Speaker 1: You were listening to the Miami Dolphins podcast Network. This
Speaker 1: is Drivetime with Travis Wingfield. Back to throw to a
Speaker 1: looking gives at dolta water dolpen touchdock ton rick Hill unbelievable.
Speaker 1: Just flue fire for a second time to know where
Speaker 1: he was going right away, hit of that man. I
Speaker 1: want to help you soon up on his band away
Speaker 1: he waddle, waddle to a shotgut back to the throw
Speaker 1: looking stups up fires, touchdop again it's waddle. It's six
Speaker 1: touchdown padout of just two. Drivetime with Travis Wingfield begins.
Speaker 1: Now let me check your pulse if you're not part
Speaker 1: of what is up? Dolphins? And welcome to the Drivetime podcast,
Speaker 1: part of the Miami Dolphins podcast Network, covering your team,
Speaker 1: your Miami Dolphins. How's it going? Everybody? I am your host,
Speaker 1: Travis Wingfield. And on today's show, we continue examining the
Speaker 1: free agent class with a four spot of new player
Speaker 1: breakdowns long episode today. Safety to Shaun Elliott, offensive lineman
Speaker 1: Dan Feeney, outside linebacker Malik Reid, and punter Jake Bailey
Speaker 1: are all here. They are all official. We'll look at
Speaker 1: their tape, the telling stats, and their respective fits inside
Speaker 1: the Dolphins program from the Baptist Health Studios inside the
Speaker 1: Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Drivetime podcast maya
Speaker 1: Gaffe f and right before we get into player breakdowns,
Speaker 1: it is official. From Monday, the Dolphins exercise two A
Speaker 1: Tongue Blois fifth year option. He is the first player
Speaker 1: under the new CBA and one of the first players
Speaker 1: ever to have that option picked up in the month
Speaker 1: of March. That deadline, of course, comes in May with
Speaker 1: the Dolphins. Wasted no time here, and it's a no
Speaker 1: brainer for a quarterback who led the NFL in passer rating,
Speaker 1: was number two, against pressure number one, and average depth
Speaker 1: of target top three to five and every quarterback metric
Speaker 1: used by the most renowned football writers, analysts and pundits
Speaker 1: out there. Our own head coach has told you many,
Speaker 1: many times how much he loves this guy's game, whether
Speaker 1: you talk about EPA adjusted yards per attempt. Feel free
Speaker 1: to look at the leaderboards and you won't have to
Speaker 1: scroll very far to find TWA Tongablo's name up on
Speaker 1: those leaderboards. I know I've mentioned this a few times.
Speaker 1: The last couple of weeks. I've been rewatching the broadcast
Speaker 1: copies of our games from this past season, and I
Speaker 1: had kind of forgotten about the commentary on TA during
Speaker 1: a pair of home games, and going to the home games,
Speaker 1: I don't watch the broadcast as much on those ones
Speaker 1: because I don't watch it live and don't pick those
Speaker 1: things up to go back and rewatch to listen for them.
Speaker 1: But Adam Archiletta and Jay Feeley, and you might recall
Speaker 1: Archiletta back in the season opener was Dogginta, but he
Speaker 1: wound up waxing poetically about how Tah saw the field,
Speaker 1: the accuracy he throws with, and I mean, I just
Speaker 1: encourage all y'all to go back and watch it again,
Speaker 1: because any way you want to see your quarterback win,
Speaker 1: TA was doing it during that stretch of play at
Speaker 1: a high, high leveling around pressure, throwing on the move, anticipating.
Speaker 1: There's a play in the Bears game before the I
Speaker 1: think it was the waddle touchdown in Chicago where he
Speaker 1: gets away from an immediate pressure like somebody wins their
Speaker 1: past rush rep and is in on twa In two seconds,
Speaker 1: he side steps away from the hit and throws the
Speaker 1: ball away in the back of the end zone survive
Speaker 1: the play gets a third down, then throw a touchdown
Speaker 1: pass on third down. I get so descriptive about all
Speaker 1: of it because I've been watching every throw by Dolphins
Speaker 1: quarterbacks on tape on the All twenty two, over and
Speaker 1: over multiple times since I wrote the book on Tannehill,
Speaker 1: which was an in depth film study of every single
Speaker 1: throw in his career beginning back in twenty twelve. And
Speaker 1: that's ten years. It's a decade, and I have not
Speaker 1: seen anything close, anything anywhere near what to a tongue
Speaker 1: of Valoa did this past season, and that was year
Speaker 1: one in the offense. I positively cannot wait to see
Speaker 1: what it looks like for him with some continuity coming
Speaker 1: back in year number two. When I asked Daniel Jeremiah
Speaker 1: about that and explained to him that he had the
Speaker 1: same play caller for the first time now in consecutive
Speaker 1: years since high school, DJ had a genuine wow reaction
Speaker 1: like that's crazy it is, DJ, like as if to say, Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is kind of a player who can really benefit
Speaker 1: from returning to the same offense and the same play
Speaker 1: caller who knows how that quarterback ticks and what makes
Speaker 1: him successful. It's like going back to high school. Your
Speaker 1: sophomore year. You know the campus, you know where to
Speaker 1: find your locker, all that good stuff that comes with familiarity.
Speaker 1: Everybody operates a little more efficiently when you're familiar with
Speaker 1: your surroundings. So what exactly is the fifth year option.
Speaker 1: There are some stipulations, but the bones of it is this.
Speaker 1: It allows a team to extend a fifth year on
Speaker 1: top of a first round draft picks original rookie contract
Speaker 1: of four years. Pro Bowl appearances boost the cost of
Speaker 1: that option. There's also playing time escalators, which is where
Speaker 1: TWA lands in that category. So for his fifth year,
Speaker 1: he earns a guaranteed one year salary That is the
Speaker 1: or average per year of the third through twentieth highest
Speaker 1: paid players at your respect position obviously here quarterback over
Speaker 1: the previous five years. That number comes around twenty three
Speaker 1: million dollars. For the twenty twenty fourth season, which when
Speaker 1: you look at the quarterback contracts right now, Daniel Jones
Speaker 1: got over forty million dollars per year. It's pretty good
Speaker 1: bargain there for a top five quarterback. Last season two
Speaker 1: was on the fourth year of that rookie contract he
Speaker 1: signed back in twenty twenty, so this year still relatively
Speaker 1: or even cheaper than what the fifth year is. So
Speaker 1: pretty straightforward, got it good? Speaking of continuity, I wanted
Speaker 1: to begin here because we're evaluating one former New York
Speaker 1: Jet here on the podcast. We've done too previously. Go
Speaker 1: back and check those out if you have not heard
Speaker 1: those episodes of the Drivetown podcast. And I really harped
Speaker 1: on this with Mike White, not as much on Braxton
Speaker 1: Barrios on the Monday podcast, but coming from the Jets
Speaker 1: offense is akin to players who came from the Niners
Speaker 1: a season ago. Mike Lafleur was the offensive coordinator there
Speaker 1: the last two years. He spent the first seven years
Speaker 1: of his NFL career working under Kyle Shanahan and by
Speaker 1: proxy of that, Mike McDaniel as well. And while no
Speaker 1: offense will ever be the same as far as an
Speaker 1: exact replica, the same concepts and rules will have some
Speaker 1: carry over when you've spent seven years working with the
Speaker 1: same boss or bosses. Right, So then Mike White, Braxon Barrios,
Speaker 1: and Dan Feenie get to be introduced to a concept
Speaker 1: in OTA's, they'll be able to say, oh, yeah, we
Speaker 1: did that and say that was like eighty five percent
Speaker 1: of the way we did it previously. I can work
Speaker 1: on that fifteen percent opposed to saying this is all
Speaker 1: new one and have to work on that. So it's
Speaker 1: nice to have that familiarity almost in the same sense
Speaker 1: that you had last year with Moster Sherfield and Craycraft
Speaker 1: coming over from San Francisco and coach McDaniel knows what
Speaker 1: his offense needs right, he knows how to make it successful.
Speaker 1: I mean sixth and total offense eleventh and scoring. Despite
Speaker 1: not having QB one for the better part of five
Speaker 1: regular season games and not having the backup finish a
Speaker 1: game until the Week eighteen game, shouldn't we trust that guy?
Speaker 1: I feel like you should. So with that, let's go
Speaker 1: ahead and get into Dan Fiene, who was a third
Speaker 1: round pick out of Indiana and you locked on Dolphins.
Speaker 1: Faithful's know how much I loved his tape as a Hoosier.
Speaker 1: He spent the first four years of his career, the
Speaker 1: entirety of that rookie deal with the Los Angeles Chargers
Speaker 1: before signing to the Jets and playing there the last
Speaker 1: two seasons. Last year, we were fortunate enough to get
Speaker 1: Connor Williams to one hundred percent of the offensive snaps,
Speaker 1: so we never had to see what life was like
Speaker 1: without him. But Phoene gives you a very dependable option
Speaker 1: behind Williams. Not to mention the guard flexibility, and if
Speaker 1: you look at what the reports are on that contract,
Speaker 1: I don't think it's ruled out that he could be
Speaker 1: the potential starting left guard this year. He screams top
Speaker 1: into your bench. Off the guy to me though, ideally,
Speaker 1: and hey, if he wins that job, great, that gives
Speaker 1: you better depth. Better competition is always a good thing.
Speaker 1: And he's a veteran who's seen everything this league has
Speaker 1: to offer. Experience and a very similar system, and a
Speaker 1: guy who's well thought of by his coaches and teammates.
Speaker 1: The Jets. Lafleur of the OC said of Phoenie when
Speaker 1: he signed with the Jets, He'll just dust off some
Speaker 1: old books, referring to the offense the Indiana and I
Speaker 1: ran and the similarities to Lafleur's outside zone scheme. Hey,
Speaker 1: there it is again with the firing off the ball
Speaker 1: and athletic ability. Because what are the two things we
Speaker 1: always point to here in the pivot with regards to
Speaker 1: this Dolphins offense. It was a thing all last offseason
Speaker 1: prior to the Williams acquisition, and then move inside to
Speaker 1: the pivot at center and Daniel Jeremiah for the forty
Speaker 1: fifth time referencing this conference call ahead of the draft
Speaker 1: on what McDaniel looks for at center, football, intelligence, and athleticism.
Speaker 1: Do you want to talk athleticism? Phoene lettered volleyball in
Speaker 1: high school. I've never seen an offensive line with the
Speaker 1: chops to play a sport that's all about quickness, reaction
Speaker 1: and leaping ability, and I guess just general balance. But
Speaker 1: I guess all those traits also carry over to playing
Speaker 1: offensive line, don't they, Especially in this offense where we
Speaker 1: continue to cover. That's right, firing off the football. I've
Speaker 1: even got his high school measurables here, six foot four,
Speaker 1: two hundred and eighty pounds on a volleyball court. That
Speaker 1: is a unicorn out there. Especially we had the bullet
Speaker 1: mustache two. How about the smart part? I found an
Speaker 1: interview with Tom Tolesco, a former Argers GM who was
Speaker 1: interviewed after they selected Fienie in the third round of
Speaker 1: twenty seventeens draft. The traits that he said the Chargers
Speaker 1: liked in Poenie, smart, tough, athletic, bing bang Bong. He
Speaker 1: even touched on the positional flexibility, saying Feenie was a
Speaker 1: guard tackle in college, but they see him as a
Speaker 1: guard with traits first center down the road, so really
Speaker 1: ultimately the position flexibility. In fact, he played four games
Speaker 1: last year and played at three positions, both guards and
Speaker 1: left tackle. Hasn't actually logged any time at center, but
Speaker 1: you can see where they would probably want to go
Speaker 1: the same route as Connor Williams and teaching him that
Speaker 1: position as he goes along here to potentially be the
Speaker 1: backup center and have roles elsewhere on the offensive line.
Speaker 1: He just hasn't played all that much as a Jet,
Speaker 1: at least he stared seven games with the Jets over
Speaker 1: two years. He totaled two hundred and ninety four snaps,
Speaker 1: and on those nearly three hundred snaps just seven pressures,
Speaker 1: allowed only one hit that was a sack, so six
Speaker 1: of those were hurries. And that's a pressure every forty
Speaker 1: two snaps, which is less than one point five per
Speaker 1: game if you pro rate that to a full sixty
Speaker 1: ish snap per game on offense in a given contest.
Speaker 1: But back to the football, IQ and situational awareness. Man.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of tape here as a jet and
Speaker 1: as a charger of him getting into the protection slide
Speaker 1: and then finding additional work like go help your teammates,
Speaker 1: go get a rack of rabs, Go put a rusher
Speaker 1: on the ground when he is trying to work his
Speaker 1: pass rush move against your friend alongside you. I like
Speaker 1: the way he functions as far as a five man
Speaker 1: unit opposed to working as an individual. To me, he
Speaker 1: looks very coachable and like a quick study, smart guy.
Speaker 1: I think that Holster's both value as a starter and
Speaker 1: as potential depth coming into the game off the bench.
Speaker 1: You know, to play offensive line cold can be really tough,
Speaker 1: but he demonstrated with the Jets that he could do
Speaker 1: that pretty well. I think the best tape to look
Speaker 1: at for Feeni is the twenty twenty one game against
Speaker 1: the Buccaneers. He went up against Vita Vea, and between
Speaker 1: Veya's quickness and power, I just don't think there's a
Speaker 1: better test for an interior offensive lineman outside of Aaron
Speaker 1: Donald in the NFL. But his ability to get wide
Speaker 1: off the snap and really kind of hem Veia's inside
Speaker 1: for those outside zone runs really jumps off that tape,
Speaker 1: and in that twenty twenty one season, he came into
Speaker 1: the game as the sixth offensive lineman in seven games,
Speaker 1: so you have that flexibility as well. And then started
Speaker 1: the last three games and in those three games, one
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty six snaps and just four pressures allowed.
Speaker 1: It's on ninety three pass blocking snaps. That's a great,
Speaker 1: great figure, and Pro Football Focus really likes his run
Speaker 1: blocking to a seventy nine point three grade. Again, I
Speaker 1: don't care about their grades, but I'm giving you the
Speaker 1: full platter here and not to mention a stat I
Speaker 1: do like ninety eight pass block efficiency means there's two
Speaker 1: percent of the time that he's allowing pressures, which would
Speaker 1: have been right in line with Hunt and William's production
Speaker 1: a year ago. So really intriguing player. Another guy on
Speaker 1: this offense that I think really goes along with what
Speaker 1: we talked about with Jeremiah at the combine. To bring
Speaker 1: this all full circle, the Dolphins have really locked in
Speaker 1: on their foundational pieces and now you round out the
Speaker 1: margins with guys like Feeny and Barrios and Saber. Another
Speaker 1: valuable addition here that doesn't get plastered up on the marquee.
Speaker 1: But your roster is going to be better for having
Speaker 1: somebody like Dan Foene on it. They're not all going
Speaker 1: to be the splash, home run hits guys. You have
Speaker 1: to get valuable quality, depth, veteran presence, things like that. That,
Speaker 1: to me is what Dan Foene is. All right, one
Speaker 1: player breakdown, We got three more to go Segment two. Next,
Speaker 1: I'm very excited to talk about Deshaun Elliott. We'll do
Speaker 1: that here next well as Jake Bailey. That's next Draftime
Speaker 1: Podcast your host Travis Springfield, brought to you by AutoNation.
Speaker 1: Segment two on a free agent film breakdown edition of
Speaker 1: the Draftime Podcast. We give so much attention to the
Speaker 1: offense and defense on the show, and I'll be the
Speaker 1: first to admit that I don't know a lot about
Speaker 1: the mechanics of kicking, or punting, or long snapping, really
Speaker 1: anything in that third phase of the game. It's why
Speaker 1: I like to ask Danny Croftsman those questions at press
Speaker 1: conferences and just kind of get him to educate me
Speaker 1: on special teams. This is all to say we have
Speaker 1: a new punter in town. Jake Bailey comes down from
Speaker 1: New England, a first team All Pro back in twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: which was the same year Jason Sanders won his All
Speaker 1: Pro honors. Bailey spent the first four years of his
Speaker 1: career with the Patriots as their punter and kickoff man,
Speaker 1: and frankly a punter drafted in the fifth round by
Speaker 1: Belichick and the Patriots a team who values special teams
Speaker 1: as much as anybody. You just know that's a lively
Speaker 1: talented leg that Jake Bailey possesses. Not to mention, he's
Speaker 1: a ridy and for the Patriots, for as long as
Speaker 1: I can remember, they've always had a left footed punter,
Speaker 1: but not Jake Bailey. But he was injured last year
Speaker 1: and their Week nine win over the Colts and did
Speaker 1: not finish the season wound up on ir In his
Speaker 1: nine games, he averaged forty two point zero eight yards
Speaker 1: per punt with a thirty two percent inside the twenty
Speaker 1: yard line rate. On his thirty seven punts one hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty seven return yards. That's an average of four
Speaker 1: point two four yards per return and a gross of
Speaker 1: thirty five point one yards, and that came with a
Speaker 1: higher than usual touchback rate for his career thirteen point
Speaker 1: five percent. Last year was a big jump over what
Speaker 1: we had this season ago with Miami with Thomas Morestead,
Speaker 1: but just nine point nine percent over his four year career.
Speaker 1: Without watching the punts. It's difficult to say what caused
Speaker 1: that because the kicks are the coverage. You have to
Speaker 1: kind of make a determination there. But you're certainly looking
Speaker 1: to get more towards that career average opposed to what
Speaker 1: it was a year ago. Like his production dipped the
Speaker 1: last couple of years here, so it would be curious
Speaker 1: if he can find that again. For his career, he
Speaker 1: averages forty five point nine yards per punt and a
Speaker 1: gross of forty one point five. The year that he
Speaker 1: was all pro it was forty five point six, which
Speaker 1: was the highest since Johnny Hecker had at forty six
Speaker 1: point zero in twenty sixteen, So we're talking about all
Speaker 1: time punting performances. But since twenty nineteen, his eighteen point
Speaker 1: two rate inside the ten yard line ranks second behind
Speaker 1: only Tommy Townsend in Kansas City, who just got a
Speaker 1: big contract for punters. It's among punterers with at least
Speaker 1: one punt per game sixty six total punts over those
Speaker 1: four years inside the twenty yard line he was third
Speaker 1: with forty five point three percent. Then how about this one.
Speaker 1: Opponents starting field possession after a punt. Since twenty nineteen,
Speaker 1: which Bailey's rookie year, the Patriots opponents starting field position
Speaker 1: after punts was the minus twenty one yard line their
Speaker 1: own twenty one yard line. That's the best in the game,
Speaker 1: this time topping Tommy Townsend by point three yards. So
Speaker 1: you want to flip the field, Jake Bailey has been
Speaker 1: doing that for a long long time. How about the
Speaker 1: guys who helped get the ball back to the offense
Speaker 1: after punts? Well, always to Sean Elliott, new Dolphins safety
Speaker 1: if you listen to the Lions preview podcast from back
Speaker 1: in October, he was a player we highlighted quite a lot.
Speaker 1: He was on the injury report and was a guy
Speaker 1: that I was tracking because to me, it was a
Speaker 1: big swing if he played or not in the secondary
Speaker 1: that needed his skills back there, and it was uncertain
Speaker 1: if he would as kind of a jenga piece of
Speaker 1: the Lions defense. And he did not play in Miami's offense.
Speaker 1: I don't think punted in that game, and they didn't
Speaker 1: get stopped very much for touchdowns either. But then he returned,
Speaker 1: and not to say that he was the reason, but
Speaker 1: that's when the Lions defense turned things around. Last season.
Speaker 1: They held Rogers and the Packers to nine points. I
Speaker 1: can't imagine what would happen for our quarterbacks public perception
Speaker 1: if he scored just nine points in a game against
Speaker 1: the Lions had a shootout with Justin Fields and the
Speaker 1: Bears for thirty points. Then the Giants scored eighteen, Bills
Speaker 1: twenty eight, Jags fourteen. So the defense figured it out
Speaker 1: after that Miami game when Deshaun Elliott came back into
Speaker 1: the lineup, and the snap counts for Elliot in those
Speaker 1: games the Bears thirty points stands out right. He only
Speaker 1: played twenty nine snaps in that game versus seventy four
Speaker 1: against the Packers, seventy six against the Giants, seventy six
Speaker 1: against the Bills. And if you watch that Thanksgiving game
Speaker 1: against the Bills, they gave Alan fitz through three quarters
Speaker 1: and Elliott was a big part of that. But first,
Speaker 1: the counting stats here, forty two games, thirty five starts.
Speaker 1: He has two career picks, ten passes defense, he's forced
Speaker 1: three fumbles. We'll talk about that more in a second,
Speaker 1: recovered one three and a half sacks, eleven QB hits,
Speaker 1: and two hundred and five career tackles. He was the
Speaker 1: Ravens starting free safety in twenty twenty, the only year
Speaker 1: of his career where he was a full time starter
Speaker 1: and healthy. He started the first six games to twenty
Speaker 1: twenty one before an injury, and then the Ravens added
Speaker 1: two safeties of that year, Kyle Hamilton and Marcus Williams,
Speaker 1: which led to Elliott's departure and then arrival, of course
Speaker 1: in Detroit. But there he played fourteen games last season,
Speaker 1: started thirteen of them. But that twenty twenty season was
Speaker 1: a big one for him. Five QB hits, two and
Speaker 1: a half sacks, four passes defense, and two forced fumbles.
Speaker 1: And Pro Football Reference has a stat called approximate value
Speaker 1: where they kind of give you one number to judge
Speaker 1: your overall value. His career high was seven, which is
Speaker 1: above replacement value starter and in Miami, that's I mean,
Speaker 1: we already have two really good starting safeties, so that's
Speaker 1: really good for your third safety. How about the advanced metrics, Well,
Speaker 1: the Pro Football Focus grades have this dude as literally
Speaker 1: the most consistent player I've ever seen in terms of
Speaker 1: their grading. Again, I don't care about the grades, but
Speaker 1: for posterity sixty six five, sixty five six, sixty nine
Speaker 1: six sixty nine seven, like within three points variation all
Speaker 1: four years is pretty wild. But how nice is that
Speaker 1: to have a player in your secondary that you can
Speaker 1: pretty accurately forecast what he's going to give you. We
Speaker 1: know what we have an X we know we have
Speaker 1: in Jelen Ramsey, ker Cohu, Nick Needham. Really, I mean,
Speaker 1: you know what you're gonna get with him. And this
Speaker 1: is not like saying you're getting great play all the time,
Speaker 1: but you know what to expect. Javon holland Brandon Jones
Speaker 1: to meet. Elliott slotted into that mold. He was really
Speaker 1: impressive in that big nickel third safety sub package role
Speaker 1: before he became a full time starter. So on top
Speaker 1: of quality depth, if you need somebody to step in
Speaker 1: on an every down basis in the instance that we
Speaker 1: lose Javon or Brandon for a game or two or
Speaker 1: the whole season, then you can have a trustworthy person
Speaker 1: in that role, which is nice, right, And we'll get
Speaker 1: more into his tape in a moment, But back to
Speaker 1: the numbers. Let's go ahead and start with snaps and
Speaker 1: alignment over twenty three hundred snaps over four years, and
Speaker 1: those are split as follows. Eight hundred and twelve snaps
Speaker 1: against the run, he has forty four run stops, and
Speaker 1: he missed tackle rate under ten percent. That's where you
Speaker 1: want to be, right around eight nine. I mean, nobody
Speaker 1: makes every single tackle, but nine point one for his
Speaker 1: career is a really good rate, especially when you factor
Speaker 1: in that he plays in space a lot like coming
Speaker 1: from depth. We'll talk about this more a minute, but
Speaker 1: check out the hit he put on Dereck Henry for
Speaker 1: a forced fumble back in twenty twenty one. He comes
Speaker 1: from fifteen yards of depth to make that play, which
Speaker 1: is I mean, it's not easy to do. It's like,
Speaker 1: you know, it's hitting a hundred mile on our fastball.
Speaker 1: One hundred and three pass rush snaps, which is a
Speaker 1: lot for us safety, and we have three guys that
Speaker 1: can do that. Now twenty one pressures. That's better than
Speaker 1: one of every five rush attempts we get home. He
Speaker 1: gets home rather and gets to the quarterback. The sack
Speaker 1: productions there, but just the threat of the ability to
Speaker 1: change the way the offense plays with that safety providing pressure.
Speaker 1: More on that in a moment. From a coverage standpoint, Obviously,
Speaker 1: at safety you play a lot more of these than
Speaker 1: anything else. Fourteen hundred and thirty eight snaps in coverage.
Speaker 1: What I like most is what I saw from him
Speaker 1: in his zone match standpoint. Starting off in zone, as
Speaker 1: the routes declare themselves, you follow your rules to attach
Speaker 1: to a man. My high school basketball coach always harp
Speaker 1: on this, like, we're just because we're playing zone, doesn't
Speaker 1: mean you stay in your zone. I'm like, find a man.
Speaker 1: You're not covering court, you're not covering grass and zone.
Speaker 1: But the rule, like an example, a banjo call, something
Speaker 1: you might have heard of before, it's where, hey, you
Speaker 1: got first, inside move, I got next. Stuff like that
Speaker 1: is common in defense, where you have to read the
Speaker 1: play and then be on the same page as your
Speaker 1: teammate and react as your role changes post snap. Potentially,
Speaker 1: but his numbers bear this skill set out a career
Speaker 1: passer rating against him of eighty nine point three two
Speaker 1: picks just two touchdowns allowed. He's only drawn three flags
Speaker 1: in a four year career, only one hundred and eighty
Speaker 1: one yards of yak yards after catch, and that's out
Speaker 1: of five hundred and thirty four yards in coverage. That's
Speaker 1: a tremendous percentage. Like we said, a very good striker,
Speaker 1: very good tackler. And then the stat always go to you,
Speaker 1: yards allowed per coverage snap. Five hundred and forty three
Speaker 1: yards on fourteen hundred and thirty eight coverage snaps is
Speaker 1: really really good. To illustrate his versatility, twelve hundred and
Speaker 1: sixty seven snaps in the post, five hundred eighty in
Speaker 1: the box, another two hundred and thirty nine down on
Speaker 1: the line, two thirty three in the slot, thirty four
Speaker 1: out wide. I'm throwing lots and numbers at you. All
Speaker 1: that tells you is he plays all over the defense
Speaker 1: and also two hundred and thirty two snaps on special teams.
Speaker 1: The tape is fun, man, especially when you think about
Speaker 1: the fit down here. We talked a lot about what
Speaker 1: Fangio has ran traditionally, and without trying to delve into
Speaker 1: the finer points of the playbook and responsibilities, we know
Speaker 1: that typically it's lighter boxes, high safeties, challenge the offense
Speaker 1: to run the football and take it out of Patrick
Speaker 1: Mahomes's hands, take it out of Josh Allen's hands, and
Speaker 1: those safeties have to have interchangeability and the versatility to
Speaker 1: align and all the varied positions and responsibilities that safeties
Speaker 1: can conceivably play. We saw Javon Holland play the post
Speaker 1: probably too often, rush the edge, spy the quarterback, do
Speaker 1: everything right. Brandon Jones too, who, for my money, is
Speaker 1: the best blitzing safety in football, but also can match
Speaker 1: up on tight end. He had great coverage I think
Speaker 1: it was against the Vikings, like a good pass rush
Speaker 1: rep and then two good coverage snaps like bang bang bang.
Speaker 1: Just shows you the entire skill set does it all
Speaker 1: covers the slot. I think he watched the tape back
Speaker 1: last year and losing him was such a blow because
Speaker 1: of how it allowed the fence to flip pre snap
Speaker 1: with a simple adjustment call, because both he and Holland
Speaker 1: were so adept at running any type of route that
Speaker 1: comes from that safety position. And I say all of
Speaker 1: that because I found this cut up that somebody did.
Speaker 1: It's called huddle up films, and they did it before
Speaker 1: last season when Elliott was a free agent leaving Baltimore.
Speaker 1: It's actually posted by a fan of the Bears who
Speaker 1: does a podcast, and he was hoping they'd bring Elliott
Speaker 1: to the Windy City. And this clip shows Elliott fitting
Speaker 1: the run from depth in a two high structure, then
Speaker 1: lining up off the edge and rushing against a tackle,
Speaker 1: which makes the rest of the protection slide vulnerable. Say
Speaker 1: we come back to that. That's how you can change
Speaker 1: protection schemes by getting those good rushing safeties down on
Speaker 1: the line. We saw Brandon Jones get a big force
Speaker 1: woman for a touchdown in the opener. We saw Javon
Speaker 1: Holland in week three put the ball on the turf
Speaker 1: with Josh Allen that led to a quick Dolphin's touchdown.
Speaker 1: If your right tackles blocking a safety, it probably means
Speaker 1: you got an edge rusher on a tight end somewhere else,
Speaker 1: or a similar mismatch, or you just don't block them
Speaker 1: at all, like the Patriots and Bills didn't do. And
Speaker 1: then eight or twenty just runs through your quarterback and
Speaker 1: gets the ball on the ground. Excuse me. He plays
Speaker 1: down in the box as the forced defender. He plays
Speaker 1: down the pipe and coverage against the three to the strength,
Speaker 1: which is the slot receiver, essentially to the strong side
Speaker 1: of the formation. A very important and tough coverage responsibility,
Speaker 1: and he covers crossing routes and go like he does
Speaker 1: a lot of different things. When you can trot out
Speaker 1: three safeties who have that type of versatility and interchangeability,
Speaker 1: it allows the defense to create those aforementioned looks where
Speaker 1: you dictate the matchups. Does that make sense? Like, if
Speaker 1: I'm looking at a big nickel package as a quarterback
Speaker 1: and any of those three guys can do any of
Speaker 1: the roles that come with that position, then I am
Speaker 1: way more likely to make a mistake in my hot
Speaker 1: in my protection call, or my general read of the defense.
Speaker 1: Maybe I misidentify the coverage because they change, they disguised.
Speaker 1: That's kind of what you get here. Fangio is the
Speaker 1: ultimate master at creating disguise in the back end, and
Speaker 1: that's how you get those matchups. That's how you get
Speaker 1: Jalan Phillips matched up against a tight end. You're gonna
Speaker 1: win that every time. It's how you get Christian Wilkins
Speaker 1: one on one verse is a UDFA rookie who's wet
Speaker 1: behind the ears. Again, it's a fun tape. He arrives
Speaker 1: with force as a striker from what I can tell
Speaker 1: in limited pass rush opportunities. He has a feel for
Speaker 1: rush land integrity and man, there's a clip of him
Speaker 1: rushing and mirroring Daniel Jones on a clip where he
Speaker 1: tries to escape. And since I think the hardest thing
Speaker 1: to do in defense defensive football in twenty twenty three
Speaker 1: is to defend the four four speed a quarterback has
Speaker 1: once he escapes initial pressure, That's where I think Elliott
Speaker 1: gives you another answer to facing a Josh Allen justin Fields, etc. Etc.
Speaker 1: But of those quarterbacks who are big, big human beings,
Speaker 1: you know, and if you need any validation on Elliott
Speaker 1: bringing big humans to the ground, just go watch the
Speaker 1: hit he put on Derek Henry. Like I mentioned earlier,
Speaker 1: he lays him out for a force fumble, puts him
Speaker 1: on his knees. I mean, his tape was full of
Speaker 1: stuff like that. I referenced the force fumble production. Two
Speaker 1: of those. One of the Henry hit are results of
Speaker 1: where he just makes a big hit and rakes at
Speaker 1: the football to get it out. The other was a
Speaker 1: stick he put on Travis et And against the Jaguars
Speaker 1: last year. You're gonna fune when you watch just tape.
Speaker 1: Go check him out to Sean Elliott. We have one
Speaker 1: more to go. We'll dive into Malik Reid's tape. That's
Speaker 1: next here on the Drivetime podcast, your host Travis Wingfield,
Speaker 1: brought to you by Auto Nation. Three of the latest
Speaker 1: free agent acquisitions accounted for. Let's go ahead and do
Speaker 1: the fourth here as we roll on with the analysis
Speaker 1: of all these new Miami Dolphins. A nice mix of
Speaker 1: marquee talent, big time starters every snap players, but also
Speaker 1: valuable role players in depth here, let's go ahead and
Speaker 1: get to the most recent one and yet another piece
Speaker 1: for Vic Fangio to incorporate into this defense. Is there
Speaker 1: any question about where Miami thought they had to get
Speaker 1: better this year on the defense side of the football.
Speaker 1: Malik Reid is here. Undrafted out of Nevada in twenty nineteen,
Speaker 1: he earned the admiration of Fangio's Broncos staff by making
Speaker 1: the club out of camp and then going on to
Speaker 1: have a really good three year run with the Denver
Speaker 1: Broncos that includes an eight sack campaign in twenty twenty.
Speaker 1: In fact, he told fifteen sacks over his three years there.
Speaker 1: That's great production for a sub package rusher man. And
Speaker 1: he was traded last offseason to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Now
Speaker 1: Fangio was let go by the Broncos, right, and then
Speaker 1: Reid got traded on August thirtieth, that's thirteen days before
Speaker 1: they went to they play in the Opena. I forget.
Speaker 1: Steelers played oh the Bengals, and they destroyed the Bengals
Speaker 1: in that game, But he had to go learn a
Speaker 1: completely new defense with just twelve days in a prep time.
Speaker 1: He played fourteen games and started two for the Steelers.
Speaker 1: One sack, twenty five tackles, two passes defense, four QB hits.
Speaker 1: Just wasn't the year you've come to expect from his production.
Speaker 1: He's played almost exclusively off the edge. Not a guy
Speaker 1: who's gonna kick inside. He's two hundred and thirty five
Speaker 1: pounds you're not gonna get, you know, two hundred and
Speaker 1: sixty five pound Jaland Phillips or two hundred and seventy
Speaker 1: pound Manual Augbas sliding inside. But he is flexible in
Speaker 1: the sense that he can rush either edge effectively, and
Speaker 1: that might not seem like a big deal, but it is.
Speaker 1: That's the hallmark of a great first guy off the bench,
Speaker 1: Like hey, Chub needs a blow Jalen got nicked up
Speaker 1: for a few snaps, we need to write outside linebacker
Speaker 1: for a few snaps. We need to left outside linebacker
Speaker 1: for the rest of the game until he gets back in.
Speaker 1: It's nice when that player can be the same guy.
Speaker 1: And there was too much of a drop off last
Speaker 1: year when fifteen and two were not in the game.
Speaker 1: I think that Malik Reid gives you some more of that.
Speaker 1: That's sort of what his role was as a rookie
Speaker 1: in Denver playing with Bradley Chubb, and then last year
Speaker 1: in Pittsburgh. But he was a full time guy in
Speaker 1: year two and year three in Denver. Seven hundred and
Speaker 1: eighty five snaps seven hundred and thirty seven snaps in
Speaker 1: those two years, respectively. Let's go ahead and look at
Speaker 1: the numbers pass rushing. He's got almost thirteen hundred pass
Speaker 1: rush snaps in his career and ninety three pressures, sixteen sacks,
Speaker 1: and thirty four quarterback hits. I love his first step,
Speaker 1: his explosives off the edge. We'll talk about that more
Speaker 1: in just a second. Run defense nine hundred and twenty
Speaker 1: eight snaps, sixty seven run stops, and sixteen tackles for
Speaker 1: loss and That's where my ears really perk up, because
Speaker 1: again we know, but the sub package rushing consistent rely
Speaker 1: production that allows you to not suffer that drop off
Speaker 1: when you go away from Phillips and chub or By
Speaker 1: when he's healthy as well. And you see it in
Speaker 1: his tape too, like you think that two hundred and
Speaker 1: thirty five pounds, his game has to be more finesse, right,
Speaker 1: But manus tape is full of playing with rush lane integrity,
Speaker 1: playing the run on the way to the quarterback. And
Speaker 1: that doesn't just help him make plays, it's doing his
Speaker 1: job to help secure production from his teammates and they're
Speaker 1: executing of their job. Maintaining gap integrity and the way
Speaker 1: you run to the football are the two best ways
Speaker 1: you can measure the love you have for your teammates.
Speaker 1: And Read offers both of those in spades. He'll fit
Speaker 1: right in in that department. As far as coverage, just
Speaker 1: one hundred and seventy one snaps there, one hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty yards on those snaps, one touchdown, allowed, no interceptions.
Speaker 1: But he does have six passes defense in his career
Speaker 1: for the Steelers. I'm not sure there's a defense that
Speaker 1: asks more of their linebackers and coverage, and that's what
Speaker 1: you really see where you really see Malik Reid's athletic
Speaker 1: ability come into play. To demonstrate that he was in
Speaker 1: coverage on nine percent of his snaps with Pittsburgh compared
Speaker 1: to just five point five with the Broncos. So we'll
Speaker 1: see what it is here, but probably somewhere closer to
Speaker 1: the Broncos number. But how about this played the AFC
Speaker 1: East last year against all four teams, three pressures against
Speaker 1: the Patriots and a season best four pressures against the Jets.
Speaker 1: We'd love to hear that. I think from watching his
Speaker 1: tape that there are two traits where he consistently wins,
Speaker 1: and they are translatable across any type of scheme. Number one,
Speaker 1: I mentioned it earlier, that super quick first step and
Speaker 1: then the ability to threaten the edge with speed, a
Speaker 1: little ghost move up and undermove or under an upmove
Speaker 1: to get the outside shoulder of that tackle opened up.
Speaker 1: It stressed out the offensive line in a way that
Speaker 1: opens up that B gap right. It creates space for
Speaker 1: a Zach Seeler or a Christian Wilkins, or you know,
Speaker 1: a David longblitzing inside. But sometimes when guys do this,
Speaker 1: they can fly by and wind up behind the quarterback,
Speaker 1: which is the worst place on the field. You can't
Speaker 1: do anything from back there. It makes the game eleven
Speaker 1: on ten. But I swear this past year this idea
Speaker 1: became so common with eyes the quarterback to change your
Speaker 1: rush path to mirror his. And this is where I
Speaker 1: really think Malik Reid is very, very good. Whether he
Speaker 1: has to sneak back in side or just keep playing
Speaker 1: through and run around the arc, he gets some good
Speaker 1: rush production and ball production when he does get around
Speaker 1: the edge because that quarterback flees and he can kind
Speaker 1: of turn the corner and get to the arm, the
Speaker 1: right arm and get the football on the ground. And
Speaker 1: that speed with his eye discipline is a really, really
Speaker 1: really good pairing. So all in all, I just think
Speaker 1: that this free agent class continues to really round out
Speaker 1: some specific needs roles margins on the team. We talked
Speaker 1: about how close this team was from taking that nine
Speaker 1: and eight record and improving it with just one or
Speaker 1: two plays and several of the games we had last year.
Speaker 1: Better health can certainly get Miami in better position to
Speaker 1: capitalize on those opportunities and on those plays, But so
Speaker 1: does the addition of players like Malik Reid, Brax and Barrios,
Speaker 1: Eric Sauber and these signings that don't dominate the scroll
Speaker 1: on ESPN or whatever, but are so critical for teams
Speaker 1: who want to make a run each year. All right,
Speaker 1: our next show, I think will be Thursday, maybe tomorrow afternoon,
Speaker 1: I'm not really sure yet. We'll do a mailbag and
Speaker 1: hear from all the guys in their introduction mediavailabilities we have,
Speaker 1: like all of them coming on the pipe. We'll come
Speaker 1: back the following week and do a recap slash reset
Speaker 1: of the roster where it is with free agency slowing
Speaker 1: down here a little bit in the second and third wave,
Speaker 1: but it never stops. We'll also start getting into more
Speaker 1: draft content as the calendar turns to the month of April.
Speaker 1: Plenty to do it here with Ota starting up in
Speaker 1: the draft kicking off next month. But until then, that's
Speaker 1: going to be my time. You all, please be sure
Speaker 1: to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts. Leave us
Speaker 1: a rating, leave us a review. You can follow me
Speaker 1: on Twitter at linkol the NFL, follow the team at
Speaker 1: Miami Dolphins. Check out the fish Tank podcast with Seth
Speaker 1: and Juice, The Rashad Jones episode is great. Check that out.
Speaker 1: Zach Thomas next week check that out as well. The
Speaker 1: YouTube channel for the media availabilities Dolphins Today, Fish Tank
Speaker 1: and Dravet Time content, all that fun stuff and last
Speaker 1: button at least, all the five thanks pieces in each
Speaker 1: of these free agents up on Miami Dolphins dot com.
Speaker 1: Until next time fends up Caroline Camera and Daddy's Coming
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