What is up, Dolphans And welcome to the Draft Time Podcast. I am your host, Travis Wingfield. And on today's show, we wrap up Prospect Profile series with Michigan cornerback Will Johnson. Will break down the usage of the safety in this defensive system across the NFL. We explore some draft trends, some trade back cost option, some positional gluts, and a heck of a lot more from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.
This is the Draft Time Podcast.
We don't talk about ten, right Ten is Bruno's That's the rule here on the podcast.
I'm over it. That's all I'm gonna say about it.
Before we dive into our final I swear our final prospect profile deep dive. I wanted to do a quick exploration akin to the one we did on the defensive tackle Snaps a week or two ago. You guys responded pretty positively to that podcast, so I thought this to go ahead and do it again with another position group that has a lack of clarity at it right now in terms of who might be on the field for those snaps, and we discussed on the Monday podcast. I
think it was Monday. The safety position is interesting in that you don't really have anybody has started for an entire season really in the room.
I mean you have.
I wrote down four, but I would call it three potential guys that could assume a role as such, and that does create a fun camp competition. But when you think about it from a deployment standpoint and the ever shifting landscape of defensive football in twenty twenty five, maybe we aren't looking at it.
The way we should be.
That was the hypothesis on the defensive tackle position, and we confirmed it by demonstrating how those other teams, the Ravens, the Titans, and the Seahawks deployed their interior defensive line snap counts and how many you had to find to round out your roster to get yourself ready to play
a seasons on. The safety position is not nearly as strong. However, I think the makeup of the cornerback group currently and what could be added to it here in the next couple of weeks, and you know, again could be confirmed really if you get Texas's Jadea Baron because of his ability to play in the intermediate as well as our penchant to invert coverage with versatile receivers. I don't think it's nearly as stark as the ability to round out
the defensive line reps with more edges and backers. But we can take a look at the trends of those same teams we explored in the defensive tackle thing and tell you what you can expect in terms of who will play how many snaps this year at the safety position. So the Dolphins last year, for instance, I went into this not having had a hypothesis, but I didn't have I didn't know what the snap counts were for these
four teams. So Jordan Poyer last year played nine hundred and sixty four snaps, Javon Holland played eight fifty four, Marcus May played two ninety three, Elijah Campbell's seventy six. Patrick McMorris played eight snaps. So you had three safeties on the field two point seven percent of the time.
And remember May was released in season.
Holland and Ployer both missed some games or I think Poyer missed one game, right, and we were a two safety defense. We had one thousand, sixty four snaps last year as a defense. Multiplied that by two and you get twenty one to twenty eight, twenty one hundred and twenty eight reps and we had twenty one eighty seven snaps played by safeties. I think that that right there can be instructive because of what we talked about with
the cornerback usage. You used to have to think of it as you need three safeties to play regular time without injuries. And that was the case when we had like Eric Rode down here, right, he was a big nickel a lot of those packages. I Meanka Fitzpatrick was a big nickel here his rookie season. But we only called upon that big nickel package last year, which is three safeties two cornerbacks opposed to three corners two safeties.
Just a handful of times you go up north to Baltimore, Kyle Hamilton played one thousand and forty four snaps, Darius Washington played seven hundred and twenty seven snaps, Marcus Williams, who's still out there by the way, played six hundred and one snaps, and Eddie Jackson played three thirty nine.
They also got thirty three snaps out of two youngsters who you probably haven't heard of, So for total, that was twenty seven hundred forty four snaps for the safeties on one thousand, one hundred and thirty two snaps for the defense. Multiply that by two and you get twenty two hundred sixty four a much much larger use of safeties than what we did. Three safeties twenty one point two percent of the time.
That's it.
That's a big increase. My daughter yesterday told me she loves math, which she's four, so you know, go figure that one. Like she can she can do some traction, which was pretty cool. But like, I don't know where she gets it from, because I look at these numbers and my brain just kind of like shuts down. But twenty one percent compared to three percent, right, So that's eighteen percent difference, give or takes some fractions. There, pretty
big difference between Miami and Baltimore. How about in Tennessee, where Amani Hooker played eight hundred and fifty snaps, Daryl Worley played four hundred and fifty nine, Quandre Diggs played four to nineteen safety. The last name Brown. I didn't write his first name down, and I forgot who is played three hundred and eighty six snaps and they had twenty six snaps to other safeties. So twenty one hundred and forty snaps by safeties compared to one thousand and
fifty eight total snaps. Times that by two, we get twenty one sixteen. That's a three safety rate of one point one percent of the time, less than half of your low figure. For the Miami Dolphins, the Seahawks, Mike McDonald, Julian Love played one thousand, seventy nine snaps, ray Sean Jenkins played five point fifty. Cavon Wallace played one hundred and twenty seven, and they gave forty four snaps to other safeties. That's eighteen hundred snaps to safeties compared to
eleven hundred and thirty snaps total. Times that by two, twenty two to sixty, and now we're at a negative number. So three safeties at negative twenty one percent at the time. That means they're playing a lot of one safety looks and they have multiple cornerbacks. Maybe I could have had this wrong because they had like Josh job As like their fourth or fifth cornerback, and maybe I don't know
how he was deployed. I know he was a corner back with the Packers and in college before that, but maybe he played some like safety role, So I could be wrong about this, but that's the point, right. The whole point is that this is not at all what I thought I was going to get before I did
the Seahawks. I was thinking the answer here is going to be, you know, it's a two safety defense unless you have Kyle Hamilton because of what he can do as a slot, as a processor, a middle of the field like linebacker, a guy that can fit the run, play the rat in the hole, but also get depth in that hook zone and play you know, zone drops on defense.
He can play corner two.
But then you look at the Seahawks and they have three corners play over seven hundred and eighty five snaps and their fourth guy played four hundred and forty three snaps. So they kind of have the same mold that we talked about with the defensive tackle defensive end position where they basically eschewed a third safety and sometimes a second safety.
For more cornerbacks.
And you look at this Dolphins roster and I can tell you right now whether you want to believe it or not, like Cam Smith is going to get his opportunity to play like they have to make good or find out what they have in a former second round draft pick who's not been healthy, he's not been on the field and like you know, Arty Burns hasn't played more than a handful of snap the last six years
like together. But if he's healthy and he can play like I think there's some intrigue about how he can play press man and give them of, you know, very look from their zone coverages. So I could see a situation where you do draft a cornerback in the first round and then you've got Cam Smith and you've got Arty Burns and you've got Storm Duck and you're rolling out, you know, five defensive backs with maybe maybe four more cornerbacks and maybe Efatu Melafon lose the one safety on the field.
We'll see.
I don't know, but the takeaway here is that there's no one way to do it. If you have that matchup chess piece and if he can be that, but so too could Nicky Man worry for in the draft for that for instance, then you call upon more of those three safety looks. Or if you get a Malachi Starks, you could probably roll with more cornerbacks because of his range of responsibilities and how much he can do in terms of just being in multiple spots because he's such
a heady football player. To me, it's really fascinating. Maybe it's not to you guys, but I have the microphone, so you will listen to every damn word. I have to say. I suspect that we'd see at least one safety added between now in July. But either way, again, like this is a tangent aside. I keep seeing, you know, oh, the Dolphins have x amountal holes and they only have ten draft picks. Like, dude, they added to Marcus May last summer. Kalaias Campbell was a massive boon last summer.
Like teams add players later in the year all the time. It's not like it used to be. You can find guys in July and in August like it happens, and you can trade your guys too. But we'll see what
happens down the road and all that. And we have a nice pool of draft picks next year to you know, select from if you want to add a veteran presence to what is now the seventh youngest roster in the NFL before the draft, and ten picks, So I think that you might be able to be in a position where you can say, hey, we've done a good job of cultivating young developmental talent. Let's go find a starter on the market who's out there for a Day three
draft pick. Like it happens sometimes, So I don't know, we'll see between now and when that happens. I think you can let the performance shape the way you call it in terms of who gets playing time with what you currently have. But I do expect that to be disrupted by additions in the defensive backfield. There's just there's no way. There's no way they're done in the defensive backfield. Okay, quick,
first segment. Let's go ahead and take a pause right there and come back for our last prospect profile we're doing here. It's Michigan's Will Johnson. That's Next Draft Time podcast, brought to you by AutoNation.
I would let to buy a bag.
It is Masters week. It is actually Thursday. As I record this podcast. Scottie Scheffler and Colin Morrikwa just teed off And the reason I run that sound drop from the Pink Panther in the Great Steve Martin is that my pick for the Masters is Ludwig albelg And every time I think of Ludwig Albalg, all I can think about is Dann Balgo. So that's my pick. Who do you guys got for the Masters this week? Is there anything better than being out on that golf course? I
never have, but it looks just fantastic. I would love to go out there. Maybe you get a couple of a couple of pops, maybe a couple of gummies, and have yourself a good time out there. Let's go ahead and get into a prospect profile here. The final one cornerback Will Johnson. You're probably saying to yourself, pay Travis, how come you haven't done any offensive lineman. Well, I'll tell you why, because all these mock drafts that you're seeing and talking about Kelvin Banks and the Dolphins have
to get a left tackle. If you think the Dolphins are going to take a left tackle and put Patrick Paul on the bench, you don't know what's going on. I saw, you know, I've had guests in the show. I'm not gonna call him out by name because that's not.
What we do here, but we uh.
I saw some people say like the Dolphins are a sure bet to take a left tackle. Now, it's like, brother, you know, I appreciate how tough the national job is, but like you ain't paying attention dog because they're not gonna They're not gonna do that. They're not gonna move Patrick Paul left tackle spot is his. So that's why I'm not covering it right here. Maybe later on in the draft you talk about a potential tackle who converts inside the guard, but it's not gonna happen in the
first round. So that's why I wanted to keep my focus here on the premium positions and why this guy, to me, makes a ton of sense if he is there.
Will Johnson number two from Michigan, who played in just six games this past season, and there are a couple of tapes Washington and Illinois where you can tell he was fighting through what was described as an incredibly painful turf toe injury and he actually had a shoulder injury too, And I saw a clip of someone putting together all of his mistackles, like and you know, you can say, like, hey, get off the field if this is the case, but you could tell like he wasn't about to put that
shoulder onto ball carriers in space, and it made for some bad tape. Now, he didn't work out in Indie and he was he missed the Michigan Pro Day, but he will hold a private workout next week in an
arbor for scouts. He is a fascinating study to me because you know, I thought it was worth mentioning that because in twenty twenty three, the tape was you can see a guy that was being talked about as possibly the best player in the class, Like he was up there around like Travis Hunter and Abdul carter back when
the season was going on. And I feel like the biggest flag is the fact that it's not the toe injury that held him out from workouts, but because he wasn't running for months after the injury, he pushed it coming back and wound up suffering a hamstring injury. He missed the game with a shoulder injury. So he kind of had this like Tron Armstead run of injuries last year, which I know is going to scare any Dolphins fan and it probably should a little bit.
But that's kind of where the knock is with him.
But I think that when you watch his play style, man, I've been using these like descriptors or monikers here for these you know traits I want to discuss on the players. And when I titled this one for Will Johnson as successful gambler with sown feel and eyes, I think the strength of his game is evident through the interception and
pass breakup numbers. I cannot remember seeing a player with this statistical anomaly, not one that has played more than a thousand snaps one hundred and thirteen targets nine interceptions compared to just eight pass breakups. Like that's who has more picks than pass breakups. But I would avoid him too when he's picking off eight percent of your targets toward him, I mean you'd have to hit like thirty or forty yard plays on the ones you complete to
justify the risk and reward. Like if we're gonna target Will Johnson ten times in the game, he's gonna pick off one. We better get one hundred plus yards out of the others, otherwise it's a net loss for us. His numbers are crazy. He's six foot two, one hundred and ninety five pounds. He has not allowed a touchdown and coverage since twenty twenty two. He had thirty six point seven passer rating allowed over the last two seasons, and I have to apologize because I slept too much
throughout the process. This guy should not be on the board when the Miami Dolphins make their pick, and if he is, it's because of injuries last season.
But I think that it was just one of those.
Murphy's Law type of years for he in Michigan where it just didn't really go the way you would want to, and that can happen in football whole years can get away for looking the Dolphins last year. The way he can sink his hips and drive out of a back pedal is the best in the class. It's better than Travis Hunter. He's strong, he has exceptional ball skills, which we covered already.
He can high point in man.
He can peel off and go impact the catch point on somebody else's man. There's a RepA against Washington last year where he gets beaten low red zone, but he recovers and runs back into phase and lays out just trying to put himself in the catch point or in the passing lane, and it saves a touchdown. Like he has just this innate awareness of spatial surroundings and how to impact the receiver near him. He's so aggressive and he might get beat because of it a few times
in the NFL. I mean, every cornerback in the NFL gets beat. Just don't have a twenty twenty week two Noah Igbinogny day where it seems like that kind of killed your confidence for five years. But I think that he has the makeup to be able to bounce back from that, and the way I watch him recover, or just maybe the spirit that he plays with. I don't think he's the kind of guy you're gonna have to worry about him losing his confidence. I think off coverage, read,
sink and drive is like his best trade. You know, play eight yards off the football and just kind of process from there. But I think he absolutely can play man. On my first tape watch, I didn't get deep enough into that, but studying it deeper, I think it's a case of just because he wasn't asked to do it doesn't mean that he can't do it. He challenges guys with length, I mean terrific, terrific feat and the processing
is also exceptional. His pick six against the Gophers this year, Minnesota, he's playing a three x two where you have two receivers, three defensive backs. It's two off corners and safety help over the top. Against those two receivers. They run this vertical from the one the furthest out receiver, and the slot inside the two runs a hitch and he is playing on the perimeter. He knows he has that safety help, so he can turn that vertical route to the safety
if he wants to. But you can tell that he just knows what the throw is going based upon the way he reacts, where he feels the combination coming before it happens, and even before the quarterbacks hand separate, he's already driving downhill on the hitch.
He picks it off, he runs it back. He changes the game.
I never feel like he feels he has to cheat to make a play, like the anticipation stuff is because he trusts what he sees in terms of an opportunity to make a play. Like USC game runs this, They run this little bluff screen where he's in off coverage and he doesn't go flying downhill and like, I have to get there now because if I don't move now, they're gonna beat me in this you know, short space,
and I can't make a tackle. But he patiently hangs back and takes away the vertical they're trying to hit off of the fake screen, and then they do throw the check down like the secondary screen almost and he
comes up in realies and makes that tackle. When you have a confident player who trusts his elite skills and his elite preparation, man, that's a winning combination, and that patience pays off all throughout his tape, whether it's late hands to poke the ball free at the catch point or when it's time time to you know, elevate and time his jump. He is just the best way I can put it is he's just smooth man. He's a smooth operator. Hands down, best cover of all time by
the way. Coheden Cambria did a cover of The Trooper by Iron Maiden, which is right there, but alien Ant Farm takes it. But he's a smooth operator, a smooth criminal. His understanding of the relationship of time and space, which sounds like so galaxy brained, but like it's just it's
there for him. It's inherent, like when he can pin a perimeter receiver to the sideline and then position himself in the only place where the ball can go it's just this natural feel for the game that essentially eliminates all passing lanes. And I think it's why he gets so many picks because he puts the receiver in a spot where it's like, if the quarterback is gonna throw this ball to him, it has to be in the spot, and I'm there to catch it. If it's in that spot.
He's back downhill on the stem quicker than a hiccup. The way he drives out of a back pedal or even a still position is the best in the class.
It's it's like it's like he has springs in his shoes.
So student of the game, elite physical traits, and an undying want to to be great.
Sign me up for all of the above.
Speaking of the effort, and again there's you're gonna find clips on social media of him like not tackling well or maybe not having the best effort. But I went back and watched to play and this next category is titled effort, physicality, and want to This is the type of stuff that gets me jacked up about a prospect. And this is a guy that tried to play through injuries last year, by the way, but Michigan is losing
the Texas by eighteen points three touchdowns. Texas runs this misdirection with a fake to his side and the receiver coming across on an end around. Not only does Johnson point out like, hey, it's coming that way. They're gonna run this end around. Here comes the receiver. He then gets on his horse and saves what would have been a fifty eight yard touchdown by making the tackle with the five yard line and he came from the opposite side of the field like fifty three yards away basically.
Then I'm looking at his blitz metrics and he just doesn't do it. I mean he does, but we're talking about eleven pass rush reps out of one thy three hundred and seventeen career reps. But then I pull up the tape and he has this one rep where he's covering a nasty alignment receiver. This is when the receiver
is within basically arm's length of the tackle. And from that position you see Jaylen Ramsey do it all the time where he can convert to a blitzer, and he does that, and they run a counter running play at him which brings the backside guard downhill to him on a block and he ghost dips the guard, which is basically a pass rush move. You see edges us when they think they can just dip under the outside arm of the tackle and continue their pursuit of the quarterback.
And he pursues ball carriers like they stole his grandmother's purse, like hey catch that man. The dude just flies all over the field. I mean, if he did it in that blowout, what does this say about the young man? And he tried to play through the turf toe injury, his body just would not let him do it. He plays one hundred miles per hour against the run from zone and from impress I think he can play I
don't think he can play inside. I think it's probably the one thing that deters you from drafting him because you kind of need guys that can play all three spots here. But I think the fit is a really nice compliment to all the pressure packages and sim pressures the coach weave runs in terms of how he can
take care of his job on the back end. If you can identify that hot route and clamp it, and the quarterback has to evade a free runner and make a hasty decision, it's just not good to not have your top target, you're available to you because of the rotation after a blitz, right. I think that's what Johnson offers. I think a player like him cannot only increase your takeaway figure but help your sack numbers.
He just creates splash plays.
I might have flipped my cornerback rankings here back to Johnson on top because he's a special, special prospect. It is that position flexibility that kind of gets me hung up. So really I'm happy with either one, and I think I don't know, man, I think my final board, if number thirteen looks like this, I'm not going to go in order yet.
Ah, this is tough.
We'll do it later on the podcast, on a later episode of the podcast too, But right now, the guys I would draft at thirteen if they are there, and a few of these names are going to be long gone, especially my first right quarterback, cam Ward, I would take him if he's there. He's not going to be there, Tackle armand Membu is going to be a top ten pick.
Tyler Warren obviously, you guys know that. I guess this kind of is an order actually, And then Will Johnson and Jadea Baron are of neck and neck and then I go tackle Josh Simmons. I think he's just a great player. I think he's going to be gone though, Kenneth Grant Mason Graham, the two defensive tackles will see who's there who's not, could both be gone. And then cornerback Savon Revel. I know that's going to be considered a reach on him, but I think he's going to
be the best pressman cornerback in this class. And then running back Ashton Gent. So those are my stick and pick options. The guys I like in trade down options are the two safeties Nick emn Worry and Malachi Starks, Gray's abel Will Campbell, who's not going to be there for a trade down, and defensive tackle Derek Harmon. I will give you guys my full horizontal board for the
top five rounds on an episode next week. We're also going to have Chris Greer's press conference availability covering that for you guys. Next week, we'll have Kyle Krabs in the podcast for two shows on Draft week. Plenty of draft content coming your way, and with that in mind, we're going to go ahead and close up the show on the other side and talk about what a trade down could look like, who are some of the top candidates to do that and what could you fetch in
a return if you can move down the board. That's next Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by autuntation. We are inside of two weeks from draft day. Two weeks from today, you'll be getting ready for Day two of the draft, which, man, being on the West Coast when it was at four o'clock was pretty nice. These seven o'clock draft start times is it's pretty rough, but hey, you know, late nights every once
in a while not too bad. Let's go ahead and close with this today because we spent a lot of time in the last couple of weeks really hammering down some of the options at pick thirteen.
And this is sort of the beauty of pre draft work.
I think a lot of people look at this like it might be I don't know, I guess a waste of time from a content standpoint, but I view it in the prism of this isn't work for today's reward, but it'll come up at some point down the road, and maybe that down the road payoff is in four years when these guys hit free agency. And you have a baseline understanding of where their game was as a rookie at age twenty one versus where it is for
a second contract time at age twenty five. But also perhaps it helps you get an idea for how the draft might play out. These are things that the Dolphins brass will be doing NonStop for the next couple of weeks. The multitude of scenarios. Let's say the board breaks, you know, ab cd ef all the way through Z, and then
through each of those twenty six permutations. Let's throw a monkey wrench into each one, like somebody trades from position Y to position X, and now we have permutation A two B two C two and on and on and on. And by doing that you kind of get a sense for where certain suite spots exist. Like I know, we all get mock draft fatigue, believe me, nobody more than
I do. But the process of running those for weeks and weeks is that with a big enough sample size, you kind of begin to get a consensus and by differentiating which spots are hot for certain positions and maybe where you can wait a little bit. Again, biggest disclaimer I can possibly convey all of this is guesswork, right, I mean, the evaluation of it is sort of guesswork, but at least you've got tangible evidence with this. Trying to predict the draft game itself, you're making educated guesses
on correctly identifying the powerball numbers. You can't possibly forecast exactly what other teams will do, at least not all of them. You have your intel and your theories, but it only takes one ranch for everything to change. Like when Larry mctunzel has a picture of him in a bong mask leak out? Was that twenty minutes before the draft? Or when a team breaks the seal on a position group. We get this run that happens every single year. It
happened last year. We were part of it. Remember how Laatu Latu, Dallas Turner, Jared Verse, and Chop Robinson were all on the board at pick fifteen. You go a lot to at fifteen, Turner at seventeen, Verse at nineteen, Chop at twenty one, from seventeen picks and no edges taken to four picks or rather seven picks I should say,
and four edges taken. So in hindsight, if you could have forecasted that, then perhaps the Saints who picked fourteenth ahead of that run and took a very good player and or Talis Fuaga.
Maybe they could have found a dance.
Partner that would have wanted to get ahead of Indie, Minnesota, US and the Rams to take their preferred edge, or in the middle of that, right like Turner a lot too, come off, Hey we have version chop out there. We only have two remaining round one edges. We're gonna have
to pull the trigger and go right here. So with that in mind, I wanted to look at the board, and I kicked around how best to execute this, and I think what I'll do is run a mock draft and take the info they give us, But I want to look at what's available, who's directly behind us, who has motivation to potentially come up and come up with what the board has available, and the rate to get the deal done kind of makes you respect the chaos
of draft night a little bit more. Right, teams are processing all these scenarios and have just ten minutes to make their move, So let's go ahead and push start on this mock draft. And of course you get bombarded by trade offers immediately, like the Broncos are offering twenty
and fifty one to get to thirteen. The Bears are offering thirty nine, forty one and seventy two to get up to thirteen, and then the Patriots are offering thirty eight, sixty nine, seventy seven, one oh six and a two next year, and we have to send back thirteen and one fifty. I mean, the Lions and Vikings did a huge in division deal a couple of years ago for Jamison Williams, so I never say never, I guess. But the values of those trade offers are as follows to
give you an idea. The Broncos, that Round one difference from thirteen to twenty is a loss of three hundred points on the famed draft value chart, which I know outdated and all that stuff. Yeah whatever, And the fifty first pick is worth three hundred and ninety points, and actually they ask for one point fifty back, which is thirty one point four points. So we come out of that up fifty eight point six points a win. If you're just strictly going off the draft value chart. We'll
circle back to the Broncos. The Bears trade offer. They want us to get out of the first round altogether, which usually cost a pretty penny. So Pick thirteen is worth eleven hundred and fifty points. Picks thirty nine, forty one, and seventy two are worth five, ten, four, ninety and two thirty, so a total of twelve thirty. So again a deal that gives us more value of what that's
eighty additional points that we gained in that trade. The Patriots of thirty eight, sixty nine, seventy seven, one oh six. That's worth one thousand and fifty two points, just one hundred point shy of the mark we have it picked thirteen and the lowest number for a second round draft pick.
If the Patriots won the Super Bowl, and we know that's not gonna freaking happen this year, and there was, pick sixty four would be two hundred and seventy points, so you're one seventy in the Plus, if they win the super Bowl, it's probably gonna be more like a top ten picks, so it's going to be even four
hundred points higher than that. So all these deals are beneficial for the Fins, and quite frankly, if our division rivals want to give us a top four top picks or four picks in the top one oh six in a class that's deeper than it is top heavy, and give us a premium pick next year in a game where it's a numbers game. Sign me up for that, and for what it's worth. I'm a massive proponent, especially
this year of a trade down. I think if you get this class up to twelve thirteen picks, you can make a massive impact in terms of getting what you need badly cheap contributors. Even if half those picks don't work out, we get six or seven guys, that's gonna be a phenomenal draft class, one of the best in the league if you can do it. Our board has Shadur Sanders, Teed McMillan, Kelvin Banks, Matthew Golden, Mike Green.
These are all premium position guys that are near the top of the class, which to me is a great potential move backboard with those wide receivers. The Broncos are a good example.
Well.
I think they could be in search for a weapon, whether it's a receiver or Ashton genty. They don't currently have a proven workhorse back, and Sean Payton always had those with the Saints, even if it was the two man committee between Ingram and Kamara. I also think they could use wide receiver help and maybe see Ted McMillan or Matthew Golden, whoever their receiver one is. Maybe they think that's a good spot to come up and get
that player. And that's gonna mean pick fifty one if they do that, and that's a perfect spot to scoop up another premium pick for a sliding back seven spots right. And it also frees you up to go the safer route, like example, what if it's Gray's Abel and you know you've got a starting left guard or right guard, whatever it's going to be for the next five years with him, you can take a high floor player and at a top.
Fifty one pick.
I like that strategy, especially in a class where it's like fine starters, and Zabel's just an example. Other options exist, but he is like one of these safest players in the entire class to me, the North Dakota State guard the Bears were a team that I was going to mention because they have that pick at ten, But let's
say they go genty. Why not get that name on GENTI and a lot of folks I think think that's a potential pairing For the Bears, we saw them attack the interior offensive line, but could probably still use a tackle, and with three teams behind us that could go offensive tackle.
Maybe Will Campbell slides.
Maybe they want to get up for Kelvin Banks and you can recoup two top forty picks and some change. That's also intriguing to me. The Patriots one, I can't buy. I don't think they're in a position to sell off five picks for one player. But just looking around the rest of the first round, you try to look at the needs of the teams right behind you, and maybe this is a quarterback. Maybe it's Shedur Sanders, maybe it's
Jackson Dart I don't know. And you get the Steelers to go up from twenty one to prevent anybody else from going up and taking their guy. But you just never know. And the quarterback is the best position to have if you want to trade down. We learned that back in twenty twenty one with Trey Lance and the bountiful Treasure trow of that provided us. Here are the biggest needs as listed by ESPN or maybe it's NFL
dot Com. For the teams directly behind us, the Colts tight end, offensive line, linebacker, edge, running back, the Falcons edge, defensive tackle, corner, O line and safety, the Cardinals O line, receiver, edge, D line, corner, the Bengals edge, safety, backer, O line, and corner. Notice the offensive line is in there for all five of the all four of those teams.
He usually is.
Everybody needs offensive line help. But that's where I look at the potential slide of a Will Campbell. Some think he's a guard, which could absolutely push him out of the top ten. But what if the Bengals have him as a tackle and see a potential left tackle for five years of cost control.
Contract.
You could slide back as they are moving up over two teams that could also go offensive line, or a team further back that wants to jump the entire run. And look at Seattle, whose offensive line was atrocious a year ago, doing large part to injuries, and they just signed a quarterback who thrived behind a good system that kept him upright compared to where he was a bust in the league behind an offensive line that couldn't do that With the Jets, right edge is in there for
everybody too. And I just listened to a Move the Stix podcast that said that Mike Green has been attached to the Falcons as much as any prospect to a team outside of cam Ward, to the Titans, every one overall. So maybe the Bengals are thinking about the future beyond Trey Hendricks, who has voiced his desire for a new contract for a couple of years. Or maybe the Lions want to make a splash to pair somebody with Aiden Hutchinson off the edge, as they kind of lost him
last year and couldn't get after the quarterback. And they come all the way up from twenty eight. I think that's where you look O line, edge, wide receiver need teams. Perhaps one of the quarterback slides and there are dance partners all over the back end of the first round who maybe say, there's you know, thirteen really good prospects
in this year's class. Let's go make a push to get one of those guys and add one of the blue chippers to our roster, opposed to, you know, having more picks for the starters, which is what we need more of. So it's like a you know, I scratch your back, you scratch mine.
Well, Jules, the funny thing about my back is a it's located on my.
Who we like to have fun just for prosterity and the issues in giggles, shits and giggles. I ran that mock, taking the Patriots deal. It was too sweet to pass up. And here's what I got. Defensive tackle ty Leek Williams out of Ohio State, the best run defending defensive tackle in the class, perhaps at thirty eight. At forty eight, Jonah Savina, I think I'm saying that right. The Arizona guard who looks like an absolute beast to me, my future Trent McDuffie, Jacob Parrish out of Kansas State at
the cornerback, taking him a pick sixty nine. Nice at seventy seven, I'm going to replace receiver, hopefully Kyle Williams from Washington State.
Go Koks bump.
And then it picked ninety eight safety Laithan Ransom out of Ohio State, and it picked one oh six defensive tackle CJ.
West out of Indiana.
Then I'd probably go with Jackson Hawes and Jalen Conyers, the Texas Tech and Georgia Tech tight ends, double dip on them later on, maybe find a running back at some point on Day three. All of that and the premium pick next year, not too bad. See, these scenarios are fun to talk there. We're not gonna get a pick from the Patriots, but it's fun to talk about it. And we'll do plenty more of that here on the podcast in the next two weeks. Here getting you ready
for the NFL Draft. In the meantime, that is going to be my time. You all, please be sure subscribe, rate, review the show on wherever you get your podcasts. Go ahead and follow me on social at Winkle NFL. The team at Miami Dolphins. Check out the fish Tank podcast with Seth and Juice, the YouTube channel for Dolphins, HQ, Media availabilities, and so much more. Last, but not least, Miami Dolphins dot Com. Until next time, Finns up call on Cameron.
Daddy just come home.