Positional Prototypes, Pro Days and Breaking Down the Mega Trade with Ben Fennell

it going everybody? It is Wednesday. I am your host, Travis Wingfield, And on today's show, we're gonna revisit the trade trades from Friday, with the details from Peter King's weekly column, the value the Dolphins pulled on their side, the crazy Chris career trade numbers and data, and the player he says the Dolphins moved back up to number six four plus, we're turning our attention completely to the draft.

All eleven free agent interviews are in the can, and we're taking a look at sleepers and positional prototypes with Ben Fannel of the NFL Network. All of that and a whole bunch more. This Wednesday, March the thirty one edition of the Drivetime Podcast. So before we get to my guest today, Peter King dropped his mega column on Sunday night, and you really should read this thing every single week because, frankly, it's the best in the business.

But it was especially interesting this week for Dolphins fans because of last week's big trade Big Trades. We covered that thing comprehensively in the last Drift Time podcast. But

how about some supplemental notes here from King. First, there's a blurb about why San Francisco was motivated to move up this early one month out, and you might recall the Jets and Colts trade from and that one also occurred weeks before the draft, and King right simply that Miami gerald manager Chris Career has proven adept at maximizing compensation for his assets, so going up now ensured someone didn't swoop in with a better offer than the forty

Niners offer, according to Peter King. But that's not to say that the forty Niners got some kind of bargain deal. They did not. Friday, we told you about the halls the previous trade downs provided the team moving back and all the players they got from those trades. Well, Miami maximized this one big time. The Patrick Mahomes trade up back in sev k C to Buffalo from to ten to fall back seventeen spots, they got a first round draft pick and a third round draft pick. That's it.

Miami got two first to go down nine spots compared to Buffalo going down seventeen spots the Julio Jones trade inven the Browns got a first, a second, and two fourth rounders to go from six to seven. They got less than Miami going down nine spots by going down

twenty one spots. Not bad at all, Chris Career not bad at all, and King also notes that Greer's ability to wheel and deal has put Miami in position to continually restock the cupboards with eight first round draft picks over a four year period and a quick aside Albert Brier tweeted out on Friday, the Dolphins won ten games last season with just three of those eight picks made, and Sam Monson of Pro Football Focus also a lot of the trades saying the Dolphins are doing whatever the

hell they want right now, which Brian Flowers and Chris Greer I both said they can do whatever the hell they want without the hell part in there with all this draft capital, and most are saying that. In fact, Rich Eyes and anyone from the NFL network, you might see all these tweets praising this trade because the Dolphins absolutely maximize their value. They wind up going down three spots at the end of the day, for an additional third round draft pick and an additional first round draft pick.

Also in this column from Peter King, he mentions the idea that scouts and teams and decision makers might be more inclined to push assets into future draft because of the uncertainty of this year's draft. So many players in this class did not play a football season in there's no live in person medical, no live in person meetings

on the white board. All that stuff doesn't exist this year and next season we should have a full college football season, a full compliment of the scouting combine, Pro Days, and all the out of fun stuff. As the world gets back to normal, it makes more sense to have more picks in those future years than maybe it does this year. Back to the article real quick, and this is from Peter King, and it's not new for Chris

Greer to do this kind of thing. He's now made eight trades involving first round draft picks since he took the job over in two thousand and sixteen. And King praises Career for being an outside the box thinker and says it has put the Dolphins in tremendous position with another great trade, maximizing the Larry mit Tons will trade back from twenty nineteen and continuing to milk that resource

for additional premium assets. Finally, the final point that King writes, actually, let's go ahead and make this the penultimate point about quarterback flexibility. You know, if you listen to this podcast, you know what I think about two a tongue of by Lowe. I've always thought about two a tongue of by low is ability to play at this level. And I think we're gonna see that this season with with what I think he can be. But let's just say for one second it doesn't go that way and they

have to go back into the quarterback market. Well, Miami now gives themselves future appital in case they have to circle back and explore either a veteran quarterback trade or a trade up to the draft to get a quarterback in those future drafts. Maybe it's to find a veteran, proven player to supplement to his offense as he is at the controls. Dolphins have just given themselves ultimate flexibility at the quarterback position and every other position across the board.

And finally, our last point, let's just go ahead and lead this read this last part verbatim, regarding the logic of the second trade, it has to come down to one thing. King writes, Miami had to have wanted certainty that it couldn't have one of the four great pass catchers in this draft tight end Kyle Pitts or white Out,

Jamar Chase, Jalen Waddle or Davante Smith. That's possible at twelve, that's certain at six, he writes, And knowing how smart a personnel guy Chris Greery is, it would not surprise me now knowing he was in position to get a great receiver if he tried to move one of his Whiteouts, maybe even DeVante Parker if the compensation were right. So Kings just kind of spitballing there. But he talks about those four playmakers. I want to go ahead and touch on that before we get to our guest here on

this one's the edition of the Drive Time podcast. So if you go after one of those targets at number six, what does that make the offense look like from Miami? Well, we start there with Jalen Waddle. We've talked about this on previous podcast. If you want to defend the speed of a Jailan Waddle and a Will Fuller on the defense. Just go look at what teams had to do to Houston with Will Fuller and Kenny Stills. You had to play two high safety because both those guys could take

the top off the defense on either side. They could split your safeties. You had to account for them vertically down the football field. It incorporates more flexibility for the R P O game because you influence the linebackers and safeties, and all of a sudden, all you have to do is win a two way go inside because the ball handling of TA takes care of the linebackers sucking up as he rides that mesh point and the speed backs the safeties off, creating that vulnerability, that soft spot in

the middle of the field. And of course you have to hit some of those deep shots to maintain that level of respect. And if I may just go onto another tangent here, can we stop with cementing narratives as some unchained idea with a sample size smaller than a week's worth of at bats, as it were. I mean what I mean by that is, remember when Ryan Tannehill couldn't throw the deep ball. And I'm using air quotes here, and the only reasoning behind it was because the numbers

just weren't there. And the numbers weren't there because Mike Wallace was the smallest, most precise deep target in the history of deep ball targets. I mean, he had no problem hitting Brian Heartline and Charles clay In stride down the field. Then he goes to Tennessee and guess what. Now he's got a j Brown and he's tossing up

forty plus yard touchdowns every other week. It seems so scout the ability, not the box score, and I'm convinced the only way to arrive at the whole air quotes again to I can't throw the deep ball end air quotes idea is if you just haven't seen the kid play, because I posted a clip of him tossing a dime to Jillen Waddle at Tennessee, which, by the way, Waddle caught twenty one of twenty six passes twenty or more yards down the football field in his college career, an

absurd deep ball producing machine, and all of those Alabama the highlight videos are just bomb after bomb. Who do you think through him those deep passes. Waddle only played four games this year, so most of those deep balls came from the lefty. And I'm actually looking at an article right now titled to a tongue volois passing chart shows just how insane his downfilled passing has been. So I don't know it's it's therefore you look at and Waddle can do that. He's electric with the ball in

his hands. He's dominant as a punt returner. He can turn swing screens and flats into touchdowns. And he finally gives you a dangerous option on over routes and drags those shallow crossers, those intermediate crossers. I think he checks a lot of boxes this offense could use for this young quarterback. In general, Kyle Pitts, the middle of the field presence that he presents would be invaluable to a young quarterback. We saw to attack down the middle of

the field successfully to Mike Gatsicki last year. We've seen him drive those slants, those digs, those square in and work between the underneath hook and curl defenders. Those linebackers, play off of the leverage of defensive backs and manipulate the accuracy of his throws based upon the look of

the defense. Well, this is an area where Pits can take those types of throws to another level because he threatens leverage, he threatens your understanding of what is open and what's not open, and he also has the athletic ability to get open and to create separation. There just aren't that many clubs that can get this athletic six six body into a nasty split, which a nasty split is just a little bit detached from the offensive line and run r p O from there. The Dolphins utilized

Gassicki in that regard a little bit. Having both would make things tricky and for more than just the r p O threat, the matchup ability this would create. You could go empty with Gassicky, Fuller and Parker, or Fuller and another speed merchant on the field. If that's where you go at receiver with a running back that can also function as a route runner, and that's where I

look to go with Kyle Pitts. How can I just be indefensible with a twelve personnel package that can line up balanced with two in line tight ends and run the ball down your throat, or we can spread it out and go empty. There's not a defense on Earth equipped to match up to that. To me, it's revolutionary Davante Smith. If there's anybody in this draft that screams

Dolphin more than Smith, I have not seen him. The character, the fact that he's already praised for his knowledge, understanding and approach and the field for the game of that of a ten year veteran is just outstanding. And he's so, so,

so good as a route runner. I think if you have Smith, you call plays where it's basically just if DeVante has a one on one, that's where the ball is going, because you know he's going to deconstruct that cornerback in a way that one makes it easy for the quarterback to make the read and the quarterback has an easy decision because of the separation created and to it creates big plays after the catch ability because he wins by so much and gets so many dbs on

their heels and turned around. Go watch his tape and the defensive backs in the SEC they're having a hard time finding out which direction he's going. They're on their heels a lot. He really puts them in a bind. I don't think DeVante is as specialized as the other two, but he's the best route runner and I feel like he's the most sure fire player of this group in terms of his floor, but his ceiling is also incredibly high.

To Daniel Jeremiah on the Move the Sticks podcast the other day, I was talking about the wide receiver class and Smith in particular, and I was actually thinking about this myself, as I seriously have one hell of a time separating he and Waddle. I go back and forth with Smith and Waddle all the time. But he said, every time they go back and look at their draft hits and misses, the one thing he always regrets not valuing higher is route running and the craft. And that's

Davante Smith. Fourth, and finally, Jamaar Chase, big physical speed guy. Now you don't see the speed and quickness at the line, but where it really shows up is when you get down the field. He has this ability to run away once he builds up that speed, and that combination is pretty rare. But here's the thing. In a way, it's almost redundant to what Davanta Parker does, and that could be great for some offenses, but I don't think it is for this team. For this quarterback. We've talked about

the timing, the rhythm, the precision of two hitting his speed. Guys, his game isn't the yolo ball into coverage the way it was with Ryan Fitzpatrick. Now, if Fits was the quarterback, I'd say, yeah, let's go ahead and replicate Davante Parker and go crazy all year with him Parker and Gisicky. But that's just not the construction of this offense. In my opinion, Chase might give you something you need. It's

a weapon from the inside. At five ft eleven, he has the ability to both press slot corners with a mixture of physicality and vertical playmaking, which is a dangerous thing to defend against in today's NFL. But I'm just not sure if that's what fits best. We're gonna find out soon enough. Here. Draft is less than a month away, and I cannot wait. Let's turn this thing over now to my guest on today's edition of the Drivetime Podcast.

He produces draft content for the NFL Network. He's on the Journey to the Draft podcast on the Eagles Podcast Network with Fran Duffy. He is Ben Fanelle and joining me now on the Drivetime Podcast is Ben Fanelle and Ben. We're a month out, man, Christmas morning is almost here, right? Or is this entire process kind of Christmas morning for you, Well, let's really turned into this three animals. So it's getting close.

We're definitely in December if we're looking forward to that Christmas and opening presents as we're uh, just about a month away from this draft in Cleveland, and it's been a long process and it's been a unique process in this cycle in particular, and I'm kind of just excited we're almost at the finish line, which just starts another race for aside from the combine and general human interaction, one of the things I missed the most is your on field shots on Saturday at college campuses, but also

your scenic shots. Like you've shared the b y U photos so many times and I love it every time because it's it's so gorgeous. What's the one thing you miss most about being on campus being in a stadium on Saturdays in the fall. Well, it's gonna be tough to list just one thing. Just a reminder, I didn't go to a college with a football team. I went to a city school with a lot of sidewalks and concrete jungle. So being able to go out to these

meccas a college football I soak it all in. So I love the flying in the random airports and drives from major cities and going to that random lunch spot that's in there for eighty years, and all the father daughters on game days, and the pageantry and the history, the culture. I love it exponentially more than NFL games. I feel like NFL games, you're in a cookie cutter city. You fly into that city, stay in a corporate hotel. UM.

There's some challenges with college obviously. Sometimes you go to Tuscaloosa and the only place to stay is a holiday in UM. But if you're not too picky, you get

to see some really unique areas of the country. So it was very disappointed I wasn't on the road this past season due to COVID and this world falling apart, but I hope to definitely pick it back up in college football is it's to me, it was it was the sport that suffered the most from the lack of fans and the lack of the you know, the environment is really really so important, so crucial to the entire sports. So I man, I can't wait for this season and

hopefully things are more back to normal this year. And speaking of that, we've got some protas going off. You mentioned you were kind of picking off in the corner of your eye here during you know, before we got on the air. Here good at the Alabama Pro Day right now on NFL Network. I want to go ahead and start there and talk about the Pro Day process. Like, you know, we've seen all these times that have been posted that are to me substantially better than what we

get at the combine every year by considerable amounts. Before your dashes are lower, the jumps are longer and higher. What do you make of the way the Pro Day process is played out? And when we get to this I guess. And on the second part of the question, who do you think has really helped themselves the most in the Pro Day process? Well, I feel like the scores are on par with Pro Days of the last five, ten, twenty history of Pro Days. They're just you know, much

more controlled environment. The players are more comfortable. Yes, there are maybe some tricks and trends of the world that you know have alluded to some better times or some notorious thirty nine yard tracks down wind down hill that always produced slightly better UH test scores that have been running jokes in the scouting community, but it's really just a comfortability factor of the schools and the lack of a streamlined baseline testing process is gonna lead to high

variants results. And that's the beautiful thing of a combine. It's a much more controlled atmosphere by outside third parties and everything is kind of streamline and the same situation for every player, and I think that's why the scouting

community values the combine. At the end of the day, this process is just very interesting this cycle, and it all started last cycle with the lack of pro days, and it's really the pro days that start the process for next class and not having the pro day circuit last year, in combination with not having scouts on campus for the most part in the fall, the scouting community is just behind the eight ball. With general vetting of the players. You can watch every snap these players have

ever played and figure out the player. Now we just need to figure out the person, the potential co worker, the teammate, the member of society, and being around the player on campus pro days, you can talk to the position coach and his academic advisor and strength and conditioning coach, maybe some teammates and start to put together all the pieces about the person, and as we both know, the person you're drafting has become just as important as a

player you're drafting, and some may say it's even more important. The success and failures in the NFL are rarely for ability. These guys are all very talented, very athletic, very strong, But what separates is typically the player and the employees. So these pro Days and even the Combine, Travis, we have to remember why the combine was created medicals. Then we said, hey, if we're getting them all here in one spot, let's work them out. Hey if we're working

them out, we might as well interview them. But all we see on TV is the workouts, so we think that's the most important, just like Pro Days we see the times we see the workouts, we think that's the most important. But it's really what goes on behind the scenes and just the general vetting, people, talking to people, doctors, poking and proud in the cattle. All that stuff I think has so much more value then the on field workouts and what's in front of our faces. Yeah, you

talk about the medical aspect of Indie. Just last year was my first combine and I was so we talked about Christmas morning. I was kid in a candy store, just kind of bruising the entire convention center, going from podium to podium and the central location of everything in Indie. The skywalks, Man, I love that city, even there one time. I absolutely loved that. I hope we get that back in the near future. We had good weather last year too, we got to use those skywalks when we had blizzards

and we literally cannot step outside. Yeah. I also was a late ad to, so I had to get one of the hotels that was not like I wasn't a j W or anything like that. I was off to the side, so I kind of had a distance walk. So I was definitely in the in the skywalks because I don't do I don't do below fifty very well. But that's why Miami is a great place for me. So so that was that was fun. I hope I get back to that. You mentioned, you know, getting know the person. I think we both can talk about last

year's twenty ninth pick in the draft. I thought for sure you're going to mention him. Well, we'll leave it at that. Clearly the person is very important when it comes to to you know, what you get in the player. But you also mentioned these proteins again, and we're gonna go back to this because you know, I watched the Ellerson Smith and Spencer Brown from northern Northern Iowa or the Penn State guys that just Michael Parsons and Jason

Oh wait, who just blew this thing up. You talked about how those have been consistent with the pro day, you know, the Pro days of the past. But who do you think has really helped themselves the most in this in this run to the draft, in the pro day process, these multiple pro day schools are having who has really helped themselves the most above anyone else? You think? Yeah?

And I guess my final point just on the importance of the pro days are there are some players with major gray areas and question marks that we haven't seen on the field in because they opted out or maybe injuries or um so getting general measurables and some things on players that we haven't seen in a while is also very important. And it feels like we're drafting players,

you know, at a high school to the NBA. You know, when you have guys like gregor Rousseau, that's have barely five dred snaps in their college career, or Walker Little hasn't been on the field in two years, or really interesting prospects with medical concerns like Tallenoa who founda just the boom or bus aspect. There are so many prospects

that just have so many gray areas and uncertainties. But you have to remember that's where you get the star players too, That's where you get the Kobe Bryants and Kevin Garnett's um. Even though there are a lot of bus out of high school as well. So just that boom or bus factor in this class is just seemingly dominating a lot of prospects. But the pro day workouts, yeah, this is a great opportunity for guys to show off the height, weight, speed and explosiveness you start. You mentioned it.

Those Penn State guys track speed all over the place of that roster. Michael Parsons Jason Oway always one of the more interesting players in that heightweight, speed potential upside. Boom bus player with very little production, very little nuanced to his game, very little technical aspect to his game, but he looks the part and this brings a lot of God given abilities that defensive line. Coaches think, hey, we can't teach that. I get teach them the rough

to pass her. I can't teach you to be too or run four three. So it's all kind of figure out what can we do with these players as far

as developing them. But there's players at every workout, whether it's the big heightweight, speed receiver Nico Collins at Michigan running the four fours at nearly to twenty, the athletic tackles Brady Christensen, I'm so happy, had a great workout for b y U. Zach Wilson, rightfully so, has stolen a lot of the buzz and the thunder at a b y U. That old line that's a run first offense.

They blocked their butts off and blocked their butts off forever when Zack Wilson was running around making plays and nobody got their name called. This year it was all Zack Wilson, Wilson, Wilson, rightfully so. As the quarterbacks get the love and the attention and the criticism, but Brady Christensen and some of those other guys on an old

line really good players. Some corners Greg Newsome at a Northwestern Robert Rochelle both extremely high end testers, high end athletes, and one sleeper that has kind of been getting some bu is at the end of the season and completely took off on his pro day Milton Williams at Louisiana Tech. Kind of a defensive end defensive tackle hybrid with just

oozing explosiveness and length for days. So a lot of guys that have been able to take their pro days and create a little buzz as far as the draft stock. That's why I want to get you on here because we have you know, we we've covered the top parts of the draft so so in depth for the run up. You mentioned the twelve month process that is the draft.

I mean, we have so much time to go over you know, the SEC and watch the top of the line guys, the Kyle Pitts versus Patrick Sir Tan matchup, that type of thing, and it's fun to do that. But I also love getting into Day three stuff here too, which we'll circle back here and come back to that. But I want to play this game with you, and maybe it's one guy, maybe it's two guys. I won't limit you to to a number here, but I want

to play prototypes by position of need. And I'll go ahead and tell you the prototype here of what I think the Dolphins have done or what they've what they've kind of assembled in terms of their ideal prospect at these positions, and we'll start a running back. I think most folks agree that running backs the need for the Dolphins. And I didn't really of a general Dolphins team here.

The only one I had that was that was evident of Brian Flores here in Miami, was that they typically go with a back what game to game, even whether it was Savan Akhmed or Miles Gaskin or Jordan how whoever might have been, they usually get. They usually go plus Workloade with the number one back. So that's kind of my first thought. And then also going back over coach Studentsville, Eric Studisville, the run game coordinator and now

co offensive coordinator here in Miami. He's always had two plus pound backs, Travis Henry, Willis McGahee, Marshawn Lynch, No, Sean Marino, on and on and on, a physical pounder that can kind of do it all. So if that's your prototype you're looking at the running back position, Ben, who's that guy? Maybe two guys Yeah, some really good needs on the team. I definitely could see their need for kind of a bruiser between the tackle guy to

beat you up. I want to see Miami commit more to the run game there twenty six in the NFL as far as running the ball and first and ten not nearly enough on first down and running the ball in the first half. That's purely volume. Just not committing to the run enough. With a young quarterback that came from a run first offense in college, put him in a position to be successful and replicate his success, Let's run the ball. So you can definitely see a need

for a bruiser back. Can definitely see the need for a scat back and a guy that really excels on third down that's a pure pass catching threat out of the backfield. But looking at these two found backs, there aren't many in this class, and they're kind of a dying breed in college football. They're not the ones that are high production guys. There aren't guys that are going to test particularly well, and they're rarely the guys that

contribute in the past game. I think it's kind of slipping people's mind that Naji Harris is two thirty pounds. But outside of him, it's not a whole lot. I mean, Trey Sermon is pushing to twenty, Kyle and Hill to fifteen, Larry Rowntree at Missouri to fifteen, or Madre Stevenson at Oklahoma is probably, but none of those guys are particularly high end testers, so they're not going to be the

four four type of backs. He's gonna be those bell how guys that you want to move the pile and give it to him on first down and hopefully set up a game and finish a game in the fourth quarter. Those those type of presence in the backfield, not a whole lot to choose from. Um, So you know, it's kind of slim pickings out there, and they aren't the

sexiest type of players to talk about. Yeah, it'll be interestacy where the Dolphins go given the fact that there is so much RPO, you know, incorporated in the offense with two a tongue of by Low and kind of how those guys work off of each other in that

run pass game on offense. Now now to get that good balance of the RPO like he had him Bama, the bruiser back between the tackles and that shifty slot receiver to run the in breakers and slants behind them, and then it's a pick your poison defensively commit to the run, stop the shifty slot receivers. Couple of pieces away from both of those aspects, but I think they're working their way to replicating that type of offense, and

that's where we go next year. The receiver position, I'm curious because you know DeVante Parker for what he what his sizes. People forget that he does kick inside and play slot quite a bit, so mostly in the slot. And then you've got a collection of guys Albert Wilson, Lynn Bowe, and Jachem Grant, guys that typically play inside. Uh, I guess the pro type I would go with here. This is the one position where I don't really have a complete data set for you, but I will say

that guys that can play multiple spots. So who is the best looking prospect in this class that can play inside outside and not lose production on either position. Well, I think this team could really use a more segmented true slot receiver. I think Davante's warned the hat of being the big slot or even that move tight end

on the inside. I think will Fuller's an interesting speed option, and they clearly have a desire to find some sort of slot gadgety player, whether it's Jeachem Grant, Lynn Bowden. Don't forget Kirk Merritt at Arkansas State is a very much an explosive gadgetty player as well. I think he was a D one transfer if I'm not mistaken, that

ended up in Arkansas State. But anyways, this this draft has tons of dynamics slot receiving options that I would love to see paired with the speed of a full bowler and with the size of a Parker, whether that's Caldarius Tone here, Elijah Moore, a Maori Rodgers, Shy Smith, Immerse Smith, Marsen d screens, There's all these guys that are four four receivers that don't have tons of size, but that's okay. They're great for the RPO game, the

quick game, the screens, the manufactured yards after catch. Put the ball in their hands anyway possible and let them do the dirty work. And I think Toah needs more weapons around him like that of easy offense. To say this is a five yard throw that could turn into a sixty yard touchdown. We need someone to take the small and make it a big play. And in this draft, do not pass on one of these guys on day two.

I think one of these guys would be a great plug and play option, even if it is a round del Moore that people say, oh five seven at a slot receiver. Put him in the backfield all my running back, for all I care, you allow to catch passes from back there. Alvin Kamara and Christie McCaffrey and those guys have done a pretty good job doing it. So I think the Dolphins can definitely use us player like this.

It might be able to knock out, you know, two birds at one stone by grabbing that slot receiver that could also win from the backfield on third down, like we just talked about. I've been talking about Ron del Moore since that freshman season debut against Northwestern my one of my favorite college football performances of all time. He was electric that night. And you also mentioned that kind of size concern. Just real quick, I just saw this to to at will a hundred and fifty five pounds.

That blew me away. I've been high on two two, but one that's louder than I that's that's louder than I am, and I'm not a big guy. That's I think. I looked it up. He was one and it's high school recruiting page. That's crazy. Yeah, it's interesting that football was his choice at that size, but he certainly can played the game. So we'll see that. That makes the That makes the argument so much more fun when you're

gonna go against these traditional prototypes. So speaking of prototypes, going to the offensive line, you're talking about kind of rounding out this offense for two A tongue by Loa and this this young group that led the National Football League and snaps for rookies and on the offensive side as well. And it seems like the Dolphins have prioritize athletic ability but also size above all. And I go back to a sign they made in twenty nineteen out of the American of the a F I forgot what

it stands for. They brought over. They brought over a guy Jared Jones Smith, who had like an inch wings band, was like six ft seven. He was the first guy I saw on the field my first day at training camp, and I was like, oh my god, that is a grown man right there. So they've gone after Eric Flower, Solomon Kinley, Robert Hunt, Austin Jackson, and most of those guys are bigger offensive linemen. A couple of them have the athletic traits like an Austin Jackson, So wingspan, athletic ability,

sheer size. Who do you think checks those boxes in this year's class? So when I look across the board here some of those names just mentioned, Robert Hunt, Solomon Kinley, Eric Flower is currently three out of the five starting offensive linement at the moment. They're all certain type. He's are a burly, big mauling type that want to go downhill. We don't always talk about downhill offensive lineman. These are

people movers. You want to get vertical displacement as opposed to the popular adderal and outside zone game where you have offensive lineman moving east and west with really good quickness off the ball. The Dolphins have it tough, have a type. They want to go north south and bang you up vertically. So you have to make sure you find someone that can bang vertically in the draft, and

there's definitely different types. Some of those guys we talked about, Samuel Cosmi, Brady Christiansen at tackle may not be for the Dolphins, they're gonna want more of that heavy type. Maybe that Tevin Jenkins out of Oklahoma State, maybe a James Hudson out of Michigan. A lot of these types that you're projecting. Maybe the slide into guard um. Maybe it's a Deonte Brown at Alabama who's pushing three fifty.

Doesn't look good, won't be for every scheme. But if you're a vertical team, if you're a power team like the Dolphins, like the Ravens, those types of offenses, like the Steelers, like the Browns, they're gonna be great fits. So I think when you look at run styles and the type you're looking for really really important when projecting, and the Dolphins kind of ebbing way when the rest of the league is looking for much lighter, much more

athletic offensive linement. Yeah, certainly a point of the investments last year is they went heavy on the offensive line. Two premium picks than Solomon Killy in the fourth round, who wound up starting Opening Day, and I think it was thirteen or fourteen games for this Dolphins team last season.

So we'll see where they go this year. And then another position that I think there could be some more investment in is the I guess we'll call it defensive line because this Dolphins defensive line there really isn't much of an edge and interior distinction. I mean, Zack Steeler kicks out and plays and Christian Wilkins kicks out and plays end at that three hundred pound three d plus pound you know, body type, and it kind of reminds

me of the old Patriots with Ty Warren. I think that's my best example for a guy that kind of plays that five tech three tech and can even kick out in the four man front and rush from outside. Now, the one true edge we do have was a dominant player last year who was heavy both and weight in his hands two hundred and sixty pounds heavy handed, Emmanuel Ogball.

Length also crucial. They signed Shack loss In last year thirty two and a half inch arms, but og Ball was the one who really eld in the scheme and checked in with the thirty five and a half inch arms. So guys that can that can play inside but moonlight outside guys are a big, heavy handed who fits that bill in this year's draft class, I think I have

an idea of one guy in particular. So if we're looking for somebody like a Manuelgba, heavy handed, a little bit on the heavy side for an edge you Guya can slide inside, but some of the negatives of a stiff hipped in the lower half. But he's able to win because he's so strong, he's so relentless, doesn't have to come off the field, which you look at a lot of these light edge rushers kind of liabilities on early downs and they're really just subpackaged players. Do you

find find guys that can play every down? Typically more productive players. So if you want a guy that represents and reflects ogba skill set, maybe in the first round with a quiddy pay out of Michigan is a similar type of player. Explosive but a little stiff in the lower half, you know, but absolutely relentless player that can slide inside. Boogie Basham had a Wake Forest is one of my favorite, very similar player. He's two. This type of player is what I love, Travis, because there's nothing

finesse about them. They're gonna play the run, They're gonna look to go through you. They can win inside, outside through you with that three way go. They're not what I call runaround types and what I mean by runaround speedy edge rushers. They just want to run around tackles. They have no problem playing with physicality and brute strength at the point of attack. And maybe on day three a camera and sample is a similar type of guy. Doesn't look good. He's six to maybe two seventy five.

He's got a big butt, tree trunk legs, doesn't have that wiry athletic frame that we get excited about off the edge. But that's okay because he plays so hard and he's so strong, and I'd maybe like to see

more of a complimentative piece on this front. So as much as we look at the ad bus and now we have an arctic McKinney, whill probably rushed off the edge a little bit, like to see a little bit more of a complimentative skill set to maybe somebody with a little bit more twitch to their game, maybe somebody to threaten tackles high side and then flush out that

quarterback to the big guys up front. So if they maybe want to go away from the two seventy five guys and go down to the two forties, maybe a Quincy rochet at of Miami the Temple transfer, Chris rumped the second at a duke probably can't play on first and second down in the NFL because he's two thirty pounds, but one of the loosest, twitchiest edge rushers in the class Shaka Tony At a Penn State. Long story short, Travis Miami Dolphins were top ten in sacks, hits fresher

last year. They don't need production. I think they need some more personnel. Too much blitzing last year gave up way too many plays out the backside. So what am I saying? Fine, players that can win for themselves, win one on once, get after the quarterback without always halving to dial up blitzes. So I want guys that can win.

So whether it's the quitty pays, bash them samples, or maybe some of the twitched up guys, I think they definitely have some personnel needs up from That's a great segue into our our next position group here talking about the the position that really did kind of drive the pressure in the scheme of you know, the scheme up pressure in that linebacker group and then playing all the

cover zero and the press mound. The on the back end there, like you mentioned, is these multiple linebackers we see Kyle Van noug go by the wayside, and Jerome Baker has done so many different things in his career here in Miami, whether it's you know, off ball, He's even played some edge and and rushed the pastor he does so much blitzing from the a gaps mugged up

in there and that a gap pressure look. And then we see Bernardrick McKinney come in here and he kind of does that similar thing in terms of rushing inside, but he's a different player right, much heavier. So I look at this group as just versatile players that can do multiple things. The land and Roberts another one of these guys that can play stack linebacker very well, but

just sheer versatility at that linebacker spot. And if it is going to be more of that scheme pressure like you mentioned there, Ben who kind of fits that mold best in this draft class, you know. And the Dolphins are a great example of how they use their personnel. This is a linebacking group that moves forward. So they like the bigger types, the run plugging types, and in sub packages they're gonna be rushers, They're gonna be pass rushers.

We want to get our nickel dime even dollar out there to cover the backs and tight ends of the world. So this fallacy out there of when we talk linebacking prospects and the first question that comes out, oh can they cover? It's a pass NFL. They don't ask their linebackers to cover, and there's a lot of teams in the league that don't put coverage responsibilities, particularly man to man,

on their linebackers. And that's okay. So it's just really important to note what they're asked to do and what we're looking for at the next level. But to fill that Van Noi role, that Bernardic McKinney roll, that off ball guy that's gonna come play off the edge, that's sam backer. That's really who Michael Parsons is at the top of the draft, and that's who Zavin Collins is at a Tulsa similar six four to sixty off ball

guy that's gonna rush and blitz on third down. Got news for you, the Dolphins probably are gonna be in the market for you that those guys are probably gonna be first round type of players. It's gonna be tough to get their hands on them. But I've been coming around on this. Derek Barnes kid out of Perdue, who's a similar type of guy who's six one to fifty, can play off ball at early downs and is actually a really good pass rusher on third downs off the edge.

Strong player. It's one of these guys that isn't particularly big, but he has his barrel chest in really long arms and he's explosive. It's the perfect three tier traits that you want out of this position. So Michael Parsons, Davin Collins, and Derek Barnes, get your hands on one of those guys. Yeah, Micah Parsons playing defensive end early on coming out into

college's defensive end, that pass rush arsenal. He's a fun player to watch and before he got the Penn State some of the camp series at defensive end, I mean, whooping, the who's who of tackles, whether it's Jeddrick Wills, Walker, Little Um, you know, Alex Leatherwood, all these who who players and they're in the shorts and T shirt, which is just really fun to watch. He was a prolific

pass rushing threat at high school. And if these backers are not the drivers of the defense, it's definitely the defensive backs. I mean, I would argue that it is the DBS and and for my money, the best the best outside cornerback tannem in the National Football League, and Byron Jones and Xavian Howard, but with Eric Row and Bobby McCain and Brandon Jones and Nick Needham and all these guys that contributed. You mentioned the dollar defensive package. Ben.

It's so nice to talk to a non Dolphins related entity that knows that because it's so rare that people understand. It's not always three four four three, it's usually those are your sub packages in So, we talked about the defensive backs, and again the hallmarks of Brian Floors defensive back at cornerback, athletic long speed press skills and Byron and x are stylistically similar, but athletically they're not. Noah

Igbnogeny certainly was a freak athlete coming out. But then it's safety, and that's kind of where I'm more focused here, because I think at cornerback, between Egbnogeny, Jones and Howard and Needham and Justin Coleman, I think you're probably for now, Okay, I will never doubt Brian Floors taking a cornerback in the draft because he loves the position so much, But I think it's the safety spot. A Row and Bobby McCain were so adept at communicating, but they also were

former cornerbacks that can come down and cover. And Brandon Jones at Texas was was his best position to me was slot in that in college, so he comes here he plays safety. All three of these guys are studious players that are always well prepared. They communicate their leaders. So in this class at that safety group, who is the best in terms of guys that can come down and cover in the slot, Guys that can communicate and rotate and play multiple spots Like who fits the dolphin's

bill in the defensive backfield? Yeah? I love that. Justin Coleman pick up, I thought he was a great piece for the uh Lions the past couple of years. Really Feiste Nickel. It's a really big nickel too. But if you want a safety that can come with some coverage skills, that can play the back in and not a liability and run support, which is really what everybody wants, that undersized nickel third corner is really a dying breed because he was getting picked on now in the perimeter blocking,

here's a liability and run support. Everybody's still playing nickel. But they want three safety, So what does that mean. We want a safety that can cover, just like you talked about converting all these corners to the middle of the field. There's a couple in treating options. I love Divine Diablo at a Virginia Tech former four star receiver at six three Travis I swear he ran the wrong route one day and they kicked him out of the receiver room and say go to the dB roomer he

dropped the pass in the jugs machine or something. Because he is a very impressive football player, guy with good coverage skills, ball skills, good size. Anyone that's playing that kind of cover four scheme or that safety is triggering down the hill, playing over number two and the tight ends quite often. And Richie Grant at a Central Florida I think is a complete package at safety. Now, the issue with Richie Grant, He's not this all world tester

that we want at safety. He's not Jamal Adams or Earl Thomas or Derwin James or Buddha Baker and running four fours and lifting two times. He's not that type of guy. He just checks every box in like a B plus sense at the safety position. He and play the post. He could play half field. He can be a robber, really tough and run support and put on the one on ones against Senior Bowl. He's locking up

slot receivers and outside receivers like no problem. Um. I think him and his teammate Aaron Robinson, the Alabama transfer at UCF, another interesting player. He's a little bit more of a true nickel, but another guy that's been tough and over the middle of the field. But as we're talking about scheme, and just like I said, I would like them to dial the blitzing back a little bit. I want them to dial the man coverage back a little bit too. It's just a very very stressful scheme

on the defense. It's a proactive scheme. So they make some plays by being aggressive, but way too many liabilities and back in uh confusion bus plays over the top, and I feel like some of the best defenses in the NFL are starting to dial things back into a more of a archaic vanilla type of defense up saying we don't really know how to stop offenses right now. Let's play way back, force the ball in front of us. Let's rally to the football and make tackles, but we

have to limit explosive plays. And I think zone coverages are dominating the NFL right now, and the best defenses are playing yet, whether it's Tampa or l A or the Packers or Indianapolis, seems like these zone coverages are the safer defenses. So I'd like to see the Dolphins kind of mix up their schemes and uh general philosophies just a little bit in That's definitely fascinating. I haven't really heard that approach, but it makes it makes sense

that we explain it, So I would be curious to see. Well, like Travis, listen to Nick Saban's quote that went around earlier this week, and he talked about you can't just run the ball and play defense anymore, and defenses are really at a loss for how to stop offenses on

Saturday's and Sundays. I think the rules need to help them a little bit with r p O s and things like that, but it's almost like a until we can figure this out, we're gonna go with the safe vanilla coverages prevent the ball from going over our head. We're gonna dare you to go ten twelve plays on us? And when you watch Steve Sarkiesian do his clinic, the offense coordinator Obama I went to Texas. He said, we have to generate explosive plays because I can't go ten

twelve plays. One of my guys will screw up. So it's funny to have that kind of conflicting style of saying offenses want explosive plays, don't allow it from a defensive perspective. So spending this back to the Dolphins heavy man coverage, heavy pressure scheme, you dictate the action, but it's very risky and it's a very high variance way to play defense. It might be more of the week to week game plan idea because you go back to the season, Jared Goff, Jimmy Garoppolo, the Joe Flacco court.

You know those teams that came to Miami. They got a whooping on this defense. When we saw Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen, the story was different. Even though even though we turned over Mahomes four times, they still had the explosive plays. Like you mentioned, and every defense has pros and cons. If there was something that covered everything, everybody would play on every down. So you know, I sit here, I do a lot of stuff for Indian Green Bay play a lot of zone. What happens in zone,

you give up a lot of completions. So on third and five when you give up six, yeah, social media is on fire saying get up there and press them disrupt Why are we not playing press? And then the press teams are saying, can we, you know, keep the ball in front of us? Can we prevent it from going over our head one of these plays? So everything has frozen cons to it. You mentioned the Packers there. I know you work with the Eagles too, and you're

wearing the ACME Packer. Sure, I know that's that's your team, that's the that's the team you root for. But uh, I wanted to finish with this because we mentioned you do do the Journey to the Draft podcast with with

Fran Duffy. Great stuff you guys do over there. And you know the Dolphins recently struck a trade with the Eagles to go back from to go up from twelve to six, and you and I talked about this how both the Dolphins and Eagles have gathered future draft capital based upon their picks this year and I was curious to get your take on the idea of fully falling back into future drafts when we talk about the uncertainty of this year, how there's so much boom bus potential

because of the nature of this year's draft class, not getting to know the person you know with all those in person visits. So what do you take on the Dolphins and Eagles both getting future draft capital and what's your general takeaway on that trade. So I've heard different sentiments from different scouts and some people that work with organizations.

Some feel that there's a lot of hesitation with this draft that they would rather stockpile picks or excuse me, which looks like a much deeper draft class as you have a lot of these seniors given a free year of eligibility that went back that probably didn't need to. Next year's crop is going to be much deeper. Give them more time to vet the players and figure it out. But I've heard the sentiment the other way of saying, there's room for steals in this draft. There's room for

teams to make mistakes and other teams to capitalize. So I see some looking at this draft as kind of an opportunity to maybe get some steals on players, and there's so many gray areas. Um, you know, player like Walker little like we talked about from Stanford, hasn't about the field in two years. Travis. He could go in the first round and I'd be like, okay. He could go in the fifth round and I'll be like okay.

So there's a lot of guys like that that I think some teams are gonna think they're the smartest people in the room and go run a card up on a guy that everybody else has in a later round. So uh, to spend this back to the Dolphins, the Eagles, the top ten of this draft. I could have told you two months ago, if you don't need a quarterback, you should be putting up billboards. So the rest of the NFL to say, come trade with us, come get

your guy. And I think the Cincinnati Bengals are sitting there looking left and right and saying, shoot, you know, we kind of missed our opportunity to get out of this number five spot because we don't need to be there if we don't need a quarterback. Um, and they also have a left tackle they just took two years ago, and Jonah Williams, so is Penny Sully have been an option there, so I would be putting out ads in

the paper saying, come trade with us. And I'm not even certain that the Dolphins are done trading out of that spot. I even think, what are they at six right now that they could end up eating back further and still getting this similar player that they were looking at. And that's kind of the conversation with the Eagles at six in the market for Pitts Smith, Chase Waddle should be a couple of those options available at twelve as well.

Maybe it's a little bit more into the cornerback market of J. C. Horn and sur Tan, But I would be shocked if all those receivers and pits all went in the top twelve. Is just not possible with it projecting to look like you're gonna have five quarterbacks go in the top eight picks um. And I know there's some teams like Carolina at eight in Washington and New England that are sitting there saying, shoot, if we need a quarterback, we better go get one, we better trade up.

So I think the movement is just beginning. It one month out from the draft and it all begins. Man, It's It's as if NFL Draft need to become any more interesting. I think we've already accomplished that this year. Ben Finel, you said it all. He's at Ben Fanel Underscore NFL on Twitter, does work for NFL Network, the Eagles, ESPN, your every where. Ben. Appreciate your time today, man. We'll do it again soon and uh and and have fun the rest of this draft season. And we'll see you

at the end of April. Thanks Drafts and the Way he goes. What a fun podcast that was. We both joked a little bit afterwards and we went long. But who cares like it's it's more content for you guys, More more audio for you guys to get here on the Drivetime Podcast. We're gonna continue doing this all draft season long, three shows a week, will probably pick it up for five shows a week the week of the draft, and of course have recaps each day after the draft

as well. So plenty of content coming your way. Plenty of draft content here on the Drivetime Podcast. As for today's time, that is gonna be my time you all. Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple, podcast, Spotify, wherever you get your podcast from. Go ahead and leave us a rating, leave us a review. Check out the Audible and the Fish Tank podcast. Follow me on Twitter at Wingfield NFL. Follow the team at Miami Dolphins and

of course, Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time, fins up.