Speaker 1: That touchdown, Miami Run. What is up, Dolphans And welcome
Speaker 1: to the Drive Time Podcast, part of the Miami Dolphins
Speaker 1: podcast network, covering your team, your Miami Dolphins. How's it
Speaker 1: going everybody? I am your host, Travis Wingfield and as
Speaker 1: always I am here to bring you your daily dose
Speaker 1: of Miami Dolphins football. And on today's show, Breathe it
Speaker 1: All in. Can you smell that? It smells to me
Speaker 1: like football season. Miami Dolphins are back on the field.
Speaker 1: We have a practice in the books. We're gonna break
Speaker 1: it all down for you here, the drills, the pace
Speaker 1: of practice, the team periods, the top performers. We're gonna
Speaker 1: cover all of that, breakdown what coach and the players
Speaker 1: had to say, and a whole lot more all of that.
Speaker 1: On this day one of training camp edition of the
Speaker 1: Drive Time Podcast. We are for the first time coming
Speaker 1: to you from Baptist Health Studios here at the Baptist
Speaker 1: Health Training Facility in Miami Gardens, right across the way
Speaker 1: from beautiful Hard Rock Stadium, and practice just wrapped and
Speaker 1: we have a lot to get to. But before we
Speaker 1: dig into that, some roster news as Shakeem Griffin signed
Speaker 1: with Miami since the last time I spoke with you all,
Speaker 1: and those that have been following along with me since
Speaker 1: the Locked on Dolphins days know how excited I was
Speaker 1: about his prospects as a pro back in NFL Draft.
Speaker 1: And not to toot my own horn here, but I
Speaker 1: guess too too had very nice thing to say about
Speaker 1: a handful of linebackers and that class, and they were well.
Speaker 1: Jerome Baker and what I saw from him that really
Speaker 1: put him on the map for me was that wheel
Speaker 1: route against Sae Kwon Barkley where Barkley created zero separation
Speaker 1: with both guys on a dead sprint. Also fell in
Speaker 1: love with Darius Leonard and Fred Warner mostly at the
Speaker 1: Senior Bowl, for their work in coverage and as linebackers
Speaker 1: in that week of practice, the change of direction, all
Speaker 1: the skill sets that really kind of go along with
Speaker 1: a modern day linebacker, like a Jerome Baker, like a
Speaker 1: Fred Warner, like a Darius Leonard. And the fourth was,
Speaker 1: of course Shakim Griffin. So not bad, Travis not bad
Speaker 1: at all. Now, Shack has been more special teams than
Speaker 1: prominent Snaptaker on defense so far in his career. But
Speaker 1: I think there's a lot of juice for him as
Speaker 1: a rusher, especially when you start to incorporate all of
Speaker 1: the again this word change of direction, this phrase, I
Speaker 1: should say he's capable of flashing with the change of direction,
Speaker 1: but also his counter moves are pretty great from what
Speaker 1: I recall on his college tape back at u CF.
Speaker 1: The Dolphins also add defensive bat Cravon LeBlanc. This is
Speaker 1: a feisty player that also has the special team's reputation
Speaker 1: really across all special teams units, but he also has
Speaker 1: the defensive production to go along with it. The thing
Speaker 1: that stands out to me is his ball production. With
Speaker 1: eight team passes defense in fifty two career games played
Speaker 1: and one thousand, one hundred, give or take coverage snaps
Speaker 1: that's basically a little less than two seasons of coverage
Speaker 1: snaps and averaging better than nine per year on p
Speaker 1: b U S shows you some of those ball skills.
Speaker 1: And I remember when coach Flores was first hired. I
Speaker 1: did a podcast with some of the Patriots beat writers who,
Speaker 1: in addition to raving about coach for both his leadership
Speaker 1: and his football acumen, talked about his preference for guys
Speaker 1: in the defensive secondary that can play the football, and
Speaker 1: then of course includes long speed and tackling and some
Speaker 1: of the other stuff coach Flores has talked about with
Speaker 1: regards to defensive backs, and we've seen that as a
Speaker 1: real point of emphasis here in Miami. And then finally,
Speaker 1: Jibrey Blunt the tight end was waived with an injury
Speaker 1: settlement and Carson Meyer was brought into the tight ends
Speaker 1: room to replace Jibbrey Blunt and Meyer spent time with
Speaker 1: Jacksonville and Atlanta in twenty nineteen. He's got some tight
Speaker 1: end slash h back flexibility that way. He's a big
Speaker 1: do that loves to square out blocks and make his
Speaker 1: presence known that way. And a few more notes here.
Speaker 1: Before practice began, we heard on Tuesday from coach Floras
Speaker 1: that Preston Williams will start the season on the p up,
Speaker 1: so too will Davonte Parker, another receiver, offensive lineman d J. Fluker,
Speaker 1: and linebacker e Land and Roberts, while rookie offensive lineman
Speaker 1: Larnel Coleman starts on the reserve COVID nineteen list. Miami
Speaker 1: also signed Tyler mars Now. I am not familiar with
Speaker 1: his game, so we can cover that more in depth
Speaker 1: on a later podcast. So that's your roster activity, and
Speaker 1: we'll have plenty more to get to here, including our
Speaker 1: training camp segments. My notepad will crown some performers of
Speaker 1: the day and talk about my favorite matchup I saw
Speaker 1: out there and here from some players as well. And
Speaker 1: before we get to the practice notes, let's talk about
Speaker 1: Xavien Howard for just one moment, and let's do that
Speaker 1: with me just saying this, I can't really give you anything.
Speaker 1: I mean what coach said and has press conference about
Speaker 1: those talks being internal and that he hopes that they
Speaker 1: can work towards a resolution and that they love x
Speaker 1: That's that's the story. I mean. I'm not gonna sit
Speaker 1: here and speculate any further because that's where the conversation,
Speaker 1: any value of the conversation ends for me. I'm not
Speaker 1: interested in this game of telephone or the drama filled
Speaker 1: back and forth of speculation, whether it's social media for
Speaker 1: me or otherwise. We're here to talk about football, and
Speaker 1: that is that. Coach also appeared on The Joe Rose
Speaker 1: Show on Wednesday morning talking about how he understands the
Speaker 1: Dolphins understand Xaviens concerns, but we'll keep conversations internal and
Speaker 1: the plan is to keep or to continue to keep
Speaker 1: talking to him and his representation quote we love X
Speaker 1: and quote. So that is that. And speaking of football,
Speaker 1: why don't we start with well the practice notes, play
Speaker 1: the hits right, and first things first, there wasn't a
Speaker 1: one on one period at this practice. I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: ahead and punt on the matchup of the day because
Speaker 1: there just weren't enough notable reps between any two guys too.
Speaker 1: I think really pursued that segment today. You know, you've
Speaker 1: got to have a few reps of one on one,
Speaker 1: some few reps and team period. Now, there were some
Speaker 1: good matchups like well talk about Eric Rowan Mike get
Speaker 1: Sicky here in just a minute, but it wasn't prevalent
Speaker 1: enough to say that was the premier matchup of the
Speaker 1: day or something to that effects. We're gonna go ahead
Speaker 1: and punt on that. But it was otherwise a normal
Speaker 1: early on training camp practice. A lot of the early
Speaker 1: stuff here is that a bit of a tamed down
Speaker 1: pace as they work through some installs. Lots of running
Speaker 1: plays early, plenty of passing plays late. But the one
Speaker 1: thing that never changes here in South Florida, the pace
Speaker 1: of practice is very fast moving. Nobody walks between periods.
Speaker 1: There's an urgency and you can get the sense that
Speaker 1: that's built in with the idea of these kind of
Speaker 1: cooling periods they have in between certain periods where guys
Speaker 1: take their helmets off, they get some water, and then
Speaker 1: they go through a slow paced walk through and it
Speaker 1: gives the guys a chance to kind of rest the
Speaker 1: physical body while staying sharp mentally and get those mental
Speaker 1: reps and while you're still kind of working through it.
Speaker 1: So it's not like a zoom meeting. It's on field application,
Speaker 1: but you're not putting yourself through the strenuous, you know,
Speaker 1: the strenuous results of going through a South Florida rep
Speaker 1: down here at Pratt this and that's what this practice
Speaker 1: was all about. As we heard from QB one post
Speaker 1: practice on polishing up the things they did from O.
Speaker 1: T A S and getting them streamlined here and polishing
Speaker 1: them up for training camp. Everyone's ready to go. I
Speaker 1: think it's really good that we got to come out
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, kind of brush up on the
Speaker 1: things we went over U during the spring, so you know,
Speaker 1: we look forward to what tomorrow brings. So like he
Speaker 1: talks about something of a continuation what we saw back
Speaker 1: at O t A s in May and in June,
Speaker 1: and it coincides. I think that is the pace of
Speaker 1: practice with what we heard on Tuesday from Jerome Baker.
Speaker 1: Let's go ahead and roll that sound. You're ready to work.
Speaker 1: I say that about our whole rookie class. They're ready
Speaker 1: to work. They came in and they really uh they
Speaker 1: definitely is ready to work. About Jalen me is the
Speaker 1: guys in shape. He's he's definitely in shape and he's
Speaker 1: definitely ready to go. So I'm excited. You know, those
Speaker 1: young guys, they come in hungry, with a lot of energy.
Speaker 1: It doesn't just help you know, their class and the
Speaker 1: young guys, but it helps older guys that you know,
Speaker 1: it pushes us. So I'm definitely sizing, you know, get
Speaker 1: it going. It's something like a self sustaining economy there
Speaker 1: as far as how everyone works to help each other
Speaker 1: within those football team. So that's really cool to hear.
Speaker 1: And that's just a great way to establish a culture
Speaker 1: in the way things are expected to get done. I mean,
Speaker 1: we saw that from the twenty nineteen team. Brian Flores
Speaker 1: his first year here in Miami, a team that played
Speaker 1: hard and competed and bounced back from that slow start
Speaker 1: to finish out the stretch five and four in the
Speaker 1: final nine games. Then you roll that into and you
Speaker 1: get the double digit wins, and you could just see
Speaker 1: the excitement on the sidelines with the way guys talked
Speaker 1: in press conferences all year how much fun they had
Speaker 1: being a part of that group, and how special they
Speaker 1: all said it was because of the way everybody want
Speaker 1: to work and get better. And then you roll into
Speaker 1: first day of practice. There's an energy around practice and
Speaker 1: in fact, let's go ahead and hear from the old
Speaker 1: guard of the room here the team, the twelve year
Speaker 1: vet who I could listen to him do media all
Speaker 1: day long, Jason mccordy, who touched on his experience here
Speaker 1: with the Dolphins so far. Man, I'm loving it here.
Speaker 1: I just think it's a great environment, getting to know
Speaker 1: my teammates better and better each day. Um, it's exciting.
Speaker 1: Obviously the new building his first class. I mean you
Speaker 1: walk in that place is glass everywhere. Uh, stated are
Speaker 1: all the new gadgets and stuff you want to have,
Speaker 1: so uh, they've done everything first class. I'm just excited. Uh,
Speaker 1: to be a part of something bigger than myself, and
Speaker 1: I want to go ahead and play a second clip
Speaker 1: here from McCarty talking more about his role in the team,
Speaker 1: and it kind of goes back to the idea of
Speaker 1: the balance of veterans and young players alike. Here's McCarty. Yeah,
Speaker 1: obviously out here in training camp getting reps at different things,
Speaker 1: Bill comfort, Bill confidence, But from a knowledge standpoint, I
Speaker 1: feel very comfortable kind of with just a defense, uh,
Speaker 1: in total of being able to not only execute my role,
Speaker 1: but be able to help guys, whether that's out on
Speaker 1: the field, whether that's in the locker room talking about
Speaker 1: giving formation a certain defense. I feel comfortable of having experienced,
Speaker 1: uh since I've been here, and also have an experience
Speaker 1: in the past with flowing both Boyer so one other
Speaker 1: had been here. On the practice, the Dolphins ran two
Speaker 1: team periods simultaneously on either of the two practice fields.
Speaker 1: To and Read Senet were alternating on one far field
Speaker 1: while Jacobi Brissette was working on the near field, so
Speaker 1: there was a lot to take in for us in
Speaker 1: the stands there and two was asked about the communication
Speaker 1: between he coach E, which is coach Eric Studisville and
Speaker 1: coach Gods he the co offensive coordinators here in Miami,
Speaker 1: and he told us they're both in his helmet. He
Speaker 1: communicates with both. He also talked about the benefit of
Speaker 1: having the two field practices or the simultaneous reps going
Speaker 1: off at the same time. Well, I think there's a
Speaker 1: lot of benefit. Everyone gets a good amount of reps um,
Speaker 1: you know, and you you get to see both sides.
Speaker 1: You know what this side did, what this side did,
Speaker 1: you can learn from me. So basically just giving the
Speaker 1: players extra film to look at every single day after practice.
Speaker 1: He gets both the extra reps on the field as
Speaker 1: well as in the film room. So that kind of
Speaker 1: recaps our media and how it incorporated with layers on
Speaker 1: the practice field. And you guys can find the Tuesday
Speaker 1: pressers up on the team YouTube page at Miami Dolphins
Speaker 1: on YouTube. And I want to recap a couple of
Speaker 1: those things here really quickly. First, Jesse Davis touched on
Speaker 1: coach Lemille John Pierre, and I thought it stood out
Speaker 1: how he said that coaches fiery, but in a respectful way,
Speaker 1: and that really struck a chord with me and that,
Speaker 1: you know, for me personally, that's the best way to
Speaker 1: coach me. The best way to coach Travis is to
Speaker 1: give me that passion and the desire to to be great,
Speaker 1: but treat me like an adult and a human being.
Speaker 1: So I loved hearing that. We also heard from Christian Wilkins,
Speaker 1: who talked about his role as a leader here in
Speaker 1: your number three. He talked about the rookie Jalen Phillips,
Speaker 1: how he's a great kid. You heard Jerome talk about
Speaker 1: him earlier, and how Christians going to take him under
Speaker 1: his wing. Let's go ahead and hear from Christian on
Speaker 1: that role. And he's a good kid. Um, just getting
Speaker 1: to know him a little bits. I really like him.
Speaker 1: He's a hard worker, really, you know, really really cool
Speaker 1: to your guy, loves to listen. I'm kind of trying
Speaker 1: to take a little bit it and just be their
Speaker 1: farming anywhere can a big rather than to him. But
Speaker 1: I really like him a lot. Um feel like he's
Speaker 1: you know, pretty good. He's got to put the work in.
Speaker 1: You heard him talking there a little bit about the
Speaker 1: chance to put the work into be a leader for
Speaker 1: for Jalan Phillips. The audio cuts out a little bit there,
Speaker 1: but he talks about taking him under his wing and
Speaker 1: kind of the leadership aspect of that. And at the
Speaker 1: end of practice, well, wouldn't you know what, who's the
Speaker 1: last guy getting sprints on the field afterwards? None other
Speaker 1: than Big number ninety four. Now, I saw a few
Speaker 1: guys on the jugs machine, which you probably heard during
Speaker 1: Ta and McCarty's presser there, and my apologies for not
Speaker 1: knowing who each of them were individually. I saw Mike
Speaker 1: GASICKI I saw Isaiah ford Rock in the short shorts.
Speaker 1: Can't miss those, and Nate Holly was out there as well,
Speaker 1: and there were two other guys, but I just didn't
Speaker 1: see who they were. The pads come off then the practice,
Speaker 1: so there's no numbers. I'm about fifty yards away, give
Speaker 1: or take, so I just couldn't quite tell. My apologies there,
Speaker 1: and let's go ahead and get now into the start
Speaker 1: of practice. And some notes I wrote down as I
Speaker 1: go through practice. I'm always taking notes, but I wrote down, um,
Speaker 1: just how big Ray Kwon Davis, Emmanuel Ogba, and John
Speaker 1: Jenkins looked. And Jenkins is a wide body dude. And
Speaker 1: we saw the strength both on the sled as well
Speaker 1: as in the install period. On one rep he locked out.
Speaker 1: And you know that old punch out boxing style game,
Speaker 1: the two plastic boxers in the ring where you put
Speaker 1: your hands in the buttons and you push the buttons
Speaker 1: and they frantically punch until one of the heads pops up.
Speaker 1: That's kind of what it looked like when he played
Speaker 1: this rep. He stood his man up instantly, popped him
Speaker 1: straight up, which means no push, some penetration the line,
Speaker 1: stack it up, make a play for a chance for
Speaker 1: linebackers to make a play behind you. He's just a
Speaker 1: tough guy to roll out of those a gaps and
Speaker 1: I saw that right away on the practice field. So
Speaker 1: after warm ups and stretching and those installs were done,
Speaker 1: we get to some seven on seven and the very
Speaker 1: first throw went to Will Fuller from to a tongue
Speaker 1: by loa and he splits a pair of defenders as
Speaker 1: he squares. What Will Fuller does, squares back up to
Speaker 1: the quarterback and the ball is right on the number three.
Speaker 1: I thought that was a good tone center for the
Speaker 1: day for two, as he was playing on rhythm and
Speaker 1: on time with the with respect to the anticipation coming
Speaker 1: back on the stem of that route from Fuller with
Speaker 1: two of putting the ball there when it needed to
Speaker 1: be there, and that happened again on a couple more
Speaker 1: occasions where the ball was out and the receiver comes
Speaker 1: out of the break and just to see it in
Speaker 1: the bread basket right away. So the good rapport early
Speaker 1: on is an encouraging sign. And there were a couple
Speaker 1: of plays where the play just it had no result.
Speaker 1: And on the whole, I thought the offensive line did
Speaker 1: a good job of keeping the quarterbacks clean and giving
Speaker 1: them time to throw in drills, and that can be
Speaker 1: difficult to simulate, you know, a full speed pass rush
Speaker 1: versus pass pro I did get a few notes on
Speaker 1: the offensive line late in practice, but we'll cover that
Speaker 1: more later in the week. But still there were a
Speaker 1: few times when the ball just never got out. So
Speaker 1: good on the coverage of the secondary for scoring some
Speaker 1: wins to offense get some wins, defense get some wins.
Speaker 1: You love to see that one. It's the same team
Speaker 1: competing against each other. Another thing I noted from Tah
Speaker 1: was his arm strength, and there was plenty of it.
Speaker 1: Testing the middle of the field. There was some deep over,
Speaker 1: some curls, some some dig routes and things that require
Speaker 1: you know, a pretty good rip from your quarterback, and
Speaker 1: he was letting that thing fly. I never saw a
Speaker 1: ball that I looked at and thought that doesn't have
Speaker 1: the requisite arm strength. That just wasn't the case. So
Speaker 1: you see the offseason workout and the off season workload
Speaker 1: kind of contributing to pushing the ball down the field
Speaker 1: and really showing off the arm strength this season. I
Speaker 1: thought Jacoby Brissette had a good day too. He launched
Speaker 1: one to Alan Hearns that I bet he'd like to
Speaker 1: have back. But you can always consider those kind of
Speaker 1: small sample size theater, I suppose because it's such a
Speaker 1: narrow window to throw the ball deep in this league
Speaker 1: against these cornerbacks and defensive backs. It's a low percentage throw,
Speaker 1: just like shooting the ball from deep in basketball, and
Speaker 1: the lower the farther out you are, the lower percentage.
Speaker 1: And then you can sider working with a new receiver
Speaker 1: for the first time really since I guess O t
Speaker 1: a S, but the first time in a training camp practice.
Speaker 1: But other than that, he got it out and on
Speaker 1: target and was and it was sharp throughout the day.
Speaker 1: Alan Hearns had an awesome day. He was on the
Speaker 1: receiving end, of that deep shot, and he came clean
Speaker 1: on a double move on that deep ball where the
Speaker 1: defensive back drove on a little stutter step. He throws
Speaker 1: about ten fifteen yards down the field and then he
Speaker 1: absolutely sells out parallel to the ground trying to make
Speaker 1: a play on the football. It looks like Auzi Smith
Speaker 1: out there going after a groundball behind second base. Just
Speaker 1: incredible effort after a great route, which that's all you
Speaker 1: can do as a receiver. Put yourself in the best
Speaker 1: position to to make a play for the for the
Speaker 1: quarterback and for your offense, and the rest is kind
Speaker 1: of up to, you know, the rest of the guys.
Speaker 1: So he also cast some seamshots from Jacobe throughout practice
Speaker 1: and showed the ability to catch the ball in those
Speaker 1: tough traffic areas, just like he did back in nineteen
Speaker 1: before his opt out year in and Robert Foster did
Speaker 1: the same thing too, and I think he's been among
Speaker 1: you know, one of the most standout performers going back
Speaker 1: to o t a s catching the football off his frame,
Speaker 1: showing strong hands through contact. He had another really nice practice,
Speaker 1: I thought on Wednesday, and then Jalen Waddle is just
Speaker 1: so sudden, so so so sudden, and you see that
Speaker 1: in the punt return. He and Keen Grant and Lynn
Speaker 1: Bowden Jr. Were the ones back fielding punts on this Wednesday,
Speaker 1: and Michael Pollardi would boom those things, and my goodness,
Speaker 1: he's got himself a leg. He was getting both distance
Speaker 1: and hang time, all while directional kicking towards the sideline.
Speaker 1: So I loved when I saw there. If a team
Speaker 1: that can play defense like Miami did a year ago,
Speaker 1: with the ability to flip the field, that's a big
Speaker 1: boon to have. But on the other end, Waddle would
Speaker 1: field it and a gunner would close down on him,
Speaker 1: and just you saw the wiggle and that sudden burst,
Speaker 1: a sidestep and to get to full gear quickly after
Speaker 1: he has to change direction or stop. It's just the
Speaker 1: suddenness in his game is very evident when you watch him.
Speaker 1: He's very very quick and very very fast. Speaking of fast,
Speaker 1: Albert Wilson I think had one of the best days
Speaker 1: on the field for my money. He caught passes at
Speaker 1: every level of the field, including the big ball from
Speaker 1: ta early on in practice or latent practice, I should say,
Speaker 1: they got the entire place buzzing and a collective. Oh,
Speaker 1: and he went out when he hauled in what looked
Speaker 1: like about a fifty or sixty are yard throw. Our
Speaker 1: our favorite phrase here lately a dot average depth of
Speaker 1: target that will help out your a dot. And that
Speaker 1: thing had some Michael Pollardy type of hang time on it.
Speaker 1: And that was one of the things I kind of
Speaker 1: always attributed to tas deep ball success back at Bama.
Speaker 1: The same arching type of throw you've seen from like
Speaker 1: a Russell Wilson for instance in Seattle, where he gets
Speaker 1: that thing up into the Seattle sky and it gives
Speaker 1: the receiver time to adjust the ability to then stack
Speaker 1: the defensive back and then you kind of dictate the
Speaker 1: window the d the dB has to make a play
Speaker 1: on the football. And we saw it at Badmouth to
Speaker 1: A and I thought we saw it today on the
Speaker 1: practice field with that throw late in practice, and Wilson
Speaker 1: made a great play too, because the coverage was tight
Speaker 1: down there, and in all honesty, I thought it was
Speaker 1: going to get broken up because the coverage was right there,
Speaker 1: but it just got swallowed up by number two. And
Speaker 1: he also caught a swing route from to on a
Speaker 1: little snap stand up catch, fling that thing out there
Speaker 1: and I think in full speed he would have taken
Speaker 1: that one to the to the end zone. And what
Speaker 1: was red zone work from about the twelve or thirteen
Speaker 1: yard line giver take but a big day from Albert Wilson.
Speaker 1: Mac Hollands had a few grabs as well. And these
Speaker 1: big bodied guys, you know, they're tough to stop on
Speaker 1: the quick routes like the speed out the square in
Speaker 1: the slants, the stuff where you basically put yourself between
Speaker 1: the quarterback and the defensive back and just use that
Speaker 1: big body to shield out. He had some big catches
Speaker 1: like that. They're just tough to get over the top
Speaker 1: of these big bodies, and Hollands had a couple of
Speaker 1: those throughout the course of practice, and so touted Hunter
Speaker 1: Long off the arm of Jacoby Brissette. Kirk Merritt had
Speaker 1: a nice catch and run off the arm of reds
Speaker 1: Senet on a deep over route and then he follows
Speaker 1: it up with a good yah run after the catch
Speaker 1: opportunity where he did not want to slow down. He
Speaker 1: did the exact same thing back in O t S
Speaker 1: where he caught a slant and went all the way
Speaker 1: and finished the thing in the end zone. Followed up
Speaker 1: what I thought was a good o T a month
Speaker 1: with a nice practice here today, and how about the
Speaker 1: running backs. And again this is probably probably the toughest
Speaker 1: position to gauge what's going on in training camp practices
Speaker 1: with no pads on. Now, Miles Gascon did talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about what he could work on when there
Speaker 1: are no pads and no contact. Go ahead and roll
Speaker 1: that audio here from Miles Gaskin. Just just work as
Speaker 1: much as as much as I can on spacing with
Speaker 1: routes and all that type of stuff, being able to
Speaker 1: be able to play in different positions or just be
Speaker 1: where I need to be. UM. Definitely the mental aspect
Speaker 1: of it, when when there ain't too much of banging around,
Speaker 1: you gotta just hone in to your mental and make
Speaker 1: sure you get all the mental reps and make sure
Speaker 1: you'll be able to communicate with the coaches, communicate with
Speaker 1: other guys where what they see and uh what you
Speaker 1: need to see. UM, stuff like that, and just kind
Speaker 1: of kind of learning defensive to obviously, I mean, you
Speaker 1: have that time right now for the first five days
Speaker 1: or whatever it is, uh, with no pads, UM, just
Speaker 1: kind of learning everything you can just soak it all in,
Speaker 1: because when you put the paths on, you really banging.
Speaker 1: So I really wanted to watch that aspect of Miles
Speaker 1: game after that great answer at the press conference. And
Speaker 1: he's just so intentional in his work, habits man like,
Speaker 1: he plays with a purpose that's just flat out why
Speaker 1: I believe the coaching staff is so fond of this guy.
Speaker 1: He also talked about taking on a leadership role with
Speaker 1: a up now and you're number three, and how he
Speaker 1: wants to be a conduit for the coaches in terms
Speaker 1: of how he communicates what they're trying to say in
Speaker 1: the message they want to get across. He can be
Speaker 1: a conduit for the players on the field and that
Speaker 1: role here's Miles definitely. UM just being here, being with
Speaker 1: coach of the last three years, being with coach Flow, UM,
Speaker 1: knowing what they expect, being able to kind of show
Speaker 1: the younger guys that are the guys that haven't been
Speaker 1: with them the past year. I guess me and Pat
Speaker 1: are the only guys that have been here within the
Speaker 1: past three years. UM. Just kind of just being able
Speaker 1: to relay the message is the biggest thing, and being
Speaker 1: able to relay that message as a player is probably
Speaker 1: like he's easier to kind of go player to player
Speaker 1: than coach the player. Always love hearing Miles speak at
Speaker 1: the podium, and speaking of running backs, Malcolm Brown I
Speaker 1: thought had some nice rips and practice on Wednesday, as
Speaker 1: much as you can gauge these runs, but what I
Speaker 1: saw was a big, big back with urgency to the
Speaker 1: gap to the whole, a nice short yardage feature for sure,
Speaker 1: And then you pair that with some wiggle at the
Speaker 1: second level and you can start to see how that
Speaker 1: changes the angles of pursuers and tacklers and you're just
Speaker 1: not going to get him to the ground unless you
Speaker 1: square him up. And you know, I promised to do
Speaker 1: more running back and trench work for you guys as
Speaker 1: we roll along here, But I saw some nice things
Speaker 1: from Malcolm Brown in the process. Among the tight ends,
Speaker 1: Shaheen was the most Adam Sheheen was the most heavily
Speaker 1: targeted on the day. He caught one of two US
Speaker 1: two touchdown passes on the day. One on the nice
Speaker 1: rolling throw with Adam coming across the formation. Two he
Speaker 1: plants right around the two yard liner, so Ta throws
Speaker 1: it back across his body, finding open space against the defense.
Speaker 1: And Sheen catches it, turns it up field, gets into
Speaker 1: the end zone for the touchdown. There was an interception
Speaker 1: earlier in the day with that combination and we could
Speaker 1: see them, you know, on the field kind of talking
Speaker 1: through it and to a later addressed it as his
Speaker 1: presser as a misscommunication and he took responsibility for that.
Speaker 1: But once again day one of training camp. That's where
Speaker 1: you get these things ironed out. So onto the defensive
Speaker 1: side of the football. Look, it's the same story I
Speaker 1: talked about in O t A from Adam Butler. He's
Speaker 1: powerful but also has that quick first step that puts
Speaker 1: offensive lineman into a bind. He had a rep where
Speaker 1: he came across the face of the center and Butler
Speaker 1: was in the opposite gap really before the center could
Speaker 1: even react. I love seeing that quickness with his power
Speaker 1: and his size. I thought he Rae Kwon Davis, Christian Wilkins,
Speaker 1: and Zack Seiler all had good days. You saw them
Speaker 1: work on exactly what Christian Wilkins talked about and his
Speaker 1: press conference on Tuesday with the active hands and the placement,
Speaker 1: getting into the proper place with the feet and the
Speaker 1: eyes and the hands and working to keep their eyes
Speaker 1: on the football and you see them do this with
Speaker 1: the bags and the sled or whatever the drill. As
Speaker 1: you're looking at there where they lock out. You peek
Speaker 1: at one side of the bag, you come across the
Speaker 1: other side, then you activate your disengaged move to get
Speaker 1: to the ball carrier. Then at the second level, Jerome
Speaker 1: Baker had to pick on a play that I'm not
Speaker 1: really sure what happened on, so I'll just go ahead
Speaker 1: and explain what I saw. But earlier I said there
Speaker 1: were some plays that got shut down because the ball
Speaker 1: just doesn't come out in time and you're talking to
Speaker 1: let the defense, you know, tee off on your quarterback
Speaker 1: when the ball still in his hands and the play
Speaker 1: is kind of over, so it just goes to a
Speaker 1: dead play. But that happened on this one, and to
Speaker 1: throws the ball kind of off to the side of
Speaker 1: the field, and it looked to me like just a
Speaker 1: throwaway to kind of conclude the play. But Jerome Baker
Speaker 1: flies over there, gets over there and picks it off.
Speaker 1: And I'm not sure if it actually counted on the actual,
Speaker 1: you know, practice stat sheet, but the effort and energy
Speaker 1: you get from Jerome, it never ever sleeps. He talked
Speaker 1: about in his press conference how you have to bring
Speaker 1: that energy every day, not just day one, but in
Speaker 1: two weeks you're gonna see Jerome bring that energy as well.
Speaker 1: Andrew Van Ginkl did get one that counted, And boy
Speaker 1: is it just the same thing I've known to come
Speaker 1: to know and love about Geek since his Wisconsin tape
Speaker 1: back in college. He gets depth, he keys the concept,
Speaker 1: he drives and makes the play and this time it's
Speaker 1: an interception. And man, he looked good out there, bouncing around, active,
Speaker 1: making a play on the football. Love watching forty seven
Speaker 1: work out there. The linebackers kind of fall into the
Speaker 1: same category as the backs. You know, sands the coverage
Speaker 1: reps and without one on ones, you don't get many
Speaker 1: of those. So that's why you know, I enjoy watching
Speaker 1: them in these practices. But we'll get you guys more
Speaker 1: as camp goes along. Promise we're gonna cover the entire
Speaker 1: roster here. We have more than a month to take
Speaker 1: care of that. Kylan Johnson forced a fumble on newcomer
Speaker 1: Carson Meyer during the one on one tackling period. More
Speaker 1: on that. Just one second he flew in there and
Speaker 1: punched it out and that was the only one I
Speaker 1: saw in the entire drill. So good on you, Kyl
Speaker 1: and Johnson. Finally in the secondary, man, I have I
Speaker 1: talked enough about how much I love watching Javon Holland play,
Speaker 1: talking about those one on one tackling drills, and really
Speaker 1: it's a rap and get out, you know, don't take
Speaker 1: guys to the ground. And there was a rap where
Speaker 1: Javan shoots out of a cannon on the whistle, was
Speaker 1: flying downhill just completely in control, but also speedy. It
Speaker 1: was short, choppy steps to stay in control, so he
Speaker 1: shortens the distance and gets in great position to square
Speaker 1: up and make the tackle. I love when you see
Speaker 1: things on a player's tape from college translate to practice
Speaker 1: at the pro level, and it's the same thing here
Speaker 1: with Javon Holland that I saw. I love watching it
Speaker 1: also at the position Brandon Jones is also a ton
Speaker 1: of fun to watch it practice. He plays all out
Speaker 1: all of the time, and he was playing in the
Speaker 1: gunner role on special teams, just getting rep after rep
Speaker 1: and gassing it down the field. And so too was
Speaker 1: Jamal Perry, by the way. So both those guys, good
Speaker 1: on them for their conditioning and you know, getting out
Speaker 1: there and running those sprints out here in the South
Speaker 1: Florida heat and humidity. But Jones the trigger man, I'll
Speaker 1: tell you what. Man. He has this knack for knifing
Speaker 1: in around the edge and flattening to meet the back
Speaker 1: right at the mesh point. He times up his his
Speaker 1: cadence to the ball into the to the snap, and
Speaker 1: we saw that once again here on Wednesday, more of
Speaker 1: the same from Brandon Jones in that same position group,
Speaker 1: Eric Rowe had some really nice coverage reps. Stopped me
Speaker 1: if you've heard that before. To what tries this, this
Speaker 1: throw on a steam route in red zone to Mike
Speaker 1: get sicky and he puts it where only Mike could
Speaker 1: get it because twenty one's in the short side hip pocket,
Speaker 1: the downfilled part of the hip pocket like closest to
Speaker 1: the offensive line of scrimmage. Now, we've seen Mike make
Speaker 1: that catch a hundred times before and there's just nothing
Speaker 1: you can do to defend that perfect throw and catch
Speaker 1: in that situation. But this one went incomplete right under
Speaker 1: the goal post as Mike was not able to pull
Speaker 1: it in one hand. Is so good play all around,
Speaker 1: good throw, good catch, attempt and of course very good coverage.
Speaker 1: Terrell Bonds, number thirty five, had himself a day with
Speaker 1: a couple of pass breakups. I thought he was aggressive
Speaker 1: in coverage and playing faster than he did throughout his
Speaker 1: camp last season with the Miami Dolphins. Cravon LeBlanc showed
Speaker 1: some of the ball skills we touched on earlier in
Speaker 1: this podcast. He had two p b U s and
Speaker 1: I was really impressed with his ability to carry routes
Speaker 1: up the field, but then put his foot in the
Speaker 1: ground and transition and drive, you know, work the hips
Speaker 1: kind of fluid put the foot in the ground, flip
Speaker 1: the hips, and drive back downfield to get on the football.
Speaker 1: He did that a couple of times in this practice
Speaker 1: as well. And then Noah Ignogamy man, he is carved
Speaker 1: out of stone and he moves so fluidly. And speaking
Speaker 1: of transitioning, this guy is in and out of the brakes,
Speaker 1: he's driving down the time of the route, and he's
Speaker 1: playing just physical ball as he possibly can. And I
Speaker 1: don't recall him ever really getting a target in the
Speaker 1: team periods, which of course is always a great thing
Speaker 1: for a cornerback. And then Nick Needum also had a
Speaker 1: really nice play on a ball where he comes from
Speaker 1: depth and closed on the sideline to break up a
Speaker 1: pass that I think I think it was Robert Foster
Speaker 1: was the intended receiver, but I'm not certain on that.
Speaker 1: I think I saw six team, but I can't recall. Also,
Speaker 1: thirty three Jamal Perry was in the area for coverage
Speaker 1: as well. So good on both those guys. Just as
Speaker 1: a group, I really enjoy watching these guys work and
Speaker 1: Gerald Alexander coaching them up. They were doing the sleds
Speaker 1: together to kind of stack and shed a drill that
Speaker 1: simulates getting off blocks and getting to the ball carrier,
Speaker 1: and they were so in sync that you could just
Speaker 1: tell this is a well oiled machine. And finally, here
Speaker 1: before we hand out our hardware for the day, Jason Sanders,
Speaker 1: you actually know what Let's go ahead and just put
Speaker 1: him in the category. Here are your top performers for
Speaker 1: day one, July practice number one of your one Miami
Speaker 1: Dolphins training camp, and it starts with Jason Sanders. I
Speaker 1: lost count, but it was either six or seven field goals,
Speaker 1: made no misses, and you know he's hit in the
Speaker 1: back of the net from fifty yards and the back
Speaker 1: of that nets about ten yards behind the uprights, so
Speaker 1: just booming the ball through clock work with him, he's
Speaker 1: an absolute weapon. Albert Wilson catches all over the field.
Speaker 1: The suddenness to stop on a dime and change direction,
Speaker 1: and you can manufacture touches for Wilson because he's so
Speaker 1: deadly with the football in his hands. Showed some of
Speaker 1: that on Wednesday. Andrew van Ginkl. The coverage prowess was
Speaker 1: on display, and you pair that with what he showed
Speaker 1: as a rusher last season. That combination of skills that's
Speaker 1: got me pretty excited. Craven le Blanc, he plays on
Speaker 1: the football and the loose hips I thought were most evident. Frankly,
Speaker 1: I thought he was moving as well as anybody down there.
Speaker 1: Javon halland the one on one tackling drill showed what
Speaker 1: he can do. But his ability to play from depth
Speaker 1: to come down and match up I thought he was
Speaker 1: sharp in those areas. I thought his back pedal looked
Speaker 1: fantastic and he was involved in so much just a
Speaker 1: testament to his conditioning here for day one as a
Speaker 1: young rookie out there on the practice field. Alan Hearns
Speaker 1: contest and catches an absolute filthy move double move that
Speaker 1: got him a lot of separation behind the defense. The
Speaker 1: effort to lay it out. I thought was a big
Speaker 1: day for number eight. Mike Pilardi said it already distance,
Speaker 1: hang time, directional kicking. He was either hitting them in
Speaker 1: the sixty yard range or kicking it in the forty
Speaker 1: to fifty yard range with real no possibility of return.
Speaker 1: To a big day for the Dolphins. Punter Brandon Jones.
Speaker 1: Conditioning instincts trigger all on display. I'm pumped about this
Speaker 1: safety group. A great blend of youth and experience. Jamal
Speaker 1: Perry again, it takes a selfless player to line up
Speaker 1: and run down the field on punt team over and
Speaker 1: over and over again. He also made some nice plays
Speaker 1: on defense. And we wrap it up with our top
Speaker 1: performer here to a tongue of viola. I thought there
Speaker 1: was a great command, lots of reps, and it helps
Speaker 1: to have the quarterback not just take charge in that regard,
Speaker 1: but also the quick game he's able to work through.
Speaker 1: I mean, I feel like I saw more reps in
Speaker 1: this practice today than I ever have in any practice.
Speaker 1: I also loved his tempo and the initial seven on
Speaker 1: seven drills, the accuracy from different throwing platforms, and of
Speaker 1: course the big deep ball which always gets the people
Speaker 1: out of their seats. Not fans this time, but of
Speaker 1: course players on the field excited about that deep completion,
Speaker 1: and that is a rap. Day one is in the books.
Speaker 1: Let's get out of here. We're gonna do this every day,
Speaker 1: so keep it locked here on the Drivetime podcast. Get
Speaker 1: yourself a soda and a snack, and buckle up as
Speaker 1: we take you home or to work or whatever driving
Speaker 1: analogy you want to plug in here on the podcast.
Speaker 1: The written recaps will not be daily, but we are
Speaker 1: going to get a couple of those out for you
Speaker 1: guys as we get more information, more detail. If you
Speaker 1: want to check out the press conferences, go to the
Speaker 1: team YouTube page and all the media VL's are up
Speaker 1: and available for you there. In the meantime, that's gonna
Speaker 1: be my time, you all. Please be sure to subscribe
Speaker 1: to the podcast on Apple, podcast, Spotify, tuned, in Google Play,
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Speaker 1: us a rating, leave us a review. You can follow
Speaker 1: me on Twitter at linkot NFL. You can follow the
Speaker 1: team at Miami Dolphins. Check out the fish Tank podcast
Speaker 1: for set and o J, and of course Miami Dolphins
Speaker 1: dot com. Until next time. Defense Up