Speaker 1: Two on the move Darling Deep Speedways past Hell.
Speaker 2: From the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.
Speaker 1: This is Drivetime with Travis Wingfield. He's got my avans
Speaker 1: in the playoffs?
Speaker 2: What is up, Dolphans And welcome to the Draft Time Podcast.
Speaker 2: I am your host, Travis Wingfield and on today's show,
Speaker 2: previewing the Seahawks game from the Baptist Health Studios inside
Speaker 2: the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Draft Time Podcast,
Speaker 2: Week three at the Seattle Seahawks Lumen Field up in
Speaker 2: beautiful Seattle, four h five kickoff on CBS. Gonna be
Speaker 2: mostly cloudy, about sixty seven degrees, a slight chance of rain.
Speaker 1: But just know this.
Speaker 2: Seattle showers are identical to Miami in one way and
Speaker 2: are opposite in another. Alike, they're usually little spurts here
Speaker 2: and there. The difference where it's a full fire hose
Speaker 2: of a shower down here. Seattle drizzles are usually just that,
Speaker 2: a light drizzle. So that's what you get for Sunday's weather.
Speaker 2: The Seahawks introduction our first NFC opponent of the season,
Speaker 2: which means a little bit longer for this portion of
Speaker 2: the show. Certainly longer than the Buffalo Bills. And I've
Speaker 2: done what ten times now since I got here. The
Speaker 2: Seahawks won the last two meetings against Miami in the
Speaker 2: fourth quarter in twenty twenty down here and twenty sixteen
Speaker 2: back in Seattle, which is also the last NFL game
Speaker 2: that I have sat in the stands for. Man, if
Speaker 2: you could have told me eight years after that game
Speaker 2: i'd be here today, I would have told you you're crazy.
Speaker 2: I just did the math and all this. Actually, I've
Speaker 2: been to thirty six games in this role, thirty five
Speaker 2: of those from the hard Rock Stadium press box, and
Speaker 2: one game back at MetLife in twenty twenty one, a
Speaker 2: big win over the Jets, and that does not include
Speaker 2: preseason contest.
Speaker 1: And I thought of this because one.
Speaker 2: Of our great beat writers down here, David faronas I
Speaker 2: love David's approach to things, tweeted something about the Kingdome
Speaker 2: and I was thinking, that's the park I've been to most,
Speaker 2: but it's actually probably quite comfortably hard Rocks Stadium. Now,
Speaker 2: I think if I can bind T Mobile Park in
Speaker 2: the Kingdome, that might take the crown.
Speaker 1: But I digress. We're back in Seattle. It's going to
Speaker 1: be a beautiful day.
Speaker 2: The Seahawks have experienced two vast transformations over the last
Speaker 2: three years, and it's also a good reminder here as
Speaker 2: this team and many teams are that things can change
Speaker 2: quickly for the positive in the NFL. The way they
Speaker 2: changed very drastically negative for the Dolphins over the last week. First,
Speaker 2: the end of the Russell Wilson era. You know, he
Speaker 2: ushered in the most successful era of Seahawks football, their
Speaker 2: first and only Lombardi Trophy. Another trip back to the
Speaker 2: game the following year, a ton of playoff wins and
Speaker 2: crazy primetime games and a lifetime full of memories for
Speaker 2: Seahawks fans. Jealous, jealous, I'm jealous of that. And it
Speaker 2: happened very quickly because they were stuck in a bit
Speaker 2: of purgatory post Matt Hasselbeck and those were some good
Speaker 2: teams as well. But they had four, five, seven and
Speaker 2: seven wins seasons, and one of those seven to nine
Speaker 2: seasons won the NFC West.
Speaker 1: That was a joke of a year. Back in twenty.
Speaker 2: Eleven, I think it was then Russell Wilson arrives and
Speaker 2: it's eleven, thirteen, twelve, ten, ten, nine, ten, eleven and
Speaker 2: twelve wins. That's where I thought we were heading with
Speaker 2: our current set up here. Then he has that injury
Speaker 2: plague twenty twenty one season where it doesn't look as
Speaker 2: good and they move off him in twenty twenty two
Speaker 2: and they go right back to the playoffs that year
Speaker 2: at nine and eight under Gino Smith, while Wilson flutters
Speaker 2: in the Rocky Mountains. They finished the season with the
Speaker 2: same record last year and missed the postseason. Funny how
Speaker 2: that goes sometimes. But even post Russ there was Pete
Speaker 2: Carroll who had a lot of the same concepts and principals.
Speaker 2: Run the football, play that old school style of cover three,
Speaker 2: keep it close, and try to win the game in
Speaker 2: the fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: Yuck.
Speaker 2: I hate that approach to football. But oh buddy, things
Speaker 2: have changed. They bring in Ryan Grubb from you dub
Speaker 2: that rhymes to run the offense. They bring in Mike
Speaker 2: McDonald not to be confused with Mike McDaniel, to implement
Speaker 2: his outstanding defense that he brought from Baltimore. And here
Speaker 2: they are two to zero with wins over Denver and
Speaker 2: New England, which, by the way, like schedule makers, I mean,
Speaker 2: everyone's gonna have different schedules to kick off the season.
Speaker 2: But gosh, the Chargers got the Raiders, the Panthers, and
Speaker 2: the Steelers to start. The Seahawks get the Patriots and Broncos.
Speaker 2: I guess we had that last year. You know, the
Speaker 2: Chargers were a good team in Week one. They fell
Speaker 2: apart quickly after that, but Patriots and Broncos after that
Speaker 2: was pretty nice.
Speaker 1: I digress, who cares?
Speaker 2: I think this is a good roster with a good
Speaker 2: quarterback that will challenge to make the playoffs in the NFC,
Speaker 2: And in fact, I had them as my seven seed.
Speaker 2: But given the state of the Rams and all their injuries, shoot,
Speaker 2: they might be the second best team in that division.
Speaker 2: They're currently in first, so that's how they got here.
Speaker 2: Let's get into who they are today. Their offense. From
Speaker 2: a schematic standpoint, this will sound like a slight, but
Speaker 2: it's not in the slightest slight. This is a college offense.
Speaker 2: The reason it's not a slight college offenses are all
Speaker 2: over the NFL these days, and they work very well.
Speaker 2: When you have a professional quarterback that understands spacing and
Speaker 2: how to attack said space, they'll motion to identify their
Speaker 2: coverages and then you get one of the most common
Speaker 2: concepts in college lots and lots of rub routes. They
Speaker 2: love to mesh, you pick, you rub, you corress you, numpskindding,
Speaker 2: but they like to do rub routes in any type
Speaker 2: of way against man coverage. If you run man, they
Speaker 2: are going to run rubs. They'll throw a slot fade.
Speaker 2: They love to run dagger in other concepts. They get
Speaker 2: those inbreakers against that off coverage. They find ways to
Speaker 2: get additional hats down against the pass protection plan and
Speaker 2: show you so many potential rushers. Like for instance, there
Speaker 2: was a rep on Sunday where they motion Noah fam
Speaker 2: across the formation and have him pick up the left
Speaker 2: edge while they slide their protection to the right, and
Speaker 2: it worked very effectively. Off of that, they love to
Speaker 2: run the motions under the formation, have that little slide
Speaker 2: route we saw in the flat to durham smythe like
Speaker 2: a thousand times last year. It's a wrinkle off their
Speaker 2: split flow action where he can act as a run
Speaker 2: blocker or factor into the route concept. So you get
Speaker 2: the same vertical and horizontal stretch that every coach has
Speaker 2: tried to popularize in the college game and frankly making
Speaker 2: its way to the NFL as well. The most college aspect.
Speaker 2: They love to play from empty and it almost always
Speaker 2: comes from their eleven personnel package. And in fact, just
Speaker 2: to give you the numbers here, they stay in eleven personnel,
Speaker 2: which is one back, one tight end, three receivers. We
Speaker 2: know that by now right seventy five percent of the
Speaker 2: time they bring a second tight end into the game,
Speaker 2: so twelve personnel twenty one percent of the time, and
Speaker 2: they ran thirteen personnel three percent, So it's eleven and
Speaker 2: twelve not a lot of variety, which I do think
Speaker 2: plays into Anthony Weaver's advantage. And that's basically all they do.
Speaker 2: They ran one rep from one personnel back in Week one.
Speaker 2: That's four wide and one tight end and no backs.
Speaker 2: They don't take Metcalf or Smith and Jigba off the
Speaker 2: field if they can help it. Both those players are
Speaker 2: over eighty five percent this year. It's usually a first
Speaker 2: down twelve personnel play where they'll take one of those
Speaker 2: guys off the field, and it's usually Smith and Jigba,
Speaker 2: who's got like seven percent less than Metcalf's playtime so
Speaker 2: far this year. Tyler Lockett plays seventy percent and is
Speaker 2: also eighty percent. That's their core, not a lot of substitution,
Speaker 2: not a lot of Robbie Chosen getting thirty reps in
Speaker 2: two games. All really good playmakers and fan has good flexibility,
Speaker 2: and they all have inside outside capability. They ran empty
Speaker 2: so far twenty snaps. They've gone from a shotgun with
Speaker 2: a sidecar back seventy snaps, and they've run single back
Speaker 2: from under center on twenty two snaps, so there is
Speaker 2: some raggy there. They've ran eight snaps from a true
Speaker 2: ie formation and they have one single snap out of
Speaker 2: the pistol, and that reduces your creativity in the run game,
Speaker 2: and I think it's why they've had a tough start
Speaker 2: so far with their running game. They don't have a
Speaker 2: lot of connectivity inside. They're kind of working a new
Speaker 2: offensive line and they've had injuries that have impacted that,
Speaker 2: and I just don't think that their backfield setup is
Speaker 2: can do to what they want to be from a
Speaker 2: run game standpoint. It has a ways to go to
Speaker 2: get there. Miami has to find a way to not
Speaker 2: let it get there this week. But when you have
Speaker 2: that shotgun sidecar opposed to a pistol, it reduces your
Speaker 2: flexibility with which direction the run can go. Like, you
Speaker 2: can still run your counterstep and your toss sweeps from
Speaker 2: that sidecar, but you can't have the same action and
Speaker 2: sell it the same way you can from pistol when
Speaker 2: the running back is behind the quarterback, which opens up
Speaker 2: left or right for either type of run action. You know,
Speaker 2: so hopefully Miami can shut down the run and create
Speaker 2: Russ rush situations on the third and critical downs. My
Speaker 2: last point here, I'm already so impressed by Grub's ability
Speaker 2: to play sequence. They utilize a lot of love of
Speaker 2: the game routes, routes that are not in the progression
Speaker 2: but designed to free something else up, and their route
Speaker 2: trees look fantastic. It's not predictable, it's not static. It's
Speaker 2: very on the move, it's very innovative. It's very just
Speaker 2: doing as much as you possibly can to create conflict
Speaker 2: in space, and they've done a good job of that
Speaker 2: through two weeks. How do you attack it? You know,
Speaker 2: if I sufficiently scared you with regards to getting stops
Speaker 2: on this offense, the way you do attack it is
Speaker 2: actually what I think coach Weaver best brings to the
Speaker 2: table and that's pressure. Gino has been under constant durest
Speaker 2: two games in. He's just really good at dealing with it.
Speaker 2: If you go back to last week with the Vikings
Speaker 2: and what they did to the Niners, you can actually
Speaker 2: see it in the game last year with the Ravens
Speaker 2: versus both of us and the Niners two that same
Speaker 2: defensive game planner, of the same defensive philosophy. The way
Speaker 2: to really make this Shanahan offense, you know, make life
Speaker 2: tough on a Shanahan offense, is to insert an additional
Speaker 2: hat into the box with that flexible hybrid capability. Right
Speaker 2: a player like for the Ravens Kyle Hamilton who basically
Speaker 2: can be a quasi linebacker in a pinch, or for
Speaker 2: the Vikings Josh Mattellus, who is the same exact version
Speaker 2: of that. And you spam the middle of the field
Speaker 2: from that look with extra help in the run fit,
Speaker 2: and it creates vulnerabilities outside the numbers. On top of that, rerouting,
Speaker 2: throwing off timing chips and contact early on motion men
Speaker 2: tight ends, just trying to throw things out of sync.
Speaker 2: And then most importantly, you have to find a way
Speaker 2: to mixture coverages and force that quarterback to hesitate, even
Speaker 2: if just for a beat. If he plays in rhythm,
Speaker 2: you are toast. He's a good quarterback and you can't
Speaker 2: let him do that. All the movement, all the false keys.
Speaker 2: You need linebackers that can really process that stuff. And thankfully,
Speaker 2: I think that's the strength of the two starters the
Speaker 2: Dolphins deploy and Jordan Brooks and David Long Junior. Let's
Speaker 2: go ahead and get into the big three here as
Speaker 2: we pivot into the offensive strengths of the Seahawks. Number
Speaker 2: one is you shall not pass via the run. I
Speaker 2: think my analogy is already a bit lost there, but
Speaker 2: this is a rundown point. You must stop their run game,
Speaker 2: aka prevent them from passing the lion of scrimmage, Thou
Speaker 2: shalt not pass, You shall not pass. Their best passing
Speaker 2: elements are tied to the play action game, and that's
Speaker 2: tied to their ability to reduce the true drop bad game,
Speaker 2: which everybody seems to be catching on to that philosophy
Speaker 2: here in twenty twenty four, except for some of our
Speaker 2: friends on Twitter. It's ball one on one at this point,
Speaker 2: and the way you get true drop back game like
Speaker 2: you know, I mean, hell, we haven't We've seen it.
Speaker 2: We've been stuck in third and long way too often
Speaker 2: this season, and that's been where the offensive wards have
Speaker 2: come up, you know. So the best way to get
Speaker 2: to that is to create third and six plus right,
Speaker 2: And that's what you have to do. For the Seahawks offense.
Speaker 2: Their primary guy, Kenneth Walker was down last week and
Speaker 2: it was just Zach Charbonay in his place, and Zach
Speaker 2: Charboney does not have the pop that his name would
Speaker 2: suggest he does. The only other ball carriers have been
Speaker 2: Gino Smith and Laviska Channault, who has one rush. So
Speaker 2: I do wonder if they could be sitting on some
Speaker 2: more offense, uh, some more plays with balls in the
Speaker 2: hands of guys off the perimeter the receivers in the
Speaker 2: end a round game, especially now with a couple of
Speaker 2: weeks to prepare for the absence of Kenneth Walker should
Speaker 2: he miss this game, I think he probably will, So
Speaker 2: for this I'm looking at making sure you tackle Zach Sharbonnay.
Speaker 2: His game is power and though he was drafted to
Speaker 2: play more of a gap scheme under Pete Carroll, he's
Speaker 2: highly regarded in this offense that really prioritizes zone and
Speaker 2: the ability to get the ball on the perimeter, which
Speaker 2: again expand your defense. That's what everybody wants to do.
Speaker 2: Expand create space, exploit space. But it's not just his
Speaker 2: power that you contend with. It's the power of that
Speaker 2: line and all the ancillary parts. And there is a
Speaker 2: departure from years past when it was Damian Lewis, Evan
Speaker 2: Brown and Anthony Bradford, a collection of linemen that were
Speaker 2: all over three hundred and thirty pounds and all run
Speaker 2: variations of man gap scheme and power. But now it's
Speaker 2: Connor Williams, who I love our matchup on Connor with
Speaker 2: Zach and Kalaeis. Those are big bodies that I don't
Speaker 2: think he can block, which you know, and Connor Williams
Speaker 2: tells you exactly what you need to know about their system. Right,
Speaker 2: it's zone, it's getting space, it's be athletic. But they
Speaker 2: also brought in Lake and Tomlinson, who was an utter
Speaker 2: failure in the Jets outside zone system. Decent with the Niners,
Speaker 2: but you know he's here at the Seahawks trying to
Speaker 2: have a reclamation and you know it didn't work for
Speaker 2: him last couple of years. And then Bradford is back
Speaker 2: the other the other starting guard at right at the
Speaker 2: right guard spot. So while there is a good amount
Speaker 2: of size and power at those guard spots, they by
Speaker 2: design want to beat you across your face and get
Speaker 2: out into space. And once again that rhymes, Miami will
Speaker 2: need to get off those blocks. They need to really
Speaker 2: hone in on all the tight involvement, and again I
Speaker 2: think that you can overwhelm their interior with your power
Speaker 2: and kind of force those guys to not create those gaps,
Speaker 2: not get space, and force Charbernay into early declarations whether
Speaker 2: to bang, to bounce, or to bend it back against
Speaker 2: the formation. I think Miami's well positioned to create those looks.
Speaker 2: But they're going to incorporate Noah Fan on chips. But
Speaker 2: their rap guy is aj Barner, who I was not
Speaker 2: super familiar with, but he plays a lot of the
Speaker 2: Julian Hill stuff, so keep an eye on him. So again,
Speaker 2: down the middle, I think you need Seiler and Campbell
Speaker 2: to be just dominant, and I think they can be.
Speaker 1: You start there.
Speaker 2: That would go a long way, and it's nice to
Speaker 2: have them with ten days of rest compared to four
Speaker 2: last week. That defensive tackle position's pretty thin after really
Speaker 2: all the signings this offseason didn't stick. But Jordan Brooks,
Speaker 2: you know, big, big game for Jordan Brooks and David
Speaker 2: Long Junior. Same with Javon Holland and take quite frankly,
Speaker 2: we have to get a lot more from the safety position.
Speaker 2: It's it's not been great through two games, especially with
Speaker 2: Jordan Poyer. I think that he's been late on a
Speaker 2: lot of stuff. But I think this is the game
Speaker 2: that best reflects why you go get yourself. With Jordan Brooks,
Speaker 2: they love to throw routes off of the linebacker range
Speaker 2: and rotation, so it's imperative for him to have his
Speaker 2: feel for spacing and to go find those crossing routes,
Speaker 2: to go find those inbreakers and disrupt it because Gina
Speaker 2: will put that ball right over your helmet, right past
Speaker 2: your ear hole, and he will complete it with some
Speaker 2: velocity and with some confidence in the way he throws it.
Speaker 2: So I'm looking for Jordan Brooks to make a play
Speaker 2: in this game. I think that would be a big,
Speaker 2: a big push towards getting a W if you can.
Speaker 2: The second thing here is under pressure. The best way
Speaker 2: to throw the Seahawks off of their game is create
Speaker 2: that true dropback situation that we mentioned and then win
Speaker 2: your matchups. You know, we spend the show raving about
Speaker 2: their skill groups and quarterback, and they've had questions and
Speaker 2: protection up front, and again, if you cannot get them
Speaker 2: into those obvious passing downs, it won't come into play.
Speaker 2: But I look at a guy like Jalen Phillips in
Speaker 2: this game for multiple reasons, who, by the way, had
Speaker 2: a great Instagram post talking about self doubt and self belief,
Speaker 2: and I just think the world of this guy, which
Speaker 2: makes me think that he'll bounce back after a rough
Speaker 2: game in game number two. But number one, their normal
Speaker 2: starter Abe Lucas go Koug's is on pup and his replacement,
Speaker 2: George Fant, was hurt thirteen snaps into the season and
Speaker 2: missed last week. Stone Forsyth is up next, and he
Speaker 2: is gangly. He's six foot eight, three hundred and five pounds.
Speaker 2: I don't think he has NFL worthy technique and that's
Speaker 2: not very much sand in the pants there. So I
Speaker 2: would expect JP's speed to power move to have an
Speaker 2: impact this week and his ability to run the arc,
Speaker 2: condense it back inside and force the quarterback off the
Speaker 2: top of his drop while staying in the rush count.
Speaker 2: I think it's a big batch up here for Jalen
Speaker 2: Phillips and he could have a big day. If you
Speaker 2: go back to the Patriots game, key On White got
Speaker 2: pressures off that side the right side almost at will,
Speaker 2: and they would also condense him inside and he'd win
Speaker 2: over the right guard as well. And that's where JP
Speaker 2: is so special, right, is his ability to win from
Speaker 2: multiple spots. So I wonder if you can cook up
Speaker 2: a plan where the right side is kind of sifting
Speaker 2: through pressure looks versus you know, rushing just your standard
Speaker 2: two off that side, and you mirror that on the
Speaker 2: other side. So if we get a JP win one
Speaker 2: on one versus the right tackle or right guard on
Speaker 2: a play where you have a pressure look and a
Speaker 2: third rusher from that left side from the blind side,
Speaker 2: that would do wonders to creating splash plays, which is
Speaker 2: what this defense is going to have to do over
Speaker 2: the next four, five, six, seven, eight, however long it is.
Speaker 2: Think about how Trevor Lawrence stepped off the outside pressure
Speaker 2: into the pocket on in Week one and we got
Speaker 2: him down with Ogbah and Phillips Sex. You need that
Speaker 2: and just for posterity geno against the blitz this year
Speaker 2: fifty three percent of his drop backs, like they're blitzing
Speaker 2: the crap out of him, but he's seventy seven percent
Speaker 2: completion for eight point seven yards per attempt, two touchdowns
Speaker 2: and a pick.
Speaker 1: Really damn good.
Speaker 2: So what is the key then, Well, that speaks to
Speaker 2: the quick answers this system gives him with the horizontal
Speaker 2: stretch solutions, the fact that they have good early separators.
Speaker 2: His own processing really benefits this offense. So the old
Speaker 2: adage create pressure with four right, because the numbers are
Speaker 2: less when he's not blitzed. It's forty seven percent non
Speaker 2: blitz rate, and he's still a seventy one percent completion rate,
Speaker 2: but just five point six yards per attempt without a
Speaker 2: touchdown or without any picks. And to be fair, the
Speaker 2: Patriots ran a delayed blitz that got exposed because they
Speaker 2: blew a coverage and let Metcalf run a straight line
Speaker 2: to the end zone unchallenged for a fifty five yard touchdown.
Speaker 2: So that has its way of inflating your YPA number.
Speaker 2: But if you're going to blitz, you open yourself up
Speaker 2: to those busts. Let's go ahead and take our first
Speaker 2: break rate. There, we have one more key point for
Speaker 2: Seattle's offense. We'll do the defense as well. We'll predict
Speaker 2: the game, all of that much more here on the
Speaker 2: Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you
Speaker 2: by AutoNation. We've covered two aspects of the Seahawks offense,
Speaker 2: the two keys for the Dolphins defense. The third is
Speaker 2: to help the slot position Jackson Smith and jigb In
Speaker 2: an offense that Cater's to his skill set, is enjoying
Speaker 2: the early breakout year that many predicted in his rookie season.
Speaker 2: He's played eighty five percent of his snaps in the slot,
Speaker 2: and he ate against the Patriots with twelve catches for
Speaker 2: like one p fifteen I think it was, which is
Speaker 2: kind of a low yards per catch for a player
Speaker 2: like him, but he was their quick game answer. And
Speaker 2: I wonder how much mileage you could maybe get out
Speaker 2: of somebody like Kendall Fuller getting a few reps inside
Speaker 2: or also providing help in that position. Because the reason
Speaker 2: I mentioned this is slot has been an absolute problem
Speaker 2: through two games. It's been a rough start for number four.
Speaker 2: So if it's him, I think you have to help
Speaker 2: vertically but I also hate the matchup because Cater is
Speaker 2: just not processing well at all right now. He's reacting
Speaker 2: to the routes and that creates some pretty big windows
Speaker 2: for the quarterback and early separation where if Christian Kirk
Speaker 2: makes one of two catches early in the game on
Speaker 2: that deep corner route, or late in the game in
Speaker 2: the fourth quarter he had that field speed out that
Speaker 2: he didn't make the catch. If they make either of
Speaker 2: those catches, I think Jacksonville wins that game. And those
Speaker 2: were both matchups on Cater. I think you have to
Speaker 2: think about making a switch at some point there. It's
Speaker 2: been that bad, and if you're not, you have to
Speaker 2: help inside. So yeah, I like Ramsey to match up
Speaker 2: on Metcalf. I think that's a good play style for
Speaker 2: him to go up against. And I think from various
Speaker 2: structures you can tilt help to the vertical, especially with
Speaker 2: Tyler Lockett. But I don't like the idea of Smith
Speaker 2: and Jigba having slot fades and off of three way
Speaker 2: goes from that position where he can also you know,
Speaker 2: get a slot cornerback leaning one way and break it
Speaker 2: off the other way. For a quick answer, it's just
Speaker 2: you cannot give you know Smith early solutions in the
Speaker 2: count because he will pick you apart if you do that,
Speaker 2: and that's a matchup where he can get those. So
Speaker 2: I don't want to see four on Smith and Jigba
Speaker 2: all alone, not even once. I think the pressure I
Speaker 2: think with the pressure concept trying to move Gino, the
Speaker 2: best way to get him to double clutch and help
Speaker 2: your pass rush get in with four is to cover
Speaker 2: up that quick answer, and his quick answer usually JSN again,
Speaker 2: fourteen catches for him, leads the team. Metcalf has thirteen.
Speaker 2: If we can force the ball elsewhere, you know, sans
Speaker 2: Tyler Lockett, who vertically can really smoke you if you
Speaker 2: let him. But if you can force it to charbonnat
Speaker 2: Chinault to Bobo to Fant, that's a win for the defense.
Speaker 2: Not to say those guys you know can't make plays,
Speaker 2: but Metcalf and Jackson, Smith and jig but those are
Speaker 2: the ones that I think can really burn you.
Speaker 1: And I mentioned it, you know, additional parts on the offense.
Speaker 2: Here, Jake Bobo, he's got some River Craycraft to his
Speaker 2: game where he's just a crafty route runner and a
Speaker 2: really good blocker.
Speaker 1: Keep an eye on him. For crack toss and just
Speaker 1: a blocker in general. He's a good player.
Speaker 2: Let's go ahead and move to the defense here before
Speaker 2: we take our second break.
Speaker 1: The Seahawks scheme.
Speaker 2: There are two thoughts my brain keeps going towards here,
Speaker 2: completely conflicting. Number one is, I can't think of a
Speaker 2: tougher scheme to get ready for in your first start
Speaker 2: in over a year, friscalar Thompson. But then also he
Speaker 2: practiced against it all off season, or at least some
Speaker 2: version of it. And yes, coach Weave does have his
Speaker 2: own influences, and the personnel dictates the way you do
Speaker 2: some things, but by and large, it's a lot of
Speaker 2: the same core principles that we run down here. They
Speaker 2: will walk everybody up, they'll sim pressure, they'll back literally
Speaker 2: anybody out. I saw a wrap on the Broncos tape
Speaker 2: where they wheel Jaron Reid and Leo Leonard Williams into
Speaker 2: the hook and brought Jerome Baker, Tyrel Dodson and Devin Witherspoon.
Speaker 2: That's two backers and a cornerback by the way, and
Speaker 2: two defensive tackles playing coverage. And what this did was
Speaker 2: it left the protection in a squeeze. Look, you're condensing
Speaker 2: inside against the two defensive tackles who bail out, So
Speaker 2: those guys don't have anybody to pick up besides, you know,
Speaker 2: getting fanning out and getting with and they can't do
Speaker 2: that because they rushed Derek Hall and Boye Mafey, who's
Speaker 2: a hell of a player by the way, slanting into
Speaker 2: the tackles. That makes them stay in that squeeze position
Speaker 2: they can't get further with and that creates a free
Speaker 2: run off either edge for Devon Witherspoon and Jerome Baker,
Speaker 2: two of their faster players on that defense. Baker is
Speaker 2: a sumbreill player in this game for me, though, by
Speaker 2: the way, I'd go after him relentlessly. So Skyler has
Speaker 2: to be ready to differentiate who is coming and when
Speaker 2: and when they show that. He's got to be alert
Speaker 2: to the fact that this defense is coached to where
Speaker 2: they all know all those different rush paths and assignments
Speaker 2: from every single position.
Speaker 1: Are you confused? Yet? That's the idea behind getting after
Speaker 1: the quarterback.
Speaker 2: There's a reason this defense has quickly become the Shanahan
Speaker 2: Tree of modern defensive systems. A quarter of the league
Speaker 2: now runs some variation of the system, and they also
Speaker 2: run a variety of tracks. Their games package is extensive.
Speaker 2: You know, Brian Flores had one of the most extensive
Speaker 2: game packages that we've ever seen. He had like fifty
Speaker 2: five calls that would you know, dictate stunts and twists
Speaker 2: and loops and all these different types of things you
Speaker 2: can do to create pressure or to create confusion in
Speaker 2: the protection plan. And if there's a benefit of playing
Speaker 2: the Seahawks early, it's that maybe it's not committed to
Speaker 2: full muscle memory. Just yet another reason I think the
Speaker 2: Dolphins defense will get better as we go along, as
Speaker 2: I think the Seahawks defense will too. From a structural standpoint,
Speaker 2: they play almost all these in the nickel that's seventy
Speaker 2: seven percent. They play their four to three thirteen percent,
Speaker 2: and they're three four seven percent of the time. They
Speaker 2: do not go into dime more on that in a moment.
Speaker 2: They go Cover one twenty one percent, Cover three fifteen percent.
Speaker 2: That's their primary coverage structures. They have a Cover two
Speaker 2: package they run fifteen percent, and they run variations of
Speaker 2: four and six like ten percent, so.
Speaker 1: They mix it up.
Speaker 2: They do a good job of that, but at its
Speaker 2: core it's a mix of Cover one and three, which
Speaker 2: they get to from various pre snap presentations. More on
Speaker 2: that in the next section. Those various presentations. It starts
Speaker 2: off with sixty to forty split in favor of two
Speaker 2: high safeties. But again I wonder if this changes based
Speaker 2: upon the quarterback, because against the Patriots, who ran the
Speaker 2: ball for one hundred and eighty five yards, they played
Speaker 2: much more tame in terms of they blitzed him five times,
Speaker 2: and they hung out back in those two deep looks
Speaker 2: and very rarely brought a hat in the box. But
Speaker 2: against bo Knicks, they brought that single high safety out
Speaker 2: they blitzed him sixteen times. I think that's the quarterback
Speaker 2: that more compares to Scaler Thompson than Jacoby Brissett. Gosh,
Speaker 2: what are lineup of quarterbacks to get to start your season? Nicks,
Speaker 2: Brissett and Thompson. Goodness gracious, how do you attack it?
Speaker 1: Well?
Speaker 2: I mentioned a couple of things I wanted to come
Speaker 2: back to, so no dime defense. If we had our
Speaker 2: full complement of receiver depth I'm talking about. You know,
Speaker 2: Malik will come back this week, by the way, if
Speaker 2: we had River Craycraft and Odell Beckham Junior. I would
Speaker 2: say spread it out and force those rushers into these
Speaker 2: pointless runs and force their backers to like, oh, we're
Speaker 2: gonna stay in this pressure look and we're gonna leave
Speaker 2: the number two receiver to the field uncovered. You maybe
Speaker 2: you can still do that. I don't think you have
Speaker 2: enough guns to do it. If it's a Chan, if
Speaker 2: it's Molik, if it's Rack Somembarios, maybe you can. But
Speaker 2: that's one thing to keep an eye on, because they
Speaker 2: it's a good way to get this this very blitz
Speaker 2: heav or you know, sim pressure heavy defense off of
Speaker 2: its on its back foot. Uh, the cover one and
Speaker 2: cover three aspect, I think it's imperative to get indicators
Speaker 2: that tip you when the coverage will be cover one,
Speaker 2: and that's where you can get your shots. And you
Speaker 2: have to hit a couple of shots down the field.
Speaker 2: My keys are going to be to run the ball
Speaker 2: and hit like two explosives in the passing game. If
Speaker 2: that happens, I think you have a shot. But if
Speaker 2: you try those shots and to cover three, that's where
Speaker 2: you'll get you know, double clutch and some hits in
Speaker 2: the quarterback and probably some turnovers. Most teams are playing
Speaker 2: this heavy Cover two core and Cover six variation. But
Speaker 2: from this and with a young, inexperienced quarterback, I have
Speaker 2: to imagine Mike McDonald is willing to dial up a
Speaker 2: lot of man free with his pressure fronts and daring
Speaker 2: the Miami receivers to win. With Skyler and the offensive
Speaker 2: line trying to get the protection sorted out because I
Speaker 2: don't think it's a strength there either, and find out
Speaker 2: where the help is vacating. It's going to be so
Speaker 2: important to find out information pre snap, and of course
Speaker 2: running the football off the perimeter is the best way
Speaker 2: to chill out a sim pressure look. So that's the
Speaker 2: scheme and how to attack it. My big three here,
Speaker 2: we'll go ahead and do one. To take our last
Speaker 2: break is number one, remove the front from the equation.
Speaker 1: How do you do that? Well, go watch the Saints tape.
Speaker 2: They took the Cowboys front out of that game last
Speaker 2: week despite being horrendously mismatched with Micah Parsons getting Trevor
Speaker 2: Penning the literal worst matchup in the National Football League,
Speaker 2: and they shut him out.
Speaker 1: How do you do that? Scheme? Weird?
Speaker 2: Right? If you just line up against the Seahawks front
Speaker 2: and don't incorporate any deception. If you try to go
Speaker 2: downhill and don't utilize the athletic ability of this line
Speaker 2: and get them in space, then you a ton of
Speaker 2: really good players at their strength of playing through pure
Speaker 2: power and short area burst. This is the game of
Speaker 2: Byron Murphy, who was a very, very attractive first round
Speaker 2: pick for Miami. He went off the board before he
Speaker 2: got there. That was one of my top picks for
Speaker 2: the Dolphins in that spot. Leonard Williams and Jaron Reid
Speaker 2: all exceptional tackles with the ability to play off the end,
Speaker 2: and Draymont Jones is actually in that mix as well.
Speaker 1: How do you do this?
Speaker 2: The screen game, the wide run game, which is our base,
Speaker 2: and the quick game, and I think the best thing
Speaker 2: that we can do something that we've gotten away from
Speaker 2: even with Tua in the first two games of the season,
Speaker 2: which is kind of where I think it's like, hey,
Speaker 2: go back to what worked is the use of the
Speaker 2: RPO game to influence the middle of the field and
Speaker 2: replace those vacated spots with the football. The best way
Speaker 2: I sailed down a second level that wants to walk
Speaker 2: up is to throw into those windows behind them. Because
Speaker 2: our guys are hitting those at full speed, and you
Speaker 2: know it's backers getting depth from mugged up spots that's
Speaker 2: tougher than the guy who runs the slant or the
Speaker 2: glance or the square in or whatever your route is.
Speaker 2: I also wonder if this is not an opportunity. And
Speaker 2: this is where I'm intrigued by Tyler Huntley's incorporation in
Speaker 2: the offense, not because I think he's a special player,
Speaker 2: but because he just adds a wrinkle that I don't
Speaker 2: think we've seen yet and I kind of wish we
Speaker 2: saw in this game. But I think there's an opportunity
Speaker 2: to take teams by surprise for just a bit and
Speaker 2: add this wrinkle that takes maybe a couple of weeks
Speaker 2: to have an adjustment for Like, I could see that
Speaker 2: working enough to beat Tennessee and New England and maybe
Speaker 2: you get to three and two going into the bye week.
Speaker 1: Still kind of feels like who cares?
Speaker 2: But I also think they don't make that change outside
Speaker 2: outshared of an injury happening, which also makes me feel
Speaker 2: like I just want to do whatever it takes to
Speaker 2: get cam Ward fun right. Remember just a week ago
Speaker 2: when we were talking about all the consistency and the
Speaker 2: winning seasons and being a team that's going to be
Speaker 2: in the mix every year, and how these playoff failures
Speaker 2: don't mean much because they'll be back there again for
Speaker 2: years to come and they'll eventually break through. That was
Speaker 2: the conversation last week. Now here we are we Football's fun.
Speaker 2: Oh god, I just feel like if we don't see
Speaker 2: two a back kind of where you're headed.
Speaker 1: So cool? Yeah, fun stuff.
Speaker 2: To incorporate the quarterback in the run game a little
Speaker 2: bit more would be something that the one upside of
Speaker 2: all this. You know, Skyler is not winning any foot races,
Speaker 2: but he has the scoots to keep it, to keep
Speaker 2: a zone read around the edge and just put it
Speaker 2: on tape and get a nice game that forces teams
Speaker 2: to account for which adds something this run game hasn't
Speaker 2: had from the quarterback position, which you know, either removes
Speaker 2: a hat from the equation or puts an extra hat
Speaker 2: in there for you as a blocker. So yeah, man,
Speaker 2: like make Murphy Williams read, make those guys chase Brewer,
Speaker 2: Jones and Eikenberg, which real quick. By the way, Liam
Speaker 2: has had his best two games as a Dolphin the
Speaker 2: last two weeks in case anybody cares about that, or
Speaker 2: are we just gonna you know, I don't know. Get
Speaker 2: them out in space, those speedy offensive linemen, get those
Speaker 2: defensive tackles in space, get their eyes moving. There was
Speaker 2: a play last week that I broke down HQ where
Speaker 2: we had three different types of running schemes that we
Speaker 2: showed on one play. Really innovative stuff, cool stuff, And
Speaker 2: that's just by the way I saw the thread. Should
Speaker 2: the Dolphins remove Mike mcdanil's play caller if you if
Speaker 2: you can't draw up a front or tell me, like
Speaker 2: a how a coverage Mary is a front, don't talk
Speaker 2: about play calls. Okay, just stop, just stop it. I digress,
Speaker 2: So do more of that. Do the innovative stuff spring
Speaker 2: one even. I think eight Chan is a mismatch on
Speaker 2: any of the Seattle backers. We'll see about Raheem. He
Speaker 2: practiced and I think he has a chance to play.
Speaker 2: I love the way he hits the perimeter with physicality
Speaker 2: because you'll need it against these cornerbacks.
Speaker 1: These cornerbacks love to come up.
Speaker 2: And hit you running the ball for gains, reducing true
Speaker 2: dropbacks and gives skylars many stress free reps, non thinking
Speaker 2: reps out of the equation. There's something I learned from
Speaker 2: a coaching clinic this summer. Offenses can sometimes view their
Speaker 2: quarterback like a baseball team views their starting pitcher. It's
Speaker 2: not necessarily like a gross pitch count, but high leverage
Speaker 2: pitch count those pitches where there's runners on base, runners
Speaker 2: in scoring position, that carry a higher heartbeat and can
Speaker 2: exhaust stamina more quickly. For a quarterback, stress free reps
Speaker 2: where they don't have to sort out a million things.
Speaker 2: It's a a predetermined design thing. Whether it's run game,
Speaker 2: screen game, quick game, easy decisions in the intermediate game,
Speaker 2: those can help that quarterback play more confidently. You have
Speaker 2: to find a way to accomplish that. This week, let's
Speaker 2: go ahead and take our last break right there. It's
Speaker 2: so funny. I said I was gonna make these podcasts
Speaker 2: shorter because they're just not as much fun to preview
Speaker 2: a game that you don't feel like you have a
Speaker 2: great shot in. But here we are thirty minutes at
Speaker 2: break number two. Let's go ahead and take that break,
Speaker 2: come back and do things two and three. We'll talk
Speaker 2: about what's at stake, the range of outcomes predict this game,
Speaker 2: all of that. Next Draft Time podcast your host Travis Wingfield,
Speaker 2: brought to you by AutoNation. Are you guys enjoying the
Speaker 2: Dolphins sound in and out of breaks? I thought that
Speaker 2: was a fun way to let you know that the
Speaker 2: commercial break was coming up. And some reason, the ad
Speaker 2: the mid rolls get incorporated at wrong spots on different platforms,
Speaker 2: so you might get the podcast like out of order
Speaker 2: on those. It's driving me crazy, but I don't do that,
Speaker 2: so I'll try to figure out how to get that fixed,
Speaker 2: and I apologize for it. The second thing here is
Speaker 2: beat the blitz. We don't know exactly what they're gonna do,
Speaker 2: but you have to imagine they'll play a pretty aggressive
Speaker 2: game plan.
Speaker 1: I would.
Speaker 2: We know that they're aggressive on the perimeter, and they
Speaker 2: have a belief that they can execute the concepts the
Speaker 2: concept outside that pairs well with pressure inside, so I'm
Speaker 2: inclined to believe we do see some heat on Skyler.
Speaker 2: If they do that, we're gonna need to win some
Speaker 2: well timed calls to offset that. We're gonna have to
Speaker 2: beat those presses. We're gonna have to make them miss
Speaker 2: on the outside. I keep thinking about the twenty twenty
Speaker 2: two game at Buffalo when Tyreek made Trey White wiff
Speaker 2: and Tua put the ball right on the numbers for
Speaker 2: a long touchdown. I think if you need to hit
Speaker 2: one of those, you know and Witherspoon Andreek Wolan are
Speaker 2: so aggressive, probably the most aggressive cornerback tannem in the NFL,
Speaker 2: and Wolan has the closing speed that he doesn't mind
Speaker 2: taking that chance. So between the screen and outside run
Speaker 2: game and my absolute refusal to just punt on involving
Speaker 2: Tyreek and Wallall because you're down your starting quarterback, my
Speaker 2: biggest key is to id those single high safety looks
Speaker 2: and connect on a vertical shot. If you can do
Speaker 2: that early, maybe it changes the game plan and their
Speaker 2: aggressiveness and gets them out of their game. I actually
Speaker 2: think we have good matchups anywhere outside of Weatherspoon, who
Speaker 2: I already think is a top ten cornerback in this
Speaker 2: league and also plays a quasi linebacker role. But I
Speaker 2: think that Reek Wollan's too aggressive for edgeln Waddle. I
Speaker 2: think that Trey brown Is doesn't have the long speed
Speaker 2: to keep up with either of those guys. So if
Speaker 2: they blitz, and I think they will, we're gonna have
Speaker 2: to make them pay. Get some double moves and some
Speaker 2: you know slot phase to wattle and reek and take
Speaker 2: some shots against you know, no help or maybe single
Speaker 2: high safety. Looks tough task, but I think you can
Speaker 2: do it. Number three, attack the intermediate perimeter. Talk about
Speaker 2: specificity here so on most shows, no matter who the
Speaker 2: opponent is, I state the importance of running football wide
Speaker 2: because it sets up everything for this offense to do
Speaker 2: what it does best. Horizontal and vertical stretch accounted for
Speaker 2: by overplay. One area I think the Dolphins have struggled
Speaker 2: to get the ball into the first two games is
Speaker 2: outside the numbers in that intermediate area. Against a you know,
Speaker 2: one to three defensive structure Cover one, Cover three, that's
Speaker 2: typically where the vulnerabilities are. Whether it's an out against
Speaker 2: outside leverage we saw with Waddle against the Jacksonville Jaguars
Speaker 2: for that completion, although that was two man coverage or
Speaker 2: a deep crosser that he and Riek both hit against
Speaker 2: Jacksonville on another two variation, I think that was just
Speaker 2: cover two or a flag or a comeback. Those Cover
Speaker 2: one and cover three looks can take on three elements.
Speaker 2: Number one is man, which is a great way to
Speaker 2: throw comebacks against a cornerback that has his back to
Speaker 2: the quarterback and is usually done through that cover one
Speaker 2: look like, okay, there's no help, We're gonna threaten vertical
Speaker 2: and come back because he has to account for the
Speaker 2: vertical shot. Next, if they cloud it and play that
Speaker 2: perimeter cornerback off a little bit, you throw quick hitches,
Speaker 2: speed outs underneath and try to force a mistackle. And
Speaker 2: then finally, if they play trail or the curl flat zone,
Speaker 2: which is like a off coverage in that same look,
Speaker 2: that's where you can get your deep outs and your flags.
Speaker 2: This serves to stress that single high safety. It makes
Speaker 2: their Cover three shell irrelevant, and it gets the linebacker
Speaker 2: spaced out more so that could be a big element
Speaker 2: to pulling off the upset. Some additional parts on that defense.
Speaker 2: Julian Love is an awesome safety who helped them in
Speaker 2: their disguise. I don't think that Mike McDonald has is
Speaker 2: Kyle Hamilton, but he's the closest thing to it. And
Speaker 2: then ray Sean Jenkins is a decent player who was
Speaker 2: with the Jags a couple of years ago now at
Speaker 2: the Seahawks. I also mentioned Draymont Jones and Trey Brown.
Speaker 2: Those are two guys that are good players. But I
Speaker 2: think those guys you can match up well with based
Speaker 2: upon how you call it. I think the Seattle team
Speaker 2: is actually pretty slept on, even though they are too
Speaker 2: and zero.
Speaker 1: What's at stake here?
Speaker 2: I mean it's NFC game Week three, TUSBA on the road,
Speaker 2: backup quarterbacks, so not much really, but avoiding a losing record,
Speaker 2: which will be the first time in the McDaniel era
Speaker 2: they'd be on the losing side of things with the record,
Speaker 2: and then going into that Monday night football game at
Speaker 2: two and one, I think would spark a lot of
Speaker 2: confidence at least for a week and turn the mood
Speaker 2: around a little bit of the fan base. So really,
Speaker 2: it's your record and material things, that's about it. My
Speaker 2: keys to victory Number one, create that conflict on Seattle linebackers.
Speaker 2: Go after Terrell Bernard and Jerome Baker. Number two. Disrupt
Speaker 2: the timing of the Seattle offense. Find ways to mix
Speaker 2: your pressure looks with blitzes and four man rushes and
Speaker 2: just jam on the outside. Create confusion for the receiver
Speaker 2: in the quarterback and disrupt the timing. And number three,
Speaker 2: pair of those blitzers with four man rush wins just
Speaker 2: be just have a change up to your fastball and
Speaker 2: time it up. Well, you're gonna have to do that
Speaker 2: to win this game. My range of outcomes and predictions,
Speaker 2: I think there's an outside chance they effectively mess with
Speaker 2: Seattle's operation offensively, create some short drives, maybe get a
Speaker 2: takeaway or two, and get short fields off of that
Speaker 2: and find points that way. I think there's the possibility
Speaker 2: of popping the big play in the run game the
Speaker 2: way they did early against Baltimore last year. But I
Speaker 2: just think the quarterback disparity is too much here. We're
Speaker 2: coming into a stretch of games where our own quarterback
Speaker 2: disparity was going to be like double digit favorite situations
Speaker 2: Levis and b and Brisket against Tua. Like that's a
Speaker 2: massive downgrade for the opposition, Like, you know, we saw
Speaker 2: that last year and then we blew teams out. But
Speaker 2: Gino's really good, and he has good weapons, and they
Speaker 2: have great play designers on either side of the football.
Speaker 2: I just don't think we have the trigger man to
Speaker 2: keep up. I could see Miami stealing a seventeen thirteen win,
Speaker 2: maybe even twenty seventeen, but I think the more likely
Speaker 2: scenario is a come after bull Seattle win could be
Speaker 2: as much as twenty seven thirteen, but I'm gonna land
Speaker 2: in the middle and protict twenty two thirteen Seahawks are
Speaker 2: your winners. That's it for my time here. Tomorrow, the
Speaker 2: great Kevin Harlan joins me. We'll also have Kyle Krabs.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna get out of here. You all please be
Speaker 2: sure to subscribe to the podcast. Leave us a ready,
Speaker 2: leave us a review, Follow me on social at Wakeful NFL,
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Speaker 2: Seth and Juice on the fish Tank podcast and the
Speaker 2: YouTube channel for a brand new version of Dolphins HQ.
Speaker 2: I also have a devon eight chan breakdown that you
Speaker 2: don't want to miss up there, and last, butt not
Speaker 2: least Miami Dolphins dot com Until next time, fins up,
Speaker 2: Calin and Cameron Daddy coming Home.