To remove Darlin Deep Speedways past Peas.
From the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.
This is Drivetime with Travis Wingfield.
Please God, my having it's in the playoffs?
What is up Dolphins and welcome to the Draft Time Podcast. I am your host, Travis Wingfield. On today's show, it's a football Friday. We will hear from a member of the Patriots beat as Evan Lazar joins me. Plus, it is another chance to talk to my good friend Kyle Krabs about the weekend in college football, where the Dolphins go from here and so much more, as well as the week five NFL picks from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Draft
Time Podcast, Ye Daffy. We are joined today by Patriot Creates dot com reporter and the host of the Catch twenty two podcast at Easy Lazarre on Twitter, Evan Lazar. Welcome back into the show, my friend. It's good to see another round of Dolphins and Patriots.
Man. Here we go again.
Yeah, absolutely good to see you, Travis.
We see the combine press box and I'm in Miami that those are twice a year, so it's three times a year.
That's nice.
And yeah, I guess we get some some draft content every once in a while for the podcast as well, so you're a valuable resource for us here on draft time as well as Dolphins HQ are a brand new YouTube show. And I want to start off here with the head coaching change, because to your point, you know, fourteen year old Evan watched the same head coach that you know.
I'm sure mid thirties Evan watched her.
I don't know how old you are, but it's been a long time since they've had a coaching change in New England. I'm curious your early impressions of Gerrodmeo and what that first year has been like so far, you know, four weeks in to covering a non Bill Belichick Patriots team.
Yeah, well I'm thirty one, so not mid thirties quite. Yeah, we're getting in there.
Yeah. I think the biggest thing that has been.
Differently is just that he's has a totally different personality, which I know I'm probably not breaking news with that by any means. And it's not that you know, we didn't see the whole Bill Belichick personality in general. Girod is just a different guy, you know, is his own DNA,
his own human being. He's a little bit different even than some of the other Belichick disciples, like you know, I know, you guys down there familiar behind Flores or Josh McDaniels or someone like that also, So it's been unique in that situation in that sense. I think right now what we're seeing though, is we're you so used to the Patriots being such a well coached team that our eyes are seeing things that were not jiving in the Belichick era and saying, well, this is the coaching right.
You know, these things are going wrong, and that's on the coaching right. You know, a lot of the issues that that Belichick had at the end were more personnel related. It was more Bill a g im not doing a great job than it was Build a coach. So right now, Drod Mayo and the media here, every little decision that he is making in game, you know, outside of the games is getting nitpicked and compared to Bill Wow, which is obviously very difficult.
Yeah, It's it's so weird, man, because like you know, for years it was like you can write the Patriots in for twelve wins and they're going to get all this media coverage and they are They just are who they are, and it's just so weird to see him in transition from what that era was to where they are now and obviously going through a little bit of it.
Right now.
They're one to three coming off of last season that provided them the third pick in the draft, and that's where I want to go next here is at the quarterback position, because you know, I follow probably I would say the Jets are probably close too, but I probably follow as many Patriots accounts as I do Dolphins accounts in terms of my NFL hierarchy of Twitter follows.
But my sense is that the.
Fan base is ready to see Drake May like now, but I want to hear from the expert here and when do you think the appropriate time is to get Drake May out there?
Are they going to write it out for the entire year?
Wait?
Think the plan is? And what do you think it should be?
Well, this is the only topic that anybody has any interest in New England right now. I can tell you
that based off of our metrics. It's like if you're not writing or talking about Drake May, then people just don't really care about what you're saying, so it's a number one topic in maybe all of New England sports at the moment, is when Drake May is going to play and going into the season, especially after the improvements we saw in training camp in the preseason, Drake May did have a pretty upward trajectory to his development in the summer, so by the end of the summer we
felt pretty good about where he was.
It was two schools a thought. One.
I actually compared the situation a lot to the Dolphins with Ryan Fitzpatrick in Tua, where Fitzpatrick's locker room favorite.
He's a veteran quarterback.
You know, he played better than Jacoby's playing right now, certainly in that season.
But it felt the same where.
A captain guy that the locker room specs, the locker room likes with preset, but they just drafted this guy high first round pick that was clearly the future of the franchise. So I just felt like it was inevitable that at some point Drake May is gonna play, and it is to an extent. But I think the other thing that we're seeing now, even in season, is that there was this growing concern about the state of the
offense around the quarterback. It's more specifically the offensive line, which right now is basically dead last, and every single stat that you can pull up in terms of pass protection, your pass block win rate, pressure rate, quick pressure rate, like all of it is just last, last, last, last.
So do you want to subject a rookie quarterback who is a little bit raw and younger than some of these other guys like bow Knicks or Jaden Daniels to that kind of offensive line play and maybe have a long term effect on his development because he gets sped up, or he starts seeing ghosts or whatever the case may be. So that was the big issue that everybody had coming into the season. It's now manifested itself in season with
their offensive line play. So now the question really is more about can they support Drake May than is Drake May ready to support that?
Yeah, it's a great point, Devin.
If I can follow up on that, I kind of want to go a little bit off script here and ask you just about your own thoughts about the quarterback position and development, because I've been talking about in the podcast here and there about all these young quarterbacks that come in and to your point, Jaden Daniels is a great example. Bo Nicks played, what was it, sixty college
starts is just an absurd number. But for Jaden Daniels, he comes in and he looks the part right away, right he looks like he has total control of that huddle, the offense. He's you know, he's leading two minute drives for game winning drives on Monday night football.
Looks like the real deal.
I'm curious where you come down on the development of a young quarterback. And for a guy like Drake May who doesn't have the same number of reps or years in college as a Jadeen Daniels, what you think the benefit is of him getting all these reps mentally without how to go out there on the field. Do you think it's the best way for a young guy to grow and develop or you think that on the field you could get some of that as well.
I tend to lean towards playing young quarterbacks. We're even seeing it now what these guys were talking about, even Caleb too.
They really started out rough.
You know, Week one was tough across the league for all these rookie quarterbacks, and now all of a sudden, you're starting to see them make some improvements. Obviously, Jaden's gotten the best out of all of them, but even Caleb Williams and Bo Nicks have made some strides in just a short period of time. You mentioned all the starts those guys made, Drake may only made twenty six collegiate starts. He was a two year starter at North Carolina.
I just find it hard to believe that he is going to improve leaps and bounds without playing because he hasn't played a lot of football, and a lot of the coaches that I talked to. I wrote a big feature about him for Patriots dot Com back when they drafted him, and his high school coach pointed out to me that he also lost a year of high school football because of COVID, so he really has only started forced seasons between high school and college in his career.
So he hasn't played a ton of football. And that was part of the appeal with him, was that, yeah, he has some wards and he needs some development, and he has that bust factor because of that, but his physical tools are so immense that with more seasoning, he should be a Josh Allen Light type of quarterback or something of that nature. So that was always the big
conversation with him. I just don't see how a young quarterback that hasn't gotten as many reps and hasn't played as much football is going to get better without playing football. But end I do see some of the other factors that are involved with the Patriots. Specifically, they don't really have a number one receiver. The Dolphins have two. The Patriots have zero. Right, they don't really have an offensive line.
They have Alex Van Pelt, their new offensive coordinator, has never called plays before in the NFL, really like he's called it a little bit here and there, pockets, but he's never been the primary play caller of an offense. So he has some growing pains that he's going through. So you look at all these different elements and you're like, this is a disaster waiting to happen for a rookie quarterback.
Yeah, it doesn't really compare, I don't think.
But the first off that came to my mind when he talked about the rep count was Anthony Richardson for the cole who you know, miss that entire rookie season where he needed those reps so bad because at Florida he just didn't get them because you know, he didn't start until late and he was early and Rollie to the draft and or not en roly but declared for the draft early on. So you wind up having a guy that's played like five hundred reps going into his
sophomore year of the NFL. It's crazy. So it's if there's a strong dichotomy there, I think the players will get all those reps eventually benefit from it. So we checked your box there for the criteria of what the Patriots fans want to read about. Right in terms of your metrics from a content standpoint, Let's go ahead and talk about the game here a little bit because we do have Dolphins and Patriots from Jillette Stadium on Sunday, a one o'clock kickoff, and you have alluded to this.
A little bit.
I want to get your just follow up on both offensive line and the skill groups, because I read that David Andrews is contemplating shoulder surgery.
Do you think he'll be out there?
And then just also kind of give us a walkthrough of where those cracks on the offensive line are and if you can, like a three part question here, Evan, I apologize for that, but if you can, who has been the top receiver. That's kind of I guess taking the reins on what this current Patriots offense is.
Yeah, So just starting with David Andrews, I would be shocked if he plays on Sunday. For what it's worth, he was taking off the media schedule this week, which is usually a pretty good indication that he's not going to be practicing.
So he's a tough SOB.
So it's really just a matter of it does he want to play through this injury for the season and just pain tolerance and all that kind of stuff, or does he want to have the surgery now and try to be ready for twenty twenty five. So it's a tough situation for him, I will say, And I love David Andrews. He's one of my favorite players I've ever covered. I think he probably wears a red jacket in the
Patriots Hall of Fame someday. He has had some dip in production over the last couple of years, specifically in past protection. He's not necessarily the same guy that he was three, four or five years ago. So as much as it's a drop off from a leadership in just a mentality and all those types of intangible aspects from what we saw limited granted, but Nick Leverett their backup center as a pure blocker. I'm not sure how much
of a true drop off that's going to be. You're just losing a lot when it comes to grit, leadership, communication on the line, all those elements that David Andrews brings to the table. To your second question about where are the holes in this offensive line?
Kind of everywhere.
I wish there was one spot that I could be like, yeah, they're really good there. Maybe right tackle with Mike gon Wnu is probably where you feel the best. But even then he's a guard playing tackle out of necessity, So that's not necessarily a great situation long term either. But I look at the real holes left tackle as that by far the biggest one. Last week they started Trey Jacobs, who was a waiver claim by the Patriots on cutdown Day.
He's technically their fourth string left tackle if you want to look at the depth chart that way. They signed Chooks the Corps four in the offseason to be their stop gap bridge left tackle. They knew they were going to probably draft one early next year in twenty twenty five. He's no longer with the team. He's basically retired from football. As my understanding, he quit essentially on the team. I just got to call it what it is. You know, he went home and took his bags and went home.
So he's not here. Vederian Lowe was sort of their second string backup. He has a knee injury. He was a ruled out on Friday guy last week, so really didn't have a chance to play in the game on Sunday, and we'll see if he's ready to go. And then their rookie Kidden Wallace, who they drafted in the third round. I saw him in a walking boot and crutches after the game on Sunday leaving Levi Stadium in San Francisco, so he's injured as well. So it's looking Unlesvedarian Lowe
somehow is healthy enough to play. It's looking like it's going to be Trey Jacobs again, who allowed two sacks and seven quarterback pressures last week against the forty nine ers. So that's not his fault, like he shouldn't even be out there. The Patriot should have done a better job is shoring up this position in the offseason. But it is what it is, and I would also just point out, you know, rookie guard at right guard as well, Laden
Robinson their fourth round pick. Pretty good run blocker already, but is struggling right now in pass protection. So they really have a lot of holes everywhere. It's like a ship with a bunch of different holes that they're trying to plug on the offensive line right now, and it has.
It has sunk their passing game for the most part.
You can't throw down the field when you have no time, right you know, that's just common sense. So last one on the receivers, I would say that the the guy that really is like their third down and money type of player is actually Hunter Henry at tight end. You know, he's the one that Jacob Brissett has the most comfortability with and can move the chains a little bit. They are bullish about Jalen Polk, their second round pick out of Washington. He's come on a little bit here in
recent weeks. He's beginning moved up the depth chart a little bit more. Played his most snaps in the game last week, a lot more first read progression type stuff with him where the quarterback is looking at him initially in the progression. So he's starting to be a little bit more involved. But the thing with Polk is that he's one of those guys that needs to be thrown open a lot of the time. He's not like a
pure separator. He's more of like a back shoulder, you know, catching traffic kind of guy, and Brissette is not necessarily one of those types of passers.
So it hasn't been a great mix there.
But the hope is when Drake May comes back, you know, comes into the games, that he'll you know, be able to put those balls on Jalen Polk a little bit better.
Well, I think you just gave us the answer for the Patriots offense ranks where it does right now in thirty second place, less than one thousand yards four games in.
But pintruglefield Dolphins offense as well.
Let's go ahead and take a quick break, come back and talk about that on the other side of My guest today, Evan Lazar, senior reporter for Patriots dot Com and the Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. Back here with my guest today from Patriots dot Com, Evan Lazar. We talked about the Patriots offense. Now I want to ask you, Evan about the Patriots defense and how they might attack this Miami offense. And I want to start upfront because we
saw Matt Judong get traded before the year began. But man, that front for so long had so many mainstays that have kind of changed a little bit here over the last couple of years. But in all of that, you guys have uncovered what I think is the next breakout start at a pass rusher. Can you tell us about Keyon White a little bit, Evan?
Yeah, Keon White has been their entire pass rush. He has double the amount of quarterback pressures of anybody else on their team. You know, he's young, all right, So there are some things I'll talk about that are still works in progress in his game, but it's very very clear that he is a disruptive force and extremely good at rushing on the interior especially. I would say, you know, he's given guards all sorts of fits. A really explosive guy,
twitchy guy, really good hands, violent hands. I would call him to get off blocks and things of that nature.
So he's a disruptive guy.
But right now, I would say the biggest issue with him and with their pass rush as a whole is discipline. You know, they've let quarterbacks for three straight weeks now get outside the pocket and extend plays or even just scramble for first downs on third down. They're thirty first in the league on third down defense right now, and a big part of that to me just watching their film is that they're letting the quarterback outside the pocket.
So Keon White's been great and I always kind of push back on people that criticize him because I'm like, well, if they don't let Keon White just go up the field, are not going to have a pass rush, like he's the only one that's getting after the quarterback. But the other side of that coin is that sometimes he lets the quarterback out of the pocket and that's how you get you know, Aaron Rodgers on the move or Rock Pretty on the move, and they've been burned by that
pretty badly. So they have to do a better job of keeping quarterbacks in the pocket.
Well, that leads right in my last question here for you, because we have a quarterback changed since two went down back in Week two, Scalar Thompson. Back in week three. We had three different quarterbacks start the last three games.
But we will have the same quarterbacks start a game for the second time this year after to a start of the first two games and Tyler Huntley, and usually I ask you the question about how the Patriots plan to attack Tyreek Hill and Jalen Waddle, But those guys haven't been as productive since Tua went down, and I'm curious what Evan Lazar's game plan might be or how you might draw up what it might look like for the Patriots when it comes to defending a quarterback that's
so brand new here that was, you know, a tough showing on Monday night against the Titans. What do you think the Patriots are looking to do against the Dolphins offense with Tyler Huntley at the helm.
Well, it's interesting because you know, I watched their film from the Titans game yesterday and I did a little cut up on it for my game plan of all the times that Tyreek is still getting open deep and just the ball just isn't finding him because it's not too And my whole warning to the Patriots would just be don't fall asleep at the wheel just because it's Tyler Huntley at quarterback, because Tyreek is still wide open for seventy yard touchdowns some of the time, and you know,
one of these days, Tyler Hunterly is actually going to complete one of those passes and don't let it be on you. So I still look at their offense as being explosive and dangerous and really one of those offenses where they can score from anywhere on the field because of those two receivers. So with that being said, and I just mentioned all the issues that they've had with the containing quarterbacks, that's the one thing with Huntley that
he does have the capability of doing. Even that quarterback draw that he picked up a first down with on Monday night. You can't let him just run around and be an athlete back there. And I would also just mention you as you know, a lot of those inbreaking routes are always where they want to throw off a play action, those glances and the crossers and things like that. So if I'm the Patriots, they had a lot of
issues with that last week against San Francisco. You know, Brandon Aik, Juwan Jennings big chunk plays off of just post cross you know, just take the top off the defense and then cross over the middle of the field. So they have to find a way to close that down and take away those inbreaking routes from this Dolphins offense.
Because I still look at that game on Monday night, I see I think it was the first play of the game, dagger right to Tyreek, you know, off play action glance later in the game to what I believe it was Tyreek again, Like they still have that capability of doing those types of things with Huntley. So I look, I don't take anything for granted right now with this Patriots team. They're They're not good enough for me to sit here and say, well, it's a third string quarnderback, so they'll be fine.
They still have to worry about a lot of things here.
I think you just yelled all the hits, by the way, with all the route concepts that the Dolphins runners.
I love.
I love watching that Dolphins offense. And the thing that makes me super jealous too is how much pistol they run. Like when the Patriots get Drake may and there, I have been begging them to run pistol because he's not very comfortable with running under center. It's not anything he
did in college at a regular level. And North Carolina did run a lot of pro style pistol concepts though for him and at uh at un C. So they want to be an under center run team in New England, and I just say, like, look at Miami, they are a pistol running gun team. Just play him in the pistol like he doesn't have to be all the way under center.
So I love watching those concepts.
You get like three more gaps compared to sidecar in the shotgun right with you in the formation. So I'm with you on that all the way I said I had. That was the last question by a lot. I have one more for you this every time off the beat, right, guess it's just simple Patriots win if and then you get a fill in the blank, I.
Would say the Patriots win if their defense gets back on track this week against the backup quarterback. You know, they've had that in their bag in this Belichick mess that was last year or even twenty twenty two.
For the most part, they've beaten the Tyler.
Hunt Lees of the world, or you know, whatever backup quarterback they're facing. So they need to get right on defense. We went into this season thinking, yeah, they'll probably have a little drop off because Belichick's not here on defense but they still have a ton of talent on that side of the ball. Right now, they're twenty fifth in the league in EPA on defense. That's not what we expected going into the year, but we expected them to still be top fifteen, top half of the league on defense,
and they haven't been. So they are going to win on the back of their defense. They're not going to score a lot of points this year. We know that even when Drake May gets in there, they're probably still not going to be a great offense, so they have to get right on defense.
Great stuff there.
We got a lot smarter on the opponent this week with Evin Lazarre from Patriots dot Com, senior reporter and the host of The Catch twenty two podcasts at Easy Lazarre on Twitter and Evan, I think we close the podcast just wait by saying, how about that mapples my friend? All right? Well, maybe that Joe kind of fell on deaf ears there towards the end. Big thanks to Evan
Lazar for his time on the show. Gosh didn't really pull any punches there on the Patriots, did he Let's go ahead and pick the week five games before we take our last break and hear from the great Kyle Krabs. We kick it off on Thursday Night Football. I picked the Falcons.
Did they win?
Who knows. We will know by the time you hear this podcast, but right.
Now I don't know.
We also have an early morning game as the Jets will play the Vikings in London.
Go ahead and give me. I'm really in between on this game.
Like I feel like it's a perfect spot for the Jets to kind of bounce back and the Vikings a step back after a road divisional win and a.
Great four and oh start.
But I just think that the Jets offense is still going to be stuck in the mud, and I think the Vikings can find to run the football on that Jets defense. In fact, the more I talk about it, the Dolphins offense when they're clicking always gives that Jets defense issues. And I think there are similar scheme things there and similar talent.
For the Vikings.
So give me the Vikings over the Jets to make them fall to two to three, and hopefully we can enjoy their misery as much as they're enjoying ours. I am taking the Patriots over the Dolphins. They're gonna have to prove it for me to pick the Dolphins again this year. I'll take the Panthers over the Bears in Chicago. Andy Dalton goes and gets his second winners the Panther starting quarterback. I'm gonna also take another upset here with Cleveland over Washington.
Why.
I just feel like Washington's been kind of on a high for a couple of weeks. It feels like it's a ripe spot to get picked off, especially against a good DC against a young quarterback in Jaden Daniels, who I think is the absolute truth.
Give me the Browns there.
I'm also taking the Jaguars to get their first win of the year over the Colts. They seem to always give that Colts team issues, and they're gonna be either limited with Anthony Richardson or have Joe Flacco in there. I will take the Jags get their first win of the year. Give me Buffalo over Houston in that big early season matchup there for AFC seeding hierarchy, I'll take the Ravens over the Bengals. Give me the Raiders over
the Broncos. I guess I don't know who cares. I'll take the Niners over the Cardinals and that one Seahawks over the Giants. I'm also gonna take Green Bay over Pittsburgh, or rather, I'm sorry the Rams. I will take Dallas over Pittsburgh on Sunday Night football.
It's a fun matchup, I think.
And then we'll go ahead and take the Chiefs on Monday Night over the Saints in now Leans.
Let's go ahead and take our last break right there.
Come back on the other side with Kyle Crabs Drift Time Podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you.
By Automation.
Kyo Crabs everybody for his weekly Friday spot here on the Drive Time Podcast. I don't think we'll have you on next week, though, big dog, as we have a week off no Dolphins football and week number six first of all bye week plans, have you got them?
Uh? Probably recaliber right the college football schedule. I had some travel plans that were mixing up. Going to try to get some college games and pour myself into that and really figure out how to maximize the stretch running conference play in the bowl game.
That's probably what I'll be focused on.
Smart fellow, he never stops working.
Yeah, no, I mean it is a blessing, you know, even in a season that hasn't started for the Dolphins the way that I think anybody envisioned or hoped that it would to be able to have the other avenues in football is certainly something that allows you to keep perspective and things, and you see other teams that go through these battles and understand that there's ebbs and flows, and there's moments of low points and high points, and it puts the whole thing in perspective when you see
how many teams there are out there in this space and how many of them are uniquely experiencing things that are similar or dissimilar to what the Dolphins are experiencing right now.
Yeah. Absolutely, I think that's a good transition into the first topic I wanted to touch on here, because you know, it is a long season, no doubt about that, and I try my best to maintain that perspective because we've seen teams, you know, start zero and four and rip wins off, and we've seen teams start off hot and go the other direction. I think you can kind of see the tea leaves here with this Dolphins team and
the way things are going. But you know what, I don't know, Jim it's looking more like a top five pick for this team more than any other outcome at the moment if they do find themselves in that mix. I know, like we talked to quarterbacks the last couple of weeks here, but what do you think right now, given all the information that we have about where this team is, where they are going forward, where the quarterback currently stands long way out? This is why they pay
you the big bucks, Big Doug. What's the best course of action right now? If you forecasted a top five pick for the Dolphins.
Yeah, I think if you forecast yourself in that stratosphere, you have one of two forks in the road that I think you can take. You'd be in a position to land of what is a handful of elite talents in this draft class. Whether that's Will Johnson the corner from Michigan, or Mason Graham the defensive tackle for Michigan, or Travis Hunter, the whatever you wanted to play, he could probably play it type of player. I think he's
better as a corner personally, Travis Hunter. But I know there's dollars to be had at wide receiver with the wide receiver market and what that's looked like in the NFL last couple of years, So I don't think you could go wrong either way in that regard. I think you would be an interesting situation to take a best player available, or I think the other alternative would be
we've seen what the backup quarterback situation has looked like. Unfortunately, the first couple weeks of having to play with the backup quarterback with this system in year three and a lot of players that have familiarity with it, I think everybody probably would have hoped that that things would have clicked a little bit more with the interruption with the signal caller, and that obviously hasn't been the case. So I think you have to put that position under a
really big microscope. And obviously, Tua when he's on the field is so impactful and so unique, and I think you see that and how the team is struggling without him. But I do think you would be in a position to bring in an additional quarterback and have one with talent that you feel you could win with and then
kind of let that situation play out. This would not be the first time in league history that you have a quarterback that's a veteran established starting quarterback with an early round pick behind him and having two good quarterbacks a good problem to have. Of course that the challenge there is the opportunity cost of what that might look like as far as the domino effect for the rest of your roster.
Yeah, and that's I guess why I come down is if you wind up in that position, it's the old adage, like, you don't want to be there again, right, so take advantage of the fact that you are there. And if you know, we do wind up getting interruption long term with QB one, it would be nice to offset that with what would be a cheap quarterback by way of the draft with the rookie contract.
So I think that's where I would go. But if we're trying.
To like you know, I think we both get accused of this a little bit sometimes of the you know, selling hopium, although I don't think it's what either of us do.
It's not an accurate term, it's not a realistic it's it's looking at the possible outcomes and understanding what the team is trying to achieve and explain what the thought process is and how it's supposed to work.
That's not hopeium.
It's not sorry, And like I was, I was tweeting about like a Jordan Brooks sack in the second half of the game on Monday and how it was really cool sim pressure look or rather you know, they brought the pressure after simming it all night and it caused a bust in protection, and I mentioned like, that's been one of the cool parts about this team so far, not many of them, but it's been one of the
cool parts. And someone's like, look at this a hole trying to spin positive, Like, no, I'm just covering the game, dude, I'm just telling you what happened in the game. I'm very well aware of where the thing of where situations
are right now. But the reason I bring this up, Kyle, is because if you did want to try to get excited about, you know, next year, if that's where you are already, I'm looking at the Niners over the Kyle Shanahan era, and they had two years where they were like, well, I guess early on they stunk because they had Brian Hoyer.
Then that second year they got or Jimmy Garoppolo got hurt that second year, and then in twenty twenty they were supposed to be this great team after going to the Super Bowl in twenty nineteen, but once again, as they did for you know, two of the previous three years, injuries railroaded that team. They won six games, and they got better performances from Nick Mullins and I think CJ. Bethard that year than we've gotten fm our backup quarterbacks.
But my ultimate point is those years provided them a chance to get Nick Bosa and it also provided them a chance to trade up and get Trey Lance, which was an absolute disaster, but they were in those positions. Can you draw any parallel to those Niners teams with the injuries and the bad luck they accrued during those years, because this happens sometimes to good teams.
I don't think the Dolphins are a good team right now.
I think they have other issues, but last year they were a very good football team. Can you draw any parallels two teams like the Niners that have gone through that amid the successful runs or anybody else, or do you not see it that way at all?
No, I certainly think there's I think general consensus is one of the best executives in the game of football is Howie Roseman, right, and the Philadelphia Eagles, and they drafted a quarterback in Carson Wentz and gave him a second contract and he had an injury and they had, like at two quarterbacks, do you really have any situation? And the bottom fell out there. They went four eleven and one, and it put them in a position to being a high draft pick and draft an impactful player.
I think about the La Rams and maybe their draft capital situation was a little different, but they were a team that made a couple of runs, then they got really banged up and got hurt, and then they had a youth movement that came in and they made the playoffs last year, won ten games. Like there's incidences of this happening all over the league. I think the thing where Dolphins fans are a little sours. Do you look at Philadelphia and you say, okay, they want a super Bowl?
They had Nick Foles on the great backup quarterback run of all time and they win a Super Bowl in that year before the bottom falls out, And you look at the Rams and they had a very aggressive mentality and pushed all their chips in and they got it done at the end. And for Miami, if the payoff
is is last year and then there's a regression. I think that that's where the sting is for Dolphins fans, and I totally get that, and I know a lot of Dolphins fans have a lot of different opinions about like the state of affairs with the team right now. But it is October fourth, right, Like, there is so much more information to be collected before any judgments can and I think should be made about all directions that
this team is gonna have to go. But this is the kind of season if it plays out the way that you think it is, that is going to make you take a step back and re examine everything that you're doing.
Yeah, exactly.
I love that because it reminds me of twenty sixteen when like one in four it's like they got to get Tannehill out of here, and then he rips off the best run of his career, and we come back in twenty seventeen, even with an ACL injury, and it's like, oh, he's our quarterback.
And then it didn't go that way. It just kind of came back and forth.
But basically your point about there's so much more information we have to glean from the next thirteen games, I just I love that point. Let's go ahead and dive right into the weekend of college football. Here rip Washington State's miracle college football playoff runs seems to have come to an end after a blowout against Poise State.
You sure do.
I was hopeful that was the last game on the schedule until like the second game to the penultimate game that they would have had to get through to maybe have a pretty good run at this because they played like San Jose State in Colorado, not a lot of good teams that schedule. Actually, before we do anything here, before we talk about the games, can we talk about ash Gent because I don't think I've seen anything like it. Man, Like some of the runs he had in that game.
I'm he's on pace to break Barry Sanders rushing yards and rushing touchdowns record. He's on track to obliterate the broken tackle and yards after contact records, even if those are on.
A decade old.
But we're talking about b Jhon Robinson and Jonathan Taylor records there. His rushing line this week is like a buck ninety two. That's the expectation for he's going to go. Just how high up the draft board can he go? And is the fact that run on the football is kind of back, does that maybe elevate his stock a little bit?
So he has eight hundred and forty five yards on eighty two cares in four games.
He played half of the Portland State game too. He came out early in that one.
Yeah, he's on pace to break the Barry Sanders rushing touchdown record in the regular season without the bowl game. Like, how insane is that? So I had him in the top fifteen to my latest mock draft for the thirty thirteen which came out on Monday. He went to the Chargers, which we know they want to run the ball. We know they want to run downhill. They invested an offensive lineman, they want to run at you. They want to challenge you physically and play big boy football and belly bump
with you in the trenches and all that stuff. And this kind of ball carrier, Ashton gent running back from Poise State, who has breakaway speed. They time the when the GPS is over twenty one miles an hour on one of his break runs this year at that size with the contact balance, and he's a player who can contribute.
On passing downs.
I think by and large, the days of like four hundred carry running backs. And I know Ricky Williams's ears are ringing right now just hearing four hundred carries in a season, but I think those days are by and large gone right. But a player like this who can be the predominant volume ball carrier, even in the load management era of NFL football, I think is on its way to being a really impactful player and type of role.
And I do think it's one of those things where there's gonna be a few teams that get out in front of the curve and that everybody's gonna be chasing them for a little while and then it's going to swing back.
The other way.
But he has the potential to be a catalyst for a team to being one of those teams that gets out in front of the curve.
It's so rare for that playmaking ability because he makes runs that are not there happen like it didn't. He did it multiple times in the WSU game.
I know it's it's the freaking coops.
It's not an NFL defense, but gosh, man, like, I think there's gotta be insane value to a guy who turns second nine into second and four. Pretty much every damn time he touches the ball, all right, So that's that's a player that I mean, you gotta figure. You hope with the way things go, he's not on the Dolphins radar because we hope that eight Chan and Wright become those guys that are the future of the Dolphins tail back room.
But we'll see. Like you said, there's a lot of information still to be to be had. Here, can I give you a stat on gen T real quick? Please?
Just for the season, he's averaging seven point one yards after contact per rush?
What's his what's his just outright average?
Like twelve ten point three he's getting He's getting three point one before contact and then getting another seven point one after contact per rush on eighty two rushes in four games.
That's like the best yards per pass average in the league, much much less rushing yards per average.
I mean, my goodness.
All right, let's go ahead and get to the slate of games this weekend. We talked off air a little bit. Not the most attractive slate of games. I mean, WS shoes on buy So who cares, right, But what do you got this weekend?
Man?
Some players, maybe we've talked about enough about a player that probably is not going to be a Dolphin just based on overall odds and also the position he plays. But what else you got here as far as guys that you could possibly see in twenty twenty five being on the Dolphins radar.
I'll give you a game that has prospects on both sides no matter who has the ball, and it's Iowa Ohio State. And I know Iowa known for their offense right but they do have a tight end to luke Leche who's a red shirt senior. They have quarterback Kde mcmarrick transferred from Michigan. They have running back Caleb Johnson who's a junior. Those are very talented players on the Iowa offensive side of the ball.
And then they have a.
Defensive back kind of hybrid type player and Sebastian Castro who's a fifth year senior as well. And then Ohoa State might be the most physically talented team in the country as it pertains to draft eligible talent where they have a freshman, true freshman phenom and Jeremiah Smith. There's a couple of true freshmen in college football right now wide receiver that are just gonna obliterate all kinds of expectations,
which is incredible because they're they're incredible players. But Ohio State that has a draft eligible in a Mecca Buka, who's kind of next in line for that wide receiver factory at Ohio State. They're left tackle. Josh Simmons is a red shirt junior. He's really emerged. He transferred in from San Diego State. He's been a big, big jumper this year as far as his performance on the field. Uh, they've got a couple of backs themselves. Ohio State doesn't
Trevon Henderson and Quinn Shawn Judkins. Judkins had transferred in from from Ole Miss as a bit of a spread. There's so there's a thunder and lightning element there. And then defensively, I mean you got three guys on the defensive line. I really like the job that Jack Sawyer's done this year as a defensive end with heavy hands. And then they've got some defensive backs between Denzel Burke, who's a red shirt junior corner has been a productive player,
and then Laythan Ransom at safety. So there's talent up and down the board for Ohio State and they're going against a team that's got talent on both sides the ball as well.
Great stuff.
Love it, man, appreciate that insight on the college game. Let's go ahead and pivot now to the pro game on Sunday. Last game for a while here we go to New England, take a week off, then go back out to the Midwest for the Indianapolis Colts. What are you hoping to see here from Dolphins and Patriots, Kyle?
Yeah, I want to see an inspired performance. And I know that's not necessarily where everybody's expectations were, but this is where we're at right now, right so I want to see the defense continue to play hard and play with pride. I think they've done a lot of that in the first four games of the season, despite having to start on some short fields not having a complimentary game script available to them, and I think it's incredible.
They're one of the most effective teams pressuring opposing quarterbacks and they haven't played with the lead for a single snap all season, like it really is. I cannot be more impressed with what they have been able to do with what they have been handed offensively. I think that and you see guys like Jalen Ramsey laid in that game against Tennessee, making plays, being fired up, leading by table like that stuff. It matters, and guys like I want to see the leaders on this team play with
that kind of fire across the board. And I wanted to give Jalen Ramsey a shout out because I saw it from him on Monday Night. So players that are are considered to be the leaders on your team, I want to see them match that energy that Jalen Ramsey had in what was the face of defeat on Monday night. And if you give me that, we'll see how the game itself plays out. It's really hard to say because there's so much unknown about Tyler Huntley in his second
career start. He's still been here less than a month, and the operation of the offense and New England is a team that they have their own wild cards in this game as well. So I really don't know what
way the game's gonna go. But the least thing that you can do is control what you can control, and that's go out there and play to your potential and play with an intensity that says you're playing with a lot of pro because there's a lot of these guys that are very talented players and should be playing with a lot of pride.
I love your point on Ramsey.
He was one of my top five tapes from the game on Monday, which was all defense because that's where we had to go.
But I thought you got that.
From him, From Jordan Brooks, from Zach Sealer, from Kalais Campbell, all four of those guys really kind of piqued my interest in what you just talked about. And then also, man, what a rough week to lose jaland Phillips for many reasons, but also y, I mean, we'll see what happens to that edge group because you know, do we get Mo Kamara's first action in the NFL because that Patriots offensive line is as banged up as we are at that edge group, so should be an interesting matchup that way, Kyle.
As always, we appreciate your time draft lead for the thirty third team, Locked on Dolphins Podcast, Touchdown Miami Substack, Locked on NFL Scouting podcast, and grinding the tape on Twitter.
Kyle, stop working so hard man.
Thanks for Grevis.
One of these days I'm gonna get him to outro with something. Besides thanks, Travis.
That's it. Week five.
Lasts last thing to do is watch the Dolphins play a football game. We'll do that on have the Recap podcast for you, and it won't be at four o'clock in the morning, so thank god the primetime schedule chills out for the next month or so. In the meantime, you all please be sure to subscribe, rate review, follow on social at.
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Check out the fish Tank podcast with my guys Seth and Juice. Check out the YouTube channel for Dolphins HQ, media availabilities, and so much more. And last button not least, Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time, Thin's up Caroline and Cameron. Daddy just coming home.