Drive Time: Day 4 of the 2023 NFL Scouting Combine

Drivetime with Travis Winfield begins. Now let me speck your pulse if you're not part of what is up? Dolphans and welcome to the Drivetime podcast, part of the Miami Dolphins podcast Network, covering your team, your Miami Dolphins. How's it going everybody? I am your host, Travis Winfield. And on today's show we finish up our combine coverage twenty twenty three. We have a long interview here with the ringers Benjamin Solac. Cannot wait for you guys to hear that.

Plus I'll give you my thoughts and takeaways from the week that was here in Indianapolis. All of that and a heck of a lot more from the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis. This is the Drivetime Pop. Let's go ahead and first get to my interview with the Ringers Benjamin Solac What's Up? Doll Fans? Back here once again at the Scouting Combine in Indianapolis, twenty twenty three edition, and joined today by Ben Solacs from The Ringer Ben,

What's up, Man, dollphans? That's a good one. That's nice. It's always find whatever you do these teams sites, because everybody's got to call in, everybody's gotta wait to bring it in doll fans, And one of the best ones I've heard. I kind of troll with that one because, like I would say, twenty five percent of the fans hate it, and they tell me we're not dolls, and I'm like, look, I've been doing this same tagline for ten years. It's not twenty five percent of fans hate it.

It's a good bit, you know what I'm saying. He gets engagement. We're all right, yeah, that's right. I play both sides. I'm playing both sides here, Ben. And now we got Ben Soulac here. He's a bit of a quarterback guru. Grill from the draft that was kind of you your bread and butter coming up, But now you're

doing a lot more features, more NFL scheme stuff. So when I get to that here in just a second talking about McDaniel's offense, But first, I think it's an interesting year for the Dolphins because you know, back in twenty nineteen they kind of reset the books, draft capital, free agent spending, and you know, kind of reloading the contracts and how they went about things, got all those draft picks in. Then you go aggressively last year after Tyreek Hill, you get to Ron arms at a bunch

of big free agent and veteran players. What's next for this team in terms of team building and what's the next approach for them? So it's interesting, right you're starting to transition out of that stage of like, let's get our cornerstones and into that stage of how do we

fill in the margins around the cornerstones? Right? Like, you could tell me the Dolphins do anything and freeze in the draft this year, does anyone here expect the offense cannot be let's throw out to Tyreek and jam and Wall like that's gonna be the offense no matter what they do. Right to. Your cornerstones are in place, You have your identity, you have your pillars. Now it's filling

in the background. Now you ask the questions. I'm like, all right, Mike, asiki didn't get used as large, probably gonna leave. What do we want our tight them to as to look? Like? How do we get more juice out of that than we did? You look at your backfield and the changes you made, you ad Jeff Wilson reheamost, You go, okay, these are all San Francisco guys. Is that what we need? Do we want to do something different? So you start to like figure out the margins offensively, defensively.

I think you're probably have fewer cornerstones, right you went and God Bradley Chob, I think your safety room is Jones and Javan Holland that's cornerstones. Corner back is probably a bit of a weird situation right now. I don't know what's going on there, mammy. So you don't have as many cornerstones, but still, like Mike mcdano knows Vic Vic knows how to run a defense, you kind of

understand what your identity is going to be. Now it's okay, you know do we want to go Draymond Jones or do we like we can get that guy in round three? Like you kind of start to fill in the gaps and what already you kind of know what your offensive

defensive identity is. That's really interesting because the podcast earlier I talked about how like this year, I'm not really sure what like the offseason kind of projection looks like we're in years past, like you kind of knew like okay, when your cornerstones at premium spots, but now those premium spots are pretty much filled ups. Like you mentioned, you know, tight end running back like off ball linebacker might be a spot. You mentioned cornerbacks in the trition that happens there.

I'm gonna jump to a different portion of the interview here because you kind of touched on something that I really want to dive into because like the cornerback position, you know that was this defense had been built back to front for so long. I'm curious how you see the scheme shift and how the personnel we currently have matches that scheme shift. So it's important to frame this correctly. Vic Fangio's defense relies on corners less than the Flores

and and Jock Boyer defense, they're not as important. With that said, there's no defense in the league in which outside corner is it really, really, really important. So you don't want to go like, oh, we don't need to be a seriout out of Cornell. You do. You've got to be really serious. There's no way to not be

serious about that position. It's just Flores was all of that islands right, and and for Vic Fangio and that defensive approach, you want to definitely have that that start outside guy, but you can help them in different ways. You can run a greater variety of coverages you got. You have a lot more tools in your tool kit

against wide receiver ones as well. Like Flores's response was pretty typically like press them, blitz, press them, and blitz like they have a star guy where it's gonna make the quarterbacks life hell and then that way the star guy's not gonna activate. There's a lot of more answers in Fangio's toolbox like that sort of an issue, and that's where safety is really important. You look at how

when this defense has been successful. Fangio in Denver, Kareem Jackson and Justin Simmons Brandon Stanley when he's with the Rams. Josh Johnson right, this the idea of having this Fangio safety is really important. That's why, like what the play you've gone from Javon Holland and Brandon Jones makes you feel so, so so good about the transition of this defense in you still need to figure out what exactly

outside corner is it gonna look like. You still need that corner one heed that pats or Tan right that Fangio took top ten when he was with the Broncos. But altogether you can move away from that position a little bit in terms of focus. You're gonna put more on the play to the safeties, and the Dolphins are really well suited for that because the person they already have. We've had a lot of folks talk about Javon Holland and this defense every single years. It's awesome because like

every person I talked to it to a man. That's why I always mes Brandon Jones because people forget Jones could play. Yeah, he's going to hold his water and his preparation in the way he kind of communicates makes me think it's a good fit there because it is a complex defense. To kind of get down, especially you know, installing it from day one. So I think your answer might be the guy we just talked about, number eight.

I'm thinking, but I just want to ask you who do you think stands to gain the most from the scheme shift in the Dolphins defense. Collins definitely up there. I would say Chubb also gains a lot, just Vic knows him and Chubb like, Chubb's a really, really good rusher, and I think that it's a it's a mercurial position. It's gonna have hot and cold runs. Like I think Chubb's really good. I don't think there should be panic

by the trade and about the value for it. You got a really good adge rusher with the first overall pick, like that's our first round picks usually that's just how the NFL works, you know what I'm saying. Like he might be a little bit older, but I feel good about that train. I feel good about the future for the Dolphins. So I think that that Fangio change helps him out a lot. I got questions about interior defensive line, and I questions about linebacker, and I would be curious

toe how those positions shake out. But still like there's talent bit right, Wilkins, Rake One who's awesome, and Jerome Baker. Like, you got guys just a matter of like figuring out how the public pieces it comes together. That makes that makes perfect sense. And you know, talking about the edge rushing position. Jayalen Phillips had a big breakout year last year, and yeah, it's funny because like the sack total was kind of the same from the rookie year, but the

impact on tape was just so much more substantial. What do you see from his game in year two? Yeah, he always likes Jaylen Phillips always like it was a good player and he pairs nicely with Chubb. You got size it, you got guys who can handle the run, and it's going to be important for this defense. Uh. He phelps the quality of his play. Just like you said the sack and never say about the same You're going to look at how the sacks are created, like

how do you generate them? He's doing a lot more work. Uh, a big explosive guy is always going to be able to find success in the outside rush. But like the work with his hands right and critically, the ability to stay healthy, get reps right when he came out like he'd been banking w UCLA. You know, do Miami transfer. He had missed the time and considered retiring from football. He was just spotty with how long he was committed to the game, the periods of time that he missed,

and kind of that halts your development. It kind of put some bumps and some starts in there. Now he's he's been a much more available and you can see him kind of putting pieces together. So he's coalescing the way I think that the Dolphins expected he was, the way I hope he would go a good little player without that journey he had in college. There's no way he's available to pick eighteen back in twenty twenty one. It benefits Miami in a big way. I told you

we're jumping around and ball. I want to go back to the offense here, and just on the way McDaniel installed this this offense in year one. We were talking on the walk over here. It's been a long time

since the offense top ten offense, the shot number sixth overall. Yeah, just give us the bird's eye view on how that offense was created, and we'll talk about Tybreek and Jalen in a second, but just like kind of from a scheme standpoint, how it was put together, McDaniel is the preeminent offensive mind right now in the league in terms of ingenuity, in terms of creativity, in terms of cutting

edge right like Andy re like Sean mcvathy. Guys are still like more foundational, but in terms of right now a guy doing cool new things, other people are going to hobby and follow. Yeah, Like, I mean, Daniel is one of one. M really like the impact that he had on this offense was extremely reminiscent of the impact that Sean McVay had on the Rams office of twenty seventeen, which he took that over because he came in and

ran one thing one player. We literally called it like the play Capital Tea, Capital Pay where they're setting the receiver in jet motion. He becomes the new wide receiver one and then they run him on the wheel and the outside runs that curler runs that post and they run little split zone fake. He ran that twelve times a game. I mean, like it's all they ran when they when the Chargers beat him, there was the only play the Chargers were trying to stop anytime they ran

anything else the Dolphins got him. It was you gotta take away this one play, right, So that was very similar to how McVeigh came in twenty seventeen helps Jared Goff and kind of revitalize the Ram's offense. It was totally in nert previously, that understanding, that that ability to get to such a similar bucket, right, I think about a shooter getting to the elbow in a variety of ways against a variety of coveragers. Just get to one

spot and get two into that one spot. That's that's the hallmark of just a really really really good offensive mind. Like that's the guy who just fully gets it. Now comes part two. Everybody's seen it, right, and now it becomes okay, you have to have new plays. You have to have new stuff that you go before. We have to have new ways to stretch the defense. If you're gonna be a cutting edge guy, you don't get to sleep very much. You have to stay a step ahead. Right.

It's gonna be an interesting thing to see, is is how this thing continues to evolve. But the dawn of McDaniel was unbelievable. It was it was it was it was foundation. I was thinking, like run the football and zone or whatever. They're pulling guards. You know what I'm saying. They're spreading it out like they're shotgun the RPO. This was a guy who's been waiting for a long time and Takeover's offense, taking over and absolutely killing it. Now I gotta stay ahead. Yeah, we saw a lot of

those fun concepts. Like one one week, Tyreek Hill on that rail route up the sideline hits a big game. The next week he get Trent Sure filling a little hook route in the middle of a seventy five touchdown. That was the play. Yeah, that first slashdown with that was the play. Big catch against the Bills was the play. There was a catch agains the Lions Jaylen Waddle on third down. That was the play. A lot of good plays for the Dolphins this year. Was no play you

mentioned Jalen Waddle. I'm the biggest Yian Waddle fan there is. He ran from from about nine yards per catch to eighteen this year, doubled his total league leader and yards per catch. We obviously know about Tyreek Hill. How do Tyreek and Jalen make what you just talked about go? So I always I go back and forth on this Tee Higgins, Brandon you, Davante Smith. But if you made me pick who the best receiver in the league is, who's not the wises year one on his team, I

think I would take Waddle me too. I might change my opinion on that top it's really really hard. A lot of good wid resverteas uh. Waddles just is so uniquely quit because it's a jitterbug and Dabbie kills the same way but tough, and they'll catch up with the middle of field and they're willing to take hits. You cannot, Like I said, McDaniels is an incredible offense. It's one of one. You cannot do this unless you have as

terrifying of a speed threat. Like if you think about all those intermediate windows that they generated, just just fifteen yard cro routs, fifteen yards top route, fifteen yard digs in yard posts. It's because the safeties are further back when they face the Dolphins than any other the offense. And they're not doing that because McDaniel frows the ball vertical at two throws the ball vertical lot. They're not

doing ex The Dolphins throw the ball teeth. They really don't like like to a leather league in a lot of like twenty plus yard throws, twenty five plus yard throws. When you look at those alls, all breaking throws, they didn't really throw vertical like nine balls. They just didn't do it that much. So why are the safeties that far back? The ten and seventeen and you're just terrible.

You just terrified of the idea of these guys getting on top of you if you decide to get aggressive, just once it's a lion started down to Tyreek Hill. I think you try to step up, they're gonna get on top of you, and so you have to sit back there. You have to let those intermediate windows open up. So the Dolphins get, because of Wattle, because of Tyreek Hill, more real estate than any other offense does. It's that simple. They're the other offense we're working with fifty three yards

across in forty yards deep. The Dolphins are working with fifty There's just more room between the zones and anybody else gets and like for a quarterback as accurate as too to then get that on that amount of space on top of just his natural accuracy is natural timing. That's why you see those drives or the Dolphins offense is just effortless. It's just so so so easy. Eighteen yards they playing against a college team. It's because they get so much more room than the other NFL offenses too.

It was funny because in training camp I was like, am I a homework? Because every play it was like, oh, fifteen yards to waddle eighteen yards of tyreek. Oh, there's get Sicky for twenty more. It was just constantly like, Okay, that's the offense we're gonna get. I guess in September. So I want to ask you this as a kind of a follow up to that last part and then we'll get into draft prospect talk here just because I have you here. So we saw that nine Ers game.

You talked about that fifteen yard box and Fred Warner just changed the way that offense worked because of his size, his length, his athletic ability to get that depth in those hook zone drops. How does Miami combat? I know not teams have Fred Warner to make that happen, But how would you combat if you play the Niners again and Fred Warner? Yeah? One team you got Fred. That's a nice relief conference. Yeah. The other thing that the Niners did, which is really important because you saw the

Chargers started to take advantage this with Michael Davis. Is they pressed right? Because it's very counterintuitive. I just told you Tyreek and James the water terifuning you gotta go, you gotta be so worried about that speed pressing them sounds insane, exactly what are you thinking? But the Dolphins offense is so timing basic. Particularly two Uh lives on timing right, like he needs it to be like three

step out three step out. Two is very, very very dependent on the timing in his pocket, such that if you press these guys and just hassle them a little bit, just throw off the geometry, throw off the trigonometry, whatever the telemetry, you're gonna put a grain of sand in the watch right in the cogs and it'll kind of bust the whole thing open. So Fred takes me in the middle of the field. But they also brought corners

up and press. Just saw the Chargers do that. Bills did a little bit, not too much, but you see that that starts to indact some of those timing throw some of those third down throws, and it lets you get a couple more punts out of the Dolphins. That's that's what you need to do. That offense stop it a couple of times. Yeah, So when when McDaniel's trying to handle this, you'll see him throw to the motion man more. A lot of times they use the motion man to screw with people and then they throw to

somebody else, throw to the motion manks. It's hard to press the motion man. He's the guy that's running around. You can't really get the line of scrimmage and press him. And then you see them throw more outbreaking stuff. With two of kems were outbreaking stuff. He just throws them more like shallow five to ten yards as opposed to their intermediate stuff, which is all inbreaking that's like fifteen to twenty yards. You'll live with that as a defense.

They're throwing speed outs. It's a relief, right, We've don't have thrown all this stuff that breaks over the middle. So you'll see more throw to the motion man. They'll see more outbreaking stuff. All that's gonna be well and good. The number one thing that will help being able to run the football functionally. Right. It's just the they had

moments of it. You saw stretches where they would rely on the running game and it would sustain for them, But then they get a turnover, they have a bad possession out of a drop, and then all of a a sudden they're down by ten, and then you just gotta throw the football, right, You gotta final way to fight back into this game. We have two of them, an

Entyreek and Waddle. It makes sense, but in general, when when teams are gonna to vote this many resources to stopping the pass, if you just had the ability or run the football for six yards consistently, you could pull the scales back in your balance. And that's why, like, if I'm guessing what they do offensively, it's looking at the back, looking at the tight end, and then also looking among the offensive lines and seeing how can we figure out to improve this running game and make a

little things a little more balanced. Perfect transition to the last thing I want to talk to you about here, some potential Day two fits at those spots, because talk about offense. You know, probably not in the quarterback market, probably not wide receiver market. You know that early in the draft you mentioned offensive line, tight end, running back. All of our running backs, all four of our guys we rousted last year are scheduled to be free agents.

Will see what happens there. But who do you like in Day two? It's a spot you just mentioned for Dolphins draft is it's a great running back class, and it's a great running back class to get a big fella, which I would encourage, right. I think like mcnatio is gonna watch them on a chains the track star from Texas A and M was one hundred and niney pounds and like lose his mind. I'm gonna, you know, put

put our temptations away for a second and focus. There are some big backs in this class, and I think size is going to benefit the Dolphins because it's nice to be able to when your speech here a small team like this to get a little bit bigger if you need to. Eric Gray at Oklahoma is an option for you there, Zach Charbonnet at the UCLA. Both of those guys should be Day two dudes. In my opinion, those are some of the bigger backs that you can see they're done a thing will work. Roshan Johnson out

of Texas the backup to be Jean Robinson. Another one's really really good being pass protect two, which is important. They leave the back into pass ptect a lot. Roshan's a really good pastector, a really good special team or the one I'm talking about this Roschan I should have started with, Really, he's really good for the Dolphins. Uh. And so that's what you look at it back offensive line. I'll be really curious to see what mold they go for. McDaniel comes from a forty nine Ers team that went

for lighter guys, longer guys, zone guys. But all they did was pulled right, other than constantly Poland dudes and Poland guys pass projection right using Robert Hunt that way, and I think that that makes more sense to them. So I look for gap power guys. Steve abiela guard out of TCU, Matt bergeron the tackle out of Syracuse, who I like quite a bit. Those are dudes that I think fifty two and then he moved and picks in the eighties. They could be around you love love love.

Do you get a Darnell Right out of Tennessee the tackle, he's the nice what you like. I don't think he's there fifty two. I think you'd have to go up and get him. But those are the sort of dudes that I would expect and then tight ends. It's having a useful utility player who can block is really really really important to this team. And when you are you are putting a back back there. He's like a smaller guy.

And then Tyreek and Waddle, you are fundamentally like Tyrian Waddle, you're not asking them block, you aren't asking them to do it. And if you're gonna back them up with Tren Shurfield and like Albert Wils like that makes sense. Like I get that you want to still have these dudes, but you desperately need a sixth guy you can add to matter in the running game that end, that additional body. Durham smythe solid player, but you can improve upon that.

And that's where like you try to use a sink in that way, it's just not as valuable for them to me. They have to look at like the actual legitimate wife height end. Now the flex two forty five pound guys, like you don't have to go to the whole Darnel Washington route of George is like two hundred and seventy pounds. But look at you your Breton Strange out of Penn State. Look at your Luke Screwmaker out of Michigan. Look at your think of a third name.

There's so many good tight ends. The Oregon State k Luke Muskra look at these guys and consider bring up two hundred fifty plus pounder who can legitimately blocked and just add that dimension to the offense you didn't have last year. It'd be a really good compliment to that speed. Like you mentioned on the outside, let's go back to the defense and finish that. They are talking about potential picks. Stay two day or day two, Round two, round three.

On the defense, I think you mentioned corner linebacker. What are you looking at? Their incredible corner class, really really good corner class. To just take a guy in round two take a manual forbesst Mississippi State big long man coverage Clark Phillips out of Utah. Though, like, because Dick's okay with some smaller guys in the outside, and Phillips is really really good. The only thing is not good at is being six five ten and so now you can't control that one. So Clark Phillips, I think it

makes a lot of sense for them. It's a little bit of a smaller guy. The Louisville Nichol whose name I don't remember. He's good for them as well, so google him because I can't remember his name. But they got, they got. It's a really really deep corner class. Campsmith out of South Carolina, Julius Prince out of Kansas State, Tyree stephensun of Miami. There's so many guys, so corner is great for them this year. I'd imagine they try to bring in another guy linebacker. Alcohol linebacker in the

middle rounds not the best class for that. It's an extremely weak linebacker class unfortunately, So go for your Diane Hendley's out of Washington State cos. Yeah, go cuz Doyan Williams at of Tulane quite a bit. Williams, I think is a good player for them to get another special teams guy. You can bring those guys in picks eighty early round four and see if you can get good

coverage out of them. Because you vic fanjel defense, you're gonna ask that middle coverage backer to do a lot and drum Baker is solid, but I think you do got to start experimenting with seeing if you hit on a dart throwing a laid round, see if you can help him out and so I would say linebacker and corner of the positions. I expect him to hit you know, day two, early day free that linebacker spot other position with a bunch of free agents for the Dolphins coming

up here. So Ben so lock from the ringer. What are you working on? Man? What's coming up the NFL Draft? Man, Ring, RNFL Show, Ring, NFL Draft Show. We're doing stuff all year. It's gonna beau stuff. I appreciate your time today, man, Thanks dude, and away he goes. We finished there with maybe the best for last. He was a lot of fun talking to about the Dolphins offense, about vic fanjou Tyreek and Jalen. Really covered every base there with the Ringers.

Benjamin So like, go check out his work. A very talented writer, obviously a very articulate football mind. Here, let's go ahead and take our last break the week from Indianapolis and come back on the other side and I'll give you my combine thoughts and takeaways from the week that was in Indianapolis. That's next Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. So how great was all of that content we had for

you here at the Scouting Combine in Indianapolis. We were running around chasing down people all week long, and I thought we really got our best content at the combine to date in doing this job. You're number four here with the Miami Dolphins, big names, smart football mines, and I think we all learned a lot about this year's

draft class and this Miami Dolphins football team. And we'll get a little more Dolphins specific, you know, once free agency meets its conclusion, or I should say, we have a better idea of what the ross looks like heading into the draft season. But with that, I just kind of wanted to do a personal recap on the week that was in Indianapolis because we heard from so many great football mines, but I haven't really put my input in yet, So we'll do that here in just a second.

But first I want to talk about the food scene in Indianapolis. One Saint Elmo's never disappoints. Last year went to Harry and Izzy's for my steak and my shrimp cocktail. Had the filet at Saint Elmo's on Tuesday Night along with the shrimp cocktail that is an a plus meal. And the guys that are here with me this week Mike and JT from our video staff. We went to Fogo to chaw later on in the week and it

was good. Food was fantastic, but for a guy that just doesn't eat a whole lot, not really my kind of place. Not a scheme fit for old Sringfield. Here again, the various meats were fantastic, but man, it was a little bit overwhelming. I even told Mike, the guy next to me right now, our producer here, I didn't know you could tell them no. So every two minutes a person would come by over your shoulder with a different

cut of meat. I just kept accepting, saying yes. So I had Lamb chops, I had Sirloine New York Strip, Prime Rib. They brought this weird bacon wrap chicken thing out that was too much at the end. If you're a fan of meats, mostly steak, and you want a filling meal, this is the place for you. And finally, I think my favorite spot, aside from Saint Elmo's, was the Social Cantina, the one that the guys went too without me before early in the week and left me

to dry and not get a chance to eat. There after, I recommended that restaurant in the first place. But then I did go back there on Thursday and enjoyed a very nice lunch. They're trying to convince me that I was the one to blame for that right now, nice little text mech spot right by the convention Center. I had the Green Goo brito. It's ground beef, which I was told as frowned upon. But that's the best type of brito there is, in my opinion, so very very

good stuff. Those are my restaurant grades, and I guess scheme fits as it were. Let's get back to the draft, though, and see. We'll see how these workouts go on the actual field itself. But I think we've kind of gathered a consensus thought with how this class is viewed, and of course that changes each year, or I suppose has some relative and accuracy, as it's literally impossible to predict

perfectly what's going to happen in the draft. Each year we get surprises, or I guess they shouldn't be surprises, because it's not a surprise if it happens all the time. But every year we get things we don't expect in the NFL Draft. But you did hear from the experts, and they gave us their thoughts on the best fits and which directions the Dolphins can go. So I wanted to really dive in and give my thoughts on the positions that we discussed, and again those were running back,

tight end, offensive line, cornerback, and safety. And let's go ahead and start on defense here, because it seems like we always start on the offensive side of the ball when we do these conversations. Let's go ahead and go to the safety position. And there's one guy to me

that really stands out among this group. And it'll be intriguing to see what happens in free agency this offseason because the safety group has so many different players that are just very talented, but also a variety of skill sets that kind of can allow the teams to choose

their flavor they prefer. Whether it's a box safety you can come down and kind of be an enforcer, a center field safety with range to kind of cover the deep third of the football field, So you really have your choice there, and how will that kind of have an impact on the safety class here in the draft? Those things always go together and it's always, you know, it's not always black and white about positional value because

you have what's available. The supply and the demand of the teams that have them can change that from year to year. So the one guy that I just absolutely love his tape is Illinois Sydney Brown. Went back and

watched more of him after chatting with Daniel Jeremiah. How's that for a name drop here on the podcast, but he mentioned how he thinks Brown's going to absolutely roll track speed with his physicality and the ability to kind of give you an extra hat in the box, but also a match up and turn around and run forty yards downfield with you know, some of the best athletes at the tied end position or even running backs in

college football. I think that he would be a really nice chess piece and coach Fangio's defense, I don't think it's worth diving into the players that I think are going to be first round locks, and that would include here to meet Alabama's Brian Branch and Texas A and M's Antonio Johnson. Another guy that I liked and thought was really good at his media availability was Jamie Robinson

from Florida State. Another chess piece type of guy that has played so much football and you see that experience in the way that his football IQ shows up on tape time and time again there at Florida State. He's a guy a field that could come in and not and just give you minimal communication breakdowns that you would expect from a rookie and allow your defense to play at full speed because of his aptitude for knowing and citing the playbook and just knowing the defense in general.

At the other dB position, the cornerbacks, there's some variety here as well, probably the deepest group in the entire draft class, just absolutely loaded with Witherspoon, Gonzalez, Porter, Junior Smith. I think you're all going to be first round locks and you'll get some more, but gosh, this class is super impressive. Let's go ahead and do this like a lightning round just to get through these guys real quick. He Lee Ringo from Georgia. Just watch how he times

when he works out tonight. He's a freaky athlete who I think is going to only get better with seasoning, but his numbers are going to jump off off the combine tape. Clark Phillips is a guy that I have to watch more of out of Utah, but I'm mentioning him because all of our guests to a man mentioned his game and his skill set. And you also don't play for Kyle Whittingham's defense without the ability to tackle

very well, which is so important. As you heard I think it was Trevor Sikama talk about on the Thursday podcast, if you're gonna play lighter boxes, you have to have good tackling DBS, and that's what he brings. And he also, if you're gonna play in Kyle Weddinghamp's defense, you have to have a certain temperament, especially at the line of scrimmage. So he has that. Clark Phillips is what I was told.

I'll watch the tape and confirm more later. Emmanuel Forbes from Mississippi State physical as all get out, really sharp instincts and he was wearing a Marlin's hat during his media availability, So some good Miami connections there. We've talked a lot about Julius Brents from Kansas State and Trevias Hodges Tomlinson from TCU. They are so very different in their play style, but the speed that Hodges Thomlinson has with the fire that he plays with, that's the kind

of player. I always love if they play one hundred miles an hour and they're thinking from their mindset is one hundred miles an hour as well. I think those two things tend to marry up pretty well. Then. Garrett Williams from Syracuse, Deonte Banks from Maryland, Tyreek Stevenson from Miami. There's going to be corners taken on Day two this year that start a lot of football games in the NFL. And if the Dolphins go in that direction, hopefully one

of those guys is in aquand orange at linebacker. We almost went three for three on Day on. Henley shoutouts among Trevor, Jordan and Ben And you guys already know about him. Former safety who plays with the temperament and athletic traits that just jump off the tape. He's already tested about the time you hear this podcast, so's he's gonna jump off the Combine tape as it were, just as he did as Washington State tape. He was. You watched him game in and game out. He was an

impact player for the Cooks defense. I also wanted to mention Henry to ooh, I know I've pronounced that incorrectly out of Alabama, because I think he has a chance to be that off ball enforcer, a player who's physicality and block deconstruction skill set allows you to play those light boxes we talk about and just let Christian Zach Ray, Kwon Chub and Phillips all eat up blocks up front and just funnel, you know, billions of tackles to your

linebacker playing downhill on the offensive side of the football, across the line and terrier wise. I think Osiris Torrence and John Michael Schmidts are long gone by the time we get to pick fifty two. Tons of tackles are going to go off the board as well. You heard Solac mentioned Darnell right from Tennessee. I agree with Ben that he's gone before pick fifty two, but he might be in that potential trade up range if you get to that position where you want to make that move.

Matthew bergeron from Syracuse and they am I hurt a lot, and the people I talked to on a regular bassis I have have mentioned him and really like the way he fires off the football and how he plays in space, which we know fits this Dolphin scheme quite well. And then Steve a Vila from TCU three for three on his callouts today with talking to Jordan, Ben and Trevor. I guess it was Thursday, but recording the podcast on Thursday.

Massive frame, great bend, and really smooth anchor to kind of absorb all the weight and power you get from bullrushes across the interior. He has the framework and just the sheer mass to be that and also potentially a

dominant run blocker the more he develops. And then Cody Match just a pure technician, which is it's always cool these guys come out of the small schools that have just their technique refined, because you know, the step up in competition can be not so stark for them when they do have that good technique and their fundamentals are sharp. I would not be shocked if he's a Day one starter next year for some team that drafts him this

coming April. At tight end, we covered this position so well this week, but I just loved Darnell Washington's game as much as anybody you heard it all week. Probably my favorite player in the entire draft class, just because he makes me laugh the most when I watched his tape in terms of how dominant he is. We'll see

if he makes it to fifty two. If he does, I think it's because there are just so many tight ends that could go off the board before him, or in this class in general, which tends to depress the value of the position. He and Luke Musgrave are my two favorite tight ends I've watched so far on tape. And then at running back, Devin A. Chain was the one guy who I came away from Indie with an even better opinion of than when I entered the combine.

I love his tape. I knew he was fast, but hearing that he might run the four twos, I knew he was fast, I didn't know he was that fast. That makes him super intriguing for me in this offense, Him and Jamir Gibbs, they just move at a different speed than everybody else in this class. And then also, if you want to go back to the kind of the size idea, I'm really intrigued by Roshawn Johnson at Texas,

he was the backup to be John Robinson. Different prototype than the first two guys I mentioned, but he's definitely solid in pass pro and short yardage, which was an area of concern from Miami last year. And then Finally, Zach Charbonnet, who's kind of a throwback classic at the position. Like think about the early two thousands when you just mounted up and rode running back for twenty five carries a game. It was commonplace. That's what UCLA did with

Charbonnay this past year. We'll talk more about receivers, quarterbacks, and defensive lineman as we go along in this draft process. I love the conversation we had with Jordan reib at the quarterback class. We talked at length with Solac about the quality of Miami's front four and the wide receivers that he loves here so much, with Tyreek and Jalen.

But these were the positions that people really talked about this week, so they were the spots I wanted to focus on on some more film rewashing, just general research and media availability presence this week here in Indianapolis. So

that's my takeaway. I kind of want to give you three players that I'm just gonna plug in at the three picks here, I get kind of a mock draft, but not really just three guys I think that could be there that make a lot of sense from Miami number two, the pick fifty two, overall in the draft, tight end Darnell Washington from Georgia. Again, if he's there, I would run the hard up there. And again I think the tight end classes depth depresses its own value

a little bit. I think Gibbs will be long gone and this guy, to me, stands the best chance to immediately benefit your offense from a run game and pass game standpoint. In the third round, I'm taking my guy, linebacker day On Hanley from Washington State. You guys know how I feel about him. The athletic ability, I think he's only going to get better the more size he adds.

And that safety skill set I think just allows him to be able to play both in coverage and down in the box and take on blocks and the way you want to in this defense. And then the other third round pick, I'm taking the running back from A and M. Davon a Chain just such a good pass catcher, elite speed, and I think that really compliments with the Dolphins offense wants to be here with the speed they

have on the perimeter. You add that speed to the running back position to go along with if you bring back someone like Raheem Moster, you just have track speed all over the field and he would add to that. All right, that is gonna be my time. That's it from Indianapolis. We'll come back on Monday. We have a special podcast for you guys. I sat down with Dolphins fullback alec Ingold. I cannot wait to have you all here.

That he was super insightful and lots of good stuff there talking about the Dolphins last year and into twenty twenty three, and also his book that he published, so good stuff. They're coming your way on the YouTube channel and we'll have a much longer version of that interview for you guys here on the podcast, the full the full interviews on the podcast, shortened version of it on YouTube, as well as Dolphins Today. So check out all of that.

In the meantime, you please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcast, leave us a rating and leave us a review. You can follow me on Twitter at Winkfold NFL, follow the team at Miami Dolphins, check out the fish Tank podcast with Seth and Juice, and all the international podcasts we have on the network. Check out that YouTube channel for media availabilities and Dolphins Today, and last but not least, the Combine Written Notebook up

on Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time finds up Caroline and camera and Daddy is already home.