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And welcome to the Draft Time podcast, part of the Miami Dolphins podcast network, covering your team, your Miami Dolphins.
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I am your host, Travis Wingfield. And on today's show, Night two is now officially in the book and it's Devon a Chain joining camp Smith for your Miami Dolphins. The Dolphins get even faster with the Texas A and M running back. We're breaking down his game. Plus we'll hear from a Chain and Mike McDaniel and Chris Greer's end of night press conference. All of that and much more from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.
This is the Draft time podcast Heye Cam.
With the eighty fourth pick into twenty twenty three NFL Draft, the Miami Dolphins select Devon a Chain running back Texas A and M.
This shouldn't be a surprise, big time track speed going to Miami.
If they aren't fast enough already, they just got even faster.
If you thought the camp Smith podcast was a little bit unhinged coming off of not one, not two, not three, but four consecutive cappuccinos, I've had a long day on this Friday.
I've been up since early. I didn't sleep last night.
I've out doing stuff all day, did radio with Juice and Seth before the draft started. And it's about eleven forty five on a Friday night recording this podcast for y'all, just at the end or the conclusion of Day two of the twenty twenty three NFL Draft. Those four cappuccinos got me through the evening because I was pretty tired at that point. But now this draft pick has me fired up to do this last podcast here of the day, And just like that night, twos a rap man, one
more day left of the draft. It goes by faster every year, it feels like, and somehow someway, the Miami Dolphins got even faster on their offense with Devon a chain from Texas A and m the running back. Let's go ahead and run this thing back with the background, the stats, the tape, the fit, the presser, including McDaniel and Greer's end of night presser.
He's five foot eight and a half one hundred and eighty eight pounds.
At the combine, he ran a four to three to two forty yard dash with a one four to nine ten yard split. He also posted four to three six in the short shuttle, thirty three inch vertical jump, and a nine foot three broad jump. And by the time we set all of that, a Chaan already ran too that mountain and back over there. That's a SpongeBob reference for all you old heads out there. This is one of my draft crushes this year. Man, a player that I thought could add the speed element to this offense,
that matchup element to another position on the field. We know about Tyreek and Jalen, and then you've got Raheem speed at the running back position too. Now, you go out thirty add a four to three to two guy, a guy that some people thought Mike Clip the all time forty yard dash record.
He has that kind of speed. And you look at.
Different comps out there, shorter backs and stature that can really run. He looks like you know some of the guys that have made it happen at that size in this league, in a pretty pretty low cut frame. Good contact balance, keeps that center of gravity ground, which allows him to drop the pads and run on through tackles in that second level with exceptional start stop quickness. And Travis, you said you weren't going to do tape just yet.
That's right, and I'm talking to myself here now, eleven forty seven on the East Coast.
Let's go ahead and talk about a. Chanin's background. Grew up in Houston.
Actually told me in the press conference today that he was friends with Jalen Waddle playing AAU basketball when they were younger. Can you imagine trying to defend that team in transition with a Chane and Waddle. He became the starting running back at Thirdgod Marshall High School in Missouri, City of Texas his sophomore year Missouri City in Texas. How come these different states have cities that are in different states like Kansas City and Missouri.
What the hell is that all about?
He ran for twelve hundred yards on an eighties comedian, What's the Dude with their airline food? Twelve hundred yards, eighteen touchdowns, and picked off a pass on defense. That was his sophomore year. As a senior, he went for two two hundred and sixty six rushing yards that's eleven point three per clip, forty total touchdowns, and that included thirty eight grabs for seven hundred and sixty eight yards
and ten more tuddies. He was named the twenty nineteen Offensive Player of the Year, and they went to back to back state title games, although they lost both times to the same team in Texas. All things told, he finished his high school career with forty eight hundred and twenty three rushing yards, two thousand and four receiving yards, hundred and sixteen touchdown. That's Reggie Bush production in the
high school level. He was also named the twenty twenty I put two thousand and two right here, which would be impressive because he was born in two.
Thousand and one.
The twenty twenty Gatorade Texas Track and Field Athlete of the Year, posting the best four by one hundred relay time nationally. That's forty point four. I don't know what that means, but it sounds pretty good. He also placed first in the two hundred meters at the twenty nineteen five A State Championship. That was the best time in the nation, and he also posted a personal best in
the one hundred meters at ten five to three. He was the number four overall all purpose back in that twenty twenty recruiting class, and he chose Texas A and M with offers from Georgia, Texas, USC, Bama, Florida State, LSU, and Houston Wow. His personal best at Texas A and M included ten point one four one hundred meters, twenty point two two hundred meters, and six point sixty three
sixty meters. And to put those numbers in perspective, and yes, I am repeating this from my previous podcast because I talked about a Chane a lot. The standard two hundred meter time for Olympic trial qualifiers is twenty point twenty four. He's under that we have Olympic speed in the backfield. Now back to football. He posted two thousand, three hundred and seventy six rushing yards and twenty one touchdowns in
his college career, averaging six point four per rush. He also added sixty five for five point fifty four and five touchdowns.
Catching the football.
He also had a kickoff return and back to back seasons there at College station. He ran for seven hundred and five yards last season after the initial tackler missed him or they bring him down but he falls forward for extra yards. That's an average of three point six yards after contact per rush. And if you guys watched A and M last year, not a very good run
blocking team. There was lots of trash he had to navigate his way through and PFF had him with one hundred and seventeen runs on zone scheme and seventy nine in gap man scheme. Very diverse usage in terms of his pre snap alignments, which caters to his ability to catch the football. He is so smooth transitioning from receiver to runner once he secures the football. He forced fifty three missed tackles this year on one hundred and ninety
six rushing attempts. Again, no math guy here. That's better than one for every four attempts, and when he makes you miss, it's usually a lot more yard d after the fact because of the speed and the way he opens up from a really stationary position and how quickly he can get up to top speed. So fun player, man, Let's go ahead and talk about the tape here. Next we'll do that on the other side and hear from
DeVaughn as well. That's the next Draft Time podcast. Your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation.
Spending time with you, getting to know you here.
Coach is probably.
Hey, you're still fast, right hey, buddy, congrabs man, you earned it. Celebrate Okay, this is uh, this is the start of something real cool.
Congratulations yeay man, you got two happy guys that we got you.
Yeah, so I would afford to meet you, and you gotta bring your speed. Baby.
There you hear the call from a very fired up Mike McDaniel, who was fist pumping in the war room here at the Baptist Health Studios, not the Baptist Health Studios, the Baptist Health Training Complex.
He don't come back to the studios. This is my territory.
But those that have heard the podcast and the run up to the draft know how much I like this player. Gosh, I love speed in the backfield. Gosh, I love hitting home runs in the ground game.
And that's what a change do.
Baby. He had eighteen runs of fifteen yards or more each of the last two years. That's thirty six total, eighteen times thirty six runs. Instant offense in the ground game, and when you plug on his tape, he created so much from nothing. I talked about the an M offensive line in the previous segment. They lost two players in the NFL last year, including first round pick Kendrick Green to the Houston Texans, and the blogging took a hit, but
the running production it did not. I think that speaks to a Chain's vision and his ability to find tiny creases, his agility, and his ability to take off for big gains when he did find those creases. I think you see that lateral agility and pure speed really open up on those long runs where he scorts through. But also as a wide receiver, the attention that he commands when the offense catches the defense in a base look, and he can get himself isolated on a linebacker or a
safety to follow him out in motion. That generates so much to think about from a vertical stretch standpoint, but also the other element of the offense that can be forgotten sometimes the horizontal stretch. And we saw ten and seventeen Tyreek Hill Jalen Waddle eat in the middle of
the football field last year. And this is a player who would help create even more space with the speed on the perimeter as a route runner, but also on the play action looks where you stretch that thing out and you have to a sprint to a spot and show that football and show the defense that we could potentially run this ball off tackle. You better get your butt out there because if you don't, I want to hand this thing off and he's gonna get you to
the edge. He's gonna win that edge, and he's gonna be off to the races and it's gonna be up to your safety to give him to the ground and what's a touchdown? And then we can put the ball back into his hands and then turn around and flip it into the vacancy created behind those linebackers because of that outside zone stretch. I think you saw that with Raheem Mostert last year, and that's when I began to really truly understand his value and appreciate what Raheem brought to this offense.
Because of the speed that he.
Brings and the way you threaten the perimeter in the ground game, it forces defense to have to commit and choose, like pick your poison.
You can't give up the edge.
In the running game because if you do that, teams are gonna take it all day long and they can safely hit twelve fifteen eighty yard runs because you're playing the pass like we never have to go to that. And then once you start to commit to the run game, that's when the pass starts coming to play too, and vice versa. So it just gives you even more on those stretch or those toss plays running wide. All of that over commitment was always bad news for the pass defense.
When Tua pulled the ball back in last year. I think that a Chain carries the one hundred and eighty pounds very well. He can absorb contact and squeeze through, and that's in rare instances where tacklers actually get a clean shot on him. He rarely takes a squared up shot because of his shiftiness. He's got such smooth hands catching the football out of the backfield. PFF only had him with two drop passes all year last year, and he can really set defenders up when he gets those
two wig gos. So it's not just flexing out to run a route. But think about the space this offense creates from its wide receivers, and you've got another home run threat who kind of replaces that displacement. It's a really good way for two to have quick options in the passing game and to mitigate blitzes and unfavorable box counts against the rush or just out and out whiffs
and pass protection. I think adding Barrios and then adding a chain and how having those two quick outlet options can really be a boost to pass protection in its own right. It doesn't always have to come from an insular aspect of how you improve things. I think our thoughts about how teams create solutions.
For those issues.
I think that we get too narrow minded in those thoughts, and I think this is a great example of that.
We heard Chris Greer.
So the team is not done adding and we are currently looking at a similar line that helped generate the number six offense in football.
Last year.
I said that on the first podcast tonight because I just don't understand why we have folks that believe this offense can't function with the way it is. Right now, you already have the important pieces. You have the quarterback, you have the two receivers, you have you know, three guys that performed really well on the offensive line.
We'll see about the rest.
And now you have a backfield just chock full speed and guys that can hit home runs and help you generate the run game that has the passing game that plays off of it. And now Tua has even more weapons at his disposal to help one of the quickest time to throw quarterbacks in the NFL do what he does best and process and distribute the football quickly, because now you have Barrios, who can you know, get cornerback
three or four on him. He can beat that guy quickly in a two way go situation and post up in that four or five yard range to.
Help convert your third and short.
Or you can have a chain do it where you get a Texas route on on a linebacker. Or you have the receivers who have displaced you know, space in the middle of the field and all of a sudden, Tua is gonna say, I'm happy to take a check down to a chain because I know he's gonna run for eight yards before anybody.
Gets to him, because he's that fast.
I think the vision that a Chain has is what allows him to maximize that speed because in the route running the wiggle, he just sees it.
And from a.
Running perspective as well, how he presses it, how he feels the flow of the play and then hits that thing. He forces that over a commitment I talked about a lot because of how aggressive he is impressing the gap.
So when you have a run as a running back, you have a certain gap or a certain target you're shooting for, and you want to press that lane as fast as you can because that forces the second level defenders to commit to their gap, or even a defensive lineman who's playing two gap to shed his block one way.
And if you've pressed it in a certain way.
And then you can anticipate him, you know, coming off of his block in the wrong gap, you bounce that thing back the other way. All of a sudden, you've got a vacant gap, and with this guy getting all the way back to the to the bend back lane. And you look at a lot of his big runs the bend back lane. So again let's do some more explanation here. So you have your bounce, your bang, and your bend bounces when you kick it outside your banks, when you drop your shoulders and run to the gap
that you're supposed to go to. And your bend is when you get backside to the backside of the formation after over pursuit. And if you look a lot of his big runs, it's when he forces that over pursuit by the aggressive pressing of that gap, then gets all the way to that bend back lane and you're out
the back gate. And once again, you better have some four to three corners that can run this guy down because once he gets in space, he got The best part about all of this is you can utilize the passing game skills because he's plenty good in pass pro as well. He drops his pads on guys and that will you know to do that as a testament to his football character and love of the game. And I found this great blur from the Dane Brugler athletic, the
beast that the the the jew. Why am i making good noises the draft guy that he offers from the athletic and first of all, he never fumbles. A Chain does just two in his career. He covered some punts and didn't ask questions about that, like why is my start running back gunning on punts? Because he can and exhibited strong football character by his actions.
This is from the Beast.
Here. A Chain suffered a foot injury in twenty twenty two, and rather than shutting it down for the year and going to the NFL Draft, he said that he owed it to his teammates to get back for the season finale against LSU, where he rushed for two hundred and fifteen yards and forced sixteen missed tackles in that game.
And that left Jimbo Fisher to say this about a Chain, He's a tremendous human being, player, leader, competitor and has nothing but heart and toughness about him and everything he does. I am fired up about this, dude. Let's go ahead and hear from the man himself, devon a Chain, and start here with this question that was asked by you boy. I asked him, how did how was that thirty visit you took down here? We heard from Chris Greer, which she'll hear just in a second, who spoke about having
a chain down here for a visit. So I wanted to know, what did you think of Miami? The building, the people down here, here's a chain.
It was great, like you said, Amy Grave around the building, facility was nice. When I came down there, it was a little rightey, so I guess, you know, it was, you know a little look that I came down there on that day. Everybody was saying, you know, done ray down here. But you know, it still was a pretty fun visit, you know, Like I said, me and Samuel Wad you know, we're really good friends, so you know,
we communicate. So I feel like, you know, me being there and the visit that I took in an international coach was great as well. So I just like I was able to, you know, be myself and I was very really come.
Next question here was can you run between the tackles? Which is an interesting question, but I liked his answer. Let's go ahead and hear from the new Miami Dolphins running back.
Oh yeah, sir, I like I can run in between the tackles outside like when I was I feel like most of my rus in between tackles. I mean, everybody see me as a fans guy, so they think, you know, he just wanted to run outside. But most of my roles and my two thoughts or between tackles. So I feel like.
I'm right anywhere.
If the bars in my head, I feel like I'm capable to do great things with it. And me running between tackle, it's not a problem that I have.
I always love hearing this next answer. What was it like meeting coach McDaniel. Everyone's got their own unique story.
It was great man. You know, he had a great coach that got a funny sense of humor. You know, he always keeps you on your toes and like, so I'm a very fast guy. So here come up and ask me like this funny question, like are you still fast? Like he just you know, great coach out there around so you know me, you know, having a coach as such as him, I'm just thinkingful, blessed that he's my he's my coach, and I can't wait to get out there and just see what he has the store for me.
One last one here I mentioned the relationship that Jimbo Fisher and he clearly had there at College Station. Let's go next here to a question about Jim bow Fisher and what he taught you about playing in the National Football League.
Especially man, he was a great coach. I was happy to be able to be under him for three years or he taught me a lot. We always had that relationship with him that we could talk more than just football. We can talk about in real life. And he always
kept it. He always kept it real. Never something that I liked about him, you know, he he never he never knows, you know lines to me, I feel like you have the relationship with you know, if I needed something on it was something that I needed an answer to, he was able to give me that. So man, it's
lending for him. And you know, he always said, you know, people don't Christal Sawe, but you know, as long as you got the clothiness and immortality that you know that I have and you hopefully a little said that you can go out there and do, you know, whatever you want. So he always told me, you know, you know, people don't have their opinions on social media, so you always tell us, don't worry about social media and just go out there and play and do what you do.
All right, there you go.
Let's go ahead and take our last break right there and come back on the other side and hear from Mike McDaniel and Chris Greer at their Day two press conference recapping Day.
Two of the twenty twenty three NFL Draft.
That's Next Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by I Don't Nation a Saturday morning now into the midnight hour, we're recording this podcast. Let's go ahead and pick this back up in our final segment here with Chris Greer and Mike McDaniel's post draft post night two media availability, we heard from Chris Greer discussing
Cam Smith in that selection. I wanted to ask Chris and Mike about you know, what did last year tell you about needing depth at that cornerback position, but he kind of answered it here right away off the jump in the first question.
Let's go ahead and play that SoundBite.
Yeah with us.
You know, Cam's a very talented football player. We're excited to at him, and competition will always add at every position, as we talked about here, So it was the opportunity for us to at that point in the draft at a really talented football player that fitting in this league and especially the AFC, with a lot of talented quarterbacks and teams, we can never have enough corners as we experienced last year, you know, with the rash of injuries that we dealt with.
So excited to ad.
I'm he's excited to come and so we're looking forward to working with him.
I love this next answer here from Chris Career when he was asked about the tight end offensive line position, and he told you before the draft, if you go into a draft thinking you have to draft certain positions, it's the best way to guarantee you lack of success in the draft. And I keep seeing all his complaints about Dolphins drafts. Well, I'll say it again for the four thousand time in the podcast. Go look at Miami
Dolphins draft since twenty sixteen compared to other teams. I promise you you're not going to find ten better drafting teams over that period. I promise you you're not going to find seven, maybe not even five. Just go do it, report back to me, let me know what you find. I've been the research. Go ahead and do yourself, do your own research. Right.
We talk about that a lot in this country, all right, Anyway, that's a rant for another day.
Here he is talking about the tight end and offensive line and how, believe it or not, talent acquisition does not end in the month of April.
You know, when we do our board, we go through it and there are a lot of good players that were picked too, you know, ahead of those, So we look at every position we go through it. You know, I think you guys are probably more worried than we are, you know, in terms of you know, at the position depth at those spots you talked about. But at the end of the day, we added a good football player. We're happy and like we said, you know, the draft,
it doesn't end with the draft. You know, there's still you know, guys were talking to and free agency on the streets, and so we're still working through it and we'll keep adding the players that think fit for us.
I was so stoked to hear this answer from coach McDaniel. What do you envision for the speed that devon a chain offers your offense?
Here's coach speed we generally like around here. But I think it's more you feel like there's a there's a fit in terms of a guy fitting within your existing team. You're you know, always keep in mind that you're adding players to a team and and really think that that group in particular is all the running back group for
us is very important. And uh, you know, you find a person player that that fits your skill set, that you like, but also that fits within the room because we have some other good competition in there as well. So really really excited to add a player to a group. And he is fast, and Chris and I share that we do have affection for that trade.
Here's coach McDaniel further explaining kind of the team's approach to adding talent and how taking the best player regardless of positions always the aim, and how he and Chris we are both lockstep in that approach.
You're trying to do the best thing as your collection of people have decided that's available to you at the time. So you know, you uh, you'd always try to position yourself and go in the draft to be able to take the best player regardless of position. And you know, sometimes you have depth more in other places than not. But we're not gonna, uh, we're not gonna take away the opportunity to have good players in our team. It's more of you know, our the player's shape, what the
team looks like. So if we have a if we have the ability to get a good player, we'll ever turn that down. And then it is there's a lot of action we've had. We had a lot of contributors that we added to our team post post draft last year that were very impactful during the regular season as well as post the first game of the season. So you're always tinkering. That's something that I'm pretty sure Chris might be half vampire because he's never sleeping because he's
always evaluating something. So I think that will always be the case with us.
And how about that reaction to the a change draft pick, coach, how'd you feel about that?
This is just this is just like you know, cambaraderie between two work associates. Certain people have opinions that he'll be there, certain people don't. And I was really excited that Chris was right that that that a player was there. So you know, you get excited about all the players we uh, you know, it's just really it's down to the TV pretty who decide when they catch you. Because apparently, as it's become aware to me that the first pick, I was texting my wife and had my shoe on
the table. So we get excited for all our players. And that's just because of the amount of work that we all put in over an extended period of time to figure out who those players are.
Alrighty, and there you have it.
It's time for me to go home and go to bed, come back on Saturday and do it all over again.
Only going to have.
One podcast for the Sunday or Sunday Saturday draft a portion Day three. We'll recap the two draft picks, we'll recap coach and Chris's press conference post draft, and we'll also get the oppressors of Round six and Round seven players.
Until that time, it's going to be my time.
You all please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts. Leave us a rating, leave us a review. You can follow me on Twitter at Wingfold NFL. Follow the team at Miami Dolphins. Check out the fish Tank podcast with my guys Seth than Jews, check out the team YouTube channel for media availabilities and Dolphins Today, and so much more, and last but not least, Miami Dolphins dot com.
Until next time, finns Up Caroline Cameron. This time, Daddy's coming home,