Drive Time: Ollie Gordon, Dante Trader Breakdowns and Dolphins Draft Themes

Here on a Saturday night. As I record this podcast from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.

Running Back Nate Nole, a Appalachian State and Missouri product, comes up here for a UDFA to be a UDFA for the Miami Dolphins. Not familiar with his name and his game either, to be quite honest. Northwestern's Aj Henning a wide receiver. Plenty of receivers on this list from Northwestern, He's part of the group there, and they also get Missouri's Theo Weez the receiver from Missouri. He was a big target for a lot of teams in UDFA, per Barry Jackson saying that there was a bunch of teams

out for him and the Dolphins won that bidding. Baylor wide receiver Mona Ray bald Win another big time target there. And Arkansas wide receiver Andrew Armstrong, who Kyle Krabs text me right away, Hey, go check out Armstrong.

us on the podcast. Maybe I'll come back at the end of the show here and kind of update you guys on the rest of the udfas if they get more and more announced here ooh, and then here comes one across the wire that I thought would be a draft pick sometime on Day three and possibly for the Miami Dolphins. In fact, I think I think Kyle and I mocked him to the Dolphins at one point in the process. Jalen Conyers, the Texas Tech tight end Simon Clancy,

threw up his scouting report a double transfer. Golf loving Kanyer spent three years at Arizona State before going to Oklahoma and settling in a West Texas for the Red Raiders.

at Georgia in twenty twenty three. Right Simon Clancy from his draft guide here. Not necessarily a speedy vertical threat, lacking some snap at the top of his stem, he still manages to get open consistently against man and displays soft hands, great ball skills, and short area quicks. Shows

enthusiasm as a pass protector or run blocker in space. So, yeah, that's a tight end that I thought would get drafted, and he's a UDFA that apparently will come down here to Miami PI reports six foot four, two hundred and sixty seven pound tight end who's played five years of college football. Big fan of his game. Let's go ahead and get into the main meat of the episode.

I thought he looked really composed and in his element in that game tape with regards to bouncing around, finding landmarks and finding his assignments and going through his checklist on a snap by snap basis. I don't think he jumps off the tape from a movement standpoint. Here's what

Dane Brugler wrote. His long speed isn't as impressive as his short area burst, which can lead to coverage lapses if his reads are not on point, And that tracks from what I've seen both on tape and the testing metrics. Will get to that here in just a second. But you see his aggression and his preparation aid him and making those plays. It's like in any sport, the best

players are gifted and hard workers. They're both gifted and hard workers, but a lot of guys are great at one of the two, and for Trader, if he wants to get there, he probably has to do it through continuing to excel with his ability to process.

I'm always a big fan of just putting effort on tape, even if you're pretty sure it's not going to have an impact, because there's gonna be one play in a season where you get there and maybe the ball finds you and you get to take away and you can turn that game and turn your season around because of that constant effort. It's always about running to the football man. That's how you make plays, got to make things happen. He does that stuff. He just looks like a pro

to me in the way he preps and plays. As a result of that prep. Brugler wrote that one scout told him he's already a pro. The type of dude that has motivational quotes on post it notes on his mirrors in his crib. Now, while he's maybe not the best track star in the world, I do think that he's very efficient with his movement in terms of not having false steps and not taking himself out of the play by poor reeds that get himself over extend. We talk about false steps all the time on the show.

I don't see a lot of false steps in his game. His clicking clothes is sharp, like he's fundamentally sound, and he has functional range from the post. Even if I think he does play better in the box, I think that he plays a lot faster than he tested his fit here in Miami. I think his ticket is going to be through special teams right away, and I'd be

surprised if he doesn't excel with that relatively quickly. I think he could be a third safety type, someone you insert down in the box, ask him to run the alley, and if he puts it all together and matures into his game, he could be a signal caller on the back end for you. But I think that his ability to see the field in multiple coverage structures, perhaps as a robber type there's roles within this defense that will

benefit a well studied player like Dante Trader Junior. Now, while the desire to do it is great, you still have to execute that a pro because I think one of the things that we kind of fall into a trap as fans or draft analyst or anything in between, is like, oh, well, he's got talent and he works hard, therefore he's going to work out.

That's probably one of the biggest things I've learned in the whole like process, I've tried to learn how to be a scout. Statistics and advanced metrics. He played twenty two hundred and fifteen snaps over four years. Another guy that started and finished at the same school. That's a

rarity these days. He played a ton of snaps on special teams as a freshman and a lot less after that after he became a starter eight hundred and thirteen snaps total as a sophomore on defense seven hundred and twenty twenty three, and then he missed some time last year and played five hundred and seventy eight stats. But

he wasn't every downplayer when he was healthy. He still played eighty six total snaps on special teams last year and five hundred and twenty three across his college career, and I think he'll find a calling card in that role in the National Football League. He wasn't called upon to blitz very much, just twenty four times over four years, producing nine QB pressures. He made one hundred and fifty

eight total tackles, thirty nine stops. That's when you get a stop that is a win for the defense, less than forty percent of the yards on first down, less than fifty percent of the yards on second down, and a not a first down on third and fourth down. So thirty nine stops and he held opposing receivers to a fifty six percent completion rate. PFF charged him with seven touchdowns allowed, but five career picks and twenty total

passes defense. His passer rating allowed was eighty one point six, and he surrendered just six hundred and ninety four receiving yards on twelve one hundred coverage snaps. And that's not the same thing as the cornerback stat I gave you guys on Jason Marshall the other day, but it's a pretty good number there for him. He's five eleven one ninety six thirty one inch vertical, nine to nine broad jump, four three two shuttle, and seven to nine to three cone.

All of that is like average to below average. The sizes is below average, the vertical is below average, the shuttle and three corner right around average.

In fact, he played lacrosse in college. He was a freshman starter at quarterback and played wide out in dB In high school. He played only football his freshman year at Maryland, but joined the lacrosse team as a sophomore, scoring five goals that year, enforcing fourteen turnovers. I don't know what that means. Is that good lacrosse players? You can tell me. I assume it is. He was twice an academic All Big Ten member and he played at the Senior Bowl this past February.

Gordon from Oklahoma State. Because I think that there is really high end potential with this player. So the film, to me, it starts in pass protection, which you know, if you're a running back, and that's where you start. It says a lot about your game and your mindset. I guess with how you play the football, how you play, how you play the football, how you play the game.

describe this. Have you guys seen that video where the dude has this cat and he like puts him in front of a hockey net and then like flicks balls towards him and the cat like makes these these diving saves, like full extension laying out saves.

It's a highlight reel of hits where he can lay them out and do it in the last second and not have his feet underneath him and just find a way to get the job done, or just straight up stay in there with good technique and fundamentals as everything plays out the way it's supposed to and drawn up and just get under a guy's chinch trap and jack him up that way and put him on his butt and he runs that way too. There's a ton of wiggle.

There's not a ton of wiggle. I should say to his running style, you know, like, you know what you're getting. It's downhill business decision in the gap. Meet me their Oklahoma drill style.

had some offensive drive stall out. But a player like this, when it's not blocked well, and I think it'll be blocked a lot better in twenty twenty five based upon what you had on the person on the offensive line. But when it's not blocked well, sometimes you need it running back to save you. And I think that Ali Gordon is very capable of doing that, much like Alexander Madison's tape, where it's something that's essential to his game. Essential trait to what makes him, you know, a viable

option with that forward lean. So I think that that's that, and then also it's an essential part of like the screen game as well. Like the thing I like most is when he does get through that initial line with his surge, he really gets up to to high speed or top speed and can destroy angles from that position. And when you can do that at his size and his strength, like good luck to any dB trying to catch him and get him to the ground. You might

catch him, but then you gotta tackle him too. And I love the idea of finding a way to get him on the field for short yardage. And then he breaks one tackle and all of a sudden, it's like, oh, this isn't just a you know, Brandon Jacobs type that's gonna get ten yards because he sprung one, he could go for seventy yards in a touchdown, not just a first down, but a touchdown. As far as the fit, I think he's versed enough as a zone runner. He's

patient to stretch things out and builds to speed. I don't think he's gonna be the guy that finds that deep windback laying the way like Devon eh Chan does, But who is Devon Hchan besides Devon h Chan. But he sets up his blocks, he reads them well, and then makes a quick decision to get through. The twenty twenty three tape is a lot better and I think

a better example of what he does. And there was a great question his Zoom press conference about how a scout had said not a scout a Pundit was like, don't even watch twenty twenty four tape. He was kind of putting some bad So if you're doing the same thing, go back to twenty twenty three and based on that tape, like you're probably talking about a Day two pick if you're going off of that tape. So tons of potential

upside here. For me, I think that he's you know, he's got the patience to make the good decisions, to create good angles, tons of potential and upsides. It's hard to say what he is as a receiver because he was mostly asked to just do stuff within the screen game. But he didn't drop a single pass last season. For what that's worth, I would venture to guess that because of his play style and body type, he's not likely.

I try to do this, you know, carefully, because like you don't want a pigeonhole guy, but just persona based or like you know, perception based. I don't think he's likely to flex out and run routes like Devon h Chan, but he can catch the ball on the flat and then inflict punishment on cornerbacks around the edge. The fit here he kind of already covered that. I feel like he's competition for Alexander Madison in a lot of ways.

He's different than what we have on the roster in terms of his build, his history of skis and system and overall play style. But I think that's a good thing. And brother, when you can pass pro like that and you're effective in short yardage, that's a great way to get yourself on the field for third downs. I also think he can be a special teams contributor for a lot of the same reasons we just talked about, namely the effort and desire and will to play the game.

His stats in advanced Metrics he had six hundred and fourteen yards after initial contact last year. That was twentieth most among college backs. He had eighty six runs in zone one on one in gap scheme, and that was a pretty similar split across his whole college career, so more man scheme than zone scheme. Twenty nine hundred twenty rushing yards, twenty nine hundred twenty rushing yards at a career average of four point five a pop. Checked that

five point four a pop dyslexic moment. There. He averaged three point four to seven yards after initial contact, with one hundred and twenty five miss tackles forced over his career at Oklahoma State. Seventy three runs of ten plus yards in his career, forty four runs of fifteen plus yards, and he ran for one hundred and forty two first downs. He also gained six hundred and seventeen yards through the air and scored forty total touchdowns thirty six rushing for receiving.

He had sixty eight misstackles forced in that crazy twenty three season, with one thousand and fifty six yards after initial contact. My goodness, pretty impressive. His measurable six foot two, two hundred and twenty five pounds. Those are ninety six

and ninetieth percent tile of running backs. He is a large human being for six to one forty yard dash, fifty third percent tile, thirty four and a half inch vertical sixty second percent tile, and then he had a ten flat broad jump that was seventy second percent tile. So he's big and he's explosive.

and a role changed there a little bit. He also finished out that season playing in the bowl game, where so many players opted out from doing that. Down the stretch, he said, quote my mama always taught me that you finish what you start. Who would I be to give up on my team because our season is not going the way I wanted it to. I could have gave up last year, but our season was going good. Just because our season is not going good how it's supposed to go, I'm supposed to give up now.

are from this draft. That's next podcast, your host, Travis Wingfield, brought to you by AUNT Nation once again to recap the Miami Dolphins twenty twenty five NFL Draft Class number thirteen defensive tackle Kenneth Grant from Michigan, number two thirty seven overall offensive lineman Jonah Savoya, and Aya.

on the show tomorrow. Two seventh round draft picks quarterback Quinn you Were from Texas picked two to thirty one overall and two fifty three overall defensive tackle Zeke Biggers from Georgia Tech. And you come away with that with an extra third round pick for next year, the Dolphins could be potentially looking at all kinds of additional picks, with a possible fourth round compensatory pick coming from the result of this year's free agency class. With Javon Holland's departure.

There's some debate about whether or not they're qualifying for that, but that's a debate for down the road. But it's a possibility Mimi gets a compensitory pick back for Javon Holland. And if Anthony Weaver does get plucked on the hiring cycle this time around, which I would I think he will because he deserves it and he's ready for it, that would also kick back two third rounders to the Miami Dolphins in twenty twenty six and twenty twenty seven. But man, what was our theme on the show here

all draft season and all off season. This is a meat and potatoes class. The Dolphins have the pieces on the perimeter and in the premium positions at quarterback, receiver, edge tackle. Obviously, corner was a need, and we heard Chris Greer say several times they've been in touch with some of the free agents. They're confident about getting a deal done with those guys here, whether it's sooner or later. But the needs were down the middle right. They signed

a bunch of linebackers and safeties, They signed annuals. They draft Grant seven, Jonah as well as Jordan Phillips the top three picks. They do get some, They do get two defensive backs. They get an absolute hammer at running

back who completes every imaginable style of running back. Now in that room, Man, I just for a team that has this narrative about them down the stretch late in the season, for a team that is criticized for their lack of investment in the trenches, and for a team that has identified issues at the end of previous seasons and attacked them and talked about, you know, sustaining drives last year, and they got much better at that. To me, this draft and this offseason exemplifies a team that wasn't

too rigid in their original beliefs. We're not going to be stubborn and go down with the ship that way, they were able to self assess and come back with this altered approach. My buddy Brett Coleman from the Bootleg Football podcast, the NFL Film Room, the stuff for NFL Network and NFL Media and the Chargers and all kinds of stuff. Last year he picked us to miss the play and I was like, Hey, what gives like this is a pretty good football team.

But they've given themselves a chance, right, They've afforded themselves an opportunity to change that narrative. But could they get that power run game going that makes them, you know, feared in multiple ways. It makes teams play on their back foot. You have the same weapons, you have again

the same quarterback. So if you add this power element and you get teams on their back foot, and you forced safeties to come down, and you get teams out of those umbrella coverages, maybe this is you know, the off season that allows you to marry that vertical game with a balanced run game and open up short spaces to truly make the defense defend every blade of grass. And now we've got to worry about how do I

set my edge against this this power run game. How do I contend with the speed of Devon a Channon space? How do I you know, contend with that? And then the vertical passing game of tyreek Hill and Jalen Waddle and then concern myself with the screen game to John hus Smith, you know, like or Jalen Conyers, if he finds himself in that role, I just I can't get over.

I can't get over three hundred and twenty seven pound James Daniels, three hundred and thirty pound Larry Borum, which are two guys that were would have been the biggest interior guys in the offensive line last year. And of course Borham can play tackle as well, that's actually probably his primary position. But and by the way, if it is Daniels and and Jonah wins the job at guard's well, Borim and eichenbergers potential backups, it's pretty good. I like

Liam as a seventh three eighth offensive liman. I like borhim as a swing tackle and a swing interior guy.

But then you know two hundred and twenty pound free agent back, two hundred and twenty five pound rookie running back, two hundred and seventy pound blocking tight end, a two hundred and fifteen pound receiver that wants to bury you in the running game in the red zone, a three hundred and forty pound nose tackle that has the quicks to play three technique, a three hundred and twenty pound three technique that has the chops to play nose tackle.

kJ Britt As an enforcer, Willie Gay is not like a big time power player, but his electricity off the line of scrimmage. That'll that'll pair. That'll do right with those those bigger guys. The way, if I Mela fam who plays the game one hundred miles an hour, I am here for this seemingly obvious philosophical shift they made this offseason and the part that gets me just pumped up for camp. And look, if you can't get excited about a new football season, maybe it's time to find

a new hobby. I don't know, because I see people saying I'm not excited about training camp and all that, But like, man, I want the whole part about football is how they envision their issues, how they go about fixing them, and how they play it out on Sundays, and how they put together in training camp. Like that's

what gets me fired up. I just can't wait to see how this new concept or you know, the perception of this new vision of how to build the football team of twenty twenty five how that marries up with old concepts. And I'm not telling you at all, by any stretch that I want to ditch the old concepts, because everything that we do or used to do, led to the number one scoring offense in the NFL just one year ago.

looks like. I am undecided, but tomorrow the final two picks, the seventh round draft picks, Zeke Biggers and Quinn Yours will do that and do a heavy SoundBite round up and get you guys some clips from the players press conferences over the weekend.