10 Takeaways from 10 Camp Practices at 10 Position Groups

opposed the daily micro view each day at practice. Plus we'll talk about Warren Sharp's Dolphins chapter of his two season preview. And I want to tell you a great about a great story I should say, written on Mike McDaniel on the Athletic by Damn Pompeii. All of that and much more from somewhere in South Florida. This is

the Drivetime Podcast. So I got to thinking the last podcast came out on Sunday afternoon, and the next time you'll hear from me is probably Wednesday evening after the first joint first of two joint practices with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and on the Twitter Spaces show on Wednesday night, so I thought we need to get another podcast in here.

So no practice to recap today, but I thought ten was a nice round number to look at things so far and just take sort of a thirty thousand foot view of each position group now that we've seen them together. We've heard the pressors a significant portion of the roster. We've heard the assistant coaches as well as coach McDaniel give their updates, So what better time to do that starting with the quarterbacks here. And I've just really enjoyed

watching the arc of a practice. Our first takeaway from the standpoint of working on a task in an individual drill and then the application of carrying it over into a team period and just how many team periods they have in practice, like practicing football. It's a good idea, you know. With to a in particular, I've been really impressed by his ability to throw from awkward different platforms. To me, it looks smooth and sharp, and I think it's a credit to the work that he's putting in

and the influence of coach Bevil. I think his timing looks really really sharp. We heard Cedric Wilson mentioned the chemistry clicking quickly for those guys, his field looks like

that of a third year quarterback playing with confidence. The deep shot to Tyreek on Sunday, I thought was a good example where you see Emmanuel Ada going up against Austin Jackson kind of on an island off the one side of the offensive line, and you see two a hit the top of his drop and pause for just a beat as something of a two way go develops where Austin Jackson's in good shape, but to one needs to collect the information on if the slide is going

to be up or out. And what I mean by that is Agba has yet to declare his move or his track. If he goes inside to a can slide backwards out behind himself right, if he goes around the arc then to a can step up. So you see that little hitch that's just ever so subtle, but he quickly gets back to balance and throws that dime we talked about in practice. It's been high level from what I can tell. And finally, I think the long ball stuff that was, you know, always misguided in my mind.

I mean, we can put to bed with what you've seen. Just come watch practice it's there for you if you want to see it. But that's not the part about the armed talent to me that stands out the most. It's the zip to thread the needle between a trio of defenders on that waddle touchdown from I think it was Saturday's practice. Regarding the rest of the room, I like how it has a little bit of everything. You have the young starter with the upside that comes with

being the fifth pick of the draft. You have a steady veteran presence there, and Teddy Bridgewater chances are like, he's not going to surprise you, right, you know what he's capable of, and on top of that, he's a terrific teammate. And then finally the late round rookie and Skyler Compson who has tools to develop the combination in

this offense of vertical and horizontal stretch. You go back and watch the Niners tape from a season ago, and some of the principles that you might see with with those stretches, with the use of play action, the changing of the throwing platforms, you know, to a looking good

on the move. I think all of this lends itself to what could be a quarterback friendly offense, and man, when you've got a clean operation for this quarterback and you want to talk about a guy that will maximize the play around him in that instance, to me, that guy is too. I remember the easy or nay, the lazy criticism of him coming out was that he played

in the loaded offense there Alabama. But what I saw was a conductor of one of these sweetest symphonies we've ever seen in college football, directing that offense to record breaking performances by keeping all those mouths fed and happy. I mean Henry Ruggs, Jalen Waddle, DeVante Smith, Jerry Judy. Remember Nick Saban said he had never been around a guy like to a That's gotta count for something in my book at the running back position, the burst and

the home run hitting ability. And also this will be a theme. The veteran presence, I think allows you to be flexible to install any run game plan run game game plan that you want on a given week. That's just there's just a lot or not a lot, I should say, in terms of what Chase Edmunds, Raheem Moster, Sony, Michelle Miles Gaskin, what these guys have seen in their their career. There isn't a lot that's going to fool

them out there at this stage of their careers. And not to mention this camp, you know alec Ingold has had with all the dirty work he does in the running game and pass protection and even when he's out in the pattern as a receiver, I just don't think you're gonna see, you know, arm tackles, shoestring tackles, trip guys up with daylight the way it happened a season ago. You might have an equal number of you know, short

runs or stuffed runs. We hope not. But I think the big difference this year from you know, the additions in that backfield that you're gonna see is those eight to ten yard runs that can become fifty to seventy yard runs. And you know, if you don't love that, that's like what how you would describe Barry Sanders career, right, It's not about hitting consistent eight yard runs, but when you can pop the big one and get your explosives in the running game too, and build the passing game

off that I'd love to see it. It's got to ship a coffee real quick. At wide receiver, we're gonna talk about this article from The Athletic later on, but there's a quote from coaching there about how you don't have to have speed, but it's very desirable to have the speed. And while coach, you've got arguably two of the fastest receivers doing it. I think the impact this could have to open up other elements with which we struggled last year, the intermediate passing game, the running game.

You have to be hyper aware of that speed, and that can force more off coverage. It causes indecisiveness when you know, have stacks or bunches or condensed formations. It can force a two high shell and get that extra hat out of the box in the running game. All very basic stuff right then the ripple effect for the rest of the group. With Cedric Wilson Eric Zoma, they've both shown a real proclivity for winning deep and stacking defensive backs and making contestant catches. They both have shown

they can run with it after the catch. The spacing they can create and matchup identification in this receiver's room, I think is pretty apparent because you know you're gonna see how the defense wants to react to where those two speed guys go, and then based off of that, you can kind of identify your matchups across the rest of the offense. Whether it's a receiver, a tight end, a running back, it just doesn't really matter. Then I think your screen game should be exponentially better on top

of the flow of the running game. I mean, you might wind up with some looks where it's one on one to Cedric Wilson or Eric Azukama with you know, snap and throw a now route and if that corner can't make a tackle, it's an explosive play because the help is funneled to the other side with you know, seventeen and ten and finally the route concepts that maximize the speed. A lot of the time, the viability of the play comes down to can you run with Tyreek

or Jalen for yards across the football field? The answer is almost always no. The tight end position group, we played coach McDaniels audio on the tight end position the other day, and how commendable the job the guys are doing is with regards to the sort of relearning of the position. They want the staff the way they want this. The staff wants that position to play the position for lack of a better term, and coach has mentioned playing fast.

That's only gonna benefit a guy like Mike Asiki who can really open it up and get down the field on the offensive line. I think you have to be pleased with the growth and development so far from this group, and I think that really starts with the approach of,

you know, like the tight ends playing fast. Go back to one of the summer previews series podcast The Offensive Line, we detailed the relative athletics scores of this offensive line with to Ron Armstead one of the best aris scores ever and still holds the record for forty time by an offensive lineman. Austin Jackson in the nine percentile, Robert Hunt right up there, like Connor Williams up there as well.

Liam Eichenberg knocking on that door. I think we've seen that impact both in the way they've created space and also how it's helped them start to realize some of that potential in Pass Pro two. I've been really really impressed US camp by Liam Eichenberg. I thought Big Rob was excellent last year. I think Williams's intelligence and sides going to help out a young offensive line, and Austin

has some really damn good work too so far. And then obviously we know about to run Armstead how he can help the entire offensive line because you can slide protection and squeeze a different portion of the pass rush and let him handle some guys one on one, especially if it's their best pass rusher. We'll go ahead and take our first break right here and come back on the other side and do the defense that's next here on the Draft Time Podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought

to you by Auto Nation. If you've been listening to the practice recaps so far, as we spin forward to the defensive line portion of our ten Days, Ten Takeaways, Ten Position Groups podcast here on the Draftime Podcast, we'll be with you tomorrow in Tampa Bay to cover that first of two joint practices with Miami and Tampa Bay. But if you've been listening to the practice recap pods, you've heard all about Christian Wilkinsack Seiler and Rae Kwon

Davis and the gang up front. John Jenkins has had a strong camp as well, and his veteran presence is just another you know, each one of these groups has one of those guys that almost has like a mayor type of presence you know, Tea stead Tyreek, Chase Edmonds, John Jenkins, e rob At linebacker, Javon in the secondary for a young guy, I think it speaks to the balance of the roster and the team's approached this offseason to really pair that young talent with proven resumes who

can moonlight their role in terms of their mentorship, like, have more than just an on field tangible impact. And this will be a theme. You know, the absurd flexibility in terms of guys that can play the one shade you know, off either shoulder of the center all the way out to a five technique. You know, playing up against the tackle. You have the athletic ability of dropping

the hook zone. I mean see Christian Wilkins pick against the ramsback inw You have power to play head up for your bare fronts, your odd fronts or even fronts, and you know, to hold things up for all that speed you have in the second level and that third level you have the ability to penetrate and play upfill with your hair on fire. Like that's the theme, right

any type of offensive attack that you see. I think this defense is equipped to evolved to the best version of itself to handle whatever attack is thrown at them. And it starts up here on the defensive line. I mean, you know, throw aug Bat into that mix to talking about a guy that can play, you know, down off the edge, a true d M position four or three point stands, four point stands and get some one on

one pass rush wins. It's it's across the board. And then you get to the linebacker group where you know the majority of our edge guys exist, and that's there's just so much variety in this position that's also littered with insane depth. Jalen Phillips, Andrew Van Ginkel, and Melvin Ingram have all had their successes in this league and so far in this camp, and they do it along that same theme with different variables, different body types and

approaches to the game. And to me, that says two things. You can be really matchup based once again, because we've seen Melvin play literally all over the d fense as recently as last year with Pittsburgh in Kansas City. We've seen Phillips played wide, condensed, inside, and really fine tune

all three phases of his game. We've seen hand in the dirt, stand up, coverage, rush, run game from Van Ginkle and you know he's more of a thinner build, but speed guy that can really shorten the corner opposed those other guys play with a little more heavy hands and through players. And then on top of that, it's it's just again this crazy, crazy depth. You can play all those guys, you know, all these snaps and keep

them fresh as well. Like it's that group is only gonna help itself out the further we get down the line here, I think, and that's on top of you know, that's the top of the iceberg. I should say it's the tip of the iceberg because Brandon Scarlett's run defense is a staple of his game. He's had a good camp doing that. Jerome Baker does so much to add to the team speed and really helps this defense stay.

You know, evolved to a heavy defensive backpackage last year dime packages for this Dolphins defense at six defensive backs that was most in the NFL. And a player like Jerome Baker allows you to do that. That stat's per Sports Info Solutions. By the way, a land and Roberts has been you know, forwarding short yardage attempts since I can remember, So when you want to go heavy, bring an extra offensive lineman bringing twelve personnel. Thirteen personnel, you

have that guy to come in there. Knockheads Duke Riley and Sam edg Von play so fast and can give you variety on both teams and sub packages. It's the depth and variety here, it's the main takeaway from that group. You also have getting the flexibility to play even fronts, odd fronts. You can win with and without pressure. In terms of your past rush because of guys like Melvin Jalen uh A manual outside Christian and Zach inside and all. That flexibility just allows you to stay creative with your

Russian game plans. You can manufacture pressures because the offense can't simply identify who's coming and who's dropping. Then you plug in a guy like Channing Tindall, who you can already see out there every day in practice, showcasing talents that frankly garner a higher draft pick than the end of the third round. From my money, he didn't have the snaps or volume of tape I suppose to justify it,

but man, the talent sure as hell does. And the beauty of this linebacker room is you don't have to be in a hurry with a guy like that. He can even just do game plan specific stuff where it's you know, a handful of snaps in a game on defense in certain packages and get ramped up and continue to contribute on special teams. To really curious to see how his his workload evolves as the year goes along.

But you just it's crazy the depth that you have there when you're talking about Tindall is a guy that can do that and kind of, you know, be a slow burn if you so choose. At cornerback, Xavian Howard and Byron Jones have been such a dynamic duo that really serves as the lynchpin for this style of versatile, aggressive, pressure based defense with the solid man coverage in the back end and their ability to play really whatever coverage

you want them to. But the key to it all is how they disrupt timing in the passing game with their physical style style, and they can do that because of the recovery ability to play that style. But then inside, Nick Needham has been like a revelation kicking aside right.

He's also played some post safety when when Javon Holland was down last year, the versatility, he shows no bonogamy, certainly fits that bill from a makeup and physicality standpoint, And I think Trull Williams, him and Higbo both have been so good in this camp and inclined to trust what this staff has on the resume. Between Josh Boyer's history of developing corners and then Sam Madison, that's still

really cool to say. And also Patrick start Tam working with the defensive backs as well, even though it's been more safety focused for Pat, uh doesn't hurt to have that experience, not to mention the experience of Stephen Gregory is the Dolphins safety's coach in that room who's been here for a couple of years now gets the promotion to the safety's job. And all these guys have experienced either playing success in the league or within this system

with coach Boyer at the helm. So it's it's really excited to have that much talent in that group, with all those good coaches on this Dolphins coaches staff here under Josh Boyer on the defensive side, in that defensive backfield, and up and down the entire roster. Really and just consider the impact that that's gonna have on all the young guys in this Dolphins defensive backfield as well, thinking about guys like that Come Nation of Bigbo and trill

And and Keion Crossing too. Has that a really good camp and the way all those guys tackle and play physical up around the line, I think it's pretty important for your ability to stay flexible with the roster in the future and could potentially help you transition down the road if you want to go that route. But for today, the depth is just it's just good. It is, it is what it is. Then it's safety. We saw Javon Holland, Brandon Jones and Eric Row all three play a lot

last year. All three of those guys versatile players who have covered the slot a ton in Collagen in the pros. And you see that ability to match up when they get called upon. You know, I think Holland maybe the most uh adept at doing that and Eric broken play outside too. Then the interchangeability of Javan and Brandon, I mean, we know we know about their pressure numbers this season ago, and those are the guys that honestly play faster with every ounce of experience they get. We see it in

training camp. Javan has been everywhere Brandon is playing as fast as I've seen him. And then of course with Eero, it's nice to have a guy that you know can man up on a tight end and insert himself in the running game who can also cover down the field. It's a rare showcase of skills there. Sheldrick RedWine his special team's ability as well in that group, uh part of that mix. And then the specialist I mean talk about Jason Sanders, who's always money in training camp. Thomas

Morestead works his butt off every day in practice. It's fun to watch him condition out there. I think I saw one snap out of you know, hundreds that wasn't on the money from Blake this camp. And then with the coverage and return units, I mean, this team has I don't know ten guys that have been core special teamers as recently as last year with this team or another. Between smythe Sherfield, Riley, EG Von Campbell, Federalum eg Bnogny red Wine, I mean, don't overlook that aspect of it either.

So yeah, I've just been so impressed this camp. I'm

excited to see how they evolve from here. A good test in Tampa Bay this week and a chance to just put more on tape to correct and grow and get better and learn from We've got a month until the Patriots and I like to track this team is on, and just real quick before we get to our last break here and start talking about Warren sharpwo Dolphins preview in the final segment, if you haven't seen the article on the Athletic by Don Dan Pompeii, I highly recommend it.

I want to read this lead then I'll just leave it to you guys. But it's titled Dolphins Coach Mike McDaniel Particular Present, putting it all out there and just read the first couple of allignes here for you guys. A cloud of smoke hung in the air and a dimly lit cigar lounge in Houstons assistant John Embree and Mike McDaniel took a break from preseason work with the Texans. Embrey, at that point an NFL assistant for a decade, since

McDaniel was feeling down, so he offered some encouragement. He told the young coach he was really smart, creative too, He listened well and had an incredible memory. He was naturally honest and self fa sing didn't take himself too seriously and didn't care what anybody else thought about him. He embraced, embraced risk, and then after a puff, Embry told McDonald, McDaniel McDonald, you have the qualities to not only be a head coach in the National Football League,

but to be a successful one end quote. Four years later, the smoke comes from the orange blossom water. Pour it over dry ice on a plate of Australian wagu beef. The shimmering Atlantic ocean reflects off the lenses of McDaniel designer glasses. He is a head coach as Embri envisioned he would be. That's great writing, man. Go check it out. The athletic Damn POMPEII Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel particular present putting it all out there. I really really enjoyed reading

that piece, So go check it out. Let's take our last break and come back here and visit the Warren Sharp. He's in preview. That's next on the Drivetime podcast, your host Chiwis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. Every year. I love the summer content we get from season preview stuff, and Warren Sharp is one of the guys that has must read material each offseason. He puts so much work

into that season preview. I want to go ahead and just share a few key points from his Dolphins chapter before we get out of here and onto Tampa Bay Shorter podcast today. Just looking at a few notes here. In twenty defenses gave Miami the third least cushion in the end fell last year that increased to fifteen in pre snap cushion. But the Dolphins those two years finished thirty second and thirty first in separation from wide receivers individually.

Last year, Waddle was thirty five out of a hundred and twenty seven receivers and the rest was not very good. The Dolphins also had the last place finisher on the roster the last two years in terms of wide receiver separation two editions and the one ranked Tyreek Hills fourteenth last year Cedric Wilson twenties. So to go from one guy in the top thirty five to three guys in the top thirty five and a category is gonna be

pretty key for this team. I think he also notes the Niners last year or seventh and they were tenth an average separation that Mike McDaniel offense last year, Dolphins had the thirteenth toughest schedule this year. According to Warren Sharpe, the Niners under McDaniel led the league last season and yards per play when two of was not pressured one

a seventy play success rate. That's based upon yardage gained on the particular down and how much you cut the game, the yards to gain in half or something like that. So first down, if you get five yards or more, successful play. On second down, if you cut the artis in half, that's a successful down. On third down, if you convert, that's a successful place. So play success rate eight three percent accuracy with on ball placement or on target placement, and ten point nine yards per pass since

twenty nineteen. Jimmy g ranks first in the NFL and yards per tempt at eight point four, but was forty two out of forty three qualifying quarterbacks and air yards. How is that possible? Warren asks a six point eight average YAK per completion that was best in the NFL

over that time for the forty offense. If they can take some strides in those areas, a team that was nineteenth last year in passing e p A that would pair well with the defensive production that we've had on top of the fact that the offensive success would keep the defense fresher and make opposing offense is more one dimensional. That's I mean, that's the idea, right. Some other fun notes here, a positional spending Dolphins are number one at

receiver in cornerback, twenty six on the defensive line. With that talent that relatested out to me is just a crazy fact. But putting the resource ses into the passing game, you'd love to see it. Christian Wilkins was second ESPNS run stop win rate last year at he was six, and pressure rate among his position group and the d line as a team was tent and run stop win rate.

Emmanuel Oddball was twentie and pressure rate among edge defenders, Uh, you know, high volume guys who produced eighteen sacks and fort q B hits the last couple of years here in Miami, Andrew van Ginkel was seventh, and pressures when you include defensive end and outside linebackers. Nick Needham was eleventh among slots and adjusted air yards per coverage snap. It's a great number there for him. Then, Uh, let's see what else? What else we here? With three safeties

in the field. The Dolphins allowed just four point one eight yards per play, which was second best within three safety packages. So there's your Holland Jones and row tangible you know concept there as far as how they produce at that safety position. Alright, really informative read fund read check it out if you have not done so already, check out the athletic article on Mike McDaniel. In the meantime, that's gonna be my time. We're gonna back tomorrow with

a practice report from Tampa Bay. But in the meantime, you all please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcast. Leave us a rating, leave us a review. You can follow me on Twitter at Wingfold NFL. Follow the team at Miami Dolphins. Check out the fish Tank podcast with Seth and Juice. Rob Conrad is up live right now a crazy story about how he nearly lost his life stuck out at sea falling off a jet ski. You don't want to miss that one. We also have

Twitter spaces tomorrow night at eight o'clock. Check out the YouTube channel for media availabilities, some drivetime and fish Tank content and Dolphins Today. Check out Miami Dolphins dot com for the written training camp notebook Caroline Daddy, he's coming home. Friends up,