The Miami Dolphins selected linebacker Georgia Channing Tindall with his 102nd pick in the April 29 NFL Draft.
The 6-2 and £ 230 linebacker is coming to Miami after winning the state championship with the Bulldogs last season in a bid to earn a replay in a unit that needed depth. He will be joined by Jerome Baker, Andrew Van Ginkel, Elandon Roberts, Duke Riley and Sam Eguavoen.
Tindall was a rotating starter while with the Bulldogs, but had a productive 2021 season, recording 7 fights, 7.5 attempts at defeat, 19 quarterback goals and 5.5 shots as he won a spot on the AP All-SEC second team.
However, statistics are only part of the puzzle when estimating odds. We decided to dive into some Georgia All-22 to decipher how Tindall can help the Dolphins this season and in the future.
One of the first features that stands out while watching Tindall is how much Georgia used him as a blister, more specifically in stunts and twists. Tindall has had a ton of quarterback pressures in these games alone.
The clip above is a great example of how effective it can be in stunts. Tindall turns very close against Alabama from the left – Evan Neal of the top 10 Giants – and gets a nice kick on the quarterback.
Tindall had 23.1 percent of wins in the run-up last season, ranking 10th among FBS players, according to PFF. Tindall also won those replays from multiple places. It can line up on the edge, blitz the inner voids and effectively tangle around the outside of the attacking line.
Miami loves to blitz its linebackers while also using stunts to get them free quarterback hits. Tindall can immediately jump in and become a weapon in returning exotic blitz packages to defense coordinator Josh Boyer.
Another of Tyndall’s prominent traits is his second-level range thanks to his elite athletic abilities. There are countless repetitions of it that start in the middle of the field before exploding into the border to tackle it.
The above representative is an excellent example of only simultaneously showing Tyndall’s ability to cope with contact. Some linebackers with his athletic profile would be thrown off track for an attacking attack, but Tindall is so fast and strong that he just shrugs his shoulders and still performs the attack.
Tyndall’s athletic abilities in the film are a bit slow, but his numbers in the NFL make it pretty easy to see how explosive he is. He recorded a 4.47 jump of 40 yards, a vertical jump of 42 inches and a jump of 10 feet, 9 inches wide, all above the 95th percentile.
Dolphins need more speed on the second level next to Baker. Players like Roberts and Riley are more of a “hitter” who excels downhill to defend a string. Teams need those players, but as the NFL gets harder to get through, they get less and less valuable every season.
Although speed and running ability come first for linebackers in the modern NFL, their primary responsibility remains to defend running. Tindall was a little up-and-down when it came to patience, reading keys, and running downhill.
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However, by the time the SEC Championship game against Alabama took place, there had already been a significant improvement. The show above shows Tyndall slipping through many bodies to grapple near the line of battle.
He immediately saw the line of attack crash to his right, and he activated it properly on that side of the field. While Tindall has the natural strength to deal with contact with offensive lines, he will benefit from Miami’s plan as he focuses on keeping linebackers clean of contact.
When Tindall is kept clean, he will figure out much faster what violations he is trying to commit. However, it still needs to be more consistent in this area. He can struggle with finding the ball when he has a lot of movement in the backfield and hasn’t been a player every time, which means his experience is limited.
Tindall will likely have some growing torment in this area during his rookie season, but he has all the tools to do so in the end with the power of his game.
Tindall is still learning how to read and consistently run downhill from the second level, but when he’s on the battle line, he gains the skill to be a game breaker.
One of Tyndall’s underestimated traits is his ability to glide around blockers near the line of battle. It’s great at making it skinny to shoot gaps and create a penetration in the hinterland like in the clip above.
Tindall sees from the inside and wins Arkansas ’left fight with his lateral agility to enter the hinterland intact. This is a valuable trait to have for defending Miami as Tindall will probably get a lot of repetitions where he came to the battle line to blitz.
Knowing that he is also capable of playing against running, he should allow defensive coordinator Josh Boyer to feel more comfortable when using him in those scenarios.
As already mentioned, the NFL is the first league to pass. Linebacks in today’s game are constantly forced to cover in succession, run backs and deal with an immense amount of gameplay and action falsification.
Tindall played 205 shots last season, according to PFF. It’s a solid experience in one season, but Tyndall wasn’t asked to do much in covering the Bulldogs. The clip above is a good example of what his responsibilities usually looked like.
It does a good job of placing narrow ends in the middle of the field and descending into shallow zones. However, violations in the NFL will burden Tyndall more and force him to make more difficult decisions.
He doesn’t really have the skill of processing zone coverage to be someone who consistently plays ball. He will probably make a mistake in reporting during his rookie season, but he no doubt has the natural athletic ability to get better.
Theoretically, Tyndall has the traits of being an elite back cover. It is fast at a distance, which should allow it to carry narrow ends down the seam, and explosive at short distances, which should allow it to close zone windows.
He just needs more repetitions and a little time to complete the processing and tasks.