Speaker 1: To remove dall in deep speedways peas dolls from the
Speaker 1: Baptist Health Studio that's inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.
Speaker 2: This is Drivetime with Travis Wingfield. He's my havn's in
Speaker 2: the playoffs. What is up Dolphins and welcome to the
Speaker 2: Draft Time Podcast. I am your host, Travis Wingfield, and
Speaker 2: on today's show, I have some thoughts about the first
Speaker 2: half of the season and where this team is going
Speaker 2: in the second half of the season and beyond, with
Speaker 2: some examples of some teams that have followed similar pathlines
Speaker 2: as the Dolphins could be tracking here in twenty twenty
Speaker 2: four and beyond. From the Baptist Health Studios inside the
Speaker 2: Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Draft Time Podcast.
Speaker 2: I love my Wednesday show because it's usually my time
Speaker 2: to be a little bit more freeform jazz and monologue
Speaker 2: a little bit opposed to more regimented shows. Which don't
Speaker 2: get me wrong, I mean I built the program out
Speaker 2: that way on purpose and love the formulaic nature of
Speaker 2: the recap show or the preview show. But this is
Speaker 2: typically my favorite spot to do and today's topic is
Speaker 2: a big part of that. Since it's the middle of
Speaker 2: the season, week nine of eighteen weeks. I want to
Speaker 2: do something that step back a little bit and do
Speaker 2: more of a big picture process, but also tie it
Speaker 2: into the team today and going forward into Los Angeles,
Speaker 2: into the homestand and eventually lambeau Field and beyond for
Speaker 2: Thanksgiving and in December. How I think these last eight
Speaker 2: games have informed us further about the program and how,
Speaker 2: in my opinion, the record is straight up a bald
Speaker 2: faced liar with regards to where this thing is going.
Speaker 2: And I want to talk about process today, and there
Speaker 2: are several caveats and disclaimers. I have to start with,
Speaker 2: the number one being that I think this team is
Speaker 2: one win on Monday away from going on a bit
Speaker 2: of a heater. If they beat the Rams, I believe
Speaker 2: they will go to Thanksgiving at five and six, and
Speaker 2: I think they have a chance to win that game,
Speaker 2: and then you play the low League Jets. I think
Speaker 2: there's a real opportunity here to go to Houston at
Speaker 2: seven and six. I do. If it doesn't happen, we
Speaker 2: have to make peace of that and accept the fact
Speaker 2: that the hole we dug was too big. But I
Speaker 2: do think that's a real, real possibility. Now, why do
Speaker 2: I believe that. Give me just one second, because I
Speaker 2: want to set this all up further to recap my
Speaker 2: view on the first eight games. I thought we came
Speaker 2: out of the gates a little bit stagnant in the
Speaker 2: offensive structure of things, even with Tua. I didn't feel
Speaker 2: there was a real synchronicity in how the offense performed,
Speaker 2: and they struggled in those first two games as a
Speaker 2: result of that. Why did that happen? Well, I think
Speaker 2: there are extenuating circumstances, and I won't place a percentage
Speaker 2: point on those because in this league, I promise you guys,
Speaker 2: it's not like social media. Inside an NFL building, nobody
Speaker 2: looks at scapegoats. I know that that's what Twitter is
Speaker 2: all about, finding your scapegoat for every single game, every
Speaker 2: single season, because that gives you a tangible thing that
Speaker 2: you can go into an offseason to know that I
Speaker 2: hack to replace this. The bad is out. The next
Speaker 2: thing that we get will be good, and that's how
Speaker 2: we're going to be a good football team. That's just
Speaker 2: not how it works. There are so many elements that
Speaker 2: you just cannot forecast about an NFL team every single year,
Speaker 2: and to scapegoat one single person or element is typically
Speaker 2: bad process. You need to look at all processes. A
Speaker 2: good example of that is two years ago we had
Speaker 2: the deepest and best edge group in the National Football League,
Speaker 2: and today it's probably the worst because of injuries, and
Speaker 2: the long term outlook has been impacted by those injuries.
Speaker 2: But back to the offense, I think you can look
Speaker 2: at two as Ota absences. It's part of that. I
Speaker 2: think you know a guy that has typically in the
Speaker 2: past not played well off of bye weeks. It seems
Speaker 2: like he's more of a rhythm type of you know,
Speaker 2: guy that gets hotter or as he goes. I think
Speaker 2: you can look at the way the summer program operates,
Speaker 2: you know, I think that you have to have some
Speaker 2: changes to that next year. I think you can point
Speaker 2: to most heavily. I didn't. I said I wasn't gonna
Speaker 2: assign percentage points, but I would tend to say that
Speaker 2: installing a bunch of new stuff that didn't really work
Speaker 2: and wasn't successful. To be honest with you, it was
Speaker 2: too much glitz and glamour and too much cutesy stuff
Speaker 2: and out thinking. And here's the overplay to the overplay.
Speaker 2: It was almost kind of like shoot Coach Clan from
Speaker 2: water Boy. He fakes the fake, no, he pretends to fake.
Speaker 2: And again, don't get me wrong, there is some cutesy
Speaker 2: stuff that works, and it's fun when it does work,
Speaker 2: like some of the play action little flips you know,
Speaker 2: no look screens. I love those that behind the back
Speaker 2: flip to Jalen right for a big run. Love it.
Speaker 2: But I feel as though we lost the thread a
Speaker 2: little bit with that stuff and probably committed to it
Speaker 2: for too long before a hard pivot around week seven maybe,
Speaker 2: although the full back dive on first and ten would
Speaker 2: say it was still some of that, but I digress,
Speaker 2: and that hard pivot was more of the bread and butter,
Speaker 2: more downhill line up and just play football, which look
Speaker 2: at the game on Sunday and short yardage. What was
Speaker 2: successful our traditional running game? What was not successful? Raheem
Speaker 2: Moster sliding over to an offset I position and taking
Speaker 2: a straight dive into the B gap where you couldn't
Speaker 2: cross face on a safety who came in as the
Speaker 2: seed gap defender. Like that was cutesy and it didn't work,
Speaker 2: And when they went back to their regular offense it
Speaker 2: did work. And also a bigger emphasis on something I've
Speaker 2: been preaching for the last two years at camp or
Speaker 2: in games or otherwise, the concept of spreading the football around,
Speaker 2: getting the football to the perimeter, to the checkdowns, further
Speaker 2: incorporating the backs and tight ends in the passing game.
Speaker 2: Like look back to last year. You could see it
Speaker 2: all over the tape. Backs in the flat naked naked
Speaker 2: and football means they're not cover you sickos, And we're
Speaker 2: trying to push it into these contested windows down the field.
Speaker 2: And I'm always like, hey, why didn't you just throw
Speaker 2: the ball to Raheem right there? He was open for
Speaker 2: an eight yard game. And that reminds me of this
Speaker 2: whole argument about the distance of pass passes correlating with
Speaker 2: how much you are impressed by the quarterback. And gosh ah,
Speaker 2: there's just such a you never want to like demean people.
Speaker 2: I don't seek to do that in my apologies if
Speaker 2: this next line does that, But holy hell man, that's
Speaker 2: like a twelve year old playing Madden approach to football.
Speaker 2: The evaluation the game is far more esoteric than that.
Speaker 2: A ninety percent completion rate throw like it's probably even
Speaker 2: higher than that on the swing route into a space
Speaker 2: with five or six yards of runway before the first
Speaker 2: defender can even find that running back in space is
Speaker 2: much better in terms of, you know, efficiency than to
Speaker 2: throw twenty yards down the field with a defender all
Speaker 2: over the receiver. Because hey, that's our vertical passing game,
Speaker 2: our deep passing game. It just is. And I can't
Speaker 2: believe it's even a sentence I have to say, but
Speaker 2: I digress, Like I'm impressed by quarterback. They can put
Speaker 2: it out there. I'll tell you in a second why
Speaker 2: it's impressive that he does that stuff. But on the
Speaker 2: other side of the struggles, I made this reference probably
Speaker 2: too much in the show. It reminds me of Andy
Speaker 2: dufran Shawshank He crawled through five hundred feet of you
Speaker 2: know what and found the sunshine on the other side
Speaker 2: or whatever. That's that's the other right line, but you
Speaker 2: get it. And I feel like we have come out
Speaker 2: the other side seeing the light here a little bit.
Speaker 2: And I want to start with this sound from Taron
Speaker 2: Johnson after the game on Sunday, he was asked about
Speaker 2: the Dolphins run game and how much success we had
Speaker 2: in that area.
Speaker 3: I just feel as though they have really great weapons
Speaker 3: on the outside, so kind of like playing like kind
Speaker 3: of them, letting them run the ball. If I want
Speaker 3: to say, you know what I'm saying, just not giving
Speaker 3: up explosive plays. I mean, we still gave up I
Speaker 3: think too many, but just making sure we limit those
Speaker 3: explosive plays.
Speaker 2: I think the reason for that chuckle in his voice
Speaker 2: there was because you kind of don't want to like
Speaker 2: cop to that fact. But it's a truly pick your
Speaker 2: poison type of situation where you can't defend it all.
Speaker 2: And that's why I talked about all damn summer, wasn't
Speaker 2: it when I was talking about breaking records with points
Speaker 2: and how this offense is going to be so efficient
Speaker 2: we've seen the two weeks because defenses literally cannot defend
Speaker 2: the entire field with the continuity you've developed on the
Speaker 2: offensive line, with the explosive nature of your running game,
Speaker 2: with the better depth at pass receiving options, with Odell
Speaker 2: being part of the mix, now John hu Smith being
Speaker 2: a massive part of the equation, and then Devon a
Speaker 2: Chan's implementation of the passing game. That's basically three more
Speaker 2: guys that you didn't have last year. And why I
Speaker 2: was so bullish on all this now we get Malik
Speaker 2: Washington going river, Kraikraft gonna come back here real soon.
Speaker 2: I still think it's a point of contention in the
Speaker 2: off season next year. But I digress. You have these
Speaker 2: part portions, partians that make you indefensible across the entire field,
Speaker 2: and teams have to pick what they feel is less dangerous.
Speaker 2: And that's why I think Tyron Johnson just told you
Speaker 2: right there. And when I hear that, I think about
Speaker 2: how we have been able to get the run game
Speaker 2: going and hit it for chunks and stay ahead of
Speaker 2: the six the sticks and constantly be in these second
Speaker 2: and two positions. But then I think, well, one way
Speaker 2: they adjust off of that while keeping their shell. For instance,
Speaker 2: you know Raheem Mostert's catch and run for a first
Speaker 2: down on third and eleven on that opening field goal
Speaker 2: drive when they had three defenders who were five and
Speaker 2: then twelve and then fifteen yards beyond the sticks on
Speaker 2: third and eleven. So you've shown teams that you can
Speaker 2: hurt them where it hurts the most. Right the vertical
Speaker 2: passing game, you have excelled in that area and you've
Speaker 2: had a forty six hundred yard passer a nearly a
Speaker 2: two thousand yard receiver and you went to work in
Speaker 2: the passing game number one in the NFL last year.
Speaker 2: That is prior to number one for any defense, because
Speaker 2: the quickest way to lose games is to give up
Speaker 2: long touchdowns. So we play light in the fit and
Speaker 2: they're still getting their runs off. But if that's all
Speaker 2: they have off of that, we are eventually one negative
Speaker 2: play that puts them behind the sticks. We can be
Speaker 2: more a little more aggressive and then get them off
Speaker 2: the field because eventually they're going to make that mistake
Speaker 2: because they do not have that passing game efficiency in
Speaker 2: their back pocket that we saw the last two weeks.
Speaker 2: So you can either force a field goal, hopefully a punt,
Speaker 2: or even best case scenario, force them into a takeaway,
Speaker 2: which we saw that too. But the part that was
Speaker 2: missing when Tua wasn't out there and the reason I
Speaker 2: think you I have seen this offense become the most
Speaker 2: efficient scoring operation in the NFL in terms of points
Speaker 2: per possession of the last two games and number of
Speaker 2: drives that end in points the last two games. It's
Speaker 2: because we've evolved to the next element of our offense
Speaker 2: I believe, which is that thing I've been talking about
Speaker 2: at training camp the last couple of years and finding
Speaker 2: backs and tight ends and threatening areas of the field
Speaker 2: vacated in the short areas to stay on the field
Speaker 2: as an offense, to keep moving the chains and essentially
Speaker 2: take the profit all the way down the field into
Speaker 2: the end zone. It's how the Chiefs entire operation works.
Speaker 2: Ever since teams decided I'm not gonna let Mahomes throw
Speaker 2: for five thousand yards and forty eight touchdowns because well,
Speaker 2: we can't beat them doing that. Maybe we can force
Speaker 2: them to be a little bit less explosive, and because
Speaker 2: the Chiefs don't really have the same number of guns
Speaker 2: we do, you've seen them be less explosive and you've
Speaker 2: seen them have to win games in crazy fashion late
Speaker 2: twenty seventeen because they just don't have the guns on
Speaker 2: the outside. But it's a better option than letting them,
Speaker 2: you know, throw deep to Xavier Worthy and gets single
Speaker 2: coverage five times a game, because Mahomes probably to hit
Speaker 2: two of those. So it really is a pick your
Speaker 2: poison proposition, and I think it's here to stay. And again,
Speaker 2: it's such a bummer that we are two and six,
Speaker 2: because I think if they were four and four, despite
Speaker 2: all the missing parts on defense, I feel like this
Speaker 2: is a team that could win the division and make
Speaker 2: a deep run. If they were just four and four.
Speaker 2: It's going to be difficult to overcome two and six.
Speaker 2: But even then, I feel like there's still like this
Speaker 2: slight glimmer of hope that if it was just even
Speaker 2: one more win at three and five, I would feel
Speaker 2: so much better about getting into the playoffs. Now. To
Speaker 2: tell you why, I have this belief despite the attrition
Speaker 2: on defense and a group that I don't think is
Speaker 2: going to really be able to bounce back with the
Speaker 2: current position in terms of edge and pass rushers. But
Speaker 2: I've made no bones about what I personally believe is
Speaker 2: the best way to be a sustained winner in this league.
Speaker 2: It's offense. You know. I've done research segments on this
Speaker 2: show opening the sustainability of great offense first, great defense,
Speaker 2: even going back to the twenty twenty season. I looked
Speaker 2: at top ten defenses compared to the top ten offenses
Speaker 2: back in twenty twenty one, and how many consecutive years
Speaker 2: those groups stayed in that level in that category, And
Speaker 2: without having the exact metrics in front of me, it
Speaker 2: was pretty clear that the offense was by far the
Speaker 2: easier side of the football to maintain. And I mean,
Speaker 2: look look at all the teams that make their deep runs.
Speaker 2: Three of the teams in the final four last year,
Speaker 2: we're outside the top ten and defense, like happens every year. Ultimately,
Speaker 2: that's not the case. I'm trying to argue. What I'm
Speaker 2: trying to argue is I think the Dolphins offense is
Speaker 2: not going to be back to what we got used
Speaker 2: to in twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three. I
Speaker 2: think it's got high potential to be even better, to
Speaker 2: be even more dangerous with how it can create more
Speaker 2: areas of conflict for this defense. And like I went
Speaker 2: through it the last couple of weeks, like the last
Speaker 2: six weeks, being like what the hell happened to this offense?
Speaker 2: That's why I was so beside myself with like where
Speaker 2: the do we go from here? Because this isn't the
Speaker 2: team that I know, But it has been the last
Speaker 2: two weeks. Offensively, I know I ran this sound on
Speaker 2: the show yesterday. Let's go ahead and go back to
Speaker 2: McDaniel on the concept of the short passing game and
Speaker 2: taking what's there to capitalize on overplay by the defense.
Speaker 4: Football in general is UH is about maximizing, you know,
Speaker 4: specifically in our offense, is maximizing overplay. And if you're
Speaker 4: going to overplay with depth, you have to execute and
Speaker 4: in high percentage completions and yards after the catch that
Speaker 4: aren't necessarily the cross court gigantic plays, but are the
Speaker 4: throw at for four and you get seven.
Speaker 2: Uh, and that, and that's kind.
Speaker 4: Of the art of that that particular style of defense
Speaker 4: when they want to play that, when they want to
Speaker 4: play the way they've proven to have success against our offense.
Speaker 2: And I thought.
Speaker 4: It was a a great display of Tua's evolution of
Speaker 4: finding can poletions and utilizing his accuracy and challenging the
Speaker 4: areas of the field that weren't overpopulated. And you know,
Speaker 4: with a team that plays with a bunch of quarterback
Speaker 4: vision that relies on turnovers, it's absolutely absolutely imperative to
Speaker 4: be able to pass the pass the ball efficiently and
Speaker 4: take advantage of the areas where they're avoiding. So I
Speaker 4: think that's an art what you're saying, managing the game
Speaker 4: against zone defenses, you usually can't. Against really good zone defenses,
Speaker 4: you can't manage the game in the way of just
Speaker 4: finding checkdowns, because if you go to the checkdown too
Speaker 4: early in the play, they play deep and we'll sprint
Speaker 4: forward and you'll get you'll get a two yard game.
Speaker 4: So you have to play the position to get the
Speaker 4: appropriately to get the ball to the eligibles at the
Speaker 4: time of the play, and that is an art form
Speaker 4: that many many quarterbacks find very difficult, particularly against the
Speaker 4: Buffalo Bills. So I thought yesterday was a great example
Speaker 4: of aggressively taking what the defense gives you, and you know,
Speaker 4: he was able to do some have some success that
Speaker 4: we haven't had in the past based upon his commitment
Speaker 4: to his craft and being aggressive to all eligibles, based
Speaker 4: upon overplay and.
Speaker 2: A real quick peek behind the curtain for you guys.
Speaker 2: I caught wind of some of the micd up footage
Speaker 2: where McDaniel's telling the guys, if you just run your
Speaker 2: route to your spot, that's it. That's all you have
Speaker 2: to do. We'll be just final score because Tua is
Speaker 2: so dialed in he will get it to you. So
Speaker 2: coach knew his quarterback was on a heater and playing
Speaker 2: some of his best ball of his career and was
Speaker 2: seeing it that well, well, that's how you score three
Speaker 2: touchdown drives of seventy eighty one and ninety seven in
Speaker 2: the toughest environment. We plan our entire schedule every single year.
Speaker 2: All those drives when you were behind on the scoreboard,
Speaker 2: and all those hillbillies from Western New York who pulled
Speaker 2: out a second mortgage on their shanty just to be
Speaker 2: in attendance could scream through their blue cheese breath for
Speaker 2: tooth mouths. And to go further on what coach said,
Speaker 2: first off, I got some great questions when I tweeted
Speaker 2: the quote about some of the finer points of how
Speaker 2: this all works. So when we throw a swing to
Speaker 2: eight chan up the sideline, it's easy to look at
Speaker 2: that and say, well that was an easy throw, no
Speaker 2: credit for the quarterback. But what you're not seeing there
Speaker 2: is get into the line scrimmage pre snap and deciphering. Okay,
Speaker 2: I've got this look that I believe is Cover three.
Speaker 2: I've got this route concept two man route combo to
Speaker 2: the swing route side, and my one receiver is on
Speaker 2: this vertical that I think should pull the Cover three
Speaker 2: defender into his deep third responsibility and vacate the first
Speaker 2: fifteen yards of the perimeter to that side of the field,
Speaker 2: and now I just have to occupy this curl flat
Speaker 2: defender who's zoned off to work the first route that
Speaker 2: breaks inside, and if it's not there, he's gonna get
Speaker 2: with and key the running back on that swing route.
Speaker 2: But because we switch release, which is where the one
Speaker 2: and two basically switch downfield after the snap, with the
Speaker 2: two taking the vertical to lift that cover three cornerback
Speaker 2: off the perimeter, and now that inside release gets that
Speaker 2: curl flat defender running forward and towards the middle, or
Speaker 2: rather towards the middle of the field, meaning the flat
Speaker 2: is all alone. And as the quarterback, if I can
Speaker 2: convince that curl flat defender, who again he's in zone,
Speaker 2: so his eyes are playing me, he's not coming, you know,
Speaker 2: he's not playing the receivers in the route, He's playing
Speaker 2: the quarterback. And they have to respect my helmet position,
Speaker 2: my feet, my shoulders. The way I can influence them.
Speaker 2: Every part of the quarterback is a tell about where
Speaker 2: the football might go. And since Tua is literally the
Speaker 2: best in the league at showing the defense the ball
Speaker 2: is going one way and then quicker than anybody else
Speaker 2: in the world can do it is able to get
Speaker 2: the ball back to the spot that he just opened up.
Speaker 2: With his manipulation, he can force that curl flat defender
Speaker 2: to totally vacate the flat and then rip the ball
Speaker 2: to Chan on a dead sprint on the upfield shoulder
Speaker 2: so he doesn't slow down and takes him right into
Speaker 2: the round for the catch. It's a five yard air throw.
Speaker 2: It gets knocked for that. That gives eight Chan fifteen
Speaker 2: more yards of runway before he even gets touched. That
Speaker 2: is winning football. So what one person sees as an
Speaker 2: easy swing route, you gotta understand the finer points to
Speaker 2: go into it. That's what's impressive about it. And if
Speaker 2: it were that easy, that every quarterback would do it.
Speaker 2: But I promise you it's not that easy. And Tua
Speaker 2: took hundreds of thousands of reps as a youth with
Speaker 2: his pops back on eva beach to be able to
Speaker 2: develop that rare trait which I think you could compare
Speaker 2: to when you're in the triple threat position in basketball. Right,
Speaker 2: he can shoot, he can pass, he can dribble drive,
Speaker 2: and Tua can sell you on the dribble drive attack
Speaker 2: and within that same motion where he gets you to
Speaker 2: take a deep drop step to get depth to cut
Speaker 2: him off on the way to the basket. He can
Speaker 2: then pull up and knock down the shot right in
Speaker 2: your eyeball. Does that track? Let's go ahead and take
Speaker 2: our first break right there. Come back on the other side,
Speaker 2: and I'm gonna keep going, baby. Drivetime Podcast, your host
Speaker 2: Travis Wingfield, brought to you by AutoNation, simply continuing that
Speaker 2: first segment idea and talking about two one and comparing
Speaker 2: him to a great dribble drive basketball guard with the
Speaker 2: ability to hit jump shots in your face. I think
Speaker 2: that Tua's game has grown that way with his ability
Speaker 2: to you know, fake the glands and throw the rail
Speaker 2: or throw the flat or you know, rip the vertical
Speaker 2: whatever whatever he needs to do without having his feet set,
Speaker 2: without you know, being able to quickly set his feet
Speaker 2: to make that happen. And it just meshes so perfectly
Speaker 2: with the skill players that we have, with the run
Speaker 2: game that we have, with the system and the entire
Speaker 2: operation as a whole. That's why I think this offense
Speaker 2: is going to be an absolute problem down the stretch.
Speaker 2: It's what I thought we were going to get back
Speaker 2: in Week one, which again it sucks that I was
Speaker 2: wrong about that early on. It does. I wish it
Speaker 2: were different. I mean, imagine Tua stays healthy and hits
Speaker 2: this stride back in Week three against the Seahawks and
Speaker 2: the Titans and the Colts, and the defense was balling
Speaker 2: at that time. I have no proble and saying confidently
Speaker 2: we're five and three right now if that's the case,
Speaker 2: which is probably disappointing based upon the Cardinals result and
Speaker 2: not pulling that Buffalo game out late, but it is
Speaker 2: what it is. Five and three, I would say this
Speaker 2: team is about to win the AFC East still. Well
Speaker 2: maybe not because you got split Buffalo, but I digress
Speaker 2: on that once again. I just think that we're at
Speaker 2: worse five and three, but that's not the reality. The
Speaker 2: realities were two and six and now have to play
Speaker 2: damn near perfect to get in. And that's where I
Speaker 2: want to go back to this SoundBite from Coach when
Speaker 2: he was asked on Monday about the idea of yesterday
Speaker 2: on Tuesday being buyers or sellers of the deadline. Here's Coach,
Speaker 2: and he gave you a pretty good answer here about
Speaker 2: how this team believes in their program and kind of
Speaker 2: affirms I guess what I'm saying as the team mouthpiece
Speaker 2: right now. This is steeped in research and study and
Speaker 2: x'es and o's, and you podcast listeners from the last
Speaker 2: six weeks know that this is not I wasn't doing
Speaker 2: this two weeks ago, so just bear with me. Here
Speaker 2: here's coach on the team's internal review of their own operation.
Speaker 4: Chris great I both share their strong conviction in belief
Speaker 4: in this, in this team and what it looks like
Speaker 4: if you if you can find a way to get
Speaker 4: over the hump, which we fully expect to. At the
Speaker 4: same time, you know, Chris Ker's job is to to
Speaker 4: field all all business and listen uh and think both
Speaker 4: in the short and long term of of the best
Speaker 4: interests of the franchise. And then he comes to me
Speaker 4: with any and all business that's that's real, and we
Speaker 4: discuss you know, from there, and he hasn't brought anything
Speaker 4: that is that is real to me. But I know,
Speaker 4: first and foremost we are absolutely convicted in uh this,
Speaker 4: this this team being better than the win loss column
Speaker 4: right now and believe that it can it can make
Speaker 4: a turn.
Speaker 2: And that's what we're how we're approaching each and every
Speaker 2: day I guess what I'm saying through all of my
Speaker 2: rambling and research and points and football jargon, is that
Speaker 2: I agree with coach. If you couldn't tell that by now,
Speaker 2: I do think this team will finish out the rest
Speaker 2: of the year strong, of course, provided to what is
Speaker 2: under center, and give themselves a fighting chance in December
Speaker 2: to make a historic type of run. Quite frankly, I
Speaker 2: think that with our offense the way it is, if
Speaker 2: it stays healthy and continues doing what I think they will,
Speaker 2: which is have that same run game commitment, have the
Speaker 2: same commitment to taking the profit, and also having the
Speaker 2: explosive element mixed in like you saw in Buffalo, the
Speaker 2: perfect triple threat attack. I think that in those games
Speaker 2: against teams that don't have Matt Stafford or Jordan Love
Speaker 2: or c. J. Stroud or Brock Purty, I think you're
Speaker 2: gonna wipe the floor with those teams. I'm talking about
Speaker 2: the Raiders, Patriots, Jets, and Browns, which is five games,
Speaker 2: which gives you four more games with Matt Stafford, with
Speaker 2: Jordan Love, with CJ. Shrowd and brock Purty. You have
Speaker 2: to find a way to win three of those. It
Speaker 2: starts on Monday, against the Rams. If you get that one,
Speaker 2: then I feel confident that we can find two more
Speaker 2: of the other three. But let's just let that happen
Speaker 2: when it happens and hopefully make a historic run through
Speaker 2: December to turn a two and six team into a
Speaker 2: playoff team. But because because of this early hole, maybe
Speaker 2: it's too late. And that bleeds into my next point
Speaker 2: that you know, to recap. I think this team can
Speaker 2: get hot, but even getting hot and going seven and
Speaker 2: two might not be good enough. We'll see. I don't
Speaker 2: think the seventh seed in the AFC is going to
Speaker 2: have an imposing record like was the case last year,
Speaker 2: where it felt like you had to have ten, maybe
Speaker 2: even eleven wins just to get in the damn playoffs.
Speaker 2: I mean, we clinched the playoffs in the Cowboys game
Speaker 2: at eleven and four, and we would have made it
Speaker 2: at ten and seven had we lost that game. But
Speaker 2: at the time, it was like, well, if it lose
Speaker 2: to the Ravens and the Bills and the Cowboys, maybe
Speaker 2: they don't get in. But you get what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: It's I think it's lighter this year, but of course
Speaker 2: so much can change. And that's the second part of
Speaker 2: this and something I've been thinking about, you know, looking
Speaker 2: into the last couple of days. If they go seven
Speaker 2: to two and miss out on a tie break, that
Speaker 2: would be a disappointing season based upon preseason expectations. Maybe
Speaker 2: not so much about the seven and two end, but
Speaker 2: the six and the two and six start that made
Speaker 2: it so they have to be one of the best
Speaker 2: two or three teams down the stretch just to get
Speaker 2: a road playoff game against a Baltimore or Buffalo or
Speaker 2: whoever it might be. I think there's a bit of
Speaker 2: a disconnect on this next part with regards to fans
Speaker 2: and patient level, patience level, or the old trope of
Speaker 2: no excuses just to accomplish X, Y and z like
Speaker 2: that is logically in any walk of life. That's such
Speaker 2: a flawed way of thinking of only being results based
Speaker 2: and not being processed based because you are not allowing
Speaker 2: yourself to see the full picture of things. And again,
Speaker 2: I totally get the frustration, and maybe that's why you
Speaker 2: feel that way in your sports life because the rest
Speaker 2: of life does have gray areas. Maybe you want to
Speaker 2: have it black and white in your sports life. Again,
Speaker 2: feel free, but just please understand that it's logically flawed, right,
Speaker 2: Because the biggest plea that I can make is one
Speaker 2: that I think is steeped in logic and not emotion,
Speaker 2: and that is this, you cannot let the results of
Speaker 2: seasons past informed decisions in the present. Like I keep
Speaker 2: thinking about this, if we convert that fourth down in
Speaker 2: the twenty twenty two wild card game at Buffalo and
Speaker 2: then we pop an explosive that gets us into the
Speaker 2: end zone and we win that game and you dethrown
Speaker 2: the Bills as a seventh seed, does the fact that
Speaker 2: we gain fifty more yards in that one game. And
Speaker 2: for argument's sake, let's say that we go to Kansas
Speaker 2: City the next week and with Skyler Thompson get absolutely waxed,
Speaker 2: which we definitely would have do those extra fifty yards
Speaker 2: from the Skyler Thompson lead offense change the way you
Speaker 2: feel in twenty twenty four going forward, because all the
Speaker 2: discourse I see is playoff win or bust. That would
Speaker 2: have been it, and you would have reset the drought.
Speaker 2: But does that make you feel any different about twenty
Speaker 2: twenty four team. Not for me, And that's my point
Speaker 2: in all of this. You cannot let the playoff drought
Speaker 2: impact the projection of decisions going forward, because it's simply
Speaker 2: not relevant. It is for fans, it's not for anybody
Speaker 2: in the NFL that works in this business and makes
Speaker 2: decisions based on the information they have, which should not
Speaker 2: incl the two thousand and seven season, or the twenty
Speaker 2: twelve season, or the two thousand and six like, it
Speaker 2: doesn't matter what happened back then. And that's why I've
Speaker 2: always firmly disagreed with the principle of no excuses. Whether
Speaker 2: they get hot and get in or they come up
Speaker 2: a game or two short, maybe that's still just a
Speaker 2: few games where we fail to close it out and
Speaker 2: we go six and eleven, which is a horribly disappointing season.
Speaker 2: I would agree with that, whether it's six wins, eight wins,
Speaker 2: or ten wins. I don't think those final results dictated
Speaker 2: ultimately who you are and where the program is going.
Speaker 2: And to weave this back in, let's actually go ahead
Speaker 2: and take our last breakreak there. I went back and
Speaker 2: looked at some teams that have had really good runs,
Speaker 2: really good programs for an extended period of time, and
Speaker 2: pointed out a couple of years where things just didn't
Speaker 2: go their way. We'll do that next Drivetime podcast, your
Speaker 2: host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. So
Speaker 2: to to do the weave and bring this back in,
Speaker 2: I just wanted to look at some good football teams,
Speaker 2: which I believe the Dolphins will be in the second
Speaker 2: half of the season, that just had some bad bounces
Speaker 2: or bad injury luck or whatever it was that made
Speaker 2: their record a game or two short of what they
Speaker 2: wanted to be, but then came back and were right
Speaker 2: back to the team that we thought they could be
Speaker 2: or had been in recent seasons. And the first one
Speaker 2: I thought of was the team that we often get
Speaker 2: compared to on the other coast in the other conference,
Speaker 2: in the San Francisco forty nine ers. So Kyle Shanahan
Speaker 2: gets there in twenty seventeen, they get Jimmy g on
Speaker 2: Halloween and they're zero to eight, and then Jimmy takes
Speaker 2: a week to get on boarded and starts the game
Speaker 2: against the Giants and they win Bila. Then they have
Speaker 2: a bye week, then they lose to a good Seahawks team,
Speaker 2: but they win the final five games to finish out
Speaker 2: six and ten. Now they go into twenty eighteen and
Speaker 2: it's like, oh, there's the Shanahan that helped you know,
Speaker 2: RG three go off, the Shanahan that helped the Browns
Speaker 2: look like a football team that they weren't previously, the
Speaker 2: Shanahan that took the Falcons of the Super Bowl. But
Speaker 2: in twenty eighteen, they lose Jimmy G in Week two
Speaker 2: after one on one start, they lose the next six games.
Speaker 2: They go three and five the rest of the way,
Speaker 2: finishing four and twelve with CJ. Beth, Nick Mullens and
Speaker 2: a bunch of bad backup quarterback play, and this affords
Speaker 2: them the second pick in the draft, which turns into
Speaker 2: Nick Bosa. Then they go to the Super Bowl and
Speaker 2: have a ten point fourth quarter lead, but mahomes right
Speaker 2: Then in twenty twenty, they're supposed to go right back there,
Speaker 2: but Jimmy G only plays six games and they lose
Speaker 2: multiple other key parts, like Moster and Kittle playing eight
Speaker 2: games each, Debo playing seven games, Bosa plays just two,
Speaker 2: d Ford plays just one, Solomon Thomas plays two, Quiskey
Speaker 2: Tart plays seven, Kawan Williams plays eight games. Like you
Speaker 2: get it. It is just one of those years for
Speaker 2: one of the most talented teams in the NFL, But
Speaker 2: then they get healthy in twenty twenty one sort of.
Speaker 2: They miss a bunch of guys early. They start off
Speaker 2: three to five. Their offense looks like it's stuck in
Speaker 2: the mud. They can't get much going. They have a
Speaker 2: Sunday night game where they score like thirteen points against
Speaker 2: the bad Broncos. Then they win seven of nine and
Speaker 2: they have another ten point lead in the NFC Championship
Speaker 2: game after winning two more playoff games, and then they
Speaker 2: lose Jimmy g again in twenty twenty two, but Brock
Speaker 2: Purty so thirteen wins NFC title game. He gets hurt
Speaker 2: and they get blown out by the Eagles with Josh Johnson,
Speaker 2: who is basically our Tyler Huntley. Then last year twelve
Speaker 2: wins Super Bowl appearance. So you get the point right.
Speaker 2: Twenty twenty and twenty eighteen were down years because of
Speaker 2: injuries and a quarterback that couldn't stay on the field,
Speaker 2: and the injuries at other key spots piling up. What
Speaker 2: about the Ravens, who have been a fixture in the
Speaker 2: AFC playoffs since like two thousand and eight, who have
Speaker 2: essentially been a contender for the Super Bowl. The minute
Speaker 2: Lamar Jackson arrives. He goes six and one as a rookie,
Speaker 2: thirteen wins, an MVP in twenty nineteen, eleven wins in
Speaker 2: twenty twenty, but then he gets hurt in twenty twenty
Speaker 2: one and they win eight games. And he comes back
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty four and twenty twenty two rather and
Speaker 2: goes eight and four and gets hurt again. Now they
Speaker 2: sneak in with a nine to eight mark. They get
Speaker 2: beat in the wild card round, and suddenly questions about
Speaker 2: Lamar Jackson's long term viability come up, and he's made
Speaker 2: available per reports and to trade. Nothing comes of it.
Speaker 2: He comes back, gets his contract, wins thirteen games, another
Speaker 2: MVP award, and then right now they are six and three,
Speaker 2: and quite frankly, I think this is the year they
Speaker 2: get their breakthrough, and I think they beat Kansas City
Speaker 2: in the playoffs and go to the super Bowl. That's conjecture.
Speaker 2: Or the Eagles, who won a super Bowl in twenty
Speaker 2: seventeen won nine games the next two years as Carson
Speaker 2: Wentz is coming back off that ACL tear in total
Speaker 2: de reconstruction, and then they bought them out all the
Speaker 2: way at four eleven and one with their quarterback missing
Speaker 2: four games. In twenty twenty, literally all of their top
Speaker 2: five eligibles missed at least five games. Some of them
Speaker 2: missed ten games that year. If you want a non
Speaker 2: injury example. For example, the Saints went seven and nine
Speaker 2: four times between twenty twelve and twenty sixteen. They have
Speaker 2: a historic twenty seventeen draft class that plays a huge
Speaker 2: role in winning eleven and thirteen games the next two
Speaker 2: seasons to get them over this hump of a team
Speaker 2: that was kind of one dimensional but you know, didn't
Speaker 2: make the key plays and they counted or for whatever reason,
Speaker 2: they went seven to nine four years out of five.
Speaker 2: The entire point is that for every Chiefs or Patriots dynasty,
Speaker 2: there are two or three more elite programs that don't
Speaker 2: have the postseason success, granted, which is what we all want.
Speaker 2: And I'm talking about Super Bowls, and we experienced that
Speaker 2: in the nineties with Marino not being able to beat
Speaker 2: the Buffalo Bills. Sometimes it just happens. But for every
Speaker 2: Chiefs or Patriots dynasty, you have multiple programs that have
Speaker 2: these amazing decade long runs. But within those programs, in
Speaker 2: those decade long runs, there's like a year or two
Speaker 2: where they got off the rails and they weren't very good,
Speaker 2: and they bounced right back. And that's my entire point,
Speaker 2: because it's football. It's not one hundred and sixty two
Speaker 2: game baseball season or even an eighty two game basketball season.
Speaker 2: Sometimes you just it just doesn't go your way. And
Speaker 2: with some of the early season struggles, the injury to
Speaker 2: the quarterback, playing four qbs by week four, incorporating a
Speaker 2: new defensive system that was hoping to get stronger as
Speaker 2: it went along, only to see injuries decimate the front
Speaker 2: entirely by week ten, Like, I just think this is
Speaker 2: one of those years for the Dolphins, and in otherwise
Speaker 2: really good runs since twenty twenty and maybe I'm wrong.
Speaker 2: If I'm right, I think you'll see this team go
Speaker 2: on a run and win eight to nine, maybe even
Speaker 2: ten games, and then we can reshuffle, reload, and get
Speaker 2: back into twenty twenty five with an absolute vengeance, the
Speaker 2: way the Eagles did in twenty twenty two, the way
Speaker 2: the Niners did in twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three,
Speaker 2: the way the Saints did in twenty seventeen, and the
Speaker 2: way the Ravens did in twenty twenty three. Now, if
Speaker 2: they revert back to old the week one, two, three
Speaker 2: four style of offense, I will throw this podcast in
Speaker 2: the trash and say I was wrong. But I don't
Speaker 2: think I am. I think we finally hit that pinnacle
Speaker 2: offensively where this team is gonna be an absolute nightmare
Speaker 2: for opposing defenses in the next nine games of the season.
Speaker 2: There you go, that's my point. I was gonna do
Speaker 2: the week ten picks here on this show, but I
Speaker 2: got long, so we'll go ahead and bump that to Friday.
Speaker 2: I had Kyle Krabs on Dolphins HQ, which is going
Speaker 2: to run the entire interview on the Friday podcast part
Speaker 2: of it on the Thursday HQ episode. We got some
Speaker 2: really good content there with Kyle. You don't want to
Speaker 2: miss that. We'll have the game preview for you guys
Speaker 2: tomorrow as well. In the meantime, you all please be
Speaker 2: sure to subscribe, rate and review the podcast. Follow me
Speaker 2: on social at Lincoln NFL. The team at Miami Dolphins
Speaker 2: check out the fish Tank podcast with my guys Seth
Speaker 2: and Juice. Check out the YouTube channel for Dolphins HQ,
Speaker 2: Media availabilities and so much more, and last, but not least,
Speaker 2: Miami Dolphins dot Com Until next time. Finn's Up, Carolina
Speaker 2: and Cameron Daddy just come and hope