Speaker 1: To on the move, going deep Speedways, Peace to Hellas
Speaker 1: from the Baptist Health Studio.
Speaker 2: This inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is Drivetime
Speaker 2: with Travis Wingfield.
Speaker 1: He's got my hands in the playoffs?
Speaker 2: What is up?
Speaker 3: Dolphins? And welcome to the Drive Time Podcast. I am
Speaker 3: your host, Travis Wingfield. And on today's show, the first
Speaker 3: episode in the last two or three weeks. How long
Speaker 3: has it been now without a training camp practice to
Speaker 3: recap for you guys. But what we're gonna do is
Speaker 3: take a big picture, holistic look at things we've learned
Speaker 3: through twelve days of Dolphins practices. Plus I'll tell you
Speaker 3: which guys you need to watch for in tomorrow night's
Speaker 3: pre season opener at home against the Atlanta Falcons. All
Speaker 3: of that and more from the Baptist Health Studios inside
Speaker 3: the bat This Health Training Complex.
Speaker 2: This is the Drive Time Podcast.
Speaker 3: First, I figured we had twelve practices, and I was
Speaker 3: thinking about doing ten observations, but I went ahead and
Speaker 3: changed my mind to make it a clean dozen, not
Speaker 3: a bicker dozen bump, but just a dozen observations through
Speaker 3: twelve practices. So shall we go ahead and hit six
Speaker 3: of those in this first segment and then come back
Speaker 3: and do six more in the next segment. Let's go
Speaker 3: ahead and start that off here, and we're gonna kind
Speaker 3: of go in order of position or actually know what.
Speaker 3: It's a little bit scattered, but you guys know how
Speaker 3: I typically do quarterback first, running back, receiver, tight end,
Speaker 3: offensive line, defensive line, edge, linebacker, defensive backfield. I think
Speaker 3: I might have shoehorned a couple of extra ones in
Speaker 3: there at the end. So there you go. Let's go
Speaker 3: ahead and start the top. Though, my first observation is
Speaker 3: that two a tongue of Bai Looa is going to
Speaker 3: have his best season as a professional quarterback. And the
Speaker 3: reason I say that is because and I talked a
Speaker 3: lot this offseason about the physical traits of Tua and
Speaker 3: the improvement, and I don't think the necessarily sped up
Speaker 3: motion or quicker compact throwing all that stuff. I don't
Speaker 3: think that's going to have as big of a tangible
Speaker 3: impact as two other things I think will have a
Speaker 3: major impact for QB one and his game. Just first
Speaker 3: off the top, there was a great thread a while
Speaker 3: back by Chris Kaufman at c K Parrott, does the
Speaker 3: three archs per Carry podcast for me, one of the
Speaker 3: triumvirant of Dolphins podcasts that you need in Lockdown Dolphins,
Speaker 3: three archs per Carry and Drive Time.
Speaker 2: Of course, really respect Chris. He does a hell of
Speaker 2: a job.
Speaker 3: He laid out this whole timeline of Tua's career and
Speaker 3: all the things that people said that he couldn't do,
Speaker 3: and he just kept doing them, and improvements that they
Speaker 3: he said he needed to make to his game and
Speaker 3: he would just come back to next year with those
Speaker 3: improvements in his game. And what did Tua tell you
Speaker 3: this offseason? He wanted to shed some weight and get
Speaker 3: more nimble, more quick and springer off the spot.
Speaker 2: And that's what he's done. I've seen it every practice.
Speaker 2: We see it. He scrambles and makes plays.
Speaker 3: I see these threads that Vikings fans post of JJ
Speaker 3: McCarthy scrambling around and making all these Zach Wilson plays
Speaker 3: and are like, how long has it been as we
Speaker 3: had this? And like half the place he would have
Speaker 3: been sacked on. And there are probably some of those
Speaker 3: with the reps that Tua takes that he winds up
Speaker 3: making a big play after getting off the spot. But
Speaker 3: in general, I think that a lot of those are
Speaker 3: actually evaded sacks that he would have achieved in a
Speaker 3: game situation. And I've been over this so many times.
Speaker 3: But the tangible impact of that is not just the
Speaker 3: yards he can gain. It's how he can pull defenders
Speaker 3: off in man coverage. It's how he can possibly get
Speaker 3: different fronts and different rushes. You can't just overload the
Speaker 3: tackle positions and leave your guards without work and knowing
Speaker 3: that your quarterback. Their quarterback, I should say, is never
Speaker 3: going to step up through the a gap and run
Speaker 3: for ten yards. But I think Tua can do that now.
Speaker 3: He's done up before. When he was lighter in the past,
Speaker 3: he did that. I think he's going to do the
Speaker 3: exact same thing now. But the biggest jump, not to mention,
Speaker 3: the ability to keep the ball on urpos and just
Speaker 3: the overall threat of a quarterback that can maybe run
Speaker 3: a little bit of how that changes the dynamic of
Speaker 3: this offense. But the biggest thing to me is the
Speaker 3: ownership of the offense, the leadership he has over the team,
Speaker 3: and just the fact that I think this guy's going
Speaker 3: to get better every single year of his career. He's
Speaker 3: twenty six years old. We've seen so many Hall of
Speaker 3: Fame quarterbacks. You know, I mentioned the other day on
Speaker 3: the podcast Phil Rivers. You know, Drew Brees, Tom Brady
Speaker 3: was like this, all these guys that got better into
Speaker 3: their thirties and even in their late thirties. I think
Speaker 3: Tua's game is just like that, and I think that's
Speaker 3: how it will go for him as well. So I
Speaker 3: have high expectations for Tua to have the best year
Speaker 3: of his career. And if he does that, we're aware
Speaker 3: of what he's done in previous years. Right Like, he's
Speaker 3: thrown for the most yards in the league. He's had
Speaker 3: the highest passer rating. He's had twenty nine touchdowns. I
Speaker 3: wish it were thirty, but he's had gaudy statistics, let
Speaker 3: the league in yards per attempt, all that stuff. I
Speaker 3: think it's going to be the best year of his career,
Speaker 3: and if we get that, then we're looking pretty good.
Speaker 3: The next observation I have from training camp so far
Speaker 3: is another quarterback, and it's to me that Skylar Thompson
Speaker 3: is the second quarterback right now. I think that Mike
Speaker 3: White was last year the clear winner in training camp.
Speaker 3: I think this year it's been a pretty clear tilt
Speaker 3: in the other direction, just not quite the same camp
Speaker 3: from Mike White. But this is more of a Skylar
Speaker 3: observation that I think that the third year in the
Speaker 3: system is allowing him to play faster and smoother and
Speaker 3: more confidently and putting the ball in positions where he
Speaker 3: doesn't have to scramble to make a play. He can
Speaker 3: see it and execute the offense. And if he can
Speaker 3: do that, he can continue to you know, progress in
Speaker 3: those areas with some of the physical traits that he features.
Speaker 3: Then I think you have a pretty good situation there
Speaker 3: at your backup quarterback where hopefully, you know, Skyler's going
Speaker 3: to be coming up on a new contract, not this offseason,
Speaker 3: but the one after that. What if we have a
Speaker 3: solid year of him as the backup where maybe it
Speaker 3: doesn't get any playing time, but you've developed more confidence.
Speaker 3: I would love to have a situation where my backup
Speaker 3: quarterback is just coming back on these cheap contracts and
Speaker 3: hopefully you never have to use him, but just continue
Speaker 3: to gain knowledge in the offense Like that is how
Speaker 3: you can win a game in a pinch if you're
Speaker 3: starting quarterback goes down. So I was pretty hard on
Speaker 3: his game the first two years. I've been more impressed
Speaker 3: with the training camp this year, and if that continues
Speaker 3: to progress, I think we're going to be very very
Speaker 3: well off for it. Observation number three for me is
Speaker 3: that Jalen Wright is going to be an absolute problem
Speaker 3: in this league. And maybe it doesn't happen right away
Speaker 3: because we've seen it before. I mean, Devon a Chan
Speaker 3: was not up and active in the opener last year
Speaker 3: against the Chargers. Right we had you go back to
Speaker 3: the last like star Rinning back the Dolphins had Jaya
Speaker 3: Jayi didn't make the opening trip to Seattle back in
Speaker 3: twenty sixteen, and two weeks later running a game winning
Speaker 3: touchdown in for you guys against the Cleveland Browns. I
Speaker 3: could see a situation where maybe we kind of hold
Speaker 3: off on Right and the exposure he gets until late
Speaker 3: in the season. But I think that what you've seen
Speaker 3: from his burst and also the counter he features on
Speaker 3: inside runs. I think Jeff Wilson's a good player, but
Speaker 3: does Right make him almost redundant in your offense because
Speaker 3: I think he can hit that inside zone. I think
Speaker 3: he can be your fourth down pile pusher, and he
Speaker 3: also has amazing speed to burn to the outside. He
Speaker 3: reduces the workload that you give Devon a chan he
Speaker 3: can help keep Raheem Moster a healthy And the best
Speaker 3: thing about all of it is someone's gonna get hurt,
Speaker 3: someone's gonna miss time with him. It's not going to
Speaker 3: be a bother because you're just gonna go ahead and
Speaker 3: replace the injured player with Jalen Wright, who I think
Speaker 3: is a stud in his own right. I'm really curious
Speaker 3: to see how his involvement in the passing game develops, too,
Speaker 3: because I think that he has skills there. We just
Speaker 3: haven't really seen very much of it in training camp
Speaker 3: so far, but I think Jalen Wright as your third
Speaker 3: running back puts you in a really good spot as
Speaker 3: a football team. My fourth observation through twelve training camp
Speaker 3: practices here in twenty twenty four on the Draft Time
Speaker 3: podcast is that one player has emerged from the pack
Speaker 3: on the offensive line for a potential starting spot, and
Speaker 3: to me, that's Robbed Jones. And he's playing a lot
Speaker 3: of left guard, but also he started at right guard
Speaker 3: in games last year. That's kind of been his main position,
Speaker 3: and I think that what I've seen from him, in
Speaker 3: addition to what I've seen from Liam Miikenberg is kind
Speaker 3: of the same thing as a Skylarner Mike White competition
Speaker 3: for me, where the separation is occurring in both directions.
Speaker 3: I think Rob is excelling and I don't think Liam's
Speaker 3: having the best camp with Rob. You know, the physical
Speaker 3: element of his game, the ability to line up and
Speaker 3: man and gap schemes and just run people off the
Speaker 3: football was kind of who I thought he was going
Speaker 3: to be and why it made a lot of sense
Speaker 3: to get him for an RPO style run heavy attack
Speaker 3: that I thought Brian Flores and the sixteen offensive coordinators
Speaker 3: wanted to install back in twenty twenty one. And then
Speaker 3: after he gets a big UDFA guaranteed contract, he winds
Speaker 3: up pivoting to a new offense in twenty twenty two,
Speaker 3: and I kind of thought he might be, you know,
Speaker 3: square peg, round hole.
Speaker 2: But he's developed his game.
Speaker 3: I thought last year he did a good job of
Speaker 3: giving you everything that he could within a system that
Speaker 3: maybe didn't fit his strengths. But now I'm watching him
Speaker 3: play guard and his pass protection is fantastic, and the
Speaker 3: mobility is a little bit you know, there's a little
Speaker 3: bit of added juice there. I just think that so
Speaker 3: far through these practices. You know, it's been a I
Speaker 3: think a rough camp for Eichenberg and not the best
Speaker 3: camp for drist Scoll and some of the guys they
Speaker 3: tried inside. Ryan Hayes, Keon Smith hasn't been as good
Speaker 3: to me. Rob Jones has completely solidified himself as the
Speaker 3: emerging guard from that group of guys. I still think
Speaker 3: it's an area that you need to address later on.
Speaker 3: We'll come back to that here in a moment, though.
Speaker 3: Observation number five is that Julian Hill is not just
Speaker 3: making this team. He is going to be an impact
Speaker 3: tight end on this team in multiple personnel groupings. I
Speaker 3: think he's going to expand his passing game work, but
Speaker 3: really it's the solidification is that a word, probably not
Speaker 3: of his blocking game, that has me juiced and fired
Speaker 3: up for what he could be here for this Dolphins team.
Speaker 3: He looks impressive. He's physical, he's playing smarter and more
Speaker 3: in control. He sounds in command of the playbook and
Speaker 3: what his assignments are and how to read the defense
Speaker 3: and kind of, you know, tweak those assignments based upon
Speaker 3: what he's seeing. Very excited about what Julian Hill has
Speaker 3: offered through twelve training camp practices, and much like I
Speaker 3: mentioned with the quarterback spot and then the Rob Jones
Speaker 3: versus everybody else, it's a two way sliding scale. I
Speaker 3: think that Julian has asserted himself in a positive way,
Speaker 3: and I don't think it's been a very good camp
Speaker 3: for Jodie Fortsen or Tanner Connor. So I think that
Speaker 3: that room also through the first half of camp, has
Speaker 3: kind of given you a new baseline of where those
Speaker 3: guys are. Of course, camp is long and things can change.
Speaker 3: And in fact, I was curious to a m I
Speaker 3: ask coach about this at one point. Maybe it's Allady
Speaker 3: on a podcast you've already heard recording this ahead of
Speaker 3: time that I'm curious, will you because he always talks
Speaker 3: about timelines and not trying to shortchange the process of
Speaker 3: getting the most out of all these situations and all
Speaker 3: these practices. And if you start to think about depth
Speaker 3: chart and who's where at a certain point in camp,
Speaker 3: you shortchange the back end and what that the value
Speaker 3: of that is? So I wonder is it, Hey, we
Speaker 3: put all this work in and then at like two
Speaker 3: weeks to go, that's when the evaluation begins. Who you
Speaker 3: are at that point forward is what we want to
Speaker 3: look at compared to the progress you've made, or do
Speaker 3: you bank those reps from even back in May and
Speaker 3: June and OTAs and early in training camp. Is an
Speaker 3: accumulative process. I'm curious to see how that works out,
Speaker 3: because right now, the cumulative process to me has Julian Hill,
Speaker 3: you know, vastly ahead of those guys. But again, long,
Speaker 3: long way to go, and we'll see how it turns out.
Speaker 3: That brings me to my sixth observation, my half a
Speaker 3: dozen on the first segment here on this Thursday edition
Speaker 3: of the Draft Time podcast, is that River Craycraft has
Speaker 3: once again established himself over those who were brought in
Speaker 3: to challenge and beat him out for a spot.
Speaker 2: And it's because of a few things.
Speaker 3: He's always where he's supposed to be, which ask any
Speaker 3: quarterbacks to ever played the National Football League what they prefer,
Speaker 3: and that's it. He catches everything. I don't think I've
Speaker 3: seen them drop a single football out here. And his
Speaker 3: position flexibility opens up a whole world of things you
Speaker 3: can do with Jalen Waddle and Tyreek Hill. When you
Speaker 3: have a slot specialist or f tight end who can't
Speaker 3: inline block or run routes from perimeter, whatever it might be.
Speaker 3: If you have a player who's specializes, you cannot maximize
Speaker 3: Jalen Waddle and Tyreek Hill and River. Craycraft gives you
Speaker 3: the ability to do that, much like Odell Beckham juniors.
Speaker 3: That's why I think that Craycraft is kind of the
Speaker 3: number four. He's the next guy in line behind Beckham
Speaker 3: because of that. And then I think you'll have you know,
Speaker 3: Milake Washington as a guy that is a slot specialist
Speaker 3: and maybe a jet sweep guy in manufactured touches early
Speaker 3: on as he develops. But I think that those are
Speaker 3: your top four right now, and cray Craft kind of
Speaker 3: with some distance between him and the rest of the
Speaker 3: group with you know, with that in mind. So those
Speaker 3: are the six observations so far. We have six more
Speaker 3: to go. Going to be a shorter podcast today getting
Speaker 3: ready for game time tomorrow night against the Atlanta Falcons.
Speaker 3: Let's do six more of these takeaways and then segment
Speaker 3: three will do a players and matchups to watch in
Speaker 3: the Atlanta game. That's all next Draft Time podcast, your
Speaker 3: host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. Six
Speaker 3: observations in the bag six more to unwrap here as
Speaker 3: we move forward on this Thursday, August the eighth of
Speaker 3: the Drive Time podcast. Yes, I got that right. Tomorrow
Speaker 3: is the ninth seven o'clock kickoff tomorrow at hard Rock Stadium.
Speaker 3: We're gonna have pre and postgame show for you guys
Speaker 3: on local radio here one oh five nine FM, as
Speaker 3: well as the iHeartRadio app in WIOD on the AM station,
Speaker 3: so you can catch Goldie and Juice and myself on
Speaker 3: the pre game and then me, Seth and Juice will
Speaker 3: have you guys on the post game following a late
Speaker 3: night there here locally. So six observations behind us, six
Speaker 3: ahead of us, and the number seven observation I have
Speaker 3: through twelve days of Miami Dolphins training camp thus far
Speaker 3: is that Patrick Paul is a hit and he might
Speaker 3: be my top left tackle off the bench today. Do
Speaker 3: I think that's what's going to happen on opening Day? No.
Speaker 3: I think Kendall Lamb gives you better swing versatility to
Speaker 3: play right tackle. But I think that Patrick Paul has
Speaker 3: been the second best. I checked that, the best left
Speaker 3: tackle since Toron Armstead doesn't have any teamwork besides some falcons.
Speaker 3: Some falcons practices here in his back pocket. I think
Speaker 3: he's been the best left tackle in Dolphins training camp.
Speaker 3: And I think he also affords you the opportunity, should
Speaker 3: you want to use it, to go heavy personnel and
Speaker 3: use six offensive linemen. But just that's not obviously the
Speaker 3: long term hope for Patrick Paul. And I think that's
Speaker 3: where you get excited about his future here because I
Speaker 3: think that he's shown you good pad level. I think
Speaker 3: he's shown you a completely refined technique that works for him.
Speaker 3: I think that he's shown you the physical traits that
Speaker 3: he has. Is why you take a player like that
Speaker 3: at that spot in the draft and say we'll coach
Speaker 3: him up. We got butcher Berry, one of the best
Speaker 3: offensive line coaches in the National Football League, and sure enough,
Speaker 3: we can mold this insane ball of clay into a
Speaker 3: passable technique and that's going to give us a plus
Speaker 3: starter for ten years of the position, hopefully.
Speaker 2: And that's what he's looked like to me.
Speaker 3: Very quick feet, very great job of understanding where the
Speaker 3: arc is and how he can extend it because of
Speaker 3: his length, but also the quickness to pivot back inside
Speaker 3: to cut off those inside rush lanes. And you want
Speaker 3: to talk about surge in the running game. Not many
Speaker 3: guys have gotten more than he has all camp long.
Speaker 3: To me, Patrick Paul has been a hit through twelve
Speaker 3: days of Dolphins training camp. Observation number eight. I think
Speaker 3: they hit on three edge rookies. Dude, Chop Robinson looks
Speaker 3: like a star in the making to me, to rush
Speaker 3: the nine technique kick down to the five technique, line
Speaker 3: up over the nose, tackle as a nosebacker rusher, condense inside,
Speaker 3: and rush the guard. I think he can do everything.
Speaker 3: I think he has to develop his ability to get
Speaker 3: off blocks a little bit better and be a better
Speaker 3: run defender. But I think that what you've seen from
Speaker 3: his pass rush juice, Like, we saw Alden Smith coming
Speaker 3: to the NFL, you know, a decade and a half ago,
Speaker 3: and be like, was he a fourteen sat guy right
Speaker 3: away who only played passing downs? If that's who he is, Like,
Speaker 3: fourteen sacks is a lot, But I mean that's kind
Speaker 3: of what I'm thinking for his rookie year. I think
Speaker 3: he has that type of freakish rush ability to be
Speaker 3: a major impact guy. And then I also think that
Speaker 3: Mohammed Kamara is the same way. In fact, I think
Speaker 3: he's playing the run a little bit stouter. He's got
Speaker 3: more speed to power that I've seen him used to
Speaker 3: kind of shock tackles and get reset line of scrimmages
Speaker 3: against those guys. He's got incredible bending ability with the
Speaker 3: ankle flection to get around the arc. Big fan of
Speaker 3: Mo Kamara's game so far, and I think that Grayson
Speaker 3: Murphy's a hit too, especially in this system for all
Speaker 3: of these guys. But Murphy, go watch his UCLA tape
Speaker 3: and that's what you're gonna get from this Dolphins rush
Speaker 3: up front with the way they win the games, the
Speaker 3: way they move guys around the formation can blitz from
Speaker 3: different spots is because it can blitz from different spots
Speaker 3: because they have knowledge of every position on the defensive
Speaker 3: line and in the front seven in general. I think
Speaker 3: all three of those guys fit that mold and Grayson
Speaker 3: Murphy is an impact player to me as UDFA, who
Speaker 3: I think makes this team. Observation number nine. Now, I
Speaker 3: think we are on. This is the best linebacker corps
Speaker 3: the Dolphins I've had since Zach Thomas and Junior seou
Speaker 3: We're here, and I don't say that lightly because David
Speaker 3: Long is a hell of a player.
Speaker 2: I think he's a plus starter.
Speaker 3: I think Jordan Brooks is a top ten linebacker off
Speaker 3: ball linebacker in this league who can expand so much
Speaker 3: what you can do from a blitz and coverage standpoint
Speaker 3: into Sky's standpoint.
Speaker 2: He's a leader, he's a head knocker.
Speaker 3: He is just here about football and that's pretty much
Speaker 3: the one I think he cares about. And then after that,
Speaker 3: I think that Anthony Walker has a role on this
Speaker 3: team as well. I think Duke Riley has a specific
Speaker 3: role in this team. I think Zeke Vanden Brook's been good.
Speaker 3: I think Channing Tendall's come along. How many linebackers can
Speaker 3: you keep? I think there are six NFL linebackers on
Speaker 3: this team, provided Channing Tendall's development is something you're still
Speaker 3: interested in into his third season. Now, it might not
Speaker 3: work out because of the numbers game there, but I
Speaker 3: think you're in a great spot at that linebackers spot
Speaker 3: and the guys who will play a bunch of reps
Speaker 3: for you this season is the best we've had since
Speaker 3: the early two thousands. Observation Number ten is that Jalen
Speaker 3: Ramsey is going to win Defensive Player of the year,
Speaker 3: and that is the probably the craziest, like most out
Speaker 3: there thing I've said so far. But I don't care
Speaker 3: because I'm watching this guy with his length, his change
Speaker 3: of direction, his physical traits, his demeanor, the leadership, the
Speaker 3: way he locks him. Every day he comes over and
Speaker 3: grabs one of those stretchy something to help him stretch,
Speaker 3: like a band or a tool that he uses to
Speaker 3: get loosened up. And every day the fans like j
Speaker 3: Jylen and he doesn't pay any mind. And it's not
Speaker 3: because he's being a jerk. It's because he's so focused
Speaker 3: on football, and I think that's just a very It's
Speaker 3: almost like Michael Jordan ESQ, like you're not going to
Speaker 3: mess with my game, dude, Like I am playing ball
Speaker 3: right now and that's all I care about. And this
Speaker 3: system and how they're going to unlock him to play
Speaker 3: all over the formation, to rush the quarterback, to play
Speaker 3: deep in the deep coverage umbrella of the safety position.
Speaker 3: That I said that like a moron, but you get
Speaker 3: what I'm saying. He can play in the umbrella portion
Speaker 3: of coverage as a safety. I think that he's going
Speaker 3: to be the best player in the league this year
Speaker 3: on defense. Observation number eleven is I mentioned it earlier.
Speaker 3: The offensive line needs another piece. That's all there is
Speaker 3: to it. I just think they need one more guy
Speaker 3: to help kick down some depth and give you better
Speaker 3: starting quality. Can Sean Harlowe be that. We'll find out,
Speaker 3: but I think it's a good addition to this offensive line.
Speaker 3: I think they need more. And Observation number twelve is
Speaker 3: another one that is a concern for me, is this
Speaker 3: team will have or not a concern, but rather something
Speaker 3: that's concerning with the team in the previous years. I
Speaker 3: think they'll get answered, and so I think they'll have
Speaker 3: answers to the issues that plagued them last year.
Speaker 2: Situational prowess.
Speaker 3: I've seen better tempo and better orchestration of getting the
Speaker 3: calls in at least for Tua's offense, that seems improved.
Speaker 3: I feel better about the third down situations and conversion attempts,
Speaker 3: with the running game and the passing game, and just
Speaker 3: all of the situational prowess you need. I think they're
Speaker 3: gonna be better in high leverage spots because of the
Speaker 3: way they're practicing. Every single rep is like deeply contested.
Speaker 3: They're running into bad looks intentionally trying to get maximized
Speaker 3: reps on tape for how Tua can see in process
Speaker 3: and the whole entire offense can be better with his
Speaker 3: timing and being on the same page. I think they
Speaker 3: have more options beyond their one and two receivers. I
Speaker 3: mentioned Odell Beckham. I think cret Craft, you know, being
Speaker 3: hopefully healthy for the whole year helps a lot. John Smith, obviously,
Speaker 3: Jalen Right, Malik Washington, and I think they're better equipped
Speaker 3: to challenge the best quarterbacks in the league who last
Speaker 3: year we sat back and let them run rough shot
Speaker 3: all over us. Not justin Herbert, but the Chargers running
Speaker 3: game came all after us because we were so non aggressive.
Speaker 3: Josh Allen ate our lunch in a couple of games.
Speaker 3: Jalen Hurts got after us. Patrick Mahomes, except for a
Speaker 3: couple of moments in the middle, got after us, like
Speaker 3: all Lamar Jackson, all the great quarterbacks kind of got
Speaker 3: after us. I think we're better equipped to handle that
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty four with the various defensive packages and
Speaker 3: not so stingy and stubborn on how we use some
Speaker 3: of our star players. So that's twelve observations through camp.
Speaker 3: Tua gonna have his best season as a pro Skylerist
Speaker 3: quarterback too. Jalen Wright's gonna be a problem. Rob Jones
Speaker 3: has emerged from the pack so far. Julian Hill is
Speaker 3: not just making the team, He's an impact tight end.
Speaker 3: River Craycraft has once again beaten out those who are
Speaker 3: brought in to challenge him. Patrick Paul going to be
Speaker 3: a hit. They hit on three edge rookies and Chop
Speaker 3: Mow and Grayson Murphy. This is the best linebacker Cory
Speaker 3: we've had since Zach Thomas and Junior Sea.
Speaker 2: We're here.
Speaker 3: Jalen ramse Ay gonna win Defensive Player of the Year.
Speaker 3: Another offensive lineman on the interior is needed, and this
Speaker 3: team will have answers for the issues that plugged them
Speaker 3: a year ago. Twelve practices, twelve observations. Let's take our first,
Speaker 3: our last break, and preview our first preseason game. Some
Speaker 3: things to watch for tomorrow night as the Falcons are
Speaker 3: in town. That's next Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield,
Speaker 3: brought to you by AutoNation.
Speaker 1: And then there was football. The autumn wind rolled in
Speaker 1: off the Atlantic onto the shores of South Beach and
Speaker 1: made its way to Miami Gardens ahead of a seven
Speaker 1: o'clock kickoff between the Miami Dolphins and the Atlanta Falcons
Speaker 1: for an exhibition contest. And I know it's not real football,
Speaker 1: but it kind of is. It's the realist football we've
Speaker 1: gotten so far.
Speaker 2: And I'm excited.
Speaker 3: I'm excited to get back in the booth with the boys,
Speaker 3: with my guys Seth and Juice on the postgame show.
Speaker 3: I'm excited to watch the first quarter all the way
Speaker 3: to the fourth quarter and talk about football and what
Speaker 3: I wanted to do. On this edition of the Drive
Speaker 3: Time podcast, we covered the practices so far. Let's go
Speaker 3: ahead and preview a football game, but not in the
Speaker 3: same way that we traditionally do during the regular season,
Speaker 3: where I tell you which matchups are advantageous, which ones
Speaker 3: are worrisome, how the Dolphins can maximize their ability to
Speaker 3: get in the Winter Circle. That is a different preview
Speaker 3: than what this is because these previews, as we talk
Speaker 3: all camp long, and I went on an absolute tie
Speaker 3: raid yesterday about the offensive line, the perception of this team,
Speaker 3: and how if you follow the money and where it goes,
Speaker 3: that's usually what a team finds important with how they
Speaker 3: allocate their money. Right, And speaking of that, I went
Speaker 3: back and looked at the positional spending along the offensive line,
Speaker 3: and guess what. Dolphins, Niners, and Packers are all in
Speaker 3: the bottom ten in offensive line spending. Now the Rams
Speaker 3: have kind of bucked that trend among those teams that
Speaker 3: run this system, and they are actually a top ten
Speaker 3: spending team on the offensive line. So one team going
Speaker 3: in the opposite direction from this system. The other three
Speaker 3: that have had a lot of success offensively subscribe to
Speaker 3: the same notion that the offensive line is kind of
Speaker 3: where you take your lumps when you consider a salary
Speaker 3: cap league that has a finite amount of resources and
Speaker 3: how you can spend them and wants to maximize their
Speaker 3: quarterback play and their skilled positions on offense. Something else
Speaker 3: that came across the old Twitter verse the other day.
Speaker 3: I got two comments on this, and I'm genuinely asking,
Speaker 3: I'm not sticking a politic take right here. I saw
Speaker 3: that I was getting flagged for talking politics. I literally
Speaker 3: have the comment. All I said was Elon Musk is
Speaker 3: a lunatic and that Twitter's terrible. I mean, all we
Speaker 3: can all see that for ourselves, right, Twitter is it
Speaker 3: used to be a highly functionable app that was awesome.
Speaker 3: First of all, you change the name, which would you
Speaker 3: buy McDonald's and change the name like you've already built
Speaker 3: in the brand. That's a weird move. But besides that,
Speaker 3: it's the operation of the entire thing. Like you can't
Speaker 3: search old tweets anymore, it's in their search function has
Speaker 3: gone completely by the boards? And do we like this
Speaker 3: current platform that it is where it highlights aggregators to
Speaker 3: steal content and to resurface BS reports because there's monetization
Speaker 3: attached to it. Who enjoys that every single comment in
Speaker 3: a thread is a different post about something else. Maybe
Speaker 3: that is enjoyable. I think it's horrible. I think it's
Speaker 3: I don't know. I didn't know that was political. All
Speaker 3: I'm saying is Twitter sucks and I miss how it
Speaker 3: used to be. That's my only comment on that. And
Speaker 3: I didn't realize that was paly charged. So I just
Speaker 3: wanted to ask, genuinely, why is that a politics comment?
Speaker 3: Didn't I didn't understand that? Back to the football here,
Speaker 3: So these preseason games are always they're always as good
Speaker 3: as your quarterback play, right, or as bad as your
Speaker 3: quarterback play, and that makes me excited to watch this
Speaker 3: one because Mike White and Skaler Thompson have both started
Speaker 3: games in this league. Mike White's thrown for four hundred
Speaker 3: yards in a regular season game. Skyler Thompson has played
Speaker 3: a damn near perfect preseason once before, so I feel
Speaker 3: like the Dolphins are covered in that aspect.
Speaker 2: In the Falcons, it's even better.
Speaker 3: Michael Pennix was a top ten pick of the draft
Speaker 3: eight overall this year, and he was really impressive this week.
Speaker 3: I thought that he was a quick decision maker with
Speaker 3: good accuracy and command of executing the offense. He hit
Speaker 3: a deep ball that we saw back from his U
Speaker 3: dub days carry over to the National Football League, so
Speaker 3: that alone has me excited him. And that beyond that,
Speaker 3: we have Taylor Heineke, a guy that can't play in
Speaker 3: the regular season, but he started a lot of games,
Speaker 3: probably gonna play pretty well in the exhibition season. So
Speaker 3: we are going to get a good look at the
Speaker 3: rest of the guys because sometimes in these games, the
Speaker 3: quarterback play makes it very difficult to get any evaluation elsewhere,
Speaker 3: but I don't see that being the case here now.
Speaker 3: What happened last year and you know, I've been the
Speaker 3: first one to point out flaws and scholar Thompson's game
Speaker 3: as a quarterback. But I thought last year he was
Speaker 3: he didn't have a chance in that first game when
Speaker 3: he was just under durest because he was playing in
Speaker 3: front of a bunch of guys that probably you know
Speaker 3: that we knew weren't going to be there for more
Speaker 3: than a few weeks, and he couldn't get anything going.
Speaker 3: So I guess it works both ways. So we don't
Speaker 3: have precedent for what Raheem Morris will do from a
Speaker 3: playing time perspective. Yeah, he was once a head coach,
Speaker 3: but and he did play guys in his first preseason
Speaker 3: game in that previous stop, but that was also back
Speaker 3: when we had four preseason games, and it was also
Speaker 3: before this era where every team multiple joint practices against
Speaker 3: every team they see and they would not save, you know,
Speaker 3: game reps for the deep depth of the roster. So
Speaker 3: I don't know what he'll do. And for the Dolphins,
Speaker 3: we don't want to speak in absolutes, but in the
Speaker 3: last two years, we've seen twenty or twenty five of
Speaker 3: your starters or proven vets. Get some sunflower seeds. In
Speaker 3: a baseball hat. So this podcast will look at the
Speaker 3: game through that lens. And if I'm wrong and we
Speaker 3: see a bunch of ones and I didn't cover Tyreek
Speaker 3: Hill playing in the game, I'll take that l on
Speaker 3: drive time here if that is the case. So you
Speaker 3: probably have a good snapshot of who I've been impressed
Speaker 3: with in Camp so far and am looking forward to
Speaker 3: seeing in this game.
Speaker 2: Here's what we'll do.
Speaker 3: We'll go down the list and we'll highlight some Falcons
Speaker 3: that I think provide a good matchup and a good
Speaker 3: test for those guys. And if I don't find one
Speaker 3: that I like, I won't include that player. So this
Speaker 3: is not all of my favorite Camp players so far,
Speaker 3: but rather the ones that I think have a matchup
Speaker 3: that we can really take from and learn from. Capeche cool.
Speaker 3: Let's go, so the quarterbacks, I thought we can. We
Speaker 3: got a great glimpse of what the Falcons are all about.
Speaker 3: Defensively aggressive, pressure based. It's kind of like Anthony Weaver's system.
Speaker 3: They want to, you know, set the tone and be
Speaker 3: the ones that dictate the terms and how can we
Speaker 3: most effectively move the quarterback off of his launch point
Speaker 3: with both blitzes and simulated pressures. That's what Raheem Morris
Speaker 3: has done for years, a top ten blitzing team in
Speaker 3: two of the three years that he was with the
Speaker 3: Rams as the DC. He was middle of the pack
Speaker 3: last year. But based on what I saw on Tuesday
Speaker 3: and Wednesday, it's going to be a kitchen seeing type
Speaker 3: of blitz rate, a top ten blitz rate for the
Speaker 3: Falcons this year. So that's a great test for the
Speaker 3: quarterbacks douking it out for that number two job. That
Speaker 3: McDaniel was very effusive in his praise for how those
Speaker 3: guys have gone about that competition. We've talked a lot
Speaker 3: about Jalen Wright, especially in this podcast in the general
Speaker 3: takeaways from camp. That's the back that I'm most excited
Speaker 3: to see. I think, you know, running back is the
Speaker 3: position that you get the least out of from camp
Speaker 3: and the most from the preseason games. Is an interesting
Speaker 3: dichotomy there. So I'm very excited to see all these backs.
Speaker 3: And I know we won't see Raheem. I doubt will see,
Speaker 3: but you know we'll see. Atlanta has a linebacker Troy Anderson,
Speaker 3: and I bet you guys that are on this podcast
Speaker 3: remember that name because you probably are draft dorks like
Speaker 3: me and the guys that cover the stuff like I do.
Speaker 3: He was a mid round prospect crush, and I remember
Speaker 3: seeing like his name in like the fifth round, the
Speaker 3: fourth round. He actually went fifty eighth overall back in
Speaker 3: twenty twenty two, but it hasn't panned out for him
Speaker 3: so far. Four hundred and eighty snaps as a rookie
Speaker 3: showed some promise just one hundred and thirty three last year.
Speaker 3: But he does have a chance, I think, still in
Speaker 3: this league. And he has that chance because he has
Speaker 3: a perfect ten relative athletics scorecard from his combined workout
Speaker 3: back in twenty twenty two. He's he's faster than every linebacker,
Speaker 3: he jumps higher. Everything about his athletic profile is pretty
Speaker 3: much perfect, so the way he tracks Jalen to the perimeter,
Speaker 3: how he covers in the passing game, and in fact,
Speaker 3: I'm just gonna go ahead and include all the tight
Speaker 3: ends here too, because you cannot create a better traits
Speaker 3: matchup for those guys in a lab than Troy Anderson.
Speaker 3: And then I guess to that point, why don't we
Speaker 3: include some safeties as well. Dan Kruick Shank is a
Speaker 3: guy that runs through ball carriers like they stole his
Speaker 3: lunch money and has freak physical traits. So those two
Speaker 3: Falcons with our backs and tight ends, I'm looking forward
Speaker 3: to seeing them get matched up on kick Shank Kruik
Speaker 3: Shank is number thirty one Anderson forty four. If Tanner
Speaker 3: Connor can burn those guys with speed, if Jody Fortson
Speaker 3: can get on top of them with his physicality and
Speaker 3: his length, I would like to see that. How about
Speaker 3: their pass rush? Brayln Shrice is he's nice. Sorry for
Speaker 3: the rhyme. He had a great week down here forty
Speaker 3: eight from you, dub. I thought he should have been
Speaker 3: a first round pick. He makes it to the third round.
Speaker 3: He's got great burst that can really convert speed to
Speaker 3: power at two hundred and fifty pounds. They also drafted
Speaker 3: a name that I'm gonna butcher right here, but here
Speaker 3: we go, Rooke a Row Row Row. That's his name, dude,
Speaker 3: Like I'm not Scooby and you right now, that's his
Speaker 3: freaking name. He was drafted in the second round. He's
Speaker 3: a pure power player who has length in very strong hands,
Speaker 3: and so is rookie brand do List. But he's a
Speaker 3: defensive tackle. And I mentioned this strength, these traits because
Speaker 3: all of these guys are so strong, and I like
Speaker 3: those matchups for our guys who have pretty much seen speed.
Speaker 2: All camp long.
Speaker 3: Not to say they're not powerful rushers, but we figuratively
Speaker 3: have an F one team when you look at their
Speaker 3: all time ten split ranks among rushers right like we have.
Speaker 3: It was a priority. So I'm excited to watch, you know,
Speaker 3: this offensive line go from seeing speed speed, speed to
Speaker 3: now maybe a little bit more power power power with
Speaker 3: this Falcons team. So I want to see how Patrick
Speaker 3: Paul can sink his hips and drop his pads and
Speaker 3: anchors against the power of Trice and a Row Row
Speaker 3: Row and Bradley and I who was a guy that
Speaker 3: I loved a few years back. Missed on that one
Speaker 3: from Utah, but he does have great length and strength.
Speaker 3: Always thought he was a good fit for the Brian
Speaker 3: Flores defense or Josh Boyer. He didn't work out anywhere
Speaker 3: he's been so far. I'm curious to see if Ebikide
Speaker 3: and Lorenzo Carter play. I doubt we will, but if
Speaker 3: we do, throw him in there too. And the same
Speaker 3: goes for key On Smith and Ryan Hayes and all
Speaker 3: the guys trying to earn jobs on the perimeter on
Speaker 3: this offensive line. As far as inside goes, I mentioned Dorless,
Speaker 3: He's a bowl in a China shot man. I want
Speaker 3: to see how Rob Jones, Jack Driscoll, Sean Harlowe, Liam Eichenberg,
Speaker 3: how those guys anchor against him. I can't imagine we're
Speaker 3: giving days off to a guy like Liam who's been,
Speaker 3: you know, the right guard every day at practice. But
Speaker 3: I don't think you put him in that category of
Speaker 3: guys that can afford the mis reps. So I imagine
Speaker 3: he gets a look against them. And then there are
Speaker 3: some vets that I don't think we'll see, like Grady
Speaker 3: Jarrett and David Anyamata. But you know, I just wanted
Speaker 3: to put their names in here because those are some
Speaker 3: of the best guys at their position in the league.
Speaker 3: I'm really excited to see Malik Washington get some run here.
Speaker 3: He was awesome in the practices, and they have some
Speaker 3: interesting corners with a variety of traits like d Alford's
Speaker 3: one of the guys I'm curious to see. But the
Speaker 3: one that I'm really excited to watch is Clark Phillips.
Speaker 3: The third because he was. He's like a slot specialist
Speaker 3: in a lot of ways. I think he'll match up
Speaker 3: on the leak. He's a second year corner from Utah
Speaker 3: who played you football, which is physical, tough, you know,
Speaker 3: but he does it at five eight, one eighty five,
Speaker 3: So he's kind of like Molik in the sense that
Speaker 3: he plays a lot bigger than his stature would suggest.
Speaker 3: On defense. I'm excited to see how quick we can change,
Speaker 3: how quick we can play in the middle on this
Speaker 3: rookie quarterback and kind of trigger on what he does
Speaker 3: well and those short hookup throws and quick decision making.
Speaker 3: How does Zeke Vandenberg and Channing tendall read and react?
Speaker 3: How do they get off blocks on this interior offensive
Speaker 3: line as well? I cannot wait to watch Quentin Bell
Speaker 3: play a game. I think that he's going to do
Speaker 3: really well for himself in these games because of his
Speaker 3: effort and strain. They have a tackle Jared Jones Smith,
Speaker 3: who actually was with US back in twenty nineteen and
Speaker 3: was one of the first guys that I stood beside
Speaker 3: on the field when I was down here for camp
Speaker 3: that year. And if you don't know who he is,
Speaker 3: he's six foot seven three hundred and twenty pounds and
Speaker 3: has an eighty four inch wing span, so he's literally
Speaker 3: the longest player in the history of the National Football League.
Speaker 3: To me, I don't care how good or bad he is.
Speaker 3: He hasn't really played in the NFL. That's a good
Speaker 3: matchup for you because it gives you a look at
Speaker 3: you know, length, Storm Norton, another tackle that has played
Speaker 3: a lot of snaps. Those guys are behind McGarry and Matthews,
Speaker 3: who won't play most likely, So good matchup there for Bell,
Speaker 3: for Chop, for Mo Kamara.
Speaker 2: You know, chop On.
Speaker 3: Those guys could be fun because I don't think that
Speaker 3: he I don't think their athletic profiles match up well
Speaker 3: with his burst and Kamara for that matter. But we'll
Speaker 3: see if Kamara plays. He didn't practice on Wednesday against
Speaker 3: the Falcons, so I'm excited to watch Chop and Quinton
Speaker 3: as well with that speed and get off. Wonder if
Speaker 3: Julian Davenport plays. These are names that you guys probably
Speaker 3: remember from from Dolphins days, but Davenport was an absolute
Speaker 3: tirefire in twenty nineteen, but was part of the the
Speaker 3: part of the part of the roster that helped this
Speaker 3: team get TOUA. Basically, that's another vet with you know,
Speaker 3: tons of reps. That could be a good test just
Speaker 3: because of how he can change up his looks throughout
Speaker 3: the course of the game for the young pass rushers.
Speaker 3: I don't have any matchups on the inside for guys
Speaker 3: for the Falcons, but I'm just excited to get a
Speaker 3: look at the trio of Harris Gallimore and Tart three
Speaker 3: guys that kind of play similar positions I think are
Speaker 3: going to be big parts of the rotation. I just
Speaker 3: want to see him play in a game situation where
Speaker 3: I can really focus on that part of the lion
Speaker 3: of scrimmage. In the backfield, I've seen Jason Matrie and
Speaker 3: Storm Duck make all kinds of plays. Would have loved
Speaker 3: to have seen Ron Moore and Ray Ray McCloud, who
Speaker 3: both left practice. We know we want see more. I
Speaker 3: doubt we see McCloud, but those would have been fun matchups.
Speaker 3: Aside from that, James Washington was the guy that I
Speaker 3: circled here who could play a lot of snaps deep
Speaker 3: into this game because he has speed, he has long skills,
Speaker 3: he has ball skills. If you can match up on
Speaker 3: that guy and win. That's a good step for a
Speaker 3: couple of undrafted rookies. I think we'll see a lot
Speaker 3: of Ethan Bonner early on. I'm excited to watch him
Speaker 3: in a game setting and against a guy like maybe
Speaker 3: Darnell Mooney, who a couple of years ago maybe wouldn't
Speaker 3: have played this game, but he's kind of fallen out
Speaker 3: of favor, or he did fall out a favor in
Speaker 3: Chicago and now he's trying to earn reps in Atlanta.
Speaker 3: I think he'll play That could be one of the
Speaker 3: best matchups of the entire night. And then I'm excited
Speaker 3: to watch Elijah Campbell in the back end. I don't
Speaker 3: think we'll see Javon Holland. I know we won't see
Speaker 3: Jordan Poyer. Do we see a little bit of Marcus
Speaker 3: may include him here as well. But I'm excited to
Speaker 3: watch Elijah come down and play the run against a
Speaker 3: guy like Tyler Algier, a real power runner, or cover
Speaker 3: Ross Dwelly, a nice athletic tight end of the passing game.
Speaker 3: The Falcons have a fun roster, should be a fun game,
Speaker 3: and I'm looking forward to it. We'll have the postgame
Speaker 3: recap for you guys in the early morning hours on Saturday,
Speaker 3: seven o'clock kickoff. You hope the game's done by ten
Speaker 3: two hours of postgame radio to midnight podcast, probably be
Speaker 3: out by like two am. That's probably my hope there.
Speaker 3: So that's the next time you'll hear from me. Then
Speaker 3: we'll have Sunday off and we'll come right back on
Speaker 3: Monday for more camp practices where I can get mad
Speaker 3: online again. In the meantime, you all please be sure,
Speaker 3: and seriously, I want to know. I genuinely am asking,
Speaker 3: why is calling Twitter at tire fire? Why is that
Speaker 3: politically charged?
Speaker 2: I really don't know.
Speaker 3: In the meantime, you all please be sure to subscribe
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Speaker 3: us a review. You can follow me on social at
Speaker 3: Wingfield NFL and the team at Miami Dolphins. Check out
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Speaker 3: Dolphins dot com. Until next time, fins up cal On
Speaker 3: and Cameron Daddy. He's coming home.