March 12, 2025 • 40 mins
The new league year is here and the Dolphins have bene active in their reported signings. We’ll get into the free agency landscape for the team, the moves they’ve reportedly made, and start our analysis with two of Travis’ favorite from the class so far - OL James Daniels and WR Nick Westbrook-Ikhine.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
What is up, Dolphins, and welcome to the Draft Time Podcast.
Your boy has been itching to get on the airwaves.
I have been stuck in the lab grinding the tape,
creating content for you guys for this new league year
and a bunch of new players and evaluations where they
fit in, what I think of.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Their game, and a whole lot more.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
We're gonna break down all of these reported signings. Eventually
we'll cover the Dolphins freegency class so far to date,
We'll have two names I want to cover off the
top of the show, James Daniels and Nick Westbrook.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Akine will get the breakdown treatment.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Today we'll talk about the Dolphins roster in general, NFL
moves that have happened over the course of the last
couple of days. A busy, busy edition of the podcast
from the Baptist Hell Studios inside the Baptist Hell Training Complex.
This is the Drive Time Podcast. I kick off the
show here with my remember the whiteboard days the lockdown
(01:06):
Dolphins listeners out there where we'd have every single player
categorize based upon their roster standing. If you will, you
know cornerstone player, right franchise player, one of the best
in the league at his position plus starter. That's the
blue for cornerstone, Green for the plus starter, and Orange
is my quality slash adequate starter. Those are the three
(01:26):
types of players you want to get a bunch of.
And then we've got the purple designation quality depth or
special teams player. Pink is replacement level. Don't want to
be in that boat or a red camp body, which
means I think you'll be cut by training camp.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Don't want to be in that category either.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
We also have the incomplete because of injuries or youth,
whatever might be category. So with all of that in mind,
I want ahead and stack the Dolphins roster so I
can give you a feel for how I believe these
players fit within the Dolphins current roster construction. So quarnerback
to a tongue by loa to me as a cornerstone player.
That's an argument we can have, but that's where he's
going to be for me. Zach Wilson replacement the bable
(02:02):
player for me at quarterback running back to Von eight
Chian is a green plus starter. Jalen Wright I think
is going to be orange adequate starter this year. The receivers,
I think Hill and Waddle both are cornerstones. I have
Westbrook A Keene as an adequate starter in the orange category,
with Maligue Washington and DS Gridge both in the purple
category as quality depth or special teams. I think Washington
can take a step up from that, and then Azukama,
(02:24):
Taje Washington, and Tarique Black are both either red or
black in the camp body slash incomplete category. At tight end,
John new Smith is a plus starter, Julian Hill replacement level,
Tanner Connor and Hayden Rouchie both in the red category.
At tackle, I have Patrick Paul as an adequate starter,
a quality starter.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
I think he will be that this year for us.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
That's a projection there with him a little bit, Austin
Jackson a plus starter, and then Keon Smith the incomplete
I just don't know yet with him, and then Brayden Daniels,
Jackson Carmen, and Ryan Hayes are all in the red category,
with Toront Armstead kind of hanging out there as an
unknown as in the black category. On the interior offensive line,
I've got Aaron Brewer and James Daniels as plus starters
my green category, with Larry Borham as a pink replacement
(03:06):
level player know check that he got the purple destination
the quality depth destination. Andrew Meyer black incomplete, I don't know.
Chason Hines and Byron Mattos both in the red category
on defense, Seeler a Cornerstone blue player, Matt Dickerson, Neil
Farrell both red players. That's the camp body category, Jalen Phillips,
Chop Robinson both my plus starters and the orange the
(03:26):
Green category. Bradley Chubb is a Orange category at this
point of his career. He could definitely jump up if
he shows you what he used to do.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
And then I have.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Four players in the quality depth category with Quentin Bell,
Mohammed Kamara, cam Good, and Grayson Murphy, and then William
Bradley King in the red category at linebacker, Jordan Brooks
in the Green category plus starter, Tyrell Dotson in the
Orange category adequate starter, and then two red players Tendall
and Dakwan Jackson at cornerback, Ramsey Cornerstone franchise type player,
(03:55):
Cater Cooho adequate starter, and then Storm duck Is in
my replacement level category. I put Smith and Ethan Bonner
in the Red category as well as Bump Cooper, and
then I have incomplete marks on Isaiah Johnson and Jason
Matrie at safety, melafan Wu gets a Green category. We'll
talk about his film setting a little bit, but his
on the field product is very good, just doesn't stay
(04:15):
on the field very often. And then I have two
purple players here at quality depth in Elijah Campbell and
Patrick McMorris, with Ashton Davis being a replacement level player
in pink, and then Jordan Colbert in the red category.
So that's how the roster construction looks for me right now,
and I wanted to funnel that or funnel the coverage
of these players through that lens. So off the top,
James Daniels and Ifatu melafan Wu both are in the
(04:38):
green category. In terms of new additions, I think both
those guys can be plus stars for you if they
can stay healthy. Larry Boram gets the Purple category, my
fourth roster designation. There quality depth. He could compete for
the left guard job in my opinion. We shall see
where he winds up. I have quarterback Zach Wilson pink
replacement level, and then Nick Westbrook A Keene gets an
Orange designation as an adequate starter if he does start
(05:00):
he'll be like a fifty five percent player probably, and
then Ashton Davis is in the red category. For me,
among the re signings, I had Tyrrel Dotson in the
orange category as an adequate starter, next to Jordan Brooks,
Quentin Bell, and Elijah Campbell in the quality depth special
teams category, and then ds Gridge replacement level player, and
then two red players in Matthew Dickerson and Jackson Carmon.
(05:20):
My collective thoughts on the Dolphins freegency so far, and
we'll see this is gonna be. I'm recording this at
one o'clock. If any additional moves happen, I'll probably put
it on the Thursday podcast. To be honest with you, guys,
I have a lot of work to do, so we'll
kind of crank through it all here. But collectively, I
think they had a big focus on guys that love
playing football, a temperament around the whistle right, how they
(05:41):
play through the echo of the whistle, how they hit piles,
how they embrace contact. When I watch Melafon Wu, when
I watch Daniels, when I watch Westbrook, Akeene, and when
I watch Borham, Ashton Davis, all these guys embrace the
physicality of the game. Embrace the contact, Embrace the love
of the game. I think that there was a definitive
going into the offseason to identify players that could increase
(06:04):
your ability to be flexible on defense and disguise and
confuse opposing quarterbacks. That's what Mela fon Mu's game's all about.
He can do everything. Ashton Davis not so much in
that regard, but I doubt they're going to be done
in that. In that department, I think they've brought the
floor of the offensive line way up. Think of it
as Rob Jones and Liam Miichenberg out and James Daniels
and Larry Borum both in. I think Daniels is a
(06:26):
massive upgrade over that. I think Borham is an upgrade
over that as well. I think if you can get
that threshold of your offensive line depth for the guys,
you know, seven to eight to nine on the roster
as like rosterable players compared to like what we saw
at the end of last year or two years ago. Like,
I think that that's gonna be a big boom for
this team. And I think that they really have emphasized
(06:47):
the running game and how they can be a more
physical football team. I know for a fact they want
to get Jalen Wright a lot more involved in this
offense as a ball carrier and kind of view him
as the physical element because like is a lot of
his game in addition to the speed that he offers.
So I think that you've gotten a lot better in
the running game with what you've done with James Daniels,
(07:07):
with Larry Boram, with Nick Westbrook Akine, I think those
guys are gonna love. The running backs are gonna love
having those three guys block ahead of them. So an
emphasis on improving your run game with athletic pieces the
offer size inside. In terms of Borham and James Daniels,
I think this offense really hums when it can run
the ball that effectively. And so I think that was
a big area of focus. So guys that love the
(07:28):
game more disguise and flexibility and the defensive back end,
and an emphasis on running the football and the run
blocking game and short yardage and surge and into your
line flexibility. All of those things to me have already
occurred with what they've done so as of this taping,
as of four o'clock, and we'll see if anything happens
between one and four o'clock. I think you have needs
(07:49):
at defensive tackle, probably the biggest one. I think Benito
Jones and DeShawn hand would reduce that to needing one player,
and maybe Kalaias Campbell is that player. But we'll see.
At tight end, I think you have a big need
there to round out John news Smith and Julian Hill.
I think you need at least one more offensive line
could be the draft. I would love a mid level
free agent like a Will Hernandez for instance, and then
(08:10):
a draft pick on top of that. That's what I
would do, but we'll see. And then a safety. I
think you're not done there at all. And then running
back three and that's kind of it, guys, like I
mean capop lips right, But that's like pretty much the
most secondary positions you can find, and that's where the
needs are. Also, we got an extra comp pick I
did not know about, not even Nick Corte, the great
(08:31):
comp Pick formula guy, I knew about it. Cedric Wilson
brings back another seventh round draft picks. So we have
eleven draft picks now, one first rounder at thirteen, second
rounder at forty eight, third rounder.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
At ninety eight.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
We lost Christian Wilkins back to the fourth round, a
fourth round UH draft pick in one sixteen, a comp
pick in the fourth round one thirty five, two fifth
round picks one to fifty and one to fifty five,
and then four seventh round picks two twenty four to
two thirty one, two fifty three, two fifty six. And
with regards to those four picks being in the seventh round,
we've seen, you know, this staff use those picks to
(09:05):
move up on Day three, Right, It's like ammunition to
get up to get a player you like in Day three.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Always keep that in mind.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
But also, this team has found a lot of hits
in you DFA success right, And those seventh round draft
picks can kind of be like almost a priority free
agent signing in a way that guarantees that you get
them you don't have to negotiate against other teams. So
of the four I would not be at all surprised
if you found a contributor among those four picks. Traditionally
(09:32):
you don't get a lot of seventh round hits. When
you've got four of them, you know, twenty five percent
chance our UDFA success rate, I like our chances there. Okay,
free agency. The first thing I wanted to talk about
was I'm not mad. And again this is not a
Drift time listener thing. It's more of a Twitter thing.
I'm just disappointed in the fan base because we do
this every year. We watch this play out every year.
(09:53):
We watch the bad teams spend the money they have
because they don't have good players to spend the money on. Previously,
they go out and they spend one hundred and thirty
percent you know, of market value on these players that
are good players but not great players.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
And does it ever work?
Speaker 1 (10:06):
I mean, like ever, you can round out pieces, you
can get better, But like these big spending spreez and
some of these players going for major money like Aaron
Banks at seventeen million dollars per year, No thanks, brother,
had rather have Robert Hunt at twenty million dollars per year.
Or the Giants who let Xavier McKinney walk and then
one year later signed Javon Holland for fifteen million dollars
a year. Is that what smart football teams do? I
(10:27):
just I don't get how we spend so many months
talking about build through the draft, free agency as fools.
Gold and then three hours into the new league year,
we're like, ah, the Dolphins are sleepy, Chris Career, I
just don't get that. So disappointed in that a little bit.
And we will get to all the free agent additions.
We're gonna have two big breakdowns today. I have all
six in the can, but we're going to do shows
tomorrow and Friday as well. And also, don't forget the
(10:49):
first place you can find these guys doing media is
right here on Drift Time. The Draft Time podcast will
be the first time you hear from these guys as
Miami Dolphins. We will roll those out later on this
week and next week as well, but just real quick,
we're gonna get to Daniels and Nick Westbrook a Kine
on this episode, So no need for a one sentence
blurb on those two guys. But Larry Borum played garden tackle.
(11:10):
He has very impressive foot quickness at three hundred and
thirty five pounds out in space on the perimeter, with
really good drive in a foam booth like he can
combo block inside. The tackle tape was really bad. The
pass pro was atrociously bad. So I don't see it
there for him. We'll see but more on him in
a future episode. Melifonwu Ifat to one of the best
athletes in the entire league. The ball production, the versatility,
(11:32):
very smart, instinctive player. He has had injury problems, playing
thirty seven games in four years. No complaints about his game.
He just has to stay healthy. Zach Wilson's Bronco's preseason
tape looked like a different player than when we saw
with the Jets. I think the flashes of brilliance became
more impressive, or will become more impressive, I should say,
if he can iron out some of the consistency on
(11:53):
the more off schedule stuff and when he played in
rhythm and on time, it's really pretty. It's just very
few and far between now. I thought there was a
lot more of that on the Broncos preseason tape when
he got actual coaching, but again that's preseason. I'm excited
to watch him in camp, but the minute he starts
missing layups again, because that's what he's been in the past,
your boy is all the way out, way too many
of those. Ashton Davis is one hundred Medior champion with
(12:16):
speed and range, eight career picks and ball production played
a lot of nickel safety for the Jets can cover
the slot.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
But I wouldn't be surprised.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
If he's a camp cut because there's a lot of
flaws in that game. They I'll talk about on a
future podcast. We also have a handful of returning players.
Linebacker Tyrel Dotson was signed to be the linebacker two
in my opinion, for that kind of money. I'm jazzed
about that. Going back and watching his tape last year,
he was a really good player. He led the team
with three picks despite being here for like a month
and a half. He's got a pretty good shot holding
down that linebacker two job last year. With his temperament
(12:47):
and his play speed. I like his game a lot.
Safety Elijah Campbell one of my favorite humans in the
entire building. Oh and he's also a beast on special
teams who can be good depth at safety. Quintin Bell
I thought this was a no brainer, perfect depth piece
off the edge, and hell, I think he showed you
that with another step, he could be a base down
player in your rotation. He's excellent against the run. Wide
(13:07):
receiver d s. Gridge popped right away last year in
that Seattle game. Good return skills right after the catch.
Another depth piece that I like there. Defensive tackle Matthew
Dickerson and offensive tackle Jackson Carmen are red players for me.
So I just don't have a lot to say about that.
You guys know what I mean, though, Right, Okay, all right?
So I wanted to start this thing off with a bang.
Let's go ahead and take our first break right there.
Come back on the other side and kick it off
(13:28):
with our player breakdowns, starting with James Daniels. That's next
Draft Time podcast, your host, Travis Wingfield, brought to you
by Auto Nation. James Daniels, you got your offensive lineman,
Dolphins fans, your guard. This is your guy. This is
a perfect scheme fit and a really good player. His
career resume second round draft pick number thirty eight overall
(13:50):
for the Chicago Bears in twenty eighteen out of Iowa.
He spent the first four years of his career with
Chicago and then the last three with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
He has started games all three interior spots. He's six
foot four, three hundred and twenty seven pounds, and he's
twenty eight years old. In September. He has four full
seasons twenty eighteen through twenty twenty two, he played all
(14:12):
but just five games, and the one year that was
a difference there was twenty twenty when he had a
pectoral injury that cost him the rest of that season,
but he missed two games in twenty three. Then he
tore his achilles after four games last season, had the
PEC tear in twenty twenty, and the achilles tear was
on October first last year. He's only missed two other
games outside of those season ending injuries, and the good
(14:33):
news is that Barry Jackson from Miami Herald reports the
Dolphins made this offer after receiving medicals that his achilles
would be ready for football activity in either May or June.
And for those keeping score at home, OTAs are in
May and June, and training camp starts in late July,
so it sounds like we're gonna have this guy for
training camp. That's a huge, huge win right there. His
(14:53):
statistical profile ninety career games, eighty four starts. He has
a career ninety seven point eight pass block efficiency score.
He's allowed just six sacks and only two over the
last three years, and of those thirteen hundred snaps or rather,
the three thousand cumulative snaps with six snap sacks allowed
is actually the lowest in the entire National football They's
(15:14):
a PFF stat, so we'll see, you know, a little
bit of a range of gray there, but it's a
good thing. Right doesn't allow pressures and quarterbacks or quarterback sacks.
I should say here's a fun one because I think
pass pro is actually the weakest part of his game.
In twenty twenty three, Pittsburgh averaged four point nine yards
per carry off the right side B gap was their
most fruitful gap on the offensive line, and their second
(15:36):
most fruitful gap was the A gap, which is to
his left off the center and right guard. His athletic
profile testing, I mean, his raft score was nine to
two five ninety eight percent Tile three cone. He's a
great change of direction player, ninety fourth percentile shuttle and
eighty seventh percent tile in both the broad and vertical jumps.
He's one of the best movers at the position in
(15:56):
the entire game. Three year, twenty four million dollar contract,
ten million guaranteed. It's twenty second total among guards, and
that came in before we saw Will Fryes's contract, before
we saw Shoot somebody else signed that I forget Ryan
Kelly maybe, so he's probably gonna wind up being the
thirtieth highest paid like interior offensive line this year. It's
the same figure as Isaac Samaldo and Ezra Cleveland, and
(16:18):
this guy is twice the football player of those guys.
So let's get to the verdict, because I am a
big fan of this guy's game, and he's a good cost. Obviously,
the injury is the reason why he was that cost.
But let's go ahead and talk about the tape.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
The verdict all rise, and.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
If we're being honest, what got me really rising was
the configuration of my pants watching this guy's tape, because
my goodness, here's what I knew and what I wrote
about him back in February. This guy solves a lot
of woes in terms of your backup center spot that
was always one play away from turning nuclear. He's super
adept as a guard, which is what he'd be here,
and he schemed averse incredibly athletic low center of gravity
(17:03):
to get surge in the running game. He has so
much pop with good pad level and has refined hips, knees,
punch feet. They're hardwired to the hands to handle one
on one pass rushes, to work in unison with smart
athletic teammates, which as a right guard, he's gonna have
that with Brewer and Jackson flanking him at either spot.
Everybody in the league needs a James Daniels. James Daniels,
(17:23):
I wrote all thirty two teams spot rack projects eight
million dollars per year. I would do that today, I
wrote back in February, So this is back to modern day.
The way he can connect on a reach or a
little scoop or crossover steps. He fits so perfectly with
our outside zone scheme, and he's really the perfect combination
because he brings a three hundred and twenty seven pound
(17:45):
frame with great pop and power and leg drive to
dig out some of those tougher runs and keep us
flexible to hit more inside zone, more duo, maybe some
man schemes, some power scheme, if we so choose. You
guys might recall last year I had a big crush
on the idea of Jackson powers Johnson because of the
athletic ability paired with his size, and how I thought
we kind of got overwhelmed by bigger defensive tackles in
(18:07):
twenty twenty three with Connor Williams. And granted we do
go Aaron Brewer to get an even smaller center, but
we still had three hundred and ten pound guards in
Leah Miikenberg and Rob Jones, and now we got a
couple of guys with him and Borham.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
We'll see if he starts at guard or whatever, but like.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Three hundred and thirty pounds now with the athletic ability,
so that the vision we thought we might see last
year that I hope we would see last year kind
of sounds like it's coming to fruition here a little bit.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Right now.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
This just feels like about the biggest investment that could
possibly have made on the offensive line. It kind of
goes against some of the core philosophy in terms of
the guard investment. And maybe you got that price reduction
because of the injury. In fact, you definitely did, and
that's why this turns into a potential like fifteen million
dollars per year player in terms of his ability that
you got for half the cost because of that injury history.
(18:51):
This guy is a smart, smart football player. The way
he plays connected and pass protection, identifies games, sim pressures
Green Dog blitzerz He sees it all second level runners
like it's true veteran stuff that he does. His ninety
games experience is obvious on tape. The control he plays
with and pass protection is obvious. At the second level.
He plays in control, feet under the hips, hips under
(19:12):
the shoulders, and explodes into his blocks. There's no wasted movement,
there's no you know, let me flail the arm out
there because my feet aren't right and I can't get
under this block. I think you're gonna really see him
blossom in the system. What I wanted to see I
watched this player last summer when it was reported that
he might be a trade target for US. I wanted
to see how was he at the point of attack
in short yardage? What kind of temperament does he bring,
(19:35):
and how was his twenty twenty four performance. And what
I found out was this dude's an ass kicker. He'll
find work in pass pro. When his slide causes an overload,
he'll take a bite of your ribs and rushers try
to elevate to bat down passes the last scrimmage. He
can get real surge off the football while maintaining the
athletic ability that we love and have to have in
this offense to really make the offense do what it
does best and play off that overplay and the commitment
(19:57):
to the outside zone game. I don't think you're finding
a more athletic center, right guard, right tackle combination, provided
he slots in there with the ability to also knock
you off the football and a real mean mindset than
what you have in Brewer, Daniels and Jackson. He was
on the field for seven runs last year on third
or fourth down and short. The Steelers converted six of
(20:18):
those runs. And because I'm like that, I looked up
twenty twenty three to two. There was thirty five plays
that counted. There was actually forty one in total, but
there was some failed snaps, a spike play on one
of them, like some stuff that just didn't really concern him.
But on those thirty five plays that did concern him,
they converted twenty seven of those first downs, and he
was a critical piece of a lot of those runs.
The twenty twenty four season was looking like his best
(20:40):
through those first four games, and the thing that jumped
off the tape the most was the temperament and the finishes.
This guy wants to inflict pain and again that's the
game of Brewer and Austin Jackson and Patrick Paul for
that matter. So you want your physical element, your toughness element,
well you were well on your way here with these
guys you're bringing in. I just think that James Daniels' technique,
(21:01):
his spatial awareness, the way he sees the game, it
all looks like a guy who's done it for a
long time.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
And he has.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
And we might have a first time starter at left tackle,
but now we have experience all the way down the
line off the right side, he will get that extra
step before he drives out of his squad into the hit.
The feet are sweet, as I like to say, Like
larrymy Tunzel was the one that taught me about sweet feet.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
This guy can tap him man.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
The way he'll tap and chop to get into the
proper position to get his weight behind his punch. It
just speaks to the rare athletic combination of athlete and
power that he has that we're getting with this player.
Like I am such a fan of his game. If
there is a weakness to his game, he can kind
of stop his feet and get extended in pass protection.
He's improved a lot in that way, and how he
(21:43):
can kind of settle back into his pass pro reps
and he does stay glued to him to those guys
once he gets his hands on them. And quite frankly,
if I'm going to have an offensive lineman that has
one deficiency in his game in this offense, that's why
I want it to be because we take care of
that on like seventy five percent of the reps that
he plays, not to mention giving teams even more of
(22:03):
a threat that they're gonna get ran off the football.
With Liam Eichenberg and Rob Jones, you did not instill
that threat and that fear and defenses and who's the
coach that talked about that how you have to present
the threat that you can do that in order to
get the benefit of your play action passing game. I
don't think teams feared Rob Jones or Liam Eichenberg at
the second level, but you damn well better fear this
(22:24):
guy and Larry Borhen for that matter, because he can
do some of that stuff in the running game as well.
His grip strength is awesome. Once he gets on you
in the run game more pass game, you are toast
where he helps this team the most. I mean, he's
the OG one. He's your starting guard, a force multiplier
and even better scheme fit than Aaron Brewer was. Quite frankly,
I just love his game. I think he's your right guard.
I think he's the center if Brewer goes down. Why
(22:46):
was he available? Because the Steelers have invested across the
offensive line and his injuries. They drafted Troy Fatanu last year,
they drafted Broderick Jones three years ago. Last year, they
also drafted Zach Fraser and Mason McCormick inside. On top
of paying a big contract to Isaac Somalu, Steelers fans
wanted to trade Samalu and keep him and the Achilles
probably pushed their hand on that, but or forced their hand,
(23:07):
and that I should say. But that's why he was available.
And my classification here is this guy is a plus starter.
We talked about that. Off the top right, the roster
classifications cornerstone, plus starter, adequate starter. If you get guys
in those three categories, it's a good player. I put
him in the plus starter category, which means he can
threaten to make Pro Bowls and be one of the
better players at his position. The cornerstone position is you're
(23:30):
already in that spot. So between that and again, I
just this other fact here that I just can't get
enough of is the combination of he and Borham. I mean,
if you know, they wouldn't be done on the first
ninlf of free agency on the offensive line, which I
thought was kind of funny of the legal tampering period.
They brought in Larry Borum and I don't think that
(23:50):
he can play tackle, the only spot that he's really
played a lot of in the NFL, which made me
think that he can be a guard convert. And if
that's the case, he's three hundred and thirty five pounds. Mean,
they added six one hundred and sixty two pounds of
beef at the guard spot on day one, and that
follows that Rams path we've talked about. We average just
a hair under three hundred and fifteen pounds at the
two starting guard spots since McDaniel arrived, and that includes
(24:13):
bringing Robert Hunt's wait down a little bit. But the
Rams had the exact same thing until they converted to
more of an inside zone counter duo game by bringing
in Jonah Jackson, Steve a Vila, and Kevin Dottson. So
I think it's happening. We'll see. I have faith in
it is. Keep stay tuned and we'll find out more.
We'll talk about Larry Borum here in a future portion.
(24:33):
Maybe it'says podcast. I don't know recording all of these individually.
Gonna build the podcast based upon what comes of it
on Wednesday. We'll see you then. But that's the James
Daniels breakdown. Huge, huge fan of his game. All Right,
We're gonna take a quick pivot here because I was
going to do a whole NFL segment, but I'm realizing
now this podcast is going to run long as it is.
Let's go ahead and take our last break, come back
on the other side and do Nick Westbrook a Kine
(24:54):
and call it an episode. We'll do the NFL stuff
on the Thursday episode. Quick Break Draft Time podcast here
Travis s Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. Sometimes
you get your guy and it's really fun when you do.
Sometimes you get two of your guys and you put
them on the same opening New League Year Free Agent
(25:15):
podcast back to back and get very excited about it.
We're talking about wide receiver Nick Westbrook Akine, who was
undrafted by the Titans in twenty twenty, spent five years there,
all five years of his career. He's six foot two,
two hundred eleven pounds, and he turns twenty eight years
old later this month. His injury history, he missed four
games in five years. He was inactive for three games
(25:37):
as a UDFA rookie, which is pretty commonplace, but he
doesn't really get hurt. He did have a torn acl
in college, but nothing major.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Beyond that.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
His statistical profile is pretty impressive. Caught nine touchdowns last
year on just sixty pass targets, averaging fifteen and a
half yards per catch. We'll get into how that happened
in the film portion here for this player, but I
mean thirty two, four, ninety seven and nine last year
despite a catch rate of just fifty three point three percent,
(26:06):
and that was more quarterback play with Will Levis and
Mason Rudolph than it was on him. He had sixty
two and sixty six percent catch rates when Tannehill was
quarterbacking there, and he also averaged eight point three yards
per target. A highly efficient player, with a career yards
per target of eight point one his lowest in his career,
stands that rookie season when he wasn't really an option,
(26:28):
where he just got eight targets as a receiver and
played almost exclusively on special teams. His career yards per
target eight point one, and the lowest was seven point
nine outside of that rookie season. In his career, one
hundred and twenty seven grabs, seventeen hundred seventy three yards
and nineteen touchdowns. Those nineteen touchdowns on two hundred and
twenty targets is a pretty good number. Pair of that
(26:50):
with eighty seven career first downs. He's reliable. He's a
big body target. He has a career drop rate of
five percent. That's right around the average. Most guys were
four to six percent. Not a big broken tackle guy,
just five of those in his career. Pro Football Focus
has him with twenty five contested catches on sixty one opportunities,
give or take. You never know that, right, eight for
(27:11):
fourteen last year. Anything over fifty percents good. He's had
that two of his five years. Other years it's been
down a little bit, But I don't think that's really
his game. More on that in a second. He caught
four of eight deep targets last year. That's balls that
were over twenty air yards for a buck ninety seven
and three touchdowns. He caught fourteen of twenty five targets
in the intermediate, which is ten to nineteen yards, for
(27:33):
one hundred and seventy four yards and five touchdowns five touchdowns.
Only one touchdown of his nine came on a throw
under ten yards. So don't think of this guy as
just someone you throw fades to. We'll get into that
in the film section. Again, don't think he's really a
big contested catch player, but just fourteen one twenty six
and one on targets under nine yards. He's a big
(27:56):
play guy, not a quick game guy. He also had
an eighty or a ninety eight yard touchdown last season.
Athletic testing profile, no earthly clue. He came out the
COVID season and there was no additional workout held for
him at IU like there was for other guys at
bigger school. So no idea why. But there was no
testing metrics on Nick Westbrook Akinne contract two years, six
(28:16):
and a half million bucks, three point two guaranteed. That's
an absolute steal, guys. I mean, I'm not gonna sit
here and tell you they just brought in Mike Evans
or you know, prime Dez Bryant, like these big time
you know, go up and get the football targets.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
He's not that, but he's a.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Really good role a role player in this offense, in
this receiver's room. I mean, you got a rookie contract.
Basically what you've got here, because this is what like
Jordan Addison will make this year is like three point
two million bucks without paying the signing bonus for the
for being a first round draft pick. Right, So he's
basically on a rookie type of contract. But you get
(28:52):
that with five years experience and you get to bypass
all the learning pains or growing pains and learning process.
You don't need time to ramp him up into this position. Hell,
mac Hollands got more money than this guy, and I
would take NWI all day, every day over mac Hollins.
The verdict here, well that's what we all want to
get to, right, so stupid, yet still so satisfactory. What
(29:21):
I knew about Nick Westbrook Akine was what he lacks
in foot quickness, And actually wrote this back in January
or maybe February one. The receiver's the receiver primer. What
he lacks in foot quickness he makes up for with
strength and leverage and catch radius. I think he's adept enough,
and actually, as I went back and watched him, this
might be a little bit of an under sell, but
(29:43):
he can really kind of set defenders up to allow
those traits to flourish. He's not going to break you
down with a super snap move. He's not going to
run by you without some type of deception. He's not
even gonna be DeVante Parker pulling down deep shots. He's
kind of a master of none, but he's really good
at like everything, I should say, at plenty of things.
Hence his position on my free agent big board as
(30:04):
a wide receiver three or maybe even two option. If
you were going to pivot to the Tyler Warren with
John Smith power run game with Gilen Waddle and trade
off Tyreek Hill, right, that was my thought, But in
this current landscape, I think he's a perfect receiver three.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
I love.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
The thing I love most about his game is the
field that he plays with. He knows what type of
footwork and timing of his break on each route requires,
and how to settle into zones, how to attack leverage
and maximize the window for the quarterback. He knows how
to like collision and settle into those tight windows against
(30:41):
like a hook linebacker or a curl flat defender. He
adjusts to the football really well and plays this rebound
style coming back down the stem that I think a
quarterback would really trust, Like Tua doesn't really have a
big body like thrown up guy, and I don't think
that's Westbrook Akine's game, but I think that he will
develop a trust with Tua where Tua can opt to
make those throws and you get a lot of those
(31:02):
opportunities in this offense because of how we have certain
guys that tilt the coverage, tilt the field and coverage.
I think that you could like almost sneak Nwi into
some of those spaces and say, hey, if your read's
not there, you don't have any safety help over the
top on Nick. Just throw it up, brother, like we
can do that, or we can throw it away or
even take a sack, like, let's give him a chance.
(31:23):
He's not going to get it picked off. He'll he'll
very at least knock the football down, but he might
make a big play for you. This was one of
my preferred options the entire offseason. I did kind of
cool on the idea late because I thought that he
was going to get like ten million dollars per year,
but spoch Track projected four million ap y. I like
it even more at three, Like that's what he got.
I think he's everything that we didn't really have in
(31:45):
the wide receiver room, and he's not crazy expensive. To me,
this is what Cedric Wilson should have been, and what
did he get, like eight million dollars per year from us,
and perhaps to a different extent, what Eric Azukama probably
should have been. He was my number three free agent target,
behind Brandon Cooks, who who is small, and Joss Palmer,
who got ten million bucks from the Bill. So with
all that, he's probably number two and maybe even number
(32:06):
one when you factor in the build of the room.
I mean, Buffalo paying Palmer to be the number two
NWI could be your number four at that cost, and
he's like not that far off of the player. And
we haven't talked about how is run blocking yet. I
don't think you should really, as I talk about receiver
pecking order, I don't think you should stack this receiver
room in terms of like one, two, three, four. You
(32:27):
have your one in your one a right reak and
waddle over those guys. But then after that you're kind
of looking for specialized skills and specialized packages that you
can roll out to supplement Reek and Waddle and Westbrook. A.
Kine is a really good vertical threat. He's a really
good deceptive route runner, and I think he's maybe even
the very best run blocking receiver in the National Football League.
(32:48):
What I wanted to see from him on tape after
going back and watching it more, how is he as
a runner with the football in his hands? How is
his blocking reel? How diverse is he in his pre
snap alignment? And guess what, only one of those things
wasn't very good. The other two even blew away my
expectations from what they were going into this. What I
found out was he he won from every alignment. He's
(33:08):
played X, flanker, and slot, and he's won all three
levels of the passing concept. Actually, to be honest, I
actually don't think he's a quick game guy. That's where
the late, the least amount of his production came from.
But we have those in spades, and you've seen you know,
I always see like, why don't they manufacture touches for
Reakan Wattle. I've explained this in the show before that
they don't want to waste Reagan Waddle's usage in short
(33:32):
areas of the field because that's where John news Smith
can operate.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
That's where Devon a Chan can operate.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
Jalen Wright and Malake Washington and maybe even more players
that we acquired throughout this process at D. S. Gridge
for instance, as a guy that could do that. But
I think with Westbrook Akine, you can add a third
player with a vertical element. That was supposed to be
Odell Beckham last year, and I was adamant that he
would be, but he, you know, didn't care enough about
the game to make that happen. He had the vertical
(33:57):
prowess on tape. I think Westbrook a Keen is right
there in terms of his ability to get vertical and
win routes up top, especially against the coverages he's gonna
see here and the cornerback threes and fours that he's
going to face because of what he has here. There
are just so many reps where he either from the
slot the X or the flanker sells a hard step
(34:18):
inside and then bust it right back down the seam
for a huge play. And I think about how teams
kind of vacated that area of the field and would
spam the intermediate middle. Now Tua has a guy, and
like remember that throw to Mike Gesicki against Kansas City
in twenty twenty up top where he pulled it in
at the goal line, Like, you can make that throw again.
We didn't have a guy that you can make that
(34:39):
throw to on this roster, Johnny Smith, that's not his
game either.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
But Westbrook A. Kine can be that guy.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
And also if they collapse on that, he can run
away from guy, so Tua can go up top for
the vertical shot.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
That was maybe the biggest surprise.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
He has game day speed, like some people just run
faster when someone's chasing them. It's the old horror film gene.
I call it, like, Oh here comes ghost Face. I
can now run a four to four compared to my
usual four to six. He has a career slot alignment
percentage of forty percent, so sixty forty split.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
That's great.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
I love the way he can vary his routes and
this little nuance he has to sell the moves and
the acceleration off of those setup moves, like he knows
how to put his body in position to make the
break happen. Like if I get to this setup, I
can break off that stem and the cornerback can't keep
up with me.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
He doesn't play like a.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Six to two guy in a very good way in
that he can sink his hips into the route and
has really good start stop juice at the top of
that route. I just keep coming back to the detail
in his game because I was kind of wrong about
that part on the initial tape study. But like running
a comeback. There's a video of him in practice where
he runs this cut this comeback. He stacks the defensive
back vertically and he looks up for the ball, and
(35:49):
you see when he does that, the cornerback does too.
And the minute he sees that, he slams in the
brakes and comes back down the stem and the cornerback
runs off the route five yards in the wrong direction.
Like this dude is shifty and he has the nuance
in his route running to create big plays. Now the
part I said I wasn't that crazy about. I was
underwhelmed by him at the catch point, But you know
what that's not to his game. Either the size will
(36:11):
get people's attention, but he's more of a technician who
sets up good routes with sharp cuts off the stem
and a good plan in his footwork. He doesn't really
offer anything as a ball carrier after the catch, hen Swab,
We don't throw him screens or quick game. I think
he's a glider who chews up yards with route running.
He's kind of like Gasiki is a tackle breaker, but
he's like Gasiki in terms of his catch radius. And
(36:31):
by the way, he's fast and can get vertical and
has is a really good route runner. So it's like
a he's like a Gasiki that blocks. And we'll talk
about that because I pulled up ten Titans ten plus
yard runs last year, and the first one where Nick
Westbrook Akinne is on the field is a run against
us and he comes over the formation and split flow
(36:51):
motion and pancakes Marcus May.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
That's a tight end role.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
That's what Julian Hill did here, That's what Ben Scaronic
did for the rams. He kicks, but you know, hey
in that department, so where he helps, I mean his
third down success rate, his ability to beat number three
corners in single coverage, I think he's going to get
plenty of opportunities to show us what he can do
with that and the route running and the size and
the strong hands, he should have ample opportunities to make
(37:17):
some plays. He has a fifty five percent success rate
on third downs and that's fourteenth in the NFL since
twenty twenty two. Not at all bad there, and I
think every move we've made on offense so far stands.
The backup quarterback makes us a better running football team.
You can run him out there in the red zone
without losing the route running ability, which does what It
keeps you flexible in what you call like he's up
(37:39):
there with Aman Ross, Saint Brown, matc Hollins, these guys
in the run blocking ability. The way he can block,
I'm not just talking about like go get in the
way of the cornerback in front of you. I'm talking
about split flow action, Go dig out the forced defender,
and that's going to allow you to be flexible in
your red zone personnel grouping is a guy that can
do that and beat your second or third best cornerback
on a double again, Julian Hill did that last year
(38:02):
sans the second part.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
So when he's on the field.
Speaker 1 (38:04):
It's a tell because we probably want to run the football,
or at very least one of your eligibles is not
a real threat. Because Julian juggles every catch he makes
and has a bunch of fumbles compared to his catch rate.
He's basically a glorified offensive lineman. Now you have that
glorified offensive lineman who, by the way, can smoke a
slot cornerback with a double move or go bury the
safety and run blocking. This is one of the best
(38:26):
run blocking receivers I've ever watched on tape. Pull up
that reel I talked about. He's chipping off the edge
and climbing like combination blocks for wide receiver. I saw
him wall off the mike linebacker on an inside zone
run for the pivotal block at like a fifteen yard run.
I saw him pin the cornerback off the edge, then
climb to the safety. I saw him locate and square
up a safety twenty yards down the field. A chan
(38:47):
is going to love this guy because of how he
can turn fifteen yard runs into sixty yard touchdowns. I mean,
they condense him down into nasty splits and have him
lead block the bet gap. This guy is outstanding. Why
was he available? They tried, like Hill to phase him
out in Tennessee. They brought back washed up DeAndre Hopkins,
washed up Calvin Ridley, washed up Tyler Boyd. It even
gave Treylon Burke snaps ahead of this guy. And he
(39:09):
didn't even get a target until week five, and he
still scored nine touchdowns and had five hundred yards with
Mason Rudolph. I think he got away because the Titans
are bad at this and at that price point, he
can't hit. When you have no talent to pay, that
would be a no brainer re signing to me. Then again,
it takes two to tango, and maybe you know he
(39:29):
was like, forget this place. I'm gonna go play somewhere
that wants to win next year. He's a quality starter.
He makes it on the orange classification on my Blue
Green Orange roster rankings here cornerstone plus starter, adequate starter.
I like him a lot in that position. Nick westbrookachine
big big fan of his game. Just realized I closed
both those players segments by saying big big fan of
(39:50):
their game. Well I am, that's why they both got
on the first episode. All right, let's go ahead and
call it an episode right there. Tomorrow will do two
more players I think and NFL jumon notes. We'll have
interviews with these players. There's more analysis, plenty of stuff
coming away here on the Draft Time Podcast the rest
of this week, in the next week and beyond, enjoy it. Man.
We got Instablaze coming up. The Players Championship this weekend.
What a time to be alive. In the meantime, you
(40:11):
all please be sure subscribe, rate, review the podcast, Follow
me on social.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
At wink for NFL the team at Miami Dolphins.
Speaker 1 (40:18):
Check out the fish Tank Podcast with Seth and Juice,
the YouTube channel for Dolphins HQ media availabilities, and all
the interviews with the new free agents. Last, but not least,
Miami Dolphins dot Com. Until next time, fins up Caroline
and Cameron. Daddy's Coming Home.
What is up, Dolphins, and welcome to the Draft Time Podcast.
Your boy has been itching to get on the airwaves.
I have been stuck in the lab grinding the tape,
creating content for you guys for this new league year
and a bunch of new players and evaluations where they
fit in, what I think of.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Their game, and a whole lot more.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
We're gonna break down all of these reported signings. Eventually
we'll cover the Dolphins freegency class so far to date,
We'll have two names I want to cover off the
top of the show, James Daniels and Nick Westbrook.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Akine will get the breakdown treatment.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Today we'll talk about the Dolphins roster in general, NFL
moves that have happened over the course of the last
couple of days. A busy, busy edition of the podcast
from the Baptist Hell Studios inside the Baptist Hell Training Complex.
This is the Drive Time Podcast. I kick off the
show here with my remember the whiteboard days the lockdown
(01:06):
Dolphins listeners out there where we'd have every single player
categorize based upon their roster standing. If you will, you
know cornerstone player, right franchise player, one of the best
in the league at his position plus starter. That's the
blue for cornerstone, Green for the plus starter, and Orange
is my quality slash adequate starter. Those are the three
(01:26):
types of players you want to get a bunch of.
And then we've got the purple designation quality depth or
special teams player. Pink is replacement level. Don't want to
be in that boat or a red camp body, which
means I think you'll be cut by training camp.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Don't want to be in that category either.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
We also have the incomplete because of injuries or youth,
whatever might be category. So with all of that in mind,
I want ahead and stack the Dolphins roster so I
can give you a feel for how I believe these
players fit within the Dolphins current roster construction. So quarnerback
to a tongue by loa to me as a cornerstone player.
That's an argument we can have, but that's where he's
going to be for me. Zach Wilson replacement the bable
(02:02):
player for me at quarterback running back to Von eight
Chian is a green plus starter. Jalen Wright I think
is going to be orange adequate starter this year. The receivers,
I think Hill and Waddle both are cornerstones. I have
Westbrook A Keene as an adequate starter in the orange category,
with Maligue Washington and DS Gridge both in the purple
category as quality depth or special teams. I think Washington
can take a step up from that, and then Azukama,
(02:24):
Taje Washington, and Tarique Black are both either red or
black in the camp body slash incomplete category. At tight end,
John new Smith is a plus starter, Julian Hill replacement level,
Tanner Connor and Hayden Rouchie both in the red category.
At tackle, I have Patrick Paul as an adequate starter,
a quality starter.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
I think he will be that this year for us.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
That's a projection there with him a little bit, Austin
Jackson a plus starter, and then Keon Smith the incomplete
I just don't know yet with him, and then Brayden Daniels,
Jackson Carmen, and Ryan Hayes are all in the red category,
with Toront Armstead kind of hanging out there as an
unknown as in the black category. On the interior offensive line,
I've got Aaron Brewer and James Daniels as plus starters
my green category, with Larry Borham as a pink replacement
(03:06):
level player know check that he got the purple destination
the quality depth destination. Andrew Meyer black incomplete, I don't know.
Chason Hines and Byron Mattos both in the red category
on defense, Seeler a Cornerstone blue player, Matt Dickerson, Neil
Farrell both red players. That's the camp body category, Jalen Phillips,
Chop Robinson both my plus starters and the orange the
(03:26):
Green category. Bradley Chubb is a Orange category at this
point of his career. He could definitely jump up if
he shows you what he used to do.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
And then I have.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Four players in the quality depth category with Quentin Bell,
Mohammed Kamara, cam Good, and Grayson Murphy, and then William
Bradley King in the red category at linebacker, Jordan Brooks
in the Green category plus starter, Tyrell Dotson in the
Orange category adequate starter, and then two red players Tendall
and Dakwan Jackson at cornerback, Ramsey Cornerstone franchise type player,
(03:55):
Cater Cooho adequate starter, and then Storm duck Is in
my replacement level category. I put Smith and Ethan Bonner
in the Red category as well as Bump Cooper, and
then I have incomplete marks on Isaiah Johnson and Jason
Matrie at safety, melafan Wu gets a Green category. We'll
talk about his film setting a little bit, but his
on the field product is very good, just doesn't stay
(04:15):
on the field very often. And then I have two
purple players here at quality depth in Elijah Campbell and
Patrick McMorris, with Ashton Davis being a replacement level player
in pink, and then Jordan Colbert in the red category.
So that's how the roster construction looks for me right now,
and I wanted to funnel that or funnel the coverage
of these players through that lens. So off the top,
James Daniels and Ifatu melafan Wu both are in the
(04:38):
green category. In terms of new additions, I think both
those guys can be plus stars for you if they
can stay healthy. Larry Boram gets the Purple category, my
fourth roster designation. There quality depth. He could compete for
the left guard job in my opinion. We shall see
where he winds up. I have quarterback Zach Wilson pink
replacement level, and then Nick Westbrook A Keene gets an
Orange designation as an adequate starter if he does start
(05:00):
he'll be like a fifty five percent player probably, and
then Ashton Davis is in the red category. For me,
among the re signings, I had Tyrrel Dotson in the
orange category as an adequate starter, next to Jordan Brooks,
Quentin Bell, and Elijah Campbell in the quality depth special
teams category, and then ds Gridge replacement level player, and
then two red players in Matthew Dickerson and Jackson Carmon.
(05:20):
My collective thoughts on the Dolphins freegency so far, and
we'll see this is gonna be. I'm recording this at
one o'clock. If any additional moves happen, I'll probably put
it on the Thursday podcast. To be honest with you, guys,
I have a lot of work to do, so we'll
kind of crank through it all here. But collectively, I
think they had a big focus on guys that love
playing football, a temperament around the whistle right, how they
(05:41):
play through the echo of the whistle, how they hit piles,
how they embrace contact. When I watch Melafon Wu, when
I watch Daniels, when I watch Westbrook, Akeene, and when
I watch Borham, Ashton Davis, all these guys embrace the
physicality of the game. Embrace the contact, Embrace the love
of the game. I think that there was a definitive
going into the offseason to identify players that could increase
(06:04):
your ability to be flexible on defense and disguise and
confuse opposing quarterbacks. That's what Mela fon Mu's game's all about.
He can do everything. Ashton Davis not so much in
that regard, but I doubt they're going to be done
in that. In that department, I think they've brought the
floor of the offensive line way up. Think of it
as Rob Jones and Liam Miichenberg out and James Daniels
and Larry Borum both in. I think Daniels is a
(06:26):
massive upgrade over that. I think Borham is an upgrade
over that as well. I think if you can get
that threshold of your offensive line depth for the guys,
you know, seven to eight to nine on the roster
as like rosterable players compared to like what we saw
at the end of last year or two years ago. Like,
I think that that's gonna be a big boom for
this team. And I think that they really have emphasized
(06:47):
the running game and how they can be a more
physical football team. I know for a fact they want
to get Jalen Wright a lot more involved in this
offense as a ball carrier and kind of view him
as the physical element because like is a lot of
his game in addition to the speed that he offers.
So I think that you've gotten a lot better in
the running game with what you've done with James Daniels,
(07:07):
with Larry Boram, with Nick Westbrook Akine, I think those
guys are gonna love. The running backs are gonna love
having those three guys block ahead of them. So an
emphasis on improving your run game with athletic pieces the
offer size inside. In terms of Borham and James Daniels,
I think this offense really hums when it can run
the ball that effectively. And so I think that was
a big area of focus. So guys that love the
(07:28):
game more disguise and flexibility and the defensive back end,
and an emphasis on running the football and the run
blocking game and short yardage and surge and into your
line flexibility. All of those things to me have already
occurred with what they've done so as of this taping,
as of four o'clock, and we'll see if anything happens
between one and four o'clock. I think you have needs
(07:49):
at defensive tackle, probably the biggest one. I think Benito
Jones and DeShawn hand would reduce that to needing one player,
and maybe Kalaias Campbell is that player. But we'll see.
At tight end, I think you have a big need
there to round out John news Smith and Julian Hill.
I think you need at least one more offensive line
could be the draft. I would love a mid level
free agent like a Will Hernandez for instance, and then
(08:10):
a draft pick on top of that. That's what I
would do, but we'll see. And then a safety. I
think you're not done there at all. And then running
back three and that's kind of it, guys, like I
mean capop lips right, But that's like pretty much the
most secondary positions you can find, and that's where the
needs are. Also, we got an extra comp pick I
did not know about, not even Nick Corte, the great
(08:31):
comp Pick formula guy, I knew about it. Cedric Wilson
brings back another seventh round draft picks. So we have
eleven draft picks now, one first rounder at thirteen, second
rounder at forty eight, third rounder.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
At ninety eight.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
We lost Christian Wilkins back to the fourth round, a
fourth round UH draft pick in one sixteen, a comp
pick in the fourth round one thirty five, two fifth
round picks one to fifty and one to fifty five,
and then four seventh round picks two twenty four to
two thirty one, two fifty three, two fifty six. And
with regards to those four picks being in the seventh round,
we've seen, you know, this staff use those picks to
(09:05):
move up on Day three, Right, It's like ammunition to
get up to get a player you like in Day three.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Always keep that in mind.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
But also, this team has found a lot of hits
in you DFA success right, And those seventh round draft
picks can kind of be like almost a priority free
agent signing in a way that guarantees that you get
them you don't have to negotiate against other teams. So
of the four I would not be at all surprised
if you found a contributor among those four picks. Traditionally
(09:32):
you don't get a lot of seventh round hits. When
you've got four of them, you know, twenty five percent
chance our UDFA success rate, I like our chances there. Okay,
free agency. The first thing I wanted to talk about
was I'm not mad. And again this is not a
Drift time listener thing. It's more of a Twitter thing.
I'm just disappointed in the fan base because we do
this every year. We watch this play out every year.
(09:53):
We watch the bad teams spend the money they have
because they don't have good players to spend the money on. Previously,
they go out and they spend one hundred and thirty
percent you know, of market value on these players that
are good players but not great players.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
And does it ever work?
Speaker 1 (10:06):
I mean, like ever, you can round out pieces, you
can get better, But like these big spending spreez and
some of these players going for major money like Aaron
Banks at seventeen million dollars per year, No thanks, brother,
had rather have Robert Hunt at twenty million dollars per year.
Or the Giants who let Xavier McKinney walk and then
one year later signed Javon Holland for fifteen million dollars
a year. Is that what smart football teams do? I
(10:27):
just I don't get how we spend so many months
talking about build through the draft, free agency as fools.
Gold and then three hours into the new league year,
we're like, ah, the Dolphins are sleepy, Chris Career, I
just don't get that. So disappointed in that a little bit.
And we will get to all the free agent additions.
We're gonna have two big breakdowns today. I have all
six in the can, but we're going to do shows
tomorrow and Friday as well. And also, don't forget the
(10:49):
first place you can find these guys doing media is
right here on Drift Time. The Draft Time podcast will
be the first time you hear from these guys as
Miami Dolphins. We will roll those out later on this
week and next week as well, but just real quick,
we're gonna get to Daniels and Nick Westbrook a Kine
on this episode, So no need for a one sentence
blurb on those two guys. But Larry Borum played garden tackle.
(11:10):
He has very impressive foot quickness at three hundred and
thirty five pounds out in space on the perimeter, with
really good drive in a foam booth like he can
combo block inside. The tackle tape was really bad. The
pass pro was atrociously bad. So I don't see it
there for him. We'll see but more on him in
a future episode. Melifonwu Ifat to one of the best
athletes in the entire league. The ball production, the versatility,
(11:32):
very smart, instinctive player. He has had injury problems, playing
thirty seven games in four years. No complaints about his game.
He just has to stay healthy. Zach Wilson's Bronco's preseason
tape looked like a different player than when we saw
with the Jets. I think the flashes of brilliance became
more impressive, or will become more impressive, I should say,
if he can iron out some of the consistency on
(11:53):
the more off schedule stuff and when he played in
rhythm and on time, it's really pretty. It's just very
few and far between now. I thought there was a
lot more of that on the Broncos preseason tape when
he got actual coaching, but again that's preseason. I'm excited
to watch him in camp, but the minute he starts
missing layups again, because that's what he's been in the past,
your boy is all the way out, way too many
of those. Ashton Davis is one hundred Medior champion with
(12:16):
speed and range, eight career picks and ball production played
a lot of nickel safety for the Jets can cover
the slot.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
But I wouldn't be surprised.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
If he's a camp cut because there's a lot of
flaws in that game. They I'll talk about on a
future podcast. We also have a handful of returning players.
Linebacker Tyrel Dotson was signed to be the linebacker two
in my opinion, for that kind of money. I'm jazzed
about that. Going back and watching his tape last year,
he was a really good player. He led the team
with three picks despite being here for like a month
and a half. He's got a pretty good shot holding
down that linebacker two job last year. With his temperament
(12:47):
and his play speed. I like his game a lot.
Safety Elijah Campbell one of my favorite humans in the
entire building. Oh and he's also a beast on special
teams who can be good depth at safety. Quintin Bell
I thought this was a no brainer, perfect depth piece
off the edge, and hell, I think he showed you
that with another step, he could be a base down
player in your rotation. He's excellent against the run. Wide
(13:07):
receiver d s. Gridge popped right away last year in
that Seattle game. Good return skills right after the catch.
Another depth piece that I like there. Defensive tackle Matthew
Dickerson and offensive tackle Jackson Carmen are red players for me.
So I just don't have a lot to say about that.
You guys know what I mean, though, Right, Okay, all right?
So I wanted to start this thing off with a bang.
Let's go ahead and take our first break right there.
Come back on the other side and kick it off
(13:28):
with our player breakdowns, starting with James Daniels. That's next
Draft Time podcast, your host, Travis Wingfield, brought to you
by Auto Nation. James Daniels, you got your offensive lineman,
Dolphins fans, your guard. This is your guy. This is
a perfect scheme fit and a really good player. His
career resume second round draft pick number thirty eight overall
(13:50):
for the Chicago Bears in twenty eighteen out of Iowa.
He spent the first four years of his career with
Chicago and then the last three with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
He has started games all three interior spots. He's six
foot four, three hundred and twenty seven pounds, and he's
twenty eight years old. In September. He has four full
seasons twenty eighteen through twenty twenty two, he played all
(14:12):
but just five games, and the one year that was
a difference there was twenty twenty when he had a
pectoral injury that cost him the rest of that season,
but he missed two games in twenty three. Then he
tore his achilles after four games last season, had the
PEC tear in twenty twenty, and the achilles tear was
on October first last year. He's only missed two other
games outside of those season ending injuries, and the good
(14:33):
news is that Barry Jackson from Miami Herald reports the
Dolphins made this offer after receiving medicals that his achilles
would be ready for football activity in either May or June.
And for those keeping score at home, OTAs are in
May and June, and training camp starts in late July,
so it sounds like we're gonna have this guy for
training camp. That's a huge, huge win right there. His
(14:53):
statistical profile ninety career games, eighty four starts. He has
a career ninety seven point eight pass block efficiency score.
He's allowed just six sacks and only two over the
last three years, and of those thirteen hundred snaps or rather,
the three thousand cumulative snaps with six snap sacks allowed
is actually the lowest in the entire National football They's
(15:14):
a PFF stat, so we'll see, you know, a little
bit of a range of gray there, but it's a
good thing. Right doesn't allow pressures and quarterbacks or quarterback sacks.
I should say here's a fun one because I think
pass pro is actually the weakest part of his game.
In twenty twenty three, Pittsburgh averaged four point nine yards
per carry off the right side B gap was their
most fruitful gap on the offensive line, and their second
(15:36):
most fruitful gap was the A gap, which is to
his left off the center and right guard. His athletic
profile testing, I mean, his raft score was nine to
two five ninety eight percent Tile three cone. He's a
great change of direction player, ninety fourth percentile shuttle and
eighty seventh percent tile in both the broad and vertical jumps.
He's one of the best movers at the position in
(15:56):
the entire game. Three year, twenty four million dollar contract,
ten million guaranteed. It's twenty second total among guards, and
that came in before we saw Will Fryes's contract, before
we saw Shoot somebody else signed that I forget Ryan
Kelly maybe, so he's probably gonna wind up being the
thirtieth highest paid like interior offensive line this year. It's
the same figure as Isaac Samaldo and Ezra Cleveland, and
(16:18):
this guy is twice the football player of those guys.
So let's get to the verdict, because I am a
big fan of this guy's game, and he's a good cost. Obviously,
the injury is the reason why he was that cost.
But let's go ahead and talk about the tape.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
The verdict all rise, and.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
If we're being honest, what got me really rising was
the configuration of my pants watching this guy's tape, because
my goodness, here's what I knew and what I wrote
about him back in February. This guy solves a lot
of woes in terms of your backup center spot that
was always one play away from turning nuclear. He's super
adept as a guard, which is what he'd be here,
and he schemed averse incredibly athletic low center of gravity
(17:03):
to get surge in the running game. He has so
much pop with good pad level and has refined hips, knees,
punch feet. They're hardwired to the hands to handle one
on one pass rushes, to work in unison with smart
athletic teammates, which as a right guard, he's gonna have
that with Brewer and Jackson flanking him at either spot.
Everybody in the league needs a James Daniels. James Daniels,
(17:23):
I wrote all thirty two teams spot rack projects eight
million dollars per year. I would do that today, I
wrote back in February, So this is back to modern day.
The way he can connect on a reach or a
little scoop or crossover steps. He fits so perfectly with
our outside zone scheme, and he's really the perfect combination
because he brings a three hundred and twenty seven pound
(17:45):
frame with great pop and power and leg drive to
dig out some of those tougher runs and keep us
flexible to hit more inside zone, more duo, maybe some
man schemes, some power scheme, if we so choose. You
guys might recall last year I had a big crush
on the idea of Jackson powers Johnson because of the
athletic ability paired with his size, and how I thought
we kind of got overwhelmed by bigger defensive tackles in
(18:07):
twenty twenty three with Connor Williams. And granted we do
go Aaron Brewer to get an even smaller center, but
we still had three hundred and ten pound guards in
Leah Miikenberg and Rob Jones, and now we got a
couple of guys with him and Borham.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
We'll see if he starts at guard or whatever, but like.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Three hundred and thirty pounds now with the athletic ability,
so that the vision we thought we might see last
year that I hope we would see last year kind
of sounds like it's coming to fruition here a little bit.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Right now.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
This just feels like about the biggest investment that could
possibly have made on the offensive line. It kind of
goes against some of the core philosophy in terms of
the guard investment. And maybe you got that price reduction
because of the injury. In fact, you definitely did, and
that's why this turns into a potential like fifteen million
dollars per year player in terms of his ability that
you got for half the cost because of that injury history.
(18:51):
This guy is a smart, smart football player. The way
he plays connected and pass protection, identifies games, sim pressures
Green Dog blitzerz He sees it all second level runners
like it's true veteran stuff that he does. His ninety
games experience is obvious on tape. The control he plays
with and pass protection is obvious. At the second level.
He plays in control, feet under the hips, hips under
(19:12):
the shoulders, and explodes into his blocks. There's no wasted movement,
there's no you know, let me flail the arm out
there because my feet aren't right and I can't get
under this block. I think you're gonna really see him
blossom in the system. What I wanted to see I
watched this player last summer when it was reported that
he might be a trade target for US. I wanted
to see how was he at the point of attack
in short yardage? What kind of temperament does he bring,
(19:35):
and how was his twenty twenty four performance. And what
I found out was this dude's an ass kicker. He'll
find work in pass pro. When his slide causes an overload,
he'll take a bite of your ribs and rushers try
to elevate to bat down passes the last scrimmage. He
can get real surge off the football while maintaining the
athletic ability that we love and have to have in
this offense to really make the offense do what it
does best and play off that overplay and the commitment
(19:57):
to the outside zone game. I don't think you're finding
a more athletic center, right guard, right tackle combination, provided
he slots in there with the ability to also knock
you off the football and a real mean mindset than
what you have in Brewer, Daniels and Jackson. He was
on the field for seven runs last year on third
or fourth down and short. The Steelers converted six of
(20:18):
those runs. And because I'm like that, I looked up
twenty twenty three to two. There was thirty five plays
that counted. There was actually forty one in total, but
there was some failed snaps, a spike play on one
of them, like some stuff that just didn't really concern him.
But on those thirty five plays that did concern him,
they converted twenty seven of those first downs, and he
was a critical piece of a lot of those runs.
The twenty twenty four season was looking like his best
(20:40):
through those first four games, and the thing that jumped
off the tape the most was the temperament and the finishes.
This guy wants to inflict pain and again that's the
game of Brewer and Austin Jackson and Patrick Paul for
that matter. So you want your physical element, your toughness element,
well you were well on your way here with these
guys you're bringing in. I just think that James Daniels' technique,
(21:01):
his spatial awareness, the way he sees the game, it
all looks like a guy who's done it for a
long time.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
And he has.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
And we might have a first time starter at left tackle,
but now we have experience all the way down the
line off the right side, he will get that extra
step before he drives out of his squad into the hit.
The feet are sweet, as I like to say, Like
larrymy Tunzel was the one that taught me about sweet feet.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
This guy can tap him man.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
The way he'll tap and chop to get into the
proper position to get his weight behind his punch. It
just speaks to the rare athletic combination of athlete and
power that he has that we're getting with this player.
Like I am such a fan of his game. If
there is a weakness to his game, he can kind
of stop his feet and get extended in pass protection.
He's improved a lot in that way, and how he
(21:43):
can kind of settle back into his pass pro reps
and he does stay glued to him to those guys
once he gets his hands on them. And quite frankly,
if I'm going to have an offensive lineman that has
one deficiency in his game in this offense, that's why
I want it to be because we take care of
that on like seventy five percent of the reps that
he plays, not to mention giving teams even more of
(22:03):
a threat that they're gonna get ran off the football.
With Liam Eichenberg and Rob Jones, you did not instill
that threat and that fear and defenses and who's the
coach that talked about that how you have to present
the threat that you can do that in order to
get the benefit of your play action passing game. I
don't think teams feared Rob Jones or Liam Eichenberg at
the second level, but you damn well better fear this
(22:24):
guy and Larry Borhen for that matter, because he can
do some of that stuff in the running game as well.
His grip strength is awesome. Once he gets on you
in the run game more pass game, you are toast
where he helps this team the most. I mean, he's
the OG one. He's your starting guard, a force multiplier
and even better scheme fit than Aaron Brewer was. Quite frankly,
I just love his game. I think he's your right guard.
I think he's the center if Brewer goes down. Why
(22:46):
was he available? Because the Steelers have invested across the
offensive line and his injuries. They drafted Troy Fatanu last year,
they drafted Broderick Jones three years ago. Last year, they
also drafted Zach Fraser and Mason McCormick inside. On top
of paying a big contract to Isaac Somalu, Steelers fans
wanted to trade Samalu and keep him and the Achilles
probably pushed their hand on that, but or forced their hand,
(23:07):
and that I should say. But that's why he was available.
And my classification here is this guy is a plus starter.
We talked about that. Off the top right, the roster
classifications cornerstone, plus starter, adequate starter. If you get guys
in those three categories, it's a good player. I put
him in the plus starter category, which means he can
threaten to make Pro Bowls and be one of the
better players at his position. The cornerstone position is you're
(23:30):
already in that spot. So between that and again, I
just this other fact here that I just can't get
enough of is the combination of he and Borham. I mean,
if you know, they wouldn't be done on the first
ninlf of free agency on the offensive line, which I
thought was kind of funny of the legal tampering period.
They brought in Larry Borum and I don't think that
(23:50):
he can play tackle, the only spot that he's really
played a lot of in the NFL, which made me
think that he can be a guard convert. And if
that's the case, he's three hundred and thirty five pounds. Mean,
they added six one hundred and sixty two pounds of
beef at the guard spot on day one, and that
follows that Rams path we've talked about. We average just
a hair under three hundred and fifteen pounds at the
two starting guard spots since McDaniel arrived, and that includes
(24:13):
bringing Robert Hunt's wait down a little bit. But the
Rams had the exact same thing until they converted to
more of an inside zone counter duo game by bringing
in Jonah Jackson, Steve a Vila, and Kevin Dottson. So
I think it's happening. We'll see. I have faith in
it is. Keep stay tuned and we'll find out more.
We'll talk about Larry Borum here in a future portion.
(24:33):
Maybe it'says podcast. I don't know recording all of these individually.
Gonna build the podcast based upon what comes of it
on Wednesday. We'll see you then. But that's the James
Daniels breakdown. Huge, huge fan of his game. All Right,
We're gonna take a quick pivot here because I was
going to do a whole NFL segment, but I'm realizing
now this podcast is going to run long as it is.
Let's go ahead and take our last break, come back
on the other side and do Nick Westbrook a Kine
(24:54):
and call it an episode. We'll do the NFL stuff
on the Thursday episode. Quick Break Draft Time podcast here
Travis s Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. Sometimes
you get your guy and it's really fun when you do.
Sometimes you get two of your guys and you put
them on the same opening New League Year Free Agent
(25:15):
podcast back to back and get very excited about it.
We're talking about wide receiver Nick Westbrook Akine, who was
undrafted by the Titans in twenty twenty, spent five years there,
all five years of his career. He's six foot two,
two hundred eleven pounds, and he turns twenty eight years
old later this month. His injury history, he missed four
games in five years. He was inactive for three games
(25:37):
as a UDFA rookie, which is pretty commonplace, but he
doesn't really get hurt. He did have a torn acl
in college, but nothing major.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Beyond that.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
His statistical profile is pretty impressive. Caught nine touchdowns last
year on just sixty pass targets, averaging fifteen and a
half yards per catch. We'll get into how that happened
in the film portion here for this player, but I
mean thirty two, four, ninety seven and nine last year
despite a catch rate of just fifty three point three percent,
(26:06):
and that was more quarterback play with Will Levis and
Mason Rudolph than it was on him. He had sixty
two and sixty six percent catch rates when Tannehill was
quarterbacking there, and he also averaged eight point three yards
per target. A highly efficient player, with a career yards
per target of eight point one his lowest in his career,
stands that rookie season when he wasn't really an option,
(26:28):
where he just got eight targets as a receiver and
played almost exclusively on special teams. His career yards per
target eight point one, and the lowest was seven point
nine outside of that rookie season. In his career, one
hundred and twenty seven grabs, seventeen hundred seventy three yards
and nineteen touchdowns. Those nineteen touchdowns on two hundred and
twenty targets is a pretty good number. Pair of that
(26:50):
with eighty seven career first downs. He's reliable. He's a
big body target. He has a career drop rate of
five percent. That's right around the average. Most guys were
four to six percent. Not a big broken tackle guy,
just five of those in his career. Pro Football Focus
has him with twenty five contested catches on sixty one opportunities,
give or take. You never know that, right, eight for
(27:11):
fourteen last year. Anything over fifty percents good. He's had
that two of his five years. Other years it's been
down a little bit, But I don't think that's really
his game. More on that in a second. He caught
four of eight deep targets last year. That's balls that
were over twenty air yards for a buck ninety seven
and three touchdowns. He caught fourteen of twenty five targets
in the intermediate, which is ten to nineteen yards, for
(27:33):
one hundred and seventy four yards and five touchdowns five touchdowns.
Only one touchdown of his nine came on a throw
under ten yards. So don't think of this guy as
just someone you throw fades to. We'll get into that
in the film section. Again, don't think he's really a
big contested catch player, but just fourteen one twenty six
and one on targets under nine yards. He's a big
(27:56):
play guy, not a quick game guy. He also had
an eighty or a ninety eight yard touchdown last season.
Athletic testing profile, no earthly clue. He came out the
COVID season and there was no additional workout held for
him at IU like there was for other guys at
bigger school. So no idea why. But there was no
testing metrics on Nick Westbrook Akinne contract two years, six
(28:16):
and a half million bucks, three point two guaranteed. That's
an absolute steal, guys. I mean, I'm not gonna sit
here and tell you they just brought in Mike Evans
or you know, prime Dez Bryant, like these big time
you know, go up and get the football targets.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
He's not that, but he's a.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Really good role a role player in this offense, in
this receiver's room. I mean, you got a rookie contract.
Basically what you've got here, because this is what like
Jordan Addison will make this year is like three point
two million bucks without paying the signing bonus for the
for being a first round draft pick. Right, So he's
basically on a rookie type of contract. But you get
(28:52):
that with five years experience and you get to bypass
all the learning pains or growing pains and learning process.
You don't need time to ramp him up into this position. Hell,
mac Hollands got more money than this guy, and I
would take NWI all day, every day over mac Hollins.
The verdict here, well that's what we all want to
get to, right, so stupid, yet still so satisfactory. What
(29:21):
I knew about Nick Westbrook Akine was what he lacks
in foot quickness, And actually wrote this back in January
or maybe February one. The receiver's the receiver primer. What
he lacks in foot quickness he makes up for with
strength and leverage and catch radius. I think he's adept enough,
and actually, as I went back and watched him, this
might be a little bit of an under sell, but
(29:43):
he can really kind of set defenders up to allow
those traits to flourish. He's not going to break you
down with a super snap move. He's not going to
run by you without some type of deception. He's not
even gonna be DeVante Parker pulling down deep shots. He's
kind of a master of none, but he's really good
at like everything, I should say, at plenty of things.
Hence his position on my free agent big board as
(30:04):
a wide receiver three or maybe even two option. If
you were going to pivot to the Tyler Warren with
John Smith power run game with Gilen Waddle and trade
off Tyreek Hill, right, that was my thought, But in
this current landscape, I think he's a perfect receiver three.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
I love.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
The thing I love most about his game is the
field that he plays with. He knows what type of
footwork and timing of his break on each route requires,
and how to settle into zones, how to attack leverage
and maximize the window for the quarterback. He knows how
to like collision and settle into those tight windows against
(30:41):
like a hook linebacker or a curl flat defender. He
adjusts to the football really well and plays this rebound
style coming back down the stem that I think a
quarterback would really trust, Like Tua doesn't really have a
big body like thrown up guy, and I don't think
that's Westbrook Akine's game, but I think that he will
develop a trust with Tua where Tua can opt to
make those throws and you get a lot of those
(31:02):
opportunities in this offense because of how we have certain
guys that tilt the coverage, tilt the field and coverage.
I think that you could like almost sneak Nwi into
some of those spaces and say, hey, if your read's
not there, you don't have any safety help over the
top on Nick. Just throw it up, brother, like we
can do that, or we can throw it away or
even take a sack, like, let's give him a chance.
(31:23):
He's not going to get it picked off. He'll he'll
very at least knock the football down, but he might
make a big play for you. This was one of
my preferred options the entire offseason. I did kind of
cool on the idea late because I thought that he
was going to get like ten million dollars per year,
but spoch Track projected four million ap y. I like
it even more at three, Like that's what he got.
I think he's everything that we didn't really have in
(31:45):
the wide receiver room, and he's not crazy expensive. To me,
this is what Cedric Wilson should have been, and what
did he get, like eight million dollars per year from us,
and perhaps to a different extent, what Eric Azukama probably
should have been. He was my number three free agent target,
behind Brandon Cooks, who who is small, and Joss Palmer,
who got ten million bucks from the Bill. So with
all that, he's probably number two and maybe even number
(32:06):
one when you factor in the build of the room.
I mean, Buffalo paying Palmer to be the number two
NWI could be your number four at that cost, and
he's like not that far off of the player. And
we haven't talked about how is run blocking yet. I
don't think you should really, as I talk about receiver
pecking order, I don't think you should stack this receiver
room in terms of like one, two, three, four. You
(32:27):
have your one in your one a right reak and
waddle over those guys. But then after that you're kind
of looking for specialized skills and specialized packages that you
can roll out to supplement Reek and Waddle and Westbrook. A.
Kine is a really good vertical threat. He's a really
good deceptive route runner, and I think he's maybe even
the very best run blocking receiver in the National Football League.
(32:48):
What I wanted to see from him on tape after
going back and watching it more, how is he as
a runner with the football in his hands? How is
his blocking reel? How diverse is he in his pre
snap alignment? And guess what, only one of those things
wasn't very good. The other two even blew away my
expectations from what they were going into this. What I
found out was he he won from every alignment. He's
(33:08):
played X, flanker, and slot, and he's won all three
levels of the passing concept. Actually, to be honest, I
actually don't think he's a quick game guy. That's where
the late, the least amount of his production came from.
But we have those in spades, and you've seen you know,
I always see like, why don't they manufacture touches for
Reakan Wattle. I've explained this in the show before that
they don't want to waste Reagan Waddle's usage in short
(33:32):
areas of the field because that's where John news Smith
can operate.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
That's where Devon a Chan can operate.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
Jalen Wright and Malake Washington and maybe even more players
that we acquired throughout this process at D. S. Gridge
for instance, as a guy that could do that. But
I think with Westbrook Akine, you can add a third
player with a vertical element. That was supposed to be
Odell Beckham last year, and I was adamant that he
would be, but he, you know, didn't care enough about
the game to make that happen. He had the vertical
(33:57):
prowess on tape. I think Westbrook a Keen is right
there in terms of his ability to get vertical and
win routes up top, especially against the coverages he's gonna
see here and the cornerback threes and fours that he's
going to face because of what he has here. There
are just so many reps where he either from the
slot the X or the flanker sells a hard step
(34:18):
inside and then bust it right back down the seam
for a huge play. And I think about how teams
kind of vacated that area of the field and would
spam the intermediate middle. Now Tua has a guy, and
like remember that throw to Mike Gesicki against Kansas City
in twenty twenty up top where he pulled it in
at the goal line, Like, you can make that throw again.
We didn't have a guy that you can make that
(34:39):
throw to on this roster, Johnny Smith, that's not his
game either.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
But Westbrook A. Kine can be that guy.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
And also if they collapse on that, he can run
away from guy, so Tua can go up top for
the vertical shot.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
That was maybe the biggest surprise.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
He has game day speed, like some people just run
faster when someone's chasing them. It's the old horror film gene.
I call it, like, Oh here comes ghost Face. I
can now run a four to four compared to my
usual four to six. He has a career slot alignment
percentage of forty percent, so sixty forty split.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
That's great.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
I love the way he can vary his routes and
this little nuance he has to sell the moves and
the acceleration off of those setup moves, like he knows
how to put his body in position to make the
break happen. Like if I get to this setup, I
can break off that stem and the cornerback can't keep
up with me.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
He doesn't play like a.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Six to two guy in a very good way in
that he can sink his hips into the route and
has really good start stop juice at the top of
that route. I just keep coming back to the detail
in his game because I was kind of wrong about
that part on the initial tape study. But like running
a comeback. There's a video of him in practice where
he runs this cut this comeback. He stacks the defensive
back vertically and he looks up for the ball, and
(35:49):
you see when he does that, the cornerback does too.
And the minute he sees that, he slams in the
brakes and comes back down the stem and the cornerback
runs off the route five yards in the wrong direction.
Like this dude is shifty and he has the nuance
in his route running to create big plays. Now the
part I said I wasn't that crazy about. I was
underwhelmed by him at the catch point, But you know
what that's not to his game. Either the size will
(36:11):
get people's attention, but he's more of a technician who
sets up good routes with sharp cuts off the stem
and a good plan in his footwork. He doesn't really
offer anything as a ball carrier after the catch, hen Swab,
We don't throw him screens or quick game. I think
he's a glider who chews up yards with route running.
He's kind of like Gasiki is a tackle breaker, but
he's like Gasiki in terms of his catch radius. And
(36:31):
by the way, he's fast and can get vertical and
has is a really good route runner. So it's like
a he's like a Gasiki that blocks. And we'll talk
about that because I pulled up ten Titans ten plus
yard runs last year, and the first one where Nick
Westbrook Akinne is on the field is a run against
us and he comes over the formation and split flow
(36:51):
motion and pancakes Marcus May.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
That's a tight end role.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
That's what Julian Hill did here, That's what Ben Scaronic
did for the rams. He kicks, but you know, hey
in that department, so where he helps, I mean his
third down success rate, his ability to beat number three
corners in single coverage, I think he's going to get
plenty of opportunities to show us what he can do
with that and the route running and the size and
the strong hands, he should have ample opportunities to make
(37:17):
some plays. He has a fifty five percent success rate
on third downs and that's fourteenth in the NFL since
twenty twenty two. Not at all bad there, and I
think every move we've made on offense so far stands.
The backup quarterback makes us a better running football team.
You can run him out there in the red zone
without losing the route running ability, which does what It
keeps you flexible in what you call like he's up
(37:39):
there with Aman Ross, Saint Brown, matc Hollins, these guys
in the run blocking ability. The way he can block,
I'm not just talking about like go get in the
way of the cornerback in front of you. I'm talking
about split flow action, Go dig out the forced defender,
and that's going to allow you to be flexible in
your red zone personnel grouping is a guy that can
do that and beat your second or third best cornerback
on a double again, Julian Hill did that last year
(38:02):
sans the second part.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
So when he's on the field.
Speaker 1 (38:04):
It's a tell because we probably want to run the football,
or at very least one of your eligibles is not
a real threat. Because Julian juggles every catch he makes
and has a bunch of fumbles compared to his catch rate.
He's basically a glorified offensive lineman. Now you have that
glorified offensive lineman who, by the way, can smoke a
slot cornerback with a double move or go bury the
safety and run blocking. This is one of the best
(38:26):
run blocking receivers I've ever watched on tape. Pull up
that reel I talked about. He's chipping off the edge
and climbing like combination blocks for wide receiver. I saw
him wall off the mike linebacker on an inside zone
run for the pivotal block at like a fifteen yard run.
I saw him pin the cornerback off the edge, then
climb to the safety. I saw him locate and square
up a safety twenty yards down the field. A chan
(38:47):
is going to love this guy because of how he
can turn fifteen yard runs into sixty yard touchdowns. I mean,
they condense him down into nasty splits and have him
lead block the bet gap. This guy is outstanding. Why
was he available? They tried, like Hill to phase him
out in Tennessee. They brought back washed up DeAndre Hopkins,
washed up Calvin Ridley, washed up Tyler Boyd. It even
gave Treylon Burke snaps ahead of this guy. And he
(39:09):
didn't even get a target until week five, and he
still scored nine touchdowns and had five hundred yards with
Mason Rudolph. I think he got away because the Titans
are bad at this and at that price point, he
can't hit. When you have no talent to pay, that
would be a no brainer re signing to me. Then again,
it takes two to tango, and maybe you know he
(39:29):
was like, forget this place. I'm gonna go play somewhere
that wants to win next year. He's a quality starter.
He makes it on the orange classification on my Blue
Green Orange roster rankings here cornerstone plus starter, adequate starter.
I like him a lot in that position. Nick westbrookachine
big big fan of his game. Just realized I closed
both those players segments by saying big big fan of
(39:50):
their game. Well I am, that's why they both got
on the first episode. All right, let's go ahead and
call it an episode right there. Tomorrow will do two
more players I think and NFL jumon notes. We'll have
interviews with these players. There's more analysis, plenty of stuff
coming away here on the Draft Time Podcast the rest
of this week, in the next week and beyond, enjoy it. Man.
We got Instablaze coming up. The Players Championship this weekend.
What a time to be alive. In the meantime, you
(40:11):
all please be sure subscribe, rate, review the podcast, Follow
me on social.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
At wink for NFL the team at Miami Dolphins.
Speaker 1 (40:18):
Check out the fish Tank Podcast with Seth and Juice,
the YouTube channel for Dolphins HQ media availabilities, and all
the interviews with the new free agents. Last, but not least,
Miami Dolphins dot Com. Until next time, fins up Caroline
and Cameron. Daddy's Coming Home.
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