October 4, 2024 • 42 mins
Football Friday brings us a pair of guests. Evan Lazar, a senior reporter for the Patriots, joins us to give us the perspective of this Week 5 matchup from the opposing sideline. Plus, Week 5 picks and Kyle Crabbs joins to break down the weekend in college football.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
To remove Darlin Deep Speedways past Peas.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
From the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
This is Drivetime with Travis Wingfield.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Please God, my having it's in the playoffs?
Speaker 3 (00:26):
What is up Dolphins and welcome to the Draft Time Podcast.
I am your host, Travis Wingfield. On today's show, it's
a football Friday. We will hear from a member of
the Patriots beat as Evan Lazar joins me. Plus, it
is another chance to talk to my good friend Kyle
Krabs about the weekend in college football, where the Dolphins
go from here and so much more, as well as
(00:47):
the week five NFL picks from the Baptist Health Studios
inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Draft
Time Podcast, Ye Daffy. We are joined today by Patriot
Creates dot com reporter and the host of the Catch
twenty two podcast at Easy Lazarre on Twitter, Evan Lazar.
Welcome back into the show, my friend. It's good to
(01:07):
see another round of Dolphins and Patriots.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
Man. Here we go again.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Yeah, absolutely good to see you, Travis.
Speaker 5 (01:13):
We see the combine press box and I'm in Miami
that those are twice a year, so it's three times
a year.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
That's nice.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
And yeah, I guess we get some some draft content
every once in a while for the podcast as well,
so you're a valuable resource for us here on draft
time as well as Dolphins HQ are a brand new
YouTube show. And I want to start off here with
the head coaching change, because to your point, you know,
fourteen year old Evan watched the same head coach that
you know.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
I'm sure mid thirties Evan watched her.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
I don't know how old you are, but it's been
a long time since they've had a coaching change in
New England. I'm curious your early impressions of Gerrodmeo and
what that first year has been like so far, you know,
four weeks in to covering a non Bill Belichick Patriots team.
Speaker 5 (01:52):
Yeah, well I'm thirty one, so not mid thirties quite. Yeah,
we're getting in there.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Yeah. I think the biggest thing that has been.
Speaker 5 (01:58):
Differently is just that he's has a totally different personality,
which I know I'm probably not breaking news with that
by any means. And it's not that you know, we
didn't see the whole Bill Belichick personality in general. Girod
is just a different guy, you know, is his own DNA,
his own human being. He's a little bit different even
(02:20):
than some of the other Belichick disciples, like you know,
I know, you guys down there familiar behind Flores or
Josh McDaniels or someone like that also, So it's been
unique in that situation in that sense. I think right
now what we're seeing though, is we're you so used
to the Patriots being such a well coached team that
(02:44):
our eyes are seeing things that were not jiving in
the Belichick era and saying, well, this is the coaching right.
You know, these things are going wrong, and that's on
the coaching right. You know, a lot of the issues
that that Belichick had at the end were more personnel related.
It was more Bill a g im not doing a
great job than it was Build a coach. So right now,
(03:04):
Drod Mayo and the media here, every little decision that
he is making in game, you know, outside of the
games is getting nitpicked and compared to Bill Wow, which
is obviously very difficult.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Yeah, It's it's so weird, man, because like you know,
for years it was like you can write the Patriots
in for twelve wins and they're going to get all
this media coverage and they are They just are who
they are, and it's just so weird to see him
in transition from what that era was to where they
are now and obviously going through a little bit of it.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
Right now.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
They're one to three coming off of last season that
provided them the third pick in the draft, and that's
where I want to go next here is at the
quarterback position, because you know, I follow probably I would
say the Jets are probably close too, but I probably
follow as many Patriots accounts as I do Dolphins accounts
in terms of my NFL hierarchy of Twitter follows.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
But my sense is that the.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Fan base is ready to see Drake May like now,
but I want to hear from the expert here and
when do you think the appropriate time is to get
Drake May out there?
Speaker 4 (04:00):
Are they going to write it out for the entire year?
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Wait?
Speaker 4 (04:01):
Think the plan is? And what do you think it
should be?
Speaker 5 (04:04):
Well, this is the only topic that anybody has any
interest in New England right now. I can tell you
that based off of our metrics. It's like if you're
not writing or talking about Drake May, then people just
don't really care about what you're saying, so it's a
number one topic in maybe all of New England sports
at the moment, is when Drake May is going to
play and going into the season, especially after the improvements
(04:28):
we saw in training camp in the preseason, Drake May
did have a pretty upward trajectory to his development in
the summer, so by the end of the summer we
felt pretty good about where he was.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
It was two schools a thought. One.
Speaker 5 (04:41):
I actually compared the situation a lot to the Dolphins
with Ryan Fitzpatrick in Tua, where Fitzpatrick's locker room favorite.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
He's a veteran quarterback.
Speaker 5 (04:52):
You know, he played better than Jacoby's playing right now,
certainly in that season.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
But it felt the same where.
Speaker 5 (04:58):
A captain guy that the locker room specs, the locker
room likes with preset, but they just drafted this guy
high first round pick that was clearly the future of
the franchise. So I just felt like it was inevitable
that at some point Drake May is gonna play, and
it is to an extent. But I think the other
thing that we're seeing now, even in season, is that
(05:18):
there was this growing concern about the state of the
offense around the quarterback. It's more specifically the offensive line,
which right now is basically dead last, and every single
stat that you can pull up in terms of pass protection,
your pass block win rate, pressure rate, quick pressure rate,
like all of it is just last, last, last, last.
(05:39):
So do you want to subject a rookie quarterback who
is a little bit raw and younger than some of
these other guys like bow Knicks or Jaden Daniels to
that kind of offensive line play and maybe have a
long term effect on his development because he gets sped up,
or he starts seeing ghosts or whatever the case may be.
So that was the big issue that everybody had coming
(06:02):
into the season. It's now manifested itself in season with
their offensive line play. So now the question really is
more about can they support Drake May than is Drake
May ready to support that?
Speaker 4 (06:14):
Yeah, it's a great point, Devin.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
If I can follow up on that, I kind of
want to go a little bit off script here and
ask you just about your own thoughts about the quarterback
position and development, because I've been talking about in the
podcast here and there about all these young quarterbacks that
come in and to your point, Jaden Daniels is a
great example. Bo Nicks played, what was it, sixty college
starts is just an absurd number. But for Jaden Daniels,
he comes in and he looks the part right away,
(06:38):
right he looks like he has total control of that huddle,
the offense. He's you know, he's leading two minute drives
for game winning drives on Monday night football.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
Looks like the real deal.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
I'm curious where you come down on the development of
a young quarterback. And for a guy like Drake May
who doesn't have the same number of reps or years
in college as a Jadeen Daniels, what you think the
benefit is of him getting all these reps mentally without
how to go out there on the field. Do you
think it's the best way for a young guy to
grow and develop or you think that on the field
you could get some of that as well.
Speaker 5 (07:07):
I tend to lean towards playing young quarterbacks. We're even
seeing it now what these guys were talking about, even
Caleb too.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
They really started out rough.
Speaker 5 (07:17):
You know, Week one was tough across the league for
all these rookie quarterbacks, and now all of a sudden,
you're starting to see them make some improvements. Obviously, Jaden's
gotten the best out of all of them, but even
Caleb Williams and Bo Nicks have made some strides in
just a short period of time. You mentioned all the
starts those guys made, Drake may only made twenty six
collegiate starts. He was a two year starter at North Carolina.
(07:38):
I just find it hard to believe that he is
going to improve leaps and bounds without playing because he
hasn't played a lot of football, and a lot of
the coaches that I talked to. I wrote a big
feature about him for Patriots dot Com back when they
drafted him, and his high school coach pointed out to
me that he also lost a year of high school
football because of COVID, so he really has only started
(07:59):
forced seasons between high school and college in his career.
So he hasn't played a ton of football. And that
was part of the appeal with him, was that, yeah,
he has some wards and he needs some development, and
he has that bust factor because of that, but his
physical tools are so immense that with more seasoning, he
should be a Josh Allen Light type of quarterback or
(08:23):
something of that nature. So that was always the big
conversation with him. I just don't see how a young
quarterback that hasn't gotten as many reps and hasn't played
as much football is going to get better without playing football.
But end I do see some of the other factors
that are involved with the Patriots. Specifically, they don't really
(08:44):
have a number one receiver. The Dolphins have two. The
Patriots have zero. Right, they don't really have an offensive line.
They have Alex Van Pelt, their new offensive coordinator, has
never called plays before in the NFL, really like he's
called it a little bit here and there, pockets, but
he's never been the primary play caller of an offense.
(09:05):
So he has some growing pains that he's going through.
So you look at all these different elements and you're like,
this is a disaster waiting to happen for a rookie quarterback.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
Yeah, it doesn't really compare, I don't think.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
But the first off that came to my mind when
he talked about the rep count was Anthony Richardson for
the cole who you know, miss that entire rookie season
where he needed those reps so bad because at Florida
he just didn't get them because you know, he didn't
start until late and he was early and Rollie to
the draft and or not en roly but declared for
the draft early on. So you wind up having a
guy that's played like five hundred reps going into his
sophomore year of the NFL. It's crazy. So it's if
(09:38):
there's a strong dichotomy there, I think the players will
get all those reps eventually benefit from it. So we
checked your box there for the criteria of what the
Patriots fans want to read about. Right in terms of
your metrics from a content standpoint, Let's go ahead and
talk about the game here a little bit because we
do have Dolphins and Patriots from Jillette Stadium on Sunday,
a one o'clock kickoff, and you have alluded to this.
Speaker 4 (09:57):
A little bit.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
I want to get your just follow up on both
offensive line and the skill groups, because I read that
David Andrews is contemplating shoulder surgery.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
Do you think he'll be out there?
Speaker 3 (10:07):
And then just also kind of give us a walkthrough
of where those cracks on the offensive line are and
if you can, like a three part question here, Evan,
I apologize for that, but if you can, who has
been the top receiver. That's kind of I guess taking
the reins on what this current Patriots offense is.
Speaker 5 (10:21):
Yeah, So just starting with David Andrews, I would be
shocked if he plays on Sunday. For what it's worth,
he was taking off the media schedule this week, which
is usually a pretty good indication that he's not going
to be practicing.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
So he's a tough SOB.
Speaker 5 (10:36):
So it's really just a matter of it does he
want to play through this injury for the season and
just pain tolerance and all that kind of stuff, or
does he want to have the surgery now and try
to be ready for twenty twenty five. So it's a
tough situation for him, I will say, And I love
David Andrews. He's one of my favorite players I've ever covered.
I think he probably wears a red jacket in the
(10:58):
Patriots Hall of Fame someday. He has had some dip
in production over the last couple of years, specifically in
past protection. He's not necessarily the same guy that he
was three, four or five years ago. So as much
as it's a drop off from a leadership in just
a mentality and all those types of intangible aspects from
(11:19):
what we saw limited granted, but Nick Leverett their backup
center as a pure blocker. I'm not sure how much
of a true drop off that's going to be. You're
just losing a lot when it comes to grit, leadership,
communication on the line, all those elements that David Andrews
brings to the table. To your second question about where
(11:42):
are the holes in this offensive line?
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Kind of everywhere.
Speaker 5 (11:46):
I wish there was one spot that I could be like, yeah,
they're really good there. Maybe right tackle with Mike gon
Wnu is probably where you feel the best. But even
then he's a guard playing tackle out of necessity, So
that's not necessarily a great situation long term either. But
I look at the real holes left tackle as that
by far the biggest one. Last week they started Trey Jacobs,
(12:09):
who was a waiver claim by the Patriots on cutdown Day.
He's technically their fourth string left tackle if you want
to look at the depth chart that way. They signed
Chooks the Corps four in the offseason to be their
stop gap bridge left tackle. They knew they were going
to probably draft one early next year in twenty twenty five.
He's no longer with the team. He's basically retired from football.
(12:32):
As my understanding, he quit essentially on the team. I
just got to call it what it is. You know,
he went home and took his bags and went home.
So he's not here. Vederian Lowe was sort of their
second string backup. He has a knee injury. He was
a ruled out on Friday guy last week, so really
(12:52):
didn't have a chance to play in the game on Sunday,
and we'll see if he's ready to go. And then
their rookie Kidden Wallace, who they drafted in the third round.
I saw him in a walking boot and crutches after
the game on Sunday leaving Levi Stadium in San Francisco,
so he's injured as well. So it's looking Unlesvedarian Lowe
somehow is healthy enough to play. It's looking like it's
(13:15):
going to be Trey Jacobs again, who allowed two sacks
and seven quarterback pressures last week against the forty nine ers.
So that's not his fault, like he shouldn't even be
out there. The Patriot should have done a better job
is shoring up this position in the offseason. But it
is what it is, and I would also just point out,
you know, rookie guard at right guard as well, Laden
Robinson their fourth round pick. Pretty good run blocker already,
(13:38):
but is struggling right now in pass protection. So they
really have a lot of holes everywhere. It's like a
ship with a bunch of different holes that they're trying
to plug on the offensive line right now, and it has.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
It has sunk their passing game for the most part.
Speaker 5 (13:52):
You can't throw down the field when you have no time,
right you know, that's just common sense. So last one
on the receivers, I would say that the the guy
that really is like their third down and money type
of player is actually Hunter Henry at tight end. You know,
he's the one that Jacob Brissett has the most comfortability
with and can move the chains a little bit. They
(14:13):
are bullish about Jalen Polk, their second round pick out
of Washington. He's come on a little bit here in
recent weeks. He's beginning moved up the depth chart a
little bit more. Played his most snaps in the game
last week, a lot more first read progression type stuff
with him where the quarterback is looking at him initially
in the progression. So he's starting to be a little
(14:34):
bit more involved. But the thing with Polk is that
he's one of those guys that needs to be thrown
open a lot of the time. He's not like a
pure separator. He's more of like a back shoulder, you know,
catching traffic kind of guy, and Brissette is not necessarily
one of those types of passers.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
So it hasn't been a great mix there.
Speaker 5 (14:52):
But the hope is when Drake May comes back, you know,
comes into the games, that he'll you know, be able
to put those balls on Jalen Polk a little bit better.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Well, I think you just gave us the answer for
the Patriots offense ranks where it does right now in
thirty second place, less than one thousand yards four games in.
Speaker 4 (15:07):
But pintruglefield Dolphins offense as well.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Let's go ahead and take a quick break, come back
and talk about that on the other side of My
guest today, Evan Lazar, senior reporter for Patriots dot Com
and the Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought
to you by Auto Nation. Back here with my guest
today from Patriots dot Com, Evan Lazar. We talked about
the Patriots offense. Now I want to ask you, Evan
about the Patriots defense and how they might attack this
(15:31):
Miami offense. And I want to start upfront because we
saw Matt Judong get traded before the year began. But man,
that front for so long had so many mainstays that
have kind of changed a little bit here over the
last couple of years. But in all of that, you
guys have uncovered what I think is the next breakout
start at a pass rusher. Can you tell us about
Keyon White a little bit, Evan?
Speaker 5 (15:50):
Yeah, Keon White has been their entire pass rush. He
has double the amount of quarterback pressures of anybody else
on their team. You know, he's young, all right, So
there are some things I'll talk about that are still
works in progress in his game, but it's very very
clear that he is a disruptive force and extremely good
at rushing on the interior especially. I would say, you know,
(16:13):
he's given guards all sorts of fits. A really explosive guy,
twitchy guy, really good hands, violent hands. I would call
him to get off blocks and things of that nature.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
So he's a disruptive guy.
Speaker 5 (16:27):
But right now, I would say the biggest issue with
him and with their pass rush as a whole is discipline.
You know, they've let quarterbacks for three straight weeks now
get outside the pocket and extend plays or even just
scramble for first downs on third down. They're thirty first
in the league on third down defense right now, and
a big part of that to me just watching their
film is that they're letting the quarterback outside the pocket.
(16:50):
So Keon White's been great and I always kind of
push back on people that criticize him because I'm like, well,
if they don't let Keon White just go up the field,
are not going to have a pass rush, like he's
the only one that's getting after the quarterback. But the
other side of that coin is that sometimes he lets
the quarterback out of the pocket and that's how you
get you know, Aaron Rodgers on the move or Rock
(17:12):
Pretty on the move, and they've been burned by that
pretty badly. So they have to do a better job
of keeping quarterbacks in the pocket.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Well, that leads right in my last question here for you,
because we have a quarterback changed since two went down
back in Week two, Scalar Thompson. Back in week three.
We had three different quarterbacks start the last three games.
But we will have the same quarterbacks start a game
for the second time this year after to a start
of the first two games and Tyler Huntley, and usually
I ask you the question about how the Patriots plan
to attack Tyreek Hill and Jalen Waddle, But those guys
(17:43):
haven't been as productive since Tua went down, and I'm
curious what Evan Lazar's game plan might be or how
you might draw up what it might look like for
the Patriots when it comes to defending a quarterback that's
so brand new here that was, you know, a tough
showing on Monday night against the Titans. What do you
think the Patriots are looking to do against the Dolphins
offense with Tyler Huntley at the helm.
Speaker 5 (18:03):
Well, it's interesting because you know, I watched their film
from the Titans game yesterday and I did a little
cut up on it for my game plan of all
the times that Tyreek is still getting open deep and
just the ball just isn't finding him because it's not
too And my whole warning to the Patriots would just
be don't fall asleep at the wheel just because it's
(18:24):
Tyler Huntley at quarterback, because Tyreek is still wide open
for seventy yard touchdowns some of the time, and you know,
one of these days, Tyler Hunterly is actually going to
complete one of those passes and don't let it be
on you. So I still look at their offense as
being explosive and dangerous and really one of those offenses
where they can score from anywhere on the field because
(18:45):
of those two receivers. So with that being said, and
I just mentioned all the issues that they've had with
the containing quarterbacks, that's the one thing with Huntley that
he does have the capability of doing. Even that quarterback
draw that he picked up a first down with on
Monday night. You can't let him just run around and
be an athlete back there. And I would also just
mention you as you know, a lot of those inbreaking
(19:08):
routes are always where they want to throw off a
play action, those glances and the crossers and things like that.
So if I'm the Patriots, they had a lot of
issues with that last week against San Francisco. You know,
Brandon Aik, Juwan Jennings big chunk plays off of just
post cross you know, just take the top off the
defense and then cross over the middle of the field.
(19:29):
So they have to find a way to close that
down and take away those inbreaking routes from this Dolphins offense.
Because I still look at that game on Monday night,
I see I think it was the first play of
the game, dagger right to Tyreek, you know, off play
action glance later in the game to what I believe
it was Tyreek again, Like they still have that capability
(19:49):
of doing those types of things with Huntley. So I look,
I don't take anything for granted right now with this
Patriots team. They're They're not good enough for me to
sit here and say, well, it's a third string quarnderback,
so they'll be fine.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
They still have to worry about a lot of things here.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
I think you just yelled all the hits, by the way,
with all the route concepts that the Dolphins runners.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
I love.
Speaker 5 (20:10):
I love watching that Dolphins offense. And the thing that
makes me super jealous too is how much pistol they run.
Like when the Patriots get Drake may and there, I
have been begging them to run pistol because he's not
very comfortable with running under center. It's not anything he
did in college at a regular level. And North Carolina
did run a lot of pro style pistol concepts though
(20:33):
for him and at uh at un C. So they
want to be an under center run team in New England,
and I just say, like, look at Miami, they are
a pistol running gun team. Just play him in the
pistol like he doesn't have to be all the way
under center.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
So I love watching those concepts.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
You get like three more gaps compared to sidecar in
the shotgun right with you in the formation. So I'm
with you on that all the way I said I had.
That was the last question by a lot. I have
one more for you this every time off the beat, right,
guess it's just simple Patriots win if and then you
get a fill in the blank, I.
Speaker 5 (21:06):
Would say the Patriots win if their defense gets back
on track this week against the backup quarterback. You know,
they've had that in their bag in this Belichick mess
that was last year or even twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
For the most part, they've beaten the Tyler.
Speaker 5 (21:22):
Hunt Lees of the world, or you know, whatever backup
quarterback they're facing. So they need to get right on defense.
We went into this season thinking, yeah, they'll probably have
a little drop off because Belichick's not here on defense
but they still have a ton of talent on that
side of the ball. Right now, they're twenty fifth in
the league in EPA on defense. That's not what we
expected going into the year, but we expected them to
(21:44):
still be top fifteen, top half of the league on defense,
and they haven't been. So they are going to win
on the back of their defense. They're not going to
score a lot of points this year. We know that
even when Drake May gets in there, they're probably still
not going to be a great offense, so they have
to get right on defense.
Speaker 4 (22:01):
Great stuff there.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
We got a lot smarter on the opponent this week
with Evin Lazarre from Patriots dot Com, senior reporter and
the host of The Catch twenty two podcasts at Easy
Lazarre on Twitter and Evan, I think we close the
podcast just wait by saying, how about that mapples my friend?
All right? Well, maybe that Joe kind of fell on
deaf ears there towards the end. Big thanks to Evan
Lazar for his time on the show. Gosh didn't really
(22:24):
pull any punches there on the Patriots, did he Let's
go ahead and pick the week five games before we
take our last break and hear from the great Kyle Krabs.
We kick it off on Thursday Night Football. I picked
the Falcons.
Speaker 4 (22:34):
Did they win?
Speaker 3 (22:35):
Who knows. We will know by the time you hear
this podcast, but right.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
Now I don't know.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
We also have an early morning game as the Jets
will play the Vikings in London.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
Go ahead and give me. I'm really in between on
this game.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
Like I feel like it's a perfect spot for the
Jets to kind of bounce back and the Vikings a
step back after a road divisional win and a.
Speaker 4 (22:53):
Great four and oh start.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
But I just think that the Jets offense is still
going to be stuck in the mud, and I think
the Vikings can find to run the football on that
Jets defense. In fact, the more I talk about it,
the Dolphins offense when they're clicking always gives that Jets
defense issues. And I think there are similar scheme things
there and similar talent.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
For the Vikings.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
So give me the Vikings over the Jets to make
them fall to two to three, and hopefully we can
enjoy their misery as much as they're enjoying ours. I
am taking the Patriots over the Dolphins. They're gonna have
to prove it for me to pick the Dolphins again
this year. I'll take the Panthers over the Bears in Chicago.
Andy Dalton goes and gets his second winners the Panther
starting quarterback. I'm gonna also take another upset here with
Cleveland over Washington.
Speaker 5 (23:32):
Why.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
I just feel like Washington's been kind of on a
high for a couple of weeks. It feels like it's
a ripe spot to get picked off, especially against a
good DC against a young quarterback in Jaden Daniels, who
I think is the absolute truth.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
Give me the Browns there.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
I'm also taking the Jaguars to get their first win
of the year over the Colts. They seem to always
give that Colts team issues, and they're gonna be either
limited with Anthony Richardson or have Joe Flacco in there.
I will take the Jags get their first win of
the year. Give me Buffalo over Houston in that big
early season matchup there for AFC seeding hierarchy, I'll take
the Ravens over the Bengals. Give me the Raiders over
(24:06):
the Broncos. I guess I don't know who cares. I'll
take the Niners over the Cardinals and that one Seahawks
over the Giants. I'm also gonna take Green Bay over Pittsburgh,
or rather, I'm sorry the Rams. I will take Dallas
over Pittsburgh on Sunday Night football.
Speaker 4 (24:20):
It's a fun matchup, I think.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
And then we'll go ahead and take the Chiefs on
Monday Night over the Saints in now Leans.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
Let's go ahead and take our last break right there.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
Come back on the other side with Kyle Crabs Drift
Time Podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
By Automation.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
Kyo Crabs everybody for his weekly Friday spot here on
the Drive Time Podcast. I don't think we'll have you
on next week, though, big dog, as we have a
week off no Dolphins football and week number six first
of all bye week plans, have you got them?
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Uh? Probably recaliber right the college football schedule. I had
some travel plans that were mixing up. Going to try
to get some college games and pour myself into that
and really figure out how to maximize the stretch running
conference play in the bowl game.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
That's probably what I'll be focused on.
Speaker 4 (25:19):
Smart fellow, he never stops working.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Yeah, no, I mean it is a blessing, you know,
even in a season that hasn't started for the Dolphins
the way that I think anybody envisioned or hoped that
it would to be able to have the other avenues
in football is certainly something that allows you to keep
perspective and things, and you see other teams that go
(25:43):
through these battles and understand that there's ebbs and flows,
and there's moments of low points and high points, and
it puts the whole thing in perspective when you see
how many teams there are out there in this space
and how many of them are uniquely experiencing things that
are similar or dissimilar to what the Dolphins are experiencing
right now.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
Yeah. Absolutely, I think that's a good transition into the
first topic I wanted to touch on here, because you know,
it is a long season, no doubt about that, and
I try my best to maintain that perspective because we've
seen teams, you know, start zero and four and rip
wins off, and we've seen teams start off hot and
go the other direction. I think you can kind of
see the tea leaves here with this Dolphins team and
(26:23):
the way things are going. But you know what, I
don't know, Jim it's looking more like a top five
pick for this team more than any other outcome at
the moment if they do find themselves in that mix.
I know, like we talked to quarterbacks the last couple
of weeks here, but what do you think right now,
given all the information that we have about where this
(26:44):
team is, where they are going forward, where the quarterback
currently stands long way out? This is why they pay
you the big bucks, Big Doug. What's the best course
of action right now? If you forecasted a top five
pick for the Dolphins.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Yeah, I think if you forecast yourself in that stratosphere,
you have one of two forks in the road that
I think you can take. You'd be in a position
to land of what is a handful of elite talents
in this draft class. Whether that's Will Johnson the corner
from Michigan, or Mason Graham the defensive tackle for Michigan,
or Travis Hunter, the whatever you wanted to play, he
(27:16):
could probably play it type of player. I think he's
better as a corner personally, Travis Hunter. But I know
there's dollars to be had at wide receiver with the
wide receiver market and what that's looked like in the
NFL last couple of years, So I don't think you
could go wrong either way in that regard. I think
you would be an interesting situation to take a best
(27:39):
player available, or I think the other alternative would be
we've seen what the backup quarterback situation has looked like. Unfortunately,
the first couple weeks of having to play with the
backup quarterback with this system in year three and a
lot of players that have familiarity with it, I think
everybody probably would have hoped that that things would have
(28:01):
clicked a little bit more with the interruption with the
signal caller, and that obviously hasn't been the case. So
I think you have to put that position under a
really big microscope. And obviously, Tua when he's on the
field is so impactful and so unique, and I think
you see that and how the team is struggling without him.
But I do think you would be in a position
to bring in an additional quarterback and have one with
(28:25):
talent that you feel you could win with and then
kind of let that situation play out. This would not
be the first time in league history that you have
a quarterback that's a veteran established starting quarterback with an
early round pick behind him and having two good quarterbacks
a good problem to have. Of course that the challenge
there is the opportunity cost of what that might look
like as far as the domino effect for the rest
of your roster.
Speaker 3 (28:46):
Yeah, and that's I guess why I come down is
if you wind up in that position, it's the old adage, like,
you don't want to be there again, right, so take
advantage of the fact that you are there. And if
you know, we do wind up getting interruption long term
with QB one, it would be nice to offset that
with what would be a cheap quarterback by way of
the draft with the rookie contract.
Speaker 4 (29:06):
So I think that's where I would go. But if
we're trying.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
To like you know, I think we both get accused
of this a little bit sometimes of the you know,
selling hopium, although I don't think it's what either of
us do.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
It's not an accurate term, it's not a realistic it's
it's looking at the possible outcomes and understanding what the
team is trying to achieve and explain what the thought
process is and how it's supposed to work.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
That's not hopeium.
Speaker 3 (29:29):
It's not sorry, And like I was, I was tweeting
about like a Jordan Brooks sack in the second half
of the game on Monday and how it was really
cool sim pressure look or rather you know, they brought
the pressure after simming it all night and it caused
a bust in protection, and I mentioned like, that's been
one of the cool parts about this team so far,
not many of them, but it's been one of the
cool parts. And someone's like, look at this a hole
trying to spin positive, Like, no, I'm just covering the game, dude,
(29:50):
I'm just telling you what happened in the game. I'm
very well aware of where the thing of where situations
are right now. But the reason I bring this up, Kyle,
is because if you did want to try to get
excited about, you know, next year, if that's where you
are already, I'm looking at the Niners over the Kyle
Shanahan era, and they had two years where they were like, well,
I guess early on they stunk because they had Brian Hoyer.
(30:12):
Then that second year they got or Jimmy Garoppolo got
hurt that second year, and then in twenty twenty they
were supposed to be this great team after going to
the Super Bowl in twenty nineteen, but once again, as
they did for you know, two of the previous three years,
injuries railroaded that team. They won six games, and they
got better performances from Nick Mullins and I think CJ.
Bethard that year than we've gotten fm our backup quarterbacks.
But my ultimate point is those years provided them a
(30:36):
chance to get Nick Bosa and it also provided them
a chance to trade up and get Trey Lance, which
was an absolute disaster, but they were in those positions.
Can you draw any parallel to those Niners teams with
the injuries and the bad luck they accrued during those years,
because this happens sometimes to good teams.
Speaker 4 (30:53):
I don't think the Dolphins are a good team right now.
Speaker 3 (30:54):
I think they have other issues, but last year they
were a very good football team. Can you draw any
parallels two teams like the Niners that have gone through
that amid the successful runs or anybody else, or do
you not see it that way at all?
Speaker 2 (31:07):
No, I certainly think there's I think general consensus is
one of the best executives in the game of football
is Howie Roseman, right, and the Philadelphia Eagles, and they
drafted a quarterback in Carson Wentz and gave him a
second contract and he had an injury and they had,
like at two quarterbacks, do you really have any situation?
And the bottom fell out there. They went four eleven
(31:29):
and one, and it put them in a position to
being a high draft pick and draft an impactful player.
I think about the La Rams and maybe their draft
capital situation was a little different, but they were a
team that made a couple of runs, then they got
really banged up and got hurt, and then they had
a youth movement that came in and they made the
playoffs last year, won ten games. Like there's incidences of
(31:52):
this happening all over the league. I think the thing
where Dolphins fans are a little sours. Do you look
at Philadelphia and you say, okay, they want a super Bowl?
They had Nick Foles on the great backup quarterback run
of all time and they win a Super Bowl in
that year before the bottom falls out, And you look
at the Rams and they had a very aggressive mentality
(32:12):
and pushed all their chips in and they got it
done at the end. And for Miami, if the payoff
is is last year and then there's a regression. I
think that that's where the sting is for Dolphins fans,
and I totally get that, and I know a lot
of Dolphins fans have a lot of different opinions about
like the state of affairs with the team right now.
But it is October fourth, right, Like, there is so
(32:33):
much more information to be collected before any judgments can
and I think should be made about all directions that
this team is gonna have to go. But this is
the kind of season if it plays out the way
that you think it is, that is going to make
you take a step back and re examine everything that
you're doing.
Speaker 4 (32:50):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (32:51):
I love that because it reminds me of twenty sixteen
when like one in four it's like they got to
get Tannehill out of here, and then he rips off
the best run of his career, and we come back
in twenty seventeen, even with an ACL injury, and it's like, oh,
he's our quarterback.
Speaker 4 (33:02):
And then it didn't go that way. It just kind
of came back and forth.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
But basically your point about there's so much more information
we have to glean from the next thirteen games, I
just I love that point. Let's go ahead and dive
right into the weekend of college football. Here rip Washington
State's miracle college football playoff runs seems to have come
to an end after a blowout against Poise State.
Speaker 4 (33:23):
You sure do.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
I was hopeful that was the last game on the
schedule until like the second game to the penultimate game
that they would have had to get through to maybe
have a pretty good run at this because they played
like San Jose State in Colorado, not a lot of
good teams that schedule. Actually, before we do anything here,
before we talk about the games, can we talk about
ash Gent because I don't think I've seen anything like it. Man,
(33:44):
Like some of the runs he had in that game.
I'm he's on pace to break Barry Sanders rushing yards
and rushing touchdowns record. He's on track to obliterate the
broken tackle and yards after contact records, even if those
are on.
Speaker 4 (33:56):
A decade old.
Speaker 3 (33:57):
But we're talking about b Jhon Robinson and Jonathan Taylor
records there. His rushing line this week is like a
buck ninety two. That's the expectation for he's going to go.
Just how high up the draft board can he go?
And is the fact that run on the football is
kind of back, does that maybe elevate his stock a
little bit?
Speaker 2 (34:15):
So he has eight hundred and forty five yards on
eighty two cares in four games.
Speaker 4 (34:18):
He played half of the Portland State game too. He
came out early in that one.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Yeah, he's on pace to break the Barry Sanders rushing
touchdown record in the regular season without the bowl game. Like,
how insane is that? So I had him in the
top fifteen to my latest mock draft for the thirty
thirteen which came out on Monday. He went to the Chargers,
which we know they want to run the ball. We
know they want to run downhill. They invested an offensive lineman,
(34:44):
they want to run at you. They want to challenge
you physically and play big boy football and belly bump
with you in the trenches and all that stuff. And
this kind of ball carrier, Ashton gent running back from
Poise State, who has breakaway speed. They time the when
the GPS is over twenty one miles an hour on one
of his break runs this year at that size with
the contact balance, and he's a player who can contribute.
Speaker 4 (35:06):
On passing downs.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
I think by and large, the days of like four
hundred carry running backs. And I know Ricky Williams's ears
are ringing right now just hearing four hundred carries in
a season, but I think those days are by and
large gone right. But a player like this who can
be the predominant volume ball carrier, even in the load
(35:28):
management era of NFL football, I think is on its
way to being a really impactful player and type of role.
And I do think it's one of those things where
there's gonna be a few teams that get out in
front of the curve and that everybody's gonna be chasing
them for a little while and then it's going to
swing back.
Speaker 4 (35:48):
The other way.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
But he has the potential to be a catalyst for
a team to being one of those teams that gets
out in front of the curve.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
It's so rare for that playmaking ability because he makes
runs that are not there happen like it didn't. He
did it multiple times in the WSU game.
Speaker 4 (36:01):
I know it's it's the freaking coops.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
It's not an NFL defense, but gosh, man, like, I
think there's gotta be insane value to a guy who
turns second nine into second and four. Pretty much every
damn time he touches the ball, all right, So that's
that's a player that I mean, you gotta figure. You
hope with the way things go, he's not on the
Dolphins radar because we hope that eight Chan and Wright
become those guys that are the future of the Dolphins
tail back room.
Speaker 4 (36:23):
But we'll see. Like you said, there's a lot of
information still to be to be had. Here, can I
give you a stat on gen T real quick? Please?
Speaker 2 (36:30):
Just for the season, he's averaging seven point one yards
after contact per rush?
Speaker 4 (36:36):
What's his what's his just outright average?
Speaker 2 (36:38):
Like twelve ten point three he's getting He's getting three
point one before contact and then getting another seven point
one after contact per rush on eighty two rushes in
four games.
Speaker 3 (36:50):
That's like the best yards per pass average in the league,
much much less rushing yards per average.
Speaker 4 (36:55):
I mean, my goodness.
Speaker 3 (36:56):
All right, let's go ahead and get to the slate
of games this weekend. We talked off air a little bit.
Not the most attractive slate of games. I mean, WS
shoes on buy So who cares, right, But what do
you got this weekend?
Speaker 2 (37:05):
Man?
Speaker 3 (37:05):
Some players, maybe we've talked about enough about a player
that probably is not going to be a Dolphin just
based on overall odds and also the position he plays.
But what else you got here as far as guys
that you could possibly see in twenty twenty five being
on the Dolphins radar.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
I'll give you a game that has prospects on both
sides no matter who has the ball, and it's Iowa
Ohio State. And I know Iowa known for their offense
right but they do have a tight end to luke
Leche who's a red shirt senior. They have quarterback Kde
mcmarrick transferred from Michigan. They have running back Caleb Johnson
who's a junior. Those are very talented players on the
(37:40):
Iowa offensive side of the ball.
Speaker 4 (37:43):
And then they have a.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
Defensive back kind of hybrid type player and Sebastian Castro
who's a fifth year senior as well. And then Ohoa
State might be the most physically talented team in the
country as it pertains to draft eligible talent where they
have a freshman, true freshman phenom and Jeremiah Smith. There's
a couple of true freshmen in college football right now
(38:06):
wide receiver that are just gonna obliterate all kinds of expectations,
which is incredible because they're they're incredible players. But Ohio
State that has a draft eligible in a Mecca Buka,
who's kind of next in line for that wide receiver
factory at Ohio State. They're left tackle. Josh Simmons is
a red shirt junior. He's really emerged. He transferred in
(38:26):
from San Diego State. He's been a big, big jumper
this year as far as his performance on the field. Uh,
they've got a couple of backs themselves. Ohio State doesn't
Trevon Henderson and Quinn Shawn Judkins. Judkins had transferred in
from from Ole Miss as a bit of a spread.
There's so there's a thunder and lightning element there. And
then defensively, I mean you got three guys on the
(38:47):
defensive line. I really like the job that Jack Sawyer's
done this year as a defensive end with heavy hands.
And then they've got some defensive backs between Denzel Burke,
who's a red shirt junior corner has been a productive player,
and then Laythan Ransom at safety. So there's talent up
and down the board for Ohio State and they're going
against a team that's got talent on both sides the
ball as well.
Speaker 4 (39:08):
Great stuff.
Speaker 3 (39:08):
Love it, man, appreciate that insight on the college game.
Let's go ahead and pivot now to the pro game
on Sunday. Last game for a while here we go
to New England, take a week off, then go back
out to the Midwest for the Indianapolis Colts. What are
you hoping to see here from Dolphins and Patriots, Kyle?
Speaker 2 (39:22):
Yeah, I want to see an inspired performance. And I
know that's not necessarily where everybody's expectations were, but this
is where we're at right now, right so I want
to see the defense continue to play hard and play
with pride. I think they've done a lot of that
in the first four games of the season, despite having
to start on some short fields not having a complimentary
game script available to them, and I think it's incredible.
(39:44):
They're one of the most effective teams pressuring opposing quarterbacks
and they haven't played with the lead for a single
snap all season, like it really is. I cannot be
more impressed with what they have been able to do
with what they have been handed offensively. I think that
and you see guys like Jalen Ramsey laid in that
game against Tennessee, making plays, being fired up, leading by
(40:07):
table like that stuff. It matters, and guys like I
want to see the leaders on this team play with
that kind of fire across the board. And I wanted
to give Jalen Ramsey a shout out because I saw
it from him on Monday Night. So players that are
are considered to be the leaders on your team, I
want to see them match that energy that Jalen Ramsey
had in what was the face of defeat on Monday night.
(40:30):
And if you give me that, we'll see how the
game itself plays out. It's really hard to say because
there's so much unknown about Tyler Huntley in his second
career start. He's still been here less than a month,
and the operation of the offense and New England is
a team that they have their own wild cards in
this game as well. So I really don't know what
way the game's gonna go. But the least thing that
(40:51):
you can do is control what you can control, and
that's go out there and play to your potential and
play with an intensity that says you're playing with a
lot of pro because there's a lot of these guys
that are very talented players and should be playing with
a lot of pride.
Speaker 4 (41:05):
I love your point on Ramsey.
Speaker 3 (41:06):
He was one of my top five tapes from the
game on Monday, which was all defense because that's where
we had to go.
Speaker 4 (41:11):
But I thought you got that.
Speaker 3 (41:12):
From him, From Jordan Brooks, from Zach Sealer, from Kalais Campbell,
all four of those guys really kind of piqued my
interest in what you just talked about. And then also, man,
what a rough week to lose jaland Phillips for many reasons,
but also y, I mean, we'll see what happens to
that edge group because you know, do we get Mo
Kamara's first action in the NFL because that Patriots offensive
line is as banged up as we are at that
(41:33):
edge group, so should be an interesting matchup that way, Kyle.
As always, we appreciate your time draft lead for the
thirty third team, Locked on Dolphins Podcast, Touchdown Miami Substack,
Locked on NFL Scouting podcast, and grinding the tape on Twitter.
Speaker 4 (41:46):
Kyle, stop working so hard man.
Speaker 1 (41:48):
Thanks for Grevis.
Speaker 3 (41:49):
One of these days I'm gonna get him to outro
with something. Besides thanks, Travis.
Speaker 4 (41:55):
That's it. Week five.
Speaker 3 (41:56):
Lasts last thing to do is watch the Dolphins play
a football game. We'll do that on have the Recap
podcast for you, and it won't be at four o'clock
in the morning, so thank god the primetime schedule chills
out for the next month or so. In the meantime,
you all please be sure to subscribe, rate review, follow
on social at.
Speaker 4 (42:11):
Wingfield, NFL.
Speaker 3 (42:12):
Check out the fish Tank podcast with my guys Seth
and Juice. Check out the YouTube channel for Dolphins HQ,
media availabilities, and so much more. And last button not least,
Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time, Thin's up Caroline
and Cameron. Daddy just coming home.
To remove Darlin Deep Speedways past Peas.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
From the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
This is Drivetime with Travis Wingfield.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Please God, my having it's in the playoffs?
Speaker 3 (00:26):
What is up Dolphins and welcome to the Draft Time Podcast.
I am your host, Travis Wingfield. On today's show, it's
a football Friday. We will hear from a member of
the Patriots beat as Evan Lazar joins me. Plus, it
is another chance to talk to my good friend Kyle
Krabs about the weekend in college football, where the Dolphins
go from here and so much more, as well as
(00:47):
the week five NFL picks from the Baptist Health Studios
inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Draft
Time Podcast, Ye Daffy. We are joined today by Patriot
Creates dot com reporter and the host of the Catch
twenty two podcast at Easy Lazarre on Twitter, Evan Lazar.
Welcome back into the show, my friend. It's good to
(01:07):
see another round of Dolphins and Patriots.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
Man. Here we go again.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Yeah, absolutely good to see you, Travis.
Speaker 5 (01:13):
We see the combine press box and I'm in Miami
that those are twice a year, so it's three times
a year.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
That's nice.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
And yeah, I guess we get some some draft content
every once in a while for the podcast as well,
so you're a valuable resource for us here on draft
time as well as Dolphins HQ are a brand new
YouTube show. And I want to start off here with
the head coaching change, because to your point, you know,
fourteen year old Evan watched the same head coach that
you know.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
I'm sure mid thirties Evan watched her.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
I don't know how old you are, but it's been
a long time since they've had a coaching change in
New England. I'm curious your early impressions of Gerrodmeo and
what that first year has been like so far, you know,
four weeks in to covering a non Bill Belichick Patriots team.
Speaker 5 (01:52):
Yeah, well I'm thirty one, so not mid thirties quite. Yeah,
we're getting in there.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Yeah. I think the biggest thing that has been.
Speaker 5 (01:58):
Differently is just that he's has a totally different personality,
which I know I'm probably not breaking news with that
by any means. And it's not that you know, we
didn't see the whole Bill Belichick personality in general. Girod
is just a different guy, you know, is his own DNA,
his own human being. He's a little bit different even
(02:20):
than some of the other Belichick disciples, like you know,
I know, you guys down there familiar behind Flores or
Josh McDaniels or someone like that also, So it's been
unique in that situation in that sense. I think right
now what we're seeing though, is we're you so used
to the Patriots being such a well coached team that
(02:44):
our eyes are seeing things that were not jiving in
the Belichick era and saying, well, this is the coaching right.
You know, these things are going wrong, and that's on
the coaching right. You know, a lot of the issues
that that Belichick had at the end were more personnel related.
It was more Bill a g im not doing a
great job than it was Build a coach. So right now,
(03:04):
Drod Mayo and the media here, every little decision that
he is making in game, you know, outside of the
games is getting nitpicked and compared to Bill Wow, which
is obviously very difficult.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Yeah, It's it's so weird, man, because like you know,
for years it was like you can write the Patriots
in for twelve wins and they're going to get all
this media coverage and they are They just are who
they are, and it's just so weird to see him
in transition from what that era was to where they
are now and obviously going through a little bit of it.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
Right now.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
They're one to three coming off of last season that
provided them the third pick in the draft, and that's
where I want to go next here is at the
quarterback position, because you know, I follow probably I would
say the Jets are probably close too, but I probably
follow as many Patriots accounts as I do Dolphins accounts
in terms of my NFL hierarchy of Twitter follows.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
But my sense is that the.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Fan base is ready to see Drake May like now,
but I want to hear from the expert here and
when do you think the appropriate time is to get
Drake May out there?
Speaker 4 (04:00):
Are they going to write it out for the entire year?
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Wait?
Speaker 4 (04:01):
Think the plan is? And what do you think it
should be?
Speaker 5 (04:04):
Well, this is the only topic that anybody has any
interest in New England right now. I can tell you
that based off of our metrics. It's like if you're
not writing or talking about Drake May, then people just
don't really care about what you're saying, so it's a
number one topic in maybe all of New England sports
at the moment, is when Drake May is going to
play and going into the season, especially after the improvements
(04:28):
we saw in training camp in the preseason, Drake May
did have a pretty upward trajectory to his development in
the summer, so by the end of the summer we
felt pretty good about where he was.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
It was two schools a thought. One.
Speaker 5 (04:41):
I actually compared the situation a lot to the Dolphins
with Ryan Fitzpatrick in Tua, where Fitzpatrick's locker room favorite.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
He's a veteran quarterback.
Speaker 5 (04:52):
You know, he played better than Jacoby's playing right now,
certainly in that season.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
But it felt the same where.
Speaker 5 (04:58):
A captain guy that the locker room specs, the locker
room likes with preset, but they just drafted this guy
high first round pick that was clearly the future of
the franchise. So I just felt like it was inevitable
that at some point Drake May is gonna play, and
it is to an extent. But I think the other
thing that we're seeing now, even in season, is that
(05:18):
there was this growing concern about the state of the
offense around the quarterback. It's more specifically the offensive line,
which right now is basically dead last, and every single
stat that you can pull up in terms of pass protection,
your pass block win rate, pressure rate, quick pressure rate,
like all of it is just last, last, last, last.
(05:39):
So do you want to subject a rookie quarterback who
is a little bit raw and younger than some of
these other guys like bow Knicks or Jaden Daniels to
that kind of offensive line play and maybe have a
long term effect on his development because he gets sped up,
or he starts seeing ghosts or whatever the case may be.
So that was the big issue that everybody had coming
(06:02):
into the season. It's now manifested itself in season with
their offensive line play. So now the question really is
more about can they support Drake May than is Drake
May ready to support that?
Speaker 4 (06:14):
Yeah, it's a great point, Devin.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
If I can follow up on that, I kind of
want to go a little bit off script here and
ask you just about your own thoughts about the quarterback
position and development, because I've been talking about in the
podcast here and there about all these young quarterbacks that
come in and to your point, Jaden Daniels is a
great example. Bo Nicks played, what was it, sixty college
starts is just an absurd number. But for Jaden Daniels,
he comes in and he looks the part right away,
(06:38):
right he looks like he has total control of that huddle,
the offense. He's you know, he's leading two minute drives
for game winning drives on Monday night football.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
Looks like the real deal.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
I'm curious where you come down on the development of
a young quarterback. And for a guy like Drake May
who doesn't have the same number of reps or years
in college as a Jadeen Daniels, what you think the
benefit is of him getting all these reps mentally without
how to go out there on the field. Do you
think it's the best way for a young guy to
grow and develop or you think that on the field
you could get some of that as well.
Speaker 5 (07:07):
I tend to lean towards playing young quarterbacks. We're even
seeing it now what these guys were talking about, even
Caleb too.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
They really started out rough.
Speaker 5 (07:17):
You know, Week one was tough across the league for
all these rookie quarterbacks, and now all of a sudden,
you're starting to see them make some improvements. Obviously, Jaden's
gotten the best out of all of them, but even
Caleb Williams and Bo Nicks have made some strides in
just a short period of time. You mentioned all the
starts those guys made, Drake may only made twenty six
collegiate starts. He was a two year starter at North Carolina.
(07:38):
I just find it hard to believe that he is
going to improve leaps and bounds without playing because he
hasn't played a lot of football, and a lot of
the coaches that I talked to. I wrote a big
feature about him for Patriots dot Com back when they
drafted him, and his high school coach pointed out to
me that he also lost a year of high school
football because of COVID, so he really has only started
(07:59):
forced seasons between high school and college in his career.
So he hasn't played a ton of football. And that
was part of the appeal with him, was that, yeah,
he has some wards and he needs some development, and
he has that bust factor because of that, but his
physical tools are so immense that with more seasoning, he
should be a Josh Allen Light type of quarterback or
(08:23):
something of that nature. So that was always the big
conversation with him. I just don't see how a young
quarterback that hasn't gotten as many reps and hasn't played
as much football is going to get better without playing football.
But end I do see some of the other factors
that are involved with the Patriots. Specifically, they don't really
(08:44):
have a number one receiver. The Dolphins have two. The
Patriots have zero. Right, they don't really have an offensive line.
They have Alex Van Pelt, their new offensive coordinator, has
never called plays before in the NFL, really like he's
called it a little bit here and there, pockets, but
he's never been the primary play caller of an offense.
(09:05):
So he has some growing pains that he's going through.
So you look at all these different elements and you're like,
this is a disaster waiting to happen for a rookie quarterback.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
Yeah, it doesn't really compare, I don't think.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
But the first off that came to my mind when
he talked about the rep count was Anthony Richardson for
the cole who you know, miss that entire rookie season
where he needed those reps so bad because at Florida
he just didn't get them because you know, he didn't
start until late and he was early and Rollie to
the draft and or not en roly but declared for
the draft early on. So you wind up having a
guy that's played like five hundred reps going into his
sophomore year of the NFL. It's crazy. So it's if
(09:38):
there's a strong dichotomy there, I think the players will
get all those reps eventually benefit from it. So we
checked your box there for the criteria of what the
Patriots fans want to read about. Right in terms of
your metrics from a content standpoint, Let's go ahead and
talk about the game here a little bit because we
do have Dolphins and Patriots from Jillette Stadium on Sunday,
a one o'clock kickoff, and you have alluded to this.
Speaker 4 (09:57):
A little bit.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
I want to get your just follow up on both
offensive line and the skill groups, because I read that
David Andrews is contemplating shoulder surgery.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
Do you think he'll be out there?
Speaker 3 (10:07):
And then just also kind of give us a walkthrough
of where those cracks on the offensive line are and
if you can, like a three part question here, Evan,
I apologize for that, but if you can, who has
been the top receiver. That's kind of I guess taking
the reins on what this current Patriots offense is.
Speaker 5 (10:21):
Yeah, So just starting with David Andrews, I would be
shocked if he plays on Sunday. For what it's worth,
he was taking off the media schedule this week, which
is usually a pretty good indication that he's not going
to be practicing.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
So he's a tough SOB.
Speaker 5 (10:36):
So it's really just a matter of it does he
want to play through this injury for the season and
just pain tolerance and all that kind of stuff, or
does he want to have the surgery now and try
to be ready for twenty twenty five. So it's a
tough situation for him, I will say, And I love
David Andrews. He's one of my favorite players I've ever covered.
I think he probably wears a red jacket in the
(10:58):
Patriots Hall of Fame someday. He has had some dip
in production over the last couple of years, specifically in
past protection. He's not necessarily the same guy that he
was three, four or five years ago. So as much
as it's a drop off from a leadership in just
a mentality and all those types of intangible aspects from
(11:19):
what we saw limited granted, but Nick Leverett their backup
center as a pure blocker. I'm not sure how much
of a true drop off that's going to be. You're
just losing a lot when it comes to grit, leadership,
communication on the line, all those elements that David Andrews
brings to the table. To your second question about where
(11:42):
are the holes in this offensive line?
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Kind of everywhere.
Speaker 5 (11:46):
I wish there was one spot that I could be like, yeah,
they're really good there. Maybe right tackle with Mike gon
Wnu is probably where you feel the best. But even
then he's a guard playing tackle out of necessity, So
that's not necessarily a great situation long term either. But
I look at the real holes left tackle as that
by far the biggest one. Last week they started Trey Jacobs,
(12:09):
who was a waiver claim by the Patriots on cutdown Day.
He's technically their fourth string left tackle if you want
to look at the depth chart that way. They signed
Chooks the Corps four in the offseason to be their
stop gap bridge left tackle. They knew they were going
to probably draft one early next year in twenty twenty five.
He's no longer with the team. He's basically retired from football.
(12:32):
As my understanding, he quit essentially on the team. I
just got to call it what it is. You know,
he went home and took his bags and went home.
So he's not here. Vederian Lowe was sort of their
second string backup. He has a knee injury. He was
a ruled out on Friday guy last week, so really
(12:52):
didn't have a chance to play in the game on Sunday,
and we'll see if he's ready to go. And then
their rookie Kidden Wallace, who they drafted in the third round.
I saw him in a walking boot and crutches after
the game on Sunday leaving Levi Stadium in San Francisco,
so he's injured as well. So it's looking Unlesvedarian Lowe
somehow is healthy enough to play. It's looking like it's
(13:15):
going to be Trey Jacobs again, who allowed two sacks
and seven quarterback pressures last week against the forty nine ers.
So that's not his fault, like he shouldn't even be
out there. The Patriot should have done a better job
is shoring up this position in the offseason. But it
is what it is, and I would also just point out,
you know, rookie guard at right guard as well, Laden
Robinson their fourth round pick. Pretty good run blocker already,
(13:38):
but is struggling right now in pass protection. So they
really have a lot of holes everywhere. It's like a
ship with a bunch of different holes that they're trying
to plug on the offensive line right now, and it has.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
It has sunk their passing game for the most part.
Speaker 5 (13:52):
You can't throw down the field when you have no time,
right you know, that's just common sense. So last one
on the receivers, I would say that the the guy
that really is like their third down and money type
of player is actually Hunter Henry at tight end. You know,
he's the one that Jacob Brissett has the most comfortability
with and can move the chains a little bit. They
(14:13):
are bullish about Jalen Polk, their second round pick out
of Washington. He's come on a little bit here in
recent weeks. He's beginning moved up the depth chart a
little bit more. Played his most snaps in the game
last week, a lot more first read progression type stuff
with him where the quarterback is looking at him initially
in the progression. So he's starting to be a little
(14:34):
bit more involved. But the thing with Polk is that
he's one of those guys that needs to be thrown
open a lot of the time. He's not like a
pure separator. He's more of like a back shoulder, you know,
catching traffic kind of guy, and Brissette is not necessarily
one of those types of passers.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
So it hasn't been a great mix there.
Speaker 5 (14:52):
But the hope is when Drake May comes back, you know,
comes into the games, that he'll you know, be able
to put those balls on Jalen Polk a little bit better.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Well, I think you just gave us the answer for
the Patriots offense ranks where it does right now in
thirty second place, less than one thousand yards four games in.
Speaker 4 (15:07):
But pintruglefield Dolphins offense as well.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Let's go ahead and take a quick break, come back
and talk about that on the other side of My
guest today, Evan Lazar, senior reporter for Patriots dot Com
and the Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought
to you by Auto Nation. Back here with my guest
today from Patriots dot Com, Evan Lazar. We talked about
the Patriots offense. Now I want to ask you, Evan
about the Patriots defense and how they might attack this
(15:31):
Miami offense. And I want to start upfront because we
saw Matt Judong get traded before the year began. But man,
that front for so long had so many mainstays that
have kind of changed a little bit here over the
last couple of years. But in all of that, you
guys have uncovered what I think is the next breakout
start at a pass rusher. Can you tell us about
Keyon White a little bit, Evan?
Speaker 5 (15:50):
Yeah, Keon White has been their entire pass rush. He
has double the amount of quarterback pressures of anybody else
on their team. You know, he's young, all right, So
there are some things I'll talk about that are still
works in progress in his game, but it's very very
clear that he is a disruptive force and extremely good
at rushing on the interior especially. I would say, you know,
(16:13):
he's given guards all sorts of fits. A really explosive guy,
twitchy guy, really good hands, violent hands. I would call
him to get off blocks and things of that nature.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
So he's a disruptive guy.
Speaker 5 (16:27):
But right now, I would say the biggest issue with
him and with their pass rush as a whole is discipline.
You know, they've let quarterbacks for three straight weeks now
get outside the pocket and extend plays or even just
scramble for first downs on third down. They're thirty first
in the league on third down defense right now, and
a big part of that to me just watching their
film is that they're letting the quarterback outside the pocket.
(16:50):
So Keon White's been great and I always kind of
push back on people that criticize him because I'm like, well,
if they don't let Keon White just go up the field,
are not going to have a pass rush, like he's
the only one that's getting after the quarterback. But the
other side of that coin is that sometimes he lets
the quarterback out of the pocket and that's how you
get you know, Aaron Rodgers on the move or Rock
(17:12):
Pretty on the move, and they've been burned by that
pretty badly. So they have to do a better job
of keeping quarterbacks in the pocket.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Well, that leads right in my last question here for you,
because we have a quarterback changed since two went down
back in Week two, Scalar Thompson. Back in week three.
We had three different quarterbacks start the last three games.
But we will have the same quarterbacks start a game
for the second time this year after to a start
of the first two games and Tyler Huntley, and usually
I ask you the question about how the Patriots plan
to attack Tyreek Hill and Jalen Waddle, But those guys
(17:43):
haven't been as productive since Tua went down, and I'm
curious what Evan Lazar's game plan might be or how
you might draw up what it might look like for
the Patriots when it comes to defending a quarterback that's
so brand new here that was, you know, a tough
showing on Monday night against the Titans. What do you
think the Patriots are looking to do against the Dolphins
offense with Tyler Huntley at the helm.
Speaker 5 (18:03):
Well, it's interesting because you know, I watched their film
from the Titans game yesterday and I did a little
cut up on it for my game plan of all
the times that Tyreek is still getting open deep and
just the ball just isn't finding him because it's not
too And my whole warning to the Patriots would just
be don't fall asleep at the wheel just because it's
(18:24):
Tyler Huntley at quarterback, because Tyreek is still wide open
for seventy yard touchdowns some of the time, and you know,
one of these days, Tyler Hunterly is actually going to
complete one of those passes and don't let it be
on you. So I still look at their offense as
being explosive and dangerous and really one of those offenses
where they can score from anywhere on the field because
(18:45):
of those two receivers. So with that being said, and
I just mentioned all the issues that they've had with
the containing quarterbacks, that's the one thing with Huntley that
he does have the capability of doing. Even that quarterback
draw that he picked up a first down with on
Monday night. You can't let him just run around and
be an athlete back there. And I would also just
mention you as you know, a lot of those inbreaking
(19:08):
routes are always where they want to throw off a
play action, those glances and the crossers and things like that.
So if I'm the Patriots, they had a lot of
issues with that last week against San Francisco. You know,
Brandon Aik, Juwan Jennings big chunk plays off of just
post cross you know, just take the top off the
defense and then cross over the middle of the field.
(19:29):
So they have to find a way to close that
down and take away those inbreaking routes from this Dolphins offense.
Because I still look at that game on Monday night,
I see I think it was the first play of
the game, dagger right to Tyreek, you know, off play
action glance later in the game to what I believe
it was Tyreek again, Like they still have that capability
(19:49):
of doing those types of things with Huntley. So I look,
I don't take anything for granted right now with this
Patriots team. They're They're not good enough for me to
sit here and say, well, it's a third string quarnderback,
so they'll be fine.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
They still have to worry about a lot of things here.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
I think you just yelled all the hits, by the way,
with all the route concepts that the Dolphins runners.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
I love.
Speaker 5 (20:10):
I love watching that Dolphins offense. And the thing that
makes me super jealous too is how much pistol they run.
Like when the Patriots get Drake may and there, I
have been begging them to run pistol because he's not
very comfortable with running under center. It's not anything he
did in college at a regular level. And North Carolina
did run a lot of pro style pistol concepts though
(20:33):
for him and at uh at un C. So they
want to be an under center run team in New England,
and I just say, like, look at Miami, they are
a pistol running gun team. Just play him in the
pistol like he doesn't have to be all the way
under center.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
So I love watching those concepts.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
You get like three more gaps compared to sidecar in
the shotgun right with you in the formation. So I'm
with you on that all the way I said I had.
That was the last question by a lot. I have
one more for you this every time off the beat, right,
guess it's just simple Patriots win if and then you
get a fill in the blank, I.
Speaker 5 (21:06):
Would say the Patriots win if their defense gets back
on track this week against the backup quarterback. You know,
they've had that in their bag in this Belichick mess
that was last year or even twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
For the most part, they've beaten the Tyler.
Speaker 5 (21:22):
Hunt Lees of the world, or you know, whatever backup
quarterback they're facing. So they need to get right on defense.
We went into this season thinking, yeah, they'll probably have
a little drop off because Belichick's not here on defense
but they still have a ton of talent on that
side of the ball. Right now, they're twenty fifth in
the league in EPA on defense. That's not what we
expected going into the year, but we expected them to
(21:44):
still be top fifteen, top half of the league on defense,
and they haven't been. So they are going to win
on the back of their defense. They're not going to
score a lot of points this year. We know that
even when Drake May gets in there, they're probably still
not going to be a great offense, so they have
to get right on defense.
Speaker 4 (22:01):
Great stuff there.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
We got a lot smarter on the opponent this week
with Evin Lazarre from Patriots dot Com, senior reporter and
the host of The Catch twenty two podcasts at Easy
Lazarre on Twitter and Evan, I think we close the
podcast just wait by saying, how about that mapples my friend?
All right? Well, maybe that Joe kind of fell on
deaf ears there towards the end. Big thanks to Evan
Lazar for his time on the show. Gosh didn't really
(22:24):
pull any punches there on the Patriots, did he Let's
go ahead and pick the week five games before we
take our last break and hear from the great Kyle Krabs.
We kick it off on Thursday Night Football. I picked
the Falcons.
Speaker 4 (22:34):
Did they win?
Speaker 3 (22:35):
Who knows. We will know by the time you hear
this podcast, but right.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
Now I don't know.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
We also have an early morning game as the Jets
will play the Vikings in London.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
Go ahead and give me. I'm really in between on
this game.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
Like I feel like it's a perfect spot for the
Jets to kind of bounce back and the Vikings a
step back after a road divisional win and a.
Speaker 4 (22:53):
Great four and oh start.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
But I just think that the Jets offense is still
going to be stuck in the mud, and I think
the Vikings can find to run the football on that
Jets defense. In fact, the more I talk about it,
the Dolphins offense when they're clicking always gives that Jets
defense issues. And I think there are similar scheme things
there and similar talent.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
For the Vikings.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
So give me the Vikings over the Jets to make
them fall to two to three, and hopefully we can
enjoy their misery as much as they're enjoying ours. I
am taking the Patriots over the Dolphins. They're gonna have
to prove it for me to pick the Dolphins again
this year. I'll take the Panthers over the Bears in Chicago.
Andy Dalton goes and gets his second winners the Panther
starting quarterback. I'm gonna also take another upset here with
Cleveland over Washington.
Speaker 5 (23:32):
Why.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
I just feel like Washington's been kind of on a
high for a couple of weeks. It feels like it's
a ripe spot to get picked off, especially against a
good DC against a young quarterback in Jaden Daniels, who
I think is the absolute truth.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
Give me the Browns there.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
I'm also taking the Jaguars to get their first win
of the year over the Colts. They seem to always
give that Colts team issues, and they're gonna be either
limited with Anthony Richardson or have Joe Flacco in there.
I will take the Jags get their first win of
the year. Give me Buffalo over Houston in that big
early season matchup there for AFC seeding hierarchy, I'll take
the Ravens over the Bengals. Give me the Raiders over
(24:06):
the Broncos. I guess I don't know who cares. I'll
take the Niners over the Cardinals and that one Seahawks
over the Giants. I'm also gonna take Green Bay over Pittsburgh,
or rather, I'm sorry the Rams. I will take Dallas
over Pittsburgh on Sunday Night football.
Speaker 4 (24:20):
It's a fun matchup, I think.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
And then we'll go ahead and take the Chiefs on
Monday Night over the Saints in now Leans.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
Let's go ahead and take our last break right there.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
Come back on the other side with Kyle Crabs Drift
Time Podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
By Automation.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
Kyo Crabs everybody for his weekly Friday spot here on
the Drive Time Podcast. I don't think we'll have you
on next week, though, big dog, as we have a
week off no Dolphins football and week number six first
of all bye week plans, have you got them?
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Uh? Probably recaliber right the college football schedule. I had
some travel plans that were mixing up. Going to try
to get some college games and pour myself into that
and really figure out how to maximize the stretch running
conference play in the bowl game.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
That's probably what I'll be focused on.
Speaker 4 (25:19):
Smart fellow, he never stops working.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Yeah, no, I mean it is a blessing, you know,
even in a season that hasn't started for the Dolphins
the way that I think anybody envisioned or hoped that
it would to be able to have the other avenues
in football is certainly something that allows you to keep
perspective and things, and you see other teams that go
(25:43):
through these battles and understand that there's ebbs and flows,
and there's moments of low points and high points, and
it puts the whole thing in perspective when you see
how many teams there are out there in this space
and how many of them are uniquely experiencing things that
are similar or dissimilar to what the Dolphins are experiencing
right now.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
Yeah. Absolutely, I think that's a good transition into the
first topic I wanted to touch on here, because you know,
it is a long season, no doubt about that, and
I try my best to maintain that perspective because we've
seen teams, you know, start zero and four and rip
wins off, and we've seen teams start off hot and
go the other direction. I think you can kind of
see the tea leaves here with this Dolphins team and
(26:23):
the way things are going. But you know what, I
don't know, Jim it's looking more like a top five
pick for this team more than any other outcome at
the moment if they do find themselves in that mix.
I know, like we talked to quarterbacks the last couple
of weeks here, but what do you think right now,
given all the information that we have about where this
(26:44):
team is, where they are going forward, where the quarterback
currently stands long way out? This is why they pay
you the big bucks, Big Doug. What's the best course
of action right now? If you forecasted a top five
pick for the Dolphins.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Yeah, I think if you forecast yourself in that stratosphere,
you have one of two forks in the road that
I think you can take. You'd be in a position
to land of what is a handful of elite talents
in this draft class. Whether that's Will Johnson the corner
from Michigan, or Mason Graham the defensive tackle for Michigan,
or Travis Hunter, the whatever you wanted to play, he
(27:16):
could probably play it type of player. I think he's
better as a corner personally, Travis Hunter. But I know
there's dollars to be had at wide receiver with the
wide receiver market and what that's looked like in the
NFL last couple of years, So I don't think you
could go wrong either way in that regard. I think
you would be an interesting situation to take a best
(27:39):
player available, or I think the other alternative would be
we've seen what the backup quarterback situation has looked like. Unfortunately,
the first couple weeks of having to play with the
backup quarterback with this system in year three and a
lot of players that have familiarity with it, I think
everybody probably would have hoped that that things would have
(28:01):
clicked a little bit more with the interruption with the
signal caller, and that obviously hasn't been the case. So
I think you have to put that position under a
really big microscope. And obviously, Tua when he's on the
field is so impactful and so unique, and I think
you see that and how the team is struggling without him.
But I do think you would be in a position
to bring in an additional quarterback and have one with
(28:25):
talent that you feel you could win with and then
kind of let that situation play out. This would not
be the first time in league history that you have
a quarterback that's a veteran established starting quarterback with an
early round pick behind him and having two good quarterbacks
a good problem to have. Of course that the challenge
there is the opportunity cost of what that might look
like as far as the domino effect for the rest
of your roster.
Speaker 3 (28:46):
Yeah, and that's I guess why I come down is
if you wind up in that position, it's the old adage, like,
you don't want to be there again, right, so take
advantage of the fact that you are there. And if
you know, we do wind up getting interruption long term
with QB one, it would be nice to offset that
with what would be a cheap quarterback by way of
the draft with the rookie contract.
Speaker 4 (29:06):
So I think that's where I would go. But if
we're trying.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
To like you know, I think we both get accused
of this a little bit sometimes of the you know,
selling hopium, although I don't think it's what either of
us do.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
It's not an accurate term, it's not a realistic it's
it's looking at the possible outcomes and understanding what the
team is trying to achieve and explain what the thought
process is and how it's supposed to work.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
That's not hopeium.
Speaker 3 (29:29):
It's not sorry, And like I was, I was tweeting
about like a Jordan Brooks sack in the second half
of the game on Monday and how it was really
cool sim pressure look or rather you know, they brought
the pressure after simming it all night and it caused
a bust in protection, and I mentioned like, that's been
one of the cool parts about this team so far,
not many of them, but it's been one of the
cool parts. And someone's like, look at this a hole
trying to spin positive, Like, no, I'm just covering the game, dude,
(29:50):
I'm just telling you what happened in the game. I'm
very well aware of where the thing of where situations
are right now. But the reason I bring this up, Kyle,
is because if you did want to try to get
excited about, you know, next year, if that's where you
are already, I'm looking at the Niners over the Kyle
Shanahan era, and they had two years where they were like, well,
I guess early on they stunk because they had Brian Hoyer.
(30:12):
Then that second year they got or Jimmy Garoppolo got
hurt that second year, and then in twenty twenty they
were supposed to be this great team after going to
the Super Bowl in twenty nineteen, but once again, as
they did for you know, two of the previous three years,
injuries railroaded that team. They won six games, and they
got better performances from Nick Mullins and I think CJ.
Bethard that year than we've gotten fm our backup quarterbacks.
But my ultimate point is those years provided them a
(30:36):
chance to get Nick Bosa and it also provided them
a chance to trade up and get Trey Lance, which
was an absolute disaster, but they were in those positions.
Can you draw any parallel to those Niners teams with
the injuries and the bad luck they accrued during those years,
because this happens sometimes to good teams.
Speaker 4 (30:53):
I don't think the Dolphins are a good team right now.
Speaker 3 (30:54):
I think they have other issues, but last year they
were a very good football team. Can you draw any
parallels two teams like the Niners that have gone through
that amid the successful runs or anybody else, or do
you not see it that way at all?
Speaker 2 (31:07):
No, I certainly think there's I think general consensus is
one of the best executives in the game of football
is Howie Roseman, right, and the Philadelphia Eagles, and they
drafted a quarterback in Carson Wentz and gave him a
second contract and he had an injury and they had,
like at two quarterbacks, do you really have any situation?
And the bottom fell out there. They went four eleven
(31:29):
and one, and it put them in a position to
being a high draft pick and draft an impactful player.
I think about the La Rams and maybe their draft
capital situation was a little different, but they were a
team that made a couple of runs, then they got
really banged up and got hurt, and then they had
a youth movement that came in and they made the
playoffs last year, won ten games. Like there's incidences of
(31:52):
this happening all over the league. I think the thing
where Dolphins fans are a little sours. Do you look
at Philadelphia and you say, okay, they want a super Bowl?
They had Nick Foles on the great backup quarterback run
of all time and they win a Super Bowl in
that year before the bottom falls out, And you look
at the Rams and they had a very aggressive mentality
(32:12):
and pushed all their chips in and they got it
done at the end. And for Miami, if the payoff
is is last year and then there's a regression. I
think that that's where the sting is for Dolphins fans,
and I totally get that, and I know a lot
of Dolphins fans have a lot of different opinions about
like the state of affairs with the team right now.
But it is October fourth, right, Like, there is so
(32:33):
much more information to be collected before any judgments can
and I think should be made about all directions that
this team is gonna have to go. But this is
the kind of season if it plays out the way
that you think it is, that is going to make
you take a step back and re examine everything that
you're doing.
Speaker 4 (32:50):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (32:51):
I love that because it reminds me of twenty sixteen
when like one in four it's like they got to
get Tannehill out of here, and then he rips off
the best run of his career, and we come back
in twenty seventeen, even with an ACL injury, and it's like, oh,
he's our quarterback.
Speaker 4 (33:02):
And then it didn't go that way. It just kind
of came back and forth.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
But basically your point about there's so much more information
we have to glean from the next thirteen games, I
just I love that point. Let's go ahead and dive
right into the weekend of college football. Here rip Washington
State's miracle college football playoff runs seems to have come
to an end after a blowout against Poise State.
Speaker 4 (33:23):
You sure do.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
I was hopeful that was the last game on the
schedule until like the second game to the penultimate game
that they would have had to get through to maybe
have a pretty good run at this because they played
like San Jose State in Colorado, not a lot of
good teams that schedule. Actually, before we do anything here,
before we talk about the games, can we talk about
ash Gent because I don't think I've seen anything like it. Man,
(33:44):
Like some of the runs he had in that game.
I'm he's on pace to break Barry Sanders rushing yards
and rushing touchdowns record. He's on track to obliterate the
broken tackle and yards after contact records, even if those
are on.
Speaker 4 (33:56):
A decade old.
Speaker 3 (33:57):
But we're talking about b Jhon Robinson and Jonathan Taylor
records there. His rushing line this week is like a
buck ninety two. That's the expectation for he's going to go.
Just how high up the draft board can he go?
And is the fact that run on the football is
kind of back, does that maybe elevate his stock a
little bit?
Speaker 2 (34:15):
So he has eight hundred and forty five yards on
eighty two cares in four games.
Speaker 4 (34:18):
He played half of the Portland State game too. He
came out early in that one.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Yeah, he's on pace to break the Barry Sanders rushing
touchdown record in the regular season without the bowl game. Like,
how insane is that? So I had him in the
top fifteen to my latest mock draft for the thirty
thirteen which came out on Monday. He went to the Chargers,
which we know they want to run the ball. We
know they want to run downhill. They invested an offensive lineman,
(34:44):
they want to run at you. They want to challenge
you physically and play big boy football and belly bump
with you in the trenches and all that stuff. And
this kind of ball carrier, Ashton gent running back from
Poise State, who has breakaway speed. They time the when
the GPS is over twenty one miles an hour on one
of his break runs this year at that size with
the contact balance, and he's a player who can contribute.
Speaker 4 (35:06):
On passing downs.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
I think by and large, the days of like four
hundred carry running backs. And I know Ricky Williams's ears
are ringing right now just hearing four hundred carries in
a season, but I think those days are by and
large gone right. But a player like this who can
be the predominant volume ball carrier, even in the load
(35:28):
management era of NFL football, I think is on its
way to being a really impactful player and type of role.
And I do think it's one of those things where
there's gonna be a few teams that get out in
front of the curve and that everybody's gonna be chasing
them for a little while and then it's going to
swing back.
Speaker 4 (35:48):
The other way.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
But he has the potential to be a catalyst for
a team to being one of those teams that gets
out in front of the curve.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
It's so rare for that playmaking ability because he makes
runs that are not there happen like it didn't. He
did it multiple times in the WSU game.
Speaker 4 (36:01):
I know it's it's the freaking coops.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
It's not an NFL defense, but gosh, man, like, I
think there's gotta be insane value to a guy who
turns second nine into second and four. Pretty much every
damn time he touches the ball, all right, So that's
that's a player that I mean, you gotta figure. You
hope with the way things go, he's not on the
Dolphins radar because we hope that eight Chan and Wright
become those guys that are the future of the Dolphins
tail back room.
Speaker 4 (36:23):
But we'll see. Like you said, there's a lot of
information still to be to be had. Here, can I
give you a stat on gen T real quick? Please?
Speaker 2 (36:30):
Just for the season, he's averaging seven point one yards
after contact per rush?
Speaker 4 (36:36):
What's his what's his just outright average?
Speaker 2 (36:38):
Like twelve ten point three he's getting He's getting three
point one before contact and then getting another seven point
one after contact per rush on eighty two rushes in
four games.
Speaker 3 (36:50):
That's like the best yards per pass average in the league,
much much less rushing yards per average.
Speaker 4 (36:55):
I mean, my goodness.
Speaker 3 (36:56):
All right, let's go ahead and get to the slate
of games this weekend. We talked off air a little bit.
Not the most attractive slate of games. I mean, WS
shoes on buy So who cares, right, But what do
you got this weekend?
Speaker 2 (37:05):
Man?
Speaker 3 (37:05):
Some players, maybe we've talked about enough about a player
that probably is not going to be a Dolphin just
based on overall odds and also the position he plays.
But what else you got here as far as guys
that you could possibly see in twenty twenty five being
on the Dolphins radar.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
I'll give you a game that has prospects on both
sides no matter who has the ball, and it's Iowa
Ohio State. And I know Iowa known for their offense
right but they do have a tight end to luke
Leche who's a red shirt senior. They have quarterback Kde
mcmarrick transferred from Michigan. They have running back Caleb Johnson
who's a junior. Those are very talented players on the
(37:40):
Iowa offensive side of the ball.
Speaker 4 (37:43):
And then they have a.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
Defensive back kind of hybrid type player and Sebastian Castro
who's a fifth year senior as well. And then Ohoa
State might be the most physically talented team in the
country as it pertains to draft eligible talent where they
have a freshman, true freshman phenom and Jeremiah Smith. There's
a couple of true freshmen in college football right now
(38:06):
wide receiver that are just gonna obliterate all kinds of expectations,
which is incredible because they're they're incredible players. But Ohio
State that has a draft eligible in a Mecca Buka,
who's kind of next in line for that wide receiver
factory at Ohio State. They're left tackle. Josh Simmons is
a red shirt junior. He's really emerged. He transferred in
(38:26):
from San Diego State. He's been a big, big jumper
this year as far as his performance on the field. Uh,
they've got a couple of backs themselves. Ohio State doesn't
Trevon Henderson and Quinn Shawn Judkins. Judkins had transferred in
from from Ole Miss as a bit of a spread.
There's so there's a thunder and lightning element there. And
then defensively, I mean you got three guys on the
(38:47):
defensive line. I really like the job that Jack Sawyer's
done this year as a defensive end with heavy hands.
And then they've got some defensive backs between Denzel Burke,
who's a red shirt junior corner has been a productive player,
and then Laythan Ransom at safety. So there's talent up
and down the board for Ohio State and they're going
against a team that's got talent on both sides the
ball as well.
Speaker 4 (39:08):
Great stuff.
Speaker 3 (39:08):
Love it, man, appreciate that insight on the college game.
Let's go ahead and pivot now to the pro game
on Sunday. Last game for a while here we go
to New England, take a week off, then go back
out to the Midwest for the Indianapolis Colts. What are
you hoping to see here from Dolphins and Patriots, Kyle?
Speaker 2 (39:22):
Yeah, I want to see an inspired performance. And I
know that's not necessarily where everybody's expectations were, but this
is where we're at right now, right so I want
to see the defense continue to play hard and play
with pride. I think they've done a lot of that
in the first four games of the season, despite having
to start on some short fields not having a complimentary
game script available to them, and I think it's incredible.
(39:44):
They're one of the most effective teams pressuring opposing quarterbacks
and they haven't played with the lead for a single
snap all season, like it really is. I cannot be
more impressed with what they have been able to do
with what they have been handed offensively. I think that
and you see guys like Jalen Ramsey laid in that
game against Tennessee, making plays, being fired up, leading by
(40:07):
table like that stuff. It matters, and guys like I
want to see the leaders on this team play with
that kind of fire across the board. And I wanted
to give Jalen Ramsey a shout out because I saw
it from him on Monday Night. So players that are
are considered to be the leaders on your team, I
want to see them match that energy that Jalen Ramsey
had in what was the face of defeat on Monday night.
(40:30):
And if you give me that, we'll see how the
game itself plays out. It's really hard to say because
there's so much unknown about Tyler Huntley in his second
career start. He's still been here less than a month,
and the operation of the offense and New England is
a team that they have their own wild cards in
this game as well. So I really don't know what
way the game's gonna go. But the least thing that
(40:51):
you can do is control what you can control, and
that's go out there and play to your potential and
play with an intensity that says you're playing with a
lot of pro because there's a lot of these guys
that are very talented players and should be playing with
a lot of pride.
Speaker 4 (41:05):
I love your point on Ramsey.
Speaker 3 (41:06):
He was one of my top five tapes from the
game on Monday, which was all defense because that's where
we had to go.
Speaker 4 (41:11):
But I thought you got that.
Speaker 3 (41:12):
From him, From Jordan Brooks, from Zach Sealer, from Kalais Campbell,
all four of those guys really kind of piqued my
interest in what you just talked about. And then also, man,
what a rough week to lose jaland Phillips for many reasons,
but also y, I mean, we'll see what happens to
that edge group because you know, do we get Mo
Kamara's first action in the NFL because that Patriots offensive
line is as banged up as we are at that
(41:33):
edge group, so should be an interesting matchup that way, Kyle.
As always, we appreciate your time draft lead for the
thirty third team, Locked on Dolphins Podcast, Touchdown Miami Substack,
Locked on NFL Scouting podcast, and grinding the tape on Twitter.
Speaker 4 (41:46):
Kyle, stop working so hard man.
Speaker 1 (41:48):
Thanks for Grevis.
Speaker 3 (41:49):
One of these days I'm gonna get him to outro
with something. Besides thanks, Travis.
Speaker 4 (41:55):
That's it. Week five.
Speaker 3 (41:56):
Lasts last thing to do is watch the Dolphins play
a football game. We'll do that on have the Recap
podcast for you, and it won't be at four o'clock
in the morning, so thank god the primetime schedule chills
out for the next month or so. In the meantime,
you all please be sure to subscribe, rate review, follow
on social at.
Speaker 4 (42:11):
Wingfield, NFL.
Speaker 3 (42:12):
Check out the fish Tank podcast with my guys Seth
and Juice. Check out the YouTube channel for Dolphins HQ,
media availabilities, and so much more. And last button not least,
Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time, Thin's up Caroline
and Cameron. Daddy just coming home.
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