Speaker 1: You were listening to the Miami Dolphins Podcast Network. This
Speaker 1: is Drivetime with Travis Winfield. Back to throw to a
Speaker 1: looking us alta Winde dolphan touchdop, cleric Hill, unbelievable, just
Speaker 1: blue fire for a second time. To know where he
Speaker 1: was going right away ahead of that nun man. I
Speaker 1: want to help you soon up on his band away wattle,
Speaker 1: waddle to a shotgut back to the throw, looking stups
Speaker 1: up fires, touchdop again, It's waddle, It's six touchdown pad
Speaker 1: out of this thing. Drivetime with Travis Winfield begins. Now
Speaker 1: let me check your pulse if not fart of what
Speaker 1: is up? Dolphins And welcome to the Drivetime Podcast, part
Speaker 1: of the Miami Dolphins Podcast Network. Every your team, your
Speaker 1: Miami Dolphins. How's it going? Everybody? I am your host,
Speaker 1: Travis Wingfield. And on today's show, introduce option press conference
Speaker 1: for new Dolphins defensive coordinator Vic Fangio just wrapped up.
Speaker 1: We're gonna go ahead and break down the entirety of
Speaker 1: that press conference from a new Dolphins DC, plus your
Speaker 1: questions via the Twitter mail bag. You want to hear
Speaker 1: about coach Fangio the offseason and a heck of a
Speaker 1: lot more from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist
Speaker 1: Health Training Complex. This is we've heard from coach Fangio
Speaker 1: and coach McDaniel on Monday morning at the introduction press
Speaker 1: conference for Vic Fangio. We streamed it live on YouTube
Speaker 1: on the social channels for your Miami Dolphins. If you
Speaker 1: want to go back and check out the whole press
Speaker 1: or in its entirety, just get over to that YouTube channel,
Speaker 1: go ahead and hit that subscribe button and watch the video.
Speaker 1: But you're here because you want to hear clips from
Speaker 1: the press conference and my analysis on the press conference.
Speaker 1: Let's go ahead and dive right in here first, starting
Speaker 1: with an opening statement from head coach Mike McDaniel. Was
Speaker 1: great to hear from him once again. We'll also hear
Speaker 1: from him next week in Indianapolis at the scouting Combine.
Speaker 1: I believe coaches scheduled to talk on Tuesday afternoon, so
Speaker 1: we'll have that for you guys on the Wednesday podcast.
Speaker 1: But for now, he was simply introducing his new defensive coordinator,
Speaker 1: Vic Fangio. Let's hear it. Go ahead and hear from
Speaker 1: Mike McDaniel on the Dolphins new DC. Yeah. I just
Speaker 1: wanted to introduce UM coach Vic Fangio. Exciting day for
Speaker 1: the Miami Dolphins organization, the fan base really, UM, you
Speaker 1: know since the season ended, you know, really tried to
Speaker 1: attach you know in the journey for looking towards the future. Okay,
Speaker 1: you know who can we entrust to continue to develop
Speaker 1: the players, to maximize all people in the building in
Speaker 1: that regard, to do right by the organization and chase
Speaker 1: UM what we're trying to chase and building building a winner.
Speaker 1: So it was a very easy UM decision when when
Speaker 1: giving the opportunity, I was very excited about the opportunity.
Speaker 1: It was really pumped that he he joined in the
Speaker 1: in the vision UM and and couldn't couldn't be happy,
Speaker 1: couldn't be any happy really for the organization and and
Speaker 1: uh you know really a guy that takes UM professional
Speaker 1: football uh serious. But also the obligation to continue evolve
Speaker 1: and get better and you don't UM have a sustaining
Speaker 1: career UM for you know, longer than I've been alive, really, UM,
Speaker 1: like like Vic has without that that fearless UM chase
Speaker 1: of continually continuing to evolve and uh and get better
Speaker 1: UM and be your best version of yourself. Um as
Speaker 1: you age with grace, So without further ado, um, Vic
Speaker 1: Fangio defensive coordinator for the Miami. It's always nice when
Speaker 1: you identify something that you want, that you desire and
Speaker 1: that thing becomes I guess easy to capture or easy
Speaker 1: to obtain. And it kind of sounds like that's where
Speaker 1: Coach was going towards this whole thing. And I love
Speaker 1: hearing the fact that Vic Fangio obviously was the first
Speaker 1: choice for McDaniel. You hear him talk about how easy
Speaker 1: of a decision it was and how pumped he was
Speaker 1: when he learned that Fangio really shares and rebels in
Speaker 1: that same vision they have for the organization. I think
Speaker 1: that makes all the sense in the world. I think
Speaker 1: you look for someone with experience like Vic Fangio, what
Speaker 1: he brings the defensive side of the ball, and his
Speaker 1: capability of really just kind of being the head coach
Speaker 1: of the defense in that way, and then for Mike
Speaker 1: McDaniel to have his fingerprints all over the offense and
Speaker 1: as the head coach of the entire operation, the entire organization.
Speaker 1: It just seems to me like there is like what
Speaker 1: coach McDaniel talked about there that shared vision of excellence,
Speaker 1: shared idea of the potential, and the teaching aspect to
Speaker 1: get those guys to grow and live up to the
Speaker 1: potential they believe they can play. We're gonna hear from
Speaker 1: Coach Fangio on that just one second. But first we're
Speaker 1: gonna go back to Fangio and his first question was asked,
Speaker 1: what made the Miami Dolphins the right fit for you?
Speaker 1: Here's coach Well, I think the Dolphins have a good
Speaker 1: thing going here. I like the Mike and his staff
Speaker 1: that he already has in place here. I think there's
Speaker 1: good components to the coaching staff led by Mike that
Speaker 1: made it in intriguing to join that. I think there's
Speaker 1: a good nucleus of players here and the lure of
Speaker 1: South Florida. And then, as promised him talking about the
Speaker 1: importance of maximizing the players under his tutelage, here's Coach
Speaker 1: Fangio on how to maximize the players or the potential
Speaker 1: I should say of the players they have on the defense.
Speaker 1: I love the last part he talks about here with
Speaker 1: players with room for potential. Well, I've always believed to
Speaker 1: just try and improve every player as an individual, and
Speaker 1: then hopefully you do that well enough to where their
Speaker 1: position group improves, and if their position group improves, than
Speaker 1: the defense has improved. So you really do it from
Speaker 1: the ground up. And there's a lot of good young
Speaker 1: players here that I think have room to grow, and
Speaker 1: hopefully myself and the staff will get that done. Coach
Speaker 1: Fangio also discussed the relationship between he and Mike McDaniel,
Speaker 1: saying really didn't have one prior to this hiring, but
Speaker 1: he was asked about his first impression of Mike McDaniel
Speaker 1: after getting the job, and McDaniel was on vacation last
Speaker 1: week and now he's here in the buildings. They're both
Speaker 1: working together this week. Here's coach Fangio on his first
Speaker 1: impression of head coach Mike McDaniel. Yeah, well it's been
Speaker 1: very little because I got here last Tuesday and Mike
Speaker 1: was on vacation, so today's the first day we're in
Speaker 1: here together. Now we did some zoom interviews together from
Speaker 1: where he was last week. But you know everything I thought.
Speaker 1: You know, he's energetic, genuine, obviously good, got a good
Speaker 1: football mind, puts good offensive football out there, and hopefully
Speaker 1: we can compliment that, and y'all heard on my podcast
Speaker 1: with Coach about the year off he spent. Here's Coach
Speaker 1: talking a little bit more about what he did during that,
Speaker 1: you know, professor on sabbatical as he described it here
Speaker 1: on the Drivetime podcast. Go back and check out the
Speaker 1: Friday episode if you have not heard that one yet
Speaker 1: with Coach Fango, an exclusive his first as a member
Speaker 1: of the Miami Dolphins here on the Drivetime podcast. But
Speaker 1: he also talked about a few of the players here
Speaker 1: on the roster and that's what I really wanted to
Speaker 1: show you guys. Here's Coach Fangio. Well, you know, I
Speaker 1: didn't study the Dolphins defense per se that much basically
Speaker 1: what I did with all my time, you know, I
Speaker 1: kind of treated it like a college professor on a
Speaker 1: sabbatical and was watching a lot of NFL tape more
Speaker 1: from a situational standpoint rather than studying a team per se.
Speaker 1: So I actually never actually studied the Dolphins in its entirety. Now,
Speaker 1: obviously their games would come across these situational studies that
Speaker 1: I was doing, and I think there's some good young
Speaker 1: talent there obviously, you know, just from two years ago
Speaker 1: in the draft with Phillips and Holland, and those are
Speaker 1: two really good players that I really liked in the draft.
Speaker 1: You know, Bradley Chubb is here, who obviously I know about,
Speaker 1: and several other guys. You know, Christian Wilkins is here,
Speaker 1: who another guy liked in the draft, who you know.
Speaker 1: Christian's greatest honor is the Bill Campbell Award Trophy, which
Speaker 1: is the academic heisman, and Bill Campbell was a good
Speaker 1: friend of mine, so he'll always when I see him,
Speaker 1: I always think of that. But there's a good nucleus
Speaker 1: of players here for me to give you a great
Speaker 1: answer schematically, you know, i'd be stretching it. You also
Speaker 1: heard coach on the Draft Time podcast talk about some
Speaker 1: of the new coverages. He's excited to get a chance
Speaker 1: to come out here and put to some pen to paper,
Speaker 1: if you will, and try him out during ot Is
Speaker 1: in camp. He was asked about that, but again more
Speaker 1: context behind that. He talks a little bit about the
Speaker 1: philosophy of tailing the defense to what you do. Well, Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a few things that that I came up with
Speaker 1: that I'm anxious to try. You know, we'll try him
Speaker 1: and OTAs at some point and in training camp, and
Speaker 1: you know, as a good fit for the other things
Speaker 1: we do. But what's going to be most important is
Speaker 1: tailor and what we do to our players and to
Speaker 1: the opponent that we're playing for that week. So you know,
Speaker 1: there may be things that we did at previous stops
Speaker 1: that we won't do much here because it doesn't fit
Speaker 1: our players, and vice versa. You know, we might do
Speaker 1: something a lot that we didn't do other places because
Speaker 1: it's a better fit for our players. So and sometimes
Speaker 1: it's a better You might think it would be great
Speaker 1: to do something because it fits a certain player really good,
Speaker 1: but you really have to think about how it fits
Speaker 1: all eleven and what's the best way to stop somebody
Speaker 1: from scoring too many points. Really interesting stuff there from
Speaker 1: coach in terms of sometimes you blitz a lot, sometimes
Speaker 1: you don't blitz. You know, just a multitude of things
Speaker 1: you do based upon the personnel you have. Next, he
Speaker 1: was asked about Bradley Chubb and he talked about him
Speaker 1: a little bit and basically said that Chubb had some
Speaker 1: injury issues when he was back there in Denver that
Speaker 1: didn't really allow him to get into the full groove
Speaker 1: except for one portion of that second season. Now Here
Speaker 1: he is talking a little bit about Bradley Chubb, but
Speaker 1: also the combination of he and Jalen Phillips, who, of
Speaker 1: course you heard him mentioned earlier as a player in
Speaker 1: that twenty twenty one draft class that he was a
Speaker 1: big fan of. Here he is talking about the makeup
Speaker 1: and tools of Bradley Chubb and Jaylen Phillips coming off
Speaker 1: the edge. And this Vic Fangio defense sounds good, doesn't it.
Speaker 1: They have great potential, but you know, potential, we gotta
Speaker 1: see it, you know, we're talking about it is easy projecting,
Speaker 1: it is easy, but we got to see it. And
Speaker 1: I'm confident knowing those two guys work ethic that they'll
Speaker 1: do everything they can to put a good product out
Speaker 1: there on the field from the both of them. But
Speaker 1: they both have the tools, both have the makeup to
Speaker 1: be really good players on the edges for us. How
Speaker 1: about your defensive philosophy, coach, would that be? Well? Pretty
Speaker 1: simple stuff here, but it makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 1: Here's coach Fangio and what he hopes to accomplish here
Speaker 1: in Miami with a defense. You know, we're in charge
Speaker 1: of not letting the other teams score and we will
Speaker 1: do anything and everything to do that. You know that
Speaker 1: I've been places in the past where we pressured a lot.
Speaker 1: I've been places where we didn't pressure very much. You know,
Speaker 1: you got to fit the scheme to the players that
Speaker 1: you have while also factoring in the opponents that you're playing.
Speaker 1: So hopefully we'll be a team that will keep the
Speaker 1: points down, make it hard for teams to score a
Speaker 1: lot of points, and put our offense in position to
Speaker 1: score points for us. So you know, I'm not a
Speaker 1: buzzword guy as far as that goes, other than we
Speaker 1: want to play good defense, and what's good defense? Keep
Speaker 1: mind of the end zone. Next one here, I thought
Speaker 1: was really interesting from coach talking about young coaches across
Speaker 1: the NFL working for a coach who was basically born
Speaker 1: around the same time you got into coaching. All these
Speaker 1: offensive whizzes that have these brilliant football minds that make
Speaker 1: it so challenging for the defense to attack in the
Speaker 1: modern NFL. Here's coach, fans, you're talking about the Super Bowl,
Speaker 1: those two teams, those two offenses, those two quarterbacks, and
Speaker 1: the way you stop them evolution, but also talking about
Speaker 1: the running game here, really good stuff here from one
Speaker 1: of the most experienced minds, one of the smartest defensive
Speaker 1: mindsman football, your new defensive coordinat Vic Fangio talking about
Speaker 1: the modern game. Yeah, the game's evolving, you know it.
Speaker 1: You know, since I got in the league, the evolution
Speaker 1: of the game is just continued. And I mean, I
Speaker 1: think we saw it firsthand. And the Super Bowl, I
Speaker 1: guess it was nine days ago, eight days ago. You know,
Speaker 1: two really good, two great quarterbacks, two great offenses, and
Speaker 1: they had their way with the both defenses in that game.
Speaker 1: There was like, I believe, seventeen possessions in that game,
Speaker 1: and I think fourteen of them resulted in scores. And
Speaker 1: we've got to find a way to slow that down.
Speaker 1: And the only way you do that is to evolve
Speaker 1: your philosophy, what you're teaching, what you're playing to fit
Speaker 1: stopping what they're doing. Though, you know, to line up
Speaker 1: and play what you did ten fifteen years ago, although
Speaker 1: you're still doing some of that, you have to adapt
Speaker 1: it to today's NFL game. And you know, when it
Speaker 1: was years ago, you know, every team had a fullback.
Speaker 1: Now hardly any teams have a fullback, and the fullback
Speaker 1: has been replaced by a third wide receiver or a
Speaker 1: second tight end who's like a third wide receiver. That
Speaker 1: in and of itself has changed the game. But teams
Speaker 1: are still running the ball. You know, everybody likes to
Speaker 1: say it's a past happy league, but percentage wise, from
Speaker 1: forty years ago to now, the runs have decreased only
Speaker 1: about four percent. And Chris Greer told me, because he's
Speaker 1: on the Competition Committee, they had a graphic last week
Speaker 1: in a meeting, this is the most runs in the
Speaker 1: NFL this past year, in the last twenty five years.
Speaker 1: So you still have to be able to stop the
Speaker 1: run and play physical. Two more here from coach, and
Speaker 1: I just love what he talked about there with a
Speaker 1: running game and the biggest percentage of run to pass
Speaker 1: differential in the last twenty five years per Chris Greer,
Speaker 1: who's on the Competition Committee. Really good stuff there and
Speaker 1: obviously a big part of this game. And you have
Speaker 1: to be able to defend the run. And we've talked
Speaker 1: a lot about you know, Coach's system with Sean Sayed
Speaker 1: and on the podcast after that as well in terms
Speaker 1: of playing those you know, two high structures ultimately get
Speaker 1: into two and three high and having to sacrifice from
Speaker 1: a player in the box. But when you have guys
Speaker 1: like Seeler and Wilkins that can help control line scrimmage,
Speaker 1: it's going to help you in that run game, defending
Speaker 1: the run despite being you know, light in the box
Speaker 1: as it were, so really fascinating stuff there from coach.
Speaker 1: Let's go ahead to this penultimate question for coach about
Speaker 1: why come back to the NFL right now? A lot
Speaker 1: of coaches that have hate your accomplishments and you know,
Speaker 1: reach a certain age, want to go ahead and right
Speaker 1: off into the sunset. Why come back? Coach? Why? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I just because that's who I am. That's what I do,
Speaker 1: That's what I like to do. I still have a
Speaker 1: lot of coaching left in me, and I don't you know,
Speaker 1: it's not like I'm thinking about retirement or anything. Somebody
Speaker 1: asks how much long are you going to do this?
Speaker 1: I don't know, because it might be ten years. If
Speaker 1: they'll have me here for ten years. It's just who
Speaker 1: I am, what I do, what I enjoy doing, Like
Speaker 1: the competition. I like teaching players. I like to see
Speaker 1: players improve as into visuals and putting something together is
Speaker 1: challenging and fulfilling. And let's go ahead and get to
Speaker 1: the last one here yet. Well, if you want to
Speaker 1: be here ten years, I would be pretty sweet to
Speaker 1: have him and Mike McDaniel here for a decade on
Speaker 1: your coaching staff. Finishing up with our tenth one speaking
Speaker 1: of a decade here, talking about Javon Holland, Coach talked
Speaker 1: about his prowess and what makes him a good player.
Speaker 1: You can find the entirety of this interview up on
Speaker 1: the team YouTube channel. Let's go ahead and go to
Speaker 1: coach for the last one here on safety Javon Holland. Well,
Speaker 1: I haven't studied him enough since he's got in the
Speaker 1: NFL as far as what can I teach him, But
Speaker 1: I do know I really liked him the year he
Speaker 1: came out in the draft. I like his physical ability,
Speaker 1: his combination of size, speed, quickness. He's got good instincts.
Speaker 1: I think he's smart from a football standpoint, And you're right,
Speaker 1: we've had some good luck with safeties over the years
Speaker 1: and the last few stops, and I'm hopeful and confident
Speaker 1: that he can be one of the top safeties in
Speaker 1: the great stuff there from Coach and Coach in their
Speaker 1: Monday Morning introduction press conference. Let's go ahead and pick
Speaker 1: this up as the laptop fires up with your mail
Speaker 1: bad questions. I put the call out on Twitter on Thursday.
Speaker 1: I think it was I wanted to give you all
Speaker 1: plenty of time to get those questions in, and let's
Speaker 1: go ahead and answer some of those questions right now
Speaker 1: here on the podcast. First one from at fins fan X.
Speaker 1: Which players do you think can benefit the most from
Speaker 1: Fangio's coaching. Where I think you stand to see a
Speaker 1: big potential change and perhaps better production is with the
Speaker 1: ability for Miami to pressure with just four guys up front. Now,
Speaker 1: if you go back and look at the list of
Speaker 1: reported candidates for the DC job, they all had something
Speaker 1: in common blitz rates in the fifteen to twenty percent rage,
Speaker 1: which is a significant reduction from what we've seen here
Speaker 1: in the past. Now, that's obviously not a guarantee that
Speaker 1: it just automatically improves your defensive numbers, but I do
Speaker 1: think that the personnel is more suited for that style
Speaker 1: of defense, particularly after the Bradley Chubb trade last season.
Speaker 1: He's probably the first guy that comes to mind him
Speaker 1: and Jalen Phillips Off the edge, Fangio was a long
Speaker 1: time outside linebackers coach, and he had a as you
Speaker 1: heard on the Friday podcast with Fangio on the pod
Speaker 1: and then hearing from Brandon Staley and other people that
Speaker 1: kind of gave us some testimonials there. You know, the
Speaker 1: Dome Patrol defense the New Orleans Saints back in the
Speaker 1: late nineties that Fangio was a coach of. It's just
Speaker 1: kind of to get a nickname at a position group
Speaker 1: means a lot. And so I think that when you
Speaker 1: look at the guys he's coach, the Khalil Max, the
Speaker 1: Bradley Chubbs, the von Miller's now he gets Chubb again
Speaker 1: and Jalen Phillips, I just think that that's a big
Speaker 1: area that can really benefit from his tutelage. And I
Speaker 1: say that because one of the things I've come to
Speaker 1: learn and really admire about this defense and how coach
Speaker 1: Fangio is perceived by film gurus, and simply just what
Speaker 1: the tape shows is that you're not going to find
Speaker 1: many defenses that disguise things better. The piece I mentioned
Speaker 1: on the Friday pod from Ted Wynn and The Athletic
Speaker 1: had a quote from an anonymous player who said, you're
Speaker 1: going to get very little pre snap from Fangio's defense.
Speaker 1: You just don't get a lot of information based upon
Speaker 1: what he shows. And let's actually go ahead and dtour
Speaker 1: from that point here real quick, because two players I
Speaker 1: think could see a nice little jolt as well are
Speaker 1: the two young studs we have at safety in Javon
Speaker 1: Holland and Brandon Jones. The way those guys prepare, the
Speaker 1: way they communicate, how fast they play. As a result
Speaker 1: of all that, I think they are quintessential pieces to
Speaker 1: maximize the defense's ability to disguise what it does. And
Speaker 1: with all the hybrid coverage and variety you get on
Speaker 1: the back end from man match and zone match principles,
Speaker 1: it puts more eyes in the quarterback and for Javon Holland,
Speaker 1: you know him keying quarterbacks and playing more robber roles
Speaker 1: and buzzing crossers and coming down as a spy, you know, slash, hook, convert,
Speaker 1: blitzing at the line of scrimmage off the edge. Look
Speaker 1: at all the defenses Fangio has run and there is
Speaker 1: always a safety with massive production. Justin Simmons was a
Speaker 1: four or five interception per year guy in Denver under
Speaker 1: Fangio Eddie Jackson in Chicago had a breakout ca pain
Speaker 1: when Fangio got there to Sean Goldson and Dante Whitner
Speaker 1: in San Francisco. I see no reason that you don't
Speaker 1: see Javon Holland doing just that. The guy had three
Speaker 1: picks last year and a strip sack that produced a
Speaker 1: touchdown a few plays later in a defense that had
Speaker 1: him twenty yards off the ball, just basically patrolling the
Speaker 1: deep vertical shots, and he did a good job of that.
Speaker 1: But more opportunities to make plays will maximize his skill set. Obviously,
Speaker 1: back to the front though, those safeties and their ability
Speaker 1: to maximize disguise, paired with the simulated rushes and fire
Speaker 1: zone calls, those are designed to not just confuse the quarterback,
Speaker 1: but confuse the production or the protection rather and generate
Speaker 1: one on one matchups. I mean, if you get thirty
Speaker 1: five drop backs in a game and we can get
Speaker 1: twenty of those reps where either Chubb or Jalen is
Speaker 1: one on one outside, they're going to make a big
Speaker 1: impact in the game. But then you also look at
Speaker 1: a lot of the guys that had major production under
Speaker 1: coach Fangio upfront, and it's players with body types and
Speaker 1: placed a lot like Christian Wilkins and Zach Seeler, those
Speaker 1: defensive tackles with inside outside flexibility, you know, great quickness,
Speaker 1: length and power and that two hundred and ninety pound
Speaker 1: a three hundred and ten pound range like they had
Speaker 1: Draymont Jones and Denver. And he was a consistent five
Speaker 1: six seven sacks per year type of player. There Akeem
Speaker 1: Hicks in Chicago a little bit more of a nose,
Speaker 1: but had outside flexibility as well. He was very productive
Speaker 1: with the Bears under coach Fangio. Then finally, the corners
Speaker 1: tend to get takeaway chances as well, which is a
Speaker 1: product of those confusing post nap rotations, playing more coverage
Speaker 1: that has eyes in the quarterback opposed to eyes on
Speaker 1: your man like I remember when Byron Jones signed here,
Speaker 1: the big conversation was around his you know, takeaways or
Speaker 1: lack thereof that he generated, and like he was a
Speaker 1: great player because he was so good at man coverage,
Speaker 1: but that style of play just did not suit you know,
Speaker 1: take It wasn't conducive for a takeaway style defense. But
Speaker 1: if you play more zone when your eyes are on
Speaker 1: the quarterback and you're not, you know, chasing a man.
Speaker 1: There's going to be more chances to capitalize on those mistakes.
Speaker 1: And that's a big area of focus for me because
Speaker 1: how many times did I say on the podcast last year,
Speaker 1: we have to finish chances that we create, because there
Speaker 1: were so many we did create in the Buffalo games.
Speaker 1: You know, they got them in the playoff game, and
Speaker 1: that's why that game was close. Despite the fact that
Speaker 1: the offense just couldn't get anything going all day long,
Speaker 1: it was close because of three turnovers, one for six
Speaker 1: and one that puts you right in scoring range and
Speaker 1: one that led to a field goal. If you can
Speaker 1: do that consistently throughout the year, this team's going to
Speaker 1: be unbeatable. Man. So I think that that scheme and
Speaker 1: style of defense is more conducive to taking the football
Speaker 1: away and capitalizing on those chances when you do get them.
Speaker 1: A good example of this is Patrick Peterson, you know,
Speaker 1: a first ballot Hall of Fame corner for my money,
Speaker 1: who had a bit of a late career resurgence playing
Speaker 1: for the Vikings under Ed Dontel, one of Fangio's longtime
Speaker 1: assistants this past season here with the Vikings for Peterson
Speaker 1: and a lot of that was zone turns with good
Speaker 1: route concept recognition and who's better at that exact trait
Speaker 1: in football than Xavian Howard. In fact, Mike Tannenbaum's site
Speaker 1: in the thirty third team to the series where they
Speaker 1: had x pros build out the perfect players at their
Speaker 1: specific position groups and they had Ron day Barber do
Speaker 1: the perfect dB and he listed Xavian Howard as the
Speaker 1: best route and past concept recognition corner in the NFL.
Speaker 1: So there you go, And finally we touched on this
Speaker 1: and the Shan said podcast. Fangio has traditionally operated with
Speaker 1: primarily nickel defenses in all teams. Do again, for the
Speaker 1: five thousandth time I've said this since doing podcasts back
Speaker 1: in twenty sixteen. Four to three and three four is
Speaker 1: not your base defense. It's a sub package that you
Speaker 1: run a fraction of the time. Got it. Most time
Speaker 1: they spend in sub packages like defense half dollar defense
Speaker 1: dollar that just means more defensive backs. But nickels are primary.
Speaker 1: But all of that makes tackling a very desired trait
Speaker 1: for a defensive back. And that's why I think cater
Speaker 1: Cohu stands to benefit from it. A tremendous tackler down
Speaker 1: in the box and at the line scrimmage all year
Speaker 1: long in twenty twenty two. I know it's like more
Speaker 1: than half a lot. That's what great coaches do, right,
Speaker 1: They maximize the strengths of your players, and coach has
Speaker 1: a lot of talent that he's inheriting here in Miami.
Speaker 1: Great question. I hope I answered that thoroughly. Next up
Speaker 1: from at Navy ninja ninety nine, do you see a
Speaker 1: potential draft prospect that Fangio could want or would fit
Speaker 1: in his scheme? Do you see any free agent pickups
Speaker 1: that we would pick up due to the same reason?
Speaker 1: Why not go all the way and ask the same
Speaker 1: question for the offensive side of the football too, So yeah,
Speaker 1: let's go ahead and look at free agency. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go ahead and bypass the draft portion of that question
Speaker 1: because I haven't gotten far enough into it yet. Let's
Speaker 1: start with free agency here though, and I'm sure this
Speaker 1: list will get picked clean by the time we get
Speaker 1: to the new league year. But just looking at the
Speaker 1: list of expiring contracts, man, there's a lot of guys
Speaker 1: out there. I wonder if that's the result of shorter
Speaker 1: term deals becoming more commonplace across a league the last
Speaker 1: few years. You know, the Albert Haynesworth deals don't really
Speaker 1: happen that much anymore. Offense will be though, if you're
Speaker 1: looking up front, I think it starts with Mike McGlinchey
Speaker 1: from the forty nine ers. He's been a stalwart at
Speaker 1: right tackle in this exact offense for his entire career.
Speaker 1: Fires off the ball, gets great leverage in the running game,
Speaker 1: and did a good job keeping four different Niners quarterbacks
Speaker 1: upright all year long. They were they missed him when
Speaker 1: he was not available this past season. Excuse me. The
Speaker 1: other name that really pops off the screen on the
Speaker 1: offensive lines Philadelphia, Isaac Somalu. What a year he had
Speaker 1: on the best offensive line in the NFL. Similar style
Speaker 1: in terms of how he plays at a certain speed,
Speaker 1: total ass kicker on the run game. And it'll be
Speaker 1: interesting to see who shakes free on that team because
Speaker 1: Philly has a bunch of free agents that they have
Speaker 1: to pay this year, so he could be one of them.
Speaker 1: Chomps Gardner Johnson could be another one if he gets free.
Speaker 1: One of my favorite players in the National Football League.
Speaker 1: They did just trade for him, though, so maybe he
Speaker 1: gets brought back, But we're not really discussing that, just
Speaker 1: scheduled free agents whose games I like. On that same defense,
Speaker 1: t J. Edwards is a really, really good three down linebacker,
Speaker 1: he asked here in the mailbag. Some linebackers I might
Speaker 1: like TJ. Edwards as near the top of that list.
Speaker 1: So was David Long of the Titans. Those guys are
Speaker 1: really intriguing to me. Back to Philly, James Bradberry, the cornerback,
Speaker 1: is scheduled to be a free agent. Always been a
Speaker 1: big fan of his game. Like again, I'm excited, man,
Speaker 1: there are options. Oh and one more tight end, Hayden Hurst.
Speaker 1: I love his game. There's a great tight end class
Speaker 1: this year too, by the way, talking about draft, but
Speaker 1: I loved Hurst's game out of South Carolina. And a
Speaker 1: cool story from twenty twenty one. Every Sunday at home games,
Speaker 1: you know, I go behind the goalpost on the north
Speaker 1: end of hard Rock Stadium and snap a photo of
Speaker 1: the field to promote the podcast for that week. When
Speaker 1: we played the Falcons, I saw four people right in
Speaker 1: front of me wearing hurst jersey. So I asked, I'm
Speaker 1: guessing you guys might know Hayden Yeah, whereas family. They
Speaker 1: told me so, I mentioned to them how much I
Speaker 1: loved the feature story the Falcons did on him earlier
Speaker 1: that year on mental health, because there was a really
Speaker 1: good deep dive on Hayden Hurst getting drafted to play
Speaker 1: baseball in the first round and like kind of lost
Speaker 1: his fastball as a picture and it got to him.
Speaker 1: It made him pretty depressed, and so he wound up
Speaker 1: leaving baseball and going back to college and playing football
Speaker 1: and then went up being a first round draft pick
Speaker 1: there against They did a great feature on the Falcons thing,
Speaker 1: and I just told him, A huge fan of your son,
Speaker 1: a huge fan of your brother, and maybe one day
Speaker 1: we can see him down here and we can do
Speaker 1: another piece on him with that. But he's a scheduled
Speaker 1: to be a free agent. We'll see if the Bengals
Speaker 1: bring him back. On top of the fact that I
Speaker 1: just you know, I think that he got better in
Speaker 1: terms of being a two way tight end, pass game
Speaker 1: and blocking game. I'm a huge Hayden Hurst fan and
Speaker 1: what he brings the table. Next question here, Let's go
Speaker 1: ahead and next you take our last break. We'll come
Speaker 1: back on the other side and finish up the mailbag.
Speaker 1: That's next Drivetime podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to
Speaker 1: you by a donation. Picking it back up on the
Speaker 1: Twitter mailbag. I put out the call for questions. You
Speaker 1: guys ask him, I answer them here on the podcast
Speaker 1: from Hoover Underscore twenty three at eight after the eight
Speaker 1: and three start, I think another year without a playoff
Speaker 1: wins to disappointment. Why will twenty twenty three be different? Well,
Speaker 1: I always have a hard time articulating this, so I'll
Speaker 1: just be straight up with it. Like football, sample sizes
Speaker 1: are small and the results don't always reflect a team's
Speaker 1: true ability or capabilities, or however you want to phrase that.
Speaker 1: It's why I'm so big on the concept of process
Speaker 1: over results. I know the thing that goes around social
Speaker 1: these days or that all teams have injuries, and they do,
Speaker 1: but not all injuries are created equally. The Dolphins just
Speaker 1: had them pile up at the same positions, key positions,
Speaker 1: I would argue three of the top five most important
Speaker 1: positions of the National Football League. You know, by now
Speaker 1: the quarterback deal, I mean to have four games of
Speaker 1: the backup starting backup quarterbacks starting the game and not
Speaker 1: having said quarterback finished the game until the regular season
Speaker 1: finale game number four of that stretch, that's just not
Speaker 1: something teams deal with very often. How about using seven
Speaker 1: offensive tackles and Brandon Shell getting the most snaps of
Speaker 1: any tackle on the entire roster and in seasons signing
Speaker 1: that's attrition. And then at cornerback no Byron Jones all year,
Speaker 1: Nick Needham goes down Week six. Brandon Jones, I know
Speaker 1: he's on a Quarny's a safety, but he goes down
Speaker 1: in week seven. Xavian Howard misses a couple of games,
Speaker 1: you know, two division losses to teams that were inferior
Speaker 1: to Miami this year. If you have X and those games,
Speaker 1: do those swing a little bit? Maybe Trull Williams injured
Speaker 1: in training camp, McKenzie Alexander signs and then gets injured
Speaker 1: in training camp. So that's my main reason I'm awfully
Speaker 1: bullish on this team heading into the offseason. I would
Speaker 1: say my other two are this number two, getting to
Speaker 1: know Mike McDaniel and what makes him tick and how
Speaker 1: he conducts himself. To me, he's a guy that's willing
Speaker 1: to accept where things didn't go his way and actively
Speaker 1: work to fix them like ego lists right, and I
Speaker 1: think fangio Hire speaks volumes to that we know that
Speaker 1: there were, you know, too many pre snap issues, too
Speaker 1: many timeouts in the first quarters of games. I think
Speaker 1: that's something that he'll take a long, hard look at
Speaker 1: and work to get the entire communication operation better and improved.
Speaker 1: In his second sees him and then part three ties
Speaker 1: into that this is an extremely complex offense and even
Speaker 1: if weren't, all the great quarterbacks say that it's typically
Speaker 1: year two where you begin to feel like a new
Speaker 1: system then becomes second nature to you, and two a
Speaker 1: playing even more instinctive, even more in tune with this system.
Speaker 1: I mean, he led the NFL and passer rating largely
Speaker 1: because of his ability to play fast in every aspect
Speaker 1: of the position and of the game. So if he's
Speaker 1: even more dialed, and this was the first time since
Speaker 1: high school with the same play caller in back to
Speaker 1: back years, then I think about what coach mentioned with
Speaker 1: Jalen Waddle and the big jump he took from the
Speaker 1: offseason program last year to training camp. Well, what does
Speaker 1: that look like from year one to year two? Has
Speaker 1: to be exponential, And on that topic, coach talked about
Speaker 1: the offensive line and playing in this system and sort
Speaker 1: of retraining a lot of what you had learned through
Speaker 1: your entire football life. What does that look like for
Speaker 1: year two for toront Armstead, for Robert Hunt, for Carna Williams,
Speaker 1: for the development of Austin Jackson, Leam Wickenberg and Robert Jones.
Speaker 1: Does Brandon Shell kind of find a a second gear
Speaker 1: if he gets resigned here? I think you have continuity
Speaker 1: on an offense that has proof of concept, and not
Speaker 1: just that stretches of record setting pace of proof of concept.
Speaker 1: I think you have tons of talent on defense that
Speaker 1: is now coached by arguably the best defensive coordinator, certainly
Speaker 1: one of the smartest and most experienced in the game.
Speaker 1: I think that injury accumulation benefits not just the offense
Speaker 1: and defense, but special teams in a big way. You
Speaker 1: start pulling depth up to play sixty snaps on defense
Speaker 1: and they get a reduction in playing time on special teams.
Speaker 1: You're liable to take a hit there as well. So
Speaker 1: I hope that adequately defines why I think this team
Speaker 1: is well positioned. I think they've drafted well with Chris
Speaker 1: Greer and his staff. I think they've often sought a
Speaker 1: person and finished the job getting them with coach McDaniel
Speaker 1: to Ron Armstead, Tyreek Hill coach Fangio. I think brianon
Speaker 1: Shore kills it in the way that he manages the
Speaker 1: cap and keeps the team flexible from a salary cap standpoint.
Speaker 1: I think the coaching staff is really damn good. I
Speaker 1: think the quarterback's really damn good. I think we have
Speaker 1: a very very good roster, and I think it's a
Speaker 1: roster that plays for each other and has a great
Speaker 1: culture they've established here as well. So those are my reasons.
Speaker 1: The caveat nothing is one until Sundays. Bad luck is
Speaker 1: not automatically as chewed because you had it last year.
Speaker 1: I think it was a good team who is fully
Speaker 1: capable of buttoning up things that went wrong a year ago.
Speaker 1: Let's go ahead and finish up here with at Oh boy,
Speaker 1: how do I pronounce this g stat work? How do
Speaker 1: the team know Connor Williams would be such a good
Speaker 1: fit at center? I think there's a few traits that
Speaker 1: really translate here. Smart, quick off the football, incredibly athletic.
Speaker 1: We saw him get wide on several blocks this year.
Speaker 1: We saw him execute reach blocks where you're outflanked and
Speaker 1: the guy has you out leveraged based upon his pre
Speaker 1: snap alignment. You have to win anyways, and he did
Speaker 1: that with regularity. Very tough block to execute and just
Speaker 1: does it so well all the damn time. So that
Speaker 1: really expands what you can do in the pivot. But
Speaker 1: I think the athletic ability paired with his intelligence is
Speaker 1: where it really differentiates Connor Williams from you know, I
Speaker 1: guess the other twenty seven centers in the league. I
Speaker 1: think he's better than recognition of fronts, getting calls communicated,
Speaker 1: the protections sorted. These are just keys to the position.
Speaker 1: And I'm sure they felt that he was like a
Speaker 1: level requisite with having the offense operate like they want to,
Speaker 1: because remember we had that sit down with Connor Williams
Speaker 1: last year and the five thankspiece I wrote from Miami
Speaker 1: Dolphins dot com. He went to Texas and he qualified
Speaker 1: for their business school, which is like very very tough
Speaker 1: program to get into. I think Eddie like a three
Speaker 1: seven five and GPA and some you know, extracurriculars as well.
Speaker 1: So smart athletic essentially, the traits we saw in Alex
Speaker 1: mac when Shanahan and McDaniel brought him from Cleveland to
Speaker 1: Atlanta to San Francisco. I think Connor has similar traits.
Speaker 1: So there you go. That's the Twitter mailbag. I appreciate
Speaker 1: you guys as questions. We'll do that more as we
Speaker 1: go along here in the off season. In the meantime,
Speaker 1: that's gonna be my time you all. Please be sure
Speaker 1: to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcast, leave us
Speaker 1: a rating and leave us a review. You can follow
Speaker 1: me on Twitter at Wingfield NFL. Follow the team at
Speaker 1: Miami Dolphins. Check out the fish Tank podcast with Seth
Speaker 1: and Juice. Check out the team YouTube channel from the
Speaker 1: press conference, the bick Fangios sit down. Tons of media
Speaker 1: availabilities and content out there as well, and last but
Speaker 1: not least, Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time finds
Speaker 1: up Caroline and Camera and Daddy. He's coming home.