Drive Time: Revisiting and Ranking Dolphins Recent Draft Success

Podcast Network, covering your team, your Miami Dolphins. How's it going everybody? I am your host, Travis Wingfield. And on today's show, we're gonna hear from Dolphins GM Chris Career, and I'm going to re visit a project I did back in twenty twenty one, taking a look at draft hits, and we'll expand that into free agency. Waiver wire trades the many ways to upgrade a football team and build a roster from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist

Health Training Complex. This is the Drive Time podcast, Hey Gaffe before anything else here On today show, the Dolphins announced eight practice squad additions cornerback Ethan Bonner, defensive end Randy Charlton, tight end Tanner Connor, linebacker Cameron Good, defensive tackled DeShawn Hand, linebacker Alexander aj Johnson, wide receiver Breln Sanders,

and offensive lineman Alama Ulave. And I look at this list and I see a handful of guys that I think are going to contribute to your twenty twenty three Miami Dolphins in some former fashion. I start with the Shawan hand, a guy that I was personally very surprised

he wasn't on the opening day roster. But also I think you can understand the move here and the way the Dolphins kind of used River Craycraft a year ago or John Jenkin a year ago, that role can certainly be filled by a guy that gets practice squad elevations. You get three, and so you kind of buy yourself some time there with regards to keeping him at arm's length before you put him on the active roster. And I'm sure we'll see, you know, some activity leading up

to that as well. And the same story with Alexander Johnson. I think he was a guy that they brought in for, you know, not for no reason at all. So to get him here and to get a look at him at the linebacker spot in that game and kind of get him back into Vic Fangio's defense and running things makes a lot of sense there. And then Tanner Connor technically is your third tight end in the building right now. And you know, I mentioned this in the podcast yesterday.

I think we could expect to see some more activity there as we get closer and closer to charge your week, which is now just a couple of days away. But I think that Tanner Connor has really shown some strides in the way he attacks the blocking games as far as his run blocking, and obviously the speed and athletic

ability are there in the passing game as well. And then for a guy like Cameron Good to continue to develop Britlan Sanders as well, and then a couple of guys from this year's undrafted class looking to kind of get themselves feet wet in the league as practice squad members here, So plenty of activity, plenty of moves to come. We saw now three players from this Dolphins roster. We told this was a good and deep roster, right and we heard other folks say that they wouldn't have anybody

signed off of their cuts. But we've had three players now claimed Elijah Higgins. This one really is a shot across the bow of old stringfield here. Really sad about that because I thought Elijah Higgins had some ability to make that transition to tight end. I thought he would be a long term player here. But he gets scooped up by the Arizona Cardinals, good for them, and then

Ryan Hayes gets picked up by the Indianapolis Colts. So technically now you're draft class in twenty twenty three down to just two players with Cam Smith and Devon a chain on this podcast since we had Chris Greer coming up on the show today for his media availabilities, and we'll cover that in the final segment of the show.

I tried to find an old script from twenty twenty one, but it was unsuccessful in that search, and in hindsight, probably better just redo the whole thing anyway, since you have a couple of more years of data to determine players success compared to how they were acquired. It was a podcast back in twenty twenty one. I went down every team's recent draft success and I went back to twenty sixteen because that was the year that Chris Career was hired as the sole GM of the football team.

And the toughest part of this assignment, I think, is to define what is a hit and miss. And the more I went through it, the more I realized is kind of you know, subjective in terms of who you're talking to and you know, just full transparency. I put

Phillips and Holland and Waddle in my star categories. I don't think other people from other teams might say that, but I know we have those three guys, and so that's kind of where the you know, subjectivity comes in there, and I think it can be difficult to have that, but I tried to be more beneficial to teams, especially

as the rounds went on. Here you should probably tell you what the project is first, but I have four categories for what is a hit and miss and how we measure these certain categories in this assignment that I took on or assign myself. There's a star this is multiple Pro Bowls or an All Pro, or someone universally recognized as a top of the line player. Which is why I think Waddle, Holland, and Phillips all satisfy that

I think most folks would agree. They cover the game on a national perspective and have an idea of what talent is. Would agree those guys are, you know, top ten at their position at very worst. The next is a hit, not the star status, but a player who's stuck around and contributed for multiple years to your team. Typically they find the way to the second contract, whether it's with your club or somebody else. For instance, a Minka Fitzpatrick was a guy that we drafted but did

not stay here. Obviously coaching staff issues with him caused that departure. But then we have the incompletes, and this will include any rookie or most second year players. And that's why I didn't actually do the twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three draft classes. And that does seem like it's a little bit of manipulating these statistics there, because obviously Miami had two very light drafts those two years.

But the whole point of this exercise was to tell you about how Miami built up this roster with almost you know, better than a half decade of good drafting to put themselves in position to spend draft picks on star talent. And then you have a balance of a roster of high end players, top of the market players with contributing guys on rookie contracts in those draft classes, and hopefully you can continue to kind of push that can down the road while you extend those young guys

as they hit their second contracts. So no rookies, no second year players. You know, guys who've had some injury issues also figure into that incomplete status which I put Austin Jackson there. I know someone probably would disagree with that, but that's where I think he is right now. I want to see him play this year since we didn't get a chance to watch him in year three under a real offensive system because in twenty twenty and twenty twenty one we didn't have that, and then finally misses.

That's probably pretty self explanatory, and round value will be assessed as well. So for instance, getting four years and twenty fifty six scrimmage yards from Miles Gaskin as well as thirteen touchdowns and a seventh round draft pick that's a hit, that's the same you know, that same production for a first round pick that's a miss. Does that

make sense to y'all? So let's go ahead and get to that, and we'll start with our own division and with our own team here and again only going to do the draft for every team, but we'll circle back at the end and look at all of our off seasons, including free agents, trades, waiver all that fun and stuff at the very end. So we're not going to list twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three because it's too early to have a tell for how those guys pan out.

We essentially had two red shirts last year in Azukama and Channing Tendall, so just too early to call on that. That also kind of impacts teams like the Jets and the Seahawks who had awesome rookie classes a year ago, who you can consider hits already. But then again, some guys look really good as rookies and don't pan out in their second and third year, so maybe it's not too early. Just trying to give you the full comprehensive pitcher here, So let's go ahead and do this thing.

Like we've been talking about so stars, hits, incompletes, and misses drafts going back to twenty sixteen. I'm just going to talk about each team a little bit here. The Miami Dolphins, we probably would do their whole entire thing. In twenty sixteen, I had two stars, two hits, no incompletes, and four misses. The two stars there pretty obvious. I think Larry m tonzel Xavion Howard and then Jerome Baker Mike get Sicky were they two No, Sorry, that's twenty eighteen.

Kenyon Drake and Jakeem Grant were the two hits again. Grant a six round draft pick who was one of the best return men not just in Dolphins history but league history. And Kenyon Drake, who had near one thousand yards one year, was here for you know, almost the duration of his Rickey contract, went on somewhere else and had good success in Arizona and Las Vegas as well. So that's a hit in the third round of the draft. And then the four misses that year as well, Leontay

Carub being one of those guys. Twenty seventeen an absolute tire fire of a draft. We had one hit, it was Devon Godshaw. No stars, no one completes, six misses in that year's class. That was a rough draft for a lot of teams around the league. Twenty seventeen was not a very good draft class, except for the New Orleans Saints, who had the best draft class of all time in my opinion that year twenty eighteen. One star. That would be Minka Fitzpatrick. Of course he's no longer here.

He turned into Austin Jackson, so I can see how you would you know Negate that hit. But just for the purpose of looking at who picked who, that was a draft hit at a superstar. But Miami had four more hits that year between Jason Sanders and the seventh round as a successful draft pick the all time leader in field goal persent for the Miami Dolphins, Jerome Baker,

Mike Gasicki, and Durham Smyth in the fourth round. I also considered to be a draft hit at that spot because now he's going into year eighteen nineteen twenty one two year six that's a most guys don't do that in the league. And then three misses that year twenty nineteen one star, that's Christian Wilkins, two hits that is Andrew van Ginkel and Miles Gaskin no incompletes, and then three misses in twenty twenty. I have one incomplete in there,

which you know, that's Austin Jackson. That's who I told you guys earlier, which the twenty twenty class on this entire project did not get many incompletes. But as far as star hits, I have two. Do you guys know who that is? I'm going to a tongue by Low and Rob Hunt, I think are two of the very best players at their position. I have three hits with Brandon Jones, Ray Kwon Davis, and this one I could understand an argument for because long snapper. Do you call

it a hit? Maybe we don't, maybe we call it two hits. But Blake Ferguson is here for his fourth season and he's been pretty solid snaping the football. Of course, the one incomplete and then five misses, so I know everyone gets on that draft class for saying what a miss it was. And yeah, there were options in that first round to take over Austin Jackson and no Egbunoghny, but at the end of the day, You're going to see a lot of these teams that had a lot

of picks like that. That's actually pretty good for how how most teams did five of the even picks worked out for you? Twenty twenty one three stars. I know that's going to be an argument for some three stars. No actual non star hits one incomplete that is Leam Eichenberg, although I'm more inclined to put that in the miscategory, and then three misses that year as well, so your six year totals there. I'm really curious to how this

has received nine stars. Do we agree with that? Do we agree that Tunzel x, Minka, Christian Tu, Rob Hunt, Javon Holland, Jalen Waddle and Jalen Phillips are all star players. I mean, it's not a debate to me, but I'm curious what you guys think. Twelve additional hits two incompletes probably more like one, and then twenty four misses or twenty five misses depending on the incomplete, that gives you a superstar hit percentage of one ninety one, like your

batting average is one ninety one on star players. Sounds bad, right, because one on one is on a good bitting average as you're gonna learn them to go through this project. It's very good. Your hit percentage is four forty seven. I'll also explain that in context here in a moment, So keep those numbers in mind. Let's go ahead and finish up the AFC Eastport. You do our first break the Patriots since twenty sixteen, tons of misses in there. I had thirty five misses out of fifty draft picks.

I had just two superstars in that group and eleven hits. That gives them a star percentage of forty oh forty. Like your batting average is forty, your hit percentage is two sixty, so nearly well not really, but almost two hundred points less than what the Miami Dolphins did the

Jets since twenty sixteen. And that's you know. I see the argument from the one guy on Twitter who just claims that the Jets built their team the right way and the Dolphins built their team the wrong way, and it just makes me laugh every time I see it, because this project alone tells you how stupid that is. Three stars over the course of six drafts for them, eight additional hits, one incomplete, and thirty five misses, and yeah, that doesn't include their twenty twenty two class, which is

very very good. I can acknowledge that, but we didn't do it for this project because it's still too early for pretty much every draft class to gauge that, and even those rookies that hit, you never know. You just never know how it's going to play out. So the Jets star percentage is sixty four, not very good. Their hit percentage two thirty four, also not good at all. Buffalo Bill's draft since twenty sixteen, these guys hit the star power in back to back years. Three stars in

twenty seventeen, three stars in twenty eighteen. What a heck of around that was in one of those years. Included Tradavius White, Matt Mulano, and shoot now I forget that one, but Josh Allen t remained Edmonds in that group, they had a couple of years of really good drafting. That's why they put themselves in position to go to playoffs back to back to back years after missing it for twenty years. And of course, when you hit your quarterback

that helps too. So six stars over six years, fifteen additional hits, and that gave them a star percentage of one thirty six, Like it's tough to hit stars in the draft, man, Like, if you get one per year, you are absolutely slaying the draft. And then their hit percentage, they're one of the teams that has a better hit percentage of Miami. They are at four seventy seven compared

to Miami's four forty seven. Let's do let's take our first break rate there and come back and we'll do the rest of these draft hits and misses and eventually get to the Miami Dolphins ranking in those two categories, and then also Chris careers, media availability, and entire offseasons in general. All that's next Draft Time podcast to your host,

Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. We are looking back six years into the rear view for draft successes and failures and hits and superstars, and comparing the Dolphins of the rest of the league and why this roster is where it is today as pretty much a unanimous top five roster in terms of how most people view this team that have an idea, right, So we go back to the AFC North here as one team in the AFC East topp to Miami's overall hit percentage.

But Miami stands a top right now. Four teams in on the star hit percentage. The Steelers, for instance, team that we always talk about as great drafting teams, right, just two star players and it's been since twenty seventeen with TJ. Watt since they last found their star player in the draft. They do have twelve additional hits, though, but a star percentage of just point zero four to one and a hit erunge of two to ninety two.

You're gonna see a theme here. The teams that hit in the four hundreds for the most part are teams that are having success and winning you know, nine, ten, eleven, twelve games a year, find their way into the playoffs. I know the Dolphins have not had the playoff success, but the fact that they are one of the top five teams in terms of total wins over the last you know, three years, that's because of good drafting for years ahead in advance. So just keep that in mind. Please.

The Ravens here since twenty sixteen, the other team we always talk about great drafting, right, and they are, don't get me wrong, But how about their star percentage? I have six stars here out of fifty six draft picks. That's a bidding average of one oh seven. Now, their hit percentage is phenomenal, and when one of your stars is the quarterback, that helps too. But their hit percentage is twenty nine for fifty six, that's five to eighteen. Is that the top I have? I think it is.

I think that's number one team on here in terms of hitting draft picks. But the only team that batted over five hundred in this entire exercise, check that sort of the Saints. The Saints had a better one than that. So Saints and Ravens are the only teams that hit over five hundred in this particular you know baseball draft comparison that we're doing here, And that's a team that has sustain a ton of success, right, but also a reason why maybe they haven't been you know, in the

playoffs last couple of years. One their quarterbacks gotten hurt. But the star stuff ran out in twenty eighteen and twenty sixteen they had two stars twenty seventeen, one star, twenty eighteen, three stars. So it's tough man. Drafting is very, very difficult in this league. The Bengals since twenty sixteen, they've drafted just four stars, that of course is Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase and T Higgins as a couple of those guys, and also Jesse Bates was the fourth

one there for them. I also have them a seventeen additional hit, so twenty one out of fifty six gives them a three to seventy five batting average, and their star percentage is also under one hundred seventy one. For the Cincinnati Bengals, you guys see in this theme here, the Cleveland Browns five total stars. They've only had one since twenty eighteen, thirteen additional draft hits. That gives them a star percentage of just ninety and a hit percentage

of three to twenty seven. It's tough out there. You go back to their twenty sixteen draft when they had just a million a million draft picks, fourteen of them. They had zero stars out of fourteen picks and four hits, and I was even being kind of kind on that probably could be more like three, but I digress. So

their batting average is three twenty seven. The Texans going to AFC South now since twenty sixteen, and you look at after the tunnel trade, they did not do anything in the draft the last two years twenty twenty and twenty twenty one, which is the year before they trade Tons or after they trade Tunzel, and spent both first round picks to Miami. No stars out of that and just two hits and then four eight misses combined, so they had ten draft picks and had just two hits

in two years. That's how you put yourself in position where the Texans are, where your roster is depleted and you have to go sign a bunch of one year stop gaps. It's tough living that way. But for the total, there one star over the course of six years. It was DeShawn Watson, who of course is no longer with the team and probably no longer a star. And then thirteen hits out of thirty eight. It's a star percentage

of point oh two six. Compare that to Miami like it's not even close, and then hit percentage three sixty eight. The Colts since twenty sixteen four stars, and their last one was in twenty twenty. They've only had one since twenty eighteen. They did have Quentin Nelson and Shack Leonard in that year, though, but eighteen total hits. Their star percentage is point oh seven four, their hit percentage three thirty three. Another team that has not cleared Miami in

the batting average Jacksonville. Back in twenty sixteen, they had three stars, but it has been downhill since then, only one star since it was in twenty twenty one. That's Trevor Lawrence. Of course, they have sixteen total hits, so a star percentage of point oh eighty seven and a four to thirty five hit percentage, so almost to Miami's cape level there, but a lot of that's been in recent years, which is why you're just now starting to

see the Jaguars come to life. This exercise, I can look at two years of good drafting and typically in the third year that team's gonna be like a five hundred or better football team. It works across the board almost unanimously, except for the Chicago Bears, who will get

to here in a minute. The Titans since twenty sixteen, three stars in that twenty nineteen class, and that includes David Long for the Miami Dolphins currently, but they have six total and fourteen additional hits, their star percentage one thirty nine, better than most teams, and a four to sixty five hit percentage, one of the teams better than the Miami Dolphins, and who's been the playoffs pretty much every year going back since Ryan Tannehill got there, but

the Tannasee Titans. You see how this all works out. You see how I'm building towards what the Dolphins have done in recent years. The Chiefs since twenty sixteen, the world champion, Casey Chiefs, right, And of course when you get Patrick Mahomes, it shakes this thing up a little bit.

But three stars back in twenty sixteen, only one between twenty seventeen and twenty twenty that was Pat Mahomes, and then they had to this twenty twenty one class that was Creed Humphrey and Tray Smith, two guys that I really wanted in the draft, but I digress. And then they were later round picks and probably could have got Smith and Humphrey maybe over at Liam but I digress. Six year totals, there are six stars, eleven total or

eleven additional hits. That gives them a star percentage of just one fifty four, but a hit percentage of four to thirty six, slightly below Miami's. The Charger since twenty sixteen to give us into the AFC West here five stars and five additional hits, a one to eleven star percentage hit it's over one hundred's pretty much been good and compared to what you're hearing here, and then a four to forty four hit percentage for the La Chargers. The Las Vegas Raiders, whoa boy not good? The Mike

Mayock and John Gruden arrow was not very good. They had two stars in twenty nineteen. That was it. Two stars over a six year total, only ten additional hits out of forty eight total draft picks that gives us a star percentage of oh four to eight yeh and

a batting average of two to fifty one hits. The Broncos to run out the AFC here just four total stars and fourteen hits that gives them a star percentage of just zero point oh eight two and then a hit percentage of three sixty seven and twenty twenty one was their best draft by a long shot. Baron Browning and Patrick Stirtan also had Quinn Meynerts in there, and Javonte Williams so again twenty nineteen twenty twenty like horrible horrible draft classes. That's how you wind up winning four

and five football games a year. It's you can you can set your watch to this exercise. NFC teams, the Giants seven stars over six years, ten total hits. It's funny how like I was one of the main culprits of this, how much craft Dave Gelliman got for what he did in the draft, but like it kind of worked. Man like Sakuan's the man. Dexter Lawrence is the man. Daniel Jones is better than I thought he would be all things told. A one to fifty nine star percentage,

which is one of the better ones. And the hit percentage of three eighty six is not great, but it's not bad either. The Eagles five stars and then fourteen additional hits out of forty draft picks a one to twenty five star rating, but their hit percentage another team that finished over Miami four to seventy five. Very good there, And of course you hit your quarterback and you get higher averages there, you're gonna wind up playing deep into the playoffs like the Eagles did last year to the

Super Bowl. The Cowboys four stars, eighteen additional hits. That's gotta make Jerry Jones crazy. A seventy eight batting average for stars but a four to thirty one overall hit percentage, so good drafting. Just haven't found the star players like they used to. The Commanders just three stars and fifteen hits. That's a star percentage of point zero five six and

a three forty batting average. Again, that tracks right. No stars the last couple of years in this exercise for the Washington Commanders going over to the NFC North the Detroit Lions two stars and twenty twenty one helps them in a big way, but that was the before that. They only had one star in the previous five years and seventeen additional hits. Fifty five was their batting average, oh five to five and stars and then three seventy four hits pretty low for a team that has struggled

to find the playoffs the Packers since twenty sixteen. And this kind of tells you why the Packers were an eight nine football team last year, right. They quarterback regressed and their their roster was not as good as it has been. They had a star every year from twenty sixteen to twenty eighteen, they had two and twenty nineteen, but none in twenty twenty or twenty twenty one, they had twenty successful hits out of fifty five draft picks that gave him a three sixty four batting average and

a star percentage of zer point nine to one. The Chicago Bears, it's been rough going over them for them here, man, like they had pretty much every class is way more misses than hits. Three stars fourteen hits out of forty that's a seventy five star percentage. But the hit percentage actually was pretty good. I kind of lied there for twenty five and that's the one that kind of goes against the exception to the rule of the quality drafting leading to you know, eight nine, ten, eleven win teams.

Look at the one team that stands out there in the converse as far as what this expectation is, the Vikings just two stars over the last six years, twenty or nineteen hits. Additionally, i'd say star percentage of point oh three to zero. I think that's the lowest one I did. And then a hit percentage of just three twenty three, So pretty bad there for the Vikings. To put them in this position where they're kind of had to rebuild the roster. In twenty twenty three, the Falcons

three stars and fifteen additional hits. It's an seven to three star percentage, but because the Vikings had so many picks, it's whether they're biting. Average is low because the Falcons is four to thirty nine. So pretty good there for a team that's been quietly building a good team down there in Atlanta. We'll see what happens that has been rid of though the Carolina Panthers since twenty sixteen, it's

been bad. They've been bad. A star percente of just point oh six to seven four to twenty two hit percentage is not bad, but they just haven't found a way to put it all together and haven't found guys in the key spots for the most part, like the offense, weapons quarterback. We'll see if Bryce Young can change that.

The Saints had the best draft class of all time in my opinion in twenty seven team when they hit four stars, that's the most of anybody on this entire project or exercise, and they had three hits as well, so seven rat picks and no misses that year for them, it's the best class of all time. Ryan Ramchak Marshawn Lattimore, Trey Hendricks, and Alvin Kamara, also Alcaden Mohammad and Marcus William Like that was just a loaded draft class for them.

But it's been tough going since then. None in eighteen one and twenty nineteen, none in twenty twenty, none and twenty twenty one. There were some hits along the way, but seven stars and twelve hits, like more than half your hits are stars is pretty good or no, that's not how that math works, but you get the idea. But a star percentage of two hundred, they're the only team that had a better star percentage of than on the Miami Dolphins their hit percentage five point fifty nine.

That was the best in the entire project. The Buccaneers just four hits for stars over the last six years, eleven total hits or I should say fifteen total hits, so a star percentage of point zero nine to three a hit percentage of three forty nine, right pretty middle of the pack there. The Seahawks, after that great twenty twenty draft class, had a rough go over for a while. They only have one star actually over the last six years. I gave it a DK metcalf in that entire grouping.

Their strategy of taking guys that were consensus not anywhere near where they're supposed to go worked out for the once not so much since fourteen additional hits, so a star percentage that was the lowest I lied. The vikings was not the lowest. It was the Seahawks point oh one to nine. They're hitting percentage two eighty eight below three hundred and below point twenty. That's that's a rough

going for the Seahawks drafting. That's why I thought they were going to be a top five picking team last year. But they had a great rookie class Gino Smith surprise us. All it happens, there's some exception to the rule. The rams. The hit rate is why they were able to supplement their roster, and that's kind of how the Dolphins followed this similar trajectory, although I think Miami has much more

flexibility to be good for longer. But they had just one star over six years, but they hit on nineteen additional draft picks, so twenty out of fifty one for a three to ninety two hit percentage. That's pretty good, but a star rating of just point oh two zero but they got their stars through trades, kind of like Miami did. So the Cardinals since twenty sixteen three stars, nine additional hits. That's a star rating of seventy and a hit percentage of two seventy nine. And then the

forty nine Ers. Everyone thinks the forty nine Ers have this great roster building process, and they do. There are one of the best teams in the NFL year in and year out. But again, like the draft numbers, you can't lie on these things. You can't fudge them. Seven total stars, which is great. Twenty nineteen they got three of them, eleven additional hits. That's a star rating of one thirty and a hit percentage of three thirty three.

So teams who had a higher star drafted percentage in the Miami Dolphins was one the New Orleans Saints, and it's because they had the greatest draft of all time in twenty seventeen. Teams who had a higher hit rate from twenty sixteen to twenty twenty one, there's five of them. So the way I view this, the Saints, Eagles, Titans, Ravens, and Bills all higher than Miami. I mean, what else do you guys like what do you want? I guess

that is what I'm trying to say here. I get so tired of the rhetoric around the Dolphins GM like top six in overall drafting and since he got hired, you know, second in terms of delivering star power via the draft and using those guys to get more draft picks and get more stars down the road. I would balance that to say it's like the third or fourth best drafting of any team since twenty sixteen. If you want to argue about it, go back and look at

every team the way I did. Because I did that, I looked at every team that every draft pick and made these determinations. You're welcome to do it yourself too, But that's why you're allowed to go crazy in the trade market in twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three, because you've had these monster drafts like our off seasons twenty sixteen. Think about these additions, like go look at other teams off seasons. How many star players, how many

quality hits, draft tree, agency trades. There's not more than two or three per year for the best teams twenty sixteen. Tunzel, we know what he became. He became a treasure trove of draft picks and star players. Xaviing Howard's been one of the best cornerbacks in the NFL since he got here. Kenyon Drake was a very good contributor, and jackem Grant was as well, especially for a third and six round picks. Twenty seventeen is the one year you can flush down

the toilet. Not a good draft, not a good free agency period. Jay Cutler and Alan, Anthony Fossano, Lawrence Timmins, Ted Larson, William Hayes is a hit. So was Devon Godshaw in the draft. But just one of those years that every team over the exercise here, even the best has every half decade or so. Twenty eighteen Minka Fitzpatrick, Mike Kasiki, Jerome Baker, Duram Smith, and Jason Sanders. He also signed Frank Gore, Josh Sitting and Albert Wilson. Those

are role players that you know. Sitting played one game and got hurt. Gore was a nice, little complimentary back, and Wilson was a fun gadget number three receiver. But they were all positive hits in terms of free agent additions. Well Sitton would have been if he would have played but he didn't play twenty nineteen with limited resources because we pushed it all to the future. Wilkins is a star. Gink is a very good, you know, contributor as a

fifth round draft pick. Gaskin had a very good career here. For a seventh round draft pick. You also added a future two Nick Needham, undrafted Ryan Fitzpatrick, Eric Rowe, Zach Stealer that year as a waiver wire pickup. Not bad, man, not bad to put your some eggs in your future baskets. Then it got really good from there. Twenty twenty two, Rob Hunt, Brandon Jones, Break one Davis Byron Jones, Emmanuel Ogba, twenty twenty one, Wattle, Phillips, Holland and all the capital

to go Ham. In twenty twenty two they got with Tyreek Chubb, Armstead, Connor Williams, Raheem Moster, Jeff Wilson, alec Ingold Like they've been awesome, man, That's why I'm trying to say to you guys. Twenty twenty three, Jalen Ramsey, David Long, Vic Fangio, Bracks Barrios, Isaiah Win. They have

been so good in this department. It's why the roster is unanimously across national pundits a top three or four or five roster, and it's why they're in this position where a lot folks think they're gonna make a lot

of noise this year deep into the playoffs. The whole point of the exercise is to point out the plan and how it worked and how it played out to allow us to be aggressive and go get star talent because you did draft so well to create that balance and supplement your big money guys with contributors on rookie contracts and rants. Go ahead and take our last break right there and come back on the other side and play the highlights from Chris Greers media availability on Wednesday.

That's next Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. And with all that, let's go ahead and hear if mcmamon we just talked about and saying his praise is Chris Greer, who met with the media on Wednesday ahead of practice, and he first was asked a question that was framed about why did you not be more aggressive and going after Jonathan Taylor.

But the question was kind of posed like why would you, you know, not give up the farm for him essentially, and the question was posed in a way that was like, was it because you thought the roster was ready to compete You didn't want the consequences of potentially that move not working out, and you wind up giving us an answer that wasn't really about Jonathan Taylor, because as we heard from both him and coach McDaniel, the move was

actually never that close according to both guys. So I just wanted to play this audio for you guys here because he talked about how they feel about the roster and it kind of coincides what we just said in the previous two segments. Here's Chris Queer on your Miami Dolphins twenty twenty three roster.

job as we talked through things. Salary cap related. So for us, it's you know, we're able to do a lot of moves. We can do moves or not. But you're also you're also aware of your roster. Like we've been consistent in saying, we feel good about our running back room. You know, I think it's showed in the preseason. Those guys have done a nice job. Mike has always

expressed conference confidence in them as well as myself. So for us, you know, again, you know, my job is when players are available, whoever they are, whether it's a pro bowler or a journeyman on the streets, it's bounced around. We're going to talk to people, make calls and do it. And so you know, for us, we felt good about the roster and very fortunate to you know, have you know, Steve and Tom allow us to be aggressive at times when we want to do it.

can come with that. But he was also asked about Christian Wilkins and the other defensive tackles and how those guys' contracts might have made an impact on the moves there. But he did say they've had enjoyable conversations here with Christian Wilkins and his agency and they're going to hold off on those talks for now, but it's been positive between the two sides and the look to get something hammered out maybe next year or whatever that might happen.

Here's or coach, here's Chris. I should say on the two trades that materialized right around roster cut down time, Dan Feenie and Noah Ignoghany, as well as Kelvin Joseph coming back from the Dallas Cowboys.

a good dude. It was happy for me from Chicago, so uh so it worked out for him, you know. And then in terms of Noah, Uh, you know, big heres, we've been going, we've been kind of looking for another nickel player, and so I did, uh just searching around talk to Dallas and then they called and and they had asked about Noah because they you know, they need some help on the outside. I assume I didn't really go into you know what each other. We don't really

go into each other's needs. But for us, uh, the chance to add h Calvin is a guy that can play inside and out but has played the nickel and did in the preseason here good was uh An He's play specialty tames. It was something we needed, So it was tough. Noah's done worked hard here since he's been here. He's had you know, ups and downs, but he's a

competitive kid. I'm so proud of him. He won us a game last year with a big pick on Sunday night then the game, and you know, making a transition from receiver to corner is not an easy thing, you know, for a kid. And he was so young, I think twenty years old when he got here. So I'm happy for him. You know, we're both a little sad leaving, but I'm very happy for the opportunity for him because they really wanted him. So I'm excited for him, and we're excited to.

being the veteran that he is, he has options. We're going to close out here with two more, one on the offensive line, one on key On Smith. First, let's go ahead and hear from Chris Career on how they assess their offensive line heading in the twenty twenty three season.

guys here. The coaches are very happy, so I think this is a group that we feel we can win with and so we'll continue to just keep building and working.

that you were wrong about. And key On Smith is one of those guys because, like I said on the podcast a few times, I just didn't think it was going to happen for him here and I probably wrote him off before I even gave him a chance of this training camp. And sure enough, he had a really good preseason, put together a pretty good training camp, and here he is on the active roster. So here's Chris.

We were talking about what Keon Smith did to make that transformation to get himself ready raw player, right while sometimes those raw players turn into players.

And t Stead was talking about how he just loved his effort and how he approached every day and so he just wants to be better. He loves ball, loves being here, and so I'm very proud of I'm happy for him to make the team.

the team at Miami Dolphins. Check out the fish Tank podcast with Seth and Juice. Check out our YouTube channel for media Availabilities, Dolphins Today, and so much more, and last, but not least Miami Dolphins dot com until next time. Until tomorrow, Finns up Caroline Cameron, Daddy is coming home.