What is up Dolphins And welcome to the Draft Time Podcast. I am your host Travis Wingfield, and on today's show, we are covering the Chris Greer press conference. He spoke to the local media here on Tuesday afternoon ahead of the NFL Draft, talking about some of the major landscape shifts across the roster and that includes some new information about cornerback Jalen Ramsey. All of that and a heck of a lot more from the Baptist Health Studios inside
the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Draft Time Podcast, May Gaff. So the press conference begins with an opening statement from Chris Greer about the news of the morning that was reported that Jalen Ramsey and the Dolphins have mutually agreed to part ways and they will look to facilitate a trade for the all pro cornerback. Here's Chris Grear on Jalen Ramsey.
So, really, after a couple of weeks of discussions between ourselves internally and Jalen and his representation, we decided that it was probably the best interest for all parties to move forward. So I will say these decisions aren't done quickly and.
They're not taken lightly.
Because we spent a lot of time this offseason working through this, talking through things. At the end of the day, Jalen did not ask for a trade, so we went through the process, and I just felt that after numerous conversations and then talking last week with Jalen and his agent, that it was best to move forward and it was best interest of the Miami Dolphins and for Jalen Ramsey.
Naturally, a lot of questions arose from that statement that it has obviously become made clear that the Dolphins and Jalen Ramsey are going to wind up parting ways. And you'll hear him talking a few of these answers about we'll deal with the fallout of him being here or you know, the situation of him being here if when that happens, or acquire the draft picks, and he was asked about urgency to get done before the draft to
make sure they get picks in this year's draft. He said that that was not part of the discussion, that they'll do it when the best time for it is to be done. He was also asked about Ramsey wanting a salary adjustment. He said no, he opted to keep it internal. When asked why this is happening, because he did say that Ramsey did not ask for a trade, did not ask for a raise, there was not an issue with the scheme or anything. And so he was asked, why is this trade happening or why is this discussion
even happening, and he said that will stay internal. He was also asked, it didn't seem like the moves you made this offseason matched up with what you did in free agency or to build the rest of the roster out. And I think if you look at the Dolphins current roster, you're gonna have to get some guys that step up that have been unproven, and that might even include you know, cater Coho playing on the outside more than the inside
than he has in the past. And if you guys are longtime listeners of the podcast, you know, I think he's very capable of that, a very good football player. And Chris Career touched on on Cam Smith later on in the press conference as well, and we saw a Storm Ducket playing time last year, Ethan Bonner the year
before that. Like, if you go into the season right now, which you're not, you have the draft and undrafted free agency, and as you'll hear from Chris later on, there's the you know, the free agent veteran market hasn't closed either,
that's still available to them. And while I don't think it makes sense to sit here and talk about the roster on April sixteenth, from a completion standpoint, I think that the general idea is that if you don't have like sure things at every single position group, that you're
lacking in that group. And I understand that from an outside and fan perspective, but sometimes in this league, especially in this league, I should say, with how the salary cap is and you know the turnover that we've seen in the last couple of years, you have to have guys that haven't shown stuff in the past show up and be players that you maybe didn't expect them to be or and maybe the team did, but maybe the
fan base didn't. But it happens every single year on every single football team, and for the Dolphins at the cornerback spot right now, they're going to have to have a couple of guys step up and play to a higher level than what they've shown in the past, or play at all. And that could include rookies, you know, high draft picks or mid round draft.
Picks or your DFAs. So we'll see what it looks like.
But right now it sounds like Ramsey and the Dolphins will try to find a way to facilitate a trade to get Ramsey out of Miami after a two year run here with the Dolphins. One more here from Greer on Ramsey and we'll go ahead and move on.
When you're talking through the off season and all these conversations are having throughout the off season, you're still working and you tried to prepare for scenarios. So like again, this was a long discussions, many discussions, i would say, throughout the off season, So this wasn't anything we rushed to and just said today, let's do this, So we're prepared. If he's here, you know, we'll deal with it. And if he's not, you know, we'll we'll adjust as well.
So we feel good about where it is. It's never easy to replace a player like Jalen a good player. For us, he's a good player, he'll probably be a Hall of Famer here, but for the Miami Dolphins going forward, we feel like this is the best chance to help us win not only just this year, but in the future as well.
He was also asked about the mindset of Stephen Ross about this team and how hopeful he can possibly be. Chris Career just basically said that he doesn't step over the football decision makers to make football moves. So I think this concept that Ross has been handing out Levy's about spending money or not, like, that's never been Ross's m right. He's always been spend the most money possible to get the best team on the field possible and spare no expense in doing that.
So and I mean.
That's been pretty well proven with the facilities and the constant report cards that you get back from the NFLPA survey they say a plus across the board. So this building in this facility and the commitment to winning is something that I think would be I mean, I don't know how you could possibly ever question that given the all of the surroundings that you see down here in South Florida and Stephen Ross's commitment to winning here with
the Miami Dolphins. And you know, I think what you look at with this year's team and this offseason, like everything that they do or that they've done is through the prism of like what's going to make us win most now, but also for the long term, because you'll recall back when his you know, twenty nineteen press conference, when they made the move, it was like, we are our biggest thing right now is trying to find a
way to sustain success. And that was after a couple of years of teams that pushed money into you know, some some aging veterans and went onto the free agent market and signed big time names, and they didn't always work out, and you would get these six and ten, seven and nine years and kind of be up against the books every year. And that was kind of a change in process. And I think the idea behind sustained winning is how every decision gets made here for Miami
and especially for Stephen Ross. Just continuing for the posterity of the entire press conference, which you can find on the team YouTube channel, but I think that breaking it down here has a better option.
What do I know to you guys.
He also was asked about the effort to resign Kalay's Campbell. He mentioned that Klay has opted to go back the team that drafted him. And we have heard, you know, I had heard previously the Campbell's a big Arizona guy. Loves it there and wants to set his roots long term down in Arizona. So that makes the most sense to me. And then the question I want to go ahead and play the answer for was would you label this a soft rebuild or a reset of the roster?
Because I've made it clear that the twenty twenty four rams were a great example of this, and I think you're seeing the Niners go through something similar to this and we'll see, you know, how these teams shake out on the other side. And we have seen the results of teams that have kind of taken a different approach or maybe just change their overall structure for how they do things. And you've seen that with the Miami Dolphins this year. I mean, it wasn't about the top of
the class of free agency. It's not about you know, making the big trade in big splash, and it's been more about acquiring draft picks and trying to reset your the way the building operates through the draft and through young players. And you've seen teams, not just across the league, but from this particular coaching tree have success doing that.
And so.
Chris Greer was asked about the actual label of a saw to reset or rebuild, And I thought that his answer was just instructive in terms of how they view this entire thing from you know, this point forward.
We have a lot of really good football players on this roster still at some places that impact game. So our goal is to win, win this year and and and keep winning for sustained success in the future.
Quick pause for a follow for Chris Grew on a similar question.
And some of the players we added or quality h human beings and people that have been leaders that other teams. But I do think in house when you have guys like Zach Seeler, just to name a few, like I mean, you can say Tyree Waddle, alec Ingold, Austin Jackson, the offensive line guys love you know, those guys they lead differently, you know, they're they're quiet guys and how they do it by example and stuff. So we feel comfortable they
know the expectations. You know, as we talked about it the post draft press conference, Mike addressed that and what he told the team. And so Mike and leaders on a team have been meeting all throughout the off season talking about things. So very excited for where it's going. And they know the expectations and so looking forward to see how this group responds.
Let's go ahead and take a break right there, come back on the other side and continue here with Chris Grear his pre draft press conference. That's Next Draft Time podcast brought to you by AutoNation. I think this next part here will be of interest for those that are concerned about all the needs on the roster. He was asked about this, Chris Greer about kind of bowing out of the first the high end of free agency, and you guys have heard this podcast time and time again.
That's for no team.
Is that a good process to invest heavily into that portion of the offseason or team building program. Team building
portion of the off season program. But there was some interesting tidbits in here about the draft picks and also the tension of free agency beyond that first couple of weeks, the first wave or two of free agency, and you're going to hear him talk about how they're in connection right now to a few players that are out there, which I always thought was the case, but interesting to hear Chris Wereer talk about.
This in a salary cap era, you just can't keep when you have high priced players and you've seen it around the league. You know that a team, so you make decisions. We have ten draft picks this year for the first time with that many draft picks, so excited about that. But at the end of the day, it was just we were just looking to sign some good
players at prices that we feel comfortable playing. And that continues all the way through the drafts and post draft as we've been in touch with a number of players as well still that we're still tracking.
So here's where I think there could be a disconnect from someone like myself or Kyle Crabs for that matter. And obviously, you know my job and attachment to the team comes with a different level of expectation for this. But like Kyle is also a pretty optimistic guy that we like to call it like we see it when
it goes wrong. But for the most part, we involve ourselves in this because it's it's more enjoyable to be looking at things from the lens of like what could it be if it goes right, Because the entire league, the entire process of the sport is make a decision.
It could go this way, it could go that way.
We'll see what happens and if you make enough of the decisions to go the right way, you are a consistent winner. And I'm not, you know, naive enough to acknowledge that it never goes wrong, but I always like
to look at it that way. And I even't thought about this today before the press conference went off and we heard about the Ramsey News, like I remember covering the team in twenty nineteen, and I kind of enjoyed it because it was like there was no need to get upset about what you're watching on the field because they were not going to be a contender to begin with, but there was things to get excited about from an
evaluation standpoint. And I will not sit here on April fifteenth and be like they have no chance at positions X, Y and Z, because there's going to be a lot of more additions made to the roster. We have to watch how those guys, you know, acclimate to the football team and where they are in September and even beyond
that into like Thanksgiving and where this thing grows. So that's all I set up to say, Like they could sign three impact free agents still and hit on four draft picks and get a couple of u DFAs that play on special teams and they could wind up adding seven or eight more contributors to the football team.
Is that super likely? I don't know.
I don't think the history and math of the league tells you that it is. I think there's examples of it, but probably more examples of it not working out for you. The reason I say all this is because he was asked a question about and this has been something he said every all the five years that I've been here, like we want to go into the draft without having any glaring needs, like the ability to line up and
play a football game tomorrow. Then we can just draft the best players and supplement what we already have from a roster standpoint. And it's obviously not like that this year, And so he was asked, do you adjust your draft strategy to fit those needs? Because right now, and you'll hear him talk about this press conference about like going into this draft with maybe more needs than years past, or you know, how the draft strengths align with the needs the Dolphins have on their roster, So will you
adjust accordingly? So here's Kris talking about that and addressing the fact that there are particular needs on this roster.
No for us it's the draft kind of lines with a lot of the positions of need for us that people perceive and what's on our roster right now. So for us, we think at thirteen, they'll be good players there that will we'll be NFL ready players that are also fell in need. So if we choose to stay there, we'll have options and if we move around, we'll take advantage of that as well.
Yeah, I get the sense they would prefer to add even more draft picks the ten that they do have and just try to again do what the Rams did in twenty twenty four. It was twenty twenty three when they really you know, hit the reset button and had all those draft picks and signed like twenty seven udfas and got impact your performance from a couple of them. And that's how teams have restacked the deck for a long time. Now when it comes to like, okay, we
made our aggressive push. Now it's time to kind of peel back and go more back towards the draft. Like there's team cycles, right, you have teams that are ready to go after it right now, and those are the teams that are attractive towards the top of the line. You know, veteran, one year mercenary types of players, and then you have teams that are trying to slowly build the thing up, and we've seen the Panthers kind of do that a little bit over the last couple of years.
And then you have teams that have to kind of reset back and kind of reformulate. Like every different team in the league has a different particular cycle, and right now Miami's in their cycle where they're trying to get younger and trying to get more contributing draft picks and young players in the roster.
Let's go ahead and pivot forward here.
He was asked, is the belief that both the starting safeties are in the building, And I thought this answer was pretty interesting.
Yes, yes, we feel good about those three and Elijah Campbell as well as back, so we feel like we have some depth there. But we'll keep looking to add as well as we you will to every position.
And I do think that in the best version of those players, you do probably have starting quality talent, but I think you also have good depth if you were to tap into this pretty deep safety class, which we've seen reports to the Dolphins being attached to a few of the draft prospects in terms of their visits to Miami and free agency. There was talk about Jeremy Chin having interests to the Miami Dolphins that go sign e
Fatu melafon Wu, who's a similar player type. And so I think that with this class, with the amount of draft picks, you probably could look to add more safety help and that would really make that room even deeper and better. But yeah, you've got a bunch of guys and they're going to compete for positions. And I'm excited about the turnover that spot because I thought safety last year was kind of a struggle for the Dolphins and having that whole room over Maade was probably a good thing.
And I kind of view the entire Weaver defense right now through that prism of like, hey, what do you need, coach, because it seems like that hybrid, you know, box impact safety that can play the run, which is so paramount
in today's league. Right Like, if you can't play the run at the safety position, man, you put your defense in a bind because of the inability to play high coverage and play off the football but also be able to insert into the running game, Like if you give the offensive front a hat advantage, a numbers advantage in the running game because you can't come down and play the run like it changes the entire dynamic of how
you play football. And you know, this is getting way into the weeds here in terms of like the discussion about analytics and whether or not running the football matters. And you guys remember ten years ago when it was like,
it does not matter who your running back is. It does not matter if you run the ball ever in a game, you should throw the ball every single time, because if you average eight yards per past attempt and that's a good number, and you average four yards per rush attempt and that's a good number, which one should you choose every single play? And that's how like I even subscribed to that thought a while ago. I remember I had a friend who was a high school running back and I told him one time.
Running backs don't matter. He was like what, he was so mad at me. And that was a foolish take.
And I one of the reasons I bring it up is because, like, you have to be able to impact your physicality and put the threat of the run game in the mind of the opposition to be able to open up your entire offense especially for Miami and all the play action that we have, and how good of a ball handler Tua is a quarterback. Like, when you can do that and impact the run game that way, it changes the way teams have to defend you and vice versa with the ability to play the run from
depth of safety. So when I watch these moves and when I think about Anthony Weevers impact on the defense and who could possibly run what he wants to run, I look at those types of impact safeties and think like that, that seems like a really good fit and a good idea for how this team builds out that room on the very back end of your defense. More questions about culture and all that stuff. I feel like they've covered that pretty in depth, so I need to
get into that any further. Do you guys see Patrick Paul as the long term left tackle here, the starting left tackle for twenty twenty five. He was asked about that and leam Mikeenberg. Will he start a guard back to CG in terms.
Of Patrick Paul, Yes, he will. He will be our starter at left tackle get the first crack at doing it.
We signed Larry Borum, who we felt really good about. We really liked him in free agency, and Liam will will come in and provide swing versatility, and he'll compete for a job, and he's not homist anything, and he knows there's going to be a competition for it.
And remember McDaniel mentioning that Liamlickenberg is going to have to be the best version of himself if he's going to start in twenty twenty five, which I think the writing on the wall between that and the versatile backup options and competition that you heard from Chris Grear that
that all kind of tracks to me. I'm sure that was part of the conversation with Liam when he signed, like, Hey, we're going to bring you back, but you're going to have to compete if you want to keep that starting job. This next question was posed by Omar Kelly in a pretty pretty upfront way about what created the change that you guys had in terms of philosophy of going into the draft without having any roster holes to now having
several of them. Here's Chris Greer on what changed your core philosophy to have this approach going into April's draft for the first time, really that we can remember.
For us, we feel good with our scouting staff and what we've done and our ability to be able to fill some holes with the free agency, like you know we've done with the guys we've added. The strength of the draft was a little bit of the reason where we felt like, okay, like we said, we're going to need NFL ready players. It's not like there's no like, hey, let's hope this guy's right, like he's going to be These guys are gonna be forced into play and that's
a good thing, you know. So we just have to be right on the person and the characters of the guys that we bring in here that they're gonna do that. So there was there was really no grand plan of doing it. It was just as we were looking through because you really always look a year into the future, like when you're looking at like the quarterbacks evaluations, like who's the next class of college players, So you always try and get a peek of what the next year's
draft class looks like in strength. So for us, it just aligned to where it made sense for us to invest in some younger players at those positions and UH, and then we'll fill in the rest post draft, UH through free agency.
They're not shopping in the markets that provide you the Jalen Ramseys and the Bradley Chubbs with Tyreek Kills. Anymore, they're trying to find the next Aram Brewer, right, That's that's the idea here. And I did find the answer about like, we can't expect to draft guys and just have him like red shirt for you. He didn't say that, but we have to have guys that can make an
immediate impact. Like that wasn't the case last year because the first two picks were guys that needed some time in seasoning, especially your second round pick, who has now looked at in hindsight as a smart move because of what happened to Toron Armstead's career and his retirement.
So let's go.
Ahead and take our last break right there. Come back on the other side, talk about the QB position. We'll talk about pressure, trade down, interest, all kinds of stuff here. More from Chris Greears April fifteenth, Tuesday press conference ahead of the draft. All the coverage here on the Draft Time podcast brought to you Buy Auto Nation, Quarterback Talk.
Why Zach Wilson. Here's Chris Greear.
We were all going through it and we spent a lot of time on that, you know, with Mike and the offensive coaches and the scouts, and we just felt like Zach had a lot of potential and a lot of talent. And I know, you know, you could go to the veteran route with someone that you know, more proven.
Know Zach has won a few games. I know everyone's going to say, you know, his record and stuff, but I think for us, in dealing with it and getting to know him, talking you know, once he signed, and getting to know him and going through it and going back to the relationships people had with him prior to the draft when he came out, we just felt that in talking to him and some veterans, that he was the right fit and right choice for us because we do think that his skills set really fits what our
offense does.
And perhaps my favorite part of the entire press conference was a response to a question about would you guys take a quarterback in the first round, Well, we already have our starting quarterback. Never rule anything out, but we have our guy.
I would say, we have our starting quarterback, so I wouldn't be looking to it. But I never rule anything out, but I would not be looking to draft a quarterback in.
The first round.
I want to go ahead and play this sound bite for you guys about the willingness to come off the thirteenth pick to acquire more picks. I think that's you know, let's go ahead and play the audio first.
I'm definitely open to moving around in the draft, but also if the opportunity to arise is to get a really good player, be open to figuring out a way to go get them too as well. So we do have needs. But I think you guys would even say that there's more good street free agents on the street now than there have been in a long time. Seems like a lot of veterans are waiting until after the drafts to see.
Where they're going to sign.
So there again, there are opportunities to keep building the roster that way.
So I want to first address that by saying, like, typically when you get these breadcrumbs, these trails of consistent messaging from Chris or Mike, they typically come to fruition. And a few times now we've heard him mention the idea that there's players on the free agent market that can round out the roster, and there are some pieces like at cornerback. I'm a fan of a Sante Samuel's game.
He would be a good fit in my opinion. There's a safety Julian Blackman that remains out there who could be of interest to me, a couple of guys on the offensive line. I think Marcus Williams at safety makes some sense as well. So there are guys that exist out there that would help this roster improve. But there's also some areas that are pretty scarce, like defensive tackle
or the cornerbacks beyond a Sante Samuel. But it does sound like there's going to be a pretty good surge here of players coming in post draft or post June one, whatever it might be. I think that'll be a pretty It's pretty telling that they're looking to do that already.
And then the other thing was a trade down interest, which again I think there's been breadcrumbs there about how they've built this thing and the interest in draft picks and a team that wants to build their entire program through the draft and has kind of pulled back the reins on the aggressiveness of going after veteran talent. I mean, if you offer that team more draft picks, they're going to say yes, right like's if it's worth it for
them in terms of the deal that gets done. So I think those are two things you can look forward to, is potentially more accumulation of picks as well as more veterans being brought in between now in September. And we'll go ahead and close with this. I found this to be a very interesting answer, probably one of the best of the entire press conference, when he was asked about the process of running a draft for ten years now, really going back to sixteen and what has he learned
in that process. And I'll go ahead and weigh in act we hear from Chris and a pretty lengthy answer here.
Now, it is an interesting question because it's an evolution. You kind of know how I work with coaches. So I've had, you know, three different coaches here and it is interesting and they all have different types of players they like. So it's the adjustment. But you know, I think the one thing that's common is just finding those guys that love football, that are tough kids, that are
competitive and love ball. And so I think there's some times when maybe I've veered a little bit guess like, hey, we're just going to take the athlete or something or whatever whatever trait this player has and you're kind of like, okay,
we'll make it work. Sometimes it does, it doesn't always, And so I think we do a lot of work, you know, vetting backgrounds and personalities of players, and I think that plays a big role in the of people because, like you said, these players read everything that is.
Said about them, you guys know, I mean.
And for those guys to handle it, it takes a special player to be able to handle it because they want to react to everything someone says about them. So so myself, I think for me, sometimes.
You know, maybe I defer too much. And I've talked.
About that and that's probably the one thing I've I've learned that as I've gotten more, I guess along in my years that the pushback is great. And that's what's great with Mike. We don't always agree on everything, but we always come into alignment to where we get to help the MIDI Dolphins.
So it's it's been really good working with them.
So, all things told, a pretty interesting press conference there. I thought that last answer was was kind of like a little bit of getting to know Chris more than we ever have in terms of his press conferences and talking about maybe some of the things that he could have done better throughout his career so far and where he is right now in twenty twenty five. But on balance, overall, I think, you know, the fan base might be a
little bit dubious about what's going to happen. My messaging to you would be, let's let this thing play out and see see what the draft brings. See what that you know, the kind of hint or teaser there towards you know, more potential free agent acquisitions. Why don't we go ahead and see what that looks like, and then we'll kind of make our judgments come August September when they kick this thing off for real, because if you don't,
you're gonna drive yourself crazy all summer long. And you've got baseball, and you've got golf, and you've got the Miami Heat playing tonight, all kinds of fun stuff for you in the sports world. Okay, let's go ahead, though, and call it a show. You can find again the entirety of this press conference up on the Team YouTube channel, where you can also find a brand new episode of Dolphins HQ. I got a chance to break down the Patrick Paul film. In the film room, as well as
talk about that thirteenth pick of the draft. Fun episode of HQ coming your way. You all, please be sure to subscribe, rate, review the podcast. We're getting more reviews, not so good reviews, but that's okay on the podcast lately. Go ahead of follow me on social at winkfod NFL. The team at Miami Dolphins. Check out the fish Tank with Seth and Juice, the YouTube channel for the aforementioned h Q four Draft time interviews, for media availabilities, and
much much more. Last butt not least Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time, Fin's Up, Caroline Cameron Daddy