Speaker 1: Practice, Patrick throwing h Parker touchtown. What a win for
Speaker 1: this Miami Dolphin team. Wow? What is up? Dolphins? And
Speaker 1: welcome to the Drivetime Podcast, part of the Miami Dolphins
Speaker 1: Official podcasts network covering your Miami Dolphins. I am your host,
Speaker 1: Travis Wingfield, and as always, I am here to bring
Speaker 1: you your daily dose of Miami Dolphins football. And on
Speaker 1: today's show, I'm joined by espn NFL insider Field Yates.
Speaker 1: We're gonna break down Miami's free agency from the talent added,
Speaker 1: the contract value, and how Brian Flora's and Chris Career
Speaker 1: are doing on the team building side of things. All
Speaker 1: of that and more on this Wednesday, March edition of
Speaker 1: the Drivetime Podcast Mimi Dolphins. Let's not waste any time
Speaker 1: off the top of the show here and get right
Speaker 1: to my interview with ESPN's Field Yates and joining the
Speaker 1: Drivetime Podcast now is espn NFL insider Field Yates. Field.
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining me today, man, I appreciate you, Travis,
Speaker 1: and I don't know if I'm the first welcome, but
Speaker 1: allow me to be amongst the initial wave of welcome
Speaker 1: with you and the new gig. Looking forward to following
Speaker 1: along as I'm sure you do great coverage covering the
Speaker 1: team this upcoming year. It's greatly appreciated. Field, And we
Speaker 1: talked a little bit off air about my Washington phone
Speaker 1: number not quite down to South Florida yet because I
Speaker 1: can't relocate right now because of all the stuff going on.
Speaker 1: So I wanted to ask you a similar question. How
Speaker 1: you're holding up right now? Man, Like this is a
Speaker 1: time of year where your job does not allow you
Speaker 1: to hunker down. How are you and yours doing? Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: I appreciate you saying that. Maybe the better person to
Speaker 1: ask me. My wife, we're sitting here in a small
Speaker 1: apartments uh probably built for more like one and a
Speaker 1: quarter people, enough people, enough room for us to uh
Speaker 1: share time, um normally after work. But you know, we're
Speaker 1: getting in utilization of every square inch of our podcast,
Speaker 1: of our of our apartment now this week, whether it's
Speaker 1: doing podcasts or her doing her work from her mobile
Speaker 1: set up, you name it. We're figuring out ways to
Speaker 1: get through. But obviously keep in mind all the people
Speaker 1: more adversely affected by what's taking place with this global
Speaker 1: pandemic right now, and discovering new areas of your home
Speaker 1: probably the way we all are right now being stuck inside,
Speaker 1: and it's obviously impact of the way you've conducted your business.
Speaker 1: But what about teams in the National Football League right now?
Speaker 1: With these restrictions and free agents not being able to
Speaker 1: come down and meet their new teammates. How are teams
Speaker 1: getting all this crucial work that has to be done
Speaker 1: this time of year without the normal amenities they normally have. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: let's trace back to when the NFL made a decision
Speaker 1: to power through with free agency at the normal time.
Speaker 1: The NFL thinking was sort of two fold. One was
Speaker 1: that this is largely an event that takes place remotely
Speaker 1: as it is now, not that it's the same this year,
Speaker 1: but a lot of times as general managers and head
Speaker 1: coaches communicating from their own facilities to agents of perspective,
Speaker 1: free agents and sometimes the players as well. So that
Speaker 1: was part of it. And the second part of it
Speaker 1: was that you know this right at the time that
Speaker 1: the NFL made a decision, You know, we knew a
Speaker 1: little bit about how this pandemic was going to impact us.
Speaker 1: But who's to say that a week from now, which
Speaker 1: would actually still not be the Yes, just about a
Speaker 1: week in the two weeks in the free agency. Who
Speaker 1: knows where we will be. It could be that we're
Speaker 1: pushing our timeline back further and further and further, and
Speaker 1: we shall see. So I would just say that teams
Speaker 1: were largely prepared for free agency until about a week
Speaker 1: before free agency. It does impact their ability to conduct
Speaker 1: medical evaluations and certainly impacts the ability to have players
Speaker 1: in for visits, and we can get sort of specific
Speaker 1: on some of the players that I believe it has impacted.
Speaker 1: But for the most part, we've seen if you were
Speaker 1: to go to anybody's top one free agents list that
Speaker 1: you know, somewhere between eighty and eighty five of them
Speaker 1: have come off the board. So things have largely gone
Speaker 1: on as expected. And nobody was more active in free
Speaker 1: agency than the Miami Dolphins. And we'll get to that
Speaker 1: here in just a second field. But first I want
Speaker 1: to go back to your time with the Patriots organization
Speaker 1: because there was some overlap there with new Dolphins head
Speaker 1: coach Brian Flores. And from that, Lens, what can you
Speaker 1: tell us about Miami's second year head coach. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: it's crazy, it's crazy to think this, but my first
Speaker 1: summer spending some time with the Patriots was actually right
Speaker 1: when Brian b Flow had gotten hired into the Patriots
Speaker 1: personnel departments. And I'm sure Dolphins fans are well aware
Speaker 1: of the fact that he hasn't just coached on defense,
Speaker 1: He's also coached on offense, has contributed on special teams,
Speaker 1: He's works on the scouting department. So really the beginning
Speaker 1: of checking off all the boxes that make him really
Speaker 1: well equipped to becoming an NFL head coach. And Brian
Speaker 1: had played obviously collegiately at Boston College and that happens
Speaker 1: to be the area where I am from, so I
Speaker 1: have a little bit of a background on him as
Speaker 1: a player. Um, And you know what immediately stands out
Speaker 1: about the Flow is, certainly he's determined. Certainly he is humble. UM.
Speaker 1: I think anytime you are new, and I was the
Speaker 1: same way myself. Somewhere you have, you know, a somewhat
Speaker 1: of a you know, you might have a more reserved
Speaker 1: quality about you. But it doesn't take long for someone
Speaker 1: to clearly understand that Flow was the kind of person
Speaker 1: that's not only did others gravitate towards, but you could
Speaker 1: see real leadership qualities in him. And there are a
Speaker 1: lot of different forms of leadership and some of that
Speaker 1: is how you work. And I think it was apparently
Speaker 1: it was apparent right away that, um, it was gonna
Speaker 1: be hard to outwork him, it was going to be
Speaker 1: hard to outstudy him and sort of see things in
Speaker 1: the way that he did because he had such a
Speaker 1: unique background of having played the game at a high level,
Speaker 1: uh and you know, nearly having an NFL career on
Speaker 1: his own and then coming into the scouting world and
Speaker 1: quickly becoming uh, you know, pretty adept in that regard
Speaker 1: before he eventually became an assistant coach on the Patriots staff,
Speaker 1: which led to his rather meteoric rise. And we've we've
Speaker 1: talked a lot about Brian Floores on this podcast, especially
Speaker 1: with all the new free agents and doing interviews with
Speaker 1: those guys. A lot of them to a man pointed
Speaker 1: to the fact that Brian Flores and what he did
Speaker 1: last year with his Dolphins team was a big selling
Speaker 1: point on them coming to Miami. But Chris Greer, though
Speaker 1: he himself, was always going to call this more of
Speaker 1: a collaborative effort and not accept the praise but rather
Speaker 1: deflect the praise to his staff that he has around
Speaker 1: them throughout the front office, but at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, he is the GM. So what do you
Speaker 1: field make of Greer's ability to acquire all this capital
Speaker 1: and then ultimately spend it as the Dolphins have so
Speaker 1: far through one week of free agency. Yeah, and I'll
Speaker 1: get to Chris Greer in a second, but just to
Speaker 1: close the circle on on Brian Flores, I just think
Speaker 1: he'd be hard pressed to find a person with higher
Speaker 1: character than him UH coach the NFL ranks right now,
Speaker 1: and having seen him somewhat recently, I think what's what's
Speaker 1: really neat and a parent is that the same person
Speaker 1: that was humble and hungry as an entry level UH
Speaker 1: member of the Patriot Scouting Department is the same person
Speaker 1: that you see now who's one of thirty two head
Speaker 1: coaches and quickly emerging is someone that people realize is
Speaker 1: going to be a star in this league, a family man,
Speaker 1: a true friend, and somebody that I think Dolphins fans
Speaker 1: already appreciate, but they'll even appreciate more and more going forward.
Speaker 1: So they're in great hands there. And I think I
Speaker 1: feel the same way about Chris career. And one thing
Speaker 1: that I and I don't have a personal relationship with
Speaker 1: Chris in the way that I did spend time with
Speaker 1: Brian Flores. But I think what's the parents is that
Speaker 1: in the NFL, and it's not always obvious, but I
Speaker 1: would say that one of the roles that I have
Speaker 1: in my job is to try to do my best
Speaker 1: job of assessing plans and what teams intend to do
Speaker 1: now now that they owe it to us to explain
Speaker 1: every single decision. But it became clear quickly last year
Speaker 1: what the Dolphins plan was going to be, and it
Speaker 1: was going to be about program fits. It was going
Speaker 1: to be about collecting future capital. It was going to
Speaker 1: be about taking a bunch of swings on either low
Speaker 1: cost or low risk players last year and hoping that
Speaker 1: some of those players could become foundation pieces for the
Speaker 1: roster going forward. And I think Chris Career was really
Speaker 1: shrewd and smart last year in acquiring a ton of
Speaker 1: players not just through the waiver system, but also players
Speaker 1: through practice squads of other teams, and you know, practice
Speaker 1: squad players although they are not on the active roster,
Speaker 1: and a lot of cases they're guys that just get
Speaker 1: buried for one reason or another, whether it's a logjam
Speaker 1: at the position, whether it's just a simple numbers game,
Speaker 1: whether it's an injury and training camp that sets them
Speaker 1: back a little bit. There are a lot of reasons,
Speaker 1: and I thought it was really impressive to see a
Speaker 1: bunch of players that were acquired that either made meaningful
Speaker 1: contributions last year or you can tell will eventually make
Speaker 1: meaningful contributions for the Dolphins, and now to spend things
Speaker 1: forward to free agencies that you know, this is sort
Speaker 1: of wave two. If last year was waved one, wave
Speaker 1: two is all right, we've cleared the decks, We've basically
Speaker 1: read ourselves of every onerous contract on the books. We
Speaker 1: enter free agency with as much cap space as we
Speaker 1: could need, some clear and obvious um positions of need,
Speaker 1: and then you just sort of look at how they
Speaker 1: attacked those. You know, they certainly spent big on Byron Jones,
Speaker 1: who's a player who fits I mean really every roster,
Speaker 1: but certainly fits their roster um and and need in
Speaker 1: a major, major way. Um. But besides that, all the deals, now,
Speaker 1: certainly there were a lot of money spent, but three
Speaker 1: to four years in length for a lot of them.
Speaker 1: And I thought that there was a common thread of
Speaker 1: players with excellent leadership production. I thought character was an
Speaker 1: obvious priority for the Dolphins, and guys that you know, um,
Speaker 1: I think they still have prime football years ahead of them.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of these guys are ascending young player.
Speaker 1: Shack Lawson could be a guy it could become an
Speaker 1: even better player. Eric Flowers had a renaissance season last year.
Speaker 1: Kyle van Noy will know the defense as well as
Speaker 1: anybody right away. So a lot of players that I
Speaker 1: think are borderline seamless fits for the Dolphins, which is
Speaker 1: important during what figures to be a I mean, it
Speaker 1: already is an unprecedented off season calendar. We've got filled
Speaker 1: Yates here of ESPN on the Drivetime Podcast with Travis Wingfield,
Speaker 1: part of the Miami Dolphins official podcast network, and Field
Speaker 1: we talk about the free agency lore the Dolphins have
Speaker 1: here with Brian Flores and the success they had last season,
Speaker 1: and certainly Chris Greer was able to kind of create
Speaker 1: the space to make that happen in free agency, and
Speaker 1: then in Florence was the one that attracted the players.
Speaker 1: But then Greer is the one that helped acquire this
Speaker 1: draft capital. You talk about market opportunities, you know, getting
Speaker 1: two first round picks in the Tunzel trade and a
Speaker 1: second round draft pick. I mean, that's what quarterbacks go
Speaker 1: for on the league most of the time. You get
Speaker 1: a pick from the Pittsburgh Steelers from Innca fitzpatrick. At
Speaker 1: the time, they were oh and three without their starting quarterback,
Speaker 1: so that looked like maybe it could have been a
Speaker 1: top ten pick. So you have to give him credit
Speaker 1: for the idea of taking advantage of market opportunities. And
Speaker 1: that's kind of the approach of the Dolphins off season.
Speaker 1: But I want to get kind of a holistic view
Speaker 1: of this team right now because you mentioned the contract structures.
Speaker 1: The Byron Jones is the primary big deal the Dolphins have,
Speaker 1: but we also have all these players that are twenty
Speaker 1: nine and younger. Eight of the ten signings that Dolphins
Speaker 1: made this offseason, we're twenty seven years and younger. So
Speaker 1: what do you say about the idea that these second
Speaker 1: year of the second contracts rather for players where sometimes
Speaker 1: maybe free agency can be can be a bit of
Speaker 1: a fool's gold. What do you make of the Dolphins
Speaker 1: approach and being so aggressive and attacking that young nucleus
Speaker 1: in free agency? Yeah, I mean certainly, um, you know
Speaker 1: let's be honest, their school's goals. Free agency every year
Speaker 1: and sometimes for every team. So I don't want to
Speaker 1: say that every move that I like this offseason is
Speaker 1: going to wind out wind up working exactly as it
Speaker 1: was intended to at least or how I thought it would.
Speaker 1: But I would just say that I'm a very much
Speaker 1: process driven person um in our evaluation and to your points,
Speaker 1: all of these contracts are guys that you know. There's
Speaker 1: a golden rule of scouting that applies to free agency
Speaker 1: as well is you cannot pay players for prior performance.
Speaker 1: You have to pay them for future production. UM. And yes,
Speaker 1: prior performance helps us establish a market for these players,
Speaker 1: but this can't be, you know, basically a reward system.
Speaker 1: It can't be a ribbon that these players where Hey,
Speaker 1: four years and a reported fifty one million dollars for
Speaker 1: Kyle van no no It's all right going forward. Do
Speaker 1: you believe that Kyle van Noi is gonna be a
Speaker 1: guy in the course of a game. It's going to
Speaker 1: be able to rush the pastor set the edges are run,
Speaker 1: defender dropped in coverage, be a stand up linebacker. He's
Speaker 1: gonna be able to communicate, he could be a captain
Speaker 1: of your team. He could play on special teams if
Speaker 1: you need him to. Is he gonna be good with
Speaker 1: the ball in his hands at the other scoops and
Speaker 1: scoops up a fumble, picks off the past. All of
Speaker 1: those things are clear and apparent. So um, I think
Speaker 1: the Dolphins were wise in the investment strategy and guys
Speaker 1: that I think they will age well, and the contracts
Speaker 1: accordingly will age well, especially as we know that the
Speaker 1: you know, the the CALP is going to go up
Speaker 1: year over year. And when you look across the league field,
Speaker 1: you can kind of notice that certain teams put a
Speaker 1: certain amount of resources. Like I've always heard from the
Speaker 1: Move the Sticks podcast, for instance, a team is going
Speaker 1: to tell you what's important to them based upon where
Speaker 1: they allocate their resources. And the Dolphins now have the
Speaker 1: richest defensive back room in the entire National Football League.
Speaker 1: And you look at like the Chiefs, for instance, the
Speaker 1: highest paid wide receiver corps there to supplement their m
Speaker 1: v P quarterback. We saw the Raiders last year make
Speaker 1: big improvements on the offensive side of the ball and
Speaker 1: the running game and past protection by solidifying the offensive
Speaker 1: line with the highest paid line in football, and you
Speaker 1: mentioned Byron Jones. I want to kind of circle back
Speaker 1: to that. The highest paid defensive back room in football,
Speaker 1: Byron Jones xaviing Howard eric Road got a contract extension
Speaker 1: last year. What do you make of the Dolphins practice
Speaker 1: there and the fact that they play more man coverage
Speaker 1: than just about any team in the league fourth last
Speaker 1: year in the NFL. Yeah, so certainly you gotta have
Speaker 1: cover cornerbacks that you can trever, you can charge trust
Speaker 1: excuse me, in the man demand coverage. And Byron Jones
Speaker 1: was one of the most sought after players in free agency.
Speaker 1: Doesn't surprise me that he got the money that he got.
Speaker 1: So let's just establish a couple of things from Byron
Speaker 1: Jones and I think are important for fans that may
Speaker 1: not be as familiar with his career. He's got two
Speaker 1: interceptions in five seasons, and you know matter, I get it.
Speaker 1: It's not Yes, there are other players that have had
Speaker 1: plenty more UH interceptions, but started out contexts are not
Speaker 1: useful stats whatsoever. If you go back and look at
Speaker 1: some seasons, there were seasons where Darrell Rivas, who for
Speaker 1: my money, was as dominant a player as you've probably
Speaker 1: seen in a lot of years. There was a season
Speaker 1: where he went without his single interception. I mean he
Speaker 1: was a single interception in a Pro Bowl level years.
Speaker 1: So you gotta look at whether teams are daring to
Speaker 1: test a player at the cornerback spot. So I think
Speaker 1: the Byron Jones checks a lot of the right boxes
Speaker 1: for man to man coverage ability, a guy that's certainly
Speaker 1: um is um you know again, high character, a player
Speaker 1: that's incredibly athletic. We all remember his combined performance for
Speaker 1: how to yukon uh five or so years ago. He
Speaker 1: was terrific at the time and it may still stand
Speaker 1: the he said the prod the broad jump records. So
Speaker 1: the Dolphins have invested a lot of money in the
Speaker 1: cornerback spots. And you know, the best way to help
Speaker 1: your pass rushes to have a great secondary. The best
Speaker 1: way to help your secondary is to have a great
Speaker 1: pass rush. So I think the Dolphins have sort of
Speaker 1: worked in tandem this offseason. If your best pass rushers
Speaker 1: now look more like potentially Kyle van Noy and also
Speaker 1: Shack Lawson with Byron Jones and Xavian Howard in the
Speaker 1: back end, I think that both units have a chance
Speaker 1: to be improved relative to where they were last season.
Speaker 1: And how do you kind of how do you compartmentalize
Speaker 1: what the Dolphins did in that front seven in terms
Speaker 1: of the players they got in the scheme fits they
Speaker 1: have for those players, because we look at Shack Laws
Speaker 1: and Emmanuel ogg Ball seven of the Dolphins ten offseason
Speaker 1: acquisitions so far, we're in the trenches up front, and
Speaker 1: of those seven, five on the defensive side of the football.
Speaker 1: But I want to get your opinion because Brian Flora
Speaker 1: is what he calls his positionless defense. Like we had
Speaker 1: Patrick Graham here last year mentioned that he stopped using
Speaker 1: uh position distinctions when he drew up plays in the
Speaker 1: white board and just went with X and ohs because
Speaker 1: guys don't have nailed down positions. So with that in mind,
Speaker 1: and how they want to create this pass rush through
Speaker 1: you know, the radar look or various looks up front
Speaker 1: with even fronts and odd fronts, multiple looks, how do
Speaker 1: Van Noy and loss in an odd and these guys
Speaker 1: fit into a defensive scheme that Brian Flores wants to run. Yeah,
Speaker 1: certainly in a lot of ways. I think what you
Speaker 1: said is pretty much right on the money, because if
Speaker 1: you look at the way that the NFL changes year
Speaker 1: over year, I mean, this past season, during the regular season,
Speaker 1: the most unstoppable offense was led by a quarterback in
Speaker 1: Lamar Jackson became the first ever to throw for a
Speaker 1: thousand yards and also, excuse me, throw for three thousand
Speaker 1: yards and run for one thousand plus yards, uh in
Speaker 1: the same season. And if you've got guys who are
Speaker 1: two down linebackers and um, you know, guys that are
Speaker 1: more along as you know, players that are more thumpers,
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's gonna be hard to keep up
Speaker 1: with these leite electric athletes. You need guys that can
Speaker 1: kind of be a little bit of everything. So I
Speaker 1: think it's a smart way of distinguishing things is that
Speaker 1: you know, ultimately, secondary players are gonna have to coverage,
Speaker 1: are gonna have to cover excuse me, They're also gonna
Speaker 1: have to be willing tacklers are gonna have to be uh,
Speaker 1: you know, able and and and and smart enough to
Speaker 1: make coverage adjustments, whether it's switching, whether it's concepts high low,
Speaker 1: inside outside, there's a lot of intelligence required. So um,
Speaker 1: I think it's fair. I mean, listen, I don't think
Speaker 1: you can totally do do away with position in the
Speaker 1: sense that you know, it's not like Byron Jones is
Speaker 1: gonna bean a three points stand much next year. Never.
Speaker 1: But uh, certainly it's important that you have versatile players
Speaker 1: that kind of get um that you know, we're regardless
Speaker 1: of what their position is on the roster, the official
Speaker 1: team website roster. If they can't be counted on to
Speaker 1: do a little bit of everything a weekend and week out,
Speaker 1: it's kind of not really what the coaches staff can
Speaker 1: count on weekend and week out, or can can count
Speaker 1: on on a play by play basis. Phil Yates here
Speaker 1: on the Drivetime podcast from ESPN. He also co hosts
Speaker 1: the Fantasy Focus Football podcast. You guys can find that
Speaker 1: where we get your podcast from and on that vein
Speaker 1: talking about fantasy football, I would be remiss if we
Speaker 1: didn't talk about some running back action here because the
Speaker 1: Dolphins also acquired former Eagles and Bears running back Orton Howard,
Speaker 1: and I watched this guy run field behind a zone
Speaker 1: blocking scheme for the most part, and that symbiotic relationship
Speaker 1: that he has with his offensive line and the smarts
Speaker 1: and the intelligence to know when to ben bang or
Speaker 1: bounce it. I'm curious to get your thought for his
Speaker 1: fit and what Chan Gaily what might want to do
Speaker 1: on offense this year for the Dolphins. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: I would just say that it's hard to actually just
Speaker 1: spend some time with Chan in Kansas City. It was
Speaker 1: a very brief time um together. But you know, got
Speaker 1: the no Chan and such a nice, thoughtful person. Didn't
Speaker 1: have any time with him. He was he was just
Speaker 1: there during the off season when I was there. But
Speaker 1: a guy that certainly has accomplished a lot in this league,
Speaker 1: been around for a long time, both as a head
Speaker 1: coach and a coordinator as well. So I'll speak more
Speaker 1: to what I think Jordan's value is as opposed to
Speaker 1: how I know specifically will all come together with this scheme.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's still a lot of moving parts here
Speaker 1: is you know, last year, as I'm sure as well
Speaker 1: documented or well known by your listeners, you know, to
Speaker 1: see led the team in rushing and that's rare for
Speaker 1: a quarterback to lead a team in rushing, and that
Speaker 1: was the case, and it was only two forty three yards.
Speaker 1: You bring in somebody like Jordan Howard and not that
Speaker 1: the team can't keep adding more players. I figure they
Speaker 1: will um at the running back spot, but certainly feels
Speaker 1: like Jordan Howard is in a prime spot to make
Speaker 1: a huge leap this year for the Dolphins, just because
Speaker 1: of the workshare, right, I mean, as of right now,
Speaker 1: he looks like he's in line for close to twenty
Speaker 1: touches per game and certainly a guy uh that in
Speaker 1: the past has been able to handle a large load
Speaker 1: and been productive with multiple thousand yards seasons and a
Speaker 1: good landing spot for him in Miami and with covering
Speaker 1: the offense and defense here on this podcast so far, Afield.
Speaker 1: The Dolphins also made a couple of acquisitions and former
Speaker 1: Special teams captains and Clayton Federalum and Camu Grugier Hill.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm working on that one still, but they got
Speaker 1: these two special teams captains that have come to Miami.
Speaker 1: What can that type of leadership in terms of the
Speaker 1: team captain and third team proud to do for a roster,
Speaker 1: an entire football team. Yeah, I'm glad you brought those guys, Uh,
Speaker 1: Clayton and Commu special teams guys that have been you
Speaker 1: know they and by the way, they you know, commonly
Speaker 1: played some defense for for the for the Eagles as well,
Speaker 1: but some familiarity they're having begun his career in New England.
Speaker 1: But let's start here. Um. Leadership comes in a lot
Speaker 1: of different forms. The difference between the star players on
Speaker 1: offense and defense and the star players on special teams
Speaker 1: is that special team star players are closer to the
Speaker 1: bubble than offensive or defensive players are year inting, year out.
Speaker 1: And that is not to say that Commu or Clayton
Speaker 1: or any threat of not making the roster. Of course
Speaker 1: they are. They're gonna be a big part of what
Speaker 1: the Dolphins do this season. But leadership for special teams
Speaker 1: guys is really special because players that actually are on
Speaker 1: the bubble, whether it's a fifth cornerback or a sixth
Speaker 1: linebacker or a backup defensive lineman or you name it,
Speaker 1: those players are gonna look to those guys who are,
Speaker 1: you know, life and limb every single day and doing
Speaker 1: whatever it takes to continue to secure their roster spot.
Speaker 1: And guys that are willing to do some of the
Speaker 1: toughest assignments in football. I mean, you play only a
Speaker 1: mile and a million miles an hour on special teams
Speaker 1: and certainly you are it's some of the players or
Speaker 1: some of the highest contact in the sport. It's a
Speaker 1: very selfless rule to take on. So I think both
Speaker 1: Clayton and Common We're gonna be big parts of what
Speaker 1: the Dolphins do in the kicking game. And those are
Speaker 1: the kind of guys you can never have enough, odd
Speaker 1: enough of on your roster because you know you're going
Speaker 1: to get their very best every single play. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: plug their tape on and they are a hundred miles
Speaker 1: an hour all the time, defense or special teams. It's
Speaker 1: a lot of fun to watch. And those are the
Speaker 1: back end of the free agency signings that we talked about,
Speaker 1: and with free agency winding down and the draft just
Speaker 1: a month away, it's coming. Miami have fourteen draft picks
Speaker 1: and I've really opened up the flexibility options for where
Speaker 1: they can go on those picks. So from a league perspective, field,
Speaker 1: how how kind of envious would the league be of
Speaker 1: being in a position like that where you have so
Speaker 1: many draft picks in a way that you can kind
Speaker 1: of control the draft with those four team picks. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: I don't want to say it gives you the right
Speaker 1: to do whatever you want to do, but it puts
Speaker 1: you in a really good spot. Basically, take any approach
Speaker 1: that you do want. And you know, I think the
Speaker 1: first overall pick and Joe Burrow is off the table.
Speaker 1: I think that Cincinnati is committed to that pick and
Speaker 1: I would be very, very surprised if it wasn't Joe.
Speaker 1: But as we sit here right now, and this is
Speaker 1: a Tuesday March conversation, I think a lot of people
Speaker 1: understand that, um, the next wave of quarterbacks includes two
Speaker 1: a Tugo Viloa and Justine Herbert George Love as well,
Speaker 1: and if the Dolphins are in the market for a
Speaker 1: quarterback that can maybe be their guy as soon as
Speaker 1: this year, but perhaps at the very least at the
Speaker 1: start of one. And those are some of the names
Speaker 1: you got to keep an eye on. And you just
Speaker 1: look at the quarterback landscape right now. Teams that might
Speaker 1: be ahead of them in the draft, uh, or that
Speaker 1: that might be at least targeting a quarterback, Well, the
Speaker 1: answer is nobody. It's more of the threat from the
Speaker 1: team behind them, the Los Angeles Chargers, and the possibility
Speaker 1: of them trying to move up in this draft to
Speaker 1: take a quarterback that could be a future you know,
Speaker 1: ten year starter. So I would say that the Dolphins
Speaker 1: have the ammo to move up in the order, and
Speaker 1: then you can always find ways stations that you can
Speaker 1: always But um, I think it's a lot less sexy
Speaker 1: to move down in the draft order, right, I mean, um,
Speaker 1: you move down and acquire extra picks, certainly that gives
Speaker 1: you even more flexibility. But um, you know, I think
Speaker 1: moving up is tends that tends to be the more
Speaker 1: audacious move that people fixate on. So um, I think
Speaker 1: that the Dolphins want to be aggressive and move up
Speaker 1: the spot two or slot three, then they at least
Speaker 1: have the capital and make a formidable offer to any
Speaker 1: teams that negotiate with So if that were to happen,
Speaker 1: if the Dolphins were to make an aggressive move to
Speaker 1: go up the draft board, this is a kind of
Speaker 1: conversation that changes every year in terms of the value
Speaker 1: because we've seen a variety of compensation for those move
Speaker 1: was up the board, whether it was the Bears going
Speaker 1: up one spot for Trabski, which isn't a whole lot,
Speaker 1: but Sam Donald in the Jets trade of the Colts
Speaker 1: three second round picks to go up three spots. You
Speaker 1: go back to two thousand twelve, the RG three trade
Speaker 1: that was a bounty of draft picks. How do teams
Speaker 1: try to figure out what the fair value is and
Speaker 1: how do you work that value when you're when you're
Speaker 1: maybe bargaining against someone else, like a team picking right
Speaker 1: behind you, for instance. Yeah, I think really you made them.
Speaker 1: I think all the examples you gave UM remind us
Speaker 1: that it's impossible to say what the compensation will be, right.
Speaker 1: We just don't know. I mean, if the let's just
Speaker 1: say they negotiate with the Redskins that picked two, because
Speaker 1: the Redskins and I think personally this is unlikely, but
Speaker 1: they're toying with the idea of taking a quarterback, Well
Speaker 1: then it might cost the steeper price. Or maybe they're
Speaker 1: the only ones talking to the red Skins, Well then
Speaker 1: it might not cost this tief of a price. But
Speaker 1: if you've got multiple teams that are um competing for
Speaker 1: one draft slot, then it's just a little bit different.
Speaker 1: So I don't know that I can say in a
Speaker 1: vacuum and it would cost more how much I expected
Speaker 1: to cost. There's a lot of variables, and we're still
Speaker 1: thirty days away from the draft. But you know, I
Speaker 1: just would say that it just takes a little bit
Speaker 1: of logic to understand that your radar should be up
Speaker 1: on the possibility of the Dolphins making a trade and
Speaker 1: if it is in fact a quarterback the Dolphins select
Speaker 1: with their first pick in this year's draft, first of
Speaker 1: fourteen draft picks they do currently possess. We had some
Speaker 1: offensive skill players with some breakout seasons last year from
Speaker 1: Devonte Parker over yards, Mica Sicky scored a bunch of
Speaker 1: touchdowns down the stretch, and Preston Williams was really getting
Speaker 1: things going before his injury. And since you do host
Speaker 1: a fantasy football podcast, Field, what do you make of
Speaker 1: this Dolphins skill possessions out wide from that fantasy perspective, Yeah,
Speaker 1: DeVante Parker was awesome and he'll be drafted as such
Speaker 1: this upcoming year with a little bit more stability and
Speaker 1: his spots and certainly all of his production this past
Speaker 1: season was so so good and certainly a guy that
Speaker 1: you know, fulfilled the potential that they saw on him
Speaker 1: when they took him, I believe fourteenth overall when he
Speaker 1: initially came out of Louis Vale. He will be drafted accordingly,
Speaker 1: And I think Mica Sink you will be a player
Speaker 1: that will also be drafted, uh, you know, as a
Speaker 1: starter at his position in fantasy football this year, and
Speaker 1: then you know, I think beyond that still an evolving picture.
Speaker 1: You know, Preston Williams was really really promising last year
Speaker 1: before his injury, but there are a lot of questions
Speaker 1: to answer there to see if he's fully up to
Speaker 1: speed because of that injury issue last year. He is
Speaker 1: the ESPN insider and co host of the Fantasy Focus
Speaker 1: football podcast Field Yates. You can find him on Twitter
Speaker 1: at field Yates. Really appreciate your time today, man, all right,
Speaker 1: thanks so much for having me on. Good luck and
Speaker 1: looking forward catching up and give at some point soon
Speaker 1: those Field dates of ESPN. What a great interview that was.
Speaker 1: That's a good spot to go ahead and button up
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Speaker 1: Until next time finds up, Time finds up. Time finds
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