Speaker 1: Bown Miami Run. What is up, Dolph Fans? And welcome
Speaker 1: to the Drive Time Podcast, part of the Miami Dolphins
Speaker 1: podcast network, covering your team, your Miami Dolphins. How is
Speaker 1: it going? Everybody? I am your host, Travis Wingfield and
Speaker 1: as always in season, I am here to bring you
Speaker 1: your daily dose of Miami Dolphins football. And on today's show,
Speaker 1: presented by Auto Nation, day eight of training camp previews,
Speaker 1: we are on to the off ball linebackers Jerome Baker,
Speaker 1: e Landon, Roberts but Nardrick McKenney, Duke Riley, Sam Aguavin,
Speaker 1: Calvin Munson, and Kyle and Johnson, as well as the
Speaker 1: coach of the unit, Anthony Campanelli. They all go under
Speaker 1: the microscope today. Plus we'll talk about the theme of
Speaker 1: the week with not just versatility, but balance and yet
Speaker 1: another position group on this roster. We're gonna give you
Speaker 1: the stats, the facts, intriguing nuggets, and finish up with
Speaker 1: a bonus as we get into the specialists on the roster.
Speaker 1: And finally, we're also gonna tell you some details of
Speaker 1: the Dolphins new training facility, which had its ribbon cutting
Speaker 1: on Tuesday. All of that and a heck of a
Speaker 1: lot more here on this edition of the Drive Time podcast.
Speaker 1: And we had the grand opening of the new facility
Speaker 1: out in Miami Gardens, just adjacent to hard Rock Stadium,
Speaker 1: and what an absolute gem, what a beauty she is
Speaker 1: out there. Let's go ahead and talk about some of
Speaker 1: the facts from this new facility. Before you do that, though,
Speaker 1: head over to the Miami Dolphins Twitter handle, Instagram, Facebook,
Speaker 1: whatever it might be, and check out the video that
Speaker 1: showed you a great little montage or a clip of
Speaker 1: the different traits and characteristics of the facility, and also
Speaker 1: a great photo thread up on Twitter as well. And
Speaker 1: here's some facts on the building. The Auto Torium holds
Speaker 1: a hundred and seventy six people, The Offense and Defensive
Speaker 1: room respectively holds sixty four people. The shaded spect spectator
Speaker 1: seating for training, camp practices two hundred, burn seating has
Speaker 1: up to eight hundred, and the dining room sits a
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty eight people. There are three fields outdoor
Speaker 1: grass outside synthetic turf. Inside, there's parking for two hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty staff, fifteen visitors, twenty three management, twenty spots
Speaker 1: for spectator, A, d A, all kinds of sprawling numbers
Speaker 1: for taking on staff guests, all the fun stuff you
Speaker 1: want there at the facility. There are two hundred and
Speaker 1: nine televisions in the facility. There are four hundred twenty
Speaker 1: seven inch monitors, seven miles of Ethernet cabling and audio cable,
Speaker 1: as well nine two speakers that will provide for some
Speaker 1: great music and training camp practice during stretching in individual periods.
Speaker 1: Fifteen thousand, eight hundred and eighty eight different flowers and shrubs,
Speaker 1: sixteen different species. You come here for your flower and
Speaker 1: shrub species talk on this podcast. Two d ten palm trees,
Speaker 1: nine different species of those, A hundred twenty eight trees
Speaker 1: and eight different species of those. There are two plunge
Speaker 1: pools for hydrotherapy, one hot and one cold, a hydro
Speaker 1: works pool, a lap pool, a slide, physical therapy room,
Speaker 1: indoor sauna, indoor steam room, cryotherapy rooms, and of course
Speaker 1: we have all the amenities for the players and for
Speaker 1: the staff coming in the lobby players round, there's a barbershop,
Speaker 1: dart games, lounge, areas, dining hall, auditorium, and the content
Speaker 1: studio where your boy's gonna spend a lot of his time.
Speaker 1: Air conditioning dedicated FP and l value to feed the
Speaker 1: training camp facility and the number of toilets. I know what,
Speaker 1: y'all came here for one hundred and eighty three toilets
Speaker 1: inside that building. It is an absolute palace. Again, if
Speaker 1: you haven't seen the thread on Twitter of the video
Speaker 1: or the photos, go check that out. It is a
Speaker 1: really magnificent piece of architecture and the building is glorious.
Speaker 1: Big ups to Mr Ross and Mr Garfinkel forgetting that
Speaker 1: thing put together, this project complete ahead of the season
Speaker 1: a actually when a lot of the construction occurred during
Speaker 1: the pandemic. A great job by the Miami Dolphins organization
Speaker 1: to get that done, to give us our new home,
Speaker 1: and I can't wait to start there here coming up
Speaker 1: very very shortly ahead of training camp next week. All right,
Speaker 1: we're gonna get into the positional preview here at number
Speaker 1: eight on the Drivetime podcast. Go back and check out
Speaker 1: all the previous episodes. Listen to them twice. Do us
Speaker 1: a favorit, get us more downloads, help us out in
Speaker 1: that way. We're talking about the linebackers today, in particular
Speaker 1: off ball linebackers. We covered the edge position on Wednesday's podcast,
Speaker 1: and that kind of takes into account some linebackers as well,
Speaker 1: like Jyalen Phillips, for instance, a linebacker on the Dolphins roster.
Speaker 1: We're talking about guys who primarily lineup off the football
Speaker 1: on this podcast and in Getting Ready for this pod
Speaker 1: and and the piece up on Miami Dolphins dot Com
Speaker 1: as well the coinciding linebacker preview. You know, I was
Speaker 1: looking at the makeup of this position and it kind
Speaker 1: of got me thinking about the makeup of the rest
Speaker 1: of the roster. And I recently heard a quote and
Speaker 1: I heard it from the Bootleg Football podcast with E. J.
Speaker 1: Snyder and Brett Coleman, who referenced a Saban quote, and
Speaker 1: I went and found it on Google. You just happened
Speaker 1: in Google. You can find it in plenty of articles.
Speaker 1: But Nick Saban once said that boxing has weight classes
Speaker 1: for a reason because over the course of a fight
Speaker 1: or a game in the instance of football, the heavier
Speaker 1: guys going to lean on the lighter guy and it's
Speaker 1: gonna wear that lighter guy down. And I was looking
Speaker 1: at the weights of some of these players that Dolphins
Speaker 1: have on this roster, and man, certain positions just have
Speaker 1: guys that are much bigger than the average at those
Speaker 1: positions like on the offensive line with d J. Fluker
Speaker 1: at three fifty Germaine Illuminois at three forty five, Solomon
Speaker 1: Kiley three thirty six, Austin Jackson five with Robert Hunt
Speaker 1: three twenty seven. I mean, these guys are big, even
Speaker 1: in a position full of big guys. Then you look
Speaker 1: at the ends and tackles. We talked about the last
Speaker 1: couple of podcasts here with Seiler and Wilkins and Ledbetter
Speaker 1: and Strowbridge among others, pushing to seventy pounds and above
Speaker 1: for guys like Wilkins and Seiler there. Then you get
Speaker 1: to the linebackers and you see e. Robbie Land and
Speaker 1: Roberts two and forty five pounds. Then you've got bernardick
Speaker 1: mckin the two fifty seven. All these teams in the
Speaker 1: NFL today are kind of going towards the small and
Speaker 1: fast model, and why Miami does have a lot of
Speaker 1: electricity and speed on this football team. They've put together
Speaker 1: a nice blend of the two with the size and
Speaker 1: the speed, but also the big thumpers that can help
Speaker 1: you win those physical, slug it out type of games,
Speaker 1: especially once you might get down here in Miami in
Speaker 1: September and October and that hot, hot heat. But as
Speaker 1: for the balance on body type, it's no more evident
Speaker 1: here than at this position with the off ball linebackers
Speaker 1: McKinney and Baker mixed together like spaghetti and meatballs, peanut
Speaker 1: butter and jelly, lamb and tuna fish. However you want
Speaker 1: to put those comparisons together, and when you want to
Speaker 1: mug up the A gaps, which what that means when
Speaker 1: you hear that phraseology is the A gaps are either
Speaker 1: gap on either side of the center on the offensive line,
Speaker 1: and when you mug them up, that means you bring
Speaker 1: your linebackers up into those gaps on the football. And
Speaker 1: we saw plenty of that last year obviously with your
Speaker 1: own Baker and all the sacks that he produced rushing
Speaker 1: inside at that position. And that's just a lot to
Speaker 1: deal with you have now when you add but nargerik
Speaker 1: McKinney to that mix, especially when you can PLoP I
Speaker 1: don't know Adam Butler and his explosive self and at
Speaker 1: the get off he has in that position Christian Wilkins,
Speaker 1: who can just knock bodies around but also win with
Speaker 1: penetration or a Zach Steeler, who is as long as
Speaker 1: they come as far as defensive tackles go, and speaking
Speaker 1: of length and power at defensive tackle pound, ray Kwon
Speaker 1: Davis has a word to say there as well. I
Speaker 1: just keep looking at these fronts with the myriad of
Speaker 1: options and combinations of players they have, and I think
Speaker 1: you have a true a gap pressure type of roster
Speaker 1: that the threats you have at that position can rival
Speaker 1: pretty much any team across the league with what the
Speaker 1: Dolphins have done this offseason last offseason, to go ahead
Speaker 1: and round out the central of your football team, the core,
Speaker 1: building that thing up the middle. Brian Flores has talked
Speaker 1: about this before about building up the communicators, the guys
Speaker 1: that are signal callers, your safety, your linebacker, your center,
Speaker 1: your quarterback obviously, and kind of building up the strength
Speaker 1: of the middle of the football team. We've seen that
Speaker 1: take place the last couple of years and kind of
Speaker 1: come to fruition here with Bernardrick McKinney as the addition
Speaker 1: this offseason in the trade with Shack Lawson from the
Speaker 1: Houston Texans, and both McKinney and Baker have been guys
Speaker 1: that have played you know, they're one thousand snaptakers. That's
Speaker 1: kind of the baseline average for how many snaps a
Speaker 1: player takes in a given season. Now, with an extra game,
Speaker 1: I guess you call it one thousand sixty because the
Speaker 1: average snaps per games right around sixty two and a half,
Speaker 1: give or take per game. And you know these guys
Speaker 1: are capable of playing all three phases of run defense,
Speaker 1: pass rush, and drop into coverage. Then you've got a
Speaker 1: guy like Duke Riley who can keep you flexible on
Speaker 1: all your sub packages because he can act as that
Speaker 1: coverage linebacker but can come down to the box and
Speaker 1: help you stay flexible in late game situations in terms
Speaker 1: of playing back in coverage or down in the box
Speaker 1: when the offense goes hurry up and they want to
Speaker 1: change things up on you. Having a player like a
Speaker 1: Duke Riley who can do a little bit of both
Speaker 1: really helps you stay flexible when you cannot substitute when
Speaker 1: the opposition is in no huddle offense. And that's being
Speaker 1: Sam Aguabin's game, going back to the cf L and
Speaker 1: college at Texas Tech as well past game disruptors to
Speaker 1: give Miami great depth in those sub packages as well
Speaker 1: as a terrific special teamer in Sam Oguabin, but guys
Speaker 1: that can disrupt the passing game, both in coverage and
Speaker 1: as blitzers. Then you've got Calvin Munson, who again more
Speaker 1: back to that balance. He's coming to the lineup a
Speaker 1: few times and a pinch over the last couple of
Speaker 1: seasons and served as kind of a banger in between
Speaker 1: the tackles. He came off the bench last year for
Speaker 1: Eland and Roberts a couple of times when he was
Speaker 1: banged up in game. And then you've got kyl and
Speaker 1: Johnson looking to further develop his game and not to
Speaker 1: mention the rob once again, who does a lot of
Speaker 1: that in terms of the big physicality in the middle.
Speaker 1: The leadership role he's taken on his players really gravitate
Speaker 1: towards his guidance. More on that here and just one second.
Speaker 1: But this position group really just teams well, I think
Speaker 1: with what you have in the front seven in general,
Speaker 1: with those down linemen, because it's all really so fungible,
Speaker 1: and it allows Flores and Bowyer to get deep into
Speaker 1: their playbook and keep the whole playbook open, and I
Speaker 1: think any coach will want to be able to say
Speaker 1: that they had apt the scheme to fit the players
Speaker 1: they have on the roster, and that's great, you have
Speaker 1: to have that. But when you start dropping players into
Speaker 1: the organization that really excel at what you want to
Speaker 1: ideally do, that's when you begin to really cook with gas,
Speaker 1: because then you can get the most out of the
Speaker 1: best system you have. And I think this position group
Speaker 1: has seen that transformation over the last two years really
Speaker 1: as much as any group on the field. With McKinney,
Speaker 1: with Robert, you get Duke Riley in here talking about
Speaker 1: the guys off the edge with Jalen Phillips, as well
Speaker 1: as Andrew Van Ginkel Brand Scarlett coming over this offseason.
Speaker 1: You continue to see this roster kind of fit the
Speaker 1: mold and the vision of coach Flora's and coach Boyer
Speaker 1: and Chris Career up in the GM's office. All Right,
Speaker 1: So the article up on Miami Dolphins dot Com taking
Speaker 1: a look at the off ball linebackers personnel changes on
Speaker 1: this particular episode or this particular position group, I should say, Bernardick, McKinney,
Speaker 1: Duke Riley in commu gruge a hill out to the
Speaker 1: Houston Texans. Riley comes over from the Eagles, McKinney comes
Speaker 1: over from the Texans as well. And we've talked about
Speaker 1: the coaching staff and how so many of the coaches
Speaker 1: on coach floor as a staff have experienced on either
Speaker 1: side of the ball in multiple roles, some guys in
Speaker 1: the capacity of personnel or doing work within the front
Speaker 1: office or something of that capacity, and then their on
Speaker 1: field work as a coach as well. And for coach Campanelli,
Speaker 1: the story is the exact same. He began his career
Speaker 1: in the high school ranks, where he was once a
Speaker 1: defensive coordinator and then flipped over to the offensive side
Speaker 1: of the football a legendary Don Bosco Prep in New Jersey,
Speaker 1: before he made the jump in town there or in
Speaker 1: local area to the collegiate ranks at Rutgers, where he
Speaker 1: was a defensive assistant, a tight ends coach, a wide
Speaker 1: receiver's coach, before taking his role as the defensive backs
Speaker 1: coach at Boston College. So pretty much every position group
Speaker 1: he's been around, and then he was later promoted to
Speaker 1: core co defensive coordinator at Boston College that he then
Speaker 1: took the linebacker's job with the Dolphins after a year
Speaker 1: in the same position at the University of Michigan. He
Speaker 1: brings energy in a very passionate voice to the position,
Speaker 1: to the coaching staff, and to the organization. I think
Speaker 1: where you saw that best was during the Senior Bowl
Speaker 1: practices when they miked up coach during some of the
Speaker 1: linebacker drills where he was stacking, shedding and getting clean
Speaker 1: with those guys, and they were really kind of really
Speaker 1: bringing the juice on that drill, and you could hear
Speaker 1: the bag getting popped by the guys slapping with their
Speaker 1: hands and just working hard and getting and getting some
Speaker 1: sweat equity out there on the field. Fun to watch
Speaker 1: him do his job the group in a glance. We
Speaker 1: kind of covered that already, but let's go ahead and
Speaker 1: go through this here real quick. And again, these are
Speaker 1: guys that aligned primarily off the line of scrimmage. Jerome
Speaker 1: Baker was a menace in that role for opposing quarterbacks
Speaker 1: last year. He finished second in the NFL among all
Speaker 1: off ball linebackers with seven sacks. Devin White and Tampa
Speaker 1: Bay had nine, and McKinney, a pro bowler back in team.
Speaker 1: He is no stranger either to really accelerating the urgency
Speaker 1: of the opposing offense. His quick first step behind that
Speaker 1: two d and fifty seven pound frame puts the middle
Speaker 1: of the offensive line in decision time and conflict mode,
Speaker 1: our favorite word on the podcast here, right, conflict. You
Speaker 1: have to decide it's gonna beat me with speed or
Speaker 1: do I have to really drop the anchor and prepare
Speaker 1: myself for a run up of two hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: seven pounds coming at me. And he helped that Texans
Speaker 1: defense collapse collapse the interior of pockets for years while J. J.
Speaker 1: Watt went to work on the outside. A great combination there.
Speaker 1: Hopefully he can replicate some of that here in Miami
Speaker 1: and give Miami some more well rounded pass rush that
Speaker 1: they get from that position as well. He landed Roberts
Speaker 1: was really performing at a consistently high level when he
Speaker 1: went down for that season ending injury in Las Vegas
Speaker 1: right around week four. So it seems like he just
Speaker 1: kind of showed up and began making one or two
Speaker 1: of those big plays in the backfield every single week
Speaker 1: where number you know, big number fifty two's closing down
Speaker 1: and I guess he was forty four last year, but
Speaker 1: big number fifty two comes down the pike and just
Speaker 1: blows up the running back right at the mesh point
Speaker 1: seemed to happen every single week from like the Seahawks
Speaker 1: game on last season. He also on a per game basis,
Speaker 1: had career highs and tackles, sex and TFLs. We talked
Speaker 1: about Duke Riley. He was also a special teams captain
Speaker 1: in each of his previous two stops with the foul
Speaker 1: Plkins and the Eagles, and when he was in Philly,
Speaker 1: he arrived mid season via a trade and he earned
Speaker 1: captain ship. That's not a word. He earned a captain's
Speaker 1: patch in Philadelphia after arriving mid season. That tells you
Speaker 1: about his leadership and the work he puts in in
Speaker 1: regards to how to be a professional and how to
Speaker 1: work the right way. He also offers a great deal
Speaker 1: of coverage specialty and a field for cowboage and finding
Speaker 1: those spots on his spot drops or finding man and
Speaker 1: man coverage, whatever it might be. That's kind of his bag.
Speaker 1: Calvin Munson returns after playing all sixteen games last year
Speaker 1: after playing just two the year before with Miami, and
Speaker 1: he was primarily a special teamer in and then again
Speaker 1: kyl and Johnson back with his second year with the
Speaker 1: club as a U d F A for Miami last season.
Speaker 1: He was on the practice squad the entire year. A
Speaker 1: little bit of a deeper dive on each individual. Calvin
Speaker 1: Munson starts us off because he has the lowest jersey number,
Speaker 1: number forty eight. Three seasons in the NFL out of
Speaker 1: San Diego State, twenty six years old, and he played
Speaker 1: the two hundred and sixty two total snaps last year,
Speaker 1: two fourteen of those coming on special teams. He made
Speaker 1: three tackles as part of Miami's coverage units and also
Speaker 1: finished with nine total tackles on defense. When you watch
Speaker 1: him out there on run defense, man, he can bang
Speaker 1: between the B gaps, just kind of filling up either
Speaker 1: of those gaps and fit in the run and really
Speaker 1: laying the wood on the interior of the defense and
Speaker 1: the interior of the offensive line. You go to the
Speaker 1: next player on this list, Sam maguavin. Forty nine is
Speaker 1: his jersey number. Two seasons of experience in the National
Speaker 1: Football League by way of the CFL. He went to
Speaker 1: Texas Tech. He'll be twenty eight years old on opening day,
Speaker 1: and you might recall him kind of popping off immediately
Speaker 1: in training camp in ten where he carved out a
Speaker 1: nice role for himself upon making the jump from the CFL,
Speaker 1: where he was an absolute phenom defending the past and
Speaker 1: blitzing the quarterback and playing special teams up there up North,
Speaker 1: he comes to South Florida and kind of takes on
Speaker 1: a similar role in terms of playing the past and
Speaker 1: going after the quarterback, because you know, he's agile, he's active,
Speaker 1: He gets in the passing lanes, and he can certainly
Speaker 1: play downhill as a blitzer, but all whole work backwards
Speaker 1: and coverage. In twenty nineteen, he finished fourth on Pro
Speaker 1: Football Focus and quarterback pressures among off ball linebackers. He
Speaker 1: did blitz a lot, but he got home a lot
Speaker 1: with those twenty three pressures. Last year, his role really
Speaker 1: shifted more towards special teams. He played two hundred and
Speaker 1: seventy five of his three hundred and fifty nine snaps
Speaker 1: on special teams, that unit that ranked number six in
Speaker 1: the NFL via Football Outsiders. He made three special teams
Speaker 1: tackles as well, and nine total tackles on defense, the
Speaker 1: same numbers there as Calvin Munson, but he also had
Speaker 1: a tackle for loss and a p BU on defense
Speaker 1: last season. We get to McKinney now number fifty on
Speaker 1: your training camp guide here. He'll be entering his seventh season,
Speaker 1: so six years experience in the NFL out of Mississippi State,
Speaker 1: twenty eight years old on opening day, and man, you
Speaker 1: watch him direct traffic out there in the middle of
Speaker 1: the Texans defense on tape. You you kind of watched
Speaker 1: the the end zone angle of the All twenty two
Speaker 1: copy and you see a number fifty out there for Houston.
Speaker 1: He's looking off to the side, he's picking up motion,
Speaker 1: he's signaling his hands to you know, hands and us
Speaker 1: to his defenders to kind of get guys a line
Speaker 1: in the right spot. He's triggering and keying and pulling
Speaker 1: the trigger before the balls even snapped as he anticipates
Speaker 1: what's happening. Because of the film study. I love love
Speaker 1: watching players with those anticipatory skill sets like McKinney has,
Speaker 1: and he basically was the center of that Texas defense
Speaker 1: since he was dropped in there six years ago. He
Speaker 1: brings that run defending prowess, the penchant for those well
Speaker 1: time blitzes, and really unrivaled on field communication and prior
Speaker 1: to missing twelve games last season, and he has some
Speaker 1: nice tape on on tape before he went down in
Speaker 1: Game number five. McKinney average nine snaps played over the
Speaker 1: previous four years combined, that's an average per season, and
Speaker 1: in those four seasons he was tied for fifth, he
Speaker 1: finished eight and tied for seventeenth and QB pressures, so
Speaker 1: typically among the top of the leaderboard and rushing the
Speaker 1: quarterback from off ball linebacker position. He also finished inside
Speaker 1: the top twenty five among his positional contemporaries in total
Speaker 1: run stops in three of those four years, so again
Speaker 1: rushing the quarterback, defending the on he can do a
Speaker 1: little bit of it all, causing pile ups in the
Speaker 1: proverbial car crash in the running game. He's a tone
Speaker 1: center man. He's thick, he's got a quick first step
Speaker 1: to put opposing quarterbacks under instant arrest, but also the
Speaker 1: interior of the offensive line as he fires the gun
Speaker 1: and gets in there on the running game. And you
Speaker 1: go to the tape or his workout numbers back at
Speaker 1: the NFL Combine team that really showcase the explosive nature
Speaker 1: of his game. He finished in the ninety three percentile
Speaker 1: among his class at linebacker in both vertical and broad jumps.
Speaker 1: The lower half explosion. You kind of check that box there,
Speaker 1: speaking of big physical presences inside a land and Roberts
Speaker 1: number fifty two changed his jersey number this year from
Speaker 1: forty four five years NFL experience. He comes out of
Speaker 1: Houston and it's twenty seven years old an opening day
Speaker 1: and again from weeks four through sixteen last year. I
Speaker 1: swear there was one or two plays a game where
Speaker 1: you saw Roberts just destroy a play for a three,
Speaker 1: four or five yard loss where he flies in there
Speaker 1: and the ball carrier is just swarmed by an aqua
Speaker 1: or white jersey before he can even make that first
Speaker 1: move out of the backfield. He is a football seeking
Speaker 1: missile and just shot out of a cannon. Evident by
Speaker 1: his twenty five run stops in thirteen games played last
Speaker 1: year and a career best eight tackles for lost sixty
Speaker 1: one tackles one and a half sacks. Those were both
Speaker 1: on pace for his personal best without missed games played.
Speaker 1: He also matched his career high and forced fumbles with
Speaker 1: one on the season. Roberts was elected a team captain
Speaker 1: last year. I thought Jerome Baker really detailed what Robert
Speaker 1: springs to the locker room, to the film room, to
Speaker 1: the classroom, to the practice field, and a press conference
Speaker 1: back on December twenty one where he said, e Rob
Speaker 1: he's been around long enough. You can just tell he's
Speaker 1: all about putting the work in when nobody's looking. He
Speaker 1: doesn't care who's around. He doesn't care if it's coaches,
Speaker 1: if it's players, whoever it is. He's just gonna put
Speaker 1: the work in and get better. Speaking of Jerome Baker,
Speaker 1: he's up next. We go from fifty two to fifty
Speaker 1: five on the jersey number here in your program. He's
Speaker 1: got three years NFL experience out of Ohio State. He's
Speaker 1: still just twenty four years old. Does that kind of
Speaker 1: blow you away? Twenty four years old for Baker, who
Speaker 1: seems like he's been here forever. And the reason that
Speaker 1: seems ways because he never misses a damn snap or
Speaker 1: a game. He has not missed a game in his career.
Speaker 1: A key cog in the middle of this Dolphins defense
Speaker 1: that finished tops and takeaways and third down defense a
Speaker 1: year ago. He's fast as I'll get out. He can
Speaker 1: cover backs, cover tight ends, play the flat, play the hook,
Speaker 1: play the curl zone. He can rush the quarterback quite obviously,
Speaker 1: just an integral ingredient in Miami swarming defense and third
Speaker 1: down defense especially, and despite playing more snaps than any
Speaker 1: other Miami Dolphins, since he's got forty eight games played
Speaker 1: in three years, that's the maximum number he's tallied two thousand,
Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty two snaps on defense and special
Speaker 1: teams cumulatively over the last two seasons. That's a great
Speaker 1: workload there. Thirty three quarterback pressures, eight and a half sacks,
Speaker 1: two hundred and thirty eight tackles, ten tackles for loss,
Speaker 1: a pick, and seven passes defense and four forced fumbles
Speaker 1: over the last two seasons. You ask yourself where that
Speaker 1: contract attention comes from production, work habits, ultimate team player
Speaker 1: Jerome Baker. You cannot say enough about number fifty five.
Speaker 1: Well deserved contract extension for Jerome Baker. We finished up
Speaker 1: here with Kylan Johnson, number fifty nine in your programs.
Speaker 1: He has one year experience all on the practice squad.
Speaker 1: He came out of pit. He'll be twenty four years
Speaker 1: old opening day. He transferred from Florida where he played
Speaker 1: more of an off ball kind of coverage and run
Speaker 1: defense role with the Florida Gators, and he transfers to
Speaker 1: Pittsburgh for a grad transfer season, and he records six
Speaker 1: and a half sacks. He had a half sack at Florida,
Speaker 1: so six and a half sacks in one season and
Speaker 1: a hundred and thirty two total tackles with eleven for loss.
Speaker 1: So he kind of lived in the backfield there in
Speaker 1: the A C. C back in twenty nineteen, and like
Speaker 1: a handful of his fellow Dolphins, he has that quick,
Speaker 1: explosive first step, kind of a calling card for his game.
Speaker 1: I'm excited to watch him develop here in year number two.
Speaker 1: That's not the end of the podcast. We have another
Speaker 1: position group we're gonna get to here, since this was
Speaker 1: our shortest position to cover sands, the quarterbacks specialist, your
Speaker 1: special teamers. Now, the corresponding written piece won't be available
Speaker 1: up on Miami Dolphins dot com until I think next
Speaker 1: week sometime, So consider this an early sneak peek here
Speaker 1: on the Drivetime Podcast, brought to you by Automation. Subscribe,
Speaker 1: rate and review for us please that helps the podcast
Speaker 1: get out to more Dolphins fans, and we appreciate them. Alright,
Speaker 1: So the specialist number one here, we're starting off with
Speaker 1: the long snapper. I just want to make a note
Speaker 1: here because long snapping is one of those things that
Speaker 1: I mean, I suppose people are capable of scouting it
Speaker 1: and doing it. I don't really know what that entails,
Speaker 1: but I do know that when you snap the football,
Speaker 1: if the holder has to really raise his hands up
Speaker 1: or drop his hands down, that's not a great snap,
Speaker 1: not a perfect snap. Right. And so last year the
Speaker 1: Dolphins didn't have any failed exchanges on punt on p
Speaker 1: A T on field goals. They were really good in
Speaker 1: that regard, and I placed a lot of that credit
Speaker 1: on Blake Ferguson in addition to the holder and the
Speaker 1: kicking operation just a really solid battery a year ago.
Speaker 1: The high field goal percentage, no blocked kicks all year long,
Speaker 1: and no miss p A T s. How valuable is
Speaker 1: that all of those for a special team's unit. Danny
Speaker 1: Crossman got his promotion to assistant head coach, And there
Speaker 1: was a great moment on the podcast last year during
Speaker 1: the Mike Leets or Mike Cleats My Cause with the
Speaker 1: NFL Foundation there and we had Sammguavin and Blake Ferguson
Speaker 1: on the podcast talking about their cleats and Sam's cause
Speaker 1: with the Epilepsy Foundation and Blake with j d r
Speaker 1: F the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation. Just really good stuff from
Speaker 1: both those guys. And we talked to them about Danny Crossman,
Speaker 1: and you know, you can kind of hear Coach Crossman
Speaker 1: get folkal out there sometimes. He's a passionate coach. And
Speaker 1: I asked him when was the last time you got
Speaker 1: a ear full from Coach Crossman? And Sam said about
Speaker 1: a half hour ago in the practice field. And then
Speaker 1: I told Blake the same thing and he said, what
Speaker 1: did Sam say? I said, thirty minutes ago? He said
Speaker 1: about forty five minutes ago. Then I heard from coach
Speaker 1: Crossman on the practice field. He gets his guys going,
Speaker 1: and you can see that really the passion to coach
Speaker 1: has when he talks about his field goal kicker and
Speaker 1: Jason Sanders talking about his approach the way he does
Speaker 1: at the mental makeup really cool to hear him talk
Speaker 1: about his place kicker. And you know there's an emphasis
Speaker 1: on this football team on guys that are not just
Speaker 1: good in these spots, but guys that are willing to
Speaker 1: be out there, starters who were willing to go play
Speaker 1: special teams reps. Because it's kind of a dirty job,
Speaker 1: like you have to fly down that, you've gotta hit guys,
Speaker 1: you gotta take on blocks. It's not glamorous, but it's
Speaker 1: very necessary for a football team to have that, and
Speaker 1: the Dolphins do so well in that arena, big thanks
Speaker 1: to coach Croftsman as well as coach Flora's who really
Speaker 1: got his start and special teams as a coach, so
Speaker 1: he really really values that side of the football. But
Speaker 1: I think that that focus and that philosophy of no
Speaker 1: detail too small is a big reason why Miami has
Speaker 1: really taken that big leap and special team performance the
Speaker 1: last couple of years and really really been well, just
Speaker 1: well disciplined and well coached and performed well on that
Speaker 1: side of the football. And then my last note here
Speaker 1: before we get into the actual personnel is some of
Speaker 1: the strategy you see with this team. I mean, they
Speaker 1: convert some fake punts at times. They've got the pump
Speaker 1: blocks from Andrew Vankinkle based on a site adjustment pre
Speaker 1: snap where you see guys moving and you see the
Speaker 1: gunner or the jam or out, why kind of flip
Speaker 1: inside and the someone go from the middle of the
Speaker 1: formation out. Why that's a check. They have at the line.
Speaker 1: It turned into a pump block in that Chargers game
Speaker 1: a quick seven points as it puts the ball on
Speaker 1: the on the plus one yard line of the Chargers. Well,
Speaker 1: that strategy works in all facets of the game. Of course,
Speaker 1: we've seen all the tricker ration to the last two
Speaker 1: years from coach Crossman. But how about on kickoff when
Speaker 1: they do a pooch down around the goal line and
Speaker 1: force a return to get you know, returned on to
Speaker 1: the fourteen or fifteen yard line. The Dolphins were near
Speaker 1: the top of the league in terms of kick return
Speaker 1: average last season and the start position of kickoffs now
Speaker 1: the majority you're still gonna be touchbacks, but every once
Speaker 1: in a while you can pin that team, you know,
Speaker 1: at the fifteen yard line. Ten yards is a big deal.
Speaker 1: It's a big position to flip there in terms of
Speaker 1: field position. The Dolphins play the numbers. They take advantage
Speaker 1: what is presented to them and make the according calls
Speaker 1: and checks, not just on offense and defense, but special
Speaker 1: teams as well. The additions this offseason, it's punter for
Speaker 1: punter Michael Pollardy in from Carolina. Matt Hawk goes up
Speaker 1: to the Buffalo Bills and we talked about Coach Crossman
Speaker 1: the number six ranked special teams. You know on Football Outsiders,
Speaker 1: they have a first team All Pro and kicker Jason Sanders,
Speaker 1: as well as a second team All Pro in return specialists.
Speaker 1: Achem grants last receiver for him, but for Crossman's effort
Speaker 1: his two years in Miami, he gets that promotion. And
Speaker 1: he spoke about the duties that come with that promotion
Speaker 1: this offseason, saying that he and coach Flora's have a
Speaker 1: very similar philosophical belief on a lot of things, some
Speaker 1: of the things that have been going on for a
Speaker 1: couple of years during the season and on game day,
Speaker 1: and then there are some things we've added. And he
Speaker 1: concludes that quote by saying, I'm just very fortunate to
Speaker 1: be in an organization where top down, I feel like
Speaker 1: we see things very similar. End quote there. For Coach
Speaker 1: Crossman his group. At a glance again, the kicking operations
Speaker 1: on point Jason Sanders. You look at the Dolphins kicking
Speaker 1: record book, it's pretty much Jason Sanders and Alunda Mari
Speaker 1: up and down that thing, as well as Pete Stoyanovich.
Speaker 1: And of course we have the loan change at the
Speaker 1: position group this offseason. We start here with Michael Pollardi
Speaker 1: number five, has seven years NFL experience out of Tennessee,
Speaker 1: twenty nine years old opening Day, another lefty punter. He
Speaker 1: missed last season after playing the previous four with Carolina.
Speaker 1: Fifty five career games played three forty two points for
Speaker 1: a net of over eleven thousand yards. It's a forty
Speaker 1: point three net hunting average. His forty six yards per
Speaker 1: punt in twenty nineteen was tied for thirteen in NFL
Speaker 1: that season. Jason Sanders number seven, he has three years
Speaker 1: NFL experience out of New Mexico. He'll be twenty five
Speaker 1: years old opening Day, and he got that contract extension
Speaker 1: this offseason. Thirty six successful field goals last year on
Speaker 1: thirty nine attempts. That ninety two point three percentage was
Speaker 1: the best single season rate in club history. He made
Speaker 1: twenty two consecutive kicks going back to twenty nineteen through
Speaker 1: the Charger game. Last year. We had his first miss
Speaker 1: of the season in week number ten, but thirty six
Speaker 1: made field goals was the second most in team history,
Speaker 1: also second most in the NFL. Last year, his one
Speaker 1: hundred and forty four points scored tied the Dolphins all
Speaker 1: time mark last season. He also converted twenty field goals
Speaker 1: of forty or more yards that led the league, and
Speaker 1: finally it was perfect on p t s thirty six
Speaker 1: of thirty six. He also made a pair of game
Speaker 1: winning kicks inwenty A fifty yard kick in the final
Speaker 1: minute proved to be the difference in Miami's thrilling thirty
Speaker 1: one win in our Zona, and that forty four yard
Speaker 1: boot with one second on the clock in the dramatics
Speaker 1: in Las Vegas gave Miami their tenth victory of the
Speaker 1: season in Week sixteen last year. And that dependability really
Speaker 1: earned Jason Sanders a five year contract extension with the club.
Speaker 1: And what a weapon this guy is. Because you get
Speaker 1: yourself on the plus side of the field, you start
Speaker 1: thinking like, we're pretty close to being in range for
Speaker 1: three points here. Because Sanders, he's not just accurate for
Speaker 1: men short. He can make him from deep about you know,
Speaker 1: you watch him kicking practice sixty yards. He's putting that
Speaker 1: thing through the uprights. He's got a nice range there
Speaker 1: and he converts those fifty plush yards in games more
Speaker 1: often than not. It's a great weapon to have when
Speaker 1: you have such a strong defense to really help compliment
Speaker 1: that team and the way they play in those close games,
Speaker 1: especially when you can turn the ball over to your
Speaker 1: kicker and tell him to go make a fifty six
Speaker 1: yard to get you on the board, and then put
Speaker 1: the defense back on the field to hold those leads.
Speaker 1: It's a great complimentary style of football. Blake fergus In
Speaker 1: the long snapper number forty four one season out of
Speaker 1: l s U twenty four years old opening Day, So yes,
Speaker 1: he did change his jersey number, but he played all
Speaker 1: sixty games as a rookie, and he was a long
Speaker 1: snapper for each of those record breaking field goals by
Speaker 1: Jason Sanders, and again the Dolphins punt team had no
Speaker 1: field exchanges, no block kicks, and Ferguson also had a
Speaker 1: couple of tackles to boot a six round draft pick
Speaker 1: back in really earning his weight there on the roster
Speaker 1: last season as a rookie, and then Rex Sunahara number
Speaker 1: sixty one year NFL experience last year he signed and
Speaker 1: was on the practice squad thout the course of the
Speaker 1: season out of West Virginia. He'll be twenty four years
Speaker 1: old on opening Day, and he was a finalist in
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen for the Patrick Mannelly Award, given annually to
Speaker 1: the nation's top long snapper. He then signed a futures
Speaker 1: contract with Miami after spaying the entire season last year
Speaker 1: on the practice squads. So those are your linebackers, those
Speaker 1: are your specialists. We've got a couple more of these
Speaker 1: things to go with the cornerbacks and the safety's. We're
Speaker 1: gonna come back on the podcast next week as well
Speaker 1: and wrap this thing up for before training camp starts
Speaker 1: and do a mail bag in a f C East
Speaker 1: Prediction episode. You don't want to miss that before Wednesday,
Speaker 1: when we go live from the Dolphins practice facility at
Speaker 1: Heart or at Miami Gardens right next to hard Rock
Speaker 1: Stadium there in Miami Gardens. We cannot wait to get
Speaker 1: going and bring you guys the best Miami Dolphins coverage.
Speaker 1: One more note before I get out of here, because
Speaker 1: we've been dealing with with us for about a week now.
Speaker 1: Any suggestions out there on a teething toddler, because Caroline
Speaker 1: is teething right now and these nights have been along
Speaker 1: while every hour she wakes up crying, So we're dealing
Speaker 1: with that right now. I will take any and all
Speaker 1: advice to you. Fathers and mothers and parents out there
Speaker 1: are willing to give us because we're at the end
Speaker 1: of our rope and we're trying to get acclimated to
Speaker 1: the new time change and it's been very tough with
Speaker 1: the little girl and teething. All right, that's gonna be
Speaker 1: my time on this edition of the Drive Time Podcast.
Speaker 1: You all please be sure to subscribe to the podcast
Speaker 1: on Apple podcast, Spotify, Google Play, tuned in, wherever you
Speaker 1: get your podcast from. Go ahead and leave us a rating,
Speaker 1: leave us that review, give me a follow on Twitter.
Speaker 1: It's at Wingfield, NFL. You can follow the team at
Speaker 1: Miami Dolphins. Check out the fish Tank podcast with o
Speaker 1: J and Seth, checking out the Audible with Bow and John,
Speaker 1: and of course, last but not least, Miami dolphins dot
Speaker 1: com for all the written training camp previews until next
Speaker 1: time Defends Up