What is up, Dolphins, and welcome to the Draft Time Podcast. I am your host, Travis Wingfield, and on today's show, we have a busy lineup for you guys. Here from
the floor in Indianapolis at the scouting combine. I'm joined by a couple of heavy hitters on the Dolphins staff themselves, Joe Berry, Dolphins linebackers coach, who will be on the field for the linebacker workouts I believe on Friday, We're also going to talk to Matt Winston, Dolphins director of college scouting, and we'll close it up with the director of college scouting for your Miami Dolphins, Matt Winston. Also, NFLPA surveys out to Ron Armstead had a contract restructure,
or rather a pay cut. We'll talk about all of that and more from the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis, Indiana, Indiana.
Landman, this is.
The Draft Time Podcast. So the Dolphins ranked number one again in the NFLPA survey, measuring basically the structure of the organization from a player's perspective and how much they like playing with the Miami Dolphins across the head coach, the training staff, the ownership, the meal rooms, which not every team provides three meals per day in the NFL, which is kind of crazy to me, with the Dolphins do it in top fashion each and every year, and
that has earned them back to back slots among the top of this list here in twenty twenty five after last year excuse me in twenty twenty.
Four as well. So good news all around.
And the other news that kind of came across the wire here in Indianapolis was the big news regarding to Ron Armstead, who agreed to a contract. I don't know the term for it, not a restructure, but more of a reduction I guess if you will, and essentially what that's going to do, and we'll see what happens with Tron.
It sounds like it's kind of the ball is in his court, but the Dolphins will not sit around and wait for him with his decision about what he wants to do long term in his future, especially with the emergence of left tackle Patrick Paul who could assume that role from really day one in the twenty twenty five offseason. But what Toron Armstead's contract reworking does is freeze up about seventeen million dollars in cap space. The Dolphins can
be aggressive with and sign some players this offseason. And you know, given the nature of the NFL and all these one and two year deals and the void years and the back ends of contracts, there's a great opportunity for the Dolphins to kind of make a splash in free agency. And we've heard both Mike McDaniel and Chris Greer talk about the investment in the offensive line as something they're going to have to be a little bit more aggressive with this offseason. You guys have heard it
on the podcast all along. This is a great chance to really attack that guard position in free agency and kind of mitigate the potential slow return of draft picks and trusting those guys to be early hits across your
offensive line. So if Miami can find a way to get that guard position filled out before the draft, all of a sudden, you don't feel pressure to take a guard at thirteen, which you guys know, I don't agree with that sentiment at all, and you can find a way to maybe get more depth and development in the middle rounds of the draft across the offensive line. So that's kind of been the feature of the week. Of course,
everybody wants to talk about that. But it's cool to hear the Dolphins really be more upfront about their intentions this year, which sounds like a very heavy investment across the offensive lines. So that's what I have for you guys here, additional seventeen million dollars and spending cash for Toron Armstead for that readjustment, and of course NFLPA survey putting Miami at number one once again.
Let's go ahead and get to my guest. I have three today.
We're gonna have guests for the next like five episodes of Drive Time, So buckle up. If you're sick of hearing my voice, that's a good thing for you. Let's go ahead and start here with linebackers coach and run game cordator Joe Berry. I was contemplating going with someone else. We're gonna go Joe Berry here off the top. Let's go ahead and get to my chat with Miami's linebackers coach. What's up Dolphins? Welcome back in the Dolphins HQ and
the Draft Time podcast. My guest today is Dolphins linebackers coach and run game cordator Joe Berry coach.
How we doing awesome?
How was the first year in Miami for you.
I know we talked to the bit about coming from green Bay down it's a weather's a little better. Yeah, I imagine that was one of the big drawing factors for you to Miami.
Yeah, it was. It's definitely different in a great way.
Though, wife and I live in Fort Lauderdale and love it. I remember when I the day I left Green Bay to come down to Fort Lauderdale, it was seventeen degrees and snowing in Appleton, Wisconsin, and we landed and it was eighty two degrees in sunny and in February last year.
So yeah, it's been great.
The Dolphins, the area, everything about it's been It's it's been a great year so far.
So got to keep it going, got it.
Obviously the goal is always to improve, and the thing for us for coaches, the first part of the process, in the evaluation part of the draft is the combine. You know, it's it's you know, these scouts have been working on these guys all year. You know some of these kids they've been scouting for four years. You know, we start now as a coach. This is our first
introduction to the player. So I look forward to the Combine every year just for that, just to kind of see the new batch of guys and just get acquainted with the draft eligible players.
Yeah, we had Matt Winston and Adam Ingraff on the show and they both went over like their schedule. It's like, oh, so you guys are busy, busy this week here in Indianapolis. Speaking of the weather, I have a really bad tam line where my sot goes from the golf I've been playing in January, which doesn't exist in Green Bay.
No golf in January.
I'm not going to show the camera here, but it is pretty bad this time of year with the tam lines that you get in South Florida.
But I love it for that reason.
Before we get into the Combine coverage, coach, I want to ask you about full transparency.
I actually voted for Jordan Brooks for Team MVP.
He was just barely beat out Zach Seiler on my ballot, which who cares, But I did vote for JB. I thought he was awesome this year. I just want to get your perspective. Well, it's like coaching a guy like that who's kind of quiet, reserve but also like a great leader.
And then just a hell of a football player.
Yeah, I personally have a have a pretty cool story with JB. You know, as I was talking about the draft process as as coaches, you really you fall in love with players in the draft, right, and really the likelihood of you being able to draft that player, I mean it's a it's a crapshoot. I mean, it's a very small percentage that your favorite guys as a position coach that you're actually going to get. But every year, you know, every single coach has his guy or his guys.
And when Jordan was coming out, I was the assistant head coach and linebacker coach at the Rams, and I Jordan Brooks that draft class that he was my guy, and and we at the time at the Rams we were going to take a linebacker and that was my guy.
I fell in love with him. I was like, he is our guy. We're going to get him and a division yeah he.
Would yeah, I mean insult to injuries that not only did we not get him, he goes to our division. So so it was one of those things where I was like, God, dang it, I was I there was something about that kid I really I loved and I wanted.
To coach him.
Well you know, oh, well he goes to another team and keep it moving. Well five years later, It's just crazy how the world works. I end up on Miami, he ends up in Miami and unbelievable guy. Really, I think he really grew this year as as a I think he grew as a player, but I think he really grew as a leader. I think it was really cool for him. I don't even think that he realized that he had some of those qualities and just just
a joy to be around. He's a true professional. He works his butt off every single day on the field, in the meeting room, just just does a phenomenal job and had a great year. And like I said, our goal is to improve on that and again, as well as he played in twenty four, we got to take that next step in twenty five.
Well, it sounds like you maybe had a little bit of your whispers in the years of Anthony Weaver and and Chris Career with regards of bringing JB down here or down to South Florida. I should say, yeah, speaking of coach Weaver, I was convinced we were going to lose him this year because I think that's only our time before it happens for him as a head coach. And Mike McDaniel was talking yesterday a little bit about how like you don't really celebrate it because you.
Want your friend to go, you know, do great things.
But it's great for the Miami Dolphins to get that continuity back on defense, and obviously we've.
Had a great first year here.
Curious your experience with with coaching with Anthony Weaver and what he brought to the Dolphins last season.
Yeah, unbelievable, unbelievable coach, unbelievable man, unbelievable person, what he's able to do just just the way. I think Weaves a phenomenal coach. But having been a former player, I think he's able to really connect with the guy, especially, you know, he's he's really special in front of the room with the guys. I would say that that's probably he has a bunch of superpowers, but that's probably his number one superpower. And it was just it's it's he's
he's a blast to work with. He's a blast, blast to work for. I was one thousand percent shocked that he hasn't gotten the head job yet because he is worthy of it.
He's totally ready for it.
So you know it's it's the other thirty one teams missed out.
Thank god Miami Dolphins still.
Have him because he's uh, he's a he's a true like I said, not only a great coach, he's just a great man. And uh, you know what a what a great role model for all of our players you know, to be you know with Anthony Weaver every single day.
Well I speak on behalf of all of our content team. That the way you guys interact with us around the building, weave yourself.
You know.
Coach Clark France has been there for a long time, Like you guys make us feel like we're we're just a big a part the teams everybody else. So it's always really appreciated for how you guys.
Oh absolutely, we're all in this thing together.
Absolutely, Yeah, for sure. So you're going to be on the field this year doing some some on field drills. I'm excited to watch that. But before I ask you, my I have like eight million questions about how that
process works. But I do want to just kind of touch base with you on the evolution of the linebacker position, because gone are the days of the two hundred and sixty pound neck roll, you know, visor nose, noseguard wearing a thumper in there, and now it's all about two hundred and thirty, two hundred and forty pound guys that run, you know, four fourths. Tell me what you think about that and how this position has evolved.
Well, it definitely has.
I mean, I think football is constantly evolving, and you know, usually offense kinds of set sets the tone, you know, and offenses NFL offenses are constantly changing, you know, and like you said, you know, twenty years ago, it was a little bit more. You know, almost every offensive formation had a fullback lead blockers. So obviously the linebacker position a little bit bigger guys that had to take on a lot more blocks. Well, the offensive game has evolved, it's much more spread out.
In the passing game.
But then you look at the quarterbacks that are kind of becoming a trend, much more athletic guys that can really run. So obviously defenses had to evolve really every position, but the linebacker position as well, because as a linebacker, you still have to take on blocks, you still have to fit the run in a gaps, but you're also going to have to walk out on a slot receiver and match up with that guy.
You're also going to drop into coverage and then.
Have to go tackle an athletic quarterback. So the body types have really changed, I'd say really in the last ten years, but it's really taken on the last five years that if you can't run, it's hard to play the game of football if you can't run and are
athletic and have agility and athletic movement skills. And the linebacker position is definitely that because it's unique in the sense that you gotta be able to be big enough and physical enough to take on a three hundred pound guard, but then you also have to be athletic enough to go out and cover a slot receiver. So that's why he speaks and that's why again, that's what makes a guy like Jordan Brooks special is that he is two hundred and thirty five pounds. He's physical enough to take
on in the run game. But Jordan I can't remember off the top of my head what he ran here. But you know, Jordan was before the draft, you know, he was kind of being talked about as like a second or third round He performed so well here at the combine, it jumped him into the first round. So that's always a big storyline here at the draft is guys that have unbelievable combines.
It really improves their stock.
Yeah. I think it was a Niner game.
He like blitz the big app and went and knocked the running back on his button and sacked the quarterback. And then a few plays there he's playing twenty yards deep in the hooks on covering downfield.
Like great example of you know, you gotta be able to run to play, even even at linebacker. You got to be able to run and you got to be athletic. But at the same time, you got to be big enough, strong enough, physical enough to do all the things that we're asked to do in the run game.
Yeah, tough ask lot to do for those guys. So when it comes to the on field drills, the best tool in the football universe, in my opinion, is the football on a stick.
What a great tool that that invention was. Do you get to use that it all this week?
Or I I hate the football on a stick. It's just it's just so lazy.
You get your butt on a knee, get your hand down and physically snapped.
I learned something today that I like that.
No, you will never see me use a football stick. Good.
No, I'm never going to say that again. Then I'm going to call it the best tool in the universe. When you are running those drills, what are you looking for guys in terms of just how they move?
But what's what's the primary focus out there?
Yeah, you know I think the I'm not gonna lie. I'm old school in the sense that I think when evaluating players, the number one thing is their film, their game film.
You know this. You can get a lot of things from what we're doing here.
At the combine with the interviews that we get to do that we get to conduct at night with the guys. You can see some athletic movement skills. You can see just raw speed with the forty. But I'm a firm believer a player is going to be I evaluate players solely on how they play football when I watch them
on film. But the thing that is cool here is that, you know, we have twenty nine inside linebackers here, which you would like to think these are the twenty nine best inside linebackers in college football.
They're all here.
Hopefully they all work out, so then you can kind of compare guys especially you know, we do six drills, and most of those drills to see linebacker specific movements, skilled movements that they are asked to do when they play the game. So some of the drills maybe don't totally you know, correlate to the game, to what we ask guys to do when they when the ball snapped
in a game. But we try to get you know, realistic drills that are the closest thing to playing football and to get all twenty nine of those guys doing it, and then you can kind of compare, you know, oh, this guy really does this drill well compared to this. So it's it's it's an evaluation tool that I think. Like I said, it's it's the early stages for us to get introduced to these players and it's the fun part of the process and it's only the beginning of the process for us.
It's like that that gauntlet Joe for receivers, Right, you catch the ball and then you throw on the ground, Like no coach wants you to catch.
The ball and put it on the ground after he does it.
So it's yeah, great example, You're like whin's the receiver, We're going to touch the ball and then.
Drop us out, So literally never, hopefully never.
Yeah.
So you talk about being a tape guy.
Also fancy myself, but of a tape guy, I prefer watching that, Like when I'm watching training camp practice. It's so much easier to evaluate when I can go back and watch the film over versus being there live. How does how is it different for you being on the field compared to being, you know, in your office watching tape, Like, is there a pretty substantial difference.
There being on the field for the drill? Sure? Yeah, yeah, I think it's it's just a.
The Even here at the combine, we have such a limited access to the players. We get a fifteen minute interview with the guys, that's it. And to truly find out about a guy in fifteen minutes, it's hard. Now when we go back, we'll be able to do zoom meetings and stuff with guys and dig a little bit deeper.
But the thing that I personally like about being on the field, I'm able to be around those guys on the field in a competitive situation, see how they tick, kind of see how they they prep to get ready for the workout. You know that we got a little bit of downtime down there, I'll be able to walk over to a guy and steal a little bit more time individually with him talking to him. So it's just personally,
I like and they limit. You know, there's only six or seven coaches that are able to be down there, So I just think it's a great tool to be able to use just to be around those players a little bit more. And you know, the vetting process is constant until you know we draft, so's it's just another opportunity to be able to run to be around these players one more time.
Really, one on.
One competition is always a great thing, right compete.
Dolphins linebacker coach and run game cordinator Joe Berry coach, we appreciate time today, man, Thank.
You so much, absolutely thank you.
So there he goes. Dolphins linebackers coach Joe Barry. You can find him on the field on drill for the drills on Thursday night working out these inside linebackers.
Let's go ahead and pause for a quick break.
Come back on the other side and catch up with Marcel Luis Jack who wrote the great article on ESPN detailing Mike McDaniel's time as a player at Yale and how it helped him become a better coach at this stage of his career. That's all next Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation.
So we spoke to coach.
McDaniel earlier in the week about the great story written by ESPN's Marcel Louis Jack, and I am joined now today by ESPN's Marcel Louis Jack to talk about that great story you penned up on ESPN. Marcel, first of off, thanks for joining us. And what's what was the inspiration behind that story?
Man?
Well, you know, with with Mike, I feel like he's been kind of everybody like a media darling these past four years, and there aren't a ton of stories about him that haven't been told or written or this and that. But I was just thinking, like, man, I don't know a whole lot about how he what his Yale experience was, like, who he was, like, what kind of player was he?
Like? I knew almost nothing about it.
So, you know, it started with kind of like a I don't want to call it a hail Mary, but for all intensive purposes, a hail Mary interview requests to Chandler Henley like, hey man.
And like, I know, like assistant.
Coaches don't usually do this a lot, but you know, I'm really interested in how you two, like what you you noticed about Mike, like how he grew as a coach, this, that, and the third.
And he agreed to it. Dude.
We talked for like forty five ish minutes, give or take. He was so insightful. It was like one of the first times, if not the first time we'd ever met face to face. He gave me some wedding advice too. You know, Haley and I get married and you know March ninth, now, so I it was like this last summer. I was like, dude, I can use all the advice
I can get. And from there he gave me a few more names, a few more players, you know, called some sources of you know called went through the Rolodex and just really got to learn about this one hundred and forty five pound walk on who could do the Nordic curls glute raises all day long in the gym. I was like, do you gotta you gotta run that back from me again, Mike McDaniel.
Beast in the weight room, man, Like.
That's that's what I'm trying to figure out because as a fellow small build gentleman that has a lot of hard times, I was telling these guys, the video team and producer here that, like, I was a pretty good ball player baseball player in high school in theo college, but they always said, like, you're too small, Like I know, trust me, I'm aware of that. And so it was like peanut butter and jellies, but I couldn't put the
weight on. And Mike is built like me, so I have a hard time seeing him carry one hundred and eighty pounds.
Right, Like, I don't know how he did it.
He said six days a week, man, Like I should have asked for the nutrition and diet because I know that's got to be a big part of it. But like, I think a lot of it is just that, like he really he really wanted to play like that was the that was the most surprising takeaway for me, Like, because my basic understanding of him as a walk on was like he understand he understood I'm a walk on, I'm probably not gonna play like I'm just I'm on the team.
Like, no talking to him he wanted.
To play and he thought he could play, so he was doing everything he could to make sure, like to clear path for him to get on the field. Whither that was getting his weight up, like getting his routes crispy, which I'm told he was one of, if not the best route runner on that team. Man, that's that one. I believe, you know, the iver seen impact. I believe that. And then also just like making sure everybody around him is better and like on demonstrating his knowledge of the playbook.
So like he wanted to play, it just became apparent to him physically that it probably wasn't gonna happen. But considering that that big watch on his wrist and that five year extension, you just I think he's doing all right.
Yeah.
There's there's two elements that come from that story that like are obvious with how he is now number one. The swag because he looks like a Madden Creative player from like the Madden eight era, like straight out of the Creative Player portal where you have on that side you can choose like an accessory for your wrist, for your elbow, like for like your calf, and he literally had the marketing ripped out complete, You ripped on every
single part of the uniform that you could have. And then also the part that I loved about the story the most obviously and why I wanted to have you come talk to me, was the insane drills that he would cook up and like I have the stupid story, Marcel. So I was the same way as a kid like I just all I cared about was sports, trying to get my backyard and find any way to get better
at a sport than I could. And I'll never forget, you know, my house was the house that all the kids came to in the neighborhood, and we'd have sleepovers. We'd be to be up until two o'clock in the morning playing like boofle ball in the backyard. I'll never forget one night we set up all night and we timed ourselves running out of the batter's box from the left handed side and the right handed side and just
did this for hours. And that's what I connected with and the story because coach was putting Chandler Henley, who was a star on that team and was producing through all these crazy drills and it ended up resulting in like a game winning catch through one of the drills that he put him.
Through exactly, and it was like it didn't make sense at the time to a lot of people. Cohen told me like he just remembers walking by them after practice and he'd be seeing, you know, Chandler laying down on the ground and like making one handed grabs and like catches on the ground and.
It's like, what do you guys is that? What are you ever going to use that?
And then all of a sudden, you know, they're playing I believe it was Princeton, and you know, six seconds left in the game, he's locked in one of the end zone to Chandler Hanley, he makes this twirling toe tap, you know, full extended catch and he's like, oh, actually I see the vision.
I see the vision. But it's not even just that.
It was you know, the slow motion walk throughs every Friday where they're like literally talking like that and moving slow and then they do it in reverse. Like I texted Mike about that. I was like, dude, because he didn't tell me that Alvin told him. I was like, did you guys usually do this? He just laughed. He was like, oh, shoot, man, yeah, I almost forgot about
that like we did that. And then there's even like Chandler standing still, Mike running circles around him and just throwing darts at him and having him catch everything just to get his eyes trained. And Chandler said, like it was more than just the drill itself, like it was also like a mental workout, and it helped take his mind off of the nerves of that pregame experience and had him focus on something else, like a teammate doing laps around him, pelting him with the ball.
Everything he did kind of had purpose.
There's also this they were in the drop step drill, which is something I understand they still do with the Dolphins to this day, where he noticed that former Bronco's receiver Rod Smith, anytime he would catch a ball on a comeback, like he would essentially get it and drop step to make sure he gets as much exactly, And that's exacts what he's teaching these receivers to this day, Like you don't need to dance, you don't need to do that full turnaround, you're losing all your momentum, Like
keep your weight, keep your momentum, and get those extra yards as many as you can.
Everything doesn't have to be a home run.
So like writing this story and researching this story, it just taught me a lot about like where his origins came from, where his coaching origins came from. It came out a time where he wasn't really even trying to coach at Hall, he was trying to play.
And it translates over perfectly.
And when you come out to camp, you can see them go through that drill that drops that drill. You'll see it every time, the way they want to split the defenders and just get to daylight upfill as fast as you can. It's a big coaching point in the system. Last question for you here, Marcel, because I'm just curious.
To do a project like this, you do have to get some some in depth research, and I think typically when you do something like this is in our position as reporters and you know, journalists, you kind of come away with a maybe different perspective. I'm curious if that was the case for you with Coach and maybe what that new perspective might be for him.
But again, like I just didn't I didn't know. I didn't know that he really wanted to play, like he was a serious player, and like that's no disrespect to him, But like I think that logically speaking, whenever you if you walk onto a program, like you kind of know at the time, like you know what it is. And like, based on my interview, he was the last interview I did, by the way, so like I didn't know that that's
actually what he wanted until I talked to him. So like that tells me a little something about himself, is that, like he was frustrated by not playing, Like he was not happy that he wasn't playing. He wasn't gonna quit, but like he's frustrated. He wants to compete. Nobody else knew that, man, Like none of his teammates knew when I told.
Like I talked to Alvin.
Actually I talked to Alvin after I talked to Mike, And when I said that to him, he was like, dude, that's the first I've ever heard of it. Like if he was frustrated that it's news to me, And like that's the kind of guy. That's the kind of motivated, you know, motivation he can build within himself. Is that you know, I don't I don't want to quit. I'm
not going to vocalize my internal frustrations. I'm just going to keep working, and like, I think you need that in a league like the NFL that's so up and down and the valleys can be so damn low sometimes, Like I think that's a big for him. And you know, in terms of a leader, I've always believed that he is a leader. You know, people, if you don't know Mike, Like if you if you just see him and you see the interviews, you might think, like, how is this guy going to lead a group of men? Like this
is corny? You know, everybody's going to see through it. I really don't think that's the case. I think he is a good leader. I think like he is a leader of men, and that comes in all kind of shapes and sizes.
It's funny because he I don't know if he chooses two of his how he is, but he presents a certain way and that that part maybe gets a little bit hidden. But yeah, when you dig a little bit deeper, you do find the hidden gems that make him who he is. And and to your point, like in the league, that can kind of you know, fall victim to group think or you know, maybe it's a little bit of a formulaic approach to like press conferences and answers and
how we present ourselves. Like to me, Mike's a breath of fresh air and I have nothing but the highest respect for him and hope that he's here for a long long time. So Marcelle, appreciate your time today.
Man.
What else you work on? What's coming up? What can the fans look forward to on ESPN?
Oh?
Man, Like, we got a long offseason ahead of us. You know, the Dolphins beat Dolphins team, there's gonna be a lot of ross to turn over here. They need a kind of a cultural reset. So it'll be kind of chronicling that adventure. And I'm very interested in that running back room. I asked Mike about that at the podium today. I think, you know, Devon h Chan all the talent in the world, I don't know that he's that, you know, twenty twenty five touch a game kind of guy,
and we haven't seen that from Jalen right yet. Luckily, this is a super deep running back class. At basically any round you can get a guy who you know might will probably fit your scheme. Manchester, if they go there or do they swing for the fences? Do they do they go get a big feature back like a Naji hair Do they try to get like a Aaron Jones who you know, maybe they're not gonna go for fifteen sixteen hundred yards, but they can run between the tackles.
They can be that physical back that currently they do not have. So I'm very interested in seeing their transformation in the backfield, on the offensive line and the defensive backfield. There's just we're gonna see a whole new Miami Dolphins team in twenty twenty five personnel from a personnel perspective,
So kind of looking forward to just covering that. And honestly, man, like I said, I'm getting married on March to night, so I'm gonna turn my brain off for about, you know, a week or so after we get back from here. I'm a full time wedding planner. And then we're gonna come back right before the draft and we're gonna get active.
He does have a twelve day countdown is on from today, but by the time this podcast comes out, it's gonna be shorter, so I won't I won't find out what day it is until we get this podcast out. But Marcel appreciate your time.
Today. Man, thanks as always into We'll see you around here soon.
I'm sure absolutely, Man, thanks for having me and.
Away he goes one more break on this episode and come back with Dolphins Director of College Scouting Matt Winston. That's next Draft Time Podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. What's Up Dolphins, and welcome back into another special edition of Dolphins HQ, as well as the Draft Time Podcast. Here on the floor in the Indiana Convention Center for the Scouting Combine twenty twenty five, and today I'm joined by a special guest, Director of
College Scouting, Matt Winston. Matt, welcome back in man, first time on the show here in.
A couple of years. Great to be here, Happy to have you in.
So first off, I want to just kind of get a little bit of a background on your career in general. How did you first get into scouting?
A number of years ago.
I was actually working at the University of Miami and their recruiting and operations department, and you know, just befriended, befriended a few scouts that were coming through there at the time, had quite a few NFL players perspective. NFL players there, and you know, just like any other industry is just networking, and you know, kind of get your foot in the door with an internship for training camp and then you know, hopefully you do a good enough job and they kind of call you back and you
get a year long internship. And funny enough, actually worked for Chris Greer's dad in Houston, where I interned initially before before moving over the Dolphins.
So we do some amateur scouting on the show here where I talk about prospects and stuff.
Nothing to the level you guys do.
But I think I would imagine if there are fans interested in a career in scouting, they would be listening to Drive Time. So what what would you say, like a scout would do to differentiate themselves to make their way up the ladder in scouting.
Yeah, well, I mean compared to when I was coming up, there's so many more avenues now to watch film, right just just with YouTube and all the other platforms out there. So I think people can take it upon themselves, uh to kind of watch film, do the work, you know, start writing your own reports, start finding your own voice as as a scout, and then you know, there's there's colleges everywhere that are expanding their recruiting and scouting operations.
Staffs go to your local local college and volunteer a worst case or or apply for a job and try to get your foot in the door and get some experience. At the end of the day, you know, with with our when we're looking for a scouting assistant, which is basically like our internship program, you know, we're probably not going to hire somebody if they haven't worked at a major college college or professional scouting platform in some In some respect, you've got.
To find what to get your ten thousand hours and right it's all about reps for any profession you choose. So as far as the glamorous scouting, we all get to see, like, oh, they get to go to these colleges and watch these big time college football games, but there's also some behind the scenes that maybe isn't as glamorous.
I'm just curious about the life of a scout because you guys have expansive, you know, multiple seasons that you cover different areas of you know, team meetings with the other scouts, and they're also on the road a lot of the time. So what does it look like for you at various times. You let's go ahead and start with Indianapolis. What's it look like for you this week here at the scouting Combine?
Yeah, this week, So this week is like the first first real touch point for a lot of the non all starting game guys where we actually get to meet them for the first time. You know, we've been doing all our research all fall, talking to everybody that has been involved in their lives, from their coaches to their strength coaches, to the trainers, academic people whoever might touch their lives, but we don't ever get to actually talk to them. So this is really the first time we
got we get to actually talk to them. Compare our notes to kind of what our first interactions are with them, and it's it's usually just a quick fifteen to thirty minute interaction and in the formal cases, but it kind of is the jumping off point to our relationship with them and building that character profile for the for the rest of the spring here as we lead them to the draft.
Can you think of a time where a guy came into the room when you guys were doing your your interview with them and it was like by the fifteen minutes You're like, that looks like a Miami dolphin to me, and then he became a dolphin. Do you have like a certain story where that maybe happened or maybe part of that.
Probably I don't want to get into specifics in terms of names, but there there are guys, and those are the easy ones, right because you kind of have an idea from your fall research of what it's going to look like through your trusted sources and everything like that that you know, you know that it's a it's a pretty cut and dry character evaluation at least, and and you know there's a lot of there's a lot of players that check the box on the on the eve out side already as well.
So I don't really want to get.
Into specific sea for sure that but but yeah, there's there's definitely those guys.
I mean, we had a few last night.
Yeah, it happens, right, Yeah, Yeah, you're gonna find great characters and any crop like that. So what about after this week wraps, when you when you get downe in Indianapolis, I imagine the tape work is mostly done. You go back for checks after they work out, right, to kind of reverify what you saw on tape, But what does it look like from a collaboration standpoint once this week wraps and you guys get ready for the big night in April.
Yeah yeah, So now you know, at this point in the process is when our coach is gonna finally start getting involved because they're kind of finishing their season, their season long end of season ev ols themselves free agency. Those evls are kind of coming to an end because free agency is about to start here in a few weeks. So now they can kind of dive into the college process.
We can get their take on how they view the prospects and kind of combine that with ours and have some good discussions and we try to cluster guys in terms of in tier guys out from a you know, from around or a skill level standpoint, and really kind of work from that point down with the coaches and come do come to an agreement just in terms of of who fits best for the Dolphins and who will fit best going forward for for how we operate.
Sure, how about Draft night?
Is it it's it's kind of like a culmination of a whole year's worth of work. But is it stressful? Is it more of a celebration? Like, what is draft night like for you guys.
Yeah, it's really you know, all the work's kind of done by that, you know, the Hayes and the Barn You've had your your scenario discussions already in the weeks and months kind of leading up to that. So really at the end of the day, that's when you kind
of take a step back. You let Chris and Mike kind of guide guide the guide, the discussion guide if they need if they need more input, you know, that's that's the time when we're gonna step in and give our input as Chris and Mike want that input and they and they definitely ask every year. But you also don't want to mondy the water waters because that's really not the time. That's the time when Chris and Mike need to make their decisions for the direction of the franchise.
And then you're just kind of there for support.
Absolutely, We're we're there to to consult and provide, provide if they need some more you know, background information, just to reverify kind of what discussions we've had. You know, that's that's where that's where we're just in terms of providing that support.
And I can tell the fans for sure. Nobody provides food services at Draft matt like the Miami Dolphins do. Those spreads are pretty incredible, so we get a chance
to dive into those every single April. How about after that, so I know, hopefully you get little bit of time off once the draft raft maybe you're doing the whole UDFA process, but once you kind of you know, settle back in for the twenty twenty sixth class, you go on the road in August and September, Like, how is that part of your look for?
Yeah?
Yeah, so the summers spent you know, you're kind of recharging, but you're also you know, spending your time, you know, getting acclimated to the guys for next year, and you can split up your days have kind of however you need to in the fall as you get to revisit your family again after after a long season, you know.
So so, yeah, you've spent your your your summers basically kind of doing some prep work, getting kind of the you know, thirty thousand foot view of kind of what what the top eyes for next year are going to look like. And then and then August you start the whole cycle over again, where you know, August you're you're starting to get the character background really heavy more than the because you kind of already have an idea of who the players are from a from a tiered standpoint.
It's a little different now these last few years with the transfer portal, guys are moving around quite a bit, so there's a lot of cross communication going on. If you have a guy that went from the northeast to the country to the southwest of the country, so scouts
are having to communicate compare stories. You know, you might be like an Arizona State and a kid transferred from like a Purdue, So the scouts that those are two different area scouts and they're going to have to try to talk to the staffs at those different schools, uh to compare notes because the new school is only going to know the kid for a few months, where the previous school might have years of experience with them. And
and it's a it's a it's a process. And that's been a change for us over the last few years with the transfer portal and having to piece together a character more than you used to. So it's it's a it's it's always in evolving and ever changing and dynamic process. More than anything, just trying to try to piece together the inaccurate character profile for what you're getting.
So it's very interesting.
It's like having multiple jobs in a short period of time and you have to go through the character references of each of those employers, right, because like the kids bounce around so much.
Really, and then you're dealing with kids that are, you know, eighteen to twenty two year olds, and you're that's ever maturing and evolving time in everybody's life. So you know, you just want to kind of make sure that you know, guys are about football, guys are about you know, being professionals and bringing in to South Florida, you know, getting the right the guys that are they're trending the right direction in terms of their character profiles.
Yeah, really good stuff.
I'll go ahead and close with this for you here because to bring it back to the combine here, you know, tons of fans are gonna be watching this event at home on their couch, just hanging out, watching some guys running around. I want to help you have you help them know how to watch the combine. So when you're watching the combine, like, what are a couple of things you look for on those on field drills and how is it different from when you're watching the game tape from the college season.
Yeah, I mean everything kind of has a certain weight that you put into it, right, You're not going to overvalue necessarily, you know, a forty yard dash or or a certain event or a short shuttle or even even a field workout, because everybody has a bad day.
Everybody, everybody is a great day.
It might not really represent who they are from a from a player, but I think I think more than anything, when you're watching these these drills at home, I mean we look for natural flexibility, body control, balance, Guys that stay on their feet, guys that are always in control, and you can see the guys that kind of kind of lose their are a little a little out over their skis at times, trying to do things too fast and sometimes because they're nervous, and it's a it's a
big audition for them, even though it's only a small piece of the puzzle. You know, it's just something that they've always seen growing up. So really, more than anything, it's it's the flexibility, it's the body control, is the explosiveness, those are those are the main things that that we're kind of looking for.
I guess that makes sense because you see the w drill for the dbs right that, the rabbit drill for the offensive lineman, the gauntlet. Like, it's all about staying kind of ye within your your body.
Having that base, having a foundation, having that core strength to be able to move in an effishent manner. You know, that's kind of the name of the game at the end of the day.
Yeah, great stuff.
Dolphins to college director of Scouting Matt Winston, appreciate you times today, man, Thanks for coming to with us, Thanks for having me.
There he goes, and there we go.
One more episode this week for you guys from the floor here in Indianapolis. We will talk to Adam Ingroff, Dolphins co director of Player Personnel, Jordan Reid, the great ESPN Draft analyst, and Brett Coleman from the Bootleg Football podcast the Film Room YouTube channel for NFL. He does a little bit of everything. We're gonna have more interviews. Emery Hunt will be on the show next week as well. Rtt lewis dot by EJ.
Snyder.
We'll talk about the combine workouts and all that stuff coming up here on future episodes of the podcast, But as for today, that's going to be my time.
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