You were listening to the Miami Dolphins podcast Network. This is Drivetime with Travis Wingfield. Back the throne too a looking slips at the water. It's waddle, It's six touchdown pad of two. Drive Time with Travis Wingfield begins. Now let me check your pulse if 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, one of my favorite episodes we do every year a few times a year, it's time to step back and look at the roster and assess where we are at this point in the calendar. Free agency kind of coming to an end here a little bit, at least the first couple of waves. The draft coming up later I should say next month. We're still in March,
but kind of any midpoint of the offseason. Let's go ahead and evaluate what this Dolphins roster looks like heading into the month of the draft. Will do offense today? Defense? On Friday? That heck of a lot more From somewhere in South Florida, This is the Drivetime Podcast. May gaffe fish. So now that we've hit that point of the I don't know a second or third wave of free agency,
and there's like seven waves. Now as you go through post June one, you get into training camp and you still get some of those late acquisitions that happen with veteran ployers, and who knows how long the Packers situation can draw out or the Ravens situation. You just it just seems like we get moves twelve months out of the year. Let's call eleven, given the kind of dead
period in July. But what I'm trying to say is I want to take a step back today between the draft and the main part of free agency and just take sort of a thirty thousand foot view of a roster that I think most of us feel pretty good about in will of course take shape, like I mentioned, over the next couple of months, because for the most part, you'll get some moves here and there. But once the draft comes and goes, we get those five or six players that we'll see you new members of the Miami
Dolphins UDFA signed up. That's always a big chunk of players, fifteen twenty players. Sometimes then it's pretty much Ota summer break, training camp, and then week one. It's gonna be here before you know it. So we have what are we at sixty players give or take. Here, we're about two thirds of the way to the ninety man roster. But really, when you look at what the fifty three could potentially be, the truth is you're probably there with about forty five
or so of those guys. Right, so draft picks a couple of slots for the UDFA to compete for replacing potential injuries, whatever the case may be, you're pretty darn close to seeing the foundation and the bones and all of your twenty twenty three Miami Dolphins roster. So with that, I think it's a good time to assess that roster and man just looking at it, without even diving into the individuals off the top here how they might fit
or benefit from the systems. I just think you're hard pressed to find a much better Dolphins roster since for me, the easy answer is two thousand and two. But when you look at the positions in which Miami are most stacked at, they sure as hell make up most of,
if not all, of the premium positions. When you consider which spots tend to break the bank in free agency, which spots go at the top of the draft each year, or if you just want to do it from a number standpoint, how the league spends their money at each position each year. Your quarterbacks, your pass rushers, your wideouts, your pass protectors, your cover guys, right, essentially the passing game with run game elements being kind of one B tier.
And I say that because the two thousand and two team actually did a good job of foundational pieces at those premium spots too, especially when you consider how those spots have short sort of shifted over the years. Over the decades, running back used to be that for the younger audience, A lot of offenses actually used to base everything they did around a Ricky Williams, Priest Holmes, A Larry Johnson, A Brian Westbrook, Curtis Martin, Corey Dillon. You
get the idea. And conversely, I think you typically have your positional counterpart on the other side of the football, right, and you can usually determine it is by where would your high school player or your star high school player have played on the opposite side of the football back in high school. And again, maybe this is a generation thing. I haven't been to a high school football game since I graduated from there seventeen years ago. Damn man. Our
running backs in high school were also our linebackers. Our wide receivers were also our dbs. Our quarterbacks typically played safety. Linemen typically played on the line on the opposite side too, right, So by the transitive property, I think that's right. I don't know math, but I'm gonna use the word because that sounds smart. If running back was a premium spot, then so too was linebacker. And that's where a player like Hall of Famer Zach Thomas, who never left the field,
ruled the middle of this defense. Jason Taylor certainly fit the mold of a blue chip player. Sam Madison, Patrick Surtan Brock, Marion, Tim Bowen's the offensive line and had some dudes that year. I mean, how good was Jamie Nails that season. Let's get back on the rails here, Jamie.
I say this because just glancing at the roster, I mean, you're just built for the modern game, with top of the line players at the positions that I believe make the biggest impact in a football game in twenty twenty three, and as much as I can say the game has changed, that defense heavy run game. Two thousand and two team, they did fail to qualify for the playoffs at nine and seven, and they kind of had the same issues
that the two twenty two team did. Their quarterback missed a handful of games when Jay Fiedler broke his thumb. But I like two a tongue of by Low and twenty three a lot more than I like to Jay Fiedler in two thousand and two. Every team has their own mode of player evaluation in the draft is typically new Miracle grades. Some teams use color coding, and that's what I've always done. Blue players equals blue chip. That of course goes back to the nineties vehicle with Shack.
The movie Blue Chips scouting players for a college basketball team as a great movie that one go back and check out Blue Chips. But that's kind of how that starts. But you can kind of look at the roster and I suppose assign your perception of each player in which category they fit into. That's where a lot of the guys stack up in terms of best of the best, in terms of production numbers, film, all that stuff. Then you have the projection for what you think they could be,
and that factors in as well. So when I take a look at it, it's what you've done, what I expect you to do going forward. We kind of marry all that up for the complete package on a player like take Javon Holland for instance, I think he's refringing on a blue player. I don't think his production would
necessarily garner that type of evaluation. But we also talk to something like, I don't know what it was, twelve film experts and analysts in Indianapolis, and every single one of them that I asked about who can stand to benefit the most from Vic Fangio's defense, they all said, Javon Holland's a guy they think can become one of the best safeties if he's not already that player, one
of the best safety in the National Football League. So, for instance, a guy like him, maybe not two years of blue production, but for number three, I am projecting blue for Javon Holland. But to bring this home, before we get to the quarterback position on the offense, defense in Javon Holland will be Friday's podcast, And think about this as you are lifting weights on your walk driving to work, wherever you listen to your podcast, how many blue chip players do you think are on this roster?
And I'll do you one further. The next tier I used, which if you go back to the Lockdown Dolphins whiteboard, was plus starter. That was always my green color. A player who is enraged to potentially make the Pro Bowl be known as one of the top guys at his position. Plus use a previous Dolphin as a good example here, I would say Chris Chambers lived in this category for
most of his career. He made that run that one Pro Bowl in two thousand and five, but he was right on the fine, fine fringe of pushing for blue status really his entire career. But was just a player you could count on and knew that roster spot with solid if not you know, like his counterparts Reggie Wayne, Marvin Harrison, you know players like that back in those days. To me, the blue category from Miami eight, maybe nine, maybe as many as ten. Then the plus starter, which
was always green on my board. Another ten players. I mean, let's go ahead and just go over right now, because looking at the projected lineups, it's impressive and what I went through, and we'll get to the entire individual piece by piece here and tell you why I think this with all these players. But here's my roster breakdown heading into this. The blue chip ninetieth percent TILE player at
your position. You're within the top ninety percent of the players at your position, and that varies obviously for how many players play your spot. So for quarterback, what would that make up at the top, let's see one out of every ten, So I guess the top three or four players at your position. I guess I've attend that probably the top five or six, because quarterbacks a little more unique, and that's why we have, in my opinion, ten blue Chippers on this roster. We'll talk about each
individual like I mentioned as we go along here. But I have the quarterback, two wide receivers, an offensive tackle, two interior offensive lineman, an interior defensive lineman, an edge rusher, a corner, and a safety. My plus starters, I've got eight of those. Those are seventy fifth percent tile, top three quarters of their position in the league. I have eight the fullback, interior defensive line one of them, two edges,
a linebacker, two corners, and a safety. The quality starters, which is better than replacement level means I'm expecting to get better than just plugging in an average type of player. There, I've got eight of those as well, with a running back, to edge, a linebacker, a corner, a safety, a kicker, and a punter. Replacement level is it's not the worst thing in the world. It means you have a job in the NFL, but it means you're always probably looking
for upgrades. There, I've got nine such players quarterback, running back, wide receiver, tight end, offensive tackle, interior defensive line, linebacker, and the long snapper. The next category is depth in complete evaluation or special teams contributor. That's kind of where most of the players tend to fall because if you're young, you haven't played much. You go here fourteen of them.
A quarterback, a running back, four wide receivers, two tight ends, two interior offensive lineman, an edge, a linebacker, a cornerback of safety apart giner peatree. And then the final spot is we don't really know what you've got here, and they typically are the ones in the red. Thirteen of those players don't need to list off those positions here for this podcast, but in total, so sixty two players, ten blue chips, eighteen players who are green or better.
That's all but three of your starters that I think would qualify as top seventy five percent of their position. It's pretty damn good orange or better, which is also you know, better than your replacement level player. Twenty six players. It's every starter plus four rotational guys, and then thirteen in the red. That's where I have the roster outlook heading into the month of April. It is all cherry,
it's all rosy, it's all looking up. Let's go ahead and take our first break right there and come back
and do the individuals, starting with the quarterback position. Here on the Drivetime podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation, looking ahead at your twenty twenty three Miami Dolphins, as the roster is two thirds of the way complete, with sixty two players in tow, the draft still to come, the late phases of free agency, roster activity come August, all of that's still ahead, but we have the bulk of the roster pretty much in place.
And then shape right here, we take a look at the quarterback room. And I told you guys about the color coating here already between two a tongue of bloa Mike White and Skylar Thompson. We heard from coach McDaniel there's going to be a battle for the number two quarterback job, and training camp, we know who QB one is.
He gets the blue connotation, the blue coating here, and I'm saying that because of what I saw last season when he was healthy and playing and productive and engineering one of the top offenses in the National Football League and doing so much high level stuff on top of what I expect a year to jump to look like in the offense. That's why he gets the blue tag.
Is one of the top five or six players at his position right now in the NFL, A yellow designation for a backup quarterback with up and down spots, starting experience for Mike White replacement level, and then the a on Skyler Thompson, obviously with just a couple of starts in a handful of games, still remains incomplete. But as a room as a whole, this Dolphins quarterback position, it's in a great spot. And this is probably what I wanted to look at heading into the offseason in terms
of the construction. To me, the ideal quarterback room looks like this where you have your bona fide starter, one of the best players at his position, And that's how I'm going to continue to view this guy because the head coach views him that way, and this head coach knows more than you or I, and I don't know what kind of matches my evaluation since like twenty eighteen
as well, so I'll just stick with that. Also, you've got the capable backup with that kind of firestarter mentality coming off the bench in a pinch, who can play well from the jump, which I think is the key, Like just don't come in cold and require a few
series to get started. We've seen Mike White do that for the Jets in the past, and then the young guy pushing to challenge him and Skylar Thompson, Like going into camp last year, I don't think many would have projected more than the practice squad for Skylar Thompson because most quarterbacks don't carry three qbs. But he did play in such a way all summer that it was undeniedle that he belonged on the roster. You put him on the practice squad, he probably would have been snatched up
pretty quickly. Just by the time you filed that transaction with the league office, even though the performance in the regular season didn't really match that, I think it was certainly worth keeping him around to get get an evaluation further based upon what he showed you in preseason because it was so good, and now with a second year here to develop in the system, can he take a
big jump and challenge for that spot. It would be a certainly valuable move heading forward if Skyler Thompson were to achieve that role in that status, because you didn't have him on club control for a couple more years on the cheapest contract imaginable to be your backup behind two A Tunga Byloa. So that's kind of where you head into camp looking at this from a dollars and
cent standpoint. But the fact that you have that entrenched starter and then competition with the depth and that guy pushing is a second year player that you still have afforded the opportunity to develop, to me, that's ideal. Like you have a different quarterback in each phase of their career or various stages of their career. It's like cooking a five course meal and you've got to balance the timing on all your dishes. The bread goes in right now, Let's go ahead and fire up that sauce and start
mixing it in. Oh, the noodles are ready to be strained right now. You just have a lot going on and they have to try to finish around the same time. That's kind of what I'm looking at here with give me the freshest, hottest meal possible rather than having your protein sit on the warmer while you wait for your
starts to finish. Just full of analogies. In this podcast, that's what we do, so I love that, But I also want to talk about the skill of each of these players, and that's where the train slows and we go explore the weeds a little bit, as we are wont to do here on the Drivetime podcast. I've been kicking around this content idea for some time, and I
think it's a good spot to explore it. It's what the league looks for, or even better, what equates to good quarterback play versus what you might see on social media fans sites or people that do YouTube channels who I see takes from all the time that just quite frankly don't operate in the same lane that the actual league thinks because I see you conspiracy and you know what it will was the Deshaun Elliott thing. I saw some takes on that about how I don't know, like
what are we doing here? Man? But anyway, Twitter, I do this to myself. I get myself worked up and then I can't even begin to conversate about it because it just annoys me so much. But the idea is that Twitter is not a real place, right. Something like six percent of the population has an account, and of that six percent, another minuscule fraction is actually active on the social media website that continues to get worse under new management. But I digress. It's just not a real
representation of the real world and real people. And I think that's the most true with how football is discussed on this website. I saw a tweet the other day from a fella who fancies himself a draft guru, and with these bubbling rumblings even a word that Frank w Reich and the Panthers might already have settled on their guy before the trade up. I mean, who the hell knows. But what I've seen the most of is that that guy is CJ. Stroud And the tweet I saw was
they better surround that guy with weapons. And the genesis of that tweet was that Stroud isn't the athle like Marvel that Anthony Richardson or Will Levis are right, or come with a scramble acrobatics and highlight reel that Bryce Young has to offer. Right, Okay, cool? So why do you think the Panthers think this way? Assuming they do? Also, shouldn't the goal be to maximize your investment like this is a sidebar to the sidebar, especially the most important
position of all in all sports. Why would you buy a Ferrari body and dropping an Accord engine with it and give you a player Antonio Callaway and Isaiah Ford is his top weapons in an offense? It makes no sense, right, always surround your quarterback with weapons, especially when on that rookie contract in that rookie season, trying to get the league figured out. It's a tough position to learn, a
tough league to learn. So the disconnect is this draft Twitter thinks that tangible traits are what makes a great quarterback, and this is true for all positions. I think it's perfectly ironic that Zach Thomas is going to go into the Hall of Fame as this type of debate wages on endlessly. Zach was certainly a great athlete, but he was he in the Derek Brooks and Brian Urlacker mold. Was he Ray Lewis? No, he certainly was not, so why he was a fifth round draft pick? But he
was just as good of a football player. Why is that? Because playing football is typically what makes a football player good at playing football. And I'm laughing as I'm writing this because it sounds so stupid. But get on Twitter and tell me that's not necessary. And so to bring this back to CJ. Stroud and ultimately our quarterback here in two a Tongabailoa, you know what, made two of the fifth pick in the draft and probably number one if he never suffers that hip injury. You know why
the Panthers are being linked to CJ. Stroud because they excel with rare ability traits that translate to the National Football League. That throw with elite timing and anticipation. They are accurate as hell. They give their wide receivers chances by reacting to their routes faster than the defense can. And you'll hear the same BS arguments. Ohio State and
Bama had loaded offenses. Yeah, they were that, absolutely, But do you really think that Mercedes wins seven straight championships just because of the car or do you think Lewis Hamton had something to do with that? And another thing, this isn't even to disparage the two quarterbacks in terms of their escapability, their arm strength or whatever. Five percent of the time trait we want to blow up into being the most important because it's what gets the highlight reels.
Going go watch two's game. Man, there's a two play sequence in the Chicago game right before the Jeff Wilson touchdown where TWA gets pressure off his left immediately he's dead to rights. It's a free run squared up at the quarterback. Two is going to have to get off that spot to make this guy miss in the pass rush, and he does that. He spins out of the pressure, steps up and throws the football away. He knows the play is dead. He knows second downs, no bueno. I
have to get to third down. It sets up third and six where he identifies Wilson one on one, gets the ball too before he comes out of the break, and that allows him to turn up not just to find the sticks, but find the pylon, and in that moment you get erasing the elite athleticism off the edge
that most teams have these days. When the pass protection breaks down and your play call is caput, you get the anticipation to understand how to mac sumize the route given the coverage in a situation where the defense has the advantage. Right third and six is close to Long's it's third and long medium. I think third and four
to third and six is categorizes a medium. But you get the picture and the idea to understand that you have to get the ball out quick against that leverage, against that coverage, to find Jeff Wilson one on one to give him a chance to turn up because the defense wants to rally and tackle and get him down shore of the sticks. But the timing and throw allows him to get the extra yardage after the catch and not just the first down yardage, the touchdown yardage. Athleticism, timing,
placement all on display in elite fashion there. How about the Houston game. Remember that just was not our best day in terms of pass protection to run. Armstrod exits the game early and twas under pressure really all game long. Go watch it. I challenge you to go back and watch that game again. He is erasing free erunners and hitting chunk gains despite what I would call our offensive line's worst day of the season and pass protection other
days they were phenomenal. That's football, right. You're never gonna get the same performance back to back, really in a given game or given week or given season. I should say so, I watch our quarterback do these things that translates to success. I see him as the perfect fit in this offense that requires pristine timing, understanding of how your concepts attack the vulnerabilities presented in a given defensive play call. I find myself making this argument so often
because to me, it's so easy to see. Yet we have to listen to debate shows or Twitter discourse. Try and tell me that the wheel has been reinvented. It hasn't. Yes, there are more and more athletes at the position. But you know what makes those quarterbacks elite. It's not the two plays a game where they spin out a pressure like two win in Baltimore on the great Craft touchdown. It's the stick nod throw to Waddle where he moves a linebacker and throws with perfect touch over one defender.
Under another I go back to Patrick Mahomes. The dude is the unicorn, right, But you know why he's elite. You know why they won the Super Bowl despite losing the best wide receiver in the National Football League because Patrick Mahomes learned how to attack vulnerabilities and play patient against the ever present too deep looks the NFL has rolled out in recent years. He learned to not force the ball and to limit turnovers. Look at our playoff game.
Josh Allen's a great player. I'd say he's top three quarterback, probably number two for me. But he struggled because he tried to push the ball down the field all game long. He averaged over fifteen yards per air throw. That's a crazy number. He tried to make the splash highlight play and it backfired. And their offense wasn't that good in that game against a defense that struggled all year long.
They gave the Dolphins defense points as well as not you know, converting a lot of first downs for long periods of time in that game, and the Dolphins did a great job battling on those and not really getting beat deep beyond those first couple of drives. But the athleticism also led to a fumble, scoop and score points
on the board. I'm just saying the reason Allen became Josh Allen was the way that he learned how to really master the idea of playing the position in twenty twenty one, really twenty twenty under Brian Dayball, That's who Tua is to me. He's a savant at playing the position, and it's why he was one of the top five qbs in the NFL last year and why highlist him is such there. I think so highly of his game, I think so highly of his fit in this system.
That's the most undervalued thing I think by football, the football cognats day. We talk about it in the draft. Where you go is even more important than how high you go. And they say that because of the fit. McDaniel the person and McDaniel's system maximizes those traits and makes too a special player. And I think the best is yet to come as he gets more and more comfortable and coach McDaniel's system. That's why I think you
have to feel very good about this loaded roster. We're talking about being engineered or pioneered or conducted by a quarterback who I feel is on par with that start level caliber play. That's a lot talking about just one position,
one player. Really, I think the way Mike White plays in the system with his timing and understanding of the game, is a nice transition from QB one to QB two in the event you don't have QB one and then Skyler, with a full year and tons of tape to study on himself in the exact same position, fired up for this QB real you probably keep three, I imagine with the some of the health concerns I went through last year. But we'll see it's a long way away. That was long.
Let's go ahead and just pick it right back up here at the running back position, because we're up against break number two and we're only through one position so far. But let's go ahead and talk about the running backs room full of five players, one as a fullback, and it's a full running back scenario where the quarterback room feels pretty set. It never hurts to bring a fourth arm to camp. We'll see. I doubt it, but we'll see.
I think the running back room could be set, or you could still drop in another player from essentially any level of investment by that. I mean, you could make a legit case to spend pick fifty one on a running back and I wouldn't bat an eye at that. I think you could also make a case you'll only bring in a u DFA or two in training camp. But right now it looks like this for he Mostert,
Jeff Wilson, Savannakhmed, Miles Gaskin. That's how it finished last year, That's how it's going to go into the year of this year. Alec Ingold also part of that fold. Let's go ahead and start with the fullback, who I have as a green player, one of the more valuable pieces on the roster simply because he just does what no one else really can. Yeah, you could probably recreate some of his snaps in the interim with your tight end
of choice. And we didn't get a chance to really see who that was last year because we always had Ingled available, even with the injured hand. But he unlocks so many different formations and plays and man watching him wipe out edges on so many of those big runs where he has to come out and dig out the backside. In addition to what he offers as a fullback and pass protection and running the football. There's a reason why only Patrick Ricard in Baltimore and Kyle Huschek played more
snaps last year among fullbacks. I thought Raheem most who gets a Orange tag for me a quality starter, got better as the year went along, and I could see him pushing for a green tag returning from his injury that wiped out the entire twenty twenty one season. With how quick he gets to the perimeter and then hits the hole even faster, I thought it got better all year long. I think it's like Tua, just a great
thing for the system. I know toront Arms has talked about how good Raheem is for this particular running game, the big plays in the run game, the drive starters, his chemistry with Tuah, the way he is in the locker room, the year here in the system, him with largely the same offensive line, I think the best is yet to come there. And then Jeff Wilson, who I gave a yellow tag replacement level but also really closer to orange as well. We'll see how that plays out
this year. But coming over from San Francisco after not having many opportunities there the injury late in the year, some pass pro and drops that happened late in the season. Let's go ahead and see more before he bumped that up. But he arrives with quite the impact and that touchdown production, some big tackle breaking runs. Quite the compliment in terms of a one two punch with a speed and power situation. I thought we saw some of the ability in the
passing game early before the drops occurred. But I think that when defenses want to play like Buffalo and stay in that nickel defense all game long with lighter boxes, I think Jeff Wilson's a good answer to that puzzle. Y'all know, I'm a huge savan Akmed fan. Speed pass catching ability. I think he's come a long way in pass pro special team contributor. Love the way he can
fulfill that role. But also when you're down in the back, he doesn't give you some massive drop off in offense, like you still have the speed, you still have the smarts and some of the intelligence that goes along with the running game. To me, that's the premier type of
depth back, or ideal type of depth back. He does get the purple tag because not a lot of offensive production, but special teams for sure, and just good quality depth and then Myles gask Him, with his vision and smooth running style, was probably the best pass catcher of the group, but lots of production in this league. Even though it wasn't last year for Miles Gaskin, he comes back for
his fifth season with the Miami Dolphins. So as a whole, I think you could look at it and say there could be some potential upgrades and maybe you didn't get the splash move you wanted, but I think that continuity certainly is valuable. I think we saw a lot of the backs get better as the year went along, and I think the idea is that a full off season, a full year of Raheem and Jeff could really benefit
you in a way. You didn't get the run game going is last year, but also wouldn't be surprised, like I said, because I think you have to look at this offense and say, the next thing this offense can unlock is the running game, and if they can do that, then maybe this offense can go from being really damn good to borderline special. Let's go ahead and take our last break right there and come back and do wide receivers, tight ends, offensive line. That's next Draftime podcast, Your host
Travis wing Field, brought to you by AutoNation. Back here on the late March roster evaluation edition of the Drivetime Podcast, we are two positions in one long winding rant. As the quarterback position tends to go for you boy on the podcast, here we have three more to go wide receivers, tight end's offensive line. Let's go ahead and pick it back up with arguably my favorite position group on the entire team, the wideouts Tyreek Hill and Jillen Waddle. They
both get the blue tags. I mean, that's pretty clear and obvious to me. Blue Chip elite level player Cedric Wilson gets the yellow the replacement level, and then I have a handful of purple and complete evaluations. Eric Azokama obviously Braxon Barrows gets that category for his special team's prowess, not because of lack of evidence. River Cracraft kind of
that same mold. Braylan Sanders falls in the category of just not enough evidence yet, and then Freddie swayin the acquisition off Waivers also goes purple because he's a special teams guy through and through for Freddie swayin so, as you look at this room with two blue chippers, one level and five incomplete evaluations, or I should say four with three with two special teams aces. What really needs
to be said about ten and seventeen. I mean they make the offense go their speed to threaten vertically and how often we hit those vertical shots, which was the best vertical passing game in the NFL by the numbers a season ago, which is also hilarious to me in the face of the discourse. They dictate the way defenses have to stretch themselves and it creates much more room
for everybody else in the offense. And this is all possible, yes, because of that speed, But you wouldn't be able to get that ripple effect if Tyreek and Jalen were not Tyreek and Jalen. And what I mean by that is the fact that if they just they just go hard, like going one hundred miles an hour at all times, not taking reps off, that is what makes the defense have to respect them on every single play. So that's a marquee trait. But man, these are two of the
best route runners and the entire National Football League. The way Tyreek pays attention to the details, and just because my route has offered aping, now he never cheats that route. He's gonna maximize and say, I'm gonna expand this window that the quarterback has and stretch the defense further by finishing this route and driving the leverage until I possibly
until I really can't possibly do it anymore. We've talked about this before with Wattle when watching the games back, the way he maintains speed and gets around reroutes is impressive. He does this move where he kind of takes both of his hands and almost swims over the defender like you'd see from a great pass rusher. It gets them out leverage and allows Jalen to rip through the secondary uncovered without really slowing down. It's a really, really quality
traite in number seventeen. These dudes are so damn elite, and I cannot wait to watch what they do in year two. I think it gets even better for the Miami Dolphins. Then, it's depth, it's a variety of skills,
it's some competition. We broke down Barrios's ability to win in small spaces and how that could pair well with ten and seventeen and certain packages, And to me, I look at this room, as you know we saw it last year with Sherfield and Craycraft getting a lot of the work, kind of not thinking about it in terms of snap counts like one, two, three, four, five receiver, but rather how you package them with their certain offensive groupings like Barrios to me, makes a ton of sense
and third down eleven personnel like third and short eleven personnel for his ability to win quickly and maybe be a blitz beater, a one on one beater when you have Tyreek and Jalen out there. You know what Craycraft offers. He's a real knowledgeable player in the offense, a great blocker with just a good understanding of timing and pacing of routes and how to marry up his landmarks with
two US drops. Also some special teams contributions there. I think we saw Braylan Sanders's ball skills in camp in preseason, then a few targets in the season. I think you expect him to compete for a spot Freddie sway Back claimed off waivers and then Eric Azukama to me, is the catalyst of this part of the wide receiver group, and how you feel about him, I think dictates where you go with this position group from here up until September.
I just think the talent is there man, the way he bounces off tacklers, the way he can make those contests and catches in one on one situations. I keep thinking about the catch he made. I think it was against phil in the preseason. There was a slot fade, and the way he ran the route and stacked and elevated and made the catch and survived the ground. We
talk about Barrios's ability to win in short spaces. Ee offers something a little bit of something different in that role with his vertical prowess and the rack ability we saw in college, and the same way those one on one chances for Barrios are attractive. To beat the quick zone hitters and let's move the chains as Zukama could potentially be a guy that gets those opportunities, slips a tackle with no one near him, and then turns a five yard gain into a fifty yard touchdown. If that
carries over to the NFL watch out. I love his game. I hope it goes that way, but he, to me, is the catalyst. I think conventional wisdom says this room is ready for camp, but I also don't think the positions off the board completely in the draft and definitely not out of the UDFA portion at all. I've mentioned the expertise we have with McDaniel and Welker and their wide receiver background. I'm all about letting them go uncover a gem somewhere akin to what they were able to
get last year with Braylon Sanders's UDFA. We'll see how he develops here. And your number two, let's go ahead and talk about the tight end group. And you know, I think going into the offseason, this is a group you looked at where you can make the most strides and most improvement in an offense where it's tough to get players up to speed at that position. And frankly, I think this position really kind of suffers across the league as a whole in terms of the overall value
you have with it. It's hard to find good players here. Man. Like ask the fantasy community, tight end always seems to be one of the tricky ones unless you go for a Travis Kelcey or you know, formerly Rob Gronkowski. But you have to go in the first couple of rounds of your draft to get those kind of guys. I think the NFL has the same issue here, but we have I've got a two replacement level players, and Durham Smith and Eric sober and then Tanner Connor is purple
entirely because of his unknown nature. I would also maybe shift Smithe to purple as well, because you know you have a core special teamer in his presence on the roster. But I've been on this kick for a while now that this seems like the room that from the talent standpoint obviously, but also just a number standpoint, seems incomplete. Like if we're at sixty two players, there's obviously a lot more to go. We carried five tight ends last year heading into the season opener, so the math tells
you two more at least one more. Right, Durham Smith is back, and you know exactly what you're getting with Durham. He's the top of the line special teams, some quality reps in the running game, capable as a pass catcher when you need him in that role. But obviously you kind of go towards the receivers more in this offense. Then you've got two relatively unknowns as far as Dolphins fans go. We broke down Soberts game on the episode
last week and man, I'm intrigued by his game. Hand size near the top of the charts in terms of all time combine measurements. I think you see that in the way he catches the football, and let's be honest, tight ends typically have to make catches in traffic. That's where the big mits coming to play for Sobert and I tend to think that this could be the best year of his career coming into this offense, just based upon the tape and the fit and the opportunity that
he has right now. But we'll see if that opportunity becomes Because how about the potential of whether it's a newcomer or Tan or Connor who has track speed, a big frame, locks and impressive times running down the field on kickoff coverage. He's one of these guys that I'm not really sure how to evaluate because I don't think we have seen enough of what he has to offer.
But if he can take a big step, what a boon that would be for not just a tight end room, but the entire offense and football team in general, because this is one area I think we all agree Dolphins have to get better. They haven't done that yet. Sober is a nice start there, but I think you probably look at another addition. But if Tanner Connor can elevate his game to be one of the guys that contributes, that would be massive for this roster in so many ways.
Let's go ahead and finish on the offensive line, and I know the audience here was happy to hear Coach McDaniels kind of pontificating about the position group where they currently stand, what is still to come in terms of player acquisition. And you look at the offensive tackle position, like obviously to Ron Armstead, blue player Austin Jackson, I think to this point has been replacement level. And then you have three players kind of in that red territory
where you just don't really know. I mean, all three of these guys were unemployed at different times last year, so that gives you a feel for where they are currently. But that can always change, of course, But you have to love what you got from Toronto. Armstead in his first year when he was out there just so solid, and you think about, you know, what Connor Williams was in the pivot and what he did in his new position.
I think the value both those guys offer in terms of their production, but also what they can do with your left guard and their ability to just so frequently be right in terms of getting the protection, slide correct, identify your green dog, blitz as your bluffs, your backouts, everything in between. That communication skill set reverberates across the
entire offensive line, going back to just the tackles. Now, Austin Jackson's one of the big keys on this roster in terms of him getting back, getting right and getting healthy and playing the best football of his career. That's what he has to do this season. Had a good camp last year, but then the attrition began from the opening game, Like he gets injured, comes back out and doesn't have a great game against the Texans, goes back
on the ir for the rest of the season. Getting him healthy and playing to that potential we saw back in twenty twenty before his first injury that year when I thought like Man's like a franchise left tackle. That
Jacksonville game on Thursday night was incredible. To get him back playing like that would be such a potential big lift for this team because of what Mike McDaniel talks about in terms of the spending on the offensive line, Like if you want to go out and spend sixteen million dollars a year on Mike McGlinchey, You're gonna have
to sacrifice somewhere else. You're gonna have to sacrifice, you know, at your skill positions with going and getting Jalen Ramsey and Xavien Howard a future in the future, paying Javon Holland you gonna have to sacrifice. You want to pay a premium player like you had to pay to Ron Arms at left tackle, Like you can't have them all premium players at those spots. So for him to come back and realize that potential in year four and maybe
you know, that makes the cost for year five affordable. Again, maybe that's a potential route, but he has the opportunity to really help the Dolphins books their roster, their production, and ultimately their chance to win a championship, which is number one, right, So key key player in Austin Jackson. Beyond that, we saw Lamb come in for a pinch and play well but minim playing time and then really nothing from a Geron Christian and then Keon Smith in
limited action had some struggles as well. Like the tight end position. This is a group that would seem to be going a little bit light in terms of having how many guys they have going into camp with just the five, They're going to be adding guys to that room, no doubt. On the interior offensive line mentioned Connor Williams. I just think he's such an asset and offense that really utilizes the athletic ability at center that Connor has not to mention working with Tua to get the protection
calls right. He's intelligent. He helps us in more ways than meet the eye. And alongside Robert Hunt, who I think with the way he plays behind his pads, generates push and has great awareness and pass protection, to me, he's on track to having a Pro Bowl type of career where every year you can count on that guy making the Pro Bowl. Doesn't have the name recognition yet,
but I think he will get there eventually. I think last year's performance in a game or a recognition that kind of takes a couple of years to build at that position. I think next year Robert Hunt could be the year that he breaks through. Those guys have been so damn good to me. They're both blue players. I have Robert Jones, who's played at replacement level for me over the early part of his career incomplete still on Liam Eichenberg because of the injuries and the time missed
and the rough rookie season. I have Dan Feenie kind of in that same mold, just hasn't played a whole lot. I think this system and the potential backup center could be a boon for him, So maybe he has a chance to kind of change that coloring as much as Liam Eichenberg does. And then we have Lester Cotton in
the red to round out that group. But then the left guard position another one that has several players that got time a year ago, a spot that I don't think it's as important as the right tackle spot, but to see someone like Leah Meichenberg or Robert Jones sees that position, gosh, that would be huge. And Robert Jones's sheer mass makes him a good matchup and pass pros
or like his game, they're a little bit. Leah Meichenberg had some improvements last year, but then came back and it wasn't kind of you know, what he was hoping for in that second go round after the injury. I'm really curious to see where Foenie winds up the backup center potential. I think he could battle for a starting job at left guard because of his fitting skill set, and then Lester Cotton got some time lash year in
the playoff game. I think you know what you have at left tackle, center, right guard, and then some potential to run out the rest of the group, but right now not enough for a five man group. The idea to me is to get yourself in a position where you don't have a glaring hole at any of the spots. Whether it's an incumbent, whether it's improvements, whether it's an imported player. We'll see what happens. But I expect this coaching staff to understand they have to get better at
those two spots and we'll see what happens there. So that's your offense. I've got the quarterback as a blue player. I have a Orange running back, which means a quality starter and a replacement level player there as well, with a green fullback that's a plus starter. I've got two blue chip wide receivers and a handful of developmental players
in that group. I've got the best thing at tied end is a develop a replacement level player there, and Eric Sobert on the offensive tackle position, i have a blue chip player to Ron Armstead, I have a replacement level player there as well, and then a handful of reds. And then on the interior, I have two blue chip players, and Connor Williams and Robert Hunt one replacement level and then we'll see on the rest. So pretty good look
at the offense there. Defense is going to compete in a similar vein one of the defense on the Friday podcast, not going to be as long as this one because they don't have a quarterback rant to go on as I tend to do on the offensive podcast. Here. That's my time, though. In the meantime, you all please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcast, leave us a rating and leave us a review. You can follow me on Twitter at Wingful NFL. Follow the team
at Miami Dolphins. Check out the fish Tank podcast with Seth and Juice, check out the YouTube channel for Dolphins to Day and media availabilities, and much much more, and last but not least, Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time finds up Carolina Cameron, Daddy's coming upstairs for dinner right now,