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Speaker 3: What is up? Dolphins? And welcome to the Draft Time podcast,
Speaker 3: part of the Miami Dolphins Podcast Network, covering your team,
Speaker 3: your Miami Dolphins. How's it going everybody? I am your host,
Speaker 3: Travis Wingfield. And on today's show, part two of my
Speaker 3: interview with Brett call talking about Elijah Higgins, Ryan Hayes,
Speaker 3: and so much more around this Miami Dolphins football team.
Speaker 3: What anticipation does for a football player, Mike McDaniel in
Speaker 3: year two, How the offense can benefit from the second
Speaker 3: year under Mike McDaniel. So much good content here. Let's
Speaker 3: go ahead and jump right in from the Baptist Health
Speaker 3: Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the
Speaker 3: Draft Time Podcast Maggie Gaffish Fish and once again, let's
Speaker 3: go ahead and play my interview, part two with the
Speaker 3: Great Brett Coleman. I'm thrilled to be joined once again
Speaker 3: for the second consecutive episode here by the Great Brett Coleman.
Speaker 3: We've already talked about the credentials. We'll do it again
Speaker 3: here the film Room YouTube channel, the Bootleg Football Podcast,
Speaker 3: NFL Media Los Angeles Chargers. You see the backdrop there
Speaker 3: if you're on video of him in a high rise
Speaker 3: where you're at Brett, You and Los Angeles don't want
Speaker 3: to give away your location, but man, you've certainly upgraded
Speaker 3: the digs from last I saw you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, right in the middle of downtown LA, which works
Speaker 1: out well for all the stuff I do in NFL media,
Speaker 1: which is like.
Speaker 3: Is that way?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 2: So far? Is not that far?
Speaker 1: And then you know the Chargers. Chargers are actually in
Speaker 1: multiple spots run southern California. Are you guys coming out
Speaker 1: to LA this year? I think you are right.
Speaker 3: We play the Chargers in LA. I believe, I believe
Speaker 3: I think so. I mean, I used to be able
Speaker 3: to rattle that stuff off, but now like my brain
Speaker 3: so consume with so many things that I kind of
Speaker 3: I have to go back and look. But I'm pretty sure, yeah,
Speaker 3: actually play the AFC West. I'm pretty sure we are
Speaker 3: in Los Angeles, So maybe we'll come out and see
Speaker 3: you guys at some point.
Speaker 2: That'd be fun. I'd love that.
Speaker 3: So twenty minutes away, it was that like a mile
Speaker 3: and a half.
Speaker 1: Away, yeah about about.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's pretty bad down here, but I know it's
Speaker 3: it's it's probably the worst in your neck of the woods.
Speaker 3: But we're not here to talk about traffic and and grids,
Speaker 3: grid flows of big cities. I do want to talk
Speaker 3: about this, Brett, because it's kind of a sticking point
Speaker 3: for me. Again I mentioned in the last podcast, I
Speaker 3: want to test some of my theories out on you here.
Speaker 3: Is that to me, anticipation is the most important trait
Speaker 3: for a football player. I go back to like Zach
Speaker 3: Thomas was the best linebacker I've ever seen anticipate and
Speaker 3: flow to the football. You know, our quarterback we have
Speaker 3: right now, to a tongue of Bai Lowo really excels
Speaker 3: in that department. I was a huge fan of the
Speaker 3: David Long acquisition for that reason, for his ability to
Speaker 3: anticipate and go, you know, make place before the offensive
Speaker 3: line has a chance to blink. We talked about Cam Smith.
Speaker 3: I'm curious your role. Are your thoughts on the role
Speaker 3: anticipation plays at the quarterback position with Tua, but also
Speaker 3: the rest of the position groups, the rest of the league,
Speaker 3: the rest of the game, anticipation of football. What do
Speaker 3: you think about that?
Speaker 1: I think anticipation is a critical trait for every single position,
Speaker 1: you know, even non skill positions, even looking at the
Speaker 1: trenches right, and I think there's pre snap.
Speaker 2: Anticipation in post snap anticipation. There's two very different things.
Speaker 2: But like specifically at the quarterback position, you can't see.
Speaker 1: It and throw it. In the NFL, you have to
Speaker 1: throw it before you see it. You have to be
Speaker 1: able to process defenses and understand, you know, based on
Speaker 1: the first half second snapshot that you're getting, you know,
Speaker 1: where's a DB's hips pointing, what technique are they playing?
Speaker 1: Are they playing high shoulder or low shoulder, and anticipate
Speaker 1: what that means in terms of space that will open
Speaker 1: where you should be placing the ball against man, because
Speaker 1: throwing against man isn't just about Okay, I'm gonna give
Speaker 1: my guy a shot fifty to fifty, like, you got
Speaker 1: to place the ball accurately to give him that shot.
Speaker 1: Are you leading him down the field, are you throwing
Speaker 1: back shoulder? Are you leaving it inside? And that's where
Speaker 1: we talk about chemistry, right, and anticipation is fed from chemistry.
Speaker 2: But even on the defensive side of the ball.
Speaker 1: At linebacker, again, you're anticipating what an offense is trying
Speaker 1: to do pre snap, based on alignment, based on motion.
Speaker 1: You know, one of the old oldest tricks in the
Speaker 1: books is you're looking at which line which lineman's knuckles
Speaker 1: are white, right, to see where they're putting their weight on,
Speaker 1: because if their weights off their knuckles, that means they
Speaker 1: might be pulling. Here, you're looking at splits between offensive
Speaker 1: lineman who's got an extra six inches of space that
Speaker 1: doesn't that shouldn't be there, right, That's probably where the
Speaker 1: point of attack is going to because they want to
Speaker 1: give themselves every advantage in terms of making that poa
Speaker 1: as wide as possible.
Speaker 2: You're looking at stance, you.
Speaker 1: Know, uh, and there's a there's an example that I
Speaker 1: pointed out last year and I sent it to my
Speaker 1: buddy at the Seahawks. I was like, you got to
Speaker 1: fix Charles Cross here, who was their rookie left tackle,
Speaker 1: And I was like, he's tipping his sets when he's
Speaker 1: doing a jump set versus an angle set because his
Speaker 1: feet are different. And the forty nine ers figured it
Speaker 1: out in the second half and they ate him alive.
Speaker 1: I'm like, you got to you gotta fix this kid,
Speaker 1: like he's tipping his sets. And so there's anticipation on
Speaker 1: the defensive side of the ball for that type of
Speaker 1: stuff too. So it's it's a very complex sport, and
Speaker 1: when you play it for a long time, where you
Speaker 1: watch it for a long time, you can pick up
Speaker 1: on little things as simple as the left tackle's foot
Speaker 1: is four inches different than it was last time, and
Speaker 1: that is all the difference between completed pass and a
Speaker 1: sack fumble that ends your season. So yeah, anticipations everything,
Speaker 1: in addition to you know, running four three and squatting
Speaker 1: six hundred punds.
Speaker 3: It doesn't hurt at all. And there was a throw
Speaker 3: last year in the Cleveland game where Denzel Ward played
Speaker 3: the played it perfectly out and out breaking route too.
Speaker 3: I think it was Jaylen Waddle where to put it
Speaker 3: really in the tire swing man like, it was high
Speaker 3: and away and if he threw any more back inside,
Speaker 3: it's probably a pick six the other way. And then
Speaker 3: you drop probably his best past the year on Trent
Speaker 3: Sherfield for a touchdown on the corner of the end
Speaker 3: zone just two plays later. So we see that in
Speaker 3: spades down here with our quarterback position, and you speak
Speaker 3: about the white knuckles and the stands man like if
Speaker 3: I learned anything about invincible Mark Wahlberg score a touchdown
Speaker 3: for the Philadelphia Eagles Vince Papali because of the white knuckles,
Speaker 3: going back to the two thousand and six people there.
Speaker 3: But aside from that, you know, it just tracks because
Speaker 3: you talk about anticipation, love of the game comes to mind.
Speaker 3: You think about that. I go back to the previous
Speaker 3: podcast I mentioned Raheem Moster discussing how these you know,
Speaker 3: superstar players have integrated into the Doll's locker room. It
Speaker 3: just goes back to this idea of getting the right
Speaker 3: types of players, the right types of Miami Dolphins, and
Speaker 3: that to me is high character. It's high football character.
Speaker 3: If you're going to put that work in for your
Speaker 3: teammates to make yourself better and make the team better.
Speaker 3: But what I wanted to get into here with this
Speaker 3: before we talk about the next two draft picks, is
Speaker 3: analyzing that level of football character and that level of intelligence.
Speaker 3: And how how do scouting stats do that they is
Speaker 3: it primarily based upon conversations with the college coach, the
Speaker 3: players coaches in college, you know, the recruiting staffs down there.
Speaker 3: Is it something you see on film like what's the
Speaker 3: process of uncovering a person with you know, high football intelligence,
Speaker 3: high football character and a guy that you know puts
Speaker 3: in the work that way and it shows on tape.
Speaker 1: I mean a big thing in terms of determining you
Speaker 1: know that that trait pre draft. And we know that
Speaker 1: the Dolphins probably had extensive meetings with every single guy
Speaker 1: they drafted, right, because they're not going to draft so
Speaker 1: much without having a feel for that. The big thing
Speaker 1: in terms of determining football intelligence, you got to sit
Speaker 1: there and talk about all of them, right, And even
Speaker 1: if you know the answer on something of like hey,
Speaker 1: why did you play it this way? You know, you
Speaker 1: pull up some film and you ask them what did
Speaker 1: you see and why did you play it this way?
Speaker 1: And just see if they can if they can spit
Speaker 1: out that answer, right, talk about pre snap breads, talk
Speaker 1: about post snapreeds, techniques, all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2: Get what's going through their head.
Speaker 1: And I had a chance to do that extensively over
Speaker 1: the last couple of years at the Shrine Bowl, because
Speaker 1: the Shrine Bowl is very gracious and gives media, you know,
Speaker 1: literally as long as we want to to sit down
Speaker 1: with all these prospects. And they had seven guys going
Speaker 1: in the top hundred this year, right, and they had
Speaker 1: first round pick and say Flowers, we got unlimited time
Speaker 1: whatever we wanted to to sit down and watch film
Speaker 1: with them and do interviews and ask them how they
Speaker 1: saw certain things. And we got a good sense for
Speaker 1: what they know and how they operate. And there were
Speaker 1: some guys like Jewe Scrugs. Nobody was talking about Jewe Scrugs, right.
Speaker 1: He was a center that are converted to a guard
Speaker 1: that went in the second round. Nobody knew about him,
Speaker 1: but we did because we got to sit there and
Speaker 1: talk about how he calls protections, how he looks at
Speaker 1: certain things pre snap, all the different calls that he uses,
Speaker 1: how he's executing a reach block against certain defensive line techniques,
Speaker 1: and we understood, oh my god, this guy knows football.
Speaker 1: Same thing Ricky Stromberg. He went in the top one
Speaker 1: fifty to the Commanders. I'm like, this is a top
Speaker 1: four center in this class and nobody was talking about him.
Speaker 2: He was rankeding like the three hundreds back in January.
Speaker 1: Chandlers of Volat didn't even get a combined invite ended
Speaker 1: up going to the fourth round because I know the
Speaker 1: Panthers met with him at the Shrine Bowl too, and
Speaker 1: they probably asked him all the same questions I did.
Speaker 1: And we're like, oh my god, this kid's so smart.
Speaker 2: He's a former soccer player, he's got great feet. What
Speaker 2: am I missing here?
Speaker 1: And then we get to the draft roo We're seeing
Speaker 1: all these guys going early, early, early, and we're like, Oh,
Speaker 1: it's because they're smart.
Speaker 2: It's because they know the game and they're pros. Pros
Speaker 2: that matters.
Speaker 1: And I question teams who quote unquote take reaches a
Speaker 1: lot less now because I know there's a good chance
Speaker 1: they probably had a good meeting with that kid and
Speaker 1: they trust that meeting.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was gonna say that's probably a part of
Speaker 3: where the disconnect comes from from. You talk about reaches, like,
Speaker 3: what are reaches born from? It's from media coverage, right
Speaker 3: and consensus, big boards and mock drafts that I suppose
Speaker 3: reflect a little bit of how the NFL thinks, but
Speaker 3: not entirely. I mean we see it every single year.
Speaker 3: And I point to the seat Seahawks, a team that
Speaker 3: just doesn't give an f what you think about their
Speaker 3: draft board. They're going to take players that fit what
Speaker 3: they do. And you know, John Schneider basically set himself
Speaker 3: up for a decade run with back to back all
Speaker 3: time great draft classes. Hit a bit of a role
Speaker 3: there for a couple of years, but now here they
Speaker 3: are back again with a couple of really good draft classes.
Speaker 3: And then went from a team that last year, folks
Speaker 3: myself included, thought was going to be picking top five
Speaker 3: to a team that qualify for the playoffs and uncovered
Speaker 3: a quarterback in the process. So really good stuff there
Speaker 3: with those guys. I want to talk about something else.
Speaker 3: The Dolphins really kind of checked the box on over
Speaker 3: draft weekend ten split time. We're gonna talk about that,
Speaker 3: and Elijah Higgins and Ryan Hayes here on the draft
Speaker 3: time podcast. My guest today is Brett Coleman. Your host
Speaker 3: Travis Wingfield. We are brought to you by Auto Nation.
Speaker 3: We talked about it on the other side of the
Speaker 3: break there the ten splits, and I keep looking at
Speaker 3: this and there's a great chart out there. We'll talk
Speaker 3: about Elijah Higgins in just one second here, Brett, there's
Speaker 3: a great chart that kind of compares two traits for
Speaker 3: tight ends that typically produce high level producers at the position,
Speaker 3: and it has to do with yards after the catch
Speaker 3: and their ten split, the way they come off the football.
Speaker 3: But before we talk about Elijah Higgins specifically with that
Speaker 3: start or that trade, I should say I want to
Speaker 3: talk about the ten split in general because I'm looking
Speaker 3: at Dolphins draft classes over the last couple of years
Speaker 3: and really their roster in general these last two years
Speaker 3: under Mike McDaniel, who has gone to the podium and
Speaker 3: spoken to us in the media about how tight end
Speaker 3: offensive line these are positions that guys kind of have
Speaker 3: to retrain their brain if you haven't played in this,
Speaker 3: because they prioritize firing off the football, playing fast, and
Speaker 3: being less reactionary. I'm curious to get your take on
Speaker 3: how that works for this Dolphins roster and how the
Speaker 3: ten split time tracks with that philosophy in that mindset.
Speaker 1: You know, And we talked last episode about how this
Speaker 1: offense is very space oriented right in terms of how
Speaker 1: they use speed to create spacing for that speed to operate.
Speaker 1: And you can't just have one fast guy. You need
Speaker 1: to have a bunch of fast guys. But I think
Speaker 1: there's multiple types of fasts. There's guys that have a
Speaker 1: third gear that can pull away and win late, and
Speaker 1: there's guys that get up to second gear immediately and
Speaker 1: can win early. And you know, particularly with Elijah Higgins,
Speaker 1: I think his ten split was like one five three,
Speaker 1: like something crazy like that. You know, he's a converted
Speaker 1: receiver to play tight end. I assume he's not going
Speaker 1: to play at two thirty five. They'll probably get him
Speaker 1: up to two forty something. But like with that ten split,
Speaker 1: that means he can separate early, and in this offense,
Speaker 1: you kind of have to be able to separate early because,
Speaker 1: especially in the play action game, you're running all these
Speaker 1: crossing routes, all that kind of stuff. You got to
Speaker 1: pull away under two seconds so that you know Tua
Speaker 1: can hit you right you got to separate early on those.
Speaker 1: But in addition to that, like if they put him
Speaker 1: out as a big slot, which they probably will quite frequently,
Speaker 1: you know, being able to separate quickly on choice routes
Speaker 1: is a big part of that role. I would also say,
Speaker 1: as like a seam ripper, right you know, you're hitting
Speaker 1: up the seam, You've got to have a good ten
Speaker 1: split so that you can stack on whoever happens to
Speaker 1: be covering you, Like the linebacker's coming from eight yards
Speaker 1: deep and he slide into your hip pocket.
Speaker 2: You got to have a good enough burst in acceleration.
Speaker 1: Get up a second gear to get on top of
Speaker 1: his shoulder so that Tua has space to lead you vertically,
Speaker 1: and so he's playing behind you and not on you.
Speaker 1: So in particular, it's less about winning late at the
Speaker 1: tight end position in this offense, more about winning early.
Speaker 1: And Elijah Higgins was you know, he would not on
Speaker 1: my radar specifically for the Dolphins, but as soon as
Speaker 1: they took him, I was like, oh, oh.
Speaker 2: I get it, I really get it right.
Speaker 1: Like I think they see him as like their own
Speaker 1: kind of Evan Ingram type, and this it makes a
Speaker 1: lot of sense to me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I plugged on the tape because, like you said,
Speaker 3: I wasn't familiar with this game at all. You know
Speaker 3: the great shock quote. I wasn't familiar with your game,
Speaker 3: young man, but now I respect it now that I am.
Speaker 3: The first rep that I saw was him chewing up
Speaker 3: off coverage against Arizona State, and it like the ten split.
Speaker 3: Oh that's a what's what? A one to five to
Speaker 3: three ten split? Looks like he just chewed up eight
Speaker 3: yards before the quarterback even hit, like the second step
Speaker 3: of his drop. So I can I can understand where
Speaker 3: they're coming from with this, and there's I have so
Speaker 3: many questions about this for you, Brett. Well, I guess
Speaker 3: I'll just talk about this first because you know you mentioned,
Speaker 3: you know, big slot, seam ripper potential, in line attached option.
Speaker 3: I keep looking at this offense. You go back to
Speaker 3: devon a Chain as a guy that can play running back,
Speaker 3: can flex out into the slot and you know, play
Speaker 3: some some split end for you whatever the case may be. Like,
Speaker 3: I know defenses have done this more in recent history,
Speaker 3: but are we on the verge of watching offenses? Obviously
Speaker 3: not quarterback in offensive line, but offense has become more positionless.
Speaker 3: Does that make sense?
Speaker 2: Yeah, because I mean they did the same thing with
Speaker 2: Tanner Connor last year. Not great.
Speaker 1: I loved him coming out of Idaho, and he was
Speaker 1: another converted receiver with like legit track speed that they
Speaker 1: made into a tight end. And it's like the same profile, right,
Speaker 1: you know what's better than having one of those having
Speaker 1: two of them. But you got Durham who's probably gonna
Speaker 1: play the wise spot. Then you got all these guys
Speaker 1: that are you know, hybrid receiver tight ends, and you
Speaker 1: got Ingold, and you got all the running backs, and
Speaker 1: you have all these guys that can play four different
Speaker 1: alignments for you. And whether it's slot out wide in
Speaker 1: the backfield as an h back, I mean, Higgins and
Speaker 1: Connor are fast enough you could probably just if a
Speaker 1: chain's out there, you put a chanin in slot.
Speaker 2: You put one of those guys in the backfield and
Speaker 2: give him a carry. Why not? Right? They both run
Speaker 2: like four four four five.
Speaker 1: So it's all these moving chess pieces that make it
Speaker 1: really tough for a defense to figure out how do
Speaker 1: we match up with it? Because every single defensive call
Speaker 1: is going to have rules to it, you know, particularly
Speaker 1: with like match zones, which is the most common call
Speaker 1: you're going to see, is like some sort of match
Speaker 1: zone coverage, right, And how that functions is they don't
Speaker 1: match up to specific players or specific positions.
Speaker 2: They match up to alignment.
Speaker 1: And so it's like, if number two is vertical, meaning
Speaker 1: you know, going more than ten yards down the field,
Speaker 1: number two is your job if you're the safety in quarters, right,
Speaker 1: But they don't account for it.
Speaker 2: Is that number two tyreek hill or is it a
Speaker 2: tight end? You know?
Speaker 1: And it's like if number three is running under, that's
Speaker 1: the linebacker's responsibility. And it's like, well, what if that's
Speaker 1: a tight end that runs four to four? Like it's
Speaker 1: it's not it's not a system that allows for or
Speaker 1: it's not a philosophy that I would say that allows
Speaker 1: for getting clean matchups all the time, because it's more
Speaker 1: about simplicity of execution and just trusting that guys can
Speaker 1: count one, two, three and then execute.
Speaker 2: The role right. And that's where coach McDaniel thrives is
Speaker 2: because he knows that he knows that it's all rules
Speaker 2: based and that it's less flexible in favor of simplicity
Speaker 2: and speed of execution. And so if he can use
Speaker 2: all this motion that he uses to all of a
Speaker 2: sudden force a bad matchup. That's where he wins.
Speaker 1: And so that's why he's getting all these guys that
Speaker 1: he can motion around and put into different spots to
Speaker 1: force those bad matchups.
Speaker 2: On defense, I keep.
Speaker 3: Thinking about last year. There's several examples of Tyreek, you know,
Speaker 3: from a condense split working off of a bunch where
Speaker 3: they get a natural pick and a rub and he's
Speaker 3: running a wheel route where he's got the dB stacked
Speaker 3: within five yards and two who just has a simple
Speaker 3: little flip route or flip throw that he's so adept
Speaker 3: at making those little touch passes. So it's it's an
Speaker 3: embarrassment of and it makes me, you know, not envy
Speaker 3: defensive coordinators because how do you know when a team
Speaker 3: goes into the huddle with that type of offensive firepower?
Speaker 3: Like what personnel package am I calling out? Is that
Speaker 3: twelve or is that like you know, is that personnel?
Speaker 3: Like you can be anything because of the flexibility of
Speaker 3: these types of players. And I think Elijah Higgins, you know,
Speaker 3: if he develops into what you hope he can be,
Speaker 3: is one of those types of players. Let's go ahead
Speaker 3: and finish up this segment talking about Higgins a little
Speaker 3: more and just in general what he offers, because we
Speaker 3: talk about the ten split, the position flexibility. You know,
Speaker 3: you talked about maybe putting some weight on the guy.
Speaker 3: He has the frame to do it, because when I
Speaker 3: watched him play Brett, you know, the contested catch rate
Speaker 3: that he had, it wasn't you know, there wasn't a
Speaker 3: big sample size, but to me, it didn't match the
Speaker 3: physical skills that he offers because I looked at the
Speaker 3: guy that had superb core strength, very strong in his
Speaker 3: upper body, Like when guys tried to reroute him, he
Speaker 3: just kind of like knocked him off, knocked them off
Speaker 3: their post and made them look silly, and he just
Speaker 3: wins with body positioning and really good route running. I'm
Speaker 3: curious to get your perspective on just him, him in
Speaker 3: general in terms of how the traits that he offers
Speaker 3: and what makes him attractive player From that standpoint.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think the red zone ability is key, right
Speaker 1: because they had to replace Mike, which is hard to
Speaker 1: do because he's Mike, you know, but getting another athletic
Speaker 1: tight end that can kind of go post people up
Speaker 1: in the red zone is crucial for them.
Speaker 2: They needed that because their receiving corps.
Speaker 1: I mean, they got Azukama last year, who has a
Speaker 1: big fan of for this role. But like the receiving
Speaker 1: core in terms of their starters, is not the tallest
Speaker 1: group of guys, right, So they got to get size
Speaker 1: and jump all ability somewhere else, and that's going to
Speaker 1: be at the tight end position. That being said, what
Speaker 1: really intrigued me about Elijah is he's actually a lot
Speaker 1: better after the catch than people give him credit for
Speaker 1: in terms of tackle breaking ability, short eary quickness.
Speaker 2: The ten split obviously shows up.
Speaker 1: Once he gets an angle on somebody, he can run
Speaker 1: away from him. I'm curious to see how involved they
Speaker 1: get him in the screen game as a receiver, because
Speaker 1: he does that well. And I think that if in
Speaker 1: particular with this offense they kind of use the screen
Speaker 1: game sometimes it's just a supplement to the run game.
Speaker 1: You know, if they don't get a good box count,
Speaker 1: they just have a tag for a screen on the
Speaker 1: backside to a variety of different players and they're like, hey,
Speaker 1: we got even numbers out there, let's just treat that
Speaker 1: as a run play. That's fifteen yards that direction and
Speaker 1: I think Higgins having the ability to get involved in that.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying he needs to break home runs, but
Speaker 1: if you can consistently get five or six yards on
Speaker 1: a screen to him to set up third and three
Speaker 1: instead of third and five, that's going to be a
Speaker 1: valuable thing, even if that's where he gets a lot
Speaker 1: of his early catches. Now, you mentioned the positionless offense
Speaker 1: and moving guys around. A thought occurred to me while
Speaker 1: you said that, because last episode we talked about how
Speaker 1: they're like seven guys deep at dB. They did that
Speaker 1: to beat offenses that are being constructed like Miami's. So
Speaker 1: in terms of it was like, oh, how does defensive
Speaker 1: coordinator stop this?
Speaker 2: Look at what Vick's doing. Draft more dbs. That's what
Speaker 2: you gotta do.
Speaker 3: It makes perfect sense. And yeah, you talk about the
Speaker 3: depth of this year position like I'm just thinking like, okay,
Speaker 3: well now we're down to receiver six seven eight in practice,
Speaker 3: like on offense, they're going to go up against cornerbacks six,
Speaker 3: seven and eight. Those are good matchups too that some
Speaker 3: teams would love to have as their two, three, four.
Speaker 3: So it's an embarrassment of riches. Are those key positions?
Speaker 3: I think at least on paper right now. We'll see
Speaker 3: how it plays out this season. We have one more
Speaker 3: draft pick and that gives us one more position group
Speaker 3: to look at, offensive line, Ryan Hayes. That'll be next
Speaker 3: here on the Draft Time Podcast. My guest today of
Speaker 3: Brett Coleman, your host Travis Wingfield. We're brought to you
Speaker 3: by Auto Nation. We are into the seventh round. Brett
Speaker 3: took us an hour to get through four draft picks
Speaker 3: in our Dolphins discussion. By doing that, once again, appreciate
Speaker 3: all your time you gave us here on the podcast today.
Speaker 3: Let's talk about Ryan Hayes a little bit here and
Speaker 3: we'll get into the Dolphins offensive line as well for
Speaker 3: just a few minutes here. But Ryan Hayes is a
Speaker 3: guy that you mentioned as a player that you liked
Speaker 3: a lot, potential guard conversion. I know, he really really
Speaker 3: excels in the running game, played a lot of left tackles.
Speaker 3: I'm right tackle there at Michigan. Let's just go ahead
Speaker 3: and hear you know your takeaway from Ryan Hey is
Speaker 3: the guy that you sound like you like, sound like
Speaker 3: you like quite a bit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, we're talking about movement skills here. I
Speaker 1: think he could play tackle right. You know, he's sixty six,
Speaker 1: three hundred pounds, a little bit lacking in the length department,
Speaker 1: thirty two and a half inch arms. I don't necessarily
Speaker 1: think that's a killer right, Like you can play tackle
Speaker 1: with quote unquote shorter arms. Still got longer arms than
Speaker 1: me a lot right, and longer arms than most people.
Speaker 1: Some teams have thresholds of like you can't play tackle
Speaker 1: unless you've got thirty four inch arms.
Speaker 2: I don't think the Dolphins particularly subscribed to that. It's
Speaker 2: more so do you have good hands or not?
Speaker 1: My thing is I think in terms of getting him
Speaker 1: on the field, I think it's more likely that they
Speaker 1: get him on the field on this team at guard
Speaker 1: than at tackle, considering the other guys they have in
Speaker 1: this offensive line. So if it's about getting best five
Speaker 1: on the field, I think that might be his easiest path.
Speaker 1: In terms of short area movements skills, again we talk
Speaker 1: about ten splits. A one seven two is phenomenal. That's
Speaker 1: a ninety fourth percentile. His three cone at seven three
Speaker 1: nine is ninety fifth percentile. So he's a really smooth,
Speaker 1: quick mover again, which matters a lot as a guard
Speaker 1: in this system. Sometimes he's gonna be asked to reach
Speaker 1: a four eye by himself, and.
Speaker 2: You've gotta have good feet and hips to do that,
Speaker 2: and he can do that.
Speaker 1: I do want him to add about ten pounds, which
Speaker 1: he probably will, you know, especially with the food seat
Speaker 1: in Miami, it's pretty hard. It's pretty hard not to.
Speaker 1: But I don't think that's gonna be a problem for him.
Speaker 1: If he gets up to six six, like three point thirteen,
Speaker 1: with his movement skills, he could potentially be a very
Speaker 1: high upside guard. I can't remember what round they drafted
Speaker 1: in my nose on Day three, but I really love
Speaker 1: him as a swing guard, as a rookie that could
Speaker 1: potentially start for them. I don't think they will need
Speaker 1: him to play tackle. He could if they needed it,
Speaker 1: but I think his best path forward is guard.
Speaker 3: Yeah, is seventh round draft. By the way, I was
Speaker 3: going to actually lead in with that, because it sounds
Speaker 3: like a great spot to take a flyer on a
Speaker 3: guy that late in the draft that has the type
Speaker 3: of upside that you mentioned, if it's just a couple
Speaker 3: of things like putting on some weight and maybe getting
Speaker 3: some more seasoning and pass pro. And I was going
Speaker 3: back over the Senior Bowl tape because you know, he
Speaker 3: was there in Mobile for the Senior Bowl. And one
Speaker 3: thing I noted Brett was how much he grew throughout
Speaker 3: the week in pass protection because that group of edge
Speaker 3: guys down there and Mobile was really good and there
Speaker 3: was lots of bull rushes. We talked about being three
Speaker 3: hundred pounds, some guys that dropped the you know, crown
Speaker 3: of their helmet into his chest plate and got some
Speaker 3: movement that way. I thought he did a good job
Speaker 3: throughout the week of finding a better anchor finding a
Speaker 3: better way to deal with bull rushes. Did you see
Speaker 3: the same thing from him in terms of the growth
Speaker 3: at the Senior Bowl?
Speaker 2: Yeah, And that was one of the big things.
Speaker 1: I was like, you got to add a little bit
Speaker 1: more sand in the pants, right and you know a
Speaker 1: little bit more core strength, because man, if you think
Speaker 1: that will McDonald's tough, uh wait until you wait until
Speaker 1: you see Jail and Phillips in practice.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: So I think that's gonna be key for him. Is
Speaker 1: and I'm not talking like adding weight. I'm talking at
Speaker 1: a good weight. There's two very different things there. He
Speaker 1: can do that. He can absolutely do that, but that
Speaker 1: is that is a concern, and he's six to six,
Speaker 1: so he's got to higher. He's got a tougher job
Speaker 1: getting underpad levels. You know, when you're six six, you
Speaker 1: got to dip and bend a little bit more than
Speaker 1: the guards who are six four.
Speaker 2: So it will be an adjustment, it will be a
Speaker 2: learning curve.
Speaker 1: I would also say one of the toughest things in
Speaker 1: terms of going from tackle to guard that some kids
Speaker 1: go through is if you're used to working with a
Speaker 1: runway and all of a sudden you kick inside and
Speaker 1: you don't have a runway anymore. And especially in practice,
Speaker 1: if Christian Wilkins is on you immediately and you're used
Speaker 1: to having three yards of space to kind of you know,
Speaker 1: read a long arm and snatch it down and all
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff, and all of a sudden you
Speaker 1: go into Oh it's a quarter second, he's in my chest.
Speaker 2: Learning the new timing and distance management can be a struggle.
Speaker 1: But as a seventh round pick, I think that they
Speaker 1: are seeing him more as a developmental guy, a future contributor,
Speaker 1: more so than somebody who has to start week one.
Speaker 1: So he will have time to learn all that stuff.
Speaker 1: But he's such a good athlete right that I think
Speaker 1: it's worth the gamble and worth the investment, and I
Speaker 1: think he will make the roster.
Speaker 2: I truly do. I'd be curious to see how long
Speaker 2: it takes him to get on the field as a starter.
Speaker 3: It's been nice to see the Dolphins kind of make
Speaker 3: this transition to a team that typically kind of had
Speaker 3: the draft in years pass for specific needs, but now
Speaker 3: they're kind of in that luxury, luxurious position of we
Speaker 3: can draft for not just this year, but two years
Speaker 3: down the road. They even talked about that with Eric
Speaker 3: Azuokama and Chang Tendall at a recent press conference. At
Speaker 3: the thought with those guys was they were more of
Speaker 3: a two year projection than immedia impact guys, and we
Speaker 3: kind of saw it play out that way last year.
Speaker 3: I have one more question Brett before he closed things
Speaker 3: up here, just on the offensive line in general, because
Speaker 3: that's a position group that you're gonna see fans talk
Speaker 3: about all off season, like, what about the offensive line?
Speaker 3: We know that we had three really good productive players,
Speaker 3: two guys that were high draft picks but just had
Speaker 3: injury issues last year before they could really kind of
Speaker 3: take off. And I thought Leam Mikenberg played best balls.
Speaker 3: The year went along prior to the injury, and we
Speaker 3: saw Austin Jackson just couldn't get on the field. He
Speaker 3: had a couple of injuries that really I thought robbed
Speaker 3: him of a very important developmental season here and you're
Speaker 3: number three. But I'm curious about how this offense because again,
Speaker 3: like I said, when you go to any preseason, you
Speaker 3: know preview, you're gonna see people talk about the Dolphins
Speaker 3: offensive line. But I'm wondering, because you know, Tua, when
Speaker 3: he's in the game, the sack rate for the Dolphins
Speaker 3: drops substantially. So I'm curious how this offense designs ways
Speaker 3: to where even if let's say it didn't work out
Speaker 3: at a couple of positions on the offensive line, even
Speaker 3: if that was the case, this offense still has ways
Speaker 3: to kind of mask that and still excel and you know,
Speaker 3: play six best offense in NFL.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, And I think there's kind of a misconception
Speaker 1: with the Dolphins offensive line where everybody's everybody doesn't focus
Speaker 1: on the right things. They don't they don't focus on
Speaker 1: what coach mcthaniel focuses on, which is do you execute
Speaker 1: your assignment, do you run block really will Can we
Speaker 1: trust you on first and second down in order to
Speaker 1: get to a third down that is short enough that
Speaker 1: you're not going to be exposed in pass pro anyway?
Speaker 1: You know, I can't count that many reps last year
Speaker 1: in the Dolphins offense with how it was structured, where
Speaker 1: it was a straight up from the shotgun. We're dropping
Speaker 1: ten yards deep waiting for you know, three seconds for.
Speaker 2: A long developing route concept to develop down the field.
Speaker 2: They don't do that, and it's for a reason, right,
Speaker 2: because why would you. They would rather live in the.
Speaker 1: RPO world, the play action world, you know, you know,
Speaker 1: forcing defensive lines to slow up because they're not sure
Speaker 1: if it's run or pass. They're freezing themselves because they're
Speaker 1: reading keys, and they got all these guys that run
Speaker 1: for three running in all these different directions.
Speaker 2: They don't know what's going on. They're always cognizant of
Speaker 2: the screen game. They're always cognizant of the run game.
Speaker 1: And I think that an offensive line in that type
Speaker 1: of system, they're not doing that many like traditional drop
Speaker 1: back pass pro reps. So you don't need guys who
Speaker 1: are absolute killers in that part. You would love to
Speaker 1: have them, but what they prioritize is can you run block,
Speaker 1: can you pick up stunts? And can you get us
Speaker 1: to third and three instead of third and seven. That's
Speaker 1: what that offensive line does well. And in the first
Speaker 1: third of the season, when everybody was all healthy and
Speaker 1: click on all cylinders.
Speaker 2: That's what they did.
Speaker 1: Nobody complained about passbro Nobody complained about it. They weren't
Speaker 1: taking sacks. They were fine, you know, And so I
Speaker 1: think that's that's kind of what they're looking at here,
Speaker 1: is like, let's get guys that can do that. If
Speaker 1: they can also pass pro on third and nine because
Speaker 1: we got a seven step drop, Well they don't do
Speaker 1: that five step drop, fine, great, but they're not going
Speaker 1: to play for us unless they can do.
Speaker 2: The other things first. And that's what they really prioritize.
Speaker 3: That's why I wanted to have you on because you
Speaker 3: just have a level of nuance that were not used to,
Speaker 3: you know, really discussing and main social circles when it
Speaker 3: comes to this game. That's so you know, s soteric
Speaker 3: and require such nuance. So I appreciate that, Brett. And
Speaker 3: on top of the fact that you mentioned there wasn't
Speaker 3: a lot of them last year, but Miami was pretty
Speaker 3: damn good in third and long last year, that Detroit
Speaker 3: game was a clinic on third and eight conversions and
Speaker 3: third and eight explosive place from two to tyreek, from
Speaker 3: two to Jalen. It's a pretty good combination to have there.
Speaker 2: And you know why.
Speaker 1: You know why because they get the ball out under
Speaker 1: two and a half seconds and they're so good after
Speaker 1: the catch anyway, they're not letting it go at.
Speaker 2: Four seconds into the play. This is not that.
Speaker 1: This is not the Chiefs offense where Mahomes is running
Speaker 1: for his life and he's got to make something happen.
Speaker 1: You know, Well, after the play clock is going like
Speaker 1: they get the ball out quick.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it works as well, I mean exactly, it
Speaker 3: does work. That's why. That's why I like it always
Speaker 3: kind of was a crawl on the side of my
Speaker 3: you know, in my side, because like I just like,
Speaker 3: what are we complaining about here? It's been effective all year, Lungs.
Speaker 3: Let's just go back and doing that and hopefully they
Speaker 3: pick up where they left off.
Speaker 2: Brett.
Speaker 3: Every time you guys do the team previews, you give
Speaker 3: us a window of record, and I'm not gonna tell
Speaker 3: you have to do it right now. But I'm curious
Speaker 3: if you do have a potential window here as we
Speaker 3: record this podcast on May the third, what would you
Speaker 3: say the Dolphins window for win total is this year?
Speaker 3: Oh okay, you'll have an answer if don't want to
Speaker 3: cut it out.
Speaker 1: It's really tough because again, a lot of it depends
Speaker 1: on health. Right if everybody's staying healthy, We're getting seventeen
Speaker 1: games from Tua and Tyreek and Jalen are on the field,
Speaker 1: and you know, both Jalens.
Speaker 2: Are on the field.
Speaker 3: All the Jalens are.
Speaker 2: On the field.
Speaker 1: I think they split with Buffalo. I think they split
Speaker 1: with the Jets. They probably split with the Patriots because
Speaker 1: this is a tough division AFC West. I think they
Speaker 1: go two and two, so that's five wins right there.
Speaker 1: I can't remember who else they play, but those are
Speaker 1: probably the two toughest assignments are their own division and
Speaker 1: the AFC West. At worst, and this is if everything
Speaker 1: goes off the Rails eight wins at best, thirteen wins.
Speaker 1: It's a huge range, entirely dependent on health. But like
Speaker 1: worst case scenario, eight win team that would be fighting
Speaker 1: for wild card the entire year.
Speaker 2: Best case, it's the number one Seedeese.
Speaker 3: Man, I've not heard a person whose opinion I respect
Speaker 3: that to this level give us that type of win
Speaker 3: projection in a long time. So that's cool. That's why
Speaker 3: I wanted to ask you, Brett. You said it all, Man,
Speaker 3: I talked about your credentials in the previous podcast, but
Speaker 3: I want to go ahead and let you give us
Speaker 3: one hundred percent accuracy on where people can find you,
Speaker 3: what you're working on, promote your stuff. Man, let us know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, we just got through draft season over
Speaker 1: on bootleg, and so now we're starting to work and
Speaker 1: plan out the off season series. So if you want to,
Speaker 1: you know, get our plus long commentary on the Dolphins
Speaker 1: offseason and you know what their systems look like and
Speaker 1: what the Fangio defense is going to look like.
Speaker 2: Obviously we're going to have.
Speaker 1: That episode, but we have forty two total episodes covering
Speaker 1: every single team, plus division specific episodes, plus two pre
Speaker 1: season episodes, so that's gonna be a lot if you
Speaker 1: want to learn about every other team in the NFL
Speaker 1: over summer. I think we start to launch that in
Speaker 1: like June or so. In the meantime, Coach Vas, you know,
Speaker 1: Miami Boy, himself. You know, he went to Miami, still
Speaker 1: lives in Florida, uh and is kind of my mentor
Speaker 1: when it comes to learning defensive football.
Speaker 2: He's coming on my channel.
Speaker 1: Uh, and we're going to be doing kind of a
Speaker 1: deep dive into the Vic Fangio system and what it
Speaker 1: means for really everybody, for this Dolphins unit in terms
Speaker 1: of how they deploy certain certain types, certain body types,
Speaker 1: certain skill sets, you know, coverages that they love, things
Speaker 1: that Dolphins fans are going to be seeing a lot
Speaker 1: next year.
Speaker 2: Again, we're not we're not in the business of giving
Speaker 2: away state secrets.
Speaker 1: It's more so we want to prepare Dolphins fans for
Speaker 1: the style they're about to see because it's a lot
Speaker 1: different than what they've had previously. So that should be
Speaker 1: coming out probably in June as well. So yeah, surprising
Speaker 1: amount of Dolphins content coming from me this summer.
Speaker 3: And in the month where football kind of takes a
Speaker 3: break too. So you guys really hit your stride in
Speaker 3: those kind of dead periods there, And that's why I
Speaker 3: wanted to have you promote it here because people will
Speaker 3: listen to this podcast. No, that's what we talk about here.
Speaker 3: So you're the perfect person to come on and talk
Speaker 3: Dolphins to us, but also promote your work here because
Speaker 3: I have a feeling you gets some new fans out
Speaker 3: of this that are really intrigued by what you talked about,
Speaker 3: especially on this episode two episodes, Brett, you gave me
Speaker 3: more than an hour, man, Thank you so much for
Speaker 3: your time faces here, thank you for having me, and
Speaker 3: off he goes, how much fun was that? Seventy minutes
Speaker 3: there total between the two podcasts of just really really
Speaker 3: smart football conversation with someone whose opinion I could not
Speaker 3: respect any more than the great Brett Coleman. So once again,
Speaker 3: a big thank you to him for doing that. You
Speaker 3: don't pay people to do your podcast, so he took
Speaker 3: an hour of his day, his very busy day, to
Speaker 3: do that with us and get us all kind of
Speaker 3: term of the Miami Dolphins. So please go repay him
Speaker 3: by checking out his YouTube channel, checking out his social
Speaker 3: media the Summer Preview series those guys do He and
Speaker 3: e J. Snyder, who you've heard in the podcast here
Speaker 3: a few times as well. It's the best content there is.
Speaker 3: I stand by that statement. If you want to learn
Speaker 3: the NFL bootleg Football with bretton EJ is the best
Speaker 3: way to do that. All right, let's go ahead and
Speaker 3: get out of here. We'll come back on the Wednesday podcast.
Speaker 3: We have some media availabilities, We've got schedule release later
Speaker 3: on this week. We're gonna drop that podcast to write
Speaker 3: at eight o'clock on Thursday night. Tons of fun stuff
Speaker 3: coming your way. OTA's down the pipeline here as well.
Speaker 3: I'm fired up, man. I can't wait to see this
Speaker 3: all play out here for this Dolphins team this season.
Speaker 3: I think it's gonna be a very very fun season.
Speaker 3: As you heard there with Brett, thirteen wins is about
Speaker 3: what I'm thinking as well. So we'll look forward to
Speaker 3: that here in the coming months. In the meantime, that's
Speaker 3: gonna be my time. You all, please be sure to
Speaker 3: subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts. Leave us a rating,
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Speaker 3: next time, fins up, Carol Anam Cameron, Daddy, he's coming
Speaker 3: ho