10 Takeaways from the Offseason Program

summer break. We're gonna hear from Big Rob Hunt, Brendan Scarlett, Ray Kwon Davis, and Emmanuel og Ball, plus my ten takeaways from the off season program. You won't want to miss that from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Drivetime Podcast Miami Thophs. So we have some roster news to get to before

we get into the actual podcast itself. As day, Shawn Hall and Javarus Davis were released from the Dolphins and incomes Porter Gustin, a linebacker out of the University of Southern California who played in the pros with the Cleveland Browns largely on special teams, and my memory of Porter Gustin was as a very good college prospect, a really good outside rushier who had an explosive first step and

get off. And in fact, he had a big play in a game against the Cougs a few years back, the ten and two season, the Gardner Minshee season, where he had a big hit on Minshew. Maybe he could have been flagged, but it wasn't and it ended up basically winning the game for USC. And if the Cougars win that game, they would have gone to the packed World Championship game and then probably got blown out in that one. But he is in day, Shawn holl Javarros Davis are out off the roster, and the off season

program is officially a rap. I am personally headed back to the Pacific Northwest for the summer break, gonna catch some Mariners games, spent some time on the Oregon coast, and revel in the final six episodes of Better Call Saul Man. I cannot wait to see what happens there.

I've been rewatching the entire series, and I'm not all that interested in comparing it versus Breaking Bad in terms of which one is better, but I am confident in saying this that together, it's the best fictional universe we've ever been treated to on TV as an audience. So I want to hear your theories and predictions for the better Call Soul fans out there on the final six episodes,

what do you think is gonna happen? Get at me at Wingfield, NFL on Twitter and tell me what you think happens to Kim to how Jeane responds at the Cinnabon. Where does Lalo's arc take him? I want to hear it all. I have my own thoughts, will save that for another day. All of this is an interlude into my first topic today, the ten takeaways from the off season program as we head to the summer break, with you know June and July being the two months on

the NFL calendar where not a lot happens. On one hand, the slower part of the schedule is always well comed after ten and a half months of really staying busy, but also the end of it means the best time of the year in the start of the football season. And today though, I want to talk about ten things that I thought stood out at Dolphins practice slash moves in the off season, and what to look forward to

for training camp. So, without further ado, and in no particular order, let's go ahead and start with takeaway number one, and it's the last line of defense, and I'm talking

about the safety position here. At Tuesday's practice last week, I had the chance to sit next to Joe Rose and John con Jemmy and just talked, you know, all things Dolphins from three different perspectives there, and I was talking about how impressed I had been all camped long with the work of both Javon Holland and Brandon Jones. And one thing I really like is how they start the team period. They do this little handshake before going to their position on the field for the first snap

wherever that might be. And I'm not sure why, but maybe it's a subconscious sign of confidence that I sensed from the two of those guys, and that's what I'll go with simply because it plays out on the field

that way. Later, Eric Row made a play and the three of us, John, Joe and myself began talking about him, and Joe was talking about how much he likes Eric rose game and thinks he's undervalued by the casual fan and I've been the president myself of the Eric Role fan club really since he's made that switch to safety back in twenty nineteen and just had lockdown numbers against every damn tight end he faced in coverage that year, and I think his run defense has only improved as well.

And that's all to say that I look at the position group. I like that top part of it. I like the depth part of it with Clayton Federlum and Sheldrick RedWine is kind of contributors on the special teams unit, and other guys in that room have done the same thing. I'm not sure which I would vote for for strongest position group on paper on this football team, but I think the safeties have their hat in that ring and

would get some votes for that. But back to the topic at hand, mostly the two young guys Javan and Brandon and the way they worked together, and we heard them talk about their relationship with their mediavailabilities, how they've really clicked from the jump last season despite not knowing each other, kind of becoming a close knit friendship in the back end of the Dolphins defensive backfield, and we even heard Eric Road talk about that and his press

availability a few weeks back about how they just seem a step faster from even where they were a year ago. And that's why I started here, because you for sure recall on the podcast unless you're new to the podcast,

and if you are, welcome in. We talked Dolphins football in here a lot, and uh, my biggest thing with both of these guys was just the way they move around and fly to the football and can cover ground, not just with their athletic traits, but they're processing and such an important part of the game, and we know what they do in that regard. We heard Jones his predraft work. We talked about that on the podcast as well.

When he was unable to participate at the Combine and Indy because of a shoulder injury, he goes out and gets the playbook of every defensive team and watches four games of all of them and brushes up on the mental side. We heard about Javon Holland's mental aptitude, the ability to lead in the pre draft process and then when he gets here, and of course he touched on growing as a leader in his press availability on Tuesday, which we covered on the Friday podcast. I believe is

when it came out. Remember that clip from him in Oregon coming off of his route, willing to the backside crosser, jumping the route and making that play. We've talked about it on this pot a lot. That's like an everyday thing at practice where he makes place. They both time up their approaches to the line of scrimmage. They both

can play single higher split safety. They just this defense does such a great job of disguising their looks and not letting the quarterback know what the coverage, what the front, what the rush, who's coming, who's dropping, what that's gonna be. And Jones and Holland on the back end. That makes that approach a whole heck of a lot easier because the safeties are often where the quarterbacks I start And with these two guys doing so many different things, how

can you get a beat on that? And you can go back to the tape last year when you see Javon making place thirty yards off the ball in the ten yard box behind the line of scrimmage. That kind of versatility is rare in its own right, but the ability to do it all and play fast with all

of it is just something else. And I talked about this, you know, the pract the three play sequence I saw at practice where Javon's in the post plane covering thirty yards forty yards down the field defending a pass to the field side of the formation from the boundary, so

the wider side of the field. Then it comes down and rushes the quarterback and gets off the edge and makes an impact play and it causes an errand throw from the quarterback and then matches up man to man on Mike Gasicki and wins that route and gets a pass breakup on it. It's just it's rare to watch

him work and just produce every single day. But back to the idea of the defense and a quote here from Josh Boyer from last November when he was asked about how those two guys and talking about the creativity and versatility helps him to get creative on the drawing board. Here's what the Dolphins defensive coordinator had to say. Quote. I think both those guys are athletic. They're both physical, and they got a good instinct for the game. I think they work extremely hard at it. I think the

more experience they gain, the better they are getting. I don't think anything substitutes experience, and I think those guys doing a good job for us, and we'll ask him to do more, will ask them to continue to get better. End quote. Well here we are. You know that was November. Oh boy, Travis has to do math again. It was seven eight months later. I mean, that's a long they've They've grown and learned a lot more in that time. Number two, the Tyreek Hill thrill. One more I gotta

say than that, honestly. Like I shared the Kurt Warner breakdown video on Twitter last weekend where he looks at the impact of Tyreek speed and how his ability to threaten deep in the deep portion of the field can both a remove the safety from the equation and be We talked about Holland and Jones and their versatility helping

the quarterback not make quick decisions and quick reads. The Tyreek Hills presence can help the quarterback dictate coverage early because when that safety has to flip those hips early and commit himself to either the deep half, the deep third, the deep quarter, that gives you indicators on how that coverage is gonna unfold and how a lot of what Tyreek did on the Kurt Warner breakdown how a lot of what he did was with win, was winning with speed,

was attacking leverage and running to space, which we know that this offense wants to cover everybody Plato graphs, and that's what speed can do for you. The corner has outside leverage where he's funneling inside. How Tyreek speed can force that defensive back's hand and once they get one false step or get their eyes in the wrong spot for a split second, he can wheel off that route, change direction, and hit the accelerator before the defensive back

has time to react. It helps to cipher coverage, but it also helps create big plays. Then in that video, Warner also talked about how polished Tyreek is as a route runner and just a football player in general, how he uses his routes and speed to create those false steps.

We talked about, like there's a clip on there where he needed to find a soft spot against zone down in the red zone with a linebacker at the hash and a cornerback chilling at the numbers or close to the red line, and rather than using and rather than rushing to that spot and just getting there and showing the quarterback your numbers and making it a smaller window.

He's patient pushes up for an extra step and that forces a linebacker to take one retreat step backwards, a fall step, and then his trigger is slower and it creates a much bigger window because there's more time for the quarterback to fit that And that kind of matches up with the stat we shared with on shared with you on the Geez Last Monday podcast his three point four average yards per separation that has him tops in

the NFL since he came into the NFL. And I think we've seen some of those impacts so far in O T as creating space for other guys. Cedric Wilson told us as much. Mike Ghasiki has made his Hey Jilen Waddle making all kinds of place trent sherfield. I mean, the impact is tangible. And then there's the example that he sets, like wrapping everything, going full speed, running those takeoffs down the field again and again and again, and just showing you the conditioning that he offers how you're

supposed to practice. I mean, what a great example for you know, Jalen Waddle to have in that receiver's room to watch the way Tyreek Hill does it. And oh yeah, how about a handful of long touchdowns we've already seen so far in practice, That too, was pretty cool. Takeaway number three. Then we'll go ahead and get to our first break here firing off the ball slash athletic ability

up front this young group of offensive linemen. And they added Connor Williams, who grades out well in this regard, and Tehran Armstead, who ran the fastest forty ever at the combine for an offensive tackle offensive lineman in general, they're athletics scorecards. Their their measurements in terms of testing and the way they play in the field. That's where

they shine. And I go back to this quote from McDaniel, and he's with the Niners all the time, about how he was asked about the idea of finding these gems or even undersized guys on the offensive line, and he said, well, they were third, fourth, fifth, six, seventh round draft picks. We didn't take him in the first round. You know, if there was a seven ft tall, four pound guy, we take them probably the first round. And I wish you could get five of those guys if you could,

you know, genetically modify your offensive line. That's what you go for. But sometimes you've gotta do with what you got. And you know, all of these guys the Dolphins have drafted highly have those traits. And I mean, really, to a man, each of these guys leam Meickenberg, Connor William,

Austin Jackson. They talked about firing off the football. And I saw a tweet by Joe Thomas, the legendary future Hall of Fame left tackle of the Cleveland Browns for all those years, and he was replying to a tweet about Alex max retirement and how important he was to the running scheme that Kyle Shanahan ran at every stop that he was at. And I think the proof is in the pudding there that Mac was the center for

the Browns the one year that Shanahan was there. Then they trade for Mac in Atlanta when he gets there, and he finished his career. Mac does by following Shanahan off to the Bay Area in San Francisco. But Joe Thomas tweeted, you know, quote shocked them with speed and quote quote retweeting a duke Manny Weather tweet who posted a clip of Joe Thomas from that team Brown's team

hitting a great wall off block on outside zone. I mean that pops off the tape with these guys really across the board, and it was a common theme on Tuesday Tape Review last year almost every week saying there's some running lanes here. These guys are creating some push and creating some gaps. We just gotta take advantage of them. I think we have a chance to see that get even better as each of these guys have the relative athletics score cards that are near the top of the class.

So to requisite with the scheme that benefits players on the offensive line that can play that way, Let's go ahead and take our first break. Will come back and get to takeaways four through ten, and we'll also hear from Rob Hunt, Emmanuel Ogba, Brandan Scarlett, and who's my fourth and final guy on the media availabilities today, Ray Kwon Davis. All of that next here on the Drivetime Podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation.

Back here on the Drivetime Podcast, we have given you three takeaways from the off season program. Let's go ahead and pick it up back here with number four. And for me, it's the veteran impact on this football team with the off season acquisitions they have made and you'll hear from Emmanuel Ogba here in just one second when he talks about the change in this team, going from one that's very young to a balanced club in terms

of young guys in the veteran mix. And that is a natural evolution when you have so many picks over a couple of years, right like your twenty one year old Austin Jackson, your twenty year old Noah Igbonogamy, your youngest and third youngest player in the NFL, and they

got drafted. Well, now they were twenty three and twenty two two years later, and across the board with all those picks, Brandon Jones, Ray Kwon Davis, Robert Hunt, Javon Holland, Jayan Wadle, Jylan Phillips too, a toungo by Loa, you get it. But now Hill, Melvin Ingram to Ron Armstead, I mentioned how Hill has that impact on the receiver's room. To Ron, Armstead's tutelage is the only thing that rivals the fact that he's been the best left tackle in

football over the last decade. And you know, we talked about Joe Thomas. He doesn't have as many years, but he's in that competition Trent Williams, I think is as well very least arms Steads in the discussion for best left tackle in the NFL, Melvin Ingram getting out there and helping the linebackers with their hands stack and shed, Pete get off, and the fundamentals that go with the hand placement and punch and strike, and just the presence of those guys on the field that can chip in

with their tricks of the trade. And we'll hear from Rob Hunt on that here in just a few And to round out the group, the three running backs that were added in free agency, you have to imagine have a similar impact Thomas more Stead on special teams. And then with the retention of a guy like a land and Roberts coming back in the middle of that defense as a real leader of that group. It's up and down the roster, excuse me, with the guys that can

kind of get everyone in line. In terms of the on field coaching from players number five, did good get gooder with regards to the defensive line and really in particularly the interior defensive line. Remember training camp last year my notebook, like I found towards the end of August, I ran out of ways to complement the four sum of Wilkins, Seeler, Davis and Butler. I tried my best

to quantify the impact. I felt the d line had every damn practice in that particular foursome with the pocket pushing, running pick stunts, creating chances, opening lanes, hustling after the football, getting their hands up and swatting down passes. It's only gotten better in terms of camp to season. Now to O t A s like just they just keep getting better. I mean, the fifth most sacks as a team last year in the NFL, the most rejected passes by a

defensive line in football. Christian Wilkins looks the part against Zach Seeler. I think is one of the most underrated players in the entire National Football League. I think it's fair to expect to jump from Ray Kwon Davis. Adam Butler is one of the most consistent players in terms of his numbers, always being counted on the exact same

over five years from pressures and run stops. Obviously, aug ball off the edge and if you want to go out to the edge position more and the linebackers who are all capable of playing off the edge as well. Maybe this is a front seven thing. But I think a unit that was really damn good last year just got better, both with improvements from the incumbents and the

new pieces added. Takeaway number six, it's fun to have fun, and it starts up top with the headman, who really sets the tone for the way the staff, the players, and the entire organization operates. We are all enamored with coach Mike McDaniel. When he speaks right, he captivates us all, whether it's about a skip technique by a pulling guard or the intricacies of sushi and trying to keep up with Chris Greer's cherry Pepsi consumption. He's just a fun

interview well. That per sonality rubs off on the team, and I love how he mentioned in his Tuesday availability how the players are the ones who ultimately established the culture my you are what you eat analogy from that Friday podcast. But the coach has a hand in that too. Coaches fun. The guys are having fun out there. The orange jersey and the music, those little ways to relate

to the modern player. I'm all about that, all about the mindset and how it sparks this camaraderie through competition where guys work hard but have a good time with the players, the coaches and coach McDaniel himself as well Number seven making a case it's so tough to keep your eye on ninety players at a practice. I try my best and I'm happy with what I'm able to report on for you guys around the podcast, but I know I'm I'm missing at least a little bit, probably

a lot more than that. So I just want to say that because I've no doubt missed someone making some plays on my list here. But I always like to see who's making waves among the names that you're not used to hearing from on everyday social quick Coffee, sip ice Coffee's how we do It. Benito Jones made plays in the practices. I saw, so to Trent Sherfield, True Williams, Duke Riley. I thought Austin Jackson showed a bunch in

these workouts. Thought Kelln Diash showed some of what made him one of the best offensive linemen in the Pack twelve over the last four years. And I thought the Quandree White ran the ball really well. Savon akhmed To. Actually, again I'm forgetting some names, but those are some of the names I'm most excited to see heading into camp. In terms of guys you're not used to hearing about

every single day. Number eight weapons at two's disposal mentioned Tyreek Hill his impact above, and that's allowed us to get a look at all these playmakers as the ball is distributed about on any given day at practice throwing to the open man. Dan Orlovski ranked Miami skilled groups number five in the a f C. Personally, you gotta pump those numbers up. Those are rookie numbers. But I digress,

and yeah, I'll take it over Buffalo too. By watching Chase Edmonds doing his thing, we haven't even seen Raheem

Moster or Sony Michelle in those team periods. Savan Akhmed looks smooth and fast to boot Hill, Waddle Wilson, Mike GASICKI I mean a six time pro bowler, a rookie reception record holder, a guy who pops off the leaderboard in terms of the Advanced wide receiver metrics, and Cedric Wilson and a tied end to his fifth and receiving over the last two years at his positional among his positional contemporary and I should say takeaway number nine, it's

just to uh, it's just to That's the tweet. And he encompasses a bit, a little bit of all of this, particularly having fun. Bullet point coach encouraging him to be himself, him getting the guys to his house for football work and a post workout BBQ. The ball placement shows up in practices. The ability to navigate muddy waters in the pocket does as well. They've hit so many big plays with throws that were just over the outstretched arm of

the underneath the fender. I'm excited to watch him come back for camp and now they've had some time to brush up on the installs, let it kind of sink in and absorb a little bit more and just watch how to has the offense humming back out of the break. Like coach said, he's happy with where they're at right now, but they've got to keep pushing, obviously, And that's our last bullet point here. Number ten four casting of self

scouting and maximizing talent. Back to coach and being in tune with his his roster, his team, his building, his staff, the employees around the building. Just hearing coach talk about his approach to quite frankly everything, his answer about U d f a s and how he views them, how he measures the success of the off season program, how he doesn't get too high when stuff works because this league is designed to humble you after you make a

big play. How he broke down tight window throws and red zone work for us, the process of installing an offense in the off season. He has told us so much good stuff that we just don't get otherwise. And that paired with the intro press conference when he talked about training with video and streamlining the learning process to

adapt for modern attention spans. We have to let him coach his first game, But that makes you pretty confident about the ability to hopefully self scout, get things corrected, maybe not be so rigid to stick with something that's not working when that happens, because it inevitably will happen at some point, and ultimately put his players in the best position to make plays. And that last part there I want to touch on was his answer about the hoodie and being in tune with the heat with his

players and how they might react to it. My thought was, this guy just thinks of everything like those are good hands to be in with the head coach. All right, go ahead and take our final break here and we'll get to the media availabilities we did not cover on the Friday podcast. Four of those to get to Rob Hunt,

Rae Kwon Davis, Manuel Ogba, and Brandan Scarlett. Next here on the Drivetime Podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation, finishing up with the last of the media availabilities we're gonna have until training camp in July. Let's go ahead and start with Rob Hunt. I talked about to Ron Armstead the impact of the veterans on

this team and the offensive line room. Here's Rob Hunt talking about the impact of Tehran and the tips he's given the younger guys so far through O t A. S. Ron definitely helped a lot of our guys out, especially like us young guys. He's he's out the practice on I mean, working with some guys. You know, he's in the meeting room, tell us what we can do, what he's seeing. You know, he's he's been doing this for a while, so um he what it what he says.

You know, we definitely take heed and we listened to it because you know he's done it. He's been all pro, he's been pro boiled, he's been you know, everything that we um you know, want to be in life pretty much, so um everything Toron saying, we take it in there. We're listening. And a follow up, what's something to Ron's told you that's helped you particularly with your game? For me, man, I don't know. He just tell me he's telling a

lot of stuff like you know what I means. That's I don't know, there's some some little technique stuff that can work on to take to really take my game to the next level, you know. And that's just something that I'm looking forward to to keep working on this summer and also when when camp coming then hopefully in the season to roll over, go ahead and finish up here with your big eccentric Rob Hunt about two a

ton of our Lota coming out of his shell. What have you noticed from to us so far this off season? Big Rob there is I think he's always been like that. I think you think this probably maybe you guys the first time, like you know what I mean, But no, he's a guy with confidence. Man, He's the guy that believed and stuff. We believe in him too, So you know, I love him man like because as I see it, you know what I mean, I believe it and I trust it, so we all do. So I go for two. Man,

I'm glad he did that. Lets go ahead and stay in the trench. Is on the other side of the football and big ray Kwan Davis, who was asked, you know we are the reporters. Didn't see the practice that earned you the orange jersey? Can you tell us about what you did in practice to get that? With the tackles for loss? Here's Rake one. Oh no, I want that special man. This effort, you know, run to the ball, you know, just an every guy. You know, that's it.

I told you this is gonna be brief. The last one here with Rake one, He was asked about teaming up with Emmanuel Ogba, Jalen Phillips, Christian Wilkins for another year together, talking about what the four of them can really help accomplish and setting the tone up front. Here's Rake one again, far man, just pissing me each other, you know, um this copine as a unit, just sticking together,

everybody on one hand, you know, that's it. We stay on the defensive line, going from ray Kuan Davis to Emmanuel Ogba Mr. Nine sacks himself each of the last two years, one of the best pressure guys in the entire NFL, who was asked, Hey, what's the goal of these practices? EO, here he is just every day we want to get better, you know, give that at the little things, you know, will we struggle with you? Just gotta work on just little aspects of your game. That's

what T is for. Just tuned up the skills. And I'm glad we have the whole defense together so we all know how each other operate, each other work, so you know, that's how we developed from there. And speaking of developing, Jillen Phillips had plenty of that in his rookie season now into year two, one of the best damn players out there through the entire O t A process. What does a manual odd boss see different in Jilan Phillips. Oh yeah, he definitely got bigger, I'll say that, um.

But definitely seeing the speeds faster now this year, stronger and I'm excited for him. I came to see him go compete. So he was also asked about how excited he was to see all the moves of Dolphins offense made this offseason, He like us, was pumped up, but he was also asked about the difference he sees in the offense now with these additions. Here's a manual. Oh yeah, it's definitely a different It's it's it's a he was different. You know. I'm excited to have those guys are part

of the team now. So there's a manual, oddball, go ahead and stay on the defensive side of the football. Here with brents Arlott, who was asked about returned to the Miami Dolphins after hitting potentially hitting free agency. Now he's back to Miami Dolphins. Here he is talking about how excited he has to be back here in South Florida. Super excited. I love being here in Miami, Alright, great energy, the fan base, obviously, the city is great, and I

think we have a really talented team. And we had a young team last year that now is, you know, an older team, and I think we have a lot of competitive guys and guys that really want to win, and that's who ultimately I want to surround myself with. And so I'm blessed and fortunate to be back here in Miami. We've talked about this offensive system a lot, and how they want to make you defend everybody of grass.

How does that help the defense when you go up against an offense that can stress the edges of the defense like that. Here's Bran Scarlett on just that. Yeah, yeah, definitely the scheme that we're going against is is really helping to sharpen our tools, especially as an edge player. You know, your hands gotta be right, you gotta roll off the toe, you know, physical and also you know, we got talented backs too, so to keep you honest, you know, keep your eyes and your gap and play

honest gap sound football. And so yeah, and then finally, do you notice that with the offense trying to make you defend everybody to grass? Does the defense notice that with the offense and does it make you better? Sure? For sure? Yeah. I think in the past game in and the run game, you know that really the offense is built to, uh, you know, to stretch out the defense. And you know, as a defense, you know who prides ourselves some being able to cover the whole field. You know,

it's good, it's good work that we're getting. I saw you project a pass you get on the pony dance? Was that Happy Gilmore that was that was actually strumming the guitar and then just asking for some feedback from the crowd, so I would go ahead and throw that last little one in there for you guys. As Brand Scarlett talked about a celebration he did after batting the past down, I thought it was the Happy Gilmore bull dance, but it was not. It was the air guitar. So

appreciate Brand for clearing that up for us. All Right, that's gonna do it for our O t A coverage our last episode here covering the practices. I believe we have two more episodes this week and they'll go ahead and shift to a two weeks or two podcasts per week as we preview the roster and training camp this summer, and also do a preview of each division in the NFL, because it's summertime. It's time to brush up on the rest of the league and get ready for the NFL season.

We're also going to have the guys from the Fish Tank on an episode this week as well. The off season program maybe a rap, but we still have plenty to come your way in the meantime. That's gonna be my time. You all, please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts. Leave us a rating, leave us a review. You can follow me on Twitter at Wingfield NFL, follow the team at Miami Dolphins across all

social channels. Check out that Fish Tank podcast Coach McDaniel on the show You don't want to miss that our weekly Twitter Spaces show every Wednesday with myself, Set and o J. Of course, the YouTube channel for Dolphins Today, as well as all the media availabilities, and last but not least, Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time finds up Caroline Daddy's Coming Home. M