Speaker 1: You were listening to the Miami Dolphins podcast Network. This
Speaker 1: is Drive Time with Travis Wheatfield. Back to throw to
Speaker 1: a looking gipsla wade open touchdop cleric call. Un believable.
Speaker 1: Just flew by for a second time. Don't know where
Speaker 1: he was going right away? Hit that man. I want
Speaker 1: to help you soon up on his way. Wattle waddle
Speaker 1: to a shotgut back to throw looking SUPs up fires too.
Speaker 1: It's waddle, It's six touchdown pass to Drive Time with
Speaker 1: Travis Winfield begins. Now let me check your pulse if
Speaker 1: what is up? Dolph fans and welcome to the Drivetime podcast,
Speaker 1: part of the Miami Dolphins podcast Network, covering your team,
Speaker 1: your Miami Dolphins. How's it going everybody? I am your host,
Speaker 1: Travis Wingfield. And on today's show, it is midweek and
Speaker 1: that means we turn the page to the Detroit Lions.
Speaker 1: Will do that with head coach Mike McDaniel and quarterback
Speaker 1: to a Tongue of Valoa at the podium at their
Speaker 1: Wednesday media availabilities. Plus five big picture things I think,
Speaker 1: including some sound from Hall of Famer Larry Sonka from
Speaker 1: the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.
Speaker 1: This is the drive. So these big picture Thoughts Takeaways
Speaker 1: podcast get a little bit easier the more the sample
Speaker 1: size builds for us here over the course of the season.
Speaker 1: And I'm really enjoying it as an ever so slight
Speaker 1: departure from your typical daily topical podcast because it gives
Speaker 1: me a chance to step back a little bit and
Speaker 1: think about just that the big picture. Let's go ahead
Speaker 1: and get first to the first part. I should say
Speaker 1: of the five things I think through seven weeks, and
Speaker 1: number one thing, I think that the offense is really
Speaker 1: really close. And I want to make this twofold one
Speaker 1: with the passing game and one with the run game.
Speaker 1: And I think the best way to mention the run
Speaker 1: game is to go to a Hall of Famer who
Speaker 1: just a few days after the fiftieth anniversary celebration of
Speaker 1: the undefeated season, and a few days before that, I
Speaker 1: should say, we had Larry Sonka on the Twitter space
Speaker 1: with me, Seth and o J from the fish Tank podcast,
Speaker 1: part of the Myvy Dolphins podcast network, on our weekly
Speaker 1: Wednesday Twitter spaces, and son had all kinds of knowledge
Speaker 1: for us. First of all, if you have not heard
Speaker 1: it It's recorded up on my Twitter timeline. You're gonna
Speaker 1: have to scroll through a bunch of tweets to find it,
Speaker 1: but it was last Wednesday. Go check that out and
Speaker 1: you'll hear some great stories from Song about the seventy
Speaker 1: two team, about modern football, about how they watch these
Speaker 1: undefeated teams make their runs late into the season together
Speaker 1: and have fun. Like there was so much cool stuff.
Speaker 1: The best part of the entire thing, to me was
Speaker 1: the fans. We had asked him questions and just hearing
Speaker 1: the excitement and their voices and the reaction on Twitter
Speaker 1: was freaking awesome. But you guys know that I had
Speaker 1: to ask Song, Hey, let's talk about the current team. Uh,
Speaker 1: tell me what you see in this running game. Here's
Speaker 1: a legend. It shows signs, not necessarily signs of brute
Speaker 1: style third and one smash you in the face cent
Speaker 1: not that, but it shows signs of communication between the
Speaker 1: lineman backfield. In other words, the guy that's carrying the
Speaker 1: ball understands what is offensive, blind how they're going to attack.
Speaker 1: He understands the calls that are paid in the middlesecond
Speaker 1: between the time the ball is about to be snapped
Speaker 1: and he erupts the theme. In other words, he understands
Speaker 1: what they're going to do and he isn't going to
Speaker 1: collide with his office the belidman. He's going to fit
Speaker 1: into the gap, however small it is, or or know
Speaker 1: where the hole is going to be if there is
Speaker 1: a hole. That kind of understanding and communication starts to
Speaker 1: show up when you see that in a game. Most
Speaker 1: fans don't see that from up on the fort yard line,
Speaker 1: don't have the angle and you have to look forward
Speaker 1: on the people a and they don't get that. But
Speaker 1: they do understand when a guy throws it, a guy catches,
Speaker 1: But the intricate parts of the running game that don't
Speaker 1: see unless you're a next player watching it. You know,
Speaker 1: I feel good about it because I'm starting to see
Speaker 1: some of that communication between the guy carrying the ball
Speaker 1: on a short yardage situation and his offensive blindman. He's
Speaker 1: not running into them, he's running into the gap in
Speaker 1: between them, and it starts to show that there's some communication,
Speaker 1: that there's been some discipline on that there's been talk
Speaker 1: about it, they've studied it, and they're starting to understand
Speaker 1: that offensive back has a responsibility to know how his
Speaker 1: men in front of him, is WindMan in front of
Speaker 1: him are going to block that play? And if he
Speaker 1: knows it as fast as they know it, or perhaps
Speaker 1: even faster, it makes a difference at the point of impact.
Speaker 1: I mean, didn't soun kind of call his shot out there?
Speaker 1: Our second best yardage output in the run game this season.
Speaker 1: We average four point one one yards a clip, whereheem
Speaker 1: was just under five yards of the clip, and according
Speaker 1: to Pro Football Focus, it was our most yards before contact,
Speaker 1: which again speaks to what Sonka said about guys hitting
Speaker 1: the holes with conviction. It was our second most ten
Speaker 1: plus yard runs in a game this season and the
Speaker 1: second most first downs we achieved via the ground game
Speaker 1: this season. Then there's the passing game, which we used
Speaker 1: Mike McDaniel's audio four on Tuesday as he kind of
Speaker 1: told us where he thinks some things can be tweaked
Speaker 1: and fine tune. But from my statistical standpoint, I think
Speaker 1: the proof comes from the offense in general, through the
Speaker 1: yards per play aspect, and watching the game back on Sunday.
Speaker 1: You know, it feels like every second or third play
Speaker 1: is like a fifteen plus yard game, doesn't it, Like,
Speaker 1: go watch the broadcast again. It felt like the Dolphins
Speaker 1: just went up and down the field. And you know,
Speaker 1: I watched the game live, I see the tape on
Speaker 1: the AL twenty two, then I watched the broadcast later
Speaker 1: in the week, and I think that if you remove
Speaker 1: the scoreboard from watching the game, you would have thought
Speaker 1: to yourself, Man, Miami is probably winning this game by
Speaker 1: a lot of points right now. And of course we
Speaker 1: know better than that, and we also know better than
Speaker 1: to say that anything besides the scoreboard matters. But for
Speaker 1: the sake of evaluation and trying to project future outcomes,
Speaker 1: which is what we like doing here, or what you know,
Speaker 1: all analysis is is trying to project what might happen
Speaker 1: in the future and also trying to see what you
Speaker 1: do well, what's working, what you can count on as
Speaker 1: team identities and strengths. To me, the ability to chew
Speaker 1: up yardage and chunk yardage at a high clip, it's there.
Speaker 1: That's why your quarterback is number one right now in
Speaker 1: yards per passed in the NFL. And then you see
Speaker 1: the outside zone run really really getting better each and
Speaker 1: every week, and off of that, man, things can become
Speaker 1: even more difficult to deal with for opposing defenses. You're
Speaker 1: already seeing defenses play this offense with the most respect
Speaker 1: in the league in terms of speed and the coverage
Speaker 1: to protect against that speed. Only the Buffalo Bills have
Speaker 1: faced a higher rate of two high pre snap looks.
Speaker 1: That's two safeties high in the structure. The league average
Speaker 1: of two high looks this year on first and second
Speaker 1: downs is thirty four point two percent. That's way up
Speaker 1: from previous years. From Miami, two hundred and thirty six
Speaker 1: of the four dred and twenty four plays on offense
Speaker 1: have come against two high looks. That is fifty six
Speaker 1: percent over the average. It's amazing what happens when you
Speaker 1: have two elite four three speed receivers. As a result,
Speaker 1: that opens up the middle of the field. It's a
Speaker 1: big reason why Miami right now has one hundred plays
Speaker 1: of ten plus yards. One fourth of our plays go
Speaker 1: for ten plus. Think about that, tied for third in
Speaker 1: the NFL. They've also got thirty plays of twenty plus
Speaker 1: yards that's tied for seventh most. And when you really
Speaker 1: pare it down, the twenty six completions of twenty plus
Speaker 1: our third most behind the Chiefs and Patriots. It's kind
Speaker 1: of interesting. Shoehorn there, and the Bills have one less
Speaker 1: at twenty six. So Miami has more twenty plus yard
Speaker 1: complations in the Buffalo Bills, but they've played one less game.
Speaker 1: I digress, and then the three pass plays of fifty
Speaker 1: plus yards for your Miami Dolphins is tied for third
Speaker 1: most in the NFL. Four is the league leads. You're
Speaker 1: one away from having a share of the league lead,
Speaker 1: and the vast majority of those are those intermediate too
Speaker 1: deep shots. Like you know, usually intermediate means ten to
Speaker 1: nineteen yards deepest twenty plus, but that fifteen to twenty
Speaker 1: five yard range the throat to surefield. A lot of
Speaker 1: those throws a tyrek and waddle. Their speed is helping
Speaker 1: create space in the middle of the football field, especially
Speaker 1: when you get your ground game cranking in the way
Speaker 1: that Miami had it working on Sunday night with those
Speaker 1: seven eight twelve yard chunks. I mean pretty much felt
Speaker 1: like the run game was either eight yards or like
Speaker 1: a loss in that game, which is why I thought
Speaker 1: the average kind of dipped down below what the actual
Speaker 1: production was, because not only do you remove the safeties
Speaker 1: from dropping down with that run game, but you then
Speaker 1: widen the backers and create more space and force the
Speaker 1: defense to defend more blades of grass. And we discussed
Speaker 1: that on Tuesday, right like how To's ability to look
Speaker 1: backers off and use his eyes and shoulders and hips
Speaker 1: and feet and body position to clear those windows and
Speaker 1: clear space for himself. And the run game does the
Speaker 1: exact same thing when you can successfully hit those runs
Speaker 1: off tackle, like we routinely did running behind Armstead and
Speaker 1: Shell in that game on Sunday. So I think the
Speaker 1: offense has shown it's pretty adept at creating those chunk
Speaker 1: games already. And then you look at red zone and
Speaker 1: goal to go efficiency, currently fifth in the NFL with
Speaker 1: a sixty five percent red zone efficiency and market scoring touchdowns,
Speaker 1: and currently third on goal to go efficiency at eight
Speaker 1: eight point nine percent. That's been a superpower of two
Speaker 1: a tongue of by Lows in his career, and man,
Speaker 1: when we get the ball into the ten year oldline,
Speaker 1: we pretty much knock it in for a touchdown. That's
Speaker 1: been the case for two of going back to his
Speaker 1: rookie season. So you ask, well, why the hell are
Speaker 1: we not scoring more points? Why are we nineteen in
Speaker 1: the NFL? And points? That's the part that is up
Speaker 1: to the coaching staff to figure out and for the
Speaker 1: players to get corrected on the field. My entire point is,
Speaker 1: I think we have the right people to make it happen.
Speaker 1: And if you want to look at historically, while the
Speaker 1: Dolphins ranked nineteenth and points per game, there's six point
Speaker 1: one yards per play is tied for fourth right now
Speaker 1: in the NFL, actually it's sixth because the fractions. But
Speaker 1: if you look at Pro Football Reference, six point one
Speaker 1: they round up around down is tied for fourth. So
Speaker 1: it's a top five yards per play offense. Of the
Speaker 1: other four teams rinding up the top five and offensive efficiency,
Speaker 1: Miami's points per game mark is the biggest outlier. Twenty
Speaker 1: one points per game is four points per contest, shy
Speaker 1: of the Saints, who also average six point one points
Speaker 1: per game. Think about that over seven games, four points
Speaker 1: per game, that's twenty eight points. That's four touchdowns. Seattle
Speaker 1: is third with six point three yards per play and
Speaker 1: they average twenty six point one per game. And then
Speaker 1: the top two offenses, Kansas City and Buffalo both average
Speaker 1: thirty points per game. Between those two sides, or give
Speaker 1: or take Buffalo's I think at twenty nine point eight
Speaker 1: and Casey is like thirty point four. So yeah, I
Speaker 1: took some liberties there in uh in assuming and rounding.
Speaker 1: All of this is to say the historically the points
Speaker 1: typically catch up to the yards per play metric. The
Speaker 1: last team to finish in the top five and yards
Speaker 1: per play and average fewer than twenty five points per
Speaker 1: game game you have to go back to team and
Speaker 1: the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and they were only at twenty
Speaker 1: four points per game. So Miami still a ways off
Speaker 1: from that. It's up to the Dolphins to clean up
Speaker 1: the misques and execute in those critical situations. But the
Speaker 1: ability to move the ball is clearly present and something
Speaker 1: has to give on this stat I think it'll be
Speaker 1: the points catching up to the yards per play and
Speaker 1: not vice versa. That's a long thing. I think to
Speaker 1: kick it off here, let's go ahead and do number
Speaker 1: two before the first break. Number two is a pair
Speaker 1: of in season additions have been two of the most valuable.
Speaker 1: I think this offseason was an absolute feather in the
Speaker 1: cap of Chris Career and the Dolphins front office. I mean,
Speaker 1: Armstead has been tremendous. Tyreek leads the league in catches
Speaker 1: and receiving yards. Connor Williams has been, for my money,
Speaker 1: if not the very best center, one of the top
Speaker 1: three centers in the NFL. Where he most is really
Speaker 1: getting rolling right now at four point five yards of rush.
Speaker 1: Melvin Ingram one defensive player of September. What else? Keion
Speaker 1: Cross and stepped in and gave you a lot of
Speaker 1: good reps at corner when he was healthy. Not to
Speaker 1: mention the impact of a U d F A like
Speaker 1: kater cohu alec Ingold is a key cog on offense.
Speaker 1: Trent Sherfield makes a big play every week, a great
Speaker 1: blocker outside. Thomas Morestead has been great at flipping the field.
Speaker 1: Am I forgetting any like it's been a guy after
Speaker 1: a guy that we've brought in here and he's had
Speaker 1: a big impact. But how about Brandon Shell and Justin Bethel.
Speaker 1: First with Bethel, his value was already incredibly apparent on
Speaker 1: special teams, beating the jammers, getting downfield to down those
Speaker 1: ponds or wrap up returnment before they can even get going.
Speaker 1: But then for him to step in on defense and
Speaker 1: play such a damn good game last week after a
Speaker 1: really good showing and a smaller sample size against the
Speaker 1: Vikings the Sunday prior. I mean this guy is handling
Speaker 1: three way goes from the slot all alone and picking
Speaker 1: off the pass on a slot fade, one of the
Speaker 1: toughest routes to defending football to the boundary short side
Speaker 1: of the field. A guy who's fitting the run fearlessly
Speaker 1: by sticking his face right in the fan, taking on blockers,
Speaker 1: stringing out the run game, getting off blocks in the
Speaker 1: screen game, and thought in the quick passing game. He's
Speaker 1: been an absolute ace and a big time addition on
Speaker 1: both defense and special teams. And he got here September
Speaker 1: one big time. Then how about Brandon Shell brought in
Speaker 1: on the practice squad, gets his feet underneath him in
Speaker 1: the program and the building gets a call up and
Speaker 1: shows out left tackle didn't really work out, but the
Speaker 1: right tackle position he gives you the versatility. He's been
Speaker 1: fantastic the last two weeks at right tackle against Pittsburgh
Speaker 1: in Minnesota with just four pressures on pass blocking snaps.
Speaker 1: That's just a hair under ninety six for pass blocking efficiency.
Speaker 1: It's a great number for your tackle. Just one of
Speaker 1: those pressures is a QB hit two. So keeping his
Speaker 1: quarterback clean on of his past blocking snaps. Every year
Speaker 1: around the league, you'll see a couple of these. Last year,
Speaker 1: Russeul Douglas made the Pro Bowl after getting cut from
Speaker 1: the Eagles going over to the Packers. It's early, but
Speaker 1: the returns on Shell and Bethel have already been fantastic.
Speaker 1: And when you consider that they were street free agents
Speaker 1: and brought in here mid season, the fact that they
Speaker 1: impacted one game is enough that that is that is
Speaker 1: proof in the pudding that those were valuable additions. There
Speaker 1: are already two games into this two good games from
Speaker 1: both these guys, and they're giving you a big boost
Speaker 1: at two spots where you need it because you've had
Speaker 1: some injury issues on the offensive line and at the
Speaker 1: cornerback position. Let's go ahead and take our first break
Speaker 1: and come back and finish up with the three things
Speaker 1: I think heading into week eight, one and two in
Speaker 1: the books, three through five coming your way next on
Speaker 1: the Draft Time Podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to
Speaker 1: you by Auto Nation. Back here on the Drive Time Podcast,
Speaker 1: Wednesday edition, October the Oh Ship. My birthday is coming
Speaker 1: up on Friday. I forget it every year, and this
Speaker 1: year it's even more so because I don't want to
Speaker 1: turn thirty five. But I digress number three. The third
Speaker 1: thing I think, big picture wise, in the middle of
Speaker 1: week number eight, how many game changing plays and big
Speaker 1: time games can that draft class make for us? Because
Speaker 1: it feels like a lot, and it's been a while
Speaker 1: since we did this. I like taking you know, every
Speaker 1: four games are so looking back at the off season
Speaker 1: or draft classes and frankly, you you can do this.
Speaker 1: The last few classes before that to has been awesome.
Speaker 1: Twenty nineteen was a good class. Team was a fantastic class.
Speaker 1: Typically it's three years before you start to kind of
Speaker 1: make your nearly final conclusions. I don't think we should
Speaker 1: ever finalize conclusions on players ever ever. But you have
Speaker 1: a good idea three years in, and man, I think
Speaker 1: you have to feel pretty good about what you have
Speaker 1: with your first three picks. One. This is shaping up
Speaker 1: those three picks to be an all time draft class.
Speaker 1: Three players who are starting to look like not just
Speaker 1: three starters at three key positions of three premium spots
Speaker 1: and guys that play fifty plus snaps every single game.
Speaker 1: Guys that are starting to look like some of the
Speaker 1: best players at their respective positions in the entire NFL.
Speaker 1: Do you understand how rare that is to get one
Speaker 1: of those guys in the draft class, much less potentially three.
Speaker 1: Jalen Waddle the six pick in the draft. We also
Speaker 1: got a first round pick by trading back for him,
Speaker 1: by the way, and I'm really glad they went up
Speaker 1: to get him because he is a top five receiver.
Speaker 1: He's fourth in the NFL and receiving six one yards
Speaker 1: through seven games. That's eight point seven yards per game,
Speaker 1: which is fifth in the NFL, the same rank as
Speaker 1: his eight teen point three yards per reception. His eleven
Speaker 1: point five yards per target is sixth best. His twenty
Speaker 1: seven first downs are eighth most, sixth most among wide receivers,
Speaker 1: and he's tied for twelve with three touchdowns. He has
Speaker 1: two hundred and seventy yards after the catch, that's sixth
Speaker 1: most in the NFL. His two point six nine nice
Speaker 1: yards per route ran is fourth behind Tyreek Hill, Stefon Diggs,
Speaker 1: and Justin Jefferson other guys in that top ten of
Speaker 1: that stat which I think is one of the best
Speaker 1: measurements of who's performing the highest year after year. Like
Speaker 1: go look at top ten yards per target every year,
Speaker 1: you're gonna see ten guys that you would say top
Speaker 1: ten receivers in the NFL. Well, Tyreek, Stavon Dig, Justin Jefferson, Jillin,
Speaker 1: waddle A J. Brown, Cooper Cup, Alman ross A Brown.
Speaker 1: Really really good company there. Jillen Phillips. He currently ranks
Speaker 1: thirteen among edges a PFF stat and classification for edge
Speaker 1: although he plays all over the defense and pressures with
Speaker 1: twenty five and run stops and fit with fifteen, so
Speaker 1: top thirteen edge player right now. Across the two most
Speaker 1: important stats for pass rushing and run defense, he was
Speaker 1: number ten among outside linebackers and defensive ends and ESPNS
Speaker 1: run stop win rate entering week seven. He will enter
Speaker 1: week eight at number five at thirty six percent. He's
Speaker 1: drawing double teams, he's rushing the edge, inside outside, playing
Speaker 1: the run, he's playing coverage. And his effort. Man, when
Speaker 1: you get the type of effort with the athlete that
Speaker 1: he is. We all remember that Pro day where he
Speaker 1: just tested like an absolute robot. It's gonna be hard
Speaker 1: to not be productive. Phillips looking every bit the part
Speaker 1: of a first round pick, and then some and then
Speaker 1: you might have your best one in the top of
Speaker 1: the second round with Javon Holland. Only eleven players have
Speaker 1: more than two picks this year, so he's right there,
Speaker 1: tied for twelve with a bunch of other guys with interceptions.
Speaker 1: We know he was number two among all safeties last
Speaker 1: year and quarterback pressures behind only Brandon Jones. This year,
Speaker 1: he only has three pressures, but he's only come on
Speaker 1: the pass rush eleven times. Two of those produced sacks.
Speaker 1: I mean, what is that sack rate when you come
Speaker 1: on a pass rush and he has one force fumble
Speaker 1: that basically was you know, every point the Buffalo game
Speaker 1: was valuable, but that was a touchdown basically that he
Speaker 1: put on the board and that big one over Buffalo.
Speaker 1: The coverage numbers say he's been targeted eight times with
Speaker 1: four completions for forty five yards. But I think that
Speaker 1: staff given where he plays in this defense right now,
Speaker 1: playing deep into the post almost every snap, I think
Speaker 1: this stat tells the story better. Opposing quarterbacks are throwing
Speaker 1: the ball twenty plus eight yards on us this year
Speaker 1: at this clip, eleven for twenty eight What is that?
Speaker 1: You might cald clear her out stand by music? Who's
Speaker 1: got it for me? For four? Seventeen yards, a couple
Speaker 1: of the big plays that obviously come from the deep passes,
Speaker 1: one touchdown, three picks, and a passer rating of fifty
Speaker 1: nine point three. That's a team stat. But we say
Speaker 1: on the film review each week he's closing off those
Speaker 1: deep routes, timing up his post nap rotation, and really
Speaker 1: closing off a lot of those downfield lanes. And Durham
Speaker 1: Smith told us in camp this past summer that you
Speaker 1: can see Javon play both his role ole but also
Speaker 1: expand his role on a given play and be in
Speaker 1: a position that he never should have been able to
Speaker 1: get to in the first place. That is the ultimate
Speaker 1: compliment so Minko Fitzpatrick did in that game on Sunday Night.
Speaker 1: It's what ed Rey did for years of the Baltimore Ravens,
Speaker 1: plus his leadership, the communication of the defense. It's rare
Speaker 1: to land those traits. And a player who's only played
Speaker 1: twenty three career games Chavon halland looks pretty special. That
Speaker 1: one draft class looks awfully awfully rare right now. The
Speaker 1: thing I think number four is the effort is off
Speaker 1: the charts for the Miami Dolphins. After seeing the game
Speaker 1: live watching the tape seeing the broadcast version, I always
Speaker 1: learned something new along the way. During the broadcast rewatch,
Speaker 1: Collinsworth talked about their conversations they had with Mike McDaniel
Speaker 1: and the pre production meeting that broadcast teams have with
Speaker 1: each head coach each week, and collins Worth mentioned a
Speaker 1: conversation about Tyree Hill and his impact and beyond the
Speaker 1: fact that he's the leading receiver in the NFL right now,
Speaker 1: that coach McDaniel told Collinsworth and Mike Tarrico that Tyreek
Speaker 1: really kind of taught them how to practice how it's
Speaker 1: supposed to look, not in terms of the schedule or
Speaker 1: structure anything like that. McDaniels got that covered, not even
Speaker 1: a concern, but what practice effort looks like. If I
Speaker 1: do it this way, you guys should do it that
Speaker 1: way too. Because I'm Tyreek Hill. We talked about that
Speaker 1: on the podcast a lot this summer. It's unlike anything
Speaker 1: I've ever seen before, the way that dude practice. We
Speaker 1: even talked him about it and pressors after practice and
Speaker 1: he was just like, Yeah, that's what I do, man,
Speaker 1: Like those go routes over and over again, the conditioning,
Speaker 1: the way he kind of just raises a level, raises
Speaker 1: the standards. It's unique. We heard from coach on the
Speaker 1: effort of Jalen Phillips down the stretch in that game.
Speaker 1: On the Tuesday podcast, I saw Andrew van Ginkl selling
Speaker 1: out to cover ground as a spy on the quarterback.
Speaker 1: I saw Zack Heeler retrace a play for a big
Speaker 1: hit down the field. We see Christian Wilkins do that
Speaker 1: almost weekly, most notably the Buffalo game. I just watched
Speaker 1: these tapes each week, and if you want to know
Speaker 1: what the Dolphins identity is, and I think there's a
Speaker 1: lot of options. You can talk about their ability to
Speaker 1: marry up the run and the play action game, the
Speaker 1: intermediate passing game, the defense is attacking mindset. All of
Speaker 1: those are good things. But the one thing that I
Speaker 1: know I see for sure every week on tape is effort.
Speaker 1: It's coached and it's carried out. It's awesome to see
Speaker 1: that thing. I think Number five is the a f
Speaker 1: C East, the best division. It's gonna be a dog
Speaker 1: fight this year. We knew Buffalo was good. The one
Speaker 1: loss they have is to us, and they've beaten the
Speaker 1: Chiefs at Arrowhead. The Ravens in Baltimore and the Rams
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles. The Pats, I think, are gonna be fine.
Speaker 1: Uh well, you know what is fine. But I mean,
Speaker 1: just as recently as one in three, we heard the
Speaker 1: rhetoric about the rebuild, how they're gonna finish last YadA
Speaker 1: yad ya, all that stuff, and all they do is
Speaker 1: go out and stomp back to back uppons to get
Speaker 1: back to five. Now the Monday night football game is
Speaker 1: a bit of a concern. Obviously. They've bounced back from
Speaker 1: that type of effort time and time again over the
Speaker 1: last two decades. Well not time and time again, because
Speaker 1: they haven't faced that situation many times. But when they do,
Speaker 1: they always respond. The quarterback situation, that's the murky part
Speaker 1: that they have to get sorted out. But we know
Speaker 1: the Patriots are gonna respond and play good football and
Speaker 1: be a tough out right. And then the Jets are
Speaker 1: five and two with four straight wins them how their
Speaker 1: defense is legit. Robert sala is starting to see, you know,
Speaker 1: the personnel truly match his aggressive scheme that he wants
Speaker 1: to run. And my goodness, they generate a lot of
Speaker 1: pressure upfront. Plus Sauce Gardner is tremendous. DJ Read has
Speaker 1: been really good in his own right. Breece Hall and
Speaker 1: Elijah Vera Tucker are killer killer losses. But I mean
Speaker 1: they're winning these games without having to throw the football
Speaker 1: three passing yards over the last three wins. If our
Speaker 1: guy did that, it would be trade for everybody else
Speaker 1: they get to see Josh Allen, Kirk Cousins, Josh Allen,
Speaker 1: you know, Smith and two of the rest of the way.
Speaker 1: So it's like five good quarters, like really good quarterbacks
Speaker 1: on there on their schedule. The rest of the way,
Speaker 1: you'll need more than a hundred and thirty yards to
Speaker 1: beat those guys in a game. But that said, the
Speaker 1: schedule stays pretty They got some wins on there. I
Speaker 1: think that's why I think they can hang around five hundred.
Speaker 1: But sure they've certainly, you know, kind of hit the
Speaker 1: jackpot with your early season schedule so far, getting four
Speaker 1: backup quarterbacks in a row, and then obviously, you know
Speaker 1: how I feel about our squad. You might wind up
Speaker 1: with three winning teams in this division, and frankly it
Speaker 1: could be four. But I think somebody's gonna have to
Speaker 1: fall below the five hundred lines simply because of beating
Speaker 1: up on one another. The Jets have an interesting three
Speaker 1: game stretch here over the next four weeks with a
Speaker 1: buy the Bills and the Patriots twice, we should learn
Speaker 1: a lot about the division over the next month. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure the Bills will lose a game the rest
Speaker 1: of the way. I mean, they look they looked apart.
Speaker 1: I think we can get through the first week of
Speaker 1: December personally at eight and three, ahead of that tough
Speaker 1: stretch of games we when the games were supposed to
Speaker 1: I think the Patriots will hover just south of five hundred.
Speaker 1: I think the Jets are staring reality in the face here.
Speaker 1: Very soon we'll see. I can't wait for that week
Speaker 1: A team game, man, bring it back on after all
Speaker 1: that social media trash shock we saw. All right, let's
Speaker 1: go ahead and take our last break. We'll come back
Speaker 1: and hear from coach Mike McDaniel and quarterback to a
Speaker 1: tongue Baloa. That's next. On the Wednesday edition of the
Speaker 1: Drivetime podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by
Speaker 1: Auto Nation, we heard from head coach Mike McDaniel and
Speaker 1: quarterback to a Tongue of Byla. On Wednesday afternoon, let's
Speaker 1: go ahead and pick it up with Mike mcday neil,
Speaker 1: who addressed mhmm a few of the injury situations right
Speaker 1: now for the Miami Dolphins, saying that he's optimistic about
Speaker 1: kater cohu Key on crossing and Emmanuel Ogba, praising the
Speaker 1: fact that he knows that if they're able to go,
Speaker 1: those guys will do everything they can to get themselves
Speaker 1: into playing shape to play on Sunday, and again, optimism
Speaker 1: the word around those guys. Excuse me, we heard about
Speaker 1: one other injury. Brandon Jones will go ahead and play
Speaker 1: that sound for you here in just a second, But
Speaker 1: first I want to play four straight audio clips from
Speaker 1: McDaniel's Wednesday media availability. First talking about a subject we
Speaker 1: covered on the podcast, the yards per play and the
Speaker 1: points scored and the correlation between those two. Let's go
Speaker 1: ahead and hear from Mike McDaniel about how you can
Speaker 1: get the points to match your red zone production, your
Speaker 1: goal to go production, and your yards per play and
Speaker 1: explosive production. Here's Mike McDaniel. We're doing a good job,
Speaker 1: um taking advantage of some explosive opportunities, so we are
Speaker 1: getting with which every team, every offense has to do,
Speaker 1: and um, that's usually the hardest thing to get accomplished. UM.
Speaker 1: But uh, you know, I think as UM. You know
Speaker 1: that that's the name of the game for good teams
Speaker 1: in this league. It's the simplest formula. UM, But it
Speaker 1: happens every single year, and it seems like people missmiss it,
Speaker 1: which is there's so many distractions that occur. Just think
Speaker 1: about it from an individual standpoint. Am I playing enough?
Speaker 1: Did it? How did I play this last game? Um?
Speaker 1: I got extra family in town. All this stuff. The
Speaker 1: teams that are good get better during the season, and
Speaker 1: it's hard to because there's so many other things that
Speaker 1: can take your mind and you're tired. You know, it's
Speaker 1: six days a week for players, seven days a week,
Speaker 1: so all of those things. Um, when we're better at
Speaker 1: our fundamentals within and I'm talking about every position involved
Speaker 1: in the in the run game. When we're collectively better
Speaker 1: at that, when we're better at executing our fundamentals, I
Speaker 1: think you'll start to feel um because because there's sometimes
Speaker 1: that we'll go down and we'll be able to we
Speaker 1: won't pump for three or four series consecutively, and then
Speaker 1: then you start hunting for three possessions in a row.
Speaker 1: It's because of the fundamentals are a little off. So
Speaker 1: when our game gets better, um, you know, because I
Speaker 1: think most of those yards are are a factor of
Speaker 1: our ability to get those chunk plays and we need
Speaker 1: to um sustain drives more, be better in the red zone,
Speaker 1: better at all of it, which just comes down to
Speaker 1: being better and you're not given that urin it. Up next,
Speaker 1: as promised, he talked about Brandon Jones. I want to
Speaker 1: go ahead and just play this audio for you because
Speaker 1: he did conform confirm that it wasn't a c L injury.
Speaker 1: But I just thought the approach and the way the
Speaker 1: team has kind of, you know, sadly embraced what happened
Speaker 1: to Brandon Jones and the reaction to it, I should
Speaker 1: say as really pro frowned. Here's coach talking about his
Speaker 1: safety and really a dang good player in Brandon Jones.
Speaker 1: It was his a c L um and yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't uh not planning on for him to return this season, which, um,
Speaker 1: you know you're you're really in situations like this, It's
Speaker 1: I feel terrible, absolutely terrible for a guy that was
Speaker 1: playing at a very very high level. Um, the good
Speaker 1: news about him in particular is when things like this
Speaker 1: happened to people like him, UM, they tend to come out,
Speaker 1: um finding a way to be better somehow, some way.
Speaker 1: But he was you know it was uh today this morning,
Speaker 1: watching it with the team, watching some of our game,
Speaker 1: UM putting its bed. It was it was you could
Speaker 1: hear like the hurt with the team when his hlights
Speaker 1: would come on, because there's a ton of them. So UM,
Speaker 1: you know, I do know that uh, people like him
Speaker 1: end up finding a way to be even better than
Speaker 1: they were before. But it's a shame because I don't
Speaker 1: think it's it's hard to give the credit to what
Speaker 1: he was doing or that it deserves to what he
Speaker 1: was doing on the field. UM, for our group and
Speaker 1: the whole team definitely felt that. Up next, Coach was
Speaker 1: asked about Cedric Wilson, and you might remember that he
Speaker 1: had a rib injury early on this season that I
Speaker 1: think kind of gets forgotten about goes by the wayside
Speaker 1: a little bit. Here's coach talking about Cedric Wilson and
Speaker 1: his role in the offense and how it's not about
Speaker 1: what he hasn't done, but what a guy like Trent
Speaker 1: Schurfield has done. Here's Mike McDaniel. No, he's progressing in
Speaker 1: the offense. There was a also a portion of the
Speaker 1: season um that you know, he got a little dinged
Speaker 1: up um with his ribs that he's playing through. Um
Speaker 1: and we're kind of limited as you she is there,
Speaker 1: but UM, given circumstances, UM with you know, it's less
Speaker 1: about what he hasn't done. He's doing. He's getting better
Speaker 1: and better every week and UM we'll continue to become
Speaker 1: um more and more featured within our offense. But it's
Speaker 1: not about what he hasn't done, and UM, more about
Speaker 1: you know what a guy like Trent Sherfield has done. Um.
Speaker 1: You know those are things that you don't you know,
Speaker 1: you don't go into a season. That's why I don't
Speaker 1: magnetize and stare at depth charts because that's a very
Speaker 1: fluid thing. Um. When when you're asking players to um
Speaker 1: sacrifice um all that they sacrifice, and when you're uh,
Speaker 1: you know, when they're putting themselves on the line, they
Speaker 1: have to know that it's not only appreciated, but um,
Speaker 1: the bottom line will be whatever is on the tape
Speaker 1: that given week, UM, Well we get more opportunities to
Speaker 1: be on tape because as the guys are gonna get
Speaker 1: the most opportunities. So UM, Hill continue to progress his role. UM.
Speaker 1: I'm comfortable with where he's at in working on his game, UM,
Speaker 1: and UH should expect to see more from him. UM.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm expecting that, and I think he's expecting that.
Speaker 1: UM as the season progresses. We finish up here as
Speaker 1: coach was asked about the other receivers on the roster,
Speaker 1: Tyreek Hill and Jalen Waddle and what has surprised coach
Speaker 1: about what they've done so far this season in a
Speaker 1: year where they had high expectations from the coaching staff,
Speaker 1: from McDaniel and from the outsiders looking in, how have
Speaker 1: they gone above and beyond and still surprise coach with
Speaker 1: their performance, their production and the way they handle themselves.
Speaker 1: Great answer here from Mike McDaniel. There acceptance of the
Speaker 1: burden that is high expectations. UM. A lot of people
Speaker 1: feel as though, you know, UM, it's a gift or
Speaker 1: like such a it's so cool. What if you wanted
Speaker 1: to be a star player? Well, star players have to
Speaker 1: UM really put the most on their shoulders with their
Speaker 1: UH given preparation each week. They can't afford to have
Speaker 1: to just take a game off, UM, and then when
Speaker 1: pressure situations happen, UM, they have to perform. I think
Speaker 1: their commitment and yearning for UM, wanting to be in
Speaker 1: conversations for duos and stuff that UM, all all of
Speaker 1: those things that has been the most surprising UM on
Speaker 1: the field and and with that, they've also have been
Speaker 1: extremely coachable. I don't think we've seen nearly the best
Speaker 1: from them, UM in terms of I don't I don't
Speaker 1: know about numbers, but talk about play them being able
Speaker 1: to make plays that other people can't. I don't think
Speaker 1: we've totally seen all of that even yet. UM. I
Speaker 1: think they would agree with that, UM. And that's been
Speaker 1: surprising UM because you just don't know until you know.
Speaker 1: And they are UM great athletes, but UM more than that,
Speaker 1: they're committed teammates UM, and they have a lot of
Speaker 1: commitment UM from a ton of people in that locker
Speaker 1: room that are doing all of the right things so
Speaker 1: that they can have that production. So UM, it's it's
Speaker 1: cool for the whole team. You will never see anybody
Speaker 1: in the sport accomplish anything alone. And with that, we
Speaker 1: move on to quarterback to a tongue of Byloa, who
Speaker 1: addressed the media on Wednesday afternoon, starting with this tidbit
Speaker 1: about how much can being back for a second game
Speaker 1: help you shake off some of the cobwebs, some of
Speaker 1: the potential rust and get back into that routine. Quicker,
Speaker 1: here's two on the benefit of having a second game
Speaker 1: back now after missing some time. Yeah, I think you
Speaker 1: start to get into a rhythm again, and you start
Speaker 1: to get back into how how your routine was, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, coming off of the first week to the
Speaker 1: second week and then you know, staying in that rhythm
Speaker 1: of doing things. So I think it'll help a lot.
Speaker 1: Topic of the day sort of seems to be points
Speaker 1: per game comparative yards per play. Let's go ahead and
Speaker 1: hear from two on the disc check between those two
Speaker 1: stats and why they're so far off right now, I
Speaker 1: think we gotta finish drives at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: we gotta finish drives. Um. I mean, we can march
Speaker 1: down the field to the ten yard line and kick
Speaker 1: field goes every time, or we can march to the
Speaker 1: thirty and kick field goes every time. But I mean
Speaker 1: that really that that doesn't that doesn't matter if we don't,
Speaker 1: you know, if we're not able to finish, you know
Speaker 1: and put put the ball in the ends on. So, uh,
Speaker 1: you know that that's something that we definitely got to
Speaker 1: hone in on and we got to get better with
Speaker 1: as far as communicating, executing, and things like that. Like
Speaker 1: coach McDaniel too was asked about Brandon Jones has impact
Speaker 1: as far as not being here anymore. Here's two on
Speaker 1: his teammate in the next and we learned today his
Speaker 1: locker neighbor Brennan has I don't know how many of
Speaker 1: you guys talked to him, but Brandon has a pretty
Speaker 1: big impact, um, you know, on on that defense and
Speaker 1: outside of you know, his impact on the defense. I mean,
Speaker 1: dudes love being around this guy. Um, whether it's it's
Speaker 1: been on the ping pong table or just you know
Speaker 1: having a chat with this guy, like guys rally around
Speaker 1: around him. You know, he's he's a really good guy. Um,
Speaker 1: he would definitely be missed, But I mean, for me,
Speaker 1: that's that's my boy. You know, he's he's his lockers
Speaker 1: next to mine. So I mean, that's my guy, and
Speaker 1: you know, it sucks to see that. Um, it sucks
Speaker 1: to see him go through that, and his family have
Speaker 1: to go through that with him as well. But my
Speaker 1: thoughts and prayers are always with him, um and hoping
Speaker 1: that he can recover fast from this and come back
Speaker 1: stronger next year. We'll finish up with two of discussing
Speaker 1: the past protection the team gave him in the game
Speaker 1: on Sunday night. We talked about the moving pockets, the execution,
Speaker 1: and his job getting the ball out quick. All that
Speaker 1: stuff was shining on Sunday night. Here's two on his
Speaker 1: pass pro and what they did to create pockets for
Speaker 1: him in the game plan. So I loved it. It
Speaker 1: was great. Um. You know, I think Mike schemed it
Speaker 1: up really well too, only because we were getting the
Speaker 1: ball out quick, and it was kind of hard, I
Speaker 1: think for their d line to get a feel with
Speaker 1: their rush patterns and then also get a feel of
Speaker 1: where the spot was for the quarterback, so you know,
Speaker 1: we're moving spots in the back there and not just
Speaker 1: catching the ball and dropping back. So I thought they
Speaker 1: did really well, so well in fact, that it was
Speaker 1: actually the lowest pressure rate at eight point six in
Speaker 1: his entire NFL career, and it was the fifth fastest
Speaker 1: time to throw at two point three eight seconds for
Speaker 1: two on Sunday Night against the stealers. The way they
Speaker 1: create those pockets and manufacture pockets with the game plan
Speaker 1: to slide thanks to go against the flow of play
Speaker 1: action really really impressive. More of a tip of the
Speaker 1: cap to the coaching staff here as we go forward,
Speaker 1: talked about it all all preseason. Now all season. The
Speaker 1: execution of the blocking, the quarterback that gets the ball
Speaker 1: in his hands quickly, and the game plan to create
Speaker 1: those pockets have all been much better this year for
Speaker 1: this Miami Dolphins front. Let's go ahead and call it
Speaker 1: a podcast right there. We'll come back with you guys
Speaker 1: on Thursday for the preview podcast. Plenty of work going
Speaker 1: into that one, watching some Lions games, looking at the stats,
Speaker 1: looking at the tape, all that fun stuff. We'll have
Speaker 1: that for you on Thursday. And then Friday are crossover,
Speaker 1: our Opponent Perspective podcast. We'll have that for you guys
Speaker 1: on Friday. A little bit low energy if you can't tell,
Speaker 1: I'm not really filming the best right now. Uh, Sunday
Speaker 1: night football really takes away sleep and then Caroline takes
Speaker 1: a way sleep as well, So I'm I'm pushing to
Speaker 1: get through. But uh, we'll go ahead and do that.
Speaker 1: I'll go ahead and call it a podcast right here.
Speaker 1: You all please be sure to subscribe to the podcast
Speaker 1: on Apple Podcast, Leave us a rating, leave us a review.
Speaker 1: You can follow me on Twitter at Wingfield NFL, follow
Speaker 1: the team at Miami Dolphins. Check out the fish Tank
Speaker 1: Podcast with Seth and Juice, our postgame show on five
Speaker 1: six w q AM that's after every single Miami Dolphins game.
Speaker 1: Are International Podcast Network, and of course our Twitter spaces
Speaker 1: every Wednesday night at eight o'clock that is tonight. Of course,
Speaker 1: check out the team YouTube channel for mediavailabilities, Dolphins Today,
Speaker 1: fish Tank and Drivetime content, and last but not least,
Speaker 1: Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time finds up, Caroline
Speaker 1: Denny has more to do for after that, I'm coming
Speaker 1: up