To I Remove Gall and Deep Speedways Past Hell. From the Baptist Health Studio inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.
This is Drivetime with Travis Wingfield. He's gone 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, it is a busy one and just like Steve Balmer, whoa pretty cool I am just fired up to be here because we have two signings to break down and a chat with one of said signings.
Kalaias Campbell is here. He is glorious.
We're gonna break down his tape and talk to the six time Pro bowler and Walter Peyton Man of the Year, assessing how he fits in with this Dolphins defensive front. Then we'll move back to the defensive backfield and evaluate Marcus May's fit here with your Miami Dolphins. From the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.
This is.
The Drive Time Podcast, my chat with the Great Kalais Campbell. Join usday on the podcast. A man who really needs no introduction will do it anyways. Kalaias Campbell, a big fellow.
Welcome, home. Man, how's it phill be back here in South Florida.
It feels good. It feels really good, you know, really happy to be here.
There's so many things I want to discuss with you, but I guess we'll start with that, the homecoming, right, Because you had options different teams. Maybe you also could have called it a career with an eye towards Canton in five years down the road, but you didn't do that. Have another year here with the Miami Dolphins. My question is, why why do you want to come down here?
Well? Well, first of all, playing football. You know, I could have retired, but I definitely felt like I saw some good ball left in me and I just want to go out there and just I mean just leave it on the field, you know. And I mean what better place to do it than in Miami with a team that's stacked, you know, roster's top to bottom stacked, this, I mean super stacked. You got the you know secondary, you know, the offense putting up points, whatay it did
last year? If we can just get you know a little bit of at it again, I mean I thought this could be a real big year. And you know, just the people here, you know, I mean especially Anthony Weaver. You know, he's a guy of a great relationship with a lot of respect for as a defense coordinator. You know, I was hoping he got a head coaching job this year, but when that didn't work out, you know, I was happy that, you know, he got the d C role.
And you know, this is such a great place. When I went through my list of teams of you know I would play for, this is number one of my lists and so you know, some other teams got evolved in you know, miss interest and pitches and definitely made interesting for sure, But in the end, you know, it was the relationships with the coach were you that really made it made a big difference, And just the people here that I met on my visit, and then just
knowing the guys on the field man this roster stacked, and knowing that I think I can add a lot of value in a lot of ways.
Yeah, I do want to come back to coach Weaver because obviously the connection there is strong. But I'm curious to ask because you mentioned the idea of winning, and this team, you know, has won a lot of games the last four years, but hasn't gotten over that you know, proverbial hump, and you've been part of different teams, different building cycles. The first year Super Bowl, you guys kind of go back a few years later to the NFC
Championship game down the road with the Cardinals. You go to the Ravens team and you get them over the hump. You can't get the Jaguars deep into the playoffs. What do you think you add in terms of helping a team that's kind of there on the precipice make that next step.
Experience, you know, experience is huge, you know. I mean I haven't won the Super Bowl. There's guys like Shank Bearry who have you know, and Jayla Ramsey, you know, but there's there's definitely a you know, a good mix of guys who've had a lot of successions league. But for me, you know, I feel like I'm you know, still super hungry because I haven't you know, gotten to
that that mountaintop just yet. But I have played the three championship games, you know, and have been a part of some really talented defenses, and you know, I feel like, uh, you know, I take great pride in being the leader and is knowing like you know, how to bring the best out of everybody around me, you know, And so that's something I've got to do my best at, you know, is trying to just you know, put you know, put put together just a good messaging, you know, going with
the coaches say, trying to get guys to buy in and just you know, give they're all. But when you're just talented and you can get guys to buy in, you know, I mean, you know, we're gonna win a lot of ball games, you know, if we can just lock in and play with that kind of focus that you need. But at the same time, though, I mean, you got to earn it every day.
You know.
It's not gonna be easy, you know, and so uh but I do believe that, you know, what I bring is just a unique perspective of with with experience of of just you know, getting guys to to buy into the bigger picture, sacrifice self, you know, check ego out the door, and uh and do what's required to win ball games.
So that leadership aspect that you mentioned, it's apparent in your career have done it as so many spots. Now when you come into a new organization and you are the new guy, how does that kind of change your approach to leadership, do you kind of ease your way in? Like, what's your approach to being a leader on a brand new football team?
Yeah, you know, you got to earn the respect of the guys, right. You can't come in and say I'm the leader now, you know. I mean, uh, you know, especially like in my my current situation. You know, I'm you know, the agent vet. You know. Now, I still think I got some great football. I mean, you know, you know, I think sometimes you know, but when you're coming to a new a new place, you know, you're not the high paid, top free agent, you know. I mean, people are really looking to you to be a leader.
But because of my history and you know, my relationship with some of the guys are already on the team, I feel like, you know, uh, you know, it's just earning the respect, earning the respect, showing them that you know that you know that you know I can still play at a high level, but also showing them that, like, you know, I just I believe, you know what it takes to be successful and if we can all believe
that same thing, you know. But I think when you go to a new team, though you don't really want to come in and you know, I think you know, for me coming into a new team, first time I want to do is just lead by example, go out there and compete at a high level and just you know, uh, you know, go out there and just play out the standard that's worthy of being a champion. And I think
that's contagious in the self, because energy is contagious. Every time you go out there, you know, somebody's either bringing you down or you're bringing them up, you know, depending on who you are and how hard you're going. And so uh that that level right there by itself is going to make a difference. But then also feel like, you know, just like kind of like with my experience and knowing what to say in moments and being in pretty much every situation you can be in on the
football field. You know, I played in every big game. You know, I understand like the process and the preparation and all of stuff that goes into it. I think that's where it really comes a big deal when we getting those big games and we're in moments and sometimes something needs to be said. You know, a lot of times in my experience, I know what needs to be setting those moments, and that's why I feel like it's
going to be a big deal. But at the same time, though, I mean, there are other guys on this team that I think are going to be great leaders too. And you know, one of the things I've been doing later in my career is trying to you know, you know, my version of leading is helping younger guys with big voices and with the right makeup to be good leaders,
helping or stimming to becoming more leaders. You know, last year, you know, you know, when I was in Atlanta, Jesse Bates, who's you know, all pro superstar safety, big money guy, and I you know, we competed each each other when I was in Baltimore, he was a Cincinnati. I always
knew what he can do. Uh you know, you know, he started kind of being that vocal leader on the team, and I remember we have put in conversations where he was like, and thank you for challenging me and get me to speak more because I seeing that he understood, you know, what it meant to win and what it was a take to win, and he knew what to say.
He just needed to be you know that. You know the same thing happened to me when I was a young buck, you know, like I became, and a resulta like had your guys saying like, hey, you guys, speak up more. You know, you got to be the guy people are looking to you. You know, you got to be the one. So that's part of it too, is just finding the guys on the team who have the natural born leadership qualities and helping them you know, realize that.
So no, yeah, it's great.
I think it's a good fall to the sex question because the communication aspect of defense is so critical in any part of football really. But and watching you know your tape for one, which is a blast for me.
I love watching your game, but also a lot of the breakdowns you've done, like with Brian Balding your for instance, who I think is just the world of his his breakdowns, Like they show off your ability to mention the or to notice these fine details and how they really inform your game, like splits motions down in distance, anything that you can use to help you get an extra step.
I'm curious when it comes to being a vet leader that has that nuance and has that experience and knows you know this, if this guard wants to reach me, maybe opens up a backside b gap for a linebacker, whatever the case may be. I'm curious how you communicate those nuances to other players, Like how can your experience help create advantages for your teammates in that same regard.
Yeah, you know, a lot of it is communication and prep work, you know, and then even being able to communicate in game, you know, and so like there's a process of watching tape this week. These guys like to do whatever. You know, example, you want to give and this sob I want to play it, you know, so this you should play off me, you know, talk with the linebackers or guys on the edge or you guys in the middle or whatever it may be. There are
so many circumstances you go through. But was all the time where like we're talking throughout the week, Hey, this is what they like to do when they you know, uh, you know, get down and they're in the pinchlet's their bread and butter. And when they come to this play like this time a play and we can make this
play the backfoot if we play it this way. And a lot of that is wild, like Coach Weave too, because you know, he's in those conversations and he's like yeah, man, you know, they take control of how do you want to play? It was trying the same page, make sure we're all on line. So when I hurt each other
and then mu'st play it that way. And then in game, you know a lot of times too, it's like okay, you know, because everybody game plans and each week they're kind of going with, you know, three or four things that it's like new for that week, you know, and so once you kind of get in the middle of the game, you know, you see what they're trying to do to you. You know, you start you know, talking about, hey, you know, I spun up playing it this way, but
that's not working. Let's adust im gonna start playing it this way. And so when you see this, you know, just go this way or whatever it may be. There's so many examples you can give, but that happens a lot, and that's where the experienced places have been wrong. You know, I had a lot of reps. I don't know how many games have played, but it's a lot, and you know, and in those games, a lot of reps, you know, so I didn't see in everything you can do on
the football field. I mean, if they come up with something new, I'd be shocked.
I'm glad you mentioned it because I have the numbers here for you because they blow me away. So a sixteen year career, you average seven hundred and sixty snaps per season. Are you aware of how crazy that is for for a defensive lineman, Like guys don't play that many snaps, especially for sixteen years. Your career can drive at this point, and you play more snaps than most guys in every single year.
So my question is what is the secret? Man?
Like the nutrition, the workout, how do you stay so durable and so you know, available for so long?
I mean, I do all the things that you have to do to get availability. But I think you know, when it comes to like most of this is like just the busts from above, right, God has busted me because you can go through all the right things. I don't think it's really going to matter, if you know, if it's just you know, it's a lot of football fortune, right just you know, I've been in some BASD situations get rolled up on and Okay, I got I got
through just barely. You know that could have been ugly, you know, you know, I mean so many beast sedoas on the football field, and it came through an other side. Good. But I do spend a lot of time and resources on my body. I do work with a lot of specialists.
I mean I literally last year had you know, six different people coming in flying in from different cities that were specialists and something working on my body with me, you know, weekly, I got all the machinery you know that that you know over the years from you know, Aberbartic Chambers and you know all you know, just cool things that exists out there to help you know, recovery and speed all that up, you know, and you know, I just but I feel like, you know, I alwuld
encourage young guys when they're trying to like how do you take care of your body? Is like try it, you know, all the things that is this out there and figure out what works for you. Because there are things out there that I tried to I don't really feel the difference, so it doesn't really work for me.
And there's things where it's like other guys like that worked for you that didn't really work for me, But for me, use everything you know, so you know, everybody's body is different, and learning your body learning what works for you. But I've put a lot of time and effort and a lot of resources and to figure it out what works for my body. And I got a good routine going and right it it will fallow off.
You found it.
You found out what works for you perfectly, because like I said, it's it's just doesn't happen in this league to do to have that type of longevity and durability. So you've alluded to coach Weaver a few times, I'll just go ahead and ask you straight up, like what does he do to empower you and your teammates to get the best out of a defense?
Yeah, well, a lot of things. Honestly, I think he's a brilliant football mind, another football junkie. I mean we could talk football for hours, you know, and you know, but the history of the game, you know, different you know, techniques, different ways of doing things, different schematics. You know how you know some of these tweaks on different semantics. I mean, you know, there's only so much you could do on the football field, especially as a office lamon trying to
block somebody. I mean, there's only so many ways you can move, you know, you can try to add some variations to things with like camp placement and you know, different ways and stuff. But at the end of the day, there's a football you know, like so much you can do. Uh. But you know, we talked through all those different scenarios and I think the best thing about him as a coach is, I mean, he's his football allows for him
to understand the players at a high level. So when we come and have conversations from an intellectual standpoint about the game, you know, he's not, you know, super compative. And there's other coaches that also listen to players and respond, but you know, I feel like, you know, he's probably you know, you know, one of the best, if not the best at understanding you know, you know, letting the players, you know, have a say so and taking some ownership
of what we do on the football field. Because there's definitely coaches I've had where it's like I want you to do it this way and this way only, you know, especially when you're young, you know, you know, this is the only way I know works, and it's like, well, I mean, first of all, you're asking, you know, three people with three different body types to play the same technique who have different three different strengths. You know, it
doesn't make sense, you know. I think that you have to have a variety, you have to have, you know, different ways of playing. And now this is what I feel like works the best, and so my teacher do it this way. I want you to try it this way. But you know, if you have the other techniques that you feel like can work and the same thing, this
is ultimate goal we want. And so one of the things I like when I was working with Weven Baltimore is I mean, like literally like whatever technique I wanted to play each week, as long as I communicated with him and we had an open dialogue on why you know, I mean, and that once was he like, yeah, I don't think that's worked for you.
You know.
Now you know if I try it, it ain't working. You know, you're coming like, hey, you know, you try to this is the same what I wanted to look like. So it's trying a different way, you know. And we talked through that scenario as well. But I think that you know, now, obviously being at the coordinator level, it's a lot different. But even a guy like you know, Jayalen Ramsey or you know, these other guys in the back end, you know.
I mean I played with Jaalen and Jacksonville and we had a you know, really good, you know, really good seasons seventeen and me and him were like the like the leaders of that defense, even being a young guy, you know, but he really was very all spoken on how he wanted to play things. And I think we've gonna be a really good coach for him because, like you know, at the end of the day, like you know, he gives his ownership right, so you know, he has,
you know, what he wants as well. But if you feel like, okay, if I can play with a certain technique to get you what you want so we can all be successful, that he's gonna give us that freedom. And I think, you know, somebody like Janna is really gonna benefit from that because he definitely is a very brilliant football mind, and he studies a lot about the game and he knows like how he wants to do things, and so having that kind of freedom and being able to communicate that, it's gonna be huge.
And like yourself, very virstaile player too, can play inside outside, and so for a guy like you just played five technique played you know, some nose tackle, and everywhere in between. Right, that versatility seems to be one of the hallmarks of this defense. You've kind of feel that same way on.
A hundred percent, you know, I already I mean they're asked me in the press conference, you know, you know, do what else, like I'm gona play at And I was like everywhere, you know, because we've i mean, he's he's really smart and in matchups and and looks and trying to like make things, you know, uh like you know, doing simple things, you know, but making it look complicated, and a lot of that is a linements and moving around and stuff. And so like I already know, I'm
a line up everywhere literally everywhere. Uh we all will, we all take times, line up different things, and it just makes i mean makes some more challenge on offices because I mean we might you know, give you a look, do something out of it, and next week we give you a similar look. You do something completely different, you know, and then you know, give you a you know, a look that is different, but then give you the same
thing we gave you before. Like it's just exactly it's not that confusion, but offices will be confused.
Yeah, that's good.
You guys we're looking forward to So we'll go ahead and finship for you here real quick, because I saw on your Instagram page a picture of you and your son boogey boarding, and I'm curious, how tough is it for a man of your stature to balance on my booge board?
Are pretty good at it? I thought that might be the case. I want to ask you.
Yeah, I have up on a surf board, and you know, so I'm still a good athlete. That wasn't that long going through. But I got up, and you know that was you know, just it was a great challenge. I really want to see if I can do it, and I did it.
But yeah, way more impressive surfing and that's tough.
Yeah, But I love being down the ocean, love being on the brigie board. My son loves it, you know. So it's it's a big, great year. I'm happy to be here.
He came to the right place. Class camp appreciate time. They man, Thank you so much. Klais Campbell, new Dolphins defensive lineman.
As advertised, I mean, if you thought that was good, to go ahead and just get through the break with us here for one second, becuse we're gonna come back on the other side and break down the tape of the Big Fella. I was in here on a Monday morning in the middle of June watching tape, cheering and clapping because this is such a great addition to the football team. We'll talk about that next year. Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation.
So we heard from the big man.
Now let's go ahead and talk about how impactful he can be for this team and help us stack some wins and make a run at this damn thing. First things first, the last time Kaleis Campbell was not a good football player, well, you probably have to go back to the first practice of his pee week career, though I imagine it did not take him very long to pick up the game. What I'm trying to say is that he was awesome at the U. I have no doubt he dominated high school football and middle school all
before that too. Then he got to the Cardinals and was awesome, went to the Jaguars and finished second and defensive Player of the Year, went to the Ravens and kicked some more ass there, and then plays one year with the Falcons. And leads the team in sacks and
has another year of excellent, excellent tape. And you guys might recall the joint practices down here last year in South Florida when there was panic about because of the Falcons defense actually performing quite well against the Dolphins offense. And again just remember this, don't take long term stock in what what results happened in practice. But Kalais Campbell was a big reason the Falcons pass rush got after
the Dolphins in a couple of those joint practices. But at thirty seven years old, now there's a guy on the team older than I am, which is a win for us.
Old dudes.
He played every game last year. He's played two hundred and forty four games in his which is an average of fifteen and a quarter games over a sixteen year career. That's twelve thousand, one hundred and sixty nine nice snaps. By the way, I don't think I've ever evaluated a player who had more than twelve thousand snaps, or even close to that for that matter. That is seven hundred and sixty snaps per year over sixteen years. His career can drive. And he's playing three quarters of the snaps
every year in those years. Remember when Joe Thomas, the great Browns left tackle, played ten thousand consecutive snaps at left tackle and it was a hallmark achievement, and rightfully so, I kind of feel like this is that impressive, if not more. He played seven hundred and twelve snaps last year. So if you're worried about him breaking down and not you know, having the same production. If that happens, it's
because the cliff just came out of nowhere. There is zero precedence that says this player no longer can do it. He was better last year than he probably was the previous three years and f career before that. He turned in over fifteen hundred snaps for Baltimore and their defensive line coach Anthony Weaver. Actually that was just two years in twenty twenty two and twenty twenty one, but that's plenty of time to learn how to communicate with a coach and get the system down. Pat and we'll talk
about his fit in the film section. I don't know how to say this anymore clear. Campbell has been good literally every year of his football life. From twenty sixteen to twenty nineteen, he was the third highest graded interior defensive lineman in the NFL from Pro Football Focus behind Aaron Donald and JJ Watt. From twenty twenty to twenty twenty three, He's been a top twelve graded interior defensive lineman by Pro Boball Focus each and every year, and guess what.
Last year was the best year of that run.
I know we don't love PFF grades, but I like to say them when they jive with the tape and.
What I've gleaned from said tape.
So that's why I use that there as a way to preference what we're going to talk about here on the tape and saying it's not just me that sees this, other people see it as well. What I'm saying to you is that there is positively no reason to expect him to decline. There's mountains of evidence that he's declined proof and again that cliff Sometimes it just comes for
guys out of nowhere. But that's gonna have to be what would happened here for Campbell because he has been really good up to his last snap in twenty twenty three. Forty two quarterback pressures last year and thirty six stops that ranks nineteenth and ninth among his interior defensive lineman peers, And yeah, it's kind of tough to put him in that position because he did play lots of edge. He plays everywhere, so you can't really pigeonhole him into one spot.
But taking those metrics against guys on the interior defensive line, that's where he would have ranked nineteenth and nine as a pass rusher in terms of pressures and against the run in terms of making stops that are defensive wins for that particular rep. And yeah, you can classify him as an edge too because he plays both. But six foot eight, two hundred and eighty five pounds, I think it's tough to put him in the same bucket as
a Jalen Phillips for that matter. And you start to look at the fit, it's like the rest of the defense in the way it's put together this offseason.
It's so obvious.
First though from a pure number standpoint, it's interesting when you go back over the Ravens defenses of the past, they've really had one big snap eater inside and that has been justin Madubuike since he was drafted and developed a few years back and just got his big contract this offseason. Beyond that, it was a bunch of rotational guys who could give you two hundred to three hundred snaps alongside said player in platoon roles.
And when you look at.
What Tier Tart, Jonathan Harris, Benito Jones, Neville Gallimore have done, it's that it's exactly that. So now you insert a guy that's played seven hundred, six hundred, six hundred and five hundred snaps the last four years, clearly capable of taking on as big of a role as you need, and I'm really fascinated to see what it looks like. I mean, answer, whatever it is is a good one, right, I mean, you've just added cheese to an already great burger.
Like we had what we needed, now we got more.
And I think that might be my favorite part about this is the insurance of sorts that it provides because that platoon option and who knows, maybe two guys stand out above the rest. And it wasn't as deep of a platoon as I thought initially, But let's say that that was the plan, and I think it is. Well, if Zach Sealer had to miss a chunk of time, then what's your solution, you have none. I don't think
that you had an option to go beyond that. But now with kalai As Campbell showing you time and time again that he can give you forty to fifty snaps per game and then have that rotational spot filling around him, you've increased your options. You've added massive length, which in a league that wants to play with light boxes, I mean, good luck trying to run duo or inside zone on the combination of Zach Sealer and Kalay Campbell. You just
can't do it. I think it does even more to help free up the fastest, most instinctive linebacker room in the National Football League. I just can't find anything but heaping positives that come from this.
And this is before.
I even had a chance to crack open the film, which we'll do right now. And having written that before I watched the film, and now having watched the film and coming back and recording, that hypothesis is confirmed.
Dude, Like, let's go ahead and talk about this.
So it takes a play or two when you watch him to see the fit you're going to get this year in the Dolphins defense. I think more true even fronts and overfronts where you have a traditional four down lineman look. And we saw Seler doing a lot of this early on in terms of that backside four or four eye technique, and what that means is the weak side of the formation. He's lined up in a three or four point stance head up over the backside tackle or off the inside shoulder of that tackle. That's a
four technique and a four eye technique. And even the play side five technique, which is the strength of the formation. Your tight end or you're back aligned to that part of the formation and you're now on the outside shoulder of the tackle.
We clear on that.
So five, four and four I that goes outside, head up, inside of the tackle. Are those positions and how that works. Now, it was limited work that we saw through the course of the spring, but I didn't think it was Seiler's best spot playing that four four eye technique in a true four point stance. I prefer zach to being a three technique or a backside one shade or even a zero technique head up over the center, more traditional defensive
tackle positions. But with kalayis that conversion to a four point stance four technique defensive end is so clear and so seamless, and if you want to incorporate that front, go get Kalaias Campbell and they did, and I think they do want that, especially that backside where he can overwhelm with his physicality and sort of take away one of the toughest gaps in the run game, because he has to play outside contain for wind back runs that can get back outside as sort of a quasi force defender,
and the force defender is the guy that must contain back inside because he's the last line of defense outside and when you lose outside contain, that's when explosive plays typically happen. But to also from that position be able to get back inside the block and cut off the B gap wind back lane, which if you play it too wide, is also just as dangerous because you can get to that B gap and then stretch the run to the second level out wide and outrun linebackers in safeties.
And Kalayis does this all the time, like they put him in these positions where, hey, if you mess up your job, big fella, we're talking about a run out the gate. And he just did it all the time, and that what does that do. It frees up other guys to have easier roles and easier jobs on your defense. You just do not get displacement on Kalais Campbell. You don't because he's quick off the snap, with his with his punch, with his shooting, his hands, and the length.
You can't get to his chest because he's longer than you. He's just got longer arms than you. He's an immovable object. This allows him to to gap as effectively as anybody I've ever studied on tape, ever, ever, ever, ever, don't mistake him for a one gap penetrator. But you know what, we already have a bunch of those guys because Kalais plays so much like Zach Seeler. And Zach doesn't win because he flashed one six ten split get off speed.
It's because he's a complete technician with unnatural length that looks unnatural, and strength that no one should possess. That's Kalayis's game as well. And now the opposing offense has
to block two of those guys on most snaps. This is just another one of these moves, kind of like I've been raving about Odell or Malik Washington or John new Smith in the passing game, where man, it just makes so much sense when you play Zach and Kalais together, you can essentially swallow up blow and let free runners work behind them unencumbered by blockers by bigger offensive linemen. Or you can also get platoon action and have one of them on the field at times. It'll certainly be
a mixture of both. What I'm saying is it gives you an embarrassment of riches in terms of depth, because
now we have two A players. For my money, this tape is still elite an A player in the National Football League, Like maybe not blue chip like, but green like the you know, the grating category I have like right there on the precipice of being a blue chip player with also around them tons of guys that sign deals that commesurate that are commesurate with rotational work, right Like, that's kind of where they stack up based upon how
their contracts were laid out. And we have waves and waves and waves.
I am pumped.
Let's go ahead and get back into the tape here because I am two series into the Saints game from last year and I've seen him shoot inside the B gap from the weak side five technique which we talked about that right, it's playing outside the tackle. You have to get cross face back inside, then get back out wide of that tackle to cut down the wide run that bounced outside of that.
That is exactly to a t I talked.
About two gapping, playing two roles and basically eliminating an advantage the offense has because you can basically play the role of two players. I've seen him condense inside to a three technique as a pass rusher on third and long, swipe the hands of the guard and angle back to the quarterback and make that guard look like he doesn't know what he's doing, and then slot back outside to the five technique, shoot inside, and then wipe out the split flow blocker, which is the tight end who comes
across the formation. And here's Kalaius Campbell saying, yeah, that's cute. I'll go ahead and stack you up and make the play in the backfield. I write that down. Then the
next play he gets slide protection away from him. That leaves him one on one on an island with Andres Pete, the Saints left tackle, who is then doing the same thing the guard did earlier in the game, where he's leaning out over his skis and trying to run backwards, hopefully to get a body in front of Kalais, just to protect quarterback a little more before his quarterback gets killed by Kalais. What I'm saying to you is I watched four snaps of this game, and he did four
different great things. His tape is full of understanding, like momentum, how to create it and exploit it, like get you leaning one way and go across the other way. He makes you think he's going to, you know, make one move and then uses his length and then the utter fear that he creates from his power to get you flat footed.
It makes these guys look silly. It makes him look like.
Their sun Belt offensive lineman. Nothing against the sun Belt, but like you can't block guys like Kalais Campbell if
you play in that league. Probably I compare his peer power to the speed we have on the perimeter on offense, Like you better be ready to get vertical before our guys have shown that route, because if you're not at least ready for it, you're gonna be chasing Tyreek Hill when he throws up the deuces into the end zone, or you're gonna get to watch Jalen waddle around the end zone with his teammates with Kalayis, you had better bring your big boy pants and get ready to anchor,
because if you don't, you're going to be all of the toys that hal has in the episode of Malcolm in the Middle when he rents out the steamroller for twenty four hours and runs all of them over. You're going to be flattened on this on the concrete. And Kalaeus knows this and uses it to his advantage. And oh, by the way, he does it with some of the longest arms the game has ever seen. So you cannot get first hands on him. It's not possible because he
knows how to use that length. Think Raekwon Davis if he were good at football. That's what we're talking about here. When I watch him with the Falcons versus the rate or compared to when he played with the Ravens, it makes me wonder how you might use him because they were entirely different. But the coach that was there with him in Baltimore is here right, So there he played more inside two two I, three, four four I alignements.
It's all inside the tackles, all those positions from the inside of the tackle into the nose position, but he also played a lot off the tackle in Atlanta. I just think you use all of that to your advantag As we mentioned earlier, this defense, and we think at least the origins of the Ravens rush schemes requires guys that can play multiple spots, and then you dial up your blitzes based on two or three word calls where
everybody knows every rush path from every position. They talk about it in Seattle right now with Lennard Williams talking about Mike McDonald's defense, it's gonna be the same thing here,
I would venture to guess. And when you think about Seiler and Campbell as I've described them to you, or you think about how Gallimore played on the nose and Dallas but it's probably more suited for the three technique, or how Harris played some one shade all the way out to the five technique, or how tier Tart is the exact same way. How about how Phillips and Chubb can play everywhere. Damn it, man, it just all makes
so much sense. Last thing on the Campbell tape, he did a game pass film session with Brian Baldinger, where he talked about the keys and reads he makes on a given play and the conversations he has with his linebackers to play off the adjustments he makes. You guys have heard me talk about David Long Junior on the podcast here on the show, talk about his instinctive nature. You've heard me talk about Jordan Brooks in the podcast and Anthony Walker coming on here talking about their film study.
Find me a trio of linebackers, more instinctive, more in tune to using tape to make them great players.
You can't do that.
And my apologies for going back to the golf analogies here, but here's how I would equate it. So, in golf, you have different types of shots you should be hitting. Right now, most of us want to hit the ball
straight at the flag and hope for the best. But when you get really, really good, you start learning how to draw the ball, how to cut the ball, how to really manipulate the ball for the shape the shot requires, whether it's a dog leg or you want to bring it in over the right side of the green to create less danger. There's just different types of shots you hit. It's one thing to know how to do this, it's another thing to execute it in the moment. You have to walk up to your ball and find out the
shot shape, how you want to manipulate the club. You don't get a practice stroke. You just get to sweep grass and then you have to go do it. And the best in the world can do it. That's Kalays Campbell on the defensive line. He knows he can ride the wave on an outside zone run away from his side as the one shade the backside nose tackle, and he so he knows he needs to hold the block
and carry it to free up his blockers. But if he gets a key that the backside cutback lane is the new track for the back he can then shed that block and go get himself into that gap, effectively changing gaps with the linebacker. So I think the ripple effect of how much better he'll make everybody else is very, very apparent. I don't know if that accurately describes how
tough this is. But when you know you need to be able to shed a block or maybe stick to it, and then you can just do whatever the play calls for, that's the definition to me of elite.
I have to get this done. I can do whatever I want to.
I cannot believe we just added this guy to our defense by signing his name to a piece of paper, Like, what a freaking addition. This is absolute monster of a player, high character guy, mentor smart, knows the defense.
Damn man, you drop him in.
Jordan Brooks, Kendall Fuller, and Jordan Poyer, Like that's a player at every level of the defense who knows ball, who can play anywhere and brings a certain type of ish to them right, Like, I don't know, man, I don't know. All these big media outlets are concerned about the pieces lost on defense, about Vic Fangio leaving, and I'm sitting here looking at the schedule from last year.
Pace it on my wall with a piece of tape right here that says forty eight points to Buffalo, thirty one to Philly, and a complete inability to get off the ball or off the field in the entire fourth quarter fifty six at Baltimore, the Bills and Chiefs going for both over four hundred yards despite being a little bit sloppy dropping passes, and yeah, we got some luck
against the Chiefs. They dropped some touchdowns because it was negative twenty five out there, or the Bills squandering plays at the end of the half, getting tackled the one yard line inbounds before the halftime buzzer, or turning it over in the end zone twice.
I'm watching all these games.
We played our heels against on our heels, i should say, against the game's top quarterbacks and just got blasted by them each and every single time we lined it up, or a defense that got dominated by elite quarterbacks the years prior as well.
I see change. I see a change in mindset.
I see a coach that's going to bring about that change and players who reflect that change. That was a fun segment. And then what if I told you there's
another menace for opposing offenses joining our defense. We'll go ahead and break down Marcus May in the backfield on the next segment here of the Draft Time Podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation, wrapping up a Tuesday edition of the Draft Time Podcast with Marcus May And it sort of felt like another move was coming at safety right just based upon the composition.
Of the room.
Javon Holland is good enough to be an annual Pro bowler we know what we have there, Jordan Poyer. There probably isn't a non dolphin whose game I know and admire more over the last five years than Jordan Poyer. He was where I always began my Bills study because he and Micah Hyde and Tarn Johnson the slot corner were the straws that stirred the drink of our best division rival and the biggest obstacle for the AFC East title.
And I say all of that because I don't think you can find more players that you can count on two hands who are smarter than Jordan Poyer, which obviously equals versatility. Elijah Campbell's one of the specialists in the team and a guy that I've always thought was like an ideal dimeback. And then you have the ultimate unknown in a couple of rookies, right McMorris, the sixth round pick has the look of an immediate special teams contributor
as well. And then the undrafted guys with us all leads the concept of a third safety who can join holland employer and match their flexibility. This defense, or I should say the influences of Coach Weaver in the past, has operated from a lot of these principles, plenty of three safety packages, Big Nickel, it's your slot cornerback is not a slot cornerback. He is a third safety that comes into the game. Baltimore ran that package four hundred and sixty three times last year, third most in the
National Football League. Blitz packages with streamline terminology that requires the players to learn the rush patterns from each position so they can get any rush package from any personnel grouping in alignment that we talked about that in the klay As Campbell segment. And then finally relatively similar movement on the back end to what we just said position flexibility. And that third point is where I think May really
comes into play. I just may eat some clay down by the bay to bump coverage responsibility, which is essentially in zone when they go motion, you bump someone else out to cover a guy that moves from your zone to a different zone. And this exists when you have this almost numberless defense, this positionless defense, like, yeah, that's Javon Holland and coverage. Oh they just motioned and bumped it to Marcus May. We can do that because our
safeties I think are entirely interchangeable. As a threesome, not individually, but as a threesome on their abilities to play weak, strong post in the box, rush, the edge, fit a gap in the run game, play the screen game, and they all love to hit. They love physicality. They all understand angles and keys in the run game. I mean, every damn move this defense has made this offseason, it is just so obvious the fit. I feel like there is absolute direction and May and Campbell really solidified that
for me this month. More on the Fit in a moment. May is entering his eighth season. It was a second round pick by the Jets out of Florida, actually the exact same year they took Jamal Adams sixth overall, and May went on to have a better Jets career than Adams did, and next in fact, a better NFL career than Jamal Adams did. He wound up in New Orleans to essentially replace Marcus Williams and Dennis Allen's Saints defense, who went to Baltimore to play for Mike McDonald. So
it's kind of funny how that worked out. And that was back in twenty twenty two. He had two good years with the Saints, although in limited action because he played just seven games last year and ten games in twenty twenty two, so he's missed some time, even going back to twenty twenty one with the Jets when he played just six games there, So he's missed a lot of time. Four hundred and forty four, six sixty nine and three hundred and sixty two snaps those are his
last three seasons. That gives you a little over one thousand over a three year run, and in that time he produced twenty nine stops, two picks, a sack, and three tackles for loss. That would be a good single season of production when you boil it down, But that's not exactly how it works, right. He's playing limited snap counts because of injuries to give you that cumulative one
year worth of production. I do think though, however, it's indicative of what the tape shows, and with the tape shows me goes back to what I said about the types of players they have been at to this defense. I keep thinking about Chris Greer, or maybe it was coach McDaniel saying that Weaver brought visuals for what he
wants at every position. So damn it, you have such consistency in what you've brought in with that thinking in mind, smart instinctive, anticipatory veterans who can react to the alignment and initial flow of a play and seamlessly rotate or pivot responsibility to make the quarterback or the back hesitate for a fraction of a second on pass or running plays. And then we use that hesitation in a league where he who hesitates is lost to beat you with our
sheer talent. That and the makeup of these guys all cut from the same cloth of study, prepare and win in the classroom before the game even starts.
Gosh, that is Marcus May's tapes.
We talk about the motion a lot and how how it plays tricks on the defense. Right, that quick movement before the snap can confuse coverages, especially in zone and how you bump your coverage.
We just talked about that, right.
So like May a lot, like Poyer, Fuller, Ramsey Brooks Walker, they are all veterans who've played a ton of football, been in multiple schemes, seeing offensive evolution, to understand various keys. He's just another guy that can do that. I've got five clips where he's in the backside of a formation,
a weak side safety in Dannas Allen's defense. So it's based upon the pre stat motion and the motion man from a bunch or a stack, whatever goes across the formation to the other side of the formation, and so May bumps the coverage. Hey, you go out wide and cover him, I'm going to insert in your run fit and make a play in the running game. He does all the time. He knows where he can take his
chances within the scheme. I just think that even if it takes a little bit of time to get everybody on the same page for a new defense, that we are going to see a defense that when it comes together, and maybe it's October, maybe it's August, who knows. But when it does, I think you're going to get a totally connected, singular unit. And that's part of the singular vision and.
The benefit of that.
We also talked about Campbell's ability to do multiple jobs from multiple alignments. It helps you play a lot of light boxes, which is a staple of modern NFL defense. A player like May is like when a basketball team has their big lineup out there and you've got three seven footers like Dirk Wemby and Karl Anthony Towns who can also connect on forty percent of their three point shots. We just can do everything. We can make one call for a look and then oh, we have to have
a linebacker here, go play linebacker Jordan Poyer or Marcus May. Okay, maybe that's a little bit too much name power as far as the Hoopers go, but you get the analogy. I can play in big nickel and split Javon and Poyer, with Marcus playing this rover type of role where he can read alignments and keys and come down and convert to a will linebacker who can fit the run or peel off on bootlegs and cover the tight end or
the back in the flat or a spot up route. Flexibility, versatility, interchangeability, positionless defense. That's the modern game, and this defense is so well equipped to do that if they so desire. Now, I had nothing to knock on Campbell's tape because he's a perfect player to me. But with May, I think if you get him isolated in space, get him in a situation where he has to vertical match, that could be bad news. But you can scheme around them, especially
provided that Holland is up and available. Now, if you lost him and it's Poyer and May. I think that that would open up deficiencies of their games as players. But if I have Holland available, I can work around it. If I can have him playing Marcus May, that is a robber role or matching a tight end from an offman look. He can get to spots with his anticipation and knowledge and short area burst. But when it comes to peer matchup, that's where I think that he struggled
with the Saints last year. There's a clip where he gets a pick on a deflection against the Titans, and I hated the rep because it's the same chair concept that we run, where you have a vertical route and a deep over route that's supposed to split these safeties and put him into peril, and he just bails on the over route and goes vertical. Who's already covered And if Tannehill had seen the throw, it's an easy room service thirty yards of air yards completion and he just
throws it into the deep shot. For what reason, I don't know, but I don't want to put him in situations where he's chasing guys across the field. I think May is a depth package, specialty, rotational speed piece, big Nickel thirty five to forty percent of your snaps. I think Campbell is a cornerstone type of addition. Nothing wrong with the former, just think it's important to clarify the difference there. Every team needs both. Dolphins got both here
in the month of June. But the defense has tons of talent. The challenge is what we said, getting everybody up to speed quickly, but coach Weaver has a lot of ingredients to work with now and two more in Kalais Campbell and Marcus May.
There you go.
I think the next episode of Drift Time, we're going to dive into the positional and divisional previews, taking a look around the National Football League, comparing teams to your Miami Dolphins, and also getting ready for training camp with the position by position preview, taking a look at each player when they offer your football team here coming up for the new season which begins in just a couple of months. But as for my time today on Drift Time,
that's going to be my time you all. Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast, leave us away and leave us a review. Follow me on social at Winfield NFL A team at Miami Dolphins. Check out the Fish Tank Podcast with Seth and Jews. Check out the YouTube channel for media availabilities, Dolphins Today and so much more, and last, but not least, Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time, Friends up call on Cameron Daddy, He's coming home.