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: we continue the free agent analysis. Plus we're gonna have
Speaker 1: our first two chats with brand new Miami Dolphins. James
Speaker 1: Daniels and Larry Boram joined me to talk about their
Speaker 1: addition to the Dolphins offensive line. We'll also break down
Speaker 1: the tape on Zach Wilson and Ashton Davis, formerly of
Speaker 1: the New York Jets, from the Baptist Health Studios inside
Speaker 1: the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Draft Time Podcast.
Speaker 1: Magie Jaffe, It's up, Dolphins. Welcome back into another edition
Speaker 1: of free agency here on the Draft Time Podcast as
Speaker 1: well as Dolphins YouTube channel. My guest today is new
Speaker 1: Dolphins offensive lineman James Daniels. James, welcome in man, Thank you.
Speaker 2: I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 1: You finding a way to run the building all right
Speaker 1: down South Florida, all.
Speaker 3: Right, yeah, yeah, I mean the building's pretty big, really
Speaker 3: nice facility, and so yeah, it's been it's been nice
Speaker 3: so far.
Speaker 1: What's your first first impression here of South Florida in
Speaker 1: the month of March. Not too bad right.
Speaker 3: Now, It's not too bad. It's way higher than in
Speaker 3: the Midwest. So it's been The weather's nice. The sun
Speaker 3: is really really refreshing.
Speaker 1: Iowa, Chicago Bears, Pittsburgh Steelers. You're like used to having
Speaker 1: snow on the ground this time of year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, each weather.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 2: It's crazy.
Speaker 3: I've seen shorts and like tank tops and March is crazy,
Speaker 3: you know, so that that's pretty exciting.
Speaker 1: We have some folks on staff. You'll never see where
Speaker 1: pants around here. That's always shorts and shortsleeve shirts. So yeah,
Speaker 1: it's always. The weather's definitely a big selling point. So
Speaker 1: I grew up a Dolphins fan, James and my guys
Speaker 1: were Ricky Williams, Dan Marino, Jason Taylor, Zach Thomas. But
Speaker 1: one of my favorite players of all time is actually
Speaker 1: related to you. And I just learned this Chris Chambers,
Speaker 1: and you go way back.
Speaker 2: Huh yeah, yeah, way back.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: He's one of my cousins.
Speaker 3: And it's actually funny, like growing up, like I never
Speaker 3: really fall the NFL. I always fault Chris just because
Speaker 3: you know, he's my cousin. And whenever he would play
Speaker 3: in like the Midwest, like where my family was living,
Speaker 3: like he would always give us tickets to games, and
Speaker 3: Chris has been like a super good resource for me
Speaker 3: in the NFL or like when I was in college
Speaker 3: or just a whole bunch of stuff. Chris has been
Speaker 3: a great resource to me. So it's actually really cool
Speaker 3: that like seeing what he how successful he was for
Speaker 3: the Dolphins, and like how many, how much fans, how
Speaker 3: much the fans love him, how much like people around
Speaker 3: the building that know them love them.
Speaker 2: So it's pretty cool.
Speaker 1: I used to post on message boards and my avatar
Speaker 1: for the long time, longest time was him doing his
Speaker 1: first down signal that he would do after he'd make
Speaker 1: big catches. That's my guy.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 1: The fifteen catch two hundred and thirty eight yard game
Speaker 1: he had against Buffalo, that's a franchise record. I think
Speaker 1: maybe it's still I'm not sure, but he was. He
Speaker 1: was a stub man to say the least. So yeah,
Speaker 1: let's go ahead and get into some of your football
Speaker 1: stuff here. So you know, every time I talked to
Speaker 1: a player who's coming off an injury, had the Achilles
Speaker 1: injury last year, they tend to say, like that rehab
Speaker 1: process is, you know, kind of like lonely and can
Speaker 1: be like dark at times, but they wind up coming
Speaker 1: out of it with like a like a new appreciation
Speaker 1: for the game and for the process. I'm kind of
Speaker 1: curious if you've experienced that or just how that whole
Speaker 1: process has been for you.
Speaker 3: I would't say it's really been lonely, like I've had
Speaker 3: like obviously, like I've been back home with my wife.
Speaker 3: I have my wife, my two cats, and like they
Speaker 3: always support me. But like I have a really good
Speaker 3: like PT. I have a really good like gym staff
Speaker 3: that I've been with ever since like a week after
Speaker 3: my surgery, that I see them five days a week,
Speaker 3: and like they've been they've been helping me a lot.
Speaker 3: But also like when I have like a lot of
Speaker 3: lone time, like I like I'm a reader and like
Speaker 3: I love to learn, Like I'm big in the science.
Speaker 3: And it's like I did like a lot of research
Speaker 3: on like Achilles rehabs and Achilles, like tenant studies, ten
Speaker 3: and opathy, those studies like ten and night studies, Like
Speaker 3: all the research that's been out there, like on Achilles tendants.
Speaker 3: There's not much of it, which is actually kind of crazy.
Speaker 3: There's not much, But like I've done like a lot
Speaker 3: of research on it, and I'm just trying to like
Speaker 3: do that to like help speed up my process. And
Speaker 3: I think I've been like doing a good job so far,
Speaker 3: and so're excited to just keep on rehabbing and keep
Speaker 3: on progression.
Speaker 1: You think there be more out there. It's a pretty
Speaker 1: common injury in football, right, I mean that happens a lot.
Speaker 2: Actually, to be fair, no, it's really not.
Speaker 3: I mean, yeah, there's probably like ten fifteen Achilles injuries
Speaker 3: every every year in NFL.
Speaker 2: And the expert.
Speaker 1: I'll defer to you that.
Speaker 3: It's not like there's not and that's like and that's
Speaker 3: the hard that's like the hardest part. Like it's not
Speaker 3: really it's not really that much of an understood like injury.
Speaker 3: And so yeah, like every research that's been out there,
Speaker 3: like I've read, I've read all of it, and so like,
Speaker 3: I think it's been I think it's been pretty helpful.
Speaker 1: So you're more of like a text reader than like
Speaker 1: a literature I do.
Speaker 2: I do both.
Speaker 3: My wife and I we've been doing like book exchanges.
Speaker 3: I read on a kindle though, and she reads like paperbacks.
Speaker 3: But I should I should start reading, honestly, I should
Speaker 3: start reading paperbacks. It's better, just like to have like
Speaker 3: the physical book, like you be more immersed in it
Speaker 3: than like reading on like a screen or like iPad
Speaker 3: or something.
Speaker 1: Like going to the beach and reading hard hard copy
Speaker 1: is always like one of my favorite things to do
Speaker 1: out there. So it's a good place to do.
Speaker 2: And you can do that in March here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you definitely can't. I think my family's going to
Speaker 1: the beach like next week. You can go around. It's
Speaker 1: it's pretty awesome. So you've played ninety career games in
Speaker 1: the National Football League. I'm just curious about how that
Speaker 1: value of all that experience, Like what does that bring
Speaker 1: to the Miami Dolphins with James Daniels having ninety career games.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's just like I've seen. I've seen a
Speaker 3: lot of stuff I've seen, like like talking about defensive
Speaker 3: like I've seen like a lot of defensive trends, like change,
Speaker 3: like defenses do like a lot of stuff different when
Speaker 3: I came in the leaked than what they do now.
Speaker 3: Or like players and seeing like different type of players
Speaker 3: or like similarities and players. But like I feel like
Speaker 3: the best thing about like playing so much football is
Speaker 3: like if we're playing a defense and we're running a
Speaker 3: certain play. I can look at like Chicago Chicago Bears
Speaker 3: game in twenty nineteen, it's exact same play versus exact
Speaker 3: same type of defense. I'd be like, hey, I was
Speaker 3: left guard. Hey the left guard got beat here because
Speaker 3: he did this, and so talking in twenty twenty five,
Speaker 3: I'd be like, hey, like left guard here, like don't
Speaker 3: do this or this is exactly what I have, what
Speaker 3: I did six years ago when I got beat on it.
Speaker 2: And so it's just like it's crazy.
Speaker 3: It's just how like sometimes like football is different, but
Speaker 3: still it's still all the same, and like it's really nice,
Speaker 3: like I can watch a game.
Speaker 2: From twenty nineteen, twenty eighteen, twenty twenty one, you know.
Speaker 3: And so I think it's really just being able to
Speaker 3: bring that knowledge and like experience to a room. It's
Speaker 3: huge because as like a young player, my older player
Speaker 3: in Chicago I look up to. I played next to them,
Speaker 3: Charles Leno and Charles Leno. He was a guy who
Speaker 3: would like text me clips and be like, hey, like JD,
Speaker 3: look out for this, look out for this, and you know,
Speaker 3: and that's why I try to be to the younger
Speaker 3: players like I try to be the vet that Charles
Speaker 3: was to me.
Speaker 1: That was a question I had for you because Spencer
Speaker 1: Anderson mentioned that about you last year in a locker
Speaker 1: room interview that I saw. He was saying that James
Speaker 1: will fire off texting me and the other young guy
Speaker 1: Zach Frazier and Mason McCormick. Like, here's another clip from
Speaker 1: from James saying like this is what you look at
Speaker 1: right here, So what like why do you do that?
Speaker 1: What obviously came from your from your veteran experience was
Speaker 1: next to Charles Leono, But like why do you play
Speaker 1: pay it for?
Speaker 3: I think I think it's just helpful because, like I mean,
Speaker 3: I don't know how.
Speaker 2: I just don't know.
Speaker 3: Because watching film, watching film is a lot more than
Speaker 3: just like turning on the film and just clicking through
Speaker 3: the place. There's so much things that watch that happened,
Speaker 3: certain plays that if you you may watch the play
Speaker 3: three times, you don't see it. And so like when
Speaker 3: I'm like at home, like studying film, like I always
Speaker 3: try to make sure like Okay, I may understand this,
Speaker 3: but there's a whole bunch of people like this is
Speaker 3: kind of a niche topping. Not everyone understand this. So
Speaker 3: like if there's any type of like even I even
Speaker 3: send like obvious stuff too, Like if it's an obvious clip,
Speaker 3: I still send it, like, Hey, this is a huge
Speaker 3: thing that people need to pay attention to. So I'll
Speaker 3: take a video and look at I know one. No
Speaker 3: one usually responds, but I know they see it. They say, hey,
Speaker 3: no one will saw it. There will be like eight
Speaker 3: video clips in the world. There won't be any responses,
Speaker 3: but they've seen it, and they'll like, like the next
Speaker 3: day they'll be like, hey, what made you see this
Speaker 3: or what made you send this?
Speaker 2: And so I feel like that's always been helpful.
Speaker 1: They gotta throw you a thumbs up or a heart
Speaker 1: emoji on that man, just just to tell you that
Speaker 1: they saw it. Like that streusses me out as a
Speaker 1: text or myself, like just tell me you saw the text.
Speaker 2: No, they see it.
Speaker 3: They see it, they acknowledge it, just in a different way,
Speaker 3: just a different way stuff.
Speaker 1: So you touched on something that I actually I find
Speaker 1: very fascinating as I do my podcast and research NFL,
Speaker 1: you know football as much as I possibly can, there's
Speaker 1: shift and trends of like teams that played a lot
Speaker 1: more you know, single high presentations in the past, where
Speaker 1: now it's like too high, you have to run the
Speaker 1: ball because we're going to play off and invite the
Speaker 1: running game. Like from your experience, how has that kind
Speaker 1: of shifted the the mindset of an offensive lineman or
Speaker 1: has it?
Speaker 3: I mean you just have to know. It's like if
Speaker 3: teams are constantly playing too high, I mean, the easiest
Speaker 3: way to lose games big explosive plays. I mean, just
Speaker 3: look at statistics statistically, I mean, if you have big
Speaker 3: explosive plays are usually coming from passing plays, and those
Speaker 3: in passing those can change games. And so teams are
Speaker 3: just like defensive league teams are just realizing, hey, we're
Speaker 3: just okay, we may give up one fifty rushing, but
Speaker 3: if we're not giving up the forty fifty sixty seventy
Speaker 3: yard touchdown passes, we could still manage the game. And
Speaker 3: when defense gives you something, it's like when they're playing
Speaker 3: single high. If they're playing single high, because like when
Speaker 3: you're running the ball, well, they're gonna play single high,
Speaker 3: and that's when we have to kill them with the pass.
Speaker 3: So like we understand, like offense lineman should understand that
Speaker 3: whoever the defense gives you like, that's what you know,
Speaker 3: that's what you're gonna have to do.
Speaker 1: You got to take advantge of it. And I don't know,
Speaker 1: I'm sure you're aware of this, but we have a
Speaker 1: couple of guys ten, they were ten and seventeen. They
Speaker 1: force a lot of too high coverage that we have
Speaker 1: a lot of long touchdown makers here in this offense.
Speaker 3: I remember we played here, We played here in twenty
Speaker 3: twenty two. That game, right, yeah, in the that's a
Speaker 3: brutal loss.
Speaker 2: Oh my god.
Speaker 3: But the first drive, the Dolphins first drive of the game,
Speaker 3: I just remember I was just looking. It was like
Speaker 3: five yards, five yards, twelve yards, twenty five yards, ten yards,
Speaker 3: ten yards touched out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was like it was.
Speaker 3: It was so efficient, I was. It was crazyer his
Speaker 3: motion and like plays. I mean, it was, it was,
Speaker 3: it was. It was pretty impressive.
Speaker 1: My experience is the OPSID was like, yes, yes, yes, touchdown,
Speaker 1: all right, there we go in the end zone right
Speaker 1: away off the top. So yeah, you'll get you'll get
Speaker 1: to enjoy that here firsthand with the Miami Dolphins. I
Speaker 1: just want to keep asking some philosophical football questions because
Speaker 1: you're so good at this uh. I like the idea
Speaker 1: of offensive line play is something that I think has
Speaker 1: also shifted over the last ten years or so. You
Speaker 1: see guys like come out of college and it's like
Speaker 1: get to the line of scrimmage, you know, run the
Speaker 1: snap and get back to the line scrimmage, like don' huddle,
Speaker 1: don't finish your block maybe or don't maybe don't worry
Speaker 1: about as much, whereas like in the old days it
Speaker 1: was like, you know, play through the echo of the whistle,
Speaker 1: and in the NFL it's more like huddle up, finish your block,
Speaker 1: play a certain style. Like do you see that difference?
Speaker 1: And like how is that kind of impacted the way
Speaker 1: guys develop, you know from rookie year to year eight?
Speaker 4: Now?
Speaker 3: I mean it just been the that's the biggest thing
Speaker 3: for I think offensive lineman is like one who their coaches,
Speaker 3: two what their scheme is, and three the players around
Speaker 3: their scheme, because like if you're you could be a
Speaker 3: super talented offense and you see it all the time,
Speaker 3: like you have a super talented offensive lineman, but he
Speaker 3: doesn't have a he doesn't have a good coach, and
Speaker 3: he just doesn't develop or they're playing in the scheme like,
Speaker 3: not all schemes in the NFL are created equal. There
Speaker 3: are schemes where there's large margin for errors or offensive
Speaker 3: line and I think, like, I think it's just unfair
Speaker 3: that like some offensive linemen are they're playing in schemes
Speaker 3: that are they're super critical and they have to pretty
Speaker 3: much play perfect for the team to be successful. And
Speaker 3: then the third thing is like the players around them.
Speaker 3: It's like, for example, like I was lucky when I
Speaker 3: was in Chicago while I was left guard, I had
Speaker 3: Cody white Hair at center and that Charles Lyndho at
Speaker 3: left tackle.
Speaker 2: They were both Pro Bowl players.
Speaker 3: And so like they helped me so much and they
Speaker 3: taught me the game, you know, and it's like you can,
Speaker 3: like I feel bad. There's like sometimes there's rookies who
Speaker 3: come into the NFL and they don't have players around
Speaker 3: them who can help them. They have players around them
Speaker 3: are struggling and she's very hard to develop. Like I
Speaker 3: don't think I would be an eight year player if
Speaker 3: when I went to Chicago if I had people who
Speaker 3: weren't successful players around me. And so like I'm glad
Speaker 3: that like when I'm here that like no matter who's
Speaker 3: at center or right tackle.
Speaker 2: It's like I can't. I know I'll be able to
Speaker 2: help them.
Speaker 1: That must be why you pay it forward so much.
Speaker 1: You kind of, oh, you're not your career, but like
Speaker 1: a lot of appreciation towards those guys. So speaking of
Speaker 1: the scheme, you must be thrilled to be coming here
Speaker 1: because watching your tape, Man, the way you get out
Speaker 1: in space with some of the nastiness too. But man,
Speaker 1: we run the outside zone plays and we get eighth
Speaker 1: and going out in space, like, you got to be
Speaker 1: pumped to lead that guy in this offense.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the scheme is sick. It's super cool.
Speaker 3: And then I mean the weapons, the weapons on offense
Speaker 3: or a like are really good. So I'm really excited.
Speaker 3: I'm really excited to play in it.
Speaker 1: Okay, enough football talk. I want to talk about your
Speaker 1: Instagram page, not yours. You mentioned your two cats earlier.
Speaker 1: I found the Instagram page. Man, tell us about being
Speaker 1: a cat dad, because I told you off the air,
Speaker 1: I have a ten year old cat. She's like the
Speaker 1: queen of the house. She takes a lot of crap
Speaker 1: from the four and the two year old in the
Speaker 1: house of the humans, you know, but she's she's like
Speaker 1: the queen of the house. So tell me about your cats.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm actually I wasn't. Originally I wasn't into cats. Oh,
Speaker 3: I'm actually allergic to cats. I had dog growing up.
Speaker 3: But then my wife when she was in grad school
Speaker 3: in Saint Louis and then I was I was with Chicago,
Speaker 3: she was in Saint Louis loan and so she we
Speaker 3: decided to adopt a cat for her so she wasn't
Speaker 3: like alone all the time. And then a couple of
Speaker 3: years later she was like our or so our first
Speaker 3: cat we adopted.
Speaker 2: Her name was Kerma. We adopted it from a shelter.
Speaker 2: And then I was.
Speaker 3: In camp in Pittsburgh and she was like, I know,
Speaker 3: like Kerma's game lonely. I think she needs a friend.
Speaker 3: And so she went to a shelter and then it
Speaker 3: was off day. I'm taking a nap. I have like
Speaker 3: five missed calls from her, and she's like, hey, like
Speaker 3: I found a.
Speaker 2: Cat to adopt. I found a cat to adopt, kind adopt.
Speaker 3: I was like, I was like, I don't know if
Speaker 3: you want to yeah, And then yeah, then we got
Speaker 3: second one. Yeah, I've been two years later, three years
Speaker 3: layer after we had after we got Kerma, So yeah,
Speaker 3: we have two cats, Kerma and guitar.
Speaker 2: There.
Speaker 3: Kerma could be a little bit she can be a
Speaker 3: little bit nasty sometimes the guitar is a little bit
Speaker 3: nicer than me. But they both love Aaron a lot
Speaker 3: more than they loved me.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, Usually it goes like the data
Speaker 1: is resistant to like the new cat or dog purchase.
Speaker 1: Then a month, Larry, you see the cat like on
Speaker 1: the top of the guy's head, like they're just like inseparable.
Speaker 1: So that seems kind of how it's been for you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the cerone, she'll get close to me, but like
Speaker 3: anytime I like try to touch or something, she'll like
Speaker 3: like run away, not run away, but like walk away
Speaker 3: to like where I'm auferent range.
Speaker 1: Very good stuff, James Daniels. I think the fans are
Speaker 1: gonna love getting to know you. Man. I appreciate your
Speaker 1: time today. Thanks for talking with us. Sure, and there
Speaker 1: he goes. Let's go ahead and take a break right there,
Speaker 1: come back and talk to the other offensive line acquisition,
Speaker 1: Larry Boram. That's next here on the Draft Time podcast,
Speaker 1: your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation.
Speaker 1: What's up, Dolphins? Welcome back into the Draft Time podcast
Speaker 1: as well as the Dolphins YouTube channel for another chat
Speaker 1: with a free agent signing from the twenty twenty five
Speaker 1: class new Dolphins offensive lineman Larry Boram. Larry, Welcome in man.
Speaker 1: How's a how's Florid treating you so far?
Speaker 4: It was great? Weather's amazing. Place is amazing.
Speaker 1: You get the short time, right, a little different than
Speaker 1: Detroit and in Chicago from Detroit. Played his ball in
Speaker 1: Chicago as well. And yeah, you got some nice weather.
Speaker 1: You can go to the beach any times soon, maybe
Speaker 1: a little bit today, Yeah, a little bit all right,
Speaker 1: that sounds good. So I had a chance to meet
Speaker 1: you earlier in the cafeteria before we had the interview here.
Speaker 1: Not a bad little set up over there for some food.
Speaker 4: Hunh oh, No, it's great. It's amazing.
Speaker 1: What'd you have for breakfast?
Speaker 4: Some eggs, potatoes and thesausice.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's every day, there's always a lead
Speaker 1: food over there. So it's we enjoyed that quite a lot.
Speaker 1: So you began your career in Missouri as a guard, right,
Speaker 1: your first start was a guard, yeah, and then you
Speaker 1: kicked out the tackle a little bit. Uh, and then
Speaker 1: you do the same thing in the pro as you
Speaker 1: play tackle, poyso guard. All of this question is designed
Speaker 1: to basically ask you, what's the value in your experience
Speaker 1: of having so much experience at different positions across the
Speaker 1: offensive line.
Speaker 5: I thought, the more you can do is everything in
Speaker 5: this league. You got to be able to one not
Speaker 5: just be one dimensional, and be able to know the
Speaker 5: whole offense as a whole from every position, to be
Speaker 5: able to be flexible and go in and if you're
Speaker 5: called upon it, left.
Speaker 4: Guard, right guard, tack or whatever like. You got to
Speaker 4: be able to do that. There's a lot of value
Speaker 4: with that.
Speaker 1: That seems to be like almost uniform in college football
Speaker 1: and the pros nowadays, like guys cross train right, play, tackle, guard, guard, center,
Speaker 1: because it is thought of as like a collective unit
Speaker 1: more than just one guy doing a job like you're
Speaker 1: thinking about all five. Is that kind of the idea
Speaker 1: behind that?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Yeah, And I think it makes it easier to to learn,
Speaker 5: you know, I mean, if you know and understand what
Speaker 5: everyone's supposed to do, then you have a better understanding
Speaker 5: of the whole fiction.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it makes perfect sense. So you come down here
Speaker 1: and watching your tape man like your foot quickness for
Speaker 1: a guy your size is like whoa, it jumps off
Speaker 1: the tape. And when I'm watching you, I'm thinking, like
Speaker 1: that fits what we do pretty well. We run off
Speaker 1: the football here on the offensive line. How excited you
Speaker 1: to play in this scheme and how do you think
Speaker 1: it suits your skill set?
Speaker 5: I think I'm one, I'm very excited and I think
Speaker 5: it suits me very well just the way you guys.
Speaker 5: Everything is done here as far as the play call
Speaker 5: and the offensive schemes, everything.
Speaker 2: Is very so.
Speaker 1: Last year I asked Tron Armstead this question in training
Speaker 1: camp about because he had played in New Orleans for
Speaker 1: so long that it came here and got to play
Speaker 1: in this you know, the Shanahan Tree system that as
Speaker 1: I guess dubbed And I asked him, like, what do
Speaker 1: you love about playing tackle in this offense? And he said,
Speaker 1: they really do a good job making the offensive lineman
Speaker 1: feel like playmakers. Do you kind of feel like that's
Speaker 1: kind of how this offense works. They make your tackles
Speaker 1: and your guards can be playmakers and go out and
Speaker 1: make the big play that kind of springs the touchdown.
Speaker 5: Yes, yeah, I agree with that. I think it's it's
Speaker 5: a lot into it that allows us to be that
Speaker 5: playmaker and.
Speaker 1: A lot of Yeah, what do you think about the
Speaker 1: skill pieces that we have down here with obviously Tyreek Hill,
Speaker 1: Jalen Wattle, Devon a Chan just brought Nick Westbrook, Akina In,
Speaker 1: John Smith, Jalen Wright, like the Lake Washington. When you
Speaker 1: think about all those guys that can put the ball
Speaker 1: in the paint, like, how excited you get about that?
Speaker 4: Oh, I'm very excited. Is Nope?
Speaker 5: Those guys are are speezers. They can get up and
Speaker 5: down of itill is dope.
Speaker 1: Do you like when you're playing in the league? I know,
Speaker 1: like you're so busy with your game planning and your
Speaker 1: your meetings and stuff for that week, But do you
Speaker 1: like catch other things go on? Like you did you
Speaker 1: see the Dolphins over the years, Like, man, that offense.
Speaker 4: Is is clicking.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm one that I actually enjoy watching football still,
Speaker 5: like even during the seasons, just seeing how the teams
Speaker 5: do a lot of things. Yeah, this team has always
Speaker 5: been a I'm like, man, that's that's nice.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's been fun to watch the last couple of years,
Speaker 1: especially two years ago we were just like scoring thirty
Speaker 1: five points every game. It seemed like, so you come
Speaker 1: down to this offense, and you know, you played again
Speaker 1: in Missouri, played for the Chicago Barriers, now you're here
Speaker 1: in Miami. And we've kind of seen this trend in
Speaker 1: the NFL over the last few years, where like maybe
Speaker 1: for offensive linemen it takes a little bit longer to
Speaker 1: develop and become like the best versions of themselves, like
Speaker 1: we had Austin Jackson had like a big breakout year
Speaker 1: in his third season, a very young offensive lineman in
Speaker 1: the first round for us. Is do you think that
Speaker 1: that's kind of a trend in the league in terms
Speaker 1: of how guys developed, Because I was talking to James
Speaker 1: Daniels about this before you came in here about how
Speaker 1: like in college just coach more like just get to
Speaker 1: the line of scrimmage and get to the next snap
Speaker 1: because we're trying to go fast, right. Do you think
Speaker 1: there's a difference in how that is played compared to
Speaker 1: the pros And how do you think that impacts like
Speaker 1: players like yourself, for instance, and your play to develop
Speaker 1: your game.
Speaker 4: As a pro. Yeah, I think it's a pro.
Speaker 5: It's a lot more like you said, a lot of
Speaker 5: more development into it, and in college it was just
Speaker 5: get to line, next play, next player. Everything gets so fast,
Speaker 5: but it approaches a lot of a lot more time
Speaker 5: to really focus on what you need to do individually,
Speaker 5: and I think development, especially for me, like fight. I'm
Speaker 5: a younger player, still twenty five, fight my best balls
Speaker 5: out of me. So I think that's definitely a good trend.
Speaker 1: And reading some of your background on some stories on
Speaker 1: Chicago Bears dot Com and stuff they're talking about like
Speaker 1: kind of where your drive comes from and you don't
Speaker 1: get complacent and you like got to the league and
Speaker 1: it's like okay, now it's time to go to work, right,
Speaker 1: Like where are some things you do to make sure
Speaker 1: that you're always like striving to get better and not
Speaker 1: being complacent.
Speaker 5: Just my work ethic just as a whole, stemming from
Speaker 5: when I was younger. For my mom, she works seven days,
Speaker 5: he was a waitress's the whole nine. Like just seeing
Speaker 5: her do that really instilled in me too. There's no
Speaker 5: you're not set anywhere, and like whether it's football, just.
Speaker 4: In life in general. So that's that's really why you
Speaker 4: get got wrong.
Speaker 1: So I assume that when you got drafted, you probably
Speaker 1: were with mom.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I was back on Yeah okay, and then.
Speaker 1: When you got this the contract for the Dolphins, did
Speaker 1: you like, was she probably your first call?
Speaker 4: And guess yeah, yeah she was was it was. He
Speaker 4: was very excited.
Speaker 5: We've we've been through a lot of things in the
Speaker 5: past couple of years, and just she was the static.
Speaker 1: So you played high school football obviously, but also the
Speaker 1: hardwood too, write basketball player back in back in the
Speaker 1: in Detroit, right, So tell me about how your basketball
Speaker 1: experience helped you on the football field.
Speaker 5: Everything just with for work, being able to just move
Speaker 5: in general, that's that all comes from basketball. But I
Speaker 5: didn't start playing football until my high school year, my
Speaker 5: freshman year high school.
Speaker 1: Okay, so yeah, because basketball like playing defense, right, It's
Speaker 1: like man, you hoop, and on the offensive line, it's like, man,
Speaker 1: you quarterback, right, Like same idea, same concept. So I'm
Speaker 1: fascinated by your background, man, because like at Missouri you
Speaker 1: majored in pre engineering.
Speaker 5: Uh yeah, yeah, I began in pre engineering that I
Speaker 5: went into business and then finished.
Speaker 2: With sports as well.
Speaker 1: Okay, but I mean that's like that is no small task.
Speaker 1: Like I had a buddy that was an engineer major
Speaker 1: at Washington State go kooks, And I'm like, he was
Speaker 1: just so much smarter than me. Like everything that he
Speaker 1: did was like he was just a wizard numbers and stuff.
Speaker 1: And I think about that and like how you know,
Speaker 1: we think about quarterbacks is having to be smart, but
Speaker 1: you talk about like the collective you know of the
Speaker 1: offensive line these days, and like you have to be
Speaker 1: pretty smart to know landmarks and like how you're gonna
Speaker 1: pass off blocks? Like how do you how do you
Speaker 1: think being an intelligent person helps an offensive Lineman's everything?
Speaker 4: Half the battle is getting to the line of scrimmage and.
Speaker 5: Knowing what you're looking at, knowing to play called, oning
Speaker 5: what you have to do, and using the five brains
Speaker 5: as one. And so that's that's everything.
Speaker 1: How do you feel your processing as an offensive lineman
Speaker 1: has grown from your rookie year to now, Oh tremendously.
Speaker 5: A tremendously just taking in all the mom I rook
Speaker 5: here it was I had JP and a rom Jason
Speaker 5: Peters and that was a blessing and he taught me
Speaker 5: a lot. And being able to get to the line
Speaker 5: and think like, okay, play call what I need to do,
Speaker 5: and just little things at the line to really help
Speaker 5: you build from there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, very cool. So watching a lot of the tape
Speaker 1: of the guys we brought in, including yourself and James Daniels, like,
Speaker 1: toughness seems to be a bit of a theme behind
Speaker 1: those guys. We think about toughness on a football field,
Speaker 1: like what does that mean to you?
Speaker 4: Uh, something'sn be a lot of different things. It can
Speaker 4: mean the traditional like just.
Speaker 5: The physical part of it, but I think it's also
Speaker 5: like the effort part behind it. Like I think effort
Speaker 5: falls into toughness, and because you have to want to
Speaker 5: put in that effort, in that grind to it, I
Speaker 5: think that's a big part of it.
Speaker 1: Okay, so football obviously comes first at all times. But
Speaker 1: you're down here in South Florida, gonna get some time
Speaker 1: off here coming up? What's the first thing that you
Speaker 1: can't wait to go do as a new South Florida resident?
Speaker 4: Beach and golf.
Speaker 1: Beach and golf. So we talked about Golfriller and who's
Speaker 1: gonna come up?
Speaker 5: You just got into it, right, Yeah, Yeah, I've been
Speaker 5: into it for like the past like seven months or so,
Speaker 5: like a year.
Speaker 1: How's it going?
Speaker 3: Uh?
Speaker 4: Not good?
Speaker 5: But it's just the vib it's so have some good
Speaker 5: has some good holds as a bad once.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean you can get out there year round
Speaker 1: down here so you can get you can really sharp
Speaker 1: up the game of the off season. Man.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Larry Boram new Dolphins offensive I'm in pretty sure times man.
Speaker 4: Thank you.
Speaker 1: James Daniels, Larry Borum both in the can here. In
Speaker 1: terms of their Draft Time interviews. Fun to talk to
Speaker 1: those guys. Man, what characters they are, especially James. Right,
Speaker 1: let's go ahead and take a break. Great there, come
Speaker 1: back on the other side and get you not one,
Speaker 1: but two analysis on free agent acquisitions. Zach Wilson, Ashton Davis.
Speaker 1: That's next Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought
Speaker 1: to you by Auto Nation. Quarterback Zach Wilson, whose career
Speaker 1: resume dates back to the second overall draft pick in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one out of BYU to the New York Jets.
Speaker 1: He spent three years there before last season going off
Speaker 1: to the Denver Broncos, where he did not play any snaps.
Speaker 1: He's a six foot two to two hundred and fourteen
Speaker 1: pound quarterback who will be twenty six years old in August.
Speaker 1: His injury history He had a PCL sprain that cost
Speaker 1: him four games in twenty twenty one, a meniscus tear
Speaker 1: that cost him all of the preseason and three games
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty two. He missed time late in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three after a concussion. He also tore a Laborman
Speaker 1: High school and broke a thumb in college. Twenty twenty
Speaker 1: and twenty twenty four were the only years without an
Speaker 1: injury for Zach Wilson since twenty nineteen. He might recall
Speaker 1: twenty two twenty four, he didn't play a rep the
Speaker 1: entire season. His statistical profile twenty three touchdown passes, a
Speaker 1: twenty five picks. It's a two point two percent touchdown rate,
Speaker 1: a two point five percent interception rate, neither of those
Speaker 1: very good. Fifty seven percent completion, six point three yards
Speaker 1: per attempt, thirty seven percent success rate with a seventy
Speaker 1: three point two passer rating, and he's taken one hundred
Speaker 1: and thirteen sacks a's say, ten point two sack rate,
Speaker 1: and he's twelve and twenty one as a starter. None
Speaker 1: of those very good. He never posted a season with
Speaker 1: better than a thirty eight point five QBR. He had
Speaker 1: seven point eight air yards per attempt, twenty one point
Speaker 1: one percent bad throw rate, a seventy two percent on
Speaker 1: target throw rate. But he did have fifty five scrambles
Speaker 1: with an average of eight point nine yards per scramble.
Speaker 1: He did not have any athletic testing in college because
Speaker 1: of the COVID season. His contract is a one year,
Speaker 1: six million dollars deal, which is roughly when I did this,
Speaker 1: and it was on Monday night, so it could be different. Now,
Speaker 1: it was the thirty second most apy for a quarterback,
Speaker 1: but we're also talking about guys coming up on their
Speaker 1: second and third years of their contracts and the rookie
Speaker 1: contracts that would push him more close to the forty range.
Speaker 1: And this is the exact same contract we're talking about
Speaker 1: here with Tyrod Taylor with Marcus Mariota. Again, if you
Speaker 1: factor in those like eight to ten rookie year contracts
Speaker 1: or rookie contracts, I should say he becomes like the
Speaker 1: fortieth highest paid quarterback, so a top quartile backup quarterback,
Speaker 1: which is kind of what you need with Tua. At
Speaker 1: least that's what the investment tells us. The film probably
Speaker 1: something different, but that's kind of the mold of where
Speaker 1: you find backup quarterbacks now right, their former failed first
Speaker 1: round picks that are looking for that redemption arc. That's
Speaker 1: what it is these days. Otherwise you're just probably not
Speaker 1: much of a player. You're probably more in the form
Speaker 1: of a Gardner Minshew or a Mason Rudolph or a
Speaker 1: Josh Dobbs, guys that just don't play the position very
Speaker 1: well and don't have much upside. Now that's the information
Speaker 1: the black and white, cut and dry, just data poll
Speaker 1: from Travis Wingfield here on the Draft Time podcast. Let's
Speaker 1: go ahead and get to what you really came for
Speaker 1: here the verdict. You know, a couple of weekends ago,
Speaker 1: I taught a careers in Sports class to high schoolers
Speaker 1: at Saint Thomas University. They were at the program for
Speaker 1: the weekend, learning from folks like myself, and I was
Speaker 1: telling them about how ideas come at all hours of
Speaker 1: the day. That idea came late on Monday night when
Speaker 1: I was thinking about how to stack these free agent reviews,
Speaker 1: and I was like, I'm going to play the People's
Speaker 1: Court Verdict song before every single film reviews. So here's
Speaker 1: what I knew about Zach Wilson. He was a gun, shy,
Speaker 1: timid decision maker with a penchant for retreating against pressure,
Speaker 1: bailing on footwork and clean pockets at the first sign
Speaker 1: of danger. The game has always been too big for him.
Speaker 1: In the flashes of pro day style plays that made
Speaker 1: everyone fall in love with this guy for the second
Speaker 1: pick in the draft, they show up maybe once or
Speaker 1: twice a game while he leads a slog of an
Speaker 1: offense for one hundred and seventy yard ten point output
Speaker 1: every single week. He was drafted where he was because
Speaker 1: of a shortstop arm with plus scramble ability to create
Speaker 1: outside of structure, and there were glimpses of that as
Speaker 1: a pro, but that was with the Jets. He spent
Speaker 1: a year backing up bo Nix, working with Sean Payton,
Speaker 1: Joe Lombardi, and Davis Webb in Denver, and my pre
Speaker 1: free agent draft report or freegency report I should say,
Speaker 1: was that he was frenetic in the pocket, with an
Speaker 1: inherent nature to retweet against pressure, has no trust in
Speaker 1: his protection due to a lack of processing power. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure he understands the checkpoints he has to get
Speaker 1: through pre snap, what presentations look like and how they're
Speaker 1: set up to get different looks from the defense. He
Speaker 1: has a fun arm, some scramble ability, but he can't
Speaker 1: even maximize that because of the horrible spots he puts
Speaker 1: himself into as a drop back passer. Perhaps he developed
Speaker 1: this stuff for the first time in his career working
Speaker 1: with a competent play caller and quarterback room, but it
Speaker 1: would be a hard pass for me. That's what I
Speaker 1: wrote back in January February. I also know that Albert
Speaker 1: Breer tweeted the quote based on what people in Denver
Speaker 1: were saying about Wilson after the season. Don't sleep on
Speaker 1: this move end quote, so that maybe you want to
Speaker 1: find out exactly what the hell that means. Unfortunately, we
Speaker 1: got no evidence of it on tape with zero snaps
Speaker 1: played in Denver, so we're stuck to pick some things
Speaker 1: out of his Jets tape as well as some preseason
Speaker 1: Broncos tape. Here's what I wanted to see when I
Speaker 1: cracked open the evaluation on Zach Wilson. His third down reel.
Speaker 1: That's where you always start with quarterbacks third and long.
Speaker 1: How do they pass when the defense knows the pass
Speaker 1: is coming. Games where he came off the bench, big games,
Speaker 1: because he has had some statistical anomalies where he kind
Speaker 1: of went off in games. I wanted to know what
Speaker 1: the case was in those situations, and then of course
Speaker 1: some of his Broncos tape, even if it is just preseason.
Speaker 1: I needed to see if the pressure was a protection
Speaker 1: thing exclusively. I needed to see what type of energy
Speaker 1: he brought is a backup, and I knew he had
Speaker 1: those three or four games where he went crazy. I
Speaker 1: wanted to see what was common across those games, and
Speaker 1: of course throughout all of that, how it translates to
Speaker 1: our offense. Here's what I found. The pressure and protection
Speaker 1: was a pretty even split in terms of blame to
Speaker 1: be passed a round, but his ability to play the
Speaker 1: position in New York was just non existent. Brother not
Speaker 1: taking the information the rotation would give him, Like even
Speaker 1: when he got deeper into his career, he would step
Speaker 1: up into a pressure, he would try to create or
Speaker 1: make matters worst. He would play the position in this
Speaker 1: very programmed way, where like he would feel pressure against
Speaker 1: teams with good blitz schemes or a sim pressure where
Speaker 1: you know the pocket is perfectly clear and fine, and
Speaker 1: he would like step up into the pressure or quickly
Speaker 1: check the ball down to a player who was well
Speaker 1: covered in the in the coverage scheme and have like
Speaker 1: no on the fly ability to adapt to how that
Speaker 1: particular play went. I'll never forget high school basketball are
Speaker 1: head coach always use this example of how to run
Speaker 1: the clock out at the end of games, and he
Speaker 1: was like, you know, we run the offense to drain
Speaker 1: the clock, but if they spring a league and you
Speaker 1: catch the basketball with a free run to a layup,
Speaker 1: go take the two points. And he'd always compare it
Speaker 1: to like, you don't see a receiver, you know, just
Speaker 1: go down or out of bounds when they catch the
Speaker 1: ball when there's trying when they're trying to drain the clock,
Speaker 1: they go to the end zone if it's there for him.
Speaker 1: Although that's kind of changed in recent years, but that's
Speaker 1: what Zach reminded me of, Like he was the kind
Speaker 1: of guy that, oh, we run the offense that's dranned
Speaker 1: the clock. Let's just go ahead and do that. Even
Speaker 1: if the guard slips on the floor and I have
Speaker 1: a chance at an easy, uncontested layup, I'm still gonna
Speaker 1: run the offense because that's what I was told to do.
Speaker 1: That's how I evaluate his game. There's no like adjustment
Speaker 1: or feel for what's happening on the field itself, feeling
Speaker 1: just that constant bit of urgency or I guess phrenetic energy.
Speaker 1: I should say, like, my rules are one two three,
Speaker 1: so we're gonna go one two three, regardless of of
Speaker 1: the variables the defenses throw at me. The only game
Speaker 1: of his career off the bench was the twenty twenty
Speaker 1: three opener when he when we thought he was going
Speaker 1: to be holding a clipboard for the whole season, and
Speaker 1: then just four plays into the year, he's back in
Speaker 1: the saddle and he looked like you expect him to
Speaker 1: look in that spot, like, oh s staying it.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: The athletic ability is nice. He can get you a
Speaker 1: first down or two per game with a scramble, but
Speaker 1: it creates more negative than positives, and it's a bit
Speaker 1: over sold in terms of his creation, Like he can
Speaker 1: get flat footed and then can't immediately change directions, which
Speaker 1: I think is the on field application of athletic ability
Speaker 1: that sometimes gets lost with these players' workouts, Like it's
Speaker 1: clear he kind of gets concrete feet in those situations
Speaker 1: where he labors off of a spot and winds up
Speaker 1: taking these massive hits, like we saw Bradley Chubb damn
Speaker 1: near take his head off down here a couple of
Speaker 1: years ago. He often has to gather before he makes
Speaker 1: his escape, and I just think that's from all the
Speaker 1: end decision. He's also not going to be part of
Speaker 1: any short yardage or two quarterback packages. Not that we
Speaker 1: expected that, but I thought it was the possibility with
Speaker 1: guys like Mariota. We'll see with Jaln Milroe and the
Speaker 1: draft guys like that. Right, My biggest thing that I
Speaker 1: can hold on to was I thought when he played
Speaker 1: in rhythm, when he got his footwork right and identified
Speaker 1: the read and played within that rhythm, he drove the
Speaker 1: football with confidence. It's a tight spiral, it's very sharp accuracy.
Speaker 1: It hits the guys in the numbers with a little
Speaker 1: downwards reject makes it easier to catch. I have to
Speaker 1: imagine a year of jeweling that. With Sean Payton helped,
Speaker 1: He'll be one of the guys I'm watching closest in
Speaker 1: Ota to see what we have there because I don't
Speaker 1: know what it is because I don't have a twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four profile to go off of. If you can
Speaker 1: play with your feet and rhythm to the offense here,
Speaker 1: you're going to be all right, it's very tough to do.
Speaker 1: We've certainly seen that be the case. And then if
Speaker 1: you can do that with plus physical skills which he
Speaker 1: has in the arm and the legs, then you can
Speaker 1: really amount something special. Something this offense really helps him with.
Speaker 1: Also is where you get these clear indicators to help
Speaker 1: him play more in rhythm and on time, something that
Speaker 1: typically happens with good fast route runners. Right, you can
Speaker 1: better see leverage or have and play with more confidence
Speaker 1: off the leverage of the defense than what he has
Speaker 1: done in the past because of what we have here,
Speaker 1: and they are few and far between. But when he
Speaker 1: trusts it and he rips it, he has some really
Speaker 1: pretty shots. He had a touchdown pass to Alan Lazard
Speaker 1: on third and eight in the mid red zone against
Speaker 1: the Chiefs back in twenty three where he threw it
Speaker 1: off the overhead hang backer widening before the eventual break
Speaker 1: in route of Lazard into that hole anticipation throw. So
Speaker 1: there is like some modicum of example of it on tape.
Speaker 1: It's just very few and far between. Now, that's as
Speaker 1: much as I can give you because the majority of
Speaker 1: the tape is him just blatantly neglecting the information the
Speaker 1: defensive rotation gives him. You know, a cloud cornerback sinks
Speaker 1: into depth and takes away the over route that he's
Speaker 1: working and doesn't think about that sinking corner, leaving the
Speaker 1: flat wide open and never gets to the running back
Speaker 1: all alone on the swing route and takes a sack.
Speaker 1: Or the next series has a clean pocket, developing routes
Speaker 1: and just goes to the checkdown right away because his
Speaker 1: bad internal clock said the ball has to come out now,
Speaker 1: even though nobody was there. He was just a broken
Speaker 1: player there. So those glimpses were there more in Denver practices.
Speaker 1: Do we think we can get more of that? This
Speaker 1: really feels like a I can fix him type of signing,
Speaker 1: which I guess I advocated for in the idea for
Speaker 1: Trey Lance. The next good football we see Zach Wilson
Speaker 1: play will be his first. Hopefully we never have to.
Speaker 1: And two would just stays healthy. I just had to
Speaker 1: see something from the Broncos because the Jets tape was
Speaker 1: what I remembered, and to me, after watching that tape,
Speaker 1: it's like, Okay, it has to be that we're going
Speaker 1: off the Broncos time because I know it's the preseason,
Speaker 1: but the entire operation was so much cleaner. I saw
Speaker 1: him hit the top of his drop mechanically aligned to
Speaker 1: his reads. The feet were hardwired to the eyes. I
Speaker 1: saw him pump and get his feet and his shoulders
Speaker 1: to the target and then come back to the actual
Speaker 1: place he wanted to go, some actual defensive manipulation. You
Speaker 1: know your boy loves that. Where he helps, I can
Speaker 1: see the outside chance of developing a talented skill set
Speaker 1: into playing more on time and in rhythm this late
Speaker 1: into his career. With effective communicators in that quarterback room,
Speaker 1: he'll get the coaching he needs. Finally, why was he available? Well,
Speaker 1: he's not been good. I think he wanted a chance
Speaker 1: to go somewhere with a better pathway to playing. Because
Speaker 1: in Denver they had nixed the entire year and he's
Speaker 1: played a lot of games in college. It hasn't missed time.
Speaker 1: It's more likely to play in Miami because to his
Speaker 1: injury history. This category of why was he available is
Speaker 1: more for the bigger time signings like the James Annuals
Speaker 1: of the world. You know why Zach was available because
Speaker 1: he hasn't been any good. My classification for him is
Speaker 1: replacement level player with the hint of upside. So he
Speaker 1: slots in as your number two quarterback as it is today,
Speaker 1: and at that price point, he's going to be your
Speaker 1: backup in twenty twenty five, almost had twenty twenty four,
Speaker 1: and there's some upside there to potentially build. But yeah,
Speaker 1: you got to imagine that. It's going off of what
Speaker 1: they've heard internally from Denver and the progress he made there,
Speaker 1: because with the Jets just wasn't that good. Safety Ashton
Speaker 1: Davis is up next. He was a third round draft
Speaker 1: pick of the New York Jets in twenty twenty out
Speaker 1: of cal He played all five vis NFL years with
Speaker 1: the New York Jets. He's six foot one, two hundred
Speaker 1: and two pounds, and he turns twenty nine in October.
Speaker 1: His injury history missed two games last year with a concussion,
Speaker 1: He missed three games in twenty twenty two with a
Speaker 1: hamstring injury, and missed the last part of twenty twenty
Speaker 1: and the first part of twenty twenty one with an
Speaker 1: injury that was never disclosed. So he's missed some time
Speaker 1: here and there as a part time player. His statistical
Speaker 1: pro file sixty nine games, twenty two starts, has not
Speaker 1: eclipsed three hundred snaps since twenty twenty one. He played
Speaker 1: seven hundred and forty five snaps that year, which was
Speaker 1: his highest snap total. His second highest snap total was
Speaker 1: his rookie season, when he played four hundred and two snaps.
Speaker 1: Hasn't gone over three hundred since twenty twenty one. As
Speaker 1: a career. Career numbers one hundred and seventy five tackles
Speaker 1: dine of those for loss point five sacks. He does
Speaker 1: have eight picks, fifteen passes defense, three forced fumbles, and
Speaker 1: four fumble recoveries. He does find the football I must
Speaker 1: say the athletic testing profile. Another he didn't work out.
Speaker 1: I thought it was for the COVID year, but he
Speaker 1: actually just was injured and didn't work out that year.
Speaker 1: He also got a one year, two point five million
Speaker 1: dollar contract. It's almost the exact same deal as Jordan Poyer.
Speaker 1: So take that as you will. And now let's go
Speaker 1: ahead and talk about the verdict. Now, I knew that
Speaker 1: Ashton Davis was best displaying range from the deep host
Speaker 1: as a single high center fielder. That's not to say
Speaker 1: that he didn't play down low. In fact, he has
Speaker 1: more box snaps than free safety snaps in his career,
Speaker 1: and maybe that's where the Jets went wrong. But perhaps
Speaker 1: with all the cover three cover one that we get
Speaker 1: into that we rotate to, and with melafan Wu patrolling
Speaker 1: down low, maybe the idea is that he's an affordable
Speaker 1: backup option to camp out twenty yards off the football
Speaker 1: all game and use those center field skills, those one
Speaker 1: hundred meter college National Championship winning skills in that center
Speaker 1: field position. I had a first round grade on him
Speaker 1: coming out of Cal because of those ball skills, because
Speaker 1: of the range, and because of his versatility. He was
Speaker 1: a really good nickel cover option at Cal. He would
Speaker 1: play some will linebacker and obviously safety as well. Now,
Speaker 1: when I did this report, the league was more of
Speaker 1: a single high presentation. And the way that's changed things
Speaker 1: for backs and wide receivers and definitely quarterbacks, I think
Speaker 1: it's changed it for the safety position too, perhaps enough
Speaker 1: to kind of change the landscape for a player with
Speaker 1: that type of skill set and for the worse where
Speaker 1: he's playing a little bit more in the box. And
Speaker 1: again we didn't get workout metrics, but he's a very
Speaker 1: springy athlete. In fact, we do have something tangible. He
Speaker 1: was the PAC twelve one hundred meter champion and a
Speaker 1: second team All American in college, but he hasn't played
Speaker 1: a ton in the league. So I wanted to see
Speaker 1: how he was in run support, how his coverage has
Speaker 1: been in the nickel, and his feels for playing zone
Speaker 1: and split field safety looks. And here's what I found.
Speaker 1: The coverage is not very good. They used him a
Speaker 1: lot in the slot as the big nickel. They'd go
Speaker 1: sauce and read and then Chuck Clark and then Ashton
Speaker 1: Davis and like LaMarcus Joyner or anybody else back there
Speaker 1: at those safety positions. But he was always the third
Speaker 1: safety in the game, in for Michael Carter when he
Speaker 1: was injured, and he would sneak down into coverage and
Speaker 1: it was just I watched the first three reps on
Speaker 1: his target reel on NFL Pro, and right off the top,
Speaker 1: he gets out leveraged by Deebo Samuel. That's fine, an
Speaker 1: eight yard catch is fine, but then he misses a
Speaker 1: very routine tackle and it leads to twenty more yards.
Speaker 1: Fast forward to the Buffalo game and he gets flat
Speaker 1: footed on an option wheel route by Ty Johnson and
Speaker 1: gets smoked to the back pylon, but Josh Allen misses
Speaker 1: the throw literally. On the very next play, he's in
Speaker 1: slot coverage against Matt Collins, who is like the seventy
Speaker 1: fourth best receiver in the NFL, and gets absolutely toasted
Speaker 1: on a double move for a touchdown a little crossover step.
Speaker 1: I think the feel is a challenge, to say the least.
Speaker 1: I don't think he has well defined landmarks in his repertoire.
Speaker 1: I don't think he's processing color that flashes in front
Speaker 1: of him, like you know jerseys the way like you
Speaker 1: kind of have to process and a sport that moves
Speaker 1: this fast is like the color of the jersey. So
Speaker 1: if you have like a three man route combination, okay,
Speaker 1: there's an aqua flash this way, aqua flash this way,
Speaker 1: that means I should have you know something coming in
Speaker 1: this general direction. Like I don't think that clicks for
Speaker 1: him watching his tape. I do think he's good in
Speaker 1: run support when it's not like downhill directly at him,
Speaker 1: if he can stretch it out like a flat route
Speaker 1: or a screen route or a run that got a
Speaker 1: run that was strung out wide. He can make that play,
Speaker 1: but he kind of drops his head as a tackler
Speaker 1: and has a lot of misses on his tape. I
Speaker 1: don't think his feel is good outside of two areas.
Speaker 1: He is good at playing the curl flat downhill because
Speaker 1: it's a short amount of space, and I think he's
Speaker 1: actually pretty good in those areas because he's got this
Speaker 1: like springy ability to kind of defeat screenplays where he
Speaker 1: can kind of like hop around a blocker and go
Speaker 1: make a quick tackle if it's not like running full
Speaker 1: speed downhill. And I also think he's viable as a
Speaker 1: center fielder, and perhaps he does fall into that role
Speaker 1: more as you know. Again, I think we'll see more
Speaker 1: man coverage for the Dolphins this year. But yeah, they
Speaker 1: use him as a big nickel and his ability to
Speaker 1: cover fit the run really everything from them from there
Speaker 1: was wanting. I mean, two million dollar player, hardly a
Speaker 1: guarantee he makes the roster out of training camp. He's
Speaker 1: again good against the screen. I think his best traits
Speaker 1: how he processes from depth. I would never try to
Speaker 1: bring him up past like fifteen yards beyond the football,
Speaker 1: but that presents a problem, right because if only going
Speaker 1: to play the guy and cover one, cover three in
Speaker 1: center field. That's a tell for what you're doing defensively.
Speaker 1: But when I watch him play like the ball, skills
Speaker 1: in the back end are pretty good. The way he
Speaker 1: tracks and finishes picks is nice. So if you can
Speaker 1: you know, maybe it's third and a third and fifteen
Speaker 1: like dime safety that plays this deep portion coverage because
Speaker 1: he has that range, and then special teams. That's kind
Speaker 1: of the route for him to make the roster. In
Speaker 1: my opinion, I think where he helps special teams, third
Speaker 1: or fourth safety type, I think there's no chance that
Speaker 1: we're done. I think he's competition for guys like Elijah
Speaker 1: Campbell and Patrick McMorris. Very specific traits you can work with.
Speaker 1: But if he makes the team, I think you hope
Speaker 1: it's like his safety four and nothing more than that.
Speaker 1: Why was he available? This is not the kind of
Speaker 1: player that this category was created for. I mean, he's
Speaker 1: not been very productive, That's why he's available. I classified
Speaker 1: him as replacement level. I was very close to going
Speaker 1: the red camp body description, but I'll bump him up
Speaker 1: to the pink level because I do like the way
Speaker 1: he tracks the ball on the back ends. That's Ashton Davis,
Speaker 1: New Dolphin Safety and there you go. That's the week
Speaker 1: of podcast here on Drive Time. On Monday, we're going
Speaker 1: to have the interviews with I believe Ifatu, Melafanmu and
Speaker 1: Ashton Davis. I think the Wednesday interviews will be with
Speaker 1: Zach Wilson and who am I forgetting Nick Westbrook? Akine
Speaker 1: will get kJ Britten there as well at some point
Speaker 1: and whoever else signs will have him on the podcast
Speaker 1: as well. So playing it come your way here on
Speaker 1: the podcast leading up to the draft really with freegency
Speaker 1: here to bridge those two gaps. In the meantime, you
Speaker 1: all please be sure to subscribe, rate review the podcast,
Speaker 1: follow me on social at winkel NFL. Follow the team
Speaker 1: at Miami Dolphins. Check out the Fish Tank podcast with
Speaker 1: Seth and Jews. Check out the YouTube channel for Dolphins
Speaker 1: HQ media availabilities all these video interviews with these players
Speaker 1: and much much more. Last but not least, Miami Dolphins
Speaker 1: dot com. Until next time. Fin's up, keroviln Cafrick Daddy
Speaker 1: just come home.