Speaker 1: What is up, Dolphans And welcome to the Draft Time Podcast.
Speaker 1: I am your host, Travis Winfield, and on today's show
Speaker 1: a little bit of a Hodgepodge episode here as we
Speaker 1: tether the draft and schedule release into the actual football
Speaker 1: and the OTAs and try to bridge that gap. I
Speaker 1: want to talk a little bit about our newest signings
Speaker 1: in Kendall Sheffield and Matthew Butler, who has claimed off waivers.
Speaker 1: I want to touch on some of the veteran media
Speaker 1: from last week, and then with practices just around the corner,
Speaker 1: I want to talk about a few of the things
Speaker 1: I'm looking for in this year's OTAs. From the Baptist
Speaker 1: Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is
Speaker 1: the Draft Time Podcast. Two new players to talk about,
Speaker 1: and I've been kind of waiting on this and maybe
Speaker 1: waiting for more down the road, but I've been wanting
Speaker 1: to talk about some new players in their film and
Speaker 1: we got two of them on the defense, Matthew Butler
Speaker 1: from the Las Vegas Raiders and Kendall Sheffield who's been
Speaker 1: in the league for a while but most previously was
Speaker 1: with the New York Jets. And I came away from
Speaker 1: these film watches really impressed by one of these two players,
Speaker 1: and that was Matthew Butler. So the way I watch
Speaker 1: the tape is I start with the highlights, I sort
Speaker 1: through pressures and run stuff.
Speaker 2: So you can do that now through some of the.
Speaker 1: What's the word, I'm looking for the filter features that
Speaker 1: we have on the websites that we have available to us,
Speaker 1: and you can see like all the good and then
Speaker 1: you can kind of, you know, peel it back and
Speaker 1: go watch a full game and maybe a poorly graded
Speaker 1: game and a highly graded game and kind of mix
Speaker 1: all that together. And when I watched Matthew Butler's highlights,
Speaker 1: it took two plays for me to be like, oh,
Speaker 1: I can see what the thinking is here with bringing
Speaker 1: him to Miami and the theme we've seen really across
Speaker 1: the entire Front seven since Anthony Weaver arrived. He's explosive
Speaker 1: off the football and he has some of the most
Speaker 1: violent hands I've seen in a cut up in quite
Speaker 1: some time.
Speaker 2: Like watch this.
Speaker 1: You know, I hadn't looked up. I wrote this in
Speaker 1: the copy, so I know what it's going to happen here.
Speaker 1: But this was a surprise to me, as I did
Speaker 1: in real time, and I think I tweeted about it too.
Speaker 1: I hadn't looked up his relative athletic scorecard, but I
Speaker 1: guaranteed you it was eightieth percentile and the vertical in
Speaker 1: broad jumps and the ten split, and yep, there it is,
Speaker 1: as I pulled up, eighty fifth percent vert eighty nine
Speaker 1: percent tile broad jump, and a ninety second percent ten split.
Speaker 1: He gets off the football quickly and he is explosive
Speaker 1: in his movement. I would be pretty surprised if he
Speaker 1: were not to find his way into the rotation upfront,
Speaker 1: and you never know, things can change. I was a
Speaker 1: big I was a big believer in Tier Tart last year,
Speaker 1: and he was cut pretty early in camp, and then
Speaker 1: he would want to have a good year for the Chargers.
Speaker 1: But I think this guy is an NFL contributor, and
Speaker 1: I'm kind of like, I was really curious why he
Speaker 1: was cut loose in Vegas after watching his tape, and
Speaker 1: I even text Crab someone and I was like, what
Speaker 1: am I missing here? Why did they cut this guy?
Speaker 1: And he said, well, new regime, and that's kind of
Speaker 1: what I would guess too. And as I pull up
Speaker 1: the Raiders coaching staff, I had kind of forgotten that
Speaker 1: Pete Carroll retained Patrick as the DC, and so Pete
Speaker 1: Carroll has his method, and I thought like, well, they
Speaker 1: would play four down, one gap, get up field and
Speaker 1: seattle on those cover three days. But Patrick Graham, as
Speaker 1: you guys might recall from twenty nineteen, remember the the
Speaker 1: longtime locked on Dolphins listeners will remember this, remember the
Speaker 1: breakdowns of the bear fronts with Devon Godshaw, Shoot, who
Speaker 1: the hell was it was?
Speaker 3: It?
Speaker 1: Vincent Taylor part of that rotation as well, Christian Wilkins,
Speaker 1: I suppose part of there as well, but it was
Speaker 1: always no.
Speaker 2: John Jenkins was the nose tackle in those looks.
Speaker 1: So it would be a head up nose tackle over
Speaker 1: the center and then head up defensive tackles over the
Speaker 1: two technique. As a two technique over the guard, it
Speaker 1: would be a two zero two look a'ts a bearfront.
Speaker 1: That's what Patrick Graham loves to run. And when you
Speaker 1: run those types of fronts, you're two gapping, so you're
Speaker 1: more about power drop the anchor stack and shed and
Speaker 1: Butler on tape is a one gap penetrator with a
Speaker 1: wickedly quick first step. So to me, that's why you
Speaker 1: had a chance to get him, and being a waiver
Speaker 1: claim tells me Miami was like, he's a vail.
Speaker 2: I would like to get me some of that.
Speaker 1: And he was part of a six man cut down
Speaker 1: they did to continue to reshape that roster for a
Speaker 1: new staff, so it wasn't just Butler that got cut.
Speaker 1: My favorite thing I saw was his ability to create
Speaker 1: space between he and the guard. And what I mean
Speaker 1: by that is you're rushing in a very a vacuum, right,
Speaker 1: and a very small condensed amount of space, and so
Speaker 1: anytime that you can essentially reset him the offensive lineman,
Speaker 1: because once you engage, they want to stay locked right.
Speaker 1: But if you can knock him back and force him
Speaker 1: to lose that grip in that punch, and he has
Speaker 1: to rethrow that punch from a position where he's not
Speaker 1: able to kind of load up into it and explode
Speaker 1: from the lower half up through the upper half, he's
Speaker 1: playing on his back foot, and then you can really
Speaker 1: get some silly reps where you long arm the guy
Speaker 1: and you basically dump him to the ground with a
Speaker 1: one steady push, and then you can angle around him
Speaker 1: and route to the quarterback for a big play. So
Speaker 1: he can really displace in the hand fighting and keep
Speaker 1: guys at bay while he unfurls that quickness around the
Speaker 1: edge and the way he can kind of, you know,
Speaker 1: get them a technique off balance where they're out over
Speaker 1: their skis and then he can access that quick first step.
Speaker 2: That's how he wins.
Speaker 1: You see, guys you know went back and have to
Speaker 1: rethrow their punch a lot against him. The hand usage
Speaker 1: just keeps getting better that I watched with each rep
Speaker 1: and on his pressure reel, it's not him collecting a
Speaker 1: bunch of sacks, but he's creating opportunities for Max Crosby
Speaker 1: to get cleanup sacks off double teams where he has
Speaker 1: to like kind of you know, find his angle and
Speaker 1: shed and rework and try to anticipate where the new
Speaker 1: launch point from the quarterback is going to be. I
Speaker 1: saw a couple of sacks that Crosby had last year
Speaker 1: where he got those cleanup sacks on double teams because
Speaker 1: of the work of Matthew Butler forcing the quarterback off
Speaker 1: the spot and kind of wrecking the entire protection plan
Speaker 1: because he beat the guard so badly.
Speaker 2: The motor runs hot.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of effort plays on his tape he
Speaker 1: made a tackle on a screen versus Pittsburgh last year
Speaker 1: where he rushed his man into the backfield and then
Speaker 1: retrace the screen and just walloped the ball carrier. I
Speaker 1: think it was two years ago. I forget who was against,
Speaker 1: but Christian Wilkins had a peelback tackle on a screen
Speaker 1: where he retraced and just destroyed the guy and it
Speaker 1: was a very violent collision. It reminded me of that.
Speaker 1: So he's got that. He's a he's a collision wiging
Speaker 1: to happen. He hits guys and it looks violent and
Speaker 1: the body pliability and natural leverage leverage, like, I don't know,
Speaker 1: it's it's a limited collection of snaps because he didn't
Speaker 1: play a ton. He got hurt in twenty twenty three
Speaker 1: and just played like fifty snaps and last year was
Speaker 1: actually his career high after a rookie season where he
Speaker 1: only played like seventy snaps. Last year at one hundred
Speaker 1: and one reps was the career high. So I look
Speaker 1: at it and say, like, it's a regime change. That's
Speaker 1: why he's not with the Raiders anymore. I think sometimes
Speaker 1: because the question I'll get and push back to this,
Speaker 1: Brady and sorry for getting really bad with that, but
Speaker 1: I like it kind of annoys me because, like, I'm
Speaker 1: just watching the film and telling you what I see,
Speaker 1: and sometimes teams make mistakes, sometimes guys slipped through the cracks.
Speaker 1: Might I remind you that Zach Seeler was once a
Speaker 1: waiver claim.
Speaker 2: I'm not going that.
Speaker 1: I don't think anyone's gonna be as good as zac
Speaker 1: Seilery time soon, but I think this guy can play
Speaker 1: Kendall Sheffield. I didn't come away from the tape with
Speaker 1: the same impression. He looks the part, six foot tall,
Speaker 1: two hundred and ten pounds. He was a slot for
Speaker 1: the Jets. He would come in with Michael Carter. The
Speaker 1: second was down last year with those injuries. He played
Speaker 1: starter snaps his first two years in Atlanta. He was
Speaker 1: a slot as a rookie, a perimeter guy his second year.
Speaker 1: Then he got hurt in twenty twenty one and missed
Speaker 1: most of that year as well as the twenty twenty
Speaker 1: two season, and played just twenty four snaps for the
Speaker 1: Niners back in twenty three. So it basically two year starter,
Speaker 1: gets hurt and is gone for three years and then
Speaker 1: comes back for the Jets. The next year, which was
Speaker 1: last year, and plays ninety two snaps. His Special Team's
Speaker 1: tape I thought was his best work. He had some
Speaker 1: good work as a gunner. I think that's his ramp,
Speaker 1: his entrance, if you will, onto the freeway, that is
Speaker 1: the roster to make the team good speed, good tackler.
Speaker 1: But when I watched him in coverage, it was panicky.
Speaker 1: It was late reactions. It was see it and then react,
Speaker 1: not anticipate and kind of have a feel for things.
Speaker 1: I didn't think it was great technique where he'd often
Speaker 1: be kind of like out of off balance and over
Speaker 1: his skis. I don't think the thought here, from what
Speaker 1: I saw on tape is that this is a fix
Speaker 1: on defense more so special teams competition. And with that,
Speaker 1: we'll get a look at Kendall cheff Field and Matthew
Speaker 1: Butler for the first real time here in like nine days.
Speaker 1: I think our next our first practice that the whole
Speaker 1: thing is available to the media, I believe is next Wednesday.
Speaker 1: I'll have to check back on that for you guys,
Speaker 1: but we get our first practice here. And I've been
Speaker 1: kicking around these ideas for a little bit, and I
Speaker 1: wanted to talk about a couple of things that to me,
Speaker 1: you know, it's always the biggest draw of OTAs and
Speaker 1: even camp. And look, we aren't going to divulge the
Speaker 1: entire playbook or even tell you what they're going to
Speaker 1: run in practice, because that's not allowed.
Speaker 2: And that's how I would prefer it.
Speaker 1: And reminder, if you come to training camp practices and
Speaker 1: put the entire thing on Twitter so people can like
Speaker 1: your video, you're a bad fan because you're giving out
Speaker 1: our place and the Chargers or the Colts rather are
Speaker 1: watching them and you're giving them our offense.
Speaker 2: So please don't do But every team does this every year.
Speaker 1: Where the season ends, you self scout and you try
Speaker 1: to find ways to strengthen the things that you were
Speaker 1: good at. But what fans mostly want to see, and
Speaker 1: I think both of these have the same value is
Speaker 1: attacking the things that you came up short with, and
Speaker 1: that can be through any number of avenues. Right. You
Speaker 1: can do it with redoing your personnel, you can alter
Speaker 1: your schematics, you can alter the way you teach it.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's just not communicated effectively. And sorry to do
Speaker 1: this again, but here we go. It's kind of like
Speaker 1: a golf swing. If you know you're slicing the golf ball.
Speaker 1: That's the result. Great, what's the cause, what's the symptom
Speaker 1: that's causing that? What's the no, what's causing the bad swing?
Speaker 1: I just ruined the whole thing. But like the cause
Speaker 1: to a slice can be an over the top down
Speaker 1: swing where you come across the ball from the outside
Speaker 1: in and it has this like boomerang effect where you're
Speaker 1: creating side spin that causes the ball to go fifty
Speaker 1: yards shorter and way to the right. It could be
Speaker 1: that your club you're losing it too far in on
Speaker 1: your takeaway. It could be a lack of body rotation.
Speaker 1: The cause could be any number of variables. And when
Speaker 1: I go back and look through the comments of coach
Speaker 1: of Chris of the assistance from the end of the season,
Speaker 1: and I look at the offseason and how that played out,
Speaker 1: and the shape of the draft and how free agency
Speaker 1: played out. I mean, it's not a mystery, right. Teams
Speaker 1: tell you all the time what they think of themselves
Speaker 1: by well, like they tell you what they think of
Speaker 1: their quarterback based upon how they call their plays on
Speaker 1: third down. But they also tell you what they think
Speaker 1: of themselves of how they approach their off season and
Speaker 1: their changes, and when I look at the defense, shoot
Speaker 1: like to nobody's fault. But the edge group was just
Speaker 1: decimated before it really ever even got going, And I
Speaker 1: worked these show notes kind of backwards. So later on
Speaker 1: in the episode, I'm going to come back and have
Speaker 1: a bit of a conversation about the linebacker and edge
Speaker 1: position groups towards the end of the show. But it's
Speaker 1: very much in the same vein of how the Ravens
Speaker 1: defense was constructed when Weave was there previously. Anthony Weaver
Speaker 1: and I talk about the twenty twenty three Ravens backers
Speaker 1: and the twenty twenty five Dolphins, but even in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four, I mean we brought in Jordan Brooks and
Speaker 1: Anthony Walker with David Long already here, so there was
Speaker 1: an an emphasis on being three deep at linebacker. And
Speaker 1: we've been over the stuff with the edge group getting
Speaker 1: decimated and how these defensive tackle additions more reflect what
Speaker 1: the Ravens had in that area with their big body
Speaker 1: athlete and you know Kenneth Grant being the Michael Pierce analog,
Speaker 1: the do.
Speaker 2: It all all Star which is Zach Seeler for.
Speaker 1: NOMDIU Madawueke and then a bunch of guys with different
Speaker 1: variable traits to round out a deep rotation, which I
Speaker 1: think you kind of went for that last year, but
Speaker 1: you went more of the bargain route with Jonathan Harris,
Speaker 1: with Neville Gallimore, with Tierra Tart and I think now
Speaker 1: it's like, well, let's get Austin Clark, one of the
Speaker 1: best defensive line coaches in football, a bunch of talented
Speaker 1: youngsters twenty twenty one year olds that are hungry and
Speaker 1: want to learn from this guy. Let's get them in
Speaker 1: the rotation. And now Travis Jones for the Ravens, who
Speaker 1: was a very good rotational piece, can be reflected by
Speaker 1: Jordan Phillips Washington. That could be your Zeke Biggers. You
Speaker 1: want Brent Urban, Well, maybe Matthew Butler is that guy
Speaker 1: as well. And I say all this because I think
Speaker 1: there's a vastly deeper menu of fronts that Anthony Weaver
Speaker 1: can get to. And it's more than four down and
Speaker 1: three down, you know, for four to three three four.
Speaker 1: That's you're gonna hear about that from other podcasts and
Speaker 1: other sources. That just is not how it works anymore.
Speaker 1: It's when we talk about fronts. We're talking about alignments.
Speaker 1: How a four man front can be an overfront and underfront.
Speaker 1: It can be even, it can be odd. The way
Speaker 1: you can shift guys around to create different matchups and
Speaker 1: different gaps and runs fit run fits to create opportunities
Speaker 1: for linebackers and safeties.
Speaker 2: It's more than just four three three four. It's what
Speaker 2: I'm trying to tell you.
Speaker 1: And I think the deeper menu that we can get
Speaker 1: to from all that stuff. I think some of the
Speaker 1: injuries and shuffling of the guys inside last year, you know,
Speaker 1: with with Phillips and Chubb and Barrett just piecing out
Speaker 1: before the season starts, caused you to lose some of
Speaker 1: your defensive tackle snaps from Zack Seiler and Campbell, and
Speaker 1: that reduced the versatility and the depth of the playbook,
Speaker 1: especially now that we have more linebackers in the rotation
Speaker 1: as well. I don't know that we need to go
Speaker 1: through every front known to football, but rather let's just
Speaker 1: do it this way. So Zach Steeler has proof of
Speaker 1: concept in literally every position, from the zero technique right
Speaker 1: over the center to the five technique off the outside tackle,
Speaker 1: off the outside shoulder of the tackle, I've got film
Speaker 1: I can show you where he clogs the a gap
Speaker 1: is a nose tackle, and where he's used a pulse
Speaker 1: wipe move to get a sack as a true end
Speaker 1: as a five technique Kenneth Grant, I think his best
Speaker 1: as a three, two and two I, which is basically
Speaker 1: from the outside shoulder of the guard to the inside
Speaker 1: shoulder of the guard.
Speaker 2: That's like, I think those alignments are his best.
Speaker 1: But I do think he's more than capable, like more
Speaker 1: than capable of playing the zero and the one, and
Speaker 1: the same is true of Jordan Phillips, though Marylynd used
Speaker 1: him plenty on the nose.
Speaker 2: Matthew Butler, we talked about his versatility.
Speaker 1: He can play all the way out to the three
Speaker 1: technique and kick inside for some one shade as well.
Speaker 1: Zeke Biggers is primarily a nose but he does move
Speaker 1: well enough, so I think you can get him out
Speaker 1: to the two technique and some of those bare fronts
Speaker 1: or two I and some of those tight fronts and
Speaker 1: basically maybe get some three technique reps. But I've got
Speaker 1: like four guys I like better than him in those spots,
Speaker 1: and then I would say that's very true. Of Benito
Speaker 1: Jones exactly what I just said about Zeke Biggers. So
Speaker 1: you are two sometimes three players deep, and I think
Speaker 1: quality players in terms of guys that you can roll
Speaker 1: out on the nose in those varied roles, Guys that
Speaker 1: can kick outside as a five technique defensive end, and
Speaker 1: true three techniques that kind of have that wiggle and
Speaker 1: pass rush flair. And that's what we heard about Jordan Phillips,
Speaker 1: despite not a lot of sack production in college, the
Speaker 1: Dolphins pass rush metrics that they value was something that
Speaker 1: he shined in. And we saw that with Bradley Chubb
Speaker 1: a couple of years ago. It's not about sacks to
Speaker 1: value how you get after the quarterback, and to me,
Speaker 1: Jordan Phillips's tapes as he can get after the quarterback
Speaker 1: as one of those three techniques. And that's before we
Speaker 1: even get to Jalen Phillips or Bradly Chubb, who were
Speaker 1: both incredibly adept at kicking inside and playing three techniques
Speaker 1: and giving you Chop Robinson off of JP or off
Speaker 1: Beachubb or with Jordan Brooks or really gay coming down
Speaker 1: off the edge like you've got so many options in
Speaker 1: the front seven. Is what I'm trying to say, and
Speaker 1: with those big bodies inside, remember Miami played the seventh
Speaker 1: most nickel defense in the NFL last year. They want
Speaker 1: to play too high, two safeties up in the you know,
Speaker 1: in the post, with five defensive backs and create disguise
Speaker 1: through those similar presentations. And as we've been over and
Speaker 1: over and over, getting the big body nose tackle allows
Speaker 1: you to play the run better from those traditionally invite
Speaker 1: the run packages, not run defense packages. And from there
Speaker 1: you can do more to get a better presence off
Speaker 1: the edge without losing juice inside because of a bigger body.
Speaker 2: So I can get.
Speaker 1: More freedom for Jalen Phillips or for Chop Robinson because
Speaker 1: of what Kennith Grant can do inside in those lighter boxes.
Speaker 1: Like rather than have a nose tackle, you have a
Speaker 1: you play a four down front with a five technique
Speaker 1: off the weak side, a two eye technique off the
Speaker 1: weak side, and then your strong sides are three and
Speaker 1: a wide nine. So that's a player off the weak side,
Speaker 1: ta wheat side tack outside shoulder, a defensive tackle on
Speaker 1: the inside shoulder of the weak side guard, and you
Speaker 1: get a backer to fill with that gap in between there,
Speaker 1: and then another defensive tackle on the outside shoulder of
Speaker 1: the strong side guard, and then a nine technique who's
Speaker 1: way out to the strength beyond the tight end. And
Speaker 1: I think you can get to these fronts where you're
Speaker 1: too gapping with these big defensive tackles, set a strong
Speaker 1: edge on the preimiter with j Jalen Phillips and Bradley Chubb,
Speaker 1: and then you've got two way goes because of the
Speaker 1: stoutness stoutness. I try to say strength and stoutness, the
Speaker 1: strength and the stoutness of Kenneth Grant and Zach Seeler
Speaker 1: and the guys we just talked about. Now I got
Speaker 1: two way goes where Jordan Brooks and Tyrrel Dotson and
Speaker 1: Willie Gay have free runs. You know, we're sort of
Speaker 1: into the weeds here, but there's another fifty feet of
Speaker 1: depth we can discuss. I don't want to go any
Speaker 1: further than that. I want to take our last break
Speaker 1: right here. But I think this effectively communicates how much
Speaker 1: more playbook we have to get to on the defensive side.
Speaker 1: For a guy that, in my mind, is one of
Speaker 1: the best defensive coordinators in football and is going to
Speaker 1: be a head coach next year, Let's go ahead and
Speaker 1: take a break right there, come back and talk about
Speaker 1: the offensive things I want to see in OTAs. That's
Speaker 1: Next Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to
Speaker 1: you by automation. That was kind of a weird spot
Speaker 1: for a show break, but I didn't really know where
Speaker 1: else to do it, so it comes in right there.
Speaker 1: I did want to touch on the offense, and it'll
Speaker 1: be much quicker, and that's why I think it was
Speaker 1: a weird spot to have the break. But I'm not
Speaker 1: even sure where exactly to go with this. I do
Speaker 1: look forward to seeing what they cook up to start
Speaker 1: the year, and I think one of the biggest disappointments
Speaker 1: for me last year was opening the season kind of
Speaker 1: stuck in the mud offensively. And you know, I think
Speaker 1: you can attribute that to guys not practicing and holding
Speaker 1: out for for money and not being here throughout the
Speaker 1: whole course of the summer and the practice of maybe
Speaker 1: not being as demanding as they possibly could have been.
Speaker 1: But the year before that, I mean, I'll never forget
Speaker 1: when I went out to practice like one day before
Speaker 1: the Chargers game and Tool was hitting everything. It looked
Speaker 1: like the game did on I was like, oh, we
Speaker 1: might be in for something fun this year. And they
Speaker 1: had the exit motion that took the league by storm.
Speaker 1: All of a sudden, everybody's copying that offense. And that
Speaker 1: was the same way in twenty twenty two for some
Speaker 1: of the stuff they did. And last year there was
Speaker 1: some innovation, but it was like through the screen game
Speaker 1: and it wasn't effective. They had like that flip screen,
Speaker 1: the little tight end, you know, show the numbers to
Speaker 1: your quarterback and then catch the football like the little
Speaker 1: like misdirection screens.
Speaker 2: They weren't very successful on balance.
Speaker 1: They had a couple of big plays pot but it
Speaker 1: wasn't like it had been in years past. But I'm
Speaker 1: curious to see what McDaniel and Frank Smith come out
Speaker 1: of the lab with this this fall. And I'll go
Speaker 1: with this. I can't wait to see the route combinations
Speaker 1: they cook up from the various groupings they now have
Speaker 1: ability to get to with all the unique personnel you
Speaker 1: have offensively this year and the multiple players who are
Speaker 1: vastly adept at attacking certain areas of the field. And
Speaker 1: allow me to take a Maya kulpa rate here, because
Speaker 1: I actually saw I posted a picture on Facebook last
Speaker 1: year of me and Odell Beckham doing the podcast and
Speaker 1: I was like, I haven't met a more humble superstar
Speaker 1: than this guy.
Speaker 2: And it was like, whoops, got that one wrong.
Speaker 1: But so I just want to just you know, hey, sometimes, yeah, boy,
Speaker 1: he gets them wrong sometimes. Odell Beckham's tape was very good.
Speaker 1: The fit was not very good here. So when I
Speaker 1: look at the personnel and the ability to attack different
Speaker 1: levels of the offense, and I should say of the
Speaker 1: defense from an offensive perspective, you got to think about
Speaker 1: this from like we want to attack areas of the field.
Speaker 1: It's not about like certain players. It's about threatening portions
Speaker 1: of the field and having a roster that can stretch
Speaker 1: it vertically and horizontally. So the vertical guys you have, obviously,
Speaker 1: Wreak and Waddle are two of the best in the game,
Speaker 1: and we have to get back to that. I'm sure
Speaker 1: you guys have seen the video going around of two
Speaker 1: his throws of twenty plus yards down the field. He
Speaker 1: had like a league average completion percentage last year on
Speaker 1: those throws, whereas the year prior he was number one.
Speaker 1: And I think the receivers were part of that. I
Speaker 1: think the offensive structure was part of that. I think
Speaker 1: the offensive line was part of that. And to what
Speaker 1: had his misses as well, I think it's an anomaly.
Speaker 1: I think we'll get back to that and I think
Speaker 1: we'll see Reacan Waddle going back to making catches down
Speaker 1: the football field and Nick Westbrook Akine and I've been
Speaker 1: asking for this for three years for a number three
Speaker 1: that can get vertical.
Speaker 2: He's not as explosive as Odell was.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna say is as he was, but he
Speaker 1: is very nuanced in his ability to get vertical and
Speaker 1: I think that he can be that third vertical option.
Speaker 1: And if you do keep the UDFA Mona Ray Baldwin.
Speaker 1: He's a four to three to two guy, so he's
Speaker 1: got that in his back pocket as well. We just
Speaker 1: haven't really had that outside of Reacan Wattle in the past.
Speaker 1: A true Berner speedster and Baldwin gives you the option
Speaker 1: or gives you a potential to have that option down
Speaker 1: the line. Your intermedia options are the same two guys,
Speaker 1: I mean, Reacan Waddle. The twenty plus yard players are great,
Speaker 1: but where they make their most Hayes, those fifteen to
Speaker 1: eighteen yard dig routes on dagger concepts. Right, you push
Speaker 1: the linebacker out of the middle of the field, you
Speaker 1: bring that d breaker across the middle. Two is right
Speaker 1: on time. They catch it in stride and it turns
Speaker 1: into a foot race. And Westbrook Akine is also very
Speaker 1: good in this area. And then I think you can
Speaker 1: sprinkle him in the league Washington on some of these
Speaker 1: types of routes Devon a Chan has a flexed out
Speaker 1: player A Chan hasn't been adept vertically, and maybe that'll
Speaker 1: happen this year. But it seems like some of those
Speaker 1: linebacker deep shot opportunities are there. But it's kind of
Speaker 1: like a thin margin for airon if you like I
Speaker 1: always this is a pet peep of mine. People talk
Speaker 1: about like underthrown balls, like as an arm strength, you know,
Speaker 1: a knock on the player's arm strength. It's they just
Speaker 1: missed the throw. Man like, there's no difference in missing
Speaker 1: long or deep. In fact, I'd rather miss short because
Speaker 1: then you get an opportunity for a comeback, you know,
Speaker 1: DPI come back to the football where if you miss
Speaker 1: it deep, that's just an incomplete pass. And so when
Speaker 1: you try to get those narrow margins to Devon Ahchan
Speaker 1: the ball comes up short or long. It just seems like,
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, the timing in the chemistry hasn't been there.
Speaker 1: So I won't put him in the vertical category yet,
Speaker 1: but I think he could be that. But I do
Speaker 1: like him the intermediate area, and that gives you five
Speaker 1: players I think can occupy that space, and John Us
Speaker 1: Smith can do some of that as well. But in
Speaker 1: the short area that's where John Wu Smith really really
Speaker 1: excels as a screen guy, a flat route guy, a
Speaker 1: hookup route guy, all kinds of stuff in the ten
Speaker 1: yard area. Devon Aham obviously swings and screens and jet
Speaker 1: motions on that stuff. Malik Washington, for my money, is
Speaker 1: the best screen runner on the team. I thought Waddle
Speaker 1: and Tyreek just not really their game. Especially Waddle, it's
Speaker 1: not really his game catching screens and making plays. But Leak,
Speaker 1: if you get him one in one on one coverage,
Speaker 1: he can beat that in the short area with whips
Speaker 1: and returns and pivots and China routes and all the
Speaker 1: stuff that you can do in the five six yard box.
Speaker 1: And then Farrell Brown I think he can work in
Speaker 1: that area as well. I think it's like the defense,
Speaker 1: you have a plethora of options and depth at each spot.
Speaker 1: And to close it up, we're not going to see
Speaker 1: everything in OTA's and that's not something we can report
Speaker 1: on anyways. Again, but just through common sense and deductive reasoning,
Speaker 1: Like I think fans think it's the same offense every
Speaker 1: year and just the players change. But I guess what
Speaker 1: I'm trying to communicate is I'm excited to see how
Speaker 1: those personnel changes dictate schematic changes and changes to the
Speaker 1: way they approach offense conceptually. I think they we're in
Speaker 1: for a treat in that regard. And the thing I'll
Speaker 1: close on this with and maybe we'll go to the
Speaker 1: next segment.
Speaker 2: That was a pretty short one.
Speaker 1: No, we can go to the next segment, but I'll
Speaker 1: close on this and a little inside baseball, like there
Speaker 1: was an emphasis and you can see it in the
Speaker 1: personnel acquisitions on smart football players, guys that can process
Speaker 1: it and get it, and they're out here and on
Speaker 1: these spring practices and they're repping it. So I think
Speaker 1: you're going to see a team that last year, right,
Speaker 1: Like when Tua came back for the Arizona game, it
Speaker 1: was a little bit shaky to start and then we
Speaker 1: kind of hit the ground running later on in that game,
Speaker 1: and then the Buffalo game it really took off. They
Speaker 1: were sharp and spurts offensively against the Rams and then
Speaker 1: the Raiders and Patriots games. They were on their stuff right,
Speaker 1: but we started off the season slow, whereas in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two twenty twenty three of the offense started hot.
Speaker 1: One of my predictions is you'll see this offense return
Speaker 1: to the opening day like firepower we saw in the past,
Speaker 1: and on the road against a not great personnel defense
Speaker 1: that's breaking a new DC in on turf and indoors
Speaker 1: with no elements. I like our chances to score a
Speaker 1: lot of points against the Colts in the first game
Speaker 1: because of the emphasis on smart football players. I just
Speaker 1: hope that Ten is motivated this year to be the
Speaker 1: best player in the league again, because when he is
Speaker 1: and he shows up that way, if he can do that,
Speaker 1: this offense will be unstoppable. I know you don't want
Speaker 1: to hear it that it comes down to this, but
Speaker 1: to me, if Ten is locked in and doing his
Speaker 1: stuff and on his p's and q's, I have no
Speaker 1: issues saying this offense will possibly score the most points
Speaker 1: in the league. If he's not, then I think you
Speaker 1: could see a little bit more we saw last year,
Speaker 1: which even in that instance, if two was the quarterback,
Speaker 1: you can still have your lengthy, possession, ball control offense
Speaker 1: that can still score twenty four to twenty seven to
Speaker 1: thirty points a game. It's just not as explosive and
Speaker 1: as consistent because you can't mask for the mistakes by
Speaker 1: hitting the big play over the top. But I think
Speaker 1: that if you get Tyreek locked in and you have that,
Speaker 1: then I think you're back to twenty twenty three. Even
Speaker 1: if you just have tu, you can have that stretch
Speaker 1: of Cardinals, Bill's, Rams, Raiders, Patriots for hopefully you know,
Speaker 1: twelve of the seventeen games, and that can help you
Speaker 1: win double digit games. I do think, after some thought
Speaker 1: on it, I do believe in the personnel and everything,
Speaker 1: But I do think I want to retract one win
Speaker 1: off my eleven and six prediction that I gave you
Speaker 1: and kind of land on ten and seven. I feel
Speaker 1: more comfortable at that number right now. Just wanted to
Speaker 1: put that back out into the ether. Let's go ahead
Speaker 1: and take our last break, because this actually does segue
Speaker 1: into our last segment here it's veteran media. We heard
Speaker 1: from Devon h Chan, we heard from Chop Robinson, and
Speaker 1: this follow up is a good kind of question about
Speaker 1: talking about the smart players in the offense and the
Speaker 1: defense as well on the entire roster and being here
Speaker 1: for the entirety of the spring and the value that
Speaker 1: can have. We'll come back and hear from Devon h
Speaker 1: Chan on that next Drift Time podcast brought to you
Speaker 1: by Auto, And as promised, here is that quick follow
Speaker 1: up to the idea of everyone being here for camp.
Speaker 1: I won't hear from Chop on this as well, but
Speaker 1: here's a question for Devon A Chan who spoke to
Speaker 1: the media last Wednesday about the preparation of this year
Speaker 1: and going from year one to year two. He was
Speaker 1: asked more about himself, but he talked about the team
Speaker 1: as a whole, and I thought this was telling, you.
Speaker 4: Know, I feel like even as a team, I feel
Speaker 4: like we're doing better than we did last year, cause
Speaker 4: you know, a.
Speaker 3: Lot of guys here in Ota like were trying to.
Speaker 4: Build our chemistry earlyer than trying to do it like
Speaker 4: in Chinese camp.
Speaker 3: So I feel like it's more of a like team thing.
Speaker 4: We are a lot of people's here, you know, everybody,
Speaker 4: make sure that you know our body is healthy for
Speaker 4: like when the season do come. You know, we don't
Speaker 4: be like okay, like everybody like angel I got like Linix.
Speaker 1: Next, and then this follow up on him to me
Speaker 1: says a lot about the team that everyone is here.
Speaker 1: One one more time back to Devon for this topic, I'm.
Speaker 3: Gonna say a lot like you said, all the people
Speaker 3: being here.
Speaker 4: It just we're just building that chemistry early and not
Speaker 4: waiting until like you know, when to see the start.
Speaker 3: Dan trying to be like doing the season.
Speaker 1: And you know, I just keep thinking, man like, like
Speaker 1: what if you know, what if because the beauty of
Speaker 1: sports is hope and optimism and getting excited and having
Speaker 1: a fun release outside of your normal life, what if
Speaker 1: they get on the same page. What if they correct
Speaker 1: the approach to being you know, involved in meetings and
Speaker 1: not being aloof and not missing practices or those meetings.
Speaker 1: They stay healthy because of the extra training this time
Speaker 1: of year and preparing the body earlier for soft tissue stuff.
Speaker 1: It goes back to the draft and the free agent philosophy, right,
Speaker 1: like will it work? We can't know that until the
Speaker 1: games get played, but at least at least they've given
Speaker 1: themselves a chance for it to work. They know where
Speaker 1: it went wrong and they're attacking it head on. And
Speaker 1: if the quarterback does the same thing with keeping himself
Speaker 1: healthy well keeping himself healthy, then I feel pretty good
Speaker 1: about things.
Speaker 2: And I just want to add to that.
Speaker 1: When you see the practices going on out there, you know,
Speaker 1: this time of year. I don't know the exact number,
Speaker 1: but it sure is looks a lot like ninety one
Speaker 1: players to me, and seeing Reek and Waddle out there,
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure the only one who's not been here
Speaker 1: is five and he's not going to be here right so,
Speaker 1: and I can also tell you it hasn't been that
Speaker 1: way since twenty twenty two, So that's that's a good sign,
Speaker 1: I think in many ways. Next, let's go ahead and
Speaker 1: move this over to more of Devon hchan discussion about
Speaker 1: his own game, and he talked about where he can
Speaker 1: grow and I have a lot of feelings and thoughts
Speaker 1: on this next part, as you guys recall from the
Speaker 1: all twenty two reviews this season, Let's go ahead and
Speaker 1: here on Devon on what a good season would look
Speaker 1: like for him and the part of the question he
Speaker 1: kind of answered on his own was a back part
Speaker 1: of the answer. Here's Devon talking about where he thinks
Speaker 1: he can get better.
Speaker 4: Me watching field, Like I said, I feel like I
Speaker 4: left a lot, like a lot of players, so I
Speaker 4: feel I could have did more, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 4: Like while going back and watch the year and like
Speaker 4: the cut ups, I feel like, I mean, I left
Speaker 4: a lot of yards on the table.
Speaker 2: Follow up in what ways did you leave yards on
Speaker 2: the table?
Speaker 3: Just the day to day stuff.
Speaker 4: I feel like it was just more more so like
Speaker 4: me rushing and I you know, like me just not
Speaker 4: going like the small details like I'm knowing I'm hot
Speaker 4: to do this, but like just trying to me trying
Speaker 4: to make a big play instead of like just doing
Speaker 4: the right thing. And it was there just because it
Speaker 4: wasn't there, like the play before being okay, it's gonna
Speaker 4: be deferents playing knowing, but just stuff like that.
Speaker 1: You guys know how I talk about attacking weaknesses, right,
Speaker 1: This is what gives me a confidence they are adept
Speaker 1: at self scouting, because I guarantee you devonn didn't just
Speaker 1: stumble upon a negative cutup of himself by himself. He
Speaker 1: was shown it by someone that told him it has
Speaker 1: to get better. And if he can run more convicted,
Speaker 1: or if he doesn't, and you reduced his work in
Speaker 1: those roles and you give those carries to somebody else
Speaker 1: that does have those conviction in the carries, I think
Speaker 1: it's gonna health the offense in a big, big way.
Speaker 1: So let's finish up here with Devaughan, who was asked,
Speaker 1: like what that looks like?
Speaker 2: Exactly? Back to Devon eh Chan one last time.
Speaker 3: Like that, this is always trying to get the ball
Speaker 3: back to the line of scrimy, even doing a bad play.
Speaker 1: And like again back to the film reviews, it wasn't
Speaker 1: even just the bad plays. It was well blocked plays
Speaker 1: we didn't see and couldn't get to. And you know that.
Speaker 1: I go back to that Seattle game. It was just
Speaker 1: a really rough watch from a decision making standpoint and
Speaker 1: of reading blocks and reading angles and the running game standpoint.
Speaker 1: And I thought we saw the Patriots game when Devon
Speaker 1: got hurt. Jalen Wright capitalized on those looks and those
Speaker 1: opportunities and made the most of it, and I thought
Speaker 1: that was a big change and a reason we won
Speaker 1: that football game, and this is a team that had
Speaker 1: the most negative runs in a single season in the
Speaker 1: NFL since twenty seventeen. And the edge blocking wasn't good enough.
Speaker 1: But I think the running back decision making, particularly Devon,
Speaker 1: which it sounds like that's been addressed, was a very,
Speaker 1: very big part of that. But I do think Devon
Speaker 1: did get better at it as the year went along,
Speaker 1: because when I go back to my film notes, excuse me,
Speaker 1: I thought that Seahawk game was his worst of the year.
Speaker 1: He had some other games with poor decisions, but the
Speaker 1: Niners game was great. Devon hen the flat Stanley of
Speaker 1: Devon Han's that we all came to know in Love,
Speaker 1: where he's squeezing through tiny gaps and accelerating through gaps
Speaker 1: and banging it up in there and showing some of
Speaker 1: that contact balance through contact, even if he's not a
Speaker 1: Pyle pusher. But I thought we saw it get better
Speaker 1: than Nyers game. I thought he had some really good
Speaker 1: reps in the Jets game, pressing the whole and finding
Speaker 1: cutback lanes. So, as I wrote down, do I do
Speaker 1: a Devon a Chan film dive? Maybe we'll save that
Speaker 1: for the later episode. We're getting deep into this one already,
Speaker 1: but I think that I think that he could through
Speaker 1: a shift in his focus.
Speaker 2: Or losing out on those reps.
Speaker 1: But if he doesn't shift that focus, I think that's
Speaker 1: going to be a good thing for the football team.
Speaker 1: Let's go ahead and close up here with some Chop
Speaker 1: Robinson's soundbites. Who was asked first about having Zach Sealer,
Speaker 1: Kenneth Grant all those good defensive tackles.
Speaker 2: What that does for an edge I.
Speaker 5: Mean, when the offense got to focus on more than
Speaker 5: just one guy, they can't just set a slide to
Speaker 5: the edge rusher. They can't just you know, send a
Speaker 5: tippered s side When you got interior that can that
Speaker 5: can tear up the whole game. So it's kind of
Speaker 5: a different game plan than it is without having guys
Speaker 5: like that.
Speaker 1: Back to the topic at hand, here, he was asked
Speaker 1: to follow up about the Devon h Chan comment about
Speaker 1: players being here, being focused, being present.
Speaker 2: Here's Chop on the exact same topic.
Speaker 5: I mean, just everybody being here, you get to see
Speaker 5: the team chemistry, Like everybody just wants the same goal.
Speaker 5: Everybody wants to be great, everybody wants to win. So
Speaker 5: the only way to do that is doing it all together.
Speaker 5: So the chemistry is definitely better than it was last year.
Speaker 2: We've talked about that at length.
Speaker 1: Let's go ahead and just not offer any commentary and
Speaker 1: close up with we have two more here.
Speaker 2: Actually, let's do this one.
Speaker 1: He was asked about how psyched he is to have
Speaker 1: a pair of former Maryland teammates here in Jordan Phillips
Speaker 1: and Dante Trader.
Speaker 5: I was super excited, especially Dante. I came in with Dante.
Speaker 5: Jordan came in a year after I left, but I knew.
Speaker 5: I knew of him because his board, the type of
Speaker 5: player he was, But me and Dante was kind of
Speaker 5: a real close when I was there. I remember coming
Speaker 5: in first day, we both sat down in the front
Speaker 5: row in the team meeting. So just him being in
Speaker 5: pro and seeing at as a young age and he's
Speaker 5: still being that guy is just I'm excited for him.
Speaker 1: And the fact that that they were tight to me
Speaker 1: is encouraging. And this might be like grasping for straws
Speaker 1: a little bit or whatever on the surface, but what's
Speaker 1: the old saying right right like you are the company
Speaker 1: you keep and I subscribe to that fully in every sense.
Speaker 1: And hell, this is a Dolphins podcast, So you're not
Speaker 1: here for me talking about my own life, but you
Speaker 1: kind of are because it is my show and you're
Speaker 1: here for the host a little bit, right. But I
Speaker 1: played organized sports from the time that I could walk
Speaker 1: all the way up through college. Like most of my
Speaker 1: relationships came through sports and the camaraderie of being on
Speaker 1: a team. And I was very, very very clique in
Speaker 1: high school. I was with the jocks and we made
Speaker 1: fun of other people, like I was a bad dude, probably.
Speaker 1: But as I've grown and matured and sort of moved
Speaker 1: on from some of those lifelong relationships, the ones where
Speaker 1: all we did was stay in the same town after
Speaker 1: high school, going to the same bars every single Friday
Speaker 1: and doing the same game stuff every night, you kind
Speaker 1: of realize how small minded you can be and how
Speaker 1: singular your worldview can be. And now I really don't
Speaker 1: have anything in common with most of those guys. As
Speaker 1: I surround myself with more people that have a more
Speaker 1: worldly view, you know, as I get older. And that's
Speaker 1: a long tangent, but it's true in every facet. I
Speaker 1: have this conversation with one of those newer friends that
Speaker 1: fits in more with the present views and requirements for
Speaker 1: friendship that I have at this stage in my life.
Speaker 1: You guys know him. His name is Seth Levitt, one
Speaker 1: of my best buddies in the entire world. But we
Speaker 1: have these long phone calls about the business and industry,
Speaker 1: and since we're both grinders, we wind up up getting
Speaker 1: to the same point about how the biggest rivalry there
Speaker 1: is is the one between hard workers and lazy people,
Speaker 1: and those birds of a feather they flock together. So
Speaker 1: this is all a way of saying, I've seen what
Speaker 1: Chop Robinson's about and getting to know Dante Trader and
Speaker 1: Jordan Phillips, albeit very briefly. If they're all tight, then
Speaker 1: that tells me those two rooks are all about the
Speaker 1: right stuff. Like a good example, Zach and Christian were
Speaker 1: best friends, right, and they had nothing in common when
Speaker 1: they first got together. But you know what they did
Speaker 1: that in common their desire to work their butts off
Speaker 1: to be the best pros they could be, dogged workers,
Speaker 1: a shared goal and journey. That stuff bonds people, all right,
Speaker 1: That got off the rails. Let's go back to Chopp,
Speaker 1: who was asked about what this past rush unit can
Speaker 1: look like with Chop JP, Jalen Phillips, or with Bradley
Speaker 1: Chubb as well one more time Chop Robinson me.
Speaker 3: I'm super excited.
Speaker 5: Just just imagine the three of us want to feel
Speaker 5: all at the same time.
Speaker 3: We're just me a JP, or JP and Chubb at
Speaker 3: the same time.
Speaker 5: It's kind of hard to for tackles say all right,
Speaker 5: you gotta study JP, you gotta study Chubb, you gotta
Speaker 5: study me, And if we're all on the foot at
Speaker 5: the same time, kind of mess up the offense mind
Speaker 5: because they wouldn't.
Speaker 3: Know what to do.
Speaker 1: And do not sleep on this comment, because that was
Speaker 1: the idea last year, right We saw Phillips make it
Speaker 1: back for the opener, and that likely means the team
Speaker 1: had a pretty good idea that he was at least
Speaker 1: going to be close to returning early in the season.
Speaker 2: At some point during the summer.
Speaker 1: We'd never got Bradley back, but I think that was
Speaker 1: a bit of a surprise for everybody. I thought he
Speaker 1: was more in line to come off the pup like
Speaker 1: when he was eligible.
Speaker 2: Just never happened.
Speaker 1: Shaq retires at a date where we didn't really have
Speaker 1: a choice or chance to replace him. So like the defense,
Speaker 1: you saw, and we've been all over this on how
Speaker 1: Zach and Kalayis expanded their workloads to play more edge.
Speaker 1: But that wasn't because that wasn't because of the plan
Speaker 1: playing out. It was more of an adjustment to the attrition.
Speaker 1: And thank goodness we had those two versatile studs. But
Speaker 1: now I think you get a better idea of the
Speaker 1: vision they have for weave scheme, which is very front driven. Right,
Speaker 1: not to disparage the linebackers from the past, but this
Speaker 1: is the most attention the off ball linebacker group has
Speaker 1: gotten in quite some time. I mean, there are four
Speaker 1: guys that have produced in this league in this room.
Speaker 1: Usually it's two maybe three that's common, going back to
Speaker 1: the Ravens defense that he was a part of, with
Speaker 1: the plethora of edge guys. I mean, look at the
Speaker 1: Ravens linebacker room edge off ball weaves last year there
Speaker 1: literally Roquan Smith and Patrick Queen with Malik Harrison and
Speaker 1: Trenton Simpson who are both starters now for the Ravens
Speaker 1: and Steelers accordingly, and that's four deep of starters. And
Speaker 1: then you look at the defensive line. We covered it
Speaker 1: up top. I just think it's a good place to
Speaker 1: end with a little circle back reiteration. I just think
Speaker 1: there's a lot to look forward to this year and
Speaker 1: this camp on both sides of the ball. This got
Speaker 1: a lot longer than I planned. Let's go ahead and
Speaker 1: put a pennanut rate there. Come back on Wednesday. I
Speaker 1: was going to do a deep dive on hidden gems
Speaker 1: talking about guys like Patrick McMorris and Taj Washington. Will
Speaker 1: bump that to Wednesday. I also have a segment plan
Speaker 1: for Austin Clark, will do that as well later on
Speaker 1: and his track record of developing players. Until then, you
Speaker 1: all please be sure subscribe, rate review, follow me on
Speaker 1: social at week the NFL, follow the team at Miami Dolphins.
Speaker 1: Check out the fish Tank with Seth and Jews. Check
Speaker 1: out the YouTube channel for Dolphins HQ Media Availabilities, drift
Speaker 1: time content, and so much more and last butt not
Speaker 1: Lee East Miami Dolphins dot com until next time finds
Speaker 1: up col on camera and Daddy, Let's come home.
Speaker 5: H