Speaker 1: Practics FAFRIC touchdown. What a win for this Miami Dolphin team. Wow?
Speaker 1: What is up? Dolphins? And welcome to the Drivetime Podcast,
Speaker 1: part of the Miami Dolphins official podcast network, covering your
Speaker 1: Miami Dolphins each and every day. How's it going everybody?
Speaker 1: It is Friday. I am your host, Travis Wingfield, and
Speaker 1: I am here to bring you your daily dose of
Speaker 1: Miami Dolphins football. And on today's show, we're gonna keep
Speaker 1: this one a little bit brief. It's a busy weekend
Speaker 1: down here in Davy and across the NFL cut down
Speaker 1: day Tomorrow, We're gonna have you guys covered on tomorrow's
Speaker 1: top news story on Miami Dolphins dot Com tracking all
Speaker 1: the cuts and transactions, So keep it locked there for
Speaker 1: the latest on your Miami Dolphins. As far as today's podcast,
Speaker 1: we're gonna hear from Coach Flores, a trio of Dolphins players.
Speaker 1: Plus we wet our NFL season whistle with the NFL
Speaker 1: Dolphins Year book from twenty team that is up now
Speaker 1: on YouTube. I watched it last night. We're gonna talk
Speaker 1: about that, all of that and more on this Friday,
Speaker 1: September the four edition of the Drive Time podcast. Let's
Speaker 1: go ahead and jump now right into Brian Flores as
Speaker 1: Friday morning media availability. We are now just nine days
Speaker 1: away from kickoff in New England. Coach filled questions about
Speaker 1: New England. He also filled some questions about cut down
Speaker 1: Day this weekend. Plenty of content and here let's go
Speaker 1: ahead and turn it over to coach Flores as we
Speaker 1: start with one of the toughest aspects of this job
Speaker 1: for coaches and GMS and people involved in the league,
Speaker 1: cut down day. Who has to go find the player
Speaker 1: to tell them they're gonna come up and see coach
Speaker 1: and see the GM. Here's Coach Flores on that process
Speaker 1: on cutdown Day. Well, we look as we got some
Speaker 1: young let's call it personnel, you know, people who who
Speaker 1: are handling at you know, as far as who's having
Speaker 1: that first conversation with the players, then obviously they talked
Speaker 1: to Chris and then they talked to me. You know,
Speaker 1: that conversation is not a it's not an easy one.
Speaker 1: It's a it's a delicate situation. Obviously, the guys are
Speaker 1: disappointed who or being released. Um I try not to
Speaker 1: tell them that their their their dreams are over, but
Speaker 1: I do tell them that Hey, when one door closes,
Speaker 1: normally another one opens up. UM. And I try to
Speaker 1: be supportive and you know, give them some good feedback
Speaker 1: that could help them, um in their next endeavor. UM.
Speaker 1: You know, out of cases, UM, you know, this opportunity
Speaker 1: to bring guys back to the practice squad. Um. If
Speaker 1: that's the case, we'll we'll have them know that. UM.
Speaker 1: But you know, we're just trying to be respectful and
Speaker 1: supportive and honest. And I think that's always the best
Speaker 1: way to to handle, you know, a tough conversation like that.
Speaker 1: And by now we are all familiar with how those
Speaker 1: conversations tend to go based upon what we see on
Speaker 1: a hard knocks. We saw it one year here with
Speaker 1: the Dolphins back in We just saw some of it
Speaker 1: with the Chargers and Rams on this year's hard knocks.
Speaker 1: Always tough conversations there, as coach says, and speaking of
Speaker 1: a strange season here with cuts and practice squad and
Speaker 1: roster spots. Coach was next asked about the strategy of
Speaker 1: the to squad this year being expanded and if they're
Speaker 1: going to have different approaches to it this year compared
Speaker 1: to years past. I think we have conversations on every situation.
Speaker 1: But as far as strategy from for the practice squard,
Speaker 1: I think the additional practice squad players. I mean, we've
Speaker 1: had a lot of conversations about, um, you know who
Speaker 1: we would want on that and that's only that's almost
Speaker 1: its own kind of roster itself. How many a linement,
Speaker 1: how many corners, how many receivers. So as far as
Speaker 1: there is a strategy on what day, no, you know
Speaker 1: to be To be honest, I think we're just gonna
Speaker 1: kind of go through the normal process and everyone who
Speaker 1: we release, we know that they're there. Um, they're out
Speaker 1: there to potentially get claimed, and um if they do
Speaker 1: get claimed, and um, we gotta move on to the
Speaker 1: next guy on our list. So um strategy standpoint, I
Speaker 1: would you know? But again, and that's honestly, that's probably
Speaker 1: more of a question for Chris Chris Brandon in the
Speaker 1: in the in the Scott Department, the comma they're about
Speaker 1: it being kind of its own roster in an of itself.
Speaker 1: It kind of reminds me of the plea from so
Speaker 1: many fans I've seen over the years to have some
Speaker 1: sort of developmental process or developmental league. The practice squad
Speaker 1: this year with six team players can certainly serve as
Speaker 1: a kind of minor league system type of deal. We
Speaker 1: can call guys up on a given week. Of course,
Speaker 1: we have the two call ups that guys can dress
Speaker 1: off the practice squad every single week. It's going to
Speaker 1: be really fascinating to see how this plays out over
Speaker 1: the course of the season and how that practice squad
Speaker 1: is in fact utilized. Up next, coach was asked about
Speaker 1: the coming weekend of cuts and how active they'll be,
Speaker 1: and of course, coach says, it just depends who's going
Speaker 1: to be out there. Depends on who's out there, who's available,
Speaker 1: and look, we look at everyone and if we feel
Speaker 1: like there's a player out there that that can help us,
Speaker 1: then we have those conversations. You know, last year is
Speaker 1: you know, it's different than this year. So we'll see, Um,
Speaker 1: you never know who's gonna be on the wire, who's
Speaker 1: gonna get released, who's gonna become available. UM. I don't
Speaker 1: want to kind of pigeonhold us and say hey, we're
Speaker 1: just you know, we're good, we're we're we're at um
Speaker 1: because if we can get better, we're going to try
Speaker 1: to get better. That's I think that's gonna always be
Speaker 1: the approach. And so now we've heard from Gerald Alexander,
Speaker 1: We've heard from Josh Boyer, from Eric Row, Bobby McCain,
Speaker 1: Noah Egnogamy, pretty much every single defensive back and coach
Speaker 1: in that room has talked about the point system for
Speaker 1: rewarding ball or players getting their hands on footballs and practice.
Speaker 1: Here's coach Floores weighing in on the points system for
Speaker 1: takeaways and hands on footballs in the defensive back room
Speaker 1: and just takeaways in the NFL in general. I mean, look, turnovers,
Speaker 1: I mean they're they're hugely important a lot of cases
Speaker 1: a decided factor between wins and losses in this league.
Speaker 1: So we're very uh conscious of obviously trying to secure
Speaker 1: the ball offensively and in the kicking game and try
Speaker 1: to take it away offensive eb seeing the defensively and
Speaker 1: in the kicking game. Uh, it's something we tried to
Speaker 1: spend a lot of time on and we'll turn over
Speaker 1: is the better chance of victory. So look, my my
Speaker 1: my message to our staff was anyway we can create
Speaker 1: more urgency, more energy, more competition, and maybe a competitive
Speaker 1: point system, that's if that's what does it have more
Speaker 1: emphasis on trying to create turnovers and it works and
Speaker 1: I'm all forward. So as far as the state of
Speaker 1: where we're at, uh, you know, that's I'll let g
Speaker 1: A handle that. Josh and defensive staff. Next, coach answers
Speaker 1: the question about selecting captains and how the process of
Speaker 1: that works here under his watch in Miami. It's player voted.
Speaker 1: I think that's the right way to do it and
Speaker 1: allow the players to select who who they feel are,
Speaker 1: you know, the leaders on the team, UM that they
Speaker 1: want to uh speak for them. Uh, because those captains.
Speaker 1: You know, we have captains meeting every week and we
Speaker 1: have conversations about everything from the schedule, to game plan
Speaker 1: to any any issues surrounding the team. So UM, I
Speaker 1: think that's where the players make the selection. And I
Speaker 1: talked to him about that and the role of the captains. Um,
Speaker 1: it's not just on the field, which that's part of
Speaker 1: it also, but it's on and off the field, a
Speaker 1: locker room, you know, anything that they feel like they need,
Speaker 1: on off scheduling. I mean, there's it's it's a big role.
Speaker 1: I think it's a it's an important choice for the players.
Speaker 1: I try to make mention of that as well. Um, not.
Speaker 1: It's not a popularity contest. It's this is a serious
Speaker 1: kind of um position, and they should, they should, they
Speaker 1: should take it seriously. And now we get a football
Speaker 1: question as coach is asked about the decision the Patriots
Speaker 1: announced earlier in the week to go ahead and name
Speaker 1: Cam Newton the starting quarterback for that Patriots offense Week one. How,
Speaker 1: just nine days away, here's coach Flor's talking about the
Speaker 1: preparation before the announcement and the preparation post announcement, and
Speaker 1: how you gotta be ready for every single player on
Speaker 1: the roster of your opponent every week. I think we
Speaker 1: all had an inkland that that was going to be
Speaker 1: the case, so when we were preparing for all three quarterbacks,
Speaker 1: so uh, and we will still continue, We'll still do that.
Speaker 1: I mean, you always got to prepare for the backup,
Speaker 1: and you have to know who the third the third
Speaker 1: quarterback is if if there is one um the same
Speaker 1: at all positions, you know you need to you want
Speaker 1: to know who the old line is and all the
Speaker 1: backups are on the old line, and who the D
Speaker 1: line are is and all the backups are on the
Speaker 1: D line. So but you know, with him being named
Speaker 1: the starter. UM. I mean, we've watched a lot of
Speaker 1: film on camp. I will continue to do that, but
Speaker 1: we'll also watch whole Coyer instead him and you know
Speaker 1: the rest of the guys on the team, they're very talented,
Speaker 1: they're you know, obviously the world coach team. It's hard
Speaker 1: to win on the road, so we'll uh, it's a
Speaker 1: it's a it's it'll be a challenge. We know that
Speaker 1: the matter who the quarterback is will be a challenge
Speaker 1: against against that team. And we'll go ahead and wrap
Speaker 1: it up here with Coach answering a question regarding the
Speaker 1: rumors that we all saw on Thursday about the Josh
Speaker 1: Rose and potentially being open for a trade. Here's Coach
Speaker 1: telling you that this time of year, calls are coming
Speaker 1: in left and right. It's all about improving the roster,
Speaker 1: getting better, and Chris Career's phone is going to be
Speaker 1: off the hook the next couple of days. Here's Coach
Speaker 1: on that rumor and this time of year again, the
Speaker 1: phone off the hook. I think it's the day before
Speaker 1: cut cut down day, and I think there's a lot
Speaker 1: of names are floating around UM and we're feeling calls
Speaker 1: left and right, or I know, Chris's um about Josh
Speaker 1: and you know, probably a handful of other players, and
Speaker 1: I think that's the case across the league as far
Speaker 1: as you know. To us, you mentioned, you know, we
Speaker 1: have no decisions have been made. We're just trying to
Speaker 1: go We're gonna go out him and practice today and
Speaker 1: make the decisions you know, on on on the roster tomorrow.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean there's we're taking fielding calls on everybody, um,
Speaker 1: not everybody, but on on a handful of players, and
Speaker 1: I think every team is doing the same thing. But again,
Speaker 1: Josh has competed, Josh has made some some great throws.
Speaker 1: Josh is you know, I think I think he's gotten
Speaker 1: better over the course of training camp. So I mean
Speaker 1: that's where we are with him. And so there he
Speaker 1: goes Coach Flores. We'll hear from him again tomorrow morning.
Speaker 1: Ahead of cutdown today it is a four pm Eastern.
Speaker 1: You have to get your roster's finalized and then from there,
Speaker 1: of course you're gonna have a flurry of action with transactions.
Speaker 1: Waiver Wire claims practice squad resigning, tons of action going
Speaker 1: on on the roster this weekend, one week out from
Speaker 1: the start of the NFL season, and with that comes
Speaker 1: the NFL yearbook story we see every single year. Now.
Speaker 1: I recalled these being on ESPN back in like May
Speaker 1: or maybe June of every single summer, and it was
Speaker 1: like appointment viewing back then that voice over the season highlight.
Speaker 1: They always find a way to paint your team in
Speaker 1: a positive light and give you hope for the future.
Speaker 1: And that's what they still do on these broad on
Speaker 1: these programs rather and I had a chance to catch
Speaker 1: the Dolphins episode last night on YouTube. I think it's
Speaker 1: only available on YouTube now. The story of the twenty
Speaker 1: nineteen Miami Dolphins titled just the Beginning, of course, for
Speaker 1: Brian Floress comment after the Patriots game last season saying,
Speaker 1: this is just the beginning, trust me on that one.
Speaker 1: I want to go ahead and talk about a few
Speaker 1: of these moments here. First, let's play some sound from
Speaker 1: coach flores at the very start of this episode. And
Speaker 1: I text my buddy Kevin Dern at Kevin m D
Speaker 1: four on Twitter. We know who he is, and he
Speaker 1: showed me the video was up. I text him and said,
Speaker 1: all right, man, I'm gonna text you in twenty minutes
Speaker 1: because I'm all the way in on this show. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go ahead and focus on it. I'll get back
Speaker 1: to you in just one second, but I want to
Speaker 1: go ahead and play the clip here, the opening of
Speaker 1: this episode from NFL Films and show you why it
Speaker 1: grabbed me in the first five or six seconds or
Speaker 1: so listening to Coach Flora's on the field at training
Speaker 1: camp last year, showing some of the intensity that he displays.
Speaker 1: Let's go now where we're going, No, where you're going
Speaker 1: on a hop? Know where you're going on a hop.
Speaker 1: Let's gonna keep it going on, Keep the pressure on,
Speaker 1: keep the pressure on. What are we gonna do? D
Speaker 1: what are we gonna do? On defense? For the Miami Dolphins,
Speaker 1: two nineteen marked a new era under the leadership of
Speaker 1: first year head coach Brian Flores. We're competing now, we're competing.
Speaker 1: So get on YouTube and go check out that show.
Speaker 1: It's it's always very well done, very well. We produced
Speaker 1: a bunch of good highlights and audio and voice over
Speaker 1: in music. It's just always a fun program to watch.
Speaker 1: And you hear Coach Flora's on this podcast every day
Speaker 1: in his media availability. Very calm, very measured approach, very kind,
Speaker 1: of showing you more of that intellectual side, the thinking
Speaker 1: side of Brian Flora's then you get amount on the
Speaker 1: football field and the intensity meter just cranks way up.
Speaker 1: I've talked on this podcast many many a time, and
Speaker 1: this is you know, commonplace across the National Football League.
Speaker 1: There is urgency and practice. You're gonna have coaches getting
Speaker 1: on guys. But I've talked on this podcast so many
Speaker 1: times about the crispness of Brian flores practices, Guys getting
Speaker 1: in and out of drills quickly. They're ready at the
Speaker 1: start of the period to begin the drill. In football,
Speaker 1: we talk all the time false steps. Right a linebacker
Speaker 1: takes a false step. One wrong step can get you
Speaker 1: out of position and can be the difference in a
Speaker 1: three yard gain on a tackle or him breaking that
Speaker 1: tackle and going seventy yards to the house. And so
Speaker 1: any false step, any false movement, any wasted time is
Speaker 1: so valuable in this league and especially this season, and
Speaker 1: you just don't have that on this practice field. Guys
Speaker 1: are bouncing around on the hoppice, Coach Flora says, competing
Speaker 1: play in and play out. Another clip from the show
Speaker 1: that I was absolutely in love with was a brief
Speaker 1: moment between Brian Flores and Bryan Fitzpatrick in a game.
Speaker 1: I couldn't tell which game it was. We were at
Speaker 1: home in the white jerseys with the Aqua seats in
Speaker 1: the background. There are at hard Rock Stadium, and Flora's
Speaker 1: approaches Fitzpatrick on the sideline with a comment about a
Speaker 1: read or something he saw on a previous play. You're
Speaker 1: gonna hear him talk about it right here. Let's go
Speaker 1: ahead and roll the audio, just the very first one here.
Speaker 1: I'm okay with that, but it split Sam. That's beautiful.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to show you that because I love
Speaker 1: the communication between the head coach and the quarterback. Even
Speaker 1: though Brian Flores has a defensive background in his coaching career,
Speaker 1: he also did coach as an offensive assistant in New
Speaker 1: England as well, so he does have that well verse background.
Speaker 1: We've talked about it on this podcast so so many times.
Speaker 1: But I also was thinking about, you have a defensive
Speaker 1: mind like Brian Flores, for instance, who once called a
Speaker 1: Super Bowl game plan that allowed the Rams, the number
Speaker 1: one scoring offense in the league, to score just three points.
Speaker 1: You have a defensive mind like that, who can kind
Speaker 1: of show the quarterback and talk to the quarterback about, Hey,
Speaker 1: here's maybe what you're seeing. Here's what I'm seeing from
Speaker 1: the defensive perspective, how I would attack you in the situation.
Speaker 1: Here's how you should attack this too high structure. As
Speaker 1: you hear him say, they're the too deep safety, the
Speaker 1: split safety look on that play, fitz Patrick kind of
Speaker 1: comes back to him and says, here's what I saw.
Speaker 1: It's an open dialogue and open conversation. And we see
Speaker 1: this in the NFL all the time. Right, we talked
Speaker 1: about Sean McVeigh and and Jared Goff, Sean Payton and
Speaker 1: Drew Brees almost got off track there, Doug Peterson and
Speaker 1: Carson Wentz, all these offensive minded coaches with their quarterbacks
Speaker 1: and the importance of that relationship between head coach and quarterback.
Speaker 1: But it works on the defensive side of the ball too,
Speaker 1: for the exact same reasons. Like I mentioned, you can
Speaker 1: have a coach that has this defense of knowledge, that
Speaker 1: can approach the situations from a defensive perspective and give
Speaker 1: the quarterback a different look, a different thought. And for
Speaker 1: a quarterback who's been now in his sixteenth year in
Speaker 1: the NFL to have that perspective when he has all
Speaker 1: those years of knowledge and cadences and plays in his
Speaker 1: mind and tape study and different thoughts from different coaches.
Speaker 1: Giving that defensive perspective from your head coach, I think
Speaker 1: is very beneficial for the quarterback and for the offense. Now,
Speaker 1: let's go ahead and finish up here with one more
Speaker 1: clip at the end of this episode and at the
Speaker 1: end of the twenty nineteen season that ended in Foxborough. Alright,
Speaker 1: the process of preparation all that, it counts, alright, So
Speaker 1: you get moments like this that hard work, all right,
Speaker 1: this joy and hard work, and this is it, righty.
Speaker 1: I'm just telling that right now, alright, and this is
Speaker 1: just the beginning. Trust me on that. There definitely is
Speaker 1: joy and hard work. I think we all can agree
Speaker 1: to that accomplishing things for yourself. Nothing makes you feel
Speaker 1: more sense of a pride and more sense of accomplishment
Speaker 1: than putting in the work and achieving something, especially in
Speaker 1: a business as difficult as the NFL. Before we get
Speaker 1: to player media availability, I want to go ahead and
Speaker 1: go through my predictions for the season, my division winners
Speaker 1: and playoff teams and Super Bowl pick. We're gonna start
Speaker 1: in the NFC in the West, with a surprise Arizona
Speaker 1: Cardinals winning the West, New Orleans Saints winning the NFC South.
Speaker 1: Minnesota Vikings take the NFC North, and the Cowboys take
Speaker 1: the East. We have three wild card teams this year.
Speaker 1: This time around, I'm gonna take the Philadelphia Eagles, the
Speaker 1: Seattle Seahawks, the San Francisco forty Niners. In the a
Speaker 1: f C, I'm taking the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs
Speaker 1: to repeat in the West. Give me the Colts in
Speaker 1: the South, the Ravens in the North, the Dolphins in
Speaker 1: the East. Give me the Bills, Browns, and Titans as
Speaker 1: your a f C wild card teams. And in the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl, I'm not gonna get flashy. Here, go back
Speaker 1: to the Chiefs. Give me Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid
Speaker 1: run that thing back, and we're gonna have the Saints
Speaker 1: with Drew Brees make one last hurrah, Chiefs over Saints
Speaker 1: in the Super Bowl. We start player media availability with
Speaker 1: Dolphins safety Eric row, who was first asked about the
Speaker 1: competition in the dB room getting their hands on Football's
Speaker 1: the point system we've heard about for the last couple
Speaker 1: of weeks. Here's Eric row on the update on the
Speaker 1: point system for takeaways among defensive backs and Dolphins training camp.
Speaker 1: It's actually being uh today this afternoon. It's being uh,
Speaker 1: it's being revealed today the final, the final, the final total,
Speaker 1: because we only kept points to training camp and I
Speaker 1: guess technically, says Camp Broke. So we're getting the final
Speaker 1: total to day. And last time, last time I checked,
Speaker 1: the corners were up. But we you know, a safety.
Speaker 1: We we we made a lad We made a good
Speaker 1: push the last couple of days for training Camp Brokes.
Speaker 1: And of course Eric Rowe, who had the big pick
Speaker 1: six in New England last year, is one of several
Speaker 1: ex Patriots heading back up there for this week one game.
Speaker 1: Eric was asked about Kyle van Noy and the preparation
Speaker 1: going into the place where they used to play. M mean,
Speaker 1: it's been good. I mean he brings instant leadership, obviously,
Speaker 1: the deepness that he you know, he already knows and
Speaker 1: he'd run before, so bring it's the leadership and experience
Speaker 1: in the edge kind of and you know, we're hoping
Speaker 1: this year. You know, last year we've got up to
Speaker 1: a really slow start on defense and kind of with
Speaker 1: him coming in, he already knows the defense, you know,
Speaker 1: already has experienced, had it, and his leadership, we should
Speaker 1: get a faster start. Pretty interesting perspective there from Eric
Speaker 1: Rowe talking about the communication and the familiarity in the
Speaker 1: defense helping the Dolphins hopefully to get off to a
Speaker 1: faster start. We revert now back to the question that
Speaker 1: was asked earlier about the takeaway board, the hands on
Speaker 1: Football's points system and the dB room. Here's Eric Rohan,
Speaker 1: who's leading that competition right now, And if anybody come
Speaker 1: up to Bobby McCain, the Dolphins safety. I can't remember
Speaker 1: like one point, but yeah, like he had a coup picks.
Speaker 1: I had a couple of picks. Uh, shoot the corners.
Speaker 1: I remember one that they had. They had a nice,
Speaker 1: nice number of path breakups and that that kind of
Speaker 1: got him and they kind of got in my head.
Speaker 1: But you gotta ask the next time. But because you
Speaker 1: know this afternoon we're gonna have the final total, and
Speaker 1: it's always good to get a scouting report from your
Speaker 1: smarter offenders on defense about the opposing quarterback. Here's Eric
Speaker 1: Rowe talking about two a tongue Byaloa and what he's
Speaker 1: showing in camp. And what makes him difficult to defend
Speaker 1: as a safety. I mean he has an arm I mean,
Speaker 1: he has an army. He could put he could put
Speaker 1: the zip on the ball. Mean, I noticed to camp
Speaker 1: he's gotten better with his eyes because you know, sec
Speaker 1: you know, we just kind of read the quarterback and
Speaker 1: kind of beforehand he was just kind of staring down
Speaker 1: at foot. He's got he's gotten a lot better with
Speaker 1: his eyes and kind of, you know, from from the
Speaker 1: defensive side, from what I could tell, you know, his progression.
Speaker 1: So obviously he's only gonna keep getting better. But it
Speaker 1: makes them hard to defend, is I mean, that's that's
Speaker 1: kind of, you know, tough to answer, and something he
Speaker 1: probably can't answer a little easier is evaluating his own
Speaker 1: defensive back room. Here's Eric row on, Xavian Howard and
Speaker 1: other defensive backs in that dB room of the Miami Dolphins.
Speaker 1: From from what I see, x X looks like he's
Speaker 1: he's getting back to form. Obviously, it's gonna be you know,
Speaker 1: a little rush in the beginning because he hasn't played
Speaker 1: since I think you went out whenever we played Pittsburgh
Speaker 1: that Monday night game, you know, a long time ago.
Speaker 1: So I mean, he's he looked like he's getting back
Speaker 1: to form. So I mean, it's it's great to have
Speaker 1: him back, you know, another experienced cornerback there. But with
Speaker 1: the stop position, I mean obviously, I don't know. I
Speaker 1: mean it's it's competitive, like both both guys are you know,
Speaker 1: they're all making plays in the slot. So obviously you know,
Speaker 1: I'm not the one sitting the depth chart, but from
Speaker 1: what I've seen, it's it's been pretty competitive. Hey, Eric,
Speaker 1: what's up man. Last we talked to you, you mentioned
Speaker 1: that you can't really go out in the off season
Speaker 1: and get four or five guys together to work on,
Speaker 1: you know, fitting the run. I'm curious, now that you've
Speaker 1: had some time in camp, how's that progression been for
Speaker 1: you so far this off this training camp. Uh, it's
Speaker 1: been a lot better from from the beginning till I
Speaker 1: mean even now, Uh, you know beforehand. Now I'm having
Speaker 1: a better feel of you know, if I see some
Speaker 1: tackle pools or guard pools or you know, stuff like that,
Speaker 1: and which way the backers are kind of you know,
Speaker 1: they're spilling blocks. It's gotten a lot better for me. Obviously,
Speaker 1: you know it to see the live live action, but
Speaker 1: you know for right now practice and even during the scrimmage.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm getting a little more comfortable with it.
Speaker 1: And we'll go ahead and finish up here with Eric
Speaker 1: with a question about tackling and who might have the
Speaker 1: advantage over the long absence of live action games no preseason,
Speaker 1: the offense or the defense. Here's Eric's answer. I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: it definitely goes both ways. I mean we got yeah,
Speaker 1: I haven't done a live tackle. Oh yeah, in a while.
Speaker 1: We'll hit that up. You know, we'll have some good hits.
Speaker 1: But you know, going to the ground and you know,
Speaker 1: play after play, you know, if it's playing at I mean,
Speaker 1: that's a different type of condition. And choot. I mean
Speaker 1: on the other side, they haven't got you know, tackled,
Speaker 1: you know, going to the ground or uh, you know,
Speaker 1: calling for sacks you know, you know, whenever we get
Speaker 1: you know, good pass rush. So it goes both ways.
Speaker 1: But I mean, yeah, he's not lying like we haven't
Speaker 1: gone to the ground yet. Today's pressors were a lot
Speaker 1: of fun, man, and this Austin Jackson one was definitely
Speaker 1: one of the funds I've been a part of because
Speaker 1: all the reporters kind of got involved about this initial
Speaker 1: answer he gives. Austin gives about his pregame ritual, the
Speaker 1: pre night routine. He goes through how it involves ice cream,
Speaker 1: and that really set a precedent for the rest of
Speaker 1: the press conference. Here's Austin Jackson on his pregame routine,
Speaker 1: pregame rituals, and any superstitions he might have before the
Speaker 1: game starts. Uh. Yeah, A big, a big part of
Speaker 1: my routine. And you know in college was just just
Speaker 1: every night at the team hotel. I would uh do
Speaker 1: treatment before you know, when you got the team ice
Speaker 1: cream at the hotel. Um, so I should be able
Speaker 1: to still do that. Um, it's a new schedule for me.
Speaker 1: But um that's really my biggest, my biggest, uh superstition.
Speaker 1: I guess I had to do that every before every gain.
Speaker 1: Here you go, folks, some hard hitting ice cream analysis
Speaker 1: from Dolphins Tackle Austin Jackson. Definitely I stay away from strawberry,
Speaker 1: strawberry and cookies and cream. I I keep it real,
Speaker 1: real simple. You know, just a little bit of chocolate,
Speaker 1: a little bit, a little bit of vanilla, a little
Speaker 1: bit of fudge and maybe some oreoles on top. This
Speaker 1: real simple, A little bit back to football. Here, Austin
Speaker 1: Jackson was asked about the relationship between he and Eric Flowers,
Speaker 1: two big additions on that offensive line this offseason, two
Speaker 1: guys that have been putting in a lot of work
Speaker 1: here at practice after practice, and two guys that really
Speaker 1: looked apart on the Dolphins offensive line. Here is Jackson's
Speaker 1: comment about the chemistry between he and Eric Flowers. You know,
Speaker 1: he's entering his six years in the league, so he's
Speaker 1: definitely somebody I look up to. You know, he has
Speaker 1: a lot more knowledge about things and how things goes,
Speaker 1: and he's just real helpful. And he's definitely somebody you
Speaker 1: know I look up to on the on line. We
Speaker 1: look up to and it helps, you know, him playing
Speaker 1: right next to me, so you know, just getting to
Speaker 1: work with him and pick his brain about stuff. Um,
Speaker 1: it's really helpful. I'll go ahead and cast my vote
Speaker 1: for chocolate devotion from Cold Stone Crew, where you're just
Speaker 1: gonna go ahead and throw that out there. You gotta
Speaker 1: go with that chocolate the way to go. Um. I
Speaker 1: do want to go back to the football question though here,
Speaker 1: like like Cam did there and follow up, you know,
Speaker 1: just kind of fifteen or so practices in now. I'm
Speaker 1: just curious if there's any particular thing, whether it's your
Speaker 1: pass sets or getting better drive off the ball in
Speaker 1: the running game, what's one thing you really focus on
Speaker 1: and you think can prove so far? In training camp,
Speaker 1: the biggest, biggest thing for me was just picking up
Speaker 1: the playbook and training camp, you know, making sure my
Speaker 1: technique is specific, consistently specific, um, so you know, whatever
Speaker 1: the scheme I'm trying to do. So I think my
Speaker 1: consistency is like the biggest things that picked up over
Speaker 1: training camp, you know, um, just doing what I need
Speaker 1: to do consistently over and over and over again to
Speaker 1: the point where it's muscle memory. So that's probably a
Speaker 1: big thing for me. Something you hear a lot in
Speaker 1: this profession, in this business is that you have to
Speaker 1: become comfortable with the mundane because there are so many days.
Speaker 1: You get one game day a week, right, there's so
Speaker 1: many games or so many days rather in between where
Speaker 1: you're working on stuff that just isn't that much fun
Speaker 1: to do. So how great is it to hear Austin
Speaker 1: Jackson talk about muscle memory and the willingness to put
Speaker 1: the work in every day and just repeat that work
Speaker 1: over and over again for twenty one year old kid.
Speaker 1: Very impressive. Great answer there, I thought from Austin Jackson,
Speaker 1: Let's get back to offensive line ice cream questions. Specifically,
Speaker 1: how much would he need to bring to feed the
Speaker 1: entire offensive line room for all the linemen. You gotta
Speaker 1: bring enough for all the offensive lineman, right, yeah, I
Speaker 1: guess I do. Honestly, I probably say about three three,
Speaker 1: two and a half two and a three three gallons,
Speaker 1: just to be safe. Not everything is gonna get taken,
Speaker 1: but you know, three just to be safe. And here
Speaker 1: you get Austin Jackson evaluating the relationship between he and
Speaker 1: Steve Marshall on the offensive line and what specific things
Speaker 1: that makes Marshall a good coach for him and the
Speaker 1: right guy for this offensive line room. Again, another really
Speaker 1: interesting insight here from Austin Jackson. I think he he's
Speaker 1: good at it. It's just knowing what a lot of
Speaker 1: guys do and understanding that, you know, everybody is different,
Speaker 1: and so you know, with me, he's been really good
Speaker 1: with working individually on you know, what I need to
Speaker 1: work on, and in terms of what other people to
Speaker 1: look at, you know, I'd say pretty much I've looked
Speaker 1: at um like guys like Tim Smith totally one uh
Speaker 1: big print of in San franc Um, a little bit
Speaker 1: of Ronnie Stanley, just pretty much all the all the
Speaker 1: tackles at the league. Just kind of adding to my
Speaker 1: toolbox seeing what everybody does and you know, creating my
Speaker 1: own you know, my own rhythm and my own set
Speaker 1: of tools. So you get some comparisons there across other
Speaker 1: players on the offensive line, other tackles across the NFL
Speaker 1: that he tries to study and emulate what they do
Speaker 1: well in their games. They're some more good insight from
Speaker 1: Austin Jackson. Will finish up here with an evaluation across
Speaker 1: the ball from Shackle Lawson and what Lawson has done
Speaker 1: to help Jackson's game improve. Lawson Jackson, those names get
Speaker 1: kind of intertwined together, but here he is talking about
Speaker 1: defensive end Shack Lawson and how he's helped Jackson's game
Speaker 1: grow and improve a lot. You know, Shack is Shack
Speaker 1: is a great rusher and he's one of the game
Speaker 1: one of those older guys who's been around the league
Speaker 1: for a while. So um, he's been pretty good at,
Speaker 1: you know, just pulling tools out of the toolbox. Randomly,
Speaker 1: you know, randomly throwing new stuff in and uh, Scott
Speaker 1: may get a lot better. So uh yeah, I think
Speaker 1: it's definitely helped a lot and I've got a lot better.
Speaker 1: I gotta be careful there, Austin calling these guys the
Speaker 1: old guys in the room there. I had a similar
Speaker 1: experience earlier with Jay Fiedler on the Flashback podcast that
Speaker 1: will come out next Friday here on the Drivetime podcast.
Speaker 1: I don't get to check that out next week before
Speaker 1: the game up in New England. Let's go ahead and
Speaker 1: finish up here with Dolphins defensive end Emmanuel Ogba, who
Speaker 1: evaluated our previous guest, Austin Jackson and his performance so
Speaker 1: far as in Miami Dolphins. Austin is doing a tremendous job.
Speaker 1: I know him and Shock been going at him, and
Speaker 1: also I've been doing at it with him too. He's
Speaker 1: been doing a pretty good job and you know, working,
Speaker 1: you know, getting better every day. You know, they have
Speaker 1: a guy like me and Shock you know, help him out,
Speaker 1: giving him some tips to as well, so he's doing
Speaker 1: a good job for us. Next, Oggball was asked about
Speaker 1: the Patriots naming Cam Newton. They're starting quarterback and his
Speaker 1: experience is going up against the former m v P.
Speaker 1: I've played cant once in my career, and yeah, it's
Speaker 1: gonna it's gonna be a dog. You know, he's a
Speaker 1: former m v P and they got a good quarterback man.
Speaker 1: We're just gonna be ready. You know, it depends what
Speaker 1: coach boy has him in mind for it as far
Speaker 1: as game plan. You know, we're gonna be ready to go.
Speaker 1: Back on the other side of the ball, ogg Bab
Speaker 1: was asked to evaluate the performance and the presence so
Speaker 1: far of new Dolphins linebacker Kyle van noy. Here's oddball
Speaker 1: on Kyle van noy. Yeah, he brings that leadership. You know,
Speaker 1: he's he's uh familiar with the system, so you know
Speaker 1: he kind of helps younger guys too, the kind and
Speaker 1: just bring guys together and just tell them to tell us, like,
Speaker 1: we gotta keep working, we gotta keep getting better. Up next.
Speaker 1: Emmanuel was asked about which player on the Dolphins defense,
Speaker 1: talking about guys like Kyle Van Noy, Land and Roberts,
Speaker 1: who's been the most vocal, who brings the most energy
Speaker 1: to that defense. He answer, I mean it's a it's
Speaker 1: a bunch of guys you know we got Era. You
Speaker 1: know we got you know, you know you got shocked.
Speaker 1: You know he's always loud and out spoken. Um, you know, Um,
Speaker 1: we just got a lot of guys you know that
Speaker 1: come together, that you just know how to work together
Speaker 1: and play together. So good group of guys here. We
Speaker 1: could be as good as we want to be right now.
Speaker 1: We're taking a one steps, one step at the time,
Speaker 1: you know, working together, getting better together. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: just doing our work, doing our job. You make your
Speaker 1: player and make my play, you know, sitting the edge,
Speaker 1: you know, taking care of the deep ball, deep part
Speaker 1: the field. Just doing our part. Each of us individually
Speaker 1: just have to do our part, and we could be
Speaker 1: as good as the one. And let's go ahead and
Speaker 1: finish up here with a Dolphins pass rusher with a
Speaker 1: question about two a ton of looa Dolphins wikie quarterback
Speaker 1: and what makes him difficult to defend on the defensive side.
Speaker 1: So I mean, you still gotta watch out for you know,
Speaker 1: he could scramble on and he's pretty fast, pretty mobile,
Speaker 1: so you gotta watch that too. As far as he
Speaker 1: has a nine deep ball too, and nine he throws
Speaker 1: the ball really well, so you gotta you gotta do
Speaker 1: your best to stay contained. You got keeping him, keep
Speaker 1: him in the poppy or you might get out. And
Speaker 1: there you have an Emmanuel Ogba, Austin Jackson, and Eric Rowe.
Speaker 1: Really good pressers there from those three Dolphins players to
Speaker 1: veterans and a rookie, one free agent, one draft pick
Speaker 1: this year, one guy signed last season. Good variety on
Speaker 1: this Dolphins team. And with that, let's go ahead and
Speaker 1: close up this week of podcast here on Drivetime. Reminder,
Speaker 1: no Saturday podcast this week. You guys are a little
Speaker 1: bit spoiled there. For a couple of weeks, six shows
Speaker 1: a week, we will have written content on Miami Dolphins
Speaker 1: dot com. We are gonna track cut down Day for
Speaker 1: you guys. Any new players coming in, any players going out,
Speaker 1: We're gonna have it covered for you guys on Miami
Speaker 1: Dolphins dot Com. In the meantime, it's gonna be my
Speaker 1: time you all. Please be sure to subscribe to the
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