Speaker 1: Factors were alps Patrick drawing high park textole what a
Speaker 1: win for this Miami Dolphin team. Wow, What is up? Dolphins?
Speaker 1: And welcome to the Drive Time Podcast, part of the
Speaker 1: Miami Dolphins official podcast network, covering your Miami Dolphins each
Speaker 1: and every day. How's it going everybody? I am your host,
Speaker 1: Travis Winfield, and I am here to bring you your
Speaker 1: daily dose of Miami Dolphins football. And on today's show,
Speaker 1: some tangible evidence about versatility and flexibility. How Christian Wilkins
Speaker 1: and Kyle Van Noy set the table from the defensive
Speaker 1: line and linebackers, a proclamation from a well respected analyst
Speaker 1: that Miami's defense could be not just top ten, maybe
Speaker 1: even as high as top six or seven. Plus a
Speaker 1: note on two a tongue of Vloa and the quarterbacks.
Speaker 1: And with my former hobby turning into a full time
Speaker 1: job these last couple of years, I think I may
Speaker 1: have finally found a new hobby to be place my
Speaker 1: old one. All of that and more on this Monday,
Speaker 1: June the fifte edition of the Drive Time Podcast. And
Speaker 1: it's the middle of June, kind of the dearth of
Speaker 1: the off season, particularly when we're in the midst of
Speaker 1: an exclusively virtual offseason program. So we kind of make
Speaker 1: our own news and our own topics here in the
Speaker 1: sports world on the Miami Dolphins Drive Time podcast and
Speaker 1: working off some recent news or recent items. Is how
Speaker 1: we're gonna do this episode on this Monday. Another weekend
Speaker 1: is in the books. I was able to get back
Speaker 1: to the links for the second time in as many weeks.
Speaker 1: And I have two very close friends that love golf
Speaker 1: with June birthdays, so that's typically the annual get together
Speaker 1: we all do. And what's funny about it is that
Speaker 1: I've spent the last few years as the d D
Speaker 1: on the course. And no that doesn't mean designated driver.
Speaker 1: I pretty much just hop in the car with a
Speaker 1: case of beer and another one of my non golf
Speaker 1: playing friends is out there with me to have a
Speaker 1: good time on the course. Now, don't gets twisted. I
Speaker 1: know I serve in this role as a nerdy football
Speaker 1: analyst that works out of his quote unquote parents basement.
Speaker 1: But pretty much from the time I could walk, I
Speaker 1: played sports growing up. I'd run home from school and
Speaker 1: grab my basketball and go shoot hoops or get my
Speaker 1: glove and throw the baseball up as high as I
Speaker 1: could over and over and over again and catch it
Speaker 1: on its descent. We're talking hours and hours of doing
Speaker 1: this my entire life, at least up through junior college.
Speaker 1: And all of that is to say, and with a
Speaker 1: little bit of a pat on my own back, that
Speaker 1: your boy can swing, whether it's a baseball bat, is
Speaker 1: more natural. And the plaque I have somewhere in my
Speaker 1: garage that denotes my for a All State Washington Honorable Mention,
Speaker 1: All State second baseman distinction from Camiake in high school
Speaker 1: two thousand and six does sit in that box somewhere
Speaker 1: in my shed in my garage. And not to go
Speaker 1: completely Uncle Rico here on you, but a golf swing
Speaker 1: is also natural for me. So three years between playing
Speaker 1: a round of eighteen, I was able to get back
Speaker 1: out there. And I'm really more of a drink a
Speaker 1: few beers, enjoy the sunshine, enjoy the pristine look of
Speaker 1: a professional golf course, and just grip it and rip it, baby,
Speaker 1: Just get out there and play. I'm not out there
Speaker 1: measuring up shots and requesting quiet at the t block.
Speaker 1: In fact, quite the opposite. The happy Gilmour let's make
Speaker 1: some noise type of golfing and so because my long
Speaker 1: layoff between rounds, I typically go last in these two
Speaker 1: man teams of four drafts that we have and they
Speaker 1: assign me with the worst possible handicap imaginable. Then I
Speaker 1: show up and knocked down the third or fourth lowest
Speaker 1: score among the entire group. And through all of this,
Speaker 1: I'm kind of catching a little bit of the golf bug. Man.
Speaker 1: I really enjoy playing all of a sudden, and I
Speaker 1: think that when I move to South Florida, which is
Speaker 1: just one month from today, I'm gonna get myself a
Speaker 1: nice set of clubs. And right, there's another note. I
Speaker 1: don't even own my own golf clubs and really really
Speaker 1: dive into the sports. So that was my weekend, on
Speaker 1: top of watching the movie Blue Chips on Friday night,
Speaker 1: which I tweeted about as having the best live action
Speaker 1: sports scenes for any sports movie out there. And that's
Speaker 1: because they use some actual game play. But they also
Speaker 1: shot at for Hollywood, or at least somebody told me
Speaker 1: they did, where they would wrap up those games and
Speaker 1: then shoot some scenes afterwards, and of course having Shack
Speaker 1: and Anfrenny Hardaway certainly helps that. But man, the way
Speaker 1: they edited those scenes together, the sideline shots, with the
Speaker 1: strategizing from the coaches like Bobby Knight, Rick Patino on
Speaker 1: the sidelines on those timeouts, and the way they tracked
Speaker 1: the flow of the game. I just thought it was
Speaker 1: so well done and again to go back to my
Speaker 1: high school prowess, the coaching points are spot on all
Speaker 1: things I've heard before and huddles, practices, locker rooms, you
Speaker 1: name it. And I saw plenty of other submissions out there.
Speaker 1: My guy Rashad Butler, you've heard him here on the
Speaker 1: Drivetime podcast. He suggested the program as tops. No real
Speaker 1: argument there, but I do want to point out the
Speaker 1: sleeper of the group. Pat Perk on Twitter talks about
Speaker 1: the Replacements with Keanu Reeves and Gene Hackman. That's a
Speaker 1: highly underrated suggest, Jen, because despite having Keanu Reeves as
Speaker 1: your quarterback, the gameplay in that movie is actually really,
Speaker 1: really good. I always enjoyed Jon Favreau as Danny Bateman,
Speaker 1: the linebacker on the Replacements, So some of the best
Speaker 1: movies out there. I want to hear your suggestions. We
Speaker 1: had plenty in there. For Love of the Game is
Speaker 1: a good one. I saw somebody suggest Major League and
Speaker 1: don't get me wrong. That's not only far and away
Speaker 1: my favorite sports movie of all time both one and two,
Speaker 1: but forget about three. Get out of Here with Back
Speaker 1: to the Minors. Major League is one of my favorite
Speaker 1: all time movies just period, not just sports movies, but
Speaker 1: the gameplay in it. I have to give some pushback
Speaker 1: on that suggestion, because I thought the gameplay was always
Speaker 1: atrocious in that movie. The actor that plays Jake Taylor,
Speaker 1: I think it's Tom Berenger has likely never swung a
Speaker 1: baseball bat before in his life. And Harris the picture,
Speaker 1: come on, you and I both know that any of
Speaker 1: us are taking those pitches he throws yacht sie in
Speaker 1: real life. So I did really enjoy the debate on
Speaker 1: Twitter for which movie does have the best live action
Speaker 1: sports scenes within it. I think this has a chance
Speaker 1: to be a good running bit on the show going forward.
Speaker 1: The way who is the best basketball player on the
Speaker 1: team from the players themselves was so maybe I'll start
Speaker 1: asking some of the guys their opinions on this. And
Speaker 1: speaking of asking the players, let's go ahead and turn
Speaker 1: to football now. And you know. On Thursday's podcast, we
Speaker 1: talked to both Teddy Carriss and Christian Wilkins. I have
Speaker 1: a couple more notes I want to get to on
Speaker 1: those guys that we didn't get to on the podcast,
Speaker 1: And I had mentioned last Sunday. Two Sundays ago, the
Speaker 1: NFL network was re airing the team playoffs and I playoffs,
Speaker 1: and I made it a point to get back and
Speaker 1: watch the Chiefs and Patriots a f C title game,
Speaker 1: as well as the Super Bowl Patriots and Rams from
Speaker 1: that season, which, by the way, we've become so accustomed
Speaker 1: to great Super Bowl games that one without the offensive
Speaker 1: firepower really didn't seem like a super Bowl when I
Speaker 1: rewatched it. Compared to all the pageantry and all the
Speaker 1: fireworks on the field and off of the other ones
Speaker 1: we've seen, especially all the late game drama, that one
Speaker 1: just kind of went along. It was quick, it was
Speaker 1: or not a lot of offensive firepower. Just seemed different
Speaker 1: than a lot of the Super Bowls we've had in
Speaker 1: the past. But the one constant in that game was
Speaker 1: the Patriots defense turning it up on that side of
Speaker 1: the ball. But to go back to the point here,
Speaker 1: that Super Bowl those playoff games coincided with a tweet
Speaker 1: from my personal favorite football analyst out there. He used
Speaker 1: to work for the NFL Network as a production assistant,
Speaker 1: and he told me he would just hang out with
Speaker 1: the players offset and talk football and learn football. He
Speaker 1: is Brett Coleman, friend of the podcast, been on Drivetime
Speaker 1: a couple of times, been on Lockdown Dolphins a few
Speaker 1: times as well. He's the host of the Film Room
Speaker 1: on YouTube. And he had a tweet about Miami's defense
Speaker 1: and the expectations this season in and that dove tailed
Speaker 1: into some points about Kyle van Noy and the Dolphins
Speaker 1: linebacker corps in general. So I'll touch on that with
Speaker 1: some thoughts and just real quick as we prepare for
Speaker 1: the start of training camp a little bit more than
Speaker 1: one month away, and how this Dolphins team, this Dolphins offense,
Speaker 1: all these players, particularly in the quarterback room, helps set
Speaker 1: the table with providing that extension of the coach on
Speaker 1: the football field and really setting the table for how
Speaker 1: to work as a member of the Miami Dolphins. And
Speaker 1: based on reports and history, it sounds like the Dolphins
Speaker 1: have four guys that can really execute that message and
Speaker 1: relay it to the rest of the team. And you
Speaker 1: go back to a lot of full as his audio
Speaker 1: when he speaks to the media about the way the
Speaker 1: three quarterbacks on the roster last year, and Ryan Fitzpatrick,
Speaker 1: Josh Rosen, and Jake Rudoc the group that to a
Speaker 1: tongue of voloa now joins, and how Fitzpatrick helped so
Speaker 1: much with his experience and the ability to quickly digest
Speaker 1: the playbook and to communicate the stuff to his teammates.
Speaker 1: About the growth of Josh Rose and how much he
Speaker 1: grew from the time he got to Miami and minicamp
Speaker 1: all the way up through December, and working on the
Speaker 1: mental aspect of the game, getting his physical aspect, his leadership,
Speaker 1: his work in the classroom, all that stuff improving throughout
Speaker 1: the year. And of course the hard work that Jake
Speaker 1: Rudoc put in. You'll recall my training camp reports last
Speaker 1: year if you were with me on the Lockdown Dolphins podcast,
Speaker 1: how Rudoc would get out there early every day at
Speaker 1: camp for extra work. So this entire quarterback room, the
Speaker 1: way they work, the way they prepare themselves, it's a
Speaker 1: hard working room. It kind of sets the table because
Speaker 1: quarterbacks are an extension of the coaching staff. They are
Speaker 1: the guys that are basically natural born leaders from their position.
Speaker 1: That's what's called upon four quarterbacks to be leaders and
Speaker 1: you have four guys that's had a really good example
Speaker 1: in that quarterback room for how to work in South Florida,
Speaker 1: and on that topic, two guys that also set a
Speaker 1: leadership example for how to work and for how to
Speaker 1: be a pro. We had them available to us last
Speaker 1: week for the media availability on Thursday. It was Ted Carress,
Speaker 1: it was Christian Wilkins. And in the spirit of the
Speaker 1: TNT that takes no talent Wall, something that became a
Speaker 1: little bit of a popular legend in Miami last summer.
Speaker 1: If you go back to his college career, Ted Carress
Speaker 1: for the final two seasons has had eight penalties over
Speaker 1: eighty five games with forty five starts. He was also
Speaker 1: Pro Football Focuses number two overall graded past blocking center
Speaker 1: from weeks twelve to week seventeen. So down the stretch
Speaker 1: in December, really played his best ball, and we know
Speaker 1: that's when you want to play your best ball in
Speaker 1: this league. And then Christian Wilkins, I left some stats
Speaker 1: on the table. I tweeted about it on Friday because
Speaker 1: I was doing a bit more of a deep dive
Speaker 1: on Christian Wilkins and kind of looking at his season
Speaker 1: long splits how his his growth was from week one
Speaker 1: through week seventeen. And I put this threat up on Twitter,
Speaker 1: talking about Christian wilkins growth and talking about the interesting
Speaker 1: dynamic of kind of the turning point of his season
Speaker 1: in that Week seven game in Buffalo when he only
Speaker 1: played one snap, and I tweeted that I'm fascinated by
Speaker 1: Wilkins for many reasons, the really outgoing personality that really
Speaker 1: just kind of attracts everybody to him and makes him
Speaker 1: such a likable guy. There was the story last I
Speaker 1: think training camp talking about his frugal spending habits that
Speaker 1: he has where he doesn't even turn the air conditioning
Speaker 1: on because he wants to save money. And then of
Speaker 1: course you have the little shimmy and splits dance he
Speaker 1: did after Clemson's national title. Just a very well rounded
Speaker 1: guy and a very interesting person, and he really came
Speaker 1: on strong mid season after that game in Buffalo. So
Speaker 1: I went back and looked at it. You go through
Speaker 1: six games last year, Wilkins this of courtesy of Pro
Speaker 1: Football Focus, only have five run stops on the season
Speaker 1: and six quarterback pressures. But then over the final ten games,
Speaker 1: he racks up twenty four run stops and twenty four
Speaker 1: quarterback pressures, and that sixth game was kind of the
Speaker 1: turning point. He was ejected from that game, and Brian
Speaker 1: Flores was asked about the penalty that did result in
Speaker 1: the ejection and if maybe it had something to do
Speaker 1: with a penalty he drew two weeks earlier against the
Speaker 1: Chargers for a personal foul and if those two plays
Speaker 1: were tied together. He was asked about it at a
Speaker 1: media availability, and this was Flora's response, quote, Wilkins is
Speaker 1: a young player trying to play aggressive, trying to play
Speaker 1: with a fight and a vigor and a quote. I'm
Speaker 1: not backing down from any one type of attitude end quote,
Speaker 1: but you've gotta play with poise. It's just losing your
Speaker 1: starting defensive tackle for an entire game. That's a tough
Speaker 1: loss for any defense. I think our guys fought through it.
Speaker 1: Christian was upset about it. Look, he's a good kid,
Speaker 1: There's no doubt about that. He works hard. This is
Speaker 1: important to him. But again, there are consequences in our actions.
Speaker 1: I think that's something we all need to understand on
Speaker 1: the field and off the field. Aside from football, as
Speaker 1: a coach, that's what you're teaching these guys or trying
Speaker 1: to teach them. There's consequences for your actions. If you
Speaker 1: throw a punch in the game, you're gonna get kicked out.
Speaker 1: If you miss a meeting or you have an issue,
Speaker 1: there are consequences for your actions. That's not just an
Speaker 1: on the football field thing. That's life. We need to
Speaker 1: learn that and learn a lot of life lessons in
Speaker 1: this game. That's part of coaching as well. And the
Speaker 1: reason I bring that up is because I think that
Speaker 1: that coaching point, that opportunity for Flora's to kind of
Speaker 1: get that message across to his team and to Christian,
Speaker 1: really took hold with Christian himself because the next two games,
Speaker 1: Wilkins has seven run stops and four quarterback pressures, almost
Speaker 1: matching his total through the first six games. A nice bit,
Speaker 1: a nice display of accountability and really rising to the
Speaker 1: challenge of taking that personally and being better from their forward.
Speaker 1: And he was much better from there forward. From weeks
Speaker 1: seven through seventeen, he was twenty among all interior defensive
Speaker 1: lineman in the NFL and pressures and eight and run stops.
Speaker 1: And I keep going back to this twenty nineteen season,
Speaker 1: and I really took notice of his work stacking and
Speaker 1: shedding against the Steelers in that Monday night game, which
Speaker 1: of course was the game after the Buffalo game, and
Speaker 1: he has plenty of work where he's working as a
Speaker 1: four eye technique or a four technique basically lined up
Speaker 1: in the realm of the inside shoulder of the tackle
Speaker 1: outside shoulder of the guard. We'll talk more about that
Speaker 1: in just one second, where he has to kind of
Speaker 1: stack up, read the play, disengage the block, and make
Speaker 1: a tackle. And there were a few examples of that
Speaker 1: in that game. So with that, knowing that he played
Speaker 1: a lot of tackle inside as well in addition to
Speaker 1: that end position as the four five technique, I wanted
Speaker 1: to go back and look at his run stops on
Speaker 1: film and try to chart them and find out which
Speaker 1: positions they came from. Now, before I do that, I
Speaker 1: want to make this perfectly crystal clear. I used game
Speaker 1: Pass and Pro Football Focus to sink this little mini
Speaker 1: project together. Pro Football Focus has n't for a total
Speaker 1: of twenty nine run stops in the season, so I
Speaker 1: searched each of wilkins tackles within two yards of the
Speaker 1: line of scrimmage and I came back with thirty. So
Speaker 1: maybe there's a little bit of a distinction there about
Speaker 1: combined tackles. Who gets credit from Pro Football Focus probably
Speaker 1: a little bit subjective, but I think that it doesn't
Speaker 1: matter for this particular subject because we're just trying to
Speaker 1: find out how effective he is in different positions. So
Speaker 1: there was nine different positions in which he made a
Speaker 1: run stop. Let's go ahead and start with the most
Speaker 1: down to the least amount. As a three technique, he
Speaker 1: had eight run stops. That's the outside shoulder of the guard,
Speaker 1: so more of a true defensive tackle position. As a
Speaker 1: four eye technique, that's the inside shoulder of the tackle,
Speaker 1: so kind of the same spot really just a slight
Speaker 1: shade of a gap over. He had six run stops,
Speaker 1: so fourteen of those run stops came from that three
Speaker 1: or four eye position. As a one tech, now this
Speaker 1: is more the beefier guys inside playing on the outside
Speaker 1: shoulder of the center. This includes work both as the
Speaker 1: back and front side one technique, and those distinctions are
Speaker 1: important because they mean different roles in terms of pursuit
Speaker 1: and in terms of trying to hold the point. He
Speaker 1: had three run stops from those two positions, two as
Speaker 1: the backside, and both of those were in pursuit on
Speaker 1: runs away from him, which again shows you the effort
Speaker 1: that Flora has talked about. And one of those was
Speaker 1: the one tech on the front side where he has
Speaker 1: to hold the point. Three plays run stops from the
Speaker 1: one tech position. He had two run stops at the
Speaker 1: nose tackle and that is head up over the center.
Speaker 1: He had two run stops as the five technique that's
Speaker 1: the outside shoulder of the tackle. He had two more
Speaker 1: run stops as a two technique that's head up over
Speaker 1: the offensive guard, two more as a four tech that's
Speaker 1: head up over the tackle, a two eye position. He
Speaker 1: had one stop there that's the inside shoulder of either guard.
Speaker 1: And as a seven technique that's all the way out
Speaker 1: to the strong side of the formation, on the inside
Speaker 1: shoulder of the tight end. If there is a tight
Speaker 1: end there your seven technique. He had one run stop there.
Speaker 1: So nine positions with run stops. You see him work
Speaker 1: the stack, the shed, the quickness, the pursuit, the will
Speaker 1: to get out there and make plays, and he just
Speaker 1: had a lot of fun in those games making plays,
Speaker 1: celebrating the big plays he did make. We heard the
Speaker 1: trash talk on the inside the or the mic up
Speaker 1: edition of him in the Bengals game. He was being
Speaker 1: really playful and colorful with the Bengals players. And Wilkins
Speaker 1: really is one of a variety of players that are
Speaker 1: combo type players, guys that can play multiple spots. And
Speaker 1: on that topic, on my lazy Sunday, I was able
Speaker 1: to really watch some football and digest some football, and
Speaker 1: it got me into this rabbit hole on the Dolphins
Speaker 1: linebacker unit and some tangible examples of how this defense
Speaker 1: can truly be adaptable on a week by week basis.
Speaker 1: And so with a DVR full of playoff games to
Speaker 1: watch and really some Kyle van Noy action to watch,
Speaker 1: and the best part of those playoff broadcasts is you
Speaker 1: always get tremendous secondary angles replays with all the camera
Speaker 1: work they have on top of Tony Romo on the commentary,
Speaker 1: So really an elite production from CBS on both these
Speaker 1: two broadcasts I watched from the team playoffs, and this
Speaker 1: flame was really all still by a tweet sent out
Speaker 1: again by Brett Coleman. He's at Brett Coleman. That's k
Speaker 1: O L l M. A n N on Twitter, and
Speaker 1: the tweet was this quote, Miami is gonna have a
Speaker 1: top six or seven defense in in my opinion, the
Speaker 1: only real weakness. And he does put those in quotation
Speaker 1: marks to really dispel himself for even calling it a
Speaker 1: weakness in the first place. And he does go on
Speaker 1: to explain that in a follow up tweet just in
Speaker 1: one second, we'll get to that. And I think that
Speaker 1: distinction is very important. But back to Brett's tweet, the
Speaker 1: one weakness is not having a true alpha rusher. But
Speaker 1: that's about it. He says. Their rotation overall is pretty
Speaker 1: damn deep. They can stop the run and play man
Speaker 1: all day. You don't need much more than that and tweet.
Speaker 1: So I replied to Brett because well, I love talking
Speaker 1: ball and it always sparks a good football conversation when
Speaker 1: I reach out to him. So I said the following.
Speaker 1: The depth at every position on defense is really impressive
Speaker 1: quality rotational candidates and guys that can fill in and
Speaker 1: do the job in the event of potential nix and
Speaker 1: bruises throughout the course of a season if a guy
Speaker 1: has to miss a game or two. I'd also say,
Speaker 1: and this is still from that tweet. The lack of
Speaker 1: a true edge rusher is made up for by the
Speaker 1: skill set. So many guys have to execute the multiple
Speaker 1: games that Flores calls on defense. And so what do
Speaker 1: I mean by that? Well, when you watch the way
Speaker 1: we generated pressure last season, or the calls Flora has
Speaker 1: made in those playoff games, for instance, you're gonna get
Speaker 1: a lot of games twist stunts, slants, delayed pressure. And
Speaker 1: who was the guy that really really made that style
Speaker 1: possible in those playoff wins. It was Kyle van Noy
Speaker 1: and his flexibility on top of his vastly, vastly underrated
Speaker 1: rush skill set, in addition to his own flexibility playing
Speaker 1: the hook zone, playing the curl flat. And that's just
Speaker 1: coverage responsibilities with linebacker has to find landmarks, has to
Speaker 1: find route combinations and get himself involved in pass coverage.
Speaker 1: He also fits the run as well as anybody I've
Speaker 1: seen on tape. It's just all chefs. Kiss babe. I
Speaker 1: love watching him play football. So we start in that
Speaker 1: Kansas any game and you get look at his impact instantly.
Speaker 1: There is a mesh concept play, and all mesh means
Speaker 1: it's college, pro, high school, wherever you're gonna play football,
Speaker 1: you're gonna see mesh. It's just two guys crossing trying
Speaker 1: to create conflict for the linebackers in the middle of
Speaker 1: the field. Or it can also set a natural rub
Speaker 1: route when you're in man coverage, so trying to find
Speaker 1: a way to cross guys up by just crossing two
Speaker 1: routes from opposite sides of the formation. So they have
Speaker 1: a mesh play in this Kansas City game. And anytime
Speaker 1: you watch and Andy Reid offense operate, there's gonna be
Speaker 1: guys moving motion, window dressing, jet sweeping, trying to get
Speaker 1: the defense thinking about something else other than their responsibility.
Speaker 1: And I watched the way Kyle van Noy processes all
Speaker 1: that and goes through his mental checklist, the way he
Speaker 1: plays kind of working back to front, and the way
Speaker 1: he played that mesh concept, which in addition to trying
Speaker 1: to put him in conflict and coverage pre snap, they
Speaker 1: have jet motion. And if you want to know what
Speaker 1: jet motion is, it's the exact same thing that Albert
Speaker 1: Wilson scored on the famous high five Playen the motion
Speaker 1: the receiver towards the quarterback and you snap the football.
Speaker 1: You can give it to him or it can just
Speaker 1: create a delay in linebackers because they have to honor
Speaker 1: the fact that they might hand that ball off. So
Speaker 1: you have mesh, you have jet sweep, all these things
Speaker 1: he has to look for, and then on top of that,
Speaker 1: you have the very athletic and nimble and mobile Patrick
Speaker 1: Mahomes coming out of the pocket escaping left, so he
Speaker 1: has to check up for the jet sweep, he has
Speaker 1: to check up on this mesh route behind him, and
Speaker 1: then he has to pursue Patrick Mahomes and he just
Speaker 1: goes through it all quick, very very fast processing as
Speaker 1: a linebacker. And this is also something I noticed with
Speaker 1: Andrew Van Ginkle playing at Wisconsin as well as late
Speaker 1: last year when he came off the injured reserve. It's
Speaker 1: also something I saw and Commu Gruge a Hill playing
Speaker 1: with the Eagles, working in that coverage, playing downhill and
Speaker 1: using his speed and trigger to make plays in front
Speaker 1: of him. The way that Van Noyd can corner around
Speaker 1: the edge as a stunter, whether it's working upfield off
Speaker 1: the tackle and then looping back inside to get pressure
Speaker 1: up the middle or doing vice versa. You see a
Speaker 1: lot of that with Vince Bagel as well. Who can
Speaker 1: really drop his shoulder and turn the corner just like
Speaker 1: Kyle Van Noive. Can you have a run stuff in
Speaker 1: this game? I talked about the first three plays of
Speaker 1: this game. You have a play from Van Noy, than
Speaker 1: a play from a Landon Roberts, who of course now
Speaker 1: is a Miami Dolphin, and then another play from Kyle
Speaker 1: Van Noy right after that, a run stuff where Roberts
Speaker 1: keys the play, attacks, initiates the contact, defeats the block,
Speaker 1: and makes a tackle for loss. Reminds me a lot
Speaker 1: of Ray Kwon McMillan. So all of this is to
Speaker 1: say that I see a lot of these multiple versatile
Speaker 1: traits in a lot of these Dolphins linebackers, guys that
Speaker 1: are both incumbent and Ray Kwan and Jerome Baker and
Speaker 1: Andrew van Ginkl and Vince Beagle and the new additions,
Speaker 1: and Kyle Van Noy and Cammu gruge Hill and the
Speaker 1: land and Roberts. So many examples of being too deep
Speaker 1: at multiple rules. That just serves you so well for
Speaker 1: the attrition of an NFL season. And I would be
Speaker 1: remiss if I didn't bring up this one last play
Speaker 1: I noticed from Kyle van Noy a screen pass to
Speaker 1: Damien Williams, and I talked about it on a tweet
Speaker 1: how you have to contextualize stats with what you see
Speaker 1: on film, because this play goes down as a five
Speaker 1: yard game to Damien Williams on a screen pass, but
Speaker 1: Kyle Van Noy has to fight through two blocks, and
Speaker 1: if he doesn't do that, if he doesn't beat both
Speaker 1: those blocks, this play might go out the gate for
Speaker 1: ten twenty a mega thirty fifty yard game even could
Speaker 1: have been a massive play, but because Van Noy was
Speaker 1: so quick and had the effort and motor to get
Speaker 1: out there and beat those blocks, he cuts it down
Speaker 1: for a five yard game. So the versatility, the motor,
Speaker 1: the will, all those things seem like inherent traits with
Speaker 1: a lot of these additions on the front seven of
Speaker 1: the Miami Dolphins. So you just have this slew of
Speaker 1: players that can do multiple things, and what does that
Speaker 1: make you on game day? Flexible? That's what it's all about.
Speaker 1: I know this has been a running topic on this
Speaker 1: show and maybe gets a little bit derivative with my explanations,
Speaker 1: but watching it through this lens, the lens of the linebacker,
Speaker 1: the lens of Kyle van Noy and how he can
Speaker 1: help create that flexibility and the thinking with these waves
Speaker 1: of players you have. And you heard Brett Coleman say
Speaker 1: the same is true on the defensive line as well.
Speaker 1: And do I even have to mention how nasty the
Speaker 1: second therey can be with the additions we made there
Speaker 1: this offseason. I mean, I talk a lot about the
Speaker 1: structure of the defense and how I appreciate those differences
Speaker 1: from to up to last year and calls with the
Speaker 1: way the Dolphins defended third down and long for instance.
Speaker 1: And now I look at the roster that Flora's has,
Speaker 1: the roster that he and Chris Career helped assemble here
Speaker 1: in Miami, the parts they have to that defense, I
Speaker 1: think you could see another evolution of the defense heading
Speaker 1: more in that direction of what Brian Flores specifically wants
Speaker 1: on defense as soon as this season. So you go
Speaker 1: back to the way those two games were played in
Speaker 1: that playoffs. And we had Evan Lazare of c LNS
Speaker 1: Media on with us last week and he covered coach
Speaker 1: Flora's there in New England fromen. He told us that
Speaker 1: story about cover one in the Super Bowl. If you
Speaker 1: haven't heard it on the Thursday, or was it the
Speaker 1: Wednesday edition of the Drivetime podcast last week? Go back
Speaker 1: and check that out. But I mentioned on Twitter again
Speaker 1: the dichotomy of the defense in the a f C
Speaker 1: Title game compared to the Super Bowl and the difference
Speaker 1: in approaches, and Evan replied to me and Twitter in agreement,
Speaker 1: and you can really appreciate it because of the differences
Speaker 1: between the Chiefs offense and the Rams offense that season.
Speaker 1: The Chiefs are more spread it out, hit you with speed,
Speaker 1: and really kind of vertically attack you and take advantage
Speaker 1: of that athletic, very rare quarterback. So rather than being
Speaker 1: this team that just runs one style of defense for
Speaker 1: every single opponent and try to make your best beat
Speaker 1: what they do best, they adapted and they adjusted lots
Speaker 1: of to four fronts, more flexible gap options, plenty of
Speaker 1: chances to contain rush with twists and slants and trying
Speaker 1: to find a way to hem Patrick Mahomes in the
Speaker 1: pocket because once he escapes, here in so much trouble.
Speaker 1: And that's a guy we have to defend this year
Speaker 1: in week fourteen, December one o'clock at hard Rock Stadium.
Speaker 1: So we've got to have that in mind and to
Speaker 1: go back to the idea of stunting up front and
Speaker 1: trying to create different rush lanes. In that first possession,
Speaker 1: van Noy gets home on a stunt instantly, just like
Speaker 1: Vince Beagle did on a sack that I tweeted out
Speaker 1: last week in the Pittsburgh game, where he works up
Speaker 1: filled off the tackle and corners around the interi year
Speaker 1: and gets around Steelers center Marquees Pouncey for a quarterback
Speaker 1: hit on that one. They typically came out in this
Speaker 1: game with a three three or three too in short yardage.
Speaker 1: It depended on the offensive personnel, and that three three
Speaker 1: matchup the three down lineman, three linebackers really matches up
Speaker 1: well with the twelve personnel package. Two tight ends, one
Speaker 1: running back, and two receivers. And this might make it
Speaker 1: more difficult to defend the run because you are outnumbered
Speaker 1: with big bodies on big bodies up front. But that's
Speaker 1: why you go out there and acquire two hundred and
Speaker 1: seventy pounds ends like Shack Lawson and Emmanuel Ogba and
Speaker 1: a linebacker like Kyle van Noy who can key and
Speaker 1: diagnose the way he can. It's why you spend a
Speaker 1: second round pick on a guy that's built like Calais
Speaker 1: Campbell and ray Kwon Davis. So you can go in
Speaker 1: those three two or three three packages and still be
Speaker 1: viable against the run, but also helped against these athletic quarterbacks.
Speaker 1: And then just one week later, as we have once
Speaker 1: again that same Rams team with Jared Goffin, Sean McVeigh
Speaker 1: on the schedule and the week numbers, week number eight,
Speaker 1: November one, one o'clock again at hard Rock Stadium, and
Speaker 1: you come out of that game with four down linemen
Speaker 1: opposed to just the two that you showed in that
Speaker 1: Kansas City game. Because it's a different offense, much more condensed,
Speaker 1: tighter splits, having receivers come in tight to the formation.
Speaker 1: That's kind of the McVeigh offense, or at least it
Speaker 1: was that particular year, and you have to imagine you
Speaker 1: want to match the Rams receivers where you have to
Speaker 1: count for more backs and tight ends against Kansas City. Again,
Speaker 1: this was pre me Cole Hardman and a very limited
Speaker 1: Tyreek Hill in that game, as the Patriots did well
Speaker 1: to kind of limit his production. And you have Kyle
Speaker 1: van Noy in those tight splits of the Rams helping
Speaker 1: to reroute the receivers, which of course gives the cornerbacks
Speaker 1: and safeties more time to cover up on the back end.
Speaker 1: And then you also see Van Noy working in these
Speaker 1: four two sets with four down linemen and then two linebackers,
Speaker 1: and Van Noy would walk up on the line of
Speaker 1: scrimmage where Donte high Tower would be off line of scrimmage.
Speaker 1: So you're really just finding a way to get Kyle
Speaker 1: van Noy's versatility involved, and he really serves as a
Speaker 1: lynch pin to keep everything flexible and to keep your
Speaker 1: plans versatile and multiple. It was just a lot of
Speaker 1: fun to watch, a lot of fun to watch how
Speaker 1: he operates and how he could operate in this defense.
Speaker 1: I am very, very excited if you can't tell about
Speaker 1: Kyle van Noy and this defense heading in to alright,
Speaker 1: that is gonna be my time on this edition of
Speaker 1: the Drivetime podcast. You all please be sure to subscribe
Speaker 1: to the podcast on Apple Podcast, Leave us a rating,
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Speaker 1: It's at Wingfield, NFL. Follow the Dolphins at Miami Dolphins,
Speaker 1: check out the Fish Tank and the Audible podcast, and
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Speaker 1: up