The Dolphins' Enviable Draft Position

Pro Day season is underway. We'll talk about the workouts at Auburn, Miami's presence there and what it takes to be a Miami Dolphin under coach Flores, plus Miami's enviable draft position, Chris Greer's impressive draft record, and the dolphins inclusion among the better drafting teams in football. And we'll wrap it up with a mock draft round up, taking a look at some recent mock drafts published by Daniel Jeremiah and Chad Ruter of NFL dot Com and Josh

Norris of Rhodo World. All of that and much much more on this Monday, March the ninth edition of the Drivetime Podcast. And it is Pro Day season across the National Football League and college football landscape. And so the Dolphins coaching personnel and scouting staffs are putting in their final prep work on this year's draft class, which is now just a little more than six weeks away, six weeks from Thursday until Vegas when Sin City becomes Finn City.

And the most recent stop on that schedule was in Alabama for the Auburn Pro Day and the Tigers eight teen draft hopefuls at that Pro day. You gotta love the blue blood programs providing the NFL's with crazy, crazy numbers of NFL products and Draft day hopefuls. And among those eight team players were six players that are currently

on the Draft Network's Top one hundred Big Board. And I think the story of this workout though, was Miami's extended work on the white board and the classroom aspect of things, putting players through that classroom session to see how the player can apply specific lessons to the on field drills and how well do they retain information and apply it on game day or in this case, a

simulated game day. And what is a pro day workout a practice type of atmosphere, but all in all, you want to measure the player's aptitude for the ability to apply this information on the football field, because if we go back to the Christian Wilkins article from Friday, or really any media availability that you've heard from Brian Flores

and Chris Greer. It's always the same message. Tough, smart, discipline players, players that want to be great, players that love and prioritize the game, and players who are willing

to make the sacrifices necessary to realize their potential. And I think the Dolphins did a great job last year of establishing the example you want to have put forth for the type of players that are gonna be here long term, for the type of players that are gonna earn second contracts, and be the example for what they want the young guys and the rest of the guys that come here to look like on the practice field, in the locker room, in the classroom. We've heard Jesse

Davis talk about it, he got an extension. We heard Eric Roe talk about how you have to be wired a certain way to play for this coaching staff and this regime, and it's tough and it's not for everybody out there, and that's how Flora's wants it. And we saw that last year with the Wilkins drafting the ultimate embodiment of what kind of player Brian Flores wants in Miami. This quote from the Miami Dolphins dot com piece by yours truly quote. He's got an energy, He's got a

life to him, flora said. At the same time, he has a poise and workman like demeanor. He works his butt off. Football is important to him. So, just as we talked about on the Thursday edition of the Drivetime podcast, Flora's and Grier are going to tell you what they want, what they believe in, and their core principles at these media availabilities, just as Flora's did here, and that of

course extends beyond Flora's this time in Miami. And I think the most telling testimony about Flora's when he got hired by the Dolphins was his former Patriots players that spoke about him. During the honoring of the coach at the y m c S Legend Ball, Flores was recognized as the newest Legend of the organization's integration initiative, the Legends Ball. They're just a really special and a really

cool cause they have out there. But Rob Ninkovich, Matthew Slater, and Devin mccordy all presented Flora's with the award, which quite obviously speak to the impact that he has on his players. But there was one thing that Accordy said about Flores that always kind of resonated with me. But first the quote from Matthew Slater that I think sets

up that comment by mccordy very well. Here's what Slater had to say, quote, I think any man who's played for you talking about Flora's and anyone who knows you certainly feels like they're a better person having been around you.

Everyone in here, I just want you to know this man is such a genuine human being, and it's more about the man tonight and mccordy would later talk about Flora's is loving and demanding nature, how it's kind of a yin and yang, a pull and push in terms of what Flora's has to do to get the most out of his players on the football field. And the genuine personality that Slater refers to demonstrates how much Flores cares for his guys. But that's not what makes a

great football coach. It's part of the equation, but not the entire equation, and the rest of that scippee that makes a good football coach is pairing that genuine nature with a demanding aspect that holds guys accountable. It's how you lead a room, It's how you get guys to buy in. And we heard about that from several players.

Even Christian Wilkins talked about it. As the year went along, more and more guys began to buy into Brian Flores and that kind of coincided with the Dolphins turning things around both on the scoreboard, in the standings, and just general perception of the team. So, as coach told us in Indianapolis at the scouting combine, they have an idea for the talent of these players coming up in this year's draft based upon the film, and Flow even said that what you guys the media have seen is what

we have seen as well. We all watched the same college football games. But now this part of the process, these pro days and these meetings are an opportunity to get to know these players, to see if they have what it takes to be that smart, tough, discipline player, to see how much football does matter to them, to see if they have what it takes to be a

Miami Dolphin. And the last note here on the Auburn pro o day, you had Derek Brown, Nick co and Marlon Davidson all defensive lineman, Prince Tega onnagu and Jack Driscoll on the offensive line. Those guys did not work out, and the only one of the Draft Networks Top one hundred list that did work out was cornerback Noah IgG By n again. And that was the first take, by

the way, right there. I got that recording in, got the name, nailed it, and he checked in with a forty vertical, a better than ten and a half foot broad jump, and a four four seven forty. He also ran at four four nine, But you take the first time obviously the best time. The four four seven forty great numbers in general, but especially for a player that plays as physically as IgG By Nay plays at that cornerback position. And I threw that in there because I

didn't have a proper segue into this next segment. I want to talk more about the draft, and we'll jump right into that right here. And let's go ahead and utilize the compensatory draft picks and pending announcement as our segue into the article up on Miami Dolphins dot com. So still no comp picks handed out just yet, but according to Nick Corte of over the Cap dot com and his sole job when it comes to writing football is projecting compensatory picks and his track record is phenomenal.

So according to Courte, the Dolphins are looking at a fourth rounder and a seventh round draft pick in addition to the current draft capital they already have here in Miami. So the draft capital just keeps going up, going up, and going up. And that's the focus of our piece up on Miami Dolphins dot com right now, written again by yours truly, And this article idea was really born from a quote that I heard on the Move the Sticks podcast, of course, one of my favorite resources and

podcast is to reference here. On the Drivetime podcast, they had Howie Roseman, the executive of the Philadelphia Eagles, the Super Bowl winning general manager of the Philadelphia Eagles, and him talking about the idea of accumulating draft picks and how there is basically a lottery involved when it does come to the draft, and giving yourself more bites at the apple, giving yourself more lottery tickets gives you a better chance to win that lottery ultimately. So here's a

quote from Howie Roseman. Because the guys who are really good at the draft. If you're hitting on your first round picks, that's pretty good track record, and then it's dropping as you go through the round. So really, the more chances you get, the more tickets, the lower you get, really the better you should be doing. And so with that in mind, the Dolphins do own the most draft picks this year in and are tied for the most picks currently in of course, a long time to go

until that draft comes around. But additionally, the Dolphins have eleven picks combined in the first three rounds over these next two draft classes, and that is by far far, in a way, the most premium capital of any team out there, and Dolphins owner Stephen Ross proclaimed this pass offseason his desire for a consistent contender that avoids the flash in the pan and a team that can sustain

success year to year. And you look around the league and there aren't many teams that have that in their back pocket, because there are plenty of examples of teams that show up for just one year and then go back to being a non playoff team the next year.

It is difficult to sustain success in this league. So the handful of teams that have done it pretty much have one thing in common, and we start here with the Eagles, who's playing materialized with the Lombardi Trophy in that seventeen season, and they continued that success the next two years, putting together three consecutive post season trips from

seventeen eighteen and again in twenty nineteen. And the usual suspects for January football achieved that level of sustained success through controlling the draft, and the Eagles Super Bowl parade came at the conclusion of that seventeen season. But the year prior, Roseman made a blockbuster trade to secure the second overall draft pick to get their quarterback Carson Wentz. But the Eagles entered that year's draft with eleven selections, and they also participated in a combined six trades the

last two years and sixteen that involved draft picks. On the other side of the country, you had the Seahawks, who won a Super Bowl after season and came within one yard the famous Marshawn Lynch non and off the Malcolm Butler interception, which, by the way, coach Flores called

Butler onto the field for that particular call. But the Seahawks, upon Pete Carroll's arrival in made nine draft picks that year, and from that year through the second Super Bowl appearance in so a five year stretch, never made less than nine picks, and they averaged nine point six picks per year. So with all that draft capital, the Seahawks developed an identity that produced four consecutive league leading scoring defenses. That's

pretty unprecedented. In fact, it is unprecedented. Earl Thomas, Richard Sherman, Cam Chancellor, Bobby Wagner, and Super Bowl forty eight m v P. Malcolm Smith were all added to the Seahawks

roster during that stretch of draft halls. You've got Baltimore and Pittsburgh to the league's more consistent contenders annually, the Ravens average nine point four draft picks the last five years, eight point nine draft picks since, and the Steelers going back over that ten year period, average eight point three draft picks per year over that last decade. Then, of

course you've got the Hatriots. Pro Football Focus provided a stat that tracks expected resources in a given off season compared to the actual capital acquired and spent, and the Patriots, typically picking towards the back end of the first round, have to get creative with their draft, a maneuvering to

put them far above the team's expected draft capital. And this all comes from a study done by at PFF underscore Move on Twitter where he looked at team's recent draft success and how much more capital they had than what they should have had in terms of player production based upon where they drafted. And I want to come back to that study and that graphic here real quick.

But first I want to go back to a different era of the National Football League and one that includes the Dolphins in terms of this further historical evidence of acquired draft capital producing a winning product on the field. You go back to nine through and the Dolphins in those three years made thirty six selections over that three year period and average of twelve per year. And like any draft class, you're gonna have some misses, you're gonna

have some solid contributors. But the Dolphins, in this case, with more bites at the apple, were able, like the Seahawks a couple of years back, were able to establish that identity and produce a core that led to seven consecutive winning seasons and five playoff berths, and a defense that basically was top ten or top five even in the top one and two a couple of years annually, and it started with Jason Taylor, a first ballot Hall of Fame selection, Zach Thomas, who for my money, should

be in the Hall of Fame already, but for now we'll call him a finalist for the Hall of Fame. And cornerbacks Patrick Surtan Sam Madison combined for seven Pro Bowls and three first team All Pro selections here in Miami. So those four guys were gathered in those three draft classes to give the Dolphins that core defense. And also in that group, although he never made a Pro Bowl again another snubbing here for the Dolphins, Darryl Gardner was

included in that class as well. So five really cornerstone pieces to that Dolphins defense, which basically turned out to be an annual playoff contender and an annual top team which later and this isn't in the article, but it's a thought that I had later allowed Miami to be more aggressive in their pursuit of finding a guy that could put that team over the top, like Ricky Williams, and they traded all that draft capital to go get Ricky, and the first year there in Miami, what a beautiful

compliment he was to that great defense with over eight hundred fifty yards and sixteen touchdowns. He was the ultimate cog in that machine. And I'll forever argue that two thousand two Dolphins team was as talented as any in the NFL. But of course Jay Fieeddler had the broken thumb and things just kind of got away from that

team at the end of the season. But still I believe that team was built the right way for that era of football, and even though it didn't work out, good process over good results, right, that's the theme, that's

the idea here. So you jump back to present day and Miami's recent drafting ranks in the top half of the league from that Pro Football Focus graphic from at PFF underscore move on Twitter, and very fittingly, that graphic goes from seen all the way back to two thousand six, just one year prior to Chris Greer being appointed as the director of college Scouting for the Miami Dolphins, and it basically looks at the data points in terms of what the team should be expected to draft at that

particular spot in the draft compared to what they were able to get with on field performance. From those players, and the Dolphins ranked twelve in that regard. They're around teams like the Patriots, Saints, Vikings, the Cowboys, the Ravens, some of the better teams in the league over that stretch, the Dolphins were drafting in that same neighborhood. So kudos to Chris Greer for identifying those players among his scouting staff to get the Dolphins to draft positively over that

decade long period. So now we've established that having the most picks is obviously a great thing to have a distinct advantage, But the part of the numbers game you want to get right, which I believe we have proven here as well on this podcast, is that if you have the picks, it doesn't matter unless you get the picks right. And again, Greer has been with Miami since two thousand three, and he was the director of college scouting starting in two thousand seven before his twenty six

team promotion to general manager. And quantifying draft picks success, it's not a black and white operation of black and white project ject but Pro bowls and second contracts I think are an effective measure of how well early round picks perform, but also how many players that were selected on Day three produced five hundred plus snaps in a season because rotational players, special teamers, these guys are crucial for deep playoff runs and surviving the injury bug that

hits every single year in the NFL, and just producing a fifty three man roster that can compete and fulfill the next man up mentality. So playing half of the offense or defenses or special team snaps symbolizes a player's impact on that given year. And using that one thousand snap baseline, because most teams play a thousand snaps, give or take a couple hundred here or there, so a five hundred snap player is to be considered to me

a significant contributor. And you remove the twenty nine teen draft class from the sample size because they're just not enough evidence, a too small of a sample size for those guys. So we go back five years and this goes two years prior to when Chris Greer was officially announced as the general manager of the Miami Dolphins, so there are two years where he was the director of college scouting in the study, we go back five years.

The Dolphins had thirty eight draft picks over those five years, just under eight draft picks per year, and we're talking about Pro Bowlers, second contract players, and five hundred snaptakers, and we're using Pro Bowls as the top distinction, and anything the player requires after that does not get included. So, for instance, you have a player that made the Pro Bowl, we're not gonna put him on the second contract column and the five hundred snap column together because we only

want to count for that player one single time. We also used Pro Bowls or second contracts with other teams as a nod to the draft or because we're talking about Chris Career's ability to draft players here, not what happens after they've been selected by the Miami Dolphins. So you go back through five Pro bowlers on that list,

eight second contract players, and seven five hundred snaptakers. So that gives you a grand total of twenty out of thirty eight in terms of significant contributors, which gives you a batting average of around five six over to twenty eight teen period. So the Dolphins hitting well over five hundred in that period under Chris Greer, and we heard how he Roseman talked about batting six hundred just in

the first round alone is successful. So to be successful on fifty two and a half percent of your draft picks from rounds one through seven. That's quite a feather in the cap of Chris Greer and his staff and shows you how Miami got into the top half the league in that draft success category from Pro Football Focused, and of course you're always gonna hear Chris Greer deflects praise for his work. This is a collaboration, and he'll

be the first one to tell you that. It involves Brian Flores and his staff, it involves Marvin Allen and the college scouting and Reggie mackenzie and the entirety of the Dolphins college scouting staff and coaching staff providing input here for the Dolphins draft picks. But based on that five year snapshot in Miami's bevy of draft picks this year, the odds the math says that adding multiple cornerstones and significant contributors to the roster this April, Miami's odds at

doing that are among the league's best. And on the topic of the draft and being just six weeks away now, I saw several more mock drafts published this last week. Let's go ahead and do a roundup of some of the game's heaviest hitters and their recent mock drafts drafts that are published in the last week, and we start with the heaviest of all hitters, NFL Network and NFL dot COM's Daniel Jeremiah and his mock two point oh.

He went one round, and he stayed very familiar with what you've seen in a lot of the mock drafts out there, with the Dolphins fifth overall selection to a Tongue Voloa, the Alabama junior quarterback. The blurb is simple and to the point. If twas medical reports come back clean, he won't get out of the top five. So Jeremiah

has the Dolphins going quarterback at number five. They come back at number eighteen later on in the first round and give to his college teammate and receiver Henry Ruggs the third and Jeremiah notes it would be fun to watch Rugs reunite with tah to ignite that offense. And you'll notice around draft Twitter and other spots and like, there has been quite a bit of an argument lately about who is receiver one, and Henry run has kind of inserted himself into that discussion among his teammate Jerry

Judy and Oklahoma Ceedee Lamb. One of my favorite stats on Henry Ruggs is that he caught touchdowns or score touchdowns I should say on nearly of his career college touchdown or touch as I should say, so instant offense at the college level. There, Jeremiah hits the nail on the head with the explosive element that Henry Ruggs and his four would add to the receiving corps. Rounding out Jeremiah's mock draft here number overall the USC offensive tackle Austin Jackson, and I had a chance to talk to

Austin Jackson at his combine availability. Really cool story about him. He donated some bone marrow to his sister last offseason and essentially had to skip all of his off season workouts because he was recovering from that and couldn't really properly work out. So he felt like he was playing catch up throughout the year. But his tape would suggest otherwise, because he's a very good tackle prospect there just twenty years of age. Jeremiah says, Jackson is well liked around

the league. Let's go ahead and jump over to Chad Ruder's mock draft here. And he went big. He went for three rounds on this mock, so kudos to him for doing that. He has the Dolphins treating up from that fifth spot overall to get to number four, a one spot jump to go with the Giants to select organ senior quarterback Justin Herbert. He says, Miami needs a quarterback Herbert starter caliber, arm and mobility and press scouts at the combine, Moving up one spot to hold off

other potential Herbert suitors is not an unusual move. He then cites the Bears going up one spot to get Mitchell Drobiski a couple of years ago, and just to give a little bit of input on this, Dave Gentleman has never traded down from his spot in the draft, so doing this would be the first time he ever

has with the New York Giants. So Chad Ruder has the Dolphins going up from five to four to get Justin Herbert, and they come back with the eighteenth pick in the draft and take a familiar face, Austin Jackson out of usc the same player that Daniel Jeremiah had going twenty six overall to the Miami Dolphins. We come back here at pick twenty six. A new face on the board here, Jonathan Taylor, the running back from Wisconsin, a junior elite level production, had a great combine workout.

Ruter writes. The Dolphins invest one of the picks they received in the Larry Mee Tunsel trade and Taylor, who ran a blistering four point three nine second forty yard dash at two hundred and twenty six pounds and caught the ball extremely well in the drills in Indianapolis at the scouting combine. We now jump ahead to the second

round of the draft. Dolphins have their quarterback, their offensive tackle, and they're running back from Chad Rutter's mock draft, and Miami comes back at pick thirty nine and takes l s U junior safety Grant Delpit, who falls out of the first round and this mock draft. And then Miami has no second round pick at fifty six because they traded it to the Giants for the Justin Herbert trade. To the Giants in that spot, take Leaky Foe to

the defensive tackle out of Utah. Going forward to the third round of this mock draft, the Dolphins pick at number seventy overall here and they keep this pick and they use it on Ben Bartch, the St. John's guard who has jumped up draft boards since a good Senior Bowl had a good combine. He's a name that has been rising from a small school ranks there at St. John's.

The Dolphins and Chad runs mock draft. Get Justin Herbert, they get Austin Jackson, Jonathan Taylor, they get Ben Bartch and Grant Delpit to ground out their first five picks

on the first two days of the draft. Let's change media outlets here and go over to rhoto world dot Com and Josh Norris, who takes a completely different direction than the two NFL dot Com writers, and Jeremiah and Ruter, And to me, that's the point of doing mock drafts, to try to give multiple scenarios, to give fans and teams alike an idea of how things could play outcome draft day. Taking these mock drafts way too seriously just

doesn't do anybody any good. But it always helps to get a feel for who could be on the board in particular spots. And so Norris has the Dolphins taking a linebacker number five overall, Clemson's Isaiah Simmons. If you watch the combine, you knew who he was. If you watch college football this year, you knew who he was. Here's the blurb. Players like Simmons aren't common. He fluidly flips from rushing the passer on one play to working

as a single high safety the next. Versatility is only real if the player wins from each spot, Otherwise he's just losing multiple alignments. And because a player like Simmons is rare, it is fair to wonder if most teams can really be creative enough to maximize his skills. I trust the Dolphins can. And that last note in there is why I love this mock draft, because he mentions Brian Flores's ability to get the most out of these players, and Josh Boyer getting the call at the defensive coordinator

and the staff that Flora's has established. Now, Patrick Graham is no longer here in Miami he of course with the Giants now, But last year at training camp he talked about how when he draws up plays on his board, he no longer uses free safety or defensive tackle designations. He just uses x as and ohs because this Dolphins defense doesn't really have position distinctions, and that's a Brian Flora's thing, and Josh Norris recognizes that in this mock draft,

so Isaiah Simmons number five overall. He then comes back at pick number eighteen and the Dolphins get their quarterback here with Jordan's Love from Utah State. He talks about how this draft does not feature trades, but he fully expects the Dolphins to move up to acquire the quarterback they want, and Norris notes it was difficult to have a conversation at the combine where Love's name did not come up, and that is not from the media end.

It's from NFL teams who seem to be attracted to his playmaker mentality and his will to create something out of nothing. And then rounding out the draft, another familiar name he gets checked off and all three of these mock drafts. Offensive tackle Austin Jackson out at USC the twenty year old, high character kid, elite level athlete. So far, Nora says the Dolphins drafted a truly versatile defensive playmaker, a quarterback to develop and now can add to their

offensive line. Jackson's initial position might not always be perfect, but he constantly worked to recover and has the athleticism to match, so it is officially mock draft season. We'll be doing more of these on the podcast for sure. I am certain. We are just one week away from

free agency kicking off next week. We'll have all that information for you guys available, including a primer this week talking about kind of the behind the scenes of how contracts get done and what goes into contracts and free agency. Will have that on the Drivetime Podcast will break down all the free agents the Dolphins do bring in next

week and beyond in free agency. A busy, busy time of year and exciting time of year as your Dolphins are under construction and will be built throughout the course of the next few months. As for this edition of the Drivetime Podcast, that is going to be my time you all. Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast, leave us a rating, leave us a review. We are on Apple, podcast, Spotify, Google Play, wherever you get your podcast from. Go ahead and download, rate, review, subscribe all

that fun stuff. Follow me on Twitter at Wingfield NFL. Follow the Dolphins at Miami Dolphins. Check out the Audible and the fish Tank podcast, rounding out our network here of Miami Dolphins podcast and Miami Dolphins dot com. For all your written and video and audio content on your Miami Dolphins until next time fins Up.