Speaker 1: Actually you're looking pail touchdown, Miami drawn. What is up,
Speaker 1: Dolph fans and welcome to the Drive Time Podcast, part
Speaker 1: of the Miami Dolphins podcast network, covering your team, your
Speaker 1: Miami Dolphins. How's it going, everybody? I am your host,
Speaker 1: Travis Wingfield, And on today's show, we're gonna continue previewing
Speaker 1: the NFL Draft now just a week and a half
Speaker 1: away at hard Rock Stadium are live Draft party and
Speaker 1: YouTube show. Go ahead and makes you r s v
Speaker 1: P to that or check us out on the YouTube channel.
Speaker 1: But on today's podcast we have Matt Harmon of Yahoo
Speaker 1: Sports and the Reception Perception Project talking all things wide receivers.
Speaker 1: A busy, busy edition of the Drivetime Podcast today, Let's
Speaker 1: go ahead and jump right in Miami time and real
Speaker 1: quick before we get to Matt Harmon, I've talked about
Speaker 1: this on the podcast just a little bit, that I'm
Speaker 1: back in South Florida for the first time since the
Speaker 1: end of the season and doing the podcast from here,
Speaker 1: and I got to go to the offices at the
Speaker 1: stadium for the first time. I had worked previously at
Speaker 1: the offices and Davy at the current old training facility
Speaker 1: will be in the new facility sometime this summer hopefully,
Speaker 1: but I was in the stadium for the first time,
Speaker 1: and man, the views from hard Rock Stadium, the seeing
Speaker 1: the field, you know, just going to work and seeing
Speaker 1: the actual field at hard Rock Stadium and and being
Speaker 1: part of South Florida. It's it really is a dream
Speaker 1: come true. And it kind of was a moment that
Speaker 1: I took to myself today to to just kind of
Speaker 1: step back and look at everything and be like this,
Speaker 1: this is where it's all at. This is where I
Speaker 1: want to be. So I'm very grateful and happy to
Speaker 1: be bringing you guys this coverage of Miami Dolphins football
Speaker 1: here on the Drift Time podcast. And I've also been
Speaker 1: talking a lot about F one Formula one racing because
Speaker 1: of the Netflix show, and I'm gonna start watching the
Speaker 1: the weekly races. Just finished up the Sunday episode or
Speaker 1: Sunday Race, I should say, uh this this past weekend,
Speaker 1: and you know, I talked about the driving in South
Speaker 1: Florida and how it's a little bit enticing to drive
Speaker 1: like an F one Razor because everyone else out there
Speaker 1: does well. I did go to the rental company to
Speaker 1: replace my car, which is in the body shop because
Speaker 1: I was in that accident back in October. Somebody regretted
Speaker 1: me getting that fixed, and all they had available for
Speaker 1: me was Chrysler pacifica minivan, which don't don't knock it
Speaker 1: because it's a great vehicle. But you know, thirty three
Speaker 1: year old guy who doesn't have his wife and kid
Speaker 1: here in South Florida driving around minivan, maybe I feel
Speaker 1: a little bit less cool. I don't know. You tell me,
Speaker 1: is can you make a minivan any cool? I do
Speaker 1: have the F one Emmy. They'll kind of buzzing that
Speaker 1: thing around down here in South Florida. And the reason
Speaker 1: I bring this all together was because I have a
Speaker 1: great story about driving in South Florida I wanted to
Speaker 1: share before we get to Matt Harmon on the podcast.
Speaker 1: There was I was on Miramara Parkway at a busy
Speaker 1: intersection I think was Palm Avenue. It might have been
Speaker 1: a busier street than that, but there's a shopping center
Speaker 1: right by there, and somebody was pulling out of that
Speaker 1: shoppings now are trying to get across to the left
Speaker 1: turn lane. So I created a gap between me and
Speaker 1: the car ahead of me, so those cars had an
Speaker 1: avenue to pull through and get through traffic and not
Speaker 1: have to wait for another go round of a lengthy
Speaker 1: traffic signal. And the person behind me, not even kidding,
Speaker 1: pulls into the right hand turn lane, jumps in front
Speaker 1: of me and takes that vacant spot that I left
Speaker 1: nicely for people to use and cut off that entire
Speaker 1: way of traffic. So welcome to South Florida, baby, I
Speaker 1: guess that's how we do it down here. That's enough
Speaker 1: of my driving stories. We're gonna go ahead and welcome
Speaker 1: into the show right now, the author of Reception Perception,
Speaker 1: one of the best receiver minds in the entire game,
Speaker 1: Matt Harmon from y'all Who Sports. Let's go ahead and
Speaker 1: roll this interview. And we've been talking past catchers on
Speaker 1: this podcast weekly, if not daily, for months now, and
Speaker 1: we're bringing it home with one of the heaviest hitters
Speaker 1: in that world, in that realm. He's a wider for
Speaker 1: writer and analysts for Yahoo. He's the creator of Reception Perception,
Speaker 1: a great website, great content. They're talking all things pass catchers.
Speaker 1: He is Matt Harmon, and Matt, I love the last
Speaker 1: line of your Twitter bio. I did it my way.
Speaker 1: I love that. Welcome to the Drivetime Podcast. Hey, thanks
Speaker 1: so much for having me, Travis. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: And yeah, that is a an ode to a Frank
Speaker 1: Sinatra lyric from the song My Way. Um it's it's
Speaker 1: actually like a very personal sort of story about my
Speaker 1: my grandmom who was very close with when she passed away.
Speaker 1: I remember like that song. Is it just it's you know,
Speaker 1: it seems like a person at the end of their
Speaker 1: life they're going on to the next journey, and they
Speaker 1: did it their way. And I always kind of took
Speaker 1: after after that happened, and you know, pursuing a career
Speaker 1: in football and everything like that, I was just sort
Speaker 1: of looked at it as a you know, I want
Speaker 1: to do things my way. If I do uh, if
Speaker 1: I do this thing, if I actually make it happen
Speaker 1: and you know, spoiler alert, it happened, you worked out,
Speaker 1: I want to do it my way. I want to
Speaker 1: do it in a fashion that you know, I can
Speaker 1: you know, as a man, I can live with and
Speaker 1: I can look back on and be be proud of,
Speaker 1: and and uh, you know I think that I like
Speaker 1: to think I did a pretty decent job at it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I wanted to follow up on that, because you know,
Speaker 1: I have a very unconventional path to this position myself,
Speaker 1: and I'm always curious to hear about people in this
Speaker 1: industry's path because not everyone in this day and age
Speaker 1: did the journalists journalism school route and then you do
Speaker 1: the high school paper and then you move up to college,
Speaker 1: like not everyone does that these days. And so, you know,
Speaker 1: my own path was your Your path obviously steeped heavily
Speaker 1: and charting, which I just love that work, and that's
Speaker 1: that's how I came across your work. I did some
Speaker 1: of my own charting for a website that I created
Speaker 1: called third and ten five or six years ago, and
Speaker 1: it taught me so much about the game because I
Speaker 1: just was so you know, intimate with every single detail
Speaker 1: of every single play. So I wanted to ask you,
Speaker 1: how did you get into charting and how did that
Speaker 1: eventually evolved into reception perception? Yeah, it is interesting, like
Speaker 1: this is back, you know, way in the origin story
Speaker 1: of kind of pursuing this as a career. My original
Speaker 1: life and was to go back to school, uh and
Speaker 1: continue my degree and in studying social theory, uh, in
Speaker 1: like sociology, and eventually get a PhD and like become
Speaker 1: an academic. Clearly, I'm sitting here in my backwards hat
Speaker 1: and looking at football players, like I did not become
Speaker 1: an academic, right Basically, I just decided, like I loved football.
Speaker 1: I was in just a pretty tough place in life.
Speaker 1: You know, life throws you curveballs and um needing to
Speaker 1: respond to it in a way. I just found something
Speaker 1: that I got a lot of joy from, which was
Speaker 1: analyzing the game. You know, I was obsessed with football,
Speaker 1: was obsessed with fantasy. I knew like, you know, every
Speaker 1: Madden roster back to front in like the two thousand thirteen,
Speaker 1: two thousand and fourteen eras. So I started a website.
Speaker 1: All my friends had really pushed me to go that direction.
Speaker 1: But you know, because I was literally a nobody, you know,
Speaker 1: like just some guy in a one bedroom apartment in Lynchburg, Virginia,
Speaker 1: just trying to figure out the game, just like you.
Speaker 1: I wanted to understand the intricacies of football from every situation.
Speaker 1: So that's when I just started charting games, a lot
Speaker 1: of differ and stuff. You know, I did some work
Speaker 1: with quarterbacks to decided I hated it, and you know,
Speaker 1: offensive line, defensive line, just trying out different things, and
Speaker 1: I think that's something probably people don't don't really know
Speaker 1: about that, you know. Like I said, I was charting
Speaker 1: all these different positions and the one that just stuck
Speaker 1: to me really was wide receivers. Because I always tell
Speaker 1: people if they're trying to start out in this space
Speaker 1: or kind of trying to find their own way, My
Speaker 1: my thing that I encourage everybody to do is try
Speaker 1: to be the person that answers the question, the biggest
Speaker 1: question that you have about football. For me, it was
Speaker 1: you know, what are wide receivers doing when they run
Speaker 1: off the screen on Sundays? Because we know this anybody
Speaker 1: that follows football or anybody that plays fantasy football, like,
Speaker 1: there's so much that goes into it. From a production standpoint.
Speaker 1: Someone has to go right for a wide receiver just
Speaker 1: to get a target, a catch, a yard, like be
Speaker 1: able to put those points up on the board. They're
Speaker 1: not if their own individual performances is very separate from
Speaker 1: all that. So and if you just even any basic
Speaker 1: staff but even more advanced that's like catch rate, yards
Speaker 1: per target, it you're inherently welcoming in the variable of
Speaker 1: the quarterback at the bare minimum. But you're also the
Speaker 1: offensive line's got to be blocking for them, right, They
Speaker 1: gotta be put into a good position by the head coach.
Speaker 1: So that's really the where the idea of reception perception
Speaker 1: came about. Was I wanted to try to isolate wide
Speaker 1: receiver performance as much as possible from those outside variables
Speaker 1: and really study and try to quantify the qualitative reality
Speaker 1: of route running because to me, it was look the
Speaker 1: one thing that the wide receiver can control, like stats
Speaker 1: and just throw that out. They can't really control that
Speaker 1: too much on their own. The one thing that they
Speaker 1: can control is do they run good routes? Do they
Speaker 1: get open uh? And do they present that good target
Speaker 1: for the quarterback to earn a target? And then obviously
Speaker 1: do they catch the ball and do good things with
Speaker 1: it after that? So perception perceptions and such you trying
Speaker 1: to tell you all of that anything you want to
Speaker 1: know about a wide receiver, and that all came out
Speaker 1: of basically charting games and finding that one thing I
Speaker 1: really wanted to figure out. I watched games at hard
Speaker 1: Rock Stadium now, so it's different from me, but back
Speaker 1: when I is you know, uh, you know, fixed on
Speaker 1: the television set I would have the same complaint every Sunday.
Speaker 1: Give me a view where I can see the receivers
Speaker 1: in downfield. Give me that that you mentioned Madden the
Speaker 1: behind the formation, but pull it back a little bit
Speaker 1: so I can see the entire box count and the
Speaker 1: receivers out wide. That's my lifelong dream right there. And
Speaker 1: you also mentioned memorizing Madden rosters. I'll tell you my
Speaker 1: little funny story here. I used to get the Pro
Speaker 1: Football Weekly season previews and I would read all the
Speaker 1: content and memorize the rosters and then recite them when
Speaker 1: I would go for jogs outside. So that's like my nerd,
Speaker 1: my very nerd football thing. But we've got you on
Speaker 1: here to talk about both Dolphins receivers and the college
Speaker 1: receivers in this draft coming up in just a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks here, and I have to start off before
Speaker 1: we get to the receiver class in the draft talking
Speaker 1: about Will Fuller because a through my own tape study,
Speaker 1: I think he is an elite, elite level wide receiver
Speaker 1: and be the data you shared with regards to his
Speaker 1: win rate by route run is that of an elite,
Speaker 1: elite wide receiver. So Matt, how good is Will Fuller. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think the version of Will Fuller was incredible. I've
Speaker 1: always been a big fan of his because one thing
Speaker 1: that you come to realize when you study wide receivers,
Speaker 1: you know, on a route by route basis and watch
Speaker 1: off and they're getting separation, you start to not care
Speaker 1: about things like drops, and like people forget about this.
Speaker 1: But Will Fuller was slammed coming into the league as
Speaker 1: a guy that couldn't catch the ball, which is crazy
Speaker 1: because he he's had you know, like he had one
Speaker 1: big drop. I can remember when he was playing with
Speaker 1: the Texans against the Patriots in a playoff game and
Speaker 1: he has brock Oswhiler throwing the ball for God's sake,
Speaker 1: So like maybe that's the one drop. Is not the
Speaker 1: biggest problem that the team might have had. But you know,
Speaker 1: this is a guy that never really developed those drop issues.
Speaker 1: And I think when you look at him, even on
Speaker 1: a year by year basis, he had always been a
Speaker 1: really strong separator and reception perception. You know, I break
Speaker 1: things down not only by success rate versus man's own
Speaker 1: press coverage, but also by individual routes. You know, he'd
Speaker 1: always had a really good and if people go to
Speaker 1: reception perception dot Com and they sign up for the site,
Speaker 1: they can see not only uh Will Fuller's twenty season,
Speaker 1: but go compare it to his twenty nineteen season as well,
Speaker 1: which I think is really useful because it shows you
Speaker 1: even if you don't get the version of the player,
Speaker 1: you're looking at excellent success rate on deep routes, of
Speaker 1: course we know that's part of it, but also routes
Speaker 1: like the flat, the curl, you know, some of those
Speaker 1: more shorter lay up patterns that are gonna be important
Speaker 1: for moving an offense down the field. And what I
Speaker 1: always liked about Fuller two playing with the Texans before
Speaker 1: was he just put defenses in such a bind. This
Speaker 1: is why I think a player like Jalen Waddle is
Speaker 1: really going to be appealing for folks in the drafted.
Speaker 1: Fuller was never that number one receiver because the Texans
Speaker 1: had DeAndre Hopkins, and it's like, Okay, we want to, uh,
Speaker 1: just put some extra defensive attention to stopping DeAndre Hopkins,
Speaker 1: But then you're gonna leave Will Fuller on your number
Speaker 1: two corner exposed there on the other side of the
Speaker 1: field with no help. You're gonna get destroyed. And those
Speaker 1: those games where it was Watson, Hopkins and Will Fuller.
Speaker 1: Those guys fired off to w It was real magic.
Speaker 1: But going back to the season, which I think is really,
Speaker 1: of course the important part here, this is a player
Speaker 1: that jumped up huge in terms of success rate versus press.
Speaker 1: Like the Texans used him as an alpha wide receiver
Speaker 1: out there as the ISO X guy, basically just put
Speaker 1: him in DeAndre hopkins old spot, and he had the
Speaker 1: best season of his career. And you can look at that,
Speaker 1: you know, look at that down the route tree as well.
Speaker 1: Only one route did he fall below the NFL average
Speaker 1: in terms of success, right, and that was the out route.
Speaker 1: Everything else, Like, the Dolphins are getting a complete player
Speaker 1: in the peak version of Will Fuller, and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: it's it is sort of interesting just talk about like
Speaker 1: where did this season come from? Um, But I think
Speaker 1: he had this ability in him all along and it
Speaker 1: was just taking that next step of development. So even again,
Speaker 1: at bare minimum you get the nineteen version of Fuller,
Speaker 1: you're getting a really strong number two receiver that wins
Speaker 1: in the most important areas, wins vertically right, and in
Speaker 1: the contested games, who has always been an underrated contested
Speaker 1: catch receiver, so you're bare minimum getting that player, but
Speaker 1: the version does show he has true number one receiver
Speaker 1: upside in them as well. I'm glad you mentioned the
Speaker 1: impact that he and those receivers in Houston have on
Speaker 1: the offense in general, because I went back and watch
Speaker 1: this tape this last year and teams played too high
Speaker 1: safety because you got him and Kenny Stills on the
Speaker 1: other side, you know, taking the top off the defense.
Speaker 1: That can have such a big benefit, not just for
Speaker 1: the run game, but for Mike is Sicky and Devonte
Speaker 1: Parker over the middle, and all the possession receivers Dolphins
Speaker 1: have in that regard. So yeah, I I couldn't be
Speaker 1: more excited about it. I'm glad you mentioned his old
Speaker 1: tape because I went back and watched him his rookie
Speaker 1: year compared to twenty, and he was running like you mentioned, curls, screens, flats.
Speaker 1: It wasn't doing a whole lot in the route tree.
Speaker 1: But now he ran the whole damn thing and look
Speaker 1: good doing it. So that's great to hear. Let's go
Speaker 1: ahead and transition now into this college class, another one
Speaker 1: that is coming in a build, possibly one of the
Speaker 1: best receiver classes of all time again for back to
Speaker 1: back years, and I want to stay on that frame
Speaker 1: of mind of the prototype. And one thing I've been
Speaker 1: on about this offseason, Matt is the type of receiver
Speaker 1: this offense could use. And I don't have a prototype
Speaker 1: per se if what Miami might want, but to consider
Speaker 1: Parker Williams, Hollands, even a tight end Mike Sicky. These
Speaker 1: guys are contested catch this type of dude. So separators,
Speaker 1: yak that sort of thing. So before we break into
Speaker 1: this thing into tears, as far as who's in your
Speaker 1: first tier, second tier, and so forth, I want to
Speaker 1: get your best in class by category. Does that work
Speaker 1: for you? I love that idea and I think it's
Speaker 1: perfect for the Dolphins too, because of, like you said,
Speaker 1: what they need. They had a lot of guys that
Speaker 1: were redundant with each other last year. I think they
Speaker 1: have a good start with Fuller, but there's a lot
Speaker 1: of room they can have in this draft class as well.
Speaker 1: That's a word I've used a lot, redundancy. So let's
Speaker 1: go ahead and get into it. Then, Who's who's the
Speaker 1: best separator in this class? Yeah? I think the best
Speaker 1: separator It's easy. It's DeVante Smith, because when you break
Speaker 1: it down by look, I actually I think folks if
Speaker 1: they do go to Reception Perception and they subscribe and
Speaker 1: they see the rookie data that's going to be hitting
Speaker 1: the site on Monday morning, uh, it's it's they're gonna
Speaker 1: look at it and they're gonna see. Look, Jalen Waddle
Speaker 1: is really high in terms of success rate verse man coverage.
Speaker 1: He's right up there. But when you look at success
Speaker 1: rate a lost the route tree across a press coverage
Speaker 1: and man coverage, you're looking at DeVante Smith is a
Speaker 1: guy that just knows how to get open. And I
Speaker 1: we can talk more about Smith and and the you know,
Speaker 1: the weight concerns, the b M I concerns and all
Speaker 1: that and and sort of how you reconcile that when
Speaker 1: you're talking about him as a prospect. But I think
Speaker 1: in terms of just best separator, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: really good separators that I really like in this class,
Speaker 1: but I think Smith does take the cake there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm glad you mentioned that. We I was expecting a
Speaker 1: different direction, you know, the guy that everyone builds as
Speaker 1: a top receiver. But I'm with you on Davante Smith.
Speaker 1: I'm sure, we'll get to that guy here in just
Speaker 1: a second. But who is the best yards after catch?
Speaker 1: Is it possibly Smith's teammate there at Alabama? This is interesting,
Speaker 1: right because this is another again, this is a class
Speaker 1: where I not only do I like a lot of
Speaker 1: these guys as separators, I also think there's some really
Speaker 1: good yards after catch threat players. Um you know, I
Speaker 1: think of a player like Elijah Moore from Old Miss.
Speaker 1: He's he's there as well. Uh you mentioned Jalen Waddles
Speaker 1: A good a good a good bet there too. Maybe
Speaker 1: not from the physicality standpoint where and it's kind of like,
Speaker 1: do you want to talk about yards after catch from
Speaker 1: from just a literally piling up yards after the catch?
Speaker 1: Because Wattle can do that in bunches. But if you're
Speaker 1: talking about like physical guys that break tackles, and this
Speaker 1: is just a personal um like a personal bias, those
Speaker 1: are the players. Because I do chart like how often
Speaker 1: do you break one tackle, two tackles, get down on
Speaker 1: first contact, everything like that. I do chart that as
Speaker 1: well interception perceptions. So I end up I feel like
Speaker 1: preferring those guys that break tackles with physicality and Jamaar Chase,
Speaker 1: who is, you know, the consensus top receiver. He's really
Speaker 1: underrated in that yards after catch away that he That's
Speaker 1: sort of why he's a tough player to find a
Speaker 1: comparison for. I know, I've seen Davantae Adams, I've seen
Speaker 1: um like a faster an Kin Bolden from my buddy
Speaker 1: Daniel Jeremiah from the NFL Network. But the one I
Speaker 1: kind of landed on with him his early career Larry
Speaker 1: Fitzgerald because Fitzgerald was so good, Um we think of
Speaker 1: him now is this big slot receiver, almost like a
Speaker 1: tight end type of player. But Jamar Chase, I think
Speaker 1: fits into that early career fits when he was absolutely
Speaker 1: dominant in some of those Kurt Warner offenses for the
Speaker 1: Arizona Cardinals. But I said all that, Uh, the guy
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give it to though the best yards after
Speaker 1: catching to the breaking tackles, for physicality, and people don't
Speaker 1: think of this guy in this way, but it's for
Speaker 1: Shod Bateman from Minnesota. I love him as a separator.
Speaker 1: I love him as a contestant catch receiver. I think
Speaker 1: his twenty nineteen film, which is the film that I
Speaker 1: decided to go back and chart because I think people
Speaker 1: don't really know this, but he was dealing. He actually
Speaker 1: had COVID and had a rough battle with it and
Speaker 1: like lost a bunch of weight and just wasn't himself.
Speaker 1: And he's playing in the slot after being an outside
Speaker 1: X receiver in twenty nine. His twenty nineteen film, I
Speaker 1: think is up there with Jamaar Chase, is up there
Speaker 1: with Davonte Smith in terms of the best in the class.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna give it to Bateman because I think
Speaker 1: he is really underrated and how good he is after
Speaker 1: the catch. My good my good friend Matt Walman, who
Speaker 1: writes the Rookie Scouting Portfolio, compared him to like pre
Speaker 1: route that this is my same comparison for Bateman is
Speaker 1: Keenan Allen, like Justin Jeffers and that type of player.
Speaker 1: But post catch, he's almost like Cordero Patterson, which like,
Speaker 1: you don't want to be Cordero Patterson runner rounds right,
Speaker 1: because he's he's like a running back up at this point,
Speaker 1: but he's an He's not even awesome after catcher, which
Speaker 1: why one of the best kick returners in NFL history.
Speaker 1: Now you mentioned Jamar Chase. The physicality of the Yak
Speaker 1: and you see that in the way he gets off
Speaker 1: of the release, off the line, the way he's just
Speaker 1: so physical, so that that checks out Rashaan Bateman's twenty
Speaker 1: nineteen tape. I'm glad you mentioned that because I always
Speaker 1: got confused watching him when number thirteen that switched the
Speaker 1: number zero. That always threw me off for some reason.
Speaker 1: But yeah, that's a great note about about having COVID
Speaker 1: and that's something you don't think about, and you know
Speaker 1: that's it's a much bigger deal. I think people let
Speaker 1: on about so great stuff there, Matt, how about you
Speaker 1: might have covered this again already, but the best contested
Speaker 1: catch receiver in this class, Yeah, I'm almost tempted to
Speaker 1: be a contrarian and give it to Davante Smith because
Speaker 1: I think the funny part about him is, you know,
Speaker 1: he's a small guy, right, Everyone's worried about the uh,
Speaker 1: the size and the b of mine everything, but like
Speaker 1: you watch him play, like he wins, He boxes out
Speaker 1: wins and contested catches against SEC defenders down the field
Speaker 1: and the short area, intermediate like wherever you want. Um.
Speaker 1: He plays with a ton of physicality. But I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go with consensus here and I'm gonna give it to
Speaker 1: Jamaar Chase. I think he is the best fifty fifty
Speaker 1: ball receiver in this draft class, not just because he wins,
Speaker 1: but he gets a lot of those contested catches because
Speaker 1: he plays so much downfield. UM, I definitely have some
Speaker 1: questions about Chase as a as an intermediate level separator.
Speaker 1: I think he can run slants. I think he can
Speaker 1: run some of those shorter patterns, but you know, some
Speaker 1: of the some of the more you know, the curls,
Speaker 1: the digs that out, stuff like that more in that
Speaker 1: intermediate range. Got some questions there, But he's such a
Speaker 1: good downfield receiver and I love the like the idea
Speaker 1: of him running downfield routes with how good he is
Speaker 1: as a contested catch treat as well. You had mentioned
Speaker 1: will full Or kind of playing that exposition role and
Speaker 1: filling in for DeAndre Hopkins and doing the whole entire
Speaker 1: route tree, the whole game from that position. And you know,
Speaker 1: going back to what coach Flores talks about all the time,
Speaker 1: they like to have guys that play multiple positions and
Speaker 1: that's not just restrictive to the defensive side of the football,
Speaker 1: like Davanta Parker kicks inside and play slot a lot.
Speaker 1: People people don't realize that because of his size and
Speaker 1: the downfield prowess, but he plays slot. He gets open
Speaker 1: at that position quite frequently. And so you know, Lynn
Speaker 1: Boone is a slot guy. Jachem Grant does a little
Speaker 1: bit of both inside outside. Uh. You know, we've talked
Speaker 1: about DeVante Parker. He might be more of a traditional
Speaker 1: X receiver who does kick inside sometimes. So taking all
Speaker 1: of that into account, you know, I guess this might
Speaker 1: be a grouping question here. I want to know about
Speaker 1: who's the best inside, who's the best outside, and who's
Speaker 1: the best combination of both in this draft class. I
Speaker 1: love that's a fantastic point about positional versatility of wide receivers.
Speaker 1: It's one thing that um, I probably didn't take into
Speaker 1: account enough about in reception perception in the early days
Speaker 1: of you know, I've been doing this now for seven
Speaker 1: NFL seasons, so I like to say a lot on
Speaker 1: on podcasts, and it shows that, like I probably made
Speaker 1: statements based on reception perception data, you know, three or
Speaker 1: four years ago, that I would never say now because
Speaker 1: that's just the benefit of more data, more context. Like
Speaker 1: at this point I have three NFL players in the database,
Speaker 1: Like I pretty much know what the data is telling us,
Speaker 1: you know, but at different times during the charting process,
Speaker 1: I didn't always know that. And one thing I think
Speaker 1: is key is where players lineup can often dictate the
Speaker 1: results of their route metrics, of their success rate verse
Speaker 1: coverage metrics, or on the other hand, you know, for
Speaker 1: a player, I always bring it to back to like Jujus,
Speaker 1: Miss Schuster, Cooper Cup, Like, those guys don't win at
Speaker 1: a very high rate against man or press coverage, but
Speaker 1: who cares Because they are those big slot receivers. They
Speaker 1: do so often line up against smaller corners on the
Speaker 1: inside or or even linebackers in zone coverage. Like, if
Speaker 1: those guys can beast against z own coverage, I'm not
Speaker 1: too worried about the fact that they can't get off pressed.
Speaker 1: So I do love a guy though, that can play
Speaker 1: all three positions, the X, the flank or the slot,
Speaker 1: what have you. And I think there's a lot of
Speaker 1: like inside outside guys in this class. There's so many
Speaker 1: players that are are slot receivers. Like I mentioned Elijah
Speaker 1: More earlier, I think he might be the best pure
Speaker 1: slot receiver I know Jalen Waddle again, he lined up
Speaker 1: a ton of the slot for Alabama. I think he
Speaker 1: can play outside him a little more confident that he
Speaker 1: can be an outside receiver for Elijah More. He just
Speaker 1: so rarely faith press coverage. Only six point five percent
Speaker 1: of his sampled routes and reception reception came against press.
Speaker 1: That's incredibly low. That's nothing, and he's a great separator.
Speaker 1: But I think he could probably fit into that Doug Baldwin,
Speaker 1: Tyler Lockett mold of players. Honestly, sometimes I know this
Speaker 1: is like wide receiver blasphemy, but sometimes there are some
Speaker 1: shades of Antonio Brown, like early career Antonio Brown, the
Speaker 1: way he transition like plucks the ball out of the
Speaker 1: air and transitioned to yards after catch, stra at the
Speaker 1: way that he uh he wins with foot quickness, at
Speaker 1: the break point of his routes. There are definitely some
Speaker 1: shades of Antonio Brown to Elijah Moore's games. So maybe
Speaker 1: he could be an outside receiver. But I think from
Speaker 1: just a pure slot perspective, he's the best in a class.
Speaker 1: To me. I think if you're looking at outside separation,
Speaker 1: uh it is Davante Smith. But I think prototype wise,
Speaker 1: I think you have to give it to Rashad Bateman there, uh,
Speaker 1: simply because you know he's again he has played both.
Speaker 1: So maybe he's actually the answer to the best inside
Speaker 1: outside designation. But he's just so it was so much
Speaker 1: more effective as an outside vertical receiver. I tend to
Speaker 1: think he has the upside to be a traditional X
Speaker 1: that can play on the outside. And sure it's smart
Speaker 1: to give your top receiver of the route from the
Speaker 1: slot because it's just so much easier throwing to the
Speaker 1: slot than it is, you know, the tight windows outside.
Speaker 1: So I think he's probably the answer there in terms
Speaker 1: of outside separator. And I actually think to Mark Chase
Speaker 1: could be a guy that could could do both. Could
Speaker 1: could maybe, like I said, Larry Fitzgerald, maybe transition from
Speaker 1: he was a pure X receiver in college, faced a
Speaker 1: ton of press based a ton of hard man coverage,
Speaker 1: and that's why you see so many of those contested
Speaker 1: passes for him. But at the same time, I think
Speaker 1: in the pros, maybe in that Larry Fitzgerald mold, the
Speaker 1: Michael Thomas mold, he could become an inside outside guy
Speaker 1: like that. I actually think that might be the best
Speaker 1: way to optimally use him as a pro Just real
Speaker 1: quick before I move on to a topic I'm really
Speaker 1: excited to ask you about here. You mentioned Elijah More.
Speaker 1: I can see the excitement both in your voice and
Speaker 1: your face about the prospect of that. Love this guy.
Speaker 1: He's great, I am. I put a threat up about
Speaker 1: him like two weeks ago. I just I can't the
Speaker 1: quickness and after the catch and the contesting. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's all, it's all there. It's fun to watch. But
Speaker 1: when you consider a guy that maybe is restrictive, not
Speaker 1: completely restrictive inside, but more so than other prospects. Like,
Speaker 1: what's the value of that in the draft, because I'm
Speaker 1: thinking pick eighteen might be too high for that, pick
Speaker 1: thirty six, maybe the range we pick fifty for the Dolphins,
Speaker 1: Like where does that typical value come off the board? Yeah,
Speaker 1: in in some way, we've gotten so far to the
Speaker 1: point with slot receivers that they've essentially replaced the fullback
Speaker 1: as the starter or like the the eleventh starter on
Speaker 1: a football team, Like everybody lives in eleven personnel for
Speaker 1: the most part. Um, like you want to have that
Speaker 1: really good slot receiver. So but I also think we
Speaker 1: developed so much of the slot receiver that there's different
Speaker 1: types of guys, you know, the big slots in terms
Speaker 1: of the Juju Cooper Cup that I mentioned earlier. They're
Speaker 1: different from what I like to call the pop gun
Speaker 1: slot receivers, like a Jamison Crowd or even like a
Speaker 1: Cole Beasley up there in Buffalo, you know inside the
Speaker 1: A f C s there. Those are two examples of
Speaker 1: that type player. And then I think of guys that
Speaker 1: are still smaller but true vertical weapons from the slot,
Speaker 1: and I think that fits that Tyler Lockett, Doug Baldwin
Speaker 1: mold of players. They're they're always might go to examples there.
Speaker 1: I think Adam Feeland has been that player at different
Speaker 1: times in his career too. He's sort of a mix
Speaker 1: of that big slot but also the vertical weapon from
Speaker 1: the slot as well. I think those guys that third
Speaker 1: group there, the vertical weapons from the slot to lock It,
Speaker 1: the Baldwin, the the Adam Delon guys, I think there's
Speaker 1: enough tactical value to constect consider them just as good
Speaker 1: as having a good outside receiver. Like all of those
Speaker 1: guys too. All three of those players I mentioned can
Speaker 1: play and function outside. You know, They're not like a
Speaker 1: Jamison crowded, like you have to use a Jamison crowd
Speaker 1: on the slot. I do think Elijah More because he's
Speaker 1: just such a good separator. I think he can hack
Speaker 1: it out side as a flanker, just like I think
Speaker 1: Tyler Lockett or Adam Delon can hack it outside as
Speaker 1: as a flanker as well. So I don't think there's
Speaker 1: a huge gap between a really good first round pick
Speaker 1: at at an outside receiver and a really good first
Speaker 1: round pick in those vertical weapons slot receivers. I think
Speaker 1: the eight teen range is fine there. It's just about
Speaker 1: how much do you want to value the wide receiver
Speaker 1: position as as a whole, because you know this is
Speaker 1: a whole. Another conversation we can have. This position is
Speaker 1: so so damn deep at this point. Like was the
Speaker 1: year that wide receiver was supposed to be the strength
Speaker 1: of the of the draft. It's sort of that again
Speaker 1: this year. But even like twenty nineteen, those classes were
Speaker 1: considered like weak wide receiver drafts. But like the stars
Speaker 1: of today and tomorrow came out of those classes. You
Speaker 1: took my Calvin Ridley, Terry McLaurin, a J Brown, DK Metcalf,
Speaker 1: like those guys came out those years and and like
Speaker 1: just took the wide receiver position when we weren't expecting it,
Speaker 1: took it to a whole another level. I'm shaking my
Speaker 1: head because that's ridiculous. I go back to Daniel Jeremiah's advice,
Speaker 1: go go play corner man, Go play cornerback. You'll you'll
Speaker 1: have a better chance, a better path to to get
Speaker 1: in that big pay day someday. Uh, Matt Harmon, y'all,
Speaker 1: who's sports and the reception perception just fantastic stuff there.
Speaker 1: And you mentioned this off air before we got on
Speaker 1: the podcast here. You worked with next Gen Stats and
Speaker 1: incorporated that stuff into your work at NFL dot com
Speaker 1: when you were previously there. And you know, alternative data
Speaker 1: has always been an attractive thank to me obviously with
Speaker 1: the charting and whatnot. And I think in any sport
Speaker 1: there's gonna be a little bit of initial pause with
Speaker 1: regards to you know, possible new procedure, new ways of thinking.
Speaker 1: But I've also heard the lack of in person type
Speaker 1: of scouting processes, you know, during this pandemic has helped
Speaker 1: introduce some new ways of looking at players at the
Speaker 1: very least increased it to the use of the pre
Speaker 1: pandemic days. So how much have you incorporated GPS and
Speaker 1: player tracking into your scouting process? And our teams using
Speaker 1: that stuff pretty heavily as well. I think they're they're
Speaker 1: really tempted to get it to a point where teams
Speaker 1: want to use it much more than they were. Like
Speaker 1: I'm telling you, man, I was at the NFL and
Speaker 1: summer two thousand and fifteen, that's when I started. That's
Speaker 1: when I moved out here to l A for that job.
Speaker 1: And you know, the next gen guys, God bless him,
Speaker 1: like gave this big presentation to a room full of
Speaker 1: like me and and by the way, I'm sitting there
Speaker 1: like what what the hell am I doing? You know,
Speaker 1: like like Bucky Brooks and a bunch of like former
Speaker 1: players are are in there like getting this, getting this presentation,
Speaker 1: and everybody's just kind of like no, not like not interested,
Speaker 1: not and like not interested in watching these like little
Speaker 1: dots move on the field or how fast everyone's going. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: you know, goofball, like low level editor that I was then,
Speaker 1: I was like very interested in this, you know, Like
Speaker 1: so I have always had a fascination to it, and and
Speaker 1: I've always like basically from then on, like tried to
Speaker 1: work with next gend as much as possible. Like I said,
Speaker 1: I'm not there anymore, so I'm not really doing this
Speaker 1: work at this point. But you know, back then, I
Speaker 1: was in it's infancy in two thousand fifteen. I think
Speaker 1: you're right, it was a very like I don't know
Speaker 1: about all that type of situation. But and I think
Speaker 1: they've gotten better and better about putting out metrics that
Speaker 1: that really tell the story of the game. And I
Speaker 1: think that's the biggest thing for me with with like
Speaker 1: media facing analytics, it's all about and even like reception perception, right,
Speaker 1: there's there's a a deeper degree of that because I'm
Speaker 1: actually like telling you what went on in on a game, right,
Speaker 1: Like I'm watching an absolutely absurd amount of routes. Nobody
Speaker 1: should do this, like watching an absurd amount of game film,
Speaker 1: a serve amount of routes to tell you what happened
Speaker 1: in the game. And I think that's the biggest thing
Speaker 1: when like with analytics and data, it can they can
Speaker 1: tell you better than almost anything else, like what happened
Speaker 1: in a game, But you still need you know, folks
Speaker 1: like yourself or you know, maybe me or whatever, like
Speaker 1: someone to tell you why, like why this happened this way?
Speaker 1: And so that was always my philosophy with the n
Speaker 1: GS and and next gen tracking data. But on the
Speaker 1: team side of it, I think the speed of the
Speaker 1: game is something they're really trying to hone down on.
Speaker 1: You know, I've heard Daniel Jeremiah like there's been DJs
Speaker 1: me like a couple of coffee or something. We've name
Speaker 1: dropped him like fifty times here, but um, you know
Speaker 1: I've heard him talk about like basically teams essentially want
Speaker 1: to just throw out the forty at some point and
Speaker 1: only focus on that GPS data. And you know, I
Speaker 1: you know a lot of people used to raise their
Speaker 1: eyebrows at it because like what do I care that
Speaker 1: Tyreek Kill ran twenty three miles per hour and you
Speaker 1: know Stefan Diggs ran twenty two miles per hour at
Speaker 1: their top speed when yeah, they're just in the open field.
Speaker 1: But if you can break it down by you know,
Speaker 1: against this coverage on this third down play when he's
Speaker 1: running this route like that can be really helpful and
Speaker 1: scouting for sure, Yeah, when the balls in the air,
Speaker 1: how fast is here moving? Right? Like? How much can
Speaker 1: you separate once the ball has left the quarterback's hand.
Speaker 1: That's it's so fascinating to me. How you know we
Speaker 1: have this very not archaic way because tape still was king,
Speaker 1: you know, but to introduce the analytics and to really
Speaker 1: just hone in on those things, it's it's so cool
Speaker 1: to me, and I'm excited about the possible future of
Speaker 1: what the NFL has in that. So Matt on this
Speaker 1: podcast asked every positional expert. You're my second to last
Speaker 1: interview here, going position by a position here. We have
Speaker 1: running backs coming up later this week. Uh, I've been
Speaker 1: asking to separate the classes by tears, and I think
Speaker 1: I probably have a good idea for who your top
Speaker 1: tier is, um, you know where they go off the board,
Speaker 1: But where's that drop off in terms of who's in
Speaker 1: that second tier? Maybe Rashaw Bateman's in that first tier
Speaker 1: for you. Can you go through your first couple of
Speaker 1: tiers for us and how you separate those two. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I do think Rashade Bateman is in that top tier.
Speaker 1: I think the first tier is Davante Smith, Jamar Chase,
Speaker 1: Jalen Waddle, and Rashad Bateman is in that tier. You know,
Speaker 1: and you could flip those guys around in terms of
Speaker 1: rankings whatever. I think that next tier, and I'm honestly
Speaker 1: I am tempted to put Elijah More in that first tier.
Speaker 1: You could tell like the excitement that I talked about
Speaker 1: this guy with, but simply because of the questions about
Speaker 1: how much like slot is he going to play or
Speaker 1: how much like we just such limited exposure of him
Speaker 1: against press coverage and and he's he's good against press
Speaker 1: when he does face it, but there's just you know,
Speaker 1: there's gonna be some transition questions there. I'll probably put
Speaker 1: him at the very very top of that second tier.
Speaker 1: And the second tier of players is interesting. Uh Dammy Brown,
Speaker 1: Dammy Brown from u n C. I've probably screwing his
Speaker 1: first name up. I actually don't think I've ever actually
Speaker 1: said it out loud. Um, Like, yeah, he's He's a
Speaker 1: player from UNC that I really like in a way
Speaker 1: that like, you know what we're talking about will Fuller,
Speaker 1: like what people thought he was going to be coming
Speaker 1: into the NFL. You know, just a vertical threat, a
Speaker 1: guy that probably can't really play X receiver but and
Speaker 1: he's gonna drop a lot of passes. But he's gonna
Speaker 1: make big plays down the field. I like Brown and
Speaker 1: sort of that. Like I said, what people thought will
Speaker 1: full of the haters, what the haters thought will Fuller
Speaker 1: was going to be. I think Brown can actually be
Speaker 1: that player where he makes some mistakes, he has some drops,
Speaker 1: doesn't really always win in the contested game, but man,
Speaker 1: he gets downfield. He's tough, he's physical, and I think
Speaker 1: he has some upside to be a starting player in
Speaker 1: the NFL. Uh Derres Marshall. He's another guy in that
Speaker 1: second tier, another player that I think can be that
Speaker 1: I as well. So it's it's an interesting group when
Speaker 1: you get into that second tier of players, and then
Speaker 1: it comes down to, like those four guys into the
Speaker 1: first year, I think you can figure it out, like
Speaker 1: any team can find a way to deploy those guys
Speaker 1: and they'll be good pros. The next year is where
Speaker 1: it's gonna come down to fit a scheme, quarterback, all
Speaker 1: of that type of stuff, or whether how much success
Speaker 1: they're gonna find even if they always do. Like I said,
Speaker 1: you can isolate them and um, their individual performance can
Speaker 1: be great in reception perception, but if you want to
Speaker 1: find the best fit for them, I do think they're
Speaker 1: it's going to sort of come down to um, come
Speaker 1: down to that fit. Tyland Wallace is another guy too.
Speaker 1: I didn't mention him. He's a player that I think
Speaker 1: his best days might have not been his most recent season,
Speaker 1: but I really do like his ability as a separator
Speaker 1: and as a downfield guy as well. I was really
Speaker 1: bummed out when he got injured back in nineteen. Like
Speaker 1: you mentioned, he was having a hell of a season
Speaker 1: that year and winds up getting hurt. So, yeah, he's
Speaker 1: a he's a good looking receiver. You mentioned something there
Speaker 1: about Elijah More maybe some of the perception about being,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of pigeonholed kind of reminds me of
Speaker 1: rondel Moore a little bit because he didn't have it
Speaker 1: on tape and didn't wasn't asked to be a lot
Speaker 1: of the intermediate and vertical stuff. But he just broke
Speaker 1: so many tackles before the lastcrimage that they didn't have
Speaker 1: to have him do that. So that's a good way
Speaker 1: to look at to like not this. Don't look at
Speaker 1: a guy's tape of college and say he can't do
Speaker 1: it because he wasn't asked to do. It's a very
Speaker 1: interesting dynamic there. So let's say Miami winds up with
Speaker 1: Jamar Chase or Davonte Smith or Jalen Waddle or Rashon Babin,
Speaker 1: whoever it might be. Let's say they get one of
Speaker 1: those guys early and they circle back on day three
Speaker 1: and maybe you go more fit here with two in
Speaker 1: the offense and the quick rhythm game. Who do you
Speaker 1: like as a possible day three fit with Miami at
Speaker 1: the receiver position? Yeah, I think. I don't know how
Speaker 1: you feel about this with two of but I thought
Speaker 1: coming into the NFL, he was very much like a timing,
Speaker 1: anticipatory passer, you know, in that sort of Drew Brees
Speaker 1: mold Um. I actually talked to to her recently and
Speaker 1: like made that comparison. I can tell I al right,
Speaker 1: I can tell you was like, that's a little aggressive.
Speaker 1: I was like, come on, man, I'm trying to ip
Speaker 1: up here, right. Um. I think though, that, like he
Speaker 1: that was what was interesting at first, Like when they
Speaker 1: were coming into this receiver corps last year, you know,
Speaker 1: they were really like more Fitzpatrick guys, right, like the
Speaker 1: big contested receivers, DeVante Parker, Preston Williams, those guys are
Speaker 1: not by any means great separators, but they are those
Speaker 1: great receivers. It was just like kind of an interesting
Speaker 1: fit um there if you're looking at if you're looking
Speaker 1: at just again stylistically, what what I think to needs.
Speaker 1: And I think all of these guys can be that
Speaker 1: from that tier one can be that type of stylistic
Speaker 1: fit with two. You know, someone that gets clean separation,
Speaker 1: can win on in breaking routes, can play a lot
Speaker 1: of different positions. I think those are fits there too,
Speaker 1: um just in terms of like more Day three guys
Speaker 1: that could fit into that quick separation way, you know
Speaker 1: that might not have the same upside I look at
Speaker 1: i'man Ross st Brown from USC. He might be a
Speaker 1: Day two guy. He might be an early Day three
Speaker 1: player as well. There doesn't seem to be a ton
Speaker 1: of buzz on him, but I could see him fitting
Speaker 1: into sort of that pure slot receiver mold that like
Speaker 1: gets that quick inside outside um free release and could
Speaker 1: win in his routes that way. He's a player that
Speaker 1: I would at least keep an eye on. Um also,
Speaker 1: uh MARII Rodgers, I don't know if he's you know, again,
Speaker 1: it's hard to say where these guys are gonna go,
Speaker 1: but he's another player that could go in the in
Speaker 1: the third round, in the fourth round. They could also
Speaker 1: be that type of separator they can give, you know, Miami,
Speaker 1: a guy that they're not gonna funnel it ton of
Speaker 1: targets to, especially if they pick a player in the
Speaker 1: first round and they also have Devonte Parker and Will Fuller,
Speaker 1: but someone to add some more bodies to that room.
Speaker 1: And then if you're looking at like do we want
Speaker 1: another big play type of type of guy, I would
Speaker 1: look at James Darton as well. He or Jalen Darton.
Speaker 1: Excuse me, He's a guy that could win vertically. He's
Speaker 1: a smaller player. I know that Miami has a ton
Speaker 1: of like small gadgety type of receivers, but if you're
Speaker 1: looking for more speed, he's a guy to look at
Speaker 1: as well. We have a ton of receivers in general
Speaker 1: twelve and total right now, so they're all over the place.
Speaker 1: I know they suddenly just like got you know my guy,
Speaker 1: Albert Wilson. I've always liked Albert Wilson. He's he's coming
Speaker 1: back after the opt out, like they had like a
Speaker 1: ton of guys like fluction back into the room there,
Speaker 1: Albert Wilson, Alan Heards coming back. People forget about Lynn Bowed,
Speaker 1: and people forget about Malcolm Perry last year was a
Speaker 1: fun player, you know, coming out of the draft process.
Speaker 1: And I have to tell my audience I did not
Speaker 1: grease Matt before this podcast because Matt, you just talked
Speaker 1: about something that I feel like I've been trying to
Speaker 1: convince people of for a long time about replicating this
Speaker 1: type of speed athletic you know, quick receivers with Towah,
Speaker 1: and I've had a hard I've kind of met some
Speaker 1: resistance on that point as far as we'll just get
Speaker 1: him good receivers. No, there's there's stylistically, some things you
Speaker 1: can do to really, you know, magnify his strength. So
Speaker 1: I appreciate you following along there. This is the first
Speaker 1: time we've ever talked, so I did not grease on
Speaker 1: that point. I do want to bring it home with
Speaker 1: this though. But it's so true though, just just to
Speaker 1: hammer on on that since since since we brought it
Speaker 1: up like this probably happened to be about three or
Speaker 1: three years ago. So like doing reception perception, and you know,
Speaker 1: I guess I'm an idiot. I didn't think about this
Speaker 1: until then. But like I'm spending so much time with
Speaker 1: wide receivers, you're inherently spending so much time with quarterbacks,
Speaker 1: and I think you start to learn a lot about
Speaker 1: a quarterback based on the wide receivers that they thrive with. Um.
Speaker 1: And I bring it back to Cooper Cup again, like
Speaker 1: Jared Goff just could would kind of go on the
Speaker 1: fritz whenever Cooper Cup was out of the lineup, And
Speaker 1: I think it's clearly because Jared Goff wants to see
Speaker 1: this guy open, wide open against zone coverage in the
Speaker 1: middle of the field and hit him on those lay
Speaker 1: up throws over and over and over again. UM. I
Speaker 1: bring it to you know, Carolina in twenty nineteen, they
Speaker 1: had Curtis Samuel as a vertical threat that just the
Speaker 1: Kyle Alon I couldn't get that guy the ball. But
Speaker 1: DJ Moore running thirty five slants and digs per game
Speaker 1: and on those like more rhythm lay up routes, Kyle
Speaker 1: Allen was working well with Dj Moore. In a real
Speaker 1: throwback example that everybody probably forgets about, Michael Crabtree. This
Speaker 1: is one of like reception perceptions early backpaths, like in
Speaker 1: the first year of doing this full fully full season
Speaker 1: charting and do that, and fourteen, you know, Michael Crabtree
Speaker 1: was coming from the San Francisco forty Niners to the
Speaker 1: Oakland Raiders. People basically left Crabtree for dead on that
Speaker 1: free agent market. Um. But what reception perception was showing
Speaker 1: was like, this is a guy that still runs those
Speaker 1: timing and rhythm routes really well, sort of in the
Speaker 1: same mold of what I would love to see the
Speaker 1: Dolphins get for to a guy that can win. And
Speaker 1: I think even Jamaar Chase, like I've seen people like
Speaker 1: Nate Tye from The Athletic Football Show compare Jamar Chase
Speaker 1: to Michael Crabtree, and I think, you know, Larry Fitgerald
Speaker 1: micro Crabtree. There's some connective tissue there as well, but
Speaker 1: he runs those timing and rhythm routes well. That was
Speaker 1: just not a good fit with the player that Colin
Speaker 1: Kaepernick had become at that point in his career. He
Speaker 1: was very much more of a see it, throw at
Speaker 1: guy that could, like he could rifle that ball to
Speaker 1: to an Kwan Bolden, no problem, because like an Kwan
Speaker 1: Bolden doesn't need to be open to catch the ball right.
Speaker 1: But when going from the player Kaepernick had become to
Speaker 1: Derek Carr, who is like not nearly the type of
Speaker 1: physical talent that Colin Kaepernick buzz but was a much
Speaker 1: more timing based thrower. Um. You know, and Derek car
Speaker 1: has got a lot of flaws, but I think one
Speaker 1: of his best traits is that he does feel the
Speaker 1: timing and the rhythm of a play very well. Um
Speaker 1: and knows where ain't smart, like knows when things are
Speaker 1: coming open. Crabtree had a couple of good years with
Speaker 1: Oakland before eventually moving on as well. You know, So
Speaker 1: this is it's so key when you're scouting wide receivers,
Speaker 1: when you're trying to find out their best fit. I
Speaker 1: do think reception perception is a good tool for that
Speaker 1: as well, because it matters so much. You know, you
Speaker 1: could be a good wide receiver and even be a
Speaker 1: productive wide receiver and like even be playing with a
Speaker 1: good quarterback, but if the stylistic fit is not there,
Speaker 1: it's just not going to happen the way people wanted to. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that chemistry takes you know, you can kind of develop
Speaker 1: quickly when you have that that fit and maybe does
Speaker 1: never develop so you don't have that type of fit.
Speaker 1: And with this draft, like you mentioned, hopefully plenty of
Speaker 1: options for all kinds of styles with this receiver class.
Speaker 1: But I want to finish up talking about one player
Speaker 1: who's not a receiver, but he kind of is. And
Speaker 1: you and I talked about an off air about how
Speaker 1: good this guy is, and everyone's got to going, you know,
Speaker 1: first player off the board, first non quarterback off the board,
Speaker 1: Kyle Pitts. And you know I've talked about how you
Speaker 1: can add him to the to the running game, and
Speaker 1: it gives you an extra gap if you have twelve personnel,
Speaker 1: two more gaps to your running game, and then the
Speaker 1: defense has to make a decision do we stay in
Speaker 1: base because then I can flex him in, GESICKI out,
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, I've got a linebacker on
Speaker 1: two basically wide receivers, or if they want to go
Speaker 1: six defensive backs and go dime. Now I've got forty
Speaker 1: pounds on your dB in the running game. So it's
Speaker 1: a fun balance talk about. I want to hear you
Speaker 1: talk about Kyle Pitts where he should go off the
Speaker 1: board and is he really that true matchup, dynamic, game
Speaker 1: changing piece that so many people think he is. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think, you know, there's a ton of skepticism about
Speaker 1: taking a tight end that high because the history of
Speaker 1: it's not great. Um, you know, but Kyle Pitts is
Speaker 1: not Eric Ebron, like Kyle Pitts is not t J. Hopkinson,
Speaker 1: like if you flex, Hawkins is a pretty decent player.
Speaker 1: Ebron has even had his moments. But like if you
Speaker 1: flex uh t Ja Hockinson like out wide or something,
Speaker 1: an X receiver like a cornerback is gonna laugh in
Speaker 1: your face because like, sure he's bigger than him, but
Speaker 1: he's a lot slower. Kyle Pitts is not that guy.
Speaker 1: Like Kyle Pitts can line up everywhere. As you mentioned,
Speaker 1: he might be one of the better receivers in the
Speaker 1: draft class if he was just a wide receiver. But
Speaker 1: I think he presents so much more tactical value as
Speaker 1: that tight end. And I love the fit with Miami.
Speaker 1: I don't I don't know if he's gonna get there,
Speaker 1: Like he might go and pick four, he might go
Speaker 1: and pick five. He really is that good. But if
Speaker 1: he's sitting there staring at you know, staring him in
Speaker 1: the face at six, I would really think long and
Speaker 1: hard about going with pits there, even though I like
Speaker 1: Jamar Chase, I like Themont Smith, like Jillen Waddle, like
Speaker 1: all these receivers that are probably going going to go
Speaker 1: in the top half of the first round in the
Speaker 1: NFL Draft. I think we talked about it like wide
Speaker 1: receivers deep you know, you can find an impact wide
Speaker 1: receiver and you already have like two guys. I think
Speaker 1: Parker and Fuller is a there. There's not a lot
Speaker 1: of long term stability there because Fuller is only on
Speaker 1: a one year deal. Parker at some point he's gonna
Speaker 1: come up as well. There's not a lot of long
Speaker 1: term stability there but for one. And I think the
Speaker 1: priority for one is like, at all costs, let's get
Speaker 1: to a go and you know, let's put something around
Speaker 1: him that can work. You got two guys that are
Speaker 1: competent starting receivers, and at eighteen or thirty six or whatever,
Speaker 1: you can come back for some of these second tier
Speaker 1: wide receivers as well. So I would love pittss fit
Speaker 1: in Miami because it's as you mentioned, Yeah, they have Mikeasecki,
Speaker 1: and I like Mikeasecki, but number one Mikeasecki is not,
Speaker 1: you know, a player that would prevent you from taking
Speaker 1: perhaps the best player in the draft. You know, no,
Speaker 1: almost no one is at that level. Like you just
Speaker 1: get good players and you figure the rest out later.
Speaker 1: And also, by the way, like if Mike Casseki ever
Speaker 1: had a season where the Dolphins were gonna franchise tag him,
Speaker 1: you bet his representatives are gonna be in that front
Speaker 1: office like like, hey, look at where he lines up.
Speaker 1: You know, look at how any lines up in this lot,
Speaker 1: Like you're probably gonna have to tag this guy's the
Speaker 1: wide receiver right like there. You know they're gonna try
Speaker 1: to do that Jimmy Graham things so you can as
Speaker 1: you mentioned, the options are limitless. Like I think if
Speaker 1: the like compare what the Dolphins were playing with in
Speaker 1: like week fifteen, week fourteen of last season two then
Speaker 1: week one or not sorry, week two, because I gotta gain.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have to get used to that. That's gonna
Speaker 1: be almost as hard as trying to remember that we
Speaker 1: have a seventeen game uh, and those and those records
Speaker 1: and everything, But think about that Week two of NFL season,
Speaker 1: Like you said, you've got pits and Gasecki as your
Speaker 1: you know, uh, tight ends, but also you put Gasecki
Speaker 1: is that big slot, and then you've got Parker at
Speaker 1: X and Fuller red Z or maybe vice versa. You
Speaker 1: can move those guys around. That is a huge improvement.
Speaker 1: And then again maybe you do have another receiver waiting
Speaker 1: in the wings that you took later on in the
Speaker 1: draft from this very interesting and deep class. Um there's
Speaker 1: a lot of potential there. If I was Miami, I
Speaker 1: think I would just simply from the rarity of not
Speaker 1: just a player like Kyle Pitts, but also the tight
Speaker 1: end position in general is kind of a pain to
Speaker 1: figure out as it is like anyone who plays mantasy football,
Speaker 1: I can tell you that is a pain to try
Speaker 1: to find a good tight end out there. Uh, it's
Speaker 1: I would go with Pitts. I think over over some
Speaker 1: of these receivers. May June, July, August, September. We got
Speaker 1: about five months until the start of football season. You've
Speaker 1: got me fired up, Matt. You're talking out that lineup
Speaker 1: at hard Rock Stadium, getting out there and the hundred
Speaker 1: degree weather, hundred percent humidity down here in South Florida.
Speaker 1: I can't wait for it. Matt Harmon, y'all who sports
Speaker 1: reception perception. I know you're dropping something big on Monday.
Speaker 1: Where can the people find you on social What are
Speaker 1: you working on promote the work Matt? Yeah, of course
Speaker 1: on social media, Twitter and Instagram at Matt Harmon underscore
Speaker 1: b y B. Don't bother follow him on Instagram unless
Speaker 1: you really like dogs or cooking pictures, So let me
Speaker 1: just stick with Twitter at Matt Harmon. Who doesn't like
Speaker 1: those things? All right? At Matt Harmon underscore b y B.
Speaker 1: On Twitter, use the hashtag reception perception to keep up
Speaker 1: with what's going on there, and reception Perception. Dot com
Speaker 1: is the UH is the u r L is the site. Uh.
Speaker 1: The subscriptions will be available hopefully before Monday, but yeah,
Speaker 1: Monday will be dropping all of the rookie Like some
Speaker 1: of these rookies we talked about today, they're gonna get
Speaker 1: dropped right away. And then before the NFL Draft, the
Speaker 1: rest of the twelve or fifteen guys that I've worked
Speaker 1: on this offseason, those will be up there as well.
Speaker 1: And then in the summer. I mean, Will Fuller is
Speaker 1: already on the site. He's a there because he was
Speaker 1: a free agent, But we're talking about you know, forty
Speaker 1: plus fifty plus NFL players are going to be added
Speaker 1: to the site by the time training camps open in
Speaker 1: the off season. They're just you're you're gonna get like,
Speaker 1: if you're a fan of Reception Perception before this, you're
Speaker 1: gonna get more access than you ever have before to
Speaker 1: the data. Trust me on that. Or if you are
Speaker 1: new to the series, you're gonna get blown away by
Speaker 1: all the information that's about to hit you in the face.
Speaker 1: You're doing yourself a disservice as a football fan if
Speaker 1: you do not use this resource. It's so valuable. Matt.
Speaker 1: We really appreciate your time today. Man, Let's come back
Speaker 1: and do this maybe in training camp and preview this
Speaker 1: receiver room when it is complete. Maybe, Yeah, let's lets
Speaker 1: let's run this all back again, because it's gonna be
Speaker 1: I think it's gonna be pretty fun group. And I'm
Speaker 1: actually excited about the Dolphins offense for sure. I can't wait.
Speaker 1: Thanks a lot, MA, I appreciate it, man, And away
Speaker 1: he goes. And you know, I told Matt this off
Speaker 1: air about how I'm always a little bit you kind
Speaker 1: of dip your toe into the podcast guest you never
Speaker 1: interviewed before with Matt. Before we got on the air,
Speaker 1: we were laughing like football dorks, Like you can tell
Speaker 1: someone loves it like you do, and he definitely takes
Speaker 1: it to another level in that regard. You heard him
Speaker 1: giggling on the podcast and geeking out about these prospects.
Speaker 1: That's what makes this job so fun, the love and
Speaker 1: the passion and the fire for it. We are way
Speaker 1: over time, but I don't think anyone's can playing out there.
Speaker 1: We are gonna go ahead and wrap up this podcast though,
Speaker 1: because as for today's time, that will be my time.
Speaker 1: You all please be sure to subscribe to the podcast
Speaker 1: on Apple, podcast, Spotify, wherever you get your podcast from.
Speaker 1: Go ahead and leave us a rating, leave us a review.
Speaker 1: Follow me on Twitter at Wingfield NFL. Follow the team
Speaker 1: at Miami Dolphins. Check out The Fish Tank and the
Speaker 1: Audible podcast and Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time,
Speaker 1: fins up