Drive Time: After the Fact Draft Thoughts

drafted the player versus their consensus big Board value. And look, the consensus big board has been getting a lot of run lately in terms of just the general conversation about the draft and who gets the best value.

on the Monday podcast. I'm not talking about the Washington Post or a guy that you know knows thirty names in the draft and then goes ahead and does or seven round thirty two grades on every draft team's draft in the National Football League.

the entire draft. Based on the CBB expected pick was one oh one. He goes one eighty four, So that's a net of plus eighty three spots. Does that make sense? So eighty three for him. Taj Washington was plus sixty two net spots, Moe Kamara was fifty five, Jalen Wriot was forty seven, and then Patrick Paul was actually thirteen spots over projected probably some tackle bump there for him,

especially in that second round. And then actually believe or not the one guy besides Patrick McMorris, who was one hundred and two spots behind the consensus big board. I think most folks looked at him as a priority free agent. He winds up going there in the was it the seventh round or late sixth round? Late sixth round for Patrick McMorris. But the other guy that was behind the consensus big board in terms of a reach was actually Chop Robinson, who was relatively twenty eighth on that board.

He goes seven spots behind where he was supposed to go, quote unquote. So in general, the Dolphins and Chris Career and Mike McDaniel, the entire staff did a fantastic job of really maximizing the value that was presented to them with the opportunities they had there on the draft, on the draft board on Draft nine, here's what the people out there are saying. Just want to go ahead and

compile some of these tweets about our guys. First of all, Doug Farrar, who writes the I think It's the Touchdown Wire the NFL networks like, or the NFL's entire SB Nation blog. Of course, the Dolphins got Malik Washington in the sixth round, of course they did, he writes. Lance Zerline writes, Malik Washington to the Dolphins theft that's all he said. So those I think the thoughts are pretty

well known out there about Malik Washington. Dante Colinelli, the guy that did the what position did he do for us?

because the tape is bad. But it's kind of funny because all these you know, I've complained about this on the podcast so many times. There's a general consensus about the value of traits at quarterback versus playing the quarterback position, But I don't see that same energy transferred to other spots, like an offensive tackle. Like Drake May's tape this year sucked.

But you see those physical traits, the big rocket arm as far as a quarterback goes right, but his big athletic ability out in space, and that's what these clips showed was him leading these convoys out wide and hitting critical blocks in space to spring these long touchdowns for the Houston Cougars.

But like that's probably a good thing for Miami because if he's out there in October and let's say Isaiah Win gets hurt again or whatever happens to your lineup, if someone goes out, where's the first place that Connor Williams should look to go to get a half of a season worth of play in and good quality tape to then go get the contract that he was always desiring. It's Miami and Mike McDaniel so like. And they talked about how there's been communication there with McDaniel and Connor

Williams and Chris Career and Connor Williams. So I don't think the doors closed on that yet. And I would just remember that in the back of your mind when the offensive line looks a certain way or you're concerned about something like, there's probably contingencies in place, and one of those could be down the road Connor Williams. But all those guys aside from the sidebar there get out in space and make critical blocks down the field that

sprung big plays for this Dolphins run game and pass game. Right. So, Nate Tice is another guy that I think very highly of, a guy that I've discussed his quarterback takes in terms of the rates versus you know, Polish at quarterback, and he actually is consistent in these takes. So Nate Ties from the Athletic and Yahoo of course, son of Mike Tice, said that he had Patrick Paul as his thirty sixth overall player and wrote this peer traits and demeanor you're

betting on here. Not the cleanest tape, as both McDaniel and Greer have acknowledged, he has length, strength and shows the all important ability to recover even if he had to use it a lot, because he got beat a lot last year. And that's all true, but the recovery produced the PFF stats and the metrics that we talked about, right, didn't let his quarterback get sacked but once each of the last two years, didn't let his quarterback get hit, but all the whole season last year twice total and

nine total pressures. That is not impacting your passing game rhythm from the left tackle position. And if he got beat and he's doing that, and the coaching staff feels that can coach him up, Like, I totally get the idea behind that decision. So maybe it doesn't happen right away for Patrick Paul, but I think there's a lot to be excited about there with what he could possibly become in his career.

a sack for whatever reason. So I keep seeing like, for instance, we'll talk about Keyon Coleman here in a second, but I saw Bills fans like coming after the Dolphins for saying, oh, Keon Coleman had four less sacks than than Chop Robinson did last year. Like that's that's casual, bro like watch tape because this reminds me so much of the twenty twenty two Dolphins, the injury issues in the secondary, and how when the secondary got healthy in twenty twenty three, what do we do but set a

franchise record for the most sacks in Dolphins history. I'm just saying, all right, let's go ahead and get to some of my own thoughts here on the podcast. I want to get to a few things I think, kind of borrow from the Peter King ten Things I think segment, although it's not ten or even five. Just a few thoughts here before we get into the favorite drafts Least Favorite draft Zax Eiler in Austin Jackson Media from Tuesday. But number one here is the Dolphins approach to positional drafting.

This go around drafting two edge defenders, two wide receivers, and an offensive tackle. That's five of your seven picks at premium spots and the best way to stay competitive while you pay a top of the line, top of the market quarterback, which argue to a wall, that's what TUA is is to refresh your pipeline with rookie contract contributions at the most expensive positions. Wide receiver is top,

then edge, then tackle. All of that stands quarterback obviously, and the Chiefs have done a great job of this recently, which actually, you know what now, I just thought of a pivot real quick. So number one, everything like Tyreek Hill said is accurate and true. Like shut up, don't go on Twitter all day and complain about the GM and then when someone says something back to you, you start calling foul. The guy that tweeted at the Dolphins like,

is this professionals you want? Like shut up, dude, shut up nerd, come on, get out of here. That was my first thought. There my other thought on that topic, or maybe not that topic per se. But I keep seeing like win a playoff game, haven't done enough to have success, and like, I get it that ultimately the result is not what you want to be. And I'm with you, guys, nobody wants to see this team win playoff games more than I do. But I just think that there's a more of a reality than some people

realize exist. Like I was thinking about this watching the Heat game on Monday, Like it was three and a half weeks ago. The Heat were in Philadelphia with a lead with a minute ago. Jimmy was healthy, Rogier was healthy, and looked like they were gonna win that game and then put themselves in position to go win a couple more games to earn the sixth seed and travel till Milwaukee or Cleveland, Orlando wherever it could have been in the first round. Instead, in the matter of three weeks,

they lost that game. They blew it with some bad plays late. They lost the Indiana game. They lose Jimmy and Terry Rogier over the course of the three and a half weeks to injuries, and now they go into a series against Boston where they have no chance.

We had no drives over forty yards that day. We turned over the Josh Allen the Bills offense and score points because of that. And last year, the entire edge group goes down with injuries, the offense is banged up for the entire month of December. Things can go wrong that you just have no control over. And to hold the playoff wins things against him, like, yeah, we lost in twenty twenty against Buffalo, we lost in twenty twenty

one against the Titans. We lost without a Buffalo again in the playoffs two years ago, and then last year you lost to the greatest quarterback of all time, the three out of five season defending world champions in twenty negative twenty five degree weather. Like, there are contexts, There is context to all of this stuff. It can't just be as basic as hasn't won a playoff game. That's want to get that off my chest. It's been bothering me.

about that. And good for Ty representing it, for the GM and the team and the fans, because like, this team's won a lot of games, You've had a lot of fun times because of this team the last four years. Again, end result hasn't been there, but chill the f out is my whole point. Let's actually go ahead and take our first break rate there and come back and redo these points I have. That's all next Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation.

So I got into my first point here my takeaways from the draft for the Miami Dolphins Peter King ten things I think style, but only a few things. And let's go ahead and repeat number one there. So the Dolphins drafted two edges, two receivers, and an offensive tackle. That is five of seven premium spots. And I believe the best way to stay competitive while you pay your top of the market, top of the line quarterback is

to refresh your pipeline with rookie contract contributions. And typically you want to do that at the most expensive positions because aside from quarterback, receiver, edge and tackle are the

top three in that category. And the reason I thought about the Tyreek aside there was because I compared them to the or I compared this to the Chiefs, who did a great job of this very recently as they transitioned to the adjustment of paying their top of the line quarterback and Mahomes is a lot better than two. I will go ahead and with that right now. I think everyone agrees with that, and they hit on those quarterbacks. Conversely, we've seen the Buffalo Bills. I wouldn't say struggle because

they're still in the playoffs every year. They get to the second round last year, although again side point, the playoff matchups are what dictated who won playoff games last year. Buffalo is not beating KC and Miami would have beat Pittsburgh, Miami would beat Houston. I think Miami would have beat Cleveland. I think Mima would have even beat Houston last year because I know the hot team right now, but that

was not a good football team last year. They were nine and eight and had to win because of a drop pass against the Colts and the final minute of the game.

a result of that. So while they haven't struggled, I think that right now when you take a look at where they are compared to the Chiefs in terms of perception, and not even just in playoff result, but how they're viewed in terms of the Super Bowl contention, like they're nowhere close. And it's because they haven't done a good job of drafting and filling that pipeline last few years. It's been some rough draft classes. Outside of like Dalton King Kaid and a couple of picks here and there,

it's just not been good. And that's why they're struggling right now to find twenty two players to play for them every single Sunday. But back to k C, I mean Trent McDuffie, all star right, an all Pro at a premium spot on a rookie contract. George Carl Loftis is not an all Star yet, but he's headed that way. He's on a rookie deal at a premium spot. Jalen Watson not an all star, but he's a premium spot and a good star for them on a seventh round contract.

Like that is, you can't always have all be all stars. But if Malik Washington becomes a six hundred snap player in the sixth round who catches seventy balls a year for you for one thousand yards. Be pretty damn valuable right to have that receiver on that sixth round rookie contract. That's kind of Jaalen Watson's role there. Brian Cook was in that same class, not a premium spot at safety, but that's a cheap starter who really moves the needle

and kind of helps Steve Spagnolo's defense do what it does. Like. He's kind of a premium guy in that defense, although not compensated by a premium contract because one he's a rookie, but two he's also a safety, so you get it right now. They will attempt the Chiefs to do the

exact same thing with Xavier Worthy. So if we can come out of this draft between Chop and Kamara, between the two Washingtons on day three, say we get a starter edge and a starter wide receiver out of this and Jalen Wright becomes what it looks like he can become and be the Brian Cook of the draft, so to speak, And say Patrick Paul finds a way to hit that development in a couple of years and becomes our next Austin Jackson, maybe a year or two earlier

hopefully and we come out of this with a tackle, an edge, a wide out, and a back. I mean, that's how you sustain success. That's how you can say goodbye to other players and get comp picks back in return and keep that pipeline flowing. That's how you keep your books open and available to go out and get a Kyle Fuller, to go out and get a Shaq

Barrett when you need those guys. And it's how you compete when you have a top notch quarterback and the contract requisite to get that quarterback and a pipeline of good players. And I think there's a good chance that is what the Dolphins have right now. My second thought, my second takeaway from this draft, let's go ahead and pull up this tweet that I'm trying to access right

now from myself. There it is so I talked about this on Twitter after drafting Patrick Paul, and I think there's an interesting trend with offensive offensive line offensive line development in the NFL.

been awful. He's been an awful proverabol Philly and the Titans, and now he's on his third team and he probably never gonna start a game again in the National Football League. But sometimes it doesn't work out. But those air raid offensive attacks, like those forty five degree sets, no, it's

all vertical sets. There's no like, there's no translation to the National Football League, and they don't reflect what you see in the NFL, and the run schemes can largely be RPO based and just not reflective of what guys are going to do in the pros. There's an emphasis for these guys, and you can talk to a college coach about this. Get up, get back to the line of scrimmage, and let's go get to the next play.

Don't worry about finishing your block. And that's kind of where all these guys struggle to stay on blocks, to stay attached to stay finishing, and some of these guys that struggle early wind up having their breakouts in year two or year three or year four, like Austin Jackson.

But it's not just him. It's Andrew Thomas in twenty twenty, who was dreadful as a rookie, like, uh oh, we did that at the fourth pick, and all these guys got picked beyond that, like a Tristan Wurfs, like a Jeddrick Wills, and all of a sudden, Wills is struggling, and Andrew Thomas is like a franchise left tackle. All Pro Player twenty twenty one, Christian Darisol had a dreadful start to his career, and now I think he might be a top three or four left tackle in the NFL.

Twenty twenty two's class was full of first rounders. Evan Neil's been garbage. Iike Ikwanu has been not good, Zion Johnson, Kenyan Green inside have not been good. Trevor Penning can't even get on the field. But Charles Cross and Tyler

Smith have been very good. But when you look at those breakouts, Charles Cross and Tyler Smith played up billion snaps in college, it's usually after a couple thousand snaps, which brings me back to Patrick Paul, who played just under three thousand snaps at Houston, and his best work was by far twenty twenty three when he exceeded two thousand snaps, right, and he reworked a lot of his technique, sorry, with his stance and his posture and how he fires

off the football. I think it's flawed to look at offensive lines technique in a system that doesn't emphasize it and then hold it against the player, especially when a franchise has Mike McDaniel, Frank Smith, and Butcher Berry on staff, all in agreement that it's correctable. It's a triumvirent of offensive line knowledge right there. In fact, let's go ahead and play some sound here from Austin Jackson who talked about the benefit of coming back to the same offense

or the same coaching staff. I should say from year ones year two, Austin has not had the same offensive line coaching back to back years. And then we'll also go ahead and play some more audio. Let's go ahead and play this one first. Here Austin Jackson on the benefit of having the same coach back to back years.

value can be down the road. What is it about butch Berry that makes you confident from your experience working with this guy, that should make Dolphins fans confident that he can be the one that can harness Patrick Paul and get all that stuff out of him. Let's go back to Austin on what makes butcher Berry such a stud He.

we can see what exactly he wants. Plays a big role in it. And also just I think his personality. You know, he's very passionate for the game. I think that makes it easy for players to feed into and understand where he's coming from. Yeah, I think he has all the tools to help anybody.

also trying to cultivate future players in the meantime. And that experience coincides with my Twitter thread the other day that I just read to you guys about breakout age for offensive line and how development in college isn't happening nearly at the same rate at once was so while on paper right now the offensive line might not be

what you want to be. I can go back to several Niners teams with McDaniel there, with Shanahan there, when the offensive line on paper didn't look great but ultimately played good because they know how to coach up certain guys and they have this pipeline of young, unknown guys. They continue to fold, They continue to roll out there and get production from Number three. Is the comp pick management and what they've done with the assets to this, I wrote, I wrote asses on my notes, that's funny.

So Rob Hunt was the thirty ninth pick in the draft right in twenty twenty. Miami is projected to get back the ninety ninth pick four years down the road and they moved down sixty spots and got sixty plus games of a plus starter.

We won't know the impact of that pick or how it shakes out until the pick is eventually made next year. And comp picks are tied to playing time, but that tends to only affect the lower numbers or the lower compicks from the equation. So, for example, Wilkins and Hunts contracts are assigned the number called the final numerical value.

The third round picks are the top ninety fifth percent tile of free agent contracts sign which is where both Hunt and Wilkins came in, and those are actually protected. In fact, Chris Weer mentioned this, saying, you can't use the compensatory picks until this time next year, which I would assume every reporter would know that, but that's not the case. But the ones that we anticipate are all protected.

But it gave us some flexibility to move around, as we talked about us being active and trying to move up in the draft previously, and then with that Jalen Wright and gosh, you look at the fit here for the running back from Tennessee. I mean, first, the flexibility just pops off the page at you. We didn't have to sit, just sit and wait for those picks to cash in twenty twenty five. By doing this, you're able

to go get them right now. So much talk about wanting to win right now, right this window that I hear is closing from everybody, that's not actually true. But you went out and you sacrifice a pick next year to get a guy and now to get him in your system, to get him playing time, to get him experienced in the NFL without giving up capital this year. And you guys know this, you'd heard of all draft cycle.

I harped on part of the value of allowing those players hunt and Wilkins to leave was that those picks are protected as third round value and the flexibility and the options that gave you this offseason and this season. And then for right, I mean, Tennessee's offense ran a lot of jet sweep with right being the executing lead block role from the backfield alignment, and we saw Chris

Brooks do some of that this past year. And that's on top of the zone running ability, which also pairs with the physicality to bang behind a manner gap scheme if you want to do that.

doesn't happen. Go back and watch a lot of our explosive runs, and I would say the majority of those at least over half our bend back runs. And then just to put a bow on all this, funny enough because I came across the video of Jalen doing footwork drills and there's another person in that video who I'm like, who is this guy? Then you finally get a clear shot of it in his face and it's Devon a chan like this backfield has a crazy skill group.

to all that. Next Draft Time Podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Autnation. Back here, Draft Time Podcast. Let's go ahead and save the UDF stuff until Friday, when we have players in here. There's a list of guys. Let's just actually go ahead and rifle them off here. UTEP quarterback Gavin Hardison, Louisville cornerback Storm Duck, UCLA defensive lineman Grayson Murphy, FAU receiver Jakwan Burton. Ohio State guard Matthew Jones is the guy that I want to take

the best look at here. Obviously, the IPP player Bayn Mattos, UTEP center Andrew Mayer is interesting as well. UCLA edge or sorry, TCU safety Mac Perry and Syracuse safety Isaiah Johnson are a couple of names there that are are reportedly signed to the Miami Dolphins. We'll come back and check on those guys here in just a moment down the road. My third thought from the draft will go ahead and get out. Here is this third, fourth, fifth, I forgot number it is is this. I love the Dolphins draft,

but here is how I thought it could have been better. Yeah, you like that if you could have leap frog Pittsburgh, and if you could have done that by exchanging your second round pick number fifty five overall for pick was it one to twenty where Jalen Wright was taken So if you go back seventy or so spots or sixty five spots, if you could have done that and leap frog Pittsburgh and drafted Troy Fatanu, how would you have

felt about that? You could have saved your third round pick next year, gotten Fatanu in exchange for Chop and Paul, so Fatanu and the third round pick next year for Chopp and Paul. That's one way I thought the draft could have been better, But other than that, I absolutely loved it.

So like, you're not trusting your own scouting staff, And the Vikings tried all that work to get up there and just didn't do it and then took a quarterback they felt worse about you guys complained about our GM, Like, look around the league, what teams other teams do man AFC Eastwise, I thought the Patriots had a fantastic draft Jaleen Polk and who's the other receiver they got, Javon Baker. I loved those picks for them, so not thrilled about that. But I think Drake May had a lot of work

to do. I absolutely hated Keon Coleman for Buffalo. More on that in a second. I do think some just other draft nuggets here. Odell Beckham. We've heard some rumblings about his potential return down to the Miami after that visit and signing here. I think it would be great for us. That's the last kind of move for the skill pieces I want to see happen. And also you would protect the Chargers or Bills, two of your competitors in the AFC, from going and getting a piece they

desperately need. Because Beckham's kind of last guy out there that can play all over the deformation as a receiver, and Buffalo needs help and the Chargers need help. I would sign Beckham, I would sign Greg Van Rotten to play guard, and I would sign Quandrey Dicks and I'd go win a championship, but that's just me. Or just consider Connor Williams a dolphin when he's healthy. Makes sense, Right, He's not getting paid this year, and what better system for him to show he's healthy and go get paid

next year. It would also maybe generate a compick if he did that. So that's kind of some of my thoughts and how the Dolphins can go from here. We'll get more into that on the Friday episode. My favorite drafts Pittsburgh took every guy I wanted right in front of us. If you're a regular listener of the Draft Time draft content, they sniped guys. I loved it just about every spot. Fatanu was my OT one. Roman Wilson's

one of the first guys I talked about here. The Michigan receiver Peyton Wilson was my off ball linebacker one. Zach Fraser I thought was a high second round grade and my center three prospect behind two guys they loved. Then Mason McCormick in late rounds is my offensive line kind of gem there, great class, I think, but who really knows. I thought Arizona killed it with both Marv and Darius Robinson in round one with a trade back

as well. Also got Trey Benson to help out Kyler Murrays and speed in that backfield.

way too high. I did like Trice and Dorless when they got them, but I just think you really put yourself a tough spot at quarterback and use the most valuable resource you possibly could use to do that. I mentioned Buffalo and Keyon Coleman like it's Kelvin Benjamin, Dude, that's cool. But then they go with the safety defensive tackle on running back of their next picks, in fact, their first premium position pick after getting it wrong at

thirty three. For my money and giving the Chiefs a perfect receiro for their system, like what are you doing? That's your biggest competition and use gave them what they wanted. Why they don't get a premium spot until pick one to sixty eight in the fifth round. I like Bishop and Ray Davis and Dwayne Carter. I like Bishop, I should say, but Ray Davis and Duwayne Carter after Coleman

whoops the Panthers. I loved Laget there, but trading up for running back Trevin Wallas at seventy two Davian Sanders, I don't know about his game. The Broncos quarterback six at picked twelve Troy Franklin. I did, like Abrams, drain the Vikings to get Dallas Turner and this two hundred and thirty second pick in the draft, two second round picks, a third round pick, a fourth round pick, and two fifth round picks. Again, if you think RGM doesn't know what he's doing, go look at some of the teams

in the league. It's not even close. A couple of interesting trends here. The Eagles basically draft off the consensus big board, which I talked about earlier. It is probably not a bad way to do it. And also the second round quarterback has officially died. No second round quarterbacks again this year. Nobody wants to go in that range to their first round for the fifth year option or

wait until late to get your backup quarterback. The second round quarterback has since ceased to exist, So there you go. Let's go ahead and finished with a couple of soundbites here from Austin Jackson and Zach Seeler. And I just cannot get enough of how good Austin Jackson is at press conferences. And we haven't heard from him in a while now, but it almost seems like he was always good at explaining technique and fundamentals and the nuances of

the position. But now that he has like the confidence of a proven veteran who's on a second contract and has a bunch of good tape out there, like it somehow got even better. And I apologize for the quick audio change here. I went to different microphone to make this portion of the podcast easier. Don't need to bore you with that stuff, guys, But I do have different levels of audio and expectations for myself, and this one's not going to meet it right here, but it's the only way I.

improving the muscle memory on the field. So it's a combination of both.

strive out and know he'll kill it out there. But now it's getting right over here in Miami.