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I removed and deep speedways peas do. From the Baptist Health Studio. This inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is Drivetime with Travis Wingfield. He's my hands in the playoffs.
What is up, Dolphins? And welcome to the Draft Time Podcast. I am your host, Travis Wingfield. And on today's show, part two of our exit interview series, our year end review takes us to my man OJ McDuffie's room, his residence, the wide Outs. We'll break down the room, tell you about the numbers and the skills of each guy, what to look forward to. And on top of that, I did a little bit of injury data research because I
got asked about it on Twitter. All of that and more from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.
This is the Draft Time Podcast.
Hey Daffy, I don't want to start this podcast today with an injury research I was telling you guys about. But I'm gonna do a new segment on the show here going forward, taking a look at college prospects as we get closer and closer to the NFL Draft.
And I made a song. I created a.
Song, and I'm very very very excited about it. We'll do that at the end of the podcast. Here, let's go ahead and start though, because someone on Twitter asked me about my tweet that they're looking for comparative numbers regarding the Dolphins injury situation that I tweeted about and how few players played X amount of snaps for Miami this season, and I thought to myself, I'm doing all
that for Twitter. Also got rid of Twitter blue for the football or for the off season, because I don't want to tweet enough to make money and I'm never gonna be an aggregator, never gonna do it.
Do you guys make a lot of money doing that. It's not worth it to me. I don't Knowles's it's a lot of money, but maybe maybe it is.
But I got rid of Twitter blue for the off season, and I probably wouldn't do it if I had Twitter Blue.
But without Twitter Blue.
I'm definitely not putting all that stuff on Twitter. So I'm doing on the podcast because I do get paid for this. So I tweeted about some Miami numbers about their injuries they occurred accrued this season, and we could just blanket this and move on from it. But the truth is that nobody lost more wins above replacement this year than you are Miami Dolphins when you remove the
quarterback out of the equation. But I put it together some thresholds on teams in the AFC and who had what amount of players play certain percentages of their snaps on the offensive side of the football, And so I broke it down like this to thresholds of players on the team's offense within the AFC, getting very specific here, right what's you're biting average at night time when the moon is in sagittarius against a left handed pitcher, players
exceeding eighty five percent snaps, seventy five percent snaps and then fifty five percent of the snaps on offense. And from Miami they had two guys exceed eighty five of their offensive workload. That was to a tongue by Loa and Austin Jackson. And we're gonna pause right there, because that in itself is instructive because you came into the year thinking, I don't know how many games I can
get from Austin Jackson. He missed a handful of games his rookie year, he missed an entire season his third year, and a second season, he got moved positions because his performance wasn't good enough. Who the heck knows what kind of durability he has to a tongue of I Low's durability. Everybody in the you know, in speaking of Twitter blue
is the same thing as the morning talk shows. All those guys getting their engagement takes off wanted to to retire from the game of football because of injuries.
He played the entire year.
He didn't miss a snap except for when he got pulled because of dominance. But those are the two guys that exceeded eighty five percent of the snap So now I was thinking about this because Buffalo had their entire starting offensive line played the entire year, Like, what the hell kind of luck is that, dude. But Miami also only had two players exceed seventy five percent because Durham Smyth and Liam Eichenberg both were between seven and seventy
five percent. That's telling you how many reps the Dolphins missed from key players on offense and Durham Smith and Leam Mikenberg. You know, I thought Durham had his best year of his career. He's still a blocking tight end right A y tight end. It's not the most important position on the field, and leam Miikenberg came into the year is like o line. Eight guys that played fifty five percent of the snaps are more just five now Tyreek Hill is the fifth on that list, So pretty
good there, And that's the gist of it. I just wanted to go around the NFL or on the AC I should say, and talk about teams and what they had, because this is pretty jarring. Compare it next to Miami. Like Buffalo six players over eighty five percent of the snaps. Eight players played a three quarters, so they have four more than Miami and six more than Miami in those critical spots. No wonder they hit their stride late in
the season and Miami kind of fell off of theirs. Now, the fifty five percent snap threshold I came to find out at the end of this research project was not very telling, even though it was from Miami, because most
teams had like eight or nine. But you wouldn't have more than that because offensive linemen five of those guys A quarterback running backs usually work half the workload and then beside your top one or two receivers, you get guys that have varied workloads as well, so that number at eight or nine was pretty common across the league.
But even the Jets right who had.
I would say before Miami's injury woes really kicked into high gear in the second half of the season, the Jets were the most injured team in the AFC them in the Cleveland Browns. And even still, the Jets had one more player than Miami exceed eighty five percent of the snaps they had three of them. They had double the players play three quarters of the snaps, four to R two, and they had eight players play fifty five percent or more to our five Jets. All year long
you heard about injuries. Miami was more injured than the Jets were, except for the quarterback position, which I digress because that's a big deal. I'll give you that the Patriots that theirs was like ours. They had one player go over eighty five percent. That's because they were terrible. They're the worst offensive personnel in the entire National Football League. The Browns, who again offensive line was beat to crap
by the end of the year. They had to go through multiple different quarterbacks, So no quarterbacks on this list. But even with all that players that played eighty five percent of the snaps we had two, they had two seventy five percent of the snaps we had, two had five. The Browns were so banged up on offense this year, and we yet somehow were more banged up. The Steelers five and five to R two and two. The Bengals, they were hurt all year. Wrong long, right, I mean
Joe Burrow the quarterback, big deal. But five and eight compared to R two and two for eighty five percent and seventy five percent. The Ravens four and five, and they were a team that last couple of years didn't have. They had similar numbers of the Miami Dolphins and their injury numbers the last two years. They finally get healthy and look at them. They're the best team in the NFL in my opinion. The Colts six and seven players to R two and two, right, and ten players who
exceeded fifty five percent of the snaps. That's double we had this year. The Titans just like US, two players over eighty five percent, but five players over seventy five percent.
That's more than double.
And eleven players exceed fifty five percent of the snaps, but none of those players were quarterbacks because they couldn't hid too. The quarterback is gonna be this year because their best quarterback was the backup quarterback. And then they put the rookie in and I digress again at digressing here. The Texans two and four, so similar to us. The
Jags five and seven. That offense was completely broken by the end of the year, but they had seven guys on the offense play three quarters of the snaps.
If we got that, are you kidding me? The Chiefs five and five, That five number is very good.
If you get five year players playing eighty five percent of your snaps for more, you're in a good spot right there. The Raiders six and six, the Broncos six and seven, the Chargers right. Chargers fans, all they talk about is how everything in the world always works against Justin Herbert. He can't possibly overcome these dire circumstances that he faces every single year. We had two players play eighty five percent of the snaps on offense.
They had four. We had two players play seventy five percent of the snaps on offense. They had five.
We had five players play fifty five percent of the snaps offense. They had ten crimea river Man. So the two players exceeding eighty five percent of the snaps that we had was tied for the lowest with Houston, Cleveland and Tennessee the two players exceeding seventy five percent of the snaps. Nobody else had that low. In fact, only
one other team had three players. Only two other teams had four players, So that's three four So three quarters of the conference had more than double the amount of players we had played seventy five percent of the snaps.
Is that a confusing sentence? Let me slow it down. We had.
Three quarters of the AFC, so take out the entire AFC East. The rest of the AFC had more than double the amount of players on offense exceed seventy five percent of their workload. That's how injured the Mounty Dolphins were this year. Twelve teams had at least five players exceed many work snap counts snaps and the average on balance was five point three. So we had less than half the conference average for our offensive players playing three
quarters of the snaps this season. I know it's a lot to digest in a podcast vehicle here, but does that track for you?
Guys?
Pretty banged up man, the nine players exceeding fifty five percent, This number actually seems irrelevant, like I talked about, because now that I did the entire conference, pretty much everybody is in that same number. But yeah, man, not ideal. Having our quarterback and a tackle for nearly every snap
is awesome. But the third highest was a guy who wasn't even a top swing interior offensive lineman literally O line seven, maybe eight, And number four was a blocking specialist tight end number five the best receiver in the NFL.
That's cool.
But then number six was O line eight, Lester Cotton. So maybe there's even more to that research project, and I think it's worth digging into. But I also think the point has already been made, and that is this from your or four year snap counts to go like this quarterback right tackle ninety percent plus.
That's cool.
Number three, O line seven, number four, you're eligible five at best best? Right, would Cedric and Braxon be ahead of Durham on the eligible list? I would, I tend to think so, not blocking but catching the football. Number five is receiver one, number six O line eight, number seven, O line six. Kendall Lamb was the seventh highest snap taker that is far less than ideal. Like our best players on offense, I would say, are Tyreek than Wattle? Then I'd say Tua, Then maybe rob Let's just rank it.
I'm going Tyreek Wattle to my top three players on offense, and then I think Robert Hunt, and then Devon eight Chan, then Connor Williams Moster, Jackson, ingold, Tea Stead headed down year this year, Win, and Smythe. That's my top twelve. How did they rank in snap counts? So Tyreek is first, right, fifth most, Wattle eighth most, Tua first most, most most, Hunt tenth most. So your top four players are five, eight,
one to ten. How about your top five players? Eight Chan was nineteenth, Connor Williams, your sixth best line or offensive player was thirteenth, Moster, it was ninth, Jackson second, finally Ingle, fifteenth, Teesta, twelfth, Win, sixteenth, Smythe fourth, like third, sixth, seventh, eleventh, all not within our top twelve players.
And I'd add fourteen and fifteen to that too. Not good man.
Okay, let's go ahead and take our first break rate there. Injuries have been proven a problem for the Dolphins this year. Right on this podcast, we just proved it didn't know before, but now we know for sure it's a problem. Let's go ahead and take a break rate there. Come back on the other side and break down this Dolphins wide receiver room. That's next Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. Quarterbacks on Monday, Receivers
on Wednesday. I think I'm gonna do. I think I'm gonna do offensive lineman on Friday. We'll find out might be less. That's a big position group to get into, and Friday is usually a lighter show.
Let's go ahead and.
Do receivers here real quick though, because the room in general, I think I have an issue with it. The usage of ten and seventeen, no issue there, But if you're going to operate that idea in terms of how those guys come off the field more than I think most top two receivers across the National Football League, I think you have to be better the rest of the room beyond that, receivers three through six. I like the blocking and the will of all these guys. I think they're
wired the right way. I think they have the right mindset. But we're so small out there and that shows up. But also, our inability to win one on one matchups elsewhere was an issue. I think it was fine in twenty twenty two because Reek and Waddle were healthy all year, but with Wattle's injuries accumulating to the point of just not being that effective for a lot of the season and Tyreek's ankle injury.
I mean, those guys are the driving force of the entire offense.
It's built around their ability to run fast, to run a lot of steps. I think they're step counter probably is at thirty thousand every game day, and they have to do that at top speed, right, And I get you need to keep them fresh, And I think you lost a key piece to the entire equation in Eric Azukama. But I think that just speaks to how you need better, cheaper investments in that position. Because Cedric Wilson for the first two years it didn't. It didn't work out, right.
I get that he was signed with a contract commesurate to not knowing that we're gonna have Tyreek Hill on the football team before he you know, before Tyree got here. But even still the last two years production wise, it didn't. It's was nowhere close to worth the value you paid for him, Braxon Barrios got paid quite a lot.
Didn't really work out in the receiving game.
Ether River Craikraft, I think you got exactly what you paid for Sherfield last year. Didn't kind of kind of right, but that wasn't the idea. You expected Cedric or Azukama or someone to beat him out and it just didn't happen. But you look around the league, like Rashi Rice happened this year. Puka Nakua is not a realistic measure, but
he did happen this year. If we could hit on a rookie who can be that number three when they're healthy and even more importantly, just be a competent too when we don't have one of those two guys, that could be to me, a major, major game changer, major changer this year for the Miami Dolphins. I mean, on top of Rice and Nakua, Tank Dell, if we had Rashid Rashid Shahed this.
Year, Are you kidding me?
There are rookies among the top producers every single year wherever you want, Olave and Wilson Watson and Dubbs Jaden Reid for the Packags this year for that matter, I think you get it by now, But all I'm saying is we need that. But also my point is that there's a point to be made about investing into the position and maybe even with your most valuable resource this offseason,
that twenty first pick. If the best player is a receiver who can get vertical and stem and stack on any of the options of a three way, go inside, turn the card in, let's go score thirty five points a game.
Again, that was fun.
Wasn't it hard to beat you when you score that many points? And look, I hate to say it, but you know you're gonna need that big money savings at that position at some point because it'll be like case where clearing Tyreek's money off the books, you have to do it before you pay Waddle, and you're gonna have to find a new balance at that receiver bus and then you have a new Waddle on that rookie deal.
So you kind of have to keep that cyclical.
And I know we need to buildup the offensive line, but the fact is this skill group is still the most important aspect of the entire football team. See, you better keep that pipeline full because right now, what does the future look like beyond those two guys, it's literally Eric Azukama and like Braylen Sanders, who last year had two ops, I recall one was a fumble, one was a really poorly ran route that should have been a long touchdown.
I'm just saying, so that's kind of the room at the glances.
Let's go ahead and go player by a player here once again, going to go in order of who had the most snaps this season. Number ten, Tyreek Hill, who had the second most catches, first most yards, and them tied for the most touchdowns one nineteen, seventeen, ninety nine, and thirteen in those categories, and among the eighty target threshold receivers, he was sixth in yards per target at ten point five.
He had the most first downs with eighty three.
He also had a fifty seven point nine percent success rate, which was seventeenth in the NFL. But if you look at the fact that he averaged fifteen point seven yards per catch at that volume, the highest target total of guys that were ahead of him in yards per reception was one thirty six.
He was one seventy one.
He was third targets had more than five hundred yards more than DeVante Adams, who had four more targets than he did. He had nearly seven hundred more yards than Garrett Wilson, who had three fewer targets. I mean, we could go down the list, but this is the best receiver in the National Football League.
Some more numbies.
He broke the record for yards per route run and advanced metric, established back in two thousand and three. I don't believe they go back further than that because Jerry Rice might have something to say about that, but I don't think he would because Rice never left the field and they had lots of mouse to feed that offense. Right, But this just speaks to the sheer efficiency that Tyreek exhibits.
Like he catches the ball and he makes explosive plays.
He only played sixty three percent of the snaps and garnered those one hundred and seventy one targets. And if you look at the other guys with that target share, Lamb played eighty five percent, Adams played ninety two percent, Saint Brown played eighty five percent.
You get it.
Tyreek's usage is way less than all the other number one receivers in the NFL. The YPPR was three point seven to two. Randy Moss back in seven was two point twenty six. It's almost a yard and a half more Calvin Johnson when he had nineteen hundred and sixty four yards back in twenty twelve two point five to five. Dude Reek was fifth in total yak. He had six hundred and eighty nine yards after the catch. He also had twenty eight forced miss tackles, that was most among receivers.
Deebo was second with twenty five. He had a one twenty point two passer rating when he was targeted that was fourth among receivers with eighty targets. The thing about Tyreek the numbers displayed the results for sure, but man, it's the detail in his game that really sets him apart. I know everyone sees the speed, the explosives, the celebrations, all that fun stuff, right, but it's his fine detail in the route running that really gets those big openings.
I logged two plays this year against the Raiders. We're gonna do a YouTube breakdown. You guys saw the we did. Who did we do alec Ingold? We did two earlier in the year. We did Jalen Ramsey and we did Bradley Chubb. Tyreek was gonna be one of those, but he got injured so we didn't do it. But I had a couple of plays logged, and he runs the
exact same route. It's a twenty five yard comeback to the perimeter from the boundary the short side of the field, and both route is the are the exact same, but they're completely different. He alters the release, the stem, the pacing. It all looks identical, but he shows how he can attack whichever release you give him and still sell you on the opposite of what he's going to do.
He tends to complete his routes with the attention to detail.
That helps expand the defense, and that's the entire goal of your offense, right expand their coverage, expand that space, and exploit that space. And he does that by taking the extra step, by taking the extra head nod, by finishing his route completely opposed to just saying, oh there's space here, I'll go ahead and check up his speed. The detail that's what makes him the best in the game. I think that parent's competitiveness, his confidence also has this
reverberating effect that just helps the team in general. I do think the approach changed this year A little bit. He had much much less work in camp. He was always a last one out to practice every single day.
Like I get it.
Stars are stars, and receivers tend to have this type of mentality. But it felt a little bit like there was more investment last year. In fact, he referred to this. He talked about how he kind of got stale towards the end of the year.
That blows my mind.
I'm not going to complain about the best receiver in the game, but like what, you know, the concentration lapses, you know.
He admitted that.
He had to kind of refocus his game at the end of the year, and that was evident. I mean, he had major, major gaffs in every single big game we had until the playoff game. I thought it got the best out of him in the Kansas City playoff game. Though, we can help him even more, I think next year with better separators around him. But he needs to fix that issue in his own right, but we can help there.
He caught just seven to twenty three contested passes thirty point four percent, one of the lowest among the top receivers.
He's thirty in March, But it.
Doesn't seem like he's slowing down anytime soon. Just some more advanced metrics for you here. On Tyreek eight hundred and forty eight yards on deep passes. The next most was five point fifty two Mike Evans, who also had three more targets than Tyreek. On those twenty plus air yard throws. He averaged twenty two point three to two yards per route ran on those plays. Mike Evans was thirteen point four to six. He's almost double, like almost double in these categories.
Man.
His five hundred and eighty yards from the slot was eighth most, despite the fact that only thirty nine percent of his targets came from the slot alignments. Nobody ahead of him was less than fifty five percent slot usage, and most of them were in the seventy percent range. He's the best, man. I think Jalen Waddle is not that far behind him, number seventeen. Kind of crazy that in a down year he becomes the first Dolphin ever to begin his career with three consecutive one thousand yard seasons.
Of the twenty seven receivers with one thousand yards, only Justin Jefferson had fewer targets this year, one hundred compared to wadalls one oh four, so he was twenty sixth in yards thirty six in catches. He did have half the touchdowns from last year with four, but this all came on just one on one targets, which is thirty
ninth in the National Football League. So he outproduced guys with more targets hit a sixty nine point two percent reception rate, which shows you how multifaceted that he is. Because you know, as if we needed to see anymore after he showed you he can be a force fed number one receiver and a ball control offense that did not use his skills at all, but also the most electric playmaker in the league in a stretched out offense
when they use him right. Last year twenty twenty two, I just think the whole year was one where he never really got fully healthy because he wasn't as best
for most of the year. I think when you go into a season and say that he only topped our number three receiver or a number three snap taker at receiver by sixty six snaps, after what I just told you about how they want to use these guys in a refreshing role, you would point to that as one of the biggest challenges with regards to limiting the offense from being its fully functional self to what it became right because this thing is built around Reek and Waddle.
Tua told us as much. He told us this all year long.
Those two guys are so important to our offense. The entire thing is built around them. We run routes that most teams can't be of those guys, and the numbers back it up too. Skill players with lengthy routes, love of the game, routes, pressing the safeties to expand the defense, shifts and motions require sprints before the snaps even happen. It's just so pivotal to have those two guys available
because their speed is what creates the space. Not just out there playing but at their best, their physical best. But on top of playing six hundred and eleven snaps fifty six percent of our offense, only sixty six snaps more than Cedric, only one hundred and fifty five more than Braxton. How about the miss practice time. I remember McDaniel raving over Wattle's spring or offseason program and how if anybody could afford to miss time, it would be Wattle.
And look, it's not like it slowed us down to start the season. Right. We came out of the gates as hall as anybody else ever in the National Football League history. But I do think practice is important. And in fact, if I can just look back at this, like the oblique injury, when was that, there's a tweet for that August ninth.
Here, let's do this.
Actually, I can go back and look at the injury reports, so we know that he played fourteen games.
We know he missed some time.
I remember the second play of the KC game in Germany when he gets rolled up on and was in and out of the lineup. If you have Wadle the entire game, maybe you win that game. If you win that game, you're playing at home against Pittsburgh. Like these small things added up for our season to go the way it did at the end. Same thing happened in the Dallas game. He gets an ipoke early on and then gets rolled up and has to leave the game entirely.
So really, in the aggregate for Guaddle probably played roughly twelve games this year, I would say with all the time that he missed in those games. So the oblique that kept him off the practice field from August ninth, and he returned the week of the Chargers game, where he was limited all throughout the week of practice that week. Then he was limited to start the week against New England,
but then upgraded to full by thursday's practice. Then he got hurt in that game and missed Denver, but then he was off the injury report for Buffalo Giants, Panthers, Eagles, but then a back injury had him on it for for the next game. In those five games, three hundred and sixteen yards, three touchdowns, almost all of his touchdown production, one third of his season yards total. And in that New England game, he was limited in practice all week long,
and he's back to full participant again. Second player of the game gets rolled up on and plays just half the snaps. Then he was full go for the Jets, then fully back with no designation versus Vegas and Washington, and guess what, another healthy run. He fully practices through those games, through the Cowboys game, and then the next time that he would practice was the one practice.
We had against the Chiefs ahead of that game.
So if you have three practices a week, it's not always this way with short weeks and you know time off, but for the sake of the study, that's fifty one in season practices. Wattle was a full participant for thirty two of those practices, and that's after missing way more than fifty percent of camp. And you can tie the production to this weeks where Waddle was healthy and a full participant all three days. There was nine of those games he had fifty nine for seven to fifty five
and three. That six and a half catches eighty three point nine yards. Let's do the let's pro rate that. What is eighty three point nine times seventeen oh weird, fourteen hundred and twenty six yards. It's what he was last year, same exact production, just got hurt this year. And then point three touchdowns per game, so six and a half eighty four yards. Remember that in the five games where he was limited at least once in practices, fifteen catches two sixty two and one touchdown. That's three
catches per game less than half. That's fifty two and a half yards per game, almost thirty is thirty yards less per game, and then point two touchdowns per game. I think practice reps in a timing based offense with two receivers that the offense runs through is important. Maybe I'm wrong some more on Waddle here. He's a top ten receiver anyway. You cut at the acceleration. Those deep balls running through brackets that Tyreek did, he does that too.
The ballers didn't go there enough. The route against DJ Reid for the touchdown against the Jets. I think we talked about it on the All twenty two podcast. He's hitting the turnpike at full speed, where so many drivers crawl onto the ramp at forty five and cause all kinds of issues and backup traffic. But his ability to break off a full speed cut is so rare. He's
an angle eraser, a man coverage destroyer. I felt like we missed those quick hitters where he takes the slant, it hits an explosive, like the first play of the year against the Chargers, catches a slant, takes at thirty yards and we're off and run an all game long.
Did we ever have that again?
It didn't feel like it, aside from the third down conversion of the Patriots where he essentially walked him off in a game clincher.
But I digress. That was a coverage bust.
I think if there's one thing you'd want to see from those two guys from Tyreek and Waddle. Seventeen total drops was the most by a tandem in the NFL. In fact, reequa second, Wattle was like seventh and drops from according to PFF. But also like the drops leaders are essentially the top target guys like Pooka led the league with thirteen, Adams is one behind Reek with nine. Evans and Digs tied for fourth, so some of the top guys do drop the football. Now the question is
can Waddle be available? I think he's one of the toughest players in the league, but how many times did he get hurt this year? It seemed like every other game. That's really all we need from him. Just stay out there because you're an elite player when you are, and that the drop off to the rest of the room is well, let's say it's Stark speaking of that, iss come back on the other side, finish up the room. I also have to debut my new segment all that
next Draft Time podcast. Your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation, didn't know that was going to be the Tyreek and Waddle segment, but it does turn out that way. As we finished up the receiver room here with the third highest snap taker on our exit
interview series here the wide receivers. On this January twenty fourth, twenty fourth podcast, twenty fourth edition of the Drive Time Podcast Cedric Wilson, who caught twenty two for two ninety six and three on thirty eight targets, a fifty eight percent catch rate. He averaged thirteen and a half yards per catch. He gained fourteen first downs, a forty seven point four percent success rate, one point one yards per
route ran. He caught half of his contested catches five of ten, and when Tua targeted him a ninety two point two passer rating. I thought there was a clear jump in performance from last year to this year with Cedric, just in terms of getting lined up correctly.
He did cost us a critical first.
Down in the playoff game by aligning wrong, which will again send Wes Wilker's head to Planet Neptune.
He blasts off in an anger.
But I thought there was more comfort in the system, the ability to run multiple positions, which is a non negotiable in this offense. If you're gonna operate in this offense, the motions, the shifts you better be able to play all those spots and know where the hell you're going. I thought he did a good job operating in those multiple alignments, and he showed strong hands at the catch point.
But man, it just has to be better. I think our eligible, our next eligible is a back in terms of who you'd go to, and that's eight Chan, especially next year, and then moster A if he's back as well. But like the Niners have Samuel as their three, yes, Auk passed him this year, and Kittle is the engine that drives the offense. And that's beyond Christian McCaffrey, who I would say is number one on top of all those guys. But those are your top four and it's
Samuel and Ayuker Kittle. Like your three is either Samuel or Kittle or I you like, I don't know, it's one of those guys. Look at what Khalil shakurgan from Buffalo down the stretch. He was the number three option
all year long. The Ravens went and signed Odell Beckham to be that guy because they already had Flowers and Andrews, not to mention Bateman, and likely the Bengals had Tyler Boyd the last few years to make up their trio with Higgins and Chase, Like, I don't think we have the room to get someone of that caliber, a top of the line slot receiver or interior presence. But it just has to be better, like the we talked about
the on the Quarterback podcast. Hey shut up email, It's just gotta be better because like so many times, teams would just take away Reeker, Wabble, whoever was out there, and then we could not win one on ones inside. And I think that between the Kendrick Bourne a Juwan Jennings, these big physical guys that can run a little bit, not as much for Born as it is for Jennings, but also block a lot. You know, Brian Thomas, the receerior from LSU in the draft, there's no a tight
end that could be that guy. Lots of options out there, but it has to get better next year. Number zero Braxon Barrios twenty seven, two thirty eight and one on thirty three targets, eighty two percent catch rate golden retriever man catches everything but eight point eight yards per catch, fifteen first downs, fifty seven point six percent success rate is very good, but point seven to one yards per out ram.
It tells you the limitations.
Two for four on contested catches, an eighty one point eight passer rating when he was targeted, I thought he was going to have more run as that interior one on one separator, but he just didn't win enough to do that. He made some big catches and I thought he had a good nose for the sticks, although one instance he did not get the first down marker on a critical third down against Buffalo. But I also thought he was the most trustworthy punt return we've had since
Juice O Jim McDuffie. I don't know, but I love his decision making down there around the goal line. But as much as I love the return game, like I said, it just has to get better. Eighty five River Craycraft nine one, twenty one and one on twelve targets, he caught three corps. Of the passes they threw to him,
eight of those nine catches were for first downs. That's a two to third percent success rate, sixty six percent, one point sixty six yards per out ram, and he had a one to twenty eight point two passer rating. Speaking of none on the offense, no one knew it better than River did coming back in twenty twenty two.
I know it was really tough on him to stuff for the injury early on this year, but man like he's he's so trustworthy in terms of you know, he's gonna be where needs to be, but like a little more to the game than that, right, I think that Rivers as dependable and as reliable and the type of teammate you want, a great presence in the locker room.
He's very much in that mentor role, a guy that can help the younger guys and other players understand the offense and how complex it can be in very many ways. I think he's an ideal like fifth or sixth.
Receiver on the roster.
Like every route he runs, it's quiet hands, it's late, subtle movements, and just a crafty technician. I like Rivers game, but he's like your fifth receiver, right, It's kind of what he was all year long. Robbie chosen for one twenty six and one on six targets, thirty one point five yards per catch, one point nine to four yards per out ran. I mean the numbers pop off tape because of that sixty five yard play, and he'll always remember that right, what a great play. That was a
great moment for a hometown guy. I thought he might have a chance to be that vertical burner on the interior. Didn't work out that way. But the blocking, you know, the misalignment. There was a penalty he had against the Jets.
I think it was just a lot of up and down play played there for Robbi chosen number eighty three Chase Claypool four for twenty six six point five yards per reception, a fifty seven percent catch rate and that's like mostly balls behind the lines scrimmage twenty eight point six percent success rate, point nine six yards per out ran and a twenty five point six passer rating. Can you trust the routes he's I mean, he's got an
abnormal build for the room. He actually could be like a future f tight end, like a move piece tight end. But that's about all I think about his long term prospects. I don't think it's gonna work for receiver for Chase. As a receiver number eighteen, Eric Azukama no catches five rushes twenty two yards. He had a first down and four point four yards per carry. This is where the biggest intrigue in the entire room exists for me sans Jason Wattle, what Jalen Waddles year four and being healthier.
I think those run looks with him from the backfield, it gives you more expansive options between how you can use him, and like a Chris Brooks or a Devon a Chan, I think that he's gonna help you be a personnel matchup does someone that gives defensive corners nightmares for how you can match up against them. He's got such fantastic contact balance. He's so smooth with the ball in his hands. The entire Texas Tech tape on him is him catching screens and bouncing off tacklers for big games.
And we saw it in the preseason. We all saw the receiving skills in the preseason, tracking the football, high pointing at making explosive plays in the field. I think that his physicality, his hands, his just overall, this guy has the goods and I cannot wait to see him get another chance. In your number three. We have three guys on futures contracts. Anthony Schwartz can run around the entire universe in less than ten seconds, Brayln Sanders and
then Matthew Sexton. So that's the receivers. I just think we got to get better there. Man. There's so many opportunities for guys to win because of the space that ten and seventeen create. We need, whether it's a rookie a veteran that you trust. I just think that number three spot is a big, big need this offseason. That's kind of my takeaway from the room. Let's go ahead, I tease it earlier and queue up my last segment here.
I'm not gonna actually do the segment, but i want to tell you about some of the guys I have coming in the pike here that I'm looking at on tape.
I have there all twenty two right here. Gonna grind that tape here soon. Cue the music. That's rat Okay, girl, let's go still watch it? Who is hey? Watch it?
Wait?
Still watch it?
Yeah? Who is.
Watching? That is? Who is Wingfield watching?
Our college prospects segment here as we get late into the month of January, Senior Bowl coming up, Combine coming up, and the NFL Draft will beer before you know it.
So I'm taking a look at some prospects. I'm not gonna get.
Into the tape today because I haven't watched all the tape yet, but I have a bunch of offensive linemen that I'm very excited to go back and watch. Two of those guys I saw lots this year, you dub left tackle Troy Fatanu and Oregon State right tackle Talise Fuaga.
Both of those guys have a real nasty, mean streak.
In fact, Fuaga is probably my top intriguing prospect at this moment, and I think that his ability to play tackle is a little bit more intriguing as well, because Fatanu might be more of a guard the next level.
I digress.
We'll talk more about those guys down the line, but two interior offensive linemen as well. In Zach Frasier the West Virginia Center that everyone is all giddy about here reminds me of one of those Senior Bowl guys that shows up that week, has played like four thousand snaps in his career, just dominates all week, winds up going in like the middle of the second round, and then you look back and you're like, hey, that guy probably should have been a top twenty five.
Pick because it was so obvious that he was so awesome.
It reminds me of like, you know, Ali Marpette, Alex Kappa, Creed Humphrey for a big school prospect, that's what Zach Fraser reminds me of. And then also the organ center Jackson Powers Johnson. I cannot wait to watch his tape because I've heard really good things. I saw him play live on broadcast.
I think that he might be like the.
Best prospect imaginable for this offense. But we'll come back to that. But that's my time here on this edition of the podcast. I just wanted to play that song for you guys. I was so excited about it.
You all.
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