Drive Time: James Daniels, Larry Borom Interviews and Zach Wilson, Ashtyn Davis Analysis

the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Draft Time Podcast. Magie Jaffe, It's up, Dolphins. Welcome back into another edition of free agency here on the Draft Time Podcast as well as Dolphins YouTube channel. My guest today is new Dolphins offensive lineman James Daniels. James, welcome in man, Thank you.

a great resource to me. So it's actually really cool that like seeing what he how successful he was for the Dolphins, and like how many, how much fans, how much the fans love him, how much like people around the building that know them love them.

stuff here. So you know, every time I talked to a player who's coming off an injury, had the Achilles injury last year, they tend to say, like that rehab process is, you know, kind of like lonely and can be like dark at times, but they wind up coming out of it with like a like a new appreciation for the game and for the process. I'm kind of curious if you've experienced that or just how that whole process has been for you.

But also like when I have like a lot of lone time, like I like I'm a reader and like I love to learn, Like I'm big in the science. And it's like I did like a lot of research on like Achilles rehabs and Achilles, like tenant studies, ten and opathy, those studies like ten and night studies, Like all the research that's been out there, like on Achilles tendants. There's not much of it, which is actually kind of crazy.

There's not much, But like I've done like a lot of research on it, and I'm just trying to like do that to like help speed up my process. And I think I've been like doing a good job so far, and so're excited to just keep on rehabbing and keep on progression.

certain play. I can look at like Chicago Chicago Bears game in twenty nineteen, it's exact same play versus exact same type of defense. I'd be like, hey, I was left guard. Hey the left guard got beat here because he did this, and so talking in twenty twenty five, I'd be like, hey, like left guard here, like don't do this or this is exactly what I have, what I did six years ago when I got beat on it.

kind of a niche topping. Not everyone understand this. So like if there's any type of like even I even send like obvious stuff too, Like if it's an obvious clip, I still send it, like, Hey, this is a huge thing that people need to pay attention to. So I'll take a video and look at I know one. No one usually responds, but I know they see it. They say, hey, no one will saw it. There will be like eight

video clips in the world. There won't be any responses, but they've seen it, and they'll like, like the next day they'll be like, hey, what made you see this or what made you send this?

yard touchdown passes, we could still manage the game. And when defense gives you something, it's like when they're playing single high. If they're playing single high, because like when you're running the ball, well, they're gonna play single high, and that's when we have to kill them with the pass. So like we understand, like offense lineman should understand that whoever the defense gives you like, that's what you know, that's what you're gonna have to do.

also shifted over the last ten years or so. You see guys like come out of college and it's like get to the line of scrimmage, you know, run the snap and get back to the line scrimmage, like don' huddle, don't finish your block maybe or don't maybe don't worry about as much, whereas like in the old days it was like, you know, play through the echo of the whistle, and in the NFL it's more like huddle up, finish your block, play a certain style. Like do you see that difference?

And like how is that kind of impacted the way guys develop, you know from rookie year to year eight?

not all schemes in the NFL are created equal. There are schemes where there's large margin for errors or offensive line and I think, like, I think it's just unfair that like some offensive linemen are they're playing in schemes that are they're super critical and they have to pretty much play perfect for the team to be successful. And then the third thing is like the players around them.

It's like, for example, like I was lucky when I was in Chicago while I was left guard, I had Cody white Hair at center and that Charles Lyndho at left tackle.

weren't successful players around me. And so like I'm glad that like when I'm here that like no matter who's at center or right tackle.

What's up, Dolphins? Welcome back into the Draft Time podcast as well as the Dolphins YouTube channel for another chat with a free agent signing from the twenty twenty five class new Dolphins offensive lineman Larry Boram. Larry, Welcome in man. How's a how's Florid treating you so far?

kind of how this offense works. They make your tackles and your guards can be playmakers and go out and make the big play that kind of springs the touchdown.

in Miami. And we've kind of seen this trend in the NFL over the last few years, where like maybe for offensive linemen it takes a little bit longer to develop and become like the best versions of themselves, like we had Austin Jackson had like a big breakout year in his third season, a very young offensive lineman in

the first round for us. Is do you think that that's kind of a trend in the league in terms of how guys developed, Because I was talking to James Daniels about this before you came in here about how like in college just coach more like just get to the line of scrimmage and get to the next snap

because we're trying to go fast, right. Do you think there's a difference in how that is played compared to the pros And how do you think that impacts like players like yourself, for instance, and your play to develop your game.

And I think about that and like how you know, we think about quarterbacks is having to be smart, but you talk about like the collective you know of the offensive line these days, and like you have to be pretty smart to know landmarks and like how you're gonna pass off blocks? Like how do you how do you think being an intelligent person helps an offensive Lineman's everything?

to you by Auto Nation. Quarterback Zach Wilson, whose career resume dates back to the second overall draft pick in twenty twenty one out of BYU to the New York Jets. He spent three years there before last season going off to the Denver Broncos, where he did not play any snaps. He's a six foot two to two hundred and fourteen pound quarterback who will be twenty six years old in August.

His injury history He had a PCL sprain that cost him four games in twenty twenty one, a meniscus tear that cost him all of the preseason and three games in twenty twenty two. He missed time late in twenty twenty three after a concussion. He also tore a Laborman High school and broke a thumb in college. Twenty twenty and twenty twenty four were the only years without an injury for Zach Wilson since twenty nineteen. He might recall twenty two twenty four, he didn't play a rep the

entire season. His statistical profile twenty three touchdown passes, a twenty five picks. It's a two point two percent touchdown rate, a two point five percent interception rate, neither of those very good. Fifty seven percent completion, six point three yards per attempt, thirty seven percent success rate with a seventy three point two passer rating, and he's taken one hundred and thirteen sacks a's say, ten point two sack rate, and he's twelve and twenty one as a starter. None

of those very good. He never posted a season with better than a thirty eight point five QBR. He had seven point eight air yards per attempt, twenty one point one percent bad throw rate, a seventy two percent on target throw rate. But he did have fifty five scrambles with an average of eight point nine yards per scramble. He did not have any athletic testing in college because of the COVID season. His contract is a one year, six million dollars deal, which is roughly when I did this,

and it was on Monday night, so it could be different. Now, it was the thirty second most apy for a quarterback, but we're also talking about guys coming up on their second and third years of their contracts and the rookie contracts that would push him more close to the forty range. And this is the exact same contract we're talking about

here with Tyrod Taylor with Marcus Mariota. Again, if you factor in those like eight to ten rookie year contracts or rookie contracts, I should say he becomes like the fortieth highest paid quarterback, so a top quartile backup quarterback, which is kind of what you need with Tua. At least that's what the investment tells us. The film probably something different, but that's kind of the mold of where you find backup quarterbacks now right, their former failed first

round picks that are looking for that redemption arc. That's what it is these days. Otherwise you're just probably not much of a player. You're probably more in the form of a Gardner Minshew or a Mason Rudolph or a Josh Dobbs, guys that just don't play the position very well and don't have much upside. Now that's the information the black and white, cut and dry, just data poll from Travis Wingfield here on the Draft Time podcast. Let's go ahead and get to what you really came for

here the verdict. You know, a couple of weekends ago, I taught a careers in Sports class to high schoolers at Saint Thomas University. They were at the program for the weekend, learning from folks like myself, and I was telling them about how ideas come at all hours of the day. That idea came late on Monday night when I was thinking about how to stack these free agent reviews, and I was like, I'm going to play the People's Court Verdict song before every single film reviews. So here's

what I knew about Zach Wilson. He was a gun, shy, timid decision maker with a penchant for retreating against pressure, bailing on footwork and clean pockets at the first sign of danger. The game has always been too big for him. In the flashes of pro day style plays that made everyone fall in love with this guy for the second pick in the draft, they show up maybe once or twice a game while he leads a slog of an offense for one hundred and seventy yard ten point output

every single week. He was drafted where he was because of a shortstop arm with plus scramble ability to create outside of structure, and there were glimpses of that as a pro, but that was with the Jets. He spent a year backing up bo Nix, working with Sean Payton, Joe Lombardi, and Davis Webb in Denver, and my pre free agent draft report or freegency report I should say, was that he was frenetic in the pocket, with an inherent nature to retweet against pressure, has no trust in

his protection due to a lack of processing power. I'm not sure he understands the checkpoints he has to get through pre snap, what presentations look like and how they're set up to get different looks from the defense. He has a fun arm, some scramble ability, but he can't even maximize that because of the horrible spots he puts himself into as a drop back passer. Perhaps he developed this stuff for the first time in his career working with a competent play caller and quarterback room, but it

would be a hard pass for me. That's what I wrote back in January February. I also know that Albert Breer tweeted the quote based on what people in Denver were saying about Wilson after the season. Don't sleep on this move end quote, so that maybe you want to find out exactly what the hell that means. Unfortunately, we got no evidence of it on tape with zero snaps played in Denver, so we're stuck to pick some things out of his Jets tape as well as some preseason

Broncos tape. Here's what I wanted to see when I cracked open the evaluation on Zach Wilson. His third down reel. That's where you always start with quarterbacks third and long. How do they pass when the defense knows the pass is coming. Games where he came off the bench, big games, because he has had some statistical anomalies where he kind of went off in games. I wanted to know what the case was in those situations, and then of course some of his Broncos tape, even if it is just preseason.

I needed to see if the pressure was a protection thing exclusively. I needed to see what type of energy he brought is a backup, and I knew he had those three or four games where he went crazy. I wanted to see what was common across those games, and of course throughout all of that, how it translates to our offense. Here's what I found. The pressure and protection was a pretty even split in terms of blame to be passed a round, but his ability to play the

position in New York was just non existent. Brother not taking the information the rotation would give him, Like even when he got deeper into his career, he would step up into a pressure, he would try to create or

make matters worst. He would play the position in this very programmed way, where like he would feel pressure against teams with good blitz schemes or a sim pressure where you know the pocket is perfectly clear and fine, and he would like step up into the pressure or quickly check the ball down to a player who was well covered in the in the coverage scheme and have like no on the fly ability to adapt to how that

particular play went. I'll never forget high school basketball are head coach always use this example of how to run the clock out at the end of games, and he was like, you know, we run the offense to drain the clock, but if they spring a league and you catch the basketball with a free run to a layup,

go take the two points. And he'd always compare it to like, you don't see a receiver, you know, just go down or out of bounds when they catch the ball when there's trying when they're trying to drain the clock, they go to the end zone if it's there for him. Although that's kind of changed in recent years, but that's what Zach reminded me of, Like he was the kind of guy that, oh, we run the offense that's dranned

the clock. Let's just go ahead and do that. Even if the guard slips on the floor and I have a chance at an easy, uncontested layup, I'm still gonna run the offense because that's what I was told to do. That's how I evaluate his game. There's no like adjustment or feel for what's happening on the field itself, feeling just that constant bit of urgency or I guess phrenetic energy. I should say, like, my rules are one two three, so we're gonna go one two three, regardless of of

the variables the defenses throw at me. The only game of his career off the bench was the twenty twenty three opener when he when we thought he was going to be holding a clipboard for the whole season, and then just four plays into the year, he's back in the saddle and he looked like you expect him to look in that spot, like, oh s staying it.

taking these massive hits, like we saw Bradley Chubb damn near take his head off down here a couple of years ago. He often has to gather before he makes his escape, and I just think that's from all the end decision. He's also not going to be part of any short yardage or two quarterback packages. Not that we expected that, but I thought it was the possibility with guys like Mariota. We'll see with Jaln Milroe and the

draft guys like that. Right, My biggest thing that I can hold on to was I thought when he played in rhythm, when he got his footwork right and identified the read and played within that rhythm, he drove the football with confidence. It's a tight spiral, it's very sharp accuracy. It hits the guys in the numbers with a little downwards reject makes it easier to catch. I have to

imagine a year of jeweling that. With Sean Payton helped, He'll be one of the guys I'm watching closest in Ota to see what we have there because I don't know what it is because I don't have a twenty twenty four profile to go off of. If you can play with your feet and rhythm to the offense here, you're going to be all right, it's very tough to do. We've certainly seen that be the case. And then if you can do that with plus physical skills which he has in the arm and the legs, then you can

really amount something special. Something this offense really helps him with. Also is where you get these clear indicators to help him play more in rhythm and on time, something that typically happens with good fast route runners. Right, you can better see leverage or have and play with more confidence off the leverage of the defense than what he has done in the past because of what we have here, and they are few and far between. But when he trusts it and he rips it, he has some really

pretty shots. He had a touchdown pass to Alan Lazard on third and eight in the mid red zone against the Chiefs back in twenty three where he threw it off the overhead hang backer widening before the eventual break in route of Lazard into that hole anticipation throw. So there is like some modicum of example of it on tape. It's just very few and far between. Now, that's as much as I can give you because the majority of the tape is him just blatantly neglecting the information the

defensive rotation gives him. You know, a cloud cornerback sinks into depth and takes away the over route that he's working and doesn't think about that sinking corner, leaving the flat wide open and never gets to the running back all alone on the swing route and takes a sack. Or the next series has a clean pocket, developing routes and just goes to the checkdown right away because his bad internal clock said the ball has to come out now, even though nobody was there. He was just a broken

player there. So those glimpses were there more in Denver practices. Do we think we can get more of that? This really feels like a I can fix him type of signing, which I guess I advocated for in the idea for Trey Lance. The next good football we see Zach Wilson play will be his first. Hopefully we never have to.

And two would just stays healthy. I just had to see something from the Broncos because the Jets tape was what I remembered, and to me, after watching that tape, it's like, Okay, it has to be that we're going off the Broncos time because I know it's the preseason, but the entire operation was so much cleaner. I saw him hit the top of his drop mechanically aligned to

his reads. The feet were hardwired to the eyes. I saw him pump and get his feet and his shoulders to the target and then come back to the actual place he wanted to go, some actual defensive manipulation. You know your boy loves that. Where he helps, I can see the outside chance of developing a talented skill set into playing more on time and in rhythm this late into his career. With effective communicators in that quarterback room,

he'll get the coaching he needs. Finally, why was he available? Well, he's not been good. I think he wanted a chance to go somewhere with a better pathway to playing. Because in Denver they had nixed the entire year and he's played a lot of games in college. It hasn't missed time. It's more likely to play in Miami because to his injury history. This category of why was he available is more for the bigger time signings like the James Annuals of the world. You know why Zach was available because

he hasn't been any good. My classification for him is replacement level player with the hint of upside. So he slots in as your number two quarterback as it is today, and at that price point, he's going to be your backup in twenty twenty five, almost had twenty twenty four, and there's some upside there to potentially build. But yeah, you got to imagine that. It's going off of what they've heard internally from Denver and the progress he made there,

because with the Jets just wasn't that good. Safety Ashton Davis is up next. He was a third round draft pick of the New York Jets in twenty twenty out of cal He played all five vis NFL years with the New York Jets. He's six foot one, two hundred and two pounds, and he turns twenty nine in October.

His injury history missed two games last year with a concussion, He missed three games in twenty twenty two with a hamstring injury, and missed the last part of twenty twenty and the first part of twenty twenty one with an injury that was never disclosed. So he's missed some time here and there as a part time player. His statistical pro file sixty nine games, twenty two starts, has not

eclipsed three hundred snaps since twenty twenty one. He played seven hundred and forty five snaps that year, which was his highest snap total. His second highest snap total was his rookie season, when he played four hundred and two snaps. Hasn't gone over three hundred since twenty twenty one. As a career. Career numbers one hundred and seventy five tackles dine of those for loss point five sacks. He does have eight picks, fifteen passes defense, three forced fumbles, and

four fumble recoveries. He does find the football I must say the athletic testing profile. Another he didn't work out. I thought it was for the COVID year, but he actually just was injured and didn't work out that year. He also got a one year, two point five million dollar contract. It's almost the exact same deal as Jordan Poyer. So take that as you will. And now let's go ahead and talk about the verdict. Now, I knew that Ashton Davis was best displaying range from the deep host

as a single high center fielder. That's not to say that he didn't play down low. In fact, he has more box snaps than free safety snaps in his career,

and maybe that's where the Jets went wrong. But perhaps with all the cover three cover one that we get into that we rotate to, and with melafan Wu patrolling down low, maybe the idea is that he's an affordable backup option to camp out twenty yards off the football all game and use those center field skills, those one hundred meter college National Championship winning skills in that center field position. I had a first round grade on him coming out of Cal because of those ball skills, because

of the range, and because of his versatility. He was a really good nickel cover option at Cal. He would play some will linebacker and obviously safety as well. Now, when I did this report, the league was more of a single high presentation. And the way that's changed things for backs and wide receivers and definitely quarterbacks, I think it's changed it for the safety position too, perhaps enough to kind of change the landscape for a player with that type of skill set and for the worse where

he's playing a little bit more in the box. And again we didn't get workout metrics, but he's a very springy athlete. In fact, we do have something tangible. He was the PAC twelve one hundred meter champion and a second team All American in college, but he hasn't played a ton in the league. So I wanted to see how he was in run support, how his coverage has been in the nickel, and his feels for playing zone and split field safety looks. And here's what I found.

The coverage is not very good. They used him a lot in the slot as the big nickel. They'd go sauce and read and then Chuck Clark and then Ashton Davis and like LaMarcus Joyner or anybody else back there at those safety positions. But he was always the third safety in the game, in for Michael Carter when he was injured, and he would sneak down into coverage and it was just I watched the first three reps on his target reel on NFL Pro, and right off the top,

he gets out leveraged by Deebo Samuel. That's fine, an eight yard catch is fine, but then he misses a very routine tackle and it leads to twenty more yards. Fast forward to the Buffalo game and he gets flat footed on an option wheel route by Ty Johnson and gets smoked to the back pylon, but Josh Allen misses

the throw literally. On the very next play, he's in slot coverage against Matt Collins, who is like the seventy fourth best receiver in the NFL, and gets absolutely toasted on a double move for a touchdown a little crossover step. I think the feel is a challenge, to say the least. I don't think he has well defined landmarks in his repertoire. I don't think he's processing color that flashes in front of him, like you know jerseys the way like you kind of have to process and a sport that moves

this fast is like the color of the jersey. So if you have like a three man route combination, okay, there's an aqua flash this way, aqua flash this way, that means I should have you know something coming in this general direction. Like I don't think that clicks for him watching his tape. I do think he's good in run support when it's not like downhill directly at him, if he can stretch it out like a flat route or a screen route or a run that got a

run that was strung out wide. He can make that play, but he kind of drops his head as a tackler and has a lot of misses on his tape. I don't think his feel is good outside of two areas. He is good at playing the curl flat downhill because it's a short amount of space, and I think he's actually pretty good in those areas because he's got this like springy ability to kind of defeat screenplays where he can kind of like hop around a blocker and go make a quick tackle if it's not like running full

speed downhill. And I also think he's viable as a center fielder, and perhaps he does fall into that role more as you know. Again, I think we'll see more man coverage for the Dolphins this year. But yeah, they use him as a big nickel and his ability to cover fit the run really everything from them from there was wanting. I mean, two million dollar player, hardly a guarantee he makes the roster out of training camp. He's again good against the screen. I think his best traits

how he processes from depth. I would never try to bring him up past like fifteen yards beyond the football, but that presents a problem, right because if only going to play the guy and cover one, cover three in center field. That's a tell for what you're doing defensively. But when I watch him play like the ball, skills in the back end are pretty good. The way he

tracks and finishes picks is nice. So if you can you know, maybe it's third and a third and fifteen like dime safety that plays this deep portion coverage because he has that range, and then special teams. That's kind of the route for him to make the roster. In my opinion, I think where he helps special teams, third or fourth safety type, I think there's no chance that we're done. I think he's competition for guys like Elijah Campbell and Patrick McMorris. Very specific traits you can work with.

But if he makes the team, I think you hope it's like his safety four and nothing more than that. Why was he available? This is not the kind of player that this category was created for. I mean, he's not been very productive, That's why he's available. I classified him as replacement level. I was very close to going the red camp body description, but I'll bump him up to the pink level because I do like the way he tracks the ball on the back ends. That's Ashton Davis,

New Dolphin Safety and there you go. That's the week of podcast here on Drive Time. On Monday, we're going to have the interviews with I believe Ifatu, Melafanmu and Ashton Davis. I think the Wednesday interviews will be with Zach Wilson and who am I forgetting Nick Westbrook? Akine will get kJ Britten there as well at some point and whoever else signs will have him on the podcast as well. So playing it come your way here on the podcast leading up to the draft really with freegency

here to bridge those two gaps. In the meantime, you all please be sure to subscribe, rate review the podcast, follow me on social at winkel NFL. Follow the team at Miami Dolphins. Check out the Fish Tank podcast with Seth and Jews. Check out the YouTube channel for Dolphins HQ media availabilities all these video interviews with these players and much much more. Last but not least, Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time. Fin's up, keroviln Cafrick Daddy just come home.