: no doubt. So when you think about going back to
Speaker 1: like your days at Cal track team walked onto the
Speaker 1: foot ball team, right, when you think about going into
Speaker 1: your sixth year in the NFL after being a walk
Speaker 1: on in college and obviously a third round pick, so
Speaker 1: like you weren't like slept on at that point, but
Speaker 1: a walk on is usually doesn't usually make it to
Speaker 1: this level. When you reflect upon all that, what comes
Speaker 1: to mind?
Speaker 3: Do you?
Speaker 6: I think the biggest moment that comes to mind is
Speaker 6: I actually walked on for a track too, and that
Speaker 6: after my freshman year of track, they offered me a
Speaker 6: full right scholarship, but with the condition that I couldn't
Speaker 6: play football, and thankfully my parents where you know, I
Speaker 6: had to ask them first if that was okay, and
Speaker 6: they let me chase my dream of football and ended
Speaker 6: up working out. So I think that was the most
Speaker 6: memorable you know decision or like, you know, they were
Speaker 6: willing to take out a loan to help me pursue
Speaker 6: my dream and I was able to do something with it.
Speaker 5: So that was the biggest thing I remember from college.
Speaker 1: Go from walk on to conference champion in track, walk
Speaker 1: on to a third round draft pick, and like maybe
Speaker 1: could have gone even higher, Like you were really good
Speaker 1: football player and college. That's like beating the odds in
Speaker 1: a lot of ways, right, Like that's pretty impressive.
Speaker 6: It's yeah, it's kind of been the theme of my
Speaker 6: of my life and.
Speaker 5: Ready to do it again.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. So I know
Speaker 1: this is probably like agent history, but and doing some
Speaker 1: work up on you and some research for this interview,
Speaker 1: Like you didn't test after your last year in college, right,
Speaker 1: you were injured for the combine, so you didn't run,
Speaker 1: did that bum?
Speaker 2: You out because like, yeah, I will.
Speaker 6: So Combine came up and was still kind of doing
Speaker 6: rehab and stuff for that, and then we were supposed
Speaker 6: to have pro days, but then the world ended in
Speaker 6: twenty twenty, so that all the pro days were canceled
Speaker 6: and I didn't get to run, which sucked. But you know, whatever,
Speaker 6: everything happens for a reason, I guess, and I ultimately
Speaker 6: let me hear, so I think it was.
Speaker 5: It was, it was what had to happen.
Speaker 2: Did you ever run a forty at any point?
Speaker 5: I was running a little bit in training?
Speaker 2: What did your clock on that?
Speaker 6: Before I was done with my rehab, I was running
Speaker 6: high four threes.
Speaker 2: Okay, that's what that's about.
Speaker 1: Where thought you'd be below the four fours because like
Speaker 1: I said, one hundred time meter, like I.
Speaker 6: Think I had there was some more meat on the
Speaker 6: boat and then I was still, you know, eight weeks
Speaker 6: out of rehab or something. So but yeah, I think
Speaker 6: I would have ran.
Speaker 1: Well, you can kind of use that when you're playing
Speaker 1: twenty yards off the ball, playing that deep umbrella coverage.
Speaker 2: Right over the tape.
Speaker 5: Yeah, absolutely, Yeah.
Speaker 1: Do you kind of like look forward to the chances
Speaker 1: to actually get a run long distance.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, meet somebody in the in the alley, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely absolutely, So in this defense, you'll have all
Speaker 1: kinds of opportunities to play all over the field. You've
Speaker 1: obviously played in the slot a little bit, all the
Speaker 1: safety positions, some quasi linebacker roles. Have you had a
Speaker 1: chance to meet with coach Weaver yet, I have the
Speaker 1: defense at all?
Speaker 2: I tell us about that.
Speaker 5: We've talked about it.
Speaker 6: I was able to get get my iPad today so
Speaker 6: I can start, you know, getting into the film and
Speaker 6: stuff like that, diving in learning the verbiage and stuff.
Speaker 6: But yeah, we talked about a lot of stuff. I'm
Speaker 6: excited to get to work, excited to see what he has.
Speaker 6: We both seem to think it's going to be a
Speaker 6: good fit. So I'm just I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 1: It's a pretty in vogue defense across the NFL. Right,
Speaker 1: there's a bunch of coaches off that Ravens Tree. We've
Speaker 1: been one of them that has called this defense. Do
Speaker 1: you kind of have a chance to have seen this
Speaker 1: defense really permeate throughout the league to know it very well?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 6: Absolutely, I mean you see it on tape from other
Speaker 6: teams all the time as a as a defensive guy,
Speaker 6: you're not studying other people's defense, but you study players
Speaker 6: and you study, at least myself, I study other players.
Speaker 6: And a lot of the times you're you're watching tape
Speaker 6: on offense as you know who you're playing that week
Speaker 6: or whatever. But there's been there's been times where I've
Speaker 6: you know, sat back and watched a little bit of
Speaker 6: the Miami tape and I like what I see.
Speaker 1: So you talk about watching obviously, when you watch tape,
Speaker 1: you watch our offense. We talked about playing here a
Speaker 1: little bit, but when you watch the Dolphins offense, what's
Speaker 1: to you on tape?
Speaker 5: Speed?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, yeah, yeah, I know. That's that's the
Speaker 6: main thing. You know, you everyone talks about it in
Speaker 6: the league, and you know, you get a whole track
Speaker 6: team over there and a lot of guys, a lot
Speaker 6: of super talented guys, and you know, who do you
Speaker 6: who do you lean to and coverage when you got
Speaker 6: guys that can do what you know they can do.
Speaker 6: So it's a it's an explosive offense. It's a dangerous offense.
Speaker 6: And I'm glad to be a part of it now.
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, against me in practice and that kind of
Speaker 1: That's a good segue to my next question because you
Speaker 1: know you've experienced this as a player over your five years,
Speaker 1: Like the league has really changed in terms of how
Speaker 1: defenses are structured, and I think Waddle and Tyreek are
Speaker 1: probably a big reason for that with having teams play
Speaker 1: a lot too high and you know, even three high coverages.
Speaker 1: When you think about how the league has changed that,
Speaker 1: how is that shift? I guess maybe your job as
Speaker 1: a player that you know, maybe you cover less ground
Speaker 1: back there, but you're not playing in the box as much.
Speaker 2: Have you had that experience or yeah, it's it's.
Speaker 5: Uh, I think it's all game plan stuff. You know.
Speaker 6: You you go against the guys like that, you obviously
Speaker 6: you're thinking about the bomb and not don't give up
Speaker 6: the bomb.
Speaker 5: But yeah, I think I think anytime you.
Speaker 6: Got guys like that on the other side of the field,
Speaker 6: you've got to you got to know where they're at
Speaker 6: and you've got to be aware of, you know, how
Speaker 6: they can hurt you. And that dictates you know a
Speaker 6: lot of the coverages that you'll be in and things
Speaker 6: like that. And like you said before, glad to be
Speaker 6: on this on the same team as those guys.
Speaker 1: Now, yeah, definitely, let's talk a little bit about some
Speaker 1: non football stuff when you think about or not think about,
Speaker 1: but just like yourself as a person, what's some of
Speaker 1: your the best things that you're into off the field
Speaker 1: that you can get into done here.
Speaker 5: I'm just competitive.
Speaker 6: I think something I really took up was was pickleball?
Speaker 6: Really something where you know, like a low impact thing
Speaker 6: where I can I can still compete in something you know,
Speaker 6: it's not I used to play a lot of basketball,
Speaker 6: and obviously that's a little bit more high impact. So
Speaker 6: I took a pickleball just anything outside really. I used
Speaker 6: to be a big gamer in twenty twenty back when
Speaker 6: the world ended, but I haven't played a ton since.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I really I'll compete in anything. I'll play.
Speaker 6: I'll play in chess like I just I just like
Speaker 6: competing and think competing in st guys.
Speaker 1: Yeah, pickleball, I think you're I think Florida's like the
Speaker 1: country's capital for pickleball.
Speaker 6: I means it's got to be Florida, California, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, warm Weather, A little bit of golf. Playing in golf.
Speaker 6: I'm terrible at golf, but I play. I play, but
Speaker 6: I'm terrible.
Speaker 2: I feel like players are more and more certain and
Speaker 2: say they're getting into golf these days.
Speaker 1: So yeah, maybe you can fall suit there. How about
Speaker 1: just let's talk impactful football.
Speaker 2: You good with that? I mean, you played at Cal,
Speaker 2: I went to Washington State. Gokug's.
Speaker 1: Everyone knows that I asked you this question off the air,
Speaker 1: but I want to have you repeat it again. I've
Speaker 1: asked every player that's come through here for the Pac twelve,
Speaker 1: what was the toughest environment to play in college?
Speaker 2: In that conference?
Speaker 6: I thought it was it's got to be between Otson
Speaker 6: or in Washington. We played in Otson in Oregon when
Speaker 6: they were ranked and they were you know, they had
Speaker 6: like a lot of big name guys, and I remember
Speaker 6: that stadium was rocking. But I only played there one time.
Speaker 6: And I remember Washington was always always jumping, no matter
Speaker 6: what year was, if they were, you know, ranked or not,
Speaker 6: that stadium was rocking.
Speaker 5: So it's got to be one of those two.
Speaker 1: The only stay in that you can really yacht gate
Speaker 1: they call it. You can tailgate on yachts Washington stay
Speaker 1: in there Ralph Lake, Washington. So that's a pretty cool environment.
Speaker 1: And that was that must have been the Justin Herbert
Speaker 1: at Oregon when you played there, right, yep, so that
Speaker 1: must have.
Speaker 2: Been a pretty fun game to play in.
Speaker 5: Absolutely.
Speaker 1: What are your thoughts on what's happened in the Pac
Speaker 1: twelve man? Like it breaks my heart?
Speaker 6: Yeah, I'm it's crazy. I never saw that coming.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 6: We got two schools in Stanford and Cal that now
Speaker 6: play primarily East Coast games, and it's weird.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's weird. I can I don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 6: It's it sounds like an interesting situation for those guys, but.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 6: I'm interested to see how it how it progresses moving forward.
Speaker 1: Yeah, falls because Miami had that game in Cal last
Speaker 1: year was like eleven o'clock and that was like us
Speaker 1: too late.
Speaker 6: We were I was, you know, I was going to
Speaker 6: plan on watching it, but we played last year. We
Speaker 6: played in London during that so it started at four am.
Speaker 6: I think, yeah, no, no.
Speaker 2: More important fish to fry at that point.
Speaker 1: We'll close with this action if you can tell the
Speaker 1: Dolphins fans what are they going to get? And you,
Speaker 1: as a player on the field, like where are they
Speaker 1: getting an Ashton Davis competitor?
Speaker 6: You know, effort technique violence. That's that's kind of my
Speaker 6: brand of football. And I'm going to give you everything
Speaker 6: that I got and try to make the other people
Speaker 6: better around me.
Speaker 5: So I look forward to it. Can't wait. Good stuff, man.
Speaker 1: I appreciate your time in nice to meet you. Thank you,
Speaker 1: Thank you. Dolphins safety Ashon Davis. There you go, one
Speaker 1: last break, come back on the other side and break
Speaker 1: down the tape of kJ Britt and Alexander Madison. That's
Speaker 1: next Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to
Speaker 1: you by Auto Nation and henceforwarth The Dolphins have signed
Speaker 1: running back Alexander Madison. Every time I hear his name,
Speaker 1: all I can think of is the founding Fathers, but
Speaker 1: he does not come equipped with a powdered wig. He
Speaker 1: was a third round draft pick by the Vikings back
Speaker 1: in twenty nineteen out of Boise State the Blue Turf Monsters.
Speaker 1: He spent five years with the Vikings from nineteen to
Speaker 1: twenty three, one year last year with the Las Vegas Raiders.
Speaker 1: He's five eleven, two hundred and twenty pounds and he
Speaker 1: turns twenty seven years old in June. He's only missed
Speaker 1: five games over the last four years. Had a couple
Speaker 1: of injury plagued first two seasons in the NFL, after
Speaker 1: never missing a game at Boise State once in his career.
Speaker 1: There now the statistical profile, it's not very good. A
Speaker 1: career success rate of forty two point two percent. That
Speaker 1: compares to Devon eight Chan at fifty percent, where heem
Speaker 1: moster was fifty two percent in his time with the
Speaker 1: Miami Dolphins. Eighty nine games, seven hundred and sixteen carries,
Speaker 1: twenty seven one hundred and ninety rushing yards, fifteen touchdowns
Speaker 1: on the ground. He added seven more through the air,
Speaker 1: so twenty two touchdowns over his five year his six years,
Speaker 1: I should say, one hundred and thirty six grabs one
Speaker 1: thousand receiving yards, and he has six fumbles over six
Speaker 1: seasons and an average yards per carry of three point nine.
Speaker 1: He was pretty consistent in his production with the Vikings,
Speaker 1: an offense akin to the one that he'll play in
Speaker 1: here for the Miami Dolphins. But last year with the
Speaker 1: Raiders he produced one of the lowest success rates in
Speaker 1: the NFL individually and their team success rate. And you
Speaker 1: guys that heard the Raiders preview podcast will recall this
Speaker 1: that was legitimately from like dva epa success rate was
Speaker 1: literally one of the worst rushing attacks in the history
Speaker 1: of the National Football League, and as a result of that,
Speaker 1: I felt his production plummeted.
Speaker 2: Accordingly.
Speaker 1: Averaged around two point one to two point three yards
Speaker 1: before contact year over year with the Vikings, but last
Speaker 1: year with Vegas that fell to one point six yards.
Speaker 1: So you know, think about getting blown up in the backfield,
Speaker 1: like the stuff that he can't control, right, I get
Speaker 1: the football, there's a tackler in my face after one
Speaker 1: point six yards on average, compared to a half yard
Speaker 1: more on average with the Vikings. And he had similar
Speaker 1: yards after contact production last season to what he had
Speaker 1: with the Vikings. It was right around one point seven
Speaker 1: per year the last few years with Minnesota and with
Speaker 1: the Raiders. His athletic testing nothing to write home about.
Speaker 1: A four to six seven forty yard dash that's obviously
Speaker 1: thirty four percent tile among running backs or obviously not
Speaker 1: very high. I should say a ten to oh seven
Speaker 1: broad jump was in the ninety fifth percent tile, And
Speaker 1: to me, that really at tracks with his play style.
Speaker 1: Not going to be a breakaway speed guy by any
Speaker 1: stretch of the imagination. He's not going to hit home
Speaker 1: runs ever, but he does have some juice in some
Speaker 1: tight spaces.
Speaker 2: He's just not a very athletic back.
Speaker 1: His game is more get to top speed off the edge,
Speaker 1: make a move and then get forward behind the pads
Speaker 1: and keep the feet turning and basically survive contact for
Speaker 1: a couple extra yards. That's kind of what you're looking
Speaker 1: forward to here, Layah Right. Linear yardage accumulation was the
Speaker 1: Mike McDaniel phrase with Raheem moster. I would say he
Speaker 1: is like a poor man's version of that from what
Speaker 1: Raheem offered, even at a bigger composition in terms of
Speaker 1: his running style and his his body size, his bodies composition.
Speaker 1: So I think it's a downgrade at the third running
Speaker 1: back if you consider Right as the number two, which
Speaker 1: I would would push the chips towards middle of the
Speaker 1: table saying that Right's going to get a bigger workload
Speaker 1: this year. As far as his contract, that's not yet known,
Speaker 1: A lot of these contracts we haven't quite covered on
Speaker 1: the podcast are going to be very very like minimal.
Speaker 1: I mean, I can't imagine it's more than you know,
Speaker 1: a million or two bucks. So the verdict let's go
Speaker 1: ahead and get to the verdict. Almost forgot my sound drop.
Speaker 1: What I knew about Alexander Madison was that he had
Speaker 1: experience in a similar run scheme to the one that
Speaker 1: he'll enter here in Miami and had some productive years
Speaker 1: as the backup to Dalvin Cook with the Vikings. When
Speaker 1: he got to Vegas, the entire run game just didn't
Speaker 1: work and his production suffered as a result of that.
Speaker 1: He was a very productive back at Boise State, a
Speaker 1: good finisher, big with enough juice to get it wide
Speaker 1: in an outside zone scheme. And I liked him in
Speaker 1: Minnesota and even suggested him as a like I want
Speaker 1: to say I had him as my number three back
Speaker 1: or a guy that could compete for the number two
Speaker 1: job back when it was who was it? I mean,
Speaker 1: it might have been Mostert and trying to round out
Speaker 1: that group like savon akbed Miles gascon days. But I
Speaker 1: remember seeing him that year after I had suggested that
Speaker 1: when he re up with the Vikings and thinking like,
Speaker 1: oh no, he lost a step he had, like I
Speaker 1: think he had famously had no touchdowns on a year
Speaker 1: where he had like two hundred, which was a pretty
Speaker 1: crazy happenstance, the big runs are just not there. I
Speaker 1: thought he lacked the natural receiving ability on that tape,
Speaker 1: but the more I watched it, I kind of changed
Speaker 1: my mind on that. But I thought, maybe this would
Speaker 1: be an option as a pile pusher slash pass protector
Speaker 1: on third down, especially if you can be a viable receiver,
Speaker 1: because when you can catch the football, push the pile
Speaker 1: and be a good pass protector, you can play on
Speaker 1: third downs. And his reception numbers over the last couple
Speaker 1: of years would would be conducive to that. But then
Speaker 1: you look at the drops. He had seven drops in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three as a full time rotational back, and
Speaker 1: then he had more of a kind of satellite role
Speaker 1: last year where he was in and out and up
Speaker 1: and down, and he had two drops in that role.
Speaker 1: And that does not scream smooth receiver to me. Because
Speaker 1: throws to the running backs are the easiest footballs to catch.
Speaker 1: The quarterback typically doesn't put a lot of juice on
Speaker 1: that football and it's usually a pretty tight spiral that
Speaker 1: kind of takes you into your run like it's the
Speaker 1: one of the easiest catches on swing routes and screens
Speaker 1: and it's the softest football you're gonna get from the quarterback.
Speaker 1: So what I wanted to see was how effective was
Speaker 1: he on short yardage? How much of his production drop
Speaker 1: should we excuse? And what does he look like as
Speaker 1: a pass catcher. And what I learned from watching his
Speaker 1: reel of ten plus yard runs this year, his reel
Speaker 1: of runs against stacked boxes, which was also basically his
Speaker 1: short yards reel, that's what I wanted to get a
Speaker 1: look at, and his receiving reel, and on the ten
Speaker 1: plus yard run reel, most of those runs with the
Speaker 1: Raiders where it was him pushing piles over the threshold
Speaker 1: or dropping a shoulder onto a safety, then getting some
Speaker 1: daylight and finding that space. But he wasn't exactly running
Speaker 1: through the greenest of pastures. I mean again, they just
Speaker 1: didn't open up space last year on the Raiders offense.
Speaker 1: He has a pretty good amount of power when it
Speaker 1: comes down to like a one on one moment in space,
Speaker 1: like if there's a safety in the sea gap and
Speaker 1: he's got a good block, otherwise he probably runs that
Speaker 1: player over. He's pretty effective when it comes to burrowing
Speaker 1: in behind the line to push for extra yardage, which
Speaker 1: is the opposite right of what Devon Ahchan did last year.
Speaker 1: The best way I can describe it is he is
Speaker 1: good at getting the most out of blocks that are stalemates.
Speaker 1: Like you have the blocks that you win where you
Speaker 1: get pushed back and create space for a couple of yards.
Speaker 1: You have your losses where there's penetration that you know
Speaker 1: surrounds you and you can't do much about that. But
Speaker 1: when it's stacked up and there's not really a clear winner,
Speaker 1: he can stay on his feet and kind of help
Speaker 1: create that knock back at the point of attack himself
Speaker 1: by kind of burrowing into the offensive line. I also
Speaker 1: again pull up that reel against stacked boxes, and I
Speaker 1: think you can really see the ability to get the
Speaker 1: most out of what's there in those situations and thinking
Speaker 1: about getting behind some bigger linemen trying to grind out,
Speaker 1: you know, certain yards in certain situations or close games
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter, trying to you know, put the
Speaker 1: nail on the coffin. I think that, paired with enough
Speaker 1: speed to get to the perimeter, could keep him around
Speaker 1: as the number three or four back on the roster,
Speaker 1: but I'm hesitant to commit to that idea. I think
Speaker 1: he'll get competition from at least one rookie. I'd be
Speaker 1: surprised if you don't see like a back taken sometime
Speaker 1: in one of those seventh round picks feels like a
Speaker 1: great time to get a running back and then also
Speaker 1: probably an additional UDFA. I just don't think he's explosive enough,
Speaker 1: like at all. He is patient, but I don't confuse
Speaker 1: that for quick on the track in terms of his
Speaker 1: outside zone track, and I'm not sure it pays to
Speaker 1: have him out there getting carries over guys that are
Speaker 1: that or to remove a chan or right on passing downs,
Speaker 1: even if he is a pretty good pass protector. I
Speaker 1: think the short yard's prowess, paired with the ability to
Speaker 1: kind of locate and block blitzers and pass rushers, is
Speaker 1: the best part of his game that allows him to
Speaker 1: be on the field for those types of situations while
Speaker 1: keeping the defense from getting a read or a tell
Speaker 1: on you right. The last thing that this offense wants
Speaker 1: to do. In an any coach, but especially Mike McDaniel,
Speaker 1: they do not want to have personnel the tips their hands.
Speaker 1: It's a very big, very big core philosophy around here.
Speaker 1: And I don't think he's going to be like Devon
Speaker 1: h Cham running eighteen yard digs like a receiver anytime soon.
Speaker 1: But I do like the way that he scans through
Speaker 1: his protection assignment and then leaks out into the pattern
Speaker 1: after he's kind of figured out that we have the
Speaker 1: pass blocking figured out. And he's not an easy tackle
Speaker 1: when you get him on swings in space and one
Speaker 1: on ones. Go back to opening day last year, he
Speaker 1: broke two tackles and had like a thirty three yard
Speaker 1: touchdown catch and run against the Chargers, and I would
Speaker 1: imagine that he'd see quite a bit of that down here,
Speaker 1: given the pieces defenses have to worry about, right, I mean,
Speaker 1: you're not going to cover Alexander Madison with more than
Speaker 1: one player with more than like one curl flat linebacker
Speaker 1: when you have to contend with Johnny Smith and Tyreek
Speaker 1: Hill and Devon ah Chan and Gilian Waddle.
Speaker 2: Where he helps.
Speaker 1: I was happier with the tape than I thought he
Speaker 1: would than I thought it would be because my experience
Speaker 1: was that Vikings year. But I thought there was some
Speaker 1: more juice on that Raiders tape than I thought going in.
Speaker 1: I think he's a good piece for a young player
Speaker 1: to compete with that number three job. He plays a
Speaker 1: decent amount on special team, so there's some value there
Speaker 1: to address him, or maybe there wasn't in the past.
Speaker 1: I think he's a smoother receiver than Jeff Wilson was.
Speaker 1: I think he's better in pass pro and in short yardage,
Speaker 1: and that's where like to me, Wilson's a better running back,
Speaker 1: a better runner. But that was always the problem, right,
Speaker 1: he didn't specialize enough in those things that our other
Speaker 1: backs lacked. And I think that if you want to
Speaker 1: see the vision with Alexander Madison, it's that he can
Speaker 1: give you the things that Devon h Chian does not.
Speaker 1: But why he was available, We've talked about this a
Speaker 1: few times, Right, players like this don't really require this assessment.
Speaker 1: It's because these guys become available. They're not They don't
Speaker 1: move the needle. Okay, it's like a number three, number
Speaker 1: four back. It's why he's available. I have him as
Speaker 1: a replacement level player classification, which again, if you can
Speaker 1: find a good rookie, he can replace them. So thet
Speaker 1: you go Alexander Madison New Dolphins running back up next
Speaker 1: in our free agent analysis is linebacker kJ Britt, who
Speaker 1: was a fifth round draft pick by the Buccaneers in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one out of Auburn. He's spent all four
Speaker 1: years of his pro career to date in Tampa Bay.
Speaker 1: Six foot tall, two hundred and thirty five pounds, he
Speaker 1: turns twenty six years old in June. Our mission for
Speaker 1: Kyle Krabs and myself to get a bunch of twenty
Speaker 1: five year olds fresh off the rookie contracts is playing
Speaker 1: out that way. He does have a slight injury history.
Speaker 1: He missed three games last year with an ankle injury.
Speaker 1: That same ankle caused him to miss five games in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two. He missed a single game in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three with a calf injury, and he played his
Speaker 1: entire rookie year back in twenty one fifty nine career
Speaker 1: games fifteen starts. Eleven of those starts came last year
Speaker 1: for the Buccaneers defense, a playoff defense, mind you. He
Speaker 1: had four starts in twenty twenty three, and until the
Speaker 1: last two years he was more of a fixed year
Speaker 1: on special teams. In fact, his snap counts in total
Speaker 1: win eight forty six on defense cumulatively over four years
Speaker 1: and nine hundred and fifty five on special teams. He
Speaker 1: went from being a guy that played between sixty five
Speaker 1: to eighty percent of the snaps on special teams his
Speaker 1: first three season down to just thirty percent last year.
Speaker 1: So he kind of earned his way into a starting gig.
Speaker 1: And we'll get into the tape here in one second,
Speaker 1: but one of the things that I think I'm most
Speaker 1: excited about with Kaj Britt is his proximity to Levonte
Speaker 1: David because when I watched him on tape spoiler, like
Speaker 1: the processing and the instincts and the clear work that
Speaker 1: he does Wednesday through Friday. I'm imagining that Leavonte David
Speaker 1: rubbed off on him in some ways. And I think
Speaker 1: we already will have the James Daniels interview post and
Speaker 1: by the time you guys hear this analysis. But one
Speaker 1: of the things James talked about was his proximity to
Speaker 1: Charles Leno in Chicago and kind of saying like, I
Speaker 1: don't think I'd be where I am today without having
Speaker 1: Charles Lenot next to me. I think kJ Britt maybe
Speaker 1: he was this way before, but watching him with the Buccaneers,
Speaker 1: like both of the linebackers there played without false steps
Speaker 1: and with like really good instincts and intention behind what
Speaker 1: they did and understanding of the roles of every single
Speaker 1: job they had within different concepts. Defense, he has one
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty six total tackles, just four for loss.
Speaker 1: He's not an explosive player. He does hit. He's a
Speaker 1: big physical player, but he's not explosive in terms of
Speaker 1: like I'm gonna fire the trigger, get downhill, go make
Speaker 1: a play four yards behind the line of scrimmage. Just
Speaker 1: a half a sack, three passes defense, two quarterback hits.
Speaker 1: The stats that we have here are for coverage and rushing,
Speaker 1: and that's two parts of his game that just aren't
Speaker 1: part of his game he had. He's a base down
Speaker 1: run defender. According to Pro Football Reference, he had seven
Speaker 1: missed tackles last year, but only two in his career
Speaker 1: prior to that, so nine in total. It's a six
Speaker 1: percent miss tackle rate with thirty one inch arms too,
Speaker 1: because usually arm length kind of tends to lead to
Speaker 1: more miss tackles if you don't have it. But if
Speaker 1: he hits you, he pretty much gets you down. And
Speaker 1: again we'll get to the tape. But he is a
Speaker 1: very sure tackler, especially when working downhill in short spaces.
Speaker 1: Twenty two stops on two hundred and forty one rundown
Speaker 1: reps over his career, just the seven pressures on fifty
Speaker 1: four pass rush reps. But that's not how he was
Speaker 1: used because again that's not his game. He played only
Speaker 1: on the line of scrimmage like mugged up right as
Speaker 1: a blitzer, where you'll see Jordan Brooks spend like half
Speaker 1: of his time just eight times this season and fourteen
Speaker 1: times over a four year career. Nine hundred and eleven
Speaker 1: of his nine hundred and sixty career snaps have come
Speaker 1: in an off ball linebacker position, so he doesn't go
Speaker 1: out and cover receivers or running backs on the edge,
Speaker 1: doesn't do that, doesn't come down and rush the quarterback.
Speaker 1: He is a B gap to B gap off ball
Speaker 1: linebacker between the two tackles. His athletic testing profile bears
Speaker 1: that out because the only metric that he was good
Speaker 1: in was the bench press. Twenty four reps was good
Speaker 1: for the eighty first percent tile of combine linebackers that year.
Speaker 1: He also ran a four to seven five forty it's
Speaker 1: not very fast thirty two and a half inch vertical. Now,
Speaker 1: the nine foot ten broad was in the seventieth percent tile,
Speaker 1: but the vert was forty ninth percent. And his forty
Speaker 1: yard dash was fifty second percent, twenty eight percent three cone,
Speaker 1: forty five percent short shuttle. He's just not a plus athlete.
Speaker 1: I do not have contract details of this moment, but
Speaker 1: I can guarantee you. I won't say guarantee, but I'm
Speaker 1: ninety nine percent sure it's going to be what Anthony
Speaker 1: Walker got last year or less. It's going to be
Speaker 1: in that in that ballpark. Now, let's go ahead and
Speaker 1: get to the verdict. What I knew about kJ Britt
Speaker 1: was very little, So this is all pretty much new
Speaker 1: film study. But watching or reading around, you know, from
Speaker 1: some of the Bucks beat writers and just going off
Speaker 1: of the internet, I saw that he was a base
Speaker 1: down thumper who played with the real attitude and physicality.
Speaker 1: It sounds again a lot like Anthony Walker, who provided
Speaker 1: that for US last season when he was available, but
Speaker 1: he missed some time with injuries, and that compounded David
Speaker 1: Long not being the same player that he was back
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty three. And so I think you look
Speaker 1: at kJ Britt as a possible number three linebacker who
Speaker 1: can be behind Jordan Brooks, who is your like all
Speaker 1: pro caliber player in my opinion, and then Tyrrell Dotson
Speaker 1: who signed here for money that does institute second linebacker
Speaker 1: work and his tape last year would indicate the exact
Speaker 1: same thing. So I think you can probably put Brooks
Speaker 1: at the one in penn Dotson at the two in pencil,
Speaker 1: and then I would say kJ Britt with the current construction,
Speaker 1: we'll see what happens in the draft. A pretty safe
Speaker 1: bet that he's going to be your base down third linebacker,
Speaker 1: your three backer packages or goal line packages and just
Speaker 1: go knock heads between the two b gaps. It also
Speaker 1: continues this theme this offseason of bringing in tough dudes
Speaker 1: that really embrace the physical aspect of the game. He
Speaker 1: is an absolute hitter, a striker, and if you don't
Speaker 1: have your head on a swivel, he's going to put
Speaker 1: you on his highlight reel with some hit sticks. Here's
Speaker 1: what watching him more in depth topt me. You're going
Speaker 1: to see this comparison a lot by the fan base,
Speaker 1: and it is because it's applicable. But I couldn't help
Speaker 1: but see a land in Roberts. When I watched his
Speaker 1: play style, the way he attacks the run downhill, you're
Speaker 1: going to have to really bring it if you want
Speaker 1: to dish out the greater force in the collision. Usually
Speaker 1: he's playing under you and through your face mask. That's
Speaker 1: how he beats blocks with brute physicality, and he plays
Speaker 1: with very good leverage because of his power and the
Speaker 1: low center of gravity at just six feet tall. He
Speaker 1: plays under guy so well that he can lay the
Speaker 1: lumber on tight ends or guards that are you know,
Speaker 1: six four sixty five coming across the formation, trying to
Speaker 1: lead up the back into the B gap. He's a
Speaker 1: collision maker. He causes pile ups. Just an ass kicker man,
Speaker 1: Like if we're playing the game twenty five years ago,
Speaker 1: he'd have the neck role, the twelve inch high shoulder pads,
Speaker 1: and a breathe right strip across his nose. He's a
Speaker 1: total throwback of a player. He does not rush almost ever.
Speaker 1: He did have fifty four pass rushes last year, eighty
Speaker 1: six in his four year career, and just twelve pressures
Speaker 1: in his career.
Speaker 2: We talked about.
Speaker 1: He fought to u Melafonmu having like a fifty eight
Speaker 1: percent pressure rate, Like this is a player that has,
Speaker 1: you know, like a ten percent pressure rate. In fact,
Speaker 1: most of the pressures he has that I saw. That's
Speaker 1: not good math twenty percent, I don't know, but when
Speaker 1: you're blitzing at supposed to be higher, So disregard all
Speaker 1: of that. But when I watched him on tape, the
Speaker 1: pass rushes were basically like green dog looks where you're
Speaker 1: assigned to a tight end or a running and coverage
Speaker 1: and they stay in and pass protection, so you convert
Speaker 1: to a rusher then, or you know just like, oh,
Speaker 1: the play's kind of over or there's a lot of
Speaker 1: good coverage down the field, so I can just go
Speaker 1: ahead and go get the quarterback, Like he's not going
Speaker 1: to walk up on the line of scrimmage and mug
Speaker 1: up the a gaps because he's usually playing off the
Speaker 1: football and then using pretty good pre snap indicators and
Speaker 1: instincts to get himself heading in the right direction of
Speaker 1: the play at the snap, Like I saw the screen
Speaker 1: pass against the Commanders where you see his head swivel
Speaker 1: to the outside right at the snap and he sees
Speaker 1: the receivers like one's blocking and ones running back towards
Speaker 1: the quarterback which says, hey, tunnel screen right, So the
Speaker 1: preparation was very apparent, like he doesn't really he doesn't
Speaker 1: take the cheese. I guess you don't see any false
Speaker 1: steps in his game, which says that he's there's not
Speaker 1: guesswork happening. He's paying attention during installs and he's getting
Speaker 1: the most out of the work week from Wednesday through
Speaker 1: Friday when they're putting the game plans in. And there
Speaker 1: was another snap against the Commanders where they have Brian
Speaker 1: Robinson as the wildcat quarterback and Jaden Daniels is offset
Speaker 1: as the running back, and they try to sell this
Speaker 1: action to the left and he never moves that way.
Speaker 1: He sees a guard pulling from that backside and he
Speaker 1: just follows the guard right to the gap and wouldn't
Speaker 1: know it. That's where the ball comes behind that guard.
Speaker 1: Zero fallse steps whacks the ball carrier after beating the
Speaker 1: tight end the tight ends block and makes the play.
Speaker 1: Now again positively, zero pass rush to this fellow's game.
Speaker 1: If he runs into a pressure, it's because of a
Speaker 1: bust in protection or a good coverage wrapped down the field.
Speaker 1: He's not going to beat you with a pass rush
Speaker 1: move he's not going to overset you and then cross
Speaker 1: face and win back inside. He's not going to run
Speaker 1: the arc and dip and rip and bend that thing
Speaker 1: back to the quarterback.
Speaker 2: It's just not his game.
Speaker 1: And he's not going to drop big into the hook
Speaker 1: zone and be a quality cover guy. He's not going
Speaker 1: to cover guy's man up. He's downhill sidelined to sideline,
Speaker 1: and he actually has pretty good speed that way. But
Speaker 1: don't expect him to drop camp process and be a
Speaker 1: viable zone cover guy or man cover guy. And he
Speaker 1: can get himself into good spots because he's such a
Speaker 1: heady player that understands the concepts and can anticipate accordingly.
Speaker 1: But having him in the game really hurts your ability
Speaker 1: to walk up and mug up your linebackers and disguise
Speaker 1: your intentions because if he's on the line of scrimmage,
Speaker 1: you are going to be very vulnerable in the hook's
Speaker 1: own drop that you try to deploy him in.
Speaker 2: Again, it's just not his game.
Speaker 1: So if you have him out there, I hope you
Speaker 1: have Jordan Brooks and Tyrel Dotson on the field to
Speaker 1: kind of mitigate the coverage aspect and pass rush aspect.
Speaker 1: And I just continue to go back to being a
Speaker 1: fan of the way he sees the game. You guys,
Speaker 1: remember when I talked about tyreek Hills route run when
Speaker 1: he got here, about how he doesn't shortchange the process,
Speaker 1: Like you can see a window open up and you
Speaker 1: can expedite your route running to exploit that window. But
Speaker 1: Tyreek always committed to the full footwork of the route
Speaker 1: to maximize the spacing or the windows within the concept.
Speaker 1: To me, it's the exact same thing on tape for
Speaker 1: kJ Britt and how he fits the run. He does
Speaker 1: not get over his skis and try to cheat the
Speaker 1: scheme and go make a play outside of his normal responsibility.
Speaker 1: He's patient until there's a blocker in his face. Then
Speaker 1: he triggers that aggression and goes and wax him in
Speaker 1: the face. And he plays really, really damn well through contact.
Speaker 1: I saw him stack up some blocks at the second
Speaker 1: level and run it out to the sideline, get off
Speaker 1: the block and make the play. He also has a
Speaker 1: couple of tackles against the Eagles on the Brotherly Shoves,
Speaker 1: so there's value in that too. Very physical player with
Speaker 1: good instincts and football acumen, just based upon the tape.
Speaker 1: I can tell he's an absolute student of the game.
Speaker 1: He is just extremely limited athletically. Where he helps you
Speaker 1: got to have bangers on base downs and that's what
Speaker 1: he brings. If they bring two tight ends out, you
Speaker 1: have to match you with the third linebacker. But the
Speaker 1: part that worries me is if you get a team
Speaker 1: like the Raiders, who have you know, Michael Mayer and
Speaker 1: freaking brock Bauers, Like they can go twelve personnel and
Speaker 1: have you know they used to have Josh Jacobs but
Speaker 1: go power in the running game, and then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, like they can run tight end routes behind him.
Speaker 1: That would make me concerned if you do that in
Speaker 1: the game. It's what teams did to landon Roberts when
Speaker 1: he was here, So you have to be wary of that.
Speaker 1: Why he was available well because he was a role player.
Speaker 1: He's relatively one dimensional. Those are the kind of guys
Speaker 1: that stay, don't stay in the same spot forever.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: I will tell you this.
Speaker 1: I think he's a major upgrade over Duke Riley both
Speaker 1: on defense and on special Team's big upgrade there, and
Speaker 1: with that he gets a purple designation with quality depth
Speaker 1: and a special team's ace. I think if he's your
Speaker 1: third linebacker, you're doing all right. If he's your fourth linebacker,
Speaker 1: you're in a really good spot. So that is linebacker
Speaker 1: kJ Britt, new Dolphins free agent acquisition here in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five.
Speaker 2: All right, So we're doing.
Speaker 1: Just three episodes a week here, but we're giving you
Speaker 1: basically two podcast episodes per episode, so it's really more
Speaker 1: like six per week. On Wednesday, I believe the plan
Speaker 1: right now is to have I don't even know Ifatu
Speaker 1: melafon Wu and Zach Wilson's interviews I think, but what
Speaker 1: that's always flexible, and of course this could change in
Speaker 1: terms of what we have with new signings and re
Speaker 1: signings and all that fun stuff as we put this
Speaker 1: podcast out there, things always change. But we'll be back
Speaker 1: on Wednesday with a couple more interviews for you guys
Speaker 1: and have those for the rest of the week week
Speaker 1: do more analysis on new signings in the meantime. You
Speaker 1: all please be sure subscribe, rate, review, follow me on social.
Speaker 1: Check out the YouTube channel for Dolphins HQ and all
Speaker 1: the video versions of these interviews. Check out the fish
Speaker 1: Tank podcast with Seth and Juice and last but not
Speaker 1: least Miami Dolphins dot Com until next time.
Speaker 2: Fins up, Carolin and Cameron Daddy just come on home.