Speaker 1: What is up Dolphins And welcome to the Draft Time Podcast.
Speaker 1: I am your host, Travis Wingfield. And on today's show,
Speaker 1: we heard from Dolphin's assistant coaches. Tons of content to
Speaker 1: get to here. I'm gonna touch on some of the
Speaker 1: highlights from Coach Weaver, Embry, Coach Frank Smith, Bobby and
Speaker 1: Ryan Slowick, Joe and Butcher Berry, and maybe some more
Speaker 1: as we go along from the Baptist Health Studios inside
Speaker 1: the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Draft Time Podcast.
Speaker 1: So as I type this segment out or this podcast
Speaker 1: out and I stare at a blank document, I have
Speaker 1: a note on my notepad app on my phone that
Speaker 1: was going over the questions I asked to the coaches
Speaker 1: and things that stood out to me as interesting. And
Speaker 1: I tell you guys this because I never know exactly
Speaker 1: how these quick turnaround SoundBite podcasts will come out, because
Speaker 1: I kind of go. I just take them in and
Speaker 1: post them into the podcast as I go, and then
Speaker 1: give you my thoughts on them as I plug them in.
Speaker 1: And I know we'll get to Anthony Weaver, we'll get
Speaker 1: to both coach Berry's, we'll get to the Slowick brothers,
Speaker 1: We'll get to John Embry and Frank Smith. I have
Speaker 1: to listen to all the other ones before I can
Speaker 1: tell you whether or not I'm going to run audio
Speaker 1: on those guys to see if I want to discuss
Speaker 1: something that came up in their press conferences. So what
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do is start with the ones that I
Speaker 1: asked questions or was at there and kind of go
Speaker 1: from there.
Speaker 2: Does that sound good?
Speaker 1: And I want to start with coach Anthony Weaver because well,
Speaker 1: for one, I just love picking his brain in all
Speaker 1: things football and the way he communicates it with us
Speaker 1: and articulates it. But he also had some really good
Speaker 1: commentary on a few things, and the question that I
Speaker 1: was most excited to hear him talk about brought back
Speaker 1: perhaps my favorite answer of the day. And just before
Speaker 1: I get to that, here real quick, this is one
Speaker 1: of those things. And you longtime fans of the podcast,
Speaker 1: you know I can kind of fixate on some things
Speaker 1: and spend months like I you know, I remember coming
Speaker 1: off of McDaniel's first year, I was really fixated on
Speaker 1: the idea of the second year in the Kyle Shanahan
Speaker 1: offenses previously and the eruption of those teams, And sure enough,
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty three Dolphins went on to set records
Speaker 1: and score points and at a clip we hadn't seen
Speaker 1: in a long time here in Miami.
Speaker 2: That was one thing I fixated on.
Speaker 1: I forget what it was last year, but this year,
Speaker 1: I'm really kind of stuck on this concept of spring
Speaker 1: football and the value of it and having high attendance
Speaker 1: and hearing all the players. You know, they have spoken
Speaker 1: to us in their veteran media availabilities about the chemistry
Speaker 1: they're building and having everybody here and how everyone's hungry
Speaker 1: to go out and play ball and really kind of
Speaker 1: you know, right some of the wrongs from twenty twenty
Speaker 1: four where this team they feel like they came up
Speaker 1: short on expectations and felt like they could have you know,
Speaker 1: been about our team and won more games and gone
Speaker 1: to the postseason for a third straight year. And I
Speaker 1: am so focused on this as I'm listening to one
Speaker 1: of my favorite podcasts, the Heed the Call podcast, and
Speaker 1: Jesse Palmer is a guest on their show, and he
Speaker 1: used to be on the NFL Network and he alluded
Speaker 1: to this Kyle Shanahan comment as they were doing a
Speaker 1: Brock Purdy segment about the value of getting higher attendance
Speaker 1: at OTAs because in the past, you know, they were
Speaker 1: a veteran heavy team that would have either Brandon Ayuk
Speaker 1: or Deebo Samuel or Trent Williams holding out for a
Speaker 1: new contract potentially, or guys that were injured coming off
Speaker 1: the previous season, like a Nick Bosa for instance, or
Speaker 1: two years ago when Brock Purdy had that elbow injury
Speaker 1: in the NFC Championship game and wasn't really a full
Speaker 1: participant until like midway through training camp, and it just
Speaker 1: got me curious. I went around in some googling, some searching,
Speaker 1: and I found this article on Kyle Shanahan on the
Speaker 1: Athletic and I'm going to read some urbs here for
Speaker 1: you going into the season, going into OTAs, going into
Speaker 1: training camp, I do feel there will be as much
Speaker 1: competition on our team for starting spots as there has
Speaker 1: been in a while, especially on defense, Shanahan said to
Speaker 1: the media there at the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach
Speaker 1: in the owner's meetings. Back to the quote, but we
Speaker 1: want to create that everywhere. We haven't had that for
Speaker 1: a while. End quote, and the story he continues to
Speaker 1: write that Shanahan insisted he's optimistic about the upcoming season
Speaker 1: despite all the roster building that still must occur, all
Speaker 1: the overchange in the roster. At multiple points during his
Speaker 1: Tuesday session, he drew a distinct a distinction rather between
Speaker 1: previous aprils when the forty nine ers were beat up
Speaker 1: recuperating during the spring practices, excuse me and ruining a
Speaker 1: devastating playoff loss, with the off season program that began
Speaker 1: in three weeks after the playoff loss right, and he
Speaker 1: said it reminds him of how he felt back in
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, back to a quote, I want to go
Speaker 1: to work now more than I have in a long time.
Speaker 1: I can't wait for our players to get back. I
Speaker 1: feel like I've been away from them for too long.
Speaker 1: I think we'll have a hell of a turnout with
Speaker 1: all of our guys end quote. And this is me
Speaker 1: talking again now. I think that's applicable to the Dolphins,
Speaker 1: because you know we've been over this. You know last
Speaker 1: year there wasn't a ton of unknown going into training camp,
Speaker 1: Like there was a couple of positions up for grabs
Speaker 1: and really depth spots across the roster, but like you
Speaker 1: knew about Tron Armstead you knew about Aaron Brewer, you
Speaker 1: knew about Austin Jackson, you knew the quarterback, and Tyreek
Speaker 1: and Waddell and John wu and you knew about a
Speaker 1: Chan and like you just kind of knew where guys
Speaker 1: were going to slot in for the most part.
Speaker 2: And that was a big part of this.
Speaker 1: Offseason and what coach McDaniel talked about at his own
Speaker 1: owners beating press conference discussing setting your culture through the
Speaker 1: draft and you know, kind of going more of the
Speaker 1: youth route. And we saw the Dolphins really go back
Speaker 1: to having one of the older rosters in the NFL
Speaker 1: a season ago, to scaling things back to being a
Speaker 1: younger roster, and they entered the draft, excuse me, with
Speaker 1: the seventh youngest roster in the NFL. And then what
Speaker 1: do they do besides have the youngest draft in the
Speaker 1: entire league by quite quite a big margin. There was
Speaker 1: a graft that got put up the other day. I
Speaker 1: forget exactly where it was or what it read, but
Speaker 1: essentially Miami's average age of their draft picks was like
Speaker 1: a full year lower than the next youngest team in
Speaker 1: terms of their draft. So, you know, in going back
Speaker 1: to last year, we had various absences throughout spring and
Speaker 1: into camp, much like those Niners teams, and that that's
Speaker 1: gonna happen sometimes, especially as you kind of build something
Speaker 1: year over year and you know put together a program
Speaker 1: that is used to winning, Like you go deeper into
Speaker 1: the season, you I guess endure more injuries and players
Speaker 1: play well enough to you know, renegotiate their contracts because
Speaker 1: they've performed at a level that is requisite with that
Speaker 1: and you're not going to avoid that every off season.
Speaker 1: But it kind of feels like this year is a
Speaker 1: bit of a reprieve back to like what Shanahan mentioned
Speaker 1: there with like everyone kind of chomping at the bit
Speaker 1: and you know having the taste of last year in
Speaker 1: their mouth and it fueling their off season preparation. And
Speaker 1: you know not to say that guys ever take the
Speaker 1: off season lightly and don't train properly, but there's you know,
Speaker 1: certain levels of motivation and factors that can I suppose
Speaker 1: produce a bigger chip and and maybe give you that
Speaker 1: one extra rep in this hot weather that maybe you
Speaker 1: didn't do a year ago. It's it's something that I
Speaker 1: think there's there's value to that. So I asked coach Weaver,
Speaker 1: you know when you've got everybody here and you can
Speaker 1: get this stuff installed in the spring, especially in the
Speaker 1: second year of the system, right, Because that was what
Speaker 1: we heard from coach McDaniel when I had him on
Speaker 1: the podcast back at the combine, was he was talking
Speaker 1: about that kind of mid season shift where the defensive
Speaker 1: philosophy and structure kind of settled and took hold with
Speaker 1: the players in terms of their secondhand under or their
Speaker 1: second nature understanding of the defensive system. And so I
Speaker 1: asked Coach Weave, like, you have the second year in
Speaker 1: the defense now, and you've got really good attendance throughout
Speaker 1: the course of spring practices, and the guys have talked
Speaker 1: a lot about how valuable that is as a coach
Speaker 1: when you get these guys out here in May. How
Speaker 1: does that I suppose you know, ease the installation process,
Speaker 1: come camp, come game plan time in September. And as
Speaker 1: he is wont to do, Weaver did not disappoint with
Speaker 1: this answer, talking about the value of having such good
Speaker 1: attendance here and Dolphins Ota is twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3: It's huge in a game. That's what communication and coordination obviously,
Speaker 3: which I'm in charge of is so critical. I don't
Speaker 3: know how you get that done without being around one another.
Speaker 3: And then when you just talk about great teams that
Speaker 3: genuinely care for one another, which which often transcends right
Speaker 3: just just being a teammate. You have to invest time.
Speaker 3: If I want to get closer to God, I got
Speaker 3: to spend time in the work. If we want to
Speaker 3: get better at football, we got to spend time on
Speaker 3: the football field. We want to be better teammates, we
Speaker 3: need to spend time together. So all these guys that
Speaker 3: have been here in a voluntary period are truly investing
Speaker 3: in this team.
Speaker 1: And in the process, you're going to hear this theme,
Speaker 1: or rather I went back to this theme frequently as
Speaker 1: throughout my questions about intentionality of you know, roster construction
Speaker 1: and building out these rooms, and it just seems, you know,
Speaker 1: we talk about guys that are smart players on offense,
Speaker 1: that can digest things quickly and understand side adjustments, that
Speaker 1: can deal with motion and the changing landmarks and all
Speaker 1: that fun stuff, and then defensively, like the same thing
Speaker 1: is applicable there. But what I thought was interesting to
Speaker 1: kind of tie this next answer in was here, as coach,
Speaker 1: we were talking about the defensive tackle group and the
Speaker 1: buy in and the effort both being on film and
Speaker 1: then how they approach, you know, being Miami Dolphins for
Speaker 1: the last month plus here so or I guess a
Speaker 1: little less than a month. But you're going to hear
Speaker 1: something that ties back to our Wednesday episode talking about
Speaker 1: Coach Clark. You're going to listen to Weaver here to
Speaker 1: talk about whatever his potential is with Kenneth Grant, he's
Speaker 1: going to reach that because of his hard work, but
Speaker 1: also because the coach he has in that defensive line room.
Speaker 3: Oh thrilled about the draft process. It was a collective
Speaker 3: work of so many just targeting the guys that we did.
Speaker 3: Really excited about Kenneth Grant and what he brings to
Speaker 3: them to that defense and him just being in here,
Speaker 3: have the opportunity to work with Benito and Zach Steeler
Speaker 3: and obviously Coach Clark whatever he's supposed to be at
Speaker 3: the end of the day, I promise you he will
Speaker 3: reach every bit of God given potential. Potential I really
Speaker 3: have at Jordan Phillips. God was kind of under the
Speaker 3: radar a little bit, but the way he plays on
Speaker 3: film and just the person that he is, it's the
Speaker 3: same thing. He's going to reach that ceiling. And actually,
Speaker 3: I have really high hopes for it for both those kids.
Speaker 3: And I don't know how he got Zick Figgers in
Speaker 3: the seventh A guy with that size, that link, that
Speaker 3: mass to play as hard as he plays, he could
Speaker 3: end up being a steal for us too. So really
Speaker 3: happy about those three. They've been putting the work in
Speaker 3: since they've gotten here, and just I know we'll lift
Speaker 3: for some growing pains early, as you do with all rookies,
Speaker 3: but the one thing I do know is that it's
Speaker 3: going to click faster for them then, just because of
Speaker 3: the work they put in.
Speaker 1: Coach also talked about the drive and chip on the
Speaker 1: shoulder collectively in the cornerback room when he was asked
Speaker 1: about that group. And I want to play this part
Speaker 1: of the SoundBite for you where he kind of not
Speaker 1: tails off, that's the wrong term, but he transitions his
Speaker 1: answer to talk about the front. And we've covered this
Speaker 1: in the podcast you Know at length about how teams
Speaker 1: that run this style of defense. We saw four either
Speaker 1: you know coaches leave or retain there in Baltimore to
Speaker 1: run the system that was basically ran in twenty twenty
Speaker 1: three under Mike McDonald, with him with Weaver, with Ronaldo Wilson,
Speaker 1: and then Zach Or staying there in Baltimore, and the
Speaker 1: emphasis on like linebackers and defensive tackles and being versatile
Speaker 1: upfront and how that can kind of help you get
Speaker 1: some protection on the back end because of how you
Speaker 1: play up front. And so coach went into that and
Speaker 1: talked about the front and talking about guys coming back
Speaker 1: off injury with Phillips and Chubb and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: So I wanted to just play this audio about how
Speaker 1: they feel about the front and how that can kind
Speaker 1: of really have a net impact on the entire defense.
Speaker 3: I also think we're going to be strong up front
Speaker 3: if God's grace were fortunate that Jalen Phillips can stay
Speaker 3: on the field. Bradley Chubb chopped coming in a year two.
Speaker 3: The addition we've made on the defensive line, as zactually
Speaker 3: or obviously, I think we can help them too by
Speaker 3: being more disruptive and creating more chaos for the quarterback.
Speaker 1: And I try my best to not, you know, like
Speaker 1: I have my own intrigue with questions in terms of, like,
Speaker 1: you know, tell us about the scheme and everything you
Speaker 1: want to do, but also like you know, the coaches
Speaker 1: aren't going to tell you their plan, like McDaniel famously says,
Speaker 1: you want to give the entire game plan to the
Speaker 1: New York Jets, like joking when you ask a question
Speaker 1: rest conference, it's maybe too close to the sun. And
Speaker 1: so I wanted to ask coach, Like, you know, last year,
Speaker 1: you guys had this situation where your edge group got
Speaker 1: so depleted early on, and luckily you had Zach and
Speaker 1: Kalais who could both play some variations of defensive end
Speaker 1: in the system.
Speaker 2: But it also kind of you know, stretched, you guys
Speaker 2: thin at that position.
Speaker 1: And we talk about the intentionality of the off season
Speaker 1: and going after you know, these linebackers and edges and
Speaker 1: the youthful, the youth movement at defensive tackle, Like it
Speaker 1: seems like you saw that as not necessarily a total
Speaker 1: hindrance last year, but you almost went and protect yourself
Speaker 1: from that happening again by the way you approached the
Speaker 1: off season. What's your take on how last year impacted
Speaker 1: the way you called this defense and how can being
Speaker 1: deeper at that spot really open up the menu of
Speaker 1: the playbook defensively whenever.
Speaker 3: You're you're faced with those obstacles, right, usually like the
Speaker 3: obstacles away, So you got to you got to find
Speaker 3: a way through them. I thought as a stash that
Speaker 3: you did a good job of whatever deficiencies we were
Speaker 3: trying to hide a masking notes that that to me
Speaker 3: is that's that's why we had the coach tag on
Speaker 3: our chests. Right. A lot of guys can get up
Speaker 3: here and complain about personnel. I promise you we will
Speaker 3: never do that. Ultimately, we're going to find a way
Speaker 3: with a bunch of guys that are volunteers and not hostages,
Speaker 3: right that that want to get better. And if we
Speaker 3: do that and we can find a way to play
Speaker 3: as one collective unit, which is what we're always chasing,
Speaker 3: we're going to play good defense. Whichever combination of eleven
Speaker 3: however this shakes out. We will play good defense because
Speaker 3: of the conviction and the trust that they'll have one.
Speaker 1: And we'll close our long anthem Weaver segment here, which
Speaker 1: is going to take up the entire first segment of
Speaker 1: the show, with this really cool Q and A from
Speaker 1: cam Wolf who asked him about what are some of
Speaker 1: the things maybe you saw on tape about how teams
Speaker 1: attacked your defense and how can they maybe you know,
Speaker 1: get a full year of your defense on tape and
Speaker 1: change the way they attack your defense now, And Coach
Speaker 1: talked about how that happened towards the end of the year.
Speaker 1: I'll let him do that and give you the rest
Speaker 1: of the answer right here one more time, Coach Weaver,
Speaker 1: I think we.
Speaker 3: Saw it a little bit towards the end of the year.
Speaker 3: Right we played with a lot of air unneeds, so
Speaker 3: people screen us, we're trying they're trying to force, you know,
Speaker 3: our under coverage up, so then create those thrown lanes
Speaker 3: behind them. Any safeties, people are going to try to
Speaker 3: run the ball. We've tried to address that, but I
Speaker 3: know the one thing that we have to do is
Speaker 3: we have to find a way to take them all day.
Speaker 3: As well. As I think we played defensively at times
Speaker 3: a year ago, think of how much better it could
Speaker 3: have been if we could have had six less possessions
Speaker 3: because eternals can takeaways. So that's been a point of
Speaker 3: interest for us, and we'll continue to.
Speaker 1: Be all off since I gotta tell you, man, we
Speaker 1: are lucky, lucky to have that man here.
Speaker 2: On this coaching staff.
Speaker 1: I just have full trust and conviction and what he
Speaker 1: does and how he creates things and how he'll get
Speaker 1: these guys to get the most out of their own
Speaker 1: individual games. Let's go ahead and take a break right there,
Speaker 1: come back. I talked to John Embry, Ryan and Bobby
Speaker 1: Slowick both coach Barrys Butch and Joe and plenty more
Speaker 1: here on the Draft Time podcast brought to you by
Speaker 1: Auto Nation. As my great friend and longtime co host
Speaker 1: on postgame radio show seth Levitt would say, no one
Speaker 1: loves getting their own ideas or thoughts confirmed by the
Speaker 1: coaching staff more than Travis Wingfield, he would say myself
Speaker 1: in this case, speaking in third person, of course. And
Speaker 1: Frank Smith was asked about Nick Westbrook Akine and what
Speaker 1: do we keep talking about? You know, guys that know
Speaker 1: exactly where they're supposed to be when they're supposed to
Speaker 1: be there. What stands out most about NW? I Frank, well,
Speaker 1: here you go, coach.
Speaker 4: Ultimately it goes to kind of who he is as
Speaker 4: a man, and you can see it's a very detailed,
Speaker 4: very processed or andy guy is going to be extremely reliable.
Speaker 4: Like I think, ultimately, if you talk to the guys
Speaker 4: that new in of Tennessee and our exposures so far,
Speaker 4: it is going to be consistent at work ethic. I
Speaker 4: think that's ultimately where he puts himself in positions to
Speaker 4: be successful, is because he really is a student of
Speaker 4: the process, making sure he's on the little things. So
Speaker 4: therefore on Sundays he can rely on full the quarterback
Speaker 4: and really arrest the offense.
Speaker 1: And if I can link this back to the opening
Speaker 1: segment talking about using the end of twenty twenty four
Speaker 1: is feel for twenty twenty five. I mean, you know
Speaker 1: the attendance, the work habits, and I guess the intentionality
Speaker 1: of the work. Like here's Frank Smith, you know, once
Speaker 1: again confirming for us so.
Speaker 4: Far, buying with the guys and everyone collectively and trying
Speaker 4: to use the way last season wins our motivation to
Speaker 4: make sure we maximize each day. And you don't look
Speaker 4: into the forward, you don't look.
Speaker 5: To the past. You see what do we need to
Speaker 5: get done right now?
Speaker 4: And I think Technique and all the guys are really
Speaker 4: embracing that.
Speaker 1: From one offensive cordator to one that was an offensive
Speaker 1: cordnator very recently in this league in Bobby Slowick. He
Speaker 1: was asked, why are you and Ryan your brother on
Speaker 1: opposite sides of the football, And I just thought this
Speaker 1: answer was a lot of fun.
Speaker 6: We used to be. That's a great question, defensive family,
Speaker 6: without a without a doubt, I was always the black sheet.
Speaker 6: I was a guy who played offense, you know. And
Speaker 6: then actually when I got into coaching, I started in
Speaker 6: Washington as a defensive coach, as a defensive QC. Mike Shanahan,
Speaker 6: who's a head coach at the time in Washington, knew
Speaker 6: I wanted to coach offense, and he had said every
Speaker 6: good offensive coach to learn and start with defense. So
Speaker 6: he put me on defense. So I was back with
Speaker 6: the family and everyone liked me. And then eventually I
Speaker 6: got sick of being on offense or on defense, Kyle
Speaker 6: Shanahan and San Francisco pulled me back over to offense,
Speaker 6: and then now I'm the black sheep again.
Speaker 1: So this stuff was some of my favorite content from
Speaker 1: the entire day. And I wanted to ask Bobby because
Speaker 1: we've heard I talked to coach about this. McDaniel back
Speaker 1: in shoot February, is that when the combine is march
Speaker 1: about like adding coach Slowick to the staff, and he
Speaker 1: talked about like the lens of seeing things in a
Speaker 1: similar lens for lack of a better term, and to
Speaker 1: come back to Bobby Slowik three months later and ask
Speaker 1: the question and like, if if you had any question
Speaker 1: about like the authenticity of the answer, then this should
Speaker 1: quell that because he says the exact same thing the
Speaker 1: coach McDaniel said, and you just you can't possibly fake that.
Speaker 1: So that's why I wanted to run this back for you, guys.
Speaker 1: I asked him about how excited he is or what
Speaker 1: he thinks about when he lets himself, you know, peer
Speaker 1: into the future four months down the road when you
Speaker 1: have a game and we have to game plan for
Speaker 1: that game, Like what comes to mind when you think
Speaker 1: about your time with McDaniel in the past game planning
Speaker 1: and how that might help you guys this time around
Speaker 1: in Miami.
Speaker 6: It's funny because the more you talk to me, the
Speaker 6: more you're gonna realize I say the same thing a lot,
Speaker 6: but it's all because, like, really, that's that's kind of
Speaker 6: just what we believe in football, in our philosophy in general.
Speaker 6: When we approach it, like being in a room with
Speaker 6: with a staff that I know believes foundationally and to
Speaker 6: the fundamental level everything the same way I believe it.
Speaker 6: And then and then being able to build a game
Speaker 6: plan around that. That's what's really fun, as probably dumb
Speaker 6: as that sounds, you know, like the simplest form of
Speaker 6: just being hey, you know, if we stem inside right
Speaker 6: here on this route and we hit vertical speed before
Speaker 6: we snap it off, I think we have something, and everyone, oh, yeah,
Speaker 6: we see it, you know. Just expediting that process of it,
Speaker 6: and being with like minded people that you know, really
Speaker 6: are all about whatever needs to get done to win
Speaker 6: a game, that's what makes it enjoyable.
Speaker 1: He also talked about the coaching staff kind of let
Speaker 1: him just pick his spots and go work where he
Speaker 1: wants to work in certain ways. And he talked about
Speaker 1: coach Bevill like opening the quarterback room door for him
Speaker 1: and how excited that was for him because he really
Speaker 1: likes quarterback play, and so I'm like, well, if you
Speaker 1: love quarterback play so much, can you give us your
Speaker 1: take here on Tua Tongue Bay Loa.
Speaker 2: And he did not disappoint.
Speaker 6: There's a lot, you know, I think I think the
Speaker 6: person as just a starting point is always the foundation
Speaker 6: of every like really good player I've been around, it
Speaker 6: always starts with the human being and the person, and
Speaker 6: I mean he's an exceptional human. He's really fun to
Speaker 6: be around. He has positive energy all the time. He's
Speaker 6: demanding of himself, but he's also demanding of others. You know,
Speaker 6: What's what he's been doing out there so far this
Speaker 6: summer has been fun to see. I mean, he's holding
Speaker 6: people accountable, he's holding himself accountable. He's really on the
Speaker 6: details of everything we're doing when we're trying to build
Speaker 6: the foundations of this stuff. And then as a player,
Speaker 6: I mean, he's incredibly accurate. He's unbelievable at throwing with anticipation,
Speaker 6: throwing to space, getting the ball out on time, Throwing
Speaker 6: throws you may not have thought were possible beforehand. You know,
Speaker 6: he just has a knack for feeling and seeing things
Speaker 6: that I just don't think a lot of people have
Speaker 6: in real time. You know, you can see it after
Speaker 6: the fact on film. There's a lot of people that
Speaker 6: can do that. There's not many people that can do
Speaker 6: it all in the moment. So it's just been fun.
Speaker 6: I'm excited to keep going.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you got it. I had to retake this part
Speaker 1: like three times because here I was on the podcast
Speaker 1: last week bragging about how I've got Jonah's last name down,
Speaker 1: and I just tried to say it three times in
Speaker 1: a row and I flubbed every single time.
Speaker 2: This time, there's gonna be no flubb.
Speaker 1: Let's go on to offensive line coach Butch Berry, who
Speaker 1: was asked, what was it about Jonah Sviat Jonah Savit Naya?
Speaker 1: What was it about him? The stuff to you, I'm
Speaker 1: leaving it to the podcast because it's I mean, I
Speaker 1: can't get it down the first time.
Speaker 5: Here's coach, Well, I think the first thing you see,
Speaker 5: he's a big body guy that's really explosive that can
Speaker 5: run right. So he's a big body, heavy handed player
Speaker 5: that can anchor the pocket. But he's got the explosiveness
Speaker 5: to run in the run game the way we want
Speaker 5: him to do it right, and so the explosiveness is
Speaker 5: there for the run game, he has ability to anchor
Speaker 5: the pocket. So for us, that's a big deal, you
Speaker 5: know what I mean. And so I think from the
Speaker 5: get go, and I had a chance to go out
Speaker 5: there and be with him, it was very clear and
Speaker 5: evident what he could become for us and forecasting you know,
Speaker 5: where we need him and everything else.
Speaker 7: That think is really good.
Speaker 1: And again this speaks to the alignment of the coaching
Speaker 1: staff and in the front office and personnel decision makers,
Speaker 1: because I've heard coach McDaniel say the exact same thing
Speaker 1: about anchoring the pocket. Chris Career talk about that in
Speaker 1: his post draft press conference, not to mention the ability
Speaker 1: to move at that size has been a big theme
Speaker 1: of the offseason as well. So yeah, you guys know,
Speaker 1: I'm excited about Jonah and having him work with coach Barry.
Speaker 1: I think there's coaches all over the staff that are
Speaker 1: great at developing young players and they're going to get
Speaker 1: their their crack and a few of those guys this year,
Speaker 1: and Jonah and Kenneth Grant those guys if they can
Speaker 1: be immediate impact players, What a what a big boom
Speaker 1: that's going to be for this Dolphins team. Let's go
Speaker 1: ahead and finish up here with coach Berry on Patrick Paul.
Speaker 1: I had a couple of questions for him about what
Speaker 1: he's seen from Pat in terms of his growth from
Speaker 1: year one to year or two, and then of course
Speaker 1: the way he approaches the game. Because this answer from
Speaker 1: butcher Berry again, I see it all the time, but
Speaker 1: to hear from the coach that's around him all the time,
Speaker 1: it's a nice verification.
Speaker 5: He absolutely loves the game. He's like a football junkie, okay,
Speaker 5: and he absolutely soaks everything in, wants more, wants more,
Speaker 5: wants more, does a ton of work on his own
Speaker 5: physically and mentally, tape and physically taking care of his body.
Speaker 5: And you can you can always work with those type
Speaker 5: of guys because the one hundred percent love ball, right,
Speaker 5: and anytime you have guys a one hunder percent love ball,
Speaker 5: you can you can figure it out, right, because we
Speaker 5: pull that's weird, we have that in common. We both
Speaker 5: love ball, right, and so we can work together to
Speaker 5: be at his very best.
Speaker 1: How would you measure his growth from when he got
Speaker 1: here this time last year to where he was playing
Speaker 1: in week team last weeks.
Speaker 5: A ton ton of growth keeps in and he keeps
Speaker 5: challenging himself every day, right, keeps challenging stuff every day
Speaker 5: to be better. Like I just said, that's about the
Speaker 5: growth every guy's got to have. If we all try
Speaker 5: to be our best every day we walk in the building,
Speaker 5: we're going to get better.
Speaker 1: One more offensive coach before our last break here, and
Speaker 1: I'll finish up with three defensive coaches in Austin Clark,
Speaker 1: Joe Berry, and Ryan Slowek. Let's go ahead and stop
Speaker 1: with a tight end room real quick, and hear from
Speaker 1: John Embry who talked about john Us Smith and what
Speaker 1: he can do to kind of take his game to
Speaker 1: even another level next year after breaking Dolphins tight end records.
Speaker 1: He mentioned like going over a reel with John who
Speaker 1: about some of the runoff for the catch and some
Speaker 1: yards that he thinks that he could possibly even get
Speaker 1: on top of that, which that's what you strive for, right,
Speaker 1: break some records, cool, let's do more, right, nobody cares
Speaker 1: work harder type of mindset. That's how that's how you
Speaker 1: wind up going from you know, great to tow greater.
Speaker 1: You know that's that's that's how this works, is how
Speaker 1: everything in life works. But I want to go back
Speaker 1: to Julian Hill here real quick, and hear coach talk
Speaker 1: about a follow up that he had on not just
Speaker 1: Julian but the offense as a whole. He did just
Speaker 1: discuss some of the things that he thinks Julian can
Speaker 1: clean up for next year, And so I was curious
Speaker 1: to get his take about the challenges or maybe just
Speaker 1: the overall difficulty of all the stuff this offense features.
Speaker 1: And for a tight end position, which you'll hear him
Speaker 1: talk about here, is really second behind quarterback in terms
Speaker 1: of responsibility because you do have pass routes, pass protection,
Speaker 1: and run game, whereas other positions only have two of
Speaker 1: those things of the three. So he talks about Julian
Speaker 1: and the question was phrase in the way of, like,
Speaker 1: you guys have so much motion and tight end motion
Speaker 1: and changing landmarks and the picture can kind of alter
Speaker 1: right before the snap. Like that's a lot to process
Speaker 1: for a player, And for a guy that's only his
Speaker 1: second year out of a small school, how much of
Speaker 1: an advantage can having two full years under his belt
Speaker 1: really help him come into year three? And that's really
Speaker 1: true for the entire tight end room, right, So I
Speaker 1: wanted to frame the question way. But Coach Embrey, you know,
Speaker 1: as all these coaches are so good at doing they
Speaker 1: can kind of relate it back to the entire group
Speaker 1: opposed to just one player. So here's coach Embry on
Speaker 1: the uh playing tight end in this offense.
Speaker 8: Yeah, you know, again just referring back to when I
Speaker 8: was in San Francisco in this offense, it wasn't until
Speaker 8: Kittle was almost all the way through years two before
Speaker 8: he felt comfortable with it. Part of the issue we
Speaker 8: also deal with too. You know him, you know, coming
Speaker 8: from Campbell, a younger player, and then there's times we'll
Speaker 8: play teams and they play what we call un scouted looks.
Speaker 8: In other words, they're playing a defense or front that
Speaker 8: they have never shown on tape. So it takes a
Speaker 8: lot of adjustments, some sideline stuff to kind of, you know,
Speaker 8: change how we might be doing things, end and points
Speaker 8: and all that. So now that he's gone through it
Speaker 8: two years and he should have seen most of the
Speaker 8: things that people have thrown at us, he'll be able
Speaker 8: to make those adjustments quicker.
Speaker 1: Last one here for the offense side of the football.
Speaker 1: Ask coach Embry what stood out so far? It's been
Speaker 1: a short period of time, but what'sted out the most
Speaker 1: so far about newcomers Pharaoh Brown and the undrafted rookie
Speaker 1: Jalen Conyers.
Speaker 8: Big people, you know, we got a little bigger in
Speaker 8: that room from size standpoint. I'm excited to work with
Speaker 8: both of them. They've both have done good jobs so
Speaker 8: far in these phases of things. They think they've got
Speaker 8: the offense learned, and then they're gonna find out in
Speaker 8: about a week that, like, holy crap, I don't. And
Speaker 8: that's okay, but I'm sorry to work both of them.
Speaker 8: You know, they're, like I said, good sized guys, and
Speaker 8: they bring Jalen I think can be a three down guy.
Speaker 8: I think he can do stuff for it in the
Speaker 8: passing game as well as the run game. And you know,
Speaker 8: Pharaoh getting like I said, with his size and his
Speaker 8: length will help us in the in the run game
Speaker 8: as well as as pass protector.
Speaker 1: That three down comment about Conyers kind of stands out
Speaker 1: to me because he was a guy that during the
Speaker 1: entire draft process, I was like, I probably got to
Speaker 1: get him early Day three, and he winds up going
Speaker 1: undrafted because that's the part of the draft that is
Speaker 1: so hard. But but I thought he had you know,
Speaker 1: I thought he had skill enough to go that high
Speaker 1: and he winds up here as the UDFA. So cool
Speaker 1: to hear them talk about him a little bit. Let's
Speaker 1: go ahead and take our last break right there. Come
Speaker 1: back on the other side here from coach Austin Clark,
Speaker 1: Joe Berry, and Ryan Slowick Next Draft Time podcast, brought
Speaker 1: to you by AutoNation. I don't even need to set
Speaker 1: up the preamble anymore because it's been happening the entire episode,
Speaker 1: but more confirmation here. I probably could have just like
Speaker 1: skipped the entire draft process and just ran this audio
Speaker 1: from coach Austin Clark to explain to you what Kenneth
Speaker 1: Grant offers as a player.
Speaker 9: Yeah. Great, I think he's really got the right mentality. Man.
Speaker 9: That's the first thing that stands out. The way he
Speaker 9: works when he shows up in the morning, how he
Speaker 9: is in the meetings, and he takes that on the field.
Speaker 9: You know, he's been the first guy on the field,
Speaker 9: you know, before practice working on his craft. He's a
Speaker 9: mentally tough kid. You know, he works extremely hard, and
Speaker 9: I think his his lateral agility for his size really
Speaker 9: stands out out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Coach, that latter lit agility will smack you in
Speaker 1: the face the first time you see it from a
Speaker 1: man that size. I just love that so much. Let's
Speaker 1: go ahead and run this back. More about Kenneth Grant
Speaker 1: and what kind of sold them on the entire process
Speaker 1: to bring him in and make him their first pick
Speaker 1: or their pick in the first round.
Speaker 9: Yeah, you know, we did a lot of work on Kenneth.
Speaker 9: I will tell you had him at the combine and
Speaker 9: you know the guy he comes in the room, he's
Speaker 9: all about business. You know, he's really about football. He
Speaker 9: loves this, you know. And I think for him his
Speaker 9: stamina in the number of plays he played at Michigan
Speaker 9: to still play at the level he did. You know,
Speaker 9: you guys probably just saw that Penn State play, right,
Speaker 9: It's like all over the dinner. Well, there's a lot
Speaker 9: of other plays like that, the way he plays. And
Speaker 9: then I actually went to Michigan and met with him
Speaker 9: before the pro day, And what excited me is you
Speaker 9: is you kind of met with him in the room
Speaker 9: and watch some of the things he did poorly. You know,
Speaker 9: that was what I was focused on, that there is
Speaker 9: a growth and things were getting better at you know,
Speaker 9: he's eager to learn, and I think the coaches at
Speaker 9: Michigan and did a heck of a job with his
Speaker 9: football acumen for where he was a young player, and
Speaker 9: then competed his tail off for PRODA.
Speaker 1: Let's go ahead and conclude here as coach Clark alluded
Speaker 1: to the idea of having all three of the guys
Speaker 1: they drafted Biggers, Phillips, and Grant at the Shrine Bowl
Speaker 1: as Grant went through the interview process and all the
Speaker 1: stuff before the actual on field work, and then Phillips
Speaker 1: and Biggers were on the on field work, and so
Speaker 1: the Dolphins get all three guys from that all star event,
Speaker 1: and Coach Clark was asked a question, why did you
Speaker 1: guys take three nose tackles?
Speaker 2: Which I mean, it's on the tape.
Speaker 1: You can pull it up and see that neither of
Speaker 1: these guys or well, besides Biggers, he was a lot
Speaker 1: of nose tackle, but both Grant and Phillips played a
Speaker 1: lot of three technique in college.
Speaker 2: So I don't know where the idea comes from.
Speaker 1: Maybe they're building size, But I thought it was great
Speaker 1: to get Coach Clark that question so he could kind
Speaker 1: of refute it and tell you, you know what he thinks.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I think you know, you may see him as noses,
Speaker 9: we see him as versatile pieces.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 9: I think it's kind of like the analogy I would
Speaker 9: use for you is, you know, we played nickel defense
Speaker 9: with Christian and Seeler here for a long time two
Speaker 9: three techniques, and you would say, well you don't have
Speaker 9: a notes, Well, it's kind of the best available guys
Speaker 9: you can get and piece together. I think that's the
Speaker 9: way you kind of look at it. And then we
Speaker 9: get them all here and we evaluate what they can
Speaker 9: do and what they do best, and then we try
Speaker 9: to piece them in them spots, you know. And I
Speaker 9: know sometimes based on where these guys, you know, it's
Speaker 9: interesting our group, all of them, I think, maybe except one,
Speaker 9: had multiple D line coaches in college, which when you
Speaker 9: talk about development, like maybe there was someone who put
Speaker 9: a guy in a box, is hey, this is just it?
Speaker 9: Or maybe at their college they didn't have a note
Speaker 9: so they played them in those you know. So I
Speaker 9: always try to stay open minded with who we got.
Speaker 9: We're gonna find out what they can do, and it's
Speaker 9: up to them. Their role is gonna be what they
Speaker 9: make it. But they're doing a good job so far.
Speaker 1: I mean, I thought Phillips's best tape was a three technique,
Speaker 1: and I thought some of Kg's best tape was playing
Speaker 1: two and two. I so, and that kind of goes
Speaker 1: back to the whole concept I talked about in the
Speaker 1: draft pross. Just because a running back didn't have a
Speaker 1: lot of catches doesn't mean he can't catch the football, right.
Speaker 2: It depends on the offense he was in.
Speaker 1: And I think that coach Clark having that mindset, and
Speaker 1: I think, you know, not just drafting for production and
Speaker 1: taking like the consensus player, but doing the homework and
Speaker 1: the deep dives and finding out what this guy can
Speaker 1: be unlocked to what level he can be unlocked at
Speaker 1: the next level, because you know, these guys are all
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one years old, like there's a lot more
Speaker 1: meat on that bones.
Speaker 2: So I thought that was cool to hear. Let's go
Speaker 2: ahead and do two more here, Joe Berry.
Speaker 1: I had some good back and forth with him talking
Speaker 1: about Jordan Brooks and the construction of the linebacker room.
Speaker 1: Let's go ahead and go to Joe Berry on Jordan
Speaker 1: Brooks and his phenomenal first year as a Miami Dolphin.
Speaker 10: You know, last year, I'd be the first one to
Speaker 10: tell you we had a pretty special group. We had
Speaker 10: a pretty special room veterans. Also, we lost a couple guys,
Speaker 10: and usually you're not lucky enough to be in a
Speaker 10: situation where, you know, usually we're like Damn. We lost
Speaker 10: two really good players. We replaced them with two really
Speaker 10: good players in kJ and Willie. So I don't think
Speaker 10: that we took a step back at all. You know,
Speaker 10: you're talking about Willie Gay that you know, I should
Speaker 10: know this exactly, but I mean, he's started twenty something
Speaker 10: plus games in this league. He started in a Super Bowl.
Speaker 10: kJ Britt was a you know, was a was a
Speaker 10: started two thirds of the season last year in Tampa Bay.
Speaker 10: So we're bringing guys in the fold that because every
Speaker 10: room is about competition. There's no there's nothing set in
Speaker 10: any room, especially in this time of year. It's it's
Speaker 10: about competition and the best guys are gonna play. And
Speaker 10: we added two really good players that are going to
Speaker 10: bring great attitude, uh you know, great careers so far
Speaker 10: in this league. They're bringing it to the table and
Speaker 10: it's gonna it's gonna up the competition in our room,
Speaker 10: which is a good thing.
Speaker 2: One more here from Joe Berry.
Speaker 1: I asked him about the additions this offseason up front
Speaker 1: and his run game coordinator duties and how that can
Speaker 1: help the defense play the structures they play the most,
Speaker 1: which is the Nickel base package, which was the seventh
Speaker 1: highest nickel usage in the NFL last year. How can
Speaker 1: those guys help you play the run from those light boxes,
Speaker 1: which is well kind of the modern game.
Speaker 10: Right, Yeah, you know, I think it's you know, that's
Speaker 10: just that's just today's football. You know, if you can,
Speaker 10: if you can rush for and play coverage and do everything,
Speaker 10: play the run, play the pass, you know, it's gonna help.
Speaker 10: That's kind of our philosophy. Anyways, the D line, we
Speaker 10: got a coach, Clark's got a bunch of new faces
Speaker 10: in that room. But what a what an exciting group,
Speaker 10: you know, And I was just saying this to to
Speaker 10: KG the other day, What a great opportunity for a
Speaker 10: young player to be around a Zach Stealer every day.
Speaker 10: You know, every team has veterans, but every team doesn't
Speaker 10: have great veteran leaders, and Zach Steelers as he's as
Speaker 10: great as a player as I've ever seen in this league.
Speaker 10: But also he's a phenomenal leader. And uh, he's got
Speaker 10: five new young pups that get to follow him around.
Speaker 10: And but I'm excited about that group, and it's it's
Speaker 10: you know, they've been here for shoot, I don't even
Speaker 10: know if they've been here a week yet, but that
Speaker 10: that it's a good exciting young group in that in
Speaker 10: that D line room. So we're we're excited to work
Speaker 10: with him.
Speaker 1: Coach also touched on the astute run defense of Bradley
Speaker 1: Chubb and Jalen Phillips. I wanted to ask him about
Speaker 1: those guys because of the run game coordinator title on
Speaker 1: his on his title, and there are more than pass rushers,
Speaker 1: and so he talked about that pretty well. Also, let's
Speaker 1: go ahead and close up here with Ryan Slowik. I
Speaker 1: asked him what he sees and if fimalafon Wu and
Speaker 1: why he was a good fit for the defense, and
Speaker 1: he almost cut me off where I finished the question,
Speaker 1: which tells me he was eager to talk about our
Speaker 1: new safety here.
Speaker 7: Firstsatility if he can do anything from a safety position
Speaker 7: you want him to do. He has a corner background
Speaker 7: when he was coming out of college. And for us,
Speaker 7: like we've had versatility before, like guys like Jalen from
Speaker 7: the outside in, but now you get that from that
Speaker 7: safety position. So from that guy from the third level
Speaker 7: can drop down, he can blitz, he can cover, he
Speaker 7: can tackle, he can play deep. So versatility for him
Speaker 7: as us.
Speaker 1: And we'll close this player or this podcast rather with
Speaker 1: the player that I opened the Hidden Gem segment on
Speaker 1: Wednesday with Patrick McMorris. We see him working his butt
Speaker 1: off out here at practice every day. What do you
Speaker 1: think about Pat mcmorris's development here in a second year coach.
Speaker 1: We'll go ahead and bring it home with that.
Speaker 7: Even way back to when he was injured and then
Speaker 7: started this season on IR, I would say consistency, Like
Speaker 7: Pat was in the building all the time trying to
Speaker 7: soak up more knowledge, trying to stay consistent, understand what
Speaker 7: it takes to be a pro, super smart who loves
Speaker 7: the studying aspect of it. So now to get him
Speaker 7: going and get him rolling full like as a full offseason,
Speaker 7: I'm pretty excited. He's a physical player, he plays physically,
Speaker 7: plays fast, and he plays intelligence, So I'm excited to
Speaker 7: see what the opportunity to bring for it.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying, Man, don't sleep on Patrick McMorris.
Speaker 1: Think that he's a guy that has a real chance
Speaker 1: to kind of make some headway here. Alright, let's go
Speaker 1: ahead and call it a podcast longer one there, But
Speaker 1: I left a ton on the cutting room floor because
Speaker 1: I'm trying to get it all to you guys in
Speaker 1: a concise way. You all please be sure to subscribe
Speaker 1: to the podcast, leave us a rating, leave us a review,
Speaker 1: Follow me on social at wingfle NFL, the team at
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Speaker 1: Fins Up Caroline Cameron, Daddy's Coming Home,