transcript

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[00:02] It's the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day.

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[00:10] Hey everyone, this is Ross Jackson, one of the hosts of the Locked On Podcast Network. Thank you for being here, because your support means everything. And if you're looking for another way to support the show that you love, while getting something awesome in return, check out the Every Dayer Club. You get ad free episodes of your favorite Locked On show, access to a members-only group chat for fans of your team, and you can even jump into the national chats and talk about whatever's happening across the league. Tap the Every Dayer Club link in the show notes to learn more.

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[00:42] Chris Johnson, you sir, are a Miami Dolphin.

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[00:51] You are Locked On Dolphins, your daily Miami Dolphins podcast, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day.

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[01:02] All right, Miami, welcome to another episode of Locked On Dolphins. It is your team every day here on the Locked On Network. I'm your host, Kyle Crabbs, lifelong Miami Dolphins fan, host of Locked On Dolphins, co-host of Locked On Dolphins scouting, author of Touchdown Miami on Substack, NFL staff, writer for A to Z Sports. Special welcome to each and every one of you. Checking in here on a Friday morning as the Dolphins drafted cornerback, Chris Johnson from San Diego State last night, talking about the pick. Today's episode of Locked On Dolphins is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5 and get $250 in bonus bets. If that bet wins, head to fanduel.com to get started. Dolphins made their first pick at 12, moving back. Made their second pick at 27, moving up. So, let's talk about this pick that the Dolphins or this trade first that the Dolphins executed. They traded 30 and 90 for 27 and 138. So, the important thing with this trade for me was that the Dolphins didn't compromise their draft capital volume, right? You did well for yourself with the trade back with Dallas to pick up two extra picks. So, now you're at 13. If you're gonna move up, it needs to be a swap, right? As compared to going from 13 back to 12 or whatever else, you still have 13 picks. You've made two, two of them are in the bag. You still got 11 to go. And the fact that when you consider what the Dolphins do have at their disposal, and I want to use the A to Z Sports Mock Draft Simulator, because I want to read through exactly what we have here. There's 43, 75, now also still 87. You trade 90, you have 94. 130, 138, 151, 187, 180, 227, and 238. That's what's left for the Dolphins today with picks and tomorrow. I would not be surprised if at some point here you did take two of these day three picks and push back up, not necessarily back into the top 100. You've got a lot here, and if you want more, get greedy and move back from 43 if you don't like the board that's there. But if you told me that they took 138 and 151 or 177 and they paired those two picks to go up to the top of the fourth round, I'd be on board with something like that. Like I do think that you have pooled enough now from a volume perspective that I'm totally fine if you were to choose to go get a guy that slips through the cracks tonight into tomorrow morning when day three starts. So that's kind of how I look at what you have left. 43, 75, 87, 94, 130, 138, 151, 177, 180, 227, 238. I know some people are disappointed that you don't have 90 anymore. You still have 87 and 94. Like, you still have a lot of ability to wiggle and you got four picks on Friday night. Three of them in a 20-pick stretch. I like where we're at going into tonight. Now to go up three spots, I don't necessarily know who Miami felt they needed to jump to go get. Chris Johnson, I know Buffalo moved out at 28. I reached out to Joe Marino last night and I texted him and I said, hey, was Buffalo looking? Chris Johnson, they moved out. After Miami moved up in front of him and he said no. I don't think it's necessarily, oh, we snipe to the bills for Chris Johnson or whatever. Obviously, the bills had already moved down. I think the bills moved down was probably a by-product of what they traded for DJ Moore. So Buffalo went back twice and they picked up 125. Then from Buffalo, they picked up 167 and also picked up 69th instead of 91st. So I think Buffalo is just running their own race to restock their draft capital. So I don't know that you necessarily sniped the bills. But what I can probably assure you is either Miami felt that they had to or Miami heard that they needed to work the phones because somebody else. And sometimes it's about playing defense when you do trades. Sometimes you're on the board and you find out somebody's calling up to 27 and you think it might be for your guy. Even though you're at 30 and you'd be content to stay there and pick him. But if you like him that much, you could play defense. And the Dolphins, if that were the case, they're insuring a skipper. Oh, just stay and pick him. Well, what happens if somebody else goes and gets him? Right. So I don't know how much of what motivating factor was in play for the Dolphins to facilitate a trade to get Chris Johnson. But nevertheless, they put some eggs in this basket. They were more invested than a standard draft pick because you went up to get a guy. And the number one thing that I'll tell you from all the folks that I talked to about Chris Johnson as an addition for the Dolphins is that his football character, his way he goes about his business, the way he tries to better himself as a player, that is all perceived to be off the charts. It was a big part of like there was a significant push the last two weeks for Chris Johnson to be a first round player in this year's draft, despite playing at San Diego State. We'll talk about the tape in just a minute. But that's what I'm most excited about for Chris Johnson as a corner who checks the boxes that you've been looking for for a lot of other players. But the fact that this is a DB, Jeff Hafley's specialty area, and somebody who by all accounts from the coaches and scouts is an A plus plus player with how he is in the building, how he prepares, how he trains. It's a good guy to have a marking investment at the head coach's specialty position. I like that element of this a lot. We're going to get into some more of the Chris Johnson pick, the fit with Hafley, what's next. On the other side of the break, make sure you guys stick with us. NFL draft is here where preparation meets opportunity and every decision matters. It's all about being ready when your moment comes. 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The app makes it easy to follow the action with player stats, trends, matchups, all in one place. And during the playoffs, that extra insight really matters when you're looking for stars, role players or key moments. It just makes the entire playoff experience that much more engaging from start to finish. Head to fanduel.com to get started. FanDuel, play your game. Do consider this your invitation to check out the Every Dayer Club as well. You can find the join link in the show description below. I had a chance to meet some of you guys Every Dayers last night in Regatta Grove for the Dolphins Fan Draft Party. It was great to meet you guys. Everybody who came up said hello. Took some pictures, chatting up. It was great to meet all you guys last night who came out and stopped by. I appreciate each and every single one of you guys for listening to this program because it's you folks who give me an opportunity to come down and do the draft party. So you can find the join link, get ad free episodes of the program, access to the Locked On Community Discord. You can find the Every Day Air Club link in the show description below. Chris Johnson, cornerback, San Diego State. 21 years old, will turn 22 on November 9th. At the NFL Combine, checked in at 6003, so 6 foot and 3 eighths of an inch, 193 pounds, 30 and 5 eighths inch arms, has a 6 feet, 4 and 3 eighths inch wingspan, ran a 4'4 flat in the 40 yard dash, with a 38 inch vertical and a 10 foot, 7 inch broad jump and 17 reps for the bench press. That is a hefty amount for a corner, first of all. But when you look at it from a size perspective, when you look at it from a historical context perspective, the height is 61st percentile, the weight is 53rd percentile. The arm length's not super long, but when you watch and play, you do see a player that has good physicality. This is for me, just another extension of this kind of player, this is not a 5'9 corner, and that's no shade at the Angel LePonts, who's an absolute dog, right? But they're looking for a certain body type. Six feet plus, 190 plus, he's pushing 195, so he's a thicker player for a corner, right? And he's got good physicality. John Rick Sullivan, last night, talked about the production mattering for both of these players, and the production being something that... Think about some of the players that have been mocked at the Dolphins in this buildup, and they're players that have been a little bit more projection players as compared to... There's some accolades with both of these guys. Proctor was a consensus All-American in 2025. Chris Johnson was Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year in 2025, and second team All-American in 2025. So both guys with All-American honors, both guys with awards and accolades in that regard, and then you talk about just a measurable production like Box Corp production. Chris Johnson had a big leap this past year, where he had four interceptions for San Diego State, and two of the four were returned for touchdowns. So two pick sixes this past year. Some of the stats that I like the most, and there's a whole bunch of sexy stats about like passer rating allowed and it was 19 or 16 this past year. He led the league in pick sixes and interception yards in 2025 with the four interceptions, 146 interception yards, two return touchdowns, and additional nine PBUs. The leap that he made this year, because coming into 2025 and the three seasons prior, he had two interceptions and he had five passes defense. Last year alone, four interceptions, nine passes defense. But some of the stats that are most impressive for Chris Johnson aren't the passer rating allowed, although 16 this past year on just like number one amongst all corners in FBS with 30, 40 targets or more. It was crazy good numbers. It's stuff like the missed tackle rate. Right? I said this on the panel last night with Xavier and he nodded his head. He's like, Fax, that's exactly what it is. Every offensive coordinator comes into an offensive install and they say, we're going to make the corners tackle in this game. We're going to challenge, we want to get the ball out in the perimeter and we want to run the ball and we're going to try to get these corners to have to tackle us because we don't think they can tackle all our skill players. Chris Johnson, exceptionally consistent with what his tackling looks like across his four-year body of work in which he's played almost 2,000 snaps for San Diego State. You know what the missed tackle rate is for Chris Johnson? A corner with 5% missed tackle rate is ridiculous. That's an excellent, excellent metric. You're usually looking at corners and DBs, and if you're saying if it's single digits, it's good. Like you generally accept 10-12% as just a reality of life. You got these guys are playing in space. You're a space athlete. There's a lot of grass you have to cover. It's a hard position in buying to play in. So this is a guy that plays the run, but doesn't just play the run. He plays the run with an enthusiasm and with an effectiveness that I really like the edge that that brings. Now, is he a perfect player? I don't know, but I just want to tell you guys why I like the pick, right? I think Chris, for him to continue to level up, like there is obviously a level of competition conversation that needs to happen here. Where playing in San Diego State, he did go down to the senior bowl. I thought he was really solid throughout the course of the week, but there is a level of competition that changes when you play at San Diego State versus when you go to the NFL and you're covering corners. Quinn Yaw Mitchell went from Toledo to the NFL a few years back and was sensational as rookie season. It's not to say like it guarantees that there's going to be a regression or that he's not going to be an impactful rookie and you're going to have to be patient with him and yada yada all that stuff that everybody don't want to hear. But it is a reality of the transition that you do acknowledge. Like, yeah, he grew up in 2025 at San Diego State from like an impact corner perspective and now he's going to get a fresh chance to test it. But he doesn't have great length, right? Like he's physically tall, but like the anatomical length, like the arm span and how you when you're playing in phase, what that allows you to do and play through the frame of receivers. That's not the marquee element of what he is as a player, right? I think some people thought he was going to run slower than what he did with the 4-4 flat. So some of that perception comes back to what's your time, what's your functional speed look like? And I think you see a lot of natural acceleration, like when the ball is in the air and we've got to track the football and we're closing. But there are some times where I think transitionally, like if he's playing soft press or if he's playing in the contact window and then he tries to flip and carry, like the transitions I think are an element for Chris to continue to get more technically refined. And I think that can help with some of those transitions where you see like more stickiness playing in phase and staying in the hip. But he does a really nice job of like once a receiver goes vertical on him and releases outside and he's got to flip and turn and carry. And if the eyes go back for the receiver, he can go back and locate and then accelerate. But even if he's getting into a recovery position, I like the way that he's really aggressive pursuing that inside hip when stuff's going vertical on him. So I don't think he's like a liability for vertical plays and explosive plays, but just when you watch some of the transitions, it felt like that was for me where some of the perception around the speed question came from. I also think from an off perspective because he is a bigger, denser corner, right? Like if you were 195 and 5'10, that's an exceptionally dense corner. But when you're 6'1.5, you do have a little bit higher of a center of gravity. So, if you're playing off and stuff is happening in front of your face, and you got to T-step and put your foot in the ground, or you got to catch yourself and drive forward, I think he's sufficient there, but that's not like a special element of his game versus some of the other quicker footed corners in the class. But other than that, he's a really sturdy player, like effective in the contact window. I think he initially mirrors very, very well. Like if you're going to line him up across in somebody's face and you're going to have to disrupt the timing of the route, when it comes time to flip and turn his hips, that's where I think there's room for growth. But the foot slide and the physicality to work within that contact window disrupt, I think is clean. The tackling is consistent. The football character is good. I think he has some flexibility to play in the slot or on the perimeter and that's I think important with the ambiguity that you want to have as a secondary to have guys that can go in different spots and then do rotations into different landmarks. I think he's versatile enough in that regard. Was he my personal top rated corner on the board? No. My board doesn't matter. I give you my assessments to tell you how I would do it and how I see the players. I like Chris Johnson. Chris Johnson for me was, what did I have? I had him, let's see, 38th on my board and then I got him at 27. The tags that I had, he was one of the players. Oh, this is a fun nugget. I like that we got here with this. Over on Touchdown Miami, I did a collection of publishes, NFL draft prospects who got the biggest scheme fit boosts for the Dolphins. Tied for second on the list, cornerback Chris Johnson. So while we didn't necessarily get the proctor filters, right versus what the Dolphins were looking for in an offensive lineman and a tone setter up front, this was one of 300 players. There were four prospects in this class that received a bump of two points or higher on my filters that I put on. So, you know, okay, we misread the proctor situation, and that's an informative projection and a selection for what matters to them. Right. We got Chris Johnson. It was Chris Johnson, Colton Hood, Keldrick Falk and offensive lineman Caleb Tiernan from Northwestern were the four players out of 300 whose dolphin specific grade for me was two points higher or better than what their all 32 team grade was. Johnson is similar to Hood. This is straight off of Touchdown Miami on Substack. Johnson is similar to Hood in the areas where he draws extra support for his grade, but he's also heralded by some as a marquee culture guy in the class. Johnson is reportedly a consummate professional with sensational coverage in 2025, was the Mount West Defensive Player of the Year and earned All-American honors plus fresh ball production. I'll take that. That's a nice notch in the belt. And his player boosts came from culture, size fit for position, RAS boost or relative athleticism boost. So there you go. That's the Chris Johnson pick. What's next? We're going to talk about it in the other side of the break. Make sure you guys stick with us. Today's episode of Locked On Dolphins, and this week is brought to you by the NFL Draft. The NFL Draft with every pick being a tradable moment on Kalshi. We now know who went number two between David Bailey and Arvel Reese. But you have the chance to set a position on the 33rd pick. Does it get traded? Who goes in that spot? They trade every opportunity and decision on Kalshi as a life market against your peers, meaning there's no house. And as the probabilities change, you can buy in and out of your position, trade the draft pick, the game and more on Kalshi. For a limited time, download the Kalshi app. Use code LOCKEDON to get $10 when you trade 10 Kalshi on anything. Let me, spontaneously now, we talked about Chris Johnson. We talked about Caden Proctor on the last show. That happened, what, that was at like 1 a.m.? This one's, I did, I decided to go to bed for a few hours, so it's 5 a.m. now. I want to do a A to Z sports, let's do a day two mock, spontaneously here. Now, you know, we'll do a four, we'll do rounds two, three and four, the start of day three. Just kind of see who's on the board. So A to Z sports, and I know a lot of the simulators do this, this really cool feature that they do, where they lock the first 32 picks and they give you a chance to start at 33 now. And that's what we have. So I just did the, the sim to 43 and some names that ended up making it to 43 include Chris Bell, wide receiver, Zion Young, pass rusher, Christian Miller, defensive tackle, Gabe Ackes, edge rusher, AJ. Halsey, safety. That's a collection of guys that if you told me they picked any one of those guys, there were some other players that made it too. Colton Hoods here, Pregnanz here, Stowers is here. It was a pretty nice little trade on Stukes is here. We have, we're gonna have a chance to have a really good football player at 43. Now, I'll go with, let's go with Gabe Ackes, who's another one, like checks more of the boxes. He's another 21 year old. He's another RAS boost guy. I think he's another one of those culture energy guys. So we're trying to apply some things that matter to Sully and company. And we're going to try to apply them to these couple of picks. So I'll go Gabe Ackes, PassRusher at 43 and now at 75. Some wide receivers. I think this is a great spot for a wide receiver. I also would like to get a safety in the boat. I have Jalen Kilgore, who feels like it. Let's go Jalen Kilgore at 75. Get some size in that secondary. Now you'd be talking Chris Johnson at 6 foot and a half, 193 to go with Kilgore, who's a 6 foot, 210 pound safety. I like that fit. Wide receiver, I'm hoping for and we promised we were gonna make a little run on wide receivers if we're Jeff Hafley. Bryce Lance, Jacobi Lane, Brennan Thompson, Dejaun Stribling is here in this mock, but I don't think he's gonna be here at 87 predictively in real life. So I'm gonna go with, I guess I'm gonna have to go with a tight end. I'm gonna get like Oscar Delps here. Let me draft Oscar Delp. So that way I feel like I got a splash player. And then I still have the wide receivers, Dion Burks, explosive separator. We'll get a guy with a little bit more size, but Burks is a 5'10, 190, 4'3, guy. We'll go Dion Burks at 94. So I'm gonna do the picks at, what is it now? 130 and 138 to finish here in the fourth round. Let's see, Markel Bell's on the board. Col Payton, Carson Beck on the board. Vijay Payne is still on the board. Maybe I'll do the double dip at safety with Vijay Payne. And then let's go, let's see here. We could go PassRusher, offensive swing tackle or another wide receiver. Austin Barber from Florida as another offensive tackle. So this would be Caden Proctor, Chris Johnson. Those two are in the boat. Gabe Ackes, Jalen Kilgore, Oscar Delp, Dionne Burks, Vijay Payne, Austin Barber. Just kind of threw it together spontaneously off the cuff. You can very quickly see how this group is going to fill up this roster and a whole bunch of this roster. A young guy is going to play. They are going to play a lot. It's a rough to a good start. I like the tonality of both players. Last night, they weren't, oh my God, this is my top-rank player. Let me do backflips because I was right, blah, blah, blah. They have their own criteria that's marginally different than what mine is. And I think they got, the reality of the proctor pick is that you're worth what somebody's going to pay for you, right? Would I have gone a different direction? Based off of what I know, sure. They certainly would have been left on the outside looking in if they did not go offensive linemen. Now they might get, they might have been in a position to draft Chase Basantis or Emmanuel Pregnan who I mentioned, I was on the board at 43 in the Moc. But now you're drafting for need. We shouldn't be drafting for need. They very clearly had a vision for who he is as a player. They're very clearly connected with who he is as a person. Let's keep finding out who those players were because that connection with this coaching staff is going to be important as they all mature together. Jeff Hafley is an NFL head coach, and he's going to mature alongside Caden Proctor, maturing as an NFL offensive lineman, alongside Chris Johnson, alongside Malik Willis, maturing as an NFL starting quarterback. It's all the growth of it. Everybody growing together is a big part of the process. So people that they hit it off with should matter. I can't possibly tell you that. They'll tell us who those players are when they pick them. That's gonna do it for us here on Locked On Dolphins. It is your team every day. Appreciate you guys as always for checking out the show. Make it a great Friday. More picks await tonight. I will be at Baptist Health Training Complex. Get a chance to talk to some players. Get a chance to talk to some of the decision makers. Very excited for what today is going to bring. More players for your Miami Dolphins. And tonight I will have picks or shows for all the picks. So get ready for that. It's going to be a great weekend. Kyle Crabbs, keep it locked in here. Locked On Dolphins, your team every day.