Speaker 1: To us fires touch style by Waddle snuck into the
Speaker 1: end zone of Miami Boy. Tight froll, tight window. They
Speaker 1: had to get that touchdown on that play. They get it.
Speaker 1: What is up, Dolph fans and welcome to the Drivetime Podcast,
Speaker 1: part of the Miami Dolphins podcast network, covering your team,
Speaker 1: your Miami Dolphins. How's it going everybody? I am your host,
Speaker 1: Travis Wingfield, And on today's show, we're going back over
Speaker 1: everything we missed from the initial reaction show, our second
Speaker 1: glance at week one of the preseason, taking a look
Speaker 1: at the copy again. We'll give you some interesting stats
Speaker 1: from PFF, and we'll hear from head coach Mike McDaniel
Speaker 1: and his day after presser from Baptist Health Studios inside
Speaker 1: the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Drivetime Podcast
Speaker 1: kicking this thing off here. And if you missed the
Speaker 1: Sunday recap edition of the game that had the original notes,
Speaker 1: you're gonna find your Skyler Thompson breakdown in that one.
Speaker 1: You're Darius Hodge, a little bit of that Porter Gustin
Speaker 1: uh turnover sequence there with Sam Aguavin. All the stuff
Speaker 1: that was I suppose more obvious on the first watch
Speaker 1: is going to be available for you on that podcast,
Speaker 1: but I want to go back with you know, rewind
Speaker 1: capabilities and watching every snap three or four times and
Speaker 1: give you kind of my general takeaways from the Dolphins
Speaker 1: first iteration of this season, first game under head coach
Speaker 1: Mike McDaniel, and just some notes that I thought were
Speaker 1: interesting here about the individual play. That's what preseason is about, right,
Speaker 1: taking a look at individuals and how they kind of
Speaker 1: come together to form the greater some of the parts
Speaker 1: for a football team, you know, a void of really
Speaker 1: any scheming or any of that stuff that goes into
Speaker 1: a weekly game plan. As to Ron Armstead told us
Speaker 1: earlier last week in Tampa base let's go ahead and
Speaker 1: kick it off on the offensive side of the football.
Speaker 1: Excuse me. With the very first play of the game,
Speaker 1: and the Dolphins come out and an unbalanced twelve personnel set,
Speaker 1: which means you have both your tight ends, one running
Speaker 1: back to tight ends, two receivers. That's twelve personnel, both
Speaker 1: your tight ends on the same side of the formation,
Speaker 1: which is unbalanced, right. You get heavier uh more gaps
Speaker 1: on one side of the formation, less gaps on the
Speaker 1: other side. And I thought instantly you saw the beauty
Speaker 1: of the Mike McDaniel offense with the flow of the
Speaker 1: defense really pressing and pursuing play side, and then here
Speaker 1: comes Skyler. Take that football out of the belly of
Speaker 1: the back and take that bootleg back to the weak side,
Speaker 1: and then you bring the flow of the tight end,
Speaker 1: you know, Mike Kasicki in this instance, across the formation,
Speaker 1: across that flow, and he has a wide open thirteen
Speaker 1: yard catch and run going against the flow of that defense.
Speaker 1: And you saw That's what Shack Barrett talked about after
Speaker 1: joint practices right, this offense will challenge your eyes. They
Speaker 1: will really challenge your i Q to make sure you
Speaker 1: are right with everything you do. First play, we see
Speaker 1: in there Mike McDaniel is is springing a tight end
Speaker 1: loose across the flow of the action with the play
Speaker 1: action game for thirteen yards, easy first completion for Skyler Thompson.
Speaker 1: Jason Taylor talked about it on the broadcast. I can't
Speaker 1: wait to see more of that as we go along,
Speaker 1: especially especially with game plans that are designed to exploit
Speaker 1: vulnerabilities and weaknesses. So that was my first note. I
Speaker 1: also noted some offensive line stuff that you that that
Speaker 1: gets way easier to do an EVL on the offensive
Speaker 1: line on the rewatch, it's it's really difficult to get
Speaker 1: a great feel for it live off the broadcast, but
Speaker 1: off the rewatch. Thirteen snaps for Austin Jackson. But he
Speaker 1: was rock solid, man. I noticed in training camp he's
Speaker 1: got very sturdy, gotten very sturdy, become very sturdy with
Speaker 1: his initial punch, and he stays square, so like his
Speaker 1: feet are often under you know, under his knees, under
Speaker 1: his hips, under his shoulders, and he just gets too
Speaker 1: spots patiently is kind of what I've noticed. And the
Speaker 1: initial punch, he's been locking that thing and right on
Speaker 1: the chess plate. Square him up, and that allows you
Speaker 1: to control the rep and stay balanced and stay square.
Speaker 1: And that's what I keep noticing from him. It allows
Speaker 1: him to either run the guy around the arc, which
Speaker 1: is the least dangerous spot on a football field behind
Speaker 1: the quarterback, or change in direction and mirror back inside
Speaker 1: when the pass rusher redirects to me. That confidence or
Speaker 1: that patience rather comes from confidence, which he talked about
Speaker 1: last week. Right, I'm the most confident I've ever been.
Speaker 1: I think it really showed him this game, and so
Speaker 1: far through practice and training camp. Solomon Kimley stood out
Speaker 1: big time in the past Pro game as well. On
Speaker 1: the interior, you'll often see guys with the mission of
Speaker 1: just resetting the line of scrimmage and running through their block.
Speaker 1: Like we'll come back to Ben Still, the U d
Speaker 1: f A from Nebraska. That was his job all night.
Speaker 1: Just push that center, that nose tackle position, take him
Speaker 1: back into the quarterback as far as you can. Hopefully,
Speaker 1: what that does is eliminate the step up option for
Speaker 1: the quarterback. And then if you get that done successfully
Speaker 1: on the same snap to your edges, win and get
Speaker 1: around that corner. That's how you wind up with sacks
Speaker 1: and taking away all escape hatches for your quarterbacks. Solomon
Speaker 1: Kinley did not allow that all night long. He held firm.
Speaker 1: Excuse me, he was just fantastic on the third and
Speaker 1: inches run on the first set of downs on the
Speaker 1: game winning drive, that sixty playyard drive where they were
Speaker 1: backed up to the minus four yard line. You're thinking,
Speaker 1: like even j T on the broadcast says, I would
Speaker 1: sneak this ball behind big Solomon Kinley. They didn't do that.
Speaker 1: They pulled Solomon Kinley play side and he goes in
Speaker 1: there and just absolutely clawbers the defender who shot that gap,
Speaker 1: hoping to make a big play to get his name
Speaker 1: some recognition for a third and short stop. Didn't happen.
Speaker 1: He wiped him out and it's a first down for
Speaker 1: Jared Oakes in behind that block from Solomon Kinley and
Speaker 1: Adam Pinky at that center position. Going back to the
Speaker 1: first team offense or the first part of the game,
Speaker 1: there was a third down conversion to Cedric Wilson that
Speaker 1: I just think was indicative of something. Defenses are going
Speaker 1: to have to find a way to have solutions for
Speaker 1: this Dolphins offense all year because we've seen tons of
Speaker 1: successful offenses have this similar thing. I think about the
Speaker 1: Buffalo Bills frequently when I thought about this idea that
Speaker 1: Tyreek Hill and Jalen Waddle commands so much attention on
Speaker 1: the perimeter, and we know what Cedric Wilson can do
Speaker 1: from that slot position. You get him in a one
Speaker 1: on one situation with a two way go which means
Speaker 1: you can break in, you can break out, and with
Speaker 1: his intelligence and chemistry with tow Ah, that ability to
Speaker 1: make site adjustments off of that, you have to feel
Speaker 1: good about. It's just a really tough order for some
Speaker 1: of the best nickel cornerbacks even in this league. On
Speaker 1: this look, that's what he gets. He gets inside leverage
Speaker 1: and he presses up, kind of drops that shoulder into
Speaker 1: the chest plate of that inside leveraged slot cornerback, and
Speaker 1: then from there you put your foot in the ground,
Speaker 1: run that crisp route, get out of the break, and
Speaker 1: it's it's easy separation for a guy like Cedric Wilson.
Speaker 1: I think about that Buffalo Bill's offense with Stefon Diggs,
Speaker 1: with Emmanuel Sanders, with Gabe Davis, all those perimeter options
Speaker 1: they had, and you know, Cole Beasley has been a
Speaker 1: productive player, but he's athletically, nothing real special about you know,
Speaker 1: his profile, and he was able to just win those
Speaker 1: two way goes with quickness and good route running. I
Speaker 1: think Cedric Wilson's very, very capable of having an exact
Speaker 1: same nothing not the exact same role, but getting those looks,
Speaker 1: those situations and exploiting them time and time again. When
Speaker 1: you get that one on one coverage, just you know,
Speaker 1: a matchup based league, Cedric Wilson against some of those
Speaker 1: cornerbacks with his size, and then from there his ability
Speaker 1: to go vertical from that spot too. I think it's
Speaker 1: a great, great addition. I think we're gonna see more
Speaker 1: of that as the year goes along. We also know
Speaker 1: about the yak theme with this team. Right yards after catch,
Speaker 1: I've got Trent Sherfield, Tanner Connor, Cedric Wilson, and Eric
Speaker 1: Azukama was slipped tackles after the catch and also real
Speaker 1: quick regarding Eric Azukama, you know you mentioned the yak
Speaker 1: with his game. It's a big thing that stands out.
Speaker 1: But his release on that route was so nice, little
Speaker 1: stutter step at the line at the hand of the
Speaker 1: jam attempt. He looks really polished for a rookie receiver.
Speaker 1: I love two things about the Lynn Boden touchdown. The
Speaker 1: vertical horizontal stretch of the player where you get Tanner Connor,
Speaker 1: who is the inline attached tight end. He takes his
Speaker 1: rat to the flat to the route to the flat,
Speaker 1: basically looking like stick where you have Mohammed Sanu run
Speaker 1: a little a hook up and you have Connor to
Speaker 1: the flat. But instead of that hook up, Mohammed Sanu
Speaker 1: takes a square in that occupies that third level of
Speaker 1: the defense, and then you have Preston Williams on the
Speaker 1: backside of running acrosser, which you see influence the second
Speaker 1: level of the defense. And now all sets up Lynn
Speaker 1: Boden's double move. He has to get one guy to
Speaker 1: take the cheese. He does, he bites up on that.
Speaker 1: It takes the top off the defense. Really cool design
Speaker 1: and a good example of spacing. And you get that
Speaker 1: good pass pro, which is the second part that stood
Speaker 1: out to that touchdown. Stood out to me about that
Speaker 1: touchdown was the pass pro was excellent. Coleman, Kinley, Panky Jones,
Speaker 1: and Kean Smith all won their battles. Gave Thompson a
Speaker 1: clean pocket. He stepped up and did not miss. Also
Speaker 1: on offense a super brief showing. But I thought Kelln
Speaker 1: Diash showed the stuff that popped on tape for him
Speaker 1: in college. He covers a lot of ground on that
Speaker 1: kick slide to get to his landmark light feet. He
Speaker 1: looked very good in that limited action on the defensive side.
Speaker 1: I thought Ray Kwon Davis's first snap where he shocked
Speaker 1: and shed the center of the Buccaneers a brief showing,
Speaker 1: but his strength was evident throughout. So was John Jenkins,
Speaker 1: who played really, really well, the first rep that I
Speaker 1: noted him on was a pure man handle rap where
Speaker 1: he just took dude and chucked him out of the
Speaker 1: gap and made the play the tackle right at the
Speaker 1: line of scrimmage. He later thwarted a cut block and
Speaker 1: for a guy that size to kind of put your
Speaker 1: hands on the guy and then get your knees back
Speaker 1: to keep yourself clear and then get back into a
Speaker 1: position basically an updown but using a human body instead
Speaker 1: of the grass to to get up off of. And
Speaker 1: he gets up off of that guy and makes the
Speaker 1: play in the gap. They're a very good game for
Speaker 1: John Jenkins. I thought Porter Gustin was very good. He
Speaker 1: had a versatile role. We saw him with his hand
Speaker 1: in the dirt standing up, had that pressure slash hit
Speaker 1: on the interception. He slipped some blocks in the running game.
Speaker 1: A guy that has played on special teams a lot
Speaker 1: in his career, He's got a good shot here. I
Speaker 1: think chilling Phillips. I mentioned his bull rush, but on
Speaker 1: the holding call that he forced. Just watch the way
Speaker 1: he chases the football, and not only that, but a
Speaker 1: lot of times in that situation, guys, will you know
Speaker 1: you get the grab of the Jersey. You look at
Speaker 1: the reff and kind of throw your hands like, what's up? Ref?
Speaker 1: Like why didn't you get that call? He didn't do that.
Speaker 1: He just took off and kept his eyes in the quarterback,
Speaker 1: and once he saw the quarterback took off, he chased
Speaker 1: after him. I love that effort. I love not concerning
Speaker 1: yourself with things you can't control. Fly to the football.
Speaker 1: It's a philosophy on this defense, and it shows every
Speaker 1: single time. Speaking of speed, Andrew van ginkle he had
Speaker 1: just there was one play this out to me, a
Speaker 1: free rush where you know a lot of times that
Speaker 1: position you're gonna be the unblocked man. You have to
Speaker 1: get to the quarterback, but also break down and stay
Speaker 1: kind of, you know, in control and make that play.
Speaker 1: Is there anybody you'd rather have turned free as the
Speaker 1: unblocked man? Him? Andrew Van Ginkl gets in there so fast,
Speaker 1: so often. I also really appreciate the way Brennan Scarlett
Speaker 1: consistently resets the lion scrimmage with how he attacks his man.
Speaker 1: He just consistently gets that push back which forces the
Speaker 1: back to have to make choices when they come that way.
Speaker 1: I talked about the defensive backs tackling on the perimeter
Speaker 1: earlier last week in the podcast, but to me, it's
Speaker 1: more than that, and it stood out in this game.
Speaker 1: Eric Rowe, Brandon Jones, No Egg, Monogny, Trill Williams all
Speaker 1: inserted themselves in the running game. And Trills first play
Speaker 1: of that second half with that you know six on
Speaker 1: his jersey. I had to double check to see why
Speaker 1: why would you put Javon Holland beck in after not
Speaker 1: dressing him. He looked like the snowman with the way
Speaker 1: he came down and popped that thing and made a
Speaker 1: big physical hit. He's got some skills, man. I'm looking
Speaker 1: forward to hearing what coach has to say about his injury.
Speaker 1: Hopefully it's not too bad. And I don't want to
Speaker 1: double dip here on Darius Hodge, but he was just
Speaker 1: so dang good because we talked about the pass rush,
Speaker 1: but his first play was an excellent backside pursuit where
Speaker 1: he got around that corner, flattened and made the play
Speaker 1: on a chase and tackle opportunity. And I don't think
Speaker 1: this showed up in the stat sheet, but again, Ben
Speaker 1: still the U d f A from Nebraska. He occupied
Speaker 1: that thankless nose tackle job so frequently where he just
Speaker 1: had to move a brick wall over and over and
Speaker 1: over again. Just hut, hut, put your head down, run
Speaker 1: into a guy and try to get push against someone
Speaker 1: that weighs three pounds. It's not a fun job, but
Speaker 1: he didn't. I thought he did it consistently and helped
Speaker 1: create chances for guys around him. And then finally here
Speaker 1: DeAndre Johnson had himself one heck of a night. I
Speaker 1: thought it was cool to see Austin Clark super fired
Speaker 1: up when he Owen Carney Jr. And Ben Still met
Speaker 1: at the quarterback for a sack late there in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter. Last thing here on the defense before special teams,
Speaker 1: the touchdown pass that is being debated about on Twitter.
Speaker 1: That's a pretty basic looking Cover three type of rapp
Speaker 1: where you have, you know, a defensive back in the
Speaker 1: deep third ig Manogamy need him, and I think it
Speaker 1: was key on crossing on the other side. Good route
Speaker 1: concept to try to occupy that post safety with which
Speaker 1: they did with the first crossing route. And then you
Speaker 1: have Brandon Jones who's playing the hook curl and he
Speaker 1: was in the right position based upon a cover three look.
Speaker 1: I thought the depth and that final third back there
Speaker 1: with Eggan agony, just a little bit too much depth
Speaker 1: and especially knowing that no one's coming in behind you,
Speaker 1: Uh squeeze that route me be a little bit tighter.
Speaker 1: You might get a bit of a different result there.
Speaker 1: So that was the one note on that play. Special
Speaker 1: team Sethan Carter had a nice tackle on the opening
Speaker 1: kickoff Trent Sherfield. This guy has this the skill set
Speaker 1: that I think is gonna make him a fan favorite.
Speaker 1: He already is for me, but working as that jammer
Speaker 1: on special teams, the way he just kind of holds
Speaker 1: guys up and helps you get better punt returns. With
Speaker 1: Preston Williams first punt return, he was a big part
Speaker 1: of that blocking and that blocking shows up and the
Speaker 1: receiving game too. There was a big catch and run
Speaker 1: by I think it was Azoo Comma might have been
Speaker 1: Linbow and I can't remember, but he goes down and
Speaker 1: gets catches himself a big time blocked down the field.
Speaker 1: He broke a tackle on the one catch, just again
Speaker 1: that fan favorite type of skill set that he offers.
Speaker 1: Channing Tindall had a really good game. I thought special
Speaker 1: teams tackle was awesome. But he also had two open
Speaker 1: field stops on defense, and then the battery of Blake Ferguson,
Speaker 1: Thomas Moristead and Jason Sanders absolutely on point. If there's
Speaker 1: anything any obvious and omissions on this podcast, it's because
Speaker 1: I covered those in the first pod, the Sunday Morning Podcast.
Speaker 1: Let's go ahead and take a break and come back
Speaker 1: to some Pro Football Focus data that's next here on
Speaker 1: the Drivetime Podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you
Speaker 1: by Auto Nation. Back here on a rewatch edition of
Speaker 1: the Drivetime Podcast, taking a look at Dolphins and Bucks
Speaker 1: Week one in the preseason. Going to be a short
Speaker 1: segment here we'll hear from coach McDaniel. In the third segment,
Speaker 1: I want to get you guys some quantifying by the
Speaker 1: numbers here as we take a look at the Pro
Speaker 1: Football Focus report and the advanced metrics. Starting on the
Speaker 1: defensive side of the football, Elijah Campbell was the highest
Speaker 1: graded player of the Dolphins defense. Should be no surprise
Speaker 1: with the interception, four targets, two catches on eighteen coverage
Speaker 1: snaps for nineteen yards. That's a great spot to be
Speaker 1: for Elijah Campbell. Channing Tendall had fourteen coverage snaps and
Speaker 1: allowed just five yards with two run stops. To go,
Speaker 1: have a day, rookie, Cameron Good speaking at rookies, three
Speaker 1: run stops on nineteen run defense downs. That is very
Speaker 1: very good. Benito Jones had four run stops on twenty
Speaker 1: three rundowns. That also is very good. We had Porter
Speaker 1: Gustin leading the way with four QB pressures in this game.
Speaker 1: Benito Jones had two, and then a handful of guys
Speaker 1: had one as well, but Porter gust and four that
Speaker 1: stands out. Darius Hodge, Trill Williams, D'Angelo Ross, DeAndre, DeAndre Johnson,
Speaker 1: Duke Riley, Quincy Wilson, and John Jenkins all had two
Speaker 1: run stops in this game. Duke Riley allowed three yards
Speaker 1: on thirteen coverage snaps, had a pressure and two run stops,
Speaker 1: a very good day for him. And then Keion Crossing
Speaker 1: allowed twenty two yards on twenty one coverage snaps. You
Speaker 1: gotta love seeing that. So that's your defensive metrics. I
Speaker 1: thought I would have offensive numbers for you guys by now,
Speaker 1: but they're not available on Pro Football Focused just yet,
Speaker 1: and I'd rather push this podcast out then wait on
Speaker 1: numbers that I can just give you on Twitter or
Speaker 1: you can check out PFF yourself. But normally on this
Speaker 1: podcast we do go over the entire PF gauntlet. I'll
Speaker 1: update it if it's gets back in time. If not,
Speaker 1: I'll put it on Twitter or the next podcast. It's
Speaker 1: really not a big deal, but we'll have you guys
Speaker 1: updated on that, as we do all the time on
Speaker 1: this podcast. Is what we do. Let's go ahead and
Speaker 1: take our last break here on this edition of the
Speaker 1: Drive Time Podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you
Speaker 1: by Auto Nation. We'll come back on the other side
Speaker 1: and here from head coach Mike McDaniel. Back here on
Speaker 1: the Drive Time Podcast, your host Travis Wingfield. Last break there,
Speaker 1: We're gonna go ahead and get now to this Mike McDaniel.
Speaker 1: Sunday afternoon press conference and not a lot of reporters
Speaker 1: in the room, so we had a chance to kind
Speaker 1: of for idea, I should say, ask a couple of questions.
Speaker 1: Really fun setting there with coach talking about the game
Speaker 1: on Saturday, but also just some ideas and philosophies as
Speaker 1: he educates us. Every single time we get a chance
Speaker 1: to talk to coach and those pressers. Let's go ahead
Speaker 1: and start here with a question posed to coach about
Speaker 1: the possibility of moving Eric Rowe back to cornerback in
Speaker 1: the light of the Trill Williams injury news, which coach
Speaker 1: also addressed the reports that it is in fact an
Speaker 1: a c L but not quite sure yet what's gonna
Speaker 1: happen for I R and all that stuff. You can
Speaker 1: hear that up on the YouTube channel the media availability.
Speaker 1: Coach did address that. Let's go ahead and go back
Speaker 1: to coach now though here for this question and answer
Speaker 1: about the possibility of moving Eric row because he went
Speaker 1: in depth about Eric Rose position on the team, standing
Speaker 1: on the team, and what he means for that defense.
Speaker 1: Here's coach the first, first and foremost that was, you
Speaker 1: hate to see um an injury like that. UM for
Speaker 1: a guy that's been working as diligently as as Trill has.
Speaker 1: He's really um. You know, he he was an example
Speaker 1: of a player early on that I could tell in
Speaker 1: the healthy way that he wasn't totally happy with where
Speaker 1: he was at in terms of depth and and you
Speaker 1: want to talk about an example of a player doing
Speaker 1: handling that the right way, transferring that energy UM to
Speaker 1: the point that he's been making plays daily on the
Speaker 1: ball and you can tell from his teammates how pumped
Speaker 1: they were for him, So you know it. It's one
Speaker 1: of the hard things about the profession that that I
Speaker 1: really struggle with UM when I see that happen to someone. UM.
Speaker 1: At the same time, I think he's proven, you know, uh,
Speaker 1: time and time again that things of that nature won't
Speaker 1: keep him back over the long haul. UM. The challenges
Speaker 1: to make that thing UM happen for a good reason
Speaker 1: and come back stronger and better. But it's a it's
Speaker 1: something that I think it hurt the hearts of the
Speaker 1: whole team, myself included UM. With regard to Eric Roe,
Speaker 1: he's he's been, you know, getting pretty involved in the defense,
Speaker 1: uh in a good way. And it's I kind of
Speaker 1: like where he's at UM in terms of his his
Speaker 1: play and he kind of there there's a new side
Speaker 1: of him that that was kind of displayed in the
Speaker 1: joint practices. UM. I was talking to the team about
Speaker 1: the salty side of row UM and he was getting
Speaker 1: competitive and it was really cool to see. I like
Speaker 1: where he's at right now this position. I do think
Speaker 1: he does have versatility that you could go down that
Speaker 1: road if need be. But you know, right now we're
Speaker 1: just um evaluating a couple of guys and then we'll, um,
Speaker 1: you know as Chris and his department always does for
Speaker 1: the quarnerback position, UM, Bill, you know, we'll we'll be
Speaker 1: in discussion of, you know, how to handle some of
Speaker 1: these injuries and UM moving forward, Uh, what we need
Speaker 1: to to continue to develop an overdo the other existing
Speaker 1: corners UM on the roster. Really really good stuff there,
Speaker 1: especially the salty side of Eric Row. I love hearing
Speaker 1: that about him. We saw that in the way he
Speaker 1: fit the run in that game last night. Really throughout
Speaker 1: the course of training camp so far this year, he's
Speaker 1: come a long way since being a cornerback to US
Speaker 1: safety that can get his nut his you know, his
Speaker 1: face during the fan and go make place up next.
Speaker 1: Coach was asked about philosophy for cut down Day. I
Speaker 1: continue to love this point about not getting too far
Speaker 1: ahead of yourself and staying present within the day. Here's coach,
Speaker 1: That's something that you know, we talk a lot about
Speaker 1: people getting opportunities every day and how valuable and every
Speaker 1: every practice is so valuable, and um, every opportunity is
Speaker 1: so valuable. So it's a balance where going into preseason
Speaker 1: game before you know that there's a cut, you're kind
Speaker 1: of saying the state of the union right then, fully
Speaker 1: knowing that when there's opportunities in front of people, you
Speaker 1: don't make your mind up because you learn so much
Speaker 1: about players each and every time they're out on the field,
Speaker 1: specifically when you have to handle the emotions of a game.
Speaker 1: So that we were long discussions UM last week and
Speaker 1: then some discussions that we started today. But then we're careful.
Speaker 1: You know, this is their livelihoods and it's also the
Speaker 1: team and organization. UM. These are big decisions that when
Speaker 1: you have a competitive talented rosters like we have that
Speaker 1: they that they've built here um, and that we were
Speaker 1: growing right now, you don't take them lightly at all,
Speaker 1: So you discuss them. We discussed more today, but we'll
Speaker 1: sleep on it. UM. Further discussion comes tomorrow. It's just
Speaker 1: a constant communication with Chris and myself as well UM
Speaker 1: as the coordinators and position coaches for every every every
Speaker 1: real decision that we make. And to the team's credit, UM,
Speaker 1: it's not easy, and that's a good thing of the Dolphins.
Speaker 1: It's not there's no no brain earlier and the sky
Speaker 1: is a fish out of water. Now it's far from that.
Speaker 1: So um, we'll continue to discuss that before we make
Speaker 1: those final decisions, which are tough, and that's good. Coach
Speaker 1: also answered a question about Greg Little and basically referenced
Speaker 1: the fact that they wanted to get Greg some work
Speaker 1: what he was day to day with little deing that
Speaker 1: he had and that he established a bunch of confidence
Speaker 1: with the work he put in during a training camp,
Speaker 1: and he didn't want to put Greg Little out there
Speaker 1: to play at less than a percent and diminished the
Speaker 1: confidence he has built up. I thought it was interesting,
Speaker 1: just more philosophy and and kind of where the Dolphins
Speaker 1: are coming from on some of the decisions they make
Speaker 1: from Coach McDaniel continues to fascinate me. Next, coach was
Speaker 1: asked about Austin Jackson and Rob Hunt and Liam Eichenberg
Speaker 1: and their development, their growth and now after an off
Speaker 1: season full of excitement and Chris Greer and Mike McDaniel
Speaker 1: and the players themselves having a lot of confidence about
Speaker 1: what they can do in this system. How he feels
Speaker 1: after getting thirteen reps on tape and how they performed
Speaker 1: with their first game tape here in system under this
Speaker 1: head coach, here's Mike McDaniels. It was really cool because
Speaker 1: of how they have developed where it's the first opportunity.
Speaker 1: You know, these guys have. We talked about deliberate practice
Speaker 1: the punch, and you know, I was talking to the
Speaker 1: team today about it that the idea of delivered practice
Speaker 1: is so that in the games you there's no it's
Speaker 1: just a virtually another practice that you're putting yourself in
Speaker 1: game situations all the time. And so there was really
Speaker 1: out of those thirteen snaps, probably for all three of
Speaker 1: those guys, there would have been like ten pluses and
Speaker 1: then the three minuses were all things that they have
Speaker 1: executed UM against our defense in practice, whether it's combinations
Speaker 1: or pass process that maybe we're a little off. So
Speaker 1: it was awesome for those young dudes to get that
Speaker 1: feeling for us to say, hey, why is this different. Okay,
Speaker 1: it shouldn't be you have you should have all the confidence.
Speaker 1: It should feel the same as practice for you. And
Speaker 1: that's the goal that the the spectacle that is a
Speaker 1: game UM isn't anything but doing our craft that we
Speaker 1: do every day. So it got it got us a
Speaker 1: chance to revisit um kind of the primary pillars of
Speaker 1: philosophy of how we go about our business. I think
Speaker 1: they felt it, but they didn't. They didn't lose confidence.
Speaker 1: It was like, oh yeah, and then we're at a
Speaker 1: good spot with them because of that. I absolutely loved
Speaker 1: that comment about thirteen snaps, you know, ten pluses each
Speaker 1: and the three negatives as far as the tape grading
Speaker 1: goes where things that they had excelled with in practice,
Speaker 1: and Coach relating it back to that philosophy about being
Speaker 1: deliberate about how you work and making those practice reps
Speaker 1: the same as far as working on your craft as
Speaker 1: a game rep will be, and how those three minuses
Speaker 1: where things they've already at heathen practices against this defense
Speaker 1: and trying to figure out how to bridge that gap
Speaker 1: to make it the same from the practice environment over
Speaker 1: to the game environment. Really really fascinating stuff. Up next,
Speaker 1: here Coach was asked about something he mentioned post game
Speaker 1: in Tampa Bay about being so relaxed and not having
Speaker 1: the nerves because of that philosophy and approach of being
Speaker 1: deliberate with your work and the carryover from practice to
Speaker 1: a game. Here he is now with a chance you know,
Speaker 1: twenty four hours or so later to reflect upon that
Speaker 1: thought and where he thinks he is now in terms
Speaker 1: of that NFL debut, Here's Yeah. I think it was
Speaker 1: more that I'm not good at anything else. It was
Speaker 1: less of like, yeah I'm good, um, but it is
Speaker 1: where I am comfortable. I think you guys can feel that, um,
Speaker 1: And you know I'm not gonna hide from it at all.
Speaker 1: I'm not. There's a lot of things that I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna necessarily have this whole um dialogue about how terrible
Speaker 1: I am. But there's a lot of things that I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's not not what I hope it to be. Um,
Speaker 1: Which it was ironic. I knew that going into it.
Speaker 1: I knew going into it. I'm like, yeah, this is
Speaker 1: not It's an odd thing to be something excited for something.
Speaker 1: But also no, hey, I'm about to go not put
Speaker 1: my best foot forward or my final product forward. So
Speaker 1: just like the players, Um, there's a lot of things,
Speaker 1: and I think that's important to as a coach to
Speaker 1: identify and be transparent with that with your players, like hey,
Speaker 1: yeah this wasn't good enough, Um, this will this this
Speaker 1: short changed you in one way, shape or form, UM,
Speaker 1: so there to say that I'm excited because it's over,
Speaker 1: because I wanted I wanted to to identify exactly where,
Speaker 1: um that I just wanted to get to that point
Speaker 1: as fast as possible. And hey, okay, well did this.
Speaker 1: Now I can get better at this, and I can
Speaker 1: manage this better, I can communicate this better, this decision,
Speaker 1: um could be better all those things. So yeah, um,
Speaker 1: it's what I expected. And I expected to get a
Speaker 1: C on the math test and I got the sea
Speaker 1: and so I'm like, yeah, cool, now I can um,
Speaker 1: now I can work towards getting to be in an
Speaker 1: a someday. Um, if you guys allow it, I just
Speaker 1: love it. But next, here a great question and a
Speaker 1: better answer about the idea of shuffling on the offensive
Speaker 1: line in a break in case of emergency situation where
Speaker 1: a starter goes down and shuffling guys and making two
Speaker 1: guys change positions opposed to just one. Here's coach answering
Speaker 1: a question about what would happen if something happened to
Speaker 1: one of your tackles. Do you shift a guy like
Speaker 1: Liam Ikenberg to tackle, you know, move someone else inside.
Speaker 1: Here's coach talking about the philosophy of multiple shuffles and
Speaker 1: changes in light of an injury potentially on the offensive line,
Speaker 1: versus just plug and play one guy in and keep
Speaker 1: the other four intact. Here's coach the there's a starting
Speaker 1: point to that, But I think absolutes are a dangerous
Speaker 1: place because the the if you live in that, then
Speaker 1: what about the exception that flourishes. But from a starting point,
Speaker 1: it kind of has to do with the combination of
Speaker 1: your combinations of players, because if you the starting point
Speaker 1: for me is that moving a player that's in a
Speaker 1: spot where he's being productive now you just now you
Speaker 1: just have two spots that are less than what you
Speaker 1: you know, as opposed to just having one thing that
Speaker 1: you can work around. UM. But there are exceptions to that. UM.
Speaker 1: Left tackle is an interesting one because you can, you know,
Speaker 1: with with the ed dressers in this league, you're you
Speaker 1: can go from sack fumble to completion explosive with like
Speaker 1: you know, there's just so much space. So that I
Speaker 1: would I would say for a starting point, I would
Speaker 1: try not to move a starter to to um out
Speaker 1: of their position to cover up another position. UM. But
Speaker 1: that I wouldn't say would be an absolute because there's
Speaker 1: you just have to think through no, no, the pros
Speaker 1: and cons um and kind of address it the best
Speaker 1: you can. And I guarantee there'll be a situation where
Speaker 1: I won't. I will go back on that statement at
Speaker 1: some point in time, because I don't believe in just
Speaker 1: being like all right, oh, this is my philosophy, brain
Speaker 1: shut off, you know what I mean? Yeah, I would
Speaker 1: say not being stuck in your ways is a great
Speaker 1: quality for this position, for this job. Up next, Coach
Speaker 1: was asked about Teddy Bridgewater not practicing much on Thursday
Speaker 1: and then not playing much in the game or I
Speaker 1: should say at all in the game on Saturday, and
Speaker 1: the idea about taking advantage of an opportunity to the
Speaker 1: Dolphins had with a little bit of back tightness for
Speaker 1: Teddy which was not a big deal at all, but
Speaker 1: the opportunity to give Skyler Thompson the football to start
Speaker 1: the game and go to bed knowing he was starting
Speaker 1: the game. Here's coach on that philosophy and a Sage
Speaker 1: Rosenfelds reference to boot. He was he had a little um,
Speaker 1: you know, back tightness to degree on practice on the
Speaker 1: practice day, and but it wasn't anything major. We saw
Speaker 1: it as an opportunity to get Skyler some reps UM
Speaker 1: in practice and then Skyler's ability to um handle uh
Speaker 1: those reps, you know, all important reps with the two's,
Speaker 1: and we kind of just got thinking, you know what, UM,
Speaker 1: here's an opportunity to do something that you don't generally get,
Speaker 1: which is UM. I think I've talked about it before,
Speaker 1: but UM. I had one experience with Sage Rosenfels when
Speaker 1: I was when I was coaching in Houston and Sages
Speaker 1: point to me, UM, that always stuck out with me.
Speaker 1: It was like, yeah, you know, I'm so much better
Speaker 1: coming in as a reliever. It's so different when you're
Speaker 1: not preparing as a star and then in game you
Speaker 1: come in and play. But then when you have, whether
Speaker 1: it's a night or a week to prepare as the
Speaker 1: starter for whatever reason, it's just a different set of
Speaker 1: circumstances that psychologically. Sage was like, I didn't flourish in
Speaker 1: and that always stood out to me because like, huh,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't know that, but it was like that's probably real. UM.
Speaker 1: And and I think that over time you can look
Speaker 1: at back a quarterbacks success and see that UM, that
Speaker 1: is more common than not. You know, so I was
Speaker 1: paying attention to it after we plan that seed. So
Speaker 1: fast forward to that week and I was like, wow,
Speaker 1: here he is operating at a pretty high level. Um,
Speaker 1: if he does have to play, should circuit circumstances present itself? Um?
Speaker 1: When else could we have that opportunity where he would
Speaker 1: be a known starter in a three preseason game that
Speaker 1: would typically yeah, that would come up in the fourth
Speaker 1: preseason game. UM, and you could cross that bridge. But
Speaker 1: three you can't really um with in conjunction to how
Speaker 1: how two was performing. Where I thought that, um, the
Speaker 1: first team quarterback was at um and then that practice
Speaker 1: were like, hey, why not do this and see how
Speaker 1: it reacts? And we learned a lot about the guy.
Speaker 1: I think his teammates did too. So it was more,
Speaker 1: um really the opportunity to you know, Teddy started plenty
Speaker 1: of games, you know, and I think you could see
Speaker 1: by Scholar's play that, um, you know he was he
Speaker 1: was pretty ready. Although he will be harder himself and
Speaker 1: say he was, there was plenty of stuff that he missed. UM.
Speaker 1: That was kind of the objective, and I thought he
Speaker 1: handled it well. The mindset of I'm going to start
Speaker 1: right now and where that for for preparation for um
Speaker 1: the night before, for that sleep. You know that that
Speaker 1: was something that um, you know that, like like I said,
Speaker 1: that you just try to observe surroundings and that that's something.
Speaker 1: It stood out to me so much because I never
Speaker 1: been in that position and I never thought about it
Speaker 1: that way. So, yeah, that that was exactly what we thought, Wow,
Speaker 1: we can get this opportunity out. Why why go play
Speaker 1: Teddy for a quarter or two? Um? When shoot, are
Speaker 1: we gonna get this up? What if this is the
Speaker 1: only opportunity we have before live bullets ever? Um down
Speaker 1: the road, Let's see what this kid's made of. Which
Speaker 1: I think it was back in O t as you
Speaker 1: talked about kind of calibrating your aggressiveness on offense to
Speaker 1: reflect a good defense that you have here. I was curious,
Speaker 1: when you have a guy like Jason Sanders who's making
Speaker 1: four field goals to from fifty plus down the middle,
Speaker 1: how does that kind of change the way you see
Speaker 1: the game or see the field from an offensive aggressive
Speaker 1: team point. No, it's a it's a great question because
Speaker 1: that it's direct you there's that area the field where
Speaker 1: you know it's third down and you're between the twenty
Speaker 1: five and thirty. UM, and do you want to be
Speaker 1: aggressive or not? Do you wanna do you want to
Speaker 1: put yourself in a situation where maybe you could get
Speaker 1: UM an explosive uh, and you you feel a little
Speaker 1: more willing to do that if the worst case scenario,
Speaker 1: which I think happened to us twice. UM, the worst
Speaker 1: case scenario happens, you get sacked, Okay, so that it
Speaker 1: expands that you get get in that area where you
Speaker 1: might take yourself out of points. Well, now you have
Speaker 1: a little deeper area where you can be a little
Speaker 1: more aggressive because if you do have the worst case
Speaker 1: scenario happened, he can get your back, which is what
Speaker 1: he did last night, which is why it was UM
Speaker 1: a team win and something to build upon. I think
Speaker 1: I said this last week about coach making my job
Speaker 1: easier because he gives me so much good content and
Speaker 1: talking points and well thought out explained answers. A planned
Speaker 1: for this podcast to be about twenty minutes, but I
Speaker 1: just played almost every answer coach game in that press conference.
Speaker 1: I left a couple out those. If you want to
Speaker 1: see the rest of it, go to the YouTube channel
Speaker 1: and find the rest of Mike McDaniel's media availability, where
Speaker 1: you can find all the team's media availabilities up on
Speaker 1: the Miami Dolphins YouTube channel. We are back at it
Speaker 1: too Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for practice this week. Those
Speaker 1: practices are closed to fans, so no tweets, but I
Speaker 1: will have a Twitter update after practice, a post game,
Speaker 1: a post practice story I should say on Miami Dolphins
Speaker 1: dot com, and then of course the podcast that night
Speaker 1: with Twitter spaces on Wednesday, and then game day on Saturday,
Speaker 1: once again against the Raiders here at home at hard
Speaker 1: Rock Stadium. The season is getting very very close. I
Speaker 1: can't wait. Man, I'm so pumped up for the season.
Speaker 1: That's gonna be my time. In the meantime, you all
Speaker 1: please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcast.
Speaker 1: Leave us the rating, leave us a review. You can
Speaker 1: follow me on Twitter at Wingfield NFL. Follow the team
Speaker 1: at Miami Dolphins. Check out the fish Tank Rob Conrad
Speaker 1: last week, Kevin Carter this week. You early two thousands
Speaker 1: Dolphins die hard craze fans like myself. Good episodes for
Speaker 1: you guys there the Twitter spaces on Wednesdays. Like I mentioned,
Speaker 1: the YouTube channel for media avails for Dolphins Today. Some
Speaker 1: drive time and fish tank content up there as well,
Speaker 1: and last but not least, Miami Dolphins dot com photo
Speaker 1: gallers from training camp and you're written Camp reports by
Speaker 1: yours truly Fence Up Caroline, Daddy is coming from