May 7, 2025 • 33 mins
Travis is back for another film-heavy episode. Travis is talking about some of the traits the draft class features that you have’t heard about, he’ll assess some of his favorite tapes from the UDFA class, and answer your questions about free agency, the offensive line and a bold camp take.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
What is up, Dolphins, and welcome to the Draft Time Podcast.
I am your host, Travis Wingfield, and on today's show
with rookie Mini Caamp coming up, we're doing one last
film discussion on the draft picks. Plus we're taking a
look at some of the udfas in this class that
I quite like ahead of the weekend, and we'll answer
a few of your male bag questions. I have three
(00:28):
about remaining free agents, about the offensive line, and a
training camp prediction from the Baptist Health Studios inside the
Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Draft Time Podcast,
so we have the rookies taking the field for the
Dolphins for the first time this weekend and we'll recap
that on the Monday episode of the podcast. We'll also
(00:50):
have Emory Hunt on this week on Friday for his
classic UDFA deep dive and talk about the draft picks
a little bit too. But I wanted to share with
some of y'all my thoughts on those guys to contrast
against Emery or compare and contrast, I should say. And
as for the draft picks, we just shot our latest
episode of Dolphins HQ where I went through five plays
(01:12):
from five players to break down their game, and my
goal going into it was to try to show you
things that you haven't already seen.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
I mean, we get you know, one of my.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Biggest beefs with sports media and coverage these days is
it's all the same thoughts and you know, concepts recycled
over and over again. You've seen Kenneth Grant running down
the Penn State running back a thousand times. You've seen
Jordan Phillips as wiggle as a pass rusher, or Jonas
Savoya and Naya Claw bring a defensive back and open space.
But what I wanted to show you was the vast
(01:42):
nature of their skill sets and other ways they win.
And so I'm basically bringing h Q to the podcast,
which usually we take our interviews from the from the
show and bring them over here to the podcast, but
this time we're going to take a full segment. And
the further disclaimer with Jason Marshall Junior, I didn't do
that with him. He was he is what you get
what you see with him. I found a clip that
(02:04):
perfectly exemplifies who he is. More on that in just
a moment. But I looked at Kenneth Grant, Jonas Savoya
and Ayah, Jordan Phillips, Jason Marshall Junior, and Oldi Gordon.
And for Kenny, the rep I showed was intended to
show his technique and pad level because we know the measurables.
These are things that you can find on Twitter, right,
anybody can do that, and that's why a lot of
(02:24):
folks think that anyone can do these jobs, which in
some cases you're right, but I think that there are
folks that put the work in that say you can't
do that unless you're willing to put the work in.
So you've seen all the things that you can type
into Google. We've seen the pro comps, the way he
moves at that size, it's dexter Lawrence. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
you've heard it all before. But what do we always
talk about on this podcast, the John Beck Q card story.
(02:46):
Just because you put in the time and you have
the talent, it's not always enough. And maybe John Beck's
a bad example of that from a pure talent standpoint.
Like Deon Jordan, for example, just did the episode of
the Fish Tank where he talked about how he could
have done more. But coming out of Oregon, We'll never
forget seeing like this guy has elite traits and he
works his butt off. From testimonials from teammates and coaches,
(03:07):
I'm like, obviously, he's going to be a great player.
Turned out to be one of the biggest draft buss
in team history. So it doesn't always work out that way.
It's not always enough. Why do I get to that
diet tribe? Well, because there's a little itty bitty thing
that matters above all else, And what differentiates Flash players
with consistent dominant factors in the game. It's mastering your
(03:30):
techniques and your fundamentals and seeing the game slow down
enough to be able to anticipate and get into positions
to have that technique win for you. And if that
sounds like one player in particular, my first thought with
that is Zach Thomas, Right.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
He's the.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Cutting example of a player that didn't have the best
physical traits but was just a damn good football player.
And that's what I was kind of looking for here,
because these guys have the traits, but I wanted to
see about their football first and foremost. And for Kenneth Grant,
the physical tools, he's picked third teenth, right, and that's
one hundred and forty one spots before Zach Thomas for
a reason, and therein lies why scouting is so tough.
(04:06):
And you get Tom Brady coming off the board and
becoming the best quarterback of all time at pick one
ninety nine versus JaMarcus Russell, who was arguably the biggest
bust in NFL history. All those intangibles that he had,
or rather I should say tangibles that he had made
the first pick, and it's the intangibles that actually wound
up counting for Tom Brady and all along. This is
(04:26):
all along setup I should say to say that Kenneth
Grant has the technique, the body awareness, and subtle tricks
to his game that makes me think he can package
all of that together and be a factor who rarely
leaves the field. I've been, you know, reading Draft Nicks
reports on this guy. It's like, if he can bottle
up that that game and make it consistent, he can
really pop. And I see what they're talking about, because
there is that core fundamental stuff is on tape.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
It exists. He can do it right.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
He's shown proof of concept on the clip I show
on the HQ episode. He gets under this guard with
a lower pad level off the snap six foot four.
He's able to play with that kind of power and
his thirty one inch vertical in one seven to nine
ten split time. All of those are indicators of his explosiveness, right,
but also do it with a natural knee bend to
(05:12):
play in that posture at that size. Man, the more
I watch him, the more I think we got ourselves
to steal at pick thirteen. Even going back to my
pre draft right up, I wrote, this guy belongs in
the top ten. He's my DT one, So this is
all probably moot because I doubt he makes it to
thirteen end quote. And I feel even more convicted in
that belief after watching him further. By the way, have
(05:32):
you guys seen the clip of the Colts war Room
celebrating Tyler Warren making it to pick fourteen to their pick.
That's a great player, and I know everyone on this
podcast knows that I think he's going to be a
Pro Bowl tight end and they should be glad.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
But it really reubs me the wrong way.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
How was portrayed across social media, and that's not the
Colt's fault or anybody's fault besides fans and an app.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
That is just the worst thing in the world. But
it was like, can you believe the Dolphins passed off him?
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Because I remember Chris Ballard laughing to himself last year saying,
we got the best pass rusher in the draft. Man,
God dang, I'll shoot After taking leat tou lot to
last year, well, fifty six pressures for Chop, thirty eight
for lat To. Chop had thirty fewer pass rush reps,
two more sacks, more tiffles, TFLs for the late person,
(06:23):
more quarterback hits, more passes, bat it down the last scrimmage,
you know, better at literally everything.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
And this is not a gotcha again.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
I had a lot too higher than Chop on my
draft board last year, So like, hey, pushback at me too,
But to me, it's a pushback on the look at
the dumb Dolphins. You know. That stuff to me gets
old because there's plenty of things for every team that
you can warrant and be like, hey, that was a
dumb decision or a bad decision or bad process. But
when you stretch it like that because it fits your narrative,
that's when it bothers me. Like comparing Chop Robinson to
(06:52):
Mike Kasiki, what are we doing here? I Digress, Jonah
the Whale, as Kyle Krabs calls him, Jonah Savoya and Nayah.
There was one where he honestly, you know, there wasn't
even a lot to get to because it's just like,
oh yeah, every rep is portable to the pros, like
you can see the fit. It reminds me so much
of Robert Hunt's college tape. You guys remember when I
was posting clips of him at ul University of Louisiana Lafayette,
(07:14):
and I was like, I'm on this one series of
a game and he has like twelve blocks where he
shows you twelve different ways that he embarrassed the opposition,
which when you're playing, you know down in competition like
in the Sun Belt for rob Hunt, you know in
a pro bowl guard like it's gonna look that way,
or it should if you're gonna be good at this level.
And that's what Jonahs tape looks like. But rather than
showing him getting out on the perimeter and erasing defensive
(07:36):
backs off the face of the earth.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Akin to that meme D D.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Dean aate like that's what he does when he blocks
those guys, right, they go flying into the universe and
gravity takes hold of them. I wanted to show you
more of the technique and the relationship between his brain
and his feet and how they work together, and for
in any sport, those things being linked up and hardwired
together typically makes for a pretty good football player who's
ready for another travil. There's golf analogy. We need a
(08:01):
song for that. A podcast drop here. So a good
golf swing, as the audience dissipates, requires proper sequencing between
I don't know. I think sports mechanics and body mechanics
is a really fascinating study. So maybe I'm alone on that,
But if you're here, you like it, I guess, but
we're gonna try it anyway. So a good golf swing
(08:22):
requires proper sequencing between your your body rotation and the
way your hips shift at address from backswing or through
the backswing to the downswing, so your hips go side
to side.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
It's all in the hips, and then.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
You rotate around your spine. You're supposed to envision your
spine like a post, like a tree in the ground,
and you rotate around that with the hip shifting, and
you have to sequence that twist with the shift. And
it's like the old analogy. You try to pat your
head and ruby belly at the same time. It's not
always easy. Same thing with mechanics of football fundamentals, or
any sport for that matter. Can your body operate independent
of other body parts? Can you sing a song off
(08:58):
the same off a different key than how you play
the guitar? My favorite rockstar of all time Claudio Sanchos
from Cohi and Cambria. He's really good at that. I've
tried it as a guitar player myself. I can't can't
do it. I literally can't do it. I don't have
that capability. And when I watch Jonah attack blocks in space,
whether he's drop stepping in pass pro or working downhill
(09:20):
forward in the running game, you see the feet constantly
working and moving, but you also see him take steps
that create opportunities for that next step to be an
explosive one. So if he sees a loop coming around
the corner and he's pinning the edge inside, he knows
he has to get depth and with so he'll take
like a te step, which is a cornerback step, or
in your back pedal, you angle your back foot in
(09:41):
a side direction that allows you to drive forward opposed
to only driving off of your toes, which is a
little bit slower to do.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
So as a.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Tackle, he can pin that edge and when he sees
that looper come in, I'm gonna put my weight right here,
but I'm use my right step to open up the
hip and drop step and basically go to a tee
step because it puts me in a position by next
step can get more depth and cover more ground. Like
he can do this stuff, you know, in the time
that it takes to identify fastball or change up for
a batter and baseball. So for he and grant Man,
(10:10):
big physical guys that can win on pure traits, but
they do it with technical proficiency on top of that.
And I broke this down we got Tyreek Hill a
few years ago. It wasn't just Tyreek's like eye popping
traits that were great. It was his commitment to the
to the craft and the fine details in his game.
Like I can get into this window right now and
show my numbers of the quarterback and be open. But
(10:32):
if I take this one more step step, I can
widen the coverage three more steps and create a bigger
run after catch for myself or wherever he throws the
ball to like, it's that same concept, that same idea,
let's be let's be on top of our details so
we can be great all time players. For Jordan Phillips,
this was kind of the antithesis of the entire video
and breakdown. I found this clip of him against Orgon
(10:54):
last year where he doesn't even make the tackle, and
I'm like, that's like my go to move. I'm gonna
find you reps where let's like there's no big splash
play because you've seen those, and in fact it's a
third and one conversion for the Ducks offense, where JP
spends most of his time. This camp is one of
the more fascinating subplots to me of the entire offseason.
I just can't quite put my finger onsse. I think
(11:15):
that you know, he played a lot on zero tech
nose tackle and whipped guys at Maryland, but I feel
like his quickness and his rushing chops and his pliability, gosh,
it screams three technique to me, like a shot for
shot Christian Wilkins replacement. And maybe he's not as good
as Christian, not yet anyway, but I can see the
translation there and the ability to do both that and
play the nose tackle and ain't a bad thing either.
(11:37):
But man, you see his wrestling background on this rep
that I show on the episode of HQ, and I'd
be curious to see his study on accomplished wrestlers who
make it to pro football. I would bet the numbers
favor the wrestler quite favorably. I remember Greg Gaines from
U dub got drafted by the Bucks, went to the Rams,
came back to the Bucks. He was at the Senior Bowl,
(11:59):
and they kept talking about his low body, lois enter
gravity and his playability at that size because of his
wrestling background. In fact, that's where I first learned about
players like him most of the time, because they give
such good in depth detail during the broadcast, and it
seems like every year they mentioned, by the way, this
guy was a state champion wrestler.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Those guys always work in the league.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
And if you go back even further, like Creed Humphrey
was that a state champion wrestler, Alex Mack was that.
You go further back, Tony Siragusa was that Warren Sap
And the way those guys moved at that size, it
makes perfect sense. A quote that I read on a reddit,
a subreddit about the wrestler football player combination, said that
wrestling makes football feel easy, and that made a lot
(12:41):
of sense to me, because when I was playing high
school hoop, we'd have these two and a half hours,
sometimes three hour practices at start the season for conditioning purposes,
and like we would run five minutes at a time
up and down the court, but then you take ten
minutes off to rest up and get water or shoot
free throws whatever, And the entire three hours, the wrestling
team is coming in out of the gym, running these
lap around the entire campus, going up and down the stairs.
(13:02):
They're in full body sweatsuits, and then they go in
there and they wrestle around like rastling boys do. And
they're just the best conditioned athletes that there are. Like,
I don't think you can really dispute that watching those
guys work and having friends that did that, Like you
don't most athletes couldn't make it through a wrestling practice.
But on top of that, that's just the conditioning That
doesn't even what I'm getting at.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
It's the way they can contort their body.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
There's a natural ability to generate leverage and then the
entire crux of line play is push and pull. You
want to create momentum and then use that momentum against
the person that you've created it against. And when you
see a three hundred pound man that can shoot for
a single leg takedown and then pop up into an
athletic position like a triple threat basketball position, like whow,
it's rare man. It's rare movement skills. And that's what
(13:48):
Phillips does. You try to double him. He's going to
drop to a knee and utilize all those skills and
slipperiness to make himself small while holding the point of attack.
The more I watch him, the more I think he
can have an immediate impact, And in fact, I think
Miami first three picks. I'm asked for a camp prediction
later on in this episode. Here's one for you guys.
I think the Dolphins first three picks will all exceed
(14:08):
five hundred snaps. We'll come back to that and do
another one. But that's that's a hot take off the
top here. Jason Marshall Junior. The next one we watched
went outside and I took a look at Jason's ability.
That is a calling card every time I watch him,
and we can make this one quicker because it's more
cut and dry. There's a rep against Mississippi State in
twenty twenty three where he's pressed up on the X
(14:29):
the boundary receiver to the short side of the field,
and they run a dummy clap and they checked the
sideline to change the play, and after they do that,
they bring this big tight end over and stack him
on top of the receiver. What that means is they
move the receiver off the line scrimmage and they put
a receiver right in front of him to give him
an escort into the route, into the into the rotation
or into the formation. But Marshall gets over the top
(14:50):
of the natural rub by the stack tight end, and
still makes a break on this little hookup route.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
I mean they removed and eligible from.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
The pattern because that that that pickman didn't even run
a route and essentially through a low reward five yard
route that comes back to the quarterback and he still
shuts it down. That type of physicality is what teams
look for on third downs when you play most of
your man coverage. And then Alie Gordon, the second was
who I finished on. We finished with the physical back
because you've seen him push piles, you've seen him high
(15:19):
hurl defenders in the open field and flash the trades
that made him a twenty twenty three Dope Walker Award winner,
which if you guys haven't seen that list, it's all
of the best running backs in league when they win
that award, and there's some guys that didn't make it either.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
So it's a little bit of both.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
But much like the rest of the Dolphins draft class,
and this was very true of Dante Trader as well.
And I would say Zeke Biggers, We's only had five
plays to do, so five players got on there. But
you see this theme of smart and fast processors. The
clip we show of Gordon is a massive cutback lay
and that opens up on gy counter that's guard and
y tight end counter when they both come across the
(15:52):
formation in a different direction and Gordon presses the gap
play side, but has the backside vision and the jump
cut to find it and to get to it, and
then runs to daylight with a punishing finish. So when
you can be an option to hammer a gap scheme,
run on third and one and push a pile and
move the chains, but you have the decision making to
find a huge crease backside, which opens up because of
the team's overplay to the original direction in the first place. Right,
(16:15):
So if it's third and one, they're gonna slam bodies
into the primary gap and try to get you get
knocked back and create a loss. So if you have
a guy that can execute those but also find that
backside lane, that's a nice little ace up your sleeve.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Man.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
So I am pumped up about this group. Tomorrow on
HQ you can find the video version of this, But
until then, let's go ahead and take our first break,
come back and get into some of the undrafted rookies
that popped off the tape to me. That's Next Draft
Time podcast brought to you by Autoation, and that entire
opening segment was kind of inspired by what I want
(16:48):
to talk about next and the UDFA film that I watched.
Been really really grind on the tape this year, even
more so than the years past, and it's been enjoyable.
We are going to have Emory Hunt on an episode Friday, Uh,
not exactly, Yeah, it'll be Friday. But I just watched
this class and I want to do some content on
it and kind of compare and contrast that to what
Emory has to say. So let's go ahead and get
(17:09):
to one, two, three, four, five guys. I've got five guys.
Not the cheeseburgers, by the way. Five guys has a
combo meal now a little bit more affordable, pretty good burger.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
I like Burger FI. Two.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
What's the best upscale burger joint?
Speaker 2 (17:29):
What do you guys think? So between those two, in
and Out is so overrated.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
And I'm a West Coast guy too, but I haven't
had it since I've been last to California. I think
it's five guys. I don't know what do you guys think?
But I did five UDFA tapes, so he's here. I
did really all of them. But I had five guys
to me, and four of are pass catchers and three
of them are wide receivers. Let's go ahead and jump
(17:54):
into that wide receiver. Andrew Armstrong talked about him last week.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
A little bit.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
And these are currently reported to UDFACE signings. They haven't
become official. I believe they will be by the time
they the field on Friday, so we should be able
to get that officially to you guys when that happens.
But reportedly signing Andrew Armstrong from Arkansas. He is going
to bury you. As a blocker. He's not Isaac Tesla
Tesla like his teammate was. But man, they like a
(18:17):
big body receiver Arkansas, don't they. Treylon Burke's Matt Jones
about twenty years ago for those that remember him, Matt Jones,
Mike Jones. But this guy is a bully with the
ball in his hands or as a blocker. He's six
foot four. He can really sink the hips into the
route and get off the top of the stem. It
reminds me of what we wanted Preston Williams to be.
And that's such a valuable trait to pair with his
(18:39):
size and length because on routes coming back to the
quarterback or latterly, like if you run a dig like
you run dagger concept and you run, you know, fifteen
yards down the field, cut it across the middle part
of the field, run that dig. It really allows you
to kind of shield the defensive back from the football
because of your length, but also because the separation you
can create with the ability to drop the hips and
break off that route. So I think it gives the
(19:01):
quarterback a more trusted target and tight coverage. That's if
his ability to sink those hips into the routes don't
create separation that we all want all the time. Thirty
seven and a half inch vertical ten foot four broad
jump those in his shuttle times are all eightieth percentile
or better, and he's got that at ninetieth percent tile
height and weight. I think he has a really good
(19:22):
shot to carve out a roll down the road and
maybe even this year for the Miami Dolphins offense. Also
a wide receiver that I think has a chance to
do that is the Baylor product Monter Ray Baldwin. What
a great name, like almost mono rail, which moves pretty fast,
and he's a four to three to two speed guy.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
This guy.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
If you missed your coffee or want to replace your
afternoon energy drink, go watch Mona Ray Baldwin tape. Crab
sent me a real of him just cooking nickel cornerbacks
on slot fades and that's kind of really his entire game.
But after watching his tape, you know, I went and
checked and sure enough, there he is four three two
forty one to five ten split. That's ninety ninth the
ninety seven percent tile. Why was he undrafted? This guy
(20:04):
might be Test Johnson, Like I was a big Test
Johnson guy.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Then he didn't run very well. It's like, oh, he's
gonna go undrafted.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
But this guy also went undrafted at one hundred and
sixty six pounds five foot nine, That's why he didn't
get drafted. He's not explosive in his cuts like Tyreek is.
He's got a pretty mundane shuttle and three cone time
and as well as vertical in broad jumps. But man,
he has track star speed. He's he's running the the
one hundred meters. He's not running the he's not doing
(20:29):
you know, high jumps and triple jumps and stuff in
the track events.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
But he he finds his way.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
You know, I think if he finds his way on
the roster, and you get Reek and him and Waddle
in a formation, and it's like, well, you know, we
can bracket here and we can try to lift our
coverage and rotate here. But oh, there goes the freaking
undrafted rookie from the slot running a four to three
vertical route that TUA can put on the money. You
got three guys that can all run four to three,
and everyone your defense has to be aware of that
(20:57):
it can open some stuff up underneath. I also love
how he tracks the football, doesn't play the game like
a track star. He accelerates through the catch and reels
it in with good concentration and traffic. You take a
player like this that played in space, and you can
hold the defense's attention with all of that stuff that
he does right, and then you can develop and bring
him along while giving him a package of plays in
a game. He played ninety two percent of his college
(21:19):
snaps inside in the slot. So not a high volume
guy either, just one hundred and seventy five career targets
over four years, but on those he made sixteen hundred
and seventy three yards a cool two point twenty six
yards per route ran, which we know on the podcast
anything over to is very good. Even in college. There's
plenty of room to grow. But man like this is
(21:40):
like investing in a one hundred mile per hour arm.
I don't care what the rest of your game looks like.
I don't care. If you have Ricky Vaughan control of
your fastball from the California Penal League, you have an
elite trait. So I'm going to try to develop the
rest of your game, because that cannot be top He
is very limited in his game. But that's why I
would That's why I'm fascinated by it. If you can
(22:00):
throw one hundred, I want you. I can't wait to
see what Emory says about those two wide outs, in fact,
all four of them, because Aj Henning from Northwestern formerly
of Michigan has some fun tape too different. They all
have different play styles. Like Armstrong is a monster you know,
as my daughter would call him Daddy Monster. That's my
favorite game to play, either Daddy Robot or Daddy Monster
(22:22):
side you know, sidebar. But Armstrong is a six foot
four vending machine. Monterey Baldwin could freaking run Olympic track,
it seems like. And then Aj Henning is like a
little jitterbug in space. It's quick, quicker than he is fast.
And then you've got the Oise, who is a little
bit of all that put together. We'll talk about him
here in just one second. But Aj Henning man four
(22:43):
or five speed average there with a ten split and
twenty splits two, but ninetieth percentile three cone time at
six point eight seconds and ninety fourth percentile shuttle time
at four point seven, and you can see it when
he returns punts. He can make a move, two moves
left and right and then out out the gate.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
He's gone quicker than a hiccup.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
He's got running back contact balance, which you know, plays
with a strong base where he can shed arm tackles
and that creates he creates a lot of those because
of his quickness and jump cut ability. And then you
do have theois from Missouri Missouri, and let me just say,
these receivers are gonna have my attention at mini camp
this weekend and all through training camp because I think
we'll see at least one of these guys in the
(23:23):
team this year, probably one or two more on the
practice squad. I think you're looking at like, you know,
trying to invest in the future of the wide receiver
room here and trying to hit on one of these
guys and get yourself cheap production, you know, alongside Glen
Wild down the road, which would be a big boon
for this this group.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
I'd rank them like this. I go armstrong first.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
I think that his body type paired with the ability
to drop the hips and run routes and get off
the spot. I think that plays in this offense and
gives you a little bit more of what you you
don't have otherwise outside of like Nick Westbrook Akine and
then I would go Baldwin and Hending are really close.
So I'm gonna go Baldwin because of the vertical skills
and the four three two speed. I just think that
that plays especially in this offense. Hending that and then
(24:00):
we speaking of we just to give you some some
thoughts on him, big rat guy. But if you watch
like his highlight clip, it all they threw him was
like hitches, which you can't hold that against the guy,
but it's like a lot of his production came on
little five yard hitches against out against off coverage, And
there wasn't enough on the tape to make me be like, oh,
that's just like how they used him, and they can
(24:20):
do more. Like it didn't really pop to me to
be used in a different way. You know, the release,
the start stop wasn't jumping off the screen. I think
you could say that he's the kind of player that
could capitalize on the space that we get from reak
and Waddle with his run after catchability, because he does
do a good job of bouncing off those tackles. But
I also kind of wonder if that was more of
like a I'm just a better athlete than all these
guys in college type of thing.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
If I don't know if it translates, well, we'll find out,
I guess. But you know, I don't watch this thinking
I'm gonna take away reps from John OUs Smith and
Devon a Chan and Malik Washington or even Pharaoh Brown
in the short passing game to get him the football there.
And of course, you know, you watch the tape and
then you go to the testing numbers, and sure enough,
four five, six forty. It looks slower on tape to me.
Also a thirty third percent tile ten split. I'm like,
(25:02):
this guy gets off the line pretty slow and at tracks.
He kind of reminded me of Devonte Parker, but not
a first round pick Devonte Parker. Tight end Jalen Conyers.
I think, if I had to pick one player from
the UDFA group, this is my guy. High school quarterback,
just like Tyler. Warren was twenty carries on wildcat snaps
last year, averaged nine point six yards after the catch,
(25:22):
not per catch after the catch. He's a slippery route
runner too, dude, Like you watch the you know, you
see rack yards and you think, oh, he's just running
guys over because he's bigger than them. No, he's creating
bad angles with speed and quickness. They couldn't cover him
at the East West Shrine Bowl. I mean four to
two seven shuttle, six nine, four to three cone. That's
eighty sixth and ninety third percent tile. He's quick as
(25:45):
a hiccup, have mercy. He is also eighty seventh in
both vertical and broad in terms of his percentile. He's
an absolute athlete, and he also shows that in making
leaping catches in traffic. I cannot believe he didn't get drafted.
This is my top pick to make the team, and
I'm all, this is the kind of guy where it's
like nobody knows about him. No one's talking about him,
(26:06):
but all summer long. If I'm a scout for the team,
I'm not, but if I was, I'd be like, we
know something, you guys don't know. That's how I feel
about Jalen Conyers. Cornerback Brandon Adams goes by BJ and
brand That've seen it both out there, So we'll have
to ask him about that. But we've been talking a
lot this offseason about playing more man coverage, and when
I watch Adams play, when I watched Ardie Burns's tape,
(26:26):
and then you consider the Dolphins going with you know,
Kenneth Grant over, both Will Johnson and Jade barn both
of their games were more often zone coverage. Then you
draft Jason Marshall junior, Like they're getting bigger, longer, they're
getting more pressed up man cover guys in that area,
which to me really pairs with what they've done in
the front seven to be aggressive and get all these
good blitzers and pass prushuers and have depth up there.
(26:47):
If you can play sticky man coverage for two seconds
and you can have a good pass rush scheme, tough
for quarterbacks to find open receivers, and that matches adams
game big time. In fact, I'm pretty surprised he wasn't drafted.
Just to let you guys know, I think we're gonna
have three udfas make the team. I think it's gonna
be Conyers, I think it's gonna be Adams. I think
it's going to be one of the wide receivers. Right now,
(27:08):
I'll go armstrong, but I could be pushed off that
with Baldwin or heading, but I went and watched his
entire one on one reel and the Senior Bowl, and
he was out physically in guys in a drill. It's
made for the receivers, and this team has a history
of hitting on undrafted cornerbacks going back to Nick Needham
and cater Koho. I think bj Adams could be the
next one in line to be that guy a udfa
(27:30):
who makes the football team. For now, that's all I've got.
I gotta watch more reps or more tape on the
rest of these guys. We'll have Emery on Friday, and
then of course rookie Minni Caamp where I can spend
more time breaking down the tape on these guys. We'll
probably have a Monday podcast talking about the rest of
the group and what I saw on the practice field,
and some media vils for that show as well. Let's
go ahead and take our last break right there, come
back and talk about your questions on the Draft time mailbag.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
That's next brought to you by Auto Nation.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
Let's go ahead and close this pod with three questions
from the social media mail bag and at Mark Finn's
nine twenty four asked who do you think starts at
left guard, right guard? And how do you stack the
offensive line depth going into training camp.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
I like this question.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
I think it's something they'll have to work to find
the best answer for. And I think you'll see this
concept and like again, like Crabs has told me this
multiple times that he prefers putting James Daniels on the
left side to work with Patrick Paul, the veteran with
the first year starter, and then you put the rookie
on the right side next to established pros in Austin
Jackson and Arin Brewer. And again, you know not to
put five stars out there in pen, but on paper
(28:36):
you kind of have your expectation right. And Chris Career
tolls as much in the post draft press conference, which
is more than he usually does. I think you have
to feel pretty good about it being Paul brew AJ
and then James and Jonah and of course we'll find
out where they play. But you know, when you have
expectations in the NFL, that's usually when you get things wrong,
right because this this league is impossible to predict. But
I think if you told yourself those are the five starters,
(28:59):
you're probably at it where they will be.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
I'm not sure.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
You know, McDaniel had a good answer talking about body
mechanics and comfort level of individual players. And I think
that that's a powerful statement in the idea that just
because it seems this way for continuity, for communication purposes,
it might be the best option. But what if James
Daniels likes the way his body moves in the right
guard position and Jonah prefers the way he moves at
(29:23):
the left guard position. I don't think you'll get that,
but you have to consider it, like it can't just
be black and white with how you make that choice.
But you want to get the best five up front,
and I think McDaniel's answer really kind of exemplifies that.
I think they'll find a way to get the best
five guys on the field. The condensed version of what
McDaniel said, don't make assumptions, you know, the experience is
the determining factor here. Whatever works best with twenty twenty
(29:46):
five Dolphins is what they're going to do next one
here from at easy money one forty four? Are we
going to sign anybody? Before camp? Greer talked about it,
but nothing's happening. Well, we did hear Chris Greer after
the draft allude to the idea that they are in
contact with a and full of free agents, and to me,
that was akin to the offensive line comment that Mike
McDaniel had said at the combine, saying like, we feel
(30:08):
pretty good about a couple of the free agents that
we are, you know, going to pursue and getting a
deal done with that. And they come back with James Daniels, who,
for my money, is the best guard you've had in
the Mike McDaniel era, and then Larry Boram who has
tackle and guard chops and possibly a swing tackle there.
It feels similar to me, and there's so many good
players out there right now that I think that you're
going to see the league get populated by these guys,
(30:29):
you know, whether you go off the NFL dot Com
Top free agent list, like Greg Rosenthal has four defensive
backs still on his list that were in the top
one hundred, Asante Samuel Rasul, Douglas, Julian Blackman, the safety
from the Colts who I just freaking love his game,
and then Mike Hilton, the other cornerback on that list.
To Van Gilmour's and there two, but Mike Hilton's more
of like a slot veteran guy that.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
Can help you get things communicated.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
And then an offensive line like Daniel Brunskill as well
in that top one hundred who plays you know, five positions, scheme, familiarity,
all that stuff. So I think there's plenty of options
to make the football team better between guys incumbents, improving
between in house you know guys you already have here
on the team, and then also outside help that could
possibly be brought in in the run up to the season,
(31:15):
which is only a couple months away now at this point.
All right, last one here, someone asks for my bold
prediction from training camp Jay Dog nineteen. What's your biggest
hot take or prediction for a training camp. It could
be a surprise starter, it could be a breakout performer,
anything you want that would be a surprise to the masses.
Hot takes are not really my forte, but we'll go
ahead and give you one. I'm gonna say we break
camp with the belief that Jalen Wright is a bell
(31:38):
cow back. Maybe not breaking camp, but maybe by a
couple of games end of the season and the run
game goes through him type of running back, and the
follow up to that would probably be, Hey, Travis, what
about Devon Chen. I'm not interested in giving Devon less snaps.
If anything, I want to get him more snaps. But
I think that Jalen can reduce some of the traditional
run scheme stuff inside off of his play and let
(31:58):
Devon just go be more of a player maker on
the perimeter and be a dynamic guy that can play
in two and one back sets and play receiver and
play scat back and play jet motion guy, and let
Jay Dubb take some more of the punishment because his
body is more equipped to do that, and also just
burrow forward and get a couple of extra yards opposed
to you know, a league leading negative run production last
year when when it's not blocked up very well. So
(32:19):
I'm gonna go with that. Jalen Wright a breakout year
coming for him, all right? You heard my thoughts Friday,
the Great Emery Hunt and the long awaited UDFA podcast.
I'm not even gonna tell him about my picks or
this episode, so we'll see how my commentary stacks up
against his. Until then, you all please be sure subscribe, rate,
review the show, follow me on social. Check out the
Fish Tank podcast with Seth and Juice. Check out the
(32:41):
YouTube channel. Brand new episode of Dolphins HQ comes your
way tomorrow night, drivetime interviews, media availabilities, and so much more. Last,
but not least, to Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time,
boons up, Carolyn and Cameron.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Daddy, He's come home.
What is up, Dolphins, and welcome to the Draft Time Podcast.
I am your host, Travis Wingfield, and on today's show
with rookie Mini Caamp coming up, we're doing one last
film discussion on the draft picks. Plus we're taking a
look at some of the udfas in this class that
I quite like ahead of the weekend, and we'll answer
a few of your male bag questions. I have three
(00:28):
about remaining free agents, about the offensive line, and a
training camp prediction from the Baptist Health Studios inside the
Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Draft Time Podcast,
so we have the rookies taking the field for the
Dolphins for the first time this weekend and we'll recap
that on the Monday episode of the podcast. We'll also
(00:50):
have Emory Hunt on this week on Friday for his
classic UDFA deep dive and talk about the draft picks
a little bit too. But I wanted to share with
some of y'all my thoughts on those guys to contrast
against Emery or compare and contrast, I should say. And
as for the draft picks, we just shot our latest
episode of Dolphins HQ where I went through five plays
(01:12):
from five players to break down their game, and my
goal going into it was to try to show you
things that you haven't already seen.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
I mean, we get you know, one of my.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Biggest beefs with sports media and coverage these days is
it's all the same thoughts and you know, concepts recycled
over and over again. You've seen Kenneth Grant running down
the Penn State running back a thousand times. You've seen
Jordan Phillips as wiggle as a pass rusher, or Jonas
Savoya and Naya Claw bring a defensive back and open space.
But what I wanted to show you was the vast
(01:42):
nature of their skill sets and other ways they win.
And so I'm basically bringing h Q to the podcast,
which usually we take our interviews from the from the
show and bring them over here to the podcast, but
this time we're going to take a full segment. And
the further disclaimer with Jason Marshall Junior, I didn't do
that with him. He was he is what you get
what you see with him. I found a clip that
(02:04):
perfectly exemplifies who he is. More on that in just
a moment. But I looked at Kenneth Grant, Jonas Savoya
and Ayah, Jordan Phillips, Jason Marshall Junior, and Oldi Gordon.
And for Kenny, the rep I showed was intended to
show his technique and pad level because we know the measurables.
These are things that you can find on Twitter, right,
anybody can do that, and that's why a lot of
(02:24):
folks think that anyone can do these jobs, which in
some cases you're right, but I think that there are
folks that put the work in that say you can't
do that unless you're willing to put the work in.
So you've seen all the things that you can type
into Google. We've seen the pro comps, the way he
moves at that size, it's dexter Lawrence. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
you've heard it all before. But what do we always
talk about on this podcast, the John Beck Q card story.
(02:46):
Just because you put in the time and you have
the talent, it's not always enough. And maybe John Beck's
a bad example of that from a pure talent standpoint.
Like Deon Jordan, for example, just did the episode of
the Fish Tank where he talked about how he could
have done more. But coming out of Oregon, We'll never
forget seeing like this guy has elite traits and he
works his butt off. From testimonials from teammates and coaches,
(03:07):
I'm like, obviously, he's going to be a great player.
Turned out to be one of the biggest draft buss
in team history. So it doesn't always work out that way.
It's not always enough. Why do I get to that
diet tribe? Well, because there's a little itty bitty thing
that matters above all else, And what differentiates Flash players
with consistent dominant factors in the game. It's mastering your
(03:30):
techniques and your fundamentals and seeing the game slow down
enough to be able to anticipate and get into positions
to have that technique win for you. And if that
sounds like one player in particular, my first thought with
that is Zach Thomas, Right.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
He's the.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Cutting example of a player that didn't have the best
physical traits but was just a damn good football player.
And that's what I was kind of looking for here,
because these guys have the traits, but I wanted to
see about their football first and foremost. And for Kenneth Grant,
the physical tools, he's picked third teenth, right, and that's
one hundred and forty one spots before Zach Thomas for
a reason, and therein lies why scouting is so tough.
(04:06):
And you get Tom Brady coming off the board and
becoming the best quarterback of all time at pick one
ninety nine versus JaMarcus Russell, who was arguably the biggest
bust in NFL history. All those intangibles that he had,
or rather I should say tangibles that he had made
the first pick, and it's the intangibles that actually wound
up counting for Tom Brady and all along. This is
(04:26):
all along setup I should say to say that Kenneth
Grant has the technique, the body awareness, and subtle tricks
to his game that makes me think he can package
all of that together and be a factor who rarely
leaves the field. I've been, you know, reading Draft Nicks
reports on this guy. It's like, if he can bottle
up that that game and make it consistent, he can
really pop. And I see what they're talking about, because
there is that core fundamental stuff is on tape.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
It exists. He can do it right.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
He's shown proof of concept on the clip I show
on the HQ episode. He gets under this guard with
a lower pad level off the snap six foot four.
He's able to play with that kind of power and
his thirty one inch vertical in one seven to nine
ten split time. All of those are indicators of his explosiveness, right,
but also do it with a natural knee bend to
(05:12):
play in that posture at that size. Man, the more
I watch him, the more I think we got ourselves
to steal at pick thirteen. Even going back to my
pre draft right up, I wrote, this guy belongs in
the top ten. He's my DT one, So this is
all probably moot because I doubt he makes it to
thirteen end quote. And I feel even more convicted in
that belief after watching him further. By the way, have
(05:32):
you guys seen the clip of the Colts war Room
celebrating Tyler Warren making it to pick fourteen to their pick.
That's a great player, and I know everyone on this
podcast knows that I think he's going to be a
Pro Bowl tight end and they should be glad.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
But it really reubs me the wrong way.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
How was portrayed across social media, and that's not the
Colt's fault or anybody's fault besides fans and an app.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
That is just the worst thing in the world. But
it was like, can you believe the Dolphins passed off him?
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Because I remember Chris Ballard laughing to himself last year saying,
we got the best pass rusher in the draft. Man,
God dang, I'll shoot After taking leat tou lot to
last year, well, fifty six pressures for Chop, thirty eight
for lat To. Chop had thirty fewer pass rush reps,
two more sacks, more tiffles, TFLs for the late person,
(06:23):
more quarterback hits, more passes, bat it down the last scrimmage,
you know, better at literally everything.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
And this is not a gotcha again.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
I had a lot too higher than Chop on my
draft board last year, So like, hey, pushback at me too,
But to me, it's a pushback on the look at
the dumb Dolphins. You know. That stuff to me gets
old because there's plenty of things for every team that
you can warrant and be like, hey, that was a
dumb decision or a bad decision or bad process. But
when you stretch it like that because it fits your narrative,
that's when it bothers me. Like comparing Chop Robinson to
(06:52):
Mike Kasiki, what are we doing here? I Digress, Jonah
the Whale, as Kyle Krabs calls him, Jonah Savoya and Nayah.
There was one where he honestly, you know, there wasn't
even a lot to get to because it's just like,
oh yeah, every rep is portable to the pros, like
you can see the fit. It reminds me so much
of Robert Hunt's college tape. You guys remember when I
was posting clips of him at ul University of Louisiana Lafayette,
(07:14):
and I was like, I'm on this one series of
a game and he has like twelve blocks where he
shows you twelve different ways that he embarrassed the opposition,
which when you're playing, you know down in competition like
in the Sun Belt for rob Hunt, you know in
a pro bowl guard like it's gonna look that way,
or it should if you're gonna be good at this level.
And that's what Jonahs tape looks like. But rather than
showing him getting out on the perimeter and erasing defensive
(07:36):
backs off the face of the earth.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Akin to that meme D D.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Dean aate like that's what he does when he blocks
those guys, right, they go flying into the universe and
gravity takes hold of them. I wanted to show you
more of the technique and the relationship between his brain
and his feet and how they work together, and for
in any sport, those things being linked up and hardwired
together typically makes for a pretty good football player who's
ready for another travil. There's golf analogy. We need a
(08:01):
song for that. A podcast drop here. So a good
golf swing, as the audience dissipates, requires proper sequencing between
I don't know. I think sports mechanics and body mechanics
is a really fascinating study. So maybe I'm alone on that,
But if you're here, you like it, I guess, but
we're gonna try it anyway. So a good golf swing
(08:22):
requires proper sequencing between your your body rotation and the
way your hips shift at address from backswing or through
the backswing to the downswing, so your hips go side
to side.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
It's all in the hips, and then.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
You rotate around your spine. You're supposed to envision your
spine like a post, like a tree in the ground,
and you rotate around that with the hip shifting, and
you have to sequence that twist with the shift. And
it's like the old analogy. You try to pat your
head and ruby belly at the same time. It's not
always easy. Same thing with mechanics of football fundamentals, or
any sport for that matter. Can your body operate independent
of other body parts? Can you sing a song off
(08:58):
the same off a different key than how you play
the guitar? My favorite rockstar of all time Claudio Sanchos
from Cohi and Cambria. He's really good at that. I've
tried it as a guitar player myself. I can't can't
do it. I literally can't do it. I don't have
that capability. And when I watch Jonah attack blocks in space,
whether he's drop stepping in pass pro or working downhill
(09:20):
forward in the running game, you see the feet constantly
working and moving, but you also see him take steps
that create opportunities for that next step to be an
explosive one. So if he sees a loop coming around
the corner and he's pinning the edge inside, he knows
he has to get depth and with so he'll take
like a te step, which is a cornerback step, or
in your back pedal, you angle your back foot in
(09:41):
a side direction that allows you to drive forward opposed
to only driving off of your toes, which is a
little bit slower to do.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
So as a.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Tackle, he can pin that edge and when he sees
that looper come in, I'm gonna put my weight right here,
but I'm use my right step to open up the
hip and drop step and basically go to a tee
step because it puts me in a position by next
step can get more depth and cover more ground. Like
he can do this stuff, you know, in the time
that it takes to identify fastball or change up for
a batter and baseball. So for he and grant Man,
(10:10):
big physical guys that can win on pure traits, but
they do it with technical proficiency on top of that.
And I broke this down we got Tyreek Hill a
few years ago. It wasn't just Tyreek's like eye popping
traits that were great. It was his commitment to the
to the craft and the fine details in his game.
Like I can get into this window right now and
show my numbers of the quarterback and be open. But
(10:32):
if I take this one more step step, I can
widen the coverage three more steps and create a bigger
run after catch for myself or wherever he throws the
ball to like, it's that same concept, that same idea,
let's be let's be on top of our details so
we can be great all time players. For Jordan Phillips,
this was kind of the antithesis of the entire video
and breakdown. I found this clip of him against Orgon
(10:54):
last year where he doesn't even make the tackle, and
I'm like, that's like my go to move. I'm gonna
find you reps where let's like there's no big splash
play because you've seen those, and in fact it's a
third and one conversion for the Ducks offense, where JP
spends most of his time. This camp is one of
the more fascinating subplots to me of the entire offseason.
I just can't quite put my finger onsse. I think
(11:15):
that you know, he played a lot on zero tech
nose tackle and whipped guys at Maryland, but I feel
like his quickness and his rushing chops and his pliability, gosh,
it screams three technique to me, like a shot for
shot Christian Wilkins replacement. And maybe he's not as good
as Christian, not yet anyway, but I can see the
translation there and the ability to do both that and
play the nose tackle and ain't a bad thing either.
(11:37):
But man, you see his wrestling background on this rep
that I show on the episode of HQ, and I'd
be curious to see his study on accomplished wrestlers who
make it to pro football. I would bet the numbers
favor the wrestler quite favorably. I remember Greg Gaines from
U dub got drafted by the Bucks, went to the Rams,
came back to the Bucks. He was at the Senior Bowl,
(11:59):
and they kept talking about his low body, lois enter
gravity and his playability at that size because of his
wrestling background. In fact, that's where I first learned about
players like him most of the time, because they give
such good in depth detail during the broadcast, and it
seems like every year they mentioned, by the way, this
guy was a state champion wrestler.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Those guys always work in the league.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
And if you go back even further, like Creed Humphrey
was that a state champion wrestler, Alex Mack was that.
You go further back, Tony Siragusa was that Warren Sap
And the way those guys moved at that size, it
makes perfect sense. A quote that I read on a reddit,
a subreddit about the wrestler football player combination, said that
wrestling makes football feel easy, and that made a lot
(12:41):
of sense to me, because when I was playing high
school hoop, we'd have these two and a half hours,
sometimes three hour practices at start the season for conditioning purposes,
and like we would run five minutes at a time
up and down the court, but then you take ten
minutes off to rest up and get water or shoot
free throws whatever, And the entire three hours, the wrestling
team is coming in out of the gym, running these
lap around the entire campus, going up and down the stairs.
(13:02):
They're in full body sweatsuits, and then they go in
there and they wrestle around like rastling boys do. And
they're just the best conditioned athletes that there are. Like,
I don't think you can really dispute that watching those
guys work and having friends that did that, Like you
don't most athletes couldn't make it through a wrestling practice.
But on top of that, that's just the conditioning That
doesn't even what I'm getting at.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
It's the way they can contort their body.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
There's a natural ability to generate leverage and then the
entire crux of line play is push and pull. You
want to create momentum and then use that momentum against
the person that you've created it against. And when you
see a three hundred pound man that can shoot for
a single leg takedown and then pop up into an
athletic position like a triple threat basketball position, like whow,
it's rare man. It's rare movement skills. And that's what
(13:48):
Phillips does. You try to double him. He's going to
drop to a knee and utilize all those skills and
slipperiness to make himself small while holding the point of attack.
The more I watch him, the more I think he
can have an immediate impact, And in fact, I think
Miami first three picks. I'm asked for a camp prediction
later on in this episode. Here's one for you guys.
I think the Dolphins first three picks will all exceed
(14:08):
five hundred snaps. We'll come back to that and do
another one. But that's that's a hot take off the
top here. Jason Marshall Junior. The next one we watched
went outside and I took a look at Jason's ability.
That is a calling card every time I watch him,
and we can make this one quicker because it's more
cut and dry. There's a rep against Mississippi State in
twenty twenty three where he's pressed up on the X
(14:29):
the boundary receiver to the short side of the field,
and they run a dummy clap and they checked the
sideline to change the play, and after they do that,
they bring this big tight end over and stack him
on top of the receiver. What that means is they
move the receiver off the line scrimmage and they put
a receiver right in front of him to give him
an escort into the route, into the into the rotation
or into the formation. But Marshall gets over the top
(14:50):
of the natural rub by the stack tight end, and
still makes a break on this little hookup route.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
I mean they removed and eligible from.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
The pattern because that that that pickman didn't even run
a route and essentially through a low reward five yard
route that comes back to the quarterback and he still
shuts it down. That type of physicality is what teams
look for on third downs when you play most of
your man coverage. And then Alie Gordon, the second was
who I finished on. We finished with the physical back
because you've seen him push piles, you've seen him high
(15:19):
hurl defenders in the open field and flash the trades
that made him a twenty twenty three Dope Walker Award winner,
which if you guys haven't seen that list, it's all
of the best running backs in league when they win
that award, and there's some guys that didn't make it either.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
So it's a little bit of both.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
But much like the rest of the Dolphins draft class,
and this was very true of Dante Trader as well.
And I would say Zeke Biggers, We's only had five
plays to do, so five players got on there. But
you see this theme of smart and fast processors. The
clip we show of Gordon is a massive cutback lay
and that opens up on gy counter that's guard and
y tight end counter when they both come across the
(15:52):
formation in a different direction and Gordon presses the gap
play side, but has the backside vision and the jump
cut to find it and to get to it, and
then runs to daylight with a punishing finish. So when
you can be an option to hammer a gap scheme,
run on third and one and push a pile and
move the chains, but you have the decision making to
find a huge crease backside, which opens up because of
the team's overplay to the original direction in the first place. Right,
(16:15):
So if it's third and one, they're gonna slam bodies
into the primary gap and try to get you get
knocked back and create a loss. So if you have
a guy that can execute those but also find that
backside lane, that's a nice little ace up your sleeve.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Man.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
So I am pumped up about this group. Tomorrow on
HQ you can find the video version of this, But
until then, let's go ahead and take our first break,
come back and get into some of the undrafted rookies
that popped off the tape to me. That's Next Draft
Time podcast brought to you by Autoation, and that entire
opening segment was kind of inspired by what I want
(16:48):
to talk about next and the UDFA film that I watched.
Been really really grind on the tape this year, even
more so than the years past, and it's been enjoyable.
We are going to have Emory Hunt on an episode Friday, Uh,
not exactly, Yeah, it'll be Friday. But I just watched
this class and I want to do some content on
it and kind of compare and contrast that to what
Emory has to say. So let's go ahead and get
(17:09):
to one, two, three, four, five guys. I've got five guys.
Not the cheeseburgers, by the way. Five guys has a
combo meal now a little bit more affordable, pretty good burger.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
I like Burger FI. Two.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
What's the best upscale burger joint?
Speaker 2 (17:29):
What do you guys think? So between those two, in
and Out is so overrated.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
And I'm a West Coast guy too, but I haven't
had it since I've been last to California. I think
it's five guys. I don't know what do you guys think?
But I did five UDFA tapes, so he's here. I
did really all of them. But I had five guys
to me, and four of are pass catchers and three
of them are wide receivers. Let's go ahead and jump
(17:54):
into that wide receiver. Andrew Armstrong talked about him last week.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
A little bit.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
And these are currently reported to UDFACE signings. They haven't
become official. I believe they will be by the time
they the field on Friday, so we should be able
to get that officially to you guys when that happens.
But reportedly signing Andrew Armstrong from Arkansas. He is going
to bury you. As a blocker. He's not Isaac Tesla
Tesla like his teammate was. But man, they like a
(18:17):
big body receiver Arkansas, don't they. Treylon Burke's Matt Jones
about twenty years ago for those that remember him, Matt Jones,
Mike Jones. But this guy is a bully with the
ball in his hands or as a blocker. He's six
foot four. He can really sink the hips into the
route and get off the top of the stem. It
reminds me of what we wanted Preston Williams to be.
And that's such a valuable trait to pair with his
(18:39):
size and length because on routes coming back to the
quarterback or latterly, like if you run a dig like
you run dagger concept and you run, you know, fifteen
yards down the field, cut it across the middle part
of the field, run that dig. It really allows you
to kind of shield the defensive back from the football
because of your length, but also because the separation you
can create with the ability to drop the hips and
break off that route. So I think it gives the
(19:01):
quarterback a more trusted target and tight coverage. That's if
his ability to sink those hips into the routes don't
create separation that we all want all the time. Thirty
seven and a half inch vertical ten foot four broad
jump those in his shuttle times are all eightieth percentile
or better, and he's got that at ninetieth percent tile
height and weight. I think he has a really good
(19:22):
shot to carve out a roll down the road and
maybe even this year for the Miami Dolphins offense. Also
a wide receiver that I think has a chance to
do that is the Baylor product Monter Ray Baldwin. What
a great name, like almost mono rail, which moves pretty fast,
and he's a four to three to two speed guy.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
This guy.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
If you missed your coffee or want to replace your
afternoon energy drink, go watch Mona Ray Baldwin tape. Crab
sent me a real of him just cooking nickel cornerbacks
on slot fades and that's kind of really his entire game.
But after watching his tape, you know, I went and
checked and sure enough, there he is four three two
forty one to five ten split. That's ninety ninth the
ninety seven percent tile. Why was he undrafted? This guy
(20:04):
might be Test Johnson, Like I was a big Test
Johnson guy.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Then he didn't run very well. It's like, oh, he's
gonna go undrafted.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
But this guy also went undrafted at one hundred and
sixty six pounds five foot nine, That's why he didn't
get drafted. He's not explosive in his cuts like Tyreek is.
He's got a pretty mundane shuttle and three cone time
and as well as vertical in broad jumps. But man,
he has track star speed. He's he's running the the
one hundred meters. He's not running the he's not doing
(20:29):
you know, high jumps and triple jumps and stuff in
the track events.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
But he he finds his way.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
You know, I think if he finds his way on
the roster, and you get Reek and him and Waddle
in a formation, and it's like, well, you know, we
can bracket here and we can try to lift our
coverage and rotate here. But oh, there goes the freaking
undrafted rookie from the slot running a four to three
vertical route that TUA can put on the money. You
got three guys that can all run four to three,
and everyone your defense has to be aware of that
(20:57):
it can open some stuff up underneath. I also love
how he tracks the football, doesn't play the game like
a track star. He accelerates through the catch and reels
it in with good concentration and traffic. You take a
player like this that played in space, and you can
hold the defense's attention with all of that stuff that
he does right, and then you can develop and bring
him along while giving him a package of plays in
a game. He played ninety two percent of his college
(21:19):
snaps inside in the slot. So not a high volume
guy either, just one hundred and seventy five career targets
over four years, but on those he made sixteen hundred
and seventy three yards a cool two point twenty six
yards per route ran, which we know on the podcast
anything over to is very good. Even in college. There's
plenty of room to grow. But man like this is
(21:40):
like investing in a one hundred mile per hour arm.
I don't care what the rest of your game looks like.
I don't care. If you have Ricky Vaughan control of
your fastball from the California Penal League, you have an
elite trait. So I'm going to try to develop the
rest of your game, because that cannot be top He
is very limited in his game. But that's why I
would That's why I'm fascinated by it. If you can
(22:00):
throw one hundred, I want you. I can't wait to
see what Emory says about those two wide outs, in fact,
all four of them, because Aj Henning from Northwestern formerly
of Michigan has some fun tape too different. They all
have different play styles. Like Armstrong is a monster you know,
as my daughter would call him Daddy Monster. That's my
favorite game to play, either Daddy Robot or Daddy Monster
(22:22):
side you know, sidebar. But Armstrong is a six foot
four vending machine. Monterey Baldwin could freaking run Olympic track,
it seems like. And then Aj Henning is like a
little jitterbug in space. It's quick, quicker than he is fast.
And then you've got the Oise, who is a little
bit of all that put together. We'll talk about him
here in just one second. But Aj Henning man four
(22:43):
or five speed average there with a ten split and
twenty splits two, but ninetieth percentile three cone time at
six point eight seconds and ninety fourth percentile shuttle time
at four point seven, and you can see it when
he returns punts. He can make a move, two moves
left and right and then out out the gate.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
He's gone quicker than a hiccup.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
He's got running back contact balance, which you know, plays
with a strong base where he can shed arm tackles
and that creates he creates a lot of those because
of his quickness and jump cut ability. And then you
do have theois from Missouri Missouri, and let me just say,
these receivers are gonna have my attention at mini camp
this weekend and all through training camp because I think
we'll see at least one of these guys in the
(23:23):
team this year, probably one or two more on the
practice squad. I think you're looking at like, you know,
trying to invest in the future of the wide receiver
room here and trying to hit on one of these
guys and get yourself cheap production, you know, alongside Glen
Wild down the road, which would be a big boon
for this this group.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
I'd rank them like this. I go armstrong first.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
I think that his body type paired with the ability
to drop the hips and run routes and get off
the spot. I think that plays in this offense and
gives you a little bit more of what you you
don't have otherwise outside of like Nick Westbrook Akine and
then I would go Baldwin and Hending are really close.
So I'm gonna go Baldwin because of the vertical skills
and the four three two speed. I just think that
that plays especially in this offense. Hending that and then
(24:00):
we speaking of we just to give you some some
thoughts on him, big rat guy. But if you watch
like his highlight clip, it all they threw him was
like hitches, which you can't hold that against the guy,
but it's like a lot of his production came on
little five yard hitches against out against off coverage, And
there wasn't enough on the tape to make me be like, oh,
that's just like how they used him, and they can
(24:20):
do more. Like it didn't really pop to me to
be used in a different way. You know, the release,
the start stop wasn't jumping off the screen. I think
you could say that he's the kind of player that
could capitalize on the space that we get from reak
and Waddle with his run after catchability, because he does
do a good job of bouncing off those tackles. But
I also kind of wonder if that was more of
like a I'm just a better athlete than all these
guys in college type of thing.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
If I don't know if it translates, well, we'll find out,
I guess. But you know, I don't watch this thinking
I'm gonna take away reps from John OUs Smith and
Devon a Chan and Malik Washington or even Pharaoh Brown
in the short passing game to get him the football there.
And of course, you know, you watch the tape and
then you go to the testing numbers, and sure enough,
four five, six forty. It looks slower on tape to me.
Also a thirty third percent tile ten split. I'm like,
(25:02):
this guy gets off the line pretty slow and at tracks.
He kind of reminded me of Devonte Parker, but not
a first round pick Devonte Parker. Tight end Jalen Conyers.
I think, if I had to pick one player from
the UDFA group, this is my guy. High school quarterback,
just like Tyler. Warren was twenty carries on wildcat snaps
last year, averaged nine point six yards after the catch,
(25:22):
not per catch after the catch. He's a slippery route
runner too, dude, Like you watch the you know, you
see rack yards and you think, oh, he's just running
guys over because he's bigger than them. No, he's creating
bad angles with speed and quickness. They couldn't cover him
at the East West Shrine Bowl. I mean four to
two seven shuttle, six nine, four to three cone. That's
eighty sixth and ninety third percent tile. He's quick as
(25:45):
a hiccup, have mercy. He is also eighty seventh in
both vertical and broad in terms of his percentile. He's
an absolute athlete, and he also shows that in making
leaping catches in traffic. I cannot believe he didn't get drafted.
This is my top pick to make the team, and
I'm all, this is the kind of guy where it's
like nobody knows about him. No one's talking about him,
(26:06):
but all summer long. If I'm a scout for the team,
I'm not, but if I was, I'd be like, we
know something, you guys don't know. That's how I feel
about Jalen Conyers. Cornerback Brandon Adams goes by BJ and
brand That've seen it both out there, So we'll have
to ask him about that. But we've been talking a
lot this offseason about playing more man coverage, and when
I watch Adams play, when I watched Ardie Burns's tape,
(26:26):
and then you consider the Dolphins going with you know,
Kenneth Grant over, both Will Johnson and Jade barn both
of their games were more often zone coverage. Then you
draft Jason Marshall junior, Like they're getting bigger, longer, they're
getting more pressed up man cover guys in that area,
which to me really pairs with what they've done in
the front seven to be aggressive and get all these
good blitzers and pass prushuers and have depth up there.
(26:47):
If you can play sticky man coverage for two seconds
and you can have a good pass rush scheme, tough
for quarterbacks to find open receivers, and that matches adams
game big time. In fact, I'm pretty surprised he wasn't drafted.
Just to let you guys know, I think we're gonna
have three udfas make the team. I think it's gonna
be Conyers, I think it's gonna be Adams. I think
it's going to be one of the wide receivers. Right now,
(27:08):
I'll go armstrong, but I could be pushed off that
with Baldwin or heading, but I went and watched his
entire one on one reel and the Senior Bowl, and
he was out physically in guys in a drill. It's
made for the receivers, and this team has a history
of hitting on undrafted cornerbacks going back to Nick Needham
and cater Koho. I think bj Adams could be the
next one in line to be that guy a udfa
(27:30):
who makes the football team. For now, that's all I've got.
I gotta watch more reps or more tape on the
rest of these guys. We'll have Emery on Friday, and
then of course rookie Minni Caamp where I can spend
more time breaking down the tape on these guys. We'll
probably have a Monday podcast talking about the rest of
the group and what I saw on the practice field,
and some media vils for that show as well. Let's
go ahead and take our last break right there, come
back and talk about your questions on the Draft time mailbag.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
That's next brought to you by Auto Nation.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
Let's go ahead and close this pod with three questions
from the social media mail bag and at Mark Finn's
nine twenty four asked who do you think starts at
left guard, right guard? And how do you stack the
offensive line depth going into training camp.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
I like this question.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
I think it's something they'll have to work to find
the best answer for. And I think you'll see this
concept and like again, like Crabs has told me this
multiple times that he prefers putting James Daniels on the
left side to work with Patrick Paul, the veteran with
the first year starter, and then you put the rookie
on the right side next to established pros in Austin
Jackson and Arin Brewer. And again, you know not to
put five stars out there in pen, but on paper
(28:36):
you kind of have your expectation right. And Chris Career
tolls as much in the post draft press conference, which
is more than he usually does. I think you have
to feel pretty good about it being Paul brew AJ
and then James and Jonah and of course we'll find
out where they play. But you know, when you have
expectations in the NFL, that's usually when you get things wrong,
right because this this league is impossible to predict. But
I think if you told yourself those are the five starters,
(28:59):
you're probably at it where they will be.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
I'm not sure.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
You know, McDaniel had a good answer talking about body
mechanics and comfort level of individual players. And I think
that that's a powerful statement in the idea that just
because it seems this way for continuity, for communication purposes,
it might be the best option. But what if James
Daniels likes the way his body moves in the right
guard position and Jonah prefers the way he moves at
(29:23):
the left guard position. I don't think you'll get that,
but you have to consider it, like it can't just
be black and white with how you make that choice.
But you want to get the best five up front,
and I think McDaniel's answer really kind of exemplifies that.
I think they'll find a way to get the best
five guys on the field. The condensed version of what
McDaniel said, don't make assumptions, you know, the experience is
the determining factor here. Whatever works best with twenty twenty
(29:46):
five Dolphins is what they're going to do next one
here from at easy money one forty four? Are we
going to sign anybody? Before camp? Greer talked about it,
but nothing's happening. Well, we did hear Chris Greer after
the draft allude to the idea that they are in
contact with a and full of free agents, and to me,
that was akin to the offensive line comment that Mike
McDaniel had said at the combine, saying like, we feel
(30:08):
pretty good about a couple of the free agents that
we are, you know, going to pursue and getting a
deal done with that. And they come back with James Daniels, who,
for my money, is the best guard you've had in
the Mike McDaniel era, and then Larry Boram who has
tackle and guard chops and possibly a swing tackle there.
It feels similar to me, and there's so many good
players out there right now that I think that you're
going to see the league get populated by these guys,
(30:29):
you know, whether you go off the NFL dot Com
Top free agent list, like Greg Rosenthal has four defensive
backs still on his list that were in the top
one hundred, Asante Samuel Rasul, Douglas, Julian Blackman, the safety
from the Colts who I just freaking love his game,
and then Mike Hilton, the other cornerback on that list.
To Van Gilmour's and there two, but Mike Hilton's more
of like a slot veteran guy that.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
Can help you get things communicated.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
And then an offensive line like Daniel Brunskill as well
in that top one hundred who plays you know, five positions, scheme, familiarity,
all that stuff. So I think there's plenty of options
to make the football team better between guys incumbents, improving
between in house you know guys you already have here
on the team, and then also outside help that could
possibly be brought in in the run up to the season,
(31:15):
which is only a couple months away now at this point.
All right, last one here, someone asks for my bold
prediction from training camp Jay Dog nineteen. What's your biggest
hot take or prediction for a training camp. It could
be a surprise starter, it could be a breakout performer,
anything you want that would be a surprise to the masses.
Hot takes are not really my forte, but we'll go
ahead and give you one. I'm gonna say we break
camp with the belief that Jalen Wright is a bell
(31:38):
cow back. Maybe not breaking camp, but maybe by a
couple of games end of the season and the run
game goes through him type of running back, and the
follow up to that would probably be, Hey, Travis, what
about Devon Chen. I'm not interested in giving Devon less snaps.
If anything, I want to get him more snaps. But
I think that Jalen can reduce some of the traditional
run scheme stuff inside off of his play and let
(31:58):
Devon just go be more of a player maker on
the perimeter and be a dynamic guy that can play
in two and one back sets and play receiver and
play scat back and play jet motion guy, and let
Jay Dubb take some more of the punishment because his
body is more equipped to do that, and also just
burrow forward and get a couple of extra yards opposed
to you know, a league leading negative run production last
year when when it's not blocked up very well. So
(32:19):
I'm gonna go with that. Jalen Wright a breakout year
coming for him, all right? You heard my thoughts Friday,
the Great Emery Hunt and the long awaited UDFA podcast.
I'm not even gonna tell him about my picks or
this episode, so we'll see how my commentary stacks up
against his. Until then, you all please be sure subscribe, rate,
review the show, follow me on social. Check out the
Fish Tank podcast with Seth and Juice. Check out the
(32:41):
YouTube channel. Brand new episode of Dolphins HQ comes your
way tomorrow night, drivetime interviews, media availabilities, and so much more. Last,
but not least, to Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time,
boons up, Carolyn and Cameron.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Daddy, He's come home.
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