April 25, 2025 • 34 mins
Travis is breaking down every angle of night two of the 2025 Draft. The Dolphins move up and get their guy - OG Jonah Savaiinaea from Arizona. Travis will break down his film and fit with the Dolphins, and why this offseason could be the answer to some of the late-season questions that folks have asked about Miami. Plus, sound from Mike McDaniel and Chris Grier, and Kenneth Grant is here! Travis has an exclusive one-one-one with the 13th pick of the 2025 NFL Draft and the new big man in the middle for Miami.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The thirty seventh pick in the twenty twenty five NFL
Draft to Miami Dolphins select Jonah Savayanaya, offensive guard Arizona.
Let's go all right, and they listed him as a guard.
He could play outside, could play inside. Mike Aya Patti
is who he reminded me of coming out of college.
That inside outside versatility, big strong, powerful men who can move.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Like he tested really really.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Well, ran four, nine to five and the forty, so
he can he can really scoop to me, you get
him physical in the run game, but you don't lose
all that movement if you want to get out to
the perimeter as the Dolphins.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Like to do.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
What is up, Dolphins and welcome to the Draft Time Podcast.
I am your host, Travis Wingfield in oh I got
Muswaga back on today's show. The Dolphins get aggressive and
go up the board and get my guy, the guy
you heard about for money on this podcast and your
boys absolutely fired up, as you can tell. Jonah Sylvy
(01:05):
and I I think I got that right this time.
It's a tough one to pronounce, but we're gonna get
through it here together. Let's talk about the tape, the
fit for the team here here from Chris Greer and
Mike McDaniel, and I had an exclusive with our first
round pick, Kenneth Grant. That's all ahead from the Baptist
Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is
the Draft Time Podcast, Maie gaff I am so fired
(01:29):
up for Arizona guard slash tackled Jonah Savoy and Aya,
and I am just thrilled that he is a Miami Dolphin.
He was a guy that I had been discussing throughout
that throughout the entire process here and really honed in
on as a preferred target at pick forty eight when
I parsed out how I thought the board might play
out here with the value of the offensive line where
it would be in this draft, And to me, man,
(01:52):
this was it. You talk about scheme fit, you talk
about culture fit, all the stuff we're gonna get into
here on this episode of the Draft Time Podcast, and
I want to start here before before we get too
far into it, because we've seen two players added. And
I actually wrote this up on Friday morning, and I
contemplated the options that might parse through it. And while
I thought the cornerback options were good there, I still
(02:13):
felt the offensive line was kind of the sweet spot
here for the forty eighth pick, and the Fins obviously
agreed in pursuing Savoy and Aya in this year's class.
That's going to be the hardest one since Ignogay for
me to get down. We'll get there eventually, and you
know the details of the trade are this, Dolphins give
up the forty eighth pick and the ninety eighth pick
and the one hundred and thirty fifth pick for the
thirty seventh pick and the one hundred and forty third pick.
(02:36):
So the way to kind of boil that down to
make it more simple to understand, we gave up the
third round draft pick and then our late fourth round
pick was swapped with the Raiders's early fifth round pick,
a total of one of that eight spots. And if
you put it up on the draft value chart, the
Dolphins actually got one more point out of it, so
very equal trade, but Miami technically edges it out the
Raiders in that regard. But they get their guy, they
(02:57):
solidify the offensive line in that way. Before we get
into the fits and the film, I had the concept
for a little bit of a segment that I wrote
with Jonah in mind, and I contemplated maybe holding it
until Monday, but since we were aggressive and went and
got the guy to me, it speaks to my thought
here and kind of solidifies it a little bit more strongly.
And you know, just have we only have the one
(03:19):
player breakdown for you guys here tonight because we traded
the third round pick. But I think this is as
good of a time as any and a follow up
from last night. And you know, this is the problem
with doing a speed podcast at one o'clock in the
morning after hosting a four hour draft event. Some things
can slip through the cracks at times, but we'll get
back to it eventually, always on the show. It's the
beauty of having a daily show or three times a
(03:40):
week right now, but after, you know, a three am bedtime.
I was thinking this morning over my coffee about something
and it was this, and it stemmed from this comment
from Mike McDaniel on Thursday about the tonality and not
just the need at defensive tackle, but a certain type
of need and a shot an injection of culture and
(04:01):
a certain type of player in person into the whole,
the entire organization, the entire building. So here's Mike McDaniel
on the tonality they want to set for twenty twenty five,
and I'll get back into it after he talks.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
It was important to have a tonality set, you know,
for the the twenty twenty five Dolphins and adding you know,
a real presence up front and a you know, just
a just a player that is going to attack it
and try to play to the tonality that that we
(04:35):
aspire to. You know, I think I think it's very
well in step with, you know, our vision as we
approach the whole process, open minded, but trying to you know,
figure out by round how we can make the Dolphins better.
So this, uh, he's been on our mind for a
(04:56):
long time and we thoroughly overly threw, really vetted and
so very excited about what we're adding because we feel
like we have a very clear clear picture of what
that is.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
So we have a pretty good chunk of the offseason
now done. Still plenty to go here, and once again,
you know, Chris has reminded us plenty of times, Chris
Greer that there are free agents out there, plenty of
things to explore in that market and trades and another
seven picks to go tomorrow on the draft. But with
what's happened so far, man, you can trace the bread
combs back to all the various tempole events that Mike
(05:28):
McDaniel as well as Chris Grear have spoken at. You know,
they mentioned the investment in the offensive line back at
the end of season press conference with Chris Greer, Mike
McDaniel talking about setting culture through the draft picks at
the owners meetings, about learning lessons about the shortcomings from
the previous season, the funny car wash attendant story who
mentioned short yards to coach and how the Dolphins have
to get better at it. We hear about that every December, right.
(05:50):
We hear about the Dolphins and their flash and their
sizzle and their high powered offense in September and October.
But once the weather gets tough and the the inclement
weather comes in, the environments get tough on the road
down the stretch, and you need toughness, and you need
running game, and on and on and on. Right, and
if you go back to free agency, we've gone from
one of the oldest rosters in the NFL to the
seventh youngest before the draft, before you add potentially nine
(06:13):
players or maybe fewer, or maybe more than that right. Now,
they've peeled back on some of the cash spending. Right
The free agency was short term, one year, cheap type
of deals outside of one or two signings here and there.
But the one big splash was an area, excuse me,
that you haven't splashed around in before. As my son
Cameron would say, splash agua. He loves to go out
in the puddles or into pools or in the bath.
(06:36):
Anywhere he can splash agua, he will splash Agua. But
the Dolphins didn't splash Agua this offseason. And you do
it with James Daniels on the interior offensive line, a
pretty big investment in that position, and quite frankly, a
lot of the teams that have run this system traditionally
don't splash Agua in that regard either. And this system
traditionally does not take interior offensive linemen that high. They
(06:57):
take tackles and centers that high, but typically guards. Until
a few years ago, we saw the Rams make that
pivot with the Jonah Jackson trade. The Alaric Jackson Jonah
Jackson and Alaric Jackson acquisitions they made were kind of
a pivot towards that and Kevin Dotson as well. We've
seen the Green Bay Packers pivot to more of that
concept with Josh Jacobs being behind a very good offensive line.
The Niners are in that process that we are also
(07:20):
joining as well. It's bigger interior offensive line. And the
Dolphins accomplished getting bigger and staying more athletic than they
were last year. Last year was a three hundred and
fifteen pound and a three hundred and twenty pound guard
who were not elite movers and quite frankly, weren't that
greatest scheme fits. And now your projected lineup is two
more of two of the most athletic guards in all
of football, and they come in with rare athletic ability
(07:42):
and big size, and that is different than what we're
used to. So back to the splash and free agency,
I mean, all of the offseason has been adding big, physical,
tough players. James Daniels, he spent on a guard big
for the first time in four years. Nick Westbrook, A
Kine and Faroh Brown both to me, you are better blockers
than pass catchers at eligi positions, and I think Westbrook
Akeene is a damn good pass catcher an incoming potential
(08:05):
increased role for Jalen Wright, who I think will be
a much bigger role player than eighty three carries this year.
And you also signed Alexander Madison. Both those guys are
bigger running backs. You signed three off ball inside linebackers,
including two including the first throwback type of player since
Eland and Roberts and kJ Britt, as well as two safeties,
including a big time presence in the box. And he
(08:27):
fought to melafon Wu. It's not necessarily sexy, but I
think they have the right approach for how to fix
things didn't work a year ago and building it up
in that way because the Dolphins started this thing from
the inside out. They didn't put up their fancy, you know,
siding and roofing. They went to the foundation and built
their pillars. They built out the offensive line. They they
rounded out the tight end room. They went after the
running back position. They attacked the interior defensive line in
(08:50):
the first round of the draft. They go after linebacker
in safety. They've made the steps to address the concept
of playing in the elements, playing tougher, more competitive football
down the stretch, which will all of that work We're
gonna see. That's why they play the games. But to me,
the vision is crystal clear, and quite frankly, I feel
like the fan base had been asking for this for
a long time now. Maybe it's not the same big
(09:11):
time names that get get all the attention and give
the off season accolades that you used to get for
the Miami Dolphins, but who wants that. I mean, the
last several years you can point to the off seasons
and say, like, teams that didn't have flash or sexy
moves are the ones that were the team standing at
the end of the season. So we'll see how it goes.
No guarantees, but I like the vision. I like the
change it speaks of. And let's go ahead and close
(09:32):
with this updated discussion from Mike McDaniel on that idea
of tonality, but this time from nine two. After you've
added a three hundred and forty pound defensive tackle and
now a three hundred and twenty five three hundred and
thirty pound offensive guard, that's a lot of humanity coming
at you. Let's go ahead and hear from Mike McDaniel
on the idea of toughness and the feedback that he
received from his teammates and the building that told him
(09:55):
they have to get better in that area.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
I think that there's a mutual.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
Understanding amongst Dolphins right now for the twenty twenty five
version that just started getting there, their working that you know,
non negotiably, we're gonna be one team moving in one
direction and we're gonna earn everything we get, and and
so in terms of narratives, in terms of like those
(10:23):
expectations that guys should have. But when I tell you,
there's not really any time spent talking about what other
people are saying. The opportunity that you have is to
do with action what people will ultimately have new narratives for.
(10:45):
So if you you're you're controlled variable, if you can
put forth a good day's day of work and you
have teammates that you trust, you know all the things
that being being said about whatever, that takes care of itself.
So I think, uh, you know, the team will embrace
(11:05):
are two of draft picks thus far, because you know,
we kind of know the team that we have and
the type of guys that will flourish. And I think
it fits something that you know, we're really trying to
define every day, which is the type of people we are,
the type of team we are and that will be
defined by our work.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Let's go ahead and pause for our first break right there,
come back and get to the film, the testing metrics.
I have more audio. We're going to talk about the
fit in the system. We're going to talk about his stats,
all of that fun stuff, his background and more on
the next side of the Draft Time podcast, brought to
you by Autoation. Always a nice thing when the first
two players you draft on Thursday and Friday are guys
(11:49):
that you've already done deep dives on their film. It
makes the rest of the workload much more doable. Let's
go ahead and kick this thing off here with his tape.
The first that jumps off is the physicality and the
size and the mass and just how he moves people
and the way that they are impacted when he hits them.
When when you see him from that standpoint, you think, Okay,
this is a gap scheme power player, but then you
(12:10):
watch him get out in space and it's like, oh,
he's actually like the best mover in the entire class.
On top of all of that. In fact, let's cut
into the film here real quick and get into the
testing metrics. If you list him at guard which Chris
Greer said, they see Jonah as a guard with four
position flexibility as a plus, he played tackle and guard
in college. But if you list his workout metrics as
(12:31):
a guard, which we'll hear from Greer, that's what they're
going to do. This year. He was a eighty fifth
percent tile size guy at three hundred and twenty four pounds.
His twenty nine inch vertical and eight foot ten inch
broad jump those were both in the eightieth percent tile
of guards as well. His four to six six shuttle
time was in the eighty second percent tile among all guards,
and his forty yard dash his ten split and twenty
(12:52):
split two forty yard dash was four point ninety five.
That's ninety eight percent tile and a ten split of
one seven to two good for ninety six percentile man.
We have discussed this type of addition for a few
years on the show. Quite honestly, it was a big
part of me talking about a player like Jackson Powers
Johnson last draft process, a plus mover at three hundred
and thirty pounds who was always intriguing because you could
(13:15):
keep your deadly outside zone run menu available, which is
the bread and butter of the offense. And the entire
starting point for the offense. But when you needed tough
yards inside, you could saddle up a three hundred and
thirty pound guard and run the football behind him. Two
of them, And now you've dropped in a three hundred
and twenty five pound people mover in the middle. And
in addition to all the sizzle and the ability to
(13:36):
move the ball in a flash, now you get into
those third and twos, you have the menu of your
outside zone run game. You have your quick passing game
that's super efficient and effective. And the screen game they've
converted on those situations, those speedouts, the slant game, the
screen game. They have so many options to move the
chains in those ways. And now I fully believe you
have the element that makes all those other elements even
(13:58):
more dangerous to defend, the capability to line up and
run it downhill and move the line scrimmage and move
the change, because when guys know you can do that,
those other things open up even more. To say that
I am fired up about this one would be an understatement.
Daniel Jeremiah off the top of the show that compared
him to Mike iu Potty, the former first rounder of
the Niners, with rare, rare size and athletic ability himself.
(14:21):
And yes, it's like Kenneth Grant. He doesn't come in
here and just get handed the keys right away. He
has to earn it. But you can hear how much
the Dolphins love this guy so much so that Chris
Greer cut to the Chase about how they view him.
Speaker 5 (14:35):
At the end of the day, this was a player
that we were convicted in that was going to be
a starter for us, and he'll play guard for us,
and he understands that we've talked to him about it,
and so we're excited about it.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Also that one seven to two ten split time was
the best at the combine of anybody who weighs three
hundred and fifteen pounds or more. Back to the film here,
the first thing that jumps out about his game is
the pop. There's popping his get off, if there's popping
his hands, there's popping his hips. Lots of pop, so
to pop. You could say, let's break that down step
by step. Here the way he fires off the football.
(15:08):
He comes out with exceptional pad level, which allows him
to impact guys on combination blocks to easily disengage off
that first level and climb up to this linebackers on
the second level, or even peel back and find work
with a green dog blitzer, a delay blitz right, or
someone looping off in a rush game. And that's where
the pop in the hips comes from. He can drop step,
open up his gate, and explode back across his body
(15:30):
and just be a fluid mover in his change of
direction skill set. More on that in the fit piece. Gosh,
the feet they are so sweet, man. He's so light
on his feet at three hundred and twenty four pounds,
The way he can change directions working backwards. You're gonna
hear Mike McDaniel talk about his ability to set the
pocket from a pass protection standpoint, The way he can
transition his weight, drop the anchor slide to find work.
(15:51):
It's all the look of a plug and play starter
from day one. I'm very, very convinced that he can
be that for you right away. He's so light on
his feet, can take away the edge and redirect back inside.
Massive frame, long arms, good for a guard, obviously thickly built.
I bet you could tack on some more weight if
you wanted to because of his frame. Exceptional balance that
(16:11):
allows him to mirror and the patience to not get
out over his skis and protection. He's a smart player.
His hands are bare claws. They impact people and send
guys flying to the ground. You know how we talk
about bringing your feet through contact as a tackler. He
brings his feet through his blocks. Never heal clicks and
can just glide around the field with smooth, effortless power.
(16:32):
He reminds me of that guy at the driving range
who has a smooth golf swing and the ball jumps
one hundred and ninety yards off of his seven arm,
and he is just an easy, easy mover. And I
keep coming back to that McDaniel comment about tonality and
the film of Jonah. He's always looking for work. He
loves football. He plays through the echo of the whistle man,
just the reps outside the numbers. He is rolling guys
(16:53):
off the football outside the numbers. Impressive, impressive stuff. Talking
about the fit for the football team. I have a
bunch of get to here, but first let's go ahead
and hear from two sound bites, first from Chris Greer
and then Mike McDaniel. Chris Greer up first, talking about
just the pick in general and how the Dolphins were
aggressip to go get this player, and you know, passed
on another pick on this particular day to go get
(17:15):
this guy. We'll hear that first and then come back
and hear from Mike McDaniel on what makes him a
scheme fit for the Miami Dolphins.
Speaker 5 (17:21):
Was a player that we had targeted, we spent a
lot of time with. We had him in on a
thirty visit, and spent a lot of at All Star Games,
butch went out and spent a day with them and
had a.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Private workout with them.
Speaker 5 (17:34):
So this is the player we're very convicted on for
what he can add with his size, his power, he's
got versatility, He's played tackle guards, so he's an athletic kid.
And as we spent time getting to know him, he
was the right kind of guy for us, and he
loves ball. He's very competitive, and so for us, it
was important that as we were going through the board,
(17:56):
he was the highest rated guy we had, and so
the opportunity and we took.
Speaker 4 (18:01):
It well, I think, first and foremost beyond the scheme fit,
you know, we were elated to have We had an
objective going into the draft of how the types of
people we wanted to add and the types of impact
we'd hope they'd have. And I think first and foremost,
setting the pocket in protection is something that he is very,
(18:25):
very skilled at, the idea of adding not only a
fierce competitor, but someone that plays with the tonality of
violence and aggression. That that was something that you know,
Chris and I had talked at length about how many,
(18:45):
how how many people could fit that bill, you know,
so that strong conviction, you know we've the draft picks
are each every round is important to us. But you're
also away that with do you have an opportunity to
get someone that fits the bill in multiple ways for
(19:07):
something that we've identified for a long time needs to
be our focus if we have that opportunity, so really pumped.
I think pass protection and run scheme I think is
a great fit for him.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
And look, we do all kinds of window addressing, right,
There's lots of eye candy in this offense. We motion
at the highest rate in the NFL. We can pull guys,
we can dummy pool guys. Your eyes have to be
really good to defend us effectively that way. So that
creates a lot of indecision for the guys up front
the famous Max Crosby quote like, you guys are tough
to prepare for. You use some cuss words in there
when talking to Mike McDaniel after that game in twenty
(19:44):
twenty three. You have to brace for the run but
also be able to reset the pocket as a rusher,
and when you introduce the indecision through the idea of
scheme flexibility, like I have to be prepared for all
these different looks that can give me, But then I
also have to be worried about a three hundred already
pound guy catching me on my heels and squaring me
up and just pure humanity rolling down hill at me
(20:06):
in a controlled chaos that way, that can be a
lot to contend with. For sixty minutes, McDaniel talked about
the ability to sit the pocket and think about Toa's
quick release and the ball out nature of this offense.
You get the sheer mass inside, bigger bodies who can
anchor and hold up one on one man, the quick
passing offense becomes even tougher to impact that way. I
think the way this line has been built can help
(20:28):
ease some of the pressure off to it as well,
maybe even get him under center more. But that's all
different discussion for a different podcast we'll get into as
the weeks go along here. I think Savoy and Ayah,
I think the is an ideal outside zone guard with
the rare ability to feature as a man gap blocker
and total butt kicker on the inside, and the idea
(20:50):
of tonality right the toughness element, the way he finishes.
He's the kind of guy that you'll need a cold
tub immediately after the game when you block him for
sixty minutes. He embraces the nastiness that is playing on
the offensive line that combine with his spatial awareness. I mean,
my goodness, Paul Daniels, Brewer, Jonah Austin, these are five
players with exceptional ability to get out in space, and
(21:13):
four of the five are really comportable to a power
element we've talked about here. I don't think that's Brewers
gain necessarily, but he's so good in other areas and
good enough in that area that it's going to work
with the four guys around him, Like who it's got
me fired up. Let's go ahead and hear from coach
McDaniel right now on the entirety of the offensive line
and what excites him about this group of five guys
that I think is one of the better starting groups
(21:33):
in the entire league because I believe in Patrick Paul.
I think James Daniels and Jonahvana are perfect fits. You
know what I think about Brewer and Austin Jackson. Very
bullish on this Dolphins offensive line? What say you, Mike McDaniel.
Speaker 4 (21:46):
You know, it's about getting better. I think that was
a focus, a major focus of ours. So we've been
very focused to find the right people take advantage of
the opportunity. We think we have.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
It.
Speaker 4 (22:00):
You know, the I think there's something that guys believe
in that what does that mean and what is that line?
They will tell us with with their work, and that's
what they're excited to do. Obviously, we feel convicted, you know,
the players that we've had added this year, and you
(22:20):
know some of the pieces that we've had at that position.
But more than anything, you know, I think we have
the right type of guys to go to work and
attack the process so they can define what the offensive
line is for the Miami Dolphins. I will say that
through the collective group, all the people you've mentioned and
(22:41):
some more players, they're all very hungry and eager to
uh to work at their craft and uh and and
help us grow as an organization.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
And just to continue here, sorry because I keep finding more.
Kyle Krabs brought on his touchdown Miami Blowpot. The Wildcats
were struggling with the USC front this past season and
Jonah volunteered to kick inside to block a player named
Bear Alexander who was wrecking them on the interior. He
moves inside and just turns the tide of the entire game.
Kyle wrote that Jonah developed a reputation of positional flexibility
(23:15):
and mental toughness, which pairs well with the powerhouse play
style and explosive athleticism. And Jonah is also quoted on
his player bio on the Arizona website. Because he wanted
to flip the program arounds why he chose the program.
Sure Enough, the year he gets there, they were one
to eleven the previous season. The next two years five
and seven, and then ten and three. They did stumble
to a four and eight mark last year with multiple
(23:37):
quarterback injuries. He's played a fifteen hundred forty four career
snaps in college, didn't miss a start in three seasons
thirty six consecutive there, from his first game as a
freshman to his last game as a junior. He played
three positions. He played just under a thousand snaps at
right guard, just over one thousand snaps at right tackle,
and then three hundred and forty five more at left tackle.
PFF graded him with three negatively graded run plays on
(24:00):
the entire season. We talked about that being a big problem.
Last year, Miami had the most negative run plays in
the league. You're not going to get those with James
Daniels and Jonah casting it, Jonah Savoy and Ayah I'm
gonna get that. I am gonna get that here. Eventually.
He allowed only fifteen pressures this season. That's out of
four hundred and seventy eight pass blocking snaps, good for
(24:21):
a pass block efficiency score over ninety eight, which is
elite territory for a tackle. He's even better inside as
a guard. He was flagged one time this year, a
holding call against Kansas State. His background his one year
as a full time starter at guard was a freshman,
and he was a freshman All American. This from Dane
Brugler is the beast. NFL scouts say Jonah's swagger helped
(24:41):
maintain Arizona's culture after Jed Fish left following the twenty
twenty three season. He played his high school football at
Saint Louis High School in Honolulu, the same school as
to a Tongua bai Loa, and their families know each other.
All right, go ahead and take our last break right here.
I think the Day three preview we're going to go
ahead and punt on that because it's kind of the
same thing I've taught about, you guys, know, looking at cornerbacks.
(25:02):
This board's getting picked up pretty good right now, but
hopefully you can find a guy like a Jacob Parrish
sometime on Day three, maybe go after the safety spot
with JJ Roberts at Marshall. Some of the names I like,
I'm kind of doing this podcast during the third round
of the draft, so I don't want to give you
guys names that get picked off the board, so we'll
save that for the pod tomorrow. I think you'll get
that content elsewhere too, So let's go ahead and pause
(25:23):
for our last break right there. Come back and finish
up the podcast on the other side with my chat
with the very lovable, very fun fun guy I talk
to you and a very smart, knowledgeable football player and
Kenneth Grant. That's next Draft Time podcast, brought to you
by Auto Nation. What's Up, Dolphins, Welcome back into the
Baptist Hell's to us for another edition of the Draft
(25:44):
Time podcast. Here my exclusive interview with Dolphins first round
pick Kenneth Grant, Kenneth ken Kenny G. What should I
call you here? Man?
Speaker 3 (25:52):
Welcome in, Kenny g KG. I like all of it,
all of it.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Keny G. You flared with the sax player as well
from the nineties before your time.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
I'll look them up on Safari, but I haven't listened
to any of his music.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
That's my first thought. You guys are a little bit
different though, in terms of your professions and your career.
So a good company though. So the first thing that
really stands out for me and fascinates me about this
whole job is players like you. Because guys that are
your size should not be able to move the way
that you do, right, And some of that is natural gifts, obviously,
but I'm always curious to know what goes into building
the perfect NFL body like that. So, what is the
(26:24):
process for getting yourself ready for a football season? And
being so big a swathletic. What's that all look like
for you? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (26:29):
Really just rest and recovery. I'll say the biggest thing
is because like you said, I'm just so big moving
at this size, you know, I need to always be
in a cold tub and a sauna, get massages or
dry kneeling and things like that. So it's really just
like taking care of your body and eating the right
things for sure.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
So that seems to be like a Michigan thing, a
program that pumps out all these well conditioned athletes year
after year. What it being part of that program under
the last you know several coaches, you guys have had
defensively head coaches, a bunch of great coaches. What did
that program teach you about discipline and training your craft?
Speaker 3 (27:02):
Well, yeah, I'll say it all started with the strength
and conditioning staff. That's where it started. You know. They
they're the ones we spend the most time with. They
trained us to be, you know, discipline and also know
how to conduct our business, our business in a mannerly way,
just because like off the field and on the field,
they translate, So what you do off the field can
(27:23):
translate what you do on the field, so you know
they're they're always, you know, being mentally tough on us,
you know, preparing us to be mentally tough and expect
the unexpected whenever. Every day, like I'll tell you a
quick story, like we have like on our running days,
we have like our rollers all laid out, and then
right next to it is a card. Every every roller
(27:44):
has a card next to it. And if you flip
the card and he says, what's your card on, the
whole group has to go jump in the cold tub
and then then run your conditioning tests. So that's a
quick funny thing.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
You're going to bring one of those games down here
to south forth, maybe you can get the other guys
that on that same game.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
Might as well make them there you go.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Let's talk some of the actual on field football stuff here,
because man, a guy like you that can play the
nose tackle, can play the three technique all the way
out to the five technique. Again, that stuff fascinates me,
and I'm always so curious about players and processing things.
And for the defensive line perspective, you have a snap
of a finger to read pass, to read, run, play pass,
whatever it might be. So I guess my question for
you is is how does reading the blocks from those
(28:23):
different positions differ for you in terms of how you
process and when you line up in different positions.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
Yeah, it's not really just really it's not really different.
You know, it's just like a different type of technique
and different leverage that you have to you know, play with.
You know, in a one technique, you kind of got
the advantage because the center, you know, has one hand
on the ball and one hand free, so he doesn't
have two hands, so you gotta be quick with your hands.
But in the three technique, you know, the guard he
(28:49):
has both his hands and you know he already knows
where you're going in the snap counts. So that's when
you have to really tighten down your technique and be
fast off the ball. I think what what plays into
that is, you know, having quick hands, hims, hands and feet,
you know, need to be quick and coming off the
ball asap.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
I think it was the Ohio State game Donovan Jackson.
You ran like a loop off of the outside edge
and beat him with speed around the coorum Like, okay,
that's the guy that can play nose tackle a three
forty five and do that as well. We're in good
company here speaking your Michigan days. Mike McDonald the first
DC there when he was there when you got recruited, correct, Yeah, okay,
so he was on staff there, and I'm a coaching
clinic ner like watching those guys talk about coaching and
(29:25):
just different ideas football philosophies. And he was talking about
the installation of pass rush games and the interchangeability in
terms of the alignments we just talked about. Right, Can
you tell us about how translatable that is on this
defense with coach Weaver, who I don't know if you
knew this, but he coached under Mike McDonald and Baltimore.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
Yeah. So when I took a visit here, you know,
we went over to playbook and things like that, and
I was kind of like, oh, this is you know,
it's kind of the same thing as Michigan, but you know,
different verbage in different like little tweaks and techniques. But
you know, I was real comfortable with the playbook and
his style of play, you know, just understanding what the
coach is one and how their philosophies are.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Yeah, it's really good stuff. I think it's it's going
to translate pretty quickly for your here and so just
kind of talking to you about this stuff, Like you
get a big smile on your face right time I
bring it up. It seems like you love football. It's
kind of a read I get on you, like, what
is it? What is it about football that you love
so much? I don't like to lose, to be honest,
like nobody. Yeah, I don't like to lose, even if
it's like a rep or a practice rep or you know,
(30:24):
even in the weight room, like competing in the weight room.
I don't like to lose anything, to be honest. So
back in high school, you played on the offensive line
or sorry, the offensive line as well as a defensive line.
What did that teach you about playing d line?
Speaker 3 (30:36):
It kind of, you know, tell me that you you
kind of got advantage that offensive line. You know, you
know where you're going, know to snap count, so you
can get off of guys real quick. But you know,
for me, it was really funny, you know, just being
able to physically dominate guys and kind of you know,
use that advantage of me playing defensive offense against them.
(30:57):
So it's pretty fun.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
You're two athletics down on the offense side. Those guys
got go defense because you're you're more athletic than the
guys on the offensive side. Right, oh yeah, kind of
how that goes. So also basketball in high school through
a shot put, track and field. I'm just curious. Tell
me about all the sports. You probably try them all
at some point in your youth, right yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
So I'll see, My first sport is baseball, played t
ball when I was little. Then kind of transition of football,
pop warning and things like that, and then once I
got to the high school, carried on football, you know,
out of basketball track. The funny thing is are during
the off season with football, our head coach made us
go up with the wrestlers and wrestles, so, you know,
(31:33):
out of a love of that to my weapon tar,
but you know, all around great athlete.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
How big were you in the basket? Like, what was
your size in high school and basketball?
Speaker 3 (31:40):
Probably a little heavier than I am now, but really yeah,
for sure you got.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
To play high school basketball. I have like to defend
you in the post. That would not be fun for
a little high school.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
Man, especially getting all the rebounds and everything.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
That would be hilarious. Watch a little drop step a little
three hundred fifty pounds and do a one hundred and
forty pounds soaking wet kid. That's hilarious to think about.
Let's finish up right here. We all the viral play,
the Penn State play k Tron Allen chase him down
from the back. I'm curious if you can take us
through that and what that play says about about you
and your in your game.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
Yeah, so I'll just start off with the player and
what I saw. You know, they had ran a center
and a guard pool play towards the outside. And then
I was like, I think kind of everybody in the
defense knew that that side specifically was our weak side,
and they schemed it up perfectly. I'll give him that.
And I was like, in the playoff, was like, oh, snap,
that's a big hole. So I saw our linebacker Mike
(32:28):
be He was the closest, so I tried to push
him into the hole to force him to make the tackle,
but that didn't work out. So I was like already
facing towards the runner. So I was just hawked them down.
But you know what it says about me is, you know,
I'm gonna do the unexpected things. You know, guys don't
like to do. I mean I'm running down the field
thirty yards, but you know, the next play out lined
(32:49):
up and it was time to go. So I think
I'm very well conditioned. And you know, I got that
gritting me to stick in, stick into things like that.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
Was that film review fun the next day taking a
look at that rep. Oh yeah, just get some love.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
Yeah, a lot of.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
It's toff New Dolphins defensive tackle, thirteenth pick in this
year's draft. Kenneth Grant, thank you so much for your
time that he man, I appreciate you. Good stuff fins up, baby,
And after the interview he told me, hey, great questions, man,
which told me like, all right, this guy just loves
football and loves talking about football. So great stuff there.
So it always feels good to I'm not gonna lie
about that. Let's go ahead and call it a podcast.
We'll come back tomorrow and break down a lot of
(33:22):
the picks we're gonna make here. I'll probably do half
the draft picks we make tomorrow and then save the
rest of that for Monday. We're gonna have the fast
fact stories up on Miami Dolphins dot com, be tweeting
some some clips out hopefully here Soon's all kinds of
content covering the Miami Dolphins twenty twenty five draft. But
until next time, you all please be sure subscribe, rate,
review the podcast, go ahead and follow me on social
(33:42):
at WINFLD NFL for allow the team at Miami Dolphins.
Check out the Fish Tank Podcast with Seth and Juice,
the YouTube channel for my Kenneth Grant interview for Dolphins
HQ for Draft time exclusive, and so much more. Last,
but not least, Miami Dolphins dot Com. Until next time,
fins up Caroline and Cameron. Daddy, He's coming home.
The thirty seventh pick in the twenty twenty five NFL
Draft to Miami Dolphins select Jonah Savayanaya, offensive guard Arizona.
Let's go all right, and they listed him as a guard.
He could play outside, could play inside. Mike Aya Patti
is who he reminded me of coming out of college.
That inside outside versatility, big strong, powerful men who can move.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Like he tested really really.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Well, ran four, nine to five and the forty, so
he can he can really scoop to me, you get
him physical in the run game, but you don't lose
all that movement if you want to get out to
the perimeter as the Dolphins.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Like to do.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
What is up, Dolphins and welcome to the Draft Time Podcast.
I am your host, Travis Wingfield in oh I got
Muswaga back on today's show. The Dolphins get aggressive and
go up the board and get my guy, the guy
you heard about for money on this podcast and your
boys absolutely fired up, as you can tell. Jonah Sylvy
(01:05):
and I I think I got that right this time.
It's a tough one to pronounce, but we're gonna get
through it here together. Let's talk about the tape, the
fit for the team here here from Chris Greer and
Mike McDaniel, and I had an exclusive with our first
round pick, Kenneth Grant. That's all ahead from the Baptist
Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is
the Draft Time Podcast, Maie gaff I am so fired
(01:29):
up for Arizona guard slash tackled Jonah Savoy and Aya,
and I am just thrilled that he is a Miami Dolphin.
He was a guy that I had been discussing throughout
that throughout the entire process here and really honed in
on as a preferred target at pick forty eight when
I parsed out how I thought the board might play
out here with the value of the offensive line where
it would be in this draft, And to me, man,
(01:52):
this was it. You talk about scheme fit, you talk
about culture fit, all the stuff we're gonna get into
here on this episode of the Draft Time Podcast, and
I want to start here before before we get too
far into it, because we've seen two players added. And
I actually wrote this up on Friday morning, and I
contemplated the options that might parse through it. And while
I thought the cornerback options were good there, I still
(02:13):
felt the offensive line was kind of the sweet spot
here for the forty eighth pick, and the Fins obviously
agreed in pursuing Savoy and Aya in this year's class.
That's going to be the hardest one since Ignogay for
me to get down. We'll get there eventually, and you
know the details of the trade are this, Dolphins give
up the forty eighth pick and the ninety eighth pick
and the one hundred and thirty fifth pick for the
thirty seventh pick and the one hundred and forty third pick.
(02:36):
So the way to kind of boil that down to
make it more simple to understand, we gave up the
third round draft pick and then our late fourth round
pick was swapped with the Raiders's early fifth round pick,
a total of one of that eight spots. And if
you put it up on the draft value chart, the
Dolphins actually got one more point out of it, so
very equal trade, but Miami technically edges it out the
Raiders in that regard. But they get their guy, they
(02:57):
solidify the offensive line in that way. Before we get
into the fits and the film, I had the concept
for a little bit of a segment that I wrote
with Jonah in mind, and I contemplated maybe holding it
until Monday, but since we were aggressive and went and
got the guy to me, it speaks to my thought
here and kind of solidifies it a little bit more strongly.
And you know, just have we only have the one
(03:19):
player breakdown for you guys here tonight because we traded
the third round pick. But I think this is as
good of a time as any and a follow up
from last night. And you know, this is the problem
with doing a speed podcast at one o'clock in the
morning after hosting a four hour draft event. Some things
can slip through the cracks at times, but we'll get
back to it eventually, always on the show. It's the
beauty of having a daily show or three times a
(03:40):
week right now, but after, you know, a three am bedtime.
I was thinking this morning over my coffee about something
and it was this, and it stemmed from this comment
from Mike McDaniel on Thursday about the tonality and not
just the need at defensive tackle, but a certain type
of need and a shot an injection of culture and
(04:01):
a certain type of player in person into the whole,
the entire organization, the entire building. So here's Mike McDaniel
on the tonality they want to set for twenty twenty five,
and I'll get back into it after he talks.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
It was important to have a tonality set, you know,
for the the twenty twenty five Dolphins and adding you know,
a real presence up front and a you know, just
a just a player that is going to attack it
and try to play to the tonality that that we
(04:35):
aspire to. You know, I think I think it's very
well in step with, you know, our vision as we
approach the whole process, open minded, but trying to you know,
figure out by round how we can make the Dolphins better.
So this, uh, he's been on our mind for a
(04:56):
long time and we thoroughly overly threw, really vetted and
so very excited about what we're adding because we feel
like we have a very clear clear picture of what
that is.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
So we have a pretty good chunk of the offseason
now done. Still plenty to go here, and once again,
you know, Chris has reminded us plenty of times, Chris
Greer that there are free agents out there, plenty of
things to explore in that market and trades and another
seven picks to go tomorrow on the draft. But with
what's happened so far, man, you can trace the bread
combs back to all the various tempole events that Mike
(05:28):
McDaniel as well as Chris Grear have spoken at. You know,
they mentioned the investment in the offensive line back at
the end of season press conference with Chris Greer, Mike
McDaniel talking about setting culture through the draft picks at
the owners meetings, about learning lessons about the shortcomings from
the previous season, the funny car wash attendant story who
mentioned short yards to coach and how the Dolphins have
to get better at it. We hear about that every December, right.
(05:50):
We hear about the Dolphins and their flash and their
sizzle and their high powered offense in September and October.
But once the weather gets tough and the the inclement
weather comes in, the environments get tough on the road
down the stretch, and you need toughness, and you need
running game, and on and on and on. Right, and
if you go back to free agency, we've gone from
one of the oldest rosters in the NFL to the
seventh youngest before the draft, before you add potentially nine
(06:13):
players or maybe fewer, or maybe more than that right. Now,
they've peeled back on some of the cash spending. Right
The free agency was short term, one year, cheap type
of deals outside of one or two signings here and there.
But the one big splash was an area, excuse me,
that you haven't splashed around in before. As my son
Cameron would say, splash agua. He loves to go out
in the puddles or into pools or in the bath.
(06:36):
Anywhere he can splash agua, he will splash Agua. But
the Dolphins didn't splash Agua this offseason. And you do
it with James Daniels on the interior offensive line, a
pretty big investment in that position, and quite frankly, a
lot of the teams that have run this system traditionally
don't splash Agua in that regard either. And this system
traditionally does not take interior offensive linemen that high. They
(06:57):
take tackles and centers that high, but typically guards. Until
a few years ago, we saw the Rams make that
pivot with the Jonah Jackson trade. The Alaric Jackson Jonah
Jackson and Alaric Jackson acquisitions they made were kind of
a pivot towards that and Kevin Dotson as well. We've
seen the Green Bay Packers pivot to more of that
concept with Josh Jacobs being behind a very good offensive line.
The Niners are in that process that we are also
(07:20):
joining as well. It's bigger interior offensive line. And the
Dolphins accomplished getting bigger and staying more athletic than they
were last year. Last year was a three hundred and
fifteen pound and a three hundred and twenty pound guard
who were not elite movers and quite frankly, weren't that
greatest scheme fits. And now your projected lineup is two
more of two of the most athletic guards in all
of football, and they come in with rare athletic ability
(07:42):
and big size, and that is different than what we're
used to. So back to the splash and free agency,
I mean, all of the offseason has been adding big, physical,
tough players. James Daniels, he spent on a guard big
for the first time in four years. Nick Westbrook, A
Kine and Faroh Brown both to me, you are better blockers
than pass catchers at eligi positions, and I think Westbrook
Akeene is a damn good pass catcher an incoming potential
(08:05):
increased role for Jalen Wright, who I think will be
a much bigger role player than eighty three carries this year.
And you also signed Alexander Madison. Both those guys are
bigger running backs. You signed three off ball inside linebackers,
including two including the first throwback type of player since
Eland and Roberts and kJ Britt, as well as two safeties,
including a big time presence in the box. And he
(08:27):
fought to melafon Wu. It's not necessarily sexy, but I
think they have the right approach for how to fix
things didn't work a year ago and building it up
in that way because the Dolphins started this thing from
the inside out. They didn't put up their fancy, you know,
siding and roofing. They went to the foundation and built
their pillars. They built out the offensive line. They they
rounded out the tight end room. They went after the
running back position. They attacked the interior defensive line in
(08:50):
the first round of the draft. They go after linebacker
in safety. They've made the steps to address the concept
of playing in the elements, playing tougher, more competitive football
down the stretch, which will all of that work We're
gonna see. That's why they play the games. But to me,
the vision is crystal clear, and quite frankly, I feel
like the fan base had been asking for this for
a long time now. Maybe it's not the same big
(09:11):
time names that get get all the attention and give
the off season accolades that you used to get for
the Miami Dolphins, but who wants that. I mean, the
last several years you can point to the off seasons
and say, like, teams that didn't have flash or sexy
moves are the ones that were the team standing at
the end of the season. So we'll see how it goes.
No guarantees, but I like the vision. I like the
change it speaks of. And let's go ahead and close
(09:32):
with this updated discussion from Mike McDaniel on that idea
of tonality, but this time from nine two. After you've
added a three hundred and forty pound defensive tackle and
now a three hundred and twenty five three hundred and
thirty pound offensive guard, that's a lot of humanity coming
at you. Let's go ahead and hear from Mike McDaniel
on the idea of toughness and the feedback that he
received from his teammates and the building that told him
(09:55):
they have to get better in that area.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
I think that there's a mutual.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
Understanding amongst Dolphins right now for the twenty twenty five
version that just started getting there, their working that you know,
non negotiably, we're gonna be one team moving in one
direction and we're gonna earn everything we get, and and
so in terms of narratives, in terms of like those
(10:23):
expectations that guys should have. But when I tell you,
there's not really any time spent talking about what other
people are saying. The opportunity that you have is to
do with action what people will ultimately have new narratives for.
(10:45):
So if you you're you're controlled variable, if you can
put forth a good day's day of work and you
have teammates that you trust, you know all the things
that being being said about whatever, that takes care of itself.
So I think, uh, you know, the team will embrace
(11:05):
are two of draft picks thus far, because you know,
we kind of know the team that we have and
the type of guys that will flourish. And I think
it fits something that you know, we're really trying to
define every day, which is the type of people we are,
the type of team we are and that will be
defined by our work.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Let's go ahead and pause for our first break right there,
come back and get to the film, the testing metrics.
I have more audio. We're going to talk about the
fit in the system. We're going to talk about his stats,
all of that fun stuff, his background and more on
the next side of the Draft Time podcast, brought to
you by Autoation. Always a nice thing when the first
two players you draft on Thursday and Friday are guys
(11:49):
that you've already done deep dives on their film. It
makes the rest of the workload much more doable. Let's
go ahead and kick this thing off here with his tape.
The first that jumps off is the physicality and the
size and the mass and just how he moves people
and the way that they are impacted when he hits them.
When when you see him from that standpoint, you think, Okay,
this is a gap scheme power player, but then you
(12:10):
watch him get out in space and it's like, oh,
he's actually like the best mover in the entire class.
On top of all of that. In fact, let's cut
into the film here real quick and get into the
testing metrics. If you list him at guard which Chris
Greer said, they see Jonah as a guard with four
position flexibility as a plus, he played tackle and guard
in college. But if you list his workout metrics as
(12:31):
a guard, which we'll hear from Greer, that's what they're
going to do. This year. He was a eighty fifth
percent tile size guy at three hundred and twenty four pounds.
His twenty nine inch vertical and eight foot ten inch
broad jump those were both in the eightieth percent tile
of guards as well. His four to six six shuttle
time was in the eighty second percent tile among all guards,
and his forty yard dash his ten split and twenty
(12:52):
split two forty yard dash was four point ninety five.
That's ninety eight percent tile and a ten split of
one seven to two good for ninety six percentile man.
We have discussed this type of addition for a few
years on the show. Quite honestly, it was a big
part of me talking about a player like Jackson Powers
Johnson last draft process, a plus mover at three hundred
and thirty pounds who was always intriguing because you could
(13:15):
keep your deadly outside zone run menu available, which is
the bread and butter of the offense. And the entire
starting point for the offense. But when you needed tough
yards inside, you could saddle up a three hundred and
thirty pound guard and run the football behind him. Two
of them, And now you've dropped in a three hundred
and twenty five pound people mover in the middle. And
in addition to all the sizzle and the ability to
(13:36):
move the ball in a flash, now you get into
those third and twos, you have the menu of your
outside zone run game. You have your quick passing game
that's super efficient and effective. And the screen game they've
converted on those situations, those speedouts, the slant game, the
screen game. They have so many options to move the
chains in those ways. And now I fully believe you
have the element that makes all those other elements even
(13:58):
more dangerous to defend, the capability to line up and
run it downhill and move the line scrimmage and move
the change, because when guys know you can do that,
those other things open up even more. To say that
I am fired up about this one would be an understatement.
Daniel Jeremiah off the top of the show that compared
him to Mike iu Potty, the former first rounder of
the Niners, with rare, rare size and athletic ability himself.
(14:21):
And yes, it's like Kenneth Grant. He doesn't come in
here and just get handed the keys right away. He
has to earn it. But you can hear how much
the Dolphins love this guy so much so that Chris
Greer cut to the Chase about how they view him.
Speaker 5 (14:35):
At the end of the day, this was a player
that we were convicted in that was going to be
a starter for us, and he'll play guard for us,
and he understands that we've talked to him about it,
and so we're excited about it.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Also that one seven to two ten split time was
the best at the combine of anybody who weighs three
hundred and fifteen pounds or more. Back to the film here,
the first thing that jumps out about his game is
the pop. There's popping his get off, if there's popping
his hands, there's popping his hips. Lots of pop, so
to pop. You could say, let's break that down step
by step. Here the way he fires off the football.
(15:08):
He comes out with exceptional pad level, which allows him
to impact guys on combination blocks to easily disengage off
that first level and climb up to this linebackers on
the second level, or even peel back and find work
with a green dog blitzer, a delay blitz right, or
someone looping off in a rush game. And that's where
the pop in the hips comes from. He can drop step,
open up his gate, and explode back across his body
(15:30):
and just be a fluid mover in his change of
direction skill set. More on that in the fit piece. Gosh,
the feet they are so sweet, man. He's so light
on his feet at three hundred and twenty four pounds,
The way he can change directions working backwards. You're gonna
hear Mike McDaniel talk about his ability to set the
pocket from a pass protection standpoint, The way he can
transition his weight, drop the anchor slide to find work.
(15:51):
It's all the look of a plug and play starter
from day one. I'm very, very convinced that he can
be that for you right away. He's so light on
his feet, can take away the edge and redirect back inside.
Massive frame, long arms, good for a guard, obviously thickly built.
I bet you could tack on some more weight if
you wanted to because of his frame. Exceptional balance that
(16:11):
allows him to mirror and the patience to not get
out over his skis and protection. He's a smart player.
His hands are bare claws. They impact people and send
guys flying to the ground. You know how we talk
about bringing your feet through contact as a tackler. He
brings his feet through his blocks. Never heal clicks and
can just glide around the field with smooth, effortless power.
(16:32):
He reminds me of that guy at the driving range
who has a smooth golf swing and the ball jumps
one hundred and ninety yards off of his seven arm,
and he is just an easy, easy mover. And I
keep coming back to that McDaniel comment about tonality and
the film of Jonah. He's always looking for work. He
loves football. He plays through the echo of the whistle man,
just the reps outside the numbers. He is rolling guys
(16:53):
off the football outside the numbers. Impressive, impressive stuff. Talking
about the fit for the football team. I have a
bunch of get to here, but first let's go ahead
and hear from two sound bites, first from Chris Greer
and then Mike McDaniel. Chris Greer up first, talking about
just the pick in general and how the Dolphins were
aggressip to go get this player, and you know, passed
on another pick on this particular day to go get
(17:15):
this guy. We'll hear that first and then come back
and hear from Mike McDaniel on what makes him a
scheme fit for the Miami Dolphins.
Speaker 5 (17:21):
Was a player that we had targeted, we spent a
lot of time with. We had him in on a
thirty visit, and spent a lot of at All Star Games,
butch went out and spent a day with them and
had a.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Private workout with them.
Speaker 5 (17:34):
So this is the player we're very convicted on for
what he can add with his size, his power, he's
got versatility, He's played tackle guards, so he's an athletic kid.
And as we spent time getting to know him, he
was the right kind of guy for us, and he
loves ball. He's very competitive, and so for us, it
was important that as we were going through the board,
(17:56):
he was the highest rated guy we had, and so
the opportunity and we took.
Speaker 4 (18:01):
It well, I think, first and foremost beyond the scheme fit,
you know, we were elated to have We had an
objective going into the draft of how the types of
people we wanted to add and the types of impact
we'd hope they'd have. And I think first and foremost,
setting the pocket in protection is something that he is very,
(18:25):
very skilled at, the idea of adding not only a
fierce competitor, but someone that plays with the tonality of
violence and aggression. That that was something that you know,
Chris and I had talked at length about how many,
(18:45):
how how many people could fit that bill, you know,
so that strong conviction, you know we've the draft picks
are each every round is important to us. But you're
also away that with do you have an opportunity to
get someone that fits the bill in multiple ways for
(19:07):
something that we've identified for a long time needs to
be our focus if we have that opportunity, so really pumped.
I think pass protection and run scheme I think is
a great fit for him.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
And look, we do all kinds of window addressing, right,
There's lots of eye candy in this offense. We motion
at the highest rate in the NFL. We can pull guys,
we can dummy pool guys. Your eyes have to be
really good to defend us effectively that way. So that
creates a lot of indecision for the guys up front
the famous Max Crosby quote like, you guys are tough
to prepare for. You use some cuss words in there
when talking to Mike McDaniel after that game in twenty
(19:44):
twenty three. You have to brace for the run but
also be able to reset the pocket as a rusher,
and when you introduce the indecision through the idea of
scheme flexibility, like I have to be prepared for all
these different looks that can give me, But then I
also have to be worried about a three hundred already
pound guy catching me on my heels and squaring me
up and just pure humanity rolling down hill at me
(20:06):
in a controlled chaos that way, that can be a
lot to contend with. For sixty minutes, McDaniel talked about
the ability to sit the pocket and think about Toa's
quick release and the ball out nature of this offense.
You get the sheer mass inside, bigger bodies who can
anchor and hold up one on one man, the quick
passing offense becomes even tougher to impact that way. I
think the way this line has been built can help
(20:28):
ease some of the pressure off to it as well,
maybe even get him under center more. But that's all
different discussion for a different podcast we'll get into as
the weeks go along here. I think Savoy and Ayah,
I think the is an ideal outside zone guard with
the rare ability to feature as a man gap blocker
and total butt kicker on the inside, and the idea
(20:50):
of tonality right the toughness element, the way he finishes.
He's the kind of guy that you'll need a cold
tub immediately after the game when you block him for
sixty minutes. He embraces the nastiness that is playing on
the offensive line that combine with his spatial awareness. I mean,
my goodness, Paul Daniels, Brewer, Jonah Austin, these are five
players with exceptional ability to get out in space, and
(21:13):
four of the five are really comportable to a power
element we've talked about here. I don't think that's Brewers
gain necessarily, but he's so good in other areas and
good enough in that area that it's going to work
with the four guys around him, Like who it's got
me fired up. Let's go ahead and hear from coach
McDaniel right now on the entirety of the offensive line
and what excites him about this group of five guys
that I think is one of the better starting groups
(21:33):
in the entire league because I believe in Patrick Paul.
I think James Daniels and Jonahvana are perfect fits. You
know what I think about Brewer and Austin Jackson. Very
bullish on this Dolphins offensive line? What say you, Mike McDaniel.
Speaker 4 (21:46):
You know, it's about getting better. I think that was
a focus, a major focus of ours. So we've been
very focused to find the right people take advantage of
the opportunity. We think we have.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
It.
Speaker 4 (22:00):
You know, the I think there's something that guys believe
in that what does that mean and what is that line?
They will tell us with with their work, and that's
what they're excited to do. Obviously, we feel convicted, you know,
the players that we've had added this year, and you
(22:20):
know some of the pieces that we've had at that position.
But more than anything, you know, I think we have
the right type of guys to go to work and
attack the process so they can define what the offensive
line is for the Miami Dolphins. I will say that
through the collective group, all the people you've mentioned and
(22:41):
some more players, they're all very hungry and eager to
uh to work at their craft and uh and and
help us grow as an organization.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
And just to continue here, sorry because I keep finding more.
Kyle Krabs brought on his touchdown Miami Blowpot. The Wildcats
were struggling with the USC front this past season and
Jonah volunteered to kick inside to block a player named
Bear Alexander who was wrecking them on the interior. He
moves inside and just turns the tide of the entire game.
Kyle wrote that Jonah developed a reputation of positional flexibility
(23:15):
and mental toughness, which pairs well with the powerhouse play
style and explosive athleticism. And Jonah is also quoted on
his player bio on the Arizona website. Because he wanted
to flip the program arounds why he chose the program.
Sure Enough, the year he gets there, they were one
to eleven the previous season. The next two years five
and seven, and then ten and three. They did stumble
to a four and eight mark last year with multiple
(23:37):
quarterback injuries. He's played a fifteen hundred forty four career
snaps in college, didn't miss a start in three seasons
thirty six consecutive there, from his first game as a
freshman to his last game as a junior. He played
three positions. He played just under a thousand snaps at
right guard, just over one thousand snaps at right tackle,
and then three hundred and forty five more at left tackle.
PFF graded him with three negatively graded run plays on
(24:00):
the entire season. We talked about that being a big problem.
Last year, Miami had the most negative run plays in
the league. You're not going to get those with James
Daniels and Jonah casting it, Jonah Savoy and Ayah I'm
gonna get that. I am gonna get that here. Eventually.
He allowed only fifteen pressures this season. That's out of
four hundred and seventy eight pass blocking snaps, good for
(24:21):
a pass block efficiency score over ninety eight, which is
elite territory for a tackle. He's even better inside as
a guard. He was flagged one time this year, a
holding call against Kansas State. His background his one year
as a full time starter at guard was a freshman,
and he was a freshman All American. This from Dane
Brugler is the beast. NFL scouts say Jonah's swagger helped
(24:41):
maintain Arizona's culture after Jed Fish left following the twenty
twenty three season. He played his high school football at
Saint Louis High School in Honolulu, the same school as
to a Tongua bai Loa, and their families know each other.
All right, go ahead and take our last break right here.
I think the Day three preview we're going to go
ahead and punt on that because it's kind of the
same thing I've taught about, you guys, know, looking at cornerbacks.
(25:02):
This board's getting picked up pretty good right now, but
hopefully you can find a guy like a Jacob Parrish
sometime on Day three, maybe go after the safety spot
with JJ Roberts at Marshall. Some of the names I like,
I'm kind of doing this podcast during the third round
of the draft, so I don't want to give you
guys names that get picked off the board, so we'll
save that for the pod tomorrow. I think you'll get
that content elsewhere too, So let's go ahead and pause
(25:23):
for our last break right there. Come back and finish
up the podcast on the other side with my chat
with the very lovable, very fun fun guy I talk
to you and a very smart, knowledgeable football player and
Kenneth Grant. That's next Draft Time podcast, brought to you
by Auto Nation. What's Up, Dolphins, Welcome back into the
Baptist Hell's to us for another edition of the Draft
(25:44):
Time podcast. Here my exclusive interview with Dolphins first round
pick Kenneth Grant, Kenneth ken Kenny G. What should I
call you here? Man?
Speaker 3 (25:52):
Welcome in, Kenny g KG. I like all of it,
all of it.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Keny G. You flared with the sax player as well
from the nineties before your time.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
I'll look them up on Safari, but I haven't listened
to any of his music.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
That's my first thought. You guys are a little bit
different though, in terms of your professions and your career.
So a good company though. So the first thing that
really stands out for me and fascinates me about this
whole job is players like you. Because guys that are
your size should not be able to move the way
that you do, right, And some of that is natural gifts, obviously,
but I'm always curious to know what goes into building
the perfect NFL body like that. So, what is the
(26:24):
process for getting yourself ready for a football season? And
being so big a swathletic. What's that all look like
for you? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (26:29):
Really just rest and recovery. I'll say the biggest thing
is because like you said, I'm just so big moving
at this size, you know, I need to always be
in a cold tub and a sauna, get massages or
dry kneeling and things like that. So it's really just
like taking care of your body and eating the right
things for sure.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
So that seems to be like a Michigan thing, a
program that pumps out all these well conditioned athletes year
after year. What it being part of that program under
the last you know several coaches, you guys have had
defensively head coaches, a bunch of great coaches. What did
that program teach you about discipline and training your craft?
Speaker 3 (27:02):
Well, yeah, I'll say it all started with the strength
and conditioning staff. That's where it started. You know. They
they're the ones we spend the most time with. They
trained us to be, you know, discipline and also know
how to conduct our business, our business in a mannerly way,
just because like off the field and on the field,
they translate, So what you do off the field can
(27:23):
translate what you do on the field, so you know
they're they're always, you know, being mentally tough on us,
you know, preparing us to be mentally tough and expect
the unexpected whenever. Every day, like I'll tell you a
quick story, like we have like on our running days,
we have like our rollers all laid out, and then
right next to it is a card. Every every roller
(27:44):
has a card next to it. And if you flip
the card and he says, what's your card on, the
whole group has to go jump in the cold tub
and then then run your conditioning tests. So that's a
quick funny thing.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
You're going to bring one of those games down here
to south forth, maybe you can get the other guys
that on that same game.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
Might as well make them there you go.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Let's talk some of the actual on field football stuff here,
because man, a guy like you that can play the
nose tackle, can play the three technique all the way
out to the five technique. Again, that stuff fascinates me,
and I'm always so curious about players and processing things.
And for the defensive line perspective, you have a snap
of a finger to read pass, to read, run, play pass,
whatever it might be. So I guess my question for
you is is how does reading the blocks from those
(28:23):
different positions differ for you in terms of how you
process and when you line up in different positions.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
Yeah, it's not really just really it's not really different.
You know, it's just like a different type of technique
and different leverage that you have to you know, play with.
You know, in a one technique, you kind of got
the advantage because the center, you know, has one hand
on the ball and one hand free, so he doesn't
have two hands, so you gotta be quick with your hands.
But in the three technique, you know, the guard he
(28:49):
has both his hands and you know he already knows
where you're going in the snap counts. So that's when
you have to really tighten down your technique and be
fast off the ball. I think what what plays into
that is, you know, having quick hands, hims, hands and feet,
you know, need to be quick and coming off the
ball asap.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
I think it was the Ohio State game Donovan Jackson.
You ran like a loop off of the outside edge
and beat him with speed around the coorum Like, okay,
that's the guy that can play nose tackle a three
forty five and do that as well. We're in good
company here speaking your Michigan days. Mike McDonald the first
DC there when he was there when you got recruited, correct, Yeah, okay,
so he was on staff there, and I'm a coaching
clinic ner like watching those guys talk about coaching and
(29:25):
just different ideas football philosophies. And he was talking about
the installation of pass rush games and the interchangeability in
terms of the alignments we just talked about. Right, Can
you tell us about how translatable that is on this
defense with coach Weaver, who I don't know if you
knew this, but he coached under Mike McDonald and Baltimore.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
Yeah. So when I took a visit here, you know,
we went over to playbook and things like that, and
I was kind of like, oh, this is you know,
it's kind of the same thing as Michigan, but you know,
different verbage in different like little tweaks and techniques. But
you know, I was real comfortable with the playbook and
his style of play, you know, just understanding what the
coach is one and how their philosophies are.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Yeah, it's really good stuff. I think it's it's going
to translate pretty quickly for your here and so just
kind of talking to you about this stuff, Like you
get a big smile on your face right time I
bring it up. It seems like you love football. It's
kind of a read I get on you, like, what
is it? What is it about football that you love
so much? I don't like to lose, to be honest,
like nobody. Yeah, I don't like to lose, even if
it's like a rep or a practice rep or you know,
(30:24):
even in the weight room, like competing in the weight room.
I don't like to lose anything, to be honest. So
back in high school, you played on the offensive line
or sorry, the offensive line as well as a defensive line.
What did that teach you about playing d line?
Speaker 3 (30:36):
It kind of, you know, tell me that you you
kind of got advantage that offensive line. You know, you
know where you're going, know to snap count, so you
can get off of guys real quick. But you know,
for me, it was really funny, you know, just being
able to physically dominate guys and kind of you know,
use that advantage of me playing defensive offense against them.
(30:57):
So it's pretty fun.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
You're two athletics down on the offense side. Those guys
got go defense because you're you're more athletic than the
guys on the offensive side. Right, oh yeah, kind of
how that goes. So also basketball in high school through
a shot put, track and field. I'm just curious. Tell
me about all the sports. You probably try them all
at some point in your youth, right yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
So I'll see, My first sport is baseball, played t
ball when I was little. Then kind of transition of football,
pop warning and things like that, and then once I
got to the high school, carried on football, you know,
out of basketball track. The funny thing is are during
the off season with football, our head coach made us
go up with the wrestlers and wrestles, so, you know,
(31:33):
out of a love of that to my weapon tar,
but you know, all around great athlete.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
How big were you in the basket? Like, what was
your size in high school and basketball?
Speaker 3 (31:40):
Probably a little heavier than I am now, but really yeah,
for sure you got.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
To play high school basketball. I have like to defend
you in the post. That would not be fun for
a little high school.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
Man, especially getting all the rebounds and everything.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
That would be hilarious. Watch a little drop step a little
three hundred fifty pounds and do a one hundred and
forty pounds soaking wet kid. That's hilarious to think about.
Let's finish up right here. We all the viral play,
the Penn State play k Tron Allen chase him down
from the back. I'm curious if you can take us
through that and what that play says about about you
and your in your game.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
Yeah, so I'll just start off with the player and
what I saw. You know, they had ran a center
and a guard pool play towards the outside. And then
I was like, I think kind of everybody in the
defense knew that that side specifically was our weak side,
and they schemed it up perfectly. I'll give him that.
And I was like, in the playoff, was like, oh, snap,
that's a big hole. So I saw our linebacker Mike
(32:28):
be He was the closest, so I tried to push
him into the hole to force him to make the tackle,
but that didn't work out. So I was like already
facing towards the runner. So I was just hawked them down.
But you know what it says about me is, you know,
I'm gonna do the unexpected things. You know, guys don't
like to do. I mean I'm running down the field
thirty yards, but you know, the next play out lined
(32:49):
up and it was time to go. So I think
I'm very well conditioned. And you know, I got that
gritting me to stick in, stick into things like that.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
Was that film review fun the next day taking a
look at that rep. Oh yeah, just get some love.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
Yeah, a lot of.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
It's toff New Dolphins defensive tackle, thirteenth pick in this
year's draft. Kenneth Grant, thank you so much for your
time that he man, I appreciate you. Good stuff fins up, baby,
And after the interview he told me, hey, great questions, man,
which told me like, all right, this guy just loves
football and loves talking about football. So great stuff there.
So it always feels good to I'm not gonna lie
about that. Let's go ahead and call it a podcast.
We'll come back tomorrow and break down a lot of
(33:22):
the picks we're gonna make here. I'll probably do half
the draft picks we make tomorrow and then save the
rest of that for Monday. We're gonna have the fast
fact stories up on Miami Dolphins dot com, be tweeting
some some clips out hopefully here Soon's all kinds of
content covering the Miami Dolphins twenty twenty five draft. But
until next time, you all please be sure subscribe, rate,
review the podcast, go ahead and follow me on social
(33:42):
at WINFLD NFL for allow the team at Miami Dolphins.
Check out the Fish Tank Podcast with Seth and Juice,
the YouTube channel for my Kenneth Grant interview for Dolphins
HQ for Draft time exclusive, and so much more. Last,
but not least, Miami Dolphins dot Com. Until next time,
fins up Caroline and Cameron. Daddy, He's coming home.
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