Pro Football Focus' Mike Renner On Dolphins Draft

of Miami Dolphins football. And on today's show, we are staying with the draft, because why wouldn't we, and staying with one of my favorite publications as we are joined

by Pro Football Focuses lead draft analyst Mike Renner. We talked about the best value at each Dolphins pick throughout the first two days, where this class is strongest, weakest, most unique, and all kinds of valuable draft detail just three days away from the NFL Draft, plus the most unique stat that Mike thinks Pro Football Focus provides for this year's draft. All of that and more on this Monday,

April twenty edition of the Drivetime Podcast. And we're gonna get to my interview here in just one second with Pro Football Focuses Mike Renner. But I want to talk about what I had in mind for interviewing him on this podcast because I think that Pro Football Focus provides such a unique perspective, whether it's the draft or NFL

players alike. They do so many different things with their signature stats, advanced metrics, analytics, studying position groups and the impact of those groups on the league, the contract impacts. They really cover everything in the National Football League, and I think one of the things they do so well, for instance, is provide such proper context to what we're seeing on the field. You're gonna hear Mike talk about what he believes is the most valuable metric that Pro

Football Focus provides. It was the ball placement accuracy measure for quarterbacks. You'll hear him talk about that. We'll talk about all the positions the Dolphins can attack in this draft where they can get stronger, and really just the best time of the year, the best week of the year for football ends, all of that more here on this podcast. Let's go ahead now and not waste any more time and get to Mike Renner of Pro Football

Focus and joining the Drivetime podcast now. Is the lead draft analysts for Pro Football Focus, and you can find the PFF NFL Draft Guide right now at Pro Football Focus dot com. He is Mike Renner. Mike, thanks for joining us today, Man, thanks for having me on. Happy to be here. Yeah, I got a chance to go over your guys Mega Draft Guy to Behemoth one thousand pages and it's it's the best thing that comes out every year this time of year in my opinion. Man.

So I'm really happy to have a chance to talk to you here, and we are finally here at draft week. The months long process is about to finally meet its payoff. You've been studying this class for basically a year now compared to other classes. To you, Mike, where would you say this class is strengths? Lie, I think there's two positions that really jump out to me as being really strong. Ones wide receiver. Obviously, I think everyone heard anything about

the draft, you've probably heard that. It just I think there's seven guys in our top twenty five players or wide receivers, over a quarter of our top twenty five players our wide receivers, and like thirteen in the top seventy. Maybe it was just a loaded class, however way you want to look at it, and whether you want like a number one type of wide receiver like Cherry to do your see lamb speed guys like Jalen reagor Henry

Ruggs like they got. This class really has at all so wide receivers one and the other one that's probably the best I've seen since we started grade in college players back in two thousands. Four teams that the team draft is the tackle class. There's really so I'd say four guys who I feel really good about then being good tackles in the NFL, you're lucky to get one

in a class. Usually one guy you feel like can be, you know, a starter from the rips, and so I think there's four of those in this class, and I think you might end up seeing something like seven go in the first round because of how many talented guys are. So it's a pretty ridiculous tackle and wide receiver class. I was just tweeting earlier on Sunday about how there's this kind of fun pendulum in the NFL where things

go one way, they come back the other way. And it seems like in recent years, several years now that the past Russian group has really outweighed the offensive line group, and now this year we have an influx of tackles. Next year there's a crop of guys coming in and looks very good as well. But we'll go ahead and say that for another day and ask you, comparatively speaking, what are some of the positions in this class that maybe haven't measured up to pass classes in terms of

the pre draft grades. I think it's the edge of Russian classes really to me. After Chase Young, you guys just like put him the side kind of zones here. The thing about pass rushers is usually you can tell the guys the guys either had the athletic traits or these sort of on field performance to win off the edge.

In the NFL, it's kind of an easy position to scout, and you see, like a lot of the most towns guys in the NFL were first round because they get identified, and then you'll find a lot of guys later on the draft. He has Mike Renner Pro Football Focus is lead draft analysts, and Mike, I told you this in the at the beginning. This one thousand page behemoth, I think is both aesthetically pleasing as much as it is informative.

And you guys give a bunch of great detail on the player's strength the scout of reports, but you also have data unlike any other website or publication out there. In your opinion, what are some of the most telling advanced metrics you guys chart when it comes to evaluating

these prospects and projecting them for production. Like you mentioned at the next level, one of the favorite, my favorite things that we do in college is his ball placement charting, not purely just uh, you know, was it completed or was it not? Where the ball was relative to where

the quarterback wanted it to go. And that's something that we think has been very helpful for us, and it's just a very helpful too of the evaluation process in terms of, like, you know, how to be able to manipulate or not manipulate, but being able to see what his you know, true accuracy was and was he at

what levels of the football field was someone accurate? We had an audio snaff food right here, but Mike was talking about the number of times the percentage is a quarterback miss is an open receiver and how low those figures were for Burrow and tongue of Ioloa. You know, Joe Burrows at five to a time of low is at five percent, you guys, most NFL quarterbacks are around,

you know, well under ten percent. So that was what obviously not a massive sample size, but stuff like that that we start on every play, I think and really sort of help help sort of putting numbers too. When you say guys accurate or a guy's inaccurate. You can't really difficult to parse out levels of that when you say that, but it really when you have a number

like that, it helps too, helps part of the evaluation. Yeah, it's nice to give it a tangible metric because I think a lot of times you see accuracy as just completion percentage, and that's not the case because, like you mentioned, if running back runs let's say a flair route and you put the ball on the inside hip or the inside shoulder, he didn't has to turn back inside, runs him right into the coverage, gets hit, maybe drops the football, maybe he doesn't have a chance to make a playoff

for the catch. So good information there. You talk about the quarterbacks, that's always the group of players that everybody wants to talk about at the top of the draft this year. The Dolphins pick five in this year's draft of course as well, but in terms of the value at pick number five, which players do you think, in your opinion, have the best value that could be on

the board to pick number five. The best value I think it's going to be the tackle class is going to have the best value, or possibly to a tongue of my low if he slips, but I don't first see him being on the board at number five. I think someone's gonna have to trade up to go again if they want him so, or or if he does slip to five, he's slipped in like way down far because that means the medicals will come back that people aren't high him. So I do think either tackle or uh,

like a quarterback, there to a time of loa. So the tackle classes Andrew Thomas, Jedrick Wills, Tristan Worth's I'm not sure you can really go wrong with those guys. They just all are super productive already young true junior is coming out. Uh you know, physical freaks of nature as well. So they took a lot of the boxes for the position. So if you take any of those four tackles to pick number five, you're gonna give it a good grade. Yes, I would be given that a

good grade. What would you would you have a preference that I gotta put your feet to the fire. Who's your favorite one of the group, Andrew Thomas. So they're all within four spots to all three of them within four spots on our draft board. Thomas first one off board though. That's that's crazy. That's that's an interesting grouping you have there. That's a question I want to ask you about a little bit later on. Let's go ahead and get here now to the middle of the first round.

They'll pick number eighteen coming over from the Steelers and the Minka Fitzpatrick trade. In that range of this draft, where do you think the best value lies? So I think around them is when the cornerbacks start to get valuable. You have guys like that C. J. Henderson will be off the board, but Christian Fulton, Jalen Johnson, A J. Terrell, that kind of second tier after Jeffer Acuta and call really talented guys. I think wide receiver again is going

to be talented at that spot. You might have seen guys like Jerry Judy see Lamb and uh Henry Rubs off the board ready with Jalen reagor you know Leviscastional, Michael Pittman Jr. See Higgins, Justin Jefferson all those guys, I mean, we'll likely be on the board of eighteen, so I think that is another position where there's going

to be value. And then after that, I'm not sure exactly where the NFL is going to see the rest of the sort of lineback and corps, but I do think guys like Patrick Queen around then would be a good value as well. It seems like a good spot for those guys come off the board. The receiver group, like you mentioned, could be a spot for a trade up. Possibly. Dolphins do have the twenty six pick in the first round, also part of the Laramie Tunzil and Kenny Stills trade

back end the first round. Where do you think the value lies there at pick? That's why I think I think it's still cornerback is still gonna be it's a deep group in that range. And then also safety at that point you have guys like Grant Helpit, Davian McKinney. Not sure where the NFL falls on these guys necessarily. I think, you know, just the NFL has kind of been low on safety in terms of the contracts they've

been handing out from general the last few years. But I do think that McKinney and Delta the top two safeties on our board, all but both worthy of first round selections than Ashton Davis cal safety as well. He'd do the thirst safety. All those guys would make a

lot of sense. I'm curious to ask you about that, because I've been watching a lot of the safety class as we get closer to the draft here, and as much as I love what some of these guys do, it seems like when I watch a full game tape, for instance, there's maybe three or four places where they're making an impact because they are fifteen yards off the football. Does that kind of way into how they've been devalued in terms of contract and draft stock over the years,

I think so. I think it's a big part of it is that a lot of times that's sort of you know, deep safety is often a placeholder and it's more just you want a guy you can trust back there. Some teams will just you know, want a guy who's familiar with their scheme that they can trust, rather than maybe a playmaker, a guy who's going to make, you know, maybe a few splash plays a year, but then be out of position and give up a few as well. So I do think that that what you hit on

there in terms of just it's difficult to evaluate. Also when you only get a handful of place to your handful of times to be involved in the action as well. So I think a lot of those things combined as to why you see the NFL kind of little on safe and those guys do have an impact when they do make plays or I should say when they are out there on Saturdays, the ones you mentioned. But the Dolphins also do have two second round picks this year and a pick in the third round, So three day

two picks. What do you think some of the best values are in that portion of the draft. I think you start to see defensive tackles. The day two ones seem a little bit better there. I think you'll see Ross black Bock from TCU, Justin Mattabookie Texas, and m maybe Neville Gallamore from Oklahoma. Those guys all all sort of kind of do it all, can rush the past or they're all athletic, but I think they all have some holes in their game right now that they're kind

of they're probably more second round sort of picks. I think those three, uh like the defensive tier class value. And then again wide receiver is just going to be pretty ridiculous all throughout Day two, and imagine you can get yourself starter anywhere in that sort of range. And then also the I think the linebacking class on Day two is good too. I think there's a lot of

athletic linebackers in this class. After you know, Isaiah Samon's Patrick Queen, Kenneth Murray probably the top three off the board, but still Jordan Brooks really athletic dude. Texas linebacker Willie Gay Mississippi State. He went sub four or five. Davian Taylor from Colorado, you went sub four or five. Like, there's a lot of athletes at the linebacker position year,

Mr Straff. The Dolphins do have several more picks as well on day number three as well, rounds four through seven, and doing one of your or I guess doing a big board that has so many players on it, you're gonna have guys that you like in that one hundred through two hundred range, so to speak. I act listen to a Move the Sticks podcast earlier today and they were talking about how it's not just that you love

guys at the top of the draft. Some teams have guys they love that they think are going to be six or fifth round picks. So for Mike Renner, who are your favorite potential Day three targets? Yeah, that that that is true. I mean there are guys who are like, yeah, he's a fourth rounder, but damn what, I love to get him in the fourth round. I think one of

those guys is Antonio Gibson from Memphis running back. But he played kind of split time between running back and wide receiver there and didn't play a lot because we only touched the ball seventy seven times it was entire college career. But he broke thirty three tackles on those seventy seven three combine and these two hundred six ft two hundred twenty pounds. So this guy, it's a physical

freak of nature. I'm not sure they knew what they had there at Memphis, And well, he was behind Tony Pollard and Darrell Henderson anyway, last year, So I do think that he if I'm getting him in the fourth round, it's one of the guy that I love draft. Yeah, I was gonna say Memphis has been turning out backs pretty much every single year, becoming a factory out there

in the Midwest. But Mike, we did positional previews day by day on this podcast in the last couple of weeks leading up to this draft, and I ask all my guests, and this is where that earlier question I kind of mentioned to you comes in about the positional gluts that could come into play, kind of like, how how could certain positions that are good in certain areas have a negative impact where kind of self cannibalizes itself.

For instance, the receiver class being so deep, But does that depth of the class hurt the value up top? Tell us which positions might have some gluts that could

push some talent down the board in the draft. Yeah, So I think, like I said off the top of the wide receiver and tap classes are both special, and a wide receiver class there's probably about there's two guys I think are special, and then there's probably about a tier worth like twelve guys and that next year, so I think you'll see those guys could push down because someone will pass saying hey, I know I can get another similar talent and then the next round, you know,

around later and not have to waste that. So I think wide receivers one where guys could get pushed down. Um gosh, I'm trying to think, well, I think safety is as well, because I think the talent I day too. There's a lot of guys that are somewhat similar, and so I don't think I don't think you'll see a

lot and there's no like sure fire complete safety. I don't know how you want to do isaias Simmons, but assuming he's as linebackers, no letters sure hit safety in this class, So that means I'd probably imagine that you might not see one come off the board until late in the first round or even in the second round.

You mentioned Isaia Simmons, who has just lauded universally for his versatility, and rightfully so you guys chart the fact that he's playing split safety, playing deep safety, playing linebacker on the line of scrimmage. It's to me it's crazy to watch all the things that he can do. Who are some other guys that fans might not be from elier with to have maybe not similar versatility, But who are some of the players in this class that can give you multiple possessions, maybe even from day one as

a rookie. Yeah, So one of my favorites toll Here two guys who are kind of in a can do a lot of different things over the middle of field coverage wise. Meek Robertson from L. A. Tech. I think he's like he falls in that category of a guy who probably GMS will love draft in the fourth round and that he's only five eight one eight seven pounds. He's tiny, but he plays way bigger than that, and he's played outside cornerback at L. A. Tech. Probably gonna play in the slot or like safety, kind of like

maybe a Tyre Matthew rule in the NFL. But I think he's gonna be able to do it because the way he plays, how physically plays, and again he can play line up pretty much anywhere in the middle of field and cover guys. Has a really good instincts. Had something like kid uh six was sixteen past sixty interceptions and only three years there at Las. Really it's a ball hawk. So him and Cavan Wallace from Clemson very

similar mold as a little bigger. I think he's like six ft to ten, but he plays like almost eclusively slot for Clemson. But he also then kind of they moved guys all over this past year then in that Clemson defense in terms of their covert responsibilities because they had guys like him and like Simmons who were just persontal. So I think he didn't play some time linebacker. He's that sort of he plays that physical cell. I think he's another one I would want, and you know, kind

of a today's NFL short a player. You mentioned two players are that offered the ultimate juxtaposition in terms of small school, big school, big build, small build. Man, I liked watching the Meek robertson that that Texas game. I'm sure everyone you've talked to has mentioned this play. I think it was Colin Johnson works at the second sap of the game and he just rocks Colin Johnson, who's got like six seven inches on him. Man. It's it's it's fun to watch guys like that compete. So I

like that guy a lot as well. I want to kind of go through a rapid fire here, position by possession. You already mentioned quarterback, I think at the top of the draft. Tackle at the top of the draft as well. We already talked about quarterbacks. So why don't we go ahead and go back to the running backs and the running back class. I mean, this is a position that has been bandied about. I'm sure you've been being an analytics guy so much or maybe on one side of

this fence. But where do you think the running back best value comes in this class? Yeah, I mean I think it's going to be end of day two, early day three. You're gonna see. To me, there's like a tier about six seven guys. And i'd even I say seven because I throw Antonio Gibson in their talent wise, but I don't know what you do with them. But cam Akers, Jonathan Taylor, J K. Dobbins, Zack Moss, Jondre Swift,

and Clyde Edwards Hillier. Those six guys, I'm coming away from the draft one of those six I'll feel really good. And so I think you'll probably find one of those in the end of the round. Where do you think the first back comes off the board. I don't think it's going to be in the first round, but I do think it's like early day to early day two. That makes sense, and probably the same story with receiver.

You already mentioned the top three guys coming off the board, so we don't have to go into that too much. Tackles we talked about how about the interior offensive line, because this is a group that has a couple of strong set owners. The guard class hasn't gotten much publicity. Where do you like the centers and guards in this class?

I don't. I don't think i'd take any of these guys in the first round, But then I do think I, you know, in the middle of the second guys like Caesar Ruiz, I think I'd be more than willing to take in that sort of area. So I think there's I think there's a lot of Interior office lineman on Day two this year, whereas last year there's like a few good ones at the top, and then a lot

of guys we saw his Day three prospects. I think there's about ten or so that i'd called Day two sort of interior firm grades in that regarding that sort of area on the interior office line. Okay, so you touched on cornerback and safety and probably linebacker as well, so we don't have to go into those. You talked about the edge class being Chase Young and then the rest of the group. Let's finish up with the interior defensive line. We know Derek Brown's up there, Javon ken Law.

Where do you like the best spot to get one of those interior defensive linemen. Yeah, So, like I said, I think day two, so that kin Law and Brown, I think you're gonna get overdrafted because they're like in a tier on their own, like they are head shoulders about this class. So you're gonna see and go probably top ten, and then after that I would I think I would wait until guys like Devon Hamilton' from Ohio State in the second round. The guys that touched on

earlier Russ black Clock just met Bookie Neville Gallamore. They're the more they're more like three techniques, So if you need that in your defense, I would just be happy getting one of those guys and stuff around. If you need the nose tackle Devon Hamilton's, I'd just be happy getting him somewhere in the second round. That's where I think the value would be in the second round. Davon Hamilton's thinky, I think he ends up going there, maybe

maybe third. I think somewhere in that regard. I like hearing that because you watch Ohio State play and they have so many talented defenders. It's it's five star after five star on there and you watch Hamilton's had the lion of scrimmage almost every single play he's out there. But I've seen him on boards in that third day, so it's I'm glad to hear you have that perspective on him in that second day. So he is Mike Renner,

lead draft analyst at Pro Football Focus. You can follow him on Twitter at PFF Underscore Mike, and you can pick up the PFF two thousand twenty NFL Draft Guide. Now, my thank you so much. Man. We learned a lot. I appreciate me and the way he goes. We're gonna see about the rest of this week in terms of draft coverage. I'll probably do a mock draft round up at some point this week, maybe answer some more of

your questions on the Twitter mail bag. We do have plenty of more video content and written content coming out both on the Miami Dolphins socials on YouTube, on Miami Dolphins dot com. Of course the Virtual Draft Party. On Thursday. We have the pregame show which kicks off at seven thirty Eastern on the Miami Dolphins Facebook page. Do not

forget to our r s v P for that. Check that out I'm gonna be on there, John Kim, Jemmy Kim, Bocamper, and then once the draft starts at eight o'clock Eastern, we're gonna have coverage on there for you during the NFL Draft as well, so do not forget to check that out, and plenty of content post draft. We're gonna have each rookie on the Drivetime Podcast to talk about them. It's gonna be very similar to the free agent contract.

I will do some research on their background, the character profile, the production profile, the outing profile, everything you want to know about your new Miami Dolphins are going to be available on the Drivetime Podcast throughout the course of the weekend and into next week. It's Draft week, guys, we made it. It's here. But as for today's podcast, that is going to be my time you all please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple, podcast or Spotify,

wherever you get your podcast from. Go ahead and leave us a rating, leave us a review. Helps us big time when you do that. Give me a follow on Twitter. It's at Wingfield, NFL Fallow the Dolphins at Miami Dolphins, The Fish Tank and the Audible Podcast, both part of the official Miami Dolphins Podcast Network, and of course Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time, fins Up