The Miami Dolphins' flurry of moves has continued into Wednesday and general manager Chris Grier met with the media to break down all of the action and decisions. A wide receiver was added off the waiver wire, the team chose to cut an OL to make room and the names on the practice squad have started to become known. Why did the Dolphins make the decisions that they did?
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It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. This episode is brought to you by FX's American sports story, Aaron Hernandez. From executive producer Ryan Murphy comes the first installment of FX's American sports story. The limited series charts the rise and fall of NFL superstar Aaron Hernandez and explores the disparate strands of his identity, his family, his career, his suicide, and their legacy in sports and American culture. FX's American sports story, Aaron Hernandez, all new Tuesdays on FX. Stream on Hulu. I love five-hour energy. After a big win for my favorite team, I love diving into the tape. But after hours of making content, I can need a boost. There's nothing like a watermelon five-hour energy shot to make sure I finish the job. With zero sugar and a convenient portable size, it's the perfect pick-me-up for the getting stuff done. If you go to five-hourenergy.com, that's the number five-hourenergy.com and get some five-hour energy product today. 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I got my loan done with Steve Carter. Who else? Richard Gordon emailed me and said, "Thank you so much for promoting InterCap Lending." We used them earlier this year. Steve was amazing. And Steve is amazing. Call him at 385-885-3885-8528. Tell him locked on sent you, InterCap Lending, and MLS, number 19-0-465. For more information, visit intercaplending.com. Miami Dolphins general manager Chris Greer briefed the media on the 53-man roster, transactions coming, the practice squad, and more. We're breaking all of that down here today on Lockdown Dolphins. You are locked on Dolphins. Your daily Miami Dolphins podcast, part of the locked on podcast network. Your team every day. All right, Maya, may welcome to another episode of Lockdown Dolphins. It is your team every day here on the Lockdown Network. I'm your host, Kyle Krabs, a lifelong Miami Dolphins fan, host of Lockdown Dolphins co-host of Lockdown NFL Scouting, author of Touchdown Miami, NFL draft lead over at the 30-13. You can find all of our shows here on the Lockdown Network on YouTube, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast, because it is your team every day. We don't just say it. We live it here on the Lockdown Network. Today's episode of Lockdown Dolphins is brought to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use code Lockdown NFL for $20 off your first purchase, terms to apply. Download Game Time today. What time is it? It's Game Time. Now, the Dolphins making some moves here, finalizing members of the practice squad. They were awarded a waiver claim player, which is really exciting for me because it gets to tap into some of the draft-nic background that I had as somebody who's worked in the draft space for quite some time. It's a player as familiar with. I thought I had a really excitable skill set, having a chance today to review his pre-season tape over the last two years. So let's start with this. We don't have to cancel the season. The Dolphins got awarded a wide receiver off waivers. We don't just have four wide receivers anymore, and I know that was a big point of concern. Now it sounds like Eric Azucanma is back on the practice squad. Barry Jackson reporting that he's a no-member of the practice squad and their Dolphins currently practicing as of today, getting into the swing of things. The Dolphins were also able to add former second round pick DS Gridge, a wide receiver from Seattle, to the practice squad, so you've got a couple options there. But the add to the 53 is the one that excites me because it's a player that's in the same mold, in my opinion, as Azucanma. And you should get some more competition for that role within your wide receiver. His name is Grant Dubose, and he played his college football at the University of Charlotte, North Carolina. It's a six foot two, 201 pound wide receiver from Montgomery, Alabama. He's 23 years old, came out of the NFL Combine at 6, 2 and 1/2, 201 pounds, 4, 5, 7, so not the fastest guy, but he had a 10-5 standing broad jump, explosive, vertical ability, and a 6, 8, 9, 3 cone, which is a very fluid time in that agility drill for a member of the wide receiver position at 6, 2 and 1/2. Very productive during his time at Charlotte as well. He finished his final season with 64 receptions, 792 yards, and nine touchdowns on 106 targets for Charlotte, not necessarily most well known for their prolific offense. And he, his reeling college showcases wins slants, fades, goes, posts, a lot of the same stuff that I thought Eric Azucanma showed on tape at Texas Tech. But here's the kicker, and here's where I really like the ad. Where's he been the last two years? He's been on the Green Bay Packers, who had a very robust group of wide receivers. It's Christian Watson, Romeo Dobbs, and Jayden Reed, and Malik Heath, and there's more. They had a bunch of young guys in the ranks there for Green Bay. He doesn't make the team there. There's no shame in that. He was a seventh round draft pick in 2023 for the Packers, but who's the head coach in Green Bay? He's not the floor. What coaching tree is Matt LaFloor off of? The Kyle Shanahan tree. This is a player who spent the last two off seasons getting familiar with the lingo, getting familiar with the language, getting familiar with the vocabulary of this offensive system. And I'll tell you what, this dude plays his nuts off. He plays hard. He plays physical. He blocks. He's a big catch point bully. He'll high point the ball. You can watch his touchdown reel at Charlotte. Watch him. Mossing guys jump and catch the ball over the back. Now you got a little bit of a culture shock when you played against South Carolina. But I get to tell you, he's got a touchdown catch against the University of Maryland. And then the past two years in the preseason, he plays hard. Peter Bukowski, the host of Lockdown Packers texted me and said, "I don't kind of mad you guys got the bills. We're hoping we're going to back and practice squat." And the film backs up. He blocks, he plays punt return, kick return, special teams, dirty work kind of player with a different skill set to the wide receiver room than what you have. We were looking and hoping for Eric as a comma to take that role and maybe he still will as a player on the practice squad who can get elevated in playing games. But Grant DeBose has more competition for that room and getting down on the waiver claim, I like the methodology of this quite a bit for my end. Quite a bit. I'm a fan of this player. I had him as a mid day three player coming out of Charlotte when he came out in 2023. Now the corresponding move made some people not too happy. The dolphins release an offensive line. And it wasn't the one that you thought it was going to be. And it wasn't the one that I would have chosen to part ways with to make room on the 53 for Grant DeBose. Chris Greer does his podium session, he talks about Grant DeBose. And he's like, "Hey, as a heads up, we just released Jack Driscoll. There's a numbers game for us, great kid, worked hard." But they kept 10 offensive linemen. So now you've got your four tackles, Toronto Armstead, Austin, Jackson, Kendall, and Patrick Paul. Four. And I've got five interior guys. And it's Aaron Brewer, giving me the team starting center. It's Lee Meikeberg, it's Robert Jones, it's Lester Cotton, and it's undrafted rookie free agent Andrew Meyer. We're going to talk a little bit more about that room, Chris Greer gave a quote or two about that offensive line group. And I think there's some context clues about why they are operating the way that they are. We'll get into some of that next here on the Steps to the Light on the Dolphins. Stick with us. It is almost time for the season opener. 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Again, create an account redeem code locked on NFL, L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N-N-F-L for $20 off download game time today. Time is it? It's game time. Allow me to go on the record and state. As I know, some people think I give a very rosy view of the team, and I try to explore the why as compared to obsessing over the what. I would not have made this decision. This is not the player that I would have cut. I graded Jack Driscoll and thought he graded very favorably in all three preseason games. So much so that I thought Jack Driscoll and Lester Cotton were the only two players on the interior offensive line who graded as a net positive player on a person at basis in each of the three preseason games. They obviously feel different. Some of this is Andrew Meyer and the long-term potential of him as a player. So much so that Chris Greer was asked about Andrew Meyer and said this is a player that we didn't want to lose, and we kind of want to see it through with and see what the final product looks like because between Mike and Butch and Frank, it's very apparent. This guy's got a little something, and I could totally respect that. I could respect keeping a player on the 53 because you know the numbers game that happens. We talked about it yesterday with Elijah Higgins and then applying that lesson to Patrick and Morris, sixth round pick, and we'll get him. Nobody's going to claim him. Well, he got clean. Meanwhile, Elijah Higgins sitting on the Cardinals depth chart is the number two tied up. That's worked out well for Miami. They land Julian Hill seems to be some promise there. Some promising development for him as a player, but that's neither here nor there. You don't want to lose Andrew Meyer, but he's a player that plays center, at least for the time being, consider him a position exclusive player at the center position. You have Rob Jones who can play either guard spot. You have Lester Cotton who can play either guard spot. You have Liam Eichenberg who can play all five spots on the offensive line at a competent level. You obviously have the Avon Brewer, who's your center, but has played guard in the past. Not that you want to do that with him as a player, but when you have four tackles and you run deep with four tackles and two of those guys, three of those guys, really technically all four, but three of those guys are really tackle exclusive players. It does put you in a numbers by. When I try to compartmentalize the offensive line into two separate groups. I look at the tackle room and I look at the interior group. I think I genuinely believe Miami has an upper echelon offensive tackle room one through four in the NFL. I genuinely believe that. The interior group, well, I think you could look at the entire offensive line really with this. They drafted Patrick Paul with a second run pick, premium pick. They did so a year in advance of when they really need him as a player because Kendall Lamb is entering into his final year. He's declared he's going to retire. Who knows what happens with Toronto Armstead, but time on task in the system. They bring in Avon Brewer and everybody else, they bring in Jack Driscoll. Nice utility player doesn't make the cut and they're leaning into time on task in the system and I do think Lester Cotton's gotten better. So much so if you asked me in March and you asked me, hey, you can pick one guy to open up a spot on your 90 man roster for the off season who you pick. I had to probably pick Lester Cotton, to be completely honest, but I think he's graded well. And that was something that Chris were talking about. He says, you know, you guys, we have this conversation every year and it's fair because it is a question that exists. But you do talk about improvement and I can't sit here and tell you with a straight face that I don't think Lester Cotton hasn't looked markedly better in the preseason. Rob Jones looked good in training camp practices. I don't think he played particularly one of the preseason games, but you've got player development there with Rob Jones. You've got player development there with Lester Cotton. I'm not saying that they are high level answers. Who knows what Liam Ikeberg because he's gotten pushed into play center again. Can we take Lee, Mike and Bergen, kick him back over with the understanding that Aaron Brewer is going to be back at some point and get him reps at guard and let him settle in at guard for the next week and a half before you start the season and figure out who's going to play that spot. So the ideology, the thought process, whether you buy ins with it or not, is there's a built body of work that they are able to look at and bank on and that's why it doesn't surprise me that their waiver claim was somebody who's been in the system. It matters. I thought what was it? Andrew Whitworth had a great, had a great quote about team building. Let's see if I can find it. But it really resonated with me and I try to apply some of it to what we're experiencing Miami and though Andrew Whitworth was debating Rams fans about the Rams and training Ernest Jones, their linebacker and they traded him for a five and sent us six and Ernest Jones away. They gave him away, something one way shape or form they were ready to move on by being a good player. Andrew Whitworth said this, "It's not just attributes and trade values, collection isn't the only thing to winning. That's a bar. That's an absolute bar for the team building process across the league." And Miami's ideology with who they're choosing to covet is another emphasis of that. It's not just collecting talent, there's chemistry, there's understanding, there's mental acuity, there's having seen things before knowing what the guy next he's going to do. And some of that's pretty hard with an offensive lineman at center. That's a new player. That guy's the cornerstone of it all, right? But to compound that, particularly, I think it was Adam Beasley did his story and talked about like the five regrettable decisions or five mulligans or whatever for the offense off-season, they talked about not drafting an interior offensive lineman early in the draft and referenced Patrick Paul in the second round and they should have gotten one of those other guys. For me, I look at what they're doing and why they're doing it, and again, this is about the why. I'm not justified because again, I would not have cut Jack Driscoll. He would have been the one that I would have gotten rid of. But the thought process appears to be, sure, you could have drafted a rookie, but then that rookie has never played in the system before and leaning on them to be an upgraded an answer. And I never thought the Dolphins didn't have 9, 10 NFL roster caliber offensive linemen at their disposal. It's been the ceiling of the group. So what's the most direct way to get an improved ceiling or an improved floor, I should say, of your performance? Is it to take a rookie that's coming from the big 12 and has played against drop eight coverage his entire career and has never done this? Or is it to use the working knowledge that you have of the guys that you have and the experience that you have and the understanding of this scheme? It's about urgency and angles off the ball and creating overplay and attacking overplay. It's not just three yards on the cloud it does and everybody's asking me, are they going to get better at running the ball and a third and short? I don't know, guys. I don't know. But I can tell you what they're not going to do a whole lot of is just line up in eye formation and run full back dive or half back power in the gas. It's not how the offense is built to operate. It's just not. And this isn't just the front office. Mike McDaniel is in on this too. He's brought the offensive ideology to the Dolphins. Right? And the results? I'm sorry. For all the questions that exist, the results speak for themselves. This is what this offense is intended to be. It's a pillar of what their core beliefs are. And it's not not having good players in there. So you got to understand and have experienced and endured the system and I'm doing a big research project on 12 personnel. But what I'll give you is this, over the last two years, I think we're talking about the wrong thing over the last two seasons when the Dolphins have ran the ball on third and fourth and four or less out of 12 personnel, which is one running back and two tight ends. What do you think their conversion rate is since 2022 on third and fourth down and four or less out of 12 personnel when they run the ball? What conversion percentage do you think they have for getting first downs? I'll wait for dramatic effect. It's 100% of the time. You put a second tight end on the field, you add an extra gap. You create more horizontal stress. You create more spacings, the wide zone system puts more responsibility on the backs to use their vision and play off the blocks of the guys in front of them to make them right and get the needed yardage 100% of the time on third and fourth and fourth and four or less out of 12 personnel, they're converting for first downs or touchdowns depending on where the ball, the ball snapped at. So you want to get a more direct pathway to better running the football on third and fourth and short, play 12 personnel. That conversion rate out of 11 personnel, it's less than 40%. Think about that and ask yourself, are we worried about the right thing or are we worried about the wrong thing? There's a whole lot more to that can of worms that we're going to open up this week on the show. And again, I would like to impress that Jack Driscoll would have not been the player that I've been far away with off of this offensive line group. That's neither here nor there. I'm not responsible for making the decision and if it doesn't work out well, we'll talk about it. Although I have a feeling we probably won't talk about it because nobody talks about how Germana Luminor was here and then gets cut and goes on to be a quality starter for the Raiders and then gets a big time payday from the Giants in free agency three years later. Nobody talks about Germana Luminor. They hit Germana Luminor or can't, they cut it but nobody talks about it. So maybe we will talk about it. Maybe we won't. Maybe we'll just remember to keep complaining about the same thing over and over every single day. I don't know. Early practice, squad impressions, some names that have popped up that we know are a part of the mix. We're getting into that next round this episode of lockdown dolphins. Make sure you stick with us. This post from Barry Jackson, dolphins known practice squad guys, Erica Zucanma, Nick Needham, Hayden Roussey, linebacker Daquan Jackson, defensive lineman Jonathan Harris, safety Jordan, Jordan Colbert, quarterback, Tim Boyle, Chris Greer revealed that in his presser with the media, defensive tackle, Nick, Juan Jones, former Seattle wide receiver, Duane Escrich. That report came from Andrew Schultz or Jordan Schultz, excuse me. So Tim Boyle, experience again, within the system, it's a point of emphasis as the dolphins look to get the right ancillary pieces around them. Tim Boyle was most recently with the Jets in 2023, was in Green Bay, 2019, 2020, then to Detroit. He started five career games. He's owned five in those games with four touchdowns and 12 interceptions. The practice squad quarterback though, I think this is worth noting why it's mattered or why it matters, I think in my opinion. His first two years in the league came with the Matt LaFlur system in 19 and 20. This player, his value is not if the dolphins need him to play games. If you're going to be on your third string quarterback, you're probably screwed and up you to a creek without a paddle anyway. But the understanding of the system, having somebody familiar with the system coming into the mix, allows you to help with the preparation for your starter. And that's kind of my working assumption of why Tim Boyle, who Chris Gris said, Mike McDaniel and Darryl Bevel, they've been watching quarterbacks. He stood out to them. They liked them. They bring them into the mix. Okay. If he's going to play, you're a big trouble, either way, right? Not too worried about it. We're seeing, as Eric, as we come back, as we previously talked about, great to know that Nick Needham is back with the practice squad. I think that's a great tenured player for the dolphins to have amongst their ranks. Hayden Russi, developmental tight end, made a big fan out of me throughout this process in the preseason. Jonathan Harris, I thought had an unfortunate showing against Tampa Bay, but by and large, had a pretty steady stretch of practices and preseason games to start training camp. I think that's a player who is a nice insurance ad for them along the defensive interior because they went a little lean there, if we're being honest. Nick Juan Jones, former Michigan State player, pretty intriguing talent that was most recently in Arizona. He spent some time with Tennessee, played meaningful snaps in 2021. I don't have high expectations for him being an impact player, but he's six foot three, 315 pounds kind of fits that same body type of the Neville Gallimorz of the world and Neville Gallimor has since departed and was on a plane as reports were this morning and signed with a Rams for their 53 ran roster. So that's kind of where we stand right now. There's a few more reactions of things to happen. We could talk about Odell Beckham and Chris Greer kind of saying what's been pretty widely speculated Odell thought he was ready, wanted to be active and ready to go at the start of the season. The team put him down for a long term play. We'll see if that follows through and he's activated after four weeks. They could theoretically open his practice window after week one. He could practice for up to three weeks or start your process and then you either have to revert to reserves for the year or have to come off and be on the active roster. So we'll see what comes of that, but Chris Greer did allude to Odell being pretty close and wanting to come off. I've kind of heard some murmurs and suggestions that that may have been the case that they had considered activating him recently and ultimately decided we're going to plan long term. And again, it's a bummer. I think it really changes a whole lot other than what your 21 personnel looks like early in the season, not particularly. And I do think they run more 12. They're very 21 heavy as general as far as having a full back on the field, particularly on first down. But I think you'll see more 12 with the addition of John Smith. I think you'll see more fast 21 with two running backs on the field with them on Achan and then getting him involved in the passing game. I think there's plenty of ways that you can distribute those 15 offensive snaps in which you need a dynamic third weapon and can get a guy in the ball in his hands and let him make something happen if it's not going to 10 or 17. I will let everything manifest and be known probably before we get another show in. I'll have something tomorrow morning. We'll see what reports come out the rest of the day today and we'll react to it when we get the chance. All crabs. Appreciate you guys for checking out the show. You can keep it locked in right here on Lockdown Dolphins. It is your team. Every day. I appreciate you guys for checking out the show. Hope to see you again soon. Go Fins! A Prime Members. You can listen to this Lockdown podcast ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. (upbeat music)
The Miami Dolphins' flurry of moves has continued into Wednesday and general manager Chris Grier met with the media to break down all of the action and decisions. A wide receiver was added off the waiver wire, the team chose to cut an OL to make room and the names on the practice squad have started to become known. Why did the Dolphins make the decisions that they did?
