What is up, Dolphins, And welcome to the Draft Time Podcast. I am your host, Travis Wingfield, and on today's show, we are getting into the positional capsules, taking a look at the Dolphins offseason for twenty twenty five. Up today the quarterbacks will take a look at the internals, the free agents, and the draft prospects as we have graded them accordingly so far. Today also talk about rams and vikings a little bit more here from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Drive Time Podcast. So it is time for the first round of capsules, primers, whatever we're gonna call them here. Over the coming weeks, we're gonna look at each position group internally. We'll tell you who the free agent options are and get into the tape on those guys and the declared draft prospects. And let's go ahead and start where we have literally always started on this. The quarterback is that how everybody does it too?
Like you do?
You know, the same cadence quarterback, running back, wide receiver, tight end, offensive line, defensive tackle, edge off ball, linebacker, cornerback, safety, Like every time I do that, just like the same as the divisions you know, you start in the AFC, you go east, north, southwest, and do the NFC in the exact same order creature of habit I suppose. But additionally, you know, I've been trying to figure out how I want to parse out the prospect stuff, and I was thinking about, you know, cramming this Senior Bowl rosters in here, and you know, from a time perspective, I didn't have enough time to get to all those guys, and I want to make sure I'm what's the word I'm looking for here, comprehensive on all the entire class, not to mention that the Shrine Bowl has a bunch of talent there as well. So I think that we'll just go ahead and do it as I get to it, and we'll update this as we go along. So sound good, Because I have like a couple of free agents I've done, I've got a bunch of draft prospects I've done, and obviously our own internal guys are off top of the dome. So let's go ahead and get into this with the internal guys are our own quarterbacks, and we'll do this like this. The first topic is going to be general thoughts on the room, and I wrote this, you prefer doing this how we did it in twenty twenty three, where there's only one guy to evaluate, right, But this year we saw four quarterbacks, three different starters. We hit some incredible highs, including one of the best games against a Sean McDermott Buffalo Bills team in his entire eight year stint with the Bills, which was the second highest EPA in a game by a quarterback two against the Bills. This year, we've seen a stretch of near perfect quarterback play for like a five week span, but also some of the more devastating lows, imaginable, absolute stinkers in the pivot point games. And I'll be a focus this entire offseason for how the Dolphins approach this, and we've seen them the injury issues plagued the starting quarterback as well. It's rebably the two things you're talking about when it comes to this room. And then beyond that, what are you going to do beyond the first quarterback because it was an abject failure, not just this year, but going back to really since Twoa's gotten here, the backup position has been a train wreck since the Ryan Fitzpatrick existence. So let's go ahead and kick it off with number one to a tongue bai loa. I alluded to the game in Buffalo in the intro. I think that was the best game of his career and again, second highest EPA in a game at Buffalo for any quarterback against that McDermott defense over eight years, and I fall back on that as a way to illustrate Tua's growth. He's always had this exceptional recall that we've praised. I'll never forget having him on the podcast when I was green and terrible, interviewing talking about the game winning touchdown pass at Alabama and he broke down the entire play for me. But you've also seen him demonstrate the checklist that a quarterback must go through with his pre snap process. I even asked him about this in a press conference and replied to him like it's a lot man, and he jokingly said he anybody can play quarterback, brother, which is not true too. And look, maybe I'm preaching to the choir here that agrees with me, because well, you're on my.
Show, my channel.
But I feel like this is a hard point to convey, Like, for example, if I have cover two and we have a route concept, that needs two and a half seconds to remove the half field safety from the perimeter of the field from a stagnant position. And then I need to sell the underneath cloud corner who makes up the underneath part of that cover two to give up his outside leverage, maybe match something where he runs inside. And all this does is freeze up what looks like the most simple throw in football swing route to your running back, and it winds up being a neutral PFF grade, right, But the quarterback still has to read that coverage, go through the process of threatening the flag route, threatening the end break route, threatening those players to get them off of their positions, to make them believe that they're going to have to get to a new position to take away a downfield throw. And all it does is freeze up the swing route to maximize the run after the catch. So the PFF grades don't internal. Don't know that internal part of the play. I do because I know how the offense works. So that's high level stuff, but you're not going to get a good grade for it from PFF. It's high level processing with the work being done between the ears, and we only grade the physical that we see. That is where we miss the Mark, so that paired with the accurate downfield shots last year, the added creativity this year, which comes with a caveat that has put him in peril a couple times. I think this is one of the game's best quarterbacks and we should be very, very very grateful to have him. Now, he's got to stay healthy. And his worst game of the year was that Houston game, right, a game that we had a chance to if we win that game, you know, the hip injury is something else, but you're probably cruising into the playoffs if you win that game. And I cannot wait to watch this young man have that breakthrough in one of these games, because it's coming. You know, as we discussed on the wild Card Recap pod, those narratives melt like butter in an inferno when they go away, Like it goes away in the snap of a finger. For instance, on Sunday, either Lamar Jackson or Josh Allen are going to erase a narrative one way or the other, right, And I think to a will too, hopefully here in twenty twenty five. And that's all without even acknowledging. Hey, you know, this dude played pretty damn well against Green Bay last year in the game against Philly. Go watch the first half against the Eagles. Look at his numbers and the throws he made in that game, and then the drop touchdown pass the Tyreek Hill had in the second half of that game, or the aforementioned Buffalo game where the numbers were good for through four quarters. Like, he's not impervious to big game success. He's had it. We've just kind of melted down around him. He's just had a few bad ones because hey, guess what, Beating great teams is hard to do. Just ask Jordan Love or Justin Herbert. And really it's not even a knock on those guys. It's just the insane standard that we hold quarterbacks to. And when I say we, I'm talking about fans on social media and that stuff actually exists inside buildings.
But you get what I'm saying.
He's had a passer rating over one hundred for the third straight year, only Dolphins quarterback to ever do that. He has the third highest cumulative passer rating over the last three years. Mahomes and Lamar Jackson are the only guys higher. I mean, you guys have seen the charts top right in every category, right, we are one season away from this guy buttoning up two narratives and these conversations being strictly about all the good that he has done, and I think we'll get there very very quickly. The rest of the quarterback room Tyler Huntley number eighteen. A lot was asked of Snoop this year. You know, we've lead litigated countless times how tough this offense is to come in and grasp from the jump, and quite frankly, how hard it is to come off the bench and play this position in this league. Teams that have to start a backup for extended periods of times usually don't sustain winning for very long. The Browns game was a good snapshot of what he can do where you can utilize the run game and in corporate play action off that his running ability can generate single high looks, which is obviously very attractive when you have the receivers that you have. But I just had so many issues with what he put on tape, going back to the first stint and not processing anything at all, passing up open eligibles, a wonky delivery that can get a mechanics off sorts and cause for like several misfires in a game on layup throws like in the Jets game, for instance, and then that's not going to change to the stage of his career, and neither will. I think the poor decision making we saw in that finale with potentially everything on the line. The saving grace with his quarterback is his creativity. But it's not special. It's not like he's a Lamar Jackson level creator, certainly not special enough to mitigate all the misses we see in the passing game, which again, you're willing to live with that if you have Josh Allen or Lamar Jackson type skills but you don't. But you can't be well Zach Wilson or Snoop Huntley and have as many misses as he had this year. I'm curious to see what the off season brings with this guy. For free agency standpoint, I would I would be willing to offer him a minimum contract and see if he wants to come compete and possibly even you know, if you wind up with a Jelen Milroe in the mid rounds of the draft, a guy that can you know, help a quarterback like that ud be your scout team service team quarterback. Like I'm interested as far as that goes. But if he comes into if we break camp and he's the number two quarterback, I have a lot of concerns.
Scaler Thompson.
I had something written out and I erased it because he signed to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Hey, best of luck in Pittsburgh, Skyler. I thought he was headed for a spring league, That's what I wrote down here. But he's gonna get a chance with the Pittsburgh Steelers. What this room needs. Oh, how the priorities have changed. Man, First it was getting in an adult in the room for a young Tua.
Tua, where's dua?
Then he grew up out of that and went the developmental route, right, But you invest nearly as low as you can in developmental player in the seventh round. And I thought, you know, Mike White's Jets tape had some backup upside to it, not true starter upside, but his game clearly hasn't evolved at all because he can't crack the lineup in Buffalo. You know, massaging the situation with Tua was the next kind of move, and you know, not bringing in a real challenger. I think that was obviously a miss. But you know, I think that this was a quarterback who you kind of had to repair your relationship with him based upon how he was treated under the previous head coach. And I think part of that was, you know, not putting a quarterback they would threaten his status. And whether or not you agree with that, I don't really agree with it, but I think that was part of the decision making that led to that quarterback room looking like it looked last year. Then you get the comp pick stuff, which I think was, you know, they were desperately trying to get themselves into this high level or high amount of draft picks to kind of repair what's been a broken draft haul the last two years in terms of the volume of picks that you made. And now you knew going into this year that you probably needed to get like five contributors on rookie contracts from this year's draft class, and that's why you go with ten picks and try to make sure you get those ten picks.
But that's not the case this year.
And I think on top of someone that can win games, I think another strong voice in the room could help. I also think that you could stand to do a developmental type signing, like a Trey Lance or a Zach Wilson.
I like one of them. I don't like the other one.
But I think you compare those two things like why not it's if it's the reason you weren't a playoff team in twenty twenty four and it's not that expensive, then let's attack it with a type of vigor that gives you assurances, you know, to deal with tragedy or you know, whatever you call losing a quarterback to injury. Before we get to the additional options here, additional assets, this is not a position where you get that right now. It's just two on the roster, but that will obviously change in the coming months. First break right there, come back and talk about the free agent quarterbacks available. We'll also do draft picks, and I want to get some thoughts on the Rams and Viking game from Monday night. That's all next Draft Time podcast, your host, Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Autoonation. So I'm parsing through this list of free agent quarterbacks and the draft as well, and I'm trying to decide for the best way to do this, and we're gonna figure it out live here on the program. I think i'll list them for you and then do the breakdowns, because it kind of seems like doing the list first will give it away and kind of rud the suspense. Let's go ahead and list my quarterback free agent rakings based upon guys that I've watched so far, and it goes like this, Number one is Sam Donald. I think that's a given, the contracts will bear that out. Number two is Andy Dalton. Number three is Trey Lance, and that's actually my cutoff. I have two targets of interest, and I'm gonna tell you why. I don't think Donald is one of them. I think it's an obvious one. We'll break it down for you guys. And then I get to guys that i'm I'm I could be convinced on, but I'm not crazy about, and they go like this and this word number four, Justin Fields, number five, Marcus Mariota, number six, Jimmy Garoppolo, number seven, Jamis Winston, number eight, Drew Locke, number nine, Zach Wilson, and some notable other names I have not watched yet or done a workup on. I should say as Cooper Rush, Joe Flacco, Mac Jones, and Josh Dobbs. I can tell you, right, now from watching live copy all season my whole life, I'm not gonna be interested in those four guys, so we might not even do it. We'll see for comprehensive sense, we might have to do it, but we'll see. But here's what I do have for you, guys. The first guy that I watched is the guy that I want the most, and it's Andy Dalton quick game rhythm pro. Obviously, he has lots of experience in this league. He was drafted back in twenty eleven, so he's been around for a millennium. Almost exceptional pre snap at the last scrimmage with his cadence getting people where they need to go, you can see him actually get guys a line. So I think you can say goodbye to some of the formational and procedural issues you've had in the past, and the stats really bear that out. Last year he was plus seven point three EPA on dropbacks under two and a half seconds, such your quick game typically. That was thirteenth in the NFL, compared to minus twenty six on dropbacks over two and a half seconds, which is twenty second in the league. So get the all out quick and you'll be okay with Andy Dalton. He's poised against the blitz, not to be confused with pressure, because he does struggle against pressure, and that comes from the comfort of knowing how your protectional lines and that you have the answer in the route concept, like Okay, I have this vulnerability off my left, but I have this route off to the right that I can hit with that tilted defense. He understands the indicators the defense gives him. There's like a little I watched a couple of games and he would throw a slant flat to the backside to attack a blitzing will linebacker. He sees that he stays in the hook and he immediately goes back to the swings like all right, I know where you're leaning. Let me check to make sure you go there and get the ball to that vacancy before it even plays out, and it scores. It's a touchdown on the play, so really impressive film work there. He can be somewhat declarative where he will look it down, which you know some of these pocket passers can do that because he probably thinks he saw something and kind of maybe a little bit stubborn to get off of it. Does not have elite anticipation. I mean, we see the best in the league, so it's hard to measure up to that. But he will miss some throws with accuracy issues and he's not going to create offscript. But there's a reason this guy's a backup quarterback available to you. The conclusion here is a one year, top of the market free agent backup cost. No developmental or upside to this quarterback, but I think that he provides the most stability of anybody out there. Sam Donald is next aphabet alphabetically, but I'm not gonna work him up. He's just so far apart from what we're looking for, not even on my radar. Onto the next alphabetically that is Justin fields, excellent in the design, run game, offscript creation, particularly with his legs added hat in the run game, makes him a highly efficient red zone option. In fact, I think the Steeler should have gone to more Justin fields down the red zone, down the stretch. And in fact, I would replaced him back with Russell Wilson because Russell Wilson fell into all his old habits. But that's a different conversation. But he's a great short yard conversion rate type of quarterback. Still struggles immensely to process and see the field. He can't see s dude.
It is bad. It is tough to watch.
He's a one read and move off the spot, try to bail on the clean pockets and doesn't play through the progressions and thus doesn't move coverage and accordance to how it should with the offense in terms of how it should be executed. He throws with touch and exceptional trajectory. That was what made me love him, in addition to his legs at Ohio State on those deep passes. But it's pretty scattershot in these short to intermediate areas. My conclusion is, if you go this route, you're not banking on any upside. I think it's done. I don't think he's gonna get better. He's played plenty of football and demonstrated enough poor field vision that you can't expect it to show up. He does, however, again offer you in a playing time sense where he's not just your backup quarterback. He has a package for himself because of his ability to run the football in both short yardage and in the red zone. That part intrigues me. Everything else not so much. And I'll tell you why. I think you can get both those two things here. Jimmy Garoppolo's up next, alphabetically razor thin, physical skills that have deteriorated as he's aged. He plays on time and in rhythm when the reads are clearly defined. Does a great job throwing to space off play action and a rhythm based passing attack. But anytime he's asked to execute a true drop back and decipher the leverage and coverage, you get errors. You might get a couple of them, but he'll make a critical backbreaking pick and cost your team a big football game in a spot, or take a sack and lose the football. I think he's an option, but not a great option. Plus he gets hurt like way more than two. What does So I can't afford to make him QB two and not have anybody else behind him and then lose him in a preseason game or in training camp. But just I can't trust that. The familiarity is one thing my conclusion here is the one thing that's attractive about him. But at this stage of his career, I think it's going to get worse. So I'm passing on this prospect or this free agent. Trey Lance extremely comfortable with a shifting launch point. You can boot him off play action and run him on the move off his own read and keeper looks. He throws the anticipation when presented with leverage, which I didn't think was on his tape previously. He knows where he wants to go, but I think inherently struggles to keep his eyes down the field with that natural feel for the rush. He lacks feel for the rush and clean areas in the pocket, something I feel we can get there with more time and experience, because he's played the least amount of football of anybody that age that I can remember. He has seventeen college starts, you know, the pandemic shortened season costs a whole year, basically five starts. As a pro, I don't think he's making protection changes and calls. Yet he takes sacks that you can see coming from a mile away, and he does bail in his fair share of clean pockets. But I can accept that from a quarterback that has played like twenty football games in the last seven years. I can't accept that from a quarterback who's played sixty games in the last six years. At a certain point, you run out of rope, right he struggles to layer of the football. Accuracy on touch throws is as unpredictable, like as as my buddy JT. Santos's wedge game and golf could come out floppy, could come out skullly anybody's guess. But I think he can execute our on time stuff. He throws a curl against soft Cover one before the receiver begins to even throw down back down the stem, and that's what has me like, Okay, I can force teams into cover one and throw those snoop huntly routes in addition to all the run games success I can have off of him like there's something to build upon there and it's not again, it's not set in store. I think there's more to build on this player. I think the conclusion here is he replaces your need to draft the prospect or a project even multi year contra type of player that allows him to grow in your program, get the offense down, and maybe in three years he's worth a trade chip, or maybe he's the best backup quarterback in the league and he has the physical traits to me to make that time well invested and well spent. Drew Locke is up next, and his ability to rip throws from multiple arm angles and drive the ball.
Down the field is impressive.
He also has the moxie and the creativity shake free from some bad calls and crumbling pockets and make a bad call right at times. And he does kind of have that like backup quarterback swag in the way Ryan Fitzpatrick had, in the way like Gardner Minshew has where he can come off the bench and be like it's rock and roll dudes in the huddle and all the guys like Drew locks out here. I think there is value to that, like a player's a guy that players like is a big deal for the backup quarterback. But his ability to play on time, that's where it runs out, is just not there. He's predetermined when he's where he's going with the football. Most of the time he'll take the sure thing a post, letting the thing rip down the field, like he had this third and long against the Eagles, where the concept threatened the seam and brought the middle of the field away from a lak dabers against a deep third player with the comeback route and he was wide open. He should have known that was a walk in the park first down based upon the coverage pre snap, but he never got there and it's toad check the football down. My conclusion here is, I think we're way off from being in the class that we're shopping from.
Here.
There was minimal trust from the previous staff, and his decision making validated the way they protected him. The Colts game was the only time he's ever played like that entire life, and even that was like fifty to fifty balls down the field and screens to the house. Marcus Mariota I think is going to get bridge starter time somewhere else. I think price himself out of our range because of how he played this year, and I know that classes with who he's been his entire career, and perhaps those are the spots that don't facilitate his skill set, like he's thrived when there's been quality infrastructure in place and fallen flat on his face with an with upstart BS for lack of a better term, I think he still struggles immensely with how he sees the field and he will never be an anticipatory thrower, but damn it, he adds a fun element as a runner and creator. My conclusion here is, I think if you want to incorporate the backup quarterback and the run, and this is one of the very best options, but in terms of the fit, his skill set is so far from two was that I fear there's not even a possible option in this player.
Zach Wilson's up next.
Frenetick in the pocket with an inherent nature to retreat against pressure. He has no trust in his protection due to the lack of processing power. I'm not sure he understands the checkpoints that he has to get through pre snap, what presentations look like, and how they're set up to get to different looks from that defensive set. He has a fun arm, some scramble ability, but he can't even maximize that because of the horrible spots he puts himself into as a drop back passer like he often puts himself into a sack. Perhaps he has developed some of the stuff for the first time in his career working with a competent play caller and quarterback room and Sean Payton with Denver Broncos, but this is really a hard passer. My conclusion here is high end trades upside, but Skyler level processing that makes me think he's not ready for this league or even long for this league. Never got to see the snaps in Denver to decipher if he's grown under Payton. If he winds up here, it'll be the first thing I'm looking for in camp, like did he grow in that area with Denver? We'll have to wait until April to find out. Though Jamis Winston. No team can survive the highs and lows of a player like this. It's fun for us to watch as neutral fans, can't imagine watching it for your team. He's probably a good addition to the room in an instance where you need to replacement to come in cold for an injured quarterback, but make the same mistakes like perpetuate. If he plays for a long period of time, good defenses can tear him limb by limb and capitalize in the consistently questionable decision making. He has no regard for the football, He's not a sharp process, or he doesn't have a lot of creativity.
These are not things I.
Want in a backup quarterback. I also think he's a bad fit as a backup because of the attention he Garners. He's just too much bro, He's too extra. My conclusion, probably a decent backup option, but to me not a good culture fit or locker room fit. I think TUA would get tired of him very quickly. So for me, Donald is the top guy available, but that's not even within our pantheon of options. Andy Dalton to me is the next best option, and he kind of fits a category that nobody else does here in terms of that veteran calming presence who I know can learn the offense and basically not make us have to step back into rudimentary offenses, which we've learned that the head coach doesn't want to do that anyways, So I think he needs a quarterback like that to keep the offense on schedule. You'd get like a Jimmy Garoppolo, maybe that same vein, but I just don't think he's the same quarterback. And then Trey Lance is my number three, and this is like my cutoff the targets I'm interested in with Lance and Dalton, but I think Lance is the kind of guy that you bank on more long term upside. Maybe you can sign both of them, like why not, you know, if it's cheap, why not do it? Then I would go Justin Fields is right on the verge. I don't like the timing of his game, Marcus married his fifth, Jimmy Garoppolo sixth, Jamis Winston seventh, Drew Locke eighth, and then Zach Wilson brings up the rear at number nine. Some notable names I have not worked up and probably won't Cooper Rush, Joe Flacco, Mac Jones, and Josh Dobbs. You kind of know who those guys are, right, I don't think there's gonna be a lot of changing there. So that's the free agency class. Let's go ahead and take look at the draft class. Next here on the Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation one more time for transparency's sake and for a disclaimer's sake, I have a lot more work to do on the entire class really outside of Cam Schadure and Milroe guys that I've watched several games on everybody else, I've watched a couple of games and or broadcast copy on those guys. So first, the College All Star Games present a new challenge where they have like guys going to different games, which sucks.
I just played in one spot. Man, it kind of drives me crazy.
But the Senior Bowl roster is jaln Milroe, Dylan Gabriel, Jackson Dark are all names you probably know. And then Will Howard from Ohio State. He's gonna play the National Championship game next week. Riley Leonard also gonna play in the National Championship game. And then Tyler Shoe from Louisville Shrine Bowls roster. A lot of crossover here. Shador is going to be at this game NOL Milroe, but Kyle McCord will be at this game. Tyler Shoe once again will be there. Curtis Rourke from Indian is going to be there. And then four quarterbacks. I have not watched a single play from Mark Gonnomowski. I hope I got that right. South Dakota State, Cam Miller, North Dakota State, Max Brosmer Minnesota, Go ghos Seth Hennigan, Memphis. Here's how I stack the quarterbacks today, and I've only done five quarterbacks. So cam Ward is number one. He features everything you want in a franchise quarterback, starting with a non negotiables poise, a thirst for knowledge of the game. He asked the why behind the concepts versus the coverage. He has accuracy, pocket management, and then sprinkling the flash stuff like other worldly play creation, easy glide scrambles for first downs and home runs on broken plays. There's a story about him at Wshu Go Kook's where he had too many fumbles, but half of them came from shotgun snaps that he just dropped and.
Picked back up.
When he was asked about it, he said that he wants every fraction of a second afforded to him to process the way the defense rotates after the snap. So that tells me that his process is great and his mind is where it needs to be. He understands leverage indicators, the different throws required for different plays and coverages. The wind ups a little bit long and loopy, but I think he's tightened that up over the last couple of years. I think this is a star quarterback and he's holding up an otherwise down year for the position. I do not agree in the slightest that there isn't a top quarterback this year. Cam actually grades out to me more favorable than any quarterback of the last five years to me, except for CJ.
Stroud.
That's probably a knock on me if not having Jayden Daniels higher, But we have to be honest here right, actually full transparency. That list goes for me Stroud Ward number one, number two. Then Trevor Lawrence is number three behind those two guys. Jade and Daniels was number four, Michael Pennix five justin fields like six, and then Drake May seven. Some good So I'm not so good about that list, but you know what, like I had Caleb Williams lower than those guys, so I feel good about that. My current range projection on Ward is first round pick draft. In the draft Star quarterback number one overall. Number two is Shadur Sanders from Colorado. Exceptional poise and leadership and pocket feel and accurate thrower from all arm angles. Not a plus creator, nor does he feature a giant arm to force the issue, but plenty of zip and enough plays with his legs to get to the next level or to get by the next level. I should say I love his experienced arm in terms of different slots and throws that he can make. You can tell that he was out in the backyard with Pops whipping football and baseball's around in the backyard. He's not robotic in his mechanics nor his release. It's all a natural feel to him. No one is better at layering the football than him, and I think he can be very effective under center play action quarterback to support a strong running game with a.
Beautiful intermedia game.
He's probably the most polished in terms of understanding everything that a franchise quarterback has in his hand with each snap that he takes. But I do think that he big play hunts a little bit too frequently and exasperated what was a bad offensive line there at Colorado for two years, taking more sacks than he probably had to. He's played a lot of football, and I think his ability to play immediately make him attractive. He was a top ten pick Dallas Cowboys. Maybe we'll see I have him as a first round draft pick. I think he goes top ten. Number three is Jalen Milroe from Alabama. There was a time when I thought Milroe was going to elevate himself into a top ten pick this spring, but bad tapes made me think he was closer to going back to the college game for another year. He comes out, it starts with game breaking running ability. We're talking about vic Lamar Cunningham type of stuff. He's a threat on design runs just as much as he isn't scrambled drills, and that alone can change how defenses play him. But the reason I thought he was a top ten pick was the quick set up and delivery that paired with the ability to see the field.
The loss to Vandy that game.
You know what I saw on tape was post snap rotation identification pair with touch and timing to layer the ball in the tight windows over the middle of the field.
That's how you win at this level.
He has the gas to push the ball down the field and to the perimeter despite tight coverage. But I think he needs a lot of work on his feet and set up and to demonstrate more consistency as a passer. I think the highs the first half versus Georgia outweigh the lows his bowl game versus Michigan, because we're not judging these players on who they are, but who they can become. And I think that he might have the most upside besides cam Ward the entire class. I think the league might mess up by letting this guy go too far. If he's there in the second round, I would think very highly, very strongly about it. Maybe it's a Jordan Love approach. We shit him down for a couple of years, but I think there's the most impressive ball of clay in the entire draft is Jalen Milroll.
He's a Day two pick.
For me currently probably early second round for my money. Number four is Kyle McCord from Syracuse. Stationary pocket passer with a lot of big game experience and winning throws in tough moments. He's not going to wow you with his foot speed or creativity, but he can manage money pockets and find space to execute the offense from within. Not a super overpowering arm, but I do think he has every throw in the arsenal in terms of being able to drive the ball, to put some loft on it on deep shots, and layer in the intermediate game. To me, he projects as a potential developmental backup. I have as an early Day three pick. Jackson Dart from Old Missus Next for me in the last one on the list here. This is going to be a quarterback that I don't get this year that other people seem to fawn over. He's sloppy as hell in his footwork, almost belabored in it. I think he needs a ground up rebuild to his mechanics, and it pairs unfavorably with his timing. I never felt the footwork matched up with the timing of his routes. And you might be able to get me with that in the college game, but not at this level. Bucko, get ready to speak Skylar Thompson. If you do that, you can see the traits that I think will make him pop off after his pro day. He's gonna have a Zach Wilson prode. He can sling the ball across his body, driver it from different platforms and really create some magic when he gets off the spot and goes His decision making, especially in big spots down the stretch last year really had me screaming at my screen man. The late turnovers in the Florida game was kind of a pivot point. I think athletes can take moments like that, you know, two picks in the final like three minutes of the game with a chance to win the game. Both times can be a learning moment or a confidence crushing moment. I do think Dart is rather the right way to overcome that. But even with forty five starts, I think there's a lot of development that has to happen with this player. He is a Day three pick right now in terms of my projection. So the way I stack him is I probably like Jalen Milroe the most because of the upside, but I understand that we're probably not in that category just yet. I think you can get more more impact players and where he had where I think Milroll goes. So Dalton's probably my top option. Trey Lance is right at his heels, and then a mill Row's in that fixture as well. And I have to do more work on day three pick because right now I'm not seeing it with those guys. I want to close the podcast with some thoughts on Vikings and Rams before we go here real quick. So five and one on wild card weekend, pretty good. Still kicking myself for the Packers pick. I gotta stop going against the Eagles. That's a great football team. We'll do the divisional picks on our Friday show and probably talk about the National Championship as well as episodes that the episode that pairs with our running Back capsule, so stay tuned there. But man, I just think it's worth mentioning this. And you guys know the meme of the man standing up in the town hall stating his unpopular opinion. Right, I have one of those, and it's I think you can have a successful season without winning the championship or even making the Super Bowl for that matter. Like I think winning fourteen games is a big deal. I think a first round blowout exit aside, is still a big deal. They lose to two teams this year, and just so happen to lose to both teams twice. They and by the way, they were owing four against playoff teams and fourteen ohoher against everybody else, Like you know, no, that's not true. Could beat the Packers. What am I talking about? Two and four versus playoff teams. They were literally trailing at halftime by a field goal last week with a chance at fifteen and two and the number one seed at home and home field throughout the playoffs. And I'm a strong subscriber to a season being about moments and the joy you experience as a fan. It's why I appoint to twenty twenty three so frequently and so fondly. Like, yeah, it ended really disappointingly, but like as someone who watches Dolphins games for fun in the middle of the summer, like rewatching them. It used to be a handful of games that you could pull up right, like the Wildcat Division clincher, the Rams game in twenty twenty, or the Cardinals game that year, or the Miami Miracle game. Like you're picking out outlier performances where say you're a Patriots fan, you have two decades worth of fun playoff wins to pick from. But like in twenty twenty three, dial up the Chargers, the Giants, or the Panthers or the Broncos, the Patriots or both Jets games, or the Commander's game or the Cowboys game, Like all those games are fun as hell to watch again, and we're even better in the moments. So yeah, brutal ending for the Vikings, But I still think it was a good season and they do have to feel really good about their process. GM and head coach are both did a great job. Of course, the big shoot to drop there is what they do at quarterback with McCarthy waiting. I tend to think you tag Darnold and go into the year super secure at the quarterback position, But maybe he walks and they go with just JJ.
That's their call.
As for the game itself, I've been saying that's a damn good Rams team. And I was super impressed by Chris Shula, and not just for the strong job that he got from his grandfather or the insanely impressive hairline in a profession that is predisposed to deleting hairlines, but also the game that he called, the way they were able to create one on one situations against a banged up Vikings offensive line who was you know, down Christian Darisol all year basically, but then they lose Brian O'Neill in this game.
That's the thing.
Man. You can usually survive like one loss, but when they accumulate at a position, you know how it goes. As Dolphins fans, it gets very tough offensive line the last couple of years, the edge position, the cornerbacks.
In twenty twenty two, it's tough.
They doubled Justin Jefferson create one on ones off the edge with their interior stunt game and sim pressure game. They play aggressive man coverage underneath. Super commendable. You know. Jordan rod Reeg, who is the Rams beat writer for The Athletic. She describes the Rams staff with the week off as they rested for Week eighteen at very good at specifically finding matchup victories and exploiting them, and I'd say they did that pretty well. Also, I know the defense is better than it's been in like two decades, but I kind of like the aggressive approach. Yes, it is nice to basically never allow deep touchdowns, but it was sort of refreshing to watch a team dictate the terms like that, especially against an offense with that kind of firepower.
Divisional round gonna be fun to watch. Man. And my goodness, that's Sunday Night, Ravens and Bills game. Go Ravens.
Man, We're gonna get a game like that one of these days, Dolphins fans, it's gonna happen. Until then, though, we'll preview all those games. Do the running backs on Friday. That's my time. Subscribe, rate review the podcast, follow me on social. Go ahead and check out the fish Tank Podcast with Seth and Juice the YouTube channel for a brand new episode this week of Dolphins HQ, Media Availabilities, and so much more, and last but not least, Miami Dolphins dot Com until next time. Fins up Carolin and Cameron Daddy's Come and Hold