Speaker 1: You are listening to the Miami Dolphins Podcast Network.
Speaker 2: This is Drivetime with Travis Wingfield. Back to throw to
Speaker 2: a looking clips about you, wide open touchdown, trick call, uncrelievable,
Speaker 2: just blue by for a second time. Don knew where
Speaker 2: he was going right away.
Speaker 1: I want to hit that man.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna help you.
Speaker 1: Someone will keep on your man.
Speaker 2: Away Wattle watle to a shotgun back to throw looking
Speaker 2: at Them's up myers touchdown. It's Waddle his six touchdown
Speaker 2: pass the King. Drive Time with Travis Wingfield begins.
Speaker 1: Now, let me check your pulse if you're not for.
Speaker 2: What is up? Dolphins? And welcome to the Draft Time podcast,
Speaker 2: part of the Miami Dolphins podcast Network, covering your team,
Speaker 2: your Miami Dolphins. How's it going? Everybody? I am your host,
Speaker 2: Travis Wingfield And on today show, Draft Night two is
Speaker 2: in the books. We have two episodes coming your way.
Speaker 2: This first one here Vic Fangio gets another defensive back
Speaker 2: with rare ball skills and explosiveness. We'll break down the player,
Speaker 2: the fit, the background, and much more, including the presser introduction.
Speaker 2: Press conference with new Miami Dolphins cornerback Cam Smith from
Speaker 2: the Baptist Health studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.
Speaker 2: This is the Draft Time podcast.
Speaker 1: Ye Gaff With the fifty first pick in the twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three NFL Draft, my Miami Dolphins select Cam Smith,
Speaker 1: defensive back South Carolina.
Speaker 2: Fans up and there you hear the draft selection from
Speaker 2: our very own to Ron Armstead making the Dolphins first
Speaker 2: pick of the twenty twenty three NFL Draft in the
Speaker 2: second round, pick number fifty one overall, and it is
Speaker 2: Cam Smith out of South Carolina. And just like that,
Speaker 2: the Dolphins strengthened the defensive backfield once more. We know
Speaker 2: about the speed this defense, or I should say this
Speaker 2: team features on offense, Well, the defense just got a
Speaker 2: little bit more speed as well. Let's take a look
Speaker 2: at the profile on this player. Cam Smith measured at
Speaker 2: six zhoh six, which is about six feet and a
Speaker 2: half in Indianapolis. He was actually a little bit taller
Speaker 2: his pro day, so I don't understand how that works,
Speaker 2: but okay. He was also one hundred and eighty pounds
Speaker 2: of the combine one eighty three at his pro day.
Speaker 2: Tacked on some weight for that secondary workout, but the
Speaker 2: workout metrics are off the charts. He didn't do the
Speaker 2: shuttle or three cone, but he showed you the movement
Speaker 2: skill that he showed on tape in the events that
Speaker 2: he did participate in. How about a four to four
Speaker 2: to three forty yard desh. How about a thirty eight
Speaker 2: inch vertical jump and in eleven foot two on the
Speaker 2: broad jump eleven to two. That's the link of a buick.
Speaker 2: Those numbers earned him a nine to six to eight
Speaker 2: relative athletics score. That is seventy seventh among two thousand,
Speaker 2: two hundred and twenty two corners going back to when
Speaker 2: this began being tracked, my birth year in nineteen eighty seven.
Speaker 2: Seventy seven out of two to two to two. Pretty good.
Speaker 2: He grew up in Blythwood, South Carolina, born in December
Speaker 2: of two thousand. These two thousand guys getting drafted makes
Speaker 2: me feel old man, which means he's a little bit
Speaker 2: less than twenty two and a half years old. He
Speaker 2: was the US Army All American in high school Leonard
Speaker 2: to track, posting eleven six eight in the one hundred meters,
Speaker 2: twenty feet ten inches in the long jump, and a
Speaker 2: forty two to six in the triple jump. Surprise, surprise,
Speaker 2: another track athlete down here in Miami, then college. He
Speaker 2: red shirted his first season on campus there at South Carolina,
Speaker 2: and then showed up in twenty twenty ready to ball out,
Speaker 2: which to me speaks a lot about his maturity and
Speaker 2: just readiness and the ability to go because that was
Speaker 2: the pandemic year his first year in college football, and
Speaker 2: he tied with J. C. Horn for the lead in
Speaker 2: team picks with two. The next year, he had three
Speaker 2: interceptions and broke up fourteen passes seventeen plays in the
Speaker 2: football in one college football season. He finished his South
Speaker 2: Carolina career with six picks and twenty two passes defensed.
Speaker 2: He blocked a field goal last year as well, though
Speaker 2: he didn't play a ton on special teams as a collegiate.
Speaker 2: PFF's Mike Renner, their lead draft analyst, does attribute rankings
Speaker 2: and he has camp Smith with nine out of ten
Speaker 2: on the awareness skill, and that's what stands out to
Speaker 2: me in his game. Pro Football Focus also tabbed him
Speaker 2: with a plus grade and zone coverage, which we know
Speaker 2: has traditionally been zone based down here with Vic Fangio's defense,
Speaker 2: but he excelled in both zone and man coverages, so
Speaker 2: that does allow coach Fangio to roll through his various
Speaker 2: coverages and looks. Let's go back real quick to the
Speaker 2: data before we jump into the tape. The broad jump
Speaker 2: was in the ninety fifth percentile. That ten split that
Speaker 2: he ran was in the ninety second percent tile. That's
Speaker 2: where I think you see his game in the smooth transitions,
Speaker 2: the long speed, the click and close, just impressive, impressive
Speaker 2: reaction skills in the way he moves. PFF had him
Speaker 2: with two hundred and eighty four snaps in zone last
Speaker 2: year compared to two hundred and thirty six snaps in
Speaker 2: man coverage, so really well versed in both areas there.
Speaker 2: One hundred and seventy two of those whole snaps were
Speaker 2: in press coverage, but you saw a lot more off coverage.
Speaker 2: More on that here in just a moment. He also
Speaker 2: played one ninety six in the slot compared to three
Speaker 2: point fifty seven out wide, so that's what two and
Speaker 2: a half to one ratio there, give or take. Also
Speaker 2: played ten snaps in the center field, twenty in the box,
Speaker 2: and seven down on the line of scrimmage. Think blitzing,
Speaker 2: and this is a guy that you know, like the
Speaker 2: small dog with a big bark I'm not saying he's
Speaker 2: small for NFL standards. He is at one hundred and
Speaker 2: eighty pounds, but he has a lot of bark man
Speaker 2: he plays that way. More on that in a moment
Speaker 2: as well. You look back at last season with the
Speaker 2: injuries that piled up at the cornerback position, and I
Speaker 2: don't understand Twitter anymore. I think I've am I out
Speaker 2: of touch. I don't know, but I just don't get
Speaker 2: complaining about everything your team does. But it certainly seemed
Speaker 2: like the Dolphins went into this offseason damned to let
Speaker 2: what happened last year at the cornerback position and on defense,
Speaker 2: and the twenty eighth ranked passing defense happened again, allow
Speaker 2: me to rephrase that whole thing. They are equipped to
Speaker 2: endorse some level of attrition with the addition of Cameron Smith.
Speaker 2: In Smith, I just had to go for three rams there.
Speaker 2: But last year the Dolphins ranked sixth and total offense
Speaker 2: and eighteenth in defense. But that's because the run of
Speaker 2: defense is really good, right and we know about the front.
Speaker 2: But they finished twenty seventh in passing defense. You know,
Speaker 2: they've got Chubb a full off season here back healthy
Speaker 2: again from the injury Emmanuel ogbab back Jalen Phillips is
Speaker 2: in my opinion, set to just set the league on
Speaker 2: fire this year. Malik Reid joins Andrew Van Ginkle's back,
Speaker 2: Wilkins steeler Davis Inside, along with David Long coming over
Speaker 2: to bolt of the linebacker position. So now you go
Speaker 2: out and you get Jalen Ramsey, you go out and
Speaker 2: you get Cam Smith, you add to Sean Elliott, you
Speaker 2: bring back Nick need him in the secondary. Maybe you
Speaker 2: thought and maybe he might not be back this year.
Speaker 1: He is.
Speaker 2: He's good depth, he's a good player when he gets
Speaker 2: out there. Remember how many games we had last year
Speaker 2: where you had to go to your seventh or your
Speaker 2: eighth cornerback of the season, and those guys battled like
Speaker 2: credit to Justin Bethel, for instance. I thought he played
Speaker 2: really well in his limited snaps at cornerback and it's
Speaker 2: a testament to how he stayed ready and frankly, I
Speaker 2: think it helped earned him a contract this year with
Speaker 2: the Miami Dolphins in the offseason, and add your special
Speaker 2: team's depth and you know he can play in a
Speaker 2: pinch if you have to. But he's also a guy
Speaker 2: that when you brought him in had less than one
Speaker 2: hundred career snaps on defense. He's surpassed that last year alone,
Speaker 2: and his whole career always been a special teams guy, right,
Speaker 2: But now you've got Ramsey X and those guys are
Speaker 2: not you know, they're not super young players anymore. So
Speaker 2: it's not like and this goes back to the idea
Speaker 2: of like drafting for right now and in the future.
Speaker 2: You can do both. I think Smith will play a
Speaker 2: lot this year, but you do also have to prepare
Speaker 2: for the future, right a little bit. X, Ramsey Cater Smith,
Speaker 2: Needham Trill looks pretty good, man, You get it. You've
Speaker 2: got a ton of guys that can play in a
Speaker 2: division that has Josh Allen and now Aaron Rodgers. In
Speaker 2: a division that has Stefan Diggs and Gabe Davis and
Speaker 2: Dawson Knox and Dalton King Kid in a division that
Speaker 2: has Garrett Wilson, Allen Lazard and Corey Davis. In a
Speaker 2: conference that has Patrick Mahomes and Joe Burrow and Lamar
Speaker 2: Jackson and Justin Herbert and j Stroud and Anthony richardson
Speaker 2: on and on and on and on. You gotta have
Speaker 2: some depth of cornerback man you cannot have three injuries
Speaker 2: basically turn you into a defense that time and time
Speaker 2: again last year with the game on the line, allowed
Speaker 2: lengthy drives to put the game away. You can get
Speaker 2: the football back in those instances. You can put the
Speaker 2: ball back into a tongue of Iloa's hands. You can
Speaker 2: put the ball back in the hands of Tyreek Kill
Speaker 2: and Jalen Waddle rather than watching Justin Herbert go twelve
Speaker 2: plays ninety one yards, rather than watching Josh Allen go
Speaker 2: fifteen plays ninety yards. Whatever the hell that one was.
Speaker 2: It happened time and time again last year. Did we
Speaker 2: forget all that? I'm done ranting. Let's go ahead and
Speaker 2: talk about the fit and Vic Fangio's defense. We'll do
Speaker 2: that next year. On the Draft Time Podcast, your host
Speaker 2: Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. Back here
Speaker 2: on the first edition of the Drift Time Podcast from
Speaker 2: night number two, Keep it tuned right here. We're gonna
Speaker 2: have another podcast for you guys, covering the eighty fourth
Speaker 2: pick in the twenty twenty three NFL Draft, as well
Speaker 2: as his press conference and the end of night Chris
Speaker 2: Career and Mike McDaniel press conference. But first fired up
Speaker 2: some South Carolina game tape and I went back to
Speaker 2: the twenty twenty one season because I wanted to see
Speaker 2: the ball production where Cam Smith piled up nearly seventeen
Speaker 2: plays in the football. Well, it was seventeen. Why did
Speaker 2: I put nearly in there? It reminded me a lot
Speaker 2: of the player that I loved coming out back in
Speaker 2: twenty eighteen, and it was a different position. But the
Speaker 2: tape just screams crossover. Jesse Bates from Wake Forest got
Speaker 2: drafted by the Bengals and now plays for the Atlanta Falcons.
Speaker 2: You see him playing a lot of off coverage and reacting,
Speaker 2: showing off those instincts, showing off that quick trigger. I
Speaker 2: just love the way South Carolina deployed him on that
Speaker 2: tape last year, last couple of years, he played with
Speaker 2: eyes in the quarterback. Sounds familiar, right. We heard Xavier
Speaker 2: and Howard talk about that in his last press conference
Speaker 2: about how that can help him with his skill set.
Speaker 2: Jalen Ramsey as well, and the way he fires out
Speaker 2: of that stance and backpedal and goes from zero to
Speaker 2: sixty flowing downhill faster than Daniel Riccardo did five years ago,
Speaker 2: and it's not just eyes in the quarterback, its eyes
Speaker 2: on the route concept in front of him. There's a
Speaker 2: rep I'm sure you saw on the NFL network brought
Speaker 2: cast where he flies up and cuts down a little
Speaker 2: flare route into the flat and there you see him
Speaker 2: diagnose a crackback from the other receiver not catching the football,
Speaker 2: and that suggests a quick hitter, right. Otherwise it's past
Speaker 2: interference because you can't block on a throw downfield. That
Speaker 2: has to behind the line of scrimmage. So to be
Speaker 2: able to process all of that in real time, that
Speaker 2: quick and it pairs with track speed and quickness. That's
Speaker 2: intriguing as hell.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 2: That's the same thing as getting a player like a
Speaker 2: Raheem Moster and the way he fits in this offense,
Speaker 2: like draft for the way you want to play the game,
Speaker 2: Draft for the way you can match up multiple teams
Speaker 2: and multiple opponents. The skill set as it is, I
Speaker 2: like it, but when you consider the fit in the defense, gosh,
Speaker 2: it makes a ton of sense. Assuming there's some more
Speaker 2: carryover from what coach Fangio has called in the past,
Speaker 2: it just makes a ton of sense. I think there's
Speaker 2: tons of potential for a matchup piece here, and I
Speaker 2: look at Jalen Ramsey the same way, Like remember when
Speaker 2: we had Jordan rod Reeg from the Athletic on and
Speaker 2: she talks about dictating the terms on defense under what
Speaker 2: Brandon Staley ran with the Rams from that Vic Fangio
Speaker 2: tree and forcing teams to go after Ramsey with the
Speaker 2: way they used him, there's some of that in Smith's game.
Speaker 2: And the way the game Cocks used him was similar,
Speaker 2: and it was similar to the way they used j. C.
Speaker 2: Horn before he graduated and was the eighth pick by
Speaker 2: the Panthers in the NFL draft a couple of years back.
Speaker 2: Move him around, force the issue. Hey, if you want
Speaker 2: to target player X, you're gonna have to go through
Speaker 2: our player Y. Similar concept there, And man, I look
Speaker 2: at this and think about how X is such a
Speaker 2: good fit to play the boundary stick X in the
Speaker 2: short side of the field. Let him come up and
Speaker 2: press and really disrupt guys on those quick hitters and
Speaker 2: the bigger body receivers. And then the versatility of Jalen
Speaker 2: who can play anywhere the hell you want to cover
Speaker 2: a tight end, cover a Travis Kelsey, go cover you know,
Speaker 2: a Stefan Diggs pair with the upside of cam Smith
Speaker 2: and what he offers there on top of Cater and
Speaker 2: Needham's flexibility. Man, you can go into any game with
Speaker 2: any style of offensive attack, any you know, trio of
Speaker 2: receivers or the tight end combination with how their skilled
Speaker 2: players play, and you can tailor your game plan for
Speaker 2: that specific opponent. You know what I think I like
Speaker 2: most about his tape and how they were able to
Speaker 2: play him and the way they did it sc This
Speaker 2: is a confident dude. He plays with a certain swagger,
Speaker 2: almost a cockiness, like a brashness to his game in
Speaker 2: the sense that he's ready to match up with the
Speaker 2: best in the SEC and they'll let you know about
Speaker 2: it when he makes a play. He's in guy's ear
Speaker 2: all day long. It's you have to have that confidence,
Speaker 2: you have to have that short memory. We've seen players
Speaker 2: here lose that confidence in their career, kind of you know,
Speaker 2: take a turn for the worst. That's not gonna happen
Speaker 2: to this guy. There's so much room for growth in
Speaker 2: his game as well. I thought he was actually I
Speaker 2: don't want to say raw, but there's just a lot
Speaker 2: more technique that can be taught there. Even though he
Speaker 2: started all three years. I think the best is yet
Speaker 2: to come because I think the hands and feet are
Speaker 2: not always synced together, not always hardwired together. And that's
Speaker 2: the job of Sam Madison and coach Vic Fanjo to
Speaker 2: get that coached up. And I mean, how can you
Speaker 2: not think they would do that. My favorite trait I
Speaker 2: think in any player's game is the way they trust
Speaker 2: their eyes. That's why I love to his game so much. Right,
Speaker 2: and this guy sees it and he goes no hesitation,
Speaker 2: no surrender, no prisoner's thunder gun. We heard Daniel Jeremiah
Speaker 2: talking about Devon Witherspoon seeing it and going similar plays
Speaker 2: to here with Smith. He comes equipped with really good
Speaker 2: length and you see that in a lot of the
Speaker 2: matchups were bigger bodied receivers I don't know, like Alan Lazard,
Speaker 2: like Gabe Davis, like Dalton king Kid, like Devonte Parker,
Speaker 2: like Mike Gasicki, all those guys from the AFC East.
Speaker 2: By the way, he can stay in phase and then
Speaker 2: go up and poke the football away with those fifty
Speaker 2: to fifty shots, with that six to one height and
Speaker 2: thirty two and three eighth inch arms, good for a
Speaker 2: seventy six and a half inch wingspan. I love what
Speaker 2: this guy's about. Man, really good player. I talked about
Speaker 2: some of the hand and feet stuff and getting that
Speaker 2: sync together. That's more for press. I think just play
Speaker 2: them off coverage and let him see things flow and
Speaker 2: trigger downhill. He was flagged ten times last year. But
Speaker 2: it reminds me of something Oj McDuffie said in our
Speaker 2: pre draft radio show that happened on Friday about Joey
Speaker 2: Porter and how those physical corners are better suited for
Speaker 2: the pro game because college can get flag happy with
Speaker 2: illegal contact calls. That's part of the seasoning and coaching
Speaker 2: up process. I think it comes along here with a
Speaker 2: twenty two year old prospect, and to me, if he
Speaker 2: was drafted here, that means again Fangio and Madison like
Speaker 2: the skill set. Who better to coach him up than
Speaker 2: those two guys. Welcome to Miami Camp. Great name by
Speaker 2: the way to uh boys of that name, They should
Speaker 2: do well in life. Next, let's go ahead and hear
Speaker 2: from new Dolphins cornerback Camp Smith on the Draft Time podcast,
Speaker 2: your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation.
Speaker 2: We're on the clock here, listen. I said, uh a lot.
Speaker 2: We're excited you're here, so I said, we're gonna make
Speaker 2: your Miami Dolphins all right. Cam? Hey, man, it's Michael Daniel.
Speaker 2: You wear your Guccy slides right now.
Speaker 1: Hey, congratulations, man, this is a big day for all
Speaker 1: of us, so it's time to get start.
Speaker 2: There. You hear the phone call between Mike McDaniel, Chris Career,
Speaker 2: and new Dolphins cornerback Cam Smith. Next, why don't we
Speaker 2: go ahead and hear from the young man and his
Speaker 2: media availability on Friday night with the South for the media.
Speaker 2: And we start here with Cam and what he knows
Speaker 2: about playing with coach Fangio. How fired up are you? Cam?
Speaker 2: Very will due?
Speaker 1: That's gonna He's gonna get on you by every looking cranny,
Speaker 1: about every everything, even just like one of my foot
Speaker 1: my steps on one of my plays was he keate
Speaker 1: it out and I really didn't even notice it until
Speaker 1: he said anything about it. So just kind of how
Speaker 1: he pays attention to detail with a lot of things.
Speaker 1: I kind of love a coach that pays attention to detail,
Speaker 1: make sure that everything is smoothing.
Speaker 2: Cris behind it out and we talked about the speed
Speaker 2: of this player and the competition and the cockiness and
Speaker 2: the brashness. Cockiness is the wrong word. The confidence. A
Speaker 2: lot of guys in the offense pretty confident in their
Speaker 2: resumes they put together here in Miami. How do you
Speaker 2: feel about going up against Tyreek and jail In every
Speaker 2: single day in practice?
Speaker 1: I feel like I think about getting better every day.
Speaker 1: I'm going against to it the most fear of dudes
Speaker 1: in the league every day in practice. I ain't got
Speaker 1: no words when I get on the field. That's how
Speaker 1: I feel.
Speaker 2: I always want to talk to these guys about their
Speaker 2: family life and their background, their upbringing. Here. Cam Smith
Speaker 2: talked about the role of his family playing in his
Speaker 2: life and getting here to this moment the best day
Speaker 2: of his life obviously.
Speaker 1: Really just kind of having that close knit family mom, dad, brother, sister, uncles, aunts,
Speaker 1: like everybody being there, close knit. We always coming for
Speaker 1: Sunday dinner and stuff like that. It was always big.
Speaker 1: So just having them there the whole time and then
Speaker 1: coming to see everybody like in a whole everybody come
Speaker 1: together and like even though if they didn't know me,
Speaker 1: it didn't know this person, but they starting to meet
Speaker 1: the whole support system. So just having the whole support
Speaker 1: system there was way bigger than anything for me, just
Speaker 1: seeing everybody, everybody crying and everybody doing I wasn't even
Speaker 1: crying that much, but I had people crying harder than me,
Speaker 1: So like it just shows how much they cared for
Speaker 1: me throughout this process. And how is it being a dad?
Speaker 2: Are you enjoying being a dad?
Speaker 1: Definitely? There's a couple couple of hiccups here and there always,
Speaker 1: but it is smooth.
Speaker 2: Let's go ahead and finish up here with new Dolphins
Speaker 2: corner the second round draft pick number fifty one overall,
Speaker 2: our first pick in twenty twenty three. He was asked
Speaker 2: about calling himself a perfectionist about technique and working on
Speaker 2: things and being comfortable in his back pedal. Here he
Speaker 2: is talking about how he prepares some of the fastest
Speaker 2: wide receivers in the NFL and the confidence he has
Speaker 2: in his own game.
Speaker 1: A lot of the fast dudes get a lot of
Speaker 1: people that kind of open up and run a lot,
Speaker 1: so they'll already be opened up running, tilt it up,
Speaker 1: shoulders and stuff like that. So kind of just being
Speaker 1: comfortable with my pedal, knowing my speed on what I
Speaker 1: could do, going to have me just more comfortable in
Speaker 1: those situations, somebody pressing me hard up the field, trying
Speaker 1: to run to come back a fifteen yard comeback or
Speaker 1: twenty yard comeback, right, somebody doing that. Me being able
Speaker 1: to stay my pedal and transition, keep my same transition
Speaker 1: instead of just kind of opening the gate and letting
Speaker 1: them run and being scared. So just having having that
Speaker 1: kind of confidence in my back pedal is going to
Speaker 1: help me.
Speaker 2: So there you go, a shorty butt of goodie.
Speaker 1: Here.
Speaker 2: We're going to come right back with another podcast for
Speaker 2: you guys here on the Draft Time Podcast, part of
Speaker 2: Mamy Dolphins Podcast Network, breaking down pick number eighty four.
Speaker 2: We're also going to hear from Mike McDaniel Chris Career.
Speaker 2: Stay tuned for that on Friday night Saturday morning, whenever
Speaker 2: the heck you get this. All of that coming ahead
Speaker 2: in the meantime is going to be my time. You all,
Speaker 2: please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcast,
Speaker 2: leave us a rating and leave us a review. You
Speaker 2: can follow me on Twitter at Wingfold NFL. Follow the
Speaker 2: team at Miami Dolphins. Check out the fish Tank podcast
Speaker 2: with Seth and Juice, the team YouTube channel for all
Speaker 2: the media availabilities and Dolphins Today, and much much more,
Speaker 2: and last but not least, Miami Dolphins dot Com until
Speaker 2: next time. Fins up, Caroline Cameron Daddy, he's got one
Speaker 2: more podcasts to do before he's coming home.