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Palm Beach Post
MIAMI GARDENS — In the days
leading up to the last NFL draft, Kader Kohou was a bit
surprised by the interest of the defensive coordinator of the
Dolphins, Josh Boyer.
Kohou was hoping to be drafted.
But Kohou had played at Division II Texas A&M-Commerce and hadn't even
played varsity high school football until his senior year.
Yet Boyer wanted Kohou to
know he believed in his talent. And so Boyer stayed in contact with the
cornerback, paving the way for him to sign as an undrafted free agent.
"He knows defensive backs," Kohou said in the locker room
after Miami's final preseason game. "I think he loves
everything about defensive back play. He loves to talk about it."
Kohou entered training camp as a long shot. Boyer didn't care.
Everyone gets an equal shot at evaluation, which makes sense consider Boyer
himself once coached at Division II Bryant and NAIA South Dakota Mines.
He does not care where you come
from. He does not care where you played. All Boyer cares about is — can
you play?
On Tuesday, Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel and general manager Chris
Grier held a news conference to discuss the initial 53-man roster. It included
Kohou.
"The jump in level of play
is real," McDaniel said. "But he, from the onset, let it be
known through his play that this was not too big of a stage for him."
In the locker room late Saturday
night, Kohou was recalling how he didn't have a college offer and resorted to
direct messaging a Texas A&M coach who was looking for players.
"He said he wanted
dawgs," Kohou said. "So I reached out."
Kohou moved to America at 9, not
speaking English, only French. His family moved here from Ivory Coast, where
the football is not oblong at all.
Yet what Boyer saw from the
first practice was a dogged competitor, a player who learned from his mistakes
and made aggressive, fearless plays on the ball.
After all, what did Kohou have
to lose? Nobody expected him to make it.
A few strides away from Kohou on
Saturday night was Elijah
Campbell, who can play safety and cornerback and excels on special teams.
Campbell actually played 131
snaps for the Dolphins last season.
That's 131 on special teams. And
zero on defense.
Yet Campbell, another Boyer discovery, was the only
Dolphin to record an interception this preseason. He returned one for a
touchdown against the Eagles on Saturday.
"I had outside
leverage," Campbell said. "I raised my hands and the rest is
history."
Campbell, a Minnesota native,
played his college ball at Iowa Western, Northern Illinois and Northern Iowa.
Campbell played for the
Birmingham Iron of the AAF in 2019.
Campbell played for the DC
Defenders of the XFL in 2020.
Campbell made Miami's initial
53-man roster for the 2022 season. In the locker room Saturday night, he was
asked who he'd call first if he made it.
"Oh, gotta be the
wife," Campbell said. "Gotta be the wife. And then obviously the
family. We got a whole group message. So just hit up everybody. It'd be a long
day and phone calls for sure."
When Campbell signed with the Dolphins in September of last year,
this reporter jokingly asked Boyer if he had watched every AAF and XFL
snap of Campbell's career.
But it was no joke. Of course Boyer had.
Nobody watches more film. Boyer
will watch tape of any player in any league in America. The guy craves film
like a fat kid craves cake.
Earlier this summer, Dolphins
defensive back Eric Rowe (drafted to play cornerback and converted to safety)
recalled that Boyer flew to Utah to work him out before the draft.
This was not a typical workout,
Rowe recalled. There were very specific, unique drills designed to give Boyer a
feel for how Rowe might fit into the Patriots defense.
Rowe was drafted by the Eagles,
but then played his next three seasons in New England. Boyer knew he liked what
he saw and Rowe flourished up north.
It's no surprise that Miami's initial 53-man roster includes another
Boyer discovery, former undrafted cornerback Nik Needham of UTEP.
All Needham has become is an extremely dependable NFL nickel cornerback.
"I never had a lot of stars
or anything like that coming out of high school," Needham recalled in
2019. "I only played one year of varsity my senior year, so I didn’t get a
lot of recruiting. My junior year we went 0-12. My senior year 1-11. Not a lot of people
watched UTEP."
But Boyer did.
It's no surprise that Miami's initial 53-man roster includes Keion
Crossen of tiny Western Carolina. Crossen was a seventh-round draft pick
of the Patriots in 2018.
Oh, guess who New England's cornerbacks coach was that season? You
guessed it. Boyer. Crossen was so good this summer he's a candidate for
Dolphins defensive snaps in the first four games, which Pro Bowler Byron
Jones will miss.
"He’s a good coach and gets the best out of his players,"
Crossen said of Boyer. "And that’s exactly what I’m looking for.”
Boyer seems to be more than a good coach. He's also a hell of a scout.
Joe Schad is a journalist at
the Palm Beach Post part of the USA
TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at jschad@pbpost.com. Help support our journalism.
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