Speaker 1: You're listening to the Miami Dolphins podcast Network.
Speaker 2: This is Drive Time with Travis Wingfield. Back to throw
Speaker 2: to a looking Clip's about.
Speaker 3: A wide Dolphin touchdown?
Speaker 2: Tyrick call unclievable. Just blue fire for a second time.
Speaker 2: Don't know where he was going right away. I want to
Speaker 2: hit that man.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna help you.
Speaker 2: Someone will stup on his man.
Speaker 4: Away Wattle, Wattle to a shotgun, back to throw looking
Speaker 4: at them.
Speaker 2: Up Myers touchdown. It's Waddle his sixth touchdown.
Speaker 4: Patdowns the team.
Speaker 1: Drive Time with Travis Wingfield begins. Now check your pulse
Speaker 1: if you're not for.
Speaker 2: What is up? Dolphins?
Speaker 4: And welcome to the Drive Time podcast, part of the
Speaker 4: Miami Dolphins podcast Network, covering your team, your Miami Dolphins.
Speaker 4: How's it going everybody? I am your host, Travis Wingfield.
Speaker 4: And on today's show, we're gonna wrap up the twenty
Speaker 4: twenty three NFL Draft and welcome in two new members
Speaker 4: to the club, Stanford tight end Elijah Higgins and Michigan
Speaker 4: tackle Ryan Hayes. We'll break down their games, their combine metrics,
Speaker 4: all that fun stuff and the statistics hear from each player,
Speaker 4: and wrap up the night with Mike McDaniel and Chris
Speaker 4: Greer's end up Draft presser from the Baptist Health Studios
Speaker 4: inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.
Speaker 2: This is the Drive Time Podcast. Maggie Gaffish Fish.
Speaker 1: I mean, one hundred of the ninety seventh pick in
Speaker 1: the two posident twenty three NFL Draft, the Miami Dolphins
Speaker 1: select Elijah.
Speaker 2: Higgins, tight end Stanford Go Dolphins.
Speaker 3: Fin's up.
Speaker 1: Football is life, and what the Dolphins hope is that
Speaker 1: he's here.
Speaker 2: He's there, He's every freaking where. Elijah Higgins. Elijah Higgins.
Speaker 1: That's great, that's great. You know Elijah Higgins, somebody he
Speaker 1: played wide receiver as stan Ford guys. A lot of
Speaker 1: people think he'll actually play tight end in the NFL
Speaker 1: at six foot three two and thirty nine pounds.
Speaker 4: With the Stanford prote ran of four or five to
Speaker 4: four kind of that target like in heavan Ingram almost
Speaker 4: he's gonna play in the slot.
Speaker 2: He's gonna be your seamless stretcher.
Speaker 5: Your cover too.
Speaker 4: Muster and there you hear the selection of Elijah Higgins,
Speaker 4: a wide receiver at Stanford. Higgins is being listed as
Speaker 4: a tight end with your Miami Dolphins reports pre draft
Speaker 4: said there was heavy interest from four teams per Higgins himself,
Speaker 4: the forty nine Ers, the Vikings, the Titans, and your
Speaker 4: Miami Dolphins. And doesn't that list just make perfect sense?
Speaker 4: It turned out the Niners were the ones that were
Speaker 4: really the forefront. If you go to if you just
Speaker 4: do a Google search and type in his name, you'll
Speaker 4: see a report there from I think the SI Niner
Speaker 4: site about the visits and about how involved he was.
Speaker 2: I think a local visit.
Speaker 4: There with the Niners coming from obviously Stanford, the Vikings
Speaker 4: another branch off that same tree with a Niner scheme.
Speaker 4: Kevin O'Connell there in Minnesota, obviously Kyle Shanahan, no real
Speaker 4: affiliation there with the Titans, but you get the idea,
Speaker 4: like teams that run a similar offense to the Miami
Speaker 4: Dolphins liked this guy, and he told us in his
Speaker 4: post selection press conference, say that five times fast that
Speaker 4: pretty much every team he talked to talked about a
Speaker 4: bit of a transition to a more of a tight
Speaker 4: end role and a varied role is a multi fastest
Speaker 4: weapon at this next level. And admittedly I was not
Speaker 4: familiar with Higgins prior to the pick, so I went
Speaker 4: to Lance Zerline from NFL dot Com and he had
Speaker 4: this to say. Draft grace for Higgins could depend or
Speaker 4: could vary depending on how teams envision him in their offense.
Speaker 4: He appears to have the necessary tools to become a
Speaker 4: dynamic f tight end that's a move piece, a guy
Speaker 4: that's a little bit more in the Mica Sicki mold
Speaker 4: than your Durham smyth. With the ability to work all
Speaker 4: three levels of the field. Higgins has a more robust
Speaker 4: route tree than most tight ends. Also, he has the
Speaker 4: frame and technique to be an adequate run blocker in space.
Speaker 4: He could blossom for an offense ready to plug him
Speaker 4: in into two tight end sets. And for me now speaking,
Speaker 4: getting a chance to pull up a couple of his
Speaker 4: games here of tape, which was nice to have that access.
Speaker 4: He's a very smooth mover. There's not any wasted movement
Speaker 4: in his transitions and out of breaks. Like you can
Speaker 4: tell this guy is a route runner first and a
Speaker 4: physical specimen second. He's a separator at the top of
Speaker 4: the route. There's no real wasted movement. Did I just
Speaker 4: say that? In the way he sets up his routes
Speaker 4: like he doesn't elongate his strides, he doesn't take extra steps.
Speaker 4: It's all with the purpose at creating separation. And he
Speaker 4: also looks to chew up yardage after the catch. And
Speaker 4: this all kind of pairs together for this nice, complimentary
Speaker 4: piece of an athletic, physical type of option in the
Speaker 4: passing game. And that's where I think that he really
Speaker 4: has a chance to make a name for himself at
Speaker 4: this next level is a high upside pass catching tight end.
Speaker 2: It's tough to.
Speaker 4: Talk about his role as a blocker because he just
Speaker 4: did it from a different position than what you would
Speaker 4: see from a traditional tight end, you know, playing slot
Speaker 4: receiver primarily in college. But there's work there to be
Speaker 4: had to We've talked about that with Chose and Andersen.
Speaker 4: Playing that slot receiver position with a tall guy that
Speaker 4: can run and kind of bust the seam. Obviously he's
Speaker 4: not that fast, but he is, you know, kind of
Speaker 4: in that mold of a tall playmaking guy that plays inside.
Speaker 4: And he was just so good as a pass catcher.
Speaker 4: I mentioned it a few times now, the ability to
Speaker 4: create different types of production in various ways, you know,
Speaker 4: going back to like the offensive line and the way
Speaker 4: Tua gets rid of the football and how that maximizes
Speaker 4: your ability to protect the quarterback and how the sack
Speaker 4: rates you know, each of the last couple of years
Speaker 4: with two in the game versus anybody else, it like doubles,
Speaker 4: and so that's to a superpower, right his processing, his
Speaker 4: quick trigger, get the ball out. And so we praised
Speaker 4: a lot of what Trent Sherfield did last year in
Speaker 4: this offense for blocking on the perimeter. I was a
Speaker 4: huge fan of that, and that might be my favorite
Speaker 4: part about higgins game right there, is that he's a
Speaker 4: very effective perimeter blocker. So when you go twelve personnel,
Speaker 4: you can get some of that from the tight end
Speaker 4: or a eleven personnel for that matter as well, Like
Speaker 4: it doesn't matter the personnel package.
Speaker 2: But you can see.
Speaker 4: Him having a little bit of, you know, a little
Speaker 4: bit of both flavors in terms of how his role
Speaker 4: is here at the Miami Dolphins. And if you pull
Speaker 4: up his Senior Bowl tape, which is excess nowadays, which
Speaker 4: is freaking awesome, you can see him run with the
Speaker 4: tight ends all week and I thought he showed really well,
Speaker 4: that's where you really began to see his ability to
Speaker 4: transition into a role like that the workout numbers for
Speaker 4: a receiver were like good, but for a tight end
Speaker 4: they're off the charts. Four five, four forty. That's like
Speaker 4: Tan er Connor range a one five to three ten split.
Speaker 4: That is explosive man that's firing off the football, and
Speaker 4: the explosiveness is also Evan a thirty five inch vert
Speaker 4: in a ten foot six broad We did a radio
Speaker 4: pregame show on Friday, Juice Seth and myself down in
Speaker 4: Fort Lauderdale, and one of the fan questions was, who
Speaker 4: are some of the candidates for red zone targets left
Speaker 4: behind by Mike Gasicki. Who's the guy who can go
Speaker 4: up and pluck the football? This could be one of
Speaker 4: those guys. He's six foot three, good leaping ability, has
Speaker 4: the big strong frame to really survive contact. And it's
Speaker 4: just so funny because turning on the tape you can
Speaker 4: see that he rolls with the ball in his hands.
Speaker 4: We know how much this offense is predicated on Yak
Speaker 4: or at least you thought it might be. It wasn't
Speaker 4: so much last year, but maybe you can recreate that
Speaker 4: here with guys like him, because Tyreek and Jalan are
Speaker 4: so effective at catching the ball down the field. Maybe
Speaker 4: you give two us some more short options to allow
Speaker 4: him to chew up yardage when he doesn't have you know,
Speaker 4: ten or seventeen down the field. Like we saw in
Speaker 4: that Chargers and Niners game. It took away a good
Speaker 4: chunk of the middle of the field that you know,
Speaker 4: intermediate to deep middle portion of the field that leaves
Speaker 4: vacancies in the short intermediate, or I should say that
Speaker 4: the short middle, where you can then find guys like
Speaker 4: Devin a Chain, you can find guys like Brax and Burials,
Speaker 4: you can find guys like Elijah Higgins.
Speaker 2: It's kind of funny to me because I don't.
Speaker 4: Know how many times I've mentioned this on the podcast
Speaker 4: now about how in this offense and Mike McDaniel is
Speaker 4: the reason I say this because he told us this
Speaker 4: in a press conference. At tight end at offensive line,
Speaker 4: that's firing off the football is so important. And that's
Speaker 4: the first thing, you know, It's the very first play
Speaker 4: I watched against Arizona State, is that he was aligned
Speaker 4: to the to the boundary against off coverage and you
Speaker 4: have you know, ten yards eight yards of cushion and
Speaker 4: he's eating up that space immediately. That's the one, five, three,
Speaker 4: ten yards, but you see there, but also a good
Speaker 4: short area burst where he just eats up press or
Speaker 4: off coverage because you'll notice how well he carries two
Speaker 4: hundred and thirty five pounds. He's quick as hell and
Speaker 4: doesn't seem like he even has football pads on. Like
Speaker 4: watching his tape and then his workout side by side,
Speaker 4: it's pretty similar. But he quickly eats up space, stresses
Speaker 4: the middle of the field vertically from those slot antight alignments,
Speaker 4: and man seven yards average after the catch, he rolls
Speaker 4: with the football in his hands. That's the exact same
Speaker 4: average depth of target he had last year seven point
Speaker 4: one yards. So he's a fifty percent YAK player his
Speaker 4: final year there at Stanford. I think the trait that
Speaker 4: makes him really got the ball in his hands is
Speaker 4: one of the things that shows you how he can
Speaker 4: transition to playing more in line roles or various tight
Speaker 4: end rolls. There's a clip of a slot cornerback trying
Speaker 4: to reroute him in that Arizona State game in twenty
Speaker 4: twenty one, and he just runs right through the jam
Speaker 4: and he's the one that inflicts the you know, the knockback.
Speaker 4: He's the one that gets the corner off balance and
Speaker 4: takes his route right to the flag wide open because
Speaker 4: he ran the dude over basically and goes up and
Speaker 4: plucks it super strong through through contact. Then literally one
Speaker 4: snap later, Arizona or rather Stanford, has put the ball
Speaker 4: into the low red zone one on one to the
Speaker 4: field the wide side of the formation from the six
Speaker 4: yard line. They throw him a fade pass and again
Speaker 4: he engages the contact on the jam and runs right
Speaker 4: through it and puts himself an easy position for a
Speaker 4: touchdown grab. That's a very quarterback friendly trait to possess,
Speaker 4: to know you've got a guy that can control the
Speaker 4: rep from a physicality standpoint, because those guys are so
Speaker 4: difficult to intercept the ball against, so those types of
Speaker 4: plays and that's very important on fifty to fifty balls
Speaker 4: for the trust of your quarterback. He wins down the
Speaker 4: field with that style of route to the physicality, like
Speaker 4: he beats leverage with body positioning and physicality aspect of
Speaker 4: his game, and man, the release package screams wide receiver.
Speaker 4: That's what really intrigues me. He's got very high upsides
Speaker 4: of pass catching tight end trates and he seems to
Speaker 4: have an answer for the various ways team try to
Speaker 4: cover him. And we talked about Eric Saubert's hand size
Speaker 4: and how he just plucks it naturally. This guy's got
Speaker 4: ten and a half inch hands. That's ninety fourth percentile
Speaker 4: for the position. He had one hundred and nineteen catches
Speaker 4: at Stanford for thirteen hundred and eighty yards and six touchdowns.
Speaker 4: Last year. He caught seventy two percent of his targets.
Speaker 4: He played in the slot eighty percent of the time,
Speaker 4: eighteen point five percent out wide, and two percent in line.
Speaker 4: That was on six hundred and sixty one total snapped
Speaker 4: and he also played on special teams too, and that
Speaker 4: type of speed can really help you in that area
Speaker 4: of the game. Between he and Tanner connor Man, you've
Speaker 4: got two really high upside gifted athletes for that f role.
Speaker 4: Maybe it's a number three tight end right away, but
Speaker 4: potentially down the road you develop into a guy that
Speaker 4: can be a dependable pass catcher.
Speaker 2: I think it's a really, really, really good.
Speaker 4: Flyer take in the sixth round and just kind of
Speaker 4: perusing social media and looking at some of the takes
Speaker 4: from the draftnicks out there. Jim Nagy had a tweet
Speaker 4: from last July talking about Elijah Higgins hitting twenty one
Speaker 4: point five miles per hour GPS on a fifty six
Speaker 4: yard touchdown catch he had against UCLA. And when you
Speaker 4: watch it, I talked about the way he runs through
Speaker 4: reroutes and physicality in this off coverage it's a little
Speaker 4: stutter and ghost step, and you see the route running
Speaker 4: ability in the really no way movement on that touchdown catch.
Speaker 4: I retweeted it. Go check it out. Really impressive play
Speaker 4: right there. You've also got this from lan zer Line
Speaker 4: once again. Higgins is an awesome value pick. Is a
Speaker 4: big slot slash f tight end whom Mike McDaniel can
Speaker 4: have some fun with. Saw this tweet from Chris Kaufman
Speaker 4: and Mike McDaniel's two drafts with the Miami Dolphins. I've
Speaker 4: taken two pass catchers Aszukama and Higgins. Those two combined
Speaker 4: for twenty eight broken tackles in seven hundred and seventy
Speaker 4: seven yards after the catch on one hundred and six
Speaker 4: catches and their final season combined. So there's more of
Speaker 4: your YAK stuff right there. Speed the tight end position,
Speaker 4: speed all over the field. Pretty cool that his father
Speaker 4: played football at USF and so he was born in
Speaker 4: the state of Florida, but he did move after he
Speaker 4: was born as his father was in the Air Force.
Speaker 4: He did tell us in the press conference his whole
Speaker 4: family is from Tampa now, so he is excited about
Speaker 4: coming back to his home state and being close to them.
Speaker 4: Let's go ahead and hear from Elijah and his post
Speaker 4: selection press conference with the South Florida media. But first,
Speaker 4: right before that, let's go to the emotional moment between
Speaker 4: Elijah and Coach McDaniel on their draft day call.
Speaker 6: Thank you doing man for the Dolphins.
Speaker 4: I'm doing well, man.
Speaker 5: It's been tough.
Speaker 4: Don't get it's been tough.
Speaker 1: Good things happening, though.
Speaker 5: It was a wait man.
Speaker 4: Uh, you know we're going to have.
Speaker 6: A few fixing in the draft, so we were doing
Speaker 6: on the type of guys you want to bring in,
Speaker 6: and uh, we're on the clock here now to make
Speaker 6: your Dolphin.
Speaker 4: Man.
Speaker 5: I appreciate it very much, man, appreciate it.
Speaker 6: Hey, let it out, man, don't worry worry about it.
Speaker 6: We're excited, man, it's a great opportunity for you.
Speaker 4: So very excited.
Speaker 3: Well, I appreciate it, coach man, that's awesome. Dude.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is uh, you know, it's uh, everything happens
Speaker 1: for a reason, Bud, and this is something you've earned,
Speaker 1: this opportunity and uh yeah, you know you're talking to
Speaker 1: an emotional guy, So don't worry, just let that.
Speaker 2: Let it all out.
Speaker 4: I appreciate it. Thank you. Shout out to the Dolphins
Speaker 4: social team and video team here for getting all that
Speaker 4: stuff for us and putting it up on their social channels.
Speaker 4: Let's go ahead and go to the press conference here
Speaker 4: and start with his first question for Elijah about his
Speaker 4: blocking role in the Stanford offense and how excited he
Speaker 4: is to have an opportunity to increase that role as
Speaker 4: more of a tight end here with the Miami Dolphins.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I would say I'm aggressive for sure, and I'm
Speaker 5: willing to get in battle as well in the fire
Speaker 5: their defenders for position on the field and just by
Speaker 5: the position in general obviously, But I would say, like
Speaker 5: the more morbib all, just say I'm aggressive, I'm willing
Speaker 5: to block, will get my hands dirty, and I'm excited
Speaker 5: to take on that role.
Speaker 4: Next, I had mentioned the experience of his father being
Speaker 4: in the military. He was asked what he learned from
Speaker 4: his father, and you could tell in the press conference
Speaker 4: what he took from his father. He talked about being
Speaker 4: respectful of one another. But also in that press conference,
Speaker 4: the way he thanked us all for our questions, addressed
Speaker 4: us by our name once we told him our name.
Speaker 2: Just a really cool kid. To see how nice and
Speaker 2: respectful he was.
Speaker 5: Yeah, just being respectful at all times, being humble, being grounded,
Speaker 5: being president of the moment or things like that, and
Speaker 5: then holding yourself to accountability and being able to depend
Speaker 5: on others and allow them to depend on you as well.
Speaker 4: And how about that family ties back to Florida? Do
Speaker 4: you still have family down here in South Florida?
Speaker 3: Elijah, Yeah, I'm actually in Tampa right now.
Speaker 5: My family moved back here and then my entire extended
Speaker 5: family is here as well. So I'm excited to be
Speaker 5: back a little closer to home, be in their family,
Speaker 5: and be able to see family as well.
Speaker 2: And as you heard on that draft call, very very emotional.
Speaker 4: Here's Elijah walking us through the moment he got that
Speaker 4: phone call from the Miami Dolphins.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it was, it was. It was a long process,
Speaker 5: for sure. It was definitely difficult, you know, getting into
Speaker 5: round five, getting through round six and then it's kind
Speaker 5: of just waiting around and it happened, And I would
Speaker 5: say it's definitely challenging to describe, but definitely a lot
Speaker 5: of emotions all at once, and I think the ability
Speaker 5: to be able to process all those different types of
Speaker 5: motions with family around it was definitely Aquo experience.
Speaker 4: Two more here for Elijah Higgins. First, your impressions of
Speaker 4: coach Mike McDaniel.
Speaker 5: There my knowledge him, just a great dude. I'm all around,
Speaker 5: seems like a players coach for sure, but the one
Speaker 5: coach I had spent the most time was was the
Speaker 5: tight ends coach touch Embury.
Speaker 4: So and last, but not least, your impressions of the
Speaker 4: guy that he say spends most time with, Dolphins tight
Speaker 4: ends coach John Embrey Love.
Speaker 5: I love coach Embriy, to be honest. He's one of
Speaker 5: the favorite guys I've met through this whole process, and
Speaker 5: that's in all honesty. So I'm excited to work with him.
Speaker 5: I'm as sided to be challenged. I'm excited to learn
Speaker 5: underneath him.
Speaker 2: So there you go.
Speaker 4: Dolphin's sixth round draft pick number one ninety eight overall
Speaker 4: in the twenty twenty three NFL Draft Elijah Higgins, tight
Speaker 4: end out of Stanford. Next, we're going to go break
Speaker 4: down the game of the Dolphins seventh round draft pick
Speaker 4: number two thirty seven overall offensive lineman, offensive tackle, I
Speaker 4: should say, out of Michigan, Ryan Hayes. That's next, your host,
Speaker 4: Travis Wingfield, brought to.
Speaker 2: You by Auto Nation.
Speaker 4: Let's pivot now to pick two thirty seven in the
Speaker 4: twenty twenty three NFL Draft. Offensive tackle out of Michigan,
Speaker 4: Ryan Hayes is the Dolphins draft pick. And while I
Speaker 4: don't have the audio of the call or the draft
Speaker 4: pick for Hayes, I'll go ahead and make sure to
Speaker 4: retweet that for you guys once we do have it
Speaker 4: on social so you can find it there. You heard
Speaker 4: the Elijah Higgins call already. Man, these things are really
Speaker 4: cool to hear, so I want to make sure I
Speaker 4: get that to you guys. But watching the tape of
Speaker 4: Ryan Hayes, the first thing that jumps out at him
Speaker 4: to me is the temperament that he plays with. There's
Speaker 4: a mean streak there and he always plays through the
Speaker 4: echo of the whistle. That Michigan power spread they run
Speaker 4: certainly is the last of a dying breed in terms
Speaker 4: of playing a little bit more traditional style of football
Speaker 4: that asks guys to play with power and through the play,
Speaker 4: opposed to just playing fast and trying to get back
Speaker 4: to the lion of scrimmage to line up and go again.
Speaker 4: You know that hurry up style college offense. To check
Speaker 4: with me, you're not actually huddling up and getting calls
Speaker 4: sometimes can discourage finishing because they want you to get
Speaker 4: back to the line so quickly. There's none of that
Speaker 4: here on Ryan Hayes's tape. Let's go to the background
Speaker 4: and the number first before we go back into the tape.
Speaker 4: And first off, he was a tight end, defensive end,
Speaker 4: and punter in high school, and he also was an
Speaker 4: All conference player in that regard, but also in basketball,
Speaker 4: the player of the year his senior year in his conference,
Speaker 4: averaging fifteen points per game and ten and a half
Speaker 4: rebounds per game double double. He also was the pitcher
Speaker 4: of the year in his conference, striking out one hundred
Speaker 4: and two batters and fifty nine innings on the bump.
Speaker 4: His dad was an offensive guard at Central Michigan. His
Speaker 4: mother was an All American hooper who holds forty three
Speaker 4: school records. There and the second all time leading score
Speaker 4: at Central Michigan women's hoops. There we'll hear from him
Speaker 4: on that just one second. There's a ton of explosiveness
Speaker 4: and athletic ability here on this player's tape, and by
Speaker 4: the numbers, he scored at eight point nine on the
Speaker 4: relative Athletic scorecard. That's good for one hundred and forty
Speaker 4: third all time out of twelve hundred and ninety four
Speaker 4: offensive tackles that of course dates back to nineteen eighty seven.
Speaker 4: He got there with a blazing fast ten split of
Speaker 4: one one point seven two seconds, and you just see
Speaker 4: it on the tape. He fires out of his stance
Speaker 4: and does some of his best work at the second level.
Speaker 4: You'll hear from him here in a moment. But he
Speaker 4: talked about his ability to finish blocks and how much
Speaker 4: pride he takes in that he can get out in
Speaker 4: space and execute those reach blocks that are so key
Speaker 4: in this offense with traps and pulling tackles and guards
Speaker 4: that move out wide and really kind of change the
Speaker 4: I don't want to call it, you know, the aim point,
Speaker 4: but you basically reset the line scrimmage. Outside players with
Speaker 4: this type of athletic ability help you do that, and
Speaker 4: Ryan Hayes certainly can. Now he's gonna have to either
Speaker 4: just kind of get a little more sound than his
Speaker 4: technique and add some stand in the pants in terms
Speaker 4: of the blocking aspect of his game in pass pro,
Speaker 4: because there's just a little bit there on tape in
Speaker 4: terms of some difficulties. But the running game stuff was
Speaker 4: really good even at that size. But the numbers were
Speaker 4: really excellent for him in pass protection as well. No
Speaker 4: sacks allowed last year, just eleven total pressures on three
Speaker 4: hundred and fifty seven pass blocking snaps.
Speaker 2: Two years.
Speaker 4: Started there at left tackle, he began as a right
Speaker 4: tackle early in his career. He might kick inside if
Speaker 4: he adds extra weight, so there is positional flexibility there.
Speaker 4: I tend to think he's more of a swing tackle
Speaker 4: option there, a guy that can come off the bench
Speaker 4: in either spot and play left or right tackle. And
Speaker 4: speaking of the running game numbers, Blake Korum was a
Speaker 4: star running back last year for Michigan. Here are his
Speaker 4: numbers from Pro Football Focus when running off left end
Speaker 4: or left tackle. Seventy one rush attempts, five hundred and
Speaker 4: fifty six yards. That's seven point eighty three a pop.
Speaker 4: Six touchdowns, twenty first downs, and eleven of those runs,
Speaker 4: you know, one to seventh of those runs went for
Speaker 4: ten plus yards. According to Pro Football Focus and the
Speaker 4: Athletics Dan Brugler rights that Korum benefited from Hayes's understanding
Speaker 4: of angles when sealing the edge, with good pacing on
Speaker 4: combo blocks, and as a climber to engage defenders at
Speaker 4: that second level.
Speaker 2: He finishes that.
Speaker 4: Blurb Dan Brugler does by noting that Hayes had only
Speaker 4: six career penalties on twenty one hundred and fourteen offensive
Speaker 4: snaps and all of that jives with something Ryan told
Speaker 4: us still here in a moment here on the press
Speaker 4: conference that one of his best trace is his intelligence
Speaker 4: and feel.
Speaker 2: For the game.
Speaker 4: Also, the Michigan offensive line won the Joe Moore Award
Speaker 4: in back to back years. That's the best offensive line
Speaker 4: in the nation the two years that Hayes was a starter.
Speaker 2: There.
Speaker 4: Let's go ahead and get into that press conference here
Speaker 4: with Ryan Hayes, who met with the South Florida media,
Speaker 4: and the first question for the new Dolphins offensive lineman,
Speaker 4: what are the Miami Dolphins getting in Ryan Hayes.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think I'm a smart player. I know where
Speaker 3: I'm going at all times. That allows me to know
Speaker 3: my angles. So I think I play fast, allows me
Speaker 3: to play extremely a fast and use my athleticism do
Speaker 3: an advantage. And every play I'm out there, I'm going
Speaker 3: to finish as hard as I can to the whistle.
Speaker 3: So you're gonna get a hard working guy that applies.
Speaker 4: Around the field up next here. I thought this was
Speaker 4: one of the coolest parts of the press conference. He
Speaker 4: was asked about any guys in the NFL whose tape
Speaker 4: he likes to study or model his game after, and
Speaker 4: he mentioned a current Miami Dolphin, a guy that he
Speaker 4: tell he's a whole bunch, And I have a feeling
Speaker 4: Ryan Hayes and Toron Armstad going to be attached at
Speaker 4: the hip come training camp.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I kind of like to watch the top guys
Speaker 3: around the league at their position, Guys like Tran Williams,
Speaker 3: guys like guys like that. But I definitely I've watched
Speaker 3: a ton of troun Arp said that we had an
Speaker 3: old coach that used to coach him. Yeah, so we
Speaker 3: watched a lot of his old film, So it really
Speaker 3: gonna be awesome getting in that room with him and
Speaker 3: just learning.
Speaker 4: What do you what do you hask for me?
Speaker 3: Who is the coach?
Speaker 1: And what was his position on the staff?
Speaker 3: I was bratt Ingeles of the Saints.
Speaker 2: Pretty dang good company there.
Speaker 4: Next I asked Ryan about his three sports stardom in
Speaker 4: high school and how that helped him really just be
Speaker 4: a better football player.
Speaker 2: Playing multiple sports in high.
Speaker 3: School, Yeah, I mean I always I was competing year round.
Speaker 3: I think that's what I love to do. I just
Speaker 3: loved sports growing up, so that kept me busy, kept
Speaker 3: me doing all kinds of things. And I don't know it,
Speaker 3: just I think got me prepared for the next level.
Speaker 3: Switching to O line. Never done that before, but I
Speaker 3: did so many things already I think I was prepared
Speaker 3: for so I'm super excited for this next challenge.
Speaker 4: How about playing at a school that produces so many
Speaker 4: good offensive linemen and has such good coaching on that
Speaker 4: offensive lineman. How has that helped you prepare for the
Speaker 4: National Football League, mister Hayes, I mean.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the draft ross has been up and down a
Speaker 3: lot of grace. I mean, obviously I was trying to
Speaker 3: take everything in because it's once in a lifetime experience.
Speaker 3: But from Michigan. I think it prepared me really well
Speaker 3: for this process. We run a lot of the same schemes.
Speaker 3: I think that we are being taught and asked to
Speaker 3: talk about through the process. Obviously we'd be a great
Speaker 3: coaching there. So I don't think I could have picked
Speaker 3: a better place to be to get ready for this
Speaker 3: next step.
Speaker 4: And there you go, just like that, the draft is
Speaker 4: a wrap. We have one more segment for you all here,
Speaker 4: Chris Greer, Mike McDaniel, end of Draft press conference. We'll
Speaker 4: hear from that next Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought.
Speaker 2: To you by Auto Nation.
Speaker 4: Let's resume and finish this draft with the post draft
Speaker 4: press conference of Mike McDaniel and Chris Greer, and the
Speaker 4: first question was posed for the headball coach down here
Speaker 4: in Miami. Mike McDaniel was asked about what he likes
Speaker 4: the most about tied En Elijah Higgins and as coaches
Speaker 4: wont to do, gave us a great answer here, breaking
Speaker 4: down in depth not just the player, but who he
Speaker 4: kind of reminds him of of a guy that he
Speaker 4: coached in the past.
Speaker 1: First of all, just excited to add the competitor you
Speaker 1: see through his game tape. He's a guy that strains
Speaker 1: with the ball in his hands. But for specifically for
Speaker 1: the tight end position. You know this, that's drafting a
Speaker 1: guy that plays wide receiver and converting him to tight end. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know that's I think the first time in my
Speaker 1: career that that as a part of that was Now
Speaker 1: is Paul back in two thousand and I want to
Speaker 1: say eleven out of Nebraska? And for me in my history,
Speaker 1: he he h, there's some there's a lot of traits
Speaker 1: that he resembled, uh, in his competitiveness and his size
Speaker 1: and his strength and and really this day and age,
Speaker 1: converting receiver to a tight end isn't is abstract as
Speaker 1: it used to be, only because half the teams are
Speaker 1: playing spread in two points anyway, even if they're called
Speaker 1: the tight end, they're playing receiver stuff anyway. So you
Speaker 1: get kind of used to projecting people to do things
Speaker 1: like that. We feel very comfortable and confident that he
Speaker 1: fit the bill for that. So excited to have him.
Speaker 4: And why don't we go over to the GM for
Speaker 4: his take Chris Career on tackle Ryan Hayes with.
Speaker 6: Him, it's he's played a lot of football, is smart kid, competitive, tough,
Speaker 6: you know, came to the tight end and converted and worked.
Speaker 6: So been coached at a good program coach Harbaugh, and
Speaker 6: have not a great job. So just watching him and
Speaker 6: then over the years develop and compete and play, and
Speaker 6: so for us, we were excited to at this point
Speaker 6: in the draft to add him into our group of
Speaker 6: guys to come in and compete.
Speaker 4: Hey, I have a question, is everybody out there that
Speaker 4: was tweeting about tight ends and tackles feel a little
Speaker 4: bit silly?
Speaker 2: Now? Have we not learned about this by now?
Speaker 4: Last year to Ron Armstead, Oh we need offensive tackle,
Speaker 4: Oh we need a wide receiver, and they go on,
Speaker 4: they get to Ron and they wind up getting try
Speaker 4: to kill. Same thing happened here. We complained about Day
Speaker 4: two not bringing you the positions you wanted, and now
Speaker 4: we get tackled and tight end on day number three.
Speaker 4: So I asked Chris Career, how does Day three compare
Speaker 4: to Day one or two when it comes to drafting
Speaker 4: best player available, drafting for need?
Speaker 2: Does that approach change at all? Here's the Dolphins GM.
Speaker 6: I think you know, when you get into the later rounds,
Speaker 6: it's you're still you're always evaluating your roster and where
Speaker 6: potential holes could be for even not just for this year,
Speaker 6: but for the following years. So but for us, it's
Speaker 6: always still drafting the best player. We went by our board,
Speaker 6: you know, and the guys we picked today were you know,
Speaker 6: the best players there for us where we had to
Speaker 6: rate it for what we were looking for. So at
Speaker 6: the end of the days, you're always still trying to
Speaker 6: add the best players because you never know where injuries
Speaker 6: and stuff will pop up on your roster from year
Speaker 6: to year.
Speaker 4: So personally speaking, here, I just love what coach McDaniel
Speaker 4: has brought to this building for so many things. One
Speaker 4: of the things I love the most about him is
Speaker 4: that I feel like he's brought more of Chris Career's
Speaker 4: personality out of the GM here for the Miami Dolphins.
Speaker 4: And this is a question and answer that was posed
Speaker 4: him about what's your message to you know, the udfas
Speaker 4: out there that this would be a great place to
Speaker 4: sign and Chris basically just said, like check the tape, Son.
Speaker 6: You know, I think with us, I think people of
Speaker 6: people people have seen kind of you know, what's transpired
Speaker 6: here over the last year, and you know, it speaks
Speaker 6: for the players that have wanted to come here, you know,
Speaker 6: talked about it. And from no recruiting or anything on
Speaker 6: our end, we're just you know, kind of how we've
Speaker 6: approached business. But I think our players, the ones that
Speaker 6: have been in the building have you know, talked about
Speaker 6: how they really like how Mike and the staff approach
Speaker 6: you know, building the culture here and then from Steve
Speaker 6: and Tom support allowing us to do the things here
Speaker 6: that we do that you know, South Florida is a
Speaker 6: great place to be, you know, great fan base, and
Speaker 6: you know, we're trying to build the best team we
Speaker 6: can to win games. And I think people see and
Speaker 6: players see that, you know, we're trying to win and
Speaker 6: doing things to win. So it's an exciting time for us,
Speaker 6: but we know a lot of work to be done still.
Speaker 4: Coach McDaniel had more to say about that. Let's go
Speaker 4: to coaching.
Speaker 1: And on top of it, I think it's one of
Speaker 1: the reasons it's so important that you create competitive opportunities
Speaker 1: for players to play. One thing that's very important to
Speaker 1: Chris and I is that we're a place where the
Speaker 1: best players play, and you know that's that's something I
Speaker 1: think that's a draft or for players as well as
Speaker 1: we will just give them an opportunity to compete. And
Speaker 1: that's really what all these guys want. You know, they're
Speaker 1: sitting through the draft watching so many people get taken
Speaker 1: over them, and you know that really you just said,
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm good enough to play in the league.
Speaker 1: I just need an opportunity. We'll provide that.
Speaker 4: Last year, I asked Coach on this very day what
Speaker 4: he learned from Chris Greer and his first ever experience
Speaker 4: in the draft as a head coach, and he gave me,
Speaker 4: you know, a classic coach McDaniel answer that he crushes
Speaker 4: sushi and cherry pepsi, which I thought was pretty pretty great.
Speaker 4: And then he talked more about what he actually learned
Speaker 4: about being around Chris Greer. And I wasn't gonna I
Speaker 4: wanted to ask him this, but somebody else actually asked
Speaker 4: it before I could, and so I wonder if I
Speaker 4: would have got a different answer here. But here he
Speaker 4: gave you a completely serious answer about Chris Grear what
Speaker 4: he learned being around him. And then we'll go to
Speaker 4: Chris Greer as well, that same question about what he
Speaker 4: learned about being around Mike McDaniel during another draft process.
Speaker 1: I mean, you learned so if you just open your
Speaker 1: eyes and ears, you learned so much about people every day.
Speaker 1: He's a he's very patient and tolerable of my personality.
Speaker 1: I've learned that four picks. The interesting thing about that
Speaker 1: is you're very aware that you have a small opportunity
Speaker 1: to make your team better. But it's a it's a
Speaker 1: very it's a very real opt opportunity. So you don't want,
Speaker 1: you don't ever want to squander a draft pick. But
Speaker 1: the less you have to focus on, the less amount
Speaker 1: of draft picks, you know, you have more attention on them,
Speaker 1: so on those parts of the draft, and and you know,
Speaker 1: really what can you get out of it? So I
Speaker 1: think at this point we probably know everything about each
Speaker 1: other except for you know, how how sweating my palm's
Speaker 1: going to get if we have a first round draft pick.
Speaker 1: We don't know that yet, but that won't be that nervous.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think that, you know, the communication part of it,
Speaker 6: you know, between the coaching staff the scouts has been
Speaker 6: really good. And I think if you asked everyone in
Speaker 6: the building, there's a lot of a lot of work
Speaker 6: goes into drafts. As you know, it's never one man show,
Speaker 6: too man, it's it's a lot of people helping, a
Speaker 6: lot of information done, and so I just think the
Speaker 6: environment of allowing everyone to have a voice in the
Speaker 6: process and really allowing people to have a say and
Speaker 6: really be free to speak on stuff has been really,
Speaker 6: really fun, and so it's been a really good process.
Speaker 6: So I think guys have really enjoyed it and we
Speaker 6: felt we've had a good outcome.
Speaker 4: One thing I'd never really understood with the journalism side
Speaker 4: of this whole deal is like the questions that.
Speaker 2: You quote unquote have to ask to me.
Speaker 4: If I'm not going to give you an answer, which
Speaker 4: you know they won't on this one, you don't have
Speaker 4: to ask it. But I wasn't trigged by the answer
Speaker 4: because you wind up getting more from coach McDaniel in
Speaker 4: terms of, you know, talking about the importance of having
Speaker 4: multiple defensive backs that you can you know, filter in
Speaker 4: and out and you know, basically take care of the
Speaker 4: attrition issue that we had last year, but also the
Speaker 4: frequency of how many times you use five plus defensive
Speaker 4: backs in the NFL and specifically in coach Fangio's system.
Speaker 4: So he was asked, is there are potential you might
Speaker 4: move Jalen Ramsey to the safety position. Here's coach and
Speaker 4: Chris on that question.
Speaker 1: No, only because uh, when you're he's really good at
Speaker 1: corner and so I try not to mess really good up.
Speaker 1: But now there's there's been uh the cool thing about
Speaker 1: the defensive backfield in general. You know, I think I
Speaker 1: think Vick has hit us on the side one hundred times,
Speaker 1: but you know, five dvs on the field it happens,
Speaker 1: you know, almost three quarters of the time in the
Speaker 1: National Football League now, so there are uh, you know,
Speaker 1: in in Vick's defense, in his system, if you understand it,
Speaker 1: there's there's a lot of different ways you can get
Speaker 1: on the field. There's some position versatility that if you
Speaker 1: go back to his history, you know there's there's been
Speaker 1: various people to play different spots that that has been
Speaker 1: in discussion, but not with Jalen Ramsey. I'd say he's
Speaker 1: a I think he's a good corner.
Speaker 6: It's not bad.
Speaker 4: Okay, all right, that is all, folks. That is your
Speaker 4: twenty twenty three Miami Dolphins draft class. We will have
Speaker 4: more coverage for you guys on this, including rookie Mini camp.
Speaker 4: How these guys play in OTAs. We'll have i'm sure
Speaker 4: extended interviews with these guys in the UDAFA class. We'll
Speaker 4: also have Emory Hunt on at some point to wrap
Speaker 4: up the UDFA class.
Speaker 2: And yeah, that's it for draft picks.
Speaker 4: The total of that Miami Dolphins picks was less than
Speaker 4: the number of cappuccinos I had the last two days,
Speaker 4: So that's a good number there to end the podcast on.
Speaker 4: Like I said, we'll come back next week and have
Speaker 4: more content for you all.
Speaker 2: No show on Monday.
Speaker 4: I think I'll come back on Tuesday with another podcast
Speaker 4: here breaking down some more stuff for y'all.
Speaker 2: In the meantime, that is going to be my time.
Speaker 4: You all, please be sure to subscribe to the podcast
Speaker 4: on Apple Podcasts.
Speaker 2: Leave us a rating, and leave us a review.
Speaker 4: You can follow me on Twitter at Wingfield NFL. Follow
Speaker 4: the team at Miami Dolphins. Check out the Fish Tap
Speaker 4: with my guys Seth and Jews, check out the team
Speaker 4: YouTube channel for Dolphins Today and media availabilities, and last
Speaker 4: but not.
Speaker 2: Least, Miami Dolphins dot com.
Speaker 4: Until next time finds up Caroline Cameron, Daddy's Coming Home.