Drive Time: 2023 Free Agency Preview — Offense

of the tea. Drivetime with Travis Wingfield begins. Now let check your pulse if not furd of what is up? Dolphins And welcome to the Drivetime Podcast, part of the Miami Dolphins podcast Network, covering your team, your Miami Dolphins. How's it going everybody? I am your host, Travis Wingfield, and on to day show, part one of our two part free agency preview. The new league year kicks off

next Wednesday. The negotiation period opens up on Monday, and we're going to take a look at the top one hundred and one free agents on offense, plus the latest news from the Dolphins and around the league. That and plenty more from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Drive Time. Oh yeah, it's the Friday Show, the last Friday Show before the new league year begins. We've been drilled down in draft content for a couple of days now, but now it's

time to turn the page to free agency. But before that, let's go ahead and get caught up on the latest news from around the NFL. Mike Pouncey signed a one day contract with the Miami Dolphins to retire as a Miami Dolphin. Let's go ahead and play some sound from his press conference. Yeah, I'm excited to be Batman. You know, I've waited for this day for the last two years, just because the Dolphins just missed so much to me.

I'm my family, and you know, for my son to be at his age now and to be able to see it and be able to appreciate a little bit more because he was so young whenever I was playing here. But I told him, I say, this is something you gotta work for you to be able to come back and be able to be able to be wanted, be able to no to a place that gave so much to you. Ain't change your life. You know, I'm glad he'd be see it, but I brought my family here to day my brother obviously without him, none this is

even possible. But happy to be back, I noticed two years past retirement, but be able to say I'm retired as a Miami Dolphin is one of the greatest achievements of my life. Three time pro bowler, made ninety three starts as a Miami Dolphin between the years twenty eleven through twenty seventeen. Had a really good career here did Mike Pouncey. The best part of the press conference to me was when he opened up about Jason Jenkins. And

he didn't really open up. He really couldn't because it was an emotional thing for him to talk about, and that's how we all feel around here about the late grade Jason Jenkins. So that was cool to see that raw emotion from him and then eventually kind of regather his composure to come back and talk about what a great man Jason Jenkins was. So there you go, Mike Pouncey one day contract retiring as a Miami Dolphin. I

saw somebody ask on Twitter does this affect the cap. No, it does not affect the team's cap space to bring in a one day retirement contracts. So there you go. We also had some more news Miami Dolphins related over the last well, I guess I recorded this podcast on Thursday, so it happened Thursday morning. You're hearing out on Friday morning.

Over the last twenty four hours, Bradley Chubb has agreed to restructure his contract or the Dolphins converted some of his contract to a signing bonus to open up fourteen plus million dollars in cap space. You're probably going to see some more of that over the coming days as we get into these podcasts, taking a look at free agency today at the offense. On Monday, we'll take a look at the defense. Bet your latest Miami Dolphins news elsewhere.

Jeff Darlington from ESPN had a great tweet on Tuesday night. I think it was the Dolphins will not be in pursuit of want away Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson. My favorite part of that was this, the quote at the very end of the tweet, per the source, Mike McDaniel fully believes Tua is the perfect fit for his system. And yeah, we've known that, right, We've detailed that in depth on this podcast with the timing, eye discipline, post snap defender manipulation.

These are the traits that maximize this timing rhythm based offense and puts the football in the hands of the most dangerous one two punch the NFL has to offer Tyreek Hill and jilln Waddle, But for whatever reason, reading that from Darlington, who is the best in the business, For my money, it's just nice to see. We've also seen franchise tags dolled out. We saw two quarterbacks get the bag as it were. They are, of course Geno

Smith up in Seattle. I don't think discussing numbers is really something we should do on this show because contracts tend to be complex in the language in those deals tends to supersede what you see reported. That's my disclaimer of ahead of telling you that the numbers four Geno were three for one oh five and then in the New York Daniel Jones fifteen touchdown passes last year gets

four years for one hundred and sixty million. Albert Breer wrote about the changing landscape of the quarterback market, and it makes total sense that teams find themselves in this difficult position sometimes where they have to make a decision on a big contract, or do you go back to really the least enviable place in the National Football League, which can often lead to years of purgatory. Just ask us at the most important position, the quarterback position, it's

really delicate. Do you willingly go back into the quarterback search or do you offer up top of the market type of money, which is what the new quarterbacks who come up for deals tend to get, because again, there's thirty two of these guys, there's probably thirteen or fourteen that are locked into their position for the foreseeable future, and that's part of the club that you want to be in. If you're not part of that club, you're

probably not competing for championships. You're probably not really competing from much more than playoff berths or maybe one random playoff win here and there, kind of like the Giants got this year over a very bad Vikings defense. So do you offer that kind of money to a quarterback like Daniel Jones, you know, Jimmy Garoppolo's a guy out there that kind of is in that same vein, or do you willingly go back into the quarterback search and go at it with nothing like we've heard about the Raiders.

Will they go after Garoppolo or will it make more sense for them to go with Jarrett Stidham. Go cheap, not hamper the rest of your salary cap with a huge quarterback contract and see if you can't develop him, and if it doesn't work out, you probably get a high draft pick. It's a really delicate balance. I think it's changed the more of the quarterback salary takes up a larger percentage of the salary cap. And you know, with Jones and Smith, I think Gino made a lot

of sense. I think Jones, could they have maybe explored other options. Yeah, but now they know they have the quarterback that was at least you know, baseline productive. But will it work out over the course of those four years? Can they find pieces to support a quarterback who probably needs that support around him to play at a level where again higher than fifteen touchdown passes are a ninety two passer reading, which you know, it's both very much

in the bottom half of the league. I've always just been fascinated by the NFL for the fact that all thirty two teams are granted the exact same number of resources each year. And held to the same restrictions, i e. The salary cap and then from there it's just about who can allocate those resources better than the rest. So Smith, Jones, Derek Carr all done and that sort of shapes the

quarterback market, right. We'll see what happens here in the coming days and weeks with Lamar Jackson he gets the non exclusive franchise tag and Benjamin Solac from The Ringer friend of the podcast here he wrote a great piece on the history behind the non exclusive franchise tag. What is it? So the exclusive tag prevents the player from negotiating with other clubs. That's typically what you see around

the NFL. And as far as the guys that did receive the franchise tag, just six players this year, quarterback Lamar Jackson, non exclusive. Three running back sae Quon Barkley, Josh Jacobs and Tony Pollard, tight end Evan Ingram and Jacksonville and the Commander's defensive tackle to Ron Payne all receive the tag. So the exclusive tag that five of those six received prevents the player from negotiating with other clubs.

The non exclusive tag allows a player Lamar Jackson to meet with teams when the negotiating window opens up on Monday. If he receives an offer that he likes, he can sign that offer sheet, and then the Ravens or the given team are allotted a five day period to match that offer sheet and keep Lamar. If they don't, Lamar or the player would sign with a new team and they would send two first round draft picks back to the Baltimore Ravens. West Welker did this back in two

thousand and seven for the Miami Dolphins. That's probably the best example I can think of for the Dolphins. I know this is the Miami Dolphins podcast, but I think it's worth discussing because it could draft bastically shake up the AFC and the offseason. We talk a lot about other teams here on the podcast. The Ravens win games when Lamar is in there. They just do. Now, he hasn't finished the last two seasons, and the offense really bogged down without him in their both years. But he's

a great quarterback. He's one of the top ten quarterbacks in the NFL, and in fact, I think the AFC to me has seven of the top ten that I would that I would list going into twenty twenty three two, Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, Trevor Lawrence, Patrick Mahomes, Justin Herbert, and Lamar Jackson. I think all of those guys are in the top ten. I'd probably round it out with Jalen Hurtz, Dak Prescott, and Justin Fields. That's I mean, I know it's probably premature for some people on him,

but I think Justin Fields is special. But anyway, that gives you a seven to three split. Actually, you know what, let's call it eight two because Lamar would be in there for me, and I would bump Dak out for Lamar Jackson in my top ten. So if Lamar Jackson does jump conferences, that's a shift in the di Damic. I mean, I mentioned it with Derek Carr. You know, hey, at least after last year we saw quarterbacks making that NFC to AFC jump, most notably Russell Wilson. I'll gladly

welcome it going in the other directions. So I know Carolina and Atlanta both came out and said no thanks in Lamar Jackson. I mean, I get why we would do it. We have to me a superior quarterback for our system here in a superior quarterback really last year in general, but for Carolina and Atlanta, like why not? Ben Slock wrote about the precedent of other players on the non exclusive tag, most recently Kirk Cousins and Washington back in twenty sixteen, but he did not get signed

away obviously. Then he got the exclusive franchise tag the next season, and then you cannot use a tag for a third straight year and a player, so he went up with the Vikings after that. But Ben walks you through all of that. Check it out. The Lamar Jackson faq making sense of the non exclusive franchise tag up on the ringer right now. So as it stands, it's kind of down to what happens with Lamar and then Aaron Rodgers right, who had a meeting with the Jet

per reports this past week in California. Looks like the Jets full court press for the forty year old quarterback is on. That could be kind of fun. Huh. Two quarterbacks in the division last year played at the top five level from really any statistical measure you look at. Rogers obviously is capable of that, although I think he was a far cry from that last year. And we'll talk about this here in a second. But you know, the standard folks get held too in the league is

not the same as our quarterback. It seems like, and I see the comments out there about Aaron Rodgers, like he's, don't get me wrong, a massive upgrade for a Jets team that was consistent quarterback play away from potentially disrupting the post He's in party, you know, in the AFC, And if Rogers on that Jets team Week eighteen, the Dolphins probably don't win that game. And they don't win that game, right, Like nine points is enough to beat

Aaron Rodgers. I think there would be a really strong case though that Tua, Alan Rodgers and Mac Jones could be the best quarterback division in the NFL. Pretty cool I'll be able to say that when for twenty years it was basically Tom Brady and a bunch of a thoughts otherwise. But I digress. But back to the Rogers thing with a standard. You know, I get he's Aaron Rodgers,

I get he's a Hall of Fame quarterback. I get he's one of the best of all time, but the best of all time from twenty ten, I mean, doesn't impact how the quarterback will play in twenty twenty three. So if you have a certain standard you're holding, you know, one quarterback too, I challenge you to go back and watch the five game losing streak of the Packers because that was some really bad quarterback play. Funny how that works. No one seems to be keen to talking about that

when you are, you know, discussing our quarterbacks. One of my favorite things are time, one of my favorite times on the calendar, coming up here with free agency. That's what's happening in the news. Let's go ahead and take our first break and jump back in with our free agent preview. That's next Drift Time podcast, your host, Travis Wingfield.

It's brought to you by Automnation nfl dot com. Top one hundred and one free agents listed by Greg Rosenthal, who is on the Around the NFL podcast as well. I like that podcast a lot. I appreciate it more for its mirth and levity, but Rosenthal often brings out a little bit more prevailing common sense to the rest of the show when talking actual football, especially again our quarterback and the standard that he's held to that no

one else seems to be held to. By the way Rosenthal is best friends with stand up Anthony jessel Nick, and they have a podcast together called The jessel Nick Rosenthal Vanity Project JRFP Junior Vice President. It's a great, great podcast. Highly highly recommend that let's go ahead and separate the free agency preview here into two episodes. We'll do Offense today, Defense on Monday. This list is subject to change at any given moment because Rosenthal updates this

as things happen. We had the Tuesday tag deadline that brought about some news. It wiped a handful of players off of his list here, and it's still possible to we get trades or cuts from now when I'm recording this on a Thursday to the time the podcast publishes on Friday morning. So I just wanted to use that disclaimer for the topical nature of this content. It will be like ninety five percent accurate, but there's a chance we have some early Friday morning movement that changes things.

Sound good, all right, Let's go ahead and see what the offense has to offer. Forty three of the one on one are on offense. I thought Rosenthal did a good job balancing it on the back end, because just six offensive players in the top twenty overall eighteen of the top fifty, but forty three players on offense compared to fifty eight on defense. Going by a position here, for the offense, there are six quarterbacks, none of them

the top twenty. That's pretty new, you know. Not that long ago, it was wild for a quarterback to change teams in the middle of their prime. Now it's almost like commonplace. Every year you see two or three quarterbacks change teams that are really at the peak of their playing powers. But two of those guys were wiped out, with Gino Smith going back to Seattle and Daniel Jones

going back to the Giants. Now, if you want to argue whether they are top level quarterbacks, that's a different discussion. At running back, there are seven of them. The first one listened forty eight. Personally I would list for him most much higher than he is, but I digress. Once again. Wide receivers, there's eight of them, one inside the top ten, but he didn't even play last year, which to me

is crazy that he's in the top ten. One thing I love about being aggressive and trading back up for Waddle and then going out and getting Tyreek and back to back years. You know, there's ebbs and flows to the various positional markets in the last two years were about as good as it gets in terms of a buyer's market at wide receiver. And what's the result of that. A bit of a downturn in terms of the marquee talent that was available at this time last year, both

from the draft and free agency. And like you know, Christian Kirk got the big paycheck, but he wound up being worth it. He's a great receiver, and that's sort of true in the draft now too. Now we'll definitely see good receiver rookie production this year. It happens every year, and there are players in this class that are good. But the perception heading into into it is that you're not going to get a class like you had in twenty twenty one for a long time. I mean, Chase

excuse me, Chase Waddle Smith and Amant Brown's ridiculous. And then twenty twenty two was a great follow up too. I mean, the two Ohio State kids, Lave and Wilson were fantastic, and there was obviously multiple receivers in that class that were good too. Tight End five. I liked this entire list. I would be happy with pretty much anybody off this top one hundred list at this position. That with the incoming draft class, which Daniel jeremiahs is

the best in ten years. He has eleven players going off the board in his first three rounds at the tight end position. To me, it makes the market so fascinating for those position because like, yeah, these are really good players. But when you have that many good players to choose from, the entire market tends to suffer. Right. If I have a five hundred thousand dollars home on beachfront property like suite, I want that, it's a great deal.

But if there's ten of those and there's only eight buyers, maybe I can offer four hundred and fifty thousand. You get what I'm saying here, It could turn right into a buyer's market quickly. On the offensive tackle position, nine two the two highest rated offensive players or tackles Orlando Brown junior year and Mike McGlinchey. Brown's number two overall.

He was traded to the Chiefs a couple of years back because he wanted to play left tackle and Baltimore had arguably the best left tackle in football at the time. And Ronnie Stanley, now Brown back on the market after being released by the Chiefs. I'm curious to see if he demands to stay at left tackle or not. The next guy is the most like plug in play, ready to fit guy really in free agency for the Miami Dolphins, but it will not come cheap if they want to

go in that direction. Mike McGlinchey ha been a Day one right tackle going back to college, and obviously he knows how to play within the system. And then Juwan Taylor's up next at twenty six. I love his game too, and he's a natural right tackle. So if Miami wants to go heavy in their investment to upgrade the right

tackle position, those are three of your choices. Technically, I think it's really down to the former two, or I should say the latter two because I think Orlando Brown Junior is gonna get a big left tackle contract somewhere, and we got one of the best left tackles in the game baby. On the interior offensive line, there's nine of them good year for the center class. At guard,

I'd probably move Isaac Somalu up like thirty spots. I think he's a Pro Bowl caliber guard, and then Dalton Reisener is really fascinating to me because he can play so many spots. We'll talk more about that here in just a second. The list in its entirety does this or looks like this, I should say I mentioned two and six the offensive tackles Brown and McGlinchey. Odell Beckham

was the receiver I was talking about. Jacobe Myers is number twelve as the fourth highest offensive player here in free agency, Dalton Schultz, Juju Smith, Schuster, Jason Kelsey, that's sixteen nineteen twenty one. You get a quarterback, Jimmy Garoppolo first one here at twenty two. Mike Gasiki is twenty three. The two tackles back to back Juwan Taylor and Caleb McGarry twenty six, twenty seven. Wide receiver DJ Chark is number twenty eight. Couple of guards at thirty two and

thirty five, Ben Powers and Nate Davis. There's Jacoby Brissette number thirty six. The quarterback Dalton Reisener and Isaiah Wynn two offensive lineman forty and forty three. Miles Sanders the first back at number forty eight. Then after number fifty,

I mentioned Isaac Samala at fifty two. Kelvin Beecham, the long time stalwart tackle at fifty four, another former Dolphin fifty five quarterback Tady Bridgewater two centers fifty seven, fifty nine Eighthan Postic and Connor McGovern a tackles number sixty one Donovan Smith running back Damian Harris from the Patriots, number sixty four. I like his game a lot. I'm not sure if it would be an exact scheme fit, but I think that his game translates really in any

way you look at it. Number sixty five wide receiver Alan Lazard back to the running back position, and this guy, to me is way too low as well. Running back Jamal Williams, who scored like forty five touchdowns last year seventy five Titan hayden Hurst talk about him in a second Quarterback Andy Dalton seventy eight. Two running backs at eighty and eighty one, Devin Singletary and Raheem Mostart again. Mostart to me is like thirty five spots higher than

this number eighty two wide receiver Robert Woods. Another Robert at eighty three. Robert Tuny in the tight end from the Green Bay Packers back to the running back at eighty five Alexander Madison, their center, Garrett Bradbury number eighty seven, the Chiefs bookend tackle with Orlando Brown jew Andrew Wiley's number eighty eight. And then we have a bunch of guys here from ninety to one oh one. Gardner Minshew

the quarterback. You guys know him, Go Coogs, center, Bradley Boseman, tight end, Herb Smith, wide receiver Nelson Aguilar, running back David Montgomery, wide receiver Mac Collins, and one on one quarterback Baker Mayfield. So what I wanted to do is look at this from the perspective of going back to the idea of kind of constructing this thing around your quarterback, because get a young quarterback on our rookie contract, build this thing around him, and really invest in every other

position while he is cheap. Because when he's not cheap, he's not cheap. And that's the way this quarterback is trending right now. And look, we heard from Mike McDaniel and Chris Career about the desired outcome for TWOA Tonga Bailoa is to be here for a long time playing at a high level, which he did in twenty twenty two, a very high level so if he can repeat that performance and stay healthy, you have your answer at quarterback. There's no debate about that. The health is the one thing.

So look, and I've seen this debated. And if your argument is, well, he didn't have a great December and I'm talking about the big Oh Show appearance I saw the other day, just think about that for a second. Think about the evolution of goal post moving first. Couldn't throw the ball five yards right? We heard that over and over again. Couldn't maximize Tyreek Hill, who had a

career year here in Miami. It was always that he couldn't play the game right, couldn't play the guitar as it were, well, finishing first in several categories, in top five, and every single important category that's kind of important, isn't it. Because if you're going to hold two to a standard that he better be perfect and everything and every split and every single statistical demographic you can think of, you better hold everybody else that same standard. You better acknowledge

Herbert's fourth quarter collapses. You better acknowledge how bad Aaron Rodgers was in the five game losing streak. You better acknowledge Lamar Jackson not finishing each of the last two season and on balance playing worse football than our quarterback here, you know, to having far greater frequency of good play over the Baltimore quarterback. You better acknowledge that Patrick Mahomes led team loss of the Colts last year and you can say you did win the Super bul Travers shout U.

Yeah they did, but that game also happened. It happens, is what I'm saying. What I'm saying is no quarterback is perfect, but it feels like that's the standard that we hold to a tunga by lower two. Why it's so dumb and to that point from the Dodington tweet, and again we know this. You know this if you listen to the drivetime every day, which most you probably do. Tua is a great fit for what this offense does.

He's accurate as hell, has great feet and mechanics, and I discipline, and frankly, I feel pretty damn vindicated when talking about this player because everything I told you that he can do for the last five years, going back to Alabama Crimson died, he showed you he can do it at a very high level. And we've also learned that those high level traits really translate to good quarterback play. Right.

You don't have multiple games in a row with one hundred and thirty plus pass writing if you can't play the game. So building around that skill set. I know everyone else says the offensive line needs more, and it does. Everyone's does, except for maybe Philadelphia, But they're going to lose their right garden free agencies, so they probably need some help there as well. But I think part of building around TA is recognizing that a few quarterbacks make

their offensive line better. Disagree talk to a wall man because the sack percentage compared to his replacements, the time to throw comparisons, the time under pressure compared to sacks allowed is near the top of the NFL. That metric is you can't fake that. It tells you exactly what it is. The tape shows it as well as any of the numbers. This quarterback reduces negative plays and losses and maximizes receivers who uncover quickly by finding them and

giving them a chance to make plays after the fact. Now, I've long thought the quickest route to a good team is to build a good offense. Offense is more sustainable, and in the modern game, good offenses beat good defenses. It's just how it is. So how can we take our offense from the number one yards per play unit in the NFL with two in the game, six point seven yards per play and make that better? You can

run the football better, give you more balance. So I wanted to look at all these spots, but focusing on something Daniel Jeremiah and later corroborated by Benjamin Solac said when we had them on the podcast up and let's go ahead and take our last break and we'll come back on the other side and talk about all of that. That's next Drivetime Podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to

you by Auto Nation. So back here segment three Friday podcast Free Agency Preview, talking about what Daniel Jeremiah and Benjamin's Fulac said here on the Drivetime podcast last week in Indianapolis about getting your core pieces in place and how good is that to hear? I mean, we struggle at those spots for a long time. It's been a long time since Chris Chambers or O. J. McDuffie were here. It's been a long time since Dan Marino was here. It's been a long time since Richmond Webb at left

tackle was here. What are the cornerstone positions? I think the best way to evalue that is resource allocation around the NFL. Who spends the most wear and what's the value? You see guys being traded for Tyreek Hill's worth five draft picks? Right? How many other positions could garner that type of hall Quarterback, edge rusher like Aaron Donald is the only defensive tackle? Maybe an offensive tackle, I'm not so sure, but it's not many. It's not more than

a maybe two or three. And look at Miami from an offensive perspective to a top five production all year Tyreek and Jalen you know how that went. Armstead a big time acquisition at a premium spot. He gave you lockdown left tackle play when he was out there for thirteen games, better than Miami has had in two decades at that position. I think the center position is part of the discussion, especially in this Dolphin's offense. I talked

about it millions of times before. The Kyle Shanahan, Mike McDaniel, Perring have proven to you how important center play is in this offense. Since they brought Alex Mack to three different stops. A future Hall of Fame center Connor Williams was a slam dunk signing there. Let's go ahead and start there. Then if the cornerstones or quarterback, receiver and tackle and it will center, I guess to a Tyreek

waddle Tehran Connor. So really there's one of the six spots you haven't got a solution for for twenty twenty three. If they want to go the free agent route at tight end, we're gonn look at tight ends, running backs, an interior offensive line first. If you want to go the free agent route at tight end, I look at some of the productive two way players IE pass game and the ability to line up, attach to the line scrimmage is the wide tight end and knock somebody off

the ball or pass protect if you need it. Short yards was a problem for the Dolphins last year. This is a one area where they can really, really really improve their short yardage offense with a good in line. Why tight end Hayden Hurst was a first round pick a while back for his ability to do just that. Same with IRV Smith, and he's played in a wide zone twelve personnel heavy offense, which fits what you do here for the most part. With some of those personnel groupings,

both of those guys are incredibly intriguing to me. I'm curious to see what they get because I would personally have them penciled as you know, a position of need and top of the market targets in terms of their fit here. And again, this is just the top one on one list. We'll see plenty of other signings away from this list around the league. At running back, we mentioned the Matt Bowen piece a while back from ESPN Plus, and he connected Miles Sanders, former Eagles back, as a

potential scheme fit for the Miami Dolphins. He also satisfies that speed quota this offense has. Everybody can absolutely scoot on this offense. I also look at somebody like Alexander Madison, former Boise State Bronco, who, like IRB Smith, came from a wide zone running team last year. Now, the thing I like about McDaniel, maybe more than most of his awesome traits, is that his staff and he are so adaptable. It's about what is the defense, where's the vulnerablees on defense?

That's what we're gonna attack. We're not gonna just run our system and hope to the best. We're gonna attack where you're vulnerable because we're adjustable to do that. But I think you can also identify potential fit matches. And I think that Madison ran really well in various zone looks the last few years in Minnesota whereheem Mostert jumps off that list to me and we have proof of concept with him that it worked here. That's part of free agency. You know, eleven hundred yards fro scrimmage in

the offense you want. Sometimes the best products you can buy are the ones that you retain because you've seen them succeed in your building, in your program, with their teammates, with your coaches. It's important on the interior offensive. Let me talk about the group, this group in the margins. But we've also seen someone like Joe Tune. He signed a massive deal. There's always outliers and he became a cornerstone for the World Champs at left guard. I think

Isaac Somala is going to be in that ballpark. I have long been a huge Dalton Riisner fan because he played everywhere at Kansas State and had some great college tape, and he carried that over into the pros at in Denver, where he's settled into the spot at the guard position. We've also heard Chris Wereer talking multiple times about position

flexibility up there, so that would make sense to me. Also, was drafted under Vic Fangio, so I mean, I know coach isn't offensive line coach, but he was the head coach when they drafted that guy. Makes some sense. Then there's quarterback, wide receiver, and offensive tackle. Now the quarterback spot falls into the margins because if you're not signing a starting quarterback, then the price tag is certainly not cornerstone worthy. I leaned towards Garoppolo getting signed as somebody's starter,

whether it's Vegas or someone else. Despite my spield earlier about the value of not spending for the mid range quarterback in top of the market money, it's it's I mean, you don't want to spend for more than what you get, But then I think you also sort of enter that high level backup spot starter, valuable veteran resource in the room territory, the Teddy Bridgewaters with Andy Dalton's and maybe

even Baker Mayfield. I would be remiss if I didn't shout out Gardner Minshew here go Coogs, even though he was oh and two as a starter last year. I think he showed you yet again that he can play in this league. And he's just that kind of personality like Ryan Fitzpatrick coming off the bench that kind of provides that spark. I like that about a backup quarterback. I do wonder, though, if he gets a shot somewhere to compete with like a rookie for an opening day job.

That wouldn't surprise me. At wide receiver, we covered this pretty well. I think given the nature of our current room, the draft provides more reasonable value. You never know, but Tyreek, Jalen Cedric, do Sherfield and or Craycraft come back. We know Azukama has lots of talent. We know Braylon Sanders as well. Thought of around here. I'm really curious to see what Jacoby Myers and Odell Beckham get. Are they going to get Christian Kirk money, because I don't know

about that. Robert Woods is interesting, Juju Smith Schuster is as well, though. I think I saw a tweet from Mike Garafolo that the Chiefs intend to bring their entire wide receiver quarterback, and then finally at offensive tackle. The Chiefs could lose both of their tackles, which is really a fascinating storyline to me because they spent was it after the Bucks Super Bowl debacle, They like rebuilt their

entire offensive line with Orlando Brown Junior. They signed Joe Tooney, They drafted Tray Smith and Creed Humphrey like damn for a really good offensive lineman one offseason that almost never happens, and they might lose two of those guys well Andrew Wiley being the other one this offseason. Those top four guys on the tackle list are going to be bank breakers. Orlando Brown, Mike McGlinchey, Caleb McGarry, and Juwan Taylor. Young. Productive offensive tackles are tough to come by. Frankly, I

don't think anyone on this list comes cheap. If Wiley, the last ot on the list, hits the market, he probably gets a big deal too. So it's it's kind of, you know, juggling the financials. It goes back to what we talked about at the combine. The league just keeps producing these past rushing athletics specimens, so everybody is vying for o line help from the same relatively smaller market.

And then off the top one on one list. You know, here's some guys that I just noted that would make some sense from their connections on the interior offensive line. Nate Herbig and Dan Feeney both played under michaela Floor last year in a similar system. Offensive tackle Eric Fisher signed here and didn't wind up playing, But if he's healthy and can play, maybe he's a good cheap veteran who can compete for that right tackle job. Just kind

of spit blowing an idea. Tie and Secki from the Rams is a good swing tackle option who's played again in a similar system. And then Trey Pipkins and the Chargers is kind of another one of those guys you look at who's played some spot duty and had some success in that regard At quarterback, it's not good, like not a good list of in terms of like you're

guaranteed to get quality backup play here. Nick Mullins, Easton Stick, Taylor Heineke kind of the guys that jump off that list to me, But again I just don't know about that. Ermansho's my guy man running back, Mike Boone formerly of the Vikings and that similar wide zone system kind of spelling Dalvin Cook at times Geo Bernard for his pass catching, although it wasn't really there this past year. Jeric McKinnon's my favorite guy on the non top one hundred list

here at the running back position. I think he's a perfect fit for this offense. Does at tight end Tyler Kraft or Craft rather from the Niners last year. Zach Gentry is a good blocking tight end for the Steelers. Marcedis Lewis. He's thirty eight years old, but again he's basically an extra offensive lineman and I think that he can help you in your short yardage. We need that extra ot slash red zone threat. That's why I want Darnell Washington so bad man. And then receiver the Falcons

or former Falcon Olamada is a kiss. I like his game a lot, and we'll see what he costs, but if it's affordable, I can see that being an option. And then me Coole Hardman just speed speed speed, speed speed baby. And then of course Trent Sherfield and River Craig Craft. So Dolphins are not. This time of year always really pulls me in as a fan. For over a decade now, I have always written down in a

composition notebook every single signing of the offseason. It kind is a futile exercise and the Internet age because they post those lists on like forty five different websites where you can find them. But the exercise of doing it and writing them down helps keep me up, to keep me in the loop on the NFL. I enjoy perusing those lists and identifying why I think could happen, and just discussing possible team fits. So Monday, we will do

the defense before we go real quick. I only do this when I'm blown away by a show or a movie. Off season is recommendation season, and I just finished up a mini series. It's likely to go on my top ten end of your list, even though we're just in March. I'm pretty sure it was made in twenty twenty two, but I just got to it. Blackbird on Apple TV. Plus oh buddy that acting in that show. First, the

plot is fantastic based on true events. The main character gets duped into accepting a plea deal gets he gets picked up for he's a drug dealer, and he gets what he thinks is going to be two or three years tops, and it winds up being ten years in a federal prison. And the FBI did this to him to offer him a deal that he couldn't refuse where he would move into the most dangerous prison in America or one of them, and can get his sentence commuted if he can extract a confession from a serial killer

who killed fourteen people. The acting is great all around, but Paul Walter Houser, who plays the serial killer, it's another level. It's outrage. It gives me goosebumps talking about it. If you're looking for something to beinge this weekend, do that. It's hour long episodes. Six episodes and many series are kind of my jam right now, man. Because the writers are not beholden to any of the characters. It's the

best way to organically manufacture suspense. You don't have to, you know, in a multi season show where you never the main characters never in danger. You can't kill off the main character. Nothing fatal can happen to him. So Blackbird, Apple TV plus check that out. All right, That is my time here on the Drivetime podcast. You all please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher,

tuned in, wherever you get your podcast from. Go ahead and leave us a five star 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 podcast and all the international podcast here on our network, the YouTube channel for our videos we put out from the Combine, vic Fangio, and of course the alec Ingold interview up on the team YouTube channel, as well as

Dolphins Today, Media availabilities and all that fun stuff. And last but not least, Miami Dolphins dot Com until next time finds up Caroline and Cameron Daddy's He's coming Home