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're gonna talk about the defensive line, but not the players,
Speaker 1: a look into the work coach Austin Clark has done
Speaker 1: as the longest tenured coach on the staff. Right now,
Speaker 1: we'll talk to some of the players about him and
Speaker 1: his track record of dominant defensive lines and their development
Speaker 1: and how that can be a hidden gem for the
Speaker 1: Miami Dolphins here in twenty twenty five. Speaking of hidden
Speaker 1: gems and the coaching staff and the roster, we're gonna
Speaker 1: get into some players that could make a push this
Speaker 1: camp and this summer and spring, I should say, to
Speaker 1: change the way you think about them and the Dolphins
Speaker 1: roster in general. So we'll do all of that in
Speaker 1: a heck of a lot more from the Baptist Health
Speaker 1: Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.
Speaker 2: This is the Draft Time Podcast.
Speaker 1: I wanted to start this show with a bit of
Speaker 1: a roster review, but not in the sense of the
Speaker 1: one that we just did.
Speaker 2: What was that two or three weeks ago.
Speaker 1: I want to take a look at where I think
Speaker 1: some of the hidden gems on the roster exist and
Speaker 1: how that factors into the perception of certain parts of
Speaker 1: the roster and the football team as a whole. And
Speaker 1: I always feel like this is almost like a social
Speaker 1: engineering project, stuff like this, and shoot, I'll take it
Speaker 1: a step further. We celebrated my beautiful baby girl's fifth
Speaker 1: birthday this past weekend, and by the way, the unicorn
Speaker 1: outfit she was wearing cutest thing I've ever seen in
Speaker 1: my entire life. But after all the unicorns and princesses
Speaker 1: and barbies and makeup kits and cupcakes faded, we had
Speaker 1: ourselves a nice little lazy Sunday. And what a perfect
Speaker 1: sunday to be lazy on with the PGA championship, my
Speaker 1: Seattle Mariners playing for a sweep in San Diego in
Speaker 1: first place in the American League West, which they achieved.
Speaker 1: Both those things and a pair of game sevens combing
Speaker 1: with a big Carolina Panthers win almost got those quick.
Speaker 1: Aside from that, did you guys see Brad Marshawn talk
Speaker 1: about the pressure that the Leaves feel every year and
Speaker 1: the culpability of the fans and media. I think it's
Speaker 1: worth noting that as I take a sip of my
Speaker 1: coffee here well, t year, it's supposed to beak to you,
Speaker 1: but it's coffee. I just have to say, I think
Speaker 1: that you're a little bit crazy if you don't think
Speaker 1: fans and media are part of the problem in some
Speaker 1: of these places. I'm not saying anything particular about where,
Speaker 1: but I do think it has an impact. And during
Speaker 1: this lazy Sunday, I found myself going through the entirety
Speaker 1: of the twenty twenty five NFL schedule week by week,
Speaker 1: and I always look for the windows where the Dolphins
Speaker 1: aren't playing, because for me, that's when I get a
Speaker 1: chance to be a fan. Right. I do about half
Speaker 1: the pregame shows on iHeart this last season I did,
Speaker 1: I'll probably do about the same number of this year,
Speaker 1: and that puts me on air two hours before kickoff.
Speaker 1: I do all the postgame shows, which is two hours
Speaker 1: after the clock Hitch triple zeros in the Dolphins game,
Speaker 1: and then it's time for the postgame recap podcast. And
Speaker 1: all in all, if we play at one o'clock on Sunday,
Speaker 1: I make at home just in time for a kickoff
Speaker 1: of Sunday Night Football. So Sunday Night Football is a
Speaker 1: very a very treasured part of my weekend schedule every
Speaker 1: single week in the fall. But when we play at
Speaker 1: four h five or four twenty five, I get to
Speaker 1: watch maybe the first quarter of the early window game kickoffs.
Speaker 1: If it's at the stadium here at hard Rock, I
Speaker 1: have to drive. I have to get here like two
Speaker 1: or three hours early, so I usually miss most of that.
Speaker 1: If it's at the radio station, I can watch about
Speaker 1: half the game. The whole point is I only get
Speaker 1: to watch full football games most of the time if
Speaker 1: we're playing at one o'clock on Sunday night football. This
Speaker 1: creates an urgency and an importance of the primetime slots
Speaker 1: for me as a football fan, and I'm weird. I
Speaker 1: don't merely look for good games. I want good games
Speaker 1: that are going to have a rooting interest for me.
Speaker 1: And the only thing I care about rooting four in
Speaker 1: terms of how these games go is what it does
Speaker 1: to the Miami Dolphins. I usually, or rather I should say,
Speaker 1: I used to really care about like my takes. Like
Speaker 1: I remember when Tannehill left here being very invested in
Speaker 1: the Titans, because I told Dolphins fans that Titan Tannehill
Speaker 1: was a lot better than gave him credit for, and
Speaker 1: they went pretty far a couple of years in a row,
Speaker 1: and he had a couple of really good years there
Speaker 1: with the Titans. Or when Mahomes was coming out of
Speaker 1: Texas Tech, he was my guy and I thought the
Speaker 1: Chiefs would do pretty well with him, or Kyler Murray
Speaker 1: with the Cardinals was probably one of the biggest ones.
Speaker 1: I'll never forget those debates back in twenty nineteen. But
Speaker 1: now I don't care. I just want to watch, Like
Speaker 1: maybe it's cynicism, maybe it's old age.
Speaker 2: Maybe it's having more.
Speaker 1: Of a valued life outside of like your hobby right
Speaker 1: watching football, like with family and stuff. But I just
Speaker 1: don't have the same emotional attachment to a lot of
Speaker 1: sports anymore. The Dolphins are in a class of their own,
Speaker 1: but when I watch, I don't know even the heat like,
Speaker 1: and I know this is a bad year for it.
Speaker 1: I just can't really be bothered to get like moved
Speaker 1: by the outcome of games unless it impacts the Dolphins
Speaker 1: or the Mariners are pretty good in that regard. But
Speaker 1: I used to be like, man, the marriage had a
Speaker 1: two run bomb, I'm jumping and fist pumping out of
Speaker 1: my chair but now I'm just like, sweet, yeah, good,
Speaker 1: we needed that. I don't I just don't get emotional anymore.
Speaker 1: But if it impacts the Dolphins, I really really care. Like,
Speaker 1: for instance, we get that Chiefs and Chargers game in
Speaker 1: Week one on Friday, right that Friday night post season
Speaker 1: opener game, I guess after the Eagles and Cowboys, like
Speaker 1: I feel pretty confident and the Chiefs winning that division
Speaker 1: this year, so there's a decent chance the Chargers are
Speaker 1: in direct competition with us for a playoff spot or
Speaker 1: playoff positioning. And while maybe like Eagles and Commanders is
Speaker 1: a better game than Chiefs and Chargers, give me the
Speaker 1: AFC matchup all day long. So this is I promise
Speaker 1: this whole point's going somewhere. And then when we play
Speaker 1: on Monday or Thursday, those Sunday one o'clock and four
Speaker 1: thirty windows, oh buddy, you talk about valuable. That Sunday
Speaker 1: one o'clock kickoff, when my dollars watching a YouTube show
Speaker 1: and my son goes down for a nap, like that
Speaker 1: is ultimate football fan time for me, where I don't
Speaker 1: get a lot of that time during the season, but
Speaker 1: those kickoffs they have to deliver because those are sacred
Speaker 1: timeslots when the Dolphins aren't playing on Sunday afternoons, and
Speaker 1: just looking at those there are some ten actually amazing
Speaker 1: Sunday slates when we don't play on that particular Sunday.
Speaker 2: So I was.
Speaker 1: It got to the point to where I'm looking at
Speaker 1: the schedules on my couch while my wife is making
Speaker 1: the make your own snow globe gift whatever the hell
Speaker 1: my daughter got for the million gifts that she got,
Speaker 1: and I just say out loud, I gotta say, honey,
Speaker 1: I'm ready for the football. She's gonna get here, and
Speaker 1: she's like, really, I'm not. And that's not always been
Speaker 1: the case. Like I don't enjoy wishing away my summer
Speaker 1: with all the golf and the swimming and the beach
Speaker 1: and the family time that I get. We're busy people,
Speaker 1: but I'm happy to let the calendar unfold naturally most
Speaker 1: of the time. But for some reason, I'm just ready
Speaker 1: for this year to get here. And I think, and
Speaker 1: I can be a contrarian, I'm guilty of that by
Speaker 1: by a million times, but I think it's the concept
Speaker 1: that in the past we had expectations and lofty goals
Speaker 1: and now there's this like perception or expectation that the
Speaker 1: team's not going to be very good this year. And
Speaker 1: while I don't believe that's one hundred percent accurate, I
Speaker 1: can see where certain concerns would creep in. And there's
Speaker 1: certain parts of the roster that are worse than they
Speaker 1: were last year. But there's parts of the roster that
Speaker 1: are better than they were last year too. And for
Speaker 1: I don't know how long, right, I mean, you can
Speaker 1: you all can tell me. We always heard like the
Speaker 1: offensive line was the one area that neglected and it
Speaker 1: was the only thing that mattered on the team, right
Speaker 1: nothing else matters. Well, they didn't neglect it this year.
Speaker 1: They signed a big money free agent, and they used
Speaker 1: a premium draft pick to shore up the weakest spot
Speaker 1: on the offensive line last year, and they have a
Speaker 1: second round pick from last year filling in for the
Speaker 1: guy that retired, along with two pricey veteran contracts and
Speaker 1: Aaron Brewer and Austin Jackson, albeit not pricey considering their
Speaker 1: position across the rest of the league. But they're not
Speaker 1: cheap players. They're not, like, you know, replacement level contracts,
Speaker 1: is what I'm trying to say. So they invested in that,
Speaker 1: and I think that that's a reason for optimism, and
Speaker 1: I'm not sure why it's being forgotten about so much
Speaker 1: when I've been told for so long that if we
Speaker 1: keep to a healthy and have a.
Speaker 2: Good offensive line, we're going to be okay. And I
Speaker 2: do believe in that.
Speaker 1: But I like being a little bit more under the
Speaker 1: radar and kind of being able to say, like, hey,
Speaker 1: you guys are wrong this time. And you know, I've
Speaker 1: been wrong plenty of times as well. But the last
Speaker 1: couple of seasons we were pretty front and clear and
Speaker 1: pretty front and center in terms of the perception of
Speaker 1: where the Dolphins are going to be come playoff time.
Speaker 1: And shoot, if you want to take the league's perception
Speaker 1: into account, there's only three teams that have more primetime games,
Speaker 1: and there's a bunch of teams that have the same
Speaker 1: number of primetime games. But they've got us in four
Speaker 1: standalone windows the NFL does after Week eight, so the
Speaker 1: second half of the season they expect us to be
Speaker 1: in the mix. Another tangent I came to realize in
Speaker 1: this discussion as I was telling him, Now, half other
Speaker 1: spots are are sports. Other sports are very localized, right,
Speaker 1: like baseball. Shoot, every broadcast is regionalized. I watched my Mariners,
Speaker 1: I watched the Heat, but I couldn't tell you the
Speaker 1: last time I watched a regular season MLB or NBA
Speaker 1: game that wasn't my team. I just could not be
Speaker 1: bothered to do that. It's not that way in football
Speaker 1: at all. But I do think there are a lot
Speaker 1: of fans that just watch their team, or at least
Speaker 1: a very small percentage of fans that really know the
Speaker 1: rest of the league the way they know their own
Speaker 1: team on the level of a Kyle Crabs for instance,
Speaker 1: or myself. I spend a lot of time doing this.
Speaker 1: It's my job, so I would I would kind of
Speaker 1: think I was a failure if I didn't know the
Speaker 1: entire league pretty well.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: And the reason I say all of this, I don't
Speaker 1: know at what point along the line this happened for me,
Speaker 1: but I feel like it used to be widely accepted
Speaker 1: that the salary cap meant you were pretty unlikely to
Speaker 1: go into a season with proven solutions at every single position.
Speaker 1: Because this is not Alabama or Georgia or Ohio State,
Speaker 1: where I have three five star recruits at left tackle
Speaker 1: ready to rock and roll if something happens to my starter.
Speaker 1: Like the reason the dominant young quarterback on the rookie
Speaker 1: contract is such a cheat code is because it frees
Speaker 1: up your resources to attempt to build Alabama at the
Speaker 1: pro level. Like the Commanders don't have to pay Jadeen
Speaker 1: Daniels for what at least two more years that he's
Speaker 1: not even eligible for a new contract until till twenty
Speaker 1: twenty seven, so they can spend crazy wherever they want. Really,
Speaker 1: and this doesn't guarantee a damn thing, does it. The
Speaker 1: Niners just enjoyed the fruits of that labor to the
Speaker 1: nth degree. We're talking about jade and Daniels being the
Speaker 1: second overall pick in the draft, like brock Purdy was
Speaker 1: like two fifty, so he was way down there and
Speaker 1: made nothing for four years, and what do they get
Speaker 1: to speak of that? No titles? Now, I feel like
Speaker 1: that's a really disingenuous way to, you know, portray that
Speaker 1: the way they played the last four years the Niners
Speaker 1: have been I would sign up for that success for
Speaker 1: the next four years of the Dolphins in a heartbeat.
Speaker 1: I would love to go to two Super Bowls and
Speaker 1: play in conference championship games every year. Give me that
Speaker 1: tomorrow if I can sign up for it right now.
Speaker 1: But now they're gonna pay party. They just paid Party
Speaker 1: and they have to start shaving salary elsewhere, which leads
Speaker 1: to the loss of Deebo, Samuel, Javon Hargrave.
Speaker 2: Who else did they lose? Javarius Ward? You know, I
Speaker 2: lost some dudes.
Speaker 1: And trust me, you'd rather pay for the quarterback than
Speaker 1: not have the quarterback to pay at all. That seems
Speaker 1: like a given to me, But some of the stuff
Speaker 1: I read on Twitter makes me think that that's not
Speaker 1: necessarily as given as you might think. I feel like
Speaker 1: some some fans would rather have the Saints quarterback situation
Speaker 1: right now over ours, not I. And you can even
Speaker 1: point to recent champions or Super Bowl losers for that matter,
Speaker 1: which again, if you go to the Super Bowl, you
Speaker 1: had a successful season.
Speaker 2: I don't care who you are.
Speaker 1: The twenty twenty Chiefs, it was mostly injuries, right, but
Speaker 1: it was a pretty decimated offensive line to the point
Speaker 1: that they decided we're gonna trade Tyreek Hill and go
Speaker 1: attack the offensive line. And what's been their bugaboo for
Speaker 1: the last three years. If they have one, they don't
Speaker 1: really have one, But if you had to pick one,
Speaker 1: they don't have enough weapons around Patrick Mahomes. He went
Speaker 1: from the highest average depth of target in the league
Speaker 1: for the last and then too the last two years
Speaker 1: one of the lowest in the entire National Football League.
Speaker 2: We don't have to relitigate all of this, but I'll
Speaker 2: do one more. The Bills, the Buffalo Bills f the
Speaker 2: Bills man.
Speaker 1: Ask Bills fans about their cornerbacks right now or going
Speaker 1: into last year. No way they can approve upon twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three with that wide receiver corps, right. But all
Speaker 1: they did was when the most games they ever have
Speaker 1: in the Josh Allen era, well, actually they matched the
Speaker 1: twenty twenty total. They won thirteen season games that year.
Speaker 1: They won two in the postseason, fifteen wins. But you
Speaker 1: get the point, and a big part of the reason
Speaker 1: for that that they won thirteen games in a couple
Speaker 1: of playoff games and we're a fourth quarter away against
Speaker 1: the Chiefs from going to the Super Bowl for the
Speaker 1: first time since the nineties. They focused on the players
Speaker 1: that make the Buffalo Bills better, not just acquiring talent.
Speaker 1: Let's get the right pieces in here. And a big
Speaker 1: part of that would you have ever guessed this was
Speaker 1: to reduce the number of times that Josh Allen put
Speaker 1: the ball in the air. He went from he had
Speaker 1: the fewest passing attempts per game this year since his
Speaker 1: rookie season back in twenty eighteen. He went from six
Speaker 1: hundred and forty six pass attempts in twenty twenty one
Speaker 1: down to five sixty seven in twenty twenty two to
Speaker 1: twenty three, throwing five to seventy nine, so bit of
Speaker 1: a jump there, and then all the way down to
Speaker 1: four eighty three, one hundred fewer attempts in the previous
Speaker 1: season last year. My point is what you see on paper,
Speaker 1: it's not meaningless, but there is so much more context
Speaker 1: required to understand who's going to be good and who
Speaker 1: was not in the NFL. And with that it takes
Speaker 1: us into our segment. That took me fifteen minutes to
Speaker 1: get into the whole spiel here, but will pause first
Speaker 1: because the setup took the entire segment. I'm going to
Speaker 1: come back on the other side and talk about some
Speaker 1: potential hidden gems that can help flip perception with their
Speaker 1: play come September. That's next Draft Time podcast, brought to
Speaker 1: you by AutoNation.
Speaker 2: All right, So I have broken out the what do
Speaker 2: I call this thing?
Speaker 1: My color coordinated ninety man roster that used to be
Speaker 1: on the whiteboard back in the Lockdown days. Now it's
Speaker 1: an award document, so not quite as pretty, but I
Speaker 1: can talk about it here on the show. So I've
Speaker 1: plugged in all the rookies, all the udfas. I kept
Speaker 1: his camp body level contributors, because you just can't, like,
Speaker 1: you can't really forecast that. I think it's disingenuous to
Speaker 1: say that, oh, Jalen Conyor is going to be tied
Speaker 1: into this year, like I might think that, but I'm
Speaker 1: not going to put him there until he does it,
Speaker 1: So keep that in mind. I have some probably assessments
Speaker 1: that you would disagree with in terms of being too lofty.
Speaker 1: I'm probably more down on some guys then some folks
Speaker 1: might be. So let's just go ahead and roll through.
Speaker 1: So i've you guys in the drill by now. Blue
Speaker 1: is the cornerstone player. Green is the plus starter, which
Speaker 1: is like a pro Bowl potential player. Orange is the
Speaker 1: adequate starter who's not a pro bowler, but he's better
Speaker 1: than like league average, And you can like having him
Speaker 1: in your lineup doesn't make you any worse. That's the
Speaker 1: kind of like range you're looking for here. And then
Speaker 1: you've got quality depth or special teams. As a purple player,
Speaker 1: replacement level means I can slot anybody in there and
Speaker 1: be okay with it, and that's pink. And then red
Speaker 1: is the camp body, which means I expect you to
Speaker 1: be cut or that I don't think it can play.
Speaker 1: And then the black demarcation just means you're incomplete for
Speaker 1: injury reasons or you're too young, like Taj Washington's is
Speaker 1: on the black category because he has one year under
Speaker 1: his belt and he missed up to an injury, so
Speaker 1: we can't count on that as some proven commodity. So
Speaker 1: you guys know, I have Tongua bay Loa as a
Speaker 1: blue player, I've got Wilson as replacement level, and yours
Speaker 1: is in the red category. So the backup position still
Speaker 1: is a little bit unknown to me. You're up in
Speaker 1: the air. But I think two was a cornerstone franchise quarterback.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think it's obvious, but it's clearly not
Speaker 1: across like Twitter. But whatever running back position, I got
Speaker 1: eight Chan as a plus starter, right, he's got to
Speaker 1: prove it more, but he's an adequate startut to meet
Speaker 1: right now. And then I've got Gordon and Madison as
Speaker 1: quality depth, with Ingold in that same category. And then
Speaker 1: the rookie Knol I'm not going to talk about all
Speaker 1: the undrafted rekies. They're all going to be read okay
Speaker 1: in that camp body, but I'm not calling him camp bodies.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying like they've got to, you know, come
Speaker 1: with it and prove it. I still have Hill and
Speaker 1: Waddle as cornerstone wide receivers. I think they're two of
Speaker 1: the best players in the game, regardless of how last
Speaker 1: year went or what you think about the way they
Speaker 1: you know, didn't the way Ten didn't play for his
Speaker 1: team the right way, like whatever you want to say
Speaker 1: about it. That the talent is all still very much there.
Speaker 1: I've got Westbrook A. Kine is an adequate starter. Malik Washington,
Speaker 1: I've got him at quality depth, but he's right there
Speaker 1: like kind of pressing up towards that orange indicator. What's
Speaker 1: the word I'm looking for here? And then I've got
Speaker 1: d S. Gridges as quality depth as well. And the
Speaker 1: rest of the room is red or black and then
Speaker 1: the tight ends, I've got Jonah Smith as a plus.
Speaker 1: I think Farrell Brown I might be bumping him to
Speaker 1: Orange here pretty soon, but been watching him out there
Speaker 1: kind of run around, and he looks like he has
Speaker 1: some juice. I'm kind of kind of excited to see
Speaker 1: Faraoh Brown, but for right now, he's in the purple category.
Speaker 1: Julian Hill Pink and the replacement level, and then the
Speaker 1: rest is red because they're all unproven. And then offensive tackle,
Speaker 1: I've got Paul's adequate starter. When I expect that to
Speaker 1: go up this year, I'm not gonna do it yet
Speaker 1: because that would be disingenuous to the process, but I
Speaker 1: think that he has the opportunity to really slide in
Speaker 1: that direction. And then Austin Jackson is easily in the
Speaker 1: green category for me, probably closer to Blue than he
Speaker 1: is to Orange, but I know he's not a cornerstone player,
Speaker 1: but he's a very very good player. And then I've
Speaker 1: got a kind of unknown for Keon Smith and Larry
Speaker 1: Boorhum his quality depth. And then the rest of the
Speaker 1: room is red. And then interior. All three of my
Speaker 1: guys are plus starters, and that's look Jonahs gosh, so
Speaker 1: vite naya. Gosh, take me a minute to get back
Speaker 1: to that. I just believe in his game. I was
Speaker 1: big on him in the process. I was big on
Speaker 1: James Daniels. If I back off that now, then what's
Speaker 1: the point of the freaking podcast Back in February. I
Speaker 1: think Aaron Brewer is close to blue. He's gonna He's
Speaker 1: gonna stay green for now, but one more year like last,
Speaker 1: he'll go into the blue category. He's a Pro Bowl
Speaker 1: freaking player on the interior defensive line. We have a
Speaker 1: Blue Chipper, Zach Steeler. He's one of our four blue
Speaker 1: Chips with Tua and Hill and Waddle. And I've already
Speaker 1: got Grant in the same category as Sabi nayavit naya.
Speaker 2: Jesus shoot, I'm gonna leave it in.
Speaker 1: That was the podcast Live unfiltered and me accidentally saying
Speaker 1: one bad word and then coming up with the worst
Speaker 1: word that I had to bleep out.
Speaker 2: So there you go.
Speaker 1: But Jonah savite naya man. Golly, but that's where I've got.
Speaker 1: That's where I've got Kenneth Grant. I think he's right
Speaker 1: in that category as well. So I'm gonna I'm gonna
Speaker 1: roll with that and in fact, like not to you know,
Speaker 1: not that he hears this or anyone's gonna put pressure
Speaker 1: on Kenneth Grant because the Drivetime podcast said, but like,
Speaker 1: I expect him to move towards the blue category pretty quickly.
Speaker 2: I think he's I think he's exceptional.
Speaker 1: And then I've got Jordan Phillips in the orange just
Speaker 1: watching if watching him move at practice. I think he's
Speaker 1: gonna be a contributor this year right straight away. And
Speaker 1: then Benito Jones and Matthew Butler and Zeke Biggers all
Speaker 1: in that purple quality death category. Off the edge, I've
Speaker 1: got two green players and plus starters and Chop Robinson
Speaker 1: and Jaylen Phillips. Bradley Chubb will be in there if
Speaker 1: he comes back and looks the same, but I kind
Speaker 1: of have to just be a little reserved on him
Speaker 1: right now, so he goes in the orange category. I
Speaker 1: got four quality depth players there in Quentin Bellmo Kamara,
Speaker 1: cam Good and Grace and Murphy. I think Murphy climbs
Speaker 1: into the orange category this year, and maybe one more
Speaker 1: of those guys would be a huge boon for us.
Speaker 1: At linebacker, I've got two green players. I almost move
Speaker 1: Willy Gay back to orange, but I was like, no,
Speaker 1: be convicted in your take, dude, don't be a whuss,
Speaker 1: Like be like you believe in this. Let's go ahead
Speaker 1: and put him in that category. Jordan Brooks, I think
Speaker 1: is closer to blue than he is to orange at
Speaker 1: this point. And I'll put Willy Gay comfortably in green,
Speaker 1: Tyrrell Dots in an orange adequate starter, and I've got
Speaker 1: kJ Brick quality depth at cornerback. That's kind of where
Speaker 1: the issues like pop up in terms of the color coordination.
Speaker 1: I've got Kohu is the number one right now because
Speaker 1: I'm not going to put five in the roster. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't think there's reconciliation there, but we shall see.
Speaker 1: But he is a Your number one is an adequate starter,
Speaker 1: which you probably could improve upon that. And then quality depth,
Speaker 1: I guess I don't know we'll put where to put
Speaker 1: cam Smith and Storm Duck because I'd like, I don't
Speaker 1: think the film is good, but could it get better?
Speaker 1: It's gonna have to and if they're gonna play, definitely
Speaker 1: Already Burns in that purple category is quality depth. I
Speaker 1: put Jason Marshall in there. I'm a believer in Jason
Speaker 1: Matrie and Isaiah Johnson, but we kind of have to
Speaker 1: see it. I believe in bj Adams, but he's an
Speaker 1: undrafted rookie as well. So that's the group where yeah,
Speaker 1: it's the color coordination is not great right now. And
Speaker 1: then I put if I Mela Fon was a green player,
Speaker 1: but there's obviously a clear medical tag there at safety,
Speaker 1: he's got a he simply has to like stay healthy,
Speaker 1: and if he does, I think he's a plus starter.
Speaker 1: And then I've got I really want to push Big
Speaker 1: Morris up, but we have to see more of it.
Speaker 1: But I've got him and Elijah Campbell as Purple players
Speaker 1: quality depth. I think mc morris will talk about him
Speaker 1: here in one second, could be a guy that can
Speaker 1: push into that level. I've got Ashton Davis in the
Speaker 1: pink category, Trader as quality depth Purple, and then the
Speaker 1: rest is read. It's pretty clear where the questions are, right,
Speaker 1: and just to be clear, I'm not trying to disguise
Speaker 1: any of this, like I don't. I think it's like
Speaker 1: if you if you played a game tomorrow at cornerback,
Speaker 1: you would have a lot of questions, right, but it
Speaker 1: still may you have the biggest chip to fall, which
Speaker 1: is of course the Ramsey potential move coming. But it
Speaker 1: wasn't fun. You're racing a blue player off of a
Speaker 1: premium position off this board. But if you can replace
Speaker 1: that with another positive color, hopefully hopefully blue or hopefully green,
Speaker 1: I should say, which is where I would put Jack Jones,
Speaker 1: who's out there, or a Sante Samuel. Those are both
Speaker 1: green players to me. And then I think Razeuo Douglas
Speaker 1: and Mike Hilton could be orange players. But if you
Speaker 1: do that, I think it sets up much better for
Speaker 1: the exercise we're about to do. And I want to
Speaker 1: make this clear before I do that. I really hate
Speaker 1: the concept of hey, here's four like average players.
Speaker 2: And one of them is going to elevate, Like you
Speaker 2: don't know that.
Speaker 1: You can't know that, And when I grade other teams
Speaker 1: rosters this time of year, I hold that against them.
Speaker 1: So I shout the exact same thing for the Miami Dolphins,
Speaker 1: because it's like when Fantasy, when someone's like, hey give
Speaker 1: me justin Jefferson, I'll give you four like average receivers, Like, no,
Speaker 1: that's not how it works, bro, Like I need someone
Speaker 1: that can do that on their own, not four guys
Speaker 1: that do one quarter of the job. You know, it's
Speaker 1: not the freaking moneyball Brad Pitt really being common terry
Speaker 1: here And as I look up it down this roster,
Speaker 1: we know a lot about it, but there are some
Speaker 1: areas where you need some more evidence to mount, like
Speaker 1: to mount to add up before you know. And that's
Speaker 1: for better or for worse. Right, more evidence tells you
Speaker 1: were set here, we're good to go, or it tells
Speaker 1: you we need to move some things around. And going
Speaker 1: into this camp, I think there's a handful of players
Speaker 1: that could really change the way we see certain position groups.
Speaker 1: And just FYI, I'm not going to put any rookies
Speaker 1: in here. I think we've covered all of them at
Speaker 1: length the last couple of months. But I'm going to
Speaker 1: start with a guy that really inspired the entire segment
Speaker 1: and a guy that I just talked about.
Speaker 2: It's Patrick McMorris. He is a student of the game.
Speaker 1: He was a special teams dynamo in college as well
Speaker 1: as on defense and the way he fits and hits
Speaker 1: man like, I feel like we need that.
Speaker 2: You saw it all over his college tape.
Speaker 1: I think Kyle Krabs just to the rewatch of his
Speaker 1: college tape was telling me, like, dude, this guy he's
Speaker 1: legit and you saw it in the preseason and we
Speaker 1: saw it all throughout the playoffs. How big of a
Speaker 1: key it was for teams to have, you know, as
Speaker 1: they shift towards more of this ground game approach to
Speaker 1: be able to play from depth with angles and purpose
Speaker 1: and no wasted steps. He knows how to beat blocks
Speaker 1: with physicality or with quickness. He has a good recognition
Speaker 1: of route concepts, of quarterback footwork and mechanics and how
Speaker 1: that ties in the timing of a play. It allows
Speaker 1: him to anticipate and close that space. And the same
Speaker 1: is true coming from depth against the run, where you
Speaker 1: see him read his keys, anticipate where the back wants
Speaker 1: to go, Like he reads the blocks and the way
Speaker 1: they developed the way the same way the running back does.
Speaker 1: And it makes me pumped up to watch him for
Speaker 1: camp because if he hits and Mela fan Wu stays healthy,
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden, maybe you have a good
Speaker 1: safety tandem back there, Like, I don't think it's impossible.
Speaker 1: I feel better about that than do the cornerback spot
Speaker 1: right now. How about Taj Washington, This cat is smooth man.
Speaker 1: Just getting an eye on him out here a little
Speaker 1: bit in spring ball. Like he he looks. He looks
Speaker 1: the part I forgot writing this about him last April.
Speaker 1: He was fifth and deep ball receiving in college football
Speaker 1: back in twenty twenty three, behind only Roma Dounze, Brian
Speaker 1: Thomas Junior, Malik Neighbors, and Marvin Harrison Junior. I also
Speaker 1: remember Lewis Riddick listing his favorite Day three picks in
Speaker 1: Taj being among them. I think his acceleration is noticeable.
Speaker 1: He's quick. He didn't test that way a four five
Speaker 1: two forty. But I've talked about, you know, the wide
Speaker 1: receiver class this year and how widespread their skill sets are,
Speaker 1: and also how we really brought in some speed in
Speaker 1: numbers for the first time beyond reak and waddle in
Speaker 1: the last couple of years. I think Taj is now
Speaker 1: a part of that akin to what Aj Henning is
Speaker 1: in terms of the quickness and punt return skill set. Now,
Speaker 1: Taj is a guy that you could say, well, that's
Speaker 1: not a position where they have a need at or
Speaker 1: really have room for him to find his niche on
Speaker 1: this roster. But with what we talked about up top
Speaker 1: and how you cannot possibly have three backups for every
Speaker 1: position that are highly paid, highly approven guys.
Speaker 2: You need guys like this in the fold.
Speaker 1: His skill set is comparable to our top two guys
Speaker 1: in terms of the speed and suddenness. So if you
Speaker 1: lose Reek for a game, or you lose Waddle for
Speaker 1: a game, You're not gonna ask Taj Washington to go
Speaker 1: be Tyreek Hill for forty five snaps. But he can
Speaker 1: give you fifteen snaps at that Z position and you
Speaker 1: can game plan around the rest of the absence with
Speaker 1: a more twelve personnel or two back personnel like. That's
Speaker 1: what I'm talking about, solutions based in the event of anything.
Speaker 1: And I think Taj has the juice and drive to
Speaker 1: give himself a chance to be in a position where
Speaker 1: he could be an impactful player if called up. Here's
Speaker 1: what Lewis Riddick said about him, dynamic ability with the
Speaker 1: ball in his hands in the middle of the field,
Speaker 1: super quick. I love the philosophical fit. Keon Smith is next,
Speaker 1: and he has a chance to kind of be a
Speaker 1: poster boy of sorts, you know. Twenty twenty two camp
Speaker 1: I didn't think he looked the part. I thought this
Speaker 1: guy has to be like cut on the first cutdown day,
Speaker 1: and he just kept working and improving and got himself
Speaker 1: onto the roster in twenty twenty three. And he starts
Speaker 1: cross trading at guard last year, but then he gets
Speaker 1: hurt in the preseason and there was limited reps on tape,
Speaker 1: but those reps in the running game in twenty twenty
Speaker 1: three in actual NFL games, he looked the part. I
Speaker 1: think his quickness and ability to get out in space
Speaker 1: inside translates to guard. And if he can earn that
Speaker 1: six man position, like every team, six man plays a
Speaker 1: bunch of snaps in this league. So if he is
Speaker 1: that guy, we're gonna need him, and he could be
Speaker 1: a guy that provides you quality depth that you definitely
Speaker 1: need across the offensive line. Matthew Butler's in here. I
Speaker 1: talked about him on the Monday podcast. Not going to
Speaker 1: run that back, but he's one of the guys for me.
Speaker 1: And just to finish with the kind of entire group here,
Speaker 1: how about Storm Duck, Already Burns, Jason Matrie, Isaiah Johnson,
Speaker 1: Jason Marshall Junior, and Ethan Bulner. Now this goes against
Speaker 1: the code I mentioned earlier about not trusting a glut
Speaker 1: of guys to produce a contributor. But that's kind of
Speaker 1: where we are here. And again it's May nineteenth. Relief
Speaker 1: is probably a couple of weeks away. But right now
Speaker 1: you're looking at two of these players playing seventy five
Speaker 1: percent plus of the snaps and that's got to make
Speaker 1: you a little bit Joe philbin queezy. But I think
Speaker 1: there's good tapes scattered across each of these players games,
Speaker 1: and if there's one commonality here, the real tale of
Speaker 1: all these guys, it's other mostly big, long, physical corners.
Speaker 1: Even Matree, who spent most of his time last camp
Speaker 1: inside his game is aggression, force the issue. That's how
Speaker 1: Bonnard wants to play. If you watched any of Marshall
Speaker 1: at Florida, that's his entire game. Isaiah Johnson might be
Speaker 1: the tallest damn player in this building. He's not, but
Speaker 1: he towers over the entire cornerback room. And then Duck
Speaker 1: and Burns are the same way in terms of forcing
Speaker 1: the issue and playing up in your face. I think
Speaker 1: good aggressive, physical man corners pair the best with a
Speaker 1: stout pass rush, and I think we do have that
Speaker 1: up front this group, though, going to have to prove
Speaker 1: themselves in camp and probably get some help along the
Speaker 1: way somewhere.
Speaker 2: So there you go. This is some hidden gems keep
Speaker 2: an eye on.
Speaker 1: I'm really mc morris, Keon and TODs were the kind
Speaker 1: of reasons for the thread or the idea the segment here.
Speaker 1: And then you know, Matthew Butler gets signed and I
Speaker 1: liked his game a lot too, And then I wanted
Speaker 1: to add the cornerback spot because I don't think you're
Speaker 1: done at cornerback right now.
Speaker 2: But I digress.
Speaker 1: Let's move on and move on to segment three, where
Speaker 1: I'm going to talk about another hidden gem, this one
Speaker 1: on our coaching staff, Austin Clark. What makes him awesome?
Speaker 1: I have testimonials to back all that up. That's Next
Speaker 1: Draft Time podcast, brought to you by Autnation. So I
Speaker 1: mentioned not including the rookies in the hidden Gems segment,
Speaker 1: and if I did, I think I'd be telling you
Speaker 1: about the entire rookie defensive tackle class because in the
Speaker 1: addition of Matthew Butler, because the NFL reps an experience
Speaker 1: that he has, you could almost view him as like
Speaker 1: a polished rookie because he only played about two hundred
Speaker 1: snaps over three seasons, and there's a bunch of freaking
Speaker 1: flash and juice on that tape.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 1: But the part that gives me the most conviction in
Speaker 1: him and to have the potential to kind of have
Speaker 1: all in through the cracks here a little bit and
Speaker 1: right into our laps is the coach he'll be working with,
Speaker 1: an Austin Clark I put together through some sound bites
Speaker 1: and just the raw data. Let's go ahead and start
Speaker 1: with the former here. Let's hear from some people about
Speaker 1: Austin Clark, and I think this kind of tells you
Speaker 1: the level of pull and respect that Austin Clark has
Speaker 1: in the building. This is a conversation about drafting Jordan
Speaker 1: Phillips and who came to the GM and the decision
Speaker 1: makers in the front office about hey, this guy's pretty
Speaker 1: good coach.
Speaker 4: We were was the first one that came to us
Speaker 4: and Austin were like, hey, watched this from the East
Speaker 4: West and what he was doing. He's twenty years old
Speaker 4: as an unbelievable love for football, So I think we
Speaker 4: do think there's some things we can unlock with him.
Speaker 1: So you trust an Austin Clark when he comes to
Speaker 1: you and tells you this guy looks good on tape,
Speaker 1: and then you trust that he can unlock the things
Speaker 1: that haven't been unlocked because of that coach. That is
Speaker 1: like kind of a trump card man, not to use
Speaker 1: that term on this show, but man like, if you
Speaker 1: can get youthful, talented, big strong players in here and
Speaker 1: Coach Clark can give them a clear plan of development
Speaker 1: and work them through that for a you know, a
Speaker 1: one to three year process of development, just like it
Speaker 1: did with Christian Wilkins, who right, like Wilkins was good
Speaker 1: as a rookie, he was better as a sophomore. He
Speaker 1: was great in his third year, he was even better
Speaker 1: in his fourth year, and just as good in his
Speaker 1: fifth year. Like he his developmental track was was one
Speaker 1: that you can say, like, this guy put the time
Speaker 1: in and had a coach that believed in him and really,
Speaker 1: you know, grinded it out.
Speaker 2: So I think that's telling there.
Speaker 1: And you know, again, Kenneth Grant just off the top,
Speaker 1: like because I've already seen enough of him to know
Speaker 1: there's something there with watching him and if there's one
Speaker 1: coach I trust to like get him to play maybe
Speaker 1: a little bit lower or a guy that can maybe
Speaker 1: help him see blocks and read blocks a little better.
Speaker 1: And with Kenneth Grant's size and physical ability and his
Speaker 1: potential like or the way he's motivated to see that
Speaker 1: potential with Austin Clark, I have no doubts about that.
Speaker 1: It's a big reason why he's a green player for
Speaker 1: me already and a guy that I think could move
Speaker 1: into the blue category by the time he's a second
Speaker 1: year player. And it really just got me thinking, you know,
Speaker 1: this guy got here with us in twenty twenty. He
Speaker 1: was an outside linebackers coach that year. He might recall
Speaker 1: that being the first year we saw Andrew Van Ginkle
Speaker 1: play significant time. It's a five and a half sax
Speaker 1: season on a part time basis. Van Ney has six
Speaker 1: sacks and ten more quarterback hits. Then he moves to
Speaker 1: the defensive line, the position group that he worked at
Speaker 1: most in college as a coach. Then he takes Zack
Speaker 1: Steeler Christian Wilkins under his wing and they start making
Speaker 1: strides and they both become like all Pro potential defensive tackles.
Speaker 1: And I know Seeler had back to back double digit
Speaker 1: SAX seasons, the most by a defensive tackle over a
Speaker 1: two year run, and you saw how much Christian Wilkins
Speaker 1: just got paid in freegency.
Speaker 2: Case closed right there.
Speaker 1: We talked previously about Benito Jones having the best year
Speaker 1: of his career and Deshaun Hann producing more quarterback hits
Speaker 1: over these last two seasons with the Miami Dolphins. Then
Speaker 1: he did his first five years combined with five compared
Speaker 1: to nine. We saw Raykwon Davis go get a nice
Speaker 1: pay day from the Colts and kind of do nothing there.
Speaker 1: John Jenkins went from a year in Chicago where he
Speaker 1: barely played it, coming back to Miami for two years
Speaker 1: under coach Clark, his number see a big uptick, and
Speaker 1: then he leaves and go and has two career years
Speaker 1: in Las Vegas where it seems like he kind of
Speaker 1: unlocked his game here as well. Man, you look back,
Speaker 1: there's really not a lot of defensive tackles that were
Speaker 1: on the roster for an extended period of time who
Speaker 1: didn't produce the same was true of Adam Butler in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one. Kalais Campbell this year, and Kalais I
Speaker 1: don't have to like give coach props for him, because
Speaker 1: Kalais is that dude. But kalais like I mean, he
Speaker 1: he spoke glowingly of Coach Clark. Speaking of speaking glowingly
Speaker 1: of coach Coach Clark, Let's go ahead and go back
Speaker 1: to Benito Jones, who talked about him when he signed
Speaker 1: here last March.
Speaker 3: A man, great coach. You know every two you need
Speaker 3: to be on the field with you know, he ain't
Speaker 3: gonna never leave you with it or whatever. So I
Speaker 3: got a lot of you know, a lot of for
Speaker 3: that guy. Like I say, he's a great coach.
Speaker 1: And for those of you that know Benito, not a
Speaker 1: lot of words to say most of the time, but
Speaker 1: he kind of opened up there for coach Austin Clark.
Speaker 1: Speaking of guys that love Coach Clark, here's Christian Wilkins
Speaker 1: back in August of twenty twenty two.
Speaker 5: No, I love Coach Clark's a heck of a coach.
Speaker 5: I mean, he brings it every day and he holds
Speaker 5: us to a high standard. You know, he's been doing
Speaker 5: that since day one he's been here. He just holds
Speaker 5: us to the highest standard. T He like he knows
Speaker 5: how great we can be, and he's gonna push us
Speaker 5: to be that great each and every day. He doesn't
Speaker 5: matter how hot it is, how many players we work,
Speaker 5: none of that. He just wants us to be our
Speaker 5: best each and every play. And he's such a such
Speaker 5: a good coach teaching technique. So my techniques got a
Speaker 5: lot better. A lot of other guys on the defensive
Speaker 5: lines technique got a lot better. And you know, he
Speaker 5: just brings that juice with good, bad or and different.
Speaker 1: And then I apologize for how quiet this next one
Speaker 1: is because I just don't have a louder file, and
Speaker 1: I'm gonna turn it all the way up for you guys.
Speaker 1: But here is Zach Seeler back in October of twenty
Speaker 1: twenty one talking about Austin Clark.
Speaker 6: He does a really good job of explaining techniques and
Speaker 6: what exactly he wants. There's not a lot of gray area.
Speaker 6: Do you see this? This is how he wants it,
Speaker 6: point blank. He's very good at that, and he's very
Speaker 6: good at getting to different players and teaching the different
Speaker 6: players how different players play. So obviously, guys, will every
Speaker 6: guy plays different. I'm gonna play different than Raykwan and Raykew.
Speaker 6: One's gonna play different than Christian and so forth.
Speaker 1: And so I think when you factor in giving him
Speaker 1: a rookie crop of guys, and those guys are all
Speaker 1: have a shared trade of hunger and desire. I mean,
Speaker 1: you've heard the soundbites with both Jordan and Zeke Biggers.
Speaker 1: You heard the podcast with KG and the way Austin teaches,
Speaker 1: like you know how Christian and Zach said, it's so
Speaker 1: to the point and on the nose, like and here
Speaker 1: we go again with a golf analogy. It's like when
Speaker 1: you're working on the swing and you've got one central
Speaker 1: thought that you're stressing if you're coaching yourself or being
Speaker 1: coached the wrong way. You can focus on that aspect
Speaker 1: of the swing, but you can lose fundamentals elsewhere. I
Speaker 1: think the best way to describe Coach Clark is the
Speaker 1: way he teaches in a clear and concise way that
Speaker 1: allows the players not to overthink, not to get bogged
Speaker 1: down in details, and just play fast and react, but
Speaker 1: with effective fundamentals and technique across the board.
Speaker 2: I think the proof is in the pudding.
Speaker 1: I'll never forget sending a tweet after Zach's first contract
Speaker 1: extension here something to the effect of the Dolphins now
Speaker 1: have Zach Seeler, Christian Wilkins and Raykwon Davis under contract
Speaker 1: for the four years through twenty twenty three. And that
Speaker 1: group was literally never a problem on this football team, right.
Speaker 1: They were always like contributors to the team. Well, Zach
Speaker 1: has his contract, He's not going anywhere. You've got these
Speaker 1: three rookies on four year deals, a fifth year option
Speaker 1: for Kenneth Grant. With Butler and Jones and Dickerson all
Speaker 1: in the fold, I feel like we're going to get
Speaker 1: a pretty healthy pipeline reset at a very critical position
Speaker 1: in the scheme with a person that I could not
Speaker 1: trust more to oversee the entire operation.
Speaker 2: What a good way to end a podcasts. We'll come
Speaker 2: back on Friday.
Speaker 1: We're gonna hear from the coordinators Anthony Weaver and Frank
Speaker 1: Smith for the first time this offseason. We'll have that
Speaker 1: coverage for you, as well as plenty more on the
Speaker 1: Drivet Time podcast. But until then, you all please be
Speaker 1: sure subscribe, rate, review the show, Follow me on social.
Speaker 2: At Winkle NFL.
Speaker 1: Follow the team at Miami Dolphins. Check out the fish
Speaker 1: Tank podcast with Seth and Juice, the YouTube channel for
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Speaker 1: and last but not least, Miami Dolphins dot Com Until
Speaker 1: next time.
Speaker 2: Finza go on, Cameron, Daddy Come Home.