To our Removedlin Deep Speedlins past.
From the Baptist Health Studio. This inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is Drivetime with Travis Wingfield. He's my hav hands in the playoffs.
What is up Dolphins?
And welcome to the Draft Time Podcast. I am your host, Travis Wingfield. And on today's show we're gonna welcome in the great Kyle Krabs talk about the draft, the Senior Bowl, the Dolphins off season. Just a comprehensive chat with a good friend of mine about this Miami Dolphins team and off season from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.
This is.
The Draft Time Podcasts, gaff. Let's get right to it today. My guest Kyle Crabs joining me once again, is good friend of the show show and really the perfect Dolphins draft guess you guys know who he is from. Locked on NFL scouting and locked on Dolphins. What an intersection for our purposes today, Kyle Crabs, Kyle, what's up?
Budy?
Hey, Travis, happy off season to you. I know it's uh, we wish we were still playing a game this weekend, but it's a really fun season and excited for the off season ahead for Miami to hopefully push some right buttons and play a few more games next year.
I know you and probably nobody else wants to hear this, but the weather on Championship Sunday here it was nice.
Man.
I couldn't I couldn't stop thinking about how nice it would have been, how yes in our building too, and how nervous I would be.
But like, it's the weather this time of year.
It's man, there's a reason that everybody from Montreal comes down here to play golf this time of years.
It's crazy.
I want to start here on the episode though, Kyle with a hypothetical here because little peak behind the curtain.
Kyle and I, if you can't tell we are friends, are we friends? We're friends?
Right?
Yeah? I think that's fair to say. I thought maybe you go a joke there and then say no, but we are friends.
We text So when I see a prospect that I like, I'll typically text Kyle hey thoughts on you know, position player school? And I text him after watching the one on one drills and mobile and said, hey, what are your thoughts on Texas offensive tackle Christian Jones? And Kyle says, haven't had a chance to watch him. Yet a reason I like Kyle's opinion is because he doesn't have a player he hasn't seen yet and just tell me thoughts for the sake of having thoughts. So I get excited
to start sending Kyle some deets about this player. When I google Christian Jones, I get a hit that lays out his personal info and it tells me he's a thirty two year old player. Now I knew he was going to be on the older side because he was a sixty year senior at Texas. I heard that on the broadcast. But what I didn't know is that there's another Christian Jones in the NFL who is thirty two
years old. So I'm going through this process of telling Kyle this is a guy with sweet feet, former soccer players, some good reps and one on ones where he, you know, didn't let his chest plate get exposed.
And I'm thinking, this guy looks like a Day two pick at worst.
But then we have a collective laugh when I tell him, oh, of course he's thirty two years old. Let's go ahead and call me priority undrafted free agents. So Kyle, the question, after all that nonsense is how good would a player have to be for you to draft him if he was thirty two years old, or would you not? I don't know.
Some of those specialists can go into their forties.
Man, So indeed, long snapper, I don't know about a day two pick on anybody at thirty two. We saw was the Baylor guard like ten years ago for Philly when he was twenty six, and it was like the biggest deal ever. So you to be thirty two, you'd have to really be a man amongst boys at the college level. Unintended there because obviously you would be a man amongst boys if you're thirty two.
Pick Brandon Whedon was twenty eight, right, and you got drafted yep, twenty six guard and that's it. I guess for a quarterback, it's you know, you hope that you could get a ten year career over at that point. But either way, we are far into the We just go ahead and get into this episode specifically a focus on the Senior Bowl and the draft, but I do have a couple of additional topics we'll talk about at
the very end of the show. So having digested the practices of mobile and by the way, real quick How great is it that they actually broadcast the practice as a game, because the last few years, I know you're usually down there, so you probably didn't know this, but they would have like half of it on ANFL network, half of it on ESPN, and you wouldn't even get
the full practice. But they're back to the old school way where the entire two hours of either practice is broadcast for the entire day, all the one on ones, all that great stuff, plus the tape after the fact. Anyway, after all that, put on your all thirty two scouting hat and educate the drive time listeners when you go to evaluate. Give the breakdown and value between practices Kyle and the actual game on Saturday itself.
Yeah, I think that the game is a great measure of like.
Competitiveness, competitive toughness. It's an all star event, it's it's an X ambition game. But the guys that go out there and really look to make a positive impact, like Chili Smith Wade making a diving interception and running that thing all the way back should have been a touchdown.
It's neither here nor there on that play. In particular, those kinds of plays stand out at the game versus practice is like this great equalizer of I get to see an FCS running back going against an SEC linebacker in one on one drills, whether that's pass protection or running routes and those kinds of great equalizers.
It's the only setting.
The All Star games are the only setting in the pre draft process where you're doing actual football drills activities, and you're doing it with contact, and you're doing it on a completely level playing field. You know, when you watch the tape, an FCS running back running for four hundreds awesome, but it's a little difficult to gauge the value of those reps because he's playing against other FCS
players versus the Senior Bowl. That setting is such an awesome way to kind of have a blanket statement, like, look, everybody's at the same place at the same time, with the same coaching going against each other, and there's a measurative one for one in the value of those football specific reps that you just don't get anywhere else in
the pre direct process. Do you feel like scouts versus coaches, because we always like scouts and coaches have different preferences and players, right like a scout sees the high weight, speed, combination, a coach says, this guy can process.
Well, that's what I want a little bit of a dichotomy there between the two.
Do the coaches and scouts kind of differ on that because for me, like watching the one on one drills, like, oh, man, that guy's got like he's got flexible ankles, he's got oily hips, right, I can see the way he can move in those drills.
Is their difference there?
I think, especially at something like the Senior Bowl, you do get the same thing at the combine, but the meeting time, I think the assistance, especially now that they've changed the way they do the coaching staffs, you have kind of this mishmash potpourrie of assisting coaches at all different teams pooling together to do the coaching staffs respectively.
So I think that's where you probably get that element of it is individual position coaches for teams getting to work hands on with those guys, and even beyond just like, oh his processing speed, but oh he responded to how I communicated this well is kind of one of the inside tracks. And in the past it's been well, two NFL teams have their whole staffs down here.
And coach the game.
Now you get much more representation for all the teams across the league, and I think that's helpful for every coaching staff to be able to take something out of this experience too.
How about when you kind of step back and look at the Senior Bowl week versus the tape, because I think you know, the draft starts and mobile, right, and that's typically where I kind of start to dive in after, you know, covering the team all year long, it's tough to really get into the scouting side outside of our great Friday shows we do taking a look at each weekend in college football. But how about the way you measure the tape versus what you see at Senior Bowl.
Is it more of like a reminder like, Oh, this guy I didn't know about him, but I like what he did here, so I'm gonna go back and watch his tape.
Or is it more confirming? How do you balance those two things?
A lot of the time you're hoping to get a confirmation on what you thought you saw. I think again, the environment being one that puts guys in different roles and does things more that extend beyond what they were asked to do.
For their respective team.
That's where players can really move the needle is if I play in a certain kind of offense and we're stylistically going to play one kind of way, but teams are evaluating me to fill different roles for their respective offenses. At the NFL level, I can show more diversity in what I'm capable of doing. It's that age old question of what can he do versus what was he asked
to do? And I think that's where the more times you get the confirmation on the tape with the senior role practice, you say, Okay, great, I got a really good idea of who this guy is. But the guys who you walk away with and you're like, wow, he's he might be more substantive than what I thought he was in his respective offense. I think that's the one you circle back to and rewatch the tape and really look at the tape through a different lance.
I always think about Justin Herbert when those conversations come up, because of how limited that Oregon offense was in terms of catch rock throw to the perimeter. Let's get the screen game going extension of the running game, and they run the ball thirty five times a game, as well on top of that, and not many of the whole shots that he's capable of as a pro obviously that
you see there. But I am curious because you know, in scouting, like you know, I know everyone on twitter's a scout a scout now, but like it's they can see it a touchdown, but like that's a good play.
I like that player because it's a good play.
But there are you know, certain elements of the game, certain nuances, movements of guys that do you know, particular things, and you're like, I can see that translating, even though maybe it's not where it is today where it needs to be, but I can see that being a useful
tool as a professional down the line. What's the process of like projecting from talent you see at the college level, because you know, Austin Jackson Frands is a guy that was super young when he got drafted, right, and it took him till his third year to really break out or was fourth year to have a breakout like dominant, go, get go, extend that guy type of season, Like I guess, use Austin as your platform if you don't mind about projecting and how you can see a prospect at age
twenty out of the draft, and maybe that's not where you think he'll be at twenty four. How do scouts look at that in terms of how they think a guy will grow and develop.
Yeah, I think there's different conversations that teams and reps have for every player, and it's the year one forecast and then typically the three year forecast. But by the end of that rookie contract, what is your expectation? And offensive lineman's kind of a unique game in general, because the rare ones will step on the field right away and they'll be a net positive impact and really be a needle moving player. You think about Tris and Worf's coming out of Iowa and how good he was right
away for Tampa Bay. But it's not outside the norms that I would say. It's actually more commonplace that offensive linemen have a trajectory that is more.
Like Austin Jackson's.
Think about Titus Howard, you know, as a HBCU kid from Alabama State getting drafted in the first round by the Texans, and he has become a quality starting offensive lineman, but he was all over the board when he first got into the league and Austin being as young and as raw as he was.
I think that's that's another case study of that.
And I know that people a lot smarter than I have have done some research on developmental curve, specifically for offensive linemen, and kind of the general consensus is you don't see what that player is capable of being, more often than not until the end of that rookie contract, so that three year conversation. So sometimes you're gonna pick a guy in the first round because he you really
like the forecast. I think you can maybe have a specialized or specific role for you early on, but you know you're not going to see the full player until after a few seasons. And I think just with social media and everything nowadays, the expectations everybody's going to come in and boom, they're going to hit the ground run
in both feet right away. But we'll draft and develop is a mantra, and for a lot of teams that means it's a long term investment and as long as you have the stability in your front office to do that, give it a few years and then ask yourself revisit that question of what that player brings to.
The table, because all thirty two fan bases. When they like they make their first two picks, it's like, oh, right tackle and defensive end, those two needs are filled for the next ten years.
They're solved.
Right.
We already have it figured out. Those guys are hits. They're going to be immediate players right away. I want to close the first segment here. And by the way, Kyle, we we kind of opined about whether we're going to do a full show here. We're going to go full
three segments here. We're already into it. I wanted to ask you, because you and I text about this a lot, about players that could really by taking that Austin Jackson's step would really benefit the Miami Dolphins from a financial standpoint, from a roster fit standpoint.
I just want to get your take on some of those guys and who they might be this year.
I know you and I have talked about Eric Azuokama, a player where we're both big fans of his skill set and what he offers, and him going down last year I thought was was a detriment to that progress because we saw him kind of developing a niche role in the offense. I'm sure that would have grown and developed from there. But I just want to get your take on some guys that you think are in that
kind of eric as Zukomma mool. Those guys we haven't really seen produce, but they're young and could be forgotten out by the fan base because of what you talk about microwave society.
Come out and produce right away or we forget about you.
Who are some guys do you think fit that mold that could have I don't want to say breakout years, but be contributing players in twenty twenty four.
Yeah, Well, and through that same Austin Jackson Lenz. His first two seasons he played a lot and it was inconsistent, and then he gets hurt and really like one hundred snaps his third year and we came in the last season,
everybody written him off. I know one guy that a lot of people have written off is Channington linebacker, and that's a player who when you drafted Channington Doll, I think you reflect on the role that he had and he only played like five hundred snaps that last year at Georgia, so he didn't get a lot of playing time.
That was a three year conversation. Well, you're coming into year three.
Now you've changed schemes from the Josh Boyer scheme to the Vic Fangio scheme, and obviously now Anthony Weaver coming in, and we'll get a better idea as time passes by on what this scheme specifically is going to look like. But that's a player for me that kind of has the same vibe as Austin, where everybody's just kind of pushed him out of their frame of mind as being somebody that can be a viable contribute to this team.
But he's big, he can run, and as he sees more of the game, I think he is going to have an opportunity to be a player, And if he is, I think it's going to be really helpful for the Dolphins because they have Jerome Baker and David Long, and both of those guys are currently scheduled to be expiring
contracts after twenty twenty four. So like getting him in the fray and seeing what you have there this season would be a big boom for Miami, and I think they will find some ways to try to get him on the field this year.
I love that answer. His tape was fun.
Man.
They talk about explosiveness and co collision, the way he ran through guys, and the way he could cover and do some things as a blitzer. I think I think it makes sense that he's a guy that you could kind of come back to an OTA's and training camp and say, like, let's put a star on that guy, make sure a Washington forty one, because he's an important player right here for this team. Eric is who comments my pick for that, It kind of already spoiled that.
But that's a good That's a twenty twenty two draft class right there. I forgot my years there for a second. But yeah, that would be if both those guys pan out and then we know what Devon ah Cham looks like in camp Smith, I think we have high expectations there. I mean, that would be a really nice way to get your kind of you know, rookie contract funnel backwork.
And again, let's go ahead and take our first break right there, come back on the other side and talk about the Senior Bowl and the draft and the Dolphins all that next year. Draft Time Podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, my guest today, the Great Kyle Krabs, brought to you by Auto Nation. Segment two with my good buddy here Kyle Krabs talking all things Dolphins draft and really just
Miami Dolphins football in general. With all that first segment that was not necessarily Dolphins specific, some of it was let's go ahead and put that Dolphins hat right back on, take your scouting hat off, put your Dolphins hat back on.
I guess that's kind of a crossover there.
But my question to you is, going back to the Senior Bowl, who do you think helped themselves the most down in Mobile that you think would be a good fit for the Dolphins. Very Dolphins hyper specific here in this question.
Uh yeah, I think there's a player, maybe not generally perceived to be one of the top positions of need, but the Dolphins have some injuries with their defensive end group, and I think Darius Robinson from Missouri had an outstanding week. And he's a guy who was a multi year starter, but really the light bulb came on this year. He had eight and a half sacks. He only had one game after September sixteenth that he didn't have at least
half a sack. Ind for the final eight games of the season, like he finished red hot two hundred and eighty five pounds. There's some ability to play down inside, there's some ability to line up on the outside and win with.
Speed and convert speed to power.
And he's long, and he's got a prototypical build, and that's a player for Miami that I think, you know, could really make some sense when you look at the body type that they have collectively gone after with their edge guys, these big body guys like Chubb and Phillips and even Agba is a holdover from the previous regime.
And obviously he's under contract.
We'll see if he gets another opportunity to be with the team in twenty twenty four or not. But Robinson, I thought, really flashed in a big way for his versatility. I think that's an exciting player. And then another player who again it's I don't know how much big of a pressing need it is, but I think it's a really good stylistic fit for his style of play, especially what he showed it was what he was asked to do in college versus what he showed he could do
down Senior Bowl. Quinya Mitchell corner from Toledo didn't press a whole lot on tape, pressed a whole bunch of the Senior Bowl. He got real physical with dudes. He can run fourth like he can fly. He can run four to three. He's really physical. He's got awesome ball skills. So those are a couple guys on the defensive side of the ball who you know, we've seen this team kind of at times four go pure need and gravitate towards those spots with what they've drafted with this regime.
And I think those are two players that had outstanding weeks that would make a ton of sense.
How do you feel about that?
Because I try to make it a point on the podcast every year this time of year when we talk about draft and team need, and I always explained to the audience that, like when you draft for need, you're drafting for one season because, as we know, needs shift and change in the NFL every single year. I mean, I was I was having a conversation with the coworker the other day about how has a player ever had
the same season twice? Like they no year is ever the same, and so your opinion, your stock of a player goes up and down given you know what they put on tape that year, and so how do you value that? Because like I watching him play. I guarantee you if he was the pick, I'd be like, that guy looks awesome. That looks like a stud at a premium position for a long time. But the pushback you get from fans probably is with the drafted camp Smith
last year. They already have Jalen Ramsey. We'll see what happens with like Xavian Howard in the future and cater Coho's here. We don't need cornerbacks, Travis. But I just like getting good football players, Kyle. I didn't forget the twenty twenty season. There's no such thing as too many or twenty twenty two season. There's no such thing as do any good corners first pality.
Second of all, I think when you draft for need, that's when you really put yourself in a dangerous spot because you're you're not taking full inventory on the talent that's available, and instead you're putting yourself in a box for what is okay to draft. And I think specifically with kind of the build out that we're expecting for this year's team, there's gonna be so players that are on one year contracts that the team is going to
sign in free agency in March. There's probably going to be another wave of free agency for this team in June and July. After free agency and after post June first money clears for a salary cap perspective, and it's always a rush to kind of you get through the first or the second day of the draft and you look at your team and you're like, Oh, they don't
have this and they don't have that. But there's reasonably starting caliber players that are on the market through to the start of training camp on an annual basis, depending on what some of their spots are. So I'm much more of a proponent of if you identify premier players or top end players, you're going to have a really hard time going wrong drafting the best player available. I know it always feels great when there's an intersection between
best player available and your positions of need. And a lot of times, if you have ties, you can go tie to the need because you feel like that la has an easier path to get on the field for you early on. But to just say, oh, well, we need to draft X, Y or Z because we don't have what we feel as a starter there right now on our roster. In April, you don't play games until September for keeps, So like you, you've got time to turn over other stones or sign of the free agents
or facilitated trade during the preseason. There's all kinds of different ways. So I'm very much pro team draft, best players available as much as you can.
Love that and perfect synchronicity here. And I'm gonna go ahead and jump a couple of questions here because this I think matches up what we just talked about there the dichotomy of building on a weakness versus strengthening a strength. And that's not even to say that you know, these
positions we're talking about are those things. But I think there's a disconnect when it comes to you know, fans or armchair gms, which is again it's it's what makes the league so much fun these days, but also kind of you and I bitch about it on social media. Is because everyone's so involved and everyone does have an opinion, and that helps the league grow and become what it is.
But it's also you know, one hundred mock drafts every winter and spring, like guys are firing these things off saying that's what you gotta do, that you always look for the biggest needs. I think that sometimes the best thing that you can do is get better at what you're already good at. I'm curious how you think teams do that balance when let's set you go into a draft. Let's say, for instance, you have an offensive line that needs help. You have a receiver group that's very good
but could use some more help as well. But it's you know, it's a strength versus a weakness, Like is that a tiebreaker scenario? How do you balance whether or not it's more beneficial to get even better at what you're good at versus getting a little bit better at something you're not good at.
Yeah, I think there's probably a conversation about what your menu looks like and what the players on your strength, whatever your strength is, allows you to do. And as long as you can get tangible better results by doubling down on the strength and say, look, here's our core identity, this is how we're going to build a team, this is how we're gonna choose to compete. It gets really difficult to reach kind of the diminishing returns that no longer make it worth it to continue to bet on that.
I do think there is a point where you have to play late season games, or you have to play in cold weather environments for example, and certain styles of
play translate better than others. So you do have to have like a certain operating floor in my mind for all of the different ways that you would attack offense or defense, and make sure that your floor gives you a broad enough menu where we can just roll into any given matchup and have an honest conversation about here's what they're good at, here's what we want to try to attack about what they do, instead of just saying
we don't care what they do. This is what we're good at, this is what we have to do, and that's it. Because I think you do paint yourself into a corner a little bit there. So I think it's really hard to reach diminishing returns by continuing to invest in your strengths, but only if your floor across.
The board is at a certain level.
I just had Sean Said from Sumer Sports on the podcast talking about Anthony Weaver, and that was kind of one of his sicking points was he believes that Weaver is very much a attack the opponent's weaknesses and be aware of their strengths and kind of be flexible and versaile to the different types of offense you'll see in the National Football League, and I hope that's the case, because that seems to be what wins in the NFL
these days. I want to pivot back to the offensive side though here and talk about two position groups that I thought really stood out at the Senior Bowl, and two groups that I think are strengths in the draft class, and two groups that I think the Dolphins could use some help at. They're receiver and offensive line. And I wanted to first put this question to you about to just separate these three guys on either side of the ball.
One guy didn't go to the Senior Bowl, but I put him in there because I watched his tape and he looks like a lot of fun. So the receivers are Lad McConkie, Roman Wilson, and Malachai Corley. What do you think about those three.
Romans? My dude, I love Roman Wilson. I think he is This is not what you told me on the phone, by the way.
Well, I think Malachi Corley's probably the best intersection of a difference skill set than what the Dolphins currently have while also having the same strength as being a run after catch player. But if you just ask me, which is my favorite player out of the group, Roman Wilson is tough as nails. He can fly, he can run in the high four threes to four fours. I wish he was just a little bigger, but like he plays like he's got that dog in him. He's got super
plucky hands. I think he can win in the middle of the field. I think he can win on the perimeter. I think he can win a little bit down the field. So like he really brings a lot of diversity. But if you're asking me from a Dolphins perspective, I think Corey as the bigger guy, like the two hundred and fifteen pound run after catch type of body. That's just something when you consider Tyreek Hill, Jalen Waddle, Braxton Barrios,
River Craycraft, a lot of the Robbie chosen. A lot of the guys that got run this year at wide receiver were leaner guys or or were guys that were not bigger guys. And at some point, mass does move the needle when you run so much cracked toss and you're looking to have guys really contribute on the edge in the run game in addition to be run after catch threats. So I love Corley's run after catch physicality. I think he's a pretty good route runner coming out
of Western Kentucky. But my main crush out of those three is Roman Wilson. I think I'm just head over heels with the way he plays the game.
So again, to kind of peel back the curtain here a little bit. We were talking about that during the Senior Bowl week and I was like, hey, he looks pretty good, and you're like, ohish, he's a bit taller, but you've come around that a little bit.
Yep.
Yeah, just yeah, it's a good player, right, Like, don't don't put yours in the same way, don't draft for needs, don't put yourself in a box and say, oh, well we have to have a certain body type.
Yah know. And is the dude the ball or die and the ball.
I saw that on Twitter. Someone's like, oh great, another five ten receiver. I'm like, you don't want another Tyreek Hill. Like, I'll take another Tyreek Hill. I'll take three of those guys. We got two, won't take three of them. But uh yeah, man, it's it's a good position to to want to go after in this year's draft, as is the offensive lines go ahead and short. Three guys from me here again,
two guys the'rera at the Senior Bowl. One guy didn't play in contact roles though, That was Zach Fraser, the center from West Virginia. But man Jackson Powers Johnson is a monster, but also so was Is. I'm saying that's right as the first time I have said this name out loud. Cedric van Prant from Georgia. Yes, of his game, those three guys look freaking awesome. Kyle, Yeah, so of course van Pran I would put third out of that group. I think he's a little bit more of the power
center traditionally. Out of those three guys, I think Zach Frasier is still a bigger center. He's like three ten, but he's got a wrestling background and it pops big time. I think you see a lot of the lateral mobility in his game and really good leverage in short spaces where Powers Johnson I think is the blend of both, where he will railroad you and he will run you
down in space. And he is perfectly comfortable as a three hundred and thirty pound center kind of gearing down against linebackers and safeties in the open field, and I think that's just a really exciting blend of what we were accustomed to seeing from the center position the past few years with Connor Williams as such a dynamic athletic player. But then you look at Powers Johnson and you realize that he's three point thirty and there's just a point eight to point b element of him that he can
uproot and man handle those tackles solo. And you know that if you've got a center that can do that, what does that free up your guards to be able to do where you can spend less time investing on securing the first that the interior of the first level of the line of scrimmage. So I think that's where Powers Johnson really separates himself from the rest of the centers in this year's class.
In my mind.
Yeah, he's maybe my favorite prospect right now in the draft. We'll see how that changes over thoset couple of months here, but yeah, good stuff there, man. We're gonna go ahead and take our last break right here, come back on the other side and do the third and final second, which has just a random array of questions here.
That's next.
My guess is the great Kyle Krabs from Lockdown Dolphins. I am your host, Travis Wingfield. Draft Time Podcast brought to you by Auto Nation, finishing up here with Kyle Krabs, my guest today on the Draft Time Podcast on Friday before the Super Bowl.
Kyle, you got in the game on Sunday. I got Kansas City to beat them in. You gotta beat them in. And I will not be making the same mistakes as the sports books and fading Patrick Mahomes in a playoff game.
I just won't do it.
You don't want to be like me and try to go oh for four. I'm picking Chiefs games in the playoffs this year. I will kindly pass on trying to go oh for four. So I'm picking the Chiefs. When I was mad about the Bills game in Week eighteen, I think I told you it's gonna be twenty four to three on Sunday.
We're gonna ar on Saurday night, We're gonna lose.
I was so mad, and then I through the week went back and watched the matchups, like, we have a chance to win this game. I ended up picking Miami, but it was actually closer twenty four three than I thought it would be.
Well, here's to not playing Kansas City in the first route mixture.
Yeah, yeah, let's not do that anymore on the road in twenty five negative twenty five degree tmperture.
Let' let's avoid that at all costs.
Let's also kind of do a rapid fire bit here to close up the episode and start with the draft here and just kind of I know this is very vague, Kyle, but I'm curious about some underclass options at pick twenty one that you think might be there, might be good fits because we've talked about the Senior Bowl, but every time we get to this time of year, I feel like those prospects get a little bit forgotten about because everyone's like, I just watched so and so Dominate Practices
and mobile. I just want to get your take on some of the underclassmen that you think might be there at twenty one that could be options for your Miami Dolphins.
Yeah. I think a couple of offensive linemen that I'm really excited about to lease. Fuaga from Oregon State is one who some people are projecting inside a guard. This is another three hundred and thirty pound offensive lineman. So is there a long term tackle play with Tron Armstead, But you can draft him and get him into your starting five right off the jump. He's a junior who declared for this class, so that's the first name that
really jumps out to me. I think Johnny Newton, the defensive lineman from Illinois, is a red shirt junior, so I guess technically is a fourth year player. But that's somebody who, depending on what the Dolphins choose to do with their into your defensive line. He's got really good center gravity. I could potentially see depending on if there is a corner and offensive tackle or slash offensive line run.
With the wide receivers and quarterbacks you're expecting to go in the top ten, I could see him kind of getting into that stratosphere. I would be remiss to not acknowledge the existence of rock Bauers just because tight ends from a positional value. It's kind of the great mystery bag if they're going to get drafted early or not.
For every TJ.
Hockinson that goes in the top ten, there's really good tight end prospects other years that end up slipping and falling. So I think that's a home run versatility add to this offense as well, if he's there or if he gets close and you wanted to jump up and make a move to go get a guy like that. So there's no shortage of options for players that I'm gonna like be underclassmenner Otherwise at twenty one, I'm glad you.
Touched on mostly offensive players in that portion there, because I'm curious what you think about this defense. And obviously we have a new I guess prism or a new lens to look through here with regards to a different defensive coordinator, and like going back to the Texans in twenty twenty, it's really tough for me, Kyle to kind of glean what it might look like as far as what Anthony Risky might be because I feel like the.
Game has evolved a lot in those four years.
But also that personnel that he worked with just was not very good, and so I don't really hold it against him. But let's go ahead and do this question first, actually before I get into the draft. What do you think that we might see from coach Weaver's defense? I talked about on Wednesday podcast, but I want to hear your take. What do you think it might look like. And what are you most excited about for coach Weaver.
Yeah, I think you hear JJ Watt talk about him and talk about the aggressiveness, and that's something for me that I get really excited about.
Obviously, this year's past defense.
Was pretty vanilla pre snap and they like to throw some simulated pressures at you and rush for But where the four coming from is kind of the big mystery, and I really liked what they were able to do down the stretch. I guess that was kind of the silver lining with the injuries that they the team was experiencing defensively, is the blitz rate came up. And I really liked what they were able to do with the blitz rate where you got explosive, rangy linebackers that can
fire and come from a little bit of depth. And I think if you can find that balance of aggressiveness and try to pressure to create more mistakes instead of scheming up four man rushes, I think you can continue to have a lot of splash impact plays. So I think that's the one thing for coach Weaver that hearing that he's an aggressive mentality I get really excited about.
And we talked about this. I don't know if it was after the Chiefs Bills game. It was after a Bills game of some sort. Maybe it was our game, I can't remember, but you and I talking about, like, look, the reason that we haven't won a division championship in the last couple of years is because we can't have n't beat Buffalo, right, Like it comes to onto losing games to Buffalo in particular, that damn quarterback who always
has career days against Miami and other games. You and I watch him, like, why is he throwing three turnal wars three picks in this game? He can't do it against us. But that kind of coincides with that, right because we've seen Josh Allen on that Bill's offense just kind of take what was there against us the last couple of years and have success doing it that way. Do you think he's a quarterback that you want to heat up a little bit more?
Yeah.
I think anytime you play passive against the top shelf quarterbacks, I think you're asking for a long day at the office. And it may be a strategy that helps keeps points off the board because the idea is that you're going to force them to string together double digits on the plays and drive the length of the field and force them not to make mistakes. But the top shelf guys, if they can do that consistently, then they're just going to take profits all day long. Versus if you're willing
to try to dictate terms a little bit. That's how you could set yourself up on a short field or multiple short fields, or steel possesions that don't kicks and all those kinds of things that there's a pretty strong correlation to winning football games if you do that with consistency. So I think there's a line to walk there, as there is with most things in football. I don't think
there's a black or white answer there. But yeah, when you're playing guys like that that are so dynamic and can beat you in so many different ways, trying to force the issue or dictate terms, I think is at least a good way to go down.
Go down with the bat swinging.
So you mentioned Quenyan Mitchell, Darius Robinson, a couple of guys on defense, and it sounds like aggressiveness, but that could be the mode of this defense, and if it is, I guess kind of go through that lens. But just curious that you're focus on the defensive side of the ball, Like, what do you think this defense needs to give to coach Weaver from a personnel standpoint and some players you think that might fit that in the year's draft class.
Yeah, I definitely think we need more than just zax Seler under contract at defensive tackle.
So I think that's a good place for us to start in this year's class. He can't nine gap now, can't nine gap now. There's two guys for Texas. We've talked about to and Andre Sweat quite a bit. I'm still a huge fan of his game. Another good performer in Mobile last week.
But Byron Murphy, the junior declaration is a dense body who can hold a point of attack. He can penetrate, he can take double teams in leverage. He's loaded, he's built load of the ground. So I think that that's another player too that if you have to go for a big, a B gap defender who's versatile, that's another name to kind of soft circle and he's red hot in draft circles. Wouldn't be surprised be ends up being a top twenty pick when it's all said and done.
But That's that's the spot for me that I think they're they're going to have to really give some attention to. If we don't see Christian Wilkins back in a Dolphins uniform next year, it's probably two guys to fill that spot because he plays eighty plus percent of the snaps annually, right, like an scene amount of snaps that Christian Wilkins plays, So asking any one guy to step into that role
I think is a little ambitious. So I'd love for everything to work itself out and for Christian Wilkins to be Mimi Dolphin in twenty twenty four and beyond. But if he doesn't, I think that really just amplifies the need for that INTI your defensive line to get a lot of attention and investment.
Yeah, the same conversation they're having right now on the other side of the building talking about what it might look like this offseason. So I think it's well within your rights to have that conversation. And you know, I like doing analogs in terms of like, well, what do the Ravens have we might have in terms of their defensive personnel. Is Tavandre sweat your Michael Pierce kind of Oh?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, And.
We were going back to Houston too, had DJ Reader right before Reader left in free agency for Cincinnati, and it came a beat up there too. Yeah, so that's another name to invoke here where Anthony Weavers had a couple of really big breakhouses in the middle and tamand Grace, Sweat would be really one for the Dolphins to have, that's for sure. But that's kind of my pipe pream right now is making sure Sweat gets ends up an a Dolphins uniform and nose tackle.
Nobody understands the nature of a family friendly podcast than Kyle Krabs a brick house, just a brick house.
Something else, just a statement there.
So this is kind of again bringing our text conversation to life here a little bit. And this is different than the draft in general, but something you talk about to me a lot that I like and I want to talk about on the podcast now, kind of general off season and offline discussion that you and I have had because the way it looks right now and it changes right and Chris Greer said, we're not really worried about our cap situation in March right now in February
because it doesn't matter. But you always tell tell me, Travis, like, the needs that you seem to have right now on this Dolphins football team are the non premium positions, right. I mean, you can go spot spot rack the CAAPS, spot rack either one of those and sort average cost by position. You'll find quarterback, edge receiver, corner, offensive tackle the most expensive, and then running back, interior lines, either side of the ball, off ball, linebacker, safety, those positions
tend to cost a little bit less. You love how the Dolphins have put themselves in position to not really have the big need at the premium spots, right.
Yeah, they have leveraged the premium and I'm using air quotes because it's premium positions are the ones that the league tells you are the most important because they spend the most amount of money there, right, And the Dolphins have leveraged those positions really, really well. They have a lot of cornerstones at a lot of those spots. And what you have is if you need to sign an into your offensive lineman, your top of market for those players in free agency is a fraction of the cost
of an offensive tackle. And if you're not going to go top of market in order to say, hey, we are going to be fiscally responsible with what we do in free agency this year. You get a starting caliber player for a third of what it would cost you for a starting caliber player at offensive tackle as just an example.
Or safeties.
Deshaun Elliott was a really really starter for the Dolphins this year. You signed a one year, one point seven million dollar contract in free agency last year. Gino Stone was like third in the league in interceptions for the Ravens last year, and he signed a one point seven million dollar one year contract, And it's just you get the exceptions. Jesse Bates signed a sixteen million dollar per year contract to be the free safety for the Falcons.
You get Tremaina Ammon signs an eighteen million dollar year contract to be a starting linebacker for the Chicago Bears. But Jermaine Pratt and Logan Wilson are really good starters for the Bengals and they re signed with that team last year and they averaged like seven million dollars a piece per What corner are you signing for seven million dollars? Like?
It just the numbers don't line up. So when you look at where Miami, you're anticipating they're gonna need to add some starters and you consider, hey, they might be on a budget in March and April with the first wave of free agency, with their initial budget and salary cap space that they have, they're gonna be able to find some players that make a lot of sense, and they're gonna fit for the team, and they're gonna be able to afford it because they don't need the premium
positions when they go shopping.
It makes me so excited.
So what the off season does look like this year, because you know, I think that's been one of the feathers in the cap of the organization.
The last few years.
They have had very good off seasons bringing in very, very good football players, and I cannot wait see the plan this year and what they end up doing ultimately. You'll do this podcast a few times between now and the draft, Kyle, just so you know I'm booking you already. Any choice, just for a fun closer here on February the seventh taping this podcast, Gun to your Head pick
at twenty one, who is it today? I'll go with Jackson Powers Johnson, Let's go baby, So I whether he ends up playing guard or center for you, I think there's some positional flexibility here. I do think Miami from a expiring contracts perspective, they have to figure out what if they want to give Robert Hunt a contract, they have to figure out that they want to give Connor
Williams a contract. You have vacant season, Isaiah, when was your your incumbent starter at left guard before his season ended with an injury and that was one year deal anyway, So like all three spots are up for grants right now, I think there's enough there and I think that is the right stratosphere for that to be a best player available meets team need intersection that it's a safe projection right now, and I'll play it safe here in February. You sure you don't want a three to two year old,
maybe a thirty six year old. My knees still kind of work. I've seen your pass set, no think.
Yeah you have?
Oh man, that's good.
We have a career day coming up actually to this podcast will air at my wife's elementary school, and I'm going to play some of those clips for the classes that I instruct my thing, my entire presentation for so I'm looking forward to getting just dogged by twelve year olds looking at my offensive pass sets. Kyle Krabs at Grinding the Tape on Social locked and NFL Scouting Locked on Dolphins. Thanks again, buddy, Thanks Trav. All Right, so there he goes. Let's go ahead and go out of
here ourselves. Enjoy the weekend, enjoy the big game on Sunday, everybody. We'll come back on Monday. Talk about that game, talk about the edge group I believe, talk about new Dolphins linebackers coach Joe Berry, and much much more on that edition of the Draft Time Podcast. In the meantime, subscribe rate review all that fun stuff. Go ahead and give me a follow on social at Wingfold, NFL the team
at Miami Dolphins. Check out the entire Miami Dolphins podcast network, including the Fish Tank Podcast with Seth levet Oja McDuffie, my two Buddies. Also the YouTube channel for Media Availabilities, Dolphins Today, and so much more, and last but not least, Miami Dolphins dot Com.
Until next time, fins up, Caroline Cameron, Daddy, He's coming home.