What is up, Dolphins, And welcome to the Draft Time Podcast. I am your host, Travis Wingfield, and on today's show, we are going to do a few things here. Number one, take a look at how this season could possibly end for your Miami Dolphins and what it would take to keep this party rolling beyond January the fourth or the fifth, in the final game of the season. Basically, what's the
playoff picture looking like right now? We're going to talk about Dolphins fandom if you're of a certain age, and we'll also take a look at what the off season could look like in the event that this is the last week that you are mathematically alive ahead of the off season coming up here in a few weeks from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Drift Time Podcast. So uncharted waters Hey, guys, at least recently. No, the playoffs are not dead, but
it sure seems like it. And it only takes one more loss to get to that position definitively, and given a lot of the juice has been taken out of this coming game, who knows, maybe they do win and then the Browns game is no longer a night game, Well it's an evening game, but not in the dead of the cold Cleveland night. And they might even be starting a quarterback that literally cannot play at this level
in Dori and Thompson Robinson. We'll see what they decide to do there, but that might be the direction they go. But then also the Jets are like kind of hitting their stride at the wrong time. Hell I even heard Dan Hansis, the notable Jets fan from the Heat the Call podcast, say that they maybe can bring Aaron Rodgers back next year the way he's playing right now, Please do.
Wouldn't it just be fitting though, to beat San Francisco and you beat Cleveland, you get the help you need, which, honestly, like it's probably not gonna happen, but it's not really that crazy to think about. You really need like one big upset win to put you back into play, and then you go into Week eighteen with a win and in opportunity and lose that game. Wouldn't that just kind of be fitting for the way this season has gone. Man, it is tough, but my whole point is this, this
is my fifth season with the team. By the time the clock hits triple Zeros in New York. Counting two playoff games, I will have covered eighty six games for the Miami Dolphins. Man, where does the time go? I was just telling a buddy of mine that I work
with here. I haven't watched a Dolphins game from my own house since the twenty nineteen season, except for the two games in twenty twenty two when my son was born and I was on porternity leave, and those were the Chargers and Bill's game that year.
Ooh rough.
But through those five years, only one game was played without playoff chances existing, the twenty twenty one finale against the Patriots, when Tua helped lead the Dolphins to a win over Mac Jones and the Patriots. But like again, I'll say it again, I sort of feel as though a Charger's collapse and just going one and two it qualifies as a collapse in this instance is probably more likely than us winning out at this point, which is why I dress this up to say, again, just watch
us get right there on the brink. And there's even a scenario that I don't think is that unlikely. It's unlikely, but it's not that unlikely where the Dolphins could almost go into the Cleveland game four h five, controlling their own destiny. Can you believe that that would be crazy? But just watch them get to that point, rescue the season for a little bit, and then twist that knife one last time. It just feels like that's how the
year is going. And to further that point, like you know, you might finally get the breaks you've been looking for all year.
Where you played your.
Weakest part of the schedule without your quarterback and quite frank with the quarterback that doesn't belong at this level at least for one of those games. And then you know a quarterback that just got here off the street for three of those games and you got one win there. And somebody was telling me, you know, comparing the Brian
Flores to Mike McDaniel records, and I'm like, bro. There was a six game stretch in twenty twenty one where the quarterbacks the Dolphins played were Zach Wilson and Joe Flacco for the Jets. I think Wilson might have played in both the games, but not think it matters at all. And then you had Ian Book on that stretch, you had the corpse of Cam Newton in that stretch, and you had Mike Glennon in that stretch, So I don't
really care about those wins. They mean as little to me as the wins you've gotten this year that people don't care about because we can't win the big games.
But man, it just hasn't been our year in that regard.
Like the Broncos played the Saints, for instance, and they got to play Spencer Ratler, Like we haven't had that game all year. So sometimes it just kind of is a year like that where the team that you're chasing for the playoffs plays a game where the opposing team has a chance to go out by fourteen and drops the football right at the goal line and then also gets a pick six on a double pass from a wide receiver. Like it's just been that kind of year
on top of our own futility. So that's why I say, like, I expect one last knife twist here this season. Either way, this is all a preamble into the playoff picture, and I am breaking my promise here. I told you I wouldn't do it, But what the hell else am I gonna t Man, It's Wednesday in the middle of December, and we have plenty of time to talk about draft and free agency, and we are going to do that today as well, but I have some stuff to get to. And the tagline of the show is literally the most
comprehensive Dolphins coverage you can find anywhere. So if you don't want to hear it, just go ahead and skip ahead a couple of minutes.
We have to win all three games.
You know that that's a non starter, and quite frankly, man like, look, we'll see what happens against the Niners, but I don't know if we should expect them to shut guys down or not. But the offense, it's been broken, like without Iyuk, without Trent Williams for certain, for sure without Christian McCaffrey. Like it's just been broken, dude, So I don't think they'll come in here and light us up. And when Dre Greenlaw came into the game, it changed
everything about that defense. But when he went right back out at halftime, and I don't expect him to kick it back up again for this week. Maybe he will, but I don't expect him to like it changes their defense. So maybe you can win this game.
I don't.
I haven't got a lean for it just yet. I haven't even dug into the Niners tape yet, but I don't know. I don't think it's impossible. So if you win that one, then you go to the Browns and they start Dorian Thompson Robinson like Jamos could easily give you a game right where he throws you four picks, but he also could easily throw four hundred yards and four touchdowns. So i'd obviously the quarterback who's literally never
played well at this level. And then again, who knows what the hell the Jets look like in three weeks, So you have to run that table, and then here's what has to happen. You have to get one Colts loss. I went through all these scenarios trying to figure out how like a collection of teams being nine and eight could erase are head to head differential with the Colts. But whatever, the playoff machine that I ran on ESPN
didn't there was no option to do that. Like if you're nine in eight and the Colts nine and eight, there's no wipeout scenario for the Bengals or the Chargers or whatever like it didn't. It didn't exist on that machine at least, so you know, and the Colts like they need one loss against a really easy schedule, right, Titans, Giants and Jaguars, Like you're gonna say, oh, they're gonna go three and oh, but they're not. That's just not
a good football team. Because I told you guys they'd beat Denver, and I think they would have if JT didn't drop the football on the lamest move a player can make, especially at this level. I kind of understand it when a nineteen year old does it, but you like twenty six years old, Bro, what the hell's going on with that? But the game just told me there's no chance, no chance they win the final three. I don't care if they're playing Altuona High.
Hel Tuona High. I like Altoona High.
That is such an obscure reference that I hope anybody out there gets. It's literally a Frank Caliendo doing Jim Rome bit in two thousand and five, after the Dolphins beat the Broncos in the open with Nick Saban's first
career game, such a deep cut reference. So you need that Colts are gonna lose a game if it's Altuona High or Jacksonville Jaguars, then you have to have Also this also one of these instances, the Chargers lose two of their final three games against the Broncos, which is kind of the one you need to get right unless but if they win that game, then it opens up
different scenarios. But Chargers lose that game and then lose one to the Raiders or at the Patriots, so or you could get the Broncos to lose their final three games. So if the Chargers do win tomorrow night against the Broncos, the Broncos will then have to lose to just the Bengals and the Chiefs, which to me is like pretty damn doable too. That's why if the Broncos had just lost that Browns game or that Raiders game, or even the Colts game on Sunday, like I feel like we
would be in the mix at nine to eight. So yeah, I don't think it's that far fetch them to lose those games. They keep proving me wrong, but I just don't think they're a good football team. Or the other option that I think is not even an option is the Ravens lose their three remaining games home against Pittsburgh,
at Houston, and home against Cleveland. No chance to me that happens the Broncos again could see that and like you know, playing Spencer Ratlers out of Derek Carror, like god, dang, you just get the bad draw sometimes and they've gotten the better one, like neither team. Let me get this close straight. I don't think the Broncos, the Chargers, or
the Dolphins are good football teams. I think that the Dolphins are better than the Chargers of Broncos despite all their our mistakes, and I think none of those teams can compete with the top dogs in the AFC. But I do think Miami's better than those teams. But none of them are good teams. All right, that work. I did play around with those nine to eight tie breakers, but there was no way to wipe out the advantage
the Colts have there. And just think about that, man, if you don't lose two fourth quarter fumbles in that game. I know we're all red hot today about the Houston game, but if you're seven and seven right now and you have that Colts tiebreaker, and all you have to have is like one more Chargers loss or two more Broncos losses in a win out scenario, like we would be
like we be right back in this. But again, I Digress and despite the fact that there are no situations where you get in at a tie with the Colts and other teams, there are situations that have both the Broncos and the Chargers missing out. But it literally requires a Chargers the Chargers to beat Denver tomorrow and then both teams lose their final two games, which would give you Dolphins at Buffalo and the Colts at the Ravens and the three six games. So it's most likely when
these games get the help you need. Hey go face Josh Allen, who's playing the best ball of his And I also kind of felt like the Chiefs might have the one seed wrapped up by the time they played Denver in Week eighteen, although with Carson Wentz possibly playing this week, maybe not. But I will absolutely be picking the Bengals to beat to beat the Broncos, and KC to beat the Broncos as well in those final two games if they have Mahomes, So I guess TNF becomes
a win winmen in that situation. I don't know, do you like that better than the Chargers was in to the Patriots or Raiders. They won't lose to the Raiders in Week eighteen but I could see them having a dud in New England.
It's happened before.
I think the thing you're looking for here and I'm not wishing this, but like this is probably the best path for it is. You know, Herbert's really banged up right now, and it looked like in that Chiefs game he might have been injured for a long time, but he just sat on the ground to come back into the game for whatever reason. And like, you know, also,
why not do another anti Herbert bit here? Who is eight and twenty nine against teams that are five hundred and better by the way, just in case you want to flame him for that. But Herbert is once again showing you how tough he is by playing through multiple injuries. But I don't really care about that when the production is awful, like he couldn't move. They again went scoreless in the second half. He had like five completions in the second half or like forty nine yards. It happens
every single week. So the best possible result is that the Broncos win the game. Maybe Herbert gets a little bit more banged up. I'm not hoping for an injury, but that's like a possibility in a situation where he can't move and can't protect himself in a behind a line that hasn't really or well it's more him because the line's good, but he holds the ball for maybe he takes a big shot in that game and then plays a stinker in New England, like, hey, it can happen.
They once lost to a Patriots team post Tom Brady forty five nothing with Herbert at the helm, so you never know, and that's the route, slim, slim and almost nil. But hey, beat the Niners and at least you'll be mathematically alive and you cannot be eliminated on that Sunday should the Chargers lose this week to Denver, which means that my mark of having one game that had no playoff implications would remain intact since twenty twenty. I guess
that's the new goal. Wee Dolphins fans. All right, let's do a break right here, and I want to come back and do a monologue reflecting on being a die hard fan, speaking of we a passionate fan of this team at age thirty seven, and we'll take a look at my first very very rough, very very premature mock off season and what you might be looking at this winter. That's next Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Autoation.
Gathering Gathering you all.
So, one thing I've been doing lately is making up stories from my daughter at bedtime. She likes to hear daddy stories over over books that we read at nighttime. So I've been making up these stories and really challenges my creativity. So I want to go ahead and pull you guys in for story time here about Dolphins fandom for a little bit, because as most of you probably know, my love for football and writing commentary, it grew in the mid two thousands. Like I think, I first joined
the message boards in two thousand and five. That was my first year on finnheaven dot com, and I became absolutely obsessed. I wanted to perfect my grammar in there because I was hoping they would have me write front page stories for Finnheaven and eventually the Finns dot com, which did eventually happen. It's really where I learned more about the game and the final points of the game,
and also and more importantly, learned how to write. I mean, I was, you know, I was a high school More on that didn't know how to put together sentences or didn't have a deep vocabulary and all these You know, I had like fifty thousand posts over like a ten year period, and I was just firing off all these long, well written or well thought out written things.
I learned how to write by doing that.
But I remember very similar discourse regarding frustrations with the team over all of those seasons. Now, this was the very beginning of the playoff drought. The members there had bonded over those rough teams. Dude, for me, it was like, oh, five through I think I like, I think I post up to like twenty eighteen, but I was pretty much off of it by twenty fourteen, twenty fifteen, and those years, the five to fifteen gosh, those were tortuous years, far
worse than what you're dealing with now. Even though there was a division winner in there, we knew that that eight team was propped up by bubble gum and bandaids. It wasn't going to go into the playoffs and make noise. In fact, I contest that this season only sucks so
bad because you just saw a winner. You had a two year reprieve from the same old same old Dolphins, right, and yeah, there's not even a division title in that stretch, nor a playoff win, but you were part of the conversation the Dolphins finally a national hit, number one in
power rankings. I think in twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three, after both three and zero starts, people were loving the Miami Dolphins and Mike McDaniel and what this offense had become, even if only for moments at a time. And it was September and twenty two and twenty three and November when you were, you know, eight and three and nine and three in both those years as well. I'm on the back nine of my thirties. I have kids, a wife, immeasurably more responsibility than I had back then.
And back then I never understood some of the posters around the late Oughts feeling detachment I will never forget. I don't know the members name, but it was one of the more popular original members of the message board saying something to the effect of, yeah, I don't even get mad anymore than they lose.
I just kind of laugh.
And through my twenties I never understood that approach to it, because this was always going to be to me and my mind back then, a life or death agreement. Fortunately, I still feel, as you guys know on the podcast, that insane fan euphoria when they win, when they build a three game lead division lead in late December, in mid December, I should say, that's a high that you typically have to pay very handsomely for. Obviously, my experience became unique as a fan when I got this job.
But obviously that has to change things, right, At times, it's only heightened the emotions. What's better than watching Bradley Chubb get a critical game winning sack and being like seeing him the next day at the coffee at the coffee poor and being like beachub Man that was a great pass rush move like. Of course, it heightens the emotion and the experience for me, and recently that thrill of victory. It thrives, that feeling thrives. I felt it
just last week against the Jets. Incredible. I would pay money for that feeling if you could replicate it every single day. But one thing has changed. The big games have changed. I almost wake up on game day feeling apathetic. Not almost, I do I did on Sunday. I'm not
complaining about it. I'm just trying to share my reality with you guys, mostly in reflection of this thing that I've literally known longer than anything else in my life besides my own brother, because my mom passed away nine years ago and my dad I don't communicate with, and other family back in Washington not so much either. I'm wondering how fandom changes from here, if the second longest institution of my life becomes same old, same old again,
even if for just a few years. Because I can tell you this, the feeling I had the moment my alarm went off on Sunday morning, this feeling of I am so convinced I know exactly how this day will go, Buddy, that was literally my least favorite fan emotion to date, outside of injuries like Tua's concussions, that nothing will ever top the feeling that those bring about, where you just
kind of want to cancel football from there forward. I hate it more than I hated the twenty thirteen finale against the Jets, losing and losing our playoff hopes to that stink and team. I've honestly felt that since the Calie Swing in twenty twenty two. The first game was at Buffalo. I'll never forget that whole day. The Ravens and Browns were playing a four o'clock kickoff, and I was.
Just like, we're gonna lose. To know, like went on a walk around the retention pond in my neighborhood. We're gonna lose.
I was just like sad and apathetic, and I'm like, who the hell are you, dude, Like, this isn't how you're supposed to feel. This isn't how this game is supposed to make you feel, even if you work in the game, like I know, I steal deeply, deeply care and I take my job incredibly seriously to bring you guys the best offense coverage you can possibly get.
But I don't know.
It almost feels like that preemptive wallowing ahead of the game is like borrowing some cost from the other side, those post game dreariness that I feel. I think the team breaking through will be the cure for that, whenever that happens. Who knows when it happened, But I don't know. I didn't think I get to this point my life fifteen years ago. So in fifteen years from now, depending on success and failures, who the hell knows how I feel.
Then I'm sure as hell ready for some success. It feels like we've been tortured long enough to not have it in the postseason. And I just wanted to share this with you guys, because I think you probably resonate with it in some way if you're like me. But man, and I allowed myself to like, I was so far up for that Week two game, dude, like that whole Thursday, like we're going to go watch the Dolphins beat the
bill snight, this is the night we change everything. And then the game went the way it did and the quarterback did what he did. It was like, okay, all right, that yeah, yeah, okay cool. I felt that way in the Week eighteen game last year. I felt that way in the wild Card game last year. Maybe a little bit in the Ravens game, you know, after that opening drive touchdown, though, I was like, we're a different team
this year. The Chiefs game, I felt excited about it, I guess, But now I go into these big games and I'm like, what can go wrong? And that's such a horrible way to live as a fan. This is supposed to be fun and enjoyment. And even though I cut a paycheck from this. I still have those feelings and I can't control them. It is what it is.
So that's life as a thirty seven year old Dolphins fan whose first real memory was the ninety four st Anovich miss, and then a couple of playoff games here and there, the sixty two to seven game the Colts win, which was forever upik, and then like Ricky Willon has retired, and then we are in this cycle for twenty years. So I wanted to give you guys that little spiel and pivot to this. Let's go ahead and talk about we've done the playoff talk, We've done the misery as
a Dolphins fan. Let's talk about what's to come, because here we are again and look like again, I've done this on the podcast back in September when things looked really bleak with the quarterback and whatnot. But I just was just such a believer in this build and how things went, and I still think that it was done mostly right. I think a couple of things got off the rails, and you even pivoted to a head coaching change in the middle of it, and your quarterbacks injuries
didn't help the situation. You probably were a little bit too aggressive getting top marquee players at the cost of draft picks and didn't hit on the draft picks and the mid rounds for contributors that you needed to to help give that roster it's balance and create depth. And that's kind of how you got in this position. And I always say, like, I don't want to go through
the rebuild, but like this what we do. So here is what I'm looking at for what could be a soft reset, But after I made the points, maybe it is more of a little bit of a roster deconstruction here. But the overarching theme is this if anybody, if you think that this team is like years away from competing, look at the Dan Broncos.
Dude, Like, again, I don't think they're a good football team.
They have a good defense, but when they play the Ravens, they give up forty two points, So, like, you know, what was a decent defense? Do you? I think their quarterback is already his ceiling as a rookie. We'll see how that plays out. But this is a team that had to eat like hundreds of millions of dollars on Russell Wilson's contract, and here they are one year later,
probably gonna make the playoffs. So that's just my way of saying, like, you can never say a team is five years away, because it's not that.
It's usually not that case.
So let's talk about this first state of the franchise or the goals that I have going into the offseason. The Number one is to invest in the running game, because I thought for the longest time that giving two elite playmakers and forgetting about the offensive line was the
best way to maximize his accuracy and decision making. But if you can run the football really well with his evolution of how he's processed and reads defenses and matured into a true professional quarterback with the downfield strikeability, which maybe it opens up more now with one of the plans I have here in the future. But teams playing these two and three high umbrella coverages makes it hard
to go vertical. So if they want to do that, which is kind of a league wide thing as well, invest in your running game why a true why you know, sign up probably a guard, and then depth and developed players through the draft upfront as well around your two running backs that I think are really really good football players. Number two is to build depth on defense and emphasize athletes with juice. The first game that comes to mind
here two guys. A free agent is Buddha Baker. A draft prospect is a first round edge from Texas A and M named Shamar Stewart. Look him up, He's a monster. Next is build more diversity among the l We cannot have five ten guys across the entire group because if you want to throw a cover two beaters, if you want to throw flag routes and corner routes and deep outs, you need a little bit more size there, so a small window when you're throwing those balls to five foot
ten guys. Next is to feature Jalen Wright and to reduce twenty eight's roll to Alvin Kamara when they had mark Ingram because I think that's what Devon ah Chan does best. I think that that's what you brought. You traded up to get Jalen Wright to do that with. Let's do that. Next is to develop a more simplified offense for when things are not picture perfect.
You heard coach McDaniel.
This is this whole thing is kind of based off this McDaniel quote when he said that we have to be so connected for this offense to work. Okay, so change that, Like you if you're gonna have injury issues, if you're gonna have guys missing practice time, if you're gonna have whatever whatever causes you to not be able to get time on task, like have a simplified option, have the ability to If Snoop Huntley's your quarterback, don't run the same offense for him that you ran for Tua.
So that's another big sticking point I have. And then next is to correct your in house evaluations. Bill Belichick once said that you're gonna miss draft picks, you're gonna miss free agent evaluations, but you absolutely have to get your in house evaluations correct if you want to be a winner. So like the Jaalen Wright quandary, like three snaps for a player you traded up for, it doesn't
make a lot of sense to me. Robbie Chosen's presence at any point of his career here, even like Jeff Wilson over Chris Brooks seems like it was probably misguided. The Braxon Burios run here. You know, he didn't have a catch this year. Skyler Thompson in general, but especially Skyler over Mike White, which is splitting hairs, but I think White was the better player. Jordan Poyer is still playing every snap.
There's just too many misses on your own in house evaluation. So those are my goals.
Invest in the run game, build depth on defense and emphasize athletes with jews. Build more diversity among the eligibles, feature Jalen Wright. Develop more simplified offensive concepts to adapt to correct your in house evaluations. That's the goals going into the offseason. Let's go ahead and talk about the roster now. Actually, first, let's go ahead and take a break, come back and do that and how I do this
fix roughly here on December eighteenth. That's next Drivetime podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought.
To you by AutoNation.
So you have the general blueprint and how you attack that is always going to be fungible in terms of what happens on the market with your draft picks, with guys that you keep and cut and retain and all that stuff. Let's go ahead and go position by a position here, so you guys know how I think about Tua. I think the questions are fair, but I think it's something that he it's I don't think it's something he
cannot do. He's played bad in some of those games, no doubt about it, but he's not in the impervious category like Josh Allen Lamar Jackson, who also have cracked the bed, so to speak, in the playoffs here or there. Neither has a championship ring. So the truth is, every quarterback in this league besides Patrick Mahomes, has something to prove, but Tua clearly a step below those guys. That's not
what I'm trying to get out here. But I think the rest of the team's performance, the fact that all of those games come on the road, where are lengthy verbie our motions and shifts and checks, all that can get bogged down when you are on the road. I think that that could have something to do with the decision making that Tua has in these games, his processing,
his rushed decision making. It seems like at times, the accuracy that kind of goes by the boards at times because hey, guess what the one win when everyone posts their record, which is always different because like we disqualify wins that make our argument look worse for some reason. But that one win the Cowboys last year double digit win team was a home game, right, and Tua played pretty well. He had some misses in that game, but
he played pretty well. I mean for real, aside from the Buffalo game in week eighteen, who are absolutely our daddy. So it's almost like a disqualifier at this point. He's played well in those games that are at home. It's when they go on the road that we don't. Even going back to his rookie year against the Chiefs right,
the battle with Patrick Mahomes. He played really well in that game, which is another point of contention I make about how Tua has to have everything perfect around him, Like brother, we won ten games in twenty twenty and nine games in twenty twenty one with the head coach that nobody in the world wanted to work for that
tried to sabotage his quarterback. It was the worst personnel you could possibly give your quarterback with, like Miles Gaskin and Isaiah Ford is like top targets and Adam Shaheen is that perfect, you know, and a defense that crumbled
against every top quarterback they faced. So yeah, two was not perfect, but damn it, I loathe the way people talk about him after these games, especially when you consider the babysitting he has to do for some of the guys just to get them freaking lined up before the snap. All right, let's stop two O ranting and just FYI, this is more broad strokes roster thoughts, more so than nitty gritty contract situations, restructures and all that that's down the road.
I'm not doing all that today.
I think we need a running back like we need another hole in our backside. But I'm not opposed to a hammer, a big physical back like Arizona States is scatu Borough, Scatterborough. I don't know how to say it, but I also think that right is that dude? So that's my preference. I want to give a bigger future role. I have no objections against Raheem coming back in this system and totally on board with running back the running
back room, although his injuries do concern me. But I can see why that might go eight chan right and newcomer because of the injury concern receiver. I think you look no further than what the Buffalo Bills offense has become post to Fon Diggs. Now you're not getting anything more than that in trade composition. If you can't compensation, I should say, if you can find it and it does open an issue that doesn't have an easy solve, you wouldn't have a number two receiver at that point, right,
Maybe you can find another trade partner somewhere. Hell, maybe you can even ship Reek back to KC along with giving them a pick and you get Xavier Worthy back. Never gonna happen, but hey, we can dream it's December. Because the problem is a number two receiver on the open market costs like fifteen million bucks these days, and that's like half of what Tyreek's price tag is. So
maybe there's already a monkey wrench in my plan. But when I look at the quotes after the game, paired with the lack of commitment of the player, I think that ship has kind of already sailed. If they can make that happen, I think they will and help back to the Bills. We mocked the receiver room all off season, which doesn't seem to matter at all. They're playing even more efficient football than they have in the past, and we still do have john Us Smith and Devon a
Chan as true weapons. So maybe your number two is actually the fourth option in the passing game. I mean, that's what you know, Mac Collins kind of is right. Khalil Shaker, James Cook, Dawson Knox or Dalton Kinkaid, they all come before him. And that's before you talk about Amari Cooper and Curtis Samuel. But the free agent receiver market ain't good. Dog, I don't know. Maybe you can get like a Chris Godwin on a one year rehab deal, but he's probably gonna get a twenty five million dollars
a year, so probably not. The guy that I like the most is Brandon Cooks because he's old enough to not get a huge contract. But he's also another small receiver, so another monkey rnch right here. Hey how about two two at Well, who's a free agent. He's like five nine, one hundred and sixty pounds. Those are just some options. That's my number one priority of the entire offseason. It's auditioned by subtraction here and we'll figure out the next
part after we do that. Keep developing in the league, Washington, I think he has potential thin for life as a role player, guy like a return man, number three receiver, number four receiver. Maybe d Eskridge is part of as well. I think you definitely draft one two. In this scenario, there are always a million good college receivers, but you have to pick the right one. And let's make things easier on him to make an impact back to the original core points by making the offense more simple in
certain situations. So trade ten, elevate seventeen, develop eighty two and eighty three, draft one, sign one at tight end. I am very happy with John who is my f and with Julian is my number two why tight end, but I need a true why. My biggest scripe might wind up being not drafting Darnell Washington. That was my guy and probably to the point of annoint for you
guys here on the podcast. And he's basically a sixth offensive lineman for the Pittsburgh Steelers, the exact player we need at that spot, and that would be my run game investment I talked about off the top part number one. I have some fixes of the offensive line, but this and getting Austin Jackson healthy, even though he's been banged up a lot, will make the run game, outside of
other moves, improved by just doing those two things. But we also will not stand pat because the problem here is freegency has nothing to offer but there are some really attractive options in the class. I think Mason Taylor can develop his blocking game to go along with his dangerous pass game threat. I think you probably have to develop Tyler Warren from Penn State a little bit more, but he could probably play two roles as kind of that f why tight end that can also play in
the backfield as a full back. But if you want a true why, I think Jackson Hawes from Georgia Tech is that dude. He's a legit downfield blocker and attached blocker. But it's gonna be tough because I hate needing a critical element of your team going into the draft.
It's never a good spot when you have that.
But Hawes is Julian Hill in that role or with Julian Hill in that role is a nice combo alongside John new Smith. Everyone's favorite the offensive line. Patrick Paul Keys of yours left tackle, big dog, and my next biggest priority is signing Mackay Beckton to play left guard next to him. Now you have two guys that can help you can pour a power run game without sacrificing the movement skills. The way Paul is built perfectly for
the system. Becton is too, and once he got the Jets stank off him, he became the baller we thought he could be. And I don't think he would be a twenty million dollar bank break the bank type of player, but I think you can get him for maybe half them. Aaron Brewers a captain, Austin's the right tackle, and I'm investing a Day two pick, maybe early day three pick
on another interior offensive lineman. I'm bringing Liam Eichenberg back is my seventh man, and as a man that can play five positions across the front with a considerable investment, and so a swing tackles a sixth man, maybe like a Josh Jones from the Ravens, maybe Dan Skipper from Detroit. When Taylor Decker gets healthy and back there on the defensive line, I assume we're gonna lose Kalayis and I hope he comes back, but we have to reinvest in
the defensive tackle position. Sealer one of the best in the game, and I hope we can convince Klayas to come back, but I doubt it. I'm continuing forward to Sean Han, maybe even Bito Jones as well, but I need another usable piece because we cannot give snaps to a Neil Ferrell, for instance, who got cut last week, and I feel better about Deshaunabdito one rung lower. So
without Kalayas, you might need two of those guys. I think you definitely have to draft one at some point, and I haven't gotten to the draft class for those guys yet. Then we're looking at like Derek Nandi and KC. Greg Gaines in Tampa May maybe a Sebastian Joseph Day, maybe Javon Kinlaw. There's some choices there. Off the edge, Chop is a star, and I cannot wait to get
Jilen Phillips back to go along with him. I understand some hesitation about his availability, but it's a great start there right I imagine this will be the last year you see Ogba. I'd bring Bowser back for depth, keep developing Mo Kamara, then draft one highly again. Most likely right now, my penciled in first round pick A Shamar Stewart from Texas A and M a monster and he kills two birds because he can play defensive tackle at two hundred and ninety pounds, but he has crazy bend
off the edge too. I think Bradley Chubb probably a big shoot a drop here, which I hate because he's he's the best, such a good player and good dude, but wrong side of thirty missed a full year on a third serious knee injury. Can't see them continuing that at that figure, even if it's as costly to get out of as it is. Jordan Brooks is a star, but the rest of the room has been a massive disappointment.
I cannot believe how fast David long fell off Walker has been giving it his all, but like, we need more speed there. I really like Jamie and Sherwood from the Jets who might be available because they have expensive guys tied up there as well. And then I'd probably restart my development group there because there's just a lot of meat on the bone, Like Channing Tendall hasn't you know, panned out at Corner. I think You've got one more year of Ramsey as a premier perimeter guy and start
to think about that safety transition down the road. I'm gonna run it back with Cater and Kendall. Like Kendall for sure because of the other needs on the on the roster. I think you continue to develop Duck and Bonner, and then you probably have to draft a mid to low round guy or sign a load to mid free agency player in freegency, and that's because you have to remake the safety room. Luckily, I think this is a great class for it. If you want to get crazy
and spend. Buddha Baker checks all the boxes of temperature changer, accountability, you know, Buddy, accountabil of Buddy, and an absolute playmaker even at his age. I would do it if I could. But there's some fun draft prospects too. Malachi Starks might be like a Kyle Hamilton type, which we would love that I love, Leathan Ransom from Ohio State, Nick Amana
Warrior from South Carolina, Xavier Wats from Ore Dame. I like Jeremy Chinn is a free agent and then probably probably too pricey for talanoa hu Funga from San Francisco.
But he would be a cheaper version of Buddha Baker.
So to recap, move on from ten seventy two and two one big guard in free agency draft and develop more offensive line. Emphasize your y position, probably do it early in the draft. Emphasize maturity, leadership and being where you're supposed to be at receiver two and remake the safety room after eight walks in a free agency A mock lineup quarterback Tua and Jimmy Groppolo or Andy Dalton
and a rookie. That's my three man quarterback room. Running back eight chan right, and then a Day three rookie or Udfa or maybe even Raheem Moster will see at receiver Waddle Brandon Cooks, ma Leak Washington and a rookie because I have now John new Smith, Julian Hill and
Hawes the Georgia Tech kid at tight end. My offensive line is Patrick Paul McKai, Becton, Aaron Brewer, and then Isaiah Winn Battles a rookie at right guard bring him back at cheap, Austin Jackson at right tackle, and then Josh Jones, Liam and a rookie as my three backups.
Defensive tackle sealer Sebastian, Joseph Day from the Titans, a rookie, Deshaun Hand and Benito Jones off the edge, Chop JP Shamar Stewart my first round pick, Spouser and Mo Kamara at linebacker, Brooks and Sherwood, and then I don't know at cornerback Ramsey Fuller, Coohu and then a rookie, your free agent right there, and then Duck and Bonner and then at safety Hufonga, Exavier Wats. They're working from Notre Dame, Mic Morris and Elijah Campbell. That's the fix. That's the podcast.
You all, please be sure to subscribe to the pod. Leabis at reading, leave us a review. You can follow me on social at Winkeld NFL. Follow the team at Miami Dolphins. Check out the fish Tank podcast with my guy Seth and Juice. Check out the YouTube channel for media Availabilities, Dolphins HQ and so much more. And last button not lease Miami Dolphins dot com Until next time. Fins up, Carolina and Cameron Daddy just come home.