Speaker 1: You're listening to the Miami Dolphins Podcast Network.
Speaker 2: This is Drive Time with Travis Wingfield.
Speaker 1: Back to throw to a looking clips about a wide
Speaker 1: open touchdown.
Speaker 2: Trick call uncrelievable. It's just blue by it for a
Speaker 2: second time. Don knew where he was going right away.
Speaker 2: I want to hit that man.
Speaker 3: I want to help you.
Speaker 1: Someone will keep on his man.
Speaker 2: Away Wattle, Wadle to a shotgun.
Speaker 3: Back to throw, looking at them.
Speaker 2: Up myers touchdown. It's Waddle his sixth touchdown.
Speaker 3: Parados tea.
Speaker 2: Drive Time with Travis Wingfield begins.
Speaker 1: Now let me check your pulse if you're not.
Speaker 3: What is up? Dolphins? And welcome to the Drive Time podcast,
Speaker 3: part of the Miami Dolphins podcast Network, covering your team,
Speaker 3: your Miami Dolphins.
Speaker 2: How's it going? Everybody?
Speaker 3: I am your host, Travis Wingfield. And on today's show,
Speaker 3: Mini Camp.
Speaker 2: Is a wrap.
Speaker 3: The off season program is a wrap our last practice
Speaker 3: until late July and training camp gets underway. We're gonna
Speaker 3: hear from head coach Mike McDaniel from Tyreek Hill. We'll
Speaker 3: hear from some of the assistant coaches as well, and
Speaker 3: of course get you the practice notes from a busy
Speaker 3: Thursday here at the Baptist Health Training Complex. That's where
Speaker 3: we come from.
Speaker 2: This is, as you know, the Drive Time podcast.
Speaker 4: Maya Gafi.
Speaker 3: Gonna do it a little bit different today than the
Speaker 3: previous two shows, but I want to make clear that's
Speaker 3: my planned format for training camp when we ascend back
Speaker 3: on the Baptist Health Training Complex here once more in July.
Speaker 3: It was just a little bit hectic today because we
Speaker 3: had some weather that forced us off the field right
Speaker 3: at the end of practice, and then getting the assistant
Speaker 3: coaches for their availabilities was kind of scattered as well,
Speaker 3: so I just didn't have really the notes and colentary
Speaker 3: to go along, or I should say that paired together
Speaker 3: very well. So we're gonna go back to the old
Speaker 3: style here of notes, media and space it out that way.
Speaker 3: So I do apologize because I think the storytelling stylistic
Speaker 3: approach I've taken, at least in my opinion, has been
Speaker 3: better than what we're gonna do here today. But like
Speaker 3: I said, I didn't have the opportunity to ask the
Speaker 3: questions in the way that I would.
Speaker 2: Do to build it out that way. So here we are.
Speaker 3: But first, gosh, the defense got after it on Thursday.
Speaker 3: Five interceptions that I'm calling it four because one of
Speaker 3: them came when Jalen Wattle got on top of X
Speaker 3: quickly on a release off line of scrimmage and had
Speaker 3: a chance to go get a throw from two of
Speaker 3: It was under pressure and he just basically caught the
Speaker 3: snap and flicked it out there for it a little
Speaker 3: like wheel takeoff type of route at the line of scrimmage.
Speaker 3: But Vern McKinley made a nice play getting over the
Speaker 3: top of it and making the play on the football.
Speaker 3: But Wattle was brought to the ground because X interfere
Speaker 3: with him pretty significantly easily a flag on that play.
Speaker 3: But let's go through the other four actual picks we
Speaker 3: saw today in practice. The first was during seven on seven,
Speaker 3: which is very rare. You don't get interceptions in those drills.
Speaker 3: Almost ever was covering Waddle and it was kind of
Speaker 3: the same as the other play that resulted in a pick,
Speaker 3: only this one was more legal, or I should say
Speaker 3: legal in general. He just jammed him, disrupted him, got
Speaker 3: him off the route, got him off his timing to
Speaker 3: a put the ball at the landmark. I thought was
Speaker 3: a good throw in terms of where it was supposed
Speaker 3: to be when it was supposed to be there, and
Speaker 3: X just got on top of the route and ran
Speaker 3: the route for Jalen. Doesn't happen for seventeen very often,
Speaker 3: but it happened here for number twenty five. It kind
Speaker 3: of reminded me of the pick in the Niners game
Speaker 3: when Jeff Wilson slipped down to the ground and the
Speaker 3: ball just wound up right in the lap of the
Speaker 3: Niners defender.
Speaker 2: Those are going to happen sometimes.
Speaker 3: As a quarterback, there's absolutely nothing you can do about
Speaker 3: it because your job, if you want to play the
Speaker 3: position the right way is to play on time, and
Speaker 3: that means you know, trusting your guys to be where
Speaker 3: they're supposed to be, and if they're not, you can
Speaker 3: pay this way. And so in this instance, it comes
Speaker 3: back to bite two, but luckily it's during seven on
Speaker 3: seven during a practice, and it was a great play
Speaker 3: by X, which I think is the is the big
Speaker 3: takeaway here because he has been outstanding all camp long.
Speaker 3: I think he looks healthy, coming back from the two
Speaker 3: growins that he was trying to battle through last year
Speaker 3: and obviously slowed his game a little bit, and he
Speaker 3: talked about that. I think he looks reinvigorated by the
Speaker 3: system change. He was asked to cover, you know, the
Speaker 3: entirety of Orchard Park last winter in that playoff game.
Speaker 3: I think he's the kind of guy who rises to
Speaker 3: a challenge and going and getting a guy like Jalen Rams,
Speaker 3: he just gives him another superstar at the position to
Speaker 3: compete with.
Speaker 2: And that's like, hey, you want to bring him in here?
Speaker 3: Is he better than me? I'm going to try to
Speaker 3: prove that he's not. You know, iron sharpens iron. Right,
Speaker 3: there we go again using that phrase that's overused, but
Speaker 3: I think it tracks here in this situation. His feel
Speaker 3: his physicality paired with how he's getting out when he's
Speaker 3: challenged vertically, like he's getting that depth quickly or I
Speaker 3: should say quicker than he was last year when it
Speaker 3: wasn't right. And he's been around the football with some
Speaker 3: interceptions and a forced fumble in practice as well. Might
Speaker 3: be one of my top takeaways from the entire offseason program.
Speaker 3: In fact, let's make that a segment here in just
Speaker 3: a minute. Just go ahead and add to the show
Speaker 3: as we go along here. The rest were in team
Speaker 3: portions of practice eleven on eleven one from Justin Bethel
Speaker 3: who peeled off and you know, made a great play
Speaker 3: from it. What looked like a robber role to me,
Speaker 3: which is, you know, something you see from safety is
Speaker 3: more typically than a cornerback, but kind of camped out
Speaker 3: in the middle of the field and Skyler Thompson didn't
Speaker 3: id him through the ball to an area where he
Speaker 3: was camped out and he jumped it. Made the play
Speaker 3: really head he play diagnosing the route concept, getting to
Speaker 3: the position before the quarterback, could you know, execute his role,
Speaker 3: got to beat that guy to make picks. That's what
Speaker 3: Justin Bethel did on this play. Bryce Thompson capitalized on
Speaker 3: two overthrows from quarterback Mike White, who had a rough
Speaker 3: day today and a week that I thought wasn't you know,
Speaker 3: comparatively to the last couple of practices nearly as good.
Speaker 1: I thought.
Speaker 3: He struggled throughout this week and it's kind of been
Speaker 3: that way for the non two quarterbacks, up and down,
Speaker 3: some inconsistency, that's typically what you get at the quarterback
Speaker 3: two and three positions and so forth. But they were
Speaker 3: just high of the target and Bryce Thompson was camped
Speaker 3: out and you know, in a shell position back behind
Speaker 3: those throws and just scooped him up off the turf
Speaker 3: making tough catches. That's three picks this week for Bryce Thompson,
Speaker 3: the former CFL player of the Seattle Sea Dragon. See so,
Speaker 3: on balance, probably the toughest day for quarterbacks collectively. But
Speaker 3: I don't think that should take away from the fact
Speaker 3: that they were good and the other practices we saw
Speaker 3: on balance, and that's you know, not even to say
Speaker 3: they weren't good today. You know, I did test when
Speaker 3: and this is kind of how it goes if a
Speaker 3: guy throws a pick, or if a guy throws a
Speaker 3: long touchdown, he had a good practice or a bad
Speaker 3: practice based on that one throw from a lot of
Speaker 3: the reports you'll see out there. I did test doing that,
Speaker 3: like take the entire practice into account for how you
Speaker 3: evaluate this stuff. And there were some good throws in
Speaker 3: there from all the quarterbacks, but you know, predominantly Tool
Speaker 3: was the one that had a bunch of them, and
Speaker 3: a bunch of those throws from Towa were ones that
Speaker 3: got out as soon as he got the football. He
Speaker 3: peppered Wattle on a handful of throws, you know, the
Speaker 3: quick hitters, the glance, the now, the just the immediate throws,
Speaker 3: and I say all the time, give me the VR
Speaker 3: Alternative Reality headset that shows me what would have happened
Speaker 3: in live football, because I think that he might still
Speaker 3: be running on some of these shots that to have
Speaker 3: put right between the one and the seven on the
Speaker 3: old jersey. There he caught one where I thought he
Speaker 3: had the angle on Javon Holland to go the distance.
Speaker 3: Now Holland tagged off with the way Watald got skinny
Speaker 3: as he accelerated past what Holland. I should say, I
Speaker 3: want to see that matchup one on one because we
Speaker 3: have a great tackler and a great tackle breaker. Just
Speaker 3: good on good there. But you know, good football is
Speaker 3: always good for the home team here. One of my
Speaker 3: favorite two of reps was very akin to a rep
Speaker 3: we saw in practice on Wednesday. He had alec ingold
Speaker 3: out to the flat and that's where he wanted to
Speaker 3: go with it, but there was a free runner right
Speaker 3: in his face. So you have to take care of
Speaker 3: that guy because he could tip it up in the air,
Speaker 3: he could put a big hit on you. He's just
Speaker 3: in the way of where you're trying to go. And
Speaker 3: so what Tua does is he gets again, his helmet
Speaker 3: and hips and shoulders aligned down the field to the
Speaker 3: middle and separates the hands. I even a pump fig
Speaker 3: just quick separation, and that's what the edge is kind
Speaker 3: of reading. You know, if this hands separate, the ball's
Speaker 3: coming out gets him to leave his feet and then
Speaker 3: just slips at a round the side of the defender's hip,
Speaker 3: you know, throwing it around the airborne defender to alec ingold.
Speaker 3: And it's that ball handling that I continue to be
Speaker 3: so impressed by and as such an underrated aspect of
Speaker 3: the position and one of those areas that Tua really
Speaker 3: excels with that I feel like we mentioned here in
Speaker 3: the podcast, with various aspects of his game that doesn't
Speaker 3: get enough credit, enough love. Moving on to the backfield,
Speaker 3: thought Devon A Chain had some really nice runs. Man,
Speaker 3: he is decisive at the point of attech, he sees it,
Speaker 3: he goes that backside vision shows up every single day.
Speaker 3: I thought Lester Cotton had some really good work today.
Speaker 3: A couple of times you saw him get push and
Speaker 3: then as the play goes by him, you know, he
Speaker 3: holds the hand up to celebrate, and that's the universal
Speaker 3: sign of an offensive lineman. Saying, we just hit a
Speaker 3: big run. So typically you celebrate those when you're the
Speaker 3: one that springs them. I thought Liam Eichenberg, who was
Speaker 3: in the Orange Jersey today, had some really good work,
Speaker 3: particularly one rep where there was a rush game thrown
Speaker 3: at him and he slid and picked up the original
Speaker 3: slant and then came back and picked up the looper.
Speaker 3: It's just, you know, the type of stuff that we need.
Speaker 3: I don't know a guy like Liam Mikenberg. James Tunstall,
Speaker 3: the rookie from Cincinnati, had one of my favorite reps
Speaker 3: as he got depth, dropped the anchor strike, the punch,
Speaker 3: redirected inside, and held off a rush in a position
Speaker 3: where the quarterback needed to maximize the time because it
Speaker 3: was a slow developing play down the field, and he
Speaker 3: afforded all that time for a throw from Mike White
Speaker 3: to hit chosen on a big gainer on the defensive side.
Speaker 3: Christian Wilkins absolute menace once again. That's what he does,
Speaker 3: just play after play.
Speaker 2: This guy is causing issues.
Speaker 3: I thought rayk One had one of his best days
Speaker 3: of practices I've ever seen. He was playing inspired and
Speaker 3: actually got into a bit of a tiffole tiff tiffle
Speaker 3: Is that a word? My making up boards with Leam
Speaker 3: Mikenberg on a couple of plays that he continued throughout practice,
Speaker 3: but he caused a lot of issues on the interior.
Speaker 3: Josiah Bronson flashed again and again that's the spot that
Speaker 3: we've talked about, right, you know, I keep here seeing
Speaker 3: stuff about the running back position which I don't get,
Speaker 3: but we'll see the offensive tackle position, tight end, that
Speaker 3: backup nose tackle spot, Like who's it going to be?
Speaker 3: Is it going to be one of the guys on
Speaker 3: Is it going to be someone that we have to
Speaker 3: go find to fulfill that John Jenkins role? And I
Speaker 3: thought Josiah Bronson put himself in position to you know,
Speaker 3: I guess meg a case to give himself more work
Speaker 3: at training camp, which is where you can carve out
Speaker 3: that role and get yourself some regular time come the season.
Speaker 3: But he had I think a sack or would be
Speaker 3: sack on Skylar Thompson at one point, I had Anthony Montalvo,
Speaker 3: the other defensive tackle, the rookie from UCF with the
Speaker 3: run stuff. Mitchell Agude had another pressure which he's kind
Speaker 3: of the rookie that stand out the most of me.
Speaker 3: So far, at least among the undrafted guys. I thought
Speaker 3: Cameron Good capped off a nice week of work.
Speaker 2: Work a week.
Speaker 3: I mentioned the DBS a little bit, but Bryce Thompson
Speaker 3: getting the two picks, exaving Howard doing exaving Howard things.
Speaker 3: Javon Holland had a couple of plays every day, you
Speaker 3: know where he's lined up for what would be a
Speaker 3: big shot in a game setting. But you can't do
Speaker 3: not here I mentioned Bethel. Yeah, I guess I covered
Speaker 3: this already, So why don't we go ahead and do
Speaker 3: my top five takeaways from OTA's It was five total
Speaker 3: practices out of you know, I don't know how many
Speaker 3: the team actually ran, but the fid that we got
Speaker 3: to see. Number one was taking the football away last year,
Speaker 3: just fourteen takeaways, worst starting field position on average. I
Speaker 3: think that's one clearly tangible path for improvement. And the
Speaker 3: way this defense has played in these camps, I really
Speaker 3: think they're going to generate a lot of opportunities for takeaways,
Speaker 3: and I think they have the playmakers to go make them.
Speaker 3: You know, like Xavin Howard, who's been an interception machine
Speaker 3: his whole career, had just a couple last year, not
Speaker 3: the usual amount we're.
Speaker 2: Used to seeing.
Speaker 3: But you know, facing this quarterback who does a good
Speaker 3: job of protecting the football, not gonna get a lot
Speaker 3: of chances there, but they've done a good job finding
Speaker 3: a few. But also I think where you might get
Speaker 3: some more takeaways and negative plays that really turn into
Speaker 3: splash plays for the defense is all those coverage sacks
Speaker 3: and coverage you know, confusing the quarterback we've talked about.
Speaker 2: You do that in game days headings.
Speaker 3: The pass rush gets their chance to actually tee off
Speaker 3: from the quarterback. That's how you jar balls free, much
Speaker 3: like the Jdan Phillips pass rush on Josh Allen last year.
Speaker 3: So Number one, I think this defense is going to
Speaker 3: increase takeaways, maybe even one hundred percent, Like they're going
Speaker 3: to get a lot more takeaways than they had last year.
Speaker 3: Number two, speaking of that quarterback adding to his game,
Speaker 3: this is kind of a reiteration of what we talked
Speaker 3: about in the podcast previously. I'm not going to repeat
Speaker 3: the entire episode that was essentially a two year conversation
Speaker 3: around his game and the evolution of his game to
Speaker 3: this point in the commentary. To back that up from
Speaker 3: coach and Tow himself but I just love the way
Speaker 3: that he's seeing it, getting it out taking What's there?
Speaker 3: More on that from Ronaldo Hill here in just a moment.
Speaker 3: Number three set and forget guys. The guys we've grown
Speaker 3: accustomed to making plays were added again this camp. Waddle, Wilkins,
Speaker 3: Holland the guys that we've seen make a million plays,
Speaker 3: just doing it time and time again. Guys that do
Speaker 3: it to win games. And that's how you do win games, right,
Speaker 3: You have a bunch of really good players that make
Speaker 3: a bunch of really big plays, stepping up consistently. It
Speaker 3: takes talent to win in this league, and there's no
Speaker 3: shortage of that here. Plenty of other guys to list,
Speaker 3: but those were the ones that I thought, really, you know,
Speaker 3: saw their opportunities or rather were put out there consistently
Speaker 3: to make plays, and they did. Because some guys didn't
Speaker 3: give as much work as the other guys did, Like
Speaker 3: you know, Jelen Phillips made his plays, but he didn't
Speaker 3: gives much work. And you know, Bradley Chubb was not
Speaker 3: out there very often, Tyreek Hill not at all.
Speaker 2: Stuff like that.
Speaker 3: Number four, earning your opportunities. This list is certainly longer
Speaker 3: than what I'll give you. But coach, you know, always
Speaker 3: talks about guys earning a chance, an opportunity to carve
Speaker 3: out a role for themselves and loves the process of
Speaker 3: taking each day by day, each and every day to
Speaker 3: determine who deserves those those chances and not really pigeonholing
Speaker 3: yourself and saying like this guy is this role you
Speaker 3: know here in the month of June.
Speaker 2: No, let it play out.
Speaker 3: And he talks about managing each player's workload case by case,
Speaker 3: and again like we know Tyreek Hill, we know what
Speaker 3: his role is, right, He's the number one receiver. He's
Speaker 3: he's the biggest playmaker in the NFL. But for a
Speaker 3: rookie looking to make a name, or a second year
Speaker 3: guy like an Eric Azukama, he's one that I put
Speaker 3: in there. They run after the catch he had the
Speaker 3: other day. I didn't know he had jets like that.
Speaker 3: That was impressive. I think Chosen has been really good.
Speaker 3: Bethel Johnson's been fantastic. I think Deshaun Elliet it's been good.
Speaker 3: I liked Mitchell Lagude and Garrett Nelson from the UDFA
Speaker 3: class mentioned Josiah Bronson Gott in the notes A lot.
Speaker 3: I thought Liam Eichenberg had some of his best practices
Speaker 3: we've seen so far as a pro. Rob Jones and
Speaker 3: Lester Cotton got into the notes as well. So some
Speaker 3: chances for those guys to grow and improve and build
Speaker 3: a pump they did here in springball. Come summertime and
Speaker 3: number five, I actually have a five A and a
Speaker 3: five B. So much versatility. I was so impressed by
Speaker 3: the secondary and the more I watch, the more I
Speaker 3: think you have so much interchangeability and options for what
Speaker 3: you do in terms of groupings and alignments in that
Speaker 3: back end. The play that Bethel Johnson I keep saying,
Speaker 3: Bethel Johnson, the play that Justin Bethel made today was
Speaker 3: a good example of that. Have I been saying, Bethel Johnson?
Speaker 3: I do that all the time. Justin Bethel put guys
Speaker 3: in positions to suit their skill sets, opposed to just
Speaker 3: saying like you're a corner, go play corner, like you're
Speaker 3: defensive back, or maybe even you're just a defensive player.
Speaker 3: Go you know, show this cloud coverage from this cover
Speaker 3: three look and then peel off and go rob the
Speaker 3: back crosser, Like that's.
Speaker 2: Not really a cornerback role, but you can do it.
Speaker 3: Because you have these guys that are you know, quick
Speaker 3: twitch and have eyes in the quarterback and have a
Speaker 3: good feel for spacing and route concepts. I think that's
Speaker 3: true all over the secondary and kind of all over
Speaker 3: the roster as well. And then the five B part
Speaker 3: is we'll see on the offensive line. It's tough to
Speaker 3: get a gauge out here. I don't think it's been great.
Speaker 3: But without Tehran, without Connor Williams, your two best offensive linemen,
Speaker 3: it would make sense that they would struggle against our
Speaker 3: front that is this good and has most of the
Speaker 3: guys there. But I just think that matchup point as
Speaker 3: you would expect in terms of the pass protection and
Speaker 3: offensive line in general versus a tough front. All right,
Speaker 3: let's go ahead and get to some audio. Next, that's
Speaker 3: the end of the practice notes. We're gonna talk all
Speaker 3: head coach Mike McDaniel next. He was long but as
Speaker 3: good as ever today, which is saying something. And then
Speaker 3: we'll talk to Vic Fangio, Ronaldo Hill, Tyreek Hill, Ronald
Speaker 3: Frank Smith. I think that's it, yeah, Hill, Hill, Smith, Fangio,
Speaker 3: and McDaniel. Well, all that coming your way next here
Speaker 3: Drift Time Podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you
Speaker 3: by automation.
Speaker 2: Let's go ahead and.
Speaker 3: Pick it back up here with head coach Mike McDaniel,
Speaker 3: who addressed the media for the third straight day. We
Speaker 3: should be so lucky to get that much coach commentary
Speaker 3: like we did here in the month of June. The
Speaker 3: first question for coach, what did you take away from
Speaker 3: the spring program? What's your evaluation of what you got
Speaker 3: accomplished here during the spring program?
Speaker 2: Here's coach.
Speaker 1: That's a That's a good one, because I'm to be honest,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm very very happy with as happy as I
Speaker 1: could be. I think with where we're at right now.
Speaker 1: You know, talk to the team at length. We have
Speaker 1: a lot of good players that have ambitions to be great.
Speaker 1: A lot of people have high expectations for this team,
Speaker 1: and so what does that mean. That means, you know,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, and I think as I've observed our
Speaker 1: shared team's opinion, is that means we need to put
Speaker 1: our best foot forward and go to work each and
Speaker 1: every day. So I'm super super pumped about where we're
Speaker 1: at in Phase three with with one practice really left,
Speaker 1: and that that's awesome. Now, what does that mean again,
Speaker 1: it means check that box. Oh yeah, by the way, nothing,
Speaker 1: because you know, the players have to understand that this
Speaker 1: is a stepping stone. You know, now in front of us,
Speaker 1: we have an extended period of time off where you
Speaker 1: know they're gonna have to count on each other to
Speaker 1: stay in shape and being in training camp shape. So
Speaker 1: you have to show up to training camp in shape
Speaker 1: to have it, and you have to diligently go about
Speaker 1: training camp and step by step by step. That's where
Speaker 1: our focus has been this offseason. Because of that, I've
Speaker 1: seen guys. We had a very hard working off season
Speaker 1: last year, and I think, you know, if we had
Speaker 1: time travel available and we would practice against ourselves from
Speaker 1: last year, extremely confident that this year's version twenty twenty
Speaker 1: three would get the best of them. Now, we had
Speaker 1: a tremendous time off period and I had a very
Speaker 1: good training camp last year. So again it just means
Speaker 1: checking the box. But for a goal oriented team, I've
Speaker 1: seen people transfer their emotions the right way, which is
Speaker 1: into their work and into their investment. And we have
Speaker 1: a tight team now because shared sacrifice.
Speaker 3: A little bit surprised that coach does not actually have
Speaker 3: a time machine, I would I would venture to guess
Speaker 3: he's the kind of guy that would have a time
Speaker 3: machine sitting around somewhere, or at least the parts, you know,
Speaker 3: a flex capacitor, at very least sitting around somewhere. Let's
Speaker 3: go next to his take on the addition of Ronaldo Hill,
Speaker 3: who I think goes a little bit under the radar
Speaker 3: as far as a you know, valuable experienced type of coach,
Speaker 3: knowing this system, knowing this scheme, being in the building
Speaker 3: now and in his roots back in South Florida. Obviously,
Speaker 3: let's go ahead and hear from coach on the addition
Speaker 3: of Ronaldo Hill working under coach Fan No.
Speaker 1: I think this is you know, obviously, you know, I
Speaker 1: have such a high opinion of Vic Fangio and have
Speaker 1: have really admired learned so much before I even worked
Speaker 1: with him. And you know, as soon as you know
Speaker 1: he he made his decision to take his talents to
Speaker 1: South Beach. We started talking about, uh, you know, the
Speaker 1: the functionality of a defensive staff and the way you
Speaker 1: can look and you know, one of one of the
Speaker 1: things that is paramount and in trying to implement a
Speaker 1: new system is having really good coaches. Obviously, but you're
Speaker 1: talking about so many things, so many little details that
Speaker 1: have to be answered, and familiarity with with a system.
Speaker 1: We're working with someone with a system is tremendous advantage
Speaker 1: for VIC and there by the entire defense. So and
Speaker 1: then you know through conversations and and how how it
Speaker 1: played out over the moon to have the opportunity uh
Speaker 1: to to add a coach of his caliber, and it
Speaker 1: was it was more out of the opportunity rather than necessity,
Speaker 1: I would say, to empower the players with the most
Speaker 1: and best knowledge possible. So now you know, I think
Speaker 1: it's very important that that players understand that coaches their
Speaker 1: purpose is to serve their serves, to just make them better.
Speaker 1: So it's very important. It's critical that a coaching staff
Speaker 1: works together well and that people are trying to utilize
Speaker 1: the various talents. And that's all I've seen from the
Speaker 1: from Vic's staff really and specifically the entire every coach
Speaker 1: in the back end, because there's multiple positions. There are
Speaker 1: good players that want the investment, that yearn for the investment,
Speaker 1: and as long as they're working together, which they'd an
Speaker 1: unbelievable job with Joe and Sam and Matthew collectively going
Speaker 1: after it. It's been cool to see it. I've very
Speaker 1: much enjoyed my time, my professional time with Ronaldo. I
Speaker 1: feel very fortunate to have them.
Speaker 3: And just again from the early returns of Fangio of
Speaker 3: Ronaldo Hill, Sam Madison, and you heard coach list off
Speaker 3: some of the assistant coaches there, Joe Casper and Matthew Rojo.
Speaker 3: Those guys have played an integral role here obviously in
Speaker 3: getting the stuff going, getting a cranking and we'll hear
Speaker 3: from coach Fangio here in a second, but it's looked
Speaker 3: sharp so far, so I just have high hopes here
Speaker 3: for the secondary and how they can bounce back after
Speaker 3: a tough year last season. Let's go ahead and move
Speaker 3: back to the offense here in the tight end position.
Speaker 3: As coach was asked about the combination of f and
Speaker 3: why tight ends, it wasn't listed that way. It was
Speaker 3: in line offline guys, which that's not how we phrased that.
Speaker 3: But he talked about the development of those guys and
Speaker 3: how the different roles have to be nurtured at the
Speaker 3: same time that you cater to what they do well.
Speaker 2: Really intriguing. Coach had a bunch of.
Speaker 3: Good philosophical stuff for us today, Let's go ahead and
Speaker 3: hear from him on the tight end position and developing
Speaker 3: those young guys that have maybe a strong suit and
Speaker 3: maybe area is not as strong.
Speaker 1: I think it's incredibly important that offensive players have rigid
Speaker 1: roles and make sure you tell the defensive coordinators that
Speaker 1: that they'll only do certain things, that that there are
Speaker 1: certain things there's a teaching progression, I would say, and
Speaker 1: you try to take. You know, it's important for players
Speaker 1: as they develop to there's always parts of the game
Speaker 1: that they need to develop. Specifically tight end. It's a
Speaker 1: unique position where you're both receiver and offensive linemen, right,
Speaker 1: so you need them to do what they already walked
Speaker 1: in the door good at or like in their minds
Speaker 1: their strengths so that they can continue to develop something
Speaker 1: that is they're confident in their game. But with tight
Speaker 1: ends specifically, you're always you're just in a person by
Speaker 1: person and some faster than others, but you're always trying
Speaker 1: to really work on the stuff that maybe they're they're
Speaker 1: not as confident in as or maybe they didn't have
Speaker 1: as much production in so in OTAs you kind of
Speaker 1: see guys doing a lot of what they've they've they've
Speaker 1: done in the past with little nuggets each and every day,
Speaker 1: so you can still keep them confident in playing football,
Speaker 1: because that's that's the only way you can get real
Speaker 1: reps going out and be like, uh, doesn't get anyone better,
Speaker 1: including the defense. So you'll you'll see a progression of
Speaker 1: usage so that defensive coordinators can't notice the same thing
Speaker 1: you did.
Speaker 3: Just love that answer from coach for so many reasons. First,
Speaker 3: obviously the the joe off the top.
Speaker 2: It's it's quick witted. It's always good.
Speaker 3: It puts the media guys on their heels here, and
Speaker 3: you have to be you know, you have to be
Speaker 3: pretty quick witted to match wits with this guy in
Speaker 3: that sense too, So I thought that was kind of
Speaker 3: cool to hear, and it reminds me of, you know,
Speaker 3: some of the scouting terms we viewed here in the
Speaker 3: podcast before, scouting ideals and theories about how you know,
Speaker 3: sometimes quarterbacks that have the fleet of foot athletic ability
Speaker 3: can buy more time to develop the mental side of
Speaker 3: the game that you have to have to play at
Speaker 3: a high level in this league because you can kind
Speaker 3: of make some haste in the interim while you get
Speaker 3: that part of your game ironed out. Kind of reminds
Speaker 3: me of that answer here with the tight end position,
Speaker 3: where like, let's get you know, a guy like Elijah
Speaker 3: Higgins running routes and catching the football while he comes
Speaker 3: along in other areas that maybe are not as developed
Speaker 3: as that area. Let's go ahead and hear from coach
Speaker 3: now with a question regarding Jalen Ramsey, and it was
Speaker 3: really geared towards Miami Heat head coach Eric Spolstra talking
Speaker 3: about how competitively a lot of the guys are on
Speaker 3: the same page on that team and speaking the same language.
Speaker 3: And coach was asked about in corpor bring the similar
Speaker 3: idea with newcomers with a guy, for instance, like cornerback
Speaker 3: Youlen Ramsey.
Speaker 1: Here's coaching. The National Football League is set up so
Speaker 1: that there's a natural turnover, just in general, so that
Speaker 1: even you know, I talked to the team at the
Speaker 1: end of the last season, talked to him the beginning
Speaker 1: of this season, like it's never the same. So I
Speaker 1: think to approach with assumptions can leave you vulnerable to
Speaker 1: missing stuff. So you go with an open mind new season.
Speaker 1: And what I've seen from this team is, however, however
Speaker 1: you want to if you want to say it's the
Speaker 1: new guys coming in, or if you want to see
Speaker 1: the say it's the learned lessons from the team from
Speaker 1: last year. Collectively, to me, I see him more mature,
Speaker 1: more intentional, more focused group. And we had a fairly
Speaker 1: focused group last year. But you know we have we've
Speaker 1: really everything that we've done, every Phase two, every phase one,
Speaker 1: meaning every Phase two thing on the field, every Phase
Speaker 1: three practice. I can honestly say that guys got something
Speaker 1: out of each day and that it's hard, hard pressed
Speaker 1: to do with all the different variables, and it takes
Speaker 1: the cohesion of an organization because players have to trust
Speaker 1: the intent of the coaches. Players have to trust the awesome,
Speaker 1: the unbelievable training staff we have so that they have
Speaker 1: to and they have to be the right type of
Speaker 1: human beings that are trying to be great and willing
Speaker 1: to do the work to be so, and so you
Speaker 1: better have the right human beans. Uh you're directed at
Speaker 1: with the personnel department, All of that stuff comes into play.
Speaker 1: But I see this team being for some of the things,
Speaker 1: some of the things that you know you may have
Speaker 1: felt like you were lacking as a team last year
Speaker 1: that could have positively affected outcomes. Those things I'm seeing
Speaker 1: glimpses of at this stage with this team.
Speaker 3: The way Coach has been talking about some of the
Speaker 3: stuff makes me really believe that this team is going
Speaker 3: to correct some of the things that held them back
Speaker 3: a year ago, like the operation standpoint the two would
Speaker 3: discussed yesterday at length, you know, the short yardage, lack
Speaker 3: of conversions of the takeaway stuff like that just seems
Speaker 3: like they really really improved those weaknesses. Let's go back
Speaker 3: to coach here for some more philosophical type of questions
Speaker 3: and answers here as he was asked about the idea
Speaker 3: of resource allocation about big positions, and we've seen them
Speaker 3: trade and pay big money to Tyreek Hill and Bradley
Speaker 3: Chubb at those premium spots. And I just want to
Speaker 3: play Coach's answer here about philosophical resource allocation, but also
Speaker 3: not pigeonholing yourself, because he gives you the whole, you know,
Speaker 3: the whole compliment here.
Speaker 2: Let's go back to coach.
Speaker 1: You know, that's a cool question because the answer to
Speaker 1: it I'm very convicted in, and I think that sometimes
Speaker 1: in the effort to have a philosophy, you can pigeonhole
Speaker 1: yourself into a formula that I don't think any formula
Speaker 1: is the same. So I'm what I'm attempting to say
Speaker 1: is that it's case by case, but that's intentional and
Speaker 1: I don't think, you know, with Chris and I talking,
Speaker 1: we think that you can fall into traps. It's not okay,
Speaker 1: always this, always that it's okay, what is what is this?
Speaker 1: Is this worth the cop If you're going to trade
Speaker 1: away an asset, how attainable is that asset? Oh, this
Speaker 1: is the only time you'll have the opportunity to have
Speaker 1: a player of this caliber unless you're a top ten pick.
Speaker 1: Well that's a reason, you know, or you know what.
Speaker 1: There's just so there's a litany of it. So for
Speaker 1: me to say, okay, philosophy is this is this you
Speaker 1: trade away assets or you devote assets, which is what
Speaker 1: a contract is because we're in a salary cap. Those
Speaker 1: things are dependent on all, right, well, how much of
Speaker 1: a risk is this this investment? And oh, this is
Speaker 1: worth it? Then we'll build around that. So and so
Speaker 1: it's that having an open mindedness to you know, I
Speaker 1: think that that's one of the things that have allowed
Speaker 1: us to get some really good players through transactions of
Speaker 1: trade in the past two years. Though that was not
Speaker 1: necessarily a philosophy as searching, but when the opportunity presented itself,
Speaker 1: it made a lot of sense considering you didn't you know,
Speaker 1: it's all about the collective of the team and what
Speaker 1: you can offset. It's a I see it as an
Speaker 1: ever changing equation.
Speaker 3: Last one to hear from coaches he was asked about
Speaker 3: and again philosophically, just great questions and answer here about
Speaker 3: areas he thinks the team can grow in.
Speaker 2: It was cut off early in the answer.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna cut that part off and just play the
Speaker 3: entire thing for you. Let's go back to coach about
Speaker 3: areas he'd love to see this team improve or grow
Speaker 3: this offseason.
Speaker 1: Like I have said before, the only thing keeping me
Speaker 1: from being critical about everything that I do is insecurity,
Speaker 1: and so like I, that's the way I look at it.
Speaker 1: So if you're unwilling to consider an action that a
Speaker 1: component of your job, If you're unwilling to do that,
Speaker 1: that's to protect yourself because you'd, well, what if it
Speaker 1: wasn't the best way to do it. I think you
Speaker 1: can challenge yourself in every decision or every everything that
Speaker 1: literally you do, you can challenge yourself and say is
Speaker 1: that the best thing? And if it is awesome, If
Speaker 1: it isn't, who cares change it. It's about continually developing
Speaker 1: and getting better. I think is kind of the race
Speaker 1: in my opinion of this job. So I look at
Speaker 1: everything across the board, and by and large the things
Speaker 1: that our team wasn't good at. You know, I mentioned
Speaker 1: some stuff before. You know, it's one thing to try
Speaker 1: to be UH an offense that's explosive, it's another thing
Speaker 1: to be that and be diligent in your pre snap
Speaker 1: formations and and penalties in general. You know, it's you know,
Speaker 1: turnovers are our priority, which I think as a matter
Speaker 1: of fact, I know the UH the the schematic change
Speaker 1: that we've made really puts us puts our best foot
Speaker 1: forward to rectify that. And then you know, from press
Speaker 1: conferences to teams speeches, to game plans to play calling,
Speaker 1: I'm not doing my job unless I'm trying to be
Speaker 1: better at it. So I if I'm gonna ask players
Speaker 1: to try to improve, and coaches to try to improve,
Speaker 1: and trainers to try to improve, I look at it
Speaker 1: as like they're not gonna My voice is loud, but
Speaker 1: they're not gonna just do it because I said so,
Speaker 1: it's my job to set the precedent. So what am
Speaker 1: I looking to do? Better? Literally? Everything? Because I don't
Speaker 1: think I'd be doing right by the Dolphins, the franchise,
Speaker 1: the fan base, you guys. If I was like, no,
Speaker 1: I'm good.
Speaker 3: I mean I could listen to coach theorize and talk
Speaker 3: philosophy all day, and not even just football. I'm sure
Speaker 3: he'd offer a unique approach on how to maximize the
Speaker 3: efficiency of dipping your tortilla chips into salsa and getting
Speaker 3: the perfect salty salsa combination equation. There, let's go ahead
Speaker 3: and take our last break and come back on the
Speaker 3: other side and hear from coach Fangio, Ronaldo Hill, Frank Smith,
Speaker 3: and Tyreek Hill. That's all next Draft Time podcast host Travis.
Speaker 2: Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. We are going long.
Speaker 3: Today, but you know what, it's the last of the
Speaker 3: three episode per week editions here of the Drive Time podcast.
Speaker 2: So why don't we go ahead and go along? If it,
Speaker 2: we'll do it live.
Speaker 3: Let's go ahead and hear from coach Fanjou, who was
Speaker 3: asked about bringing on Ronaldo Hill into his coaching staff.
Speaker 5: Well, Ronaldo was with me in Denver for two years,
Speaker 5: really liked him as a coach. Was really happy and
Speaker 5: excited to get him back and to join us here.
Speaker 5: He's been a great help to me. You know, he's
Speaker 5: really the only guy on the staff that has worked
Speaker 5: with me before and had good knowledge of our system.
Speaker 5: So he's been a great help. He's a great coach
Speaker 5: with a great future.
Speaker 3: Next, coach was asked about what he does this time
Speaker 3: of the calendar after mini camps heading a training camp.
Speaker 3: He said, to go on vacation first. But here he
Speaker 3: is talking about the process of implementing a new defensive
Speaker 3: system into a new team.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we're at that process. We gave him a lot
Speaker 5: this off season on purpose. We wanted to expose them
Speaker 5: to a lot of stuff. See what fits them, what doesn't,
Speaker 5: what looks good, what doesn't, what needs to keep being
Speaker 5: work done. You know, these guys have done a good
Speaker 5: job picking up what we're doing. If by no means
Speaker 5: it's perfect right now, but I think they have a
Speaker 5: good feel and a good foundation that hopefully we can
Speaker 5: build upon in training camp.
Speaker 3: I don't have the sound here for you guys. But
Speaker 3: he was asked about what intrigues you about Javon Holland,
Speaker 3: he said, there's a lot everything. He's a highly talented player,
Speaker 3: highly instinctive player, smart player, tough player, loves the game.
Speaker 3: There's nothing about him I don't like. Pretty damn good.
Speaker 3: Let's go next to Ronaldo Hill, who I asked him
Speaker 3: about the comments that Jerome Baker made on Wednesday about
Speaker 3: how it takes a smart player to play this defense.
Speaker 3: Here's Ronaldo Hill on why you have to be smart
Speaker 3: to play this defense.
Speaker 1: Think.
Speaker 4: I think our personnel, you know, fits very well, especially
Speaker 4: what a game is changing. You don't have those big
Speaker 4: backers that's that's sitting inside, you know. I think you've
Speaker 4: got to hassle flex you gotta have, you know, edge
Speaker 4: guys that can possibly move and play different things, and
Speaker 4: you got to have backers that can get in and
Speaker 4: out of different packages. I think the offense has challenged
Speaker 4: you that way. I think the more they can figure
Speaker 4: out what you're in, it's easy for them to adapt.
Speaker 4: And we want to stay as multiple as we can
Speaker 4: and be unpredictable as we can too.
Speaker 3: I mentioned that one of the things that defense does
Speaker 3: so well is holds their shell.
Speaker 2: I'm curious how.
Speaker 3: You've seen him react to that, because this is the
Speaker 3: league that wants to push the ball on the field.
Speaker 3: He obviously the league in yards for past last year.
Speaker 3: How have you seen him adjust to the idea of
Speaker 3: you know, that shell holding high and I guess taking
Speaker 3: the short stuff.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it seems like he's figuring out really fast.
Speaker 4: You know, he may if he if you see one
Speaker 4: thing and it's not there, he knows the next adjustment.
Speaker 4: The next time. He may go up against it. But
Speaker 4: it seemed like a lot of the NFL is starting
Speaker 4: to morph back into the shell concept. It's more and
Speaker 4: more teams trying to that's either more from Fangio system
Speaker 4: or been part of it, so we're seeing it more
Speaker 4: and more.
Speaker 3: I also don't have sound here for offensive coordinator Frank Smith,
Speaker 3: but he did mention today that the offense tried to
Speaker 3: put themselves in challenging such to see how they would
Speaker 3: respond to certain things, and they'd probably see you from
Speaker 3: the defense. So it's always interesting for me to hear
Speaker 3: those perspectives because you get the coverage of practice.
Speaker 2: And I'm certainly guilty of this myself.
Speaker 3: That like this is how it was, is how it went,
Speaker 3: But you don't know the context behind the stuff, so
Speaker 3: it's hard to evaluate. And I know everyone on Twitter
Speaker 3: has you know, their YouTube channels and their evaluations they do,
Speaker 3: but you really don't know what you're talking about. So
Speaker 3: it's kind of how it goes. Biggest area of growth
Speaker 3: for quarterback to a tongue of Bailoa. He was asked,
Speaker 3: it's just year one, you're learning a new language, and
Speaker 3: then your two you're mastering that language and you're really
Speaker 3: putting your flavors on it. How you see things, your
Speaker 3: anticipation of routes, how you're communicating with the guys and
Speaker 3: what they're looking to do. So just his growth has
Speaker 3: been awesome, his understanding and timing and just anticipation and
Speaker 3: then the added chemistry with the guys because last year
Speaker 3: was the first time for all that. This year now
Speaker 3: it's okay, at this point, we get this. You have
Speaker 3: increased dialogue and what everyone's trying to do inside of
Speaker 3: a play. So he's been great. Commanded, the offense has
Speaker 3: been great. Couldn't be happier with where he's at. Let's
Speaker 3: go ahead and finish up here with Tyreek Hill and
Speaker 3: that same question, how have you've seen growth from Tua
Speaker 3: in your number two?
Speaker 6: Ah man, I will tell you this man, Tua has
Speaker 6: stepped up a lot, you know, in his in his
Speaker 6: leadership role.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 6: I know last year was my first year playing with him,
Speaker 6: you know, but seeing him this year, you know, he's
Speaker 6: more vocal, you know, with the offense and you know, leading,
Speaker 6: you know, in in group chats and stuff like that,
Speaker 6: organizing you know, outside workouts outside of the Miami Dolphins stadium.
Speaker 6: Because I told him when I first got here, I said, bro,
Speaker 6: like you should be comfortable with telling a group of
Speaker 6: white house to just meet you somewhere, like we're gonna
Speaker 6: pull up regardless. So he's been doing a great job.
Speaker 3: I also do not have audio here. I thought I did,
Speaker 3: but I do not. Was asked about the off season
Speaker 3: workload this you know, spring program, and he said that
Speaker 3: year two is all about learning the playbook more for him,
Speaker 3: understanding where Tua wants him to be on the field,
Speaker 3: and just how everything operates.
Speaker 2: He said, last year for me was like a blur.
Speaker 3: I had to come learn the playbook, had to get
Speaker 3: to know my teammates, and this year everything has slowed down.
Speaker 3: So I'm just really trying to understand the playbook formations
Speaker 3: and routes and route depths, stuff like that. Tyree talking
Speaker 3: about how it could get even better. It's kind of
Speaker 3: crazy to think about.
Speaker 2: So there you go. That's the podcast. That's the week
Speaker 2: of practice updates.
Speaker 3: Next week we're doing roster Reset, taking a look at
Speaker 3: the entire ninety man roster. That'll be two parts, Daniel
Speaker 3: OYOFUSI doing defense, Marcel Louis Jock do an offense from
Speaker 3: Miami Herald and ESPN respectively. We'll get their takeaway from
Speaker 3: OTA's as well, and then we pivot into summer content.
Speaker 3: We're going to talk about every team in the NFL,
Speaker 3: every division. We're going to talk about every player on
Speaker 3: the roster and give you a training camp preview, fun
Speaker 3: times ahead, vacation ahead as well, and then training camp
Speaker 3: will be here before you know it in football right
Speaker 3: around the corner. In the meantime, that's gonna be my
Speaker 3: time you all. Please be sure to subscribe to the
Speaker 3: podcast on Apple Podcasts, Leave us a rating, leave us
Speaker 3: a review. You can follow me on Twitter at winkfld NFL.
Speaker 3: Follow the team at Miami Dolphins. Check out the Fish
Speaker 3: Tank podcast with Seth and Jush Jeff Wilson just dropped
Speaker 3: earlier this week. Check out the team YouTube channel for
Speaker 3: media availabilities, Dolphins to Day and so much more, and
Speaker 3: last but not least, Miami Dolphins dot Com. Until next time,
Speaker 3: fins up Caroline camera and Daddy is coming home.