Speaker 1: What is up Dolphins, and welcome to the Draft Time Podcast.
Speaker 1: I am your host, Travis Wingfield, and on today's show,
Speaker 1: the draft is fast approaching and we are knocking out
Speaker 1: yet another prospect profile on a potential first round pick.
Speaker 2: As we look at tight end.
Speaker 1: Tyler Warren, the apple of my eye in this year's
Speaker 1: draft class, and with roster depth rounding into form throughout
Speaker 1: free agency, I wanted to look ahead to training camp
Speaker 1: at some of the potentially intriguing battles we might see
Speaker 1: come the month of August. From the Baptist Health Studios
Speaker 1: inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Draft
Speaker 1: Time Podcast. Off the top, very happy retirement, congratulations to
Speaker 1: twelve year veteran one of the best tackles of the
Speaker 1: last decade, to Ron Armstead who called it a career
Speaker 1: on Saturday Night. So he hands the reins officially to
Speaker 1: Patrick at left tackle, and I will be doing some
Speaker 1: work on his tape from last season, providing you guys
Speaker 1: a breakdown. Hopefully we'll have that in video form on
Speaker 1: HQ as well, and maybe even try to get the
Speaker 1: Big fellow on the show here and talk to him
Speaker 1: a little bit. So that's first off the top here,
Speaker 1: but what I wanted to look at with Paul sliding
Speaker 1: into the left tackle position and essentially having four of
Speaker 1: the five offensive line spots pretty much spoken for as
Speaker 1: of today on April the seventh, I thought it would
Speaker 1: be fun to look at some of the potential camp
Speaker 1: battles we might see with what the roster currently looks like.
Speaker 1: And you know, the first thing I learned in the NFL,
Speaker 1: or the first thing that was really drilled into my
Speaker 1: head from you know, a football perspective, was that everything
Speaker 1: is a competition every single day. And the moment you
Speaker 1: go into training camp thinking you have a concrete idea
Speaker 1: of what your lineup and rotations will look like come
Speaker 1: the second Sunday in September, when you kick it off
Speaker 1: for real, that's when you permeate an environment that focuses
Speaker 1: on the wrong things. Off the top of the head,
Speaker 1: the best example of this that I can pinpoint to
Speaker 1: the league right now is when the Bills spent a
Speaker 1: first round pick on kyer Elum back in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1: And I'll never forget the content around him with the
Speaker 1: Bills when he requested the playbook on the flight to
Speaker 1: Buffalo after draft night, and it was like, Oh, this
Speaker 1: guy's going to be a great study, which obviously he
Speaker 1: went that high because of athletic ability.
Speaker 2: How could it go wrong? Right?
Speaker 1: That's where we always kind of take the cheese on
Speaker 1: prospects and players is if they're smart and in their
Speaker 1: playbook and care about the right things and their athletes,
Speaker 1: they should work. But they don't always work out that way.
Speaker 1: In that same draft class, they took Christian Benford one
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty two picks later in the sixth round.
Speaker 1: The first round draft pick didn't make it out of
Speaker 1: his third year in Buffalo before getting cut. And that
Speaker 1: sixth round pick just got a new contract paying him
Speaker 1: roughly twenty million bucks per year. And that's what makes
Speaker 1: this fun league, right, all the unknown that shrouded around
Speaker 1: the league. Every single year, every single team, every single
Speaker 1: position group has surprises that we did not forecast going
Speaker 1: into that season. And another reason I detest the concept
Speaker 1: that you have to land ins within your first couple
Speaker 1: of picks.
Speaker 2: Don't get me wrong, it's obviously very important.
Speaker 1: Or rather, I suppose the best way to frame it
Speaker 1: is that you can only possibly do it with your
Speaker 1: first couple of draft picks. It drives me crazy because
Speaker 1: we see impact players enter this league in every single
Speaker 1: round and beyond the draft every single year. But that's
Speaker 1: a separate argument for another day. Now, every coach, every regime,
Speaker 1: every single person holding a high ranking position in this
Speaker 1: league will have things they can improve upon, right, That's
Speaker 1: true for even the best players in the NFL, and
Speaker 1: experience is typically the only way for that to crystallize.
Speaker 1: For coaches, for instance, especially first time head coaches. I
Speaker 1: think in recent years, you know, in pursuit of star talent,
Speaker 1: the Dolphins not only had to take some sacrifices in
Speaker 1: certain areas of depth, which really, if you go back
Speaker 1: the last every year of the McDaniel era has pretty
Speaker 1: much gone by the boards because of one position group's
Speaker 1: complete and ability to stay healthy. And you can pretty
Speaker 1: much attach to two of those three years. But even
Speaker 1: back in twenty two, it was the cornerbacks, right, remember
Speaker 1: when we were playing you know, guys that were signed
Speaker 1: to be special teams aces like Keon Crossing and Justin
Speaker 1: Bethel as like starters, like, it was just so thin there.
Speaker 1: And then in twenty three it was the edge. Last
Speaker 1: year it was the edge again, and then the quarterback again,
Speaker 1: so you've essentially had that happen each of the last
Speaker 1: three years. And while you might say that type of
Speaker 1: attrition is pretty much just unfair in any sense, the
Speaker 1: reality is that it's happened three years in a row,
Speaker 1: and so maybe lacking depth in certain areas, but also
Speaker 1: it doesn't naturally foster an environment of competition.
Speaker 2: That's not to say they didn't compete.
Speaker 1: I would never, you know, question the efforts of these
Speaker 1: you know, professional athletes, at least, you know, not uniformly,
Speaker 1: Like there's obviously certain individuals that you know, need that.
Speaker 1: But we kind of knew the starter at every single
Speaker 1: position going into last year, right like where was the
Speaker 1: real mystery one of the one of the two guard
Speaker 1: spots after we learned that the Isaiah Winn was going
Speaker 1: to be down for a while, the tight end two
Speaker 1: battle between Smyth and Hill. I mean, that's just about
Speaker 1: it outside of rotational work, and the tight end two
Speaker 1: job is rotational work. Now, I think we'll look at
Speaker 1: this camp with competitions at safety, defensive tackle, one of
Speaker 1: the two guard spots, and I guess wide receiver three,
Speaker 1: And of course the draft will reshape that. But I
Speaker 1: feel pretty good about those competitions with how the roster
Speaker 1: shakes out at the moment. All of this is a
Speaker 1: preamble to say, to give you a disclaimer. Obviously, not
Speaker 1: every spot is going to come down to camp performance.
Speaker 1: You know who the quarterback is, you know who the
Speaker 1: top two receivers are. You've got sixty percent of a
Speaker 1: proven offensive line, eighty percent of what you is going
Speaker 1: to be out there opening day. One of the best
Speaker 1: defensive tackles, and Zach Seeler cornerbacks, and Jalen Ramsey, Mike
Speaker 1: Backers and Jordan Brooks. It's good to have known quantities,
Speaker 1: but I also think it's good to pit two good
Speaker 1: players against each other or three or four at a
Speaker 1: couple of positions and say let the best man win
Speaker 1: and let's be You know, I mentioned this in a
Speaker 1: podcast recently, Like that type of environment where you compete
Speaker 1: for your job, winds up giving you applicable reps when
Speaker 1: you need to compete on the field on Sundays and
Speaker 1: with the draft still to come, you know, ten picks
Speaker 1: and I'm I'm kind of a big believer in the
Speaker 1: idea of trying to just accumulate more picks, like trade
Speaker 1: back and acquire more and get yourself fourteen picks and
Speaker 1: allow yourself to bat four hundred and find six contributors,
Speaker 1: cause you know what that would do to this roster.
Speaker 1: I digress, different story for a different day, and we'll
Speaker 1: talk about different draft outcomes here in the coming weeks.
Speaker 1: But you know the last time the Dolphins had a
Speaker 1: very successful draft classes when they had a bunch of
Speaker 1: byates at the Apple and you factor in those picks
Speaker 1: udfas and almost certainly you know a couple of more
Speaker 1: veteran acquisitions between now and the end of July, like
Speaker 1: Jack Jones just got released. I know he's been a
Speaker 1: knucklehead in two places he's been, but he's a really
Speaker 1: good football player.
Speaker 2: We need a quarterback.
Speaker 1: I would kick the tires and that possibly, I thought
Speaker 1: we could assess where some of those battles could occur.
Speaker 1: And I had written that we were going to operate
Speaker 1: under the assumption that toront will not be back, but
Speaker 1: he gave us that news on Saturday. So updating that here,
Speaker 1: Patrick Paul's left tackle, and with that in mind, we
Speaker 1: have eighty percent of the offensive line ready to roll
Speaker 1: with Austin Brew, James Daniels at one of the two
Speaker 1: guard spots, and then Pat Paul we covered two a
Speaker 1: Reek wattle at John new Smith In there. I don't
Speaker 1: think there's a ton of mystery about the eight Chan
Speaker 1: and Wright duo and how Alexander Madison factors into that,
Speaker 1: which really only leaves us with three spots that I
Speaker 1: find worthy of discussion in the segment, And quite frankly,
Speaker 1: I'm inclined to lop off one of the three, and
Speaker 1: in fact, I'm gonna do that because it's the same
Speaker 1: spot I talked about last year with tight end two,
Speaker 1: which to me is Pharaoh Brown versus Julian Hill for
Speaker 1: that you know, y reps, and I don't think it's
Speaker 1: much of a battle, if I'm being totally honest with you, guys,
Speaker 1: receiver rolls beyond reak and waddle, and then the fifth
Speaker 1: piece of the offensive line. Who's that other guard and
Speaker 1: who mans the third and fourth spots and what roles
Speaker 1: and what groupings and what personnel packages. You could probably
Speaker 1: add swing interior offensive line and swing tackle here. I
Speaker 1: think Keon Smith probably has his hand in both of
Speaker 1: those pies. But even then, you know, again, tight end
Speaker 1: two and why position work, I don't think it's worth
Speaker 1: getting that far into the weeds prior to the draft.
Speaker 1: This is a more of a you know, fostering competition
Speaker 1: and who could be in line to surprise a training
Speaker 1: camp type of segment. So my first one here might
Speaker 1: even be a bit of a stretch. But the receiver spot,
Speaker 1: we know that Nick Westbrook Akinne is more than just
Speaker 1: an insert blocker. He's arguably the best blocking receiver in
Speaker 1: the NFL. Who expands what you know about receivers, excuse me,
Speaker 1: in the run blocking game in the in the running
Speaker 1: game in the NFL. Like remember those old infomercials, forget
Speaker 1: everything you know about I don't know vacuum cleaners. Okay, cool,
Speaker 1: So forget everything you know about what you can ask
Speaker 1: receivers to do in the running game. When it comes
Speaker 1: to Nick Westbrook Akine. Now with Malik Washington, I would
Speaker 1: say the same applies in terms of the want to
Speaker 1: but and the tact I suppose that he plays with.
Speaker 1: But the difference there is six two two ten versus
Speaker 1: five eight one ninety. I legit could see NWI getting
Speaker 1: reps that you would call for twelve personnel but actually
Speaker 1: having eleven personnel on the field, like they match with
Speaker 1: their nickel defense, and you get what you want because
Speaker 1: they don't know that one of those three receivers is
Speaker 1: going to jet motion wrap the edge and seal that
Speaker 1: edge against your undersized box defender or one hundred and
Speaker 1: seventy five pound nickel cornerback that you brought into the
Speaker 1: field because we showed you three receivers. Now we're gonna
Speaker 1: go ahead and block that guy and seal him for
Speaker 1: a twelve yard Devon h Chen touchdown run on the
Speaker 1: red zone. That and his ability to make contested catches,
Speaker 1: it's not it's not like a you know, calling card
Speaker 1: to his game.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't say, but he can do it.
Speaker 1: And just that size and tight quarters alone with his
Speaker 1: ability to kind of, you know, create separation through his
Speaker 1: route running, it makes him seem like an obvious plug
Speaker 1: and play red zone threat, one that might even be
Speaker 1: able to give ten and seventeen a breather here and there.
Speaker 1: And we know that, you know, McDaniel's not at all
Speaker 1: shy about doing that, right, We saw Trent Sherfield, River Craycraft,
Speaker 1: Cedric Wilson, all these guys, even Chase Claypool and Robbie
Speaker 1: chosen to a certain extent getting reps down in high
Speaker 1: and mid red zone and low red zone two for
Speaker 1: that matter, while ten and seventeen got their breathers a
Speaker 1: lot of the time on those rundowns inside the red zone.
Speaker 1: Red zone rundown reps that's a freaking mouthful. So Westbrook
Speaker 1: is more of a vertical threat to than the leak.
Speaker 1: So he's got two pretty big ends of the spectrum
Speaker 1: there in this potential competition in my opinion. But I
Speaker 1: think Malik is a better screen player and with the
Speaker 1: football in his hands after the catch and as a
Speaker 1: potential ball carrier. So jet motion Nwi on one play
Speaker 1: and he's your lead blocker, Jet motion Malik Washington and
Speaker 1: give him the football. He's also very sure handed and
Speaker 1: a true student of the game that absorbed the offense
Speaker 1: last year and saw him go, you know, kind of
Speaker 1: break out, not breakout, but like show that he could
Speaker 1: play in this league, in this offense down the stretch right,
Speaker 1: and he's got better as he went along, And that
Speaker 1: year of experience within the offense I think is an
Speaker 1: advantage on Nwi, who is no slouch when it comes
Speaker 1: to being a student of the game. So I think
Speaker 1: he'll get it down as quick as anybody, But I'm
Speaker 1: just acknowledging that Malik does have the edge in terms of.
Speaker 2: He was here last year.
Speaker 1: Of course, the entire room is fighting for playing time,
Speaker 1: but I think that based off resume and projecting forward,
Speaker 1: those would be the front runners, with Westbrook Akine holding
Speaker 1: the edge for a more prominent role. But ultimately both
Speaker 1: players should have plenty of reps, especially with Malik in
Speaker 1: the kicking game here is that Westbrook Akine takes it,
Speaker 1: but Malik makes it tough on him, pushes him, and
Speaker 1: makes the entire room better. In fact, I think the
Speaker 1: real battle here might be more between Malik and D. S.
Speaker 1: Gridge because we saw d kind of flash some some
Speaker 1: things here and there in that kind of you know,
Speaker 1: screen game potential ball carrier, tougher than you know, plays
Speaker 1: bigger than the size type of role the Malik plays
Speaker 1: like D. S. Gridge kind of shows you some stuff
Speaker 1: in that in that role as well. But I think
Speaker 1: all three of those guys feature pretty cool supplementary skills
Speaker 1: to wreak and waddle, and as of today, you know,
Speaker 1: before the draft, that would be my top five going
Speaker 1: into the season. Reek Wattle, Nwy, Malik Washington, and D. S.
Speaker 1: Gridge at the guard spot. I'd be surprised if they're
Speaker 1: done adding there. So there's a chance we you know,
Speaker 1: monkey wrench, you know, get a monkey wrench thrown too
Speaker 1: this entire thing. In fact, i'd say better than a chance,
Speaker 1: I'd say it's likely. But since it's been quiet for
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks, you know, what better time to
Speaker 1: assess where we are before going into the draft. So
Speaker 1: Larry Boram played a little bit of gard in Chicago,
Speaker 1: primarily tackle. Same story in college, although there was more
Speaker 1: guard in colleges than there was as a pro. But
Speaker 1: I think the guard stuff with the Bears, in particular
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty three.
Speaker 2: Tape against the Bills. I care if it was two
Speaker 2: or three. I think it was twenty three.
Speaker 1: When he played the entire game at left guard, was
Speaker 1: by far the best thing that I watched, and I
Speaker 1: watched probably six of his games, especially the movement that
Speaker 1: he offers from that position and the ability to mash
Speaker 1: down hill. There are reps with duo and combination blocks
Speaker 1: where he you know, kind of shoulders to shoulder hip
Speaker 1: to hips next to the center and can move people
Speaker 1: off the football in short yardage and also a very
Speaker 1: quick open the gate step and then cross over step
Speaker 1: and get into space and trying to start square up
Speaker 1: blocks outside the numbers down the field. With Liam, look
Speaker 1: the five position of flexibility, I think is what's attractive there.
Speaker 1: And he's tough and durable. I always talk about the
Speaker 1: end of that twenty three season, he was, you know,
Speaker 1: doing everything he could to play through some some pretty
Speaker 1: serious stuff. So which that's a trait you look for
Speaker 1: in any player obviously, but your swing guys, they have
Speaker 1: to be durable, right, That's what that was a problem
Speaker 1: with Like Kendall Lamb, for instance, who I thought was
Speaker 1: as good of a swing tackles there was in the
Speaker 1: league over the last couple of years, but he got
Speaker 1: hurt a lot. If he played a few reps or
Speaker 1: if he was in practice, like there was a possibility
Speaker 1: he could get injured, and that all of a sudden
Speaker 1: opens you up to Pandora's box of like practice, squad
Speaker 1: call ups, street free agent signings, and you wind up
Speaker 1: starting those guys in a must win game, you know,
Speaker 1: in December, and look what happens, Like your quarterback is
Speaker 1: under drest the entire game, So.
Speaker 2: You need durability out of those guys.
Speaker 1: And that's why I've always thought, like Liam as a
Speaker 1: seventh or eighth makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 2: Then you higher than that. Maybe you know it's you're
Speaker 2: pushing it a bit.
Speaker 1: But I the thing that puzzles me the most, and
Speaker 1: not even the most, because like what I just said,
Speaker 1: I do believe in terms of like if Liam mikenbergs
Speaker 1: your eighth offensive lineman, then you're you're doing pretty good
Speaker 1: up there. But the thing that does kind of confuse
Speaker 1: me is is the scheme fit or lack thereof. I
Speaker 1: don't think it's ever been a fit for what Liam
Speaker 1: does well. There have been flashes, albeit brief, and those
Speaker 1: flashes are when he settles in a left guard position
Speaker 1: or right guard position and isn't bouncing around. But you know,
Speaker 1: at this point, like when he is in that seventh
Speaker 1: or eighth offensive line role, that means you're probably gonna
Speaker 1: have to insert at different spots throughout the course of
Speaker 1: the season, and when you lose that momentum and all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, we get those those reps where you
Speaker 1: get the big losses. And that's what I think it
Speaker 1: is about Liam with the reputation, is like the losses
Speaker 1: that get put on tape are so bad and so
Speaker 1: glaring that it really stands out among the fans. But
Speaker 1: the scheme fit and then the durability and consistency at
Speaker 1: one position, like it's kind of tough to get that
Speaker 1: in the role that I think he's best suited for.
Speaker 1: And then the rest of the suitors are guys without
Speaker 1: real NFL reps, Right, Andrew Meyer didn't play as a rookie,
Speaker 1: Chase and Hines has been on the practice squad for
Speaker 1: a few years. Then you've got some tackles and Brandon Daniels,
Speaker 1: Jackson Carmen, Ryan Hayes, bid On Mattos. But the one
Speaker 1: that I'm really intrigued by is Keon Smith because he
Speaker 1: made a massive jump when I thought he was one
Speaker 1: of the first guys cut on the team, you know,
Speaker 1: his first year with the Dolphins. Then he comes back
Speaker 1: in the next season and has a really good camp
Speaker 1: and winds up making the team in twenty twenty three
Speaker 1: and winds up getting mop up duty. And then all
Speaker 1: those blowout games we had and looked really really good,
Speaker 1: especially on that run exclusive touchdown drive they had in
Speaker 1: Washington and twenty three, that drive that was Mike White led,
Speaker 1: but it was all runs against the Commanders. And then
Speaker 1: last camp, Keon gets cross training work playing at guard
Speaker 1: and practice and in the preseason. And while I thought
Speaker 1: that was what you'd expect from a position change from
Speaker 1: a young player in camp, a lot of some ups
Speaker 1: but a lot of downs, I think there's potentially something
Speaker 1: there for him there, and that injury was so early
Speaker 1: on in August that he's got a shot to be
Speaker 1: ready by training camp. So he's sort of the dark
Speaker 1: horse in the entire equation, both as a swing tackle
Speaker 1: and a potential swing interior guy or maybe even a
Speaker 1: long shot to start. But I won't get ahead of
Speaker 1: myself there. I would imagine there's you know, that's not
Speaker 1: the banking on decision with the entire thing. So my
Speaker 1: prediction for this one is that the other starting guard
Speaker 1: is not yet on the roster. All right, that's the
Speaker 1: offensive battles I'm looking at today, on April the seventh,
Speaker 1: let's go ahead and come back on the other side
Speaker 1: and break down the defense. Draft Time podcast brought to
Speaker 1: you by AutoNation. So I'm recording this episode on Sunday afternoon.
Speaker 1: I was able to go to the driving range this
Speaker 1: morning to hit golf balls and be outside for the
Speaker 1: first time really in like five days. And is there
Speaker 1: anything better in life than when you get over an
Speaker 1: ailment or like a virus and then you can start
Speaker 1: getting back to your normal life. I think maybe the
Speaker 1: ability to sleep, you know, congestion free is probably the
Speaker 1: top of that, like subgenre list. Maybe it's when you're
Speaker 1: holding in like having to go to the bathroom for
Speaker 1: a long time too, Like then you get a chance
Speaker 1: to you know, hit the toilet, Like maybe that's one
Speaker 1: of the best feelings in life. I don't know, what
Speaker 1: do you guys think. Let me know in the episode
Speaker 1: on Twitter, what you think is the best possible feeling
Speaker 1: I'm talking about here. But yeah, going out on the
Speaker 1: driving range hitting golf balls, gosh, it sure felt nice.
Speaker 1: We got Master's week coming up, got college college hoops
Speaker 1: Final four just happened, start of baseball, the Mariner still sucks,
Speaker 1: So everything getting back on track here in the world.
Speaker 1: So we talked about offensive camp battles of intrigue that
Speaker 1: could potentially happen in a few months if nothing else
Speaker 1: changes on the roster, which we have the draft, so
Speaker 1: it will change. So an entirely futile exercise here, But hey,
Speaker 1: do you want to just listen to five thousand different
Speaker 1: names that could possibly Day three draft picks. We'll get
Speaker 1: to the sleepers and the possible fits later on, but
Speaker 1: I just want to continue to give you guys dolphin
Speaker 1: centric content because not everybody wants to hear about Francisco Waxy,
Speaker 1: the running back out of Twu Lane, and the potential
Speaker 1: seventh round draft pick on every single episode. So defensive
Speaker 1: side of the football, now here's where I think you
Speaker 1: got a lot more juice and kind of where the
Speaker 1: idea behind this kind of was sparked. It was really
Speaker 1: the safety position that made me got thinking about this,
Speaker 1: and the part about this I really like, and not
Speaker 1: that it wasn't the case last year, but I can
Speaker 1: really see the personnel fitting a vision of Anthony Weaver.
Speaker 1: I felt a lot of the additions made here would
Speaker 1: speak to what made this defense ecel under coach Weave.
Speaker 1: And while defense is even more rotation, matchup and role
Speaker 1: based and than the offenses, I think you'll have a
Speaker 1: lot of fun potential battles bring all over the side
Speaker 1: of the ball. To list the three that I'm looking
Speaker 1: at here, today Jordan Brooks's running mate. In terms of
Speaker 1: off ball linebacker reps, I think there's four very capable
Speaker 1: players in that room. Now, who is the third cornerback
Speaker 1: that is the most up in the air one at
Speaker 1: the current moment, and then who are the safeties? And
Speaker 1: I think those last two ones you're not gonna be
Speaker 1: done seeing players add to those rooms either. The one
Speaker 1: that I'll leave for another day is you know, like
Speaker 1: offensive line depth and tight end two depth that that
Speaker 1: type of stuff is the edge depth because we've got
Speaker 1: three pretty good, proven players that in that role, provided
Speaker 1: JP and Chubb can stay healthy for the first time
Speaker 1: in two years. Well, Chubb just missed the entire year
Speaker 1: because of previous year injury. And then Chop who was
Speaker 1: a very impressive rookie, and someone said I was like
Speaker 1: cheerleading him talking about his his sack he had against
Speaker 1: the Houston Texans and talking about how excited I was
Speaker 1: to see him in year two.
Speaker 2: Like, am I crazy?
Speaker 1: Is it weird to talk about like a rookie pass
Speaker 1: rusher having a great year and being a defensive player,
Speaker 1: Rookie of the Year candidate and being excited about his
Speaker 1: year two growth. I don't know anyway, then, so we've
Speaker 1: got a bunch of guys beyond those three players, right
Speaker 1: in Mo Kamara, Quentin Bell, Grayson Murphy. Like, I'm curious
Speaker 1: to see who shakes out playing time from that group,
Speaker 1: but I don't think it's worthy of this episode.
Speaker 2: So back to the linebackers.
Speaker 1: Jordan Brooks led the team and Snaps played last year
Speaker 1: on defense and was excellent in every phase of the game,
Speaker 1: especially as the year went along. I felt the defense
Speaker 1: kind of, you know, had a parallel incline to Brooks
Speaker 1: settling into the system and being the true traffic cop
Speaker 1: and green dot of this defense. And I think you
Speaker 1: can look at him as kind of the Rokwan Smith
Speaker 1: of the defense, and I you know, I'm not saying
Speaker 1: he's the same player, but in terms of Roquan gets
Speaker 1: to Baltimore and things just crystallized. I think jb Rather
Speaker 1: was a major target with that in mind last year
Speaker 1: and executed it brilliantly, and I think it's fair to
Speaker 1: expect that to be better in year two. And then
Speaker 1: I think you can see kind of the influence we
Speaker 1: talked about defensive tackle Snaps on the podcast on Friday.
Speaker 1: I think you kind of see the influence here of
Speaker 1: what the Ravens did by getting Roquan Smith and pairing
Speaker 1: him with Patrick Queen, and that you've seen the Dolphins
Speaker 1: go after this off ball linebacker position because prior to
Speaker 1: Jordan Brooks's arrival, you know, you had David Law and
Speaker 1: then you had like the kind of leftover Jordan or
Speaker 1: not Jordan Brooks. The Jerome Baker era was kind of
Speaker 1: you know, attached to a couple of different coaching changes,
Speaker 1: and then now you've really seen them invest in the
Speaker 1: position last year with Jordan Brooks, but also go out
Speaker 1: and get Anthony Walker to kind of, you know, be
Speaker 1: that third guy which ended up taking over David Long.
Speaker 1: You wind up getting Tyrrel Dotson, he gets the extension
Speaker 1: of the re upped contract, and then kJ Britt and
Speaker 1: Willie Gase like there's a real investment here akin to
Speaker 1: how the Ravens went after that same position when Weave
Speaker 1: was there. I think you see a lot of those
Speaker 1: same influences on this year's defense. So who is that
Speaker 1: guy that will earn the number two job? Because typically,
Speaker 1: you know in the NFL, you have two linebackers that
Speaker 1: rarely leave the field. The one never leaves the field,
Speaker 1: you hope that he's one hundred percent snap taker, and
Speaker 1: then a second guy who plays like ninety percent of
Speaker 1: the snaps, and then your third and fourth guys are
Speaker 1: typically forty fifty percent snap takers at best.
Speaker 2: So last year it was a committee as David.
Speaker 1: Long went from really good twenty twenty three season probably
Speaker 1: you know, upper echelon linebacker to a big reduction in
Speaker 1: performance for whatever reason. I know he was nicked up,
Speaker 1: so that probably had a lot to do with it.
Speaker 1: He winds up getting released, and luckily we claimed Tyreel Dotson,
Speaker 1: who provided stability when Anthony Walker did go down. And
Speaker 1: I think that Walker was much closer in terms of
Speaker 1: his play style to kJ Britt than he was David
Speaker 1: Long or Dodson for that matter, best on rundowns and
Speaker 1: a true enforcer in the middle. And that's what makes
Speaker 1: it all of this so much fun.
Speaker 2: I think you have three different styles.
Speaker 1: You know. Dotson is sort of a jack of all trades,
Speaker 1: perhaps a master of none, but sturdy in all areas.
Speaker 1: He's gotten better every year as a pro. When he
Speaker 1: filled in for Matt Mulano and Buffalo a couple of
Speaker 1: years back, they were like, I don't know if this
Speaker 1: defense can withstand this loss, and then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: like Dodson was, Oh, he's pretty good. He did the job,
Speaker 1: he held up and didn't you know, take us out
Speaker 1: out of our defense. I think that he can, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of that here for us last year with Anthony
Speaker 1: Walker going down and David Long's release and then Willie
Speaker 1: gay is just so damn explosive with so much upside
Speaker 1: and flash and play potential. Dodson was too for what
Speaker 1: it's worth, team leading three picks last year after arriving
Speaker 1: like what around Halloween. I think he can be role specific,
Speaker 1: as we saw with the Chiefs kind of deploy him
Speaker 1: in various matchup based roles in that spy kind of, hey,
Speaker 1: go take care of seventeen, make sure he's not you know,
Speaker 1: and that's that's not like a complex role. But you
Speaker 1: have to be a certain athlete to do that. And
Speaker 1: we talked about Willie Gaye being ninety eight percent tile
Speaker 1: in his ten split vertical broad jump and all that,
Speaker 1: all the speed based metrics and then kJ is an
Speaker 1: absolute head knocker, right, really good key and diagnosed, doesn't
Speaker 1: take false steps, I think anytime you got to go heavy.
Speaker 1: You put kJ Britt in the field and say, hey,
Speaker 1: go knock out a full back or a pulling guard
Speaker 1: and free up Jordan Brooks or free up e fat
Speaker 1: to Mela Fon would get a free run on this
Speaker 1: running back. This will be one of the positions that
Speaker 1: I'm looking at pre snap for my checklist every single
Speaker 1: rep in training camp first to find out who the
Speaker 1: hell's out there, because I think there's all kinds of
Speaker 1: ways to match this room together. My prediction is that
Speaker 1: Dodson wins the number two jobs as the primary backer
Speaker 1: next to Brooks out of camp, but Gay's workload phases
Speaker 1: into that more and more as the year goes along,
Speaker 1: and by the time we get to the postseason and
Speaker 1: hopefully we're there, Willie Gays so sorry, linebacker next to Brooks,
Speaker 1: provided everybody's healthy. I think the one with the next
Speaker 1: most juice is the safety position. Right now, you basically
Speaker 1: have to me four guys that could probably be safety
Speaker 1: two or maybe safety three, and that's okay. I would
Speaker 1: like to see one more who's got a safety one
Speaker 1: safety two repertoire. I think that would be quite nice,
Speaker 1: But I think that those are littered throughout the draft.
Speaker 1: It's kind of funny how to me, like, our biggest
Speaker 1: needs right now are on the defensive side of the
Speaker 1: ball outside of the one of the two guard spots,
Speaker 1: but defensive tackles, safety, and cornerback to me or three
Speaker 1: of the deepest groups in the entire drafts. So funny
Speaker 1: how that works. But for me, it starts with if
Speaker 1: he here, you know when when healthy or healthy and
Speaker 1: availability removed if you take those things out of the equation,
Speaker 1: which you cannot. But he is an outlier from the
Speaker 1: group to me in terms of his play, production and
Speaker 1: tape have been different than the rest of the guys.
Speaker 1: It's been really good, just hasn't been out there that often.
Speaker 1: If you extrapolate his counting stats as advanced metrics, and
Speaker 1: then the thing, that thing I really care about, the
Speaker 1: actual tape for a full season, there's big time production
Speaker 1: there and to the point of shaping things to weaves vision.
Speaker 1: I mean, my goodness, the way you can walk this
Speaker 1: guy up to the last scrimmage and blitz the quarterback.
Speaker 1: He's one of the best blitzing defensive backs, albeit a
Speaker 1: minuscule sample size that there is in the NFL right now.
Speaker 1: The way he can be the rat in the hole,
Speaker 1: and he can come from depth and defend the run,
Speaker 1: the way he can hang out and zone and quarters
Speaker 1: and play robber and play half field and be a
Speaker 1: single high guy. The way he has range to play
Speaker 1: back in the post. It comes down to if he
Speaker 1: is healthy. If he's healthy, right, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: He's a guy that you can basically try to exploit
Speaker 1: matchups on every single snap that he plays. Then you've
Speaker 1: got Ashton Davis who has been productive with one fifty
Speaker 1: career snaps. That's over five years. So like he's not
Speaker 1: been of every down player obviously, but eight picks, it's
Speaker 1: kind of insane on that few of snaps. Can he
Speaker 1: be that guy that's a mid round pick, part time
Speaker 1: player who gets a fresh start and blossoms here. I
Speaker 1: think he's best And really the only quality that I
Speaker 1: loved in his his tape evaluation was that post field
Speaker 1: safety work right now, so that pairs with what I
Speaker 1: think if he does best, So it makes sense to me,
Speaker 1: and that's what fascinates me here because I think the
Speaker 1: way I described that, that would be my starters if
Speaker 1: the season started tomorrow. But I think that Patrick McMorris
Speaker 1: has a skill set that we've could deploy a lot
Speaker 1: in the same sense that we just discussed with If
Speaker 1: he he's a sure tackler, and if he develops like
Speaker 1: I think he can, or like his ability would suggest
Speaker 1: that he can, he becomes one of the more valuable
Speaker 1: things a DC can have in modern football, a safety
Speaker 1: who can defend the run from depth. You know, I
Speaker 1: love that about his game, And speaking of that, Elijah
Speaker 1: Campbell has that to his game and coach has really
Speaker 1: made it a point to mention Elijah time and time
Speaker 1: again as guys to not sleep on. But with this group,
Speaker 1: it would not surprise me in the slightest if anybody
Speaker 1: was a starter, or if anybody was a sub package
Speaker 1: slash special teams contributor. There's all types of roles for
Speaker 1: all these guys. My prediction if he is the starter
Speaker 1: and his running mate will be drafted at the end
Speaker 1: of the month, maybe signed in free agency, with mc
Speaker 1: morris as the sub package player that gets playing time
Speaker 1: and Davis the guy off the bench and special team
Speaker 1: are in case of an injury, then our last one
Speaker 1: stays in that same position group the defensive backfield, and
Speaker 1: I don't think this one requires a ton of analysis,
Speaker 1: because this is the one that I would say is
Speaker 1: for sure. The answer is not on the roster I
Speaker 1: think would be my presumption there because the corners beyond
Speaker 1: Ramsey and Cohu, there's nothing proven on the roster. Camp
Speaker 1: Smith was a second round draft pick in twenty twenty two,
Speaker 1: and they've expressed a couple of times the need for him, like, hey,
Speaker 1: it's we gotta have you. It's time to get going here,
Speaker 1: you gotta get ready to play. I thought he was
Speaker 1: going to be an immediate hit for us with his
Speaker 1: draft profile, and injuries and his own ability have kind
Speaker 1: of not allowed that to happen so far. And because
Speaker 1: of that storm Duck had an opportunity and sees that
Speaker 1: and got playing time in Cam Smith's absence, beating up
Speaker 1: the previous UDFA camp Darling Ethan Bonner for those reps
Speaker 1: to the point of actually starting in the finale against
Speaker 1: the New York Jets. Between those three, you've got two
Speaker 1: udfas and a high draft pick, and I'll add two
Speaker 1: more udfas and Jason Matrie and Isaiah Johnson, and then
Speaker 1: of course you know whatever you can expect from Arty Burns.
Speaker 1: I think counting on any snaps from Arty Burns would
Speaker 1: be bad, you know, bad process because again hasn't played
Speaker 1: more than two hundred and eighty snap since twenty eighteen.
Speaker 1: But some of the tape is fun and exciting, but
Speaker 1: you gotta look at reality there. So those guys, I
Speaker 1: think matri and Johnson had great camps. I think Burns
Speaker 1: has some intrigue if he can ever stay on the field.
Speaker 1: But that's kind of what you're looking at. And it's
Speaker 1: a pretty deep cornerback class and there's a couple of
Speaker 1: guys in multiple rounds.
Speaker 2: Obviously.
Speaker 1: We talked about Juday Barron, who could be a potential
Speaker 1: Day one inside outside cornerback for you. There's some quality
Speaker 1: free agents out there as well. So this one, this
Speaker 1: is why I don't want to spend too much time
Speaker 1: on it, because I think this is going to change
Speaker 1: pretty quickly. Here, we can revisit this on post draft
Speaker 1: and get into this cornerback spot further, because I would
Speaker 1: be shocked if it's the same thing in three weeks
Speaker 1: from now. All right, we can get into the draft
Speaker 1: here a little bit further after a quick break here
Speaker 1: and close up this episode with a prospect profile on
Speaker 1: the other side, back to the offensive side of the football.
Speaker 1: Tyler Warren is up next Draft Time podcast, brought to
Speaker 1: you by Auto Nation Draft Crush, Draft Crush. I wish
Speaker 1: I could describe how happy making those makes me for
Speaker 1: you guys. That's my intro into the Tyler Warren prospect
Speaker 1: profile Penn State tight end number forty four, and I
Speaker 1: want to start by just asking of you guys to
Speaker 1: pull up the USC tape from last year, and that's
Speaker 1: really all you have to watch to get to know
Speaker 1: this guy. The first three plays of the game, he
Speaker 1: goes and this is his true Swiss Army knife package here,
Speaker 1: offset alignment, fullback, wildcat, quarterback field slot. In the screen game,
Speaker 1: there's three entirely different positions and he's out here floating
Speaker 1: around them between every single play. He also makes an
Speaker 1: explosive contested catch. He has a big run, lumbering through defenders.
Speaker 1: You talk about a football player from the moment he
Speaker 1: was born with just natural absorption of contact, doesn't really
Speaker 1: waste a lot of his of movement in general, catches everything.
Speaker 1: I think draft fatigue is the only reason you're seeing
Speaker 1: some folks kind of cool on Warren here. I do
Speaker 1: not get it. He is my draft crush. He is
Speaker 1: a tremendous prospect. In this game, they throw him another
Speaker 1: screen in the fourth play of the game. The fifth
Speaker 1: play of the game is a slant to him from
Speaker 1: the same formation where the point man runs the underneath
Speaker 1: coverage off and then clear space for him. To say
Speaker 1: the offense ran through forty four would be an understatement
Speaker 1: for Penn State. I think you start with him though,
Speaker 1: in terms of his possible Miami Dolphins fit with short yardage,
Speaker 1: you want to fix one of the bigger issues you had,
Speaker 1: and what car wash attendants are telling coach McDaniel when
Speaker 1: he gets his car washed, the number of ways that
Speaker 1: Tyler Warren can win on those critical downs and the
Speaker 1: way he can create for others because of the potential
Speaker 1: personnel matching issues. I mean a former cornerback who is
Speaker 1: comfortable running the ball from the wildcat. He can sneak
Speaker 1: it from under center. They did that multiple times with him.
Speaker 1: He can lead block as a fullback, and while he
Speaker 1: not might not be alec ingold, it's his deployment that
Speaker 1: invites a cornerback or a safety onto the field in
Speaker 1: place of a linebacker, where then he can look like
Speaker 1: alec Ingold because there's thirty pounds they're giving to him
Speaker 1: on those reps. The first man almost never brings him
Speaker 1: down as a ballcarrier.
Speaker 2: And if you ever.
Speaker 1: Got worried about teams keying on him in the screen
Speaker 1: game in short yardage, remember all those screens that John
Speaker 1: new Smith turned into big plays last year, Well, you
Speaker 1: can replicate that on the other side of the formation.
Speaker 1: Where do you then focus take away both those guys
Speaker 1: and then you give free one on one vertical matchups
Speaker 1: to Tyreek Hill and Jalen Waddle. And then to add
Speaker 1: to that, he's very good and I won't go dominant,
Speaker 1: but he's a very good blocker off the edge in
Speaker 1: the run game. To help keep your outside zone menu
Speaker 1: fully available. This is all just the short yardage factor.
Speaker 1: As I write that, he takes a sneak on second
Speaker 1: and two for three yards in a first down. So
Speaker 1: on this rep he aligns as a wide tight end,
Speaker 1: motions across the formation, then comes back under center and
Speaker 1: sneaks the football. The very next play they run that
Speaker 1: angle scream we just talked about with John new Smith
Speaker 1: over two defenders for a fifteen yard game. The next
Speaker 1: play they throw in a little throwback screen where he
Speaker 1: fake pass sets and two rushers go flying by him,
Speaker 1: trying to put him on his on his butt as
Speaker 1: a pass rusher shows the quarterback his numbers, catches the
Speaker 1: ball and rumbles for twenty more yards, breaking another tackle.
Speaker 1: Like look, it might not be flashy, and he might
Speaker 1: not have ran a fast time, but put on the
Speaker 1: tape and watch the way this guy impacts tacklers, the
Speaker 1: yards that he makes, the way he gets to gliding
Speaker 1: when he opens up in the open field.
Speaker 2: You know, and don't we have enough flash on this
Speaker 2: football team? You want?
Speaker 1: Everyone talks about trenches like Tyler Warren is that guy.
Speaker 1: I think he's that you know what, play the damn.
Speaker 2: Drop that guy? Pal, trust me, you're that guy. And
Speaker 2: that only scratches the surface.
Speaker 1: In fact, we just heard or is reported by uh shoot,
Speaker 1: who's the guy that got in a fight with a
Speaker 1: rap She is a Jordan Schultz at Starbucks and Indie
Speaker 1: that only Tyler Warren only has one pre draft visit
Speaker 1: because everyone knows the intelligence, the football character, the skills
Speaker 1: like everything is clean and checks out. He is also
Speaker 1: on top of all that one of the he's gonna
Speaker 1: be in three years from now. Considered like the George
Speaker 1: Kittle of tight ends in terms of how he runs
Speaker 1: the ball in his hands, he might be the best
Speaker 1: eligible with the football in his hands in two or
Speaker 1: three years. Like it's special and while pans State ran
Speaker 1: their offense through him, I don't think you'd do that
Speaker 1: here given all your weapons, but it highlights the different
Speaker 1: things you can add and the tendency breakers you could
Speaker 1: unveil with him as a blocker.
Speaker 2: I want to say this off the top.
Speaker 1: I think he is plenty good today, But man, when
Speaker 1: I watched the tape, I came away thinking that we
Speaker 1: have not even begun to scratch the surface. To use
Speaker 1: that phrase twice, on what he could be high school
Speaker 1: quarterback three years of playing tight end. I think between
Speaker 1: the pad level, the lower body strength, the way he
Speaker 1: processes as a runner, I just think there's a beast
Speaker 1: waiting to be unleashed.
Speaker 2: Pardon the reme.
Speaker 1: I think at times he didn't always look convicted in
Speaker 1: his blocking assignment and could sometimes let the defender be
Speaker 1: the aggressor, whether it was letting him cross face on
Speaker 1: inside runs or getting around the corner because of a
Speaker 1: fake inside move Like this was the best the most
Speaker 1: common loss he had was some one over setting him
Speaker 1: upfield and crossing face and he wouldn't get him to
Speaker 1: his feet aligned. He could sometimes kind of like lunge
Speaker 1: at the rep and if he just took one more
Speaker 1: step and buried his shoulder through the contact and stood
Speaker 1: the hit up as he exploded out of that stance,
Speaker 1: I think he'd have a better strike zone hit rate
Speaker 1: and could get more weight behind those blocks and just
Speaker 1: win more of them. Now when he gets in space,
Speaker 1: I think there's a little less thinking and more playing freely,
Speaker 1: and that stuff comes a little more naturally to him.
Speaker 1: I think that he's going to be a force off
Speaker 1: the edge in the outside zone game, especially when how
Speaker 1: you can marry all those looks with passing concepts off
Speaker 1: of that. And then I get into the organ tape
Speaker 1: again and see this guy just clearing lane after lane.
Speaker 1: So there's like a progression I was just telling you,
Speaker 1: and I hope i'd saw I would see as a
Speaker 1: pro and it happened. His final year in college, at
Speaker 1: least a little bit. He exhibited growth from a game
Speaker 1: in October all the way to the conference championship game,
Speaker 1: which makes me even more bullish on his ability to
Speaker 1: take his blocking game to a different level. As a receiver.
Speaker 1: He's not gonna wow you with flash again, but the
Speaker 1: way he just gets to it, like there's an urgency
Speaker 1: at the line that pairs with his physicality and then
Speaker 1: the balance that he has up the stem to really
Speaker 1: drive guys off their landmark, alter their footwork, and cause
Speaker 1: confusion in the coverage in the back end, and then
Speaker 1: snap the route off right at the inflection point. Like
Speaker 1: he's so polished in that regard. He's not going to
Speaker 1: run vertical and fly past anybody, but we have plenty
Speaker 1: of that on our team. He can exploit the space
Speaker 1: that we have when you watch back at twenty twenty
Speaker 1: four and the pensiont for finding quick answers because of
Speaker 1: the coverage backing off. You know, we saw what John
Speaker 1: would do at that space, what Devon hen did at
Speaker 1: that space. Now put Tyler Warren out there instead of
Speaker 1: like Durham Spine through Julian Hill we have. You know,
Speaker 1: half of his production is him chipping at the landscrimmage,
Speaker 1: releasing into a vacant flat and then a defense that
Speaker 1: can't rally and tackle him. He would have that pretty
Speaker 1: much every damn snap if he was here, everything adds
Speaker 1: up to me. Twenty one of thirty two contested career
Speaker 1: catches forty percent slot, forty percent in line backfield, quarterback stuff.
Speaker 1: This year alone, he had nineteen mistackles forced had seven
Speaker 1: hundred yards after the catch. This season, they had game
Speaker 1: where they went through him, seventeen grabs versus USC, and
Speaker 1: games where he was an insert inline blocker. He averaged
Speaker 1: two point seven eight yards per route ran. That's like
Speaker 1: what Tyreek and Waddle average when they were going off
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty two, two point eight percent drop rate.
Speaker 1: With respect to rounding out the twenty twenty five roster
Speaker 1: and where we sit right now today, it might be
Speaker 1: a tad irresponsible to go tight end to pick thirteen.
Speaker 1: I get that reservation, but even that can't deter me
Speaker 1: from taking the best player for my program that would
Speaker 1: give me the best boost, the best improvement. I think
Speaker 1: Warren would click this offense together like the last piece
Speaker 1: in a one thousand piece jigsaw puzzle. He's a problem
Speaker 1: solver across the board. We have problems, He's a solution
Speaker 1: for so many of them. This is my top player
Speaker 1: in the draft of the Miami Dolphins we'll see if
Speaker 1: he makes it there. I doubt he does, but I
Speaker 1: just couldn't be higher on this prospect for this team
Speaker 1: right now. All right tomorrow rather Wednesday, on the podcast,
Speaker 1: We're gonna take a look at Patrick Paul's tape and
Speaker 1: I'm gonna breakdown every single play that he played as
Speaker 1: a pro so far and give you guys the report
Speaker 1: on that. We'll get to some more prospect profiles, more
Speaker 1: draft talk plenty to come here on the Draft Time Podcast.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, you all please be sure subscribe, rate
Speaker 1: review the show. Follow me on social at Winkfold NFL.
Speaker 1: The team at Miami Dolphins. Check out the Fish Tank
Speaker 1: with Seth and Juice, the YouTube channel for Dolphins HQ
Speaker 1: media availabilities, Draft time, free agent interviews, and much much more. Last,
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Speaker 1: Fin's up, Caroline Cameron, Daddy, He's come and hold