2025 Miami Dolphins Offseason | Training Camp Battles | Scouting The Fins

2025 Miami Dolphins Offseason | Training Camp Battles | Scouting The Fins

Heat. Heat. N. [Music] [Music] [Music] What’s up everybody and welcome to another episode of Scouting Defense Football. Real live football is only a couple of days away. Training camp is already live in Miami Gardens for the Miami Dolphins 2025 rookie class. Pads on, burners are blazing. This isn’t just about reps. It’s about the first fingerprints of identity. I’m joined by my co-host, Coach Smith and Eric. Gentlemen, football is in the air. It is. And I am excited to finally uh be back with you guys. It’s been feels like it’s been forever now. I know it’s only been a couple of weeks there. Uh but the browser issues are fixed, the scheduling issues are fixed, and I am hyped uh with the with the start of training camp opening up. Uh excited to talk some Dolphins with you guys tonight. Absolutely. This is the best time of the year, right? We are on the the eve of the NFL training camps opening up. We’re on the eve essentially of high school football starting up. You know, I talk to people all the time and I tell them that, you know, basically these other sports that I I help out with and I go to watch, it’s all just passing time to get back to football season. And, you know, here we are finally. It’s back to football season and coach and Eric, you’re going to be along for this ride this season. It’s time to chart the offensive line and the run game for one more season. What are some of the early themes you’re sensing on from this off season, coach? Yeah, I mean I think that we are going to see a more physical attack, right? Both from the um you know the the offensive line, right? Adding the the new starting guards and James Daniels and Jonah um you know getting the return of Austin Jackson and then you know just Patrick Paul being a massive human being like there’s a lot more physicality up front. um you know, whoever sorts out as that number one wide tight end, whether it’s Julian Hill or Pharaoh Brown, I think that that room as a whole has, you know, been improved over having Durham Smite. And then obviously added some more size in the running back room. I think, like I said, the I think we’re going to see a a more physical running game overall, and hopefully that is able to open something some things up for the passing game. Yeah. Uh, Eric, every year we talk about the vibe shift going into training camp. Does this feel like a take the next step roster or do you think it’s one that’s still sorting itself out? I mean, the the thing that kind of excites me and admittedly kind of scares me at the same time with this team is it feels like this is probably the widest range of outcomes that the Dolphins have had in a good while. Uh, I mean, this is a team that I could absolutely see being, you know, five and 12 or 11 and six. I can see both of those worlds and I can see them both very clearly. I think how this team starts this season is going to be really important because I think when you have some of the, you know, issues hanging over the locker room that that they’ve had over the last, you know, half a year to year or so, um, starting off strong and kind of getting that good feeling of winning going through the locker room is going to be pivotal. Um, but I also think, you know, as mentioned, the physicality is going to be a big deal. When you get into those games late in the season in the cold weather, you’re going to need those, you’re going to need a more physical approach, and I think that that’s what the Dolphins worked on. I think that that’s something that we’re actually going to see bear some real fruit here. um not only between guys like Jonas Savinayia, James Daniels, but you’re also talking about a wide receiver room that added Nick Westbrook A uh who’s going to give you some blocking in the run game as well as give you some uh red zone opportunities. Uh I I really like what they’ve done on the offensive side of the football this off season. Um defensively, I’m still kind of up in the air about where I think they’re at. Um, but overall I’m I’m cautiously optimistic about about them right now. Coach, let’s talk about the defense. As Eric mentioned, how do you balance the excitement of Chop Robinson’s year 2 growth coupled with the new additions of rookie defensive tackles? But not only that, you also have the health question marks around Bradley Chub and Jaylen Phillips. Those guys might be 100%. But if they’re out, uh, what does this defense look like with a brand new front seven? I mean, it doesn’t look a whole lot different than what it did last year. I mean, we spent a good chunk of last year. We didn’t have Chub at all for last year and didn’t have Jaylen Phillips for nearly as long as we would have liked. So, you know, not having that would look a lot like last year with a worst secondary. Um, you I think that they’re in a much better position this year. Obviously, Chop Robinson is going to come in 100% looking for him to build on that rookie season. Bradley Chub, you know, it’s been over a full year since he has stepped foot on a football field or, you know, a game scenario. So, he should be completely healed, no questions asked, right? and Jaylen Phillips where last year, you know, there were questions whether or not he was rushing back from that Achilles injury. We don’t have to ask that question this year because having Robinson on one side, having Chub on the other, there is no rush to get Phillips back on the field at a, you know, a 60 70% snap count. Um, so I think that, you know, the the guys that were added, right? We look at the the big bodies, the Kenneth Grants, the Jordan Phillips that were added at that defensive tackle position. And then the depth you have at the edge position. You like I said, if Phillips is not 100% no questions asked, ready to go, you’re still in really good shape having Bradley Glover and uh Chop Robinson as your edge defenders. Your linebacker room is deeper. Your safety room should be better than what it was. And obviously that the corners are a question. But I think that given everything that you had at least early in the season until we do find out where those injuries are going to pop up, I think this defense is set up to start the season in a better position than where we started last year. Eric, uh, I’m looking at a potential depth chart just specifically based off the secondaries. The starters in the secondary starting from safeties down right now is Mika Fitzpatrick and if Milfanu as the starting safeties for corner with Jaylen Ramsay’s departure, you have Storm Duck manning the left side of the field. You have Cam Smith manning the right side of the field with your Nickelback Escaru. uh that doesn’t necessarily strike a lot of confidence in me as the Dolphins starting corners. Do you think there could be a potential surprise? Maybe a rookie like uh Jason Marshall Jr. or Ashton Davis maybe moving to a quarterback role or your favorite guy A B A B A B A B A B A B A B A B A B A B AJ Adams making the roster potentially. Yeah. I mean, so I think that the talent level in the in the cornerback room is very clearly not what it was last year, but I think you can also make a really good case that the production that you get out of them might be the same or better this season. Um, so really my what I’m most excited for out of the secondary, and I guess this is kind of a copout because it’s really not about a lot of the guys in the in the room, although there are some guys that I am excited about like BJ Adams. We’ve actually heard really good things about Jason Marsh Marshall Jr. throughout the off season. So I’m, you know, more than willing to to, you know, see what he has there. Uh, but I’m really more so excited to see what this new, well, not new, but this new wrinkle to the defense is going to bring, specifically when it comes to the corners, because now you have a safety room that, you know, Anthony Weaver is comfortable with, and then you’ve got a front seven that on paper should be the best that it’s been in Miami in a good while. Um, you know, these young corners, are they going to be left on an island a little bit more? Sure. But at the same time, I think that they’re set up with everything else that you have around them um to be successful in those new simplified roles where it’s less about, okay, well, you know, am I carrying my man into this zone or am I staying home? you know, you don’t have to worry about kind of getting your wires crossed there as much uh as we saw last year with some of those miscommunication um gaffs that we saw in the secondary. So, I’m I’m excited um about the cornerback room specifically because I think that they’re going to be asked to do a little bit less this year. I don’t think the corners will be left on an island. That’s not Anthony Weaver’s philosophy. It’s pretty heavy in cover three, uh, cover four quarters concepts, and cover six. But the defensive fronts definitely look, uh, very different than what we’re used to seeing. Like you have three down linemen there. You have big bodies along the front seven. You have, uh, sometimes even the outside linebackers like Bradley Chub, Jaylen Phillips, Chop Robinson dropping into coverage. We didn’t see that so much just because of Jaylen Ramsey and Kendall Fuller being the starting corners. Uh Anthony Reaver actually blitzes blitzes Jaylen Ramsey a lot specifically from the slot position. We know previously under Josh Buer uh Kater Kohoo was used a lot in those blitzes. So I I expect a bounce back here from Kater Coo. Coach, are we still sleeping on Cam Smith or is this a year of him being on the hot seat and the Cam Smith experiment being over if he cannot prove himself in camp this year? I don’t think we’re sleeping on him. I mean, he he hasn’t done anything to to earn that kind of reputation. Um it’s no no secret that Cam Smith has been a disappointment as a second round pick entering his third season now. Um you know always dinged up. We’ve we’ve seen reports that he doesn’t take care of his body and the only way he’s going to change that opinion of him is to be able to go out there and play right and he needs to come in. needs to have a big camp because if he if he comes out and he struggles in camp and he falls behind the Jason Marshall Jr’s um you know if Storm Duck continues to play ahead of him and he just gets buried on the depth chart then he’s going to end up being you know a casualty probably after this season. Um, so you know there is still promise there, right? Everybody has seen the skills that he had at South Carolina that made him that second round pick. I think a lot of people were encouraged with Cam Smith when we made that pick. Um, he obviously has not been able to translate that onto the field and a lot of that just has to do with the fact that he hasn’t been able to be on the field, right? So he needs to be able to uh come into camp. He needs to be able to stay on the field. We can’t we can’t open up training camp and find out on day two that he pulled a hammy chasing Jaylen Waddle again, right? That if if he does that, that’s should be an automatic, right? You’re you’re bumped down to the fourth string and you know, basically forgotten. Uh so he needs to be able to come in. He needs to be able to prove that he is now doing what it takes to take care of his body to stay on the field, right? And that’s just the first step, right? Once he’s on the field, he’s going to have to go out there and make plays because he’s going to have, you know, the these hungry guys in training camp that are, you know, going balls out trying to trying to make an impression, right? And if he thinks that he can just show up and in year three, his second round draft pick is still going to be enough to to put him up there with the starters, I think he’s going to be in for a rude awakening because, you know, we’ve heard that Anthony Weaver is very much a players coach. He knows how to talk to his guys, but at the same time, he’s very demanding, right? And he knows how to tell those players when he’s expecting more. Um, so I I feel like he’s got to be telling Cam Smith that he’s expecting more out of him this year. And if he doesn’t come out early in camp and we don’t hear his name early in camp, then you know it could spell some bad things for him through the rest of preseason. And you know, if he gets, you know, dropped down the depth chart and all he’s a special teamer this year, then we’re, you know, quite possibly looking at the last year of Cam Smith here. special teams overall this season. Eric, they still have kicker, Jason Sanders, Brandy Punter, and Ryan Stone Stonehouse, Joe Cardona as the long snapper. Uh believe he used a long snap for the Patriots. No more Blake Ferguson amid his health issues and stuff. new punter. A lot of coverage unit shakeups with a a lot of releases within, you know, the lower parts of the quarterback room, some specific tight ends and linebackers. Uh, do you think that’s undervalued considering Mike McDaniel’s history both field position? It’s, you know, it’s it’s what a long big sigh. I know. I know. I know. It’s it’s it’s one of those things where you’re never going to get a massive investment, you know, into your special teams financially. And so it, you know, yeah, there there’s a lot of turnover there and you lose Blake Ferguson. Um, you do bring in a new punter. The fact that there was so much change in and of itself, I tend to take as a positive in general because when you’re going from where they were last year and even continuing back over the last couple of years, uh I think to just bring back the same cast of characters would have been a pretty big mistake and it would have been, you know, kind of a signal that there’s just not a lot of optimism there. I you know it’s if we could get Jason Sanders to you know I I don’t know could we bring some hard rock turf on the road with us or something? Um that would be that would be pretty nice. Uh I do think Mike McDaniel’s philosophy overall does undervalue um field position in general situationally at least. But I I when it comes to special teams, it’s it’s just so hard to tell like early on until you actually get some kind of results back because it’s not like, hey, we signed uh you know, we we signed these really great special teams players and, you know, they’re making this this big money. We invested so much into this unit. It’s it’s just kind of, you know, you hear about guys having reputations as special teams aces. Um, but until you see it translate onto the field, it’s, you know, it’s it’s one of the hardest things to kind of evaluate in the offseason. Coach, with Patrick Paul getting a real look at right tackle, do we think they’re serious about letting him win that job or do you think Kendall Lamb, I’m sorry, Kendall Lamb is no longer part of the Dolphins. So outside of Patrick Paul, it’s just Keon Smith as the potential backup. Do you think Keon Smith can actually usurp Paul with um with some starting experience and snaps? Yeah. I mean, so that would be on the left side. Um, Austin Jackson’s gonna be the right tackle. I don’t see any scenario where Patrick Paul is not the starting left tackle. And I’ve been a big big Keon Smith fan. Uh, you know, over the last couple of years. I felt like last year that maybe he would get a crack at one of those starting guard spots. Um, but you know, Patrick Paul was drafted last year in round two. Um, you know, they they groomed him to be the replacement for Terron Armstead in my opinion and the opinion of some other people that I obviously respect a lot. You know, there he’s shown enough promise. You know, it’s not like um, you know, the the banger of the Chiefs. The Chiefs drafted the kid out of BYU, played him at left tackle, and he just struggled so bad that he was benched in the playoffs, and now he’s been moved to guard. We don’t have that scenario here in Miami. Patrick Paul played at tackle, you know, took some lumps here and there. Um, but he he showed enough promise that I I fully expect him to be the the starting left tackle, and I expect him to play at a pretty good level. Um, so I don’t I don’t see a scenario where Keon Smith starts over um Patrick Paul or Austin Jackson. I I think that the the ideal role for him is going to be, you know, you mentioned Kendall Lamb. I think that’s going to be Keon Smith’s ideal role if he can regain the athleticism after his injury is that he becomes that swing tackle that’s able to step in for either of them and not have quite the same drop off that we’ve had when we’ve lost tackles in the past. Look folk folks the the Dolphins finally made additions on their offensive line adding guard James Daniels via free agency and drafting Jonas Aana. Uh looking at the Hourlads depth chart, the starting left guard right now is James Daniels and the starting right guard is Jonah Savana. However, uh Jonah Savanaya still has not signed his second round rookie contract. Uh, do you think they’re going to get close to signing with him now that a couple of second round draft picks have gotten 75% to fully guaranteed deals? Yeah, I I think this is going to be something that wraps up relatively quickly. Um, with Jonah, I would expect by the end of this weekend at the absolute latest, uh, we hear about him signing up and and and, you know, getting on down to to, uh, training camp there over at Hard Rock. As as as guys are starting to get signed and, you know, more of the the money starts to come in, we saw Alfred Collins got almost close to fully guaranteed about 88%. I would imagine that it might be a sliding scale with the guys at the top of the second round, maybe getting more of that fully guaranteed money and then it kind of just going down as you go to the guys taken lower on in in the second round. So, I’d expect Jonah to get somewhere between 85 and 90% of his deal guaranteed. Um, and at four years 11 million, I think that that’s more than worth it for, you know, the investment in a high second round pick. Uh, so I, you know, the the contract stuff with with Jonah, I’m not super worried about that yet. If it drags on to when the rest of the team joins them for training for uh, you know, as training camp opens up, then I think, you know, the alarms start to kind of go off a little bit. But until we get to that point, I’m really not sweating it. Yeah. Uh, coach, I know your guy was Malachi Starks as the first safety on the board. Eric, our guy was Nick Manori. And some breaking news on that. Uh, the Seahawks and Nick Manor’s camp has reached an agreement on a fully guaranteed contract, making the first time in NFL history that a second round pick, pick number 35, has secured a fully guaranteed contract. Maybe Jonas Aaniah’s agent can do that. But do you pay a fully guaranteed contract to Jonas Aaniah? You haven’t seen his play on the field or do you let Liamberg play as a left guard? Eric, what’s your what’s your opinion on that? I mean, listen, even if you don’t want to pay Jonas Savaniah the fully guaranteed deal, I do think that you’ve probably put yourself in a really tough position um to where I I I do think you would have to, right? because it’s what you know you can’t you can’t have this narrative pop up if you’re Chris Greer in the front office that you never invest in the offensive line and you know you don’t you don’t you don’t ever really care to build up front and then you know you you make this decision to draft this guy in the high second round and you know they’ve been very I mean they’ve kind of I’m not say they haven’t pushed it themsel mselves, but they’re definitely kind of basking in the fact that, hey, fan base is kind of excited that we’ve built this offensive lineup. You know, Chris Greer saying we’re more concerned about the offensive line than you are is so far away from where we are right now. It would just be a really really bad look to let ultimately maybe one and a half$2 million dollars be what stops you from signing this guy that you traded up for and and traded a pretty decent amount um to get into position to select him. I I have to imagine, you know, they’ve they’ve kind of got the Dolphins, you know, over a barrel here as far as the negotiating goes. Coach, I think the biggest thing to track for this offensive line is the health of Austin Jackson as as soon as he went down and I I think there was a part of blame game in there for everyone else involved in the run game. As soon as he went down, uh the run game just went absolutely in the How big of an impact is he? And could a guy like Larry Borham or maybe Keon Smith fill in for a couple of games and still have that same consistency as Austin Jackson brings to the Dolphins? I mean the same consistency. No, Austin Jackson makes a massive difference in the run game. And one of the things that uh I remember when I was doing the weekly offensive line grades that I was doing um there was one of the weeks after Austin Jackson had gone down that there was a specific block from Aaron Brewer and we were running outside zone to the right and when Austin Jackson was in there he created so much displacement on the edge that it opened up a huge lane the running backs going through completely untouched. Um, but Aaron Brewer really hadn’t uh, you know, overtaken the defensive tackle, the probably a one technique on that side, right? But because of the movement that Austin Jackson got, right? We didn’t talk about that at all. And then we fast forward to Austin Jackson not being there, having Kendall Lamb in there. And when you don’t create that displacement on the outside, right, then the block by Aaron Brewer is kind of compounded, right? And then everything is much tighter, right? The lane’s not there for the running back. And then we’re talking about Aaron Brewer a little differently. Even though the blocks on those two plays are completely identical from what Aaron Brewer did, it just looked a lot better because of what Austin Jackson did. And that was just, you know, one example that I recall from doing the weekly review videos. Uh, but it shows up in other places when you look at some of the short yardage stuff. you know, Austin Jackson on down blocks. Kyle Krabs did a good video recently on it, showing Austin Jackson being able to to block down on a three technique and take him two, three gaps over, right? And we didn’t get that with the backup tackles that we had. So, and to answer your question, can we get by with Larry Borum and Keon Smith? Um, maybe. Right. I I think that Larry Boram has the size, has that short area quickness that in the run game can be a boost over what Kendall Lamb was. Uh, you know, the the problem with Larry Borne and is not too dissimilar to Austin Jackson is that if you start to ask him to get into true pass sets, you’re you’re asking for trouble. But that that’s not something that you want to see Austin Jackson doing either. Uh, so if Larry Borham is that swing tackle in the run game, I think that we’re going to see an improvement over what we have with Kendall Lamb, even if there’s a little bit of a step back from the pass protection side of it. And then, you know, Keon Smith is just that that ultra athletic tackle, at least was before the injury, like I talked about earlier, like we have to make sure that he regains that range that he had prior to the knee injury from last year. Um, if he can regain that, right? And if he can really take a solid hold as that swing tackle, then maybe that frees Larry Boram up to move inside, right? Um, but, you know, I would I would expect as we head into training camp that we see Larry Boram as your swing tackle from the beginning. And you know, then if and only if Keon Smith shows that he’s going to step on the field before Larry Borham, then maybe we see an opportunity to move Larry Borne to the inside where he is the first interior lineman off the off the bench instead of that other guy that we don’t like to talk about. Yeah, you might have Liam as your sixth man for the offensive line, either paying left or right guard if Savana has to uh play the swing tackle position if Austin Jackson goes down. Uh Eric, probably the worst position group for the Dolphins is tight end and they tried to short that up after the departure of John Smith with Darren Waller. I’m kind of interested to see how bought in he is. And can we get any glimpse of the Waller we saw with Frank Smith and the Las Vegas Raiders? Boy, it’s, you know, it’s it’s that’s a really interesting ad to me because when it comes to a guy like Waller, I I thought the John Smith departure kind of signal that they were going to go away really from the concept of having, you know, not entirely, but for the most part, you got the sense that a dynamic passcatching tight end wasn’t really going to be a massive part of the offense. And then they go and they add Darren Waller. And it’s not like the level of investment tells you that he’s going to be, you know, this this huge piece, but I do think that there’s something to the idea that well, you know, considering that it really is about $2 million guaranteed, uh, up to 5 million with incentives, if he’s 60 70% of what he was in Vegas, um, that’s a tremendous value. So, and you know, considering that there are questions about him being bought in, if it’s worst case scenario, just a $2 million kind of lottery ticket at the tight end spot. Uh, given what they’ve got right now in terms of their available cap space, I’m very comfortable with that. Uh, but I do think overall Darren Waller probably doesn’t make a massive impact on the field for this team. If for no other reason than I just think Mike McDaniel schematically is is really going to lean more into the run game this year um, and into a more physical attack. And I’m just I’m I’m not sure how Darren Waller really, you know, works with that. You know, coach, the Darren Waller signing kind of intrigues me because before the whole Janu Smith uh debacle, they had signed Frell Brown and it seemed to me that they were going to go a little bit heavier and work on those 12 personnel sets because of what uh Bobby Slowick did in Houston. Uh from 2023 to 2024, Bobby Slowick had an 8% 12 personnel usage to a 23% usage with a middle of the pack average EPA. But now with bringing in Darren Waller, it seems as if they traded out speed and physicality in Janu Smith with to again speed and physicality rather than physicality, raw strength, and just straight up monoemano blocking. What does this mean for Pharaoh Braum’s role? And I I know you did a deep study on him. Is he going to be like the Durham Smite type of piece or is there a bigger role for him? I think that’s going to depend on the progress that Julian Hill has made. I don’t see Pharaoh Brown being able to be that move type tight end. I don’t think I don’t see him being a fluid enough athlete to be able to, you know, go in motion, return motion, find a guy on the move. Um, you know, the way that we saw them ask Durham Smith to do the way that we saw them ask Julian Hill to do. Um, you know, I think that if he comes in and he shows that he is just flat out better than Julian Hill, then, you know, maybe he becomes that Y tight end number one and we see uh Julian Hill more in that ef. But as you said, I did that study on him and over 2024, uh, you know, the where we need that wide tight end to excel is on the front side of outside zone plays. And in all of 2024, Pharaoh Brown only had about 10 plays doing that. Um, so it’s very much a projection to say that he’s going to step in and automatically take that job from Julian Hill. Um, but you know, I would I think it’s kind of a toss up there, right? I I could see I could absolutely see a scenario where Pharaoh Brown is your attached Y tight end and then we’re using Julian Hill, you know, more in a move type role. Um, but I could also see a scenario where Julian Hill just doesn’t let go of that job because I do think that he is more versatile than Pharaoh Brown. Um, and that’s going to give him a leg up in some instances. Uh, so I could see a scenario where Julian Hill is the the the Y tight end number one and we don’t see the the number of snaps out of Pharaoh Brown that that some people are expecting. 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Where we could see Julian Hail and Jaylen Conurs and Frell Brown actually do in different types of 11 and 21 personnel. I would be surprised if we see Alec Engold snaps go down. Um, I do think that he was dealing with some injuries last year and and I never really felt like Alec Engled was a uh, you know, just a devastating type blocker. You know, he’s not the uh Allen Ricard, you know, 300 pounder. He’s not he’s not at the level of Kyle Yuseek. Um, you know, he’s kind of the the next level there. He he’s a really good fullback, uh, but not going to be perfect. Um, but his value goes beyond just what he does blocking. You know, especially going back and watching some of that Jaylen Wright film, you could see that the way that these fullbacks are used is that the fullback in a lot of cases essentially making the reads for the running back and the running back just has to to follow them. And Alec Engold really does a good job of doing that. Uh, one of the things that I find interesting, right, and you mentioned the hourlad’s depth chart. In previous years, we have seen the Dolphins pick up, you know, just some random undrafted free agent to run with the second team as a fullback. When we’re looking at that depth chart now, there is no other fullback on the roster. You’re not going to go into training camp and have Alec Engold running every single rep. He’s not going to run with the second and third teams, right? So, I’m really curious heading into training camp, who is that going to be? Right. And we talked about Pharaoh Brown some possibly being that Y tight end number one. Does that open up Julian Hill to become, you know, the the fullback number two and start taking some of those reps? And I remember, you know, about midseason last year when Julian Hill was having some of those struggles that, you know, I started to ask that question as to whether or not Julian Hill is maybe a better fit as a fullback than he is as a Y tight end. We’ve seen Tanner Connor be used in that role in the past. And then you have, you know, I don’t know. I see Jaylen Conurs in that role just because of how much um, you know, progress he has to make as a blocker, but Hayden Ruchi is another guy that’s on the roster really doesn’t have a position, right? So, is that a guy that you you take and you say, “Okay, we’ve got we’ve got Pharaoh Brown, we have uh Julian Hill as Y tight ends, we have Jaylen Conurs, Tanner Connor, and Darren Waller as your F tight ends. Right, Hayden Ruchi, if you want to get on the field, right, we’re going to convert you to fullback and you’re going to run with those second and third teams and show that you can provide some additional versatility.” So that’s definitely something I think is going to be interesting in camp is how those reps after Alec Engold is off the field, how they’re divided up in what players fill in there. So let me ask you both this question. If Mike McDaniel wants to build a run first package in 21 and 11 personnel with tight end and fullback looks, does someone like a Julian Hill, Tanner Connor, and Hayden Ruchcci become more important than Darren Waller and Frell Brown? Yeah, I I think I think yes, the answer is is absolutely. Um, and I think it’s specifically going to be Julian Hill. And I know that a lot of people aren’t going to like hearing that, but this is a guy that they’ve put a lot of investment into in terms of development. Um, they really believe in Julian Hill and his importance to the offense. They think that he’s they’re in in their idealized world. He is a guy that is an important piece to the offense as a really solid blocker in the run game and we’ve seen glimpses of that. Now, we’ve also seen glimpses of really undisiplined play and I think that that’s really kind of the maddening thing with him is is the penalties. But I do think that you are I I think he is mistake free football away from being a guy that that a lot of the fans actually really like. Um and I know that that’s that’s a pretty big thing to to have to get over. Um, but I do think that it’s it does say something in terms of we’re not really talking about well skill level does matter in it, but we’re not seeing a guy that’s getting just absolutely bowled over here. This is a guy that that has some trouble with, you know, illegal shifts, holding occasionally, and those are things that I think are easier to clean up than if a guy just isn’t very good as a blocker. And I think Julian Hill in terms of his ability and what he can bring you in the run game, I don’t think that there’s much question there. I think if he can clean up the penalties, he can be a plus. I think that it’s really easy to forget where Julian Hill came from, right? We we talked through the draft process about the possibility of going out and getting a Tyler Warren to to fix that Y tight end position from day one that Tyler Warren steps on the field. And that’s what you’d expect out of a round one tight end, right? But Julian Hill went to Campbell University, arrived there as a quarterback, converted to a tight end, right? So he’s still fairly new to the position, was not drafted, right? And, you know, came to the Dolphins as an undrafted free agent in his second year, was, you know, handed the number one tight end job and was probably over his head, right? And that’s not necessarily any fault of Julian Hill. If you look at the ideal path for an undrafted free agent to make just make his way onto the field, not even starting, right? A lot of times you’re talking year two or three before those players are even getting an opportunity to step on the field and make a difference. And in Julian Hill’s case, you know, in his second year after being an undrafted free agent, we are taking him and we are asking him over and over again to execute the most difficult block for a tight end being on that front side of outside zone. We talked a little bit earlier about Phah Brown and how little he did that, right? But Julian Hill was asked that over and over again. It was it was far from perfect. I’m not not going to sit here and, you know, tell you that Julian Hill is a top half of the league tight end. Um, but I similar to Patrick Paul and the way that we talked about the flashes that he’s shown and how that’s encouraging for the future, that’s a lot of the way that I view Julian Hill. And like you said, Eric, it’s not it’s not that he’s going out there and he’s just getting getting bullied and tossed around and just physically overmatched. it it’s stuff that’s very very minor and some of those penalties weren’t necessarily on him but the the holding penalties that he had you know I think that a lot of those are not a not an ability issue right and like you said it’s very small stuff that if you know we continue to clean that up then we could have a really good tight end on our hands I think that’s the way that the staff sees it as well you know he’s got the athleticism to be able to block on the move the way that they’ve asked him to do. He hasn’t shown it yet in the NFL, but at Campbell, he did prove to be a pretty, you know, viable option as a receiver, right? And obviously would like to see that develop at some point here. Uh, but I do think that, you know, if we’re talking about anybody else, right, and we say, I’ve got this undrafted free agent entering year three and he’s got to continue to get better, right? Nobody’s gonna have a problem with that, but with it being Julian Hill, you know, it seems like a lot of people are stuck on that. And I think that sometimes you just have to to step back and remember where he came from and what we really should be expecting from him heading into year three. We spent a lot of this on tight ends. I I think this is probably going to be a pivotal position group and a group worth monitoring early on in the season to the preseason. Let’s round this out with the wide receivers. Tyreek Hill, Jaylen Wadd, obviously wide receiver one and two. Who’s going to be the slot guy? Is it going to be the secondyear guy in Malik Washington? Is it going to be Nick Westbrook? Those are two very different skill sets. Those two guys bring very different things. I do expect them to battle out for wide receiver three, wide receiver four. But on the back end, you have secondyear guy Taj Washington, uh a potential developmental guy in Eric Ezukan, who’s been on IR the last two seasons because of injury. Then you have UDFA’s like big strong physical guys in Andrew Armstrong, AJ Henning. You have a 511 uh possession type of guy and Theo East Jr. along with a speed burner and Monterey Baldwin. This is a very diverse wide receiver uh group here outside of the speeders. You have some big body guys. You have some possession guys as well. What’s the key difference in all of those guys? And who do you think’s going to actually make the roster as wide receiver five and six, coach? So, I mean, to your point regarding the slot, I think that’s going to kind of rotate depending on the situation. I don’t think that we’re going to see somebody who is just consistently in that slot position. I think that at times we’re going to see that uh the fast 21 personnel where Devon Aan is out there. I think that in, you know, more neutral and running situations that we’re going to see some Nick Westbrook A maybe a little heavier out there and then in your more traditional passing game, you know, maybe it’s more Malik Washington. Uh, you know, you mentioned Ezukanma and he’s kind of getting that that Cam Smith treatment that we talked about earlier that he’s an afterthought at this point. Like most people don’t even know that he’s still on the team. So, he’s gone from somebody that we really expected to be an important part of the offense to a complete afterthought. And if you ask most people to list those top five, six wide receivers, he’s not even in that conversation. So, that’s another one that’s got to make some noise in camp. Um, you know, looking at the the rest of the receivers, uh, the one that I like the most is probably Theo Whis. And big part of that is, you know, he’s got good speed. He’s got good size, right? He can do a little bit of everything. He can play on the perimeter, do some of the stuff that that Wadd and Tyreek can, but he can also have the size to move into that slot and do the stuff that we talked about with Westbrook in terms of being able to seal an edge on the crack toss, stuff like that. Um, so I think that he’s really going to be in that mix and the rest of the guys. I think that really comes down to special teams. Um, you know, whether whether we’re talking about, you know, that the AJ Hennings or the Monterey Baldwin Das did some returning, uh, Taj Washington probably needs to be involved there. And I think it’s going to be more than just the returner, right? Um, you know, being a returner is not going to be enough on its own to earn a roster spot. It’s going to have to be somebody that can play in the coverage units, your kick coverage, your your punt coverage, somebody that can do all of that stuff. And when you’re looking at those u, you know, those smallerbodied wide receivers, then it’s going to, you know, it’s going to come down to who is willing to to do the dirty work. You know, gone are the days for those guys that they can just get out there and run 50 routes as a wide receiver and expect that to be enough to make the roster, those those smaller receivers on the end of the roster. They’re they’re going to have to battle it out to find out who’s going to provide the most value to that special teams unit. And like you talked about earlier, Eric, right, they’re not going to invest a ton of money into those, you know, special teams units, right? So, it’s going to come down to those those cheaper guys that can, you know, make some noise with the specials. Do any of those guys bring something neither River Craigcraft, Robbie Chosen, OBJ, and Braxton Barios offered in past seasons? Eric, I mean, so the short answer is or yeah, the short answer is no, right? Because when you think of the skill sets that each of those guys brought that those guys themselves had a diversity and skill set, what I think you do get in terms of difference is how much of those things that you’re potentially getting from from certain players because I do think I mean personally when you when you look at a Nick Westbrook a for example uh I think he gives you everything that you really ideally kind of wanted in a Chase Clay poolool. Um, but actually gives you those things. Um, and then as far as as far as guys like Braxton Barios goes, I honestly again I think I look at Malik Washington and I kind of see a guy that that can be that idealized version of Braxton Berios with maybe a little bit more, you know, juice as just a regular wide receiver in terms of, you know, some of his wiggle after the catch. Uh, and I and I I mean, if I’m looking at this wide receiver room just holistically, I I am inclined to say that Nick Westbrook A is your wide receiver three right now over a guy like Malik Washington, but I kind of think that it’s more of a 3A 3B kind of situation. Uh, as as Coach Eric kind of alluded to, the other guy that I really like in the room is Andrew Armstrong. Uh, I think he’s kind of a similar case to Theo Whis. Maybe, you know, just a little bit more size. Um, not as dynamic with the ball in his hands, but I, you know, you’d be hardressed to find a guy that’s more reliable uh in terms of in terms of his hands than than Armstrong. And I think that he gives you a really solid uh presence in the in the run game as well at that wide receiver position. So, I think that they’ve got a really, really deep position this year. And I’m just going to sneak this in here at the last second for this answer. Looking at this, just looking at the offensive depth chart in general, it’s really hard to get excited for preseason football, but when you look at what you’re going to have as far as your backups, I mean, it’s going to be Jaylen Wright, it’s going to be Yi Gordon, it’s going to be Jaylen Conurs and Malik Washington and Andrew Armstrong. You know, maybe I’m just a sicko, but that I I find that I find that to be a lot of fun. So, we’ll end it off with this for um for the show. Who’s your UDFA to watch throughout training camp and pre-season to not just make the roster, but to actually contribute by October time? I got you guys on that one. I was ready to answer the the make the roster, but the contribute part. Um, all right. So, I got one for you and it’s not going to be contribute maybe in the way that you, you know, were framing the question. Uh, but I’m going to go with Eugene Asante at linebacker. Um, you know, I think that the top four linebackers are pretty much set in Brooks, Dodson, Gay, and Britt. But as we talked about with those bottom of the roster wide receivers, uh you know, the if they keep a fifth linebacker, then that’s going to be a primary special teams guy. It’s going to be somebody that’s uh you know, on every special teams, your your kick return, your kickoff, your, you know, punt punt return, everything. And I think that’s a role that Eugene Assante can fill really well. Um, I think that that could be the role that allows him to push Channing Tindall off the roster. Um, so, you know, maybe it’s not a a starter in offensive or defensive um perspective, but I think that Eugene Asante is a player to keep an eye on as somebody who could make his way onto the roster as a core special teams guy and be playing on, you know, almost every special teams that the team has. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, so if we’re talking if we’re talking UDFAs here as far as um guys that can really make a difference for the Dolphins, I’m I’m going to go with my guy BJ Adams in in the cornerback room because I I mean, you look at just what’s in front of him and it of all the UDFAs or of all the positions on the team, that’s the clearest path to be able to get some actual real playing time. Um, now again, there’s there’s a lot of guys to go through at that spot, but there’s really, at least on paper, not a ton of established guys. And we’ve already talked about some of the concerns with a guy like Cam Smith and, you know, his injuries and questions about, you know, how committed he is to keeping himself healthy. I think that that just you when when I’m answering a question like this, I’m really just looking for opportunity and I think a guy like Adams has the opportunity and I think he has the talent um you know especially in what he’s going to be asked to do this year um to contribute early in the season if if he does get that opportunity. All right, folks. Thank you so much for sticking with us over here at Scouting the Finance. Stick with us here on the 3 hours per carry podcast network. Also part of the five reason sports network. Actual real life training camp starts Saturday, July 26. Back together weekend. I will be there along with Alfredo Artiaga, Coach Eric. I hope to see you guys there sometime soon as well. And it’s it’s going to be fun to see real real live actual football uh as we get closer to preseason and the regular season. As always y’all, fins up, baby. I mean, not fins up, baby. They changed it. Go Fins.

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