Dolphins Positional Value Draft with Danny Kelly and Day 2 Film Breakdowns

ray Kwon Davis, and Brandon Jones. Plus Danny Clark of The Ringer has the Dolphins as a big draft winner over the weekend. Will welcome him in to tell us why all of that and more on this Wednesday, April nine edition of the Drivetime Podcast Dolphins. And We're gonna first start this thing off by jumping into an interview that I had with Danny Clark of a Ringer. Let's not waste any more time and get right to that interview. And joining me now on the Drive Time Podcast is

Danny Kelly. He's a staff writer at The Ringer, co host of the Dantasy podcast Dannasy Football podcast rather, an author of The Ringer, NFL draft guy, Danny, welcome in. Thank you so much for having me on. You mentioned you're from my neck of the woods on the Pacific Northwest. I know you're right for the ringer, but being a a website writer, a person that can work remotely, has the whole shutdown and the quarantine change the way your

job works. Or how's that been going? Um? I mean I had a head start on kind of the what it's like to work from home and how to be disciplined and all that from working from a home office, but um, it's definitely changed, like the schedule of everything. I have a ten month old son and he requires around the clock attention, so we've had to kind of like figure out a way to take care of him and without having any childcare. So that's that's been the main challenge. It's also been kind of fun to get

to spend so much time with him. But yeah, um, over all, you know, I'm pretty used to working for mom, so it hasn't been a massive, massive shift. Yeah, it's the same story for me and my my wife is actually gonna be giving birth any day now, and so we're kind of trying to figure all this. Thank you, We're trying to figure out how that's all gonna work, and just trying to get as much draft content out as we can before that happens, so I can take a few days off and be dad for a few days.

So that's what you're here for, Danny, And I want to ask you because every year you author your Draft Awards, and first I want to comment on the format and the language and the style of all this because it's such a fun read every year, and especially when your team is in the winner's category, like the Dolphins are. We'll get to that in just one second before we

dive in. I'm curious to ask you how do you outline this because all these storylines are so fascinating to me, Like the storyline behind the draft is almost more intriguing than the actual draft itself. And I have to imagine that you're watching the draft with an eye towards either the really good you can point out or the really bad that you can point out. Right, Yeah, I mean it's you have to be a little bit creative with

the awards. And the nice part about doing awards and or superatives, which we do sometimes too, is um, you can kind of make up stuff like all these awards are kind of silly, like how to support your Aging Quarterback Award was one of them for the Colts and Buccaneers. Um, it's it's just kind of an idea of like laying out the different storylines that developed over the draft, things that I think are the most important takeaways, I guess, and then you can kind of just make up categories.

So it is it's kind of an easy way to you don't have to pigeonhole teams into like best worst or whatever. Um. You can kind of have a little more nuance and things like that. So it's it's kind of fun to do it that way. And every year I have slightly different awards. You know, some of them are repeats, but for the most part I try and kind of just make up new ones as we go.

You can find a way, even when you're critical, do the compliment sandwich where you start with maybe some constructive criticism and then come back around the back end and uh and get the and get the compliment back in there. But on the topic of the good awards, the Dolphins get your the Understanding Positional Value Award, And first off, let me just go head and give you applause right there, sir,

because I just love that comment alone. Modern day football coming into Miami finding ways to supplement floors is defense, helping build the line around the quarterback and really putting an emphasis on stopping the past in today's NFL. And you mentioned the premium positions with quarterback, offensive line, and corner in those first five picks. Walk us through your

thinking there if you can. Yeah, So, you know, obviously the Dolphins had to give up some pretty valuable pieces to kind of build all the draft capital that they had this season. Um, and you hope that they use it really smartly and on the most important, I guess, foundational pieces for a franchise in the long term. Then you kind of see like how the NFL tends to value these guys. Box safeties are generally one of the

more lower, lower paid defensive positions in the NFL. That might change kind of over the years as guys become more versatile against the past. So it was really good to see the Dolphins go out and kind of recognize that, like you were, offensive tackle one of the highest paid positions in the NFL. UM. Robert Hunt and Austin Jackson, I think both have really high ceilings. I really, um, you know, I think that was a really smart way

to do it. Build from the trenches. You don't have to have, you know, an elite running back, Um, if you're rebuilding, and even if they're even if they're like going to surprise us and maybe not, they're not a rebuilding team anymore. Um, having that elite offensive line or at least a very strong offensive line, you can pretty much plug any running back in back there and you'll you'll get quality, you know, production from him. So to me,

that made a lot of sense. I love the fact that they built a strength on a strength by grabbing the cornerback. And I'm not even gonna try to stay his name. Do you know how to say his name? Yeah, well we'll call him Igbo, but it's Noah ig Yeah. I was practicing before the pot and then I freaked out just now trying to I was going to be able to say it, But um, yeah, iig Bow. I like him. He's a very feisty, you know, high upside guy. Man.

There's so much talent in that secondary right now. You build the past defense first and worry about the ask rush a little bit later. If you have lockdown type corners. They can do a lot of things for your defense and make it very very difficult on the quarterback. So anyways, I thought that the way that they went about it, and obviously to we can't forget about tackle tumblefla another tough tough to uh pronounce last name. Um he You know, I thought that was a great pick for them. I

was really really hoping that would be the pick. Ultimately, I think if you're I think fortunate favors the bold, especially at the quarterback position. His ceiling is so much higher. I just think it makes so much more sense to grab him. So I thought that was a really good pick for them. Very exciting, potential franchise turning around type player.

So all in all, you know, I think you can look at what the Dolphins gave up and what they got in this first round, and it's really really strong return. I think of what they you know, the picks that they were to a mass for the first round. Yeah, you mentioned the way they built that defense sort of back to front. I really compliment what they did in free agency with Flora's going out and getting guys that really suit his defense and a Hyle van Noy shack Lawson.

You've got Emmanuel Ogball down there, Land and Roberts, Commo, grouge Hill, all these players that can do multiple things in that front seven. But you also mentioned the running back position, how you maybe can plug in guys that come later in the draft, maybe even undrafted guys that can run behind the solid scheme, behind a solid offensive line. And that's what we saw with the new Dolphins running

back and Matt Brita in San Francisco. Because that backfield, as good as it was under Kyle Shanahan going into the season, I don't think anybody would say that, you know, Matt Brita or tell Uh Telvin, Tevin Coleman or Mara he most at our superstar running backs. They produced like it, but they didn't have the name recognition going into the season. And in the article you praise Miami for the resisting that urge to go tailback early on. Do you think

they really got it right with that Brita trade? Yeah? I do. I think. You know, like I mentioned, if you have a good run scheme, you have a good um offensive line, you're gonna get production from the running man group. Obviously, it's nice, it's it's almost like a lecture to have a really really good running back. But it is nice, but at the end of the day, it's not going to change the overall you know, like identity of your offense. It's not one of those players.

It's not one of those positions really that can have the biggest impact. So um, to me, it made a lot of sense. You know, I think it was a fifth round pick right that they swapped for it. Yeah, three overall. Yeah, And at that point those picks are those picks are dart throws. So that's not a big price to pay for a guy who's proven in the NFL that he can be effective. He's you know, very

very fast, very very explosive, you know. Putting him in kind of like a committee with you know, maybe Jordan Howard whoever ends up kind of coming out on top in that group, it just makes a lot of sense. Gives you that speed element, and it's it's such a such a good bargain, I think to do it that way rather than kind of investing in a luxury pick earlier. It just I just think that that line of thinking

made a lot of sense. And you mentioned in the article about taking possession and maybe don't have as much impact on the overall football team early in the draft. And I'm curious to get your thought because you know, this positional value idea I think is somewhat commonplace, but not across the league entirely. Do you think that this type of thinking ever will become commonplace? And if not, why are teams still resistant to it. I feel like

it's getting it's it's slowly glacially changing. And the reason they say that is, yeah, there was a first round running back, um Clyde Edwards layer snuck into the first round, but he is so good in the passing game that I think that is a big factor to take into account, Like, you know, your positions that you want to take early in the draft help you're passing and help you defend

the past, and you know, grabbing a guy. So the other thing that I kind of that comes to mind here, And I don't know if this is just an indictment of the guy, like an indiatment of him as a prospect, but to me, if you look at a guy like Jonathan Taylor, he is one of the best running back prospects in years. Like he's on the level I think as a prospect in terms of his speed, size, um, production, everything,

like Ezekiel Elliott type player, Leonard Fournette type player. You look, not even a few years ago, those guys are going in the top five and he fell into the second round. So is that an indication that the NFL is kind of like changing its opinion and changing its value system on the running back position, or is it just mean maybe they didn't think that Jonathan Taylor was as good of a prospect. I can't really tell you. I think he's a very very good prospect um. But I thought

that was very fascinating. I thought that maybe that signaled kind of a changing of the guard, changing of philosophy. We've seen some some running backs over the last couple of years, a couple of seasons not get the types of deals that they wanted to get. Melvin Gordon comes to mind. You know, he just didn't. He didn't his holdout didn't work. He didn't get the deal he wanted. It looks like the Jags are trying to change trade Leonard four Nett overall. Maybe that maybe that that thinking

is shifting a little bit. Yeah, you mentioned some of those top five picks like Zeke, like larn Fournett, Yeah, Christian McCaffrey, who I want to say it was eighth overall. But the common thread there for him was that you mentioned with Clyde Edwards Hilary the first round pick, that those guys are really big contributors in the passing game. So it does seem like there's a little more credence going towards the aerial assault more so than the ground game.

You write a draft guide every year, Danny talking about some of these players, and you mentioned to me on an email chain that we can get into the weeds on what some of these guys can do. Are there any other player breakdowns you want to give us here before I let you go? Um, yeah, there's a couple that I thought were very interesting. Um. I think Hunt is he came into the class very kind of under

the radar because he played for a smaller school. Um. I think he's he's very interesting, fun player to watch on tape. I think he brings guards, guard end, tackle versatility, so that's very interesting. I think the ray Kawon Davis pick out of Alabama is an intriguing one. He is, you know, kind of going along Clow. We're just saying I think he's a first round talent that fell out

of the first round. You know, early on in his career he started getting talked about it as a first round for prospect because he had a very strong season where he was like affecting the past, you know, pushing the pocket all that. His stats kind of fell off over the last two seasons and that kind of like

hurt his stock. But um, if he can unlock that pass rush potential, I mean, he's got incredible length, very like unreal size, Like he's one of the he's gonna be like one of the biggest interior defenders in the NFL like day one. So he's just really really intriguing. But if he can unlock that pass rush, um, have that three down skill set, this is gonna end up looking like a massive, massive steel And that's that's a

that's an if. Obviously, that's not something that you can necessarily project, but I think that is exactly the range you want to take a player like that, where, um, you know, you can maybe coach him up, get him some more of a bigger repertoire moves, and you could potentially have him just being a game record from the inside UM. I thought that the Curtis Weaver pick was really smart too. He he was a guy who fell um.

But it's pretty hard to ignore honestly, the production and like I was mentioning earlier, these fifth around picks are just dark throws, and so grabbing a guy with that kind of production, UM, that profile, that skill as a pass rusher UM makes a lot of sense to me. I think he could be the type of guy that you could have in the rotation early on if you could use him as a subject like a sub package pass rusher UM, where he's just like lining up and

going forward. I think that makes a lot of sense. So he was another interesting pick late in the late in the draft that I think could have kind of

an early impact. I found it really intriguing that Chris Greer got three players in the fifth round and Jason Strowbridge, Curtis Weaver, and Matt Breeder through the trade and that has just kind of been the sweet spot for those franchise for such a long time, going all the way back to Rashaw Jones in two thousand and ten, and the fifth round you get ja Agi, Bobby McCain, Tony Lippet all in the same fifth round. All those guys contributed the next season, Devon Gage Shaw very recently and

now with Strowbridge, Weaver and Matt Breeda. You mentioned ray Kwon Davis. There was a great shot of the draft feed from ESPN NFL Network where Brian Flores is at his desk and he's showing him how he can lock out and throw guys. As you can tell, that's exactly what ray Kuan Davis does. When I watch him play, it reminds me of Calias Campbell Man because he just towers over these other guys who were also huge human beings, and he towers over a man. It's it's fun to watch,

but that's that's great, Danny. We appreciate it. We appreciate your time. The article is up on The Ringer. It's the NFL Draft Awards by Danny Kelly of The Ringer, co host of the Dannasy Podcast, and you can find his NFL Draft guide on the Ringer dot com as well and at Danny B. Kelly on Twitter. Danny, thank you for joining Drivetime Man. Absolutely, thanks so much for having me on and so away he goes. Go ahead

and check out that article on The Ringer. Before we check out here today, I want to go over some notes I wrote down on the Dolphins three Day two picks Robert Hunt, Ray Kwon Davis, and Brandon Jones because I had a chance to watch all their reps over the last season, and just start here with the thirty nights pick in the draft, the massive offensive lineman from Louisiana Lafayette, Robert Hunt, and to pick the Dolphins get here. Here's a staff from Trey Wingo on ESPN during the draft.

For the last two seasons, Robert Hunt allowed just five pressures, not sacks or quarterback hits. Five pressures on five hundred and seventy four pass blocking reps and had no blown blocking assignments on two hundred sixty sixteen running play assignments. That's from the Louisiana Lafayette coaching staff. So five pressures on five hundred and seventy four pass block reps and no blown blocking assignments on two hundred and sixteen running plays.

And when you watch his tape, it just makes sense because I legitimately struggled to find him losing reps in the Sun Belt Conference, utter dominance in that conference, just tossing bodies all over the field. He's able to coil and unleash the power behind that big frame in his hips and really pop guys and square them up. Whether or not he's pulling play side, getting out in front for a screen pass or in a phone booth, he can roll those hips and then square them up and

really makes for some explosive, highlight level blocks. I mean, how often do you see a right tackle or a right guard make the highlight reel over and over again, and he just does it consistently. There is a thread that I put up on Twitter at Wingfield NFL where I broke down his work against Georgia Southern. I didn't really break it down because the tape does the work

for you. But it's the entire series from the first play of the drive to the touchdown, and Robert Hunt destroys a person on every single play, and just go check it out if you haven't seen it yet. It's a thirty three second video. The first play, he gets into a pass set from the right tackle position, the five technique tries to rush up his outside shoulder and he throws him over. The guy winds up basically doing that running trip move where you can't get your feet

because you're off balance. Hunt just completely discards him initially and immediately in the past set there as a pass blocker at right tackle. It's a lot of fun to watch. Then he comes back on the next snap, it's a running play and he just completely displaces the exact same player from the exact same technique on a screen the other direction. He moves him out from the inside hash on the left part of the field all the way

to the other side of the hash. It's kind of ridiculous how far and how much movement he gets there. And then the next play, another running down, he works on the same player in the same technique and just completely collapses him inside on an inside run out of the pistol where he gets movement about three or four yards again across the hash mark and then buries him

with a pancake block. And then finally the touchdown rum the run from Louisiana, he has the exact same thing, bowls over a guy into the end zone for the touchdown run. Four consecutive snaps where I think you're gonna struggle to find anybody being that dominant on four plays back to back to back to back with Robert Hunt

against Georgia Southern on that particular drive. And you often hear people talk about how well a guy moves for his size, and Robert Hunt is very nimble, and you might hear that he is nimble for a guy his size, but toss out that that disclaimer altogether. He's just a nimble dude. He can hit reach blocks like all the time, very regularly. And what a reach block is is when

you're outflanked by a defensive lineman. So if you're a right tackle, he's gonna be lined up off your left shoulder and you have to get across him and make that reach block. It's a very difficult block to ask for guys because quickness, you're just outflanked from the start. But he does it all the time because of his nimble athletic ability, just an utter wall in past protection. We've read the stat for you guys, five pressures on

five hundred and seventy four pass blocking reps. He has the length, the anchor, the punch, all those things are effective and it combines together for that great production he gave you in college position flexibility, the length off the edge. But you look at his density and the way he can really anchor that, which could be could make him effective as a guard or a tackle because he has the width, the length, and the ability to throw that punch and stun guys. Initially, I think he's gonna be

a good player wherever he plays on this offensive line. Now, we talked about ray Kwon Davis a little bit or more, I should say, with Danny than anybody else, and he talked about the upside there, and you heard me talk about his size and how big he looks. It reminds me of Calais Campbell because they're both about three hundred and five pounds. They both go about six seven. They both have wingspans that stretched from here to Sarah Soda, and I'm talking about Zilla Washington, not my me Florida.

They have huge wingspans and they just tower over these other players who were huge people to height, weight wing span. There is a rep against Georgia in the National Championship game way back in eighteen in January that year where he finally gets a single block. Because you watch this guy's tape, it's two guys blocking him, three guys blocking him.

When guys aren't engaged and they don't have anybody in their pass blocking assignment, they're looking to locate where is because he's such a force and can reach such havoc. And he finally gets the single block opportunity, he locks the guy out, just like Flores is showing us in that draft day video where he's locking and swatting flies. Is what it looked like to me. He locks him out and jerks the guard and just pulls him straight

to the ground. Makes the kid look absolutely helpless. And to pull the quote from Daniel Jeremiah here on draft day, it looked like Billy Madison on the playground catching the dodgeball. Now you're all in big, big trouble. That's how he

plays the game. He's just so physically dominant. And I'd be curious to ask Flow and I'll probably do this at some point, to ask him if that was the play that he was acting out when the NFL draft cameras were on him, because it looked like he was talking about stacking and shedding, and there was no more impressive example of it than on that play. And in that game, you saw the past rush ability, you saw

the run defense ability. He picked off a past that got deflected because his eyes are up and Marrying Hobby talks about that all the time, playing with your eyes up, over your hands and using your hands and your eyes to take you to the football and then from there used the pure strength and pure athletic ability to make plays he did all the time that freshman season at Alabama. I think there's tons and tons of talent to work

with here in ray Kwon Davis. And who better than Marrying Hobby and Brian Flores and Josh Boyer and that defensive staff to get it out of him? Now? Speaking about Josh Boyer and Brian Flores and will go Gerald Alexander to the new defensive backs coach. This safety out of Texas, Brandon Jones. He has so much fun to watch play. We talked to him about getting every NFL team's playbook and going through four games of defensive tape to learn everybody's defense. He showed us the binder that

he has the cover zero, cover one, cover two. Here's what we're gonna blitz. We're gonna fire hot right here. He knows all these calls, all these checks, all these different coverage responsibilities. And when you watch him play at Texas, you see the way that pops on the tape every single game, because every game you put on, he's gonna make seven or eight plays that really changed the course

of the game. And I'm not talking like an interception or a fumble return or something like that, just to play where he is isolated in a one on one situation and has to make a play a big third and six where it comes down to him versus like say Justin Jefferson, and he makes the play seven or eight times a game. You'll see it. There's a great clip in the Oklahoma State game where Cuba Hubbard, who I think was gonna run like a four three four four in that range of the forty yard dash, but

he decided to go back to college. You watch his tape. He has a billion fifty plus yard touchdown runs where he just runs away from the defense. Oklahoma State tries to condense everything inside and run a little toss sweep off the outside, and who else besides Brandon Jones, all one hundred and nine pounds of him, to go ahead and get in there and jack the tight end and

display some four or five yards into the backfield. It forces Chuba Hubbard to bubble, and what bubble means if you ever see a team run an end around, the goal of the defensive end is to force the player that gets the football to bubble, and that means rather than taking the handoff and running straight down the line, you want to disrupt the tackle or the tight end and push him backwards so that receiver has to go backwards before he can get up field and make a play.

It just disrupts the timing of the play and throws everything off of the offense. Well, he makes Chuba Hubbard bubble on this outside run, and from there he doesn't clean the tackle up, but he gets back in there and forces Hubbard to change direction and make a move, and that allows his teammates his friends to rally and make the tackle and get a huge third down and

goal stop. And he does that all the time. Reset in the line of scrimmage, there are so many plays like the L s U game, for instance, where they run that tight bunch, and what that means is you take your receivers from the outside part of the field where the numbers are on the field, and you can dense them inside tight into the height end into the offensive tackle position. It's called a nasty split, a tight split by some teams. It just depends on the verbiage look,

go ahead and condense that entire formation and tight. And when Brandon Jones sees that, it's like he takes it as a personal challenge. He gets himself in there and wants to jack up the point man and again and trips. The point man is the guy at top. You're gonna have two receivers behind him. Your point man is the one that kind of dictates the flow of that route.

And so Brandon Jones gets himself in there and just throws his hands and plays behind his pads and disrupts the entire timing of a past play or gets himself involved in the running game. He had several examples of that in that L s U game. I posted videos of it on my Twitter timeline. Again at Wingfield, NFL, you see his instincts again, the story about taking the NFL binders, the NFL film and going over all that. You see those instincts and those studious habits on the

football field. By the way he anticipates route combinations, there's a slot fade against him where you have to know because there are when you talk about receiving formations the player furthest out is the one, the next player ends the two, and then the course further in from that is the three. There are combinations where you kind of have an idea of what one guy does is gonna

dictate what the other guy does. And a lot of times on smash concepts, your one receiver is gonna run a hitch or a curl or something breaking inside, and then they'll work in behind that throwing something over the top,

like a corner route or a fade route. And there's a play against Justin Jefferson, a big third down play where he recognizes that and sees the end breaking route and sees the way the slot fade wants to press his toes with speed going right at him, and then you want to widen that route to the outside, and he recognizes all that, gets himself in phase, gets in the hip pocket and makes a really good play there. He has just countless effort plays that you're gonna see

him make when you turn the tape on. Going back to the Oklahoma State game, there was a little play action half role where the defense kind of gets out of sorts and he comes up and has to recover and go back against the tight end and the quarterback floats it. It's a little bit under thrown, but because Brandon Jones never gives up on the play, he gets himself in on it, gets his hands on the football and breaks it up as they're going to the ground.

Just a pure, pure effort play. You have to love that. Back to the l s U game, he blitz off the edge quite a lot too, and he can really arrive with force and reset an offensive lineman with that speed to power move. There's a play against LSU where he blitz is the left guard who I want to say is Adrian McGee, who goes about three hundred and forty pounds, and he moves Adrian McGee off the football

with his pressure. So he's outweighed by two hundred and fifty pounds on that or a hundred and fifty pounds rather on that rep, and he resets that guy. He has a big sack of Joe Burrow in that game where he comes off the edge, and you know how slippery Joe Burrow is, can step around pressure, can make moves out of the pocket and really break things down

against the free rusher. He gets burrowed to the ground and you can see Burrow kind of slammed the ball in frustration because he knew or he thought that he should have gotten out of that sack. Not against Brandon Jones. This guy plays everywhere on your defense, does a little bit of everything. Off the edge, in the box, you can stack him against the point or the point man and that bunch formation. You can play him off the football, play him in the slot. He played some coverage outside

out wide as well. There's another fun play on the tape that I put on Twitter where someone picks off a pass and he comes down field for the lead block and he lays an offensive lineman out decletes him and you can hear the pop on the tape. It's a lot of fun to watch. I just it's he's one of those players that just invokes energy in the fan base and the team, and he's always around the football. You turn on Texas tape, you're gonna see the number

nineteen out there running around making plays. It's so obvious why they love this guy. His versatility, his toughness, his willingness to get his face involved in the running game. He just does a lot of things that Brian Flora's likes and it's really fun to watch him play football. All these guys have just unique traits about them that really makes so much sense of the vision. And I wrote about that in the article up on Miami Dolphins dot com. We talked about it on the podcast yesterday.

If you haven't seen it, the article is published up there right now. Dolphins Offseason reinforce his team's vision. Just talking about how Chris Career and Brian Flora has developed this vision and they're making moves to reinforce that vision. Go check that out. Go check out Danny Kelly's NFL Draft Awards. The Miami Dolphins got themselves in there. On tomorrow's podcast, we're gonna have Steve Wish of NFL dot Com. He's gonna talk about his relationship with two a tongue

of Byloa. We're gonna have Shelley Smith of ESPN. She did a piece on Austin Jackson and the bone marrow transplant. Plenty of good stuff coming your way here. We have plenty of character detail stories we're gonna do on all these draft picks, film study, all the fun stuff ahead here on the Drivetime podcast for your Miami Dolphins. But as for today's show. That's gonna be my time. You all please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple podcast or Spotify wherever you get your podcast from.

Go ahead and leave us a rating and leave us a review that helps the podcast grow and get out to more Dolphins fans. Follow me on Twitter at Wingfield NFL. Follow the Dolphins at Miami Dolphins. Check out the fish Tank and the Audible podcast with Seth and Juice on the fish Tank and with John and Bo on the Audible podcast. And speaking of that, go ahead and let me know on two which flashback game you guys want

to hear about next. We'll do that on Friday, And of course Miami Dolphins dot com for the Matt Britta write up and the Dolphins vision of the off season coming into focus. All those pieces on Miami Dolphins dot com until next time finds up