Breaking Down Flores' Presser and Free Agency Primer

some coaching staff reshuffling, and a whole lot more. Plus we'll get you updates on the latest pro days and get you ready for free agency kicking off this week here on the Drive Time Podcast. All of that and more on this on this final episode of the league year, a day shin of the Drift Time Podcast. So we've got Coach Flora's last week in lieu of his annual live Combine presser and flow spoke to the media through our good old Zoom platform. And I might be a

victim of hyperbole like a lot of the time. For instance, I told my friends that the South Park vaccination special that came out last week was the best episode those guys have ever done, and I still stand by that claim, but I can see how they can tell me that I'm crazy for saying that after a twenty four year run of Brilliance and how much that's saying about the show. But I thought that this press conference from Coach was the best one he's given since I've been here for

these press conferences. And I will say this, Normally we get a very fired up, loose but excited ear to ear grin on Coach before the season opener, at the start of training camp, whenever there are pads popping and football to be played, because well, he's a utball coach. He's told us before how much he loves coaching football. But I got that same vibe from him last week at this presser. He entered the chat by asking everybody

how they're doing, a big smile on his face. He congratulated Omar Kelly for the birth of his child, and a congrats are in order here on the Drivetime podcast to Omar and his wife. Omar was one of the first people that kind of showed me some South Florida hospitality when I was down there for training camp in twenty nineteen. So Omar, congrats to you and your wife, my good friend, and he was joking with Cam Wolf of ESPN, another friend here of the podcast and a

friend of mine as well, about parenting a newborn. Cam also recently had a little one, and oh yeah, before I buried the lead any further speaking, a little ones, Caroline took her first steps this weekend, and I celebrated that harder than I did the two of the Holland's touchdown the fits to Holland's sideline shot in the Raiders game to any play this year. I was spiking the football, so to speak, after watching Caroline take her first steps. But now I feel like dropping her off at college

is like right around the corner. Time truly does go by way too fast for a parent. She's been around for ten months and I feel like the time was

already flown by. But back on track here, it was just great to be back in one of these and as brief as they are, it's great to get tangible football news and not just the old according to sources type of headlines rumors that we see from January through the start of the league new year, the new league year, especially without the scouting combine, and we were fortunate to get the Senior Bowl this year with coach, but that was six weeks ago. So the football kind of feels

like it's picking back up a little bit here. And just as I'm sure you are as well, I am here for it. Let's go ahead and kick this off with Brian Flores his opening remarks. We're gonna hear from coach Flow and then check in with my thoughts and analysis after each answer. So first, here's coach talking about a sort of state of the Dolphins, type of a drest.

So a couple of quick updates last couple of months, you know, as I you know, last time we talked, I want to say, at the Senior Bowl, and you know, at the end of the season, I talked about, UM, you know, us kind of doing a full evaluation of our team, UM and really the entire operation season. H. So we did a deep dive on a self scout from that perspective, really across the board, offense, defense, special team, our operation, UH, you know, scouting any and any everything

that we felt like we could approve on. We kind of talked about, UM, look, our our goal is to to improve at every position UM coaches players, strength and addition and you know, nutrition, training. So we kind of, uh that's kind of been what we've done the last couple of months. UM, Chris and our stock scout and staff,

they've been they've been great, they've been phenomenal. We just actually just got done with our draft meetings last week, UM look with no no combine and UM quite a few limitations this year due to do the COVID nineteen and the pandemic. Really they've kind of handled that without any complaints, no issues, and they did a really nice job as far as getting background and we had some really good uh good dialogue and a lot of great

meetings over the last couple of weeks. UH. And that is you know, specific to the draft, but also free agency, you know, pro pro department first. UM, So we're gonna name Danny Craftsman assistant head coach UM and Special Teams. Danny as as you guys know, UM has been uh instrumental in the development of uh this team or coaches staff, and I'm just grateful to have someone of his skills UM to bounce ideas off of two uh. Uh. He's

just been an invaluable asset. UH. Named Georgian Eric co coordinators on offense, UM look, they've both done uh on outstanding jobs and they at their respective positions. UM, have a lot of respect for both guys, very knowledgeable, UM, very good teachers, and uh I think they both bring different you know, uh uh they both have different perspectives and that that that uh, that's that's been a good Uh.

We've had a lot of great dialogue. Really, I would say these last couple of months with with those two as as well as our entire offensive staff other offensive coaching staff changes and look, you guys have got a press release on this later on today. Uh So, Mike Judge is going to go to um, you know, from quality control to assistant tight ends, and Sean Flaherty, who was uh also a quality control goa, will go to assistant on line offense. Defensively, a couple of changes there.

So Charles Burke's, um, well, he'll be the cornerbacks coach. Obviously he worked with the corners you know for the last couple of years. He's done a nice job. So officially the cornerbacks coach. Austin Clark's gonna coach defensive line, and Robbery Land is going to move to outside linebackers.

So there you have at the opening UH State of the Union address there from coach some coaching staff changes as well, and he took on another question regarding coach Godzie and Studentsville later on, so we'll circle back to that, but it is official those are your co offensive coordinators. Other moves along with that, Danny Crossman promoted to assistant head coach and you know a respective guy in the building communication on point A leader. We talked about the

scream here on the podcast. It's a question I asked the special teams, the core special teamers on this team. I always like to ask him about the scream of Danny Crossman because of training camp, you can hear it

from anywhere within earshot of the facility there. And there was a great story on the Blake Ferguson, Sam egg Will Vaughan podcast we did back in December for My Cleats My Cause, and I asked Ferguson about the last time he got screamed out by Crossman and he told me about a half hour ago at practice, and then I asked Sam the same question. He said, well, blake'sid a half hour ago, so for me it was about

forty five minutes ago. So he's always Uh, He's always making sure guys are coached up and most of all, he's overseen one of the better special teams units in the league and for my money, the most innovative as far as creating plays through deception, whether it's fakes, blocked kicks, returns, pinning kickoffs deep and forcing the return man to come out that sort of thing. So well deserved their coach absolutely a position that he's earned through his time here

in Miami. Mike Judge gets the call from quality control to assistant tight ends to work with George Gatzi in that tight end room, and Gotzi retains that tight ends position as well as Eric Studisville retaining his position as the running backs coach. The other movie, you heard coach

talk about their Charles Burke's. That was a name that Gut reference on the podcast a lot last year and impressed conferences through players and coaches about a guy who worked kind of hand in hand with the players on

individual instruction. Byron Jones talked a lot about this when he would speak to us, and I mentioned it from my observations at practice how much he and Charles Burke's work together pre practice on ball skills and turning and locating the football and catching the football and all the stuff that went into Byron Jones' career high this year with the two interceptions. So Charles Brooks he also gets

that promotion. Austin Clark goes from his old post as the outside linebackers coach to defensive line coach, and he was one of the guys that was talked a lot about among players this year in terms of his ability to teach and help guys develop their skill sets. From Andrew van Ginel who complimented coach time and and time again, time and time again. Jerome Baker talked about him, Coach Campanelli,

the linebackers coach, talked a lot about him. So he gets moved to the defensive line, where really his his specialty was a little bit of the pass rush moves and and how he got guys to develop the arsenal of pass rush moves. He's he was talked about a lot of Emmanuel Ogbas Shack Lawson in that regard as well. So he gets that call and then finally taking over his role as the outside linebackers coach previously is Robbie Leonard, who was also an assistant position coach last year there

as well, so some changes to the staff. Coach Flor has covered those as well as the kind of unorthodox move to have co offensive coordinators. I don't think any other team in the NFL has that, So we're gonna find out how that works. And coach was of course asked about that at the first question at his press conference about the collaboration between George Gadzi and Eric Studisville

co offensive coordinators. Definitely collaborative. I think, Uh, that's something we've talked about, UM, and those are kind of ongoing discussions. So we have I would say, cemented a a way of how we're gonna do it. UM. But I think just from a play calling standpoint, a lot of that the leg works done during the week. I know George, uh, Eric, George's call plays in the past. Uh, Like Eric was uh, you know a COVID. You know, we had the situation where we had to have a back about every position.

So Eric, Eric was preparing to call the game if something happened to Chan the entire year. So I think both guys are equipped to do it, and we have not cemented a hey, we're gonna do it like this. Uh, but I think, you know, we'll figure out a way that's collaborative at the end of the day, puts our

team in the best position to have success offensively. Success offensively, I mean that's the key, right getting the offense up and down the field, putting points on the board, regardless of how you do it through the passing game, the running game, a combination of both professional style attacks college style looks that have become more and more prevalent in the National Football League over I guess the past decade or so, But you look at what both these coaches

have done in their short times in Miami and their careers beyond that. Eric Steudisville, I mean, I've rember praising this guy's running schemes back in eighteen when originally with Adam Gae in the mix, it was all outside zone. You recalled that ten season with Jagi. Get out on the edge, let him pick his hole and then let him get vertical or let him get square rather to the line of scrimmage and get himself upfield on those outside runs. And then we go out and signed Frank Gore.

Here comes Eric Studisville, and you've got missed direction, You've got gap scheme. You've got all kinds of different whaan blocks and traps and different counters and and different ideas in the running game. And I became a big fan of coach at that time. He of course one of the holdovers from that previous coaching staff here under Brian Flores. So it tells you about his his ability to lead, his ability to teach, and what Brian Flores thinks about

what makes a good coach. I think Eric Studisfield checks those boxes. And look at the running backstables that Studentsville has worked with here in Miami. I mean last season alone, everyone projected Jordan Howard Matt Brita as a one to punch and who's the running back that goes out there and get seventy seventy percent of the workload in week

one and produces in a big time way. Finishes the season with the eleventh most average yards per scrimmage per game in Miles gascon And we saw that in training camp. If you guys read the training camp reports, listen to the podcast back in August, your boy was very very high on Miles Gaskin despite the fact that he went

to you dub Go Coogs. But I was here to watch him just shred up defenses as a member of the Miami Dolphins, and he was doing that, and Eric Studisville, I think seventh round draft pick here, has a little bit to say about the development of that young player. So teaching leadership type right type of guy for this job. And then George Gotzian and you go back to some

of the old transcripts last season. He was always a great interview last year and I can only imagine that if he can explain football to US media adults the way he did, then he can definitely do that to professional football players. I asked him a question last year about going empty, which is where you have no running backs in the backfield. You've got your five offensive lineman,

you've got your quarterback, and your five available options. Your five eligible options in the passing attack are all fly xed out. And when you're in thirteen personnel, which means one running back, three tight ends, the first number is the running backs, the second number is the tight ends, and then the leftover is your receivers. So one running back, three tight ends, and one receiver, and they would go empty out of that package because you've got Mica SICKI

who's uber athletic. Adam Shaheen. Same idea there as far as the way he scored at his combine workout, and Durham Smith can do some things in the passing game as well. And so when I asked him that question, he lit up. How to thorow insightful answer about the advantages of being able to go to that third team personnel package and to go empty from it when you're

gonna get a base defense to counter that look. So I just look forward to what both he and students feel can cook up together in a collaboration, and also their press conferences with us this year, because they were great in I have to imagine that continues in Coach Flores was then asked about his quarterback, of course, to a tongue of Valoa, a hot topic down here in South Florida, a topic, a point of contention, a player that Coach Flora's is very excited about for his second

year in the National Football League. Yeah, I mean I'm excited about, you know, to a in this upcoming season. We think, uh you know, we we you think about his situation last year coming off the hip kind of threw him in the fire there um on week seven, a week uh we game. I'm not sure exactly what week it was, but you know he started nine games.

I thought he made a lot of improvement really throughout the course of the season, had some ups, had some rounds, UM and like all the rookies, UM and like any rookie, uh, I'm really excited about this. Uh this this you know that year when a year to jump having uh being more comfortable even down here in South Florida has got a place. I mean, I love that rookie year. You got a lot going on. You know, you gotta get a house, you gotta get a car, you gotta move

to a old new city. I mean, there's so many things that are going on. I thought he handled it well last year. But I'm really excited um about you know, this upcoming year. Especially you know again we gotta think that he had O T A s and you know I had a different training camp. Uh So look, you guys know me. I mean I'm all about the development of players, uh and you know, helping them develop and helping them u UM get better. And I think, uh, you know this this time or you know an off season,

UM is really going to be helpful to him. Um and really all the rookies, and I'm really excited about, you know, working with him in all season. So that was the first question about the quarterback position. We're gonna circle back to the backup question towards who will be to us back up this season. Let's go ahead and though and get another follow up here about the starting

quarterback into a tungue by looa from head coach Brian Flores. Yeah, like I said, I think he's, you know, a talented player. I think, um, you know, we here believe in developing players at all positions. And I think I think, you know, with an off season with its votas, with you know, more reps, more repetitions, like like you know, any player or uh, I think you know, they develop and get and get better. So um, and I think he feels

the same way. Man. Look too, and I had lunch yesterday, so uh we we we you know, and look, we talked about his family and I think a lot of that is you know, that development about building relationships. So uh, you know, he's doing well. He's confident. I'm confident in him. Um, and uh, I think you know, I'm looking forward to this Auson. So there's a lot to unpack there from coach Flora's a couple of long answers there about his quarterback.

The number one takeaway, the smile, the excitement about his young quarterback twenty three years old, rookie deal got a team on the upswing. Why wouldn't coach be excited about where this football team is going? And remember this time last year to a ton of Volo was you know, arguably the top quarterback in the draft class, and he was battling all season long with Joe Burrow for that distinction before the injury occurred. And of course he was

then available at the fifth pick in the draft. But this is a young man that is breaming with talent and special skill sets and leadership quality and spirit that is infectious and can really reverberrate throughout the course of the locker room. A guy that could be a catalyst, a guy that can be the one that rises all tides,

as it were. You recall the great UH conversation that Nick Saban reference when he was at Alabama after to have suffered that devastating hip injury, and Nick Saban dials up to UH and two was the one that cheers him up. It's just that type of character, the type of person. It's something that Brian Flora's and Chris Career have both spoken about in terms of what he was as a person in the locker room and a person

as a Miami Dolphin. And you heard coach talk there about having lunch with his young quarterback and asking about his family and building that relationship. When Flores was first hired here and I did Locked on Dolphins, I had a great Brian Flores podcast where I had Patriots beat

writers on former Patriots players talking about Brian Flores. And one of the things that came across my research was he had won an event at the y m c A up there in Boston, or not an event, he won an award at an event celebrating the y m c A and his brother and all the charitable contributions

he had made. And Devin mccordy was one of the people that presented an award, the award to Brian Flores, him and a couple of other Patriots players, and they talked about how genuine his care was for those players and how much he meant to them as not just a coach, but as a man, a mentory person that

made them better people, better husband's, better fathers. And we're gonna roll something here at the end of the podcast that kind of confirms that the way Flores is perceived about the league, and we're gonna go back to last year's free agency podcast to go ahead and prove that point. But I think that's a very critical element here about the coach and the quarterback having that relationship, kind of seeing the game the same way, seeing life in a

similar way, and having that trust with one another. I think that's gonna go a long way. But well, I think also goes a long way is act to the skill set. And I tell some friends this now and then, because, as you guys know, all I do is update my white board here and watch Dolphins games and and just pretty much immerse myself in Miami Dolphins football. That's what I've been doing since I was about sixteen years old.

And rewatching the games. After the Rams game, which I thought he played much better than the box score indicated, after the Cardinals game, where he was flat out dealing and showing you the processing and anticipation and off script ability and accuracy and third nine conversions and big time fourth quarter game, tying drives and putting the team in position to win the game in the fourth quarter with

the Jason Sanders field goal. And then you go into the Chargers game and it's fourteen zip Dolphins driving into the red zone. We get a bad snap that turns into a turnover and a big return for the Chargers. But at that moment, about a quarter and a half into that Chargers game, to have had thrown several strikes anticipation, he had that great play where the ball was snapped at his feet, he scoops it up, throws a fifty

fifty ball to DeVante Parker who pulls it down. And if you go back to that Charger's game and think about the Rams, Cardinals and the first quarter and a half that Chargers game. I don't know about y'all, but I was thinking this team was ready to compete for a Super Bowl because of the defense, the upstart offense, the skill players were still healthy in there, and too, it was really coming into his own with that offensive line and the young players developing in general on the offense.

And the reason I thought that was because we saw the traits that really attracted me and you guys know how to give a to a fan. I was all throughout his college days. That really attracted me to his game. The footwork, the way he's able to get to his drop quickly or slower to kind of sync up with the timing of the offense. The ball comes out quickly, awkward platforms, whether his hips are square to the linon of scrimmage, whether his shoulders are square to the lion

of scrimmage. He can throw the football from any platform and get that thing out accurately, on time and in rhythm. And you heard Benjamin Slack on the Friday Drivetime podcast talk about the accuracy, how this kid could hit a bull's life from anywhere on the football field. I just don't know where the traits got lost along the way,

Like this kid can still flat out play. There was, of course, a little bit of a valley there, a little bit of a lull in the middle of the season for him, the end of the season for the Dolphins, and coach talked about that the peaks and valleys of a rookie season. He also talked about the difficulties of getting used to life in the NFL in your rookie season. Now think about yourself at age twenty two, What were

you doing? I mean, I think I worked at Subway at age twenty two and was trying to get through junior college at the time, Like it wasn't really, you know, that far along in my life, and so to move to a new area at that age. I've told the story before about bumping into ray Kwon Davis in the hallways at the facility at Davy and how he was lost and I was lost and we tried to get out of the building together, because it's like freaking maze

up there. And you compare that with the fact that there's multiple parking lots of the facility where I've been lost a couple of times. There's a parking garage at Nova across the street where I had to go park on the third story and find the stairs and walk down to the to the pro shop to get in. Like there is a lot that goes into your first year and not knowing the building, not knowing the facility, not knowing the league, not knowing the expectation of the

professional football league just yet, it's a lot. And so I expect, you know, those those traits to translate much better here. Your number two, even though I thought he was good in his rookie season. So that's the starting quarterback talk from coach Flora's what about the backup position, which right now remains a little bit unforeseen Read Senet is signed to a futures contract, Ryan Fitzpatrick is an unrestricted free agent with Jake Ruddock a restricted free agent.

So coach was asked, does he want Ryan Fitzpatrick back and if so, if not, what does he look for in that backup quarterback position specific to fits Obviously in a week I have a lot of respecting admiration for him. Uh. Look, he's tough, he's smart, he's competitive, he loves to play, he's got really invited his old characteristics. You know we're looking for here. Um. Yeah, honestly, we'd love to have him back. But you know, I think this is a

very unique year. Um from a cap standpoint. Um, obviously we just had the cap the number set yesterday, so uh, those conversations are fluid and UM, but yeah, we're looking for somebody with those characteristics in in in the backup quarterback position. Um, someone who is smart, someone who you know we feel like, um, you know, yea hopefully this doesn't happen. But if you know he had to go in,

we could we can still win the ballgame. Um, and uh, there's there's a few guys out there that you know, we've we've taken a look at them all, and you know, we're still kind of putting that plan in place, honestly with the just kind of setting the number yesterday and uh, you know those meetings that are kind of ongoing, and you know a couple that with um, you know a number of releases that are happening really on a day to day basis, so we're almost re ranking on a

daily basis. So, UM, I wish I had more for you there, how, but you know, those characteristics are what we're looking for. A tough, smart, competitive, obviously accurate and all the things from a talent standpoint that you needed. The quarterback position decision making and you know, commanded the offense. So there you go, backup quarterback position, veteran younger player,

developmental rookie. Which direction will they go? It's one of the more intriguing, uh, you know, storylines of this entire offseason because having that backup quarterback then come off the bench and win a game and a pitch, like coach mentioned, if you are in the unfortunate situation where that does have to happen, that's a very valuable thing to have in this league. As we saw, for instance, in the

game at the Jets last year. To a bands up his thumb and practice, we have to go to Fitzpatrick and that game is one rather comfortably because of quality quarterback play back there to help the offense get along there. So there's coach talking about the backup quarterback position, and up next, how about the players that are gonna catch footballs from to and possibly a backup quarterback at some

point in the future, the skill players. How aggressive does coach Flora's want to be rounding out the offense with skill with with free agents and draft picks. On that offensive side of the football, here's coach regarding adding talent and playmakers to the offensive side of the football. Yeah, I think you always want all the most talent you can get, the most uh playmakers offensively, defensive in the

kicking game. Uh. But you know, at the end of the day, you want uh we want you know, you don't need eleven stars, Uh, you need eleven guys, eleven teammates who work together and wasn't one goal in mind? UM, and uh, you know that's really what we're looking for. Uh. So yeah, we want talented players, but we want we want we want a good cohesive unit and guys will fit well together. And that's uh, that's not that's that's

not always eleven stars. It's uh, it's almost never that way. So, UM, look, we've we've we've scoured the you know, free agency, the draft, UM, and I think we have a pretty good feel for um. You know that the types of guys were looking for UM from a skill set standpoint, but at first honestly from a locker room fits standpoint as as people as well as I think that's important. That's an important factor

that UM, that can't that can't be overlooked. So there's coach talking a little bit about the approach to the offensive side of the football and not being a star driven league, and that might be an indicator of what you look at in free agency as far as how those tears are broken down. Let's go ahead and get another blur up here from coach talking about the free agency period and how you can't always get what you want. Again, you know, this is a very unique year. Um h,

very unique year. Yeah, we do have some uh uh some money from a cap standpoint that we can spend. But again, I mean, it's it's it's it's an interesting year. I think I'm gonna be playing the song you can't always get what you want, you know that day want free agency to be honest with you, um, because we may get priced out on some guys that we we were looking uh and we'd like to have. They made just want to go elsewhere. So this is I think we're going to try to do the best we can.

We've had multiple meetings about this. In Again, I would say, just getting the cap number yesterday kind of uh you know, kind of sets the stage for us to at least say, hey, we're gonna have this, we can do this, this, this and this, and kind of forecasting for Dick paid said player we expect him to to get this, which you know, you know, I would say, wipes out this amount whatever percentage of cash we have to spend. So see, I

kind of talked about that in the previous podcast. How I love doing those mock off seasons, the mock draft simulations because it kind of gives you an idea for what might happen around the league. Obviously not going to be fully accurate, but you hear coach talking there about both of those aspects about you can't always get what you want, about it's not about getting eleven star players

on one side of the ball. And we've talked about this a lot, right the number of transactions this team has made since Chris Career and Brian Flores got here.

I think about last camp when it seemed like there was a new defensive back coming in every day, scouring not just free agency, in the draft, at the waiver wire and finding the right fifty three coaches talked about that as well, the message being consistent about getting people that they want to buy into what the Dolphins are building here in Miami, and talking about the free agency.

You know, you spend big money in free agency and all of a sudden you've got a new player transporting to a new system, and does it click right away? Will that work out right away? Will you get a player that plays up to that sixteen, seventeen, eighteen million dollar figure that you have to pay them on that first day of free agency? At premier positions like a

pass rusher, for instance, a wide receiver. If you do go out and spend eighteen million bucks a year on a player, he then has to become pretty much a Pro Bowl, All Pro type of guy. Otherwise the value in the contract versus the production is not quite there.

So you hear to coach talk about that maybe in that tier to a free agency where guys are, you know, in the weekend or next week after free agency kicks off, they've kind of seen the market saturate a little bit, they've seen the big dollars it's spent, and they come around to that second wave of free agency that might be where the true value is in a player, for instance, like a Manual Agba who got two years fifteen million

last season. And we won't go into the fire details of the contracts because that's when stuff gets bit confusing, but nine sacks third most pressures among all defensive edge players last year the NFL with sixty six, and Agba outperformed the contract he received with his production on the field. And that's why I think tier two of free agency.

Tier three is a better a better market for the buyer because you you have a better chance for that players to live up to the production and of course, in a league where you only have a certain amount of salary assets and allocation, that is very key and very integral to the success of your football team. And speaking of free agency, the part of the calendar that

comes after free agency is of course the draft. And we've been breaking this thing down for you guys for a couple of weeks here talking about the value of that third pick. Let's go ahead and here from coach Flores about that third pick and what it could mean for this Dolphins operation. Look, when you ever, anytime you pick third overall, there's there's a number of players and

other number of ways we can go. Um. So I think, uh again, our scouting staff, like I said earlier, I think they've they've done a really great job as far as u narrowing down who the top top players are in this draft. We have a pretty good idea of who those are. I think everyone or most people who are kind of analyzing it, you know, you know who those players are. We'll have an opportunity to grab uh one of them at least and that let's call it

a top ten um. But you know, obviously having that that that type of pick, there's there's a lot of other, uh avenues we could go, Um, you know, I think, yeah, we'll explore those also, and uh, that's that's that's we're we're we're fortunate that way and hopefully we don't know you can take advantage. So one thing I like to look at here with the value of that third pick in the draft is the famed Jimmy Johnson draft chart,

which is, you know, a little bit outdated. I don't think teams necessarily abide by this like some kind of letter of the law, but just in general, that third pick is worth points. The first pick is worth three thousand points. So you see how valuable these top of the draft picks are. Whereas by the time you get to round two year down to five eight for the thirty third pick in the draft. So the value of

this pick really is worth two mid first rounders. It's worth a boatload of future first rounders in second round draft picks. So the true value of this third pick. You find a way to maximize that, whether it's a player, whether it's recouping more draft picks in the future. Like coach Floras said, there are options and many many avenues Dolphins can take with that pick. Alright, let's go ahead and wrap up the press conference. Rate there a couple of pro days I wanted to talk about here on

the podcast, just real quick and passing. Was the forty yard dash time of Travis E. T. N Out of Clemson. Wanted to be more electric running backs in the draft this year. You might recall a video with he and Isaiah Simmons a couple of years ago, the first round pick last year, the linebacker from Clemson racing in a forty yard dash and coming in neck and neck in that race. E T. M Blaze a four four five

forty yard dash his pro day. And then Joseph Asai of Texas, one of the better edge prospects in this class. A stand up linebacker and come down off the edge and and play a pass rushing role, can cover, can defend the run. He can also play off ball linebacker. He's six ft two and two hundred and fifty pounds, a real nice build, pro type for those defense. He had a forty one and a half inch vertical which tells you about his explosiveness in the lower body strength

and the explosiveness he has that way. So a couple of really cool notes there from the pro days. I want to finish up this podcast with some sound bites from the podcast. Last year around this time, we interviewed each of the Dolphins free agents. I want to play some of the best clips from those free agent podcast interviews here and why these players decided to sign with the Dolphins last year. And we start with the big get from last year's free agency class in Iron Jones.

To be honest, what I really like about the Dolphins team is it's young and um and for me, this would be a new challenge in terms of not just leading by example, but leading with my voice and speaking up and talking to guys and making sure I'm changing the culture in that in that young locker room. UM. So that that gives me the opportunity to do that, and that that, to me was a really exciting challenge. Um.

I believe in what coach Flow was doing. I spoke to a bunch of coaches about him and everyone had nothing but good things to say about him. So I know he's building something special and I want to be a part of it. Also fired up to come to Miami last season was center Ted Carriss. Here he is

talking about his decision to sign with the Dolphins last March. Well, you know, I had the opportunity to play three seasons with him here in New England, and I thought, you know, he says a tough attitude, loves the game, Um, you know, wants to win and prepare to win. And I think those are all qualities but that we share. And uh, you know, I'm very grateful for the opportunity, really excited

to get down and get to work. Another former Patriot that was with coach Flora's there, the Landing Roberts, elaborated on why he decided to sign with the Dolphins last free agency. Man. You know, yeah, I can't put it enough on you know, coach Flora as he was my coach all my years and uh, New England and and even you know, that's the first thing women coach I had met, you know, for my pro coming out of college. So the relationship was there, and then you know, just

just watching you know, the organization. Of course we play them two times, and we played them two times a year, so watching that that that grow you know this past season you know and whatnot. It was just the best decision to go that way. And I'm I'm a dent, uh glad to be a part of the organization and I can't wait to just get there and get started working. And that was a pretty consistent message from Byron Jones and Landing Roberts, Ted Carress, Emmanuel ogbas Shack Lawson, Clayton Federal,

and COMMU grouge Hill. All those guys had nothing but positive things to say about coach and playing for him here in my me. So we'll see what this free agency brings to the Dolphins roster and we'll get those guys on the podcast here as well, just like we did last year. Go ahead and go back and check out those podcasts. As for this edition of the Drive Time podcast, that is going to be my time you all please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple, podcast, Spotify,

wherever you get your podcast from. Go ahead and leave us a rating, leave us a review. You can follow me on Twitter at Linfold NFL, follow the team at Miami Dolphins, check out the Fish Tank and the Audible podcast, and of course, last but not least, Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time, fins up.