To on the move, going deep speedways past Peas from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.
This is Drivetime with Travis Wingfield.
He's got 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, another day on Radio Row in Indianapolis from the Indiana Convention Center. We have a couple of big time guests for you. Plus we're gonna preview the actual workouts that happen on the field at Lucas Oil Stadiums starting tonight Thursday with I Believe it's the defensive line and linebackers getting after it. The twenty twenty four NFL scouting combine
about to get underway. From Radio Row in Indianapolis. This is the Draft Time Podcast.
Oh well, daph first go ahead.
Kick off today's show with my first guest on Thursday from ESPN. You might Reprehent from Bleitcher Report, but now ESPN Matt Miller. Very excited to be joined today for the first time in the Draft Time Podcast by the great ESPN Draft analyst and insider at NFL Draft scout, Matt Miller.
Matt, thank you for your time today.
Yeah, of course, appreciate you having me on.
So you just posted a mock draft, and I want to get some Dolphin stuff eventually here because why else would we have in the podcast. But you also cover the entire draft and the entire National Football League, and I like asking guys like yourself, your coworker Jordan Reed, just to kind of describe the draft in general, for some storylines from this year's class that has you excited about twenty twenty four.
Yeah, I think this is a great offensive draft.
You know, we might see the first ten picks in the draft might all be offense, maybe even a little bit deeper than that. You know, even whether you're doing a mock draft or building your big board of your player rankings, it's notable. You know, quarterbacks are heavy at the top, wide receivers very heavy at the top. Couple offensive tackles are in that group as well. So it is one of the deeper offensive drafts is in terms of round one, deeper talent on offense that I've seen
maybe ever truly a special class. So, you know, Dolphins are a pretty set at quarterback and wide receiver.
But that's where the talent in this draft is well, I was going to ask you because I've been doing this law this week with different guests, and like, beyond Tyreek and Waddell, there was kind of there could be some more pass catchers in this Dolphins offense. And it makes me curious because receiver for a long time was like, don't take them in the first.
Round, right, right, Yeah, I was just telling someone that I remember those days, I don't draft a receiver in the first round, and now it's like draft the receiver as fast as you can.
Yeah, title those guys go with the first round of a year, and it's become a premium position by how they get paid too in frequency. Right, So I'm curious it doesn't make teams more inclined to be aggressive at that position and go up for the receivers and.
Get them, I think so, Like you mentioned, how much they're paid is a huge part of it. And you know, you guys have one of the highest paid in Tyreek Kill. So you see what that does to your roster construction when you have twenty five million dollars or so tied up in a wide receiver. Also, it used to be that rookie wide receivers didn't produce early, right you know, it was like am Kwon Bolden was the only guy
to have a thousand yards. Now it's every year, you know, Garrett Wilson, Chris o'lave, Jamar Chase, Justin Jefferson, they come right in and we're talking about this might be a top five wide receiver in the NFL right out of the gate. Jalen Wattle has very quickly become, you know, in a Pro Bowl caliber player. So I think that is part of it too, is these players are better
prepared in college. But also the NFL game has shifted to where it is so much like attack the perimeter or attack deep, where guys like Wattle can step right in because you have elite speed, you have elite field vision, and it used to be so different. Everything was like West Coast and timing based, so it was harder for young wide receivers to make a mark.
I think the Dolphins offense is somewhat like that.
Wes Welker brought that over from New England and kind of has that you know, timing and get on the on the right spot, especially with two A talking about lower quarterback.
But you also mentioned Wattle he broke.
I think a Kwan Bolden's reception record as a rookie, and then I think it's been broken like two or three times.
And it probably will be again this year, right yeah, yeah, by.
By Marvin Harrison or Lake Dambers or someone in that category.
How about the quarterbacks in this year's class, where do you see them shaking out at the end of the day.
Is it going to go one, two, three? And how many do we get in the first round?
Do you think? I think goes one, two three is in interesting. I don't think.
Don't let anyone tell you they know what the Patriots are going to do, because even right we just found out a week ago who's running their draft room, so it's very uneven right now. They could go quarterback, they could go left tackle, they could go wide receiver. So I think we'll go quarterback one to four. We'll get drafted in the first round. It is a question of where does the third one go, and then what happens to JJ McCarthy will be the fourth one off the board.
I think there's a chance we see five bon Knicks from Oregon maybe getting in there.
If someone were to come back.
Up into the twenties, but four are great, especially for Dolphins fans who don't need a quarterback. You want as many quarterbacks as possible to go ahead of you to push those guys down the board.
So you mentioned the idea of someone coming up, because that's kind of something I've been looking at. Because the Dolphins don't have picks in the third and fourth round. Maybe if possible trade back from twenty one, who that would be bon nicks in that spot you think and what teams you think might be inclined to go up right?
Yeah, I mean the Minnesota Vikings have made it no secret that last year they were trying to very aggressively go up and get a quarterback. So if they don't take one at eleven, they could be a team that swings back up.
The New York Giants have two second round picks and haven't need.
A quarterback, and at six they could all be off the board, and so that would be a spot where maybe you try to come back up. And because you do have the two second round picks, you have that ability to aggressively come up, and it's not you're not starting to tap into future your drafts to do that.
I think if you look at the Dolphins list of knees, and you talked about it in your mock draft, which is up on ESPN dot com right now, ESPN Plus.
Go check that out or ESPN Is that right?
Yeah? Yeah?
Is that right?
Word?
I watched a lot of.
Golf on when you said it, it sounded right, So yeah, we'll gos like insider, but the ESPN Plus I watched a lot of golf on there and read your guys' work there as well. So but in that range, I mean, the offensive line class is so deep and so lower this year, right, and that's where the Dolphins have, as you mentioned in your piece, so many potential needs, with free agency possibly wiping out the entire interior, and if Toron Armstead retires, then maybe they have four needs on
the offensive line. But I'm curious, because I've talked a lot about the interior this week with people such as yourself. I'm curious about the tackle class because we could see as many as six seven, eight, absolutely pick twenty one. Yeah, I'm curious who you think fits that mold of that Toron Armstead, of the Austin Jackson, these super athletic tackles and getting space that would fit McDaniel's offense.
Yeah's Amarius Mems from Georgia is that guy. And he only started eight games in college. He played right tackle, but he has the athleticism to play left tackle. He's the fit, you know, like guys like JC Latham at Alabama, they're like bulldozers, you know, three hundred and sixty pounds.
He's just putting people in the dirt.
That doesn't fit this scheme where you do need your tackles to be out in front, you know, blocking on wide receiver screens at times.
So I think Mims fits that.
Mold Tyler Guiden from Oklahoma another guy who you know played defensive line now he's an offensive tackle. The athleticism is there for those two guys, and they could realistically be there at twenty one. Like you said, well see what happens in free agency and with potential retirements that that could make tackle like the need.
You know, it's like you have to figure this out before you think about anything else.
It feels like every team has multiple offensive line needs every single year at the stage of where we are in the NFL. But how about a guy that could potentially because I look at Armstead as a potential maybe one year solution if he comes back, and then maybe
you have to replace that next year. So back in twenty sixteen, the Dolphins took Leamy Tunzel, who wound up being kind of the foundation of our entire franchisees roster off the tray to the Houston Texans, but his first year he played left guard and then kicked out the left tackle. Is there a guy in this year's class that you think could be one of those players that is a tackle but plays guard initially?
Yeah, both those guys I mentioned are that way. Mems and Geiton definitely are. Latham is more of like your right tackle, but could play guard for a year. I just don't see a way that he goes to the left side. He's just too big. Patrick Paul from Houston in the second round would be an interesting guy.
Who really really good movement skills.
Needs to work on his lower body strength, So like, could you put him at guard for a year and develop him and then kick him out.
I definitely think you could do that with him.
Okay, yeah, that sounds good. There's so many guys that have is just good feet, so athletic in this class that can do that. Stuff, and speaking of good feet and athletic receiver where we talked about it, maybe not a big need for the Miami Dolphins, but I still contend that last year when Wadall and Tyreek went down, they needed someone else to be a separator inside, whether it's a tight end, a big presence inside, it can
be a speed guy too. Who do you think would be a good mix either at twenty one or fifty five for Miami to kind of compliment the skills of Tyrek and Waddle.
Yeah.
The very first mock draft I did this year, I put Xavier Worthy from Texas to the Dolphins, and people were like, what you lose in your mind? Tyreek's getting a little bit older and you need that third option. And this offense is so explosive, so fun to watch, Like, why wouldn't you just keep loading that that position? So I'm saying right, So I do love the idea there.
Worthy absolutely fits this offense as a speed guy. I don't think we'll see brock Bauers on the board at twenty one, even though he is like the hardest player in the draft to slot in the tight end out of Georgia. It is such a deep wide receiver class that in round two we could be looking at guys like Malachi Corley from Western Kentucky Lad McConkie from Georgia.
There's a potential that.
Xavier Worthy because he's undersized, that like one hundred and seventy five pounds, could even be there in the second round. So we could fulfill our dream of having like the fastest football team ever if he's out there with those guys, I mean, h.
And Wattle Tyreek just add more to it Man and DJ tol miss Week Dowandre am I that Malachai Corley thinks he is going to run a four to three in the fourth three range.
That would be insane with his size and physicality. Yeah, I hope that happens. Jay, It's not wrong on that stuff often, so I hope that happens.
He looks like a Dolphin and Niner, one of those Shannahan Tree type of offenses. He looks like an absolute fit with the yact that he has there. How About on the DEFENSI side of the ball, And I've not really gotten a lot of content on the defense during the combine because we just don't really know what it's
gonna look like with a new defensive coordinator there. But I want to talk about the front seven of this of this year's class and what the Dolphins could potentially do there, because once again, if Christian Wilkins walks, there becomes a huge hole defensive tackle and that's actually where you have Dolphins going in the first round of your mock draft, which I assume is based on yeah, yeah, yeah, what could happen there.
But we've seen Anthony.
We were get some tons of production out of guys up front, you know, with Javian Clowney last year, justin mattawek A. But he kind of has that crop in Miami with Chubb and Phillips off the edge seeler and maybe Wilkins inside. Yeah, just kind of go through the process of twenty one to fifty five detackle edge linebacker Dolphins potential fits.
You think, yeah, it's a thin defensive tackle class.
It really is.
So Bira Murphy from Texas most likely would be off the board at twenty one. Then there is guys like Johnny Newton from Illinois who fit this defense very well. I think round two you might be reaching slightly for guys like Leonard Taylor from Miami Michael Hall from Ohio State, but they do fit that mold. I think edge rusher is very very interesting because especially the injuries to the guys, you know, when are they going to be back at
one hundred percent. I think edge rusher at twenty one based on the medicals is something that could be really interesting to where like Leatu Latu, who's a lot like Jalen Phillips, could be there at twenty one. Maybe it's a little early for Darius Robinson from Missouri, but I mean he's he's made for this defense at six five two ninety because he can play inside or outside, linked speed, first step, quickness.
Or all there.
When we get into round two, I feel like it falls off a little bit with the edge rushers where you're starting to and we'll see what like if there's a run, Like if a guy like Chop Robinson goes first round, it's gonna start to thin out in round two where maybe you look at his teammate Adisa Isaac, you know you're but we could see enough of a run in the thirties to where by fifty four you're
depleted at edge. Because it is so important and every team I've talked to this year feels like they can wait to get an edge player, and I think they're gonna find out that everyone's trying to do the same thing, and the first one is going to go off the board in the thirties. Then I think we'll see that massive run as people realize okay, wait here they come.
That kind of sounds like maybe Andrevik Giggle might be more priorer than.
We thought going into the draft if it's going to be that third, that position, because he was a really good third rusher for us this year, and you make the Phillips lawsuit comparison, it's freaky how similar they are, especially like the injury history is a similar as well, So it's a cool comp third with the with their
skills and also their backgrounds. I always love to ask the experts here, you know, if you're in a war room on draft day, who are a couple of guys late in the draft some sleepers that you would stand on the table for, and really just in pald heal for them, not dolphins fits, just in general.
Who do you love?
I met Cody Schrader, the running back from Missouri. His story is amazing to me. You know, walk on at a small school in Missouri, then gets to Miszoo and leads the SEC and rushing this past year. So you know he's he's going to be like a rotational running back. But he's someone i'd you know, just love watching him play. Junior Colson won't be a late round pick, but it
like just my favorite football players in the draft. Junior Colson's up there, Jahem Bell, who is a little bit of a throwback like full.
Back, tight end, h back in South Carolina.
Those are the where you know, we talk about like we we always have our guys and that's a list all work on when we get home from here.
Of but maybe they're not.
Gonna be the first guy drafted at their position, maybe they're not even a top one hundred pick, but people you just believe in and will want on your team like those, those three are on my list.
Watching both the senable, I think I put like Dolphin next to him, Charles Clay maybe potentially down the road.
So last question here for you, Matt Mark Draft ESPN.
You have two picture for the Dolphins, Giant Newton like you mentioned Illinois and Cooper Bebe in the second round. Can you go aha and tell us about those guys you talked about new a little bit of tills about it.
Yet Newton is something that can play inside outside. He was He played all over for the Illinois defense and he is relentless. The athleticism is there, but it's the motor that you fall in love with because he's consistently running down everyone and can be disruptive, especially as a penetrator in gaps, but brings you that versatility. Cooper Bbe is really interesting because, as you mentioned, the interior of
that offensive line could be depleted with free agency. Bibe is a plug and play starter at either guard spot. He has the mobility that you need to run this offense, but he's enough of a finisher at the second level where he's still under control. But he plays with that mean streak that I think you want, especially as somebody opening up this run game. You have to have, you know, the agility to run the zone scheme.
He has all that. I mean, it's heavily accomplished coming out of k State.
Very good stuff.
Matt Miller, NFL draft analyst and insider for ESPN at NFL Draft Scout, I mentioned this to you off the air.
You had to be the first person on line to get that.
Had to be right. It was two thousand and eight. I remember signing up for Twitter and thinking, what do I want? What are people coming to this account for?
That was it?
So it worked.
Appreciate you man, thank you, thank you.
The way he goes and you know, I'm very big on hospitality and just general politeness, and I always joke that since I moved from a small town in the Pacific northwest to South Florida and the East Coast, that I've kind of had a rude introduction into the cold shoulder that is, no please and thank you, no response when you say words to human beings. So anytime you meet someone new and they're very kind and cordial, that I always kind of goes a long way with me.
And Matt Miller was definitely that good stuff there with the content as well. Let's go ahead and take our first break. Comeback on the other side. I want to go ahead and preview some dang football workouts. That's next on the Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wakefield.
Brought to you by Auto Nation.
So why don't we actually talk about what's going to happen out here Indianapolis. The most important part of the week. The actual on field workouts is that the most important part. I tend to think it's more about the meeting with the players and the fact that every GM and every coach for the most part, is out here and can entertain potential free agent contract talks, potential trade talks, and really just a general meeting place for all the biggest
minds in the National Football League. But I do want to go ahead and spend some time on the show talking about some players that figure to have great workouts and to improve their stock a little bit in this
year's draft. And going off of this, I choose to use the Freaks list from Bruce Feldman at The Athletic, who posts a annual story in the summer ahead of the college football season taking a look at I think he has seventy on this year's list, players who figure to test very well in Indianapolis at the Combine, and players to figure to have draft stock heading into their it's not even their final years.
Sometimes there's freshmen on the list as well.
So I want to go ahead and preview some of these guys that Bruce Felman listed as potential workout warriors, and then why don't we go ahead and get Kyle Krabs on the podcast as well to have us have him walk us through some players that he thinks will improve their stock with of course a view through a Miami Dolphins Lennons. So the first name on my list,
and I wrote this down last week. So it's a little bit outdated already, because Marvin Harrison Junior decided to skip the combine altogether, not just the workouts.
He ain't even coming out. Why is that?
Because he believes that training for football will serve him the best opportunity to produce as a rookie. And quite frankly, again talking against my own interest here on the podcast, I tend to agree with him. I think it's smart because the only time these guys will ever train for a forty yard dash or for track type of athletic movements in general is for this pre draft testing period, right the Combine, their pro days, And what good does it do you?
I mean to throw a four to two up there.
We talked to We talked with Dan Jeremiah on the Tuesday podcast and he said that Malachi Corley's gonna run a four to three. I had Corali in the four to five range. If Corley runs a four to three, that guy's skill set to me is first round potential. He won't go that high, but that's how I feel about him. So it is valuable for the players in that sense. But still, and Jeremiah talks about this as well, a lot of these guys have GPS tracking that takes them.
Essentially the numbers you would get from the combine are applicable with their college tape, which is what you go off of in them for the majority of your takes anyways. Right, So that's kind of this Marvin Harrison aspect because I'm reading that he did bench three hundred and eighty pounds and did twenty reps at two twenty five and squad at five hundred pounds. That is an exceptional, exceptional athlete. And on that topic, that's kind of what you're looking
for from Miami Dolphins. Right when you watch the combine, I want you to watch a couple of statistics, and it's not the forty yard dish.
It is the ten split of the forty yard desh.
You guys might recall last year Ryan Hayes, Elijah Higgins, Cam Smith, and Devon ah Chan all had lightning quick ten splits.
How do you fire off the football?
That's our philosophy in South Florida, right, we want to get off the football before you and beat you to the spot and beat you with speed and athletic ability.
So keep an eye on that statistic.
Also, broad and vertical jumps are a pretty good measure of a player's explosiveness, their start, stop, their acceleration, and I guess there's some elements of long speed in that as well. So those are some stats to look at when you watch the workouts this weekend here in Indianapolis.
Let's go ahead and move off a list. Here we go from an Ohio State player and Marvin Harrison junior to Chris Jenkins, the defensive tackle of Michigan, who did thirty two reps of two twenty five in the bench and did a seven hundred and sixty pound combo twist. What is that?
Do you know?
What?
Does JT?
I don't know what it is?
What's a combo twist? No, he doesn't know, No one knows, but it sounds cool.
It's also he's also thirty pound heavier than last year's freak from Michigan Mazi Smith. So Chris Jenkins has put on a lot of weight on. If you guys remember that name Chris Jenkins from the Carolina Panthers days, Yes, we are getting old. That's the son of Chris Jenkins. So Martin Harrison juniort Chris Jenkins junior. How about a linebacker from Alabama Chris Braswell, if you guys watched the Senior Bowl, he was in that game and was dominant in the one on one drills and the team portions
as well. He got after it during that whole thing. Thirty eight and a half inch vertical squad, seven hundred and five pounds. A guy that to look for if the Dolphins are to look at the edge position, he could be a guy that improves.
His stock and maybe he gets on the Dolphins board.
Here like defensive end Chop Robinson from Penn State, a six foot three, two hundred and fifty pound junior who was a little bit bigger than Mikael Parsons his final year. Also had a broad up of ten to seven and bench press four hundred pounds with a four to four seven forty.
I mean, this guy makes all kinds of plays.
Smart player, and that athletic testing is going to have his name rise up the board in the first round, and I would not be surprised if he's there at twenty one.
If he's an option for you.
We talked about it with the layout two lot to draft projection that I gave him earlier a couple weeks ago. If there's a great edge there because of the premium position that it is, like, don't hesitate take that spot, get yourself more pass rushers and give yourself a cheap production, productive player at a very premium position. It always works out if you do that, if they're good players. Some more names in the list here Cooper Degene from Iowa,
and you guys probably know him. He's what was it the White versus Black Olympics that Antonio Brown was suggesting?
Who was?
I forget who was?
But Cooper Degen is basically the lone man on the totem pole of cornerbacks because he's a white dude and he flies.
He had a ten split of.
Point nine two.
Is that even possible?
They think you could break four to three at two hundred and ten pounds this year? Keeping on him in his forty yard dash here at the combine. Trevin Wallace, a Kentucky linebacker is a guy on the list here as well, at twenty two miles an hour in the GPS and squat's almost six hundred pounds. LSU defensive tackle Mason Smith as a six foot six, three hundred and fifteen pounder who clocked nineteen point five miles per hour. That's a possible name you could look at as a
potential replacement if you do lose Christian Wilkins. Like Byer Murphy from Texas who's been clocked to eighteen miles. Prower has a four hundred and fifty five pound front squat and power clean at three hundred and seventy five pounds. He is an absolute monster and has the tape to match into Senior Bowl in his game tape as well. Byron Murphy a Texas a potential name there at pick twenty one for your Miami Dolphins. I got lots of
names here for you guys. Jared Verrch, you guys probably know him from Florida State, six foot three and a half, two hundred and sixty pounds, twenty one miles per hour on the GPS.
That's why you don't want need the forty yardashes. You kind of already have it.
He squats five fifty five benches four to fifty five. Just an absolute monster. Like offensive tackle Oli Fashanu from Penn State, who's not going to be on the board of the Dolphins pick, but he's also on this list for a four to nine to seven, four to six to three shuttle and four hundred and five pounds squats with a bench press I should say, six hundred pound squad, three hundred fift pound power clean.
What a monster.
UCLA has a speedback that might be of interest of your Miami Dolphins if he's on the board late in this draft. Carson Steele six foot one, two hundred and thirty three pounds. He has amazing workout tricks across the board, four hundred and fifty pound bench, six eighty five squad, a twenty one mile per hour time speed this year with a vertical of thirty five inches. Those are the kind of backs that might get your fancy in the
late part of the draft. How about linebacker Peyton Wilson from NC State I've talked about on the podcast, kind of has some Keiko Alonso to his game. If you're talking about a Dolphins comp there a four four ninety four to two to one in his pro agility shuttle, which is essentially his workout in college before before the season,
ahead of the year. You might go to the combine also bench three ninety thirty five and a half inch vertical and a nine to eight and a half broad What a stud that he is a couple of defensive backs for you guys here, Tyler Owens from Texas Tech is six two to two oh five twenty three mile an hour clock in speed this year or in in game clock speed this year with a forty inch vertical.
Might be keeping eye on dbach with the Dolphins, Cam Hart nore Dame.
Similar story there at twenty one point seven miles per hour clock GPS time there he can flat out fly. And a guy that might fit with the Dolphins want to do under Anthony Weaver. How about some skill spots. Malik Neighbors a vertical jump of almost forty inches, and you guys know about Neighbors. He's not gonna be on the board of the Dolphins pick, but he is juice
on top of juice on top of juice. Wisconsin running back Braylan Allen is an interesting kind of juxtaposition to Devon Ah Channon Raheem moster more in that Chris Brooks category four h six pounds power clean and a one four to nine ten split, So there's your explosiveness. He also benched three to sixty five and just as an absolute monster. There's plenty more names on this list. Quinian Mitchell, the Toledo cornerback if the Dolphins go in the defensive backfield,
two hundred and twenty five pounds. He benched that twenty one times this year. He weighs two ten also ran in the four to threes twice this past spring, and has a twenty three and a half mile an hour top speed. He is an oppressive, impressive athlete. You guys know about Brock Bauers. He is a ten to two broad jump thirty six inch vertical would be tied for the fourth most among tight ends last year at the combine that forty times, somewhere in the four or five range.
Probably not gonna be the boor of the Dolphins pick, but he's an interesting name. I also put Sion Vaki, the Utah safety who I love his game. He is already benching four hundred pounds, squats five twenty and has a vertical jump with thirty nine inches ten foot five and a half in the broad jump. And then I put my two guys in here, Rowan Wilson and Malachai Corley,
who both made the Freaks List this past year. Here's a Roman Wilson's line here, a former fastest man at the opening as a high school recruit, having clocked four to three seven forty and at six foot one ninety three pounds senior, he wows coaches with his ability to accelerate, decelerate and control his body. This offseason, Wilson clocked a four to three to three forty out of a two point stance and ran a sizzling six foot point two to three cone drill that was only upstage by teammate
Amari and Walker. I mean three seven seven shuttle, had terrific ten point seven six sixty yard shuttle and flew up the Wolverines reactive plio stairs in two point two seconds.
What does that mean? I don't know, but it sounds like he's a hell of an athlete. We know how he works.
Then Malachai Corley led the country and yards after catch with nine hundred and seventy five and missed tackles forced with forty sounds like a dolphin, doesn't he He's two hundred and twenty five foot eleven frame, looking more like a running back of the new typical receiver. He's hit twenty three miles per hour on the GPS and clocked four four three forty yard dashes. You heard Jeremia say he my clip four three's that would be very, very impressive.
We gets to that range four eight shuttle and three ft five bench. That's a very nice combination as far as an athlete goes there. So there's some interesting workouts to keep an eye on there. We'll cover more of this with Kyle Krabs and some other just general draft talk, but I want to get that out there for you guys before the combine starts here on the podcast. Let's go ahead and pivot now to my final guest here on this day. I welcome to him, the great EJ.
Snyer from the Bootleg Football Podcast. He'll come back after the break with us and talk about some combine trends, some combine storylines, and of course the Miami Dolphins. That's the next Draft Time podcast, your host, Travis Wingfield, brought to you.
By Auto Nation.
Joining me today from the floor at the Indiana Convention Center here Indianapolis is the great EJ Stneyder from the Bootleg Football podcast.
EJ finally made it happen to me. How you doing, man?
Fantastic We get to meet in person for the first time, which a lot of your listeners will probably be surprised by because we've done this several times now.
And you know you used to live right by me before you move down to Florida.
Take this gig, but it's great to put names of faces, handshakes on, you know, previously profile photos and get it all done.
Yeah, you guys almost almost forced a move back from the wingfields when you showed me that studio up in Where is that at you guys shoot those from the divisional previews?
Oh?
Well, that actually is Brett's place in La No. No, we just did an airbnb Okay, Yeah, that studio was amazing, man.
Yeah, beautiful. It worked out really nicely. We're hoping to do that again this year. But it definitely added something. And Brett had never been to the Pacific Northwest in the summer and now he wants to live the Okay, I get it. Yeah, it's pretty much. It's summer in Seattle is like February in South Florida. It's perfect every single day. You cannot beat up. But you guys aren't here for weather talk. You're here for some draft talk.
And they just published a new episode on the Bootleg Football podcast taking a preview, or I should say, a look at the combine, previewing this week's work from the players and also what happens here, which is and I saw Bretts sweet this morning about how this is my first combine and this is not what I thought it was at all. Yes, Brett, there are lots of late nights, there are lots of drinks consumed, there are lots of conversations about things that go on, but that's not.
Really the mode that we are in.
I want to hear from your perspective on what you expect to see during these workouts this week, because it seems EJ like every year they get faster, they get bigger, they get stronger, they get more impressive, don't they.
They absolutely do every year. Athletic training is an entire industry. I think a lot of people might not be familiar with how organized that is and how involved agents are and that is just part of the package. When you're in the pre draft cycle, right, you get sign with an agent, they have a.
Training house that they work with.
You usually ship off and go live there for six weeks, do diet, do all kinds of stretching, and it's purely to train to get ready for this event.
And that is a major piece of this.
And you know, I think the biggest story probably is the folks that aren't doing it this year, that are sort of bucking the trend. Marvin Harrison junior, you know, very important, certainly said I'm not gonna switch up what I'm doing training to play football to train to run a forty. And a lot of people do that, and it's very difficult on a body. You end a college season.
You have in some cases, I mean the Texas and Washington guys opted out of the Senior and Trine because they were it was ten days removed from their last game.
Crazy they need some rest.
But all those other players are again moving across the country learn how to run forties. Maybe if you're alignment, you've never done that, if you're not a track guy. And then as soon as you're done with that and you get drafted, you got to switch back and turn yourself back into a football player. So it's fascinating to
see those trends. But yes, bigger, faster, Absolutely, we're gonna see probably the record broken for guys over three hundred running under five second forties because that happens every year. Kingsley Suamataia the tackle from byu A noted. You know, Felden Freak's list candidate for the last couple of years. He's been a solid four to nine guy for a couple of years, and there are many whispers that he might break four to eight something at three hundred and whatever.
He is fifteen pounds, so.
That's not human.
It's intense.
I mean, do you feel like that could be like kind of the beginning of the end of the scouting combine, because like Marvin Harrison making that move, they have all this stuff in like GPS tracking right, like the pads are all gps'd out, Like it sounds like that's almost the beginning of the end of the combine.
You know, people have.
Said that, and I think it's a beginning of the change, like a significant change in the combine. Because we have to remember that Marvin Harrison Junior is an elite prospect for those not familiar with them. Yes, the son of the great Marvin Harrison Jr. Or Marvin Harrison Senior, the Hall of Famer, you know, great blood Lions, has had a tremendous college career, has elevated himself to the top of the wide receiver rankings pretty much. I haven't seen
anybody not have him there. So he's in a unique position. He can say I'm gonna do what I want. I know where I'm going anyways, I really don't have the ability to increase my stock, but I could hurt myself, so I'm not going to most players what they're almost three hundred players here don't have that luxury, and they are trying to show something that they're faster, that they're stronger, that they are you know, get a look in front of scouts in terms of the motion or movement drills.
Marvin Harrison Junior doesn't need any of those.
The majority of guys here, ninety five percent of them do need that, do want that. They absolutely want these press sessions that you guys are recording in terms of being able to talk about their experience and what they're looking forward to in the league. It is a huge opportunity for all those guys. It's the COMBA is not going away anytime soon. Good, but it will probably change because I.
Love my weekend India. I gotta have it every single year.
Man. It reminds me that Dion SANDERSO, Hey, where y'all pick number eight. I'm not gonna be there. I'm not making up the phone on you right now. I'm not going that far anyway. So do you go ahead and save your your pre draft meeting with mixed It ain't gonna happen anyways. But yeah, it's interesting, and that's it's kind of like it almost coincides with the Senior Bowl getting more and more talent every year, it seems like,
so it kind of could be a good balance. They're like, I'm gonna go show my stuff in a game situation and practice situations and I'll take off the combine where they measure you there as well.
So it's like a good mix there of kind of balancing how this class shakes out.
Let's pivot Miami Dolphins focus here because it is the Draft Time podcast. On the Miami Dolphins Podcast, I work my guest today's e J Steer from the botleg Football Podcast.
I'm curious what you think.
We're back in the first round for the first time in two years without a first round pick, so the first time in three years. I guess's how you'd say that. What do you think man pick twenty one? There's some options there. Offensive line is kind of up in the air right now in terms of free agency. All of our guys for the most part, are are on the market right are going to be on the market come to the new league year. The offense kind of bogged
down late in the year. New defensive cordator Anthony Weaver. Who in that position?
Do you kind of like for Miami's frame of mind a little bit? The world's their oyster, and that's not a bad thing. A lot of times people think, when you're in the twenties, oh all these all the talent's going to go off the board. Look, there are very many talented players in this draft, and especially offensive linemen inside and outside. So tackle you need very talented tackle class, the intier offensive line class. I think a bunch of people kind of keeped on it and said it's not
the greatest. Early on in the process, I was among those. I thought, there's probably not a lot of depth that's center. The more I got into this class and the more I did my study on my top say one hundred and fifty ish guys, there's there's a lot more talent there at both spots. So if you are in the need for offensive line inside or outside, it's a nice spot. You are not going to be, you know, bereft of
options in the twenties for either side. And then like you said, with Weaver coming in, you know, releasing Davin like you could use a cornerback. It's a good cornerback draft. I don't think there's as many guys up high. There's a few, but then those sort of middle rounds like two to four, so a bunch of guys that can
play outside, that have size, that have speed. There's probably more size in this cornerback class than we've seen in a very long time in terms of you remember three four years ago, if there was a guy then I said, oh, it's the six three corner.
You go, oh, I know, the one now street corner.
Ago you go, is this six to four guy, the three six three guys or the eight guys that are six two or less.
So a lot of guys out there with a lot of size, so a lot of options.
For you big foun of the slot cornerbacks too, I mean Wsu Guy Shawsmith Way.
I love his game.
The Michigan kid, Sandra Still, He's an absolute playmaker. Who's the Missouri kid that was in this at the Senior Bowl? I forget it's the Rakestraw No, no crusade straight yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. He was nice to watch as well. So there's all kinds of options in the defensive backfield. I'm really curious to see what coach Weaver does because he already has two chess pieces back there in Jalen Ramsey and Javon holl and he's going to add to that,
I'm sure at some point this offseason. But I want to go back something you mentioned on the offensive line there, because you talked about there's kind of a flavor for everybody Dolphins in the past.
We'll see what happens this.
Year because McDaniel believes an evolution and always growing your offense. But in the past they've been very heavy on guys that show well on the ten split, guys that can get off the football and get you in that wide zone. Look get off line scrimmage and get your butt out there right go block a defensive back off the edge. There's some guys in this year's class that you think might pop in that category. The ten split on the forty yard dashes. I know it's a very niche question.
That's why I go to you, though it's.
Actually not, and it is the measurement that you're looking for for offensive lineman because the reality of offensive lineman running forty yards in a game, they all joke that they have to do it once and it's here and they never do it again. Now that's not exactly true, but it's close at what they really do for their day to day bread and butter is fire off the ball. And so you want us see that explosion for again, a three hundred pound guy accelerating that mass over the
first few yards where he's gonna find contact. And there are gonna be guys in this year's draft especially who are extremely explosive in the short area. We saw Jackson Powers Johnson, the true junior center from Oregon who got an opportunity to play because of an injury. He took that job by the raid and never gave it back. He is massive, he's three hundred and I think he weighed like twenty three pounds and three thirty fourth. It's
a huge guy for center. You don't normally see that much size at center, but he a lot of people think, oh, he's a hulk and he can just anchor. No, his tape is full of examples of him getting outside wide zone.
Stop me if you've heard this one being a Dolphins guy right and just.
Demolishing corners and safeties on the edge and he loves it. He's like nineteen twenty years old. He's very young, extremely capable athletically, and you know, is he gonna last that long? Is probably the only question.
Yeah, he's been a hot name on this show this week at this table right here, because everyone talks about him. It seems like every fan base kind of wants a piece of JPG. At this point, let's go ahead and finish up here at the skill positions. Because you asked me yesterday what do you think the Dolphins' biggest needs are? And I said, I don't know about I don't know, Like it's kind of hard to determine because I just
had Kyle Krabs do our show. That's gonna come out, I think on Friday, and he was talking about, you know how the Dolphins are kind of in this range of you know, that's an area you could explore in the draft or free agency, and I'm like, I think it's an area that they have to address because not just the way that Waddle and Tyrker used and it's a lot of substitution that coming in out, but if one of them gets dinged up, we really saw the impact of that last year, and so I think that
the ability to get a third separat or a third pass catcher might be a big value to the Dolphins offense. Whether it's tight end receiver, who do you like in those first two rounds, whether it's pick twenty one, pick fifty three, maybe a trade back in that range who kind of fits in that mold for a skill player that can help this offense go even higher to nother level.
No, I would agree with you, And I think it's a shift in the league that we've seen with wide receiver. I think back to like Ron Wolf when he was running the Green Bay Packers and he said I'm gonna pick a quarterback every year. I think that shifted and I think it's I'm gonna pick a wide receiver every year because you could look at almost any team in the NFL and none of them are like, oh, we're good. There might be two teams in the NFL that are like, no,
we're three deep, We're fine. So in terms of guys that are really explosive, there's a lot of options, very deep wide receiver class. A guy like Jamari Thrash out of Louisville is very explosive. He's a yack threat. I really like Malik Washington. He's gonna be a little bit farther down the board. I don't think he should be, but he's out of the University of Virginia. I think McDaniel will look at his tape and go, oh, give
me some of that. So they could again wait even longer than those first two rounds and pick up a pick farther back.
And there's so much depth in this wide receiver class that you can find it.
Now.
If you want the big explosive alphas outside, you're gonna have to pay a premium for those or get a more developmental guy. But guys from the slot, a lot of people are gonna be talking about Roman Wilson out of Michigan. He's going to test out of his mind this week, and that's just going to push me even higher into that conversation. There's a lot of options, So if you kind of have your heart set on one and they get picked, this is not the year that you kind of have to have your stomach fall out
and panic. You've got plenty of other options coming down the pipe.
I promise that EJ was not prep for this podcast because Jackson Powers Johnson and Roman Wilson ap probably the two most mentioned prospects by your boy on this show.
I love those players. I love their skill sets. EJ.
Bootleg Football Podcast. What's coming up on the con for you guys' content this week? Tell the folks where they can find you.
Yeah.
So for draft season, it's a pot a week.
We put out the pod earlier and then one of the interviews that we recorded at Trin Bowl. So we'll have our first interview later this week, and that'll be two pieces a week every week up until the Combine or sorry, up until the Draft. We've got a great slot of guests. It's really what I'm doing here this week is lining up everybody. Jordan Reed will be back, Matt Bohene will be back, We're gonna have some special guests that have not been on the podcast before, some
folks you've talked to recently. So we're really excited about the slate and it just rolls until we are until late April. And guys, you're going to new teams.
Yeah, make sure you find them at the Bootleg Football Podcast. He and Brett Colman do a great job all year round. It's some of the bestootball content you guys can find out there. Eja, appreciate your time today, man, and enjoy the rest of your weekend.
India. Hey, thanks for having me. Always a great time anytime, man, and.
Away he goes, and away we go on this edition of the Draft Time Podcast tomorrow. I'm very excited for this episode with Kyle Craps. We took a look at his free agent board, what the combine could do for the Dolphins draft prospects, and just how they're going to build this dang thing in twenty twenty four.
That's tomorrow.
We'll also come back on Monday recap the workouts and just kind of get into what might happen in a couple of weeks here in the new league year for your Miami Dolphins.
All that ahead, but for today, I'm going to go ahead and sign off you all.
Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts from. Go ahead and leave us that rating and leave us that review. I have really enjoyed the new reviews coming in about the kind of direction shift in the.
Show here a little bit.
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More, and last but not least, Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time, finns up the Carolina Cameron Daddy. He's coming home.