This is Drivetime with Travis Wingfield. What is up Dolphins? And welcome to the Draft Time Podcast. I am your host, Travis Wingfield. And on today's show, we keep it rolling here with summer School. We have another Dolphins interview. Jordan Phillips joins me for a conversation that I tried to get him to talk about anything but football a couple of times, but that's not where his brain wants to go.
All ball with Jordan Phillips. Plus, we're gonna preview the NFC South on today's podcast, a division the Dolphins will face this year against the Panthers, Falcons, Saints, and Buccaneers from the Baptist Hell Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.
This is the Draft Time Podcast, Aye Daffe.
And for the second straight episode here this week, we are recutting the podcast and adding an additional segment here because the Dolphins have made yet another June July trade. Since when is this time of year involve this much roster movement. It's the first time I can recall it, I think ever, I mean I don't recall a trade or multiple trades possibly bigger than this one. Per reports from Tom PELLISERL
We're still in that world right now. Hasn't become totally official yet, but the rumors are, or the reports are, it'll be a late round conditional pickswap to get new Dolphins tight end Darren Waller. What I'm seeing today as I re record, this is a conditional sixth round from Miami, a seventh round pick from the Giants coming back and Darren Waller. So very low risk and just like that
my discussion on the Tuesday podcast. But potential landscape shift in the offense maybe goes belly up, maybe not.
We'll see.
It's a late round conditional pick swap with a minimal financial investment. So I'm not going to rever stamp the idea that my comments were totally off base, and in fact, if because of that, you could almost say it's merely an insurance policy of sorts for the Tanner Connor Jalen Conyers potential idea of having them hit the ground running this year and being your reduced f role that you
had from John new Smith last year. I still contend that the offense, when playing the way it wants to, will not involve the tight end the way it did a season ago. And I really don't think this is an offense. It's conducive to a big slot for a big chunk of offensive work, which is kind of what
Darren Waller is now. If that's a role player and you're reduced it down to maybe even less than what Gasiki was for the Bengals last year, A forty six percent snap taker, maybe you call it thirty three percent. You know he plays fifteen twenty snaps a game. Then I think I could see that, and I think between Waller, Connor and Conyers, you should be able to find that if that's what you're going for. I could be wrong, because I was wrong about this literally twenty four hours ago.
So another move here during my paternity to leave. Let's go ahead and watch a little bit of tape, and first off, what a story Waller is right, and certainly not all stun china rainbows. I think a lot of you will ask why did he retire? Why is he back?
All of that stuff?
And I wrote down that I didn't want to speculate on the reasons for retiring, But I did find a clip where he talks about this on John Gruden's podcast of All Places, where the moment he decided to retire was a game in Buffalo back in twenty twenty three where he was doing a lot of blocking and thought, what the hell am I doing playing fullback out here? So I decided I'm going to finish out the year strong and then I'm done.
And he was right.
He was done, So probably don't really need to get heavily into the blocking reel. But he did say on that same podcast the only two coaches he would come back and play for were John Gruden and Frank Smith, the two guys that he played with in Oakland slash Las Vegas. But we will get further answers on all of that when Darren does his first media at Dolphins camp. But I'm sure most of you were aware of his story.
Struggled with addiction, found recovery, had twenty three hundred and fifty yards and twelve touchdowns over two seasons with the Raiders. Frank Smith there, so there's a relationship with him. Then he gets hurt in twenty one again in twenty two and dips down to six hundred and sixty five and then three hundred and thirty eight yards in those two seasons, moves on to the Giants five hundred and fifty two yards playing twelve games. It's not bad, and then retires
ahead of the twenty four season. So I'm like, do I watch twenty three Giants tape or twenty twenty Raiders tape? I guess, do a little bit of both. But then I pull it up and guess what. You can't isolate Darren Waller on NFL Pro because they wipe out retired players. So I had to cobble this thing together, and here's what I got. And granted this might all be irrelevant because this is old hat.
He hasn't played football.
In over a year, but at his peak, incredibly nimble, super light on his feet, and you see that in his various releases offline a scrimmage from various alignments. They would condense him inside to a nasty split where you're not quite attached but you're right close to the tackle there or even being attached as a true classic wide
tied end. And the way he could widen a backer to set up an inside release, or just run the shoot route to the perimeter, or run right past them down the seam, stack them, make a move at the top of the route and go catch the foot ball. It's easy to see why he was legit one of the toughest matchups in the NFL, tied under otherwise for a couple of years, because you sneak a cornerback down there,
you're playing in a deficit. You try using a backer or safety and you're giving up the vertical matchability and his skill set to high point the football and corral throws above the rim was really second to none. Like I think about that Kasiki touchdown in Baltimore in the comeback in the back of the end zone, like he
can do that. He also did work as the backside X receiver And if you run him out there, if it's vintage Waller with Reagan waddle to the field as the two receivers to the wide side, where do you
think the safety help is going to go? So then you give two of this one on one backside matchup with a guy that's going to play above the rim six foot five and probably never let the ball get picked off because of his size and his ability to kind of shield the defender off the ball, but also come down with some of those fifty to fifty balls better than literally anybody too has had since like the DeVante Parker Era and Waller is or was a better
athlete than DVP was. Shouldn't be a surprise, but he rolls when he gets the football in his hands. He caught screen passes like Jonah Smith and got trucking on those. If he has that athletic ability in him still, and he truly did rediscover his passion for the game, then the upside's fun to consider. I think you can run your speed stuff off him with snags and seams and pivots where you just put him in the hook zone.
Stuff you would ask him League Washington to do, but you get, you know, eight more inches pause to do and possibly pull a robber middle of the field defender down and open up the middle of the field in the vertical passing game, a layer that thing over the top to Tyreek Kill or Jalen Waddle again at his peak, the way he could sink his hips and come back to the football. He just moves better than DB's and really all the tight ends in the league at the time.
It was fun to watch back then, but again that was like four years ago. But I do think that ability that's where Jonas Smith ate hook up. Get your head back to the quarterback and that fast turn prevents the dB from triggering and reading that and making a play on the football and then turn into a running back and pick up yards. After the catch, he gets back to the foot ball and shields the defender. So
damn well, and then there's a blocking side of things. Honestly, I watched one game and it was a game where he talked about why he retired. But he came away. I came away more impressed than what I thought I would be. But I still think this is really a receiver acquisition who plays in the slot and plays the exposition, kind of like a backup to Nick Westbrook, a Kine
if you will. But the tape he's talking about here where he decided to retire, he just blocks Taron Johnson, the Buffalo nickel that we talk about all the time in the podcast. Right, they never leave the nickel package. They play from light boxes because Taron Johnson's good enough to do it as a kind of quasi linebacker. But he beat up Taron Johnson the way alec Ingol did back in twenty twenty two, and they came up in Buffalo over and over again. That's a matchup he should win.
And he did in that game. Like he's not going to kick out a backside end like Max Crosby. He's not going to like lead the sea gap up and take out Jordan Brooks on outside zone, but he can seal he can get in the way and do enough. He's a much better version of the willingness of Mike Gasicki in that role. He can get down on a nickelbacker and take out a light box defender out of
the way. So that's all I've got for now. We'll see what happens keeping on him for training camp, But for now, back to your regular schedule programming, Darren Waller. The newest Miami Dolphin joining us today on the Draft Time podcast is new Dolphins defensive lineman Jordan Phillips.
Jordan, welcome in, man. How you doing.
I'm doing great. How are you?
I'm great. It's good to see you.
We've we've done a couple of these interviews, whether it was through zoom or in person, out in the in the yard, out there about the practice field, but having a chances down with you one on one talk is good to get to know you guys. So welcome in and uh I guess first let's just kind of go with how how have you been, you know, getting the lay of the land here in South Florida, whether it's football, Uh,
finding your way to the facility. How are you How are you fitting in here in South Florida so far?
Yeah, it's great.
I mean, honestly, I've just been leaning on the Vets and learning from them and learning from the coaches and really just acting like a sponge and soaking in all information that I can get.
I heard that you guys ask a lot of questions in that room. The Brookies do as well. We just had Zeke and here I've talked to coach Clark. Why is that so important for players to ask so many questions of their coaches?
Well, because you want to pick up as much information as possible. And the coaches are very smart. They have a lot of knowledge, and you know, you want to be able to pick up some of that knowledge, so you got to ask questions. And the Vets are really smart too, and that's why we always lean on the coaches and the Vets for information, you know, anything, honestly, whether it's football or life in general. We always ask questions and just try to pick up as much information as possible.
Yeah, it seems like there's a certain theme among the rookies here in terms of how you guys approach your business, and it's really cool to see. And something that fascinates me about you, Jordan and really all defensive tackles is that wrestling background. I feel like when you hear about a guy that gets drafted pretty highly and has a wrestling background, they usually work out because there's just something
about like the grip, strength and the leverage. Like, just take us through what wrestling has taught you on the football field.
Yeah, I mean, wrestling has taught me grit, you know, how to bounce back from adversity quickly, leverage, Wrestling has taught me angles and a so pad level. You know, you got to be low in wrestling, you can't be high. And same thing goes for playing defensive linemen or playing in trenches in general in football, you got to have low pad level and you got to have leverage.
You must have a crazy story from like high school wrestling conditioning because I used to play basketball and we would do suicides and we would do three hour scrimmages and it was like, you know, we're tired and we see the wrestlers running out into the gym and back out of the gym and into the gym and back like all night, all night, they are just running and
like usually wearing sweatsuits and like big garbage bags. What was the worst, like the most physically strenuous conditioning you can remember from wrestling, because it has to be the crazy thing you've ever done.
Yeah, absolutely, so my freshman year of high schools when I started wrestling, and I could recall it, like the school, the school that I went to in Orlando. Originally I
went to Olympia, then I transferred Old Kobe. But when I was at Olympia, you know, all the freshmen had to take Hope, which is just a gym class, and on Wednesday, we would have to run a mile, and but we have to run it under ten minutes in the gym class or because if you don't run them out in under ten minutes, then you failed, like you fail the assignment. And so after that, you know, of course we have wrestling practice because you know, gym was seventh period and then.
Wrestling practice is right after school.
So before every practice will start off running one mile. And so I just ran a mile. So now I'm coming to wrestling practice. I got to run another mile on the track, and then we'll have this warm up inside the wrestling room where we run around the wrestling room and you know, we're doing sprawling drills and you know we're also doing just grappling drills and stuff like that.
And basically, you know, like it was tough. I'm not gonna lie to you.
And then that doesn't even include the condition that we have after practice. We'll run, We'll run gassers in the wrestling room and it was just it was crazy, but it definitely did get me in shaping. It kept me in shape for football. So that's one thing I do appreciate about the sport. I mean, you have to be tough to be a wrestler, and you have to be a tough to be a defensive lineman. So those are things that go hand in hand, and those are things that I continue to take with me to this day.
Help you play sixty seventy snaps a game, right when it comes down to know those tough fourth quard, especially across the street here in this September weather down here. And then you also were a big time powerlifter, right, I mean so Jordan without like you know, pause and everything, but just seeing the way you carry the weight that you do, Like it doesn't it's not natural is not the right word, but like it's not common for guys to be as cut as you are at that size.
That's got to be part of the powerlifting background, right.
Yeah, it is.
I mean, honestly, I'm just real knowledgeable about what I put into my body. And you know, when I work out, I work out with purpose and intent. And you know when I on my non workout days, I recover with purpose and intent. And those are things that just allow me to carry my excuse me, those are things that allow me to carry my weight pretty good. And those are things that continue to help me become a better football player and a better athlete.
Okay, let's talk more about some football now, because that stuff is great, and I just I think it's going to really serve you well at this level. But you also at Maryland played all across the defensive line. And I asked cag this question back on draft night. What is what is playing multiple spots?
Like how does it.
Changed the way you read blocks or the way you read tendancies and keys? Like is it different from different positions, Like what's the approach there?
Yeah, playing different block I mean well, playing different positions across the whole defensive line. It really increases your football IQ and it makes you more knowledgeable about the game. And you know, I think you know my position, coach Brian Williams at Maryland, and you know Coach Locksley for putting me in that position, because it just increased my football like you, and helped me get ready for the
next level. And obviously, the more positions you play, the more value you have about yourself and the more you can help contribute to an organization. And at the end of the day, that's all you want to do as a as a football player in this league.
So I'm glad you mentioned coach Locksley because he did the podcast. I think last week he talked about you and Dante here on the Draft Time podcast and he mentioned one of the things that he always could count on was getting to the facility and you would be blurring the music in the weight room first thing in the morning. Why why turn up? Were you trying to make your presence known? Like what was the idea behind those early morning weight room sessions?
Well, I definitely wasn't trying to make my presence known. I mean, that's called a facade. And you know, everything with me is what you get. You know, I'm authentic, So my will to want to get better is influenced by my work ethic and how hard I working with the purpose and the intent that I work with. You know, I always want to get better so I can add value to whatever organization I'm a part of, and I also want to, you know, get others around me better.
And that's where the you know, early mornings and the late night mentality came from. I mean, at the end of the day, I just always want to get better, and I always want to get others around me better. Also because if we're all getting better, we all can add value to the organization that we're a part of and that we're representing.
I love.
A great answer is Equest talking about how a lot of the rookies coming around weekends, you know, working out together. You've been enjoying those sessions.
Absolutely, And I enjoy working out with those guys. You know, guys like Zeke Bigger's, Kenneth Grant, Alex Hunley. You know, those guys are working individuals and even guys in other rooms, you know, like my old team college teammate, current teammate, Dante Trader. You know Jonah, He's a guy who puts his.
Head down, works on the offensive line.
We have a lot of talented rookies in the building, and we have a lot of guys who come in and work and they work with purpose to get better so they can add value to the organization. And at the end of the day, that's what we're trying to accomplish. We're trying to accomplish getting better every day and adding value to the organization as much as we can.
That's really good stuff. Man. I'll conclude with this forgive my stumbling on that word. So you talk about music in the weight room. Let's say you get your first orange jersey out here at practice. Put you on the spot. What's the first song you want to put on that playlist to get the guys fired up, to get the guys juiced up and ready for a football practice.
Yeah, I mean, you know, I love music.
Music, Ke's me focused Like I watch music and watching I mean I listened to music when watching film.
I listen to music when working out.
So if I had to choose one song that'd be hard, but we would I had to choose.
Well, luckily you have the whole playlist, so we're maybe don't it's just the first one, right, you're kind of setting the tempo here, sending the tone of practice.
I'll say fcg heme finally, Rich, Yeah, I listened to Fcgeme a lot, maybe like some Little Dirt something like that along those lines. But yeah, I mean, honestly, during during practice, I can't, like, I can't name one song that we played here during practice, just for the simple fact that during practice, like I'm I'm more so locked in on the intent of what's going on and what we're being asked to do at that point of time
in practice. So I mean, honestly, I would take the orange jersey and then I'll just be like, you know what, the music, Let's just play whatever music you know the guys are feeling, because I'm not really like I'm not, I don't focus on the music during practice because I'm just locked into whatever's being asked of me to do at that moment.
I would expect nothing else. Jordan Phillips, new Dolphins defensive lineman, appreciate your time, day man.
That was great.
Thank you, yes, sir, thank you so much.
I like him. I like that guy. I like this guy.
Yeah, I really like this guy.
I like my whole team. Actually, I love that team.
First break right there, come back on the other side, talk about the Bucks, Falcons, Panthers, and Saints, how they
match up with your Miami Dolphins. All that Next Draft Time podcast, brought to you by Autnation, felt like an appropriate time for prime time music as we kick off another division preview here the NFC South, the division that has not really produced championship caliber teams to the postseason really since the retirement of Tom Brady, but the team that has continued that winning formula post Tom Brady, and a big thanks to a quarterback that was cast off
by a few teams prior to his arrival in Tampa Bay, in Baker Mayfield. And I think that when you go back to on this podcast, I think I had the Bucks at one in sixteen, the year after Brady left, because there was videos of Baker and Kyle Trask throwing balls on air that were nowhere near their intended targets. And as a big Baker believer, I was like, I
don't think he's got it. Anymore, and I was concerned about that position, and I said in that podcast, this roster is actually pretty damn good still, but I just can't put this team with this quarterback play into a tier like that. But he's proven that wrong. And so I'm all the way back in on Baker Mayfield. I'm all the way in on this Bucks team, who I think is just loaded actually when you look at their roster.
Let's go ahead and go over the changes here.
So this is the fourth division we've done, and I think there is a massive, massive, Marianna Seish trench, Marianna Trench sized gap, I should say, between the top team and the division and the rest. And I say that kind of liking the Falcons more than most, because I think the Bucks are pretty damn good. And when you were concerned about Baker coming off the Panthers and Rams year, now he's kind of the freaking man and he's playing in a loaded offense.
The defense is pretty damn good.
And sorry, that's not the changes, but I felt that introduction was needed here because we want to be transparent in our you know, changing evolving opinions of teams as we get more new information. So the biggest change does come at a very critical position. And hey, Baker the freaking head coach maker, right, because the last two OC's Dave Canalis and Liam Cohen have gone on to get head coaching jobs, and they had the turnover last year, and it was like, can can Liam Cohen do what
Dave Canalis did? He goes to Carolina and you know, Bryce Young goes from a quarterback that literally can't like play the guitar as it were, to a guy that produced down the stretch. And then Liam Cohen makes the jump to try to do the same thing with Trevor Lawrence after some the worst year of his career and now post Or remayer, I should say, but now in Tampa,
they're gonna try it again, right. And one of my first ever coworkers to tell me they listen to the podcast was in fact and he said his kids would come up to and say, Daddy, what is up Dolphins. I'm talking about Josh Grizzard, who was a quality control coach here, then receivers coach, then an assistant receivers coach here. I don't really know what we'll get from him from
a design standpoint of the offense. I imagine he wants to keep things similar to what Kanalis and Cohen built there with Baker, because I just can't imagine he's bringing anything with his Dolphins experience to this offense because that was an offense that didn't do much. Because he's a smart dude, he's a Yale guy. I'm very excited for him, and I'm rooting for him in the Bucks except for the Week seventeen game down here in Miami. Outside of that,
there's plenty of continuity. George Edwards runs the defense with Todd Bowles in In terms of newcomers, this offense was already too talented. So the only big free agent signing was a swing tackle and Charlie Heck I thought he's a pretty good player in terms of being a swing tackle. They add Hassan Reddick on defense, which is you know, he had sort of a wash of a year last year with the Jets. They signed Anthony Walker. We know him,
and that's basically it. They went corner corner with Benjamin Morrison, then one of my favorite players in the entire class of Jacob Perish out of Kansas State, who is kind of Trent McDuffie light on tape. In my opinion, they retained a ton of their own that were due up for contracts with Ben Bredeson, Lavonte David keeps on coming back on one year mercenary deals. Greg Gaines is a guy that we talked about as a possible fit here
as a defensive tackle free agent signing. I would have taken Chris Godwin at any point of his career as a free agent for any amount of money, because I think he's freaking awesome. Sua Opetta, Sterling Shepherd among the resignings on the way out, kJ Britt, he's now with us down here, Mike Edwards, the safety is a big loss for them, Robert Hainsey inside the lot to replace his production on the interior, and then Joy Joe Tryon, Shoyinka and tavierre Thomas are out as far as the film
their calling card. Not entirely sure what to expect, but I think you brush up on the concepts all over your tape from the last two years, which is one of the best screen games in the league, one of
the best run game variants off of play action. The thing I'm most curious to see with grizz is how he operates that run game though, because he's been a pass game coordinator and the Bucks are just another team that we can learn from in terms of how the running game helps the quarterback in the passing game, and that offensive line certainly helps, but they're in amnable group
to gap or zone. They have one of the best power games in football, and from that they can run trap and then having these big, athletic, smart offensive linemen with Graham Barton, Cody Mock, Ben Brettisoner all that and that's before you get to literally the best tackle tandem in the national football Like I see the debate right now about Piney School or Lane Johnson, I would insert Tristan Wurfs into that conversation for the top three without
question about it. And you can run influence, which is basically decoys. It's a trap with a decoy poller, and they still have the athletic ability to get on the outside shoulders and get leverage in those runs that you can get to all the split zone stuff we talked about with the Colts on a podcast last week I think it was on the AFC South podcast, And all of this gives the quarterback simple indicators. Look, I love Baker Mayfield I think he's a great player, a really
really good quarterback. But when you can really give the quarterback certain things in the offense, like indicators from the running game, it makes it a lot easier for them to make decisions and make reads.
And we'll talk about how the.
Dolphins can can kind of do that on the AFC's East podcast coming up here in a couple of weeks. But if you sprint after the run, the run action in the run game, and then he goes play pass, he's going to be able to throw off your overplay with ease at this level, and he's smart enough and accurate enough to do that. I mentioned the offensive line. Bucky Irving was awesome as a rookie last year, a great decision maker who pressed angles and made yards through
the scheme. And then, oh, by the way, they might have had the best wide receiver corp in football before they drafted the best receiver in the draft from my money in a mecca at Buka. And I say this when last year without Edwins, without Edwin's without godwinning Evans for a couple of games, Baker's posting like three hundred and fifty yard games, when Cad Aughton is his top receiver.
And the last time Mike Evans didn't have a thousand yards excuse me, was when Barack Obama was in office, back when we had a normal political landscape.
That's how long ago it was.
His streak actually goes back through college because he is thirteen years two at Texas A and M has he ever had a season in his life without one hundred one thousand yards receiving. It has to be high school, maybe Pop Warner. And oh, by the way, Jalen McMillan, a third round draft pick last year out of not Washington State out of the University of Washington, caught eight touchdowns. No Biggie Kate, Aughton, Payton Durham co Keef can all
catch and block. I think Baker is a top twelve quarterback. But if you're removing the quarterback, this is easily the best offense in football, like probably by a wide margin for me. Defensively, Todd Bowles blitzes. We know this, and perhaps the best part of his scheme is the run blitzes and creative ways he can get hats to every single gap. They are these old school coaches man like. This is why I think it's such a renaissance for
defense these days. You have these really complex coverage schemes that keep the top on the defense and force offenses to matriculate the ball in the field.
Right.
But when you can do that and you compare it with a good run game, it is tough to pick windows on second and twelve when you're getting negative plays in the running game. And it doesn't hurt that you have a defensive tackle who's maybe the hardest player to run against ever. I mean, who's in the mix there, like the Williams Wall from the Vikings days of old
Tony Saragusa, Like going back that far. Last year, we were in Tampa for joint practices and I found myself near coaching the coaching staff for a dinner, and I said something that was supposed to be a joke, and the reply I got from an offensive coach was, is the funny part that we have to find a way to block Vita Vea tomorrow. Like the league knows who he is, Like he is completely disruptive, and there was a couple of years ago where you just didn't run
the ball on the bucks because of Fdave. He's a Hall of Fame player. For my money all day, every day. Then he's got two studs that rotate around him in Elijah Cantsi and Greg Gaines. I think of this roster has a question though it's off the edge, which can be kind of a trapdoor scenario you insert Hassan Reddick. I tend to think that when you miss that much time and aren't productive for that long, it's tough to
get back into it. Logan Hall is a good player, Lavonte David also, for my money, a Hall of Fame linebacker. Antoine Winfield and Tyreek Smith are nice players. In the back end, Jamil Dean Zion McCollum are a good duo of cornerbacks, and I think Jacob Parrish will unsee Christian is in in the slot as the starter for that defense as well. But all that continuity they have down the middle right Veya Gains can't see David Winfield, it
allows them to be so multiple in their looks. They'll go amba front, they'll play over under, they can do it all. The question mark for this team if you're reliant on always scheming up your rush against the top quarterbacks, that's how you get in those shootouts we saw last year for the Buccaneers and a quarterback like to it, right, if you blitz to a all game long, you gonna get burned, honey. And we saw the last year a few times with the Bucks. I think that they're thin
in the back seven as well. But man, when you have an offense like this, you're a shoe in for the playoff, especially in this division. And then the health, execution, and growth of the defense is really what determines how far you can go once you get there, and you do find that eventual roadblock because you're not going to be a thirty point per game fixture every game in the postseason. You're gonna have to win a game with
a complete team game at some point. And then, of course, the synergy and continuity on offense, even with a new coordinator like I think that is fair to question, even if I just flat out believe in it. Some miscellaneous factors here. We I really kind of thought they were cooked when they were four and six and lost both Evans and Godwin. Can you guys hear that I'm wrestling my cat right now, trying to sit in my lap.
ConA has been starved for attention with the addition of a new baby but they lost Edwins and god Edwind. Why do I keep saying Edwins, Evans and Godwin for almost two months and god Wins out for the entire year and they ripped off six of the last seven games. Now, the quarterbacks in those games, and this is where you can kind of push back where Tommy Cutlet's Bryce Young.
Aidan O'Connell, justin Herbert.
He's the outlier there. But you know how I feel about that, Bryce Young again and Spencer Ratler. The loss was a Cooper rush. Now, they did beat Philly, Washington and Detroit early on, but I think losing those two receivers, Godwin coming off of major injury, Evans and year twelve, I think you see why they continued to add to that receiver room. But that's a little more volatility the
top than most teams have. Right they get the AFC East and the NFC West on top of the Eagles and Lions for a first play schedule, it's pretty tough outside of their own division games. But I think playing those division games is going to put them right back into January next season. The trapdoor scenario here, you're aging receivers, new offensive coordinator first time play caller Vita Vea goes down,
it changes that defensive scheme entirely. Or if they get injuries in the back seven, that opens up what you saw last year with more shootouts and removes the value of that running game and the deception they run off of that. But that's a lot of ifs. I think
they're gonna be fine. The conclusion, if you can't tell I am super super bullish on this Bucks team, I think they are just a step below what has been the class of the NFC in the Eagles and Lions last couple of years, but right there with the Rams and Niners, with similar questions to those teams that I have. If I had to rank my confidence in the eight division winner picks, the Bucks are probably up there with Kansas City, Buffalo, Philly, and Detroit.
For my money.
By way, dish blow.
The Atlanta Falcons are up next, a team that I'm a little bit more bullish on, I think than most the changes here for them personnel wise. I just keep thinking back to the discourse over the Cousins in Pennix package last year, and I think where we are now like makes perfect sense.
Why you did it that way?
Perhaps The argument is that you shouldn't have gone after Kirk Cousins for what was essentially like eleven good you know, eleven games before the he kind of turned pumpkin and
was just like unplayable down the stretch. I've talked about that Chargers game on this podcast freaking twelve times because I watched it in its entirety, and the four picks in positive territory in a game you lost by four points was tough to watch, and I just kept saying, he put the rookie in, you would have handled the Chargers a big l there for the Dolphins playoff hopes. It didn't matter in the end, but at the time
it was really annoying. But I'm excited about this team for the first time in a while because it's not a banged up Kirk Cousins at age thirty eight. It's not Desmond freaking Ritter, who they tried to make a thing for a couple of years there, and they really went for in twenty twenty five, which I'm a little bit dubious on that approach, but that was another point
of discussion. They moved off a twenty twenty six first, and look, I think it was bad practice because I just didn't think that the player they gave up their future first round pick, and James Pierce presented the value for what could be a possibly top twenty pick next year. And what happens if Pennix plays poorly right, well, then he works and comes back for twenty twenty six his third year cheap as hell, and he gets better. I don't understand the argument that you have to like reveal
who Michael Pennix is in these next seventeen games. He's got a lot of football ahead of him. He's going to be like Tua in the sense that he gets better as he gets older. So I don't understand that argument. But I just didn't like the player. But you have to have conviction in your own moves. And it's why I don't understand or never understood the reason for the argument of drafting a tackle in.
The first round for the Dolphins.
Like Patrick, Paul played three hundred snaps last year, and there wasn't anything in those snaps that would have told you he can't do it. In fact, it was probably
more encouraging than you expected. If you replaced him, you basically waste a second round pick for no reason, with no patience, So they use those two first rounders to try to jump up and start their pass rush with or to jump start their pass rusher, I should say, with Jalen Walker and James Pierce Junior, which I mean the debate there is, like neither of those guys were Paulish pass rushers, and you know that's what you hire
coaches for. But it's a lot of capital, man for two guys that like are probably fifty to fifty props at best. They also added Leonard Floyd and Morgan Fox. Remember we said about teams telling you what they need, Well, four premium resources sunk into the edge rush here, so it's got to be better. They also added Devon Devine Diablo and Jordan Fuller to the defense. Offensively, twenty of their top twenty two players on their depth chart are incumbents.
You know, I love continuity that way. They added Jamal
Agnew and rookie Jack Nelson. They did move on from Jimmy Lake, who is a guy that up in the Pacific Northwest, is not loved by either Washington or Washington State fans, and it hasn't really had the resume, so I think it's a good thing for the Falcons here, also hiring Jeff Olbrick, who I believe is a very good DC who got caught in a really, really tough and just flat out dumb situation last year with the Jets, like he never should have been in that position to begin with.
But I digress.
Zach Robinson returns, and I think Michael Pennix, with all those skill pieces a Shanahan Shre approach could make this offense pretty damn good. On the way out, Matthew Judon, Justin Simmons, Drew Domin's a big loss for them. Grady Jarrett was a staple for a decade there, Eddie Goldman, Lorenzo Carter, and Richie Grant all out that door calling Carr.
It's not that far off from the Niners in terms of the offense and defensive styles, but I like the multiple influences here first and foremost, both the head coach and defensive coordinator have been around the most in vogue offensive structure in the league. I think there's plenty in the tank there in terms of how to stop that
spot drops pattern match. They play super aggressive upfront with one gap approaches and a lot of rerouting intertwined with green dog calls to delay your blitzes and you know, if he stays in, go ahead and rush. If he goes out, you got him in coverage, other variations of
disguising their blitzes. When I think about jeff oldbricks influence all the Cover three and Cover one they ran with the Jets, and how much Morris's defenses have been in the past three Cover three in the past, I imagine that's the thinking here with Jesse Bates covering big swatches of patches of grass in the middle of the field
and deep coverage. They draft Xavier Watts, who is a high floor, middle of the field run fit piece for my money, and in fact, I think he'll win that job over Jordan Fuller.
Shoot.
They also drafted one of my favorites and Billy Bowman after taking Clark Phillips last year. And they've got a true number one in aj Terrell, with two really solid corners and Mike Hughes and d Alford that's a really nice secondary back there. They move Rouke o Row row Row that's literally his name to the nose tip position.
They've got Contravious Street, Centavious Street and Brandon Dorless as a big body space eater with Fox and David Anyamada, with those newcomers off the edge, if they hit on two of those four editions on the edge, this defense is going to be sick. I'm very confident in Pennix.
I think the knock on him was the way he processed the middle of the field at you dub and sort of had basic concepts baked into a great protection offensive line and great receiver corps with a lot of vertical routes on the perimeter, minimal reads.
Don't even worry with the safety.
They're going to play double coverage here because we can see it based upon how they line up with our spread offense. Then you just take advantage of one on one situations down the field to roam with Doonsa and Jalen McMillan and all those receivers he had there. I think the way he gets the ball out though we saw it in the preseason game, we saw it in training camp, we saw it down the stretch and that really good game against Washington late in the season. Ball
comes out quick with timing and zip. I think he's going to do just fine. And here we have another young quarterback with an exceptional run game. I think the way they can create windows in the passing game with the threat of their outside zone game with b John Robinson, who's a top three rider in the league. For my money, it's kind of a pick your poison offense. I do question where a player like Kyle Pitts fits into an offense that needs the tight end to work in the
running game. I'd almost just convert him to an exclusively big slot player like Mike Gasicki. But with Drake Lundon, Darnell Mooney and Raray McLeod, that's a good trio, not a great trio. I like Kadarrell Hodge and Jamal Agnew a sub package pieces the front with Lynch, Drum, Matthews and McGarry.
They've been there forever.
They will work in a new center and Ryan Noozel that's kind of a big question mark for me there. I mentioned that news centers as a question. We know how critical that is with this roster, and with a young quarterback who doesn't have the full autonomy the line of scrimmage of a six year vet the way TUA does. With all the moving parts on offense, it could take
some time to nail things down. I think there's some questions on the line, and even with all the moves, the pass rush as well the miscellaneous factors here, there is This is something a lot of teams deal with. So I don't want to sound like I'm singling the Falcons out here, but this is a big year really for all the decision making. Fifth year for Terry Fontineau, and I mean the decisions at quarterback have been rough
until now, just the second year for Raheem Morris. But Arthur Blank talked about playoff mandates and sometimes when you're up against that, you make decisions like trading off future first round picks for guys that you're hoping can hit, and it can have you know, this preservation concept, and it's a slippery slope, especially with this start.
I mean, have mercy.
They go Bucks, Vikings, Panthers, Commanders, By Bills, Niners, Dolphins. They lose three games off that bye week to three good football teams. There's a decent chance that they're underdogs in six of their first seven games, and if they're two to five like Saya Nara most likely right the trap door scenario, that slow start, a trip to Germany, those edge changes don't find their footing early on. Maybe some of the offensive line questions percolate a little bit more.
You lose one of the three stalwarts that changes things. Maybe Pennex is getting hit more than he should. The outside zone game doesn't click right away. As much as there is to like about them, there are questions, and I don't I think any of these things could present the dreaded t Adoor situation. My conclusion here, I'm stuck between being extremely bullish and wanting to fade them, which tells me I'm sort of down the middle. I think they can score. I've made no secret about that. To
me is always number one. You gotta be able to score. I like the back seven. You're putting a lot of faith though in the unknown. As of past rushers, I think they're clearly the second best team in the division, but also well behind the Bucks. Last break right there, come back into the Panthers and the Saints on the other side. Draft Time podcast brought to you by Autounation.
I recently watched the new movie with Paul Rudd and Tim Robinson, Friendship, and the latest review on the podcast on Apple podcast is from an account named Oceanview Dining and I didn't get that at first, and now I do and it's hilarious. So thank you Oceanview Dining for the review. I'll come back to that maybe on a later episode and talk about your hit a trade idea in that review. I'm not gonna go on to it
right now because this podcast is already long. But speaking of that, let's go ahead and dive back into the NFC South and the Carolina Panthers t that I think people are gonna be. It's gonna be that same thing you see every year, right, the team that finished strong after a rough intro to the season, a rough roster, and it's gonna cause a lot of optimism. But as we have learned in this league, progress is not always linear. And the twenty twenty five Panthers really, they really are
unrecognizable from the twenty twenty three team. It's been you have two off seasons of major overhaul. But the biggest thing they had to do in twenty twenty four they did their coach with a pinch as a quarterback Whisperer turned the benching of Bryce Young into a redemption arc. And just imagine where this team is if The last we saw from Bryce was that Week two game that led to the benching. He couldn't he like he was like standing on his tippy toes and couldn't complete balls.
It was one of the craziest things I've ever seen in a football field. But that gave them their direction for better or worse. I tend to think the ladder this offseason, you know, was to press four and build it as if they had the guy. But that remains to be seen in a big way. But decision or direction rather is better than the alternative and floundering around a to and done. Number one overall draftic that he
trained up for. The only major move on offense was the eighth pick Ted McMillan one year after paying the most money for two guards the NFL has ever seen, and both Damian Lewis and Rob Hunt were excellent for them. Last year, they did sign ric o'dowdell. Otherwise, the offense is the exact same, including the offensive coordinator and ben
Is Dick. Teams tell you what they want to get better at right well, they added Bobby Brown, Patrick Jones, Tershaun Wharton to their front, all projected new stars in the defensive line. They draft Nick s Gorton and the second round prince lye Uman. Yella, that's not how you say it, but I'm not going to look it up. In the third round Lathan Ransom. In the fourth round. They signed Trayvon Merrick to a huge deal. You guys know I loved him and linebacker Christian rose Boom in
the front from the Rams last year. So last year was offense. This year was defense for ezuro Ever defensive coordinator on the way out. Stalwart Shaq Thompson is gone, Miles Sanders has bounced, and Dane Jackson won and done in Carolina. Back to Buffalo the film The Calling Card. Dave Kanal has talked in Tampa about scheming everything around Mike Evans, and I have to imagine that's the thought with Teed McMillan at some point. I also think they
build the build of the receiver corps. There's not a burner among them. It lends itself to their desire to be a run first attack. With Hubbard and Dowdell. Then I think you get a lot of top down reads where they will run stuff, where they will run stuff from stacks and bunches. Time up their routes and displace the top of the route and then use their size to sort of, you know, hold lines and block out.
And given the offensive line they have, I imagine the starting point is gap and power, but you do have the ability to get to zone stuff because even though it's a big group. You know, Robin, Damian Lewis, Kyle Krabs thought Damian Lewis is a good fit here.
Last year. We know that Rob Hunt played well on this offense.
Ikea Kwonko is a great left tackle, Taylor Molten a great right tackle, Austin Corbett's a good set and they can all move too. They really needed to jump from Bryce Young they needed this year too. They'll go as far as he can go, and he began to get more comfortable down the stretch. Frankly, to be honest with you guys, I still don't see it. I think there's just inherent errors and flaws in his game that will
not translate to long term success. And I think all of this is going to be for not because you moved up in the first round to get him, And I would actually start Andy Dalton. That's what I would do.
Maybe I'm crazy, That's what I would do. I do think that power run scheme to set up play action where they can sort of wash things down, pull the ball back out and get Bryce on the move to mitigate the problems that come with his size and the lack of vision that comes with that, and the big bodies and the perimeter to get some easy throws in the quick game and manufacture deep stuff from there. Like you reduce your ability to read the whole field, but you got to make up for it somehow.
But I see the vision there.
McMillan, Lexavier Leaguet, Adam Thielen, Tommy Trumble, those are the top targets. Like I guess if you liked McMillan, I can see how you like this group. I had him at receiver eight in this year's draft class. Wasn't into the film. And Thielan is I think is well past his prime, and Lagette is a nice player, but it's just it's not inspiring to me. They forced just seventeen takeaways last year, and getting Merig to run their complex coverage scheme under Avro is nice, and rookie Lathan Ransom
is going to be a starter right away. I think he's going to be a really good player in this league. It's a fun combination and they kind of play off each other for now and for the future. With all the quarters cover six two man they want to play in that defense.
J C.
Horn is maybe.
Their best player, the alpha that allows them to get to all their hybrid coverages. And then they really need Shaw Smith Wade Go Koogs to take a big jump this year as a starter at corner. The nickel spot is up for grabs this offseason, and they need one of those two rookie edges to really blossom early on here. They missed Derek Brown in a big way when he
went down last year. But you can see the idea of playing the run from light boxes with those big bodies, with Brown, with Wharton, with Jones, all those guys are bigger than the average player at their position. And the question mark I have here high Caroline, how are you going?
Okay? Go putty?
The big question here is can Bryce Young build on last year? It all comes down to that, right do they have enough at those skill spots. Canna rookie come in and produce right away. They need McMillan to be that. He has to be the number one because they don't have one. Otherwise, they had almost no attrition on the offensive line. Four of their five guys played eighty five percent of the snaps for more. That's probably not gonna
happen again. I like going big on defense, but you need plus athletes in this league, as the Dolphins learned the last couple of years. I think you could worry about specific matchups for teams like US, for instance, and then that's a lot of new parts you're asking to come in and play pretty complex run schemes like we can do it because we have Zach Seeler and Jordan Brooks. Can Derek Brown and Josie Jewell be that for them? I think dB can. But the linebacker laying down so much, Uh,
miscellaneous factors. They've got to start I wrote fast, but it says FATS. They've got to start FATS here, Jags, Cards, Falcons, Patriots, US, Cowboys, Jets. I mean, we're the only team in there that I think are gonna stomp them, quite frankly.
Then it goes.
Bills, Packers, Saints, Falcons, Niners, and Rams. They also parted ways with their longest nice toilet flush with their longest tenured player and leader in Shaq Thompson. Sometimes that can be tough to a tough adjustment. Also, a lot of their best players have or lengthy injury histories. With JC Horn and Derek Brown, if they lost both of them again, that defense gets incredibly thin. I think I just spelled out the trapdoor scenarios and no need to repeat that
the conclusion. I think there's a lot of reason for optimism, but as is the case with any team that undergoes a bunch of change, those changes usually have some questions attached to them. I think maybe still a year away, but they showed last year they're no longer a team that you just automatically circle as a w and as they were for a good run out of time there, but full transparency. I'm not buying it. I'm not a believer. I think it's still one of the worst skill groups
and one of the worst quarterbacks of the defense. That's several pieces away. I think they're far more likely to pick in the top ten and they are to make a playoff push this season. And we conclude here by way dish blow and we'll go brief. It's the New Orleans Saints. The changes one of the stranger teams in the NFL this offseason. They announced after the free agent period, just before the draft that their quarterback had a serious injury, and then he just retires post draft, and then it
just sort of ends. Fighting crime penetration, fighting crime penetration just sort of ends. Now the most experienced quarterback is zero to six as a starter with a thirty four percent success rate and more interceptions and touchdowns and a seventy point four passer rate. Not Spencer Ratler, thumbs up, dude, He'll try to stave off the newcomer Tyler Shook, who
the team drafted in the second round. Kellen Moore is in from a town twenty eight minutes from my hometown, Prosser, Washington, and it's all an all new staff, like all new. Doug nuss Meyer is the offensive coordinator there, and if they lose a bunch of games, they can just draft his son, who I think is going to be a stud in, Garrett nus Meyer from LSU. Brandon Stateley is back in a coordiator role for the first time since he left the Chargers in as Tyler Shook and Kelvin
Banks their first round pick. Brandon cooks his back Dylan Raidens is there, Will Clapped, Von Godshaw, the LSU zone, Vernon Broughton, the rookie out of Texas, Jonash Sanker, and Danny Stutsman the linebacker from Oklahoma, Quincy Riley, Justin Reid, Isaac Yadam on the way out, Paulson Adeboat, Willie Gay Lucas, Patrick Payton Turner like they lost more than they brought in for a team that wasn't very good to begin with. The film their calling card, It's hard to know what
Kellen Moore prefers from a concept standpoint. He's been on a lot of staffs with another prominent name, so we're gonna really see for the first time in a while what his calling cards are. Like most coaches, it's a lot of pre snap motion, shifting movement before the snap. He wants to get his quarterback maximum information. He's a quarterback that basically grew up drawing plays in the sand in terms of where the pressure points are, how the coverage bumps and slides, and he'll need that from a
young quarterback in this young quarterback room. I should say, you have to imagine that he'll lean on Alvin Kamara with the focus on getting him the football in space, especially with Talisi Fuaga and Kelvin Banks on either side, with Juwan Johnson off the edge, and what he offers healthy Chris Alave, Rashid Shaheed and Brandon Cooks is fun, but there's a buttload of miss games in that mix. I like the tackles. I like Caesaruiz and Eric McCoy
even more. And if Trevor Penning kicks inside to garden works there. They have a really damn good offensive line. This team just looks primed to drop a quarterback into the mix next year, but sometimes teams that have that look have it go better than expected. I just think it's a tough spot. Let's say Tyler Shook plays well but they go four and thirteen. Do you pass in the quarterback in the top three of the draft next year. I don't think you do. I don't think they'll play
well enough to get you there anyways. It's it's you know, you can't win without that position in this league, and they don't have it right now. On defense, Staley now works under more. Those roles were flipped in twenty twenty three back in Los Angeles. I think Staley is a really good coordinator, but man teaching that system is tough. And they've got a lot of changes in personnel back there too. Chase Young coming back was huge, Jordan Cameron
still a good player. Carl Granderson's awesome. So they have those three cornerstones up front. I like the two backers, and to Mario Davis, who's been awesome for the last like eight years. Pete Warner is a good player, but they've got to replace paulse and Thedebo and do with Isaac Yadam kool Aid. Mcinry was a good rookie last year. Alante Taylor I like his game a lot too, and they've got some vets who've seen it all at safety.
And between that and to Mario Davis, a nice trio down the middle to communicate these complex coverage shells and pattern matching rules. With Justin Reid and Tyron Matthew, it could work there. But the question here is you don't have to labor the point. No matter who wins the quarterback job, there's going to be massive questions there. I don't think you can roll with Ratler again. I think it has to be Tyler shook because I don't think Jake Hayner is any better than Ratler, so we'll see
the miscellaneous factors here. I think change was long overdue and perhaps some more medicine taking is coming in the line here to kind of reset the books that you've really doubled down on for like ten straight years. They've been at the forefront of the group of teams that consistently occupy future resource is to keep resetting the decks. Perhaps a bottom out would finally help lead to the end of that because they sort of spent big again. Like I'm not sure where Brandon Cooks and Devon got
Shaw and Justin Reid factor into a football team. It's gonna roll out a second round quarterback to start the season most likely. Trapdoor scenario does not apply. The conclusion here a transition year could be wrong, but it has the makings of that. If they slidify the offensive line a love can avoid injury, and Staley gets that defense stitch together, then they could be a big riser by twenty twenty six with a new quarterback. And we'll see
what looks like for Tyler Shook. But I doubt they win enough games to pass off a quarterback next offseason. The Division superlatives. The winner here is the Bucks by a long shot. The best quarterback is Baker by a long shot. The best non offensive player is Tristan Wurth by a long shot. And the best defensive player it's probably Vitavea, but I put Jesse Bates in there as well. I think the best coach is Todd Bowles. So if we're going with Fidavea, we have Bucks, Bucks, Bucks, Bucks, Bucks.
The best rookie is a Mecca Agbuka, so it's Bucks again. My best under the radar stad Lots of options here. Cody Mack and Luka Decky. Are they uder the radar still or are they just really good offensive linemen that no one talks about. Zion McCollum is that category. Carl Granderson to Mario Davis might be the best player in the league at his position, or one of them, I should say, but no one really talks about him. Cayden Ellis is in there, Bobby Brown for the Panthers. Let's
just go all Bucks and keep it. Cody Mock, I feel like he's still a tiny bit under the radar, and I just think the Bucks being the bells of the ball, it's fitting they sweep the dam the whole damn category here. All right, long podcast, let's go ahead and get out of here. Next will be the eighth of July the AFC West with Jalen Wright and if E Mela Famu on the podcast. You don't want to miss that. In the meantime, gonna be my time you all.
Please be sure subscribe, rate, review the podcast. Follow me on social at weekfold NFL. The team at Miami Dolphins, my boys the fish Tank no longer on the network here, but they're cranking out really fun contents. We'll check out their podcast still, I'm sure you guys are all still doing that. And last but not least, Miami Dolphins dot Com until next time, Caroline and Cameron and Willow Daddy is already home and oh yeah, fins up too, by the way,