Training Camp Preview 2021 Cornerbacks

on the next two podcast. Here one today, one next week. Today we stopped by the Cornerbacks room to discuss Miami's talent both on the field but also in the coaching ranks. Experience accomplished, resumes, promising youngster. This group as a little bit of everything as we dive into one of the true driving forces of this football team. All of that and a heck of a lot more on this edition of the Drivetime Podcast. Drive Time, as always, is brought to you by Auto Nation, and we have just two

more position groups to go in this preview series. And I guess funny enough, I tend to the series approach for podcasting and writing always follows the same arc for me, maybe it's the same for other content creators out there. Super pumped in the beginning, you hit a bit of a lull in the midia in the middle, and then you finish very strongly because you can see the end

of the tunnel finally. And not to say I don't like, dislike any of the position group we covered, It's just eleven part series can be a lot to take on, and I'm happy to do it. It really educates me as far as the roster right before training camp, with all of the final details and notes and film I do so I really appreciate doing the series, but I let's just say I'm excited to them to the end and get to practices on the field and bring you

fresh new content for twenty one. Two more groups to go in the preview series and the penultimate group here

brings us to the cornerbacks. And I wrote about this a lot last year on Top News, on the Blitz, on the post game stories, on inside the Numbers, on the features, whatever it was we wrote about it last year how the secondary really helped to set the table for this defense, and of course the defense helped drive the team to the ten victories last season finishing atop the league and two of the very most important categories you can you can finish atop the league in in

the National Football League takeaways and third down defense under on third down and twenty nine takeaways a year ago. What a season it was. You have to scrap all that and start all the way over again, because that's how this league works. You don't get to resume your start, your spot from last season. You go back to level one, regardless of how it finished, and you have to get to the ultimate boss at the end every single year and play the entire game on the way. Enough of

the video game analogies to finish out that thought. This defense also finished near the top, and two other very important categories to six and points allowed entered week seventeen number one in points allowed, and then ten and sacks. Of course, but how important are sacks? I think that's a great argument to be had from football savants and the like, because they are very important, Do not get

me wrong. Negative plays helps set the pace or the tone or dictate the call on the following play and really take command of that particular series if you're on defense, and it puts you in a big bind if you're on offense, especially when you get six or seven or eight yard losses, I mean six second and sixteen. That's a tough, tough down on distance to overcome. But I think the impacting the quarterback is even more important than that.

And the way all of this came together for the Dolphins was a variety of fronts, blitzes and rushes and ways with different and guys that can do multiple things, and the general goal is to just make the quarterback uncomfortable, make him feel you. Coach Flora's talked about that a lot last year as well, and that was driven in large part by what the Dolphins secondary was able to do and the faith the coaching staff had in the back end to really call up some of the aggressive

calls and the zero blitz and the zero pressure. We talked about it on the podcast. This Dolphins secondary and the conversion from former cornerbacks to safeties are guys that play slot and safety, guys that can play outside inside. Even Byron Jones has played all over the formation in

his career. And so I go back to this post I wrote up on Miami Dolphins dot Com last December that coincided with a radio appearance NFL Networks Brian Baldinger made on twelve forty a m KFG Sports radio and the spot linked to an article on the station's website where Baldy said that Miami were ahead of schedule in

year two under coach Floras and Chris Greer. And then back to my piece, I titled it kind of working off of that the Byron Jones effect, because I think Byron's style of play comes with a significant degree, a significant degree of misunderstanding from what his actual role and responsibility and production has been here so far through one season in Miami, And it doesn't necessarily make for the highlight reel, you know, where you have the hype music over the top and you clip that one percent of

a player's game to use the uses evidence to justify his skill set. I mean, you go through the course of Byron jones career. Two picks last year was a career high. And hell, even coach Flores's touched on that several times last year with regards to how great the splash plays are, like don't get it, don't get it twisted Saxon interceptions and fumbles and all that stuff are fantastic and you have to have that as a football team.

But he is more concerned about the other nine and nineties snaps a player takes over the course of a sixteen game season, and the approximate one thousand snaps per every position you have on the field. So guys that play, you know, outside corner or your your best pass rusher who plays eight hundred snaps, if they're getting ten sacks or five picks, that's a very small percentage of their

overall workload. And so with Byron Jones, and this goes back to his time in Dallas where their defense was so often at least to my somewhat trained eye, the classics Sam Madison quote and those that haven't heard Channing Crowder on the Fish Tank podcast with Seth and Juice where he talks about his first year as a pro

with Sam Madison, the Dolphins former All Pro cornerback. Uh Sam was coming towards the end of his Dolphins career in OH five and Channing's first year with Miami was OH five and how they played ten on ten because Sam would break the huddle, get out there and yell ten on ten, ten on ten, and Channing does this in Sam's high pitched voice, which I will not try to emulate, but I'll save you the grief there and let Channing take care of the comedy for you on

the Fish Tank podcast. But that was a good comparison to Byron Jones and Dallas. And you see this in a lot of tea is where sometimes the corner who just matches up with and takes the best receiver on the other side doesn't even join the huddle. He's just out there on the island kind of peeking in because he knows his job. And it can often be the loneliest place in football if that matchup doesn't go well,

Like cornerbacks have it so tough. If you play sixty good snapped and the sixty fet nap, a guy gets behind you and scores a touchdown, that's all anybody's going to remember. So it can be the loneliest place in football. But for Byron that island was very rarely a deserted situation in Dallas and here in Miami, he was the premier corner in the league with the Cowboys doing just that.

Like you go back to his coverage numbers, the the GPS tracking, the windows that he created for quarterbacks on throws throughout the course of his career has been among the league's best among cornerbacks. And that's how you wind

up with this following data from that season. The I research and wrote about in the Byron Jones free agent acquisition piece two marches ago, and these were some of the matchups that Byron had between and nineteen, going back off the previous two years of work in that article, Michael Thomas two times, two catches for twenty one yards in one game, not of the next goose egg to al Shan Jeffrey goose egg for Odell Beckham Jr. Stefon digs from the Vikings before the Bills one catch eleven yards,

John Brown one catch for six yards. He matched up with both Brandon Cooks and Robert Woods. Robert Woods against the Rams because they do so much different formations swapping and condensed formations, and they forced Byron Jones to come in and play a bit of a different role against that team. Two catches for nineteen yards together against Byron Jones and coverage Julio Jones one for nineteen, t Y Hilton one for twenty three And there aren't any interceptions

in that list. But when your mission is to lock down the opposing number one receiver. You take that and you never ever ever turned back. That's a way bigger impact on a game for sixty snaps, a game to eat race of true difference maker on the offense, way bigger difference than just getting one takeaway and giving up eight catches for ninety yards and a touchdown, whatever it

might be. So we saw more of that this year, But the Dolphins defense was more complex than just saying, hey, buyer in ten on ten, you're out there, more well rounded than to just to say you go do this and worry about nothing else. That's just not how this defense works. You have to play his zone, you have to play man, you have to tackle, you have to be a little bit of everything. And that's not a

bad approach to have your ten on ten. It worked for Miami back in the early two thousand's with Sam Madison and then of course Patrick Surtam later, but Miami just had a lot of talent in this part of the team at that cornerback position. So again, he's he's playing man coverage, he's pressing, he's zone turning, falling off into the curl, he's coming up to the flat and

challenging underneath receivers. He's defending the run. He's playing a crucial part of what made the Dolphins defense tick to the tune of the top ten production and sax points, takeaways and third down defense. So Brian Baldinger last year had this to say in that interview, Brian Flores has a clear vision for how he wants to play defense, and it starts with guys that can lock down on the outside. That's the foundation pass rush. It's not about sacks.

It's about pressure and what that pressure does to other teams quarterbacks and offenses wherever you heard that before. And then of course that sped up process for the quarterback is compounded by the fact that you have sticky coverage that loves to challenge receivers at the line and make them earn every engine. That's not just necessarily, you know,

an individual trade. We've been talking about Byron Jones because I just love the way Byron approaches the game, and I do think that his production and skill set and value I think is a little bit underrated for this Miami Dolphins team based upon what I see on social media and otherwise. But the Dolphins defensive backfield. And we'll talk about this in the coaching section. I mean, you go back to twenty nine team coach Flores with Josh Bowyer then as the defensive backs coach. They were pulling

guys off the street. And then literally five days later, like we had a Tuesday signing. I think it was Tay Hayes before the Bengals game in twenty nineteen, the Week sixteen game where Fitzpatrick through for eight thousand yards and the Bengals came back and it went to overtime and Isaiah Ford had the big catch and then Jason Sanders wins the game with the field goal at the

end there. But in that game, and this was the deal throughout the entire season, right But in that game, Tay Hayes, I believe signed on Tuesday and then went out and played like thirty snaps on Sunday. And the Dolphins got production from guys like that all season long. Like Ken Crawley comes over from the Saints that year, uh Adrian Colbert signs late in the airs of safety and produces the final month of the season as Miami goes three and two with two wins over division champions

that season. So This is not like something new, and I don't expect it to be, you know, new to one. It's something they've just done. They've curated success and they've curated production from that position. And again to go back to the New England days with Josh Boyer and Brian Flores, I mean j C. Jackson, undrafted free agent, Malcolm Butler, undrafted free agent. They brings to Fon Gilmore and who was a first round draft pick of the Bills and

played really well for of Bills. Then he gets to New England and he becomes like the best cornerback in the National Football League. I mean, these guys just coach up defensive backs. It's the proof is in the pudding. Like I can talk about it until I'm blue in the face, but the production is there. The evidence is there on tape and the stats and and these guys, they continue to curate more talent at the position and that only continues to make the production go up and

up and up. And that pairs so well with the past rush scheme you have upfront that just makes the quarterback uncomfortable enough into decisions that puts the ball in tight windows and that's how you wind up leading the NFL.

In takeaway, so I wrote about the Byron Jones effect and how he missed the Buffalo game, the first Buffalo game last year, SAMs the first series and ironically he makes a tackle short of the sticks in that first series and then an incomplete pass goes in his direction on that first series to get a three and out

and force the Bills to punt. But on that third down play, he comes up kind of limping and holding the growing and it made him miss that that game, the rest of that game, the Jacksonville game on Thursday night, and the Seattle game in Week four, And so you take all three of those games and consider that he did play the first one, but you consider it three miss games because it was literally three snaps but with Byron on the field and without Byron on the field.

At the point of this article was points per game allowed without him and sixteen point three points per game allowed with him in the lineup. And that leads into the second point about the ability to mix coverage and further confuse the quarterback. And this coincides with something we're gonna cover more on Monday's Safety Preview podcast and Gerald Alexander preaching communication and how bad communication leads to mistakes, and mistakes at that level of the defense leads to

big plays. And again just trying to get a feel for what I'm seeing on tape. It's a lot with this Dolphins defense, and I can't possibly know exactly what the call is when I'm not part of the meetings or the install or any part of that process. But you look for indicators, right Like a cornerback backs out before the snap and turns his butt to the sideline. That's gonna be zone coverage. That's a zone turn versus

a man turn. And you know the difference in what you're looking at if you study the game enough to not have a call but understand what the defense is doing.

So there's this fun coverage where I went back into the classroom to kind of teach myself for I guess the lab as g A would say, and taught myself this coverage I wasn't very familiar with because I think that's I think that's what I saw on a particular play in the Chargers game, a buzz six, And to break it into Layman's terms, it's quarter half quarter and

that basically defines your deep part of the field. You have one man that falls back into a quarter portion of the field, a man in the middle of the field, typically your free safety who plays the half, and then the other portion of the deep part of the field is covered by another quarter player. So two quarters and a half makes a fool. You have the entire back

end of the coverage. Round it out and the beauty of this defense and what I think Byron Jones showcased in that regardless that he can get to all those different looks while everything looks the exact same at the snap, he's up in your face. He's gonna show challenging as far as pressing at the line, He's gonna show mere technique. He's gonna bail techniques. Sometime you can mix it up in the way that pass rushers mix it up and what they throw at posing offensive lineman. So the quarterback

is dealing with pressure packages. He has to get his protection right to afford him that valuable two and a half seconds, and then he has to hope his receivers can uncover in that time against some of the best sticky cover corners in the National Football League and even safeties that you have to come down to challenge routes at the line to take out your tight end or you're running back. It's just a lot to deal with.

So that's why you get some of these games last year where Miami just completely destroyed the quarterback stat line, uh compared to what they were doing previously in that season. So, yes, the Dolphins did rank near the top of the league in terms of man coverage played via you know, Pro Football Focus, Football Outsiders, Sharp Football, a lot of publications

can verify this for us. But even then, the top three teams where the Dolphins, Patriots, and Lions, and even their man coverage rates are just a smidge over fifty, so you're still going to be in zone half the time. So that's my little tutorial on coverage, how it works, some kind of explanation of this defense and what makes it unique and what makes it productive in terms of that portion of the field. And I hope that pairs well with the breakdowns we did on the line and

at the second level of the linebackers. But it all works together, Like Bo Burnham says, everything works when everything works together. And when you consider how many sub packages of Dolphins go with you know, six, seven, even sometimes eight, defensive backs on the field late in games. You need depth in this group, and that's why you see so

many transactions at this position. We saw it all lash training camper, the run up to training camp, bringing in guys for a look like a Javarros Davis or a Tino Ellis for instance, Davis came went and then came back last year. Now he's here on a futures contract.

Then this year you're getting even more considerable investment with Justin Coleman, Jason mccordy, and then on the back end with Javon Holland as well, after getting Byron Jones and Brandon Jones, and you can just never have enough defensive backs. And coach Flora's Chris Career, Josh Boyer, all these guys have made an emphasis on routing out this group with talent to execute the scheme. So I asked coach was about that on draft weekend and he said, yeah, it's

a passing league. And he and Chris Career have shown their commitment to the position and to the crux of the defense by investing into the position the highest dollar amount in terms of salary of any NFL team. And look at the dividends you get. It just speaks to the larger vision, the plan to execute that vision, to kind of take it day by day and figure out what you have to do to get to that final point,

and then you see it all play out. That is one of my favorite aspects of this team that I've seen play out really in my twenty five plus years of watching Dolphins football. Like, you told me what you were gonna do, you did the move to make it happen, and then you produced it on Sundays. Like, what more could you want as a fan than that? To me? Nothing?

So we get to the piece here on Miami Dolphins dot com taking a look at the Dolphins cornerback room and getting you kind of your training camp guide here ahead of Wednesday's first practice. Go ahead and follow me on Twitter at Winfield NFL and follow the team at

Miami Dolphins for all the live training camp updates. And also go ahead and just completely obliterate that subscribe button on your podcast at because we're gonna have daily podcast, daily stories, We're gonna talk to players and have coaches interviews. In terms of the press conference, is gonna be great, great Dolphins coverage for you here on the Drive Time podcast podcast presented by Auto Nations. Let's go ahead and meet the cast, but first some of the changes and

staff notes here. Justin Coleman comes over from the Lions, and Shrill Williams another new addition. He was with the Saints originally as a U d f A. He is now here with the Miami Dolphins and there weren't any departures at the cornerback position and entering his third season now with the Miami Dolphins new cornerbacks coach Charles Burke's he is in his first season at the cornerbacks coach position.

He has a very interesting route to getting here in Miami and before serving as a Dolphins defensive assistant for twenty so he was here for both those years. In terms of seeing the groundwork laid Burk's was the d

C at Southeastern Oklahoma State. At the time of his higher he was the youngest coordinator in the Great American Conference at the age of twenty six, and after his first coaching job, which was at his alma mater, East Central University in Oklahoma, Burks took a Texas to step pardon the pun there with stops at Texas A and M Commerce and West Texas A and M and working primarily with the cornerbacks in Burke's name often came up in player press conferences as an integral force for the

success of the room. Here's what Byron Jones had to say in practice, And this is my question for Byron, because Byron is always doing something, like he's always getting into his stance or doing a back pedal, or working on his hips, whatever it might be. He's just always doing something. I love to watch him practice. And so he told me this in response to that question. And practice,

I'm working on small things. So oftentimes I work with Chuck Charles Burke's and we're doing looking over the shoulder, catching the ball at the highest point. We'll just walk through some of the man coverage in terms of getting out of your break forty five degrees downhill, a ninety degree break, just kind of slow things down, but allow yourself to work on the technique component of it and quote.

And so when Byron talks about those different degrees in terms of how he kind of flips the hips and opens the hips and closes and clicks and closes all the fun scouting terms you've heard, it basically works upon different route concepts and where his ultimate landmark to get to in that man coverage or where to find the spot in zone coverage, whatever it might be. That's what

he's talking about there. So head coach Brian Flores, of course, lad the Patriots safety room for three years, while d C. Josh Boyer headed up rooms in the secondary there for eleven years prior to his promotion to defensive coordinators, So plenty of experience at this particular position group in the defensive backfield. And Gerald Alexander held the same job as

DBS coach at California and Montana State. He also worked a little bit with you Dub and Jimmy Lake up there and Chris Peterson for four years at Calan Montana State combined before arriving to South Florida. And of course he had a nice five year playing career in the National Football League too, So the experience there it's notable. I think last year Miami found the right ingredients, but then seated in one to kind of take it to another level. Because Byron Jones gave Miami the two perimeter

cornerbacks with accomplished resumes. He and xaviing Howard have been doing this for a while. They've been good players in this league for a while, and together they blanketed opposing receivers, giving Miami one of the league's most imposing tandems, particularly when it comes to that man coverage. Of course, x led the NFL with the ten picks, while Jones set a career high in his own right in that department

with two interceptions. Nick need him transitioned and talking about development of U d f A talked about Malcolm Butler, j C. Jackson. Nick need him another feather in the cap here of Josh Boyer and Brian Flores because he transitions into the slot after a year of playing primarily on the perimeter and out of Texas El Paso. U d f A comes into the league first two years and plays and sixty reps with four picks, eight teen pass breakups, a hundred and twelve tackles, and a pair

of sacks. Like you don't project that kind of production from a guy that didn't go and he didn't go on the draft at all. When you d f A. Now guys come out of that spot all the time and produced. But still a very good accomplishment for a coaching staff when you can get that to happen, and of course for Nick to the work he's put in

has been very commendable. The Dolphins add competition there with Justin Coleman, who was one of the game's premier slot cornerbacks with Seattle before taking a more widespread role with the Lions the last two seasons. Then you've got second year cornerback Noah iguan Agny, whose versatility has been a talking point this offseason. He can play both inside and outside, at least the physical makeup says so and the coaches

say so. Jamal Perry has also seen some time in the slot, outside at safety and mostly on special teams. And then you have a collection of U d f a s and members of last year's practice squad trying to add competition to the room. To l Bonds. Javarus Davis and Tino Ellis all have a year of experience with this Dolphins club, while undrafted rookies Trill Williams and Jaitlyn ask You a special team's phenomen Georgia Tech look to make their mark in their first NFL training camp.

Let's get to the players here and go more in depth on these guys. Noah iguan Agen number nine. Remember that in training camp, number nine, not twenty three. For know what, Manogny, He's the lone single digit cornerback on the roster. One season of experience out of Auburn. He's twenty one years old and opening day people forget that twenty one years old, youngest player in the NFL last season.

Earned valuable experience in that rookie campaign, and I thought the on field work was really supplemented by the plethora of knowledge and wisdom and parted from Miami's experienced players and coaches at the position. Because if you know anything about Noah, he is a sponge that soaks it all up.

He's an exceptional athlete who flipped from wide receiver to cornerback ahead of his sophomore season at Auburn, and he allowed a career pass rating of seventy three point six and a completion rate of forty seven point three in college. He was he was damn good in college. That's why he goes in the first round. And here's what Byron Jones had to say about Noah Ignognes professionalism. He's an incredible talent. I think the way he's approaching the game

this year is going to be special. I think, to be honest, as a rookie, he bought out in camp. I was really impressed with the way he performed and approached the game. He's been consistent throughout the entire season. In terms of the coaching, Charles Burke's is not easy

on anybody. He's certainly not easy on the guys. He knows the expectations are very high for I think Noah did an incredible job of just being there, being attentive every single day and learning and trying to put forth what coach Chuck was wanting out of him and quote and then of course you go back to the work ethic installed at the young age. This is the son of two Olympic athletes, two Olympians UH sprinters. Nonetheless, they

can flat out fly. And he's talked about his workouts as a child, or I've read about it on the Athlete. There's a great, a great Bruce Feldman story on the Athletic from his time at Auburn, where it would detail his workouts with his father and other kids would say, hey, I want to come do what Noah does. I want to come work out, and they would come work out for one day and they would never see that kid again because they're like, I'm not doing that. That's that's

way too much work. So the discipline, the work habits, it's all there for Noah Egnogamy. And of course we saw him play a lot early in the year last year. Then he kind of went to special teams and did some kick returning, and then he comes back in that Bengals game after an ejection, it's him into the lineup and I thought he had a great tape in that game. And one of the things that really stood out to me on his tape, both as a pro and in college is the change of direction skill set, and that's

what playing cornerback is. I mean, you're gonna follow around guys that are just so quick footed and so sharp that can bend off those routes and snap things off and get to a new spot in an instant. There's a great rap and I have it on Twitter. You can search my top my handle uh Noah Igbanogny at Winkle NFL go to videos. There's a rep of him going up against Kyle Pitts in twenty nineteen where Pits takes an outside release and as he tries to cross face.

Noah's outside foot digs into the turf, and all in one motion he hits that back pedal, fires out of it, opens the hips, and drives forward like I just don't understand that movement ability. My body certainly can't do it. Most people can't do it. But I think that rare athletic ability is what you see in terms of the upside. You pair that with what Byron Jones just said, with how he works. I'm I'm so high on Noah Igbanogny. I love his talent, I love what he's about, I

love his humility. I'm very excited to watch this guy in camp. He might be the guy I'm most excited to watch this training camp of anybody on the roster. Jaitlyn asked you number twenty, the rookie out of Georgia Tech, twenty years old opening day. He played just nine defensive snaps his final year at GT, but he was a

fixture on the special teams unit. He made nine total tackles via Pro Football Focus during his four years on special teams, a period that spanned three hundred and ninety three snaps and in one hundred and fifty seven career coverage reps at Georgia Tech, ask you allowed just fifty six point five percent of his past is targeted for his man to be completed, so some good coverage numbers there as well. We then get to Byron Jones next on our list. He is number twenty four, six seasons

out of yukon eight years old on opening Day. We talked about him a lot in the podcast, but a sterling, sterling five year run with the Cowboys where he started as a safety, flipped to cornerback, and then came to Miami to help elevate this Dolphin secondary into one of the league's most productive units. His work ethic and approach of the game has kept him on top of his craft from day one as a rookie with the Dallas Cowboys, after he broke records for the broad jump at the

scouting Combine athletic measurements. The guy can just bounce out of the gym. He's fast, he can change direction, elite level skills that way. When he talks about his approach this offseason, which I found interesting, saying quote, I'd love to work on my technique more and just become more of a technician and not rely solely on my athleticism. I also like to be more of a playmaker and get my head around and take more chances at the

ball and quote. I asked him about that stuff he does and practice and on the field in between series coming out of the locker room at halftime, and he said, when you jump onto the field like it could be a quick turnover, you have to be able to get out there and kind of paraphrasing, go from zero to sixty to keep up with some of the elite burners in this league. You go from sitting still in the sideline to running full speed. You gotta stay ready for that.

So I'm gonna be prepared to the best I can to stay loose and be ready so when i have to put the helmet on and go out there, I'm ready to go. And just the work he does with Coach Burks off to the side of practice. When you come to practice, if you do next week with us, check it out. Check out twenty four out there working with coach Brooks. He is always doing something to make his game better. Up next. Xavian Howard number twenty five

five years in the NFL. Out of Baylor, twenty eight years Old Opening Day, and we know about the production from this guy. He's been one of the best in the NFL, taking the football away over the last several years, double digit picks last year for the first time in a season since Antonio Crimarti did that in two thousand seven. He allowed a completion rate of just fifty four point five percent last year with only seven point seven yards per target and his coverage that's from Pro Football Focus.

His twenty passes defense led the NFL en route to a first team All Pro selection. I love the way this guy presses. I love the way he challenges routes. He has a great ability of kind of showing the quarterback a window and then taking it away at the last minute. That's how I think he gets a lot of those interceptions, kind of working on some of those crossing routes and just the ability to make the play

on the football. I think it's a very valuable thing to the defense, and I think it rubs off on some of the other guys like Byron Jones had mentioned there as well. And you know, we'd be missed to not mention the the situation with with xaviing Howard at O t S and not being there during O t s and you know, coach touched on that, and I want to go ahead and stick with coaches comments saying it was a unique situation that we love x we'd love to have him here, but it's a very unique

situation with xaviing Howard. So we'll keep you posted on that as we have more here on Miami Dolphins dot com as well as the Drivetime podcast. Up next. Justin Coleman, a newcomer here at number twenty seven, is the Jersey number six years of pro out of Tennessee. He'll be

twenty eight years old an opening day. And you notice a lot of these guys and it goes back to safety too, with Eric Roe, for instance, Jason mccordy in that in that kind of ballpark as well, late twenties and that's a lot of veteran experience and well, you know, we talked about Joe Alexander saying communications so important. I think to get those veteran guys out there that can

really help accelerate the communication skill of the position. So this group has a lot of guys in that mid to late twenties range with plenty of football experience in their back pocket and Coleman played with Flores m Boyer in sixteen with the Patriots before are joining Seattle in seventeen, and that's where his game took off as one of

the premier slot cornerbacks from the word go. He held opposing slot receivers to four hundred and fifty seven yards and two touchdowns allowed on sixty targets that first year, which is seven point six yards per target and two picks and a passer rating of just eighty three point three, and among slot corners with at least thirty targets per season, he's ranked eighth in passer rating those both of those two years, with eighty three point three and eighty two

point five. Now then with the Lions in twenty He missed a couple of games with injuries last season, but he was also utilized in a more multifaceted role as an outside corner, inside corner, box blitzing, playing the run, doing a little bit of everything. We'll see what his role here as in Miami, as coach Flores says, it'll be what he makes it, but he has been one of the game's best slot cornerbacks when he's been in

that position. Jamal Perry number thirty three, four years experience out of Iowa State, twenty six years old opening day, and this guy wears as many hats as anybody since he arrived in Miami. Three twelve snaps last season in a variety of roles according to PF fifteen snaps as a box defender, eight two in the slot, seven snaps out on the perimeter, and thirty six at free safety. But he also played one d and seventy two snaps on special teams, making five total tackles on that unit.

And that kind of goes back to something I saw with his game when he was a kind of dime defensive back. He would often be the sixth defensive back onto the field in twenty nine team. If it's like third and thirteen, you plant him with the sticks, they throw short of the sticks, he would rally and tackle. I loved his ability to come up and see the play in front of him and make the tackle short of the sticks to get the punt team onto the field.

Terrell Bonds number thirty five, two years experience out of Tennessee State. He'll be twenty five years old come opening Day, and starting with his pro career, he was in the a a F the American Alliance of Football Alliance of American Football I forget the name of it, with the Memphis Express, and he spent the last two years with

the Baltimore Ravens. He made his debut in the NFL and playing primarily on special teams and with the aforementioned Express of the defunct a a F. He had a blocked punt and returned at four a touchdown in that league. Jamar Javarus Davis number thirty eight, one year experience out

of Auburn. He was Noah Monogny's teammate there at Auburn, twenty four years old on opening day on the practice squad last year, but as a collegian allowed quarterbacks to post an NFL passer rating of just fifty seven point six thanks in large parts of his eight picks compared to just four touchdowns allowed, so a two to one I n T to touchdown ratio for Javarus Davis in college, and he really held receivers in a tough sec to just a fifty three percent completion rate as a collegium.

Nick need Um number forty two years experience out of Texas l PASSABI twenty four years old. Opening day, we talked about his transition to the slot position, and to me, that has to do with his footwork. He has such smooth and sweet feet, uh and that fits in line with the Miami Dolphins philosophy because he kicked inside of play nickel cornerback with the immediate success, and he matched up with a handful of the game's blessed the best slot receives, and he measured up every step of the way.

Over the course of a month, he matched up with Cooper cup keyan Allen, Tyler Boyd and Jamison Crowder, and those four guys against Nick need Hum and Coverage had fourteen targets, eight catches for eighty six yards and a pick. So great work against some of the league's best and

arriving as a rookie. He talked about focusing on his condition and the challenging first preseason where you may remember that first game he started the opening game with Brian Flores and that I think it was the Falcons of the Bucks just went after him, repeated his first game in the pros out of UTEP like that's gonna happen. He had a rough preseason, but then he bounced back and showed you his medal, showed you his character and his mental toughness to have a productive rookie season and

even better second season. He's a great example of how a player in August is not the finished product or the version of the player you expect to see in December. That's the entire philosophy of Brian Flores. His team to build, get better every single day, and need him exemplifies that so far in his two years as a pro. Tino ellis number forty six, one season out of Maryland, three years old on opening Day. He was in the practice squad last year after a nice career with the Terrapins.

There there he allowed a career completion rate of just fifty three point three percent via Pro Football Focus. He also registered a combined fifteen pass breakups over his four year college career. And then Trull Williams number fifty one. It looks weird every single time. I always think he's a linebacker out there, a rookie out of Syracuse, twenty one years old come opening Day. He's long and imposing. He can get his hands on you and play physical

and press. Originally, he signed with the Saints as a u d f A now with the Dolphins, hoping to parlay an accomplished college career into professional success. He allowed an NFL pass a rating of just seventy nine point one at Syracuse with four interceptions compared to four tds allowed, and he limited opposing receivers to a rear completion rate of fifty eight point seven. So that's your cornerbacks. We have one more group to go. The Safety's coming up

on a podcast near you. Me and my wife and a bunch of the gang from the Dolphins Social and video department are heading out to the Marlins game to take on the San Diego Padres. I cannot wait to go watch fer Nando tattoos. That's gonna be must see live action. I was gonna say TV there, but to go to the ballpark to get myself a beer or two and watch them baseball. I cannot wait for that. It's been since twenty nine team with my Seattle Mariners

haven't been back to safegu Field yet. I can't wait to check out Loan Deepot Park and watch the Marlins take on the Padres. And I really want to watch to Tease take four bats. That's what I'm really going for in general. So that's it for the podcast. Come back with us on Monday. We'll talk about all things safeties, and then we'll roll this thing into Wednesday with training

camp coverage here on the Drivetime podcast. Keep it locked, You're number one source for all things Miami Dolphins football. In the meantime, you all please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcast, Leave us a rating, leave us a review, Go ahead and give me a follow. On Twitter, it's at Winfeld NFL. You can follow the team at Miami Dolphins, check out the fish Tank podcast with Seth and o J, and of course, Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time, pens Un