The Dolphins didn’t know, and still may not know, because Sam Ehlinger never wound up telling them. But when Miami’s offensive staff started installing with the National team’s roster at the Senior Bowl three weeks ago, the Texas quarterback immediately recognized formations. And motions. And run concepts. And pass concepts.
All of those were already in his binder.
This is a different draft year for everyone, and that means, for the prospects, finding a different way to approach it, with the old roadmap that coaches or ex-teammates could give them now largely crumpled up and thrown in the trash. There won’t be a combine. Pro days will be different. Private workouts—at least done in person—can’t happen, nor can “30 visits,” which normally allow for teams to fly prospects into their home cities.
For the kids coming out, the bad news is that there’s going to be some flying-blind elements to the process over the next two months. The good news? They’ll have some more time—time normally be gobbled up by flights or fancy dinners or good, old-fashioned B.S.-ing with teams—to play with.
The binder is one way Ehlinger is choosing to fill that time. His goal in starting it, after Texas’s season ended in the Alamo Bowl just after Christmas, was to learn the offenses of all 32 teams. The idea, of course, was to be ready for anything any coach or scout could possibly throw at him. He’s getting there.
“I’m about halfway through,” Ehlinger said Wednesday afternoon. “My plan was to have it done before the combine, so I could have that. But obviously [the combine] is not happening. So I’m still working on it. I’m just breaking it down and charting it by myself, breaking it up into categories from their third down philosophy to red zone, base personnel packages, and charting all that to really get a feel for what the different offenses are running.”
It’s fair to say a lot of prospects have a version of Ehlinger’s binder, in trying to find their own ways to gain an edge in a draft year that’s going to be most unusual. In a way, they’re all running a race, one that’s already been plenty bumpy, going back almost a year now, and one that promises more roadblocks ahead.
For Ehlinger, the plan is pretty simple. Make the most out of the time he’s got—and keep preparing for what could be ahead, even beyond the last weekend in April.
Maybe the Dolphins picked up on what Ehlinger did, or maybe they didn’t. Either way, the Longhorns’ four-year starter was as ready as he could be for what they were throwing at him.
