Drive Time: The Patrick Paul Episode

the Houston Cougar Worldwide. Down the tape, discuss the fit, get the data here from the draft experts, get Mike McDaniel and Chris Greer's evaluations and thoughts, and take a brief look in the day three and tell you about some of my annoying trends so far from this draft season that I've noticed off Twitter dot con. From the Baptist Hell Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Drive Time Podcast. With the fifty fifth pick.

In twenty twenty four, the Dolphins made Houston's Patrick Paul the newest member of the Auckland Orange.

know it. Chris Greer and Mike McDaniel said the exact same thing in their Friday night recap presser after taking Patrick ball.

to work on. He's very honest and direct, and that's what we really appreciated, and we're very excited to work with him because I think he's a very talented player.

out to be some of our best players. I think about Austin Jackson, a twenty year old who got better and better and broke out last season after an injury really wiped out his entire third year back in twenty twenty two and kind of put a plateau into that projection or that growth for the time being, and then he ends up having the breakout season in year number four. And that's not so uncommon for offensive lineman. That takes some time, especially given the modern college game. The way

it's coached right now in college is just different. It's like, get up off the ground, get back to the line of scrimmage. We can go fast and get our playoff here in the next fifteen seconds. Get your signals from the sideline and let's go just more of a focus on getting back to the line than there is finishing blocks,

and that creates some bad habits and technique. I think that's kind of the issue here with Patrick Paul and one of the fastest offense is one of the innovators and originators of the hurry up, get to the line of scrimmage offenses in Dana Holgersson there with the Houston

Cougars previously at West Virginia. Obviously, I think it's a very real thing that impacts the development of offensive linemen in the league and why there's such a scarcity in terms of offensive line talent versus the pass rush that we've seen get better and better every year, and the old line's catching up a little bit and the pendulum's coming back a little bit.

that's another thing. Who has earned more goodwill or should be trusted more than what Butch Berry did last season with an offensive line that, again a lot of the Dolphins fans out there were not happy with how that line looked at the beginning of the year and you wind up getting number one offense in the NFL. Now, things fell apart late in the season, and that's a big part of injuries on the offensive line. But that's kind of another reason why you want to make a

pick here on the offensive line. But I thought Austin Rob, Rob Hunt, Isaiah Wim Kendall Lamb all had the best years of their careers last season. And Keon Smith went from a guy that I didn't think could make a ninety man roster to suddenly he makes a fifty three man roster and has intrigued for me going forward. He looked totally different to me in twenty twenty three than he did in twenty twenty two. And that's a testament to the Dolphins coaching staff and development plan for Keon Smith.

flashes of what it could look like. It's just not how the NFL works, man Like, if you're firing off tweets about how it's a bad pick because it can't help you right away on Week one twenty twenty four, you don't know what's going on inside the walls of an NFL billing. No, nobody've views it that way. Nobody does, and the ones that do, they don't last very long.

for one back to back playoff runs eleven wins last year. Like, that's just sustained success is the goal there, and they want to be winners that keep going forward, and to do that you have to keep the pipeline full and moving, and quite frankly, I love the foresight to consider not just twenty twenty four, but beyond that. I think that both Chop and Paul are guys that will have linear progress as they get older and get more pro reps and become better versions of themselves every single year they

go down this thing. Let's go ahead and go back to Chris Greer about this pick and ultimately what intrigued Miami about Patrick Paul.

not right. But the changes that he made from last season even in college into this season, you can see the growth in the player and wanting to get better. So we're excited. We think he has another level he can take it to and he wants to and that's an important part that he wants to be good and wants to.

And I noted this, He's gonna have an unreal tensplit, I bet when it comes to the combine, and he goes and notches an eighty third percentile ten split and when you're ninety third percentile in size. It reminds me of a press conference that McDaniel gay when he was the OC back in San Francisco, where he was asked about the Nailers offensive line being full of late round picks and new DFAs, and he said, look, that's not like by design, that's just kind of how it worked out.

But ideally you engineer a seven foot, four hundred pounds offensive lineman, and Paul is about as close as it gets to just that. So it's almost like a bit of a pivot off of what McDaniel had prioritized in the past. We knew that two years ago, was hey, Tua gets the ball out so fast. He can mitigate a lot of the offensive line issues you might have.

So let's go ahead and maximize the skill set that he offers, which is less offensive line, more playmakers to make you know, intermediate throws, explosive plays, and they go out and get Tyreek Hill. But now he's kind of going against the grain with the idea of getting a massive, impressive ball of clay and the intentions of developing that player under a very good offensive line coach, a very good offensive corner a very good head coach who all have there have had their their fingers in the pot

of offensive line play in the past. I mean like the pro which makes perfect sense to me. If you can't see that, I don't know how else to explain that. And if you might not like the player, the approach in the idea is all sound and that's all I think you can ask for in this process of the draft.

And how does Patrick Paul use the length that he does feature with the eighty seven inch wingspan, thirty six inch arms, three hundred and thirty one pound frame, how does he use that length to his advantage?

getting over extended. That's having bad sets and you know, not having your hands in the right place, And that's a common flaw with guys at that height who can get driven back because he plays too high and his feet come off the turf. And you cannot not have cleats in the ground. All your force and power is generated from the ground, and you have to have cletes in the ground to go ahead and do that. So if you're feeter off the ground, you're gonna lose. Every

single time. He struggled with leverage a lot on the Houston tape. I imagine that's part of what McDaniel and Greer were getting at. He got beat across the face a little bit too frequently with quick jump sets and where he was exposed in the B gap and gave

that up inside. And I think that's a big part of where Tron Armstead comes into play here and can be a great teacher for him because both career McDaniel mentioned that Armsteads are very eager about helping offensive lineman, saying, I want you guys to draft O linman so I can work with them, because t Stad's a master at explaining and teaching technique of setting and what difference says can do for you. The jumps had to go cut

a guy off at the pass. There was a great dummy set that he did on Micah Parsons that got him to the ground on one of the game winning plays a screen at Tyreek Hill in that Cowboys game.

I think Patrick Paul ducks into his run blocks a little bit too much and can get off balance as a result, and also produces hands outside the shoulders, which obviously means holding calls and there's not a lot of flexibility to kick inside and play on the interior, which I kind of wish we have a twenty twenty four but you don't get that here with Patrick Paul.

He's a massive tackle. The Dolphins like with the fifty fifth pick in the twenty twenty four NFL Draft.

you know, as a tool for a blocker. And again that's that's why we keep talking about the human being tied to the play player because those type of things, you know, he has the ability to be really good at with a lot of deliberate work and motivation to do so those nuances, he's totally fit to to really do well in our footwork fundamentally, and we feel very confident he's willing to put in the work to master the craft.

pigeonhole a player into a spot. And McDaniel jokingly said when Greer said, hey, he could he could play center if if Mike wants him to and he said, could to a see over him. It's a big center. Yeah, six seven is probably too big to play center. So that's all ingest there. So it sounds like tackle is the focus for now, is probably what it should be, and that's the only spot he played in college nearly

three thousand reps, all of those at left tackle. You know, I'm not sure I understand the hand ringing over the idea of going tackle. We went through this with Cam Smith and cornerbacks last year, and then by day two of camp we were down multiple cornerbacks and realized, oh, we need some cornerback help, which you know, Camp didn't play last year. But the again, the vision, the idea of the thought. You can see the process there behind that. We went through it last night with the edge rushers.

I mean, do we not remember street free agent Brandon Shell starting half the season at right tackle in twenty twenty two. Do we not remember eighty percent of our offensive line being down for most of the month of December and playing with four backups on the offensive line. It's just wild to me how quickly we forget. But I digress for now. Premium positions if both Paul and

chop hit. You get five and four good years because the five year fifth year option for a first round pick and obviously four years for a second round player at two of the four most expensive positions in the entire National Football League quarterback and wide receiver also in there, And there's clearly a focus here on upside. Frankly, I'm a huge fan of drafting impressive athletes with the idea that you can develop them down the road into the

best versions of themselves. We didn't have that steady pipeline the last two years, with draft picks being so heavily traded away for veteran talent. And I like having Bradley Chubb, I like having Tyreek Hill. But to me, this signals the idea of sustained winning and trying to keep your pipeline fresh for years to come. We already have a top ten roster, so I obviously love that you can win now and build for the future and have players

that kind of fit both that mold there. Because Patrick Paul's going to play this year, Guys like we had so many tackle reps last year that were lost to injury, Like he's gonna play.

You know, it's always development and that's the core principle of Mike and his staff, and I think that's why you saw the jump in a lot of players ability and the things they've done on the field over the last couple of years.

We met with him at the combine and had him in here, so I spent a lot of time with him and he uh he shared some exuberance about wanting to be a dolphin. So he's he's all the way finds up right now.

More on that moment, but first, in fact, let's do it on the other side and go ahead and take our last break great here of the podcast, come back and do the data and the metrics and hear from Patrick and do a very brief look ahead to Day three of the twenty twenty four NFL Draft. That's Next Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you

by Auto Nation. Before we get into the metrics and the PFF stats, I think the one thing you must must look at when evaluating prospects is the jumps they made year over year in college. And for Paul and you heard Greer mention, this twenty twenty three was vastly better than twenty twenty two, and I think you attribute that work to work and improvement technique or a technique improvement. I should say, he just he's a grinder and you'll meet him here in one second through the zoom call

we did with him after he was drafted. There's a very lightheartedness and very excitable element to his personality. Now he'll have to learn how to play this offensive line here in Miami. It's a different system and tougher to learn, but once you get it down, it really becomes a benefit a scheme, an offensive line friendly scheme that McDaniel has constructed here in Miami. But he's gonna put the work in. This is a guy that's That's all he

talked about is how coachable he is. And this coaching staff has several offensive line gurus on it like where that's probably that's a big reason why he wanted to come here. Frank Smith is that guy. He did that in New Orleans for a long time. Butch Barry is definitely that hit good. I love watching him. Coach Mike McDaniel is just that as a former run game coordinator. So I don't know. I just think trust those guys,

But what the hell do I know? Some PFF data here for you guys, a ninety eight point nine pass block efficiency was tied for six in college football among all tackles. That means one point one percent of his pass sets he allowed a pressure.

past blog grade on true pass sets. Those are non play action passe sets, so there's no deceiving the defense, straight dropback true passet typically third and long type of plays.

And so maybe there's some thinking there with the Dolphins with Patrick Paul as well. He was great at a seventy two in zone blocking and this is the one right here the tracks with what Chris Greer said, forty two grade and negatively great run blocking plays, which just means when he loses, he loses pretty badly. And there

are a good chunk of losses in that tape. But again that's the part of the technique and the coaching up aspect of all this, that when he gets all the technique right and you get him in the building and you get him playing Miami Dolphins football, they think they can negate that number significantly and get you more of that one hundred grade in the true pass blocking set or the ninety two grade in the man gap scheme blocking some more PFF numbers here. He exceeded eight

hundred snaps in each of the last three years. Durability is great to have that. He allowed one sack this year and one sack last year. He allowed one QB hit this year and three QB hits last year, So that is is my mask's not very good yet. That's four five six times the quarterback was hit because of Patrick Paul in two seasons average of three per season.

He allowed just seven hurries this season. That's nine pressures this year on four hundred and ninety six pass blocking snaps or a ninety eight point nine pass block efficiency.

Masterminds and toront Arms as well. In Duke Mannyweather excellent length with tight clench and strong hands a tie up defenders once latched, good athletic ability with the necessary quickness and agilitia to get to landmarks and pass protection and intersect targets on the move. As a run blocker, cast a wide net with his length that helps him impede

and slow down rushers who get his edges. Good stopping power and strain in his anchor to promptly dissipate the bull rush brings an edge chippy personality and finish this with the echo of the whistle. Love that part. Negatives upright playing south with an exposed chest and propensity to hold defenders due to late looping hand placement. The results

in his hands landing high and wide on target. Needs to do a better job of maximizing length and keeping defenders at his fingertips rather than allow them access and to his frame. Kind Of on the same page as me here, Brandon Head dips into overextension on angle drive and base blocks against post snat movement across his face.

Bad habit of drifting and oversetting on angled forty five degree sets, creating a soft inside shoulder against counter moves and can get a little bit lazy at the top of the quarterbacks drop, letting his pads rise before falling off inside move. So really interesting stuff there. It tracks we've heard from Greer, we heard from McDaniel. It's all kind of in that same frame of mind.

and coach bush Berry, and it was amazing. It was something I knew from the minute I started talking to him that I wanted to be in Miami Dolphins. So this is a blessing.

good stuff all around. I cannot wait to watch this young man. And we're not going to do a day three options here. I just want to tell you about three players I like. Because there's sixty picks ahead of where we're gonna pick.

Go ahead and close with this thought here, because look, I'm I'm on Twitter more than I want to be. I'll be honest about that, because I truly loathed that place these days, and especially now with like the you know, commercializing it and engagement farming and getting all these picks in bio tweets like thanks a lot elon, you ruined what was pretty cool man, But also some of the

comments like terrible pick, window closing. Need players to win now, like what, man, wasn't the whole thing last night about the offensive line? And are you really out there grinding Houston tape? Do you really have a sense of if it was a good pick or not? And if you don't, why would you just like ask questions about it?

a reach. Dude, you don't know, Like I just can't with a terrible pick, Fire Greer, I can't believe we didn't take someone who can contribute right now. You don't know if he can or can't. You're projecting entirely with that. You don't know that right Like, voice your concerns, but just speaking in such finality, why what good does it do you? I don't know, man, we do this stuff every year, it feels like, and we never learned from it.

I feel like, collectively, I just think that it's an adult thing to voice your concerns and have discourse and not just be miserable and crap on everything your team does. I saw one person say, Travis, you would have ripped the organization of Shreds for this before you got this job, and I would just say, no, you've never listened to me ever, because I did this job in twenty nineteen

and I didn't take that approach then. I've always been one to tell you what I think might be a problem and voice those concerns and be depressed with you guys, and we lose big games, it hurts me to my core. But I also tend to focus on where it could be a hit, what the positives could be. And that's what I'll always do because this is this is a daily thing that we do here, and I don't think that your hobby should make you miserable. If you do that,

you should find a new hobby. If you want constant negativity that's based around uninformed takes, go listen to the recently disbanded podcasts and you can find out there and that's where you can find those takes. So thin on that tomorrow we have four picks. A busy podcast might break it up into a couple of shows, so just be on the lookout for the Drive Time Podcast a couple more times. We are top two hundred on Apple this week, so I appreciate all the downloads and listen

to and engagement. Keep doing that, keep goodness on the charts, gets out to more Dolphins fans, helps us get more exposure. We're gonna have McDaniel and Greer again at the conclusion of day three, so don't want to miss that'll be The podcast is going to look just like this, might have two of them opposed to one with four players opposed to one part nice Maybe two podcasts two players each.