Speaker 1: Exaudown Miami Water Run. What is up, Dolph fans, and
Speaker 1: welcome to the Drivetime Podcast, part of the Miami Dolphins
Speaker 1: official podcast network, covering your team, your Miami Dolphins, each
Speaker 1: and every day. How's it going everybody? It is Wednesday.
Speaker 1: I am your host, Travis Wingfield, and I'm here to
Speaker 1: bring you your daily dose of Miami Dolphins football. And
Speaker 1: on today's show, we're gonna preview Dolphins and Bengals for
Speaker 1: Sunday at hard Rock Stadium. Will detail the performances so
Speaker 1: far of Davonte Parker and Xavien Howard and how they
Speaker 1: are just two of the many examples for growth and
Speaker 1: development on this roster. We'll hear from Coach and tah
Speaker 1: all of that and more on this Wednesday, December, the
Speaker 1: second edition of the Drive Time Podcast. Time is brought
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Speaker 1: nation dot com and save. Now, let's go ahead and
Speaker 1: start this Wednesday podcast off with your first Dolphins and
Speaker 1: Bengals injury report of the week. Plenty of intrigue around
Speaker 1: this one with the quarterback to a tongue of byloa,
Speaker 1: Solomon Kindley, Savan Akhmed. Let's go ahead in detail. Their
Speaker 1: status is right now from Wednesday's practice. Two players did
Speaker 1: not practice on Wednesday, running back slash receiver Malcolm Perry
Speaker 1: with a chest DeAndre Washington, the running back has a hamstring.
Speaker 1: He also did not practice. Three players were limited quarterback
Speaker 1: to a tongue of byloa, running back Savan Akhmed, and
Speaker 1: guard Solomon Kinley for the rest of the report, and
Speaker 1: the players who were full participation on Wednesday, as well
Speaker 1: as the Bengals injury report, go ahead and check out
Speaker 1: our article on Top News on Miami Dolphins dot com.
Speaker 1: So we have a couple more days of practice to
Speaker 1: talk about here on the podcast, and then we have
Speaker 1: what's coming up on Sunday. We'll preview the game here
Speaker 1: in just one second, but I want to cover a
Speaker 1: couple of topics I've written about this week up on
Speaker 1: Miami Dolphins dot com in the top news story every
Speaker 1: day at the end of the day on the website
Speaker 1: and first up this piece on Davante Parker and Xavien
Speaker 1: Howard and it takes me back to my favorite time
Speaker 1: of the year, training camp. To me, there is no
Speaker 1: better football to watch than what you get at training camp.
Speaker 1: You get repeated defensive backs, first receivers, one on one matchups,
Speaker 1: the pass rush one on ones are unbeatable. Remains my
Speaker 1: favorite drill in the entire game. You get a peek
Speaker 1: at which guys are making a name for themselves on
Speaker 1: special teams, which are the undrafted guys are making plays,
Speaker 1: Who's on what team, who's making plays in what package.
Speaker 1: You get a feel for how the quarterbacks spend the football,
Speaker 1: how it jumps off their hand, and then of course
Speaker 1: the team period. Few things top that and all of sport.
Speaker 1: It's it's just constant evaluation. For a football nerd like myself,
Speaker 1: I cannot get enough of it. And so Davanta Parker
Speaker 1: Xaviing Howard had some of the most memorable battles this
Speaker 1: past training camp here in Davy. Of course, no fans allowed,
Speaker 1: just media. We got to see plenty of it, and
Speaker 1: when there was fans there, they were treated to a
Speaker 1: great show by Xaviing Howard back in his camp was
Speaker 1: some of the best football I think I've ever seen period.
Speaker 1: That year. I swear he caught as many passes and
Speaker 1: interceptions as he allowed receptions from the opposing receiver in
Speaker 1: that year's camp. But Parker got some too, and that
Speaker 1: continued this season. And frankly, you could put Byron Jones
Speaker 1: and Preston Williams in there because these guys were involved
Speaker 1: in several of those great battles as well. But for
Speaker 1: the sake of this article, I wanted to ask Davante
Speaker 1: and X about those matchups and how that stiff competition
Speaker 1: on the practice field helps make them better on game day. First,
Speaker 1: here's X. I've been great, but since I came in
Speaker 1: the league, that companies station is gone, and he just
Speaker 1: made each other to get better. And you know, I
Speaker 1: feel like you've been doing a great job to getting
Speaker 1: each other better. You know it pay off on Sundays
Speaker 1: when he put his other guys talking about paying off
Speaker 1: on Sundays. Let's go ahead and hear from Davanta Parker
Speaker 1: now on what the matchup between xaving Howard has done
Speaker 1: for him to make game day easier because it's so
Speaker 1: tough in practice. Going up against a cornerback like xaviing
Speaker 1: Howard every day, you know, musun go ahead like every
Speaker 1: day in practicing during camp and made us better. It
Speaker 1: just made us play hard and games because he made it.
Speaker 1: He made it hard in practice, so games made it
Speaker 1: a lot easier. Let's go ahead and start here first
Speaker 1: with xaviing Howard. We'll come back to the Vanta Parker topic.
Speaker 1: But first off, you heard me raving about the type
Speaker 1: of tape that he had on Sunday's game on the
Speaker 1: Tuesday Drivetime podcast, Just an unreal film. An opportunity for
Speaker 1: four maybe five interceptions, had one poked away, had another
Speaker 1: impeded by an offensive pass interference. Sam Donald did a
Speaker 1: good job to locate high to avoid another possible interception,
Speaker 1: and he obviously did get the one at the end
Speaker 1: of the game, as he continues to do. And I
Speaker 1: talked about this back when he had that run of
Speaker 1: four straight games with an interception. How they come in bunches, man.
Speaker 1: He had one in four straight games this season. Now
Speaker 1: he's got one in three consecutive games after not having
Speaker 1: one for three games, and he's right there again. He
Speaker 1: had two against the Broncos to kick off his career
Speaker 1: in seventeen, the first two of his career that year
Speaker 1: in one game, comes back with two in the next
Speaker 1: game against the Patriots, and then he had three in
Speaker 1: two games at the beginning of before snagging four in
Speaker 1: two games at the end of against the Colts and
Speaker 1: the Bills. This guy gets them in bunches and his
Speaker 1: ball hawking skills are among the best of all time
Speaker 1: and context of statistical frequency, the only player close to
Speaker 1: his interception every nine point one pass targets since two
Speaker 1: thousand seventeen is New England's J. C. Jackson, who has
Speaker 1: won every eleven point one, so two full targets more
Speaker 1: per interception for Jay's Jackson over number one. Exaviing Howard.
Speaker 1: Nobody else is less than every fourteen targets, And you
Speaker 1: go back to Richard Sherman, who went to three straight
Speaker 1: All pros or he was named in All Pro three
Speaker 1: straight years between. He grabbed twenty interceptions in those three
Speaker 1: seasons and did it with a pick every ten point
Speaker 1: four targets, so one point three targets more than what
Speaker 1: exaving Howard is currently doing. The fifty point three pass
Speaker 1: rating against is the second best among corners with at
Speaker 1: least forty pass targets, and he is Pro Football Focus
Speaker 1: his second highest graded cornerback. These are numbers that are
Speaker 1: on pace and extrapolated better than what Stefond Gilmore's numbers
Speaker 1: were last season as a defensive Player of the Year
Speaker 1: in the NFL. So exaving Howard on that same track,
Speaker 1: he is just flat out playing out of his mind
Speaker 1: right now. It's been fun to watch for Dolphins fans everywhere.
Speaker 1: I'm sure you guys are enjoying as much as I am.
Speaker 1: And then we get to Davante Parker and first, coach
Speaker 1: talked about some separation, the topic of separation in his
Speaker 1: Wednesday morning press conference. So here's coach talking about wide
Speaker 1: receivers creating separation and the context in the case by
Speaker 1: case scenario with every player, every pass and every instance
Speaker 1: in this league receiver separation. I know they got the
Speaker 1: next gent stats and it's you know, he had half
Speaker 1: a millimeter separation or something like. You know, they got
Speaker 1: all that those statistics, but you know, I think a
Speaker 1: lot of times, uh, you know, guy like Davante, who's
Speaker 1: a big body's long, there might be a guy right
Speaker 1: on him. But if you throw it inside, the guys
Speaker 1: on his back and you throw it inside and you
Speaker 1: know his arm length is the separation. So you know,
Speaker 1: while it might be you know, a millimeter or centimeter
Speaker 1: based on the next gent stats, you know you can
Speaker 1: you can get that ball in there. So again it's
Speaker 1: case by case. You know, as a as a defender,
Speaker 1: you want to be you wanta have tight coverage. UM.
Speaker 1: As a quarterback, I think you just need to know, UM,
Speaker 1: you know the frames or the builds of your receivers.
Speaker 1: You know, got a smaller guy than UM, you know
Speaker 1: that that separation or or the coverage being tighter, UM,
Speaker 1: you might have to fit that when that men into
Speaker 1: a tighter window, UM versus just getting the ball out
Speaker 1: in front of a taller, longer receiver. So M again
Speaker 1: it's to me every it's all case by case. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think you look at a lot of statistics and
Speaker 1: they say they talk about this separation or uh, you know,
Speaker 1: flight of the ball in the air, and you know
Speaker 1: they had all these statistics. The practical application of some
Speaker 1: of those things are are They're different when you're on
Speaker 1: the field, I would say so. But yes, you know,
Speaker 1: much as you can separate from a defender, it always
Speaker 1: helps but I think when you start getting into the
Speaker 1: you know, what is enough separation? When you start you know,
Speaker 1: it's subjective in a lot of ways. Yeah, I just
Speaker 1: I can't talk that answer. I mean, not that I
Speaker 1: ever could talk an answer Coach Flores and football talk,
Speaker 1: but you talk about the subjective nature of statistics and
Speaker 1: how you always need context to him, I just I
Speaker 1: can't agree enough with that. So let's continue on here
Speaker 1: talking about Davanta Parker, who is catching sixty five eight
Speaker 1: percent of his passes this season. That's a career high
Speaker 1: with an average of one point seven yards per separation,
Speaker 1: again per Next Gen Stats, And of course coach talking
Speaker 1: about not being the biggest fan of that, but I
Speaker 1: think it has it tells you a bit of the
Speaker 1: story here. Only Corey Davis and Tennessee has a higher
Speaker 1: catch percentage among players with less than two point five
Speaker 1: yards of average separation. That's just who Davanta is. He
Speaker 1: catches contested footballs and does it with regularity. He did
Speaker 1: all the way to twelve yards last year and nine
Speaker 1: touchdowns down the field, elevating making all those big plays.
Speaker 1: But he's not just that. He's not just a contested
Speaker 1: ball guy. He's catching passes in a variety of routes.
Speaker 1: I've talked about this before. His ability on square ends, digs,
Speaker 1: and slants, all those inbreaking routes I thought were his
Speaker 1: best in his in his tool bag because of how
Speaker 1: he can stack the de us of back on his back.
Speaker 1: And then Flora's his comment really comes into play there.
Speaker 1: The arm length and the strong hands to separate that
Speaker 1: way because the player can't get through his frame and
Speaker 1: get around those arms and disrupt the past enough. I mean,
Speaker 1: we've seen this guy catch a pass for a touchdown
Speaker 1: against the Rams, for instance, when he was being tackled.
Speaker 1: So one of the best contested ball receivers in the
Speaker 1: league who can create that separation through his frame, through
Speaker 1: his body. He caught four in breaking routes on Sunday,
Speaker 1: three on the back shoulder throw and one on a
Speaker 1: comeback route working back down the stem. And we've seen
Speaker 1: that vertical game prowess we talked about where he uses
Speaker 1: that frame to kind of shield the defender while he
Speaker 1: elevates to make the catch. And those long arms. Again,
Speaker 1: you look at a lot of those jump balls or
Speaker 1: whatever you want to call them, fifty fifty balls last
Speaker 1: year a lot of the time he's putting his back
Speaker 1: into the defender and fading into him with his arms
Speaker 1: extended and makes the catch away from his body in
Speaker 1: a way where the defender cannot poke it out. And actually,
Speaker 1: on Tuesday's press conferences, George Godzi talked about Mike Asiki's
Speaker 1: touchdown catch the rebound, pulling the ball off the defensive
Speaker 1: back's head. How you don't want to tuck it in
Speaker 1: your body because that's where the dB goes to try
Speaker 1: to get the PBu once you've already snatched the ball,
Speaker 1: get away from him, pull the ball away from him. Gasick.
Speaker 1: He did it there, and I think Devanta Parker does
Speaker 1: that consistently on those deep shots. And for Parker, six
Speaker 1: of his ten career one yard games have occurred in
Speaker 1: his last eighteen outings. The breakout season a year ago
Speaker 1: earned a vaunting the contract extension for four more years.
Speaker 1: So we've got this guy for the foreseeable future making
Speaker 1: these plays, being this reliable, dependable guy. And that's a
Speaker 1: prelude into our next topic here, the ability to develop
Speaker 1: players of all ages. Because Parkers in his sixth season,
Speaker 1: and you know, last year was when he really production
Speaker 1: wise got the most out of him so far. He's
Speaker 1: kind of continued that this season, just being a consistent playmaker.
Speaker 1: But it's not just a Vaunte, it's not just a
Speaker 1: sixth year guy. It's guys all over the roster from
Speaker 1: all types of different acquisition arrivals in Miami, all different
Speaker 1: ages and stages of their careers. Anytime you can ride
Speaker 1: on the podcast, you have to do it. And this
Speaker 1: was kind of sparked by a passage I read from
Speaker 1: Albert Brier on his Monday Morning quarterback piece where he,
Speaker 1: in just one paragraph gave a nod to the Dolphins
Speaker 1: for being seven and four just twenty one months after
Speaker 1: Stephen Ross's declaration of his decision to make changes and
Speaker 1: rebuild the team under Chris Greer and Brian Flores. And
Speaker 1: you look at all these draft picks and free agent signings,
Speaker 1: and those are great and certainly have had a large impact,
Speaker 1: no doubt about that. But it's more than that. It's systemic.
Speaker 1: It's teaching, it's developing, it's finding roles for guys to
Speaker 1: make them the best versions of themselves on your football team,
Speaker 1: within your scheme. And there are tons of examples of
Speaker 1: all of that let's go ahead and start first with
Speaker 1: the veterans. And I don't want this to be misconstrued
Speaker 1: because both Bobby McCain and Eric Rowe were good players
Speaker 1: previously before Brian Flores got here, before Eric Rowe got here.
Speaker 1: But just consider what they had to do to make
Speaker 1: themselves into the player they are right now as the
Speaker 1: Dolphins to primary safeties on the field. McCain, a slot
Speaker 1: corner back who in seventeen and twenty eight team played inside,
Speaker 1: played outside, played a little bit of safety as well,
Speaker 1: played all over the defense, was a good player for
Speaker 1: the Dolphins. But now the Dolphins are one of the
Speaker 1: best deep defending passing teams in the NFL. And that's
Speaker 1: a lot of that is because Bobby McCain's back there,
Speaker 1: just consistently being in the right spot and communicating with
Speaker 1: the veteran cornerbacks underneath. Eric Rowe is top ten and
Speaker 1: so many categories, shutting down tight ends, making sure handed tackles,
Speaker 1: sticking his nose in there in the running game. And
Speaker 1: McCain's the same way as well. We talked about McCain's
Speaker 1: open field tackling. These two guys to change positions and
Speaker 1: just what is it like twenty five games into this thing.
Speaker 1: They're both playing at high, high levels at that spot. Development, teaching,
Speaker 1: getting the most out of your players, no matter how
Speaker 1: old they are. Emmanuel Oddba free agent, comes over from
Speaker 1: the Chiefs, and he was a good player, good player
Speaker 1: for Kansas City, good player for Cleveland. Had a really
Speaker 1: good rookie season in twenty six team. But now, what
Speaker 1: about now he is a one of the top ten sackers,
Speaker 1: one of the top ten pressure rate defensive ends in
Speaker 1: the National Football League. He can enses inside and defends
Speaker 1: the run. He bats down passes guys playing at a
Speaker 1: pro bowl level right now, And that's not what he
Speaker 1: was the previous years. He was good, He's gone to
Speaker 1: another level here in Miami's first year in Miami. How
Speaker 1: about Eric Flowers now to an extent, last year he
Speaker 1: moved inside to guard. He's talked about his relationship with
Speaker 1: Bill Callahan in Washington and how they kind of built
Speaker 1: him into that guard. But he's doing it here and
Speaker 1: again taking it to another level, playing at a high
Speaker 1: level at that guard position again six years into his career.
Speaker 1: How about a guy like Adam Sheheen matching his career
Speaker 1: high and touchdown receptions yards per catch, and he's coming
Speaker 1: up on the yardage totals, catches and games played as well.
Speaker 1: In his career highs. It's not just high price free agents,
Speaker 1: it's these you know, you trade a conditional pick for
Speaker 1: Shaheen and you turn him into a productive tight end
Speaker 1: on your roster. Speaking of tight ends, Mike Kasicki, he's
Speaker 1: just in his third year, but there was a clear
Speaker 1: line of demarcation for this guy when it kind of
Speaker 1: clicked for him in a sense. Since Week thirteen of
Speaker 1: last season, he's caught all eight of his career touchdowns
Speaker 1: post Week thirteen, So basically his career has been blitt
Speaker 1: in half so far, and the first half was development,
Speaker 1: the second half has been production. That's the fourth most
Speaker 1: touchdowns among tight ends over that span. He talked about
Speaker 1: his growth on Sunday after the game as a route runner,
Speaker 1: as did George Gotzie on Tuesday Earlier this week on
Speaker 1: the podcast, I played both those for you guys, So
Speaker 1: regular listeners have heard that already, but if you haven't,
Speaker 1: go back and check out those podcasts. The audio from
Speaker 1: Mike Gasicki and George Gotzi from twenty two catches as
Speaker 1: a rookie to one of the most explosive, who leads
Speaker 1: the league in yards for exception among tight ends, one
Speaker 1: of the most explosive tight ends, most frequent touchdown scores
Speaker 1: at the position. But what about guys who are even
Speaker 1: earlier in their careers than those veterans or a Mike
Speaker 1: get sick Like a Zach Seeler who has nineteen quarterback
Speaker 1: pressures twenty two run stops. He's disruptive every single week.
Speaker 1: Went from a waiver wire claim to a contract extension
Speaker 1: in twelve months. Time Andrew Van Ginkle three forced fumbles,
Speaker 1: had the seventy eight yard touchdown fumble returned for a touchdown,
Speaker 1: blocked upunt, disrupts the quarterback to the tune of two
Speaker 1: and a half sacks six QB hits this year, he's
Speaker 1: defending the run. We talked about that play against the
Speaker 1: Jets where he knifed in and tripped up Frank Gore
Speaker 1: for a big stop in the running game. Nick need
Speaker 1: Um gets his first pick of the year, third of
Speaker 1: his career, one seven team point to passer rating as
Speaker 1: a rookie eighty two point five this year in his
Speaker 1: second year. That group of free players is a fifth
Speaker 1: round draft pick, an undrafted free agent and a guy
Speaker 1: who was cut just a year ago. Now each of
Speaker 1: them a key contributor on the Dolphins defense. Then there
Speaker 1: are the young guys. Brandon Jones gets his first sack
Speaker 1: of the career. He's playing increasing snaps and making impact
Speaker 1: plays every single week. It seems ray Kwon Davis same deal.
Speaker 1: More snaps, more run stops, more disruption. He's getting knocked
Speaker 1: back consistently. He's been a Bowl in recent weeks. Solom
Speaker 1: McKinley having a damn good year at right guard before
Speaker 1: missing last week with the foot injury. He's been playing
Speaker 1: some good football. Austin Jackson had some impressive games this
Speaker 1: year as well. Robert Hunt has to now. Coach Steve
Speaker 1: Marshall talked about the ups and downs of the offensive line,
Speaker 1: but there have been plenty of ups for those guys
Speaker 1: as well. To a Tongue of Valoa showing you a
Speaker 1: lot of the same things you love about his game
Speaker 1: in college, with a timing, accuracy, anticipation, the twitch, the
Speaker 1: off script playmaking that yard drive in Arizona. We saw
Speaker 1: all of those things add up. We saw on the
Speaker 1: touchdown pass in the Rams game. We saw it on
Speaker 1: the touchdown pass in the Broncos game. He's made several
Speaker 1: players that you say, Okay, that's where the ability is.
Speaker 1: But that group of players, those rookies, they remain incomplete. Hell,
Speaker 1: a lot of these guys do all of them do
Speaker 1: as Josh Bowyer said, if you're not getting better, you're
Speaker 1: getting worse. So it's the entire roster. I think the
Speaker 1: development of Needham, Van Ginkl, Seiler, og Ba, Roe, McCain, Flowers, Gasicki,
Speaker 1: and on and on and on. That all applies to
Speaker 1: our draft class this year. It applies to future draft
Speaker 1: class with double digit picks coming down the pike here
Speaker 1: in the next season and in future draft classes beyond that.
Speaker 1: The development is the core essential factor of this team
Speaker 1: that continues to grow. My confidence about what the Dolphins
Speaker 1: are building here in miamis go ahead and finish up.
Speaker 1: Coach flores as Wednesday morning media availability, just a couple
Speaker 1: more questions here for coach. He was asked about his
Speaker 1: input with different elements of the game and the I
Speaker 1: suppose delegation of responsibilities among the coaching staff and where
Speaker 1: his input comes. Here's Coach Flora's on just that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think, I think you know, on a on a
Speaker 1: week to week basis, it's it's different. Um. Again, we
Speaker 1: do a lot of work over the course of the week,
Speaker 1: you know, so I'm involved in on the offense and
Speaker 1: involved defensively. I'm involved in the kicking game, situations, game management.
Speaker 1: So there's a lot of things that I already talked about. UM.
Speaker 1: And I think, you know, no different than anyone else
Speaker 1: on the offensive staff or the defensive staff, or the
Speaker 1: kicking game or from a game managing the standpoint. UM.
Speaker 1: You know, I offer suggestions. Uh No different than you know,
Speaker 1: ex students will offer suggestions and uh, Athony Campernelli offers
Speaker 1: suggestions and say, hey, maybe we should do this or this,
Speaker 1: you know, depending on the game. It's a case by case. UM,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't say, I mean, I would say, I let
Speaker 1: my coaches coach, and I'm not sitting there and going, hey,
Speaker 1: you know call this call that, UM, because at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, you know, because I'm working all
Speaker 1: three sides of the ball, UM and game management. You know,
Speaker 1: Chance spent more time on offense. He's seen more of it.
Speaker 1: Josh spent more time on defense, He's seen more of it.
Speaker 1: Danny spent more time on the kicking game. So you know,
Speaker 1: for me to sit there and say, hey, I'm I
Speaker 1: know better in any of those um, I think it's
Speaker 1: been really you know, I'm spending we all have the
Speaker 1: amount of the same amount of hours. You know, let's
Speaker 1: say they spend you know, those hours all on one
Speaker 1: one side of the ball. I just, you know, I
Speaker 1: trust that they're gonna they have the the answers we're
Speaker 1: looking for on their respective side of the ball. Now,
Speaker 1: I'll make suggestions, but at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: try to let I'll try to let those guys coach.
Speaker 1: And then obviously occasionally, you know, um, I'll make my
Speaker 1: thoughts known, and but I think it's it's worked out
Speaker 1: for the most part. Coach did address the possible Wednesday
Speaker 1: Actus availability of quarterback to a tongue of Valoa, but
Speaker 1: we already updated that in the first part of the podcast,
Speaker 1: because coach goes on before practice. We did that after practice.
Speaker 1: But he also talked about the running back position. He
Speaker 1: was asked if Myles Gaskins should be expected to step
Speaker 1: in and assume the same role he had previously before
Speaker 1: the injury when he comes back. Here's Coach talking about
Speaker 1: the ramp up and the build up of coming off
Speaker 1: an injury, and how it's not just as easy as
Speaker 1: coming off the injury reserve and stepping right into the lineup.
Speaker 1: I think it would depend on, you know, what he
Speaker 1: shows in practice. I practiced some last week. Look, when
Speaker 1: you're out a few weeks, I mean there's a conditioning element,
Speaker 1: there's a getting back to it element, there's a physical element.
Speaker 1: So h no, the idea guy could just walk back
Speaker 1: in and here's the same player he was, uh, you
Speaker 1: know before the injury normally takes a little a week
Speaker 1: two weeks until you're back to hopefully back to where
Speaker 1: where he was. So we take that into consideration, you know,
Speaker 1: you know, I hope a guy like Miles, you know,
Speaker 1: does what could uh you know, get right back to
Speaker 1: form quickly, But I don't think there's any assumptions that
Speaker 1: it will be that way. So there you go. Good
Speaker 1: stuff from coach Flores. Let's go ahead and spend this
Speaker 1: thing forward to our Week thirteen preview, Dolphins hosting the
Speaker 1: Bengals back at home after a two game road trip
Speaker 1: Miami seven and four of the Bengals are to eight
Speaker 1: and one. It's a one o'clock kickoff. Thank God love
Speaker 1: the one o'clock kickoffs at hard Rock Stadium. Seventy two degrees,
Speaker 1: partly cloudy, humidity, nine mile per hour wins and that's
Speaker 1: seventy two degrees. It's getting chilly out here in South
Speaker 1: Florida this week, a little bit of a cold front
Speaker 1: coming through. But these two teams return to the scene
Speaker 1: of of last December's epic overtime shootout. I was there
Speaker 1: in person for that game. Fun one to watch as
Speaker 1: both these teams have kind of tried to build off
Speaker 1: of last year, with Zach Taylor matching his win total
Speaker 1: from a year ago. Brian Flores are passing it already.
Speaker 1: Coach obviously has his mind on the what's ahead, talking
Speaker 1: earlier this week about how you can't get to where
Speaker 1: you want to go without handling what's right in front
Speaker 1: of you. I don't know, maybe some other people can.
Speaker 1: That hasn't been the case for me in my life.
Speaker 1: You don't just jump to graduations and things of that nature.
Speaker 1: They just don't happen. You have to deal with what's
Speaker 1: in front of you. That's just been my approach, and
Speaker 1: that's gonna be the Dolphins approach heading into this game
Speaker 1: against the Bengals. Look, it's a team that can can
Speaker 1: offer some challenges with their skill players with Jesse Bates
Speaker 1: the safety on the back end, and a little bit
Speaker 1: of pass rush upfront as well. So the Dolphins need
Speaker 1: to come in and play their best game to get
Speaker 1: a win and get to eight and four, and some
Speaker 1: key ways to do that is keep forcing the quarterback
Speaker 1: issue or issues. Opposing quarterbacks have a pass a rating
Speaker 1: of eighty four point three against Miami this year. That's
Speaker 1: the third lowest in the NFL. And the Dolphins come
Speaker 1: in with the stingiest third down defense in all of
Speaker 1: the NFL at thirty two point eight percent and have
Speaker 1: the third most takeaways with nineteen. Gardner Minshoe, Jimmy Garoppolo,
Speaker 1: Joe Flacco, Jared Goff. All four of those quarterbacks had
Speaker 1: one of their two worst passer rating games this season
Speaker 1: against the Dolphins, and it's been a total team effort.
Speaker 1: Twelve Dolphins have at least a half a sack and
Speaker 1: five or more quarterback pressures. Eleven members of the Miami
Speaker 1: defense have had their hand in on one of the
Speaker 1: nineteen turnovers, whether it's an interception, of forced fumble or
Speaker 1: recovery and second year quarterback for the Bengals Brandon Allen Well,
Speaker 1: technically he's not second year quarterback. This is a second
Speaker 1: year playing He was drafted twenty sixteen. He's up. He
Speaker 1: replaced the injured Joe Burrow in the lost last week
Speaker 1: to the Giants. Sixth round draft pick was seventeen for
Speaker 1: twenty nine for one and thirty six yards, a touchdown
Speaker 1: and an interception, and previously, in three starts with the Broncos,
Speaker 1: he completed forty six point six percent of his passes
Speaker 1: for six point one yards per attempt, three touchdowns, two interceptions,
Speaker 1: and a passer rating of sixty eight point three. Last week,
Speaker 1: the Jets picked up ten first downs against Miami. The
Speaker 1: Bengals had eleven first downs in their game against the Giants.
Speaker 1: If the Dolphins can do that again, keep those first
Speaker 1: downs low, keep the offense off the field, they should
Speaker 1: be in good shape. Number Two, finding footing in the
Speaker 1: ground own game, and we talked about Myles Gaskin's potential return.
Speaker 1: We'll find out more this week, but he was put
Speaker 1: on injury reserve back in Week eight. He was the
Speaker 1: leader of the team in the six and six of
Speaker 1: the first seven games in rushing yards since then, Savon
Speaker 1: Akhmed leather Way three times, and last week it was
Speaker 1: DeAndre Washington who leved the team with forty nine rushing yards.
Speaker 1: Eric Doulless Phil said we'll find out this week if
Speaker 1: Myles Gaskin will or will not be back, but he
Speaker 1: did say he's been working hard. He wants to get
Speaker 1: back out there in the worst way, being in every meeting,
Speaker 1: being a great guy to be around, and just has
Speaker 1: that high energy. Last season, Gaskin had his first double
Speaker 1: digit carry game of his career against the Bengals In
Speaker 1: that Week sixteen game. He finished with this season high
Speaker 1: that year with fifty five rushing yards and scored his
Speaker 1: first touchdown. But whether it's Gaskin, Akhmed Washington, Matt Brita,
Speaker 1: or Patrick Laird, the Dolphins offense would just benefit from
Speaker 1: generating more balanced heading into the stretch run chan Gilly
Speaker 1: talks about it as an offense, you just have to
Speaker 1: be good enough to counter what they do and be
Speaker 1: able to adjust to what they to take advantage of
Speaker 1: what they're doing. I still keep try to run the
Speaker 1: football because I think you need balance in there. Sometimes
Speaker 1: it's not as productive as it needs to be we
Speaker 1: have to find different ways to maybe get that done
Speaker 1: end quote there from the Dolphins offensive coordinator. So finding
Speaker 1: some running lanes would be a big boost to the
Speaker 1: offense to the team in general. I think that Chan
Speaker 1: Gailey and the offensive line have talked about it several
Speaker 1: weeks in a row now. They want to emphasize it,
Speaker 1: and getting more production in that area of the game
Speaker 1: would certainly go a long way towards a more balanced offense.
Speaker 1: Number three, just taming the Bengals weapons. The Dolphins dbs
Speaker 1: have been sterling all season long. If you take their
Speaker 1: top five defensive backs in terms of snaps played Xavian Howard,
Speaker 1: Byron Jones, Nick Meedum, Eric Rowe, and Bobby McCain. They
Speaker 1: have a collective pass rating against of just seventy one
Speaker 1: point two. And the Bengals come to town with a
Speaker 1: dangerous arsenal of weapons for the young quarterback. Tee Higgins
Speaker 1: rookie receiver forty eight catches, six hundred thirty seven yards
Speaker 1: and five touchdowns. Tyler Boyd leads the team and catches
Speaker 1: with seventy two and receiving yards with seven twenty five,
Speaker 1: also has three touchdowns. Boyd does most to his work
Speaker 1: on the inside. Only Buffalo's Cole Beasley has more yards
Speaker 1: when aligned in the slot position. He's got six. Beasley
Speaker 1: has sixty one two BOYD six three. He's in the
Speaker 1: slot for eight six point two percent of his plays,
Speaker 1: and eighty of his ninety two targets have come from
Speaker 1: that inside position. It's a big test for Nick Needum,
Speaker 1: who's played three hundred and forty nine of his four
Speaker 1: hundred nineteen defensive snaps inside. All of that according to
Speaker 1: Pro Football Focus, so three kind of general areas the
Speaker 1: Dolphins can take advantage of and improve in this game
Speaker 1: against the Bengals. A couple more personnel notes here. For
Speaker 1: the Bengals. Jonah Williams, a first round draft pick. He's
Speaker 1: having a good second season. He missed all of his
Speaker 1: rookie year. He's allowed just twenty one quarterback pressures on
Speaker 1: four hundred and six pass blocking snaps. That five point
Speaker 1: one percent pressure rate is far and away the lowest
Speaker 1: among all Bengal starters on the offensive line. Defensive end,
Speaker 1: Carl Lawson, on the other side of the football, has
Speaker 1: double the quarterback pressures thirty six of the Bengals next
Speaker 1: best pocket disrupter with Sam Hubbard at eighteen and we
Speaker 1: talked about Jesse Bates off the top one of the
Speaker 1: premier ball hawking safeties in the game. I talked about
Speaker 1: Brandon Jones instincts and his quicks and the ability to
Speaker 1: get out of that back pedal and trigger forward and
Speaker 1: the way he plays the game. Bates is the same way.
Speaker 1: His instincts are on point three interceptions, forty four point
Speaker 1: seven passer rating against both those lead the team, and
Speaker 1: his ninety point nine PF grade as tops among all
Speaker 1: safeties in the NFL. Bengals offense ranks twenty six and
Speaker 1: scoring twenty six and total twenty nine and rushing and
Speaker 1: eighteenth and passing. And we all know about Zach Taylor
Speaker 1: making his return back to Miami for his second game here.
Speaker 1: He was a quarterbacks coach and an assistance quarterbacks coach
Speaker 1: for four years in Miami, went back to college before
Speaker 1: winding up with the Ram staff, and you see some
Speaker 1: of that blend into his offensive personnel. They call eleven
Speaker 1: personnel seventy percent of the time, with their second most
Speaker 1: frequent packaging coming via twelve personnel. That's twelve point two
Speaker 1: percent of the time. So you're gonna get Higgins, A J. Green,
Speaker 1: and Tyler Boyd on the field a lot, with a
Speaker 1: little bit of Giovanni Bernardo out of the backfield as well,
Speaker 1: and they'll mix in those two tight ends as well
Speaker 1: with Siege at Usama and Drew sample. Defensively, the Bengals
Speaker 1: ranked twenty second scoring twenty six and total defense rushing defense,
Speaker 1: and twenty two in passing. They blitz of the time,
Speaker 1: that's the sixteenth highest rate in the NFL. But they
Speaker 1: are thirty feet and pressure rate at sixteen point four percent,
Speaker 1: and they mixed that coverage up a lot. They run
Speaker 1: plenty of dime nickel and four defensive backpackages thirteen point
Speaker 1: six percent of the time and dime. That's one of
Speaker 1: the top half dime defenses in all of the NFL.
Speaker 1: So check out the article. Miami Dolphins dot Com will
Speaker 1: update you guys on injuries throughout the course of the week.
Speaker 1: Let's go ahead and finish up this podcast with some
Speaker 1: player audio, starting with quarterback to a Tonga Bloa, and
Speaker 1: let's go ahead and just start with a question for
Speaker 1: two about how you feeling. I'm feeling good. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: I think that's that's a question for for coach Flow
Speaker 1: and for our head trainer. Um. But yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: as a competitor, you always want to you know, go
Speaker 1: out there and you want to be able to play. Um.
Speaker 1: You know. But Flow and and our our medical staff,
Speaker 1: I mean I would say they're there, they have the
Speaker 1: best interest for us, and you know, I would say
Speaker 1: they wouldn't put me out there if they felt like
Speaker 1: they'd be alright being you know, kind of harmful for myself.
Speaker 1: So um, you know, just taking it one day at
Speaker 1: time and trusting trusting those guys, and let's go ahead
Speaker 1: and finish up with your Dolphins quarterback here, who was
Speaker 1: asked about some comparisons between what he experienced under coach
Speaker 1: Saban and coach Flora's. I'm gonna go ahead and jump
Speaker 1: to the part where he talks about coach Flora's and
Speaker 1: how he sets an example and preaches an example but
Speaker 1: also walks it as well. But I would say the
Speaker 1: way Flow gets his message out to us is, you know,
Speaker 1: he says it, but then you can also see it
Speaker 1: through his actions, um, being out there in practice, just
Speaker 1: the passion that he has for coaching us, UM, and
Speaker 1: then also in our team meetings too. Up next, we
Speaker 1: had Jachem Grant for his Wednesday press conference and he
Speaker 1: was asked a question about Coach Flora's talking about not
Speaker 1: getting trip up along the way and your ultimate vision
Speaker 1: and the way you do that is to keep a
Speaker 1: focus on what you're doing that particular day, the day
Speaker 1: by day focus and and not looking too far in
Speaker 1: the future. He was asked, Joachim was about some of
Speaker 1: those quotes and some of those those mottos and mantras
Speaker 1: that Coach Flora's Liz By. Here's what Jachim has to
Speaker 1: say about Coach flores As mantras and how he applies
Speaker 1: it to his own career in his own life. When
Speaker 1: like quotes like that is like he's saying, don't be complacent,
Speaker 1: continue to grind, because once you think you got it,
Speaker 1: you don't got and that's where it comes and kitchen
Speaker 1: and so I think overall that that messages and those
Speaker 1: quotes that you're saying, it's saying never be complacent and
Speaker 1: always keep your head down and keep a state tunnel
Speaker 1: vision and continue to grow in Let's go ahead and
Speaker 1: flip over to the defensive side of the ball and
Speaker 1: kind of get back on the theme of the earlier
Speaker 1: portion of the podcast, when I talked about the Dolphins
Speaker 1: defensive surge this season, Let's go ahead and hear from
Speaker 1: Dolphins safety Eric Rowe, who has spent the majority of
Speaker 1: his career playing under Josh Boyer. Wanted to ask Eric
Speaker 1: about what it is that make Josh Bowyer the guy
Speaker 1: that's been the one in charge, as Brian Flores says,
Speaker 1: with the calls and doing a great job this season.
Speaker 1: What was it about Josh Bowyer that makes this this
Speaker 1: defense so successful and makes him unique as a defensive coordinator.
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, I've been waiting for Yeah, I would
Speaker 1: say probably pretty much my career. Yeah, I think about it.
Speaker 1: But yeah, like a couple of things about him is, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, the attention to detail is really the same
Speaker 1: as Flow, like him and Flower basically the same you know,
Speaker 1: person ain't the same mindset. Uh, the energy they bring
Speaker 1: every day, the attention to detail within the defense of
Speaker 1: any scheme, technique, fundamentals, all that. So really it's just
Speaker 1: the consistency of since you know, it would have been
Speaker 1: the spring, so you know, we just had training camp,
Speaker 1: but since training camp, just the details of you know,
Speaker 1: everybody's fundamentals, you know, everybody, you know, whatever the scheme is,
Speaker 1: like the fine things and just kind of like consistently
Speaker 1: executing it. And ero gotta follow up question about how
Speaker 1: Josh Bowyer's to meet and approaches on game day. Aggressive
Speaker 1: was the term he used. Aggressive. He definitely has an
Speaker 1: aggressive mindset, which I mean I liked it. I like
Speaker 1: being the aggressor instead of you know, being passive kind
Speaker 1: of just you know, playing back. You know, he he
Speaker 1: wants to you know, he wants to dictate what, you know,
Speaker 1: the offense does, so you know, kind of have the
Speaker 1: defense kind of run the game. So uh, with any team,
Speaker 1: doesn't matter, like that's usually the game players be aggressive.
Speaker 1: Let's go ahead and get one more here from Eric
Speaker 1: Rowe about slot quarterback and second year player and Nick Needham,
Speaker 1: who has made a lot of progress in his two
Speaker 1: years with the Dolphins. Yeah, he from you know from
Speaker 1: last year. I've never training camp. He was undrafted and
Speaker 1: you know he was he was out there making plays
Speaker 1: kind of consistently against you know, our offensive. Now you
Speaker 1: know that kind of kind of gets you on the radar.
Speaker 1: I'm like, you know, all right, who is this guy?
Speaker 1: You know he was undrafted at the el Paso. Uh,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lie. When he first came in, he
Speaker 1: was overweight. He was he didn't move too well, but
Speaker 1: he kept mak him plays. And now fast forward to
Speaker 1: now you know he could play inside outside. He always
Speaker 1: had like the tough task of you know, where there's
Speaker 1: covering like Crowder in the slot. Uh. You know, I
Speaker 1: think this week Tyler boys on the side. He's a
Speaker 1: you know, really good receiver. I mean he's always up,
Speaker 1: he's always up to it. So his development, he's a
Speaker 1: he's a key piece of defense. And so there you go.
Speaker 1: There's Eric Roha, j akeene Grant to a tongue of
Speaker 1: by Loo. We also had Jason Sanders with his press conference.
Speaker 1: I was busy doing other stuff for the podcast tomorrow,
Speaker 1: but you guys can check those out on Miami Dolphins
Speaker 1: dot com as well as on the YouTube channel for
Speaker 1: all your Dolphins press conferences. As for this edition of
Speaker 1: the Drivetime podcast, that is going to be my time
Speaker 1: you all please be sure to subscribe to the podcast
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Speaker 1: Go ahead and leave us a rating, leave us a review.
Speaker 1: You can give me a follow on Twitter. It's at Wingfield,
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Speaker 1: Dolphins dot com. Check out today's top news story. I
Speaker 1: think you all will like it. Until next time finds
Speaker 1: up