Drive Time: Senior Bowl Day 1 2025 Notebook - podcast episode cover

Drive Time: Senior Bowl Day 1 2025 Notebook

Jan 29, 202539 min
--:--
--:--
Download Metacast podcast app
Listen to this episode in Metacast mobile app
Don't just listen to podcasts. Learn from them with transcripts, summaries, and chapters for every episode. Skim, search, and bookmark insights. Learn more

Episode description

The Senior Bowl is under way and the scouting process has kicked into full gear. Travis has a full day of notes from the sessions. Plus, a general discussion on team needs and how it pairs with this draft class, the reports of a new ST and WR coach and much more!!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

Speaker 1

What is up Dolphins And welcome to the Draft Time Podcast. I am your host, Travis Wingfield. And on today's show, the Senior Bull is underway. I have plenty of day one notes for you guys, plus a couple of coaching hires for the Miami Dolphins. We'll talk about Robert Prince and Craig Ackerman and we'll see if we have some time for the mailbag. Might have to save that for the Friday show from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.

Speaker 2

This is the Draft Time Podcast Off the top.

Speaker 1

The Dolphins have reportedly agreed to a contract with Craig Ackerman to be the new special teams coach, and he spent six years with the Tennessee Titans. Prior to the Titans job, he was the special teams coordinator for the San Diego Chargers back in twenty sixteen. And he has a background outside of special teams as a defensive assistant and he was a linebackers coach at Kent State, Miami of Ohio, and Western Kentucky some maction.

Speaker 2

He's forty eight years old.

Speaker 1

And I'm sure you guys have heard about this by now, but Rick Gosling does his annual special team's rankings every year,

and the Titans under Ackerman it wasn't very good. In twenty eighteen they were sixteenth, twenty nineteen they were eighteenth, then twenty fourth in the COVID year nineteenth and twenty twenty one, fourteenth in twenty twenty two, and then he was fired in twenty twenty three when they were twenty first after they had a pair of blocked punts and one of those injured their punter, and then they missed the pat later in the game because he couldn't hold,

and Ryan Tannehill got promoted to the holding position to fill in for Ryan Stonehouse in that spot. So he's been out of the league for about a year and a half. It was week thirteen of twenty thirteen when he was let go. And if you go off social media, if you go off of x Titans fans some similar sentiments about him as to what Danny Crossman's reputation was across Dolphins fans here for quite a while. And I

get the trepidation about that. I mean, you are choosing from essentially, you know, the Fired Football Coaches Association, the old John Gruden joking association that he talked about. But that's what you have to choose from, right. You can't just go get the best special teams coach in the league.

Speaker 2

You can't just go get Andy Reid.

Speaker 1

You can't just go get Patrick Mahomes, no matter how much social media might tell you that. So if you don't like it, I think it's interesting sometimes the reaction we get from a guy we didn't know existed a half an hour prior to the reduce coming out. But I get the trepidation at the same time, I just think it's kind of funny seeing that balance and the upheaval over someone that you have no idea what he

even looks like. Probably, and I will say this about special teams, I think that you can really point to a team's special teams production based on how injured they were, because who's been more injured the last three years then the Miami Dolphins. And I remember that was kind of like an excuse that I was told about for Danny Crossman coming back in twenty two or maybe it's twenty three.

I forget about it was twenty three because all the injuries they had were you know, key on Crossing for instance, is a guy that you signed strictly to play special teams, and because of the cornerback attrition we had that year, he winds up playing like a pretty significant role on

defense as a cornerback, and that pulls from his special teams. Dude, he's now all of a sudden, you're asking practice squad guys to fill out your special teams groups and the depth you know, you feel that that depth and the

hit you take there. I mean this year at linebacker to cut David Long with Anthony Walker's injury, Duke Riley getting playing time and Tyrrel Dotson stepping into that lineup in that role, like that's the spot that you were, you know, banged up at quite quite frequently this season. Just all the positions that can really impact what you have on special teams seem to be the ones that

we have injured the most the last few years. And so I kind of look at the fix for special teams is the same fix for the entire football team. Just stay healthy and have your core guys that you pay to do that be available for you and not have to, you know, moonlight in special teams while they

play defense or offense, and vice versa. So I just think it's worth mentioning how much injuries impact that group, because when you lose a tight end, yeah, it impacts your tight end room, right, But when you lose a tight end and a linebacker and it impacts those rooms independently, that has a net impact on your special teams unit, which, of course you know those two positions are very heavily steeped in special teams production. So something to think about.

I don't really know much about Rick Ackerman besides what we just talked about his career. Forty eight years old, spend a lot of time coaching football, and speaking of age, the Dolphins new wide receiver coach is also a fifty nine year old who was born in Okinawa, Japan. By the way, Robert Prince, he will reportedly be the new receivers coach for your Miami Dolphins. He's been with the Cowboys the last three years.

Speaker 2

And you know, I don't.

Speaker 1

When we do sweeping coach changes, I don't mind doing the whole episode on that to kind of get you guys familiar with where they are and where they've been and who they've coached. And you'll recall when the Dolphins brought this coaching staff in and I think, to Mike McDaniel's credit, I think one of the best things he's done here with the Miami Dolphins is find good coaches. And sure the defensive staff has overchanged every single year because he's had a new DC just about every single year.

And by the way, we're learning now that it's basically looking like Kellen Moore for the Saints. So continue to cross your fingers. And I hate saying this on the show because Anthony Weaver is one of the best guys in the entire building, you know how we do in Travis. The type of guy that he'll ask me that, which compared to the last DC who wouldn't give me the time of day if I said hi to his face. Was a nice change. And Anthony Weaver, I hope becomes

a head coach one day. I think that that's coming for him next year, and maybe he still does get the Saint's job, but it sounds like they have zeroed in on Kellen Moore, which they cannot make that move until after the Super Bowl, obviously, as he is coaching in the Super Bowl for the Philadelphia Eagles, but it sounds like it'll be him for the Saints job, and quite frankly, that makes me happy, not just because we get Coach Weaver back in that scenario, but that wasn't

a good job. And also like, Okay, how do I say this, Like I have seen Kellen Moore dupress. I've seen Kellen Moore do media. I've gotten to know Anthony Weaver, I've seen him.

Speaker 2

Do his media.

Speaker 1

One of those guys is a commanding presence and a future head coach that I think will really rally his troops around him. One of those guys, I don't think is that. And I'll leave you to put those pieces

together about who I think that is. And that opens up a whole other can of worms about the hiring processes in the NFL and a man of color like coach Weavers, for instance, who maybe doesn't get the same opportunity as the young offensive whiz who has had multiple opportunities in that role for the Chargers, for the Cowboys, for the Eagle, Like, yeah, you know, it's I don't want to go any further into it. I think there is something there for that, but I hey, we'll take

coach Weave back for one more year. Hopefully he coaches his defense up from their top five unit again or in terms of the yards allowed. I don't think they were top five last year in terms of production. I think you'd be crazy to say that. But you know, on balance with what he had to deal with in the injuries and the lack of death, I think it

was pretty good. And I you know, I think we'll get one more year of that, one more year of continuity to put this thing together and build guys out from you know, from what he sees and what he likes in his defensive players, and then he goes on gets a better head coaching job, we get two third round draft picks and compensatory return for that, and everybody wins. That's kind of what I'm hoping for here with that situation.

So back to the original point of this whole thing, with you know, the defensive staff ever changing under Mike McDaniel, with Josh Boyer, with Vic Fangio, with Anthony Weaver, and hopefully a second year of continuity and can retain this defensive staff, and I think did a pretty good job

in twenty twenty four. You know, I always we talked about the offensive staff, and they brought them in back in twenty two, and it was like, hey, here's Frank Smith and his accolades, here's Wes Welker and his accolades, and John Embry and you already know about Eric Studisville and they wound up getting But so like, one of my favorite things about coach McDaniel is his willingness to see what works and what doesn't work on a coaching

staff and to make those changes. And I think that you know, fans were pretty fed up with a special team's production and you got that change, and you look at the receiver position with Wes Welker, and I think Wes is a good football coach, but I think that what happened in that receiver's room in terms of, you know, Tyreek ran the show right, Like they need someone that can not allow that to happen. And I'm not saying

that Wes did. I just think that a change there to get a new face in that room and not have a guy that you know, for whether he had a hand in it or not, kind of got steamrolled by a player who I don't think will be here next year. I think that you go get a fifty eight year old Robert Prince and say like, hey, Jaylen Waddle, You're the new number one receiver.

Speaker 2

Like, follow his lead. Everybody else follow his lead as well.

Speaker 1

I think there's value to that, and I can see why that change was made. And so rather than sit here and tell you about every single player they coach, I just want to give you a brief background, but I will tell you, like with the Cowboys last year, you know, couple of years. Hey, Ceedee Lamb is a

great player and developed under Robert Prince. Brandon Cooks is a player that has been awesome for a long time and someone I've floated as a possible free agent acquisition, much to the shagrin of Kyle Krabs, who thinks that we should avoid players of that age like the plague. And I get why he thinks that, but I just think Brandon Cooks is a really, really good player. And of course he's small too and all that stuff, but there's a connection the right. So I'm trying to get out.

Robert Turpin was a nice player there in Dallas. They've developed players there in that receiver's room. And then go back to the Detroit Lions. Now, he was there before Amin ros Saint Brown got there, but he had some pretty good receivers there in Troit as well that he helped develop and get on to the next stage of their career. Most notably there, Josh Reynolds, I think was a guy that made his mark under Robert Prince. But prior to that, he was with the Houston Texans for

a year. He was an OC in college, he was a receivers coach, he was an assistant quarterbacks coach, a pass game coordinator. He's been coaching since nineteen eighty nine at Humboldt State in California. You know, small college where actually two of my high school buddies went and played their college football at that place.

Speaker 2

So small world.

Speaker 1

But Robert Prince, Craig Ackerman, the two coaching staff changes thus far. I don't imagine we'll get any more because we're getting pretty late into this thing here, but those are worth reporting on here. To kick off the podcast, let's go ahead and take our first break right there. Come back on the other side. I have a general off season and draft rant. It's not very long to get to for you guys, and then we'll go ahead and break down what I saw on Day one Tuesday

at the Senior Bowl. That's next draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation.

Speaker 2

Let's kick off segment two this way.

Speaker 1

The Dolphins Cancer Challenge announced a headliner, Third Eye Blind, performing at the finish Line Celebration at the fifteenth annual DCC taking place on Saturday, February twenty second, twenty twenty five. Join the Miami Dolphins and the DCC signature, run, walk, or ride and raise funds to support innovative cancer research at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center right here in South Florida.

Speaker 2

Registration closes on February seventh.

Speaker 1

Visit Dolphinscancer Challenge dot com to register or donate today.

Speaker 2

Third eye Blind?

Speaker 1

What last year it was a was it Shaka Khan last year or Sneade O'Connor? I don't know, I don't freaking know, but Third Eye Blind, that's right up my alley. My mom, my late great mom, rest Or Soul had a like nineteen ninety four bright blue jeep, Grand Cherokee, and like, I don't really have a ton of memories from youth, but I have like random core ones that

stick with you for no reason. And one of my core memories is like mobbing around Kennewick, Washington in that bright blue jeep Grand Cherokee listening to like Third Eye Blind or you know Creed whoever the hell from the nineties and go into like Taco time for lunch, like on a summer afternoon.

Speaker 2

Man, good times.

Speaker 1

Third Eye Blind also reminds me of a great Workaholics episode when they convinced the three girls to come to their house so the music festival they're throwing and the Third Eye Blind is the headliner, and the only reason the girls agreed to come was because the Third Eye of Blind and the song Jumper saved one of the girls, a stepdad's life because he was suicidal and decided not to because of the Third Eye Blind song. That's a great, great episode of a great all time show. Okay, enough

rambling here. Oh oh, one more thing. Somebody asked me about wiffle Blast.

Speaker 2

We lost.

Speaker 1

We lost in the semi finals two to nothing to a team that was they could hit pretty good and they had really good arms. They were blazing fastballs. Byas, the way wiffle blast works is basically, if you can score a run, you probably win the game. I mean they're throwing from like twenty five feet away. They can throw as hard as they want if the woofballs.

Speaker 2

Move a lot.

Speaker 1

Your boy had two homers, two triples. I think I had a single, and then I had a bunch of walks, So like I was basically Adam Dunn, you know, a three outcome hit or walk, strikeout or home run or triple, I guess, but I was pretty productive to play. We fell to nothing in the semifinals to that team I mentioned there because we couldn't push a run across the arms, and they scored two in the first inning on a

two run homer. Our arms kind of got tired towards the end, but semi final round knocked out and it was only I was the only player from the previous team.

Speaker 2

Oj doesn't play anymore. He just manages the team.

Speaker 1

And then we had three guys from the Dolphins team that I should be a part of probably, but Juice, you know, was the first one to recruit me. So we had three people from the Dolphins here myself and then one more guy that Juice picked up. So it wasn't even the original Juice crew. But we did make a push into the semi finals before we got knocked

off there. All right, enough, of that, I have a bit of a rant I want to go on here, and and you know, I'm only getting into my initial studies here, so there's a long, long, long way to go with this. But this is what I hear from people that I trust. Kyle Krabs tells me all the time. Really hard to f up this draft, Travis, And I'm seeing it now too, with you know, getting into it more and more as the year goes along. And by the way I am, I think the podcast and the

audience can can feel this. I'm really charged up this year about this stuff. Man. In years past, it was always like that. And you know, more liberties in the podcast is the biggest reason for that, I would say. But also having high draft picks helps too. And you know last year we had the twenty first pick, this year the thirteenth, and just having more picks as well really intrigues me to look at a guy like a Gray Zable in North North Dakota State guard who kicked

butt on Tuesday's practice. But all of that aside, you know, this draft that I'm really invested in at this point this off season, that I'm talking about in the podcast every day is chock full of certain position groups, and what I would call it is a meat and potatoes off season, a meat and potatoes crop of players. What is that Linebackers, safeties, tight ends, defensive tackles. Dolphins fans favorites the guards. These positions are so deep, deepest hell,

one of the deepest drafts I can remember. And you can see guys like Daniel Jeremiah tweeting about how picks twenty through sixty year basically this because the player, the talent pool is really that deep. And so I keep thinking about the Dolphins having and that fourth round comp pick for Christian Wilkins is gonna really piss me off when it becomes official, because like, we still lost the player, they still sign him for that much money. Why do we not get a third round draft pick there? It

really drives me crazy. We will get one for Robert Hunt. We probably get a fourth round pick for Christian Wilkins. So with that in mind, that's going to be what four five picks in the top like one to twenty, so you know, bat three for five on those players, get one more guy later on there's four new contributing players and rookie contracts, you get three or four more of those guys in free agency. Now you have eight new impact players. That's what this team needs to do.

Let's go back to the original point. This group, this this draft is loaded, positively loaded. How deep is your love for me? Cisco once asked, in a remake of a different song, I don't know who's like the original. I'm all over the place here to the off season mode. Right, it's loaded a defensive tackle and tight end and safety, and there are a ton a ton of usable interior offensive lineman or tackles that I think can convert and

play guard at this level. Marcus bo is a guy that has been talked about that way, although I think he's a good tackle from Purdue. We'll get to that later on. And this is so defensive tackle tied in safety. I think into round three you're getting starters. This is the most good off ball linebackers a draft class has had in a long time. As well, there are like six safeties that can play. And guess what those positions tend to get knocked down a peg because of the

positional value they feature. Right, Safeties don't get paid, and we talked about that on the Monday Show. There's going to be safeties that sign in August that start for football teams and are good players in for like a million bucks because the position at free agency, they don't want to pay those guys. That's why there's so many guys up on the open market. And the draft is loaded with those players as well. And so what does

that mean? Supply and demand? We know basic economics, right, The supply is vast, the demand is maybe not as big, and that benefits the consumer, aka the Miami Dolphins, who are going to have to sign two new safeties and draft a safety probably this year because I don't think Javon Holland's coming back. I know Jordan Pouyer is not coming back, and we'll see what happens with Elijah Campbell. And that's one position. But guess where the other Dolphins

needs lie in the meat and the potatoes. Baby, we are set at tackle, right, I mean you can add to it, and we talked about it.

Speaker 2

We'll talk about on the show next week.

Speaker 1

I'm not gonna lie down and rest of my laurels there with Patrick Paul and Austin Jackson and key On Smith. We have to sign a veteran probably and probably a drafted guy. But in terms of like you need a starting left tackle, a right tackle, you don't need that. You don't need a starting quarterback. You have your receiver one. Technically you have two of them right now, but I think one's going to be gone. I think Wattle still is that guy. I know for a fact he's that guy.

You have a tight end one which is in a feature position. You have a couple of really good cornerbacks, and we'll see about Ramsey's future, and I think that's still a position of need for long term sake. You have Chock Robinson and Jalen Phillips and Bradley Chubb the most the most expensive position on the defense. You have

Zach Seeler, who you know is still underpaid my opinion. Like, you have all these these critical positions locked up, and so the positions you have to fill are the cheaper ones and the positions that are deeper in the draft, the meat and the potatoes. And while I think I think this brass has sort of graduated from taking such positions, you know, like it did in twenty nineteen with Christian Wilkins,

like it did in twenty eighteen with Mika Fitzpatrick. A safety and a defensive tackle right, or two tight ends in that same draft class with Mike Kasicki and Durham Smith in twenty eighteen, or Jerome Baker in the second round and off ball linebacker in twenty eighteen, Like they used to go after those positions, but now it's more about the premium positions, right, And I do think this

might be the year to go back to that. Look at the Lions in twenty twenty three that Jamier Gibbs with Jack Campbell, I was looking at Campbell, kept thinking Kalais Campbell with Sam Laporta with Brian Branch all non premium positions right running back, off ball linebacker, tight end, and nickel safety, which you know he plays more nickel now, But those are all non premium positions. And those are all guys that are probably the top three or four

players at their positions. Maybe not Jack Campbell yet, but he's a really good looking player. They're all like Pro Bowl quality, And I'm not talking about like Drake may or Mac Jones Pro Bowl seventeenth alter. I'm talking about like they would make the original team, right. Can you imagine what an injection of talent like that would do for this team. Man, we are in a good spot

at a lot of those cornerstone positions. And if you hit on this draft where it's strong and they say it's deeper than it is top heavy as well, but has like a good solid fifteen top elite prospects, well, we pick in the top fifteen and we have a lot of those picks in the middle round. So I am really curious to see. Man, we've heard about change

and doing what's necessary to hit our standard. I think we've kind of become privy to what needs to happen from a personnel and management standpoint, you know, the meetings, that being more steadfast on guys being where they're supposed to be, and you know, getting rid of bad locker room issues and all that stuff. I think this offseason provides another chance to show that you can, you know,

blow with the trends, blow with the wins. And if you do that and you're successful, there is no reason on earth for this team to not get back to eleven plus wins. This is not at all out of reach and should absolutely be the standard for this football team and the expectation. So let's go do it, and the draft starts and mobile will come back on segment three and talk about the players that popped on Day

one Tuesday from the National and the American practice. That's next Draft Time podcast, your host, Travis Wingfield, brought to you by AutoNation. You know, I went to rip the college football theme song off of YouTube and would let me do it?

Speaker 2

Which one do you think is the best one?

Speaker 1

That CBS one still gets me going the sec on CBS, which, by the way, no longer being a thing. There goes your childhood, Travis. Anyway, let's go ahead and talk about

Senior Bowl Day one practice. And I put the two teams together here because I don't have a ton of notes on individual players, but I want to go down the list of players that I thought popped by position, and we start at the quarterback position, and we're gonna just kind of get into this right here and talk about a guy that I think is the one player, the one player I would have on my radar really prior to to day three, because I feel like we've

got several years of evidence of this. And of course, a second round quarterback is going to start in the Super Bowl here in about a week and a half. But taking quarterbacks in the second round has not been fruitful, the third round not really so much either. You kind of get the scratch off ticket on day three. The brock Perties of the world, of Tom Brady's of the world, obviously,

but you're really more. If you don't believe in a quarterback enough to be your franchise and your future as a starter, then you're looking at a backup quarterback, and you don't spend second and third round picks on those guys unless you have a quarterback that gets hurt all the time that maybe you do. So maybe I digress here, but Jalen Milroe is the one quarterback that makes sense to me because of everything that he is. Tua is not right. The physical skills are they pop off. He

can run like Jayden Daniels and Lamar Jackson. He's got the arm strength and the wrist flick and the ability

to drive the football but also layer it. And I think that you can think about selecting him and you probably will see a lot of the same criticisms about him that you saw with Josh Allen coming out of Wyoming, with even Lamar Jackson coming out of Louisville, which Lamar Jackson the scouting on Lamar Jackson, was you know again to go back to like the race card, like it was racial, because you cannot watch that guy at Louisville and that big game against Clemson and like was it twenty man?

Speaker 2

Was it twenty seventeen, twenty six?

Speaker 1

I forget what year it was, And just the way he played every single Saturday, it was so obvious that Lamar Jackson was going to be a great player. It was so so obvious. Josh Allen had a lot more growing pains to go through and had to basically rework his throwing mechanics. So I understood that one. But we've seen it time and time again, right, these physical marvels that come out and they have a lot of bad college tape, But you're not drafting the player for what

his college tape was. You're drafting him for what his college tape tells you that he can be. And with Jalen Milroe, I feel like he's gonna rise into the

first round. Maybe I'm crazy, and I have no backing in terms of, like you know, a scout telling me this or even NFL media people like I just think that he has the physical traits that teams will look at and say, if I can sit that, if I can harness that the way we did with Jordan Love, what we did with Patrick Mahomes, all these quarterbacks that had time to sit and learn, if I can harness that, I can compete with the Josh Allens and the Lamar

Jackson's of the world, because physically he has all those traits and we have to get him up to speed in the other areas. And I do think on his tape that you have touch and layering and some decent processing that has a long way to go, but I think you can coach that, and that's why you have coaches that do that stuff. And when I watched him in this practice, I saw a lot of the same stuff. The ball jumps off the wrist, he can layer it.

The juice on the football is just there. And I don't have to tell you guys again about his legs and what we saw that do for teams in the playoffs with obviously Lamar Jackson's running ability with Jayden and daniels running ability and how he's able to pair man. Jayden Daniels is a great example of a guy that can process and run, and Lamar obviously even better at that with a you know, about to win his third MVP, Like, that's the upside for this guy, right, And I'm not

gonna sit here. I gotta watch more tape before I can really give you a definitive, you know answer on that. But from what I have seen, I think you could get there. And isn't that worth a pretty high draft pick if you think he can get there, if he can be the guy that you can put up against Lamar and Josh and Patrick And look, you're talking to one of the biggest two of fans out there, and I think the TUA in the right situation can compete

in those spots. But if you're looking at a quarterback, like everyone that wants to just dump to a because it's not good enough, like I don't want to do that, because I don't want to go back to the years of John Beck and Cleiol Lemon and AJ Feely and Jay Fiedler and Brian Greasy and Ryan Tannehill and Sage Rosenfels and Ray Lucas and chan for Kyle Orton and Chad Henny.

Speaker 2

I don't want to go back to that.

Speaker 1

I like being a team that can win games and compete and get into the playoffs, and I think Jalen Milroe affords you the opportunity to make that big leap in that big swing. Now, you can't do it Pick thirteen, You just can't do that. But if he's there in the second round, I think you would really really start to consider taking a guy like Milrow. Plus, I think he can help solve some of your red zone running issues and your short yards issues right away.

Speaker 2

Something to think about. At running back. RJ.

Speaker 1

Harvey from UCF was the only guy I wrote down because he was uncoverable in the one on one routes, really impressive burst and change of direction. It seemed to be super polished as a route runner. And this is more of a primer, so I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this type of content, but I had to look it up. He only caught sixty one balls over three years for the Space Coast over there. Another example of don't assume a guy cannot do stuff

because he wasn't asked to. Because that looked like a polished route runner to me. And at five eight one ninety, I'm guessing he caught some balls and played some wide receiver in high school at wide receiver. Lot of guys in this class that I think are good players as well. This game not so much, but there's a few. Tes Johnson was the first one, and just real quick, Danie Jeremiah was talking about the route running and the evaluation tool of the one on one portions of these practices.

I think it's one of the most telling portions you're gonna get on a football field. And never mind all the space they have to set these dbs up with, because it's not really fair. But you you when you went back and watched Cooper Cup, Puka Nakua, Terry McLaurin, all of those guys were dominant in the route running portions of the Senior Bowl and you could just see it.

Speaker 2

It was just so obvious.

Speaker 1

And with Tes Johnson, even though he weighed in at one fifty six, which is like two pounds leer than I am, which is crazy. Uh, that has probably got to come up from one to fifty six.

Speaker 2

He can't play it that way.

Speaker 1

Right, But I do feel you know, I don't take players off my board for that. In fact, I think that size typically shows you how special they are in other areas. I was a huge two two at Will fan and a bigger tank Dell fan, And look at those guys. Dell was one sixty one at the Common. He produced seven hundred yards as a rookie in eight games and then almost seven hundred more yards in ten

games last year. And before you say that the weight is why he got hurt, you guys saw that freak injury that would have hurt, That would have blown up anybody's leg in the situation. Now at Will took longer two years to be productive, but he was one sixty even and he's posted a thousand yards combined in the last two years for the Rams. Is like their fourth option in the passing game. Tes Johnson is a freaky, freaky mover. He glides all over the field and they

could not cover him. He was the best receiver on the field all day long. Xavier withstrapro I don't know, man, he's he's better than Brax and Barrios. But I see some Brax and Barrios and he got strapped a few times. I gotta watch more tape on him. I want to like him, But when I saw the Senior Bowl, I was not very impressed by Jaden Higgins and Jack besh Are the two big bodies I wanted to get a look at.

Speaker 2

I've been asked about Jaden Higgins.

Speaker 1

He one thing I noticed about him is he knows how to press a defender with urgency through his physicality. Like he did this little hop step off the line short in the distance that forces the corner to basically declare what he's going to do so as to not get ran over in that five yard window. Then he's able to go to work chasing blind spots. But man, he is slow. Everything he did besides that one little hop step, to me was slow. I'm worried that he

can't move like Keon Coleman. And you know, talk to Bills fans about Keon Coleman now versus when he was talking about buying coats at Macy's. It's pretty cute, isn't it? Until you can't play football? Jack Besh Again, somebody asked me about Jaden Higgins. This is the size player that I like here. He is an expert at making catches with his feet not connected to the ground. What I mean by that is fifty to fifty balls where he elevates. He is very very adept at high point in the football.

I think he has enough twitch in his game for the size to be a factor as well. And then there's the tight ends. And the best tight end on the field all day and one of the best players in the field day was Mason Taylor from LSU. And if you're gonna get him me, probably spend your second round pick on this guy. Very little doubt that he's going to be a stud after watching some tape and

his just overall work at the Senior Bowl. His first team rep was a second level climb where he reached a player that had him outflanked in the running game and he just went downfield and took care of it. Then he uncovered and settles himself into his zone on a route that didn't get a target, but I thought like his pacing and his timing of that route was good. His feel for landmarks, for assignments, for techniques is as impressive as his build. And this guy, man, you're getting

a good a good character in person too. He's got soft hands. He absolutely dominated the one on ones with smooth lean. The way he can stay on balance and stay on track and on the on the stem while he leans to kind of sell different portions of the possible route is impressive. He compress a defender onto their heels and force them to kind of like you know, make a decision when they're not ready to drive. Then

he has the speed to separate. He had a one headed catch from Milrow that was super impressive that way. And there was also an awesome interview during the broadcast with Jason Taylor, who was on the field trying to like record video while they're trying to interview him. He's like,

I'm just kind of being dad right now. And you know, knowing Jason a little bit, I've I've never seen him like that, like, you know, kind of kind of vulnerable maybe talking about fatherhood and how important this is to him and how like all the football that he's had in his life is it's kind of done. And he's still a coach, obviously one of the best recruiters in the entire nation. But it was cool to see him kind of step back and just like be a dad.

Like kids, man, they change us for the better, and he was beaming with pride.

Speaker 2

He was funny too.

Speaker 1

He talked about how he tells everyone that he knows, including his own kids, that Mason is the best person he knows and he said he's like that. He's like that, and the reporter says, you tell your other kids to be like Mason. He goes, yeah, because I do some dumb stuff sometimes, like really cool information, really cool woman, and Mason Taylor looks like an absolute stud. One tight end that I thought I'm not gonna even watch tap on was Maliki Matavo because he can't run, so crossed

off the list forever, No thank you. Elijah Arroyo was was not familiar with your game all that well, sir, but a super smooth movie. He's gonna be an f in theme and not sure he ever lined up in line in college at twenty three years old. But you saw the shake and the suddenness and the one on ones, the vertical speed, the threat he presents at that size.

Speaker 2

He's the kind of guy that.

Speaker 1

You can draw a one on one against because of our weapons and just let him go beat somebody with a combo of straight line, burst and size with a huge catch radius. He dominated every single portion. He had a big corner route in the Showdown one on one period and they compared him to Sam Laporta and Jimmy Grahamer on the broadcast and the catch radius certainly confirms that as well. On the offensive line, several guys talk about here Josh Connelly from Oregan is the best player

out there. In my opinion, it's either him, Shamar Stewart, or Mason Taylor or Walter Nolan. I think are the four guys that are in the running for that this week. I don't think he'll be there when we pick at thirteen.

He is so strong with excellent ankle ben and was giving guys issues all day long the way he can get his feet back in shape, even in a drill where guys were cheating and trying to run multiple gaps over and you saw them like shorten that thing and condense it down by the end, just patiently slides and stays square like a basketball defense. He's a top ten pick if he's there at thirteen, I don't worry about who I have to move.

Speaker 2

I would just take him because he's that good.

Speaker 1

Ozzie Trapillo from Boston College is getting a lot of a pub but he's also kind of a weird mover. But he was like a black hole in pass protection because he's six foot eight and thirty four inch arms and I haven't really gotten a feel for how he moves yet, but he was he looked like a day one pass protection guy based on those reps I saw Marcus bo from Perdue. He took reps at guard and tackle at guard. He kind of got walked back a little bit against a bull rush, but you could see

his natural tackle ability in the jump set. Redirect move was very fruitful for him. He's perhaps one of the best wide zone players in this class, and most projects he'll kick inside. He's a guy that I think if the Dolphins find a trade partner and they can get back down in the twenties, I would be very interested in Marcus Bow from Perdue. On the interior, I'm not going to cover a bunch of guys I didn't like, because that's kind of defeats the purpose of this process.

I just want to tell you who I thought looked good. But one player that I thought looked awful was Wyatt Millum from West Virginia.

Speaker 2

To me, he was the worst player in the one on one drew.

Speaker 1

His sets were I put dog s dog pooh. He tries to cut off the defensive line, he stops his feet, he over extends with a waist bend punch. He doesn't strike it, he gets swiped, he crosses his feet.

Speaker 2

I just thought it was.

Speaker 1

All really really really really really bad. Who was not bad was Gray's Abel from North Dakota State, who didn't lose a rep. He's the next player from his factory of offensive lineman, patient, sand in the pants and content with bowl rushes. After getting into a good set to deal with both the arc and the inside slant. He plays with fantastic leverage and pad level that allows him to adjust and contort his body for the proper angle

of attack. He looks like a guy that could really excel in a combination scheme, which is what we run. He played guard and tackle. He also took some center snaps in practice. The effort and strain to finish shows up on tape just like I did in these drills. The grip strength the guys, the grip strength that guys had such a hard time shedding him once he got his hands on them, and the way he drops the weight and can quickly get the feet active again. I

think he's a Day one starter. Immediately he's like the next you know code mock that came out of the the Ali Marpetz, the guy that come out of this game from small schools and just come in and become like stalwarts in the NFL. Jalen Rivers from Miami is a guy that we should keep an eye on. And you'll hear me get into this next week on Trench Week, Trench Week, Trench this week, we're talking offensive line defensive

one all next week. But he converts from tackle to guard, or rather guys that do convert from tackle to guard who have this size and athletic profile is what we like at that position and it can get us to the next level, you know of offensive line play. You know Win was that way, Keon Smith is that way to a much lesser degree. Liam Eichenberg was that way.

But he had a rep at right guard where he set like a tackle a jump set and then the rusher cross face and he threw up the inside handstrike right to the chest play and just took control of the rep. Are you guys Rick and Morty fans, You know the pickle Rick episode when he gets himself into the sewer and has to commandeer a cockroach and then he uses the he uses the arms of the cockroach to touch the brain to tell a body where to go.

He was controlledlling the defensive lineman like Rick was controlling that cockroach on that day. He had the exact same rep I just talked about. From the right guard position, the jump set, throw the punch, take control. A player with thirty five inch arms at three hundred and twenty five pounds six foot five smooth feet to operate with the hands in unison, he might be a first round pick.

I am highly, highly intrigued. I don't have any notes on this guy, but Miles Fraser from LSU was just rock solid all day long on.

Speaker 2

The defensive side of the football.

Speaker 1

Defensive tackle Walter Nolan from Old Miss looks like Aaron Donald to me. Right freaky quick. He's athletics, same size and movement profile as del and Carter. Coming out, he might be unblockable if that same pliability you saw from Aaron Donald. His first few steps are so quick and sudden and dynamic, and then he can generate power from awkward body positions and walk you back. So he surprises you with the speed and then overwhelms you with the physicality.

He's going top ten. I would be very surprised if he does not. Dion Walker was a guy from Kentucky that I was curious about, and I had written this whole thing about you know, six foot six, three hundred and forty five pounds, but then I saw an up close shot on his legs. And he's got skinnier legs than I do. And when he was in the one on one crucible, he was getting thrown around like a rag doll. At that size, there's zero pop. He cannot

generate power from his base. No thank You're gonna hear a lot about him, But Dion Walker, I'm not interested off the edge. I didn't really get a look at this group that much today. But Arkansas Edge, land and Jackson. You guys remember that video of the guy doing the one on one Passbrush Driels, who looked like no hoo Hank from the Great HBO show Berry, And everyone's like, is that real? Is that a real person? Is that the actor doing that? It was a real guy. It

was Landon Jackson from Arkansas. He has alopecia, so it has the ball, no eyebrows, no hair. He I don't know how he's out there. He reminds me it's Deon Walker, but way worse. Like so slow watch him just we'll go watch the Arkansas passers. Number forty is his name? Uh,

That linebacker Jeffrey Bossa from Oregon. Haven't watched the tape on him yet, but he had a big collision on a run fit followed by a pass breakup and man matching on Tes Johnson and the coverage drills or in coverage rather during the period, and he also had a one on one win a rep in the crucible period at end of practice. I included him because in the broadcast they said that he's a green dot and as alpha as they come. He gets guys lined up and is just the leader in that locker room. We need

guys like that, all right. Defensive becks Quincy Riley from Louisville, best technician on the entire day, pressed up mirror man coverage, reads the release and gets vertical at the right time, fluid movement to match his feel love Quincy Riley out of Louisville's game. Dorian Strong from Virginia Tech six foot one physical cornerback and it showed in the one on ones great redirect transition to vertical route control the rep by widening and even bigger wide receiver and Pat Bryant.

He has spatial awareness on tape, good feel for zone all over that tape, but as press man reps and one on one might have been the money maker. You have to do both to be great and I also loved his tackling on tape. Something we need on the perimeter. Dorian Strong from Virginia Tech Isaac. I don't know how to say his first name, Isaia or Thomas Isaiahraia. It's az Ar e Ye apostrophe h Thomas from Florida State competitor. Smart player with a good profile to match up against

different body types. He was the only one that stayed with tes in the one on one drills and made the biggest play and team with a pass breakup on a deep corner. He's long, He's an easy mover, has wide receiver body control to make plays in the football. I also noted that Jilen Smith and Maxwell Harriston from Kentucky and USC had big days as well. All right, let's get out here, long podcast. You all please be sure Friday will have a two day recap of the

Senior Bowl practices. I'll take your mailbag questions as well. Then Monday will recap the whole game and the weekend that was Dmobile and get onto Treunch Week. Offensive Line will be next week on the podcast. In the meantime, you all please be sure to subscribe, rate review, follow me.

Speaker 2

On social at winkled NFL.

Speaker 1

The team at Miami Dolphins check out the fish Tank podcast. Speaking of JT, he did the fish Tank and it's great. Check it out the YouTube channel for media availabilities, Dolphins HQ and so much more. And last, butt not least, Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time, bens up Nie can't mur Daddy

Transcript source: Provided by creator in RSS feed: download file
For the best experience, listen in Metacast app for iOS or Android