Speaker 1: Practice factor drawing textower. What a win for this Miami
Speaker 1: Dolphin team. Wow, What is up? Dolphins? And welcome to
Speaker 1: the Drive Time Podcast part of the Miami Dolphins official
Speaker 1: podcast network, covering your Miami Dolphins each and every day.
Speaker 1: How's it going, Everybody Happy Monday? I am your host,
Speaker 1: Travis Wingfield, and I am here to bring you your
Speaker 1: daily dose of Miami Dolphins football. And on today's show,
Speaker 1: a very media episode, we're talking Dolphins depth and players
Speaker 1: that I can't wait to personally watch in training camp,
Speaker 1: plus players in the top ten at their position in
Speaker 1: the NFL, playing the best round of golf in my life,
Speaker 1: and an absolute banger of a song that I've had
Speaker 1: on repeat all weekend. All of that and more on
Speaker 1: this Monday, July edition of the Drivetime Podcasts. So I
Speaker 1: did get back out to the inks again for the
Speaker 1: third time in the last three years, and I shot
Speaker 1: a ninety. Feeling very good about that about being a
Speaker 1: bogey golfer just three times out in the previous three years.
Speaker 1: But I still feel like there's a lot more room
Speaker 1: for improvement there. Even think I could have shaved off
Speaker 1: maybe five strokes off that score. I was just piping
Speaker 1: the ball off the tea and with the long irons.
Speaker 1: But when I get into finesse, short shot range, short
Speaker 1: chips and putting, well, that's where I gotta get some
Speaker 1: work in. Probably spend about six months doing that. But
Speaker 1: it's tough because if I don't make some money quick,
Speaker 1: my Grandma's gonna lose her house. So it's a tough
Speaker 1: spot out there. And speaking of underappreciated movies or TV shows,
Speaker 1: is happy Gilmore underappreciated? I think it is. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I was talking with a friend and fellow Dolphins fan
Speaker 1: over the weekend about our Hard Knocks season back in
Speaker 1: and there were plenty of fun moments from that show,
Speaker 1: like the introduction to the Man's Man, Dan Campbell for
Speaker 1: screaming at Michael Egg knew we had Darrell Root and
Speaker 1: all of his personality on the show. But among all
Speaker 1: the great stories, one little line from that five episode
Speaker 1: saga really stood out to me, and it came from Ocho.
Speaker 1: From Chad Johnson. One thing I always appreciated about Ocho
Speaker 1: was his attention to detail and really focusing on the
Speaker 1: small things that add up to make a big thing.
Speaker 1: All the small details really do matter. And he had
Speaker 1: this line where he's kind of walking and talking to
Speaker 1: himself on the practice field. I think it was before practice,
Speaker 1: trying to get himself mentally right, going over the reps
Speaker 1: mentally in his head, and he was murmuring a mantra
Speaker 1: of sorts to himself, just kept saying quick but not
Speaker 1: in a hurry, Quick but not in a hurry. And
Speaker 1: that got me thinking about a current Dolphins receiver who
Speaker 1: I spoke to last week for an interview that was
Speaker 1: outside the scope of football on the field, and it
Speaker 1: sparked an interest to go back and watch his tape
Speaker 1: and his game, and it led to the conception of
Speaker 1: a little segment idea on I don't want to say
Speaker 1: under appreciated players. And the more I thought about, the
Speaker 1: more I realized, I think that's the wrong way to
Speaker 1: phrase it, the wrong way to cut them, because we
Speaker 1: can appreciate what these guys bring to the field, but
Speaker 1: they were ultimately guys that I am just super intrigued
Speaker 1: to see what they can do on the practice field
Speaker 1: in training camp now just a couple of weeks out,
Speaker 1: and also how these guys really contribute to how much
Speaker 1: depth this team has compared to previous rosters of the
Speaker 1: Miami Dolphins. So on top of developing several players I
Speaker 1: think last year that now look like long term solutions
Speaker 1: for your Dolphins. Whether it's Eric Row going from a
Speaker 1: one year prove it deal with Miami to an extension
Speaker 1: in season, or Davonte Parker breaking out in a big,
Speaker 1: big way and more on him later in this podcast,
Speaker 1: or Preston Williams and Nick need Um looking like real
Speaker 1: players in their respective U d F A rookie years
Speaker 1: might get sicky really hitting big strides in year number two,
Speaker 1: especially down the stretch late last year. Whatever it was,
Speaker 1: I think there was also a glut of players that
Speaker 1: developed a strong core that allows this team to take
Speaker 1: a more focused approach in the coming off seasons ahead
Speaker 1: this offseason, we had resources and use those to simply
Speaker 1: get better on the football field. Coach Flora's talked about
Speaker 1: that in the scouting or at the scouting combine rather
Speaker 1: back in February, about signing players, drafting players, trying to
Speaker 1: accumulate good players. That is always the idea, and the
Speaker 1: Dolphins I think did get much better, at least on paper,
Speaker 1: because remember Flora's also says games are not one in
Speaker 1: March and April, and he's right, of course they're not.
Speaker 1: You have to go out and put it on the
Speaker 1: field on Sundays in the fall and the winter. But
Speaker 1: with all these resources and developed players as far as
Speaker 1: the incumbents go, you now have a chance to really
Speaker 1: narrow that focus. And what do I mean by that, Well,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna reference another episode of my favorite podcast as
Speaker 1: we do here on Drive Time. It seems like once
Speaker 1: a week in the Move the Sticks podcast with Daniel
Speaker 1: Jeremiah and Bucky Brooks on NFL Media and Jeremiah it
Speaker 1: was on the Patrick Mahomes episode after his mega deal,
Speaker 1: his mega contracts and how he would then focus his
Speaker 1: approach on the team around that contract given to their
Speaker 1: star quarterback, their m v P and Super Bowl MVP
Speaker 1: quarterback and Patrick Mahomes. And the first point DJ makes
Speaker 1: on that point is that he doesn't want to see
Speaker 1: his half billion dollar quarterbacks standing next to Big Red
Speaker 1: Andy Reid on the sidelines on crutches. And those were
Speaker 1: DJs word. I don't want him on crutches on the sideline.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna invest in the offensive line and in
Speaker 1: the top target and secondary target for this Chief's team,
Speaker 1: and for the Chiefs, the two top targets are really
Speaker 1: indiscernible since basically Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelsey are both elite,
Speaker 1: top end guys at their position, and then they're gonna
Speaker 1: go ahead and roll through the other positions with draft
Speaker 1: picks and lower end free agent contracts. But that's where
Speaker 1: DJ would put the money on this team, on the
Speaker 1: offensive line and on the top two weapons of Patrick Mahomes.
Speaker 1: And it got me thinking about how the Dolphins team
Speaker 1: looks to develop a core and then take a similar
Speaker 1: approach as far as how you round out the fifty
Speaker 1: three man roster in terms of what positions you might
Speaker 1: prioritize over others. Because if we come out of this
Speaker 1: upcoming season with I don't know, just throwing a number
Speaker 1: against the wall, maybe thirty true core players, guys that
Speaker 1: you know you can put on the football field and
Speaker 1: really trust that they're going to execute their job and
Speaker 1: do the right thing and make plays for you, then man,
Speaker 1: we are cooking with gas with another eleven draft picks
Speaker 1: next year, plenty of salary cap resources. So it got
Speaker 1: me thinking about this team's roster beyond the guys like
Speaker 1: Byron Jones and and Kyle Van Noy and to a
Speaker 1: tongue of Voloa, and Austin Jackson and Noah Igbanogny and
Speaker 1: Christian Wilkins. Your top dollar free agent guys and first
Speaker 1: round draft picks, right, guys that you invest the highest
Speaker 1: level resources into. And the inspiration for this was Isaiah Ford,
Speaker 1: which before we talk about his game on the field.
Speaker 1: We haven't put this into the podcast yet, but we
Speaker 1: did publish a story up on Miami Dolphins dot com
Speaker 1: about his Be the Change scholarship fund that he launched
Speaker 1: back in June, and it was really cool to talk
Speaker 1: to Isaiah about his motivation to use his platform to
Speaker 1: make a difference in his community. So we have the
Speaker 1: story up on Miami Dolphins dot com. Isaiah himself retweeted
Speaker 1: it for us, obviously, and I'm upstairs in my office
Speaker 1: working on Thursday with the link to the go fund
Speaker 1: me page open, just kind of refreshing it and seeing
Speaker 1: how much reach we got out of that interview and
Speaker 1: how we got two more people because of that interview,
Speaker 1: and it was going good. I even sent Isaiah a
Speaker 1: message saying how happy I personally was that we were
Speaker 1: able to raise another couple of hundred dollars since that
Speaker 1: interview that had gone on the website twelve hours prior
Speaker 1: to that. And as soon as I do that, I
Speaker 1: refreshed the page and suddenly his goal of five k
Speaker 1: is blown away. It's all the way up to eight
Speaker 1: four hundred after sitting at right around thirty four hundred
Speaker 1: before this one click where I hit the refresh, I
Speaker 1: see a donor of five thousand dollars, And who was
Speaker 1: that guy other than the guy that throws the football
Speaker 1: to Isaiah on Sundays and Ryan Fitzpatrick. And that was
Speaker 1: just that was so cool. I was so thrilled in
Speaker 1: that moment and so happy to be such a part,
Speaker 1: you know, a small part of such a tight knit
Speaker 1: organization and one that really supports one another in their
Speaker 1: you know, ventures, both on the field and off the
Speaker 1: field as well. Just a really cool moment over the
Speaker 1: weekend with Isaiah Ford and Ryan Fitzpatrick. Now, as for
Speaker 1: Ford's on field work, I love, love, love his twenty
Speaker 1: nine team story. He had just three past targets through
Speaker 1: the first twelve games of the season, and they were
Speaker 1: all in that Chargers game back in Week four, and
Speaker 1: Ford had a difficult start to his career. Just from
Speaker 1: an obstacle standpoint, he tore in a c L as
Speaker 1: a seventh round rookie in that year's preseason, and that's
Speaker 1: such a tall order for a guy to overcome. But
Speaker 1: he wasn't going to let those challenges dictate his future.
Speaker 1: You guys all know by now that I was down
Speaker 1: in South Florida as a member of the media with
Speaker 1: locked On daw Fins for ten practices last summer at
Speaker 1: training camp, and every single day, each and every day
Speaker 1: even he worked with fits after practice on some routes,
Speaker 1: throwing some vertical balls and just getting some extra work in.
Speaker 1: And it would stand a reason to me to think
Speaker 1: that extra work really helped develop a chemistry and trust
Speaker 1: because in the opening days of camp. Throughout the course
Speaker 1: of training camp, you probably didn't have much Isaiah Ford
Speaker 1: and Ryan Fitzpatrick because Fitzpatrick was your first team quarterback
Speaker 1: and Ford was not running with the ones in camp.
Speaker 1: So he got that extra work in with the Dolphins
Speaker 1: quarterback and I'm sure that helps develop chemistry and trust
Speaker 1: as any football player or athlete in basketball, football, whatever
Speaker 1: it might be, could probably tell you. Because as I
Speaker 1: continue to rewatch this twenty nineteen season and I'm on
Speaker 1: the Week four teen game at the Jets. Ford goes
Speaker 1: from not playing much early in that game to getting
Speaker 1: on the field for every single snap because both Parker
Speaker 1: and Wilson had to exit unfortunately with injuries. So all
Speaker 1: Ford does is see nine targets, three times his season
Speaker 1: total at that point, catches six of them, again three
Speaker 1: times his total catches at that point as well, puts
Speaker 1: up ninety two yards, and he would finish out the
Speaker 1: final four games catching twenty one out of twenty nine passes,
Speaker 1: a very solid seventy two point four percent catch rate
Speaker 1: for two d and thirty four yards. Another really good
Speaker 1: metric at eight point one one yards per target and
Speaker 1: fifteen first downs. Fifteen of the twenty one catches move
Speaker 1: the chains for Ford, and four of those came on
Speaker 1: third down on the money, crucial down. And he also
Speaker 1: had a huge catch and overtime against the Bengals to
Speaker 1: help set up the winning field goal in that game
Speaker 1: in overtime, and he looks like a trusted target with
Speaker 1: how he's able to pluck the ball when it's off
Speaker 1: of his body. One of the more challenging aspects of
Speaker 1: playing receiver if the ball is not on your body
Speaker 1: and you have to kind of drop your head, which
Speaker 1: changes the angle and the hand eye coordination and the
Speaker 1: site of the football. Because as a baseball player, when
Speaker 1: you had a pop up in the infield, for instance,
Speaker 1: I used to play catcher back in my very early
Speaker 1: baseball days, like in little league and middle school all
Speaker 1: the way up to high school. And I guess this
Speaker 1: is really true of pop ups on anywhere on the
Speaker 1: baseball field. But they want you to catch the ball
Speaker 1: over your head and not do a basket catch because
Speaker 1: when you do a basket catch, your line of sight
Speaker 1: then changes as you track the ball from up high
Speaker 1: and then you move your head down low to your
Speaker 1: waist to see the basket catch in So anytime you
Speaker 1: have to change that eye line, that eyesight, it's gonna
Speaker 1: have a negative impact on how well you catch the ball.
Speaker 1: And the same is true in football. If you have
Speaker 1: to drop your head or move it to the side,
Speaker 1: it's gonna make the catch it more difficult because it
Speaker 1: changes your hand eye coordination and the relationship between those two.
Speaker 1: So to catch the ball off your body is a
Speaker 1: long winded way of saying it's difficult, and that video
Speaker 1: that I tweeted out of him running a dig route
Speaker 1: against the Jets. The balls on his back shoulder because
Speaker 1: Fits takes an absolute shot as he throws the ball
Speaker 1: and it impacts the flight of the ball. Ford has
Speaker 1: to make the adjustment and he catches the football for
Speaker 1: a big first down on the drive that put the
Speaker 1: Dolphins ahead late in the fourth quarter. So when the
Speaker 1: quarterback knows he has a bigger strike zone with that receiver,
Speaker 1: it's going to develop more trust makes total sense, right.
Speaker 1: So the metrics when he gets the opportunity Isaiah Ford
Speaker 1: are awesome, and I jotted down some notes about what
Speaker 1: I saw in his game. So this is where Chad
Speaker 1: Johnson's line about being quick but not in a hurry
Speaker 1: comes up. For Ford. He plays any of the three
Speaker 1: receiver positions in eleven personnel and you've got three receivers
Speaker 1: on the field, and he has a real calm approach
Speaker 1: about how he wants to set up his release and
Speaker 1: attack the leverage at the line of scrimmage. He's very patient,
Speaker 1: finds a way to square up the man in front
Speaker 1: of him, then uses either quickness or physicality to create
Speaker 1: that separation we saw in the Jets game. We saw
Speaker 1: it again in Week seventeen against the Pats with some
Speaker 1: crucial clutch catches in that game as well, and coach
Speaker 1: Flores had some admiring words for the way Ford responded
Speaker 1: when he got that opportunity, as well as praising Isaiah
Speaker 1: for helping communicate some of the checks and the offense
Speaker 1: in general towards the end of the season when they
Speaker 1: had some new eyes in the lineup late in the year.
Speaker 1: And then there's this quote from Fits after that Week
Speaker 1: seventeen win in New England. Quote, Yeah, it was huge
Speaker 1: talking about Isaiah's contributions. Sometimes we relied on throwing to
Speaker 1: Davante outside and a lot of times we relied on
Speaker 1: working to the middle of the field. I missed Albert
Speaker 1: Wilson a couple of times that I wish I would
Speaker 1: have hit him, but he had some nice catch and runs.
Speaker 1: And Isaiah the same thing. I think as a quarterback,
Speaker 1: when you have guys that you trust and you know
Speaker 1: they're going to do the right thing and you know
Speaker 1: they're gonna make a play, it makes your job a
Speaker 1: lot easier. All those guys out there have certainly developed
Speaker 1: into that this year. Again, I said this the last
Speaker 1: few weeks about Isaiah Ford, but he's a special guy,
Speaker 1: a guy that you can just rely on in any situation,
Speaker 1: and he did a great job today. And quote, I
Speaker 1: mean to take that entire blurb, not just about Isaiah,
Speaker 1: but about the entire Dolphins receiving corps for him to
Speaker 1: say that those guys developed into that into trustworthy targets
Speaker 1: throughout the course of the season, with Parker Williams, Grant Wilson, Ford,
Speaker 1: and Hearns making up really half of the Dolphins current
Speaker 1: wide receiver room and all six of those guys having
Speaker 1: contributions last year who fits referred to on that particular
Speaker 1: quote after the Patriots game. That's just a lot of trustworthy,
Speaker 1: reliable guys in the receiver's room, and you feel good
Speaker 1: about needing any of them in a pinch if you do,
Speaker 1: because guys get hurt in this game. Guys are gonna
Speaker 1: be unavailable at times. That's how football works. And that's
Speaker 1: not to say the other guys on this roster are not.
Speaker 1: That we just don't have the game day evidence to
Speaker 1: really show you that tangible evidence that we do have
Speaker 1: from the aforementioned six guys that Fitzpatrick mentions in this quote,
Speaker 1: and that's really how it is at so many positions
Speaker 1: like safety for instance. Maybe it's his build, but for
Speaker 1: the longest time, I wasn't really aware of how fast
Speaker 1: Adrian Colbert ran. He clocked a four or four nine
Speaker 1: at the scouting combine back in I think it was,
Speaker 1: and he filled an admirably for Bobby McCain at free
Speaker 1: safety and off the streets as a free agent. Mind
Speaker 1: you over the final six games of last year, and
Speaker 1: you see that speed when he's playing that deep center
Speaker 1: field role as we go into man or press man
Speaker 1: coverage where everybody's up front across the board and you
Speaker 1: have one safety yards off the football. There's a play
Speaker 1: against the Jets again from that game where I tweeted
Speaker 1: out a video of it. The Jets go trips to
Speaker 1: the field side of the formation, and again if you're
Speaker 1: new to the podcast, the field side is the wide
Speaker 1: side of the field where there's more room to operate.
Speaker 1: The boundary is the short side. And the camera doesn't
Speaker 1: show you Colbert on this particular play on the broadcast
Speaker 1: version because he's twenty yards off the football, but on
Speaker 1: the all twenty two you can see that he lines
Speaker 1: up on the boundary side hash mark, and the way
Speaker 1: the Jets aligned on this play is to that field
Speaker 1: side where you have three receivers. The furthest receiver split
Speaker 1: out is the Z, and that's gonna be a plus
Speaker 1: split on the outside of the numbers, you know the
Speaker 1: ten yard, twenty yard, thirty yard marker. If you're on
Speaker 1: the outside of that, that's a plus split. You then
Speaker 1: got Jamison Crowder in the slot in a negative split,
Speaker 1: which is inside the numbers. And then your why you're
Speaker 1: tight end in line on the line of scrimmage, makes
Speaker 1: up your three receivers. There You've got Robby Anderson is
Speaker 1: the X to the boundary the short side of the field,
Speaker 1: and to Marius Thomas is that Z in the plus split.
Speaker 1: So one of those guys, Robbie Anderson is your speed
Speaker 1: merchant where da Marius Thomas won so many routes throughout
Speaker 1: the course of his great career with more physicality and
Speaker 1: short area quickness and route running. So Colbert aligns on
Speaker 1: the boundary side hash mark, the short side of the
Speaker 1: field hash mark and just begins to gain depth immediately
Speaker 1: off the snap. And the structure of this call I
Speaker 1: thought was cool because Crowder is the guy you worry
Speaker 1: about here because he takes this inside release and he
Speaker 1: wants to run directly at Colbert and try to break
Speaker 1: a route off in front of him to make some
Speaker 1: conflict there. You always want to create conflict for the
Speaker 1: player the quarterback is reading, and most times that can
Speaker 1: be a safety. But Miami caps off Crowder with a
Speaker 1: nice double team so that Colbert doesn't have to concern
Speaker 1: himself with that route, and then you can just follow
Speaker 1: Sam Donald's eyes deep to the target he wants to
Speaker 1: go to, and Robbie Anderson, who tries to get vertical
Speaker 1: on Ryan lewis to the short side of the field.
Speaker 1: So Hilbert from the boundary side hash mark short side
Speaker 1: of the field. He ranges over almost immediately reading Donald's
Speaker 1: eyes and gets his hands on the football, almost gets
Speaker 1: a pick, but Anderson turned into a defender on the
Speaker 1: play and breaks it up. And that's the ideal cut
Speaker 1: of what you need at a single high position twenty
Speaker 1: yards off the football. Speed, instincts, range, ball skills, all
Speaker 1: those things. And that's where Bobby McCain skill set comes
Speaker 1: into play. He starts in that role. You've got Eric
Speaker 1: Rowe doing all the stuff we've talked about down in
Speaker 1: the box, covering tight ends, even matching up in the
Speaker 1: slot or out wide when you need it. And then
Speaker 1: Colbert is there to provide you with just another guy
Speaker 1: you can put on the field and trust that he'll
Speaker 1: do his job the right way. Brandon Jones, a third
Speaker 1: round draft pick. You have expectations for a guy you
Speaker 1: select that high. Clayton Federland played with the Bengals last
Speaker 1: year in some sub package roles. The same is true
Speaker 1: of Cavon Frazier in Dallas. You just feel good about
Speaker 1: any of these guys if you have to call upon
Speaker 1: them and get them on the field. And let's go
Speaker 1: ahead and read a quote from coach Flora's about Adrian Colbert.
Speaker 1: This is after that game against the Jets. Quote. He
Speaker 1: brings a lot of energy on a day to day basis.
Speaker 1: He's got some leadership qualities. He's been here for three
Speaker 1: weeks and it feels like he's been here all year.
Speaker 1: He's smart, He's a really good teammate. It's important to him.
Speaker 1: He works extremely hard. From my preparation standpoint, he's here early,
Speaker 1: he stays late trying to get the information correct. He's
Speaker 1: a guy who brings people together. It's been good having
Speaker 1: him and quote another guy that earns high praise from
Speaker 1: the coaching staff, and next on my list is Jesse Davis,
Speaker 1: and his performance in December is where I want to
Speaker 1: focus on. He got an extension right before the season
Speaker 1: began back in September and has been praised for his
Speaker 1: leadership and the way he works. And I always find
Speaker 1: davis his quotes really refreshing right in the throws of
Speaker 1: the most challenging portions of the season last year, talking
Speaker 1: about professionalism, showing up and putting in the work, getting
Speaker 1: better every day, having a bigger picture mindset as you
Speaker 1: attack every day with that professionalism and a certain level
Speaker 1: of vigor and respect for your own performance and the
Speaker 1: eight PEO put out there, all that stuff. And I
Speaker 1: got to talk to Jesse, who was wearing a Mariner's
Speaker 1: hat in the locker room by the Way post game
Speaker 1: after the Bengals victory, because he's from a story of Washington,
Speaker 1: a small town up near Seattle, go Ms by the Way,
Speaker 1: and he talked about things at that interview clicking for
Speaker 1: him a little bit in that Eagles game back in
Speaker 1: the first part of December and dealing with all those
Speaker 1: rushers that Philly has off the edge, about dealing with
Speaker 1: the speed of those rushers and the scheme they want
Speaker 1: to play to get up field and really utilize that
Speaker 1: explosive first step to rush up field and beat the
Speaker 1: tackle with that speed, and some of those wide alignments
Speaker 1: the Eagles play because of those skill sets. As you'll recall,
Speaker 1: Matt Burke is there now on the defensive line coach
Speaker 1: and those guys, and he incorporates a lot of those
Speaker 1: same fronts with his edge rushers as he did with
Speaker 1: Cam Wake here in Miami a few years back, and
Speaker 1: those wide alignments that really take advantage of a player
Speaker 1: like Wake and his explosive first step off the ball.
Speaker 1: And in that game, Jesse allowed two hurries and had
Speaker 1: no penalties, so Fitz didn't get hit by anybody rushing
Speaker 1: off of Davis and he didn't push the team back
Speaker 1: with any mental lapses either. He would go on to
Speaker 1: finish the season without allowing any sacks in December at
Speaker 1: all clean sheet. He allowed just three hits in the
Speaker 1: month of December, which is five games and a handful
Speaker 1: of hurries and only one penalty, just one foul in
Speaker 1: five games. A really solid month and a guy that
Speaker 1: you can depend on upfront, always available, a good communicator.
Speaker 1: I think Jesse really exemplifies the types of players and
Speaker 1: the types of people that coach Floorda prefers Coach flora
Speaker 1: As prefers on this roster. Here's a quote from midweek
Speaker 1: after the Colts win before the home game against Buffalo.
Speaker 1: It was November four. I think wherever you put him,
Speaker 1: he's going to be productive and play well. So right tackle,
Speaker 1: right guard, left tackle. I think he's gonna go out
Speaker 1: there and give us his best effort. He's gonna play hard,
Speaker 1: he's going to play physical, he's going to be tough.
Speaker 1: I like having Jesse on this team. I feel confident.
Speaker 1: I'm very confident in his ability. End quote. There. So Ford,
Speaker 1: we have Jesse Davis and Adrian Hilbert, two more guys
Speaker 1: on my list here, and one of them is a linebacker.
Speaker 1: In fact, both of them are the first ones. Ray
Speaker 1: Kwon McMillan is last year. He was Pro Football Focuses
Speaker 1: number fifteen graded run defending linebacker. Just one spot behind
Speaker 1: Indianapolis is Darius Leonard, who had an All Pro birth
Speaker 1: in his rookie season. Back in team and that was
Speaker 1: coming off the heels of the season for Ray Kwan,
Speaker 1: where over the final ten games he was the number
Speaker 1: two graded run defending linebacker on Pro Football Focus in
Speaker 1: all of football, behind Luke Keekley and one spot ahead
Speaker 1: of Bobby Wagner. Both two guys, in my opinion, are
Speaker 1: headed to the Hall of Fame one day. And McMillan
Speaker 1: had forty five run stops over that time that was
Speaker 1: the most in football from Week six through Week seven team.
Speaker 1: On top of all that, I just love to watch
Speaker 1: him defeat blocks and really play the game with a
Speaker 1: physical mindset the way Flora's loves this game played in
Speaker 1: between the numbers in the box, physical beating blocks and
Speaker 1: making tackles. Now, finally, my last one for this list
Speaker 1: today is another linebacker in Vince Bagel. And though he
Speaker 1: does come down and line up on the ball in
Speaker 1: addition to playing some linebacker, so he's really just a defender,
Speaker 1: a defensive player on this defense. He led the team
Speaker 1: last year in pressures. I've talked about his spin move,
Speaker 1: his relentless motor. There's a play in the Colts game
Speaker 1: up against Brian Hoyer and that Colts offense last year
Speaker 1: where he disrupts a flat route a tight end coming
Speaker 1: across the formation. He bodies him up and throws him
Speaker 1: off his pattern, which forces Hoyer to go to the
Speaker 1: other side of the formation, the other side of the field,
Speaker 1: and look for a target. And when there's nothing there,
Speaker 1: Hoyer decides to tuck it and run for the chains,
Speaker 1: and Beagle sees the entire thing and chases him down
Speaker 1: from the other side of the field and makes the
Speaker 1: stop short of the sticks. It was my favorite hustle
Speaker 1: play of the entire season. And here's a quote from
Speaker 1: coach on his November fift availability talking about Vince Bagle
Speaker 1: after that Colts game. Quote, Vince, He's tough, he's smart,
Speaker 1: he loves to play. He's got good play strength. He's
Speaker 1: still developing in a lot of areas, tackling, pass, rush, coverage.
Speaker 1: He can do a lot of things. I like Vince
Speaker 1: a lot. I think he's brought a lot of energy,
Speaker 1: a lot of effort, a lot of enthusiasm. I think
Speaker 1: he plays the game the way it should be played.
Speaker 1: He loves to play, he gives maximum, maximum effort on
Speaker 1: every play. It's been fun having him coaching him and
Speaker 1: watching him improve and get better. I think there's a
Speaker 1: lot more room for improvement for him and quote, so
Speaker 1: Flora has given some praise and also offering up some
Speaker 1: improvement there for his linebacker slash defensive end. And one
Speaker 1: of the questions I get most is who will start
Speaker 1: or who plays the most on this team this coming season.
Speaker 1: And the truth is that not even coach knows the
Speaker 1: answer to that question. So who am I to give
Speaker 1: you answers on that question. We've got to get through
Speaker 1: camp and see where we are at that point before
Speaker 1: that discussion becomes anything outside of just pure projection. We
Speaker 1: always have our favorites, right, but there are so many
Speaker 1: parts to sort out here, and I think that was
Speaker 1: by design. We talked about the three man rush packages
Speaker 1: back on the Friday podcast and the variety of guys
Speaker 1: you can put on the field to rush the quarterback.
Speaker 1: Vince Bagel is one of them. His former college teammate
Speaker 1: Andrew van Ginkle one of them. We know what Flores
Speaker 1: and staff thinks about Jerome Baker, Kyle van Noy was
Speaker 1: signed to do a little bit of everything. Commu Gruge Hill,
Speaker 1: same idea. You've got Shack Lawson and Emmanuel Ogba. Whether
Speaker 1: you call them ends or linebackers and Curtis Weaver, all
Speaker 1: these players that were added, their Landon Roberts a true linebacker,
Speaker 1: all these players added. The point goes back to the
Speaker 1: same thing we've said about the wide receivers on this podcast,
Speaker 1: that there are so many capable players that are now
Speaker 1: in the mix giving you what depth you feel good
Speaker 1: about any of these guys if you have to call
Speaker 1: upon them a fifty three man roster focused depth, depth,
Speaker 1: depth in a game where it's a complete war of
Speaker 1: attrition for four months over sixteen games. Beagle is a
Speaker 1: guy that can play a lot of positions, a guy
Speaker 1: that can rush from multiple spots. We saw him fall
Speaker 1: into the curl zone and snag an interception off of
Speaker 1: Eli last year with a really nice play in that
Speaker 1: week fifteen game. He finished out the year with thirty
Speaker 1: four pressures. And remember that he was a set September
Speaker 1: arrival last year and only had to fourteen, seven, ten
Speaker 1: and fourteen pass rep pass rush reps the first five games,
Speaker 1: so a part time player. But then after that he
Speaker 1: was a consistent twenty plus pass rush guy, starting in
Speaker 1: that week's seven game against Buffalo and from that point
Speaker 1: over the next four games as he has and thirty
Speaker 1: four pass rush reps increasing each week. He winds up
Speaker 1: with a total of six team pressures over those four
Speaker 1: games and thirty four pressures on the entire year. And
Speaker 1: guys like this or why I just can't wait to
Speaker 1: get down the training camp. Sure, I want to see
Speaker 1: how Devanta Parker goes up against Byron Jones or Xavien Howard,
Speaker 1: all the premier matchups we're gonna have on the Marquee
Speaker 1: this coming training camp. But it's the way the fifty
Speaker 1: three take shape in totality that really intrigues me. I
Speaker 1: can't wait for that man. So we are just about
Speaker 1: two weeks away from the from July the rough starting
Speaker 1: date of training camp. And on the topic of Devanta Parker,
Speaker 1: going back to the sceiver room, I also have a
Speaker 1: note on his game that I finally was able to
Speaker 1: put into words watching him do his thing in that
Speaker 1: Eagles contest where he just went nuts. His true breakout
Speaker 1: game for my money. First, his December five games was
Speaker 1: twenty six catches, five hundred and seven yards, five touchdowns,
Speaker 1: and remember he exited the Jets game in the second quarter.
Speaker 1: You extrapolate that over a full sixteen game season and
Speaker 1: you've got a pro rated production amount of eighty three catches,
Speaker 1: two yards and sixteen touchdowns. Not bad, huh. But the
Speaker 1: reason I wanted to dive in was because the new
Speaker 1: debate about the value of contested catches. It kind of
Speaker 1: reminds me of the running back value debate that was
Speaker 1: sparked five, six, seven years ago by analytics people in football,
Speaker 1: which is a good argument to have. But this new
Speaker 1: one that I saw is contested catches. And while I
Speaker 1: think in college you might have a little bit of
Speaker 1: trepidation from people and scouts over a high volume of
Speaker 1: contested catches because maybe it means the receiver isn't creating
Speaker 1: consistent separation against camp petition in college that he should be.
Speaker 1: But this is the NFL being opened by a yard
Speaker 1: is open. That's how you how it goes when you're
Speaker 1: going up against professionals on the other side of the
Speaker 1: ball as well, And a high contested catch rate is
Speaker 1: simply another tool to measure a players abilities. So I
Speaker 1: wanted to figure out what it was that made him
Speaker 1: so special at plucking these balls that would normally be
Speaker 1: considered fifty fifty balls, but last year became way more
Speaker 1: of an advantage for the offense and Davante Parker and
Speaker 1: I found a common theme among those catches. And it
Speaker 1: wasn't just this season, It's been his entire career. You
Speaker 1: go back to against Baltimore in his rookie season. He
Speaker 1: does it in that game on a post route, then
Speaker 1: a very similar route on a game the following year
Speaker 1: in and I touched down against the Cleveland Browns again
Speaker 1: a post route in the front of the end zone.
Speaker 1: He did on opening day before the true breakout season
Speaker 1: really occurred this year, again against Baltimore. But this was
Speaker 1: my take. He has a tendency to use his frame
Speaker 1: to his advantage. He's aware of that advantage of a
Speaker 1: size and athletic ability combination, two traits that will put
Speaker 1: a receiver into the first round of the draft, just
Speaker 1: like Davante was back But he finds this way to
Speaker 1: really innately elevate himself into the defender and often leaves
Speaker 1: his feet what looks like it's early, but then he
Speaker 1: suspends himself in midair, throwing his body at the defender,
Speaker 1: and because of his frame and leaping ability and long arms,
Speaker 1: the defender then has to try to re establish an
Speaker 1: advantageous position very quickly, and the only way to get
Speaker 1: through the ball is to go through Davante. So Davanta
Speaker 1: is playing the ball and all of a sudden, the
Speaker 1: cornerback or the guy in coverage is forced to play
Speaker 1: through his body. It's so subtle, but my goodness, he
Speaker 1: perfected it last year. Watched the catch he made for
Speaker 1: a touchdown against the Giants against DeAndre Baker. That's like
Speaker 1: a prime example of it, where he just falls into
Speaker 1: the defender, reaches up plux, it scores a touchdown. It
Speaker 1: was beautiful. So Davante finishes fifth in the NFL in
Speaker 1: receiving yards and tied for fourth and touchdowns in the NFL.
Speaker 1: And in that Jesse Davis quote from coach Flow, Flow
Speaker 1: talks about it being a production business. So fourth and
Speaker 1: yards and fifth and touchdowns seems pretty good to me, right,
Speaker 1: And that's the topic I want to close this podcast
Speaker 1: on because ESPN is releasing some really interesting list where
Speaker 1: they pulled fifty or so people from around the league, executives, scouts, coaches,
Speaker 1: I think some players involved in that as well, and
Speaker 1: they took top ten players by position and showed the
Speaker 1: players overall rank where they scored cumulatively where their highest
Speaker 1: rank was and their lowest rank, and that's where I
Speaker 1: really became intrigued by this. And more on that in
Speaker 1: just a moment. But first regarding Davante and top ten production,
Speaker 1: but being absent from this list, I think it's fair
Speaker 1: to want to see him duplicate that season again, but
Speaker 1: to go back to how he made those catches and
Speaker 1: how this wasn't the first year that he did it.
Speaker 1: You see the talent and ability to do it, and
Speaker 1: if he does it again, I think there's a great
Speaker 1: chance that he is on this list next year. Now
Speaker 1: they haven't published every position yet, I imagine Byron Jones
Speaker 1: will get in there among the cornerbacks. Think X has
Speaker 1: a claim to be in there as well, But so far,
Speaker 1: there are not any Dolphins on the positions they've done
Speaker 1: so far, and I don't want to speculate a whole
Speaker 1: lot further as to what will be on there. I
Speaker 1: have opinions about who should be and maybe who could
Speaker 1: be in there this year and this time next year,
Speaker 1: but it's all about the team. It's about a collective
Speaker 1: fifty three doing what they have to do to win games.
Speaker 1: So let's not be too bothered by the individual aspect
Speaker 1: of it. The point that I did want to get
Speaker 1: to an emphasize here, however, was the discrepancy over the
Speaker 1: quarterback list. I think it really shines a light on
Speaker 1: how different organizations just value different things, or how different
Speaker 1: organizations maybe have different criteria both for talent, production, sample size,
Speaker 1: all the things that go into evaluating players on a
Speaker 1: college and professional level, like go to the tackle position,
Speaker 1: for instance. And that was the big outcry you saw
Speaker 1: on Twitter was the omission over of Kansas City's Mitchell Schwartz,
Speaker 1: the right tackle who allowed the fewest pressures of any
Speaker 1: tackle in football both in twenty nineteen and eighteen. And
Speaker 1: the best comment saw in the midst of all this,
Speaker 1: and this came from the mentions of Ben Finnell, who
Speaker 1: we had on the podcast pre draft to talk about
Speaker 1: defensive backs. A great follow. I believe he's at Ben
Speaker 1: Fennel NFL. He's a savant of the entire game. He
Speaker 1: expressed how he thinks that Schwartz should have been in
Speaker 1: the top ten, and a coach replied to him, Eric Mateos,
Speaker 1: who is the old line coach at b Y. You
Speaker 1: verified on Twitter, so I know it's legit, he said, quote.
Speaker 1: Many can't separate how a player looks during the job
Speaker 1: from how well the job gets done. Even us coaches
Speaker 1: sometimes end quote. And I love that self evaluation and
Speaker 1: found it to be very interesting and how there could
Speaker 1: be so many different ways to evaluate the game. Part
Speaker 1: of what I think makes the game so much fun
Speaker 1: is the different ways that you can look at it.
Speaker 1: And from a scouting perspective, it makes sense, right find
Speaker 1: the guy with the best traits and then trust your
Speaker 1: coaches to get his technique right. And so at quarterback.
Speaker 1: This is where I wanted to come full circle here
Speaker 1: where I was most fascinated. Mahomes lowest ranking was fourth,
Speaker 1: Wilson's was ninth, Lamar jack Exon's last year's m v
Speaker 1: P was twelve to Shaun Watson number eleven. The list
Speaker 1: was cumulative, though, and I think that played out pretty well.
Speaker 1: I've got some disagreements, but for the most part, I
Speaker 1: thought it was pretty good. It goes Mahomes, Wilson, Rogers, Watson, Brees,
Speaker 1: Lamar Jackson, Tom Brady, Carson, Wentz, Dak Prescott, Matt Stafford
Speaker 1: in their top ten. I always love to see how
Speaker 1: the league differs from what we might see in media
Speaker 1: or on social whatever it might be. I think you're
Speaker 1: always gonna have a little bit difference of opinion, but
Speaker 1: I just thought it was so cool to get an
Speaker 1: inside look at how teams might view these players and
Speaker 1: these positions and how they stack up against their peers.
Speaker 1: Just a different perspective on it. Something unique that was
Speaker 1: really cool. The ESPN did. They also had some multiple
Speaker 1: votes for Matt Ryan, big Ben Kyler, Murray Kirk Cousins
Speaker 1: and Jimmy Garoppolo also received multiple votes. There was a
Speaker 1: couple of guys in there that had just one vote
Speaker 1: each as well. So you can check that out on
Speaker 1: ESPN and you look over this list and the quarterbacks
Speaker 1: and just think, ma'am, this really is the golden age
Speaker 1: for quarterback play in the NFL. I don't think there's
Speaker 1: ever been this many good quarterbacks in the NFL. And
Speaker 1: that's where we'll go ahead and close it out. And
Speaker 1: on that topic, they're also has never been more knowledgeable
Speaker 1: football fans pumping out content out there. And we had
Speaker 1: Big E on the podcast on Friday from Dolphins Talk.
Speaker 1: He does some writing and video content for them, and
Speaker 1: Dolphins Talk just landed another fish a big fish, I
Speaker 1: should say my buddy and really smart football mind Kevin
Speaker 1: dern So I wanted to drop him a big time congratulations.
Speaker 1: He is at Kevin m D four on Twitter. Give
Speaker 1: him a follow. Can't wait to see your work over there, buddy,
Speaker 1: congrats and best of luck to you. And my final
Speaker 1: note those of you that were with me at locked On.
Speaker 1: You guys know my music taste are probably comprise of
Speaker 1: about rock music or sub genres of rock in terms
Speaker 1: of the music I listened to, but I do like
Speaker 1: hip hop and rap as well. And I think I
Speaker 1: played that new kid cutt e Eminem collaboration over the
Speaker 1: weekend at least seventy three times. Man that as the
Speaker 1: kids say, slaps or is it rips? I don't know
Speaker 1: either way. That right, there is a good spot to
Speaker 1: go ahead and line off for this Monday July edition
Speaker 1: of the Drivetime podcast. You all please be sure to
Speaker 1: subscribe to the podcast on Apple, podcast, Spotify, tuned in,
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts from. Go ahead and leave
Speaker 1: us a rating, leave us a review. Follow me on
Speaker 1: Twitter at Wingfield, NFL. Follow the Dolphins at Miami Dolphins.
Speaker 1: Check out the fish tank they had Ray Lucas in
Speaker 1: the Tank last week The Audible Podcast with Kim and
Speaker 1: John Miami Dolphins dot Com Until next time finds up