Drive Time: Mock Draft Round Up, Edge Rusher Class and Solutions for Potential Shortcomings

Published Apr 5, 2024, 2:55 PM
We wrap up the week with plenty more draft talk by looking at the mock drafts of the heavy hitters in the industry. Plus, we break down the top edge rushers and why Miami’s roster building allows them to take the best player available among a large bucket. Finally, potential shortcomings on the April 2024 roster and solutions for those perceived issues.

Two on the Move, Galling Deep, Spiegwys Peace, do hell Peas from the Baptist Health Studio.

This inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is Drivetime with Travis Wingfield.

He's job my advans in the playoffs. What is up Dolphins and welcome to the Draft Time Podcast. I am your host, Travis Wingfield. And on today's show, we are having fun with mock drafts. Our first mock draft roundup. We'll take a look at some of the most popular names in the draft community, who they're mocking to your Miami Dolphins and what that might mean for us in the draft. Plus, we are going to talk about some concerns we might have on the roster and how to address those. We'll also take a look at the edge group, Darius Robinson, Chop Robinson, lat To lot To, We'll break down those threes game and we'll also explain to you how the Dolphins Curran roster creates the options for flexibility throughout the rest of free agency and the draft. All of that in a heck of a lot more from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Draft Time Podcast. Maggie mock draft round up season. Let's go ahead and kick this thing off with Daniel Jeremiah, the goat of the draft community, who has Miami taking at pick number twenty one the all offensive linemen center guard tackle Graham Barton out of Duke. This is from his top fifty profile. Barton starts a left tackle during his final three years at Duke. Prior to that, he started five games at center, and that's where I see him playing at the next level. He has ideal size for the position and average length and pass protection. He is quick out of a stance, plays with knee bend, and has the agility to redirect. He does struggle against power rusher. He doesn't play long armed, exposes his chest and gives ground. Fortunately, he loses slowly on most occasions, allowing the quarterback time to get the ball out. He's a technician in the running game. He always hits his landmarks with his hands and on down blocks before sinking and driving with his lower half. He is excellent on combo blocks, and he's under control as a poler. Overall, I see Barton as an athletic center with the ability to survive at tackle if needed, and I don't think much needs to be added to Jeremiah's blurb there. His top fifty tends to give you pretty much the entire breakdown of each player.

He just told you what kind of player he is there.

The fact that he's seen a lot of football from those extra positions excites me. And of course we've talked about the short Shuttle threshold of four to four to seven where Barton came in his pro day at four to four flat. And again the beauty of our offensive line which might be one of the deepest in the league now because I would feel good about Kendall Lamb if he had to start a couple of games. I would feel good about Keon Smith if he had starts a couple of games at tackle. I feel pretty good about Rob Jones and Liam Eichenberg and those reserve roles on the interior offensive line as well, not to mention Isaiah Wim. We'll see how all that shakes out with My has a bunch of guys that can do multiple things, and the nice part about that is when you have so many guys that can play those multiple spots, it opens up your options in terms of who you can take. It doesn't have to be a tackle or a guard. It can be either or more on that later on in the show. So Matt Miller from ESPN to the seven round mock draft, and he actually gave the Dolphins two players that I don't think will be there in those spots. But we press on twenty one offensive tackle JC Latham out of Alabama.

I just don't see that happening.

I mean, here's his lawyer abound that salary cap concerns have forced the Dolphins to remake their offensive line, and Latham could fit well. He's a handful for defensive lineman at three hundred and forty three pounds and has excellent grip strength. Latham was a two year starter at right tackle for Alabama, allowed two sacks, but has potential to play either tackle or guard in the pros. He would likely push right guard Robert Jones out of the lineup as a rookie, he says, and who knows, you know, we don't have a storry lineup right now, so that's kind of it is what it is. But Latham, I don't think mech makes it to pick twenty one at all. He is big, he's strong, he's athletic, and those guys typically go off the board earlier than your top twenty picks. Fifty five center Zach Fraser from West Virginia. A late season injury to Connor Williams, who's now a free agent, affected the team down the stretch. Yeah, I did, Fraser's a top three to two prospect on my board, but teams aren't in a hurry to prioritize centers in the draft just yet. The four year starter was a state wrestling champion in high school, and he is the perfect Mike McDaniel's own offense fit. The needs mobility in the middle of the offensive line, plus Fraser has the tools to start at guard or center. My argument there for mister Miller would be that Aaron Brewer is a pre damn good center who just got signed here, and I'm not sure that you want to move him off that spot because Brewer's best at center, which then begs the question about Graham Barton. But I think Barton can play guard more so than Fraser could, so I kind of like the idea of going Barton over Fraser, but Fraser at pick fifty five would be fantastic value. He finishes up with defensive tackle Christian Boyd from Northern Iowa at pick one, fifty eight, safety out of Auburn, Jalen Simpson at picked one to eighty four, a cornerback from Mississippi State, Decamarion Richardson at one, and then the seventh round, two forty one linebacker John Trey Hunter from Georgia State. And I gotta tell you, guys, I don't have any notes on any of those players at this stage of the draft process. Field Yates did a two round mock draft and gave Miami Byron Murphy at the twenty first pick out of Texas. The Dolphins just watched Christian Wilkins depart in free agency, but Murphy has some traces of Wilkins in his game as a disruptive interior defender. Murphy has had a great season in twenty twenty three to five sacks, but the stats are far from the full story of his impact. He has the unique ability to torque and hold up against the run, and he makes life easier for the players around him. Doing these is always kind of funny to me, because like, I'm just providing voices from other people besides myself on the podcast. But I mean, look, this is going to sound so conceded. But these guys don't know the Dolphins the way I know the Dolphins. Like the whole salary cap concerns for you remake your offensive line, That's not what happened there. Connor Williams is not healthy and Robert Hunt got twenty million bucks a year. That's not That's not what smart teams do. So I disagree with that whole sentiment there. And yeah, yeah, that's pick fifty five for field Yates is Christian Haines from Yukon, and I freaking love this player. So, speaking of Robert Hunt, lost him to free agency, opening a significant gap on the offensive line. Enter Haynes, an experienced guard who has forty nine starts, who plays with a serious edge to his game. I think you'd be an ideal fit in Miami's offense. And that, to me, is really an ideal draft their field. So congrats to Field Dates for getting it exactly right. In my opinion, No, it's not the premium positions, but I think you're hard pressed to find two players at those two spots who could come in and play right away and be serious, serious contributors for you in twenty twenty four.

They both have a ton of college experience.

They both technically are at the two spots where you probably don't know who your starter is right now. Haines is a right guard and Murphy's a zero through three technique on the defensive line, and their tape is really, really, really really good. In fact, it almost kind of tracks with the freegency concept I discussed on the Wednesday podcast. Because these positions can get overlooked a smidge, you can tend to get exceptional value later on in the draft than you can with some positions. Like Haynes is definitely a top fifty player for me, but the interior offensive line designation maybe does bump him down the board a tad And then with defensive tackle like Murphy, same deal. Easily a top twenty player for me in the class, but he might be on the board there because of defensive tackle position designation. We talked about Murphy at length yesterday, but my god, man, I continue to go back to Christian Haines. One seven five ten split is ninetieth percentile, so you know he gets off the football quickly. Thirty three inch vertical is ninety fifth percentile, so that's where he gets all those you know, he tends to get under guys at his six two and a half frame that he plays with. That's short for football standards, right, but three hundred and seventeen pounds. I think he could play five pounds heavier or lighter if he was asked to. And Robert Hunt played last year at three hundred and fifteen pounds. But that vertical and the just look at the man's quad uds and his hamstrings. Like, imagine if Tyreek Hill were an offensive You've seen Tyreek Hill's legs, right, Like he he's a big dude in that regard, and Christian Haynes has a similar build, but he's not like two hundred pounds or one hundred and eighty pounds whatever Tyreek Hill is?

What is Tyre? What is Tyreek Hill? What does he weigh?

I'm probably way off on that. Aren't they googling? It doesn't tell me on here? One ninety yeah, one hundred and ninety one pounds for Tyreek Hill. So imagine Tyreek Hill's legs at one ninety and now put it into a three hundred and fifteen pound offensive lineman. That's basically what Christian Haynes is, and he just runs through people. With that ability, and he has lead blocks for the orbit motion like, which is a slow developing outside play where he beats the back and the pursuit defender outside the numbers. There's an excellent relationship there between timing of his hands feet and playing from behind his paths at that low pad level. Because of that build and his technique, I think this is a power, slow athletic type of player that would flourish in this system. And it picked fifty five is a Julio Rodriguez four hundred and fifty foot home run.

I love this draft, great value.

I think both players have room to grow, and I think both can start for their respective teams.

Week one.

Great job by gm Field Yates on this mock draft will end here in our opening segment with Lance Zerlene because it takes me into my Round one prospect preview and number twenty one edge chop Robinson from Penn State. He writes with Jalen Phillips and Bradley Chubb, both rehabbing from season ending injuries. It won't surprise me if the Dolphins grab a veteran edge rusher in free agency. They did that already with Shaq Barrett and draft Chop Robinson, raw but ridiculously explosive. This Penn State product has immense upside with more tutelage, and I can see the idea there that Lance has in terms of going in the direction of a Chop Robinson because of the upside, and because you already have three guys that you know come hopefully by like October are all playing right with Phillips, Chubb and then Jack who is healthy going into the season. But I can see the idea thinking there of like, while those guys develop, or while those guys are still in their prime, whatever, Chop can develop and kind of become the breakout player in two or three years. But I think that there's better options there because you want got someone that can play right away right and quite frankly, we'll talk about this in the second segment. There's two guys in that position who I just think are better players and better prospects than Chops. We'll get into that here in just one second. I want to finish up the first segment with this idea because the Stefan Diggs news shook the airwaves, didn't. I mean, they extended him last year, they extended him last offseason and the situation becomes so tenuous that you've decided to trade him, And yeah, the Texans will absorb the rest of that money owed, but the Bills already paid him over thirty one million dollars in bonuses as part of that new extension, and you can't move that money.

It's dead money.

So Buffalo will chop that up into like seventeen dead dollars, seventeen million dead dollars each of the next two years, so they can't use They will get salary relief in the future because Texans. The Texans do take on the rest of the contract. But like, that's basically two premier players that you have at like eighteen million bucks is a premier player right per year, they're going to have one of those players that's not a player. It's just a you know, David Justice and moneyball. That's what the Yankees think of you. They're paying me, they're paying you to play against them this year, David Justice, Like that's not good And there's no chance that Buffalo is done right now at the top of the receiver room because it's Curtis Samuel Khalil Shaker and Matt Collins. I actually really like Samuel's game and Khalil Shaker's game, But that receiving room is not scaring anybody right now.

They'll they'll get somebody else, you know they will.

Whether it's the picking the twenties, whether it's a veteran trade they make, They're going to pick somebody up. But I refuse to believe that move was made without the plan to reinforce the group. But it's still wild because eating dead money to depart a receiver who's produced fifty four hundred yards and thirty seven touchdowns and four seasons for you all year, all four years of Pro bowler and one first team All Pro nod that is.

Crazy, absolutely crazy.

And I wanted to go ahead and mention this because I saw tweet from Alan Poopar for anyone thinking Buffalo is done because Digs is gone.

Just considered the twenty twenty three season.

First nine games, Digs seventy catches, eight hundred and thirty four yards, seven touchdowns, a record of five and four. Their last eight games Digs thirty seven grabs, three hundred and forty nine yards and one touchdown, record six and two. Just saying, well, here's what I'm just saying. You know the game better than that, right right, right? You sure about that? You sure about That's why Cuz, like, bro, do you understand the impact of having Sefon Diggs on the field.

You understand what the Bills did?

Like I know this is beyond conceivable for you know, certain podcasters, But like when the Bills fired again Dorsey and went to Joe Brady, they completely revamped their offense. They went RPO one, re, hitch, pop and go. And that's why Josh Allen stunk down the stretch. He wasn't even a good player down the stretch. Now he beat the crap out of us, because he always does. But that shift was not something that Josh Allen was familiar with. And I know people that have talked about this from that building where it was a roundpeg, square hole fit there for Josh Allen and the offense.

So what do they do?

They went to James Cook in their running game and he tore teams up in the running game.

There was a huge shift in.

Philosophical approach when the offensive corner change happened. And if you can't fathom that, and you're just gonna throw these stats out there, I'm just telling you, remember there's a lot of people like that podcast. Remember what you're getting if you're going to that source for information, like you're getting a very one oh one look at the game.

So there you go. That's the Stefan Diggs News.

We're gonna come back on the other side and get right back into the prospects I want to talk about here, including three edge players I think are gonna be in play for the offensive pick twenty one. All of that is Next Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. We've done receiver, We've done offensive line, We've done defensive tackle. Let's go ahead and do another spot here from my own evaluations, my own draft notes, and talk about the edge group, another one that I think offers a bunch of really really damn good players, especially early on in this year's draft. And this one will be among three guys for me because Dallas Turner gone right. We all agree there, Jared Verse, we all agree there too, He's gone right. Those are top ten, top fifteen talents that should come off the board accordingly. So I have three guys want to talk about. But first before I get into that, let's talk about the Dolphins makeup of their defense. And one thing I want to tell you guys is like, I know this time of year there's lots of draft prospect talk, and I love that. I love talking about the draft the players that the Dolphins could draft, But I just want to go ahead and let you guys know that my approach will always be to provide more Dolphins content within the episode than just here's twenty names that the Dolphins could potentially draft in a month, because I think that's not There's a place for it. But I don't think it's good to have every podcast be that because you want to come listen to some Dolphins information Dolphins talk. So I'll always do draft talk during April, but I always will also incorporate some Dolphins for sure content, right like draft prospects are hopeful, maybe a potential guy you might add, But I always want to put concrete stuff in every episode, So just have that in mind as you check out the draft podcast here on Drive Time. So first, I do think that this position group requires a little bit of a pre embole with regards to what you should look for. I go back to the to the scouting combine this year ahead of Chris Greer's press conference or media availability or just chat with us in general. And there was discussions about like who's going to replace Christian Wilkins, what position? And it's like, well, Christian's a three technique And the question back was what does that mean?

Again?

You know, consider your sources of the content you check out. And so I think there's just this giant misconception with football fans because again I've seen different you know, writers say that there areund a three four or four three. Well, here's the difference between three four and fourth three. It took me six years to figure it out, but here it is. The truth is it's neither man like this is available to anybody. You can look this up. The Dolphins were in the three to four last year sixteen percent of the time. They were in the four to three two point eight percent of the time, So all round up and call it nineteen percent. So your defense is in those looks less than one fifth of the time. And then you have your nickel dime quarter, a half dollar dollar. All those packages do is identify the number of defensive backs. You're three four and four three obviously four defensive backs, right nickel. You know that's five dime is six quarter seven, half dollars eight dollars nine, So you can play as many defensive backs as you want. And Brian Flores's defenses did have those half dollar and dollar packages that most teams don't run.

But I digress.

So when you think about what the Dolphins need to add or I guess you know the perceived needs, like I always look at the defensive line like this, start from their base position, and then ask yourself, does their game translate more to slide.

Inside or outside?

Like Christian Wilkins was unique because he could do a little bit of everything and a little bit of both, I should say, but the truth is that he was a little bit more built for my money to play five technique than he was to play zero technique. Five technique is the outside shoulder of the offensive tackle. Your zero technique is head up over the center, in the absolute trenches of it all. And I would say that's true of the guys you talked about on Wednesday too, both with Newton and Murphy, because they are also in that three hundred pound weight class, and Christian played around three ten, three fifteen most years. But for Murphy, you know, he two nice seven he can play zero, which is freaking wild. But think about that role in the Raekwon Davis build, the ray Kwon Davis treats. He did play some you know, obviously one shade as comes with zero technique off the outside shoulder of the center. But he did play some two and two I and three technique, which is all the stuff from the guards in right, don't go outside the guards. Besides the three technique is the outside shoulder of the guard. That's the furthest you get in terms of your with in your pre snap alignment. But he was largely a zero or one technique and you never saw him ever, ever, ever at the five technique. That's like Devandre Sweat from Texas. He's not gonna play out there. That's like Benito Jones, he ain't gonna play out there. But then you've got Nevill Gallimore, Jonathan Harro, those guys are likely to follow that same positional flexibility as a Christian Wilkins. So with all of that in mind, here's what I think you currently have as far as zero and one techniques who can also play the three.

It's Benito Jones.

He's kind of the only guy, and you really only need one of those guys that's healthy Raekwon was healthy all year last year. Because that's typically three hundred four hundred snaps a year, that's not really worse worth investing two premium you know, roster spots into like that guy, maybe a practice squad guy and call it good. But then with the various fronts that you can run, the need for the three to five technique combination player is much greater, and that's where Gallimore and Harris and DeShawn Hand all those guys factor in. Then, of course, Zach freaking Seler does everything and can legit play the five technique and the zero technique and be one of the best in the league in both those positions, and of course the unicorn that he is at the three technique as well. So I think that if you take Zach's eight hundred plus snaps from last year, you're looking for collectively around eight hundred more snaps among the rest of those guys making it up in the aggregate. Right, unless, of course, shoe PLoP another three down guy in there, which I think both Newton and Murphy are, then that changes your approach, and all of a sudden you've got a bunch of death guys that you might not even play this year. But then there's the five techs who also slide out to the six, seven, and nine techniques, the wide alignments Cam Wake's wide nine technique where Chubb and Philip playing the seven technique a lot, and we have two of those guys in who are unicorns, and then they can rush from the three technique and get wins, like JP has bull rush potential in the three technique to run over guard Soaken Bradley Chubb and Shaq Barrett does a bit of that too, but he's mostly an edge guy. And those spots require you to have at least three guys that can do some of the heavy lifting with their snapcouns. We read our best last year when we had all Chubb, Phillips and Van Ginkel right, and with JP and Chubb's ability to get on the field in that NASCAR package when it's third and eight and you want to take DT's off the field and get more edge rushers on the field to get after the quarterback. The ability to utilize a lot of fronts like Weaver did in Baltimore. I mean they ran all kinds of different fronts and brought all kinds of different blitzers. I think the edge is very much in play in round one, and that's without mentioning the injuries that we have going into the year with both two and fifteen. And it's kind of like our offensive line that we have so much flexibility. You could throw Newton, you could throw Murphy, you could throw a lot too, Robinson or Robinson one or the other in one bucket and determine who do you like the best in the draft and just take that player and then adopt your deployment accordingly, which we've heard both McDaniel and Weaver talk about doing. So we're up to speed there, right. We understand the basics and the fundamentals and the just overall operation of how that looks. Okay, cool, Let's talk about those three players that I mentioned here and how I stack them. So probably not a surprise if you're an every day listener that Layatu Latu is the top guy of that group. For me from UCLA pass rush plan of a five year veteran. He has counters to his counter moves. He showed him off in mobile to the Senia Bowl. Tried that spin move that didn't work but had a seamless counter rip off of it, speed to power, big enough to hold the point in base versus the run. Felt very good about his ability to drop into coverage as well. To me, his top fifteen pick if not for the medical, probably top ten if not for the medical. When I compare this player to Jalen Phillips, it's like uniform across the board. It's kind of weird, from his game and the skills to the same college at UCLA, to the injuries that the college career almost derailed. The power speed combination. I'm watching a real of lot to chop and then angle on a left tackle, then cross face on a center with speed and get them both over their skis and falling on the ground and get sacks on both of those plays.

I think that's the kind.

Of player that opens up even more flexibility than what we just talked about, because he can really play any spot up front, especially in those nickel rush packages. So right now, I take a lot to right off the heels of both Turner and Verse. I think he's a future star in this league. Then we get to Darius Robinson from Missouri from Mazurra, and the position of flexibility is truly like JJ watt Like and Brett Coleman produced these pass rush win numbers from the three to four I technique, which is that's basically the same spot. It's three technique is the outside shoulder of the guard. Four I is the inside shoulder of the tackle. So it's like a smidge over. But thirteen percent pass rush win rate from the five and six techniques. That's a defensive end position eighteen point eight percent wider than that the camwake position nineteen point one percent efficiency.

That's camwake level efficiency.

Guys hightweight speed guy two ninety five, six foot five, but the length man. And we saw the notes that he's very very well versed in his tactical rush plan. I think he's right behind lat Too. I can see the argument that he'd be better than Law two. I really can, But I have him right behind Law Too right now, and I can understand, you know, the difference in their skill sets and how that might change for teams. Because he has a sack in the game against Tennessee last year where he just drops his face mask into the chest play of the tackle for a bowl rush and walks him across the street to Kansas.

You know opposite Missouri.

Then he has the ability to detach, work back upfield and get the sack on a quarterback try and step out of that pat the original edge pressure. Plus if I need a hard edge set in the run game, Robinson's the one I want doing it. There's an insane length power combination with this player. He took a Marius Mims at Georgia. Are you guys familiar with the Marious Mems. He's like three hundred and three thousand pounds, and it looked like he was rushing a rag doll because he just basically locked on and did what he wanted with him the push pull technique and kind of flopped him around like a rag doll. Awesome player, two hundred and eighty five pounds. You could do some three technique stuff with him as well. He's probably a little more Zach Sealer than he is Jalen Phillips, just in terms of traits and positional preference.

And then Chop Robinson.

To me, there's a pretty significant gap for me from Chop to the other two guys. I was bigger on him during the call it the All Star Game and combine process, but the tape there's like lots of him just kind of running past quarterbacks or getting swallowed up, like the Dewan Jones tape against Ohio State was not very good. You heard Zerline talk about the fact that he's super raw. I don't think that jives with what you want here. I don't think you have time to develop a guy in this particular, you know, window of the Dolphins, whatever you want to call it. Of course, take the best player long term, but I think that you get that with Robinson a lot too. Whereas Chop Robinson you have to kind of wait for him to come. Just too many bad reps on tape, so I would kind of veer away from that and go more towards Darius and Latu lot too. Let's go ahead and take our last break right there, come back on the other side and finish up with the concerns I think that they're currently on the roster and how you might address those. That's next Draft Time Podcast your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. Third and final segment for the Friday edition of the Draft Time Podcasts. We venture into the second week of April and into Masters Week. Baby, when we have the NSAA tournament Final four. This weekend, baseball is off to a rock and start. The uniforms look hilariously bad. The Mariners still can't hit the baseball, and that's where we are. I do want to get back before I continue this final segment. Here to a question that was posed to me from finns up Tua on Twitter.

Easy easy enough name love it? Who asked?

Since you were asking about the wide receivers today or talking about I should say where do you think Eric Azukama comes into play next season?

Love the podcast. Thank you for that.

By the way, I do want to start getting more fan stuff on the podcast, So if you guys reply to me or write a review on Apple podcast or whatever it might be, go ahead and do that and we'll talk about it on the show for you guys here. So this question was posted to me about Eric Azukama, and man, I think he's.

Got He's got a lot of game, man Like.

I thought the role that he was occupying the first couple of games before the neck injury took his entire season away from him last year was one that this offense needed. It was kind of a change up to both run game and pass game in terms of what it looks like for most of the guys that we have in those roles. And I think that he's still a very good route runner. I think he's a yack monster who can produce big after the catch when he gets his opportunities. And he showed the vertical skills in both the preseason and in training camp that we just haven't quite seen yet in the regular season. Now, the first year was all all getting lined up correctly being a professional. I think there's still some more work to be done there, but I think the Azukama's game definitely translates not just to the NFL, but particularly to this offense and what the Dolphins need beyond both Tyreek and Waddle.

So there you go.

That's one of my areas of concern. Actually, let's go ahead and just jump in right there. Who is this separator going to be beyond ten and seventeen? And I love Odell Beckham's tape. I've talked about him as recently as yesterday on the podcast or Wednesday in the podcast. I think he opens up the flexibility with how you can utilize both Reek and Wattle. He can steal gas guys on the perimeter, but has the same pacing and nuanced to his routes to win inside. Someone who can be a legit vertical threat on the perimeter that puts the speed of both Reek and Wattle inside. That's why I like about him. I think he gives you a bunch of that, and I think there's only the guys in the draft it could give you that as well. So I like the idea of signing Odell because then I think it opens up the possibility of going O line D line in those first two rounds, because I think you're gonna have best player available options at those spots with those two groups, and then I think you pretty much knock those out and it's like, all right, we're ready to play a football game as early as the month of May. So I think that that's a big, big need. I would put it towards one of the top needs on the football team. And if it's not Odell, we've heard about the Tyler Boyd, you know rumors out there. I don't like that one as much. I'm a big Tyler Boyd fan, but I don't think it fits as well. Here's what we need, and then I think in the draft there I mean talk about it at length, so many options as far as I think. You know, Malachai Corley I think is a better version of Eric Azukama, who hasn't played much in two years. You know Roman Wilson I think gives you a lot of this stuff I'm talking about with inside, outside flexibility and vertical threat. Xavier Laget can just absolutely destroy man coverage. I think he goes off the board in the first round though, so plenty and plenty of options. Is one of my biggest concerns right now. Who is going to be that separate or beyond ten and seventeen. And I'll tell you right now, he's not on the RUSS. That's the fix. It's going to be bringing in somebody new. The next one I have is my interior offensive line size concerned, and I just think that again we have the flexibility to go wherever we want because if it's Troy Fatanu, he can play left guard this year and left tackle next year. And speaking of Troy Fatanu on the Monday podcast, going to talk about trade up and trade down partners and options and Fatan, who is one of the guys I would be targeting in a trade up if I were to do that because there's no way, no, there's no way he lasts to pick twenty one.

Just not gonna happen. He's too good. But I think I think that the Dolphins do.

If you have a concern on the offensive line right now, it is the size, because Aaron Brewer is very undersized at center, and we saw what Connor Williams kind of how he there was. You know, certain guys that he went up against last year that he couldn't just couldn't physically move, and there's some of that on Aaron Brewer's tape as well, against guys like John Allen, Like he can do so much with technique and win so many reps, but there's just those few reps where he can kind of get the best of them because of the size difference there. And then you know, whether it's Isaiah Win, Liam Eikenberg, Robert Jones, there is some size in those positions. But I'm just really curious to see what happens to kind of give you that next starter, because I think that Isaiah Win is a very good option at left guard. You probably know you have to count on someone to play it at some point for him because he has never finished the season before. But I'm really curious see what that right guard position looks like. Is there some more size there in terms of who you bring in next, because Dolphins could stand to get bigger on the interior, and I think there's one more shoe to fall there on that offensive line group. The next one is something we talked about at length the last couple of days here on the show, is the interior pass rush. Where's it going to be beside Zach Steeler because right now you don't have it. I mean you're not gonna count on Gallimore or Deshan Hand or Jonathan Harris or definitely not Beninto Jones and that nose tackle position to be a Christian Wilkins past rush disruptor. And so maybe it is an exterior an import I should say, an outside prospect Briban Murphy, Johnny Newton, a veteran signing, whoever that might be, or or there's something else.

You can do to kind of combat that.

And you do run with this rotation of aggregate performers and you just make it up in different areas because we know we can rush the quarterback off the edge. We have plenty of guys that can play that role, but also get used to more blitzing and more timely blitzing in this defense. You know, Vic Fangio would't blitzer, just wouldn't do it. Occasionally he would and we get a big result out of it. Should have blitzed Herbert a lot more of that Charger game, right, I mean, the Chargers got whatever they wanted offensively until it was time. It was nutut in time, and then you blitz Herbert and he can't handle it, big surprise. But I think that you could find ways to get after the quarterback with the penchant that coach Weavers defenses in the past that he's been part of have used for timely pressure and blitz looks. Whether that's Jordan Brooks, who's the best blitzer we've had at linebacker probably since Carlos Dansby, I would probably say, and then David Long, I think is probably better than anybody else besides maybe Jerome Baker, who I thought Jerome, you know, as good of a player as he was in certain areas, I thought his skill set as a blitzer was he was just fast. There wasn't a past, there was no pass rush move there. That's kind of David Long too, I suppose and we know this defense has also traditionally found success in blitzing roles for players like a Cater Kohu who got Herbert down on the turf and ended a drive with that blitz rep he had back in Week one. Jalen Ramsey can definitely come on the blitz, Kyle Fuller loves the blitz, the quarterback, Javon Hall, and Jordan Poyer. There's different options to create your pass rush without having you know, a true defensive tackle winning a pass rush there alongside zach' seiler. But I always come back to this, whoever plays next to Zach is going to be a better pass rusher. He just has that impact on guys that he plays alongside. And the last one I have here is the need for a nickelback and going back to Cato ko who I love Cater's game. I think he's a baller. I think he has a long future in this league. Last year wasn't his best year. A lot more zone coverage that I don't think was his game as much. He was really good in the Josh boyer Man coverage defense, had a kind of down year in the very zone heavy Vic Fangio defense, but I think that I would not count cater out in terms of kind of getting back to that rookie year forming playing even better than that, and taking his zone coverage up another level, and just being a better professional overall. I think that he's definitely got that in his bag. But would I leave it alone with he and Nick Needham.

Probably not.

And the nice part about this slot position is it goes with the theme of the podcast all week. Some of these position groups are lower valued in the National Football League, so you can get better players later on in the draft as a result of that, And so I would not be at all shy against the idea if we move back out of the first or second round and get an additional third or fourth round pick, that's a good area to look at someone like a Mike sandmer Still, for instance, from Michigan. Or maybe it's in the fifth round your original pick in Shaw Smith Wade from Washington State. They really good slot cornerback there. So I would not rest on my laurels there. Those are four areas I think we have needs and concerns. Those are four fixes I think I have for those spots in those particular areas of concern that's my time on the podcast. Today Monday, we're going to start the positional preview interviews here for Draft time, It's going to be all draft content, but like I said, always going to have some Dolphins mix.

In there as well.

Not going to be a straight draft podcast episode ever here on Draft time, except for the Kyle Krabs episodes the week of the draft. Those will be strictly draft centric for your Miami Dolphins. So keep it locked right here. In the meantime, it's going to be my time you all. Please be sure to subscribe, rate, review, all that fun stuff. Follow me on social at inklan NFL the team at Miami Dolphins. Check out the fish Tank podcast with Seth and Juice, the YouTube channel for all my free agent acquisition chats on the old youtubes there, as well as media availabilities and Dolphins Today.

Last but not least, Miami Dolphins dot Com.

Until next time, Bin's up, Carolina, Cameron, Debbie coming up,

Drive Time with Travis Wingfield

Analysis, film study and news. Travis Wingfield delivers the most comprehensive Miami Dolphins cover 
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