Drive Time with Travis WingfieldDrive Time: Day 3 Draft Recap, Jordan Phillips and Jason Marshall Jr Breakdowns
What is up, Dolphins, And welcome to the Draft Time Podcast. I am your host, Travis Wingfield, And on today's show, the draft is a rap. We're gonna deep dive two more prospects, tell you about the entire class, hear from Mike McDaniel and Chris Greer one more time, and then call it a weekend. But plenty more coverage coming away next week on the Dolphins twenty twenty five Draft from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.
This is the Draft Time Podcast.
Heye, So the deep dives are coming, much like the dragons, they are coming. I promise you trust that. But I don't want to rush it and push something out without studying it deeply. And I can't possibly get to six deep dives on the podcast today, So I'll give you a quick report on the last fifth round pick, the sixth round pick, and the two seventh rounders. We'll come back next week on the show and do a comprehensive deep dive on those guys like we'll do today with Jordan Phillips out of Maryland, the defensive tackle and Jason Marshall Junior, the cornerback out of Florida. Let's go ahead and start the podcast this.
Way, though.
So we first made a trade at the top of the fourth round to go back in the draft and recoup a third round draft pick next year from the Houston Texas. The details are, we gave up pick one six team and two twenty four in the seventh round. The Texans gave us back pick one seventy nine at the top of the fifth round, and then next year's twenty twenty six third round draft pick, which could be anywhere from let's see that would be pick sixty five if they finished dead last, and if they win the championship would be oh gosh, live math ninety six before the comp picks, right, So anywhere from yeah, sixty five to ninety six for next year's third round draft pick, plus you get your own third round draft pick next year as well. So our final twenty twenty five Miami Dolphins draft class like this number one, pick thirteen defensive tackle Kenneth Grant out of Michigan, Number two thirty seven overall offensive lineman Jonah Savanaiah from Arizona. Pick number in the fifth round one forty three defensive tackle Jordan Phillips out of Maryland, number one fifty overall, also in the fifth round, cornerback Jason Marshall Junior out of Florida pick number one fifty five in the fifth round, safety Dante Trader, Junior from Maryland in the sixth round, pick one seventy nine overall, running back Ollie Gordon from Oklahoma State. In the seventh round, pick two thirty one, quarterback Quinnywers out of Texas, and then the final pick for the Miami Dolphins in twenty twenty five, defensive tackle Zeke Biggers out of Georgia Tech. We covered Kenneth Grant on Thursday night on the podcast. He also joined us on the Friday podcast where we covered the second round pick, Jonah Slovaniah. And we'll get to two more guys today and finish up next week on the rest of the draft. Luckily, as I write this up at two fifteen on a Saturday afternoon, though, I am three for three on having studied all of the guys that the Dolphins took so far in the draft, so I have the detailed reports already posted on Grant and Jonah. I will have an in depth report on this podcast on Jordan Phillips and I had to get in the film room on Jason Marshall Junior. So we'll do a quick word on the rest of the picks and then come back for those deeper dives.
Sound good to you guys, all right? Cool?
Also, I think we'll go with McDaniel and Greer at the end of the podcast for the sake of quickness and pumping the podcast out to you all expeditiously. So we finished up here with the final four picks. Safety Dante Trader from Maryland. This from Dane Brugler. With his urgent competitive mentality. Trader has a twitchy response to plays in front of him and loves to be around the action. His long speed is not as impressive as his short area burst. He's a tough, instinctive defender at his best driving downhill, although he can't patrol the DP half and matchup in man coverage versus tight ends. He talked about this is me talking now. Trader talked about Buddha Baker as the guy that he models his game after on his zoom call with the South Florida Media, and man, what a sharp session that was. In the interview, talking about coverage, shells and different responsibilities. He talked about the non negotiable of being a core four special teamer at Maryland when he first arrived and how that kind of set him up for success. To learn about everything you get you have to earn at this sport, at this level, and all the hard work that goes into that just continues to track with the character in love of the game. He also was a lacrosse player at Maryland, like a highly recruited one, and split his attention between two sports, and Brugler writes that he thinks that with a full dedication out to football, that Trader can take another step. Running Back Ali Gordon from Oklahoma State. Now I do know Olie tape. In fact, I had a deep dive written up on him. I'm gonna save the deeper dive and just give you my pre draft ride up here on Ali Gordon. Here's what I've got, super high cut, two hundred and twenty five pound running back with a highlight reel of high hurling defenders.
Think about that too.
Twenty five and high hurdling guys, not too bad. He is an upright runner, takes long strides, has long legs. That's what high cut means. Doesn't mess around with movement, but seeks out contact and punishment.
Getting downhill.
Not really gonna make you miss in short spaces, but he'll try to go through you instead. Exceptional pass protector who really takes it upon himself to be the last nine of defense for the quarterback. Almost takes it personal if you try to hurt his quarterback or hit his quarterback. Has a vertical lean that can push back defenders or run through tackles with plus contact balance, and has the ability to find the cutback lane the bend back lane in zone schemes. Builds to speed, not quick in short spaces. Vicious pass protector was a big part of the screen game there, but was not asked to do a whole lot otherwise in the passing game at Oklahoma State. Staying there in the Big twelve, No, that's sec Now shoot Texas quarterback Quinn viewers from Dane Brugler overall viewers has the arm, intelligence and employees that will translate to the next level, although his up and down decision making limitations as a play extender and durability concerns create question marks for his pro ceiling. I remember when Quinn yours was like talked about as a future number one draft pick. This last season did not go very well for him at Texas, but perhaps that creates a chip on his shoulder to come in here and light light the world on fire. And then finally defensive tackles Zeke Biggers from Georgia Tech from Brugler. Once again, Biggers passes the eye test with flying colors and flashes with spurts of power to create knockback or force his momentum through gaps. He can handle himself for double teams, but does not have the quickness to get through single blocks to extend his range. We'll have more for you guys on those two players, Ali Gordon and Dante Trader, as well as of course Youwers and Biggers. Let's go ahead and take a quick break early in the show right here, come back on the other side and get into the deep dive the profiles here on both Jordan Phillips and Jason Marshall Junior. That's Next Draft Time podcast brought to you by Auto Nation. All R Let's go ahead and get into this now. First off, the theme continues right three players over one thousand pounds of humanity and Jordan Phillips from Maryland is another one of these high character, team first type of guys that helps you set your foundation in the middle. We did an entire segment on it last night on the show, and now we get a toss another three hundred and twenty pound player with grit, power determination to the mix. And I wrote all of this before we just turn in the pick for running back Olie Gordon from.
Oklahoma State, who is a butt kicker.
I mean, I want to use the word that starts with A, but it's a family friendly show here. That's what he is, which continues that theme of getting tougher, more physical, stronger, bigger, shortyardage conversion ability, bad weather ability on the road, all that stuff. All these moves give you a chance, give you the opportunity to quell that question you've had for a couple of years now, right, that comes up every December in media talking points and the results as well. So I think you've done a good job of getting yourself a chance to correct that and add some stake to the sizzle you've enjoyed for the last couple of years here in Miami. But I want to do this first because of the theme talking about the background of Jordan Phillips. We'll get to the film here in a minute, but just a quick background. He won the Pat Tillman Award at the Shrine Bowl this year, which is a player who embodies character, intelligence, sportsmanship, and service, recognizing their impact on and off the field. Here's what Dane Brugler at The Athletic wrote about him. Phillips is a dancing bear with big man twitch and commanding power, but his immense talent needs to be unlocked unlocked rather by more mature timing and technique, which to me is Austin Clark's specialty. Back to Dane, although he will need time, he has the traits and work ethic to become a rotational nose with the upside of an NFL starter man that seems just like the guy you want in the fifth round. I mean, he's also a Florida guy. He played hoop and was on a swimming and diving team as a youth and a wrestler throughout the course of heist. Cool, so very well versed in multiple sports, and that's where you can see the movement skills. Right. We always talk about, or for a long time, the conversation about specializing in one or two in one sport, was like, don't do that, because you're robbing your body's ability to learn natural movements. And when you watch Jordan Phillips play, it is so apparent that he was playing sports, all kinds of sports throughout his entire youth. I mean the way swimming teaches your body to move differently versus wrestling, versus basketball. All of that stuff pays off, and I think it has for Jordan Phillips. The film on this guy is really fun to watch. Kyle Krabs had him as his ninety eighth overall player. Simon Clancy from the Three Yards Per Carry podcast wrote that he would be a classic Howie Roseman Steele in the third round. Instead, he goes off the board in the fifth round to Chris Greer in the Miami Dolphins, which the fifth round in the past, I mean Rashad Jones, Jaya Jaye, even the one year we got of Tony Lippitt, Bobby McCain. It's been a pretty fruitful round for the Miami Dolphins over the years. Here's what I wrote pre draft about Phillips. I'm three for three on guys that I was pretty big on three guys that were on my guy's list go first three picks to the Miami Dolphins. I think Phillips is going to be one of the first picks on day three. I was wrong about that, but he was a Day three pick and be a stud who falls because of the depth of this class. Squatty body, six foot one, three hundred and twenty pounds. He can play the nose, but has the flexibility to win with quickness and bend. He's able to generate momentum, then pull the string and get guys off balance. A lot of that grip strength you see from his wrestling background. He's so powerful with superb core strength. That combo with his quickness and pliability tell you, yep, this guy did wrestle back in high school. They're always so easy to spot to me with their toughness in the way they play the game. He kicked butt at the Shrine Bowl. Guys could not handle his speed. Reading some of the draft reports on him, the common knock is a lack of length, which you know, six foot one not terribly long in terms of the wingspan to stack some blocks on the nose. Maybe shows up a little bit on the tape, but That's why to me, he wasn't you know, a top five defensive tack gold in this class, didn't get picked among the top five guys. And the guy you drafted on Thursday can do that to anyone. And oh, by the way, so can Vinitio Jones. So I think that there is an opportunity here for him to play multiple spots across a defensive line, even here in year one, should he earn those reps.
More on that in the fit.
But man, the pass rush twitch, he's got a wicked spin movie. He sets up with a quick first step. Really, the first two or three steps of his pass rushes or his get off in general is where he can win. And then from there he plays with such a natural leverage, and he can really generate power through that pad level and through his quickness. I just love a wrestler down in the trenches.
Man.
We talked with Kenny g about dabbling and wrestling back in high school. Jordan was a full on stud in the sport. I think you see that in the hand usage and the grappling that he has. Sometimes it would look like a rep would come to a stalemate against his man that he's rushing versus and then he just bowls him over and the guy goes down like sniper style, and that a lot of times can be attributed to super heavy hands, which again the grappling and the fact that he's a powerlifter. You got to have pretty good grip strength to be a powerlifter. I think that his usage at Maryland was, how do I say, maybe not the best use of his skill set. And you're gonna learn about this guy being a very selfless player and how he was able to do whatever the team needed him to do to win games. But I thought maybe his best position might be the three technique and where I think he could play in the next level because we do have those guys that are twenty plus pounds heavier than him with Kenneth Grant and Benito Jones, so he does have that nose tackle experience. I think the Dolphins have done a good job so far in this draft of getting good foundational pieces inside but also providing like options beyond them, like James Daniels can play center in a pinch if you need him to. You know, talk about Larry Borham with garden tackle experience on the offensive line, and now with the defensive guys you got with Kenneth Grant and Jordan Phillips, like you have nose tackle options and three tech options. I remember last year I always say, like, man if Zach Seeler goes down, like we don't have the bodies to fill out that position, Like I like deseean Hand and you know Benito Jones, But when you lose one of those top line guys, like it really cuts into your depth. I think Miami is better equipped now with the guys they have up front to be able to withstand the attrition of an NFL season. So to me, I think this figure is to be a rotational piece across multiple spots in different fronts and different packages. But with his real chance to shine being as a true three technique. You've got all kinds of edges on this team that can impact football games. And now with Grant and Phillips, you have two guys that can really play the three. Grant can play the nose, Jordan can in a pinch as well. But you really deep into your front and the options you have there. With Jordan, I think the only thing that's lacking is just seasoning. I mean, he's twenty years old, like all the things you look at, you know that maybe don't jump off the tape. The stuff that makes him last until the fifth round is to me, because he's so young, twenty years old. His best ball is ahead of him. Super mature young man, as we heard on his media his press conference with the media down here, with upside things like finishing an eye. Discipline is where I think you can get some improvement from him. But that, to me, that comes with time and hard work, which he is not afraid of. And then he also has a really good pass rush arsenal, which tells you, like, you know, it's not like he's just his raw prospect, like he's put the time in to do certain things and get better in the game that way, And that's pretty impressive for a twenty year old man. His fit here, you know, let's talk about the scheme fit.
Here in a moment.
But how about this quote from Maryland Head coach Mike Loxley, who by the way, was an OC for TUA back in the day and once was a big fan of Oosa's game and still is quote, he has pulled guys along with him that didn't always do things the right way. Now they're following him. That's where player led comes in. And from that same article I read on umturps dot com something that hit one of his teammates said, quote, Coach Locksley always said, if you make it about the team, everybody benefits. If you make it about yourself, only you benefit. If everyone wins, the team wins. And I feel like Jordan embodied that. It just goes to show selflessness and shows that the team is his focus. That's the kind of guy that Jordan is. End quote. And we kind of covered this in the fit in terms of where I think he has his best chance to shine. And the thing that keeps standing out to me is the quickness off the snap in his pad level, and you know, he really uproots guys from underneath their shoulder pads, and that lateral explosiveness will play really, really well. And the thing we talk about all the time here, all the rush games the Dolphins run up front, they are one of the most prominent teams in terms of stunts and slants and twist and with him with Steeler and Grant setting picks and him looping in off those picks with quickness. We saw Christian Wilkins get like, what did you have seven or eight sacks that last year here, half of those were off of free runs from stunt pick stunts that Zach Seedler said for him, I think that he can do that as well. For Jordan Phillips, so his stats in advanced metrics. He's played one thousand and forty five college snaps over like two years and some change was he played his first year barely played in the snaps at all, just twenty years old. So youth and beef has been a theme here for the first three picks. Kenneth Grant's twenty one, so is Savinaya Savinaya.
I'm gonna get that right.
Eventually you're going to hear about his sack total a whole lot, which was zero, and I get it, Like that's the you know, when you don't know about a player, you go look at the stat sheet, you see that you're like, hey, what's what's the deal with that? But that was the same thing with Chop Robinson last year, who had just a couple of sacks as his final europe Penn State. And anyone that you know, really evaluates football knows that sacks, like without context is not a very telling statistic. His presence was felt as a pass rusher sixteen pressures last year ten the year prior, so twenty six on five hundred and eighteen pass rush reps, almost exclusively over the nose, which is the toughest place to win your pass rush from. Like the best centers in the NFL have pass block efficiency scores of ninety nine plus. The best tackles are like ninety six plus, so it's harder to get pressures from that position. But his alignment last year two hundred and eighty three snaps in either a gap which is you know, nose tackle zero technique one technique did play two forty three in the B gaps which can be two two I and three techniques, So I guess not exclusively, but man a lot of the pass rush production I see comes on the tape from the zero one technique alignments. He also made twenty stops on two hundred and sixty five rundown reps. Those are tackles within that are considered wins for the defense, you know, percentage of the yards to gain in the defense's favor. He was an eightieth percent tile weight measurement at three to twelve at the combine, but guys typically drop weight at the combine, and he'll probably put some more weight back on eightieth percent tile in bench in twenty nine reps eighty second with a thirty one inch vertical. You see the explosiveness all over his tape. Seventy second percent tile broad jump that's a nine flat broad jump, and sixty fifth percent tile in the shuttle.
He did not run a forty yard dash.
And then we picked again just seven slots later and pulled a cornerback off the board. And admittedly this was a player that I had not watched in the pre draft process. So there's some film work to be done here and coming back on the air. Now the film work has been done. Jason Marshall, Junior, the cornerback out of Florida. Now this is interesting to me because the team has played a lot of zone and never get this twisted the teams that play more man. It's like a maximum fifty percent man coverage versus zone coverage.
It's his zone league.
But we've been a seventy plus percent zone team over the last couple of years and last year for coach Weaver. But this dude excels in man coverage and he has an imposing look when he comes up and press. His length and aggression. Those both stand out to me. He likes to get hands on guys at the line of scrimmage and can really reroute and hand fight up the stem as well as at the top of the route. He doesn't lose his balance through contact. I did think there were some times where he would get stacked and struggle to recover, but that's also kind of the nature of the position, right especially in the sec you're going to lose to some of those guys at LSU, at Alabama and all those schools that produce all these big time wide receivers. The athleticism that he showed and his testing shows up on tape. He's a good mover with smooth transition and change of directions. He gets his hands on footballs. He led the team in pass breakups two of the last three years. He was leading this year when he got so it could have been three for three, but his last interception was in twenty twenty two, so I thought the ball production would kind of match that a little closer, but it hasn't the last couple of years. We'll see what happens as a pro I think there's room to grow in zone coverage. I mean, there's room for every player to grow at every level, especially for a rookie. But where all the experience he has and all the press that he's played, you can see that all over the tape. But there is some gambling from off positions, which you know that was the case for Will Johnson, who was rumored to be a top fifteen pick this year. I think his eyes can get caught in the backfield from time to time, Like there's a rep in a game last year where they double moved against the Hurricanes and he bites pretty hard downhill and they hit a wheel up the field for a long touchdown. I didn't feel the tackling ability really jumped off the tape one way or the other. I wasn't blown away by it. I wasn't turned off by it. I think his experience and all those reps shows up in the way he processes from off positions. He can sort of start to cheat based on the information that he gathers from the post snap movement and start to kind of cap the vertical routes before they develop. The hands and the length up and press to me are his calling card, his ability to inside hand jam with eyes on the quarterback, and then crossover step and stay in trail position.
It's all very fluid with.
How he does like he's really a lot of times you see guys like the shorts and the T shirt workouts are great, then they get pads on and the contact starts to happen and their game changes.
That doesn't happen for him.
He can really play like football, which is good for a football player. That's where I think he's the best, though, press funnel to your help from trail technique and disrupt with constant contact and physicality throughout the stem without getting flagged. Obviously, he really does trust his eyes again, sometimes for the better, and making the big jump on the football, sometimes for the worst, and gambling and getting caught with your hand in the cookie jar. The best example of that was a third down of him his physicality and trusting his eyes. A best example of that was a third down rap against Mississippi State this year where they tried to get free access to their best receiver after a day of really struggling to get any offense going, and a lot of that was because he was taking this receiver out of the game. But he had been manned up on this player the entire game and just wasn't getting anything going.
So they stack this huge tight end.
A stack is where you put one player up on the line of scrimmage and then a player right behind him so you can't jam him. So they stack him to try to get a free access route, and Marshall fights through the tight end and gets around him like gets through the pick right and then drives on the throw and breaks the ball up from behind the receiver and just makes a real like will not be denied temperament from that cornerback position type of play. I love why I saw on tape from him in that regard his fit here. I think there's some interesting flexibility here, and not in the sense of playing inside and outside, but how I think with how much inverted two we run, which is where your cornerback step down or rather flip deep and go play high coverage show and your safety has come down and cover the curl flat and the hook zones and play man coverage underneath. And seeing cater Coe who excel with that inversion coverage and with Jalen Ramsey to a separate degree, I think there's a lot of ability for him in Marshall's game to do the same thing. I think that his length and his physicality again bigger route runners or even the jitterbug guys, is what really impresses me. He's just imposing. He looks the part, and when he can play with defined leverage, he can really run the receiver off his stem and take him out of the equation as he disrupts the timing. But all of those traits tell me that he could probably be a really good tight end matchup piece and cover running backs too. That's a unique skill set that a lot of cornerbacks don't have as well as play the crossers you know in zone coverage, or play like a robber role from depth. A lot of different ideas I think you can roll with Jason Marshall Junior. I'm curious toe where he winds up fitting during his rookie season. One thing he's going to have to GetUp to speed quickly on that he didn't do in college. And this is the case when you're a four year starter at a big time position at a big time program. Not a ton of special teams reps there for Jason Marshall Junior. Now, as far as the statistics and the advanced metrics. He played forty five games, started thirty nine of those over four years at Florida, another no transfers player. That's three of our first four picks that didn't have any transfers in their background. It's kind of a unique fact about players these days. Ninety eight career tackles, seven and a half for loss, one sack, twenty seven passes defense, and two picks. In his career, he played two four hundred and eighteen career snaps, including twelve hundred and twenty eight in coverage, and teams completed just sixty eight of the one hundred and forty three targets they threw at him. That's a forty seven point six percent completion rate. And at one thousand, one hundred ninety two yards, that's less than a yard per coverage snap. That's point nine seven yards per snap. And you guys know on the podcast here anything under one is top top tier in that statistic. And that's career too, by the way, not just this year.
That's four years.
This year, despite missing six games, he had three quarterback pressures on his five blitz attempts. He made eight stops against the run, a career high in half of a season, and he allowed just one hundred and seventy three yards on two hundred six coverage STAPs. He was the guy that dictated their coverage. They would play him off the ex position and kind of take away the other team's best receiver in the sec there. He's also been almost exclusively a perimeter corner in college twenty one ninety eight snaps out wide, sixty two in the slot, one thirty six in the box, and he even had fourteen as a safety. That's typically you know in third and a mile dime packages where everybody's away from the football. So don't read too much into that one. As for the measurables, six zho three, that's eighty first percent tile. In terms of his height, one hundred and ninety four pounds a seventy third percent tile. He was eighty first percent tile in his explosive metrics, thirty seven and a half inch vertical ten to oh five on the broad a four four nine forty was seventy third percent tile, and his quick ten split at one five to four was eighty third percent tile. Eric Galco, talking about background now, the director of the Shrine Bowl wrote, Dolphins land an immediate versatile in A versatile contributor to the defensive back room in Florida's j Jason Marshall junior. He impressed clubs with the Shrine both his football IQ and coverage and team interviews, and he had a very busy week there. At six foot one ninety five, he finished in the ninety seven percent title among cornerbacks in the twenty twenty five draft. Would have been a fourth or fifth round pick last year, and if not for injury during this season, was trending towards being a top one hundred pick. Great value for the Dolphins here Miami guy Right went to Palmeto High in Miami. He had offers from Florida, LSU, Michigan, Ohio State, Oregon, penns at USC Tennessee, all the great colleges. He earned sec academic honor roll and graduate with a degree in education Sciences. That's Jason Marshall junior, Dolphins fifth round draft pick, one of the three they made on this day from Florida. Once again, we're gonna have the other four deep dives on these prospects that were drafted by your Miami Dolphins. On I believe a Monday and Tuesday edition of the Draft Time podcast is my plan. Let's go ahead and take our last break right there, come back on the other side, and here from Mike McDaniel and Chris Greer one last time to recap Day three of the draft and the entire draft Draft Time Podcast brought to you by Auto Nation. So Mike McDaniel and Chris Career, after a long weekend. Man, these draft weekends, they they'll take a toll on you in terms of the work that goes into it for everybody involved, content creators, draft selection makers, scouts.
It's just a long weekend.
The entire NFL is kind of on for the entire seventy two hours.
But got through it all.
They spoke to us here after Day three and let's go ahead and kick it off with this, because the Dolphins did not address the cornerback position until the fifth round of this year's draft, with Florida's Jason Marshall Junior, a spot that many folks thought could be a first round pick, maybe you'd come back in the second round, but it didn't happen until the fifth round. And so Mike McDaniel was asked about the idea of doing that and what went into the decision for that and what it means going forward here at the cornerback position.
We were very prepared for the multiple scenarios that can come up. You know, I think when we talk about players adding to our football team, you're there's a lot of needs. You're trying to make sure that you improve with every player, that the opportunity that you have matches what that player can provide. And realistically, there there was scenarios where we could see, you know, this wasn't the how it played out wasn't wasn't foreign to us. It's important that you have people valued appropriately and you don't overvalue players because that's where you can run into some trouble. So the way I was very happy with, you know, the things, the needs that were able to be met because to me, the you know, for instance, you feel good about the offensive line. You know you want to improve. But it wasn't just the idea of improving. We feel like we targeted players at all the positions that we knew that could help us, and you know, as our picks came up and as we were able to have opportunity to go different places, we attacked those processes, so very aware of the possibility of a you know, the guy that we like being being in the fourth round or the fifth and you're just trying to focus on the entire team and make sure that you get better with each and every selection.
Yeah.
I like that point about how you get you know, forcing things can wind up making you make wrong decisions. And I was texting with good buddy Kyle Krab's Front of the Show here on Saturday morning, like I was like, I kind of like Kobe Bryant, I kind of like Denzel Burke in that first spot in the fourth round, and he was like, it kind of feels like going cornerback would be going cornerback just to go cornerback because he felt there was better options on the board. And so to the Dolphins and they trade back, they get defensive tackle with the next pick, and they come back with a couple of defensive backs later on after that. So I think that, you know, I think that that concept is right, because when you do wind up saying like we have to take this position in this spot, that's that's how you make poor decisions. And for the Dolphins to stick to their board and stick to just making the football team better, like over a long period of time. That's the best mode of team building, right It's you put enough, you make up the margin for better players opposed to maybe taking a lesser player that fits a need. Over a long period of time, you're gonna be a better team at the end of the day. And we talk about us all the time on the show, Like in modern NFL, the way short term contracts are handed out, the way guys change teams on the rag nowadays, if you're drafting for need today, your needs will be different six months down the road or even two months down the road, right, Like, it just changes all the time.
It's very fluid.
So take the best players and try to build your team through a similar vision rather than say we need a cornerback here, it's got to be cornerback. I really like that concept. They had the vision, you know, getting bigger, but getting stronger, all that stuff, getting more physical and finding guys that love football.
All those things were key's in this draft.
And I think that when you start to go off of that and say I need to pivot from that strategy and take this position, that's when you could get in trouble.
Quarterback coming to Miami. Quinn, you were from Texas.
Let's go ahead and hear from Chris Greer on the decision to select.
Yeah, Quinn was obviously he had a very good college career. Mike and I we met him the year before at the Texas workout and we spent some time. We've talked to coach Scarn scarnaka that's the Sarkasian going back to my New England stuff. Coach Sarkisian about him, and you know, sark really likes him. Was high and was talking about him playing through the injuries this year which affected his play a little bit, but talked about it's just toughness, his mental toughness of pushing through with the injury, of the expectations, all the pressure, you know, with Manning there coming in and and so he loved his competitiveness and how he plays and how his teammates respond to him. So he was someone that we always had an eye on looking at and at the opportunity to point in the draft just made sense for us to pull the pick.
And now we are officially to one of my favorite parts of the entire calendar, the UDFAS.
I love this time of year.
We'll have Emory Hunt on the podcast later on to once again, for like the fifth consecutive year, probably accurately predict which udf as will make the roster. Let's go ahead and hear from Chris Greer on what that process looks like. Turn your touch from the draft now to the udf as it did not get selected.
Yeah, as soon as our last pick went, you know, we're waiting for the end of the draft, but you start getting ready to communicate with players and agents to try and see if we can find a spot from here and make it a mutual agreement. And so for us, it's it's it's always something you communicate with, you know, the agents throughout the spring too as well about interest in players. And so for us, we're actively going I said, my phone's been going off here as we've been sitting here a bunch, and so, yeah, we're excited about some of the players we're trying to and hopefully we can close some.
Of those deals.
Chris was also asked about the veteran free agent market. He once again confirmed for us that they have had a number of conversations with players on that market. All kinds of guys exist out there, whether it's a Sante Samuel Junior. Jack Jones was cut by the Raiders. You got Mike Hilton, a really good slot cornerback formerly of the Bengals and Steelers before that. You got Stefan Gilmour out there, who's still doing it at age thirty four. You got Rasul Douglas who's been very good for the Buffalo Bills for a couple of years. You got safeties Marcus Williams, Julian Blackman as well. So defensive backfield seems to be the spot in freegency right now that that has the most options available, and it sounds like the Dolphins have been in contact with those pieces. I loved this question and answer because I've heard a lot about it so far about where should James Daniels play in terms of his ability to play left guard right guard. Jonas Sylvanah has also played both positions across the offensive line. Are both sides, i should say, as well as tackle and guard. And you kind of get this concept like you should put James Daniels next to Patrick Paul because he's young and James is older and has experience. And I thought this answer from Mike McDaniel was a really good explanation into how the team views it with regards to how you put out the best five guys. And it's not necessarily about communication and youth and veteran experienced about body mechanics and other things. And this is just a good answer here from coach McDaniel.
You know, I think there's a lot that goes into that. I think the starting point is the body mechanics and the comfort level of the individual players. To uh, and because really a confident, convicted player, the residuals can be as powerful as what you're alluding to in terms of experience. I think communication within in that room is key. We pay attention to that. If there is a reason of communication that dictates maybe a trial, you know, with different people playing next to each other, flipping sides and stuff, we would always do that. I don't uh, I don't foresee, you know, the the current players communicator should issue dictating where they play. I think it's more of their where their comfort level is. Simply because of the individuals we do have are great communicators. Where they are young, they happen to be pretty good at being able to talk to each other next to each other, and you all have to have ownership of your job across the board, regardless if you're a rookie or a veteran. I feel comfortable as it stands. But you know, I think we try to fashion ourselves as problem solver, So if that became a problem, I'm sure we'd try to fix it.
I've got two more here for you.
I want to give you this one about the concept or the vision I should say to go after players in the mold of leaders guys that didn't bail on programs. There was a very few amount of guys that transferred. And not that if you transfer, you like you're a bad prospect, but like there's examples of guys that refuse to transfer because they wanted to build that current pro GM And to me, that says a lot about someone's character. We talked about that with with Jonah last night, so I asked him about that. All the team captains are on the on the roster from college, as well as the concept of leadership. And I've heard so much about the leadership, so I asked Mike and Chris about that. And here's Chris Career talking about getting the right type of player in your building. Here for the Miami Dolphins to help set that culture. We heard Mike McDaniel back at the owners meetings talking about how the draft can set your culture. Well, Miami told you what they want their culture to be through this year's draft.
Yeah, you're always when you investigating the background, you're just it's the quality of the people and the guys that love football and the teammates and the and the drive. Like Jordan Phillips. Every time we asked anyone about him, they're like, you know, what's he doing? Then he's probably in the weight room working out. They're like, the guys are working out always. And literally the first thing he said to me on the phone when I said to your a Dolphin goes, that's great, coach. Can I get the playbook right away? You know, like, hey pay the first like just take it, take it down and enjoy the day.
But he's yeah.
So those guys like Jonah, they were awesome just talking about those stories about you know, when adversity hit them with the teams and how what they did to stay there and try and help their teams to get better and win. So those tite You're always drawn to those kinds of stories with players and yes, these kids are you know, quality kids are excited to.
Let's conclude with this because if you're not familiar with Mike McDaniel's history going back to the Niners and you know, the Texans and the Commanders or the Washington football team, like his entire career, he's kind of been a running back like Savant, he finds running backs late in drafts and udfa's Jeff Wilson one of those guys that he was big on. And the Dolphins have found running backs here in the draft under Mike McDaniel's watch. And now Ollie Gordon, the Oklahoma State monster running back, is here. And when you turn in a draft card for running back on Day three, as Miami Dolphins like, you should probably listen to what Mike mcdoniel has to say. Let's go ahead and throw it to coach about Olie Gordon's tape.
Yeah, saw a lot of really good stuff I saw. You know, it's not the first time that we've come across an evaluation, you know, even at that particular school where you have someone have a really big year followed by maybe a year that they didn't anticipate or is underwhelming for for them, and you know, what's interesting is you know, really unpacking that you watch the despair, any differences in play, You try to really understand the totality of the environments. But the biggest thing is you try to meet meet the player and engage with him and and see if you know what they experience, how it's affected him. You're hoping that it burns a fire inside. And I think it was pretty evident when we visited with him that he he was eager to prove himself. So I think that the twenty three tape was very impressive, and you know, based upon our interactions with them, we feel optimistic that is the version that we're going to improve upon moving forward, and which will be up to him and what he does with this opportunity.
And that is a wrap on the twenty twenty five Miami Dolphins NFL Draft. We have plenty to come your way, though, don't don't get it twisted. I have four more player breakdowns to give you, guys. We're going to do two more of those tomorrow. I gotta find the players. Let me scroll up my document real quick, because it's all kind of scat our brain right now.
On the show.
The next show will be Dante Trader and Olie Gordon, and then the next show after that's going to be Quinn viewers and Zeke Biggers. I think it'll be Monday for Trader and Gordon. We'll talk about the draft as a whole and kind of recap all that stuff. We'll have viewers and Biggers for the Tuesday podcast breakdown, and I'll go ahead and compliment that with the best soundbites from the players zoom press conferences here with the media in South Florida. Until then, you will please be sure at seven forty five here on a Saturday night, we're gonna call it a draft weekend. To subscribe to the podcast, leave us a writing and leave us a review. Follow me on social at Winkle NFL. Follow the team at Miami Dolphins. Check out the fish Tank podcast with Seth and Juice.
Check out the.
YouTube channel for Dolphins HQ. My interview with Kenneth Grant is up there. All kinds of drivetime exclusive content as well as media availabilities and last but not lease, all the fast Facts piece up on Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time, Fin's up Carolina and Cameron Daddy, He's coming home.
