Day 2,322, Quasi-Quarantine: Miami Targets Big-School Flyers On Busy Third And Final Day Of Draft

Following busy first and second days in Pittsburgh, the 'Fins picked a whopping seven players on the third day of a marathon draft.

Miami chose two fourth-round linebackers in Texas's Trey Moore (6-1, 243, No. 130 overall) and Pittsburgh's Kyle Louis (5-11, 220, No. 138 overall) and three fifth-rounders in Texas safety Michael Taaffe (5-11, 190, No. 158 overall), Missouri wide receiver Kevin Coleman (5-10, 179, No. 177 overall), and Mississippi State tight end Seydou Traore (6-3, 233, No. 180 overall). In the sixth and seventh rounds, the Dolphins selected Texas guard D.J. Campbell (6-3, 313, No. 200 overall) and Iowa edge Max Llewellyn (6-5, 258, No. 238 overall), respectively.

The pluses: Moore is a versatile 'backer, with some demonstrated ability to both rush the passer and play the run. He's athletic (4.54 seconds in the 40-yard dash) with short-area quickness, relying on a constant motor and understanding of leverage. 

Louis is a decisive playmaker with skills to play at safety or strong-side 'backer. Strong athleticism (4.53 seconds in the 40-yard dash, nearly 40-inch vertical) and body control match well with his natural instincts, allowing him to find the ball and punish the opposition. He earned first-team All-American honors as a junior, racked up six picks and 10 sacks in his final two seasons, is a film junkie, and served as captain. Notably, analyst Dane Brugler had him rated the seventh-best linebacker and No. 75 overall player in the entire draft, giving the Dolphins tremendous value out of the pick.

Taaffe was a former walk-on and three-year starter at a premier program, earning All-SEC honors on the strength of his seven career interceptions. He is known for being a hard hitter with good anticipation, instincts, and straight-line speed (4.5 seconds in the 40-yard dash), adding blitz skills as his career progressed.

Coleman has quick feet, steady hands (2.9% drop rate), great after-the-catch running ability, and a natural feel for changing route speeds. He was tabbed as the No. 25 wideout and No. 184 player in the draft by Brugler, so he was picked in an appropriate spot. His work ethic, Senior Bowl participation, and production (140 catches over the last two seasons) made him attractive to the 'Fins.

A former goalie in soccer, Traore has lateral quickness, strength (25 reps on the bench), and agility (40-inch vertical, 4.61 seconds in the 40-yard dash), making him a plus blocker in space. He's tough at the catch point (just three drops in his final two seasons, with 69 receptions), a solid red-zone threat (10 career touchdowns across Arkansas State and Mississippi State), and committed to continuous improvement.

Another three-year starter at Texas, Campbell is a former five-star recruit who earned All-SEC accolades in a consistent senior campaign. Displaying good leg drive and long arms, he's powerful in the run game, solid on second-level blocks, and uses a good first step to absorb bull rushes. He's also dependable, starting 43 straight games in college.

Brugler considered Llewellyn a fourth-rounder as the No. 18 edge and No. 130 overall player in the draft, making him a tremendous value pick in the final round. The Iowa product is considered a relentless, high-effort rusher, using a great get-off, ability to convert speed to power, and refined pass-rush moves to rack up 45 pressures as a senior. Llewellyn has solid size and athleticism (4.81 seconds in the 40-yard dash), posting a dozen sacks, nine batted passes, and three forced fumbles in the past two seasons. The honorable-mention All-Big Ten choice stood out in the Senior Bowl as well.

The minuses: Moore is considered a bit of a 'tweener who doesn't possess a dominant trait, meaning that his spot was pretty rich, considering Brugler had him rated the No. 25 edge and No. 188 overall player in the draft -- nearly 60 spots lower than the 'Fins drafted him. Due to issues in space, a lack of counter moves, short arms, and mediocre explosiveness, he lost playing time in his final season with the Longhorns.

No matter where Miami uses him, it will be difficult to hide Louis's lack of size. There were times when he was overpowered and overwhelmed in college, struggling to get off of blocks in the run game. He can over-pursue when chasing the ball and was less productive as a senior, partially due to injury.

Brugler rated Taaffe as the No. 13 safety and No. 170 overall player in the draft, making him a slight overpay where he was chosen. The analyst cited "underwhelming physical traits" (short arms and a lack of strength) and a tendency to "get trampled in the open field" -- suboptimal traits for a free safety. Taaffe is considered a liability in man coverage due to his over-aggression and a tendency to hold when plays are extended.

Coleman lacks ideal size and speed (clocked at 4.49 seconds in the 40-yard dash at the combine), has a limited route tree, does not stretch the field, and hasn't demonstrated much ability in the red zone. He played at four schools (Colorado, Louisville, Mississippi State, and Missouri), has a tendency to short-arm balls over the middle, and seems locked in at a slot position he may not be ideal for. 

Traore was chosen more than 100 spots before Brugler had him rated (No. 294 overall as the No. 27 tight end in the draft), and he'll be 24 years old by the time the season starts -- which may not align with the perception that he's a developmental project. He struggles blocking in the run game, partially due to his size and partially due to the fact that he's relatively new to the game -- with just six years of experience in 11-man football. 

Campbell can struggle with stamina and balance in space, shows shaky technique, spends too much time on the ground, and doesn't have the agility to recover or stand out on pulling plays. Brugler had him rated as the No. 21 guard and No. 248 overall player in the draft, leading some to consider him a slight reach.

Llewellyn only started for one season, and struggled against the run and playing with leverage in college. Scouts described him as stiff and predictable at times, with too many "almost" plays and a relative lack of experience for a 24-year-old rookie.

The best-case scenario: New coach Jeff Hafley shows his creativity as a defensive coordinator by using Moore and Louis in hybrid ways, while minimizing the deficiencies of Taaffe and Llewellyn, maximizing their motors, and developing them into special-teams stalwarts. Coleman finds a role as a punt returner with some affinity in the slot to boost a depleted receiving corps, Traore carves out a role on special teams and as a supplementary blocking tight end, and Campbell shows enough to find a home as a depth guard on the roster.

The worst-case scenario: Moore and Louis can't escape their status as 'tweeners, Taaffe turns out to be a better story than an NFL fit, and Coleman can't overcome the lack of polish in his game to stick. Traore loses out in a numbers game as an over-aged project and Campbell proves to be missing the versatility you like to see in fringe offensive linemen (99.99% of his starts in college game at right guard). Llewellyn is determined to have reached his ceiling and doesn't demonstrate the consistency needed to join the defensive line rotation. 

The bottom line: Miami targeted Power 4 players at the end of the draft, looking for proven, isolated skills against top competition. My two favorite choices were easily Louis and Llewellyn, and I think both have an opportunity to see significant time defensively based on depth-chart holes. 

You can't throw a rock without finding a need on this roster, but the fact that the Dolphins didn't double up at cornerback and invested such little draft capital in a pure edge is surprising at the least. Of course, this rebuild is going to take more than a single draft cycle, but it's fair to question some of the positional value prioritized by the braintrust within this draft. 

Limerick Friday #651: The Soccer Manages To Overcome The Most Blatant Of Favoritism -- Day 2,319

The competition was heady

The excitement was steady

Despite FIFA's incessant corruption

And every water-break disruption

I miss the World Cup already

Despite toil and strife

Some signs of life

Won a series from the hated Braves

Can the Mets make playoff waves?

Not if the injured list says rife

"Idiocracy" looks normal in compare

To this admin's depravity laid bare

The world's laughingstock

Nothing can be seen as a shock

When these bitches show how little they care

Another year, another infraction

Lombardi getting in on the Cheaters action

A laughingstock is Chapel Bill

The Holes want to die on that hill

More ammo for the sell-your-soul faction

Training camp has begun

Another low-expectations one

For the struggling 'Fins

The rebuilds outnumber the wins

But still ready for that football fun

Last time ...

Day 2,318, Quasi-Quarantine: The Bells Toll For The Irreplaceable Glen Hansard

 

"That's another day over

Go to sleep now, my son

It's a full-blown solid gold

Miracle you've come

"And your mother's a beauty

Your dad's a fortunate man

And he'll be back to hold you

Just as soon as he can"

Like many lovers of Ireland and music and Irish music, I was gutted yesterday when news of the passing of Glen Hansard reached me.

So many of us fell in love with Glen and Marketa Irglova in the stunning, raw movie "Once," and I'll never forget watching the duo perform as Swell Season at Maymandi Music Hall in Raleigh on the heels of that film. The complicated relationship between the two was explored in a heart-wrenching movie, aptly called "Swell Season."

The two would go on to perform together in a strictly professional relationship, with Glen's rough approach blending beautifully with Marketa's grace. We would go on to see Glen perform five other times, including in 2008, 2010, and 2023. 

Every person who was touched by Glen's music has a different story that describes that impression. I will always remember his covers of Van Morrison's "Into the Mystic" and Pixies' "Cactus." I will always remember his audience participation, including allowing a fan to sing a verse on stage at the North Carolina Museum of Art. I will always remember seeing him last fall at the Durham Performing Arts Center and his rendition of "Parting Glass," which has taken on an even more poignant meaning today.

I will always remember his description of the origin story of "Factory Street Bells," which he wrote as part of the process of explaining to his toddler son why his father need to leave him and go on tour. I'll certainly never be able to hear that song again without crying.

Glen had a way of making you feel like you'd joined an impromptu jam at an intimate gathering of friends or stumbled across his appearance at a trad session at a pub in Doolin. 

He was a storyteller, a bard, a troubadour in the true Irish fashion. He meant a lot to me and the best part of me.

I'll miss him dearly.

Ar dheis De' go raibh a anam

Day 2,315, Quasi-Quarantine: Corruption And Ineptitude Still Manage To Shock In "The Cadaver King And The Country Dentist"

 

“‘The Mississippi system was run by the triumvirate for years,’ says one long-serving former coroner. ‘Imagine that. A pathologist, a small-town dentist, and a funeral director … The state provided an audience of adoring idiots.’”

In "The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist," Radley Balko and Tucker Carrington have painstakingly researched and compiled a searing indictment of the entire criminal justice system of the state of Mississippi and beyond. The idea that Steven Hayne, Michael West, and Forrest Allgood were never imprisoned -- or worse -- for their actions, is an absolute travesty. The fact that two of the three are already dead somehow isn't enough.

The reality that racism, politics, and ignorance are running amok in Mississippi won't surprise anyone with the ability to read. The sheer lack of repercussions might, despite our better instincts.

“Coroners were incompetent. State law at the time required just two qualifications for the job: candidates had to be registered to vote and ‘must never have denied the existence of a Supreme being.’”

While focusing on two specific cases of wrongful incarceration, the book unveils an entire system predicated on targeting those unable to defend themselves and the many individuals who both turned their backs on them and actively lied to end their lives as free persons.

Make no mistake: this is an infuriating read, perhaps made even more so by the fact that the work is a slow burn, with the feel of a textbook in many areas. However, the act of reading feels more essential now than ever, as the concepts of truth and accountability are constantly under siege.

“But I ain’t mad at any of them anymore. The system’s gonna do what the system’s gonna do.”

~Kennedy Brewer

Day 2,311, Quasi-Quarantine: Watching A Predictable Mets Loss While Going Back To Cali

Earlier this year, we spent our spring break visiting California. As part of our journeys, we ended up at Oracle Park to watch our Mets lose 7-2. We saw the only contest of the four-game series that New York lost, which is sort of par for the course for our fandom.

Checking another ballpark off the list was tremendous, as in recent years I've seen the Mets play the Red Sox at Fenway and the Giants and Rockies square off at Coors Field, in addition to catching a game at Citi Field. Oracle Park was beautiful and well situated, though the late-game arrival of the seagulls was straight-up Hitchcockian.

Seeing David Peterson get shelled and the Mets mostly flounder around the stadium was strong foreshadowing for a disastrous season. A few months later, Peterson would be relegated to the bullpen and then traded, while New York would be posting one of the worst records in the majors.

On the more notable side, I did have a $50 crab standwich -- the "Crazy Crab'z" -- and my son did eat a baseball helmets full of nachos.

Those were certainly the highlights of our entire Mets experience for 2026.

Day 2,309, Quasi-Quarantine: "Red Sky In Morning" Details Cross-Globe Manhunt As Loss And Vengeance Compete

 

“Night sky was black and then there was blood, morning crack of light on the edge of the earth. The crimson spill sent the bright stars to fade, hills stepping out of shadow and clouds finding flash. First rain of day from a soundless sky and music it made of the land. The trees let slip the mantle of darkness, stretched themselves, fingers of leaves shivering in the breeze, red then goldening rays of light catching. The rain stopped and he heard the birds wake. They blinked and shook their heads and scattered song upon the sky. The land, old and tremulous, turned slowly towards the rising sun.”

Starting in the remote reaches of Ireland and ending up in early 19th-century America, "Red Sky in Morning" follows the journey of Coll Coyle as he navigates the balance between escaping and returning.

Coyle committed a rash, rage-spurred act of violence, triggering a manhunt and a headlong game of hide-and-seek with an almost supernaturally gifted tracker, James Faller. As the two tangle, Coyle finds support and resistance in the unlikeliest of places, all while never letting go of a desire to return to his homeland and his growing family.

“In the boy he recognized the face of his own child, saw the hands of his daughter testing the shapes of stones, heard the small bundle of her voice, and he turned towards the great void of the sea, his breath held in his chest and he looked out into the distance where time and movement seemed to hold still, where nothing seemed to happen at all, a void bereft of love and pain, a great wash of unmemory held in its ceaseless eternity.”

I've been mesmerized by some of Lynch's other works, with "Prophet Song" having won the Scooties in 2024 and "Beyond the Sea" being an early standout this year. 

In his debut, Lynch displays an affinity for Cormac McCarthy, both in his prose and his antagonist, Faller, who evokes the legendary Judge Holden from McCarthy's "Blood Meridian." Faller is prone to existential soliloquies that seemed designed to justify or obfuscate his pure evil.

“To be the last thing a man sees before he dies, Faller said. Nothing will make you feel more alive.

“It’s quite a moment, said Faller. To be the sole judge of that person on earth. You meet his eyes and there’s an understanding quite like no other.”

"Red Sky in Morning" shies away from nothing, exploring themes like incest, torture, cholera, and racism, with Lynch's rhythmic prose lending an aesthetic that clashes with and complements the material. Coyle's morbid stint in America as part of a dig in Pennsylvania is based on a true story, lending a deeper horror to the tale.

If there was a quibble, it would be that Lynch's decision to occasionally shift perspectives between characters can lead to some minor confusion. However, the overall work is sublime, with a clever effort by the author to have the opening and closing language mirror one another.

Lynch has gone on to become one of our most accomplished novelists, but it's refreshing to see the raw talent apparent in his origin story.

“Oh the small place left behind unfolding into a universe. His ear cocked to the absence of it.”

Day 2,287, Quasi-Quarantine: Understated Prose Dominates Elegant Short Stories Of "The News From Dublin"

“It struck her afterwards that what he did in those few years when he was a fighter pilot was merely an exaggerated version of what we all do as we live: we swagger, we are full of pretense there is no real danger coming towards us, we talk as though the enemy is in flight, or under control. As time moves, however, it drags us with it until the time for pretending ends and the body lies spent.”

~“The Journey to Galway”

The settings and chronologies vary in this collection of short stories from Colm Toibin, but the themes of isolation and identity are consistent. "The News from Dublin" is marked by the author's trademark sparse prose and quiet restraint, permeating these tales with hints of melancholy and desperation.

The standouts were the title story, a shattering look at the effects of tuberculosis; "The Journey to Galway," a stark and powerful commentary on loss and war; "Free Man," a compelling view of sexual abuse and identity; and "Five Bridges," a moving and contemporary exploration of immigration status in the age of ICE.

"Sleep," "A Sum of Money," and "Barton Springs" were promising, but felt incomplete, while "The Catalan Girls" was incredibly long in relation to the other stories. With the emotional abuse and neglect at its core, it was rather difficult to read.

Toibin captures the fraught nature of family dynamics, the role of perception in finding one's place in the world, and how nature and nurture can alter the path of any individual. "The News from Dublin" lays it all bare for the reader's consideration and enjoyment.

“ … He would not grow old or live to regret anything at all or be forgiven. Action had given him a strange freedom, as it must have done for others, an avoidance of having to deal with his own complexity. Death, on the other hand, would give him nothing at all. From now on, it would be all absence.”

~“The Journey to Galway”