Speaker 1: To on Remove Golin, Deep Speedways past Peas From the
Speaker 1: Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.
Speaker 2: This is Drivetime with Travis Wingfield.
Speaker 1: He's God, my have hands in the playoffs?
Speaker 2: What is up Dolphins? And welcome to the Draft Time Podcast.
Speaker 2: I am your host, Travis Wingfield, and on today's show,
Speaker 2: I want to cover the draft just a little bit
Speaker 2: more one more time before we pivot to free agency
Speaker 2: for a while here on the show. Plus, we'll pay
Speaker 2: homage to Jerome Baker, remember an era of Dolphins football,
Speaker 2: and take a look at some of the news around
Speaker 2: the team, including a potential signing that I am very
Speaker 2: excited about that could have a big impact on your
Speaker 2: twenty twenty four Miami Dolphins offense. From the Baptist Health
Speaker 2: Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the
Speaker 2: Draft Time Podcast.
Speaker 1: Maybe Daffe.
Speaker 2: It is always every time I come on the show,
Speaker 2: I have segment ideas I've been working on for days,
Speaker 2: sometimes weeks, and I kind of put together how those
Speaker 2: segments might make up a grand show. But you never
Speaker 2: can quite match the excitement and just the overall supplement
Speaker 2: to the show when you get news because it's so
Speaker 2: fresh for the podcast, right, And what's what we have
Speaker 2: on this edition of the Draft Time podcast. First? Thanks, First,
Speaker 2: the Dolphins have moved on from twenty eighteen second round
Speaker 2: draft pick extended linebacker who spent eighteen nineteen twenty one,
Speaker 2: two three six years with the Miami Dolphins, Jerome Baker.
Speaker 2: And regardless of results, production, whatever, you want to quantify,
Speaker 2: what makes being a sports fan fun for you? Like,
Speaker 2: it's always tough, maybe not maybe not tough, but at
Speaker 2: least sentimental when you see an era come to a close, right, Like,
Speaker 2: we didn't win a ton since Jerome Bay got here. Now,
Speaker 2: we did do a lot of winning the last four
Speaker 2: years of his career, so I guess we did win
Speaker 2: quite a lot over two thirds of his Dolphins career,
Speaker 2: but without postseason's success. Right. But I think about Baker,
Speaker 2: you know, getting drafted in twenty eighteen, having that rotational
Speaker 2: role as an you know, an edge backer slash rusher
Speaker 2: type who would blitz very effectively. Then he morphs into
Speaker 2: that green dot role in twenty nineteen in the middle
Speaker 2: of the defense and never miss his games, right until
Speaker 2: he had a brutal injury this year where he took
Speaker 2: friendly fire from Brandon Jones on a shot across the
Speaker 2: knee that was like guaranteed, right, that was guaranteed to
Speaker 2: knock Bake out for the entire season, but it didn't
Speaker 2: because he's so durable and dependable. Then he plays through
Speaker 2: a broken wrist for like half of the game against
Speaker 2: Buffalo and what was his best performance of the year
Speaker 2: for my money, And I thought the Hard Knocks episode
Speaker 2: that showed you the kind of what he had to
Speaker 2: go through to play in that game, to come out
Speaker 2: of that game, and talking to his mom after the fact.
Speaker 2: Just his toughness, drive, his love for the city, his
Speaker 2: love for the organization. Man, Bake, you were a good one, dude,
Speaker 2: Always cordial, always available, always respectful, played a lot of
Speaker 2: good football here despite you know, sometimes I think fans
Speaker 2: and myself could get on certain players for performances. And
Speaker 2: that's you know, off to the side right now. Jerome
Speaker 2: Baker was always a classack from Miami, and especially the
Speaker 2: year he was nominated for Walter Payton Man of the
Speaker 2: Year of pillar in the community. And I get sentimental
Speaker 2: talking about this and eras like I think about the Mariners,
Speaker 2: my Manors fandom. Felix Fernandez never pitched in a playoff game,
Speaker 2: but he's beloved by Mariners fans because, well, he was
Speaker 2: the one guy we had during that era that was
Speaker 2: worth the price of admission. I think back to those
Speaker 2: Felix days, even though those years sucked as a Mariners fan,
Speaker 2: like I think fondly on them because of watching Felix
Speaker 2: dominate every fifth day. And so with Jerome Baker, we
Speaker 2: know the Emmanuel Ogball has been released and Ogball is
Speaker 2: here for four years, not quite six, but it's a
Speaker 2: long time. That's a big chunk of a player's career.
Speaker 2: That's longer than the average football life, right. And it's
Speaker 2: also been reported that xaviing Howard's going to be released,
Speaker 2: and there's a chance that Christian Wilkins is not back
Speaker 2: like three years ago. That was like year four pillars
Speaker 2: of the defense, right, And you've seen those four guys
Speaker 2: play a lot of games and a lot of snaps
Speaker 2: as members of the Miami Dolphins, And that, to me
Speaker 2: is the beauty of sports fandom. Winning is always your
Speaker 2: top priority, the thing you want to do the most
Speaker 2: as a fan or as an organization that's trying to
Speaker 2: get those victories stacked up. But I always have an appreciation.
Speaker 2: Like when I got into soccer, I rooted for Liverpool
Speaker 2: and I don't really follow it as much as I
Speaker 2: used to. But Jordan Henderson was a guy in the
Speaker 2: middle that Red's defense, so that Red's midfield who was
Speaker 2: always there, and like they never replaced him. He wasn't
Speaker 2: their best player. He was a captain, so that makes
Speaker 2: a bit of difference. But like, like, okay, Jordan Henderson's
Speaker 2: in year number eight, maybe it'll be his best year
Speaker 2: of his career. I've always kind of been drawn to
Speaker 2: rooting for that style of sport, right, Like, I want
Speaker 2: to be here for fifteen years and if it's one championship,
Speaker 2: that'll be worth it. But I want to root for him.
Speaker 2: I don't want to look elsewhere and get a new
Speaker 2: guy every year. Like I like the idea of longevity
Speaker 2: and keeping guys you know here and doing it that way.
Speaker 2: So for Baker, you know, that was a good six
Speaker 2: years to watch him play, And I just really love
Speaker 2: rooting for guys that I considered it to be Dolphins
Speaker 2: for life, and I think Jerome Baker is one of
Speaker 2: those guys. Now that's all the you know up in
Speaker 2: the clouds exciting stuff. How about some of the nitty
Speaker 2: gritty here, because with a new system and a new
Speaker 2: defensive coordinator, and how with the NFL works, you get
Speaker 2: these changing of the guards really every couple of years.
Speaker 2: Right now, those guys were longtime stalwarts. Twenty sixteen for X,
Speaker 2: twenty eighteen for Bake, twenty twenty for Agba, twenty nineteen
Speaker 2: for Wilkins, four or five, six and eight years a
Speaker 2: Miami Dolphin for those guys. But I thought it was
Speaker 2: pretty telling that when Anthony Weaver opened up his press
Speaker 2: conference the first time he addressed media in South Florida,
Speaker 2: you know who he mentioned. He mentioned Phillips and Chubb,
Speaker 2: He mentioned Seeler, He mentioned Holland and Ramsey and David Long, who,
Speaker 2: by the way, it sounds like he might be here
Speaker 2: for a while. You know who he didn't mention Jerome
Speaker 2: Baker and Xavien Howard. He also might have given us
Speaker 2: some context clues there with Christian Wilkins, because if he
Speaker 2: was being honest, and I have no reason to believe
Speaker 2: he was not, that it sounds like he knows we
Speaker 2: want Christian back, but it's Christian's prerogative to go get
Speaker 2: exactly what he's worth. So we'll see with that. But man,
Speaker 2: what did those guys struggle with these changing of the
Speaker 2: guard parts? We're talking about Xavion Howard. He wasn't a
Speaker 2: matchup piece anymore, you know, he was he like, at best,
Speaker 2: you were hoping that he could lock down somebody's number two,
Speaker 2: and that wasn't always the case last year. I think
Speaker 2: you can look at the cornerback position like this. Now
Speaker 2: Ramsey can play inside, damn it. He can play anywhere.
Speaker 2: He can match up, and so can Javon Holland, who
Speaker 2: came down and played in the slot last year. That
Speaker 2: will those two guys will drive the coverage under Anthony Weaver.
Speaker 2: But that also gives you flexibility because now you can
Speaker 2: explore perimeter and slot cornerbacks because of Ramsey's flexibility. And
Speaker 2: we'll do this on the Friday podcast. The idea of
Speaker 2: playing the compensatory formula and how you can kind of
Speaker 2: gain the system and get more players out of the
Speaker 2: contracts that you might have signed elsewhere, in addition to
Speaker 2: draft capital, which is always a good idea. But from
Speaker 2: the Rams. If Darius Williams know not the Rams, the Jaguars, Sorry,
Speaker 2: he started with the Rams. If Darius Williams who was
Speaker 2: cut by the Jaguars where he and Ramsey were fantastic
Speaker 2: together with the Los Angeles Rams, Now, all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: and if that's an eight million dollar player compared to
Speaker 2: you know, the twenty four, the Christian gets somewhere whatever
Speaker 2: one third of that player, and I can now use
Speaker 2: those other sixteen million dollars on two more players of
Speaker 2: this caliber and at a premium spotlight cornerback. Now, all
Speaker 2: of a sudden, there's less pressure on Cam Smith and
Speaker 2: he can be your seventy five percent guy when he
Speaker 2: comes onto the field. He comes on for your nickel package.
Speaker 2: But he's not the nickel defender right because Ramsey can
Speaker 2: kick inside and he can slot outside and play where
Speaker 2: he's best on the perimeter. So there's flexibility there, and
Speaker 2: I think it'll look a lot different. And the things
Speaker 2: that have frustrated you the fan the last two years
Speaker 2: with the last two defensive coordinators, who I think are
Speaker 2: good football coaches. I think Josh Boyer and Vic fangu
Speaker 2: are very good football coaches. Everybody has their flaws. Those
Speaker 2: flaws that drove you crazy, I think will be gone
Speaker 2: this year and that's again results aside, because twenty twenty
Speaker 2: two I thought was okay, not good, not it wasn't good.
Speaker 2: Twenty twenty three really good results there, but matchup wise,
Speaker 2: you didn't always get maybe what you wanted there, and
Speaker 2: I think it'll be different that way. It wasn't X
Speaker 2: game x's game. It wasn't Baker's game playing that deep
Speaker 2: hook drop. You know that, that wasn't his game either.
Speaker 2: So I think there's lots of changing the guard here
Speaker 2: and it could be for the better as you kind
Speaker 2: of shift towards you know what the skill sets you
Speaker 2: do have on your defense and how that aligns with
Speaker 2: you know what you don't have in terms of personnel.
Speaker 2: So that's Jerume Baker. That's the changing of the guard idea.
Speaker 2: We also have some official signing and one more roster
Speaker 2: move here. First, Keyon Crossen was released. He had that
Speaker 2: freak injury last training camp and actually it was on
Speaker 2: cutdown day and he was out there during like there
Speaker 2: was like fifty five guys practicing and we weren't decided
Speaker 2: on who was gonna get cut who was gonna make
Speaker 2: the team at that point, and he was one of
Speaker 2: the guys and he suffers a freak injury that day
Speaker 2: and makes the choice for people, right, probably one of
Speaker 2: the weirder signings to like a three million dollar per
Speaker 2: year special teamer. I thought that was just a Brian
Speaker 2: Flores thing, and it was, you know, with Clayton Fedglam
Speaker 2: and then Keon Crossen was the next guy after Fedulam,
Speaker 2: and he actually stuck it out for a couple of
Speaker 2: years here under Mike McDaniel. But I imagine, imagine will
Speaker 2: be at the end of that idea and that approach
Speaker 2: of putting valuable resources into you know, special teams, exclusive players,
Speaker 2: because Keyon goll Is to run at corner back in
Speaker 2: twenty twenty two and it wasn't good. Right, We do
Speaker 2: have a newcomer, Isaiah mack a UDFA defensive tackle from
Speaker 2: twenty nineteen. Appeared in games with the Titans, Patriots, and Ravens.
Speaker 2: He played Underweaver there in twenty twenty one and twenty
Speaker 2: twenty two, also spent time He's been around the league
Speaker 2: man Denver, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Washington and with the Jets beIN
Speaker 2: on those rosters. I'm gonna be real with you, guys.
Speaker 2: I don't know much about his game. Actually at all.
Speaker 2: So he's here, he'll probably be, you know, competing for
Speaker 2: role a role on the back end of the defensive
Speaker 2: tackle rotation. I have to imagine he's a guy that
Speaker 2: knows coach Weaver, so that's a good connection there. Now,
Speaker 2: the one I really want to talk about here on
Speaker 2: the show is a Tuesday night tweet from Chefty that
Speaker 2: said that John new Smith was visiting the Miami Dolphins.
Speaker 2: The two sides are in contract negotiations, and we'll cover
Speaker 2: the signing you know, when it happens a little bit
Speaker 2: more officially. But I've ground the tape. Guys, you want
Speaker 2: to talk about the tape, Let's go ahead and take
Speaker 2: our first break right there. Come back on the other
Speaker 2: side and talk about that tape. That's next Draft Time podcast.
Speaker 2: Your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation,
Speaker 2: teased it on the first segment of the show. Here,
Speaker 2: John news Smith, tight End and the Miami Dolphins appear
Speaker 2: to be in negotiations about joining up and giving the
Speaker 2: Dolphins offense yet another weapon to attack with and again
Speaker 2: report of for Madam Scheffer will find out what happens here.
Speaker 2: But I dug into the tape here a little bit,
Speaker 2: and this one has me fired up. Guys, if you
Speaker 2: heard the podcast at all the last two months, you've
Speaker 2: heard me discussing all these past catching options, be a
Speaker 2: wide receiver or a tight end. And I thought that
Speaker 2: the offensive regression was really tethered to the injuries of
Speaker 2: Reek and Waddle last year and the challenge of finding
Speaker 2: consistent one on one coverage beaters elsewhere in the offense
Speaker 2: that just never materialized. That way, John new Smith can
Speaker 2: do that, man. First off, like, okay, so I had this,
Speaker 2: I had this plan for the end of the show.
Speaker 2: Let's go ahead and do it right here, because it
Speaker 2: fits another instance of take in all the opinions you want.
Speaker 2: Everyone can tweet what they want and have their opinions
Speaker 2: and have their podcasts and their articles and make them
Speaker 2: right whatever they want, because every take exists, right, every
Speaker 2: take on Twitter exists. And this you know, the world
Speaker 2: of media and football and sports coverage that we're in now,
Speaker 2: everybody is an expert. All of a sudden, there's no
Speaker 2: more questions. It's I know all these things, and I'm
Speaker 2: gonna go ahead and lay them out there, even though
Speaker 2: the fact that again you know, if fans or even
Speaker 2: you know beat Riders for GMS, we would have Brian
Speaker 2: Flores and Deshaun Watson here and they be handing the
Speaker 2: ball to Najie Harris without Jalen Phillips. I'm just saying.
Speaker 2: I'm just saying, so again, read what you want, tweet
Speaker 2: what you want, but I'm gonna tell you right now,
Speaker 2: be aware of the source because and I've been coming
Speaker 2: at a certain podcast here on my show a lot,
Speaker 2: and I saw a dude from said podcast was asked,
Speaker 2: who do you want as the Dolphins number three wide
Speaker 2: receiver this year? And I keep telling you, guys, you
Speaker 2: don't want that advice. Maybe you do, but you shouldn't.
Speaker 2: In case in point, the answer was Jarvis Landry. Jarvis Landry,
Speaker 2: the same Landry who at his best was a four
Speaker 2: to six guy with zero ability to play on the perimeter,
Speaker 2: a guy that required ten targets a game to even
Speaker 2: make an impact on the game. Jarvis Landry, who was
Speaker 2: a glorified running back that defenses could erase any vertical
Speaker 2: option when he's on the field, so squat and go
Speaker 2: ahead and keep eyes on the quarterback. The same Jarvis
Speaker 2: Landry who played nine games the last two years. I
Speaker 2: guarantee you. We can find tweets from Homie about guys
Speaker 2: that didn't play enough games, you know, for the Miami
Speaker 2: Dolphins and against what's available in the draft, no less
Speaker 2: a wide receiver like these are the kind of evaluations
Speaker 2: you're gonna get. It shouldn't be a surprise with the
Speaker 2: idea that Brent freaking Grimes could come back, Right, What
Speaker 2: the hell are we doing? Truth purveyors? Though?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: We tell it like it is so not that same guy.
Speaker 2: Somebody else gave their synopsis on John news Smith. Let's
Speaker 2: go ahead and read that tweet right here, because it
Speaker 2: says Smith is a great in line blocker, had his
Speaker 2: best season last year since he left for the Titan
Speaker 2: the Titans for New England, and he did. This is
Speaker 2: a good point. Who hasn't sucked in New England lately?
Speaker 2: Offers you something after the catch and would be a
Speaker 2: nice red zone target. So again, some of that is right,
Speaker 2: Like the reason that he wasn't a good player in
Speaker 2: New England was because the Patriots don't know what they're
Speaker 2: doing offensively and haven't for a long time. Right, Like
Speaker 2: he played seventy five percent of his snaps in line
Speaker 2: with the Patriots, and it's been forty percent for the
Speaker 2: Titans and Falcons the last you know, last year with
Speaker 2: the Falcons, in the previous four years with the Titans.
Speaker 2: But doesn't that go again? Inline blocking, that's where his
Speaker 2: production goes down. Like you contradicted yourself in that own
Speaker 2: tweet and like man like, inline blocking ain't his game, Bubba,
Speaker 2: it ain't it? Now? The nice part about John whu
Speaker 2: what is his game? Is some of the stuff I
Speaker 2: think we needed last year. And look, you think big
Speaker 2: tight end, you think improved run game in better short
Speaker 2: yarge conversions, right, well, that can be true, but now
Speaker 2: you can get mad at Mike a little less for
Speaker 2: throwing the football in those spots because John who can
Speaker 2: win in those spots, and he can win when he's
Speaker 2: not uncovered, which is kind of how this offense has
Speaker 2: operated in the past. And in those tricky third down
Speaker 2: situations when we don't get the system, you know, down
Speaker 2: of way we wanted to. You need some confidence and
Speaker 2: some guys to pull down catches where they're kind of
Speaker 2: you know, plastered, and that's what this guy can do.
Speaker 2: He's one of the best contested tight end catchers in
Speaker 2: the National Football League. One of the best ball traysers
Speaker 2: vertically as well. You want to sneak him out on
Speaker 2: a wheel route. You want to throw him that damn
Speaker 2: fade that you love so much. You want him to
Speaker 2: box somebody out in the end zone. He's gonna be
Speaker 2: a mismatch against most of the guys that he sees
Speaker 2: down there. He's stronger than anybody who will cover him.
Speaker 2: It allows him to stay on the stem and build
Speaker 2: that trust with his quarterback, like if Ta Tua knows
Speaker 2: sometimes how to fit these little windows, like his ability
Speaker 2: John hu Smiths to stay on balance and have functional
Speaker 2: strength down the stem of the route against those reroutes,
Speaker 2: gives the quarterback an easier window where he can fit
Speaker 2: that thing in there. Like that wasn't the case last year,
Speaker 2: even that touchdown in Baltimore to Cedric Wilson, like that
Speaker 2: was not open, said got punked in the entire route.
Speaker 2: We're just lucky to have the most accurate quarterback in
Speaker 2: the league. Put that ball on the keyhole where only
Speaker 2: he could get it, and it kind of stuck to
Speaker 2: him as a result. Right, good catch. I won't take
Speaker 2: any credit away from that, But Homie was not open,
Speaker 2: and so Tua can make those throws. Now he's got
Speaker 2: a guy I think if the signing happens, that can
Speaker 2: help you in that regard. So you think about tough,
Speaker 2: contested catches and condensed areas, red zone short yardage. That's
Speaker 2: where John who makes you better, but he also gives
Speaker 2: you some of that vertical stretch from that number three
Speaker 2: position to run off that you know, too high structure
Speaker 2: to run you out of that single high middle field
Speaker 2: safety that wants to maybe played that robber role and
Speaker 2: kind of come down and chop down some of those
Speaker 2: crossing routes and all of a sudden you hit a
Speaker 2: vertical stretch on the three. You can't cover both of those,
Speaker 2: But where he's best and what this offense opens up like. Look,
Speaker 2: the reason Durham Smith had a career high last year
Speaker 2: and catches and yards and the reason he saw the
Speaker 2: most targets he's seen in his career last year, The
Speaker 2: reason he had the second highest catch rate at eighty
Speaker 2: one percent last year is because how many of those
Speaker 2: damn catches and targets where naked boot action was split flow?
Speaker 2: What is that it's play action to one side to
Speaker 2: the strong side to the tight end side, but he
Speaker 2: comes back across your outside zone action and leaks out
Speaker 2: into the flat. Usually in the running game he picks
Speaker 2: up the backside edge, but in the passing game, on
Speaker 2: play action passes, he'll leak out there and go catch
Speaker 2: the football in the flat. I mean that was like
Speaker 2: at least half of his catches, right. It's it's it's
Speaker 2: what you do when they overplay that play action or
Speaker 2: they owe replay the crossing route to Wattle or Tyreek
Speaker 2: against that play action, They're gonna go ahead and leave
Speaker 2: the least suspecting eligible in the pattern all alone in
Speaker 2: the flat because we can come up and rally and
Speaker 2: tackle and maybe it's maybe it's a three yard game
Speaker 2: and we win to play on defense. Now, you watch
Speaker 2: him with Arthur Smith in Atlanta, another place that has
Speaker 2: weapons all over the field, right in Drake London, in
Speaker 2: b John Robinson, in Kyle Pitts, and they throw him
Speaker 2: these screens which would come down to something as simple
Speaker 2: as a box count, like, Okay, they're three to two
Speaker 2: over there, three defenders over two receivers on Wattle and Reeke,
Speaker 2: but I've got John who backside one to one. Let's
Speaker 2: just go ahead and throw it over there. If he
Speaker 2: makes that first man miss it said, not just a
Speaker 2: first down, it's ten plus yards, and then we're still
Speaker 2: trucking with a full steam ahead. It helps balance the
Speaker 2: field more, it helps open up more of the field.
Speaker 2: Not to mention, teams can be a little more inclined
Speaker 2: to turn this free if there's urgency to make sure
Speaker 2: you find wattle and reek. So these little dump offs
Speaker 2: where Durham runs to daylight and gets chopped down by
Speaker 2: the first defender that arrives. Smith's game is running through
Speaker 2: and around those guys. In fact, let's go ahead and
Speaker 2: compare it. John new Smith last year seven point six
Speaker 2: yards after catch on average with an average depth of
Speaker 2: target of six point one yards, and his plus minus
Speaker 2: for YAK over expected was two point three. So that
Speaker 2: means that what he's supposed to get, given years of
Speaker 2: data and GPS tracking with the nearest tackler and his
Speaker 2: ability to break tackles, he gets you two point three
Speaker 2: yards more per catch than what you're supposed to get.
Speaker 2: So seven six six ' one two three Dirham Smith
Speaker 2: in those numbers six point two a dot, so the
Speaker 2: same exact a dot, but three point seven yak. That's
Speaker 2: I'm not good at math, but that is less than
Speaker 2: half of what John Wu had last year, and the
Speaker 2: yak over expected was in the negative. In fact, he's
Speaker 2: one of twelve players who were in negative yak over expected.
Speaker 2: Mike Kasicki was one of those guys as well, point
Speaker 2: minus point three. Here's a comp that will drive the
Speaker 2: fact home for you all. Mike Kasiki was minus point five.
Speaker 2: And I mean that guy hasn't broken a tackle in
Speaker 2: the league in like three years. Like, look it up.
Speaker 2: He doesn't break tackles. Now, none of this, none of
Speaker 2: this is a slight to Durham Smith because I thought
Speaker 2: Durham Smith had the best year of his career last
Speaker 2: year and was a critical aspect of our offense. It's
Speaker 2: a strength to know what your weaknesses are, right, And
Speaker 2: Durham is not here to catch a bunch of passes.
Speaker 2: He's an in line blocker, right. I get a kick
Speaker 2: out of that still, because you can just tell who
Speaker 2: just knows football buzzwords and uses them willy nilly like
Speaker 2: inline blocker you tied it in. Yeah, he's a big guy. Nah,
Speaker 2: that's not his game. So I think this is a
Speaker 2: perfect marriage in the tight end room and damn it
Speaker 2: if Julian Hill isn't also a perfect tight end three.
Speaker 2: When you want to go heavy slash thirteen personnel, it
Speaker 2: all always just took one player for me to go
Speaker 2: from e on the tight end room to like, oh okay,
Speaker 2: now I like this room, and John new Smith is
Speaker 2: that guy. Let's go ahead and take the break right there,
Speaker 2: come back on the other side and talk about some
Speaker 2: draft history, nuggets and what we can glean from the past.
Speaker 2: That is next Draft Time Podcast, your host Travis Wingfield,
Speaker 2: brought to you by Auto Nation. Hearn's burn a while,
Speaker 2: hurns her, It's been a while since our first pick
Speaker 2: in the first round for the Dolphins, right, Jalen Phillips
Speaker 2: back car on the Draft Time podcast was your last
Speaker 2: first round pick for the Miami Dolphins, and it got
Speaker 2: me thinking about something. Chris Greer was promoted to GM
Speaker 2: in twenty sixteen. He worked with an EVP of Football
Speaker 2: Ops and mister Mike Tinebaum. So if you extend it
Speaker 2: that far back, there are eight drafts with Chris Greer's
Speaker 2: name directly attached, right, and he was here as a
Speaker 2: scout and director for a long time too. But for
Speaker 2: all intents and purposes. You can attach classes back to
Speaker 2: twenty sixteen to Chris Grear. Then, of course, the EVP
Speaker 2: was removed in twenty nineteen, and you get five years
Speaker 2: worth of drafts that were really just Chris Greer's watch.
Speaker 2: So going back to twenty sixteen, there's a quite a
Speaker 2: popular trend for the Miami GM in the first round
Speaker 2: of drafts. And though there are exceptions to that rule
Speaker 2: and every rule, right, you can sort of glean his
Speaker 2: thinking here in the first round and how the Dolphins
Speaker 2: have been able to create a roster that has premium
Speaker 2: players at premium spots for at affordable costs, right, And
Speaker 2: it's because they draft him. And I won't ever say
Speaker 2: it's all Chris, because I think that one of the
Speaker 2: things that makes him so good at his job is
Speaker 2: how Chris Greer listens to others and empowers his people
Speaker 2: to be impactful. I've long said that he's always been
Speaker 2: a great grocery shopper. You know, he changes with the
Speaker 2: coaching staff and gets their types of players, Like a
Speaker 2: Landon Roberts was a Patriots front type of guy, right,
Speaker 2: a stackbacker, a Brian Flores guy. Whereas Tyreek Hill that's
Speaker 2: a Mike McDaniel guy. Because Brian Flores didn't want superstars.
Speaker 2: You know, Chris Greer finds out what his coaches want,
Speaker 2: he makes it happen. Now, in the first round, there's
Speaker 2: a pretty good trend of taking premium positions. If you
Speaker 2: pull over the caps position allocation, there's a clear line
Speaker 2: of delineation after five positions. Actually there's a couple of
Speaker 2: lines delineation, but for the purpose of this segment, quarterback
Speaker 2: is in a own stratosphere. Then edge corner, offensive tackle,
Speaker 2: and wide receiver are pretty similar when you factor in
Speaker 2: how much each team pays that group, divided by the
Speaker 2: number of players in that group and how many snaps
Speaker 2: each player in that group takes. Interior defensive line is next,
Speaker 2: and it's to drop off from those other five and
Speaker 2: it's pretty stark. But there's another really good drop off
Speaker 2: right after that. So it's quarterback has created its own tier.
Speaker 2: There's four groups in the next tier. Defensive tackle or
Speaker 2: the IDL is in its own tier at the sixth position,
Speaker 2: and then it's the next tier. At the bottom tier
Speaker 2: is the remaining positions. You know, running back, I guess
Speaker 2: off ball, linebacker, safety, and guard, right intir offensive line. Now,
Speaker 2: there's always exceptions to the rule, and I think in
Speaker 2: the case of Mika Fitzpatrick and Christian Wilkins, who are
Speaker 2: the exceptions to that rule a safety and defensive tackle
Speaker 2: for the last nine draft classes. You know, Wilkins's ability
Speaker 2: to play inside and outside, to rarely leave the field,
Speaker 2: to rush and play the run. I think he transcends
Speaker 2: the idea of that positional value just because of all
Speaker 2: those traits that he offers, you know, availability not absent
Speaker 2: among them. With Minka Fitzpatrick, I mean, simply look at
Speaker 2: the extension that he garnered the bones of that deal
Speaker 2: four for seventy five thirty six million guaranteed. That's a
Speaker 2: notch below your average premium position player, right eighteen million
Speaker 2: dollars per year in that ballpark. It's in that defensive
Speaker 2: tackle tier. And quite frankly, Minka played more corner here
Speaker 2: than safety. He was a nickel that first year and
Speaker 2: also played on the perimeter with some safety mixed in.
Speaker 2: So those two guys were outside of the five position groups.
Speaker 2: But they provide unique exceptions, and I think those were forecastable.
Speaker 2: I mean, Minka Fitzpatrick played the star position all lut
Speaker 2: Jalen Ramsey at Alabama, right, and we saw what Derwin
Speaker 2: James can do from a multiplicity standpoint and how he
Speaker 2: was paid, you know, commeserate with that role. You knew
Speaker 2: these things going into those drafts. It was the same
Speaker 2: with Christian Wilkins. You know, he was old by draft standards,
Speaker 2: right twenty three shoot, one year later, we took two
Speaker 2: guys who were barely twenty years old. One wasn't even
Speaker 2: that no monogamy. So those are two exceptions to a
Speaker 2: unique in the sense that A they sort of dabble
Speaker 2: in the premium five and b they became so good
Speaker 2: at those quote unquote ancillary spots that they became premium
Speaker 2: players outside of the premium five, as it were. So
Speaker 2: with all of that in mind, who are the guys
Speaker 2: that you should keep an eye on in the draft
Speaker 2: that hit those criteria? As always anything as possible. Saying
Speaker 2: no chance in the draft is terrible, terrible practice. But
Speaker 2: we can go in and formed with an anticipation of
Speaker 2: what it might look like, and teams will do that
Speaker 2: too as they work through the many many scenarios that
Speaker 2: could come up on draft night in the offseason, how
Speaker 2: to forecast how the board shakes off the value that
Speaker 2: exists by sticking and picking moving back, or is there
Speaker 2: a player that if he slides, we are willing to
Speaker 2: go up and get. So I want to use Daniel
Speaker 2: Jeremiah's top fifty here to see who fits this criteria.
Speaker 2: And first again, remove some names. Right, all the quarterbacks
Speaker 2: Caleb Williams, Drake may j A and Daniel STREEA McCarthy, Bodennicks,
Speaker 2: Michael Pennix could all conceivably be top twenty picks. I
Speaker 2: doubt they are. Four of them, will be most likely five,
Speaker 2: probably with an outside shot at six. And I've been
Speaker 2: leaning this way for a long time, and I have
Speaker 2: a feeling the six quarterback taken Michael Penix is gonna
Speaker 2: be the best one that comes out of that class.
Speaker 2: We'll see, But let's remove the big three receivers marv Odoonsay, Neighbors,
Speaker 2: They're all going way before us. Let's check off these
Speaker 2: insanely polished tackles as well. Joe alt Alu I can
Speaker 2: never get his name right for Shano, the penn State guy, Tealisi, Fulagrapher,
Speaker 2: Oregon State JC Latham, and then on defense, Dallas Turner
Speaker 2: and Jared verse, there's two corners I'm inclined to put here,
Speaker 2: but like we're already at fifteen, let's go ahead and
Speaker 2: just keep those guys on the table. So I remove
Speaker 2: players one through five off DJ's fifty top players, player seven,
Speaker 2: player nine through fourteen, Player twenty three, player twenty seven,
Speaker 2: player forty. Those were McCarthy, Nicks, and Pennix. By the way,
Speaker 2: the quarterbacks. This means I've left players six, eight, and
Speaker 2: fifteen through twenty two, which is cornerback Terrying Arnold number
Speaker 2: six from Alabama. Tight End brock Bauers from Georgia is
Speaker 2: number eight, and then fifteen through the twenty five on here.
Speaker 2: Brian Thomas, Troy Fittanu, Tyler Geitton, Amarius Mims, Quinya, and
Speaker 2: Mitchell Edgrin Cooper, Leotu Latu, Byron Murphy, Enis Rakestraw Junior
Speaker 2: and Chop Robinson are the names that fall into that
Speaker 2: top twenty five of DJ's big board, and from that
Speaker 2: group you have eight premium positions and three non premium. However,
Speaker 2: I think brock Bauer's ability is a pass catcher who
Speaker 2: could never leave the field. In eleven personnel offense, I
Speaker 2: think Edrin Cooper's ability to some of the Fred Warner
Speaker 2: stuff and Byron Murphy kind of fits the bill of
Speaker 2: what we share with Christian Wilkins and his ability to
Speaker 2: make himself into something of a premium position player. And
Speaker 2: the reason you draft at those premium spots is because, man,
Speaker 2: when you get hits, now you have created wait for it,
Speaker 2: our favorite term, maximum flexibility. Because if I get a
Speaker 2: top ten wide receiver production you know Waddle in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty two, if I get top ten edge production Phillips
Speaker 2: and went healthy last year, I'm doing this on a
Speaker 2: rookie contract that's well below, well below the threshold for
Speaker 2: premium production at a premium position. You sick with that
Speaker 2: word yet, so the question becomes from that list, who
Speaker 2: can satisfy that criteria. I'm not all the way done
Speaker 2: with my draft study and tape study, but I'm getting there.
Speaker 2: And from that list, this is what I like and think.
Speaker 2: To reiterate my own take on the crop of players.
Speaker 2: Lea la to Chop Robinson and Darius Robinson are the
Speaker 2: three edges I like in that spot. We've talked about
Speaker 2: lot to a Lot, I just think he's the best
Speaker 2: pass prushure in this class quite Frankly, who's only down
Speaker 2: on the spot because of medical concerns. Chops great forty
Speaker 2: time and the ability to bend and the way he
Speaker 2: can kind of see and react quickly in that position
Speaker 2: really makes me intrigued about his game. And then Darius
Speaker 2: Robinson just pure power and strength and can bull you
Speaker 2: from multiple spots across the defensive line. All of those
Speaker 2: guys could be potential, you know, seventy plus percent snap
Speaker 2: takers right away at premium spots that give you a
Speaker 2: you know, if you get them in the first round.
Speaker 2: Like you are not at all upset about that, even
Speaker 2: though you have Chubb and Phillips and probably Van ginkle
Speaker 2: back as well. At tackle, I got Fuaga on here,
Speaker 2: but I I think he's long gone. The two that
Speaker 2: I'm looking at the most are Amerius Mims from Georgia
Speaker 2: and Tchroy Fatanu from you Dub. I think Fatano's like
Speaker 2: maybe tackle two in the class. I love his game.
Speaker 2: We'll see where he goes. And then the cornerbacks Mitchell
Speaker 2: and Arnold are also on there. Those are the guys
Speaker 2: that fit that bill. They're in that range for the Dolphins.
Speaker 2: According to DJ's draft board, they play premium spots, and
Speaker 2: that's what we've done seven of the last nine draft classes.
Speaker 2: If you go back to sixteen first round Lenardy Tons
Speaker 2: will tackle right seventeen, Charles Harris edge twenty eighteen, that's
Speaker 2: the off year, Minkah Fitzpatrick, but we are explained his
Speaker 2: exception twenty nineteen. Christian Wilkins another exception there. But since
Speaker 2: then twenty twenty quarterback tackle corner two of those three
Speaker 2: were hits. In twenty twenty one receiver and edge two
Speaker 2: massive hits there. So if there's one exception, actually I
Speaker 2: have two exceptions for you. Number ones, Jackson Powers Johnson,
Speaker 2: You guys know that the reason I think he's the
Speaker 2: exception you for me to talk about it all all
Speaker 2: draft season. That added weight that he has at three
Speaker 2: point thirty in the interior, the extra fifteen twenty pounds
Speaker 2: in other centers. It's going to help you with interior
Speaker 2: rush to get movement and goal line in short yardage.
Speaker 2: That should not be lost on anybody because if my
Speaker 2: short yards improves without sacrificing any athletic ability, and I
Speaker 2: also have a field general who is gonna be in
Speaker 2: sync with my quarterback to get protections and calls, you know,
Speaker 2: called out that entire makeup of that player fits my
Speaker 2: exception list, and that's probably about it. At twenty one,
Speaker 2: maybe Byron Murphy from Texas, because I think that he's
Speaker 2: again kind of in that same mold as Christian Wilkins,
Speaker 2: but he's a bit smaller, so I'm not sure if
Speaker 2: he can play that zero one shade technique that sometimes
Speaker 2: Christian would do. Maybe we come back to this in
Speaker 2: a month, we'll find out. But also in the second round,
Speaker 2: like kind of thinking about this as well, and this
Speaker 2: is you know, because the receiver position was so kind
Speaker 2: of you know, Brian Thomas is in that spot, but
Speaker 2: I don't know, we'll see. I don't think that he's
Speaker 2: the best fit, but it makes me think about receivers
Speaker 2: in the second round because there's, like I just from
Speaker 2: the sheer volume of very good receivers in this year's class,
Speaker 2: somebody's gonna draft a receiver in the second round who
Speaker 2: becomes a multi time pro bowler. Like the odds are
Speaker 2: just so in your favor that's gonna happen. So it's
Speaker 2: huge opportunity, right like premium times three with the investment
Speaker 2: of pick fifty five and the contract commesurate with that.
Speaker 2: I mean that, like pick twenty one last year was
Speaker 2: Quinton Johnston, which Kyle Krabs tells me that Quentin Johnson's
Speaker 2: Brian Thomas, So I don't know, that's kind of funny
Speaker 2: that worked out that way. But he signed for fifteen
Speaker 2: point three million dollars total over the life of his
Speaker 2: four year contract. Pick fifty five, well, look at what
Speaker 2: we have here. The receiver that I would wager winds
Speaker 2: up making Pro Bowls very soon, Rashi Rice for the
Speaker 2: Kansas City Chiefs. The four year total of his deal
Speaker 2: six point eight million. That's less than two million per year.
Speaker 2: And if that player turns into Waddle or Almond Ross,
Speaker 2: Saint Brown, even Rice, it's a jet pack of value. Right.
Speaker 2: So with that in mind, there's guys at pick fifty
Speaker 2: five that I think make a ton of sense for you.
Speaker 2: You've heard the names by now, Roman Wilson, Malachai Corley,
Speaker 2: Xavier Worthy. I have done extensive discussions on those players
Speaker 2: on this podcast. I won't get back into that, but
Speaker 2: I think that's a really good place to look in
Speaker 2: terms of how you might attack this year's draft class
Speaker 2: with positional value, where the value of the draft itself
Speaker 2: lies and the Dolphins history of drafting premium positions. The
Speaker 2: tackle group, the edge group, the receivers, they're all super
Speaker 2: deep in this draft. It looks like the tackle, edge
Speaker 2: group and maybe corner at twenty one would make the
Speaker 2: most sense, or maybe you could even trade back and
Speaker 2: do that, and then in the second round it feels
Speaker 2: like receiver could be this area you go to. That's
Speaker 2: just a one scenario though, right Like, never put yourself
Speaker 2: in a box, don't pigeonhole yourself, because's how you wind
Speaker 2: up taking bad players in bad drafts. So okay, sound good.
Speaker 2: I think it's a good place to stop right there.
Speaker 2: I know a lot of you are still getting caught
Speaker 2: up on the five shows from last week, so really
Speaker 2: appreciate you guys going back and doing that. We're about
Speaker 2: to ratchet the work up way big time next week
Speaker 2: as a new league year starts. Also, Happy Full Swing
Speaker 2: Day to those who celebrate. Been looking forward to that
Speaker 2: show for a while now. Just knocked out Drive to Survive.
Speaker 2: It's a great season in my opinion, maybe I enjoyed
Speaker 2: it more because I didn't actually watch F one this year,
Speaker 2: because hey, F one's boring as hell. It's not for me.
Speaker 2: I try to get into it, it just is not
Speaker 2: for me. But the drama of DTS is still great,
Speaker 2: so you don't know what's going to happen, so show better.
Speaker 2: In my opinion, it's that time of year. Man. I
Speaker 2: also just watched Interstellar for the first time. I know
Speaker 2: I was missing out on that one great great film Friday.
Speaker 2: I want to look back into Free to see a
Speaker 2: little bit here, so I'll be the next couple of
Speaker 2: podcasts before next Wednesday, when we are hopefully talking about
Speaker 2: all the new players the Mimy Dolphins are bringing in
Speaker 2: here in studio, talking to him on the podcast and
Speaker 2: breaking their game down. And I want to actually end
Speaker 2: with this last thought note because I got a great
Speaker 2: kick out of this last night when I was doing
Speaker 2: my unwinding on the old back porch of the house,
Speaker 2: or I guess it's my front porch. But uh, by
Speaker 2: the way, a one year old going through a sleep
Speaker 2: aggression freaking kill me. It's the worst. But Kyle, good
Speaker 2: friend Kyle Crabs, and I got a good chuckle out
Speaker 2: of this. Like I just saw the other one on
Speaker 2: his page and the YouTube comments that he tweeted out,
Speaker 2: you're not going to compete for a Super Bowl with
Speaker 2: that with team with players that were cut from other teams.
Speaker 2: Bro First off, like, yeah, you can. Zach Seeler was
Speaker 2: a cut player. You don't want him. The guy that
Speaker 2: caught the game winning touchdown and the Super Bowl was
Speaker 2: a player the Jets felt was worth lopping off for
Speaker 2: scraps mid season. What are we talking about, dude? And also,
Speaker 2: you know, Kyle hid the user name, but I can
Speaker 2: guarantee you that user has probably commented on the fact
Speaker 2: that Exaving Howard and Jerome Baker are gone and irreplaceable. Right,
Speaker 2: cut players, Right? But that one got me word for word?
Speaker 2: This one really word for word is I was I
Speaker 2: meant to say? Really sent me over the edge. So
Speaker 2: here's the tweet. So Miami has let x go, letting
Speaker 2: Wilkins hit the market, and letting Baker walk. We can't
Speaker 2: draft guys to replace them and make an impact. So
Speaker 2: what's the plan. What all those guys you just named
Speaker 2: were drafted by Miami? Yadangus? Like what are we doing? Dude?
Speaker 2: I will never understand the desire to be miserable over
Speaker 2: your favorite football team every single day. Hey, maybe we
Speaker 2: do regress. Maybe we are our worst team next year.
Speaker 2: That's on the table for every team every year. And
Speaker 2: maybe you know we're down certain players, but we won
Speaker 2: a lot of football games last year where we were
Speaker 2: banged up to having massive vacancies at key positions with
Speaker 2: guys that were injured not available a lot of those games, right,
Speaker 2: and we still have Tua and Tyreek and Waddle and
Speaker 2: feel like you still have a lot of damn good
Speaker 2: football players. So bemoaning all you want, that's your prerogative,
Speaker 2: if you want to dwell on the possibility, the possibility
Speaker 2: that they regress over the next six months. If you're
Speaker 2: already like bemoaning the GM because Wilkins was reported to
Speaker 2: test the market, you don't know what's gonna happen. You
Speaker 2: can get mad about it. I remember you guys getting
Speaker 2: mad about Lyo Collin's not being signed and the fact
Speaker 2: that we were never gonna address the offensive line, and
Speaker 2: two days later to Ron Armstead signed. So maybe we
Speaker 2: learn from it this year, maybe not. I don't know.
Speaker 2: But if your prerogative is to dwell on negative what
Speaker 2: ifs for the next six months, I don't know what
Speaker 2: to tell you, Bud. But like man that tweet, that
Speaker 2: was funny. You all. Please be sure to subscribe to
Speaker 2: the podcast on Apple wherever you get your podcast from
Speaker 2: Leavis a Rag, and give us a review. Follow me
Speaker 2: on social at Wingfold NFL, the team at Mimy Dolphins.
Speaker 2: Check out the Fish Tank podcast with Seth and Jews.
Speaker 2: Check out the YouTube channel for the Media Availabilities Dolphins
Speaker 2: Today and I'm Becoming Free Agent Chats with Travis Wingfield
Speaker 2: next week and Miami Dolphins dot Com until next time
Speaker 2: ends up Carolina Cameron Daddy's Come and ho