Speaker 1: That field touchdown, Miami Drawn. What is up? Dolphans And
Speaker 1: welcome to the Drive Time Podcast, part of the Miami
Speaker 1: Dolphins official podcast network, covering your team, your Miami Dolphins.
Speaker 1: How's it going everybody? It is Tuesday. Season is in
Speaker 1: the books. I am your host, Travis Wingfield, and I'm
Speaker 1: here to bring you your daily dose of Miami Dolphins football.
Speaker 1: And on today's show, the season is a wrap. The
Speaker 1: Buccaneers are world champions. We're gonna welcome in Field Yates
Speaker 1: of ESPN to talk about next steps for the Miami Dolphins.
Speaker 1: Will look back at the first two years under Chris
Speaker 1: Greer and Brian Flores and project where this team is going.
Speaker 1: All of that and more on this Tuesday, February, the
Speaker 1: ninth edition of the Drive Time Podcast. Miami Times. And So,
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl is in the books. It's a rap
Speaker 1: not the game. I think from a competitive standpoint, the
Speaker 1: neutral observer typically roots for. I was personally pulling for
Speaker 1: the a f C side, because typically I do root
Speaker 1: for the conference the Dolphins are in, unless it's been
Speaker 1: a division opponent over the last several years. But the
Speaker 1: Chiefs come up short to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Tom
Speaker 1: Brady's first year in Tampa Bay yields a Lombardi Trophy
Speaker 1: number seven for Brady all time. What a heck of
Speaker 1: a run he's had, What a heck of a career
Speaker 1: he's had with that Buccaneers team. Thought it was kind
Speaker 1: of cool with seeing Dominican Sue get his first ring.
Speaker 1: A guy that's been a productive player in league for
Speaker 1: a long time, was a member of the Miami Dolphins
Speaker 1: for quite some time as well, he gets his first ring.
Speaker 1: So congratulations to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They pull off
Speaker 1: the upset in the Super Bowl. I you know, I
Speaker 1: thought the Chiefs were gonna win that game, and they
Speaker 1: just were sloppy from the start. It seemed like in
Speaker 1: terms of the penalties, how many flags came out in
Speaker 1: that game. They had double digit flags for over a
Speaker 1: hundred yards in that game. Patrick Mahomes on the move
Speaker 1: constantly throughout the course of the night. Some of the
Speaker 1: incompletions he had in that game were, I mean, the
Speaker 1: highlights of the game because of how impressive they were
Speaker 1: throwing the ball falling to his side. One of the
Speaker 1: best memes I saw on Twitter on Super Bowl Sunday
Speaker 1: was a side by side shot of that incomplete past
Speaker 1: that Mahomes through on fourth down where he's basically parallel
Speaker 1: to the ground falling to the ground side by side
Speaker 1: with White Goodman from Dodgeball, Ben Stiller's character and that
Speaker 1: great Vince Fawn movie back in like two thousand five,
Speaker 1: pretty much the exact same throw there from Patrick Mahomes.
Speaker 1: So he remains ridiculous despite the fact that he and
Speaker 1: the Chiefs are now one and one in Super Bowls
Speaker 1: with that collection of players. But that means the end
Speaker 1: of the season now, it means it's all about one
Speaker 1: free agency on the periphery draft season, well within draft
Speaker 1: season right now. And I put the off season calendar
Speaker 1: for the NFL up in Monday's Blitz article up on
Speaker 1: Miami Dolphins dot com, where we look at the timeline
Speaker 1: for and events to occur around the league. Of course,
Speaker 1: this year we're not going to have the scouting combine
Speaker 1: with everybody descending onto Indianapolis, but there is the window
Speaker 1: for the franchise and transitional player that is from February
Speaker 1: to March ninth, where teams can designate one franchise or
Speaker 1: transitional player. From March fifteen through seventeen, those are the
Speaker 1: three days before free agency begins where clubs are permitted
Speaker 1: to contact and enter into contract negotiations with players with
Speaker 1: agents of players rather who will become unrestricted free agents
Speaker 1: on the new league year. And that new league year
Speaker 1: starts on March seventeenth at four pm Eastern. Set your
Speaker 1: calendars right now, set your alarm clocks for March seventeenth,
Speaker 1: the start of the new league year. That's when everything
Speaker 1: really gets going here, and that's on a Wednesday for
Speaker 1: you guys here. So free agency, we're gonna have that
Speaker 1: covered on Drivetown at Miami Dolphins dot com in depth.
Speaker 1: Every signing, every action we take will be all over that.
Speaker 1: So the official start of the new league year March seventeenth,
Speaker 1: Wednesday at four pm Eastern. And on April nineteen, offseason
Speaker 1: workout programs can begin, and on a bull the last
Speaker 1: day for restrictive free agents to sign their offer sheets occurs.
Speaker 1: And then finally we have the draft on April through
Speaker 1: May one, and the draft is scheduled to take place
Speaker 1: this year in Cleveland, Ohio. All R, let's go ahead
Speaker 1: and get to my guest now on this edition of
Speaker 1: the Drivetime podcast. The Tuesday February the ninth edition. Field
Speaker 1: Yates of ESPN and writing Shotgun Now on the Drivetime
Speaker 1: podcast is Field Yates. He's an NFL insider for ESPN
Speaker 1: and co host of the Fantasy Focus Football podcast and
Speaker 1: Field I think you're missing one major skill set here
Speaker 1: from the Twitter bio man Senior Bowl Anchor extraordinaire. I
Speaker 1: had a lot of fun down there in Mobile. And
Speaker 1: you know, I'll go through the usual and say thank
Speaker 1: you for the opportunity to my employer. But I'm easy
Speaker 1: to see when I say that, right, the ESPN put
Speaker 1: some faith in me to go down to Mobile and
Speaker 1: be a part of the tremendous coverage. Such a fun
Speaker 1: event though in so many ways, you know, I think
Speaker 1: in any year it's fun. But you know, I was
Speaker 1: talking about this with some of my colleagues that were
Speaker 1: down there in Lewis Red, my pant About and Todd McShay.
Speaker 1: Just so good to be on a football field. You know,
Speaker 1: many of us have not been in the football stadium
Speaker 1: for close to a year. Much has been on the
Speaker 1: field to be a ground level to be amongst not
Speaker 1: just the players, but the two great coaching staffs, the
Speaker 1: Miami Dolphins, and the Carolina Panthers. Was that's a pretty
Speaker 1: special opportunity to be Okay, Yeah, the things that we
Speaker 1: that we took for grant in the past, right, we
Speaker 1: no longer do. Like you mentioned that, there was actually
Speaker 1: the Week two Dolphins and Bills game. I was there
Speaker 1: in the press box and the CBS feed had got
Speaker 1: cut for like three or four minutes, and so I
Speaker 1: was literally like tweeting out my fan base and they're like,
Speaker 1: Travis's Twitter's timeline is where we're gonna find the place
Speaker 1: for the game today. So it's has been a crazy year, man,
Speaker 1: But I thought you killed it, and and you mentioned
Speaker 1: McShay and Riddick and tannem baumb man, I wanted to
Speaker 1: ask you this because those are three, you know, heavy
Speaker 1: hitters in terms of football knowledge and football insight and
Speaker 1: resumes in the in the league. What is it like
Speaker 1: being around those guys when you're evaluating a hundred and
Speaker 1: thirty five prospects, like you have to soak up some information,
Speaker 1: I'd imagine. Yeah, it's so unique because each one of
Speaker 1: them brings a different perspective as well. Right, you know,
Speaker 1: Mike Cannon almost start there obviously very familiar to Dolphins fans.
Speaker 1: He was, you know, either a GM or the e
Speaker 1: VP of football operations for basically twenty years. Obviously led
Speaker 1: the show in Miami, led the show in New York.
Speaker 1: Yet and of course in the fact that it was
Speaker 1: a Dolphin staff and there were time people that Michael
Speaker 1: is very familiar with. I felt like I was walking
Speaker 1: around with the mayor of mobiles when you were near
Speaker 1: Mike Sannon bombs. But Mike has basically seen every single situation.
Speaker 1: Lewis Riddick did not just play the game. He also
Speaker 1: was a scout for many years, a working personnel for
Speaker 1: many years of both Washington football team and the Philadelphia Eagles.
Speaker 1: And now he's evolved into one of e fpn's foremost
Speaker 1: game analysts. Obviously part of the Monday Nights Football Books broadcast,
Speaker 1: and you can tap into all the different uh tenets
Speaker 1: of his coverage. I think you've got Todd McShay who
Speaker 1: is still library and I'm fortunate to do the podcast
Speaker 1: called The First Draft with Todd McShay and mel kiper Jr. Ever,
Speaker 1: single two they would drop an episode for PM E. Sterns.
Speaker 1: I'm fired from the shameless plug and it never ceases
Speaker 1: too amazing that these two have an energy that is
Speaker 1: unmatched and a passion that's unmatched, rolldecks of information that's
Speaker 1: unmatched about these prospects. There thousands, and I'm not exaggerating.
Speaker 1: There are players they are responsible to be somewhat familiar with.
Speaker 1: By the time the draft rolls around. Each of them
Speaker 1: could basically uh discuss those players as if they were
Speaker 1: their own children. They have such good knowledge of them.
Speaker 1: I love working with all those guys. That's what makes
Speaker 1: the draft, watching the entire seven round, you know, extravaganza
Speaker 1: for a week and an ESPN does such a great
Speaker 1: job on the coverage because you get these inside stories
Speaker 1: on these kids that you probably didn't know beforehand, like
Speaker 1: for instance, last year Solomon killing the big fish the
Speaker 1: lifeguard for the Miami Dolphins and that great story that
Speaker 1: that provided us so much content this year for Miami
Speaker 1: Dolphins dot Com and here on Drive Time that we
Speaker 1: didn't know about before the ESPN shared that story. So
Speaker 1: that was that was really cool to see. And you mentioned,
Speaker 1: you know, being down there on the field and mobile
Speaker 1: for the press for the Senior Bowl, for all those
Speaker 1: practices and feel I think my favorite part of the
Speaker 1: coverage was the micd up segments with the coaches, like
Speaker 1: what was that from your what was that like from
Speaker 1: your guys perspective? As far as getting those coaches miked
Speaker 1: up and just hear what they had to say on
Speaker 1: the practice field. Yeah, there's no two ways about it.
Speaker 1: That's the best part. And you know when we go
Speaker 1: down there at the four hours, well two hour broadcast,
Speaker 1: thirty minute breaks and then two hours more for each
Speaker 1: of the practices. And in speaking with our producer Brian
Speaker 1: Rider going into the event, you know, I was hammering
Speaker 1: him with questions like, what are you gonna do here?
Speaker 1: Is We're good, We're gonna hang for two hours. We're
Speaker 1: gonna watch football for two hours and talk about it.
Speaker 1: And it's unlike anything else that we do, at least
Speaker 1: in terms of my response building the b SPN everything else.
Speaker 1: You know, you spend a day working on NFL Live
Speaker 1: Rundown and you know starts at seven am that morning
Speaker 1: until you go on the air at four pm. That's
Speaker 1: just so great about the senior is that the best part,
Speaker 1: without question is when the coaches are animated, the coaches
Speaker 1: are giving you sounds, you get to see the passion
Speaker 1: of East coaches, and there's not one way to skin
Speaker 1: the cat when it comes to coaching. Not every coach
Speaker 1: has to be you know, in your face. Not every
Speaker 1: coach has to be sort of this quiet, stoic leader.
Speaker 1: Not every coach has to be a guy who you know,
Speaker 1: doesn't with energy or enthusiasm or positivity or you know, criticism.
Speaker 1: Everybody is different, and that's what I really enjoyed watching
Speaker 1: both the Panthers and of course the Dolphins staff, as
Speaker 1: we got to see a handful of different Dolphins coaches,
Speaker 1: Mike up and um. You know, it was great to
Speaker 1: be able to chat with them a little bit, you know,
Speaker 1: between drills and before practice as well. But to hear
Speaker 1: that sound when they're on the field doing what they love.
Speaker 1: I think it's the coolest part of the broadcast. Because
Speaker 1: football coaching sounds like a dream job to a lot
Speaker 1: of people, and it is for many. It's also a
Speaker 1: life that is incredibly demanded. You might as well based
Speaker 1: to say good body to your family from the time
Speaker 1: of your report to training camp until the time the
Speaker 1: season is over. But the reason why they do it
Speaker 1: is not just because they want to feed their family
Speaker 1: and they want to provide you know, great life for
Speaker 1: their family is that they can. But it's because they
Speaker 1: love teachings. They love to be teaching, they love to
Speaker 1: be on the field with the players. And that's the
Speaker 1: sound that you get. You can see how contagious their
Speaker 1: energy is. And we got a good up close shot
Speaker 1: there of coach Campanelli, the Dolphins linebackers coach, and I
Speaker 1: think he lost his voice about halfway through one of
Speaker 1: those stack and shed drills, and I was gonna say,
Speaker 1: maybe you go ask him about some food too, because
Speaker 1: he's a kind of guy that we had him every
Speaker 1: other week on the on the press conferences here and
Speaker 1: he would talk about his Sunday dinners back in Jersey. Man.
Speaker 1: He's he's a character. He was fun to watch out there.
Speaker 1: Now you mentioned something their field that I want to
Speaker 1: touch on further, because you talk about these guys being teachers.
Speaker 1: That's a point of emphasis for Brian Flores and he
Speaker 1: he's kind of made this staff into his vision in
Speaker 1: terms of bringing in guys from different areas of you know,
Speaker 1: whether it was coach kurk Kons from last year, who
Speaker 1: was a high school coach in twenty nineteen and comes
Speaker 1: in and leaves Dolphins third down defensive meetings this year
Speaker 1: for the number one third down defense in the National
Speaker 1: Football Like now Charlie Fry here the quarterbacks coach kind
Speaker 1: of turning over the coaching staff and getting his staff
Speaker 1: under his vision. What do you make of the changes
Speaker 1: coaches made to his to his coaching staff. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: so this is this is gonna be flows third year
Speaker 1: with the Dolphins, and there has been quite a bit
Speaker 1: of change. I mean, obviously they had a change of
Speaker 1: defensive coordinator and offensive coordinator last offseason. They did it
Speaker 1: again on the offensive side of the ball this offseason
Speaker 1: with Jan Giles is a great, great man, and I
Speaker 1: wish invest in retirement deciding to retire once again from football.
Speaker 1: So I think one thing that we learned this year, Travis,
Speaker 1: is that we have on the outside it's our job,
Speaker 1: I mean, in the media, it's our job to make
Speaker 1: judgments and and for opinions and to do our best
Speaker 1: with the much as much information as we have, uh,
Speaker 1: and we try to do so responsibly. The reality is
Speaker 1: that as much as we think we might know, or
Speaker 1: we perceive ourselves to know, the people on the inside
Speaker 1: have a much better foundation of knowledge to work off
Speaker 1: of and decide what's right for the staff, what's right
Speaker 1: for the team. So as we've seen all these changes,
Speaker 1: not just this offseason, but even dating back to last
Speaker 1: off season, you know, I'd be easy to say, like, oh,
Speaker 1: you're changing up coordinators after one year, but that seems unusual, right, Well,
Speaker 1: I think it worked out pretty well. And it's not
Speaker 1: just the coaching staff. We saw where a major decision
Speaker 1: was made by Brian Flores that receives some public backlash.
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously the decision at quarterbacks this year to
Speaker 1: go to to us entering the bye week with the
Speaker 1: team playing well and Fitsy having led a couple of
Speaker 1: back to back wins. One thing I've come to know
Speaker 1: about Brian Flores, and I've been fortunate to know him
Speaker 1: for I want to say seventeen or eighteen years now,
Speaker 1: is that, um, he's a man that will refuse to
Speaker 1: be sucked onto the emotional roller coaster. And that's a
Speaker 1: that's a very positive strength of his is that you
Speaker 1: can say whatever you want about him. I don't think
Speaker 1: he's particularly phased by that. And if you're gonna be
Speaker 1: a football coach for a long time, you better not
Speaker 1: be faced by it because there's a lot of noise.
Speaker 1: I mean, we're having podcasts and do a TV show,
Speaker 1: the radio shows, and writing articles every single day, and
Speaker 1: I think that it's important for coaches to be able
Speaker 1: to block out the noise while also addressing what might
Speaker 1: be topical and the media would need be and flows
Speaker 1: on an unbelievable job and sort of telling that line actively.
Speaker 1: And you mentioned it right there at the quarterback position,
Speaker 1: right that was the kind of the storyline down the
Speaker 1: backstretch of the season. And I wanted to touch on
Speaker 1: that because you mentioned, you know, Lewis Riddick and Todd
Speaker 1: mcshade they had kind of gotten into that conversation at
Speaker 1: the end of one of the days of Senior Bowl practices.
Speaker 1: I forget which one, Wednesday or Thursday, but they touched
Speaker 1: on it. And you know, Louis has never one to
Speaker 1: mince his words. That's why I love about him. And
Speaker 1: he's so assertive and confident in his opinion. And he
Speaker 1: put it on Twitter. He talked about it like, I
Speaker 1: don't understand this. You know, it's not new to but
Speaker 1: it's this concept of the quarterback has to show you
Speaker 1: he's a superstar. In the first few stars, otherwise you
Speaker 1: have to find the replacement. But he was adamantly against
Speaker 1: that Todd McShay, who was a big fan of two
Speaker 1: US coming out of college and still remains. So they
Speaker 1: both were very much focused on this point that let's
Speaker 1: see what too can grow and develop into year two,
Speaker 1: Like where does the league sit as far as quarterback development?
Speaker 1: How long it's supposed to take? Like is it really
Speaker 1: the way fans talk about it on social media? Or
Speaker 1: does the league have more of that pulled back classic
Speaker 1: like let's develop this guy mindset? Well, I think probably
Speaker 1: speaking generally, and I want to see generally to start,
Speaker 1: and I think the league and teams are more inclined
Speaker 1: to develop. You know, you didn't invest the fifth overall
Speaker 1: pick on a player to prepare yourself to pull the
Speaker 1: plug one year later. Which that's been part of the
Speaker 1: conversation surrounding two of this offseason is and I want
Speaker 1: to get to the second part of that a minute,
Speaker 1: But there are examples around the league of players that
Speaker 1: have thrived with development. Whether it's a player, I think
Speaker 1: the best example this year is obviously Josh Allen with
Speaker 1: the Buffalo bill who has reached incredible heights in his
Speaker 1: third season when many were ready to write him off
Speaker 1: two years ago. Right, I mean, everybody's any can so
Speaker 1: accurately he's not, and it makes too many bad decisions.
Speaker 1: There was a playoff game last year, as in the
Speaker 1: season against sex Ends where he's laddering the ball haphazardly.
Speaker 1: So as an example of somebody that has grown and
Speaker 1: developed tremendously, I mean, there are guys that make those
Speaker 1: strides and it takes some time. So but there are
Speaker 1: two dynamics that I want to get into, and I'll
Speaker 1: start with this, is that you're right. The other issue
Speaker 1: we have is that we're gonna leave where we have
Speaker 1: examples of quarterbacks bursting onto the scene. Justin Herbert this
Speaker 1: year is a great example. And the fact that he
Speaker 1: was taken one pick behind two US is a fact
Speaker 1: of this conversation. I'm not trying to, you know, uh,
Speaker 1: revisit who made the right pick or who did it.
Speaker 1: That's not what I'm trying to do here. I'm just
Speaker 1: stating the fact that when you have one guy going fix,
Speaker 1: one guy going fix, and the pick six player ends
Speaker 1: up having a tremendous offensive rookie of the year's season,
Speaker 1: that enters the minds of fans that are wondering whether
Speaker 1: it's time to reconsider things. The other dynamic here is
Speaker 1: that the Dolphins, and I don't want to say the
Speaker 1: word gift because it's my agift, they pulled up a
Speaker 1: Master Strokes trade to acquire two first round picks for
Speaker 1: the Houston Textris, I don't believe. I obviously have an
Speaker 1: active question, but I would be surprised if Chris spore
Speaker 1: Brian's lawrence is respecting the one first round pick to
Speaker 1: be third overall. You have this incredible asset on your hands. Again,
Speaker 1: I'm not here to state my opinion about whether who
Speaker 1: they should pick with number three overall. But the only
Speaker 1: reason why this is so different than a different circuits
Speaker 1: than another circumstance is just that you have this opportunity
Speaker 1: potentially to draft the quarterbacks. We know it's not gonna
Speaker 1: be Trevor Lawrence available, whether it's a Zach Wilson, whether
Speaker 1: it's a Justin Field, one of those two players have
Speaker 1: guaranteed to be available at picks three. It's opportunity cause
Speaker 1: and again I'm not here to say that they should
Speaker 1: or should not. I think it's important, though, to identify
Speaker 1: the dynamics of why this conversation is taking place momily,
Speaker 1: and this is all things being equal, is my preference
Speaker 1: is to invest in a player, to ELPA player, support
Speaker 1: that player. And you and I having this conversation the
Speaker 1: morning after the Super Bowl, and I understand that this
Speaker 1: player is not a rookie, but I felt that the
Speaker 1: ascension of Leonard pour Neett in the playoffs for the
Speaker 1: Buccaneers was really notable because many myself included, had some
Speaker 1: fun about the idea that this guy who was supposed
Speaker 1: to be, you know, a franchise altering running back, all
Speaker 1: of a sudden it's not from Jabars. Right, You're like, wow,
Speaker 1: Leonard Fournett, he didn't get picked up off waivers. And
Speaker 1: I understand that salary was more significant, time, etcetera. But
Speaker 1: no one was talking about Leonard Fournette is like this
Speaker 1: massive game changing player anymore? Right, it was wow? That
Speaker 1: guy was a buck Well in the playoffs. I'm not
Speaker 1: saying he was the Buck's best offensive player, but he
Speaker 1: was phenomenally scoring every single game, caught nearly fifteen passes,
Speaker 1: ran the ball effectively in a long rushing touchdown last night.
Speaker 1: It's a team sport man and you've got to invest
Speaker 1: in these players. You gotta believe in them, and you've
Speaker 1: got to prove to them that if you are going
Speaker 1: to ask of them to get everything they have, then
Speaker 1: I'm also willing to reciprocate by developing you and putting
Speaker 1: everything I can behind you to make you a better player.
Speaker 1: And I think the Dolphins that even though it's a
Speaker 1: brief tenure with Brian Florence, have a pretty good track
Speaker 1: record of developing players. So that's why if you, you know,
Speaker 1: told me right now date my case, are they taking
Speaker 1: a quarterback or not? Or the two again next year?
Speaker 1: I believe will be too again next year. And I'm
Speaker 1: really glad you brought that the development hallmark up of
Speaker 1: Brian flores because he talks about it all the time.
Speaker 1: I mean, I've I've written so many pieces this year
Speaker 1: field about how Emmanuel Agba had a breakout season, or
Speaker 1: how Eric Row and you know you're number six is
Speaker 1: having the best year of his career at a new position,
Speaker 1: or Bobby McCain moves to safety a new position and
Speaker 1: has you know, kind of a resurgence in his career
Speaker 1: as well. So it's not just exclusive to rookie's, first
Speaker 1: year player, second year players. I mean, guys develop all
Speaker 1: the time at different stages of their career. And you know,
Speaker 1: that brings me back to kind of an interesting point
Speaker 1: about where this Dolphins team is right now today. Field
Speaker 1: you talk about the morning after the Super Bowl in
Speaker 1: one compared to where they were. Let's go back to
Speaker 1: when Brian Flores was highed the day after the Super Bowl,
Speaker 1: back after the season, where this team was coming in
Speaker 1: they knew they had some contracts to get off the books,
Speaker 1: they had to kind of restock the draft capital. Like
Speaker 1: where was your thirty thousand foot view be of where
Speaker 1: this team has? Like how far they've come in those
Speaker 1: twenty four months from the day Brian Floors was hired
Speaker 1: with Chris Careers the GM to now where they are
Speaker 1: with all this draft capital. They're they're in good shape
Speaker 1: cap wise, They've got a much better roster. How would
Speaker 1: you say they've kind of growing those twenty four months masterfully?
Speaker 1: And I'm not trying. This is not one of those
Speaker 1: where you go on a podcast that runs on the
Speaker 1: team's website and you do your best to say as
Speaker 1: many nice things. So it sounds like a great interview
Speaker 1: and you get a bunch of listons and clicks and
Speaker 1: retweets and all that. I'm saying this because it's back
Speaker 1: and and maybe Dolphins fans don't want to revisit this
Speaker 1: two years ago. Less than two years ago. At this point,
Speaker 1: the Dolphins were losing games and historic fashion. There's always
Speaker 1: that joke that rears itself on Twitter, could Alabama beat
Speaker 1: the worst team in the NFL, And that's it's always
Speaker 1: lame and it's obviously never gonna happen, and would the
Speaker 1: Dolphins at the time would have creamed the Alabama Christen time.
Speaker 1: But the point is that this team reached about as
Speaker 1: low of an on field performance point as you could
Speaker 1: in the NFL. We haven't seen and and we all
Speaker 1: understand this was you know, short term pain for long
Speaker 1: term game. But I wasn't expecting that long term game
Speaker 1: to happen a year later, right, And so we got
Speaker 1: to address a few things. The people and the people
Speaker 1: are unquestionably the right ones in place. You know, Brian Flores,
Speaker 1: you know we didn't did not win it, but it's
Speaker 1: you told me, Brian Flores, with the nfls Coach of
Speaker 1: the Year the fast year, I would have said good.
Speaker 1: He deserved it. Chris Greer, phenomenal job, outstanding person, level
Speaker 1: head and leader. Process. How's the process been. Have they
Speaker 1: made investments that have proved worthwhile? We just mentioned Emmanuel
Speaker 1: as an example. Guys really good maybe and Howard a
Speaker 1: players they've developed themselves by the way, a second round
Speaker 1: tack and I know that was the previous regime, but
Speaker 1: still player who was right there in the stick of
Speaker 1: the defensive Player of the Year conversation. Guys on the
Speaker 1: offensive side of the ball that we're rookies that were
Speaker 1: contributing right away, Sam and Kamley, Robert Hunt playing something
Speaker 1: the past year. Guys like Jesse Davis who are under
Speaker 1: the radar, acquisitions in time that have evolved into other
Speaker 1: team captains or useful pieces. So process, I am on
Speaker 1: board with people. I'm on board with The big question
Speaker 1: is simply going to be and I'm not trying to
Speaker 1: make this about one person, but as you know, the
Speaker 1: quarterback German League too makes that next step watch out.
Speaker 1: It's just a fact and you and obviously there's some
Speaker 1: pieces you gotta probably reinforced. I think you could stand
Speaker 1: at a little more size at wide receiver, um, but
Speaker 1: this is a team that I think is equipped to
Speaker 1: make more strides going forward as as you kind of
Speaker 1: gather the you know, like to go back to the
Speaker 1: quarterback position, like you mentioned their fields, you kind of
Speaker 1: gauge the temperature of the league. Is that a pretty
Speaker 1: general expectation for the quarterback from year one to year
Speaker 1: two to make that jump? Like? Why for fans that
Speaker 1: maybe don't understand the difficulty of going from college to
Speaker 1: the NFL at that position where lights, camera, action, man,
Speaker 1: everything's on you. There's thirty two faces of the franchise
Speaker 1: when it comes to the quarterback position. What's the biggest
Speaker 1: challenge for that big step? And is there a league
Speaker 1: wide expectation like Yeah, once the guys out of that
Speaker 1: rookie season, especially in a pandemic driven off season where
Speaker 1: there is no off season where this guy's coming back
Speaker 1: off of a hip injury that basically he had to
Speaker 1: rehab the whole off season, is there a general expectation
Speaker 1: for a pretty big leap there. Yeah. I don't know
Speaker 1: that I've heard this specifically from Brian flores Um, but
Speaker 1: I know that I heard this for many years when
Speaker 1: spending a lot of time around the Patriots and also
Speaker 1: spending a little bit of time covering them too is
Speaker 1: Bill Belichick has always remarked on how typically the player's
Speaker 1: biggest leap in his NFL career is going to be
Speaker 1: from year one day year two. You know, I always
Speaker 1: laughed at like people ask what happens during rookie mini
Speaker 1: camp when these guys arrived from the facility under normal
Speaker 1: circums for the first time, and it's like they teach
Speaker 1: them where about the locker room? And like what the
Speaker 1: person who, like you know, the security guards name is right.
Speaker 1: It's not like they're getting right in. So here's how
Speaker 1: we're gonna play. Cover two was just you know, down
Speaker 1: in distance. It's no, no, no no, not like it's fundamentally
Speaker 1: you're learning. Like I know this sounds ridiculous, but one
Speaker 1: of the first instullege you'll have is for offensive players,
Speaker 1: how do we huddle up? Where's the left tackle? Where's
Speaker 1: the right tackle? Some guys obviously never huddling college, and
Speaker 1: sometimes it's a little bit different than how other guys
Speaker 1: who did huddling college. So my point is that typically
Speaker 1: that jump happened between the first and second years. Now
Speaker 1: we've also seen it between years two and three. We
Speaker 1: thought it was somebody like Josh Josh Allen, excuse me.
Speaker 1: And then there are other players who it might happen later,
Speaker 1: like Sam Donald might be an example of the guy
Speaker 1: that circumstantially hasn't had quite the same pieces around him.
Speaker 1: So that's why I think this upcoming year could potentially
Speaker 1: be one that we have all eyes onto him, because
Speaker 1: let's let's just operate onto this presumption he's the guy
Speaker 1: going into the season and that the Dolphins use some
Speaker 1: of their resources available to maybe pad the offensive playmakers
Speaker 1: a little bit, whether that's addressing As I mentioned, wide
Speaker 1: receiver to me is an area they could add some depth.
Speaker 1: And then I don't know that running backs is a
Speaker 1: need or if it's not, I need. The reason why
Speaker 1: I say that is that, on the one hand, mild
Speaker 1: Gaskin seventh round pick and Savan Akhmed a waiver wire
Speaker 1: ad play tremendous when given the opportunity. On the other hand,
Speaker 1: the Dolphins also turned to five running backs this year.
Speaker 1: For stretches between those two players, plush Jordan Howard before
Speaker 1: he was waived, Matt Brita who's going to be a
Speaker 1: free agent, but Patrick Lair, So maybe the team says, Hey,
Speaker 1: rether than five guys, let's streamline, let's go to you know,
Speaker 1: let's let's find one workforce back for lack of better
Speaker 1: a term. So if those pieces are put in place,
Speaker 1: and assuming that the system, which I don't think will
Speaker 1: be overhauled, because the two promotions to co offensive coordinators,
Speaker 1: I think that too could be primed for quite a
Speaker 1: leap this year. Now. I did see the Fantasy the
Speaker 1: Fantasy Focused Football podcast love for both Gasking and Akhmed feels.
Speaker 1: We appreciate that definitely here on the Drivetime podcast. And
Speaker 1: you know, I'm glad you mentioned the story about having
Speaker 1: the rookies find the locker room, for instance, because I
Speaker 1: got a good story for you real quickly. Here. This
Speaker 1: was my first year in Miami covering the team, and
Speaker 1: my first week in the building. You know, our old
Speaker 1: practice facility, which will be we'll move to the stadium
Speaker 1: this year at in Miami Gardens. But the practice facility
Speaker 1: and Davy the upstairs hallways, it's amaze. It's an absolute maze.
Speaker 1: And if your first time up there, you do not
Speaker 1: know where you're going. And it was like my third
Speaker 1: day on and I was still trying to find the
Speaker 1: kitchen where the bathroom was and stuff like that, because
Speaker 1: you just get lost up there. And ray Kwon Davis.
Speaker 1: So you've got hundred fifty pound me and three thirty
Speaker 1: pound Rey Kwon Davis comes intersection and we I saw
Speaker 1: him in the in the lobby earlier and he's like,
Speaker 1: where the hell am I going. I'm like, I think
Speaker 1: you turn around and go that way, but I'm not sure.
Speaker 1: Luckily I was right, so it looked like I knew
Speaker 1: what I was doing. But just a fun little story
Speaker 1: about how you know, you gotta find your way around
Speaker 1: the building first before you can worry about playing three
Speaker 1: technique right totally, I mean I know what you're talking about.
Speaker 1: I mean it's much different scale and not that being
Speaker 1: in the SPN employee is its physically demanding as being
Speaker 1: an NFL player. Remember I first got here. I showed
Speaker 1: up to the gym first time I get there, and
Speaker 1: the like, oh, you gotta bring your own power. So
Speaker 1: like I finished up the workout and I'm like, great,
Speaker 1: where is it? You know? Much? Meaning? You know, I'm
Speaker 1: like walking back into uh, into the office with the
Speaker 1: sweaty forehead and like these a little filly you know,
Speaker 1: tiny steps that you gotta take that that impact your
Speaker 1: day to day that you gotta learn in you're a
Speaker 1: rookie or a new person on the job. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: You you mentioned the Super Bowl happened on Sunday, And
Speaker 1: remember Chris Godwin on Hard Knocks one time. They the
Speaker 1: coaches were so impressed, like this guy went guys on apartment,
Speaker 1: He went and took care of his own things. Like
Speaker 1: it's it's a different a different world for a rookie
Speaker 1: coming in to the league, especially you know, guys that
Speaker 1: are going out on their own for the first time. So, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, speaking of that Super Bowl, I wanted to
Speaker 1: ask you kind of you know, going back to the
Speaker 1: Chris career and you talked about the people in the process.
Speaker 1: I thought that was a great quote. Field you mentioned,
Speaker 1: you know, Chris Career putting together this his personnel staff.
Speaker 1: I I've known that he's he's good at delegating. He
Speaker 1: has plenty of people that he puts into position of
Speaker 1: power to to make these decisions and help them kind
Speaker 1: of collaborate and a team effort. But we just saw
Speaker 1: the Tampa Bay Buccaneers shut down what, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: is the greatest offensive engine of all time, and and
Speaker 1: Indie Reid and Patrick Mahomes and all those guys. And
Speaker 1: we saw the Chiefs get there because of that offensive
Speaker 1: engine and that quarterback. So when you consider the end
Speaker 1: of the season and how far teams that one ten
Speaker 1: games like Miami are to these teams that are competing
Speaker 1: for Super Bowls, what have we learned from that super Bowl?
Speaker 1: And how can the Dolphins kind of apply that to
Speaker 1: the offseason to get closer and close that gap between
Speaker 1: Day and the Chiefs and the Buccaneers of the world.
Speaker 1: So I would start here is you're right, is it
Speaker 1: was a great performance last night by the Buccaneers, masterfull
Speaker 1: defensive effort in so many ways. I mean, I think
Speaker 1: most people, um, you know, watch the game and are
Speaker 1: acutely aware of what happens. I'm not going to rehab
Speaker 1: you know, every single detail of what the Bucks did
Speaker 1: right or wrong. I will just say that there were
Speaker 1: some lessons that were reinforced last night. Because I mentioned
Speaker 1: earlier to the quarterback German League, and I'll stand by that.
Speaker 1: But it's a team game, right, That's what we forget
Speaker 1: sometimes is that the masterful performances of somebody like Patrick Mahomes.
Speaker 1: Sometimes none is up to the impact of everybody else
Speaker 1: on the field. And I'm not saying I think sometimes
Speaker 1: people get like they may be misconstrue analysis and that
Speaker 1: Patrick Mahomes could have been better last night. He could
Speaker 1: have His offensive line was completely overmactual last night. And
Speaker 1: we knew coming into the game that offensive tackle injuries
Speaker 1: were concerned for the Chiefs. They stepped up in a
Speaker 1: major way last night. Those injuries did right if they
Speaker 1: reared themselves in a major way last night. So the
Speaker 1: team building lesson is that it's a team team building, right. Um.
Speaker 1: I also think Travis, one thing that's really interesting to
Speaker 1: me is that this is being the Super Bowl champion
Speaker 1: is really tough. You know, it's been sixteen years since
Speaker 1: we had a repeat champion, and that's the longest stretch
Speaker 1: ever in NFL history. A matter of fact, I looked
Speaker 1: this up this morning. It's twice as long as the
Speaker 1: next longest stretch, right, And so what it reinforced to me.
Speaker 1: Another reinforcement reference is that not only is it hard
Speaker 1: to get back to the mountain top, but any given Sunday,
Speaker 1: it takes out the elements a predictability that you can
Speaker 1: sometimes see another sports. And I'm not saying that other
Speaker 1: champions aren't deserving, but as we know in the n
Speaker 1: B A to borrow this reference right now, like the
Speaker 1: Lakers are gonna be really tough to beat provided in
Speaker 1: Lebron James and Anthony Davis are on the court for
Speaker 1: seven games. Right in football, I don't know how many
Speaker 1: times the Bucks beat the Chiefs or the Chiefs beat
Speaker 1: the Bucks if they play a hundred simulations. Maybe it's five,
Speaker 1: maybe it's I don't know, but it didn't matter because
Speaker 1: they played once in one game that matters. And so
Speaker 1: for the Dolphins, it's not just addressing the needs. It's
Speaker 1: not just elevation of quarterbacks play from two and next year.
Speaker 1: It's also that you've got layers of death because it's
Speaker 1: the ultimate team building sports. And if you've got those
Speaker 1: layers of death, you've got a chance exactly right, especially
Speaker 1: when you when you think about the the you know,
Speaker 1: coaching up a scheme or or developing a scheme for
Speaker 1: a certain game plan. We saw that with the Bucks
Speaker 1: in that game and Todd Bowls and the fantastic job
Speaker 1: he did in that game. I want to ask you
Speaker 1: one more thing here, Field with regards to the roster
Speaker 1: building idea, because I'm curious and it pertains to the
Speaker 1: idea of, you know, having a multi year snapshot as
Speaker 1: far as how you build a football team. And maybe
Speaker 1: this isn't back to more of a general question for you.
Speaker 1: Since you are plugged into all thirty two franchises, you know,
Speaker 1: we're in year three hour or approaching your number three
Speaker 1: here with Brian Floors and Chris Career. Is there a
Speaker 1: certain point in an organization where, whether it's the timeline
Speaker 1: of the rookie quarterback contract or the third year of
Speaker 1: the process, fourth year of the process, where you switch
Speaker 1: and say, now, maybe it's not so much about acquiring
Speaker 1: all that draft capital. Maybe we turn the wheel a
Speaker 1: little bit now and we get aggressive, like for instance,
Speaker 1: the best example for me is Los Angeles Rams, and
Speaker 1: this goes back to before these recent trades and theyve
Speaker 1: go out and get Brandon Cooks or a key to leave.
Speaker 1: Is there a point in the franchise where you say, okay,
Speaker 1: now we're ready to twist the screws and be more aggressive.
Speaker 1: I don't think so, only because you know, here's what
Speaker 1: I would say. It's not based off of the year
Speaker 1: it's based off of the quarterbacks readiness, right, So for
Speaker 1: the Chiefs just to go back to them for a second,
Speaker 1: their quarterbacks proved in year two he was ready to
Speaker 1: be a league altering player. So a year after after
Speaker 1: the Chiefs they lost in the AH championship game that year, well,
Speaker 1: they're gonna go out there and they're gonna they're gonna
Speaker 1: take some big swings now, right, because they know they can.
Speaker 1: They acquired Frank Clark as an example, trade for a
Speaker 1: trade for the Seattle Seahawks. Those are the kind of
Speaker 1: things you do because you're like, you know what, let's
Speaker 1: do it. Our quarterback is ready to do it, and
Speaker 1: that might be the difference between us winning and losing.
Speaker 1: But conversely, if your quarterback is not there by year two,
Speaker 1: you might need to keep waiting. I will say this though,
Speaker 1: if your quarterback proves that he's ready during the first
Speaker 1: three seasons of his rookie contract, you start thinking about
Speaker 1: it only just a financial thing. It just is. Quarterbacks
Speaker 1: becomes extension eligible after year three. Usually a team is
Speaker 1: motivated to extend the player if he is worthwhile an
Speaker 1: extension already. Unquestionably, after year three, there's some advantages to
Speaker 1: both by. So if you have a quarterback that shows
Speaker 1: he's ready within the first three years in this contract,
Speaker 1: the wheel does turn a little bit to borrow your plates. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: it's certainly easier when those draft picks come in the
Speaker 1: late twenties too, opposed to you know, like you mentioned,
Speaker 1: having the third pick in the draft this year, definitely
Speaker 1: a benefit hopefully an area of the Dolphins not picking
Speaker 1: in very very often for very long. Here under Brian
Speaker 1: Floors and Chris quer Field Dates. He's at field Dates
Speaker 1: on Twitter, the host of the fantasy focused football podcast
Speaker 1: NFL Insider at ESPN, and the best dance Senior Bowl
Speaker 1: anchor in the game. Field, I appreciate your time today, man.
Speaker 1: If you've got to get back on the peloton, I understand,
Speaker 1: but I appreciate your time today, sir. I live. I
Speaker 1: love that that peloton, man. That thing is often so
Speaker 1: I appreciate you. And that's the loft during the off
Speaker 1: season and we chup again. Sometimes your student sounds good. Field,
Speaker 1: appreciate it, man, all right, and there he goes, Man,
Speaker 1: how great was that? Just some good nuggets there about
Speaker 1: not just the Dolphins but the league in general. Some
Speaker 1: really good insight there into how things kind of operate
Speaker 1: this time of year. I've said it before in the podcast,
Speaker 1: the off seasons kind of where you know, a fan
Speaker 1: like myself lives because you get a chance to to
Speaker 1: play with the scenarios and it's not so black and
Speaker 1: white like a result on game day. There's so many
Speaker 1: different simulations and permutations you can operate with and mock
Speaker 1: drafts and and if you guys are a fan of
Speaker 1: of doing the mock drafts, like the Draft Network stuff.
Speaker 1: Also check out fans Speaks Mock off Season simulator. A
Speaker 1: lot of fun you can have there with giving out
Speaker 1: players contracts and stuff like that. Just a lot of
Speaker 1: fun to participate as a fan this time year. Put
Speaker 1: the GM head on as we trust Brian Floors and
Speaker 1: Chris we are to build this Dolphins team to their
Speaker 1: vision and continue that trajectory they are on. So Field
Speaker 1: Yates ESPN. Check out his work. He's a great follow,
Speaker 1: a great fantasy football expert, a great insider. Plenty of
Speaker 1: great stuff to say about Field here on the podcast.
Speaker 1: As for this edition the Drivetime Podcast, that is going
Speaker 1: to be my time you all please be sure to subscribe, rate, review,
Speaker 1: follow me on Twitter at Wingfield NFL, follow the team
Speaker 1: at Miami Dolphins, check out the fish Tank and the
Speaker 1: Audible podcast, and of course Miami dolphins dot com. And
Speaker 1: until next time, fins up.