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Drive Time with Travis Wingfield begins.
Now let me check your pulse if you're not for what is up? Dolphins?
And welcome to the Draft Time 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 today's show, the positional previews role on as we go back up to the front of the defense, the defensive line. E J. Snider from Bootleg Football is joining me today to break down this year's class on the interior and off the edge, but also talk about how the encumbents of this team fit and Coach Fangio's defense. All of that and a heck of a lot more from the Baptist Hell Studios inside the Baptist Hell Training Complex. This is.
The Draft Time Podcast Maggie Geff.
Before we get to my guest today, the Dolphins reportedly have a new wide receiver as it came across over the weekend. Per pretty much every major publication, the Dolphins be signing wide receiver Chosen Anderson. The receiver formerly known as Robbie. Anderson, has bounced around the NFL the last couple of years. Began his career with the New York Jets, had some big plays for the Jets early on during
that rookie contract. Wound up moving on to Carolina with the Panthers under his former coach at Temple and Matt Ruhle, and had a big year there back in twenty twenty over one thousand yards, finding plenty of success vertically down the football field, showing off that four to four speed. And there's not much to really get into with regards
to Anderson's tape. I think the obvious acquisition here comes through essentially some of the same traits you look at with Cedric Wilson, a guy that can play inside that slot position, six foot two, four to four speed and really kind of remove the top off the defense in a way that I think offers some value if he can stick with the club this upcoming season to open up more creases and more openings in that middle portion of the field, because an added speed element that's not
ten or seventeen Tyreek or Jalen can create.
A little bit softer zones in the middle.
And we saw how much those two receivers last year, the two in my opinion too all pros. Only one of them was in All Pro, But I digress on that point. I think Robbie Anderson's speed, if he can pick it up and get acclimated quickly and be an impact player on the offense, I think ideally that's his best trait that he brings to the Miami Dolphins offense. So chosen Anderson per reports signing with to Miami Dolphins. We'll see him out there at OTAs later this month.
So that's the news there. Let's go ahead and welcome in my guest today from Bootleg Football, EJ. Snyder, and I've been looking forward to this podcast for a while for a couple of reasons, because my guest today holding it down back in the Pacific Northwest, my former stomping grounds, mister e J.
Snyder. EJ, how you doing, man? I'm good, I'm tired. I'm running one hundred miles an hour. It's draft season, but it is the happiest time of the year for me, so I'm I'm hot and ready to go.
In addition to getting your analysis on this year's defensive line class.
Which I think is sneaky.
I hate using the word need, but a sneaky area of interest with the Dolphins is that the last time that we spoke, you were in the beginning stages of transitioning to full time football content creator, and you told me about your light fixture set up back there. That's on video for the Zoom but we don't have that available for the fans here. But EJ custom put his lights to Aquae Orange for the appearance today, so we
really appreciate that. I wanted to ask you how much you love in this, man, cause, first full year in that capacity, I just picture you waking up every day humped to get out of bed, and that's a great place to achieve in life.
It is fantastic. I was actually texting with a friend yesterday who's not in the industry, just a casual football fan that I used to work with in my previous life and he's followed my work. He loves the transition just like you do. And he said, oh my god, I realized this is your business. I don't need to make you talk about it. And I said, hey man, the whole reason I made this my business is because I love talking about it. No problem, I'm happy to do it. And he was just he said, I love that,
and yeah, I do love it. It is consuming. It is hard to shut it off sometimes. That's probably the biggest challenge in the first year, is like, hey man, it's eight o'clock. You should stop working like other people do, and you know, go spend some time with your family and go do other things, go get some fresh air. Because it is very easy when you love your work
to just keep at it. But overall, especially this time in year, draft season, which is one of my favorite times a year, it's going really, really well.
I always tell the story. This is the fifteenth time my audience has heard it. But when they signed Eric Rowe back in twenty nineteen, it was like a Friday night at midnight. They signed him and I was like, going up to the lab, I'm gonna break down some tape and see what Eric Rowe brings to the table. So, like you said, when you love it, man, it's never working. You're willing to do it any hour of the night. It's so much fun. It makes me happy to see
you get to enjoy that and embrace it fully. You know with Bootleg football, And speaking of Bootleg Football, your partner's staying very busy as well.
This is maybe breaking news.
But my plan is to circle back with both of you guys at some point this summer before your preview pods. Maybe have you come on talk to Dolphins with us. That's a little bit of a insight to you right there that I just broke to you. But I'm curious what is Bootleg gonna look like in twenty twenty three because you guys are growing so fast or producing so much content. We talked about your editing team before I
jumped on the podcast here. I just always love how you guys stay current and stay providing that updating your material. So how's this new season format going to look for you guys this year?
Probably one word is more again we'll have the full season of preview pods this summer where we talk about every team in depth. We really enjoyed doing that. It was the first time we'd done it in that format last year, first time we were able to with the addition of the editing team because that basically we're producing, you know, forty straight days of content. And then the season. We ended up traveling a lot in the season this year, and I think we'll probably travel even more next year.
We'll be at more stadiums. We have lots of fans around the country now saying, oh, when are you gonna come to X and we've got a visit on tap with you that is you know, we've been talking about that for a couple of years now. We need to make that happen as well. I think a late season game in Miami sounds pretty good getting out of some of the Northwest weather and coming down to Miami to check out a game. So just more, we've continued to have some great guest support and now we're really sort
of getting offers, which is interesting. People are reaching out and saying, hey, would you be willing to have us on your show? And that's fascinating. That's a that's a new place to be as creators, and we're really excited by those possibilities.
I love to hear it if you guys do come down here that time of year, it's not just for getting out of your cold weather, but avoiding the September melting whether you get down here that time. I think Brett came down for the Bills game last year and I was kind of telling him about, like, you know how the stadium looks at certain times a day, and I was like, you might have to hang out for a few hours after the game to get that beautiful sunset behind the hard rock setium canopy and logo that
really pops at like sunset. But when you play a one o'clock game in September, you know, you melt for three hours and then you have to wait for three more hours for that sunset. So I think he might have missed that by a couple of months. But we'll see when that schedule comes out. I think next month will come out, and I'm sure Miami's gonna have some some big time games late in the year, so I'm looking forward to that. I want to ask you about
it towards the end of the podcast. Let's stop talking about other things besides this Dolphins team and get into it right here and talk about this defensive line group that it's and I'll go back to my comment about the sneaky like need in that position. And I think fans might get a little bit spoiled because Christian Wilkins and Zach Seeler play. They play like eighty percent of the snaps every single game. It's it's wild their level
of conditioning and the level of dominance they display. And I know you're a big Vic Fangio fan, But between those two guys and then Rake Kwan Davis, the depth beyond that, let's just say it's an experience. It's a couple of guys that were on the practice squad and futures contracts. So that's why I think there is a potential need to look, you know, not just for this year's reserve depth chart, but also in the future, because you know, what it looks like in a couple of
years might not be what it is right now. But we'll get to that in a second. I just want to know how you feel about those three guys playing, whether it's you know, the multiple fronts, odd front, even front up front.
I mean they are so versatile.
How do you feel those three guys fit with what Vic Fangio wants to do upfront on the defensive line.
I think they're great fits both physically and from a play style, and that's two different things. Vic has physical profile that he likes in his defensive lineman, and then he wants them to play a certain way. He is not a big blitzer. He wants to rush with four and he needs the guys up front, whoever they are,
to be able to hold down their spots. Now, those roles rotate and those responsibilities will shift, Like you said, even front side fronts, overs tights, they all have different responsibilities, but he needs them to win. If they break down, the rest of the defense is not going to hold up in the way that he wants to be able to play his back seven. So I think they're great physical fits, and I think they're great play style fits. But yeah, you're gonna need to give them a break.
They are iron men, but he asked them to be extremely physical in that role. He is not a defensive coordinator that's gonna just sort of ask those guys to stand up and take up space. He wants them to actively be pinning in one end of the line or collapsing the middle or whatever it is on that particular play, and they're gonna need a break. He talked about the weather in Miami, right it's hot in the early season.
It's just a physical thing need to in modern football, and I say all of football because that's the NFL and we see it more. Really in college football, it's it's like hockey lines. They rotate defensive lines in waves. They have three full sets and they just run them out there and each one gets a series or two series or eight plays or twelve plays, and then it's the fresh guys because they want them to come, they
want them to breathe fire for the whole game. And you can't ask a three hundred and thirty pound guy in ninety eight degree weather with ninety percent of humidity to just go out and bang for sixty downs. That's not going to work. So the depth is really important.
Yeah, especially that nose tackle position where Raykwon Davis just has for the most part, one of the most thankless jobs in football, where I mean you can play a game and have zeros across the stat board, but play a really good game with that nose tackle, you know, slash one shade position that he so frequently occupies. And I always do this on this position group because to me, there's one guy that kind of exists in the plane
of his own on this defense. And maybe I'm speaking of a school term, but it always seems that way when you when you break down, like the body types of Wilkins and Steeler are similar. You know, Davis kind of has his his bill for that nose tackle position. That You've got your Jalen Phillips and your Bradley Chubb and your Malik Reid and uh and your Andrew Van Ginkles off the kind of outside linebacker position. But then there's a Manual Ogba who is a true like even
front you know, seven tech type of edgebrusher. And I'm curious how you think he fits, but also how he makes the defensive flexibility more flexible for lack of a better term, just because he does kind of exist in that I guess that category where there's really nobody else in the roster that does what he does. So how do you think Ogba coming off that injury last year and after you know, two and a half really good years of the Miami Dolphins.
How do you see his fit in that defense? If he's healthy, It's a good one because Fangio needs that guy. He had Leonard Floyd there when Floyd was in Chicago, and it was this sort of I hate to call it tweener because we use tweener for a lot of other terms, and it's usually like between safety and linebacker.
It's not quite full time defensive line. But you can slide him in and make him part of the front four or in certain plays and Fangio will do this drop them into the short, flat hook zone and they really become part of the back seven, and that multiple approach really keeps a defense flexible and keeps an offense on its toes because you aren't sure whether Agba's coming or not. He's not one of those guys that just every time is going to pin his ears back and come.
He has the athletic flexibility to drop into that flat zone. He has the length to kind of stand up and block off tight end passing routes. So Fangio will definitely use that. I hope he comes back healthy because I think he could have a really productive year. It might not be the flashiest that role doesn't necessarily produce all of the explosive plays for the defense, but it is a very important point of how the defense presents itself and keeps an offense guessing.
It's really cool to see the way they have multiple guys in those flexible roles because he and Phillips are both capable of condensing down to that three tech and rushing a guard, and Phillips put some guards on his heels last year.
Man, it was cool to see.
And then you've got the Wilkins and Steeler guys who kind of operate the opposite direction, right, They go from inside to out, and you have so much flexibility that way. I think it's one of the deepest fronts really in the National Football League. But like I said, you could always add some pieces up there. It's always a deep rotation. So we're going to take our first break right here and come back on the other side and talk to EJ about the potential draft fits at each pick of
the draft of the Dolphins. It's fifty one, eighty four, and then six and seventh round picks.
That's next My guest today, e J.
Snyder, your host, Travis Pinging, Phil Drift Time Podcast brought to you by Auto Nation. We're back here for segment number two of the Defensive Line Preview Draft twenty twenty three edition. My guest today is EJ. Snyder of Bootleg Football doing great stuff over there up on YouTube anywhere you get your.
Podcasts as well. Check out their content. So, Ej.
We talked a little bit about the Dolphins depth and they have, you know, players in these positions, but just not a lot of NFL experience there in terms of the depths. I was curious about not just for snaps that need to be accounted for this season, but potential long term. We have a couple of guys that are on the last year of their deals. You just never
know how this league works. So it's always I'm always fascinated by how teams approach certain areas of their roster with you know, future building, immedia impact type of building. That stuff always fascinates me. And you have these conversations about the scenarios and stuff. So kind of with that in mind, you know, I don't think pick fifty one is that crazy to say you could take a player that is in the Wilkins or Sealer or Davis Mold and so I'm curious of guys that you think could
be at that spot. You know, your traditional three tech who can also kick inside but also slide outside of the five tech. Give me some names that you like at that spot. It would fit this Dolphins defense absolutely.
You talked about where the picks are going to happen for the Dolphins right now, let's put that out there as well, because they can always trade up or down. But fifty one eighty four are interesting spots in this defensive line class because it is so deep and there are a wide variety of players, and you really have to look at the sort of physical types that Fangio likes in his defense and what he has. I think
Seeler is a great fit. He likes guys that are tall to fill that sort of you can call it three to four eye to five roll, that sort of outside edge and his defense. He likes them tall six three six four six five if he can get him, and he likes him right up near three hundred pounds. I was always a draft proponent as a Chicago guy of you know some fire breathers off the edge, and you know they're like two fifty five or two sixty and everybody's like FANGI will never take him because he's
not that guy he doesn't need. He's gonna look at a guy like Nolan Smith, for instance, out of Georgia and go, hey, nice player, No thanks, like unless it falls to the third or fourth round, which isn't gonna happen. So he likes size out there, he likes height out there. He certainly likes very stout guys. Again, he needs them to hold up one on one and sometimes one on one and a half. And so there's a bunch of guys in that sort of seiler role. We'll start there.
Carl Brooks out of Bowling Green is a really interesting guy. Doesn't necessarily hit the hype profile. He's sixty three, but he is two ninety six and he does have that flexibility. He does move up and down the line. Fangio love that next guy up. Definitely doesn't fit the weight profile, but he plays big and he comes from a program I think Fangio has a lot of respect for in Michigan. That's Mike Morris and more of a traditional edge, But I really think could be a four or five player.
He is six ' five and he does have great length and he plays extremely physically at his size, So I might think that Fangio would look at a guy like that and go, we could probably both him up ten pounds and you know, we can live with the play style. As we continue to move down more towards that could be fifty. I would pick him closer to fifty. But in the eighties, Kobe Turner from wake Forest, a guy we talked to at the Shrine Bowl who I love, super smart. Now, he was a three at wake Forest,
pretty dedicated three. He did slide out to four. Eye that didn't really use him at five very much, but I think he'd be great. They're extremely smart player, extremely agile player, could bring some real speed. It's a little on the short side six to two for Fangio, but he is a two ninety three, which is right where Bick likes him. We get down further in the pick line. You're looking at Zach Pickens from South Carolina. Now, a lot of people will push back and say, no, Zach
Pickens is a defensive tackle. He doesn't need to slide outside. I would push back and say, Zach Pickens run stopping ability on the inside is not necessarily my favorite. But he is a big athletic guy. The reason he would be going farther on down is because he hasn't figured it all out yet, but he has a ton of tools. Six three two ninety one absolutely can bring it off the edge, has a lot of natural physical strength, doesn't
always apply it the right way on the inside. Some team might take that chance, and then my guy down at the bottom, Tyler Lacy, Oklahoma State. This guy's a classic fangio guy. Like you know, nobody was looking at Sealer when he came out either right, and Tyler Lazy fits that profile as well. Six two seventy nine plays really traditional sort of four or five, slides out a little bit, but slides inside to three tech on passing downs as well, because he is just really broad at
six ' four, plays very very tough. Any one of those guys sort of up and down the board. A couple of guys are a little bit on the short side, but I like their play style or some of the things that they bring. All of those guys could slide in and be what I really think is probably a backup, a rotational player behind Seiler. None of them is probably going to displace Sealers straight off that's not that kind of thing. But again, when you're picking at fifty one
or eighty four, not necessarily looking for that. So lots of options in this draft, do you so? I The reason I asked this, EJ.
Is because I think I saw Brett tweeted the other day that he was uploading into your defensive line rankings.
You guys just recorded that.
So is it too much to ask you if you have ranking on where these guys stack up.
For you personally? Oh? For me personally, I don't have mindset yet. Those were for film room, but we are talking about it every day because that's the way this works, this whole thing works. I have them roughly ranked in that order. I might have Morris above Brooks again depending on fit, but I think that's roughly the order I have them in. If I had to sort of assign a round range, I'm gonna say Brooks is some people are talking about first round. I really don't think that's true.
It's probably gonna go in the second. Mike Morris, I think his range probably starts mid second to end of the second Goby Turner right after that. I would take him top of the third, But I really think his actual range is probably middle third and on down. Zach Pickens, I can't tell you. I can't put a target on that one. I think somebody's gonna fall in love with what Zach Pickens has. I haven't done it yet, so
I would take him after Turner pretty soon. And then Tyler Lacy is one of the it was interesting guys is going to kick around he didn't have He doesn't have the greatest size, he doesn't have the greatest production. I like his sort of all around game, which was sort of my draft conference seiler right like. I was like, hey, he does a lot of good things pretty well. He's not exceptional in any area. So that's why I said, Tyler Lacey kind of reminds me of him as a
as a player coming out. Oh yeah, okay, that makes that makes sense.
I have a buddy who who he used to be my podcast co host, my first began back in like twenty sixteen. He's a film junkie who loves this stuff and just hasn't for his own, like for fun for himself like we.
Used to do.
Probably, but he can't stop talking about Carlbrooks and Keanu Benton, and Benton was the guy that really blew up the Combine, or not the Combine, rather the Senior Bowl back when that occurred. So I've heard the name Carlbrooks so many times, So I have you listed him off first. I don't know if you're looking at the zoom call here, but my smile was pretty wide when you mentioned his name
off the top. But you also alluded to something that I want to follow up on because I didn't have it in my notes here, but you mentioned, you know, the Fangio protype at that position, and I recall when I was going over my deep dive on Fangio, and obviously you're very familiar with his work with the Chicago Bears and what he did to that defense when he was there and one of the top producing defenses from from points yards, allowed takeaways, all the Fangio staples, but
he had some guys there. But also in Denver, Draymont Jones was a guy who led, if he didn't lead the team in sacks, like two years, he was one of the top sack guys on that club under Vic Fangio.
So I'm curious why does a.
Player like that, because again, I think we have two of those guys that fit that mold in a lot of ways in Steeler Wilkins.
Why did those guys excel so much in this defense? It really is what he asked them to do and how he aligns the defense up front. It is different. There are many defenses that are built on penetration from the front four, so they will specifically have that three tech role and his job is purely to penetrate that offense line, cause problems and move the quarterback off his spot from the middle. Fangio doesn't necessarily do that. He
is more of a hold the line guy. He wants his pressure out of four and he will get it a lot of times. I would say non creatively, and what I mean by that is he doesn't blitz a lot. He uses a lot of creativity and moving that front. But his roles are defined and you have to do it and do it well. And if you're a player that comes in and buys into that and says, you know, you didn't come from a system where or regardless if
you did, you didn't come from that penetrating system. You come in and you just go, I'm gonna embrace this. This guy's a genius on the defensive front of the NFL. I'm going to do exactly what he says I should do, whether or not I sort of see the overall picture.
A bunch of those guys have had success in Fangio defenses, and they weren't necessarily highly heralded guys with at ballall Nichols, you know, not a guy with a huge NFL pedigree coming out ended up being a very successful player in that defense hasn't necessarily been as successful since he's moved on again. He came in, he bought in, He did exactly what they wanted to do. He fit that physical profile, and it just it's a match of player and landing spot.
And we talk about that all the time. Is being really really important, and it is a little bit different than what a lot of other defensive coordinators who are exotic, blitz heavy. You've certainly had that in Miami, right you guys led the league in zero for a while. Like, that's not gonna be a Fangio staple. Fans, We're gonna have to adjust to the fact that a lot of times it's not gonna look like there's a lot of rush schemed up.
It's the reason I'm smiling at you, Jay is because you're getting into all these topics.
I'd really didn't plan today for the podcast.
You gave us great draft content, but now I'm just kind of interested to ask you a couple of questions about Fangio and the defense and structure and things like that, because we know it's not often to get your expertise and someone that really studied the coach and the way that you did, I'm sure when he was with the Chicago Bears there for a while. Let's go ahead and take our last break here.
I'm come back.
I have two more questions for you. One about that Ogba edge position spot you I'll pull up those rankings on your draft board there, and then also about some some more Vic Fangio stuff.
That's next. My guest is ay e J. Snyder.
The Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by AutoNation back here on the third segment of our defensive line draft preview, and really, Ej, it's evolved into more of a just general Dolphins chat, which no fan of the podcast is going to dislike that one.
Bit here because we kind of covered it.
You gave us a list and those are guys to look out on Day two and maybe even late into Day number three as the Dolphins round out their draft class this season. But we talked a little bit during the break there about a guy that I brought up to you that you wanted to go back into. And maybe maybe you partlay this with the question I had for you. Maybe you just talk about them separately. But I'll go ahead and put the question to you so
you can have some time to let it marinnate. I was curious about kind of a list of guys in that I don't know if i'd call it the Ogbaugh position, but just your true like edge rusher, you know, guy off the outside. Because you mentioned that the two hundred and fifty hound, you know, hair on fire guy, maybe isn't the best fit in this defense. But Ogba is that big, long, heavy handed dude. Who's a guy like
that in this draft? Is it Keanu Benton that might be someone that piaks the Dolphins interest.
It's interesting, we'll go both ways, you said, Brooks and Benton. And it's funny because I did two lists, one for the spot really behind Seiler and one for the spot behind Wilkins. Okay, and while they do the same thing, they're very different players physically, like so I think, And the top of my Wilkins list was Keanu Benton. So I laughed because the top of my Steeler list was
Carl Brooks. So there we go. If we're really going to go to that AGBAS spot, I go back to Mike Morris, Who's the guy I talked about, because he is that longer tallery six five two seventy five, but moves more like a sort of true edge, less like a sort of four eye, which is that you know, four tech interior gonna line up inside the tackle. It needs to be a little bit more stout because a lot of times he's going to be taking on double teams from a garden a tackle. Mike Morris has more
of that flexibility. If you want to say who reminds me on this list of AGBA, it would probably be Mike Morris. There's a whole bunch of other guys. But back to the Wilkins list, Keanu Benton is probably going to be out of the range. I think if I was picking, he would be off before fifty one. First, what's that first round? I would take him in the back end of the first round. I'm that comfortable with him. That's not a that's not a super popular take, but
I think top of round two. His name's in the conversation. He's gonna be one of the first defensive tackles off the ball, you know, I would say top three or four, depending on how you define defensive tackle defensive band. But other guys for Wilkins, Mazzie Smith for Michigan. Again, when you're looking at Fangio, he likes heavy guys when you get off that five and maybe this is Davis more
in your defense, you know, rotating with Raykwan. But Mazzi Smith from Michigan six two three twenty three absolute hammers for hands, and Fangio is gonna love that because he can stand a guy up and give no ground, and that lets a guy like Vic plan around him and sort of go I don't have to worry about that. I love the way you phrased it that it's a
thankless job, but a really important one. Another guy, Nesta Jade silvera who played a lot at Miami, ended up at Arizona State his last year for grad transfer six two three eleven, really really athletic. I think he could sort of slide in between the two spots. Jerrod Clark's a guy from Coastal Carolina that I really like six three, three thirty four, and he is that guy really that's probably gonna back up Davis more in your defense. But
he is a stout tree trunk in the middle. And then way down the board in terms of a value pick. KeAndre Coburn from Texas. Nobody's talking about him. A little bit short six ' one, but three point thirty two gets a lot less pressed than his buddy Morojomo in that defense because Moro sort of moves around and does more things, more like Zach or even some of the
ODDBA roles Texas defense. But Keanner Kobert is that guy they just plant in the middle and go, Nope, don't have to worry about this two yard swath.
It's it's interesting to me because like the way the Dolphins draft picks fall right now, and this is you know, by their own design from and and I, I personally love the approach of you know you're in this. You know two was heading into year four of his rookie deal and the fifth year option has been extended, so you still have you know, the quarterback cheap by by
NFL standards in terms of what he's doing. So you kind of have this potential to really go out right now and be aggressive and get guys that impact your team right now. I had Damian Parson from the Draft Network on the podcast, and we talked about that approach of you know, let's, yeah, he's great, he's the man.
Let's let's let's be aggressive and get guys that we know can impact right now, opposed to you know, maybe you take a guy with that pick in the twenties who winds up, you know, needing a year to to develop, and then all of a sudden you're beyond that window that you had and and you're just you're you're not making the moves with that certain sense of like urgency now with the idea of continuing to build on later. It's it's it's a certain delicate balance, I think for how you do that.
But yeah, those those guys are great options.
And then thinking about maybe possibly trading back, it seems like DeAndre Coburn could be a guy that maybe goes off the board and on that early Day three type of range, and if the Dolphins can maybe acquire some more picks, maybe he's a guy that you look at in that range. So it's that's why it's so fascinating to cover all these guys and all these positions, because you just never know what's gonna happen in the draft.
It's what makes it so much fun.
The last question I wanted to ask of you here, EJ, because you've given us great content on the draft so far, was going back to Fangio and you know, we mentioned, you know, light boxes are pretty typical in his defense, not a lot, not a lot of fifth rushers coming,
not a lot of blitzing going on. But he said something to me, and this is like some self promotion here in our original sit down chat where I asked him about his time away and he mentioned, you know, having his his lab, his office that he could not get away from from more than a day or two a time without going back and drawing up some coverages. And he said, got a couple of new coverages I'm
excited to work on. And so that kind of peaked Dolphins fans interest and certainly mine heading into OTA's and mini and training camp in July. So my question is for a coach in one of Fangio's stature and We've seen several coaches do this in the past, that year away, right, they take that that sabbatic goal, they kind of maybe see the league from a different lens where you're not game planning each week and you can kind of watch
the league on a broader scope. I'm curious from your perspective, as someone that you know knows the x's and o's, knows you know, defensive rules and and all the stuff that goes into the complex nature of the game, what kind of year away for a coach with that much you know, what's the word I'm looking for expertise?
I guess year away for him?
Yeah, Like, there's so many adjectives you can use right there, right, What a year away for a guy like coach Fangio do for his his knowledge of the game.
I think it's a tremendous opportunity that not a lot of coaches get. When we look at coaching, it is about what's next, the next, the next, the next, the next, And coaches, as you know, move all over the country, take roles in college, back to the NFL, vice versa. It is a demanding profession and to have a year where you get some choice after that much time in your career and that much success where you can really choose to, like you said, look at the whole league
and go, oh, isn't that cool? Isn't that cool? You have this problem? I mean, you're you know, you work for the Dolphins, which is amazing, but you see something cool that somebody else is doing, You're like, I just don't have time to look at it. And I'm sure Fangio is the same way. And he got to sit down, and he got to sit down and sort of go, hey, what worked this week? And with his expertise, he can
deconstruct that very quickly. It doesn't take long for a guy like that to look at the all twenty two and go, oh, what are the rules here? You know, what are the roles? What are they doing? Oh that's cool. Look at what they did pre snap to set that up. Look at what happened, how they reacted, look at the flexibility. Oh this is a place where I've gotten or my defenses have had troubles before. There's not many, but there are a few, And hey, how do they handle that?
Or you know, what kind of problem can I pose to the offense? Because that's what's going through the mind. Of a guy like Vic Fangio all the time is how can I bump them off their spot? How can I make them sort of play left handed? How can I inconvenience them on every snap so that they don't feel comfortable and get to rip off big plays against us? And there are a lot of cool ways to do that.
It's one of the great things that I enjoy about going back to college tape because a lot of people might find this funny, but I don't watch a lot of college football. I'm covering the league at that time, and when I get to go back, he's in the tape and I get to sort of, yes, look at the players, and I'm focusing on traits and fits, but I also get to see, oh, look at that. That's
just mean and you'll love this. It's Washington State, right, I was looking at Dan Henley's a linebacker there, yep, go Kook's right, And one of the things that he's really good at is blitzing. And so he'll blitz and blitz and delay blitz as a linebacker. And then one of the things they did with him at Washington State that's super fun but a little bit evil, is they'd push him up on the A gap late in the game. Basically call that mugging the A gap with the linebacker.
And then he's a converted wide receiver, so he's really good in coverage and they'll drop him and he'll just like just sit there and hang over the center and like bounce up and down, and so the line's adjusting and saying, hey, we got an extra rusher, who's got him whatever, and then right at the snap he basically darts back, you know, six or seven yards and he's like ha ha, and you know, the protection compresses to the middle and the edge rushers get a bigger window,
and it's just something they can do because they're playing off his strength. And I'm sure Fangio is looking at that and going, Okay, everybody's got the book on me. Everybody knows what I'm gonna do because I've been resolute about my rules and my fit, and I have brought my rules and made players largely fit it, and it's worked. It's worked very very well. So everybody's gonna say, ah, yeah,
we're playing the Dolphins. Oh it's Fangio. Okay, I'm gonna pull up all my Fangio tape pull up all my Fangio rules, and if I can design a couple of twists, if I can design a couple of things that look like they used to but now work differently based on some of this fun stuff I saw last year, I can throw some curve balls when I really need to. And that's one of Fangio's staples is he'll save stuff. He'll save it for a whole year, and he knows the games on the schedule, and he won't show it.
He won't show it in training camp, he won't show it in preseason, he won't show it in the early weeks of the season. And then when they need that third downstop, third and three and it's week ten, they'll set something up and everybody's like, huh, looks the same, and it works differently. They drop them. They get the possession they need. Is a he's a master, he's an assassin at that. So I'm sure he has filled that bag with a few more arrows and you're gonna get to see him as Dolphins fans man.
The way you described that, if I didn't know, if I just like dropped in mid conversation there, I would almost think you were describing Mike McDaniel, which just gets me so fired up for training camp man McDaniel versus Fangio and a chess match, Like, are you kidding me? How lucky am I to have a front row seat to that every single day to watch this talented roster execute those guys' offense and defense.
And man, well he got me fired up here, Ej.
So what you're having the podcast, you've also come me fired up because Damian Parson was on the podcast before you. That's back to back episodes now, folks, that my guests, not I, my guests brought up Washington State Cougar's Damien went to Day on Henley first talking about linebacker fits and not I agree with him, but you know we did get David Long and Jerome Baker plays a lot of snaps as well. Maybe there's times many snaps for Day on Henley, but you know, I'd love to see
that that guy come down here in South Florida. But man, that is great stuff. EJ really really learned a lot from you in this episode.
He is EJ.
Snyder, one half of Bootleg Football. He also does some work at whin DCD, Gridiron and the Beer. I always get this wrong I always say Beers first, Bears over Beers podcast. I'm excited what the Bears do this year. Man. I love Justin Fields. I think he's great, So I'm excited about what you guys might do. Real quick, what do you think the Bears are going to do a pick number nine?
Oh? I think if Jalen Carter is available at nine, he's a Bear. I'm not saying that's what I would do. I think that if that plays out, If Jalen Carter from Georgia is available at nine, I think he is in Navy in orange and that's the end of that story.
If he's not, it gets really interesting. I would believe if they could and it always takes two and he is not there, they may look to trade down because there are some players that they might be able to get mid first round and still come away with some extra picks. And Ryan Poles understands what he's doing here in terms of team building for the Bears. So if Jalen Carter's gone, they might move. If Jalen Carter's there, he's a Bear.
That would be almost Dolphins es in the last couple of years, where you would be in a position where you could round out your team with a bunch of draft picks, but then also have that backlog of futures draft picks like the Dolphins didn't use those aggressively to go get veterans to fill in those gaps with proven talent.
Man Like that's I love when teams are in this phase where the Bears are of the kind of the rebuild, and I think they have a good chance to really hit a home run there and make you get to watch some competitive, you know, meaningful football in December and January.
Ejam. I'm pulling for you.
The Bears are my NFC team this year, so I'll be thinking about you.
EJ.
Thanks again as always, my man. You can find him at EJ football on Twitter. Help us promote your work, my friend, what are you working on? What's coming up?
It's at football EJ, so people will find me. Don't mess that up. No, that's all right. But certainly bootleg football is where most of it goes. Check YouTube for that. Simply type in bootleg football will pop right up. We're also available, as you said, on every podcast outlet out there, and then you can head over to ESP Nation Windy City Gridiron. I'll be doing a little bit of Bears draft reaction analysis later probably in Day three over there, but coming up, it's the draft live stream for us
all three days, every single pick. We're going to be in Kansas City this year, which is a first for us actually at the location of the draft. Really looking forward to all that. Man, I'll be watching that.
I'll have that on next to the NFL Network in the ESPN house here in the control room at Baptist Health Training Complex.
So looking forward to that.
And like you said earlier, I'm gonna hold you guys to this this year because Brett came down last September, was supposed to come hang out, and he got too busy and couldn't make it out. But I think he owes me a night the seminal hard Rock or out of a one A. I don't know, whatever you guys want to do, I'll let him choose, but I think Brett ozy won this time a round.
Sound good, man, It sounds great. I would love to come see you late this NFL season, get a little bit of good weather, see the super exciting Dolphins team. I mean, you know, you work with him, but it would be my first time at hard Rock, so you know, check another stadium off the list, and you know, a great meal with friends is always welcome.
And work on that tan too. It's a number a bad thing down here in South Florida.
I just hide from the sun. That's my strategy.
Appreciate your time todayj thanks a lot man, Hey, thanks for having me on.
It's always great anytime, and.
Away he goes, as we always do with EJ and these guests. Hearing these draft previews, we learned a lot good stuff from him and like I said, go check out his work. He is absolutely killing it over there at Bootleg Football. He and Brett Coleman two of the best content creators but also two.
Of the best people in this space.
So go ahead and support their work if you would for me please In the meantime, that's going to be my time. The next preview we do, I believe, is Defensive Backs on Wednesday, and then we have the great Jordan Reid on Friday ahead of Kyle Krabs annual two part Draft Dolphins Extravaganza. That's the week of the draft, and then we have podcasts covering the draft, so plenty of content coming your way here over the next few weeks.
Dolphin Centric draft centric, all that good stuff. But like I said, in the meantime, today that's gonna be my time. You all please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts. Leave us a rating, leave us a review. You can follow me on Twitter at Wingfield NFL. Follow the team at Miami Dolphins. Check out the fish Tank podcast, check out the team YouTube channel for media availabilities, Dolphins Today, and so much more, and last not least, Miami Dolphins
dot com. Until next time, Finns Up, Carolina, Cameron Daddy