Speaker 1: What is up, Dolphins, And welcome to the Draft Time Podcast.
Speaker 1: I am your host, Travis Wingfield. And on today's show,
Speaker 1: Kaleis Campbell returns back to the Arizona Cardinals, which begs
Speaker 1: the question, what will the defensive tackle position for your
Speaker 1: Miami Dolphins look like in twenty twenty five. We're going
Speaker 1: to do deep dive there and match that with our
Speaker 1: prospect profile series today focusing on Michigan's Kenneth Grant. It's
Speaker 1: a d line heavy episode today. I was going to
Speaker 1: do some mail bag questions as well, but I got
Speaker 1: too long in my argument for the defensive tackle position.
Speaker 1: So that's what we're going to do. From the Baptist
Speaker 1: Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is
Speaker 1: the Draft Time Podcast. Maybe gaffe right off the top.
Speaker 1: I've lied to you guys. This is not recording from
Speaker 1: the Baptist Health Studios. In fact, I just want to
Speaker 1: do the full transparency thing here. We'll see if I
Speaker 1: can get through the elements of this podcast because I've
Speaker 1: got strep throat. My son's got strep throat along with
Speaker 1: hand foot mouth. My daughter I'm pretty sure gonna have
Speaker 1: strep throw as well. So the entire squad is home
Speaker 1: today trying to get this podcast recorded, and you were
Speaker 1: probably gonna hear my son at some point, whether he's
Speaker 1: yelling at me. He's got Blaze and his RC car upstairs,
Speaker 1: so he should be good to go. But he does
Speaker 1: like playing with me, so I suspect you'll either hear
Speaker 1: his voice, you'll hear him enter the room, or my favorite,
Speaker 1: you'll hear him throw his toys down the stairs. That's
Speaker 1: his favorite way to get my attention. So if it's
Speaker 1: a funny addition to the podcast, we'll keep it in.
Speaker 1: If it's annoying, I'll just take it out. So there
Speaker 1: you go off the top. Let's go ahead and get
Speaker 1: a into the elephant of the room here. And maybe
Speaker 1: that's a bad way to intro this segment because you know,
Speaker 1: being the lurker that I am on social media these days,
Speaker 1: I see that folks are quite upset about Kalis Campbell.
Speaker 1: There he is landing back where his career started. What's up, boy?
Speaker 1: The RC Car's broken? Okay, we'll fix it and that
Speaker 1: stuff is fixed up right quick. So people are pissed
Speaker 1: off about kalayis going back to the Cardinals, right, and
Speaker 1: some of the questions about what it means for the
Speaker 1: defensive tackle position for your Miami Dolphins. Let's get a
Speaker 1: few facts in off the top. The great news here.
Speaker 1: Great news, right, according to Nick Corte, who does a
Speaker 1: fantastic job with projected compensatory picks and the formula the
Speaker 1: NFL uses like, he nailed Robert Hunt in the third round.
Speaker 1: He even nailed Christian Wilkins flowing to the fourth round
Speaker 1: because of a snap count disparity and the Deshaun Elliot
Speaker 1: seventh round pick this year. He was even befuddled by
Speaker 1: the fact that we were originally awarded a seventh round
Speaker 1: pick first Tedrick Wilson, which was of course later corrected
Speaker 1: by the NFL. So he's very qualified, right, That's the
Speaker 1: point of that entire diatribe. He says that with Campbell's
Speaker 1: signing with the Cardinals, the Dolphins are officially plus one
Speaker 1: in the compensatory formula for the twenty twenty sixth class,
Speaker 1: and that player is Javon haw who's fifteen million dollars
Speaker 1: per year contract would net Miami a fourth round pick
Speaker 1: provided he plays enough snaps in twenty twenty five and
Speaker 1: the Dolphins do not. Uh, what's the word I'm looking
Speaker 1: for here, Negate. That plus one activity with the free
Speaker 1: agent signing before the comp window formula closes back up
Speaker 1: in May. So if you're keeping track, that would be
Speaker 1: a third and a fourth this year and a seventh
Speaker 1: a fourth next year. And then if Anthony Weaver gets
Speaker 1: a head coaching job, which still feels like a matter
Speaker 1: of time as long as we don't go like five
Speaker 1: and twelve, I think he'll get that, then you would
Speaker 1: get threes in both twenty six and twenty seven. So
Speaker 1: that's three comp picks in the top one hundred over
Speaker 1: a three year span, and three more in the one
Speaker 1: hundred to one hundred and forty range. That's six total
Speaker 1: picks in the top one forty. And if you bat
Speaker 1: five hundred on getting contributors in those positions, that's four
Speaker 1: years of cost control on minimum contract players. And we
Speaker 1: heard what coach said about draft picks set in the culture, right,
Speaker 1: I think you're going to have to get used to
Speaker 1: this mode of team building. It sounds like that's what
Speaker 1: Mike McDaniel has learned the first three years of of
Speaker 1: his tenure, that the draft is a far more fruitful
Speaker 1: position to select players from than free agency, and we
Speaker 1: cautioned you guys on that back in February and January
Speaker 1: not to pat myself in the back too hard here,
Speaker 1: but the one in two year veteran deals in free
Speaker 1: agency really re emphasizes the necessity to be great in
Speaker 1: the draft. That's not to say it ever went away,
Speaker 1: but I'm sure you guys remember how free agency kind
Speaker 1: of was fool's gold for the longest time. Right then,
Speaker 1: I want to say it was like the twenty thirteen Broncos.
Speaker 1: It could have been a year later or earlier, but
Speaker 1: it was in that range when they had Peyton Manning.
Speaker 1: But they signed DeMarcus where Wes Welker was part of
Speaker 1: that class, TJ. Ward, Dominique Rodgers, Comarti, who else? As
Speaker 1: I look it up now, actually Quentin Jammer was in there.
Speaker 1: They signed Luis Vasquez to the offensive line. With the
Speaker 1: point is they essentially built their defense through free agency. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's right, I looked it up. It was both the
Speaker 1: twenty thirteen and twenty fourteen seasons. Add a key to
Speaker 1: leave Emmanuel Sanders to that entire group there. It gave
Speaker 1: them the number one defense in twenty fifteen with something
Speaker 1: like eight of the eleven starters on defense were free
Speaker 1: agent acquisitions. You pair that around good draft picks and
Speaker 1: Von Miller, Malik Jackson, and a couple other draft hits
Speaker 1: like Dane Travathan, Bradley Roby, and you get yourself a
Speaker 1: Super Bowl winning team that quite literally didn't have a
Speaker 1: quarterback that year because Peyton Manning was no longer Peyton
Speaker 1: Manning and brock Ostwiler was the guy they benched Peyton
Speaker 1: Manning for. And this continued for a few years. We
Speaker 1: even saw a recent Super Bowl team do the exact
Speaker 1: same thing, the twenty twenty one Bengals. They go three
Speaker 1: to zero in the AFC Playoff, scoring just twenty one
Speaker 1: points per game, including a second round win where they
Speaker 1: had eight sacks and three picks off Ryan Tannehill, but
Speaker 1: won the game by just three points. Right they kicked
Speaker 1: five field goals in that game. It was a defense
Speaker 1: and special teams victory for the Bengals that day. And
Speaker 1: that defense was constructed through free agency, with seven of
Speaker 1: the eleven starters being free agent signings, and if you
Speaker 1: extended to the top fifteen players and snaps played, ten
Speaker 1: of those fifteen were free agents from the previous year.
Speaker 1: All of this is to say we had like a
Speaker 1: ten year period where you could build an entire side
Speaker 1: of the football and free agency, but we mentioned the
Speaker 1: countless times before free agency the top players really just
Speaker 1: aren't hitting the market anymore. And now it's about being frugal,
Speaker 1: picking spots, identifying good values. Allow James Daniels, who I think,
Speaker 1: if he stays healthy all year, probably doubles his cost.
Speaker 1: And I had this conversation with Kyle Krabb the other
Speaker 1: day on the phone, like we might have misconstrued the
Speaker 1: budget for the offseason for the Dolphins to spend in
Speaker 1: free agency, but when you add the twenty five percent
Speaker 1: cap inflation that goes onto these contracts with players who
Speaker 1: were you know, we talk about cornerstone plus starters and
Speaker 1: adequate starters, like you're essentially playing paying adequate starters, which
Speaker 1: are the third tier in your football team, Guys that
Speaker 1: you probably should find on Day two of the draft,
Speaker 1: and you are paying them damn near cornerstone premium contracts.
Speaker 1: You guys are understand that if we did that, if
Speaker 1: we did what a lot of the fan base kind
Speaker 1: of urges this team to do, and spent money on
Speaker 1: players of that caliber, Jevon Holland, who to me as
Speaker 1: an adequate starter who got premium money for a safety.
Speaker 1: That's how you wind up with the Mike Tannebaum twenty
Speaker 1: eighteen Dolphins. Do you guys understand that that's what happened
Speaker 1: that year with TJ McDonald getting that extension early in
Speaker 1: the year, with you know, even off the eight game suspension,
Speaker 1: with Rashad Jones's crazy contract, paying you know, Josh Sitton
Speaker 1: thirty three year old offensive linemen who are past their prime.
Speaker 1: Like that is not a good mode of team building.
Speaker 1: And so say what you want about where the roster
Speaker 1: is right now. We went over this in a podcast
Speaker 1: last week, right about the places they improved, the places
Speaker 1: they have kind of regressed in And I think you
Speaker 1: can look at the areas of regression and say it
Speaker 1: like that's kind of severe, especially at defensive tackle right
Speaker 1: and it's really just kalay As Campbell and DeShawn hand
Speaker 1: which to me, that's a part time player who was
Speaker 1: very good in kalay As Campbell that you can find
Speaker 1: somewhere in the draft, and then DeShawn Hann. I mean
Speaker 1: you should be able to find that player on the
Speaker 1: cheap and free agency or on Day three of the draft,
Speaker 1: because that's what his production was. So, yeah, there's a
Speaker 1: regression at a couple of spots, but I think that
Speaker 1: overall the roster has made a lot of improvements. And
Speaker 1: I just don't think that you're gonna get what you
Speaker 1: want in terms of paying out your nose for those
Speaker 1: types of players. When you can get that same type
Speaker 1: of contributing player in the draft for peanuts, for literal
Speaker 1: league minimum versus like a seventeen million dollars per year contract,
Speaker 1: that is the best way to put yourself back in position.
Speaker 1: And you've seen, you know, the people that worked that
Speaker 1: Mike McDaniel worked around and under do the exact same thing,
Speaker 1: whether it was the floor in Green Bay, whether it's
Speaker 1: McVeigh and the Rams and this crazy pivot they made
Speaker 1: a couple of years ago, or the Niners right now
Speaker 1: with Mike shann or with Kyle Shanahan. So I just
Speaker 1: think you're gonna have to kind of get used to
Speaker 1: that and we'll see if it all works out in
Speaker 1: the grand scheme of things. But I think this is
Speaker 1: the way forward, and I'm glad to see the Dolphins
Speaker 1: and Mike McDaniel feel the same way. So to see
Speaker 1: this core in place again, Yes, this roster has remaining needs.
Speaker 1: It does. I'm not going to sit here and tell
Speaker 1: you otherwise. That would be totally foolish. And despite that review,
Speaker 1: I got on the podcast of the day man who
Speaker 1: was this guy? If if you are this guy, tell
Speaker 1: me who you are, because I just can't believe you
Speaker 1: said this. We find the review not critical enough from
Speaker 1: Jersey Finns. I feel like I recognize that name. The
Speaker 1: problem is he's not critical of the Dolphins at all.
Speaker 1: Everything is rainbows and sunshine after not winning a playoff
Speaker 1: game in twenty five years. Hey, I don't really care
Speaker 1: what the seven team did for twenty twenty five. It
Speaker 1: has no relevance. He recently said Arti Burns was a
Speaker 1: good signing. Same Arti Burns, who couldn't crack a practice
Speaker 1: squad at thirty years old? Well, Burns was on the
Speaker 1: Seahawks roster. So that's not true. Stick to listening to
Speaker 1: Omar and Poopar podcast to get honest opinions. Okay, so
Speaker 1: on the Ardi Burns podcast, I said that there is
Speaker 1: a couple of good games of tape where he played
Speaker 1: some slot and outside cornerback and was aggressive and played
Speaker 1: press up man coverage, which this defense wants to be.
Speaker 1: But told you that he hasn't eclipped three hundred snaps
Speaker 1: in six years, and that's a problem and it's not
Speaker 1: gonna probably be something you can count on. So I
Speaker 1: don't know where you got that from, but we are
Speaker 1: critical in that area. We're critical about the defensive tackle
Speaker 1: position needing more pieces. We know that the offensive line
Speaker 1: needs a starter right now. I'm not naive to any
Speaker 1: of that, but the roster when you look at it
Speaker 1: on the whole, and you know, I got a kick
Speaker 1: out of this On Twitter the other day, somebody omar
Speaker 1: posted that quote from an anonymous NFC or an anonymous
Speaker 1: decision maker coach or something that said, hey, if the
Speaker 1: Dolphins don't want to, we gladly take him. And it
Speaker 1: kind of broke the brains of the anti Tua crowd.
Speaker 1: Who doesn't. Let's be honest, they don't know what they're
Speaker 1: watching because to a style of football and the processing
Speaker 1: of what the way he plays is not something that
Speaker 1: jumps off the screen at you. But if you appreciate
Speaker 1: the quarterback position and know what a quarterback's job entails,
Speaker 1: you know that he's very good. And when the rest
Speaker 1: of the league recognizes that and the fan base can't
Speaker 1: reconcile that, to me, it's kind of funny. So we
Speaker 1: are good at quarterback sands. The injuries obviously too, was
Speaker 1: availability as an issue. The receiver room looks really good.
Speaker 1: I mean to waddlen Hill if they're you know, playing
Speaker 1: at their highest peak, and then Westbrook A. Kine and
Speaker 1: Malik Washington. It's a good receiver room. We have our
Speaker 1: starting tackles and you can you know, mel kiper can
Speaker 1: say all he wants to. Patrick Paul is not a starter,
Speaker 1: he's the starter. And we have a really deep edge group.
Speaker 1: Our top two corners are proven guys. Your entire linebacker
Speaker 1: room is set. We are pretty good at most of
Speaker 1: the premium positions and to round out the rest of
Speaker 1: the roster, man, if you can find starters and contributors
Speaker 1: at defensive tackle, at guard, at corner, at safety in
Speaker 1: this year's draft, then you basically extend this build while
Speaker 1: simultaneously establishing a certain type of culture through those players,
Speaker 1: through competition, through never getting complacent, and when you get
Speaker 1: players that play themselves into big market deals, you can
Speaker 1: move on from those guys and collect the pick and restock.
Speaker 1: We have seen every great team does this. The Patriots
Speaker 1: did it for years, the Chiefs have done it recently
Speaker 1: that you saw the Bills execute it last year. I
Speaker 1: don't know why we are so adverse to going in
Speaker 1: that direction, although I just kind of sense that the
Speaker 1: fan base, and maybe that's just the tweets that I see.
Speaker 1: It's more of like a live in the moment type
Speaker 1: of situation. So you see a great player come available,
Speaker 1: you want that player. You don't get that player, you
Speaker 1: bemoan the coaching staff and the decision makers. I get that,
Speaker 1: but I think you should view the offseason as a
Speaker 1: bigger picture and don't look at where the team is
Speaker 1: in April and cry wolf because you're gonna be silly.
Speaker 1: And then also like just because I saw, like, Okay,
Speaker 1: Barry Jackson tweeted this the other day, and I again
Speaker 1: love Barry, but he said, like, the chances of the
Speaker 1: Dolphins getting impact players it picks thirteen forty eight ninety
Speaker 1: eight are low. It's like, well, did they cancel the
Speaker 1: day the third day of the draft, cause like teams
Speaker 1: get contributors on Day three and u DFAs all the time,
Speaker 1: like you have to lean on your scouting staff man.
Speaker 1: You have to get this stuff right, like they did
Speaker 1: with cater co who, like they did with Nick Needham,
Speaker 1: like they have done you know in udfas, and on
Speaker 1: Day three so many times in the past. Now I'll
Speaker 1: be the first to admit Day three has not been
Speaker 1: fruitful the last four or five years. In fact, it's
Speaker 1: why I think this team is kind of where they
Speaker 1: are in this position where they're gonna have to have
Speaker 1: a good draft. But I digress, So again, go back
Speaker 1: to looking at the Rams in twenty twenty three, they
Speaker 1: culminate that build with a championship. Right in twenty twenty one,
Speaker 1: the most aggressive build we've ever seen in football. Matthew
Speaker 1: Stafford gets hurt. In twenty two, they crater, They bought
Speaker 1: them out. Some of those top line producers have injury issues,
Speaker 1: and they have a dreadful season. But rather than blowing
Speaker 1: it up, rather than staying with US tas Quo, they
Speaker 1: pivot and go a different direction. They wind up going
Speaker 1: back to the draft and selecting starting guard Steve a Vila,
Speaker 1: edge Brian Young, defensive tackle Kobe Turner, who's a fourth
Speaker 1: round pick who's like almost a Pro Bowl or maybe
Speaker 1: he was a Pro bowler. You can find those guys
Speaker 1: wide receiver Puka Nakua, who's an freaking All Pro, and
Speaker 1: they get contributions from from three udfas and they get
Speaker 1: developmental pieces to take their game to the next level.
Speaker 1: With twenty twenty two fifth round pick Kyron Williams with
Speaker 1: defensive tackle Bobby Brown, with twenty twenty UDFA linebacker Christian
Speaker 1: rose Boom twenty twenty one to third round linebacker Ernest Jones.
Speaker 1: This is not me saying this is a guaranteed formula,
Speaker 1: but rather that it is one way to execute a
Speaker 1: soft rebuild on the fly. And now here are the
Speaker 1: Rams really as well positioned as anybody in the NFC.
Speaker 1: And they did it off back to back playoff appearances,
Speaker 1: and they were just like fifteen yards away from downing
Speaker 1: the Eagles in Philadelphia last year and the only down
Speaker 1: season was one where their quarterback missed a big chunk
Speaker 1: of the season. Sound familiar. You'll see the Niners do
Speaker 1: the exact same thing. They moved on from Deebo, Samuel Javon, Hardgrave,
Speaker 1: Shavarius Ward, tall Anoahufunga, Aaron Banks and their biggest signing
Speaker 1: was it might have been Saran Neil, It's debatable, but
Speaker 1: the point is they removed a lot of high priced
Speaker 1: talent and focused on guys who play more special teams
Speaker 1: than anything else. So that's the diatribe about soft resetting
Speaker 1: and refocusing your model as a draft based one. And
Speaker 1: I mentioned this to a couple of Beat writers at
Speaker 1: the owner's meetings. I said, I thought, you know, I
Speaker 1: thought the vision for the veteran acquisition mode of trading
Speaker 1: picks for proven talent was smart in a sense and
Speaker 1: for a little bit, but I think they kind of
Speaker 1: went a little bit overboard on it, and it put
Speaker 1: them in this position where if they had used those
Speaker 1: picks and again like hey, losing two premium picks of
Speaker 1: one and the three to the tampering chargers, Like that's
Speaker 1: an impact too. So you've found a way to reduce
Speaker 1: a lot of cheap contributors on your roster, and now
Speaker 1: you have to kind of overcorrect that and get back
Speaker 1: to it. So that's what I think you should be
Speaker 1: hoping for. Get some young players, get some rookies, get
Speaker 1: development from last year's class, from the twenty twenty three
Speaker 1: class too, maybe even and let's go at this thing.
Speaker 1: So let's go ahead and get into the defensive tackle
Speaker 1: diet tribe next on the other side. After our first
Speaker 1: break here, Draft Time Podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought
Speaker 1: to you by Auto Nation. All right, we've been an
Speaker 1: interruption free here for about twelve minutes on the show.
Speaker 1: Let's go ahead at defensive tackle now and start with this. Actually,
Speaker 1: before we start with this, let's start with this first
Speaker 1: and foremost. I'm bummed. I thought Koleais was someone you
Speaker 1: could slot in for five hundred snaps and he played
Speaker 1: six fifteen last year and just basically let the draft
Speaker 1: fall to you and not worry about where those snaps
Speaker 1: might come from. So please don't take this as me
Speaker 1: accepting a blow and acting like it's okay, because it's not.
Speaker 1: But the finality of it, that's the part that remains
Speaker 1: up in the air. But you start with this. I
Speaker 1: think we as fans, and obviously I've change my role
Speaker 1: from fan to a little bit more than just a fan,
Speaker 1: but still I'm a huge fan of this team. Looking
Speaker 1: at this whole thing the wrong way because you see
Speaker 1: the depth chart and think it's missing volume, but you
Speaker 1: need to think about it more as a share of
Speaker 1: snap counts. For instance, Kalayas Campbell played six hundred and
Speaker 1: fifteen snaps last year and guess where they acquired him
Speaker 1: June June thirteenth, to be exact. Now, I think last
Speaker 1: year's rotation was skewed as hell, because well, both Zach
Speaker 1: and Kalayis gave you more than three hundred snaps as edges.
Speaker 1: As defensive ends, you know, five techniques are wider, and
Speaker 1: that stretched the rest of the defensive tackle room quite
Speaker 1: a bit, right to the point that we saw five
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty three snaps from DeShawn Hand, which I
Speaker 1: think if I told you that going into the year,
Speaker 1: you'd said, there's no way he plays even half of that,
Speaker 1: and four hundred and eighty one snaps from Benito Jones.
Speaker 1: So if you cumulatively remove the edge snaps from Zach
Speaker 1: and Kalayis kick those inside, you can reduce the number
Speaker 1: of snaps you need by almost half. But of course
Speaker 1: Kalayis is not back, so we'll say by a quarter,
Speaker 1: give or take. So with those five hundred and sixty
Speaker 1: and five hundred and eighty snaps, with that's eleven hundred
Speaker 1: and ten snaps round right something like that. I don't
Speaker 1: know math No. Eleven hundred and forty snaps. You need
Speaker 1: about seven hundred and fifty to eight hundred snaps total
Speaker 1: that you don't currently have on your roster. So if
Speaker 1: you hit a home run at pick thirteen at defensive tackle,
Speaker 1: that's it. That's who would be. He could play seven
Speaker 1: hundred snaps for you. You're done. But we'll talk about
Speaker 1: a player that I think fits that mold a little bit.
Speaker 1: But I think that's far from the only option. Because
Speaker 1: you don't want to go into the draft saying I
Speaker 1: have to get an eight hundred snap defensive tackle. That
Speaker 1: seems like an issue. But between Kenneth Grant, Derek Harmon
Speaker 1: from Oregon, and Alfred Collins from Texas, I think all
Speaker 1: three of those guys could give you the seven hundred
Speaker 1: snaps you ask for as a rookie one and done
Speaker 1: type of solutions turn the card in issue fixed. At
Speaker 1: least that's what you hope for, right because you never
Speaker 1: know how these guys are gonna play right away or develop.
Speaker 1: But you kind of when I watch those guys on tape,
Speaker 1: I see Day one NFL contributors. Now where those guys
Speaker 1: slot in. I think Grant requires a thirteenth pick. I
Speaker 1: think Harmon would come in a possible short trade back.
Speaker 1: I think think you could get call into the top
Speaker 1: of round two pick forty eight. I don't know about that, Jim. Now,
Speaker 1: if you need to create them in the aggregate, there's
Speaker 1: also a handful of guys I think we'll go on
Speaker 1: day two. They could give you four hundred to five
Speaker 1: hundred snaps as rookies. Darius Alexander out of Toledo, TJ.
Speaker 1: Sanders out of South Carolina, ty Leeku Williams out of
Speaker 1: Ohio State, CJ. West from Indiana, Josh Farmer from Florida State,
Speaker 1: Jordan Phillips out of Maryland. I think all of these
Speaker 1: guys have a chance through their tape and ability to
Speaker 1: be impact players right away. This is why we don't
Speaker 1: just focus on the top fifteen players of a draft.
Speaker 1: There's a reason they have seven rounds and twenty five
Speaker 1: man scouting staffs that spend nine ten months out of
Speaker 1: the year watching and getting to know these players. And
Speaker 1: then there's a crop of guys that might be more
Speaker 1: rotational pieces that can do what Benito Jones did last
Speaker 1: year and perhaps that comes with a playing time promotion
Speaker 1: for Benito, who had his best year as a pro.
Speaker 1: But like Oregon's Jamari Caldwell, who I saw Simon Clancy,
Speaker 1: who's a really really good draftnick for the Miami you know,
Speaker 1: covering the Miami Dolphins. He said the Jamry might be
Speaker 1: a Day two pick, which I could see that, but
Speaker 1: I tend to think it's more early Day three. It's
Speaker 1: splitting hairs. But that's a guy that I think could
Speaker 1: fit that role. Virginia Tech's Anias Peebles is a guy
Speaker 1: that I think they're gonna like a heck of a
Speaker 1: lot on the interior, more of a nose tackle. Utah's
Speaker 1: Junior Funa. Sorry the polities names, man, they get me.
Speaker 1: I think there are guys who figure to be there
Speaker 1: on Day three that could give you two hundred, three
Speaker 1: hundred STAPs, kind of like what you were hoping for
Speaker 1: last year with Jonathan Harris, Neville Gallimore. Of the guys
Speaker 1: that didn't make the football team, I think you can
Speaker 1: find that on the third day of the draft, and
Speaker 1: I I'd rather do that, man. I'd rather have three
Speaker 1: draft picks and u DFAs than three who the heck
Speaker 1: were those guy type of signings in free agency, Like,
Speaker 1: I think that's a better way to build your football team.
Speaker 1: So there are options. That's the point to all of this,
Speaker 1: And if you want to go to the veteran route
Speaker 1: and maybe feel a little less pressure on draft night,
Speaker 1: you know, like Raekwon Davis is out there, but you
Speaker 1: know he had that blood clot issue last year and
Speaker 1: was released because of some of the health concerns around
Speaker 1: on that, So I don't know what his availability is. Like,
Speaker 1: he's a guy that's played four hundred five hundred STAPs
Speaker 1: his entire career. Marlon Davidson has been the same for
Speaker 1: the Titans. He's out there. Linval Joseph is like thirty
Speaker 1: six years old, could be the new Kalais, I guess.
Speaker 1: But maybe he's a guy that gives you four hundred
Speaker 1: five hundred snaps. I think if you signed one and
Speaker 1: you drafted one, you'd be in a pretty good spot.
Speaker 1: But I could also see like a later double dip
Speaker 1: in the draft class. But I wanted to give you
Speaker 1: a trump card to all of this of sorts, if
Speaker 1: you will, that might make you think, hey, maybe they
Speaker 1: can get away with one decent investment, like pick forty
Speaker 1: eight or something, and then a couple of UDA fas
Speaker 1: to battle it out for rotational spots with Matthew Dickerson like,
Speaker 1: maybe that's something you can do. But I wanted to
Speaker 1: do this and look at other teams who run variations
Speaker 1: of the defensive scheme that we run. And we saw
Speaker 1: the Ravens defensive staff picked basically clean last year throughout
Speaker 1: the league, right us Baltimore with the promotion to Zach Orr,
Speaker 1: Seattle with Mike McDonald, and Tennessee with Ronaldo Wilson, and
Speaker 1: all deployed to get that right, all deployed defensive coordinators
Speaker 1: or head coaches somewhere the instituted of this defense with
Speaker 1: new clubs. So you know, four of the thirty two
Speaker 1: teams in the NFL, which is what is that one
Speaker 1: eighth of the league. So Baltimore they have justin Mattabueke,
Speaker 1: who played eight hundred and twelve snaps. He is their
Speaker 1: Zach sealer. Travis Jones was next with six hundred snaps,
Speaker 1: but he was the twelfth highest volume snap taker on
Speaker 1: the Ravens defense. Let's go ahead and stop right there
Speaker 1: and assess what that means. This is really where the
Speaker 1: comparison track, So it's a it's six defensive backs that
Speaker 1: played more than him, Matdabuek, They're Mike linebacker, Roquan Smith,
Speaker 1: you guys know who he is. And then the rest
Speaker 1: are multi position guys, whether it's an edge defensive tackle
Speaker 1: combo or an off ball on ball linebacker combination. A
Speaker 1: dafay O Way, Kyle van Noy, and Trent and Simpson
Speaker 1: all are edges who moonlight and secondary roles who played
Speaker 1: six fifty five six thirty six, six thirty one snaps respectively.
Speaker 1: Tavis Robinson played four eighty six, Broderick Washington played four fifty,
Speaker 1: Malik Harrison three to seventy two, and it just goes
Speaker 1: on David Ajabu two seventy five, Brent Urban one ninety six,
Speaker 1: their big nose tackle, Michael Pierce, who retired he played
Speaker 1: two hundred and thirty snaps having injuries. So if you
Speaker 1: replicate that model, you can moonlight rolls with Jalen Phillips
Speaker 1: who's a two hundred and seventy pound edge, Bradley Chub
Speaker 1: who's a two hundred and sixty five pound edge. Both
Speaker 1: those guys can play the three technique, especially in sub packages.
Speaker 1: Quentin Bell can do it too. You can walk up
Speaker 1: your linebackers. The Ravens did this a whole bunch with
Speaker 1: Jordan Brooks, with kJ Britt, with Willie Gay, with Tyrrel Dotson.
Speaker 1: All of those guys have reps as walked up linebackers.
Speaker 1: Let's say it's third and medium to long, third and
Speaker 1: six or third and eight. I don't care. You don't
Speaker 1: need a defensive tackle in that snap alongside Zach Seeler
Speaker 1: out there. You can roll out jp Be Chubb, Chop
Speaker 1: Gay Brooks. Like, you're not trying to stuff the field
Speaker 1: with defensive tackles in this position, in this particular sub package.
Speaker 1: That's my whole point here. The Dolphins have the players
Speaker 1: to give them snap counts in the front seven. I
Speaker 1: don't think they're done at defensive tackle. I just don't
Speaker 1: think we're looking at it the right way because all
Speaker 1: year last year, it was like, man, they're so fin
Speaker 1: a defensive tackle. They don't have forgot the bodies to
Speaker 1: like run this, And it's like, but they did, and
Speaker 1: they got through it, you know, and like that's how
Speaker 1: this system kind of operates. I think you'd you'd be
Speaker 1: led to believe they need to find fifteen hundred snaps
Speaker 1: or something at defensive tackle, but it's more like seven hundred.
Speaker 1: That's the point here, So continuing on in Seattle, Leonard
Speaker 1: Williams played seven to fifty. There's your Zach seeler, but
Speaker 1: a lot of those were at five technique as well.
Speaker 1: Jaron Reid's a nose tackle, a souped up Benito Jones.
Speaker 1: A better player than Benito Jones, but at six hundred
Speaker 1: and eighty snaps obviously a bigger workload. Draymont Jones six
Speaker 1: hundred snaps. Probably your kalay Is Campbell type split between
Speaker 1: the inside on the outside. Byron Murphy, a first round pick,
Speaker 1: was next at four hundred and fifty snaps, and the
Speaker 1: next guy was Ry Robertson Harris at one eighty eight.
Speaker 1: I think they're a different model. They're the most defensive
Speaker 1: tackle dependent of these four teams, but even still, it's
Speaker 1: essentially four guys and all but one of them plays
Speaker 1: off the edge in some capacity. In Tennessee, Justin Simmons
Speaker 1: played eight hundred snaps. There's your zach sealer. Tavandre Sweat
Speaker 1: played seven hundred snaps. That's a three hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: pound nose tackle and something that none of the other
Speaker 1: teams had SAMs Baltimore with Michael Pierce who was hurt
Speaker 1: all year. But I look at Devandre Sweat and like
Speaker 1: Alfred Collins could be that guy too. Maybe it's Kenneth Grant.
Speaker 1: Also that at Sebastian Joseph Day at four eighty and
Speaker 1: our next defensive tackle on this list. That's three guys
Speaker 1: I gave you Ray is James Lynch, who played two
Speaker 1: hundred and forty five snaps, a player who finished the
Speaker 1: season as the nineteenth most snaps on that Tennessee defense nineteen.
Speaker 1: He's damn near the bottom of the second string in
Speaker 1: terms of reps, and he was the number four defensive tackle.
Speaker 1: So the other three teams with direct offshoots of this defense,
Speaker 1: two of them looked like what we currently have, you know,
Speaker 1: saying we need another body for sure. Don't get me
Speaker 1: wrong there, but we currently have in terms of filling
Speaker 1: out the front seven with more linebackers and edges than
Speaker 1: defensive tackles. Again, I'm not telling you this is the
Speaker 1: wrecked and sure fire, fool proof approach. I don't know,
Speaker 1: we have to see, but I think the masses are
Speaker 1: looking at this the wrong way, and I always try
Speaker 1: to look to provide the further context for what you're
Speaker 1: seeing from And again I don't I'm not trying like
Speaker 1: to crap on people here, but I spend a lot
Speaker 1: of time doing this and studying this and looking at this,
Speaker 1: and I think a lot of people to come the
Speaker 1: team are in a more casual capacity, and so I
Speaker 1: find it my duty to provide that knowledge and information.
Speaker 1: I'm kind of like that doctor on that what are
Speaker 1: those videos where they have like someone sit down as
Speaker 1: an expert in their field, and then a bunch of
Speaker 1: people sit around at tables and then they come to
Speaker 1: the table and debate the guy, and that one doctor
Speaker 1: was trying to explain like the efficacy of vaccines and
Speaker 1: they were like, well, but why are people dying? Is
Speaker 1: because it's not one hundred percent. That's like I'm just
Speaker 1: trying to tell you, like, this is what thirty twenty
Speaker 1: years of doing this and learning about this has provided me.
Speaker 1: I can pass it on to you can do with
Speaker 1: it what you choose. But that's what we're going here.
Speaker 1: And again not to pile on Simon, because I think
Speaker 1: he does some of the best work of anybody that
Speaker 1: does this stuff for the Miami Dolphins. But he did
Speaker 1: post like, where the hell they're gonna find six hundred
Speaker 1: snaps a defensive tackle now? And again I get it,
Speaker 1: I do, But the draft hasn't happened yet, Simon. And
Speaker 1: they literally found six hundred snaps last June. And while
Speaker 1: you probably don't have that free agent like you did
Speaker 1: last year in kalais out there, you get that fourth
Speaker 1: round pick for him. What if you moved that pick
Speaker 1: for a defensive tackle. Remember Jonathan Allen being attached to
Speaker 1: the Dolphins last year. What if there's a Jonathan Allen
Speaker 1: out there? And I can maybe this is another podcast
Speaker 1: for the other day, but go find a team that
Speaker 1: maybe has some depth there that might be able to
Speaker 1: offload a player for you for a fourth round pick
Speaker 1: for your six hundred snap defensive tackle. Because that's a
Speaker 1: possibility too. So I don't know. You guys can believe
Speaker 1: me or not. I don't. It doesn't really matter. I
Speaker 1: just thought that was worth spending time talking about how
Speaker 1: this defense is structured. All Right, they have some work
Speaker 1: to do, but I'm excited to see which route they take.
Speaker 1: There's not gonna they're not gonna not have another defensive tackle.
Speaker 1: They'll find one. We'll see who it is, all right.
Speaker 1: So with all that in mind, let's take our last
Speaker 1: break right there and close the show with a deep
Speaker 1: dive on a player that I think would be a
Speaker 1: really good pick at number thirteen and answer all the
Speaker 1: questions we just asked in Kenneth Grant from Michigan. Deep
Speaker 1: dive on him. On the other side, Drive Time Podcast,
Speaker 1: your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by out donation.
Speaker 1: Do you guys know that if you don't treat strep
Speaker 1: throat it can turn to scarlet fever? Like I feel,
Speaker 1: I kind of feel fine, as you probably can tell
Speaker 1: a boy my energy, I sound like crap. I'm not
Speaker 1: sleeping that great, but I feel fine. But I read
Speaker 1: that if you leave strep throat untreated, it can manifest
Speaker 1: into scarlet fever. So antibiotics. This episode of Drivetime bought
Speaker 1: to you by Antibiotics. Let's talk about Kenneth Grant, number
Speaker 1: seventy eight from Michigan. The rare traits and build of
Speaker 1: this guy are what jumps off immediately you start here
Speaker 1: with Grant, because guys that go six foot four, three
Speaker 1: hundred and thirty four pounds, which is what he measured
Speaker 1: at his pro day. And by the way, measurements across
Speaker 1: Senior Bowl combine pro days are a disaster right now.
Speaker 1: They're all over the place six four, three thirty four
Speaker 1: officially for Kenneth Grant. Guys should not be able to
Speaker 1: move like he does at that size. I'm sure you've
Speaker 1: all seen the clip against Penn State where the running
Speaker 1: back breaks through the line tries to make him move
Speaker 1: on a safety. In that little move, that little heavy
Speaker 1: step gives pursuing Kenneth Grant at three hundred and thirty
Speaker 1: four pounds the extra step that he needs to hawk
Speaker 1: the ball carrier from behind twenty yards down the field.
Speaker 1: Christian Wilkins esque at three hundred and thirty four pounds
Speaker 1: twenty pounds heavier than Christian Wilkins. That size and that
Speaker 1: strength allows you to play him on the nose. He
Speaker 1: has plenty of reps as the one technique what's the
Speaker 1: one technique? Travis on the outside shoulder of the center
Speaker 1: and has pass rush wins there pretty much every time
Speaker 1: he gets isolation reps. Go watch his sack on Pennis
Speaker 1: in the twenty twenty three National Championship. He's actually a
Speaker 1: three technique on that rep, but he rushes the entire man,
Speaker 1: which typically you want to rush a shoulder of the man.
Speaker 1: He just powers right through the chest of the left guard,
Speaker 1: steam rolls him like he literally falls like a sack
Speaker 1: of potatoes, and Grant just like runs over him. He's
Speaker 1: not there. It's just sheer power, and a player that
Speaker 1: moves like he does should not come possessed with that
Speaker 1: type of power. Now, he did not work out in Indy,
Speaker 1: but went thirty one inches on the vertical, good for
Speaker 1: eighty first percent TILE among all defensive tackles again at
Speaker 1: three hundred and thirty four pounds, which is in the
Speaker 1: ninety fifth percent TILE for weight, so that is not
Speaker 1: a pairing that should happen. It's not natural and eighty
Speaker 1: third percentile for his ten split the first ten yards
Speaker 1: of the forty yard dash, freaky freaky trades, freaky first step,
Speaker 1: freaky explosiveness at three hundred and thirty four pounds. The shuttle,
Speaker 1: three cone, forty and broad all came in right around average,
Speaker 1: between fortieth and sixtieth percent TILE. But those three categories
Speaker 1: the weight, the ten split, and the vertical that tracks
Speaker 1: with what you see on tape. To me, this is
Speaker 1: the easiest comp in the entire class. He is. To me,
Speaker 1: he's dexter Lawrence who was ninety seventh percent tile weight,
Speaker 1: seventy fourth percent tile ten split but did not jump,
Speaker 1: but he smoothed on his feet like sexy, dexy and strong.
Speaker 1: Is anybody in the league the usage they had with
Speaker 1: him at Michigan. He only played one thousand and fifty
Speaker 1: four college snaps, so not that I'll wear and tear
Speaker 1: on them tires. He played five hundred and forty seven
Speaker 1: this year after a four hundred and three snap campaign
Speaker 1: as a sophomore, after just one oh four as a freshman.
Speaker 1: But he just kept getting better. Fifty two pressures on
Speaker 1: five hundred and fifty pass rush snaps in his career.
Speaker 1: That's a ten percent pressure rate from a position where
Speaker 1: pass rushing is kind of a secondary deal. Like Baranito
Speaker 1: Jones had a good pass rush here last year. He
Speaker 1: had a seven percent pass rush or pressure rate. I
Speaker 1: should say, there just aren't that many nose tackles that
Speaker 1: will give you that kind of juice and play as
Speaker 1: a zero or one technique. Also had forty one stops
Speaker 1: on four hundred snaps against the run. Just a dominant,
Speaker 1: dominant player on the stat sheet, in a workout and
Speaker 1: on the field. Another great stat the only defensive tackles
Speaker 1: with better pass rush win rates from the zero and
Speaker 1: one technique positions. Member zero technique is head up right
Speaker 1: over the center. One technique is off of his shoulder
Speaker 1: either side. Only Byron Murphy, Jalen Carter, and Elijah Cansei
Speaker 1: had better pass rush win rates from those positions than
Speaker 1: Kenneth Grant over the last five years. Let's talk about
Speaker 1: some of the tape. The first rep I pull up
Speaker 1: as a te stunt or the tackle, the Kenneth Grant
Speaker 1: fans out and the edge loops in behind him, or
Speaker 1: vice versa, and the you know, the end slant in
Speaker 1: and picks up the guard. And at three hundred and
Speaker 1: forty pound Grant loops around and beats the left tackle
Speaker 1: around the edge. And it's Donovan Jackson Who's going to
Speaker 1: hear his name called in the top fifty picks come
Speaker 1: draft night. That first step quickness, the way he can
Speaker 1: bend the arc at that size, it's fun to watch. Now.
Speaker 1: I think he could benefit from some seasoning and NFL
Speaker 1: coaching because if there's a reason he didn't doesn't go
Speaker 1: top twenty, it's because sometimes I don't think he processes
Speaker 1: super well and the feet kind of stop moving, which
Speaker 1: could lend itself to some taking plays off credence, which
Speaker 1: is obviously a big concern. Now this is actually a
Speaker 1: massive concern if it never gets synced up. But to me,
Speaker 1: that would fall more on a coaching staff, like we
Speaker 1: talked about, you know, Charles Davis Graden, the flashes. The
Speaker 1: flashes are top five worthy, some of the snap to
Speaker 1: snap consistency, and maybe some of the willingness to just
Speaker 1: eat a block and survive the rep. Like he's getting
Speaker 1: double teamed at the point, and he's trying to fight
Speaker 1: upstream and if you know, if you try to go
Speaker 1: against the rip current in the ocean, right, that's how
Speaker 1: you get yourself buried further and further. But like, even
Speaker 1: on that rep, the gap that he leaves exposed is
Speaker 1: an easy pill because he holds the first man on
Speaker 1: the combo block up long enough that it requires longer
Speaker 1: attachment from the secondary block, which frees up your linebacker
Speaker 1: to run in and shut it down. For no game,
Speaker 1: Like Zach Thomas always said that Tim Bowens was responsible
Speaker 1: for so much of his production. Like I think Kenneth
Speaker 1: Grant could do the same thing for Jordan brook or yeah,
Speaker 1: for Jordan Brooks because of how he can eat blocks
Speaker 1: in the middle. I think he can get a little
Speaker 1: bit narrow. The feet kind of click together. Sometimes his
Speaker 1: heels clicks together. That can be a sign of lack
Speaker 1: of reps. But he has to get that stuff sorted
Speaker 1: out to be the player that I think he can be.
Speaker 1: If you've seen a rep of him one gapping and losing,
Speaker 1: please share it with me, because I haven't seen it yet.
Speaker 1: One gaping is where you get upfield immediately and you
Speaker 1: try to get by your man. Two gaping is when
Speaker 1: you try to kind of play reaction to their move
Speaker 1: and you have two gap responsibility where you have to
Speaker 1: be able to get off the right and left side.
Speaker 1: I think that we could incorporate the way he rushes
Speaker 1: with what we do so well. How we have all
Speaker 1: those electric first step athletes with premiere ten split times gosh, man,
Speaker 1: like you've got all these options to mug up in
Speaker 1: the a gaps and show pressure from Brooks to Dodson
Speaker 1: to Gay to Chop Condensing as an inside nosebacker, And
Speaker 1: I think about that next to a pairing of Seiler
Speaker 1: and Grant. Seiler with the best length and hands in
Speaker 1: the damn game at defensive tackle, and then Grant, who
Speaker 1: I think can be an elite one gap penetrator the
Speaker 1: minute he puts on an NFL helmet. That's a tough,
Speaker 1: tough ask for sixty snaps a game from an imposing
Speaker 1: guard center guard combination to deal with all the Dolphins
Speaker 1: would have with these players. He's plenty good at dropping
Speaker 1: the anchor as a two gap, stacking up the nose,
Speaker 1: which he did a ton because he was very frequently
Speaker 1: doubled at Michigan, and when they cut him loose and
Speaker 1: told him to rush the outside shoulder of the center
Speaker 1: or inside of the guard, he just blows by him
Speaker 1: every single time. Then he has a pretty good arm
Speaker 1: over and swim move to free himself too. I think
Speaker 1: he'll draw a lot of holding calls in the league
Speaker 1: because guys are bracing for the strength as they kind
Speaker 1: of sink into their anchor and the momentum of three
Speaker 1: hundred and forty pounds knocking into them, and he knows
Speaker 1: how to play it to that size and power. Then
Speaker 1: as they're digging their cleats into the ground. He just
Speaker 1: crossed his face with a quick first step, and now
Speaker 1: they've got to uproot themselves to try to match his speed,
Speaker 1: which really nobody can do. So every rep I've seen
Speaker 1: where he says zero tech and Michigan walks up linebackers
Speaker 1: to show pressure, it creates one on ones. He just
Speaker 1: smokes those dudes, and we can do the exact same
Speaker 1: thing in Miami with this guy. Like it's it's over
Speaker 1: before it starts, it remains. It reminds me of watching
Speaker 1: Chop versus Michigan last year. They just bailed in the
Speaker 1: passing game the second half because they had like thirteen
Speaker 1: dropbacks and he had like eight pressures on those thirteen
Speaker 1: drop backs, and they said, forget this, We're just going
Speaker 1: to run the football win the game that way. This
Speaker 1: is every time Michigan was able to generate a one
Speaker 1: on one, zero or one technique rush, which is something
Speaker 1: we get a lot. But Itto Jones last year, right
Speaker 1: first year in the system, has a seven point six
Speaker 1: pressure rate, almost two percent higher than his previous career high.
Speaker 1: You know, in twenty three the lines we had a
Speaker 1: five point nine pressure rate it's the exact same thing.
Speaker 1: Last thing with Kenneth Grant. Here the hands. You often
Speaker 1: see guys impacted by his punch, a physical jolt across
Speaker 1: the bow. But the best part is when he gets attached.
Speaker 1: He just controls the rep from start to finish, and
Speaker 1: it happens all the time. He subscribes to the belief
Speaker 1: that you beat the hands, you beat the man, and
Speaker 1: he's just doing it all the damn time. When you
Speaker 1: move down in competition at all, Like it's not Ohio State,
Speaker 1: he just ragged dolls guys. I just finished here. I've
Speaker 1: seen enough. I just saw him kick out to the
Speaker 1: five technique against Ohio State and jabstep with an arm
Speaker 1: over re establish his gap and then closing the ballcarrier.
Speaker 1: This is my top defensive tackle in the class. I
Speaker 1: think he should go in the top ten. Kenneth Grant.
Speaker 1: In the books, We've now done Grant, Baron and Starks.
Speaker 1: I also have done Warren. We're going to talk about
Speaker 1: him on the Monday podcast. But right now, I go Grant,
Speaker 1: I go Warren, Grant, Baron, Starks my top four my
Speaker 1: short list for Pick thirteen. So we'll do that on
Speaker 1: Monday with Derek harmon. I will probably do some more content.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure what's going to look like just yet,
Speaker 1: but hopefully the Wingfield household gets healthy and we can
Speaker 1: provide you guys with more content on this draft class
Speaker 1: next week. In the meantime, you all please be sure subscribe,
Speaker 1: rate review the show, follow me on social at Wingfield
Speaker 1: NFL and the team at Miami Dolphins. Check out the
Speaker 1: fish Tank podcast with Seth and Juwe check out the
Speaker 1: YouTube channel for Dolphins HQ a brand new episode up
Speaker 1: right now. I did one place scouting, breaking down plays
Speaker 1: by six of the free agents. You don't want to
Speaker 1: miss that. It's some of my best content I do,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, So get there for that. Draft time, interviews,
Speaker 1: media availabilities, and so much more. Last, but not least
Speaker 1: to Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time, Finza, Alan
Speaker 1: Cameron Daddy