Bye Week Look Back - Five Takeaways from the 2022 Miami Dolphins Season So Far

Dolphans And welcome to the Drive Time podcast, part of the Miami Dolphins podcast Network, covering your team, your Miami Dolphins. How's it going everybody? I am your host, Travis Wingfield, And on today's show, we're taking you right into the bye week with a look back at the season so far. We'll examine five big picture things I think a general five takeaways from the first ten weeks of this Miami

Dolphins season. We'll discuss the numbers from that first half, and we'll make the week eleven picks and look at what the NFL slate has to offer us during this bye week. From the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist

Health Training Complex. This is the Drivetime. I have been looking forward to this episode for a little bit now, just knowing that it would be a comprehensive recap and a chance to look back at the fun first half of the season without an opponent to prep for this coming Sunday, take a look at all the numbers, the stats, the film takeaways, and that was all part of my

pre planned content coming in. But then we played the Browns and essentially gave us a real life snapshot of the best version of really every position group on this football team. And just to peel back the kimono a little bit, you guys know, my approach to coverage has always been to highlight the good and detail why some subtleties that maybe go unrecognized, our reasons why you should be excited about a player, a position group, or the

team in general. Right, we will point out when things go wrong and talk about areas of improvement needed, but that's just always been how I enjoy football both as a fan and wanted my coverage to reflect that you can't be the best version of yourself if you're not genuinely yourself right, and frankly, with McDaniel coming down here and just changing everything, it's honestly empowered me to be more of myself on the podcast, and I hope that's

reflected by the absolute silly goose time that we tend to have here, especially during the midst of a winning streak. I just wanted to give that little mini monologue heading into our takeaways, because well, how can you be anything but positive, excited and extremely hopeful about this team's potential this year? And frankly, that's the number one thing that stands out to me above anything else with the takeaways.

And this is borrowing a little bit from my fourth takeaway in the big picture I had, but fostering this environment of playing as one a complete team that prioritizes winning above all else. And look, I think this is probably the case in most locker rooms, or at least a lot of them. Like these are pros. They're guys that have understood that since Peewee, the win is the

most important thing, the only thing. And that's all a prelude to watching this game on Sunday, because watch Tyreek celebrate alec Ingold and Jeff Wilson's touchdowns, watch Jalen Waddle throw out the flex at trent Sherfield every time he makes a play. Watch Cedric Wilson go greet Schriff after the touchdown pass. I mean that was supposed to be his job for the number three receiver, right He's pumped up. Form doesn't matter. Watch River Cracraft come off the sideline

to give suff some love. These guys that compete for playing time put all that aside and show genuine love and excitement for the successes of their teammates. Go watch Jeff Wilson score that touchdown in Chicago and Raheem lose his ever loving mind over it. Watch Christian Wilkins celebrate a Steeler sec. Watch Jalen Phillips and Bradley Chubb already have a sack dance together. Look at the reaction on the sideline for Justin Bethel after his last of three

pass breakups in the game at that cornerback position. That's been really tops each Turvie this year. To me, that is the most special thing about this team through the first ten weeks. You can feel those positive vibes. It's a credit to the coaching staff, it's a credit to the scouting staff forgetting the right type of people, and

it's certainly a credit to the players. So I just wanted to sort of lay out that prelude as to why I'm excited about this team and cannot wait to see how they can build off the success they've had so far. But to quote to a tongue Vailoa, what we came to do and when we came to accomplish, it's not accomplished yet, So it would be cool speaking of potential MVP award, But we have bigger goals and aspirations on what we want to do as a team.

And really quickly before the takeaways, I wanted to write something I used to do, the One Big Thing, which was a rip off of the s VP Sports Center show every Sunday night after games on Lockdown Dolphins. I missed doing that, so let's do it right now. Big Thing, a little monologue on the first ten weeks of season and what it's meant to a lifelong Dolphins fan. So one Big n That was the last time the Dolphins

produced a top ten NFL offense. Sure, they had some of the league's top defenses and even in pour the best run game in the NFL in two thousand two, in an era where that was an acceptable model of team building in a legit path to a potential Super Bowl trophy? Or was it because that two thousand two team had eight Pro Bowlers, just one number fewer than their win total that season nine and seven, a year without playoffs, in a season where you had arguably the

best roster in football. Little did we know at the time, the year prior, with the last time or the most recent time that we witnessed a playoff victory, and how sweet that was. But how did that victory come to be? It required a literal record breaking day from running back. It required clutch catches by the most clutch receiver in

Dolphins history, O J McDuffie. It required that defense bring it's a game to slow the NFL's latest version of the Triplets in Peyton Manning, Marvin Harrison and ed You and James. It took an all out, dragged out effort to find the winner circle late into the overtime period.

But that game could have been curtains much much earlier had the Dolphins quarterback not turned the football over three times in that game, the same as we could have seen a potential return to the postseason in two thousand two if it weren't for what can Trent Green do that j Fieler cannot do. Just like the two thousand three season could have gone to the postseason if not for you guessed it. Brian Greasy was the addition to

the quarterback room that year. And again, this was before the league took steps to benefit the offense and make the NFL a passing league, and it was still a major hindrance, and that vacancy at the quarterback position would persist for nearly twenty more years. You've seen the list, you know the names. You can probably reside it off the top of your head chronologically. I know I can.

The train slowly started heading that way in the earlier two thousands, but it was still doable to win divisions and dominate with that style of football. But looking back and you say you enjoyed those seventeen thirteen white knuckle contests that came down to a bounce or two each week, is that nearly as much fun as the offense that doesn't really punt and what you're seeing right now because

the team continued to get built in that way. Of course, the two thousand and four season was one that no one could see coming. With the retirement of Ricky Williams, thanks a lot, big seth JK, And sure enough, the next regime went right back to the defense. Moreten to ten thrillers. Baby. Oh wait, then we get a star wide receiver and you're pairing with Chad Henny and trade him before he can help our first first round quarterback since Dan Reno. And it's back to nine six games, baby.

All the while, at seven eight win seasons, it's too good to be bad and too bad to be good. The NFL's purgatory, the worst place the franchise can be. Nobody knows how this season will end. The odds are it's gonna end in heartbreak. Only one team gets to host the Lombardi Trophy every year, and even the favorites odds are fractional ones. But doesn't a late January broken heart the potential of that sound much better than starting

the off season in your head in late December. The Dolphins have a team to compete, compete with the best right now. They have a team built for the modern era. They have a coach who understands the modern athlete and a GM who understands the modern landscape for aggressiveness and identifying life cycles and when to keep putting investments into what looks like the best Dolphins team this century. I

am enjoying this with everything in me. I'm enjoying watching all the discourse continue about who's to blame, why we have to discredit certain individuals, And the funniest thing about that is like, yeah, Okay, sure T has elite wide receivers and this is somehow a bad thing from my favorite football team. You're wrong about what TOO was doing. We all know that, but thanks for the compliment and how this team was constructed properly and effectively and from

the top down. Seven more games for sure, likely more after that, and there's not a team I look at and say, hey, we need a miracle to defeat that team. Strap in, Dolphins fans, you've been waiting a long time for this, and no matter how it goes, you have a seat at the table, and that's what you've been begging for since we put thirteen up in the rafters. My first half of the season, five takeaways are this Number one. This team has multiple ways to win football games.

The Dolphins have seven wins this season. Let's go ahead and examine each one of those victories over the Patriots on opening weekend. You get a defensive scoop and score early two more takeaways for three total. You allow them to go four for ten on third and fourth down conversions. You go too for two on field goals. You have four points totaling nearly two hundred yards and a field flipping fifty eight yard or and then the gravitas to go for it on fourth down with a perfect throw,

great catch and run in for six. The pressure on mac Jones was unrelenting, and the run defense held the Patriots to an average of three point five five yards per carry in that game. Their season average when removing Miami's game is four point to one, so more than half of a yard less than their season average. That win definition smothering defense with multiple splash plays, quality special teams, and timely offense. My phone fell right there by the way.

That was that sound at the Ravens. Six touchdown passes for your quarterbacks. Pretty good. Two receivers over a buck seventy and four touchdowns among them, three seventy one yards among them a yard run on the game winning drive with a huge hole opened up, untouched down inside the fifteen yard line in a big spot, making all six p a t S in that game. And yes, this

wasn't owed to the offense. But if you get a fourth down, if you don't get a fourth down stop rather before the time touchdown, if you don't hold the Ravens to a field goal when the game is thirty five all late in the fourth quarter, this offensive memorable day maybe becomes a footnote and a loss win definition historic passing performance with timely late defense Week three against the Bills, a takeaway early sets the offense up on

a Golden Golst situation holding arguably the most explosive offense in football. In fact, there are six point five yards per play is number one right now in the NFL. He held them to five point four yards per play, more than a full yard less per play over ninety two snaps too, By the way, probably the best big moment throw of a young quarterbacks career with that route to match from Waddle a young receiver to convert on third and twenty two to set up the game winning

touchdown there in the fourth quarter. And it was the game winner because the defense held firm on not one but two fourth quarter long Josh Allen possessions in the middle of that yes, the safety off the butt punt, but in hindsight, considering more stead nearly seventy three yard free kick that we covered beautifully to put the Bills in a long field, maybe that was the best thing.

It sure as hell was a nice response from the special teams that win definition terrific defensive game plan and effort, paired with a highly efficient, big time plays by the offense and the biggest play by the special teams coverage units on a play where they needed it most all year long. Took us four weeks. Scar next win back under our belts, but over the Steelers in a a week

number seven. The offense issues an ideal game script with early multiple score lead that sustained drives and allows the defense to get long rest after stops. And that was set up by a first quarter interception from that same defense, the same defense that hell of the stealers off the scoreboard in the entire second half, including two takeaways backed up right to the brink of touchdown. Here ends it, and we have to get stops in the next fifteen

yards otherwise we're gonna lose this game. And the offensive line began a streak that week of superb past protection numbers the win definition of that game. Offense aids defense early with two score lead, and then the defense brings it home with a clean sheet in the second half, and the field goal team puts ten points on the board three field goals and one point after a tribe.

Next week at the Lions, the offense keeps it close in the first half, a pay it forward type of deal from the second half of the Pittsburgh game, and those dynamic wideouts go crazy again. Another one between the Cheetah and the Penguin, but it's not just them. Ghasicki a huge touchdown, the winner in fact, alec Ingold finds

the end zone. The ground game gives you one oh seven on the ground, and the line protects the quarterback for four quarters for the second straight week to help aid the offensive onslaught, the defense responds with a second half shutout. More Sted's loan punt pins the Lions at their own twelve yard line, giving the defense eighty eight yards of field to work with on what would have been the last possession of the game for the Lions,

or what would be, I should say. The offense then converts three first downs to end the game in victory formation the Wind definition. Their offense plays a nearly perfect game by utilizing every weapon at the skill spots, and the defense shows its resolved to absorb an early punch and respawn with a second half shutout, aided on the final series by a special team's field flip at the Bears,

not that dissimilar to the Lions game. The last points scored in the game came with eleven thirty eight to play in the fourth quarter, as the defense had to have two stops in that fourth quarter and they got them. The quarterback has another absurd day, throwing plenty again to tennants seventeen another twenty eight and two scores from those guys. The team gets a lift from a couple of new additions, including seventy nine yards and a touchdown from Jeff Wilson

in another stellar day from the offensive line. The pass rush just kept coming, dbs kept covering, The defense resolved once again showed itself again the Wind definition. Their offensive fireworks with over three hundred yards and three touchdowns coming from Tyreek Jalen and Jeff Wilson. More third down excellent and highly efficient football from tah capped off by two

late stops from the defense. Finally, the Browns. This had been building towards complementary football all year long, and this was the coming out party. Offense goes off again, but this time using every piece of the offense and the more spread it around output. The run game rolls up nearly two yards in the on the ground, five guys make at least four catches, seven have at least two, and eight players in total have receptions in the game.

Third down excellence continues, no punt game needed at all. Pass rush finally gets time to throw, and that converts all those pressures into sax and impact plays. Run defense wins better than of their snaps with short running games. The defense takes the ball away, gives the offense short fields.

Everything comes together, the definition of that one, the culmination of all those games where you're so close to putting together a complete game for four quarters, pass game, run game, run de pass, rush, coverage all clicking in this one.

So really, you've got wins by every conceivable variable, run game, pass game, defensive splash plays and takeaways, late stands and discipline game plans, timely special teams, stellar individual stat lines, really every which way through ten games, the most tried and true way has been the electric passing game. Then probably the stout defensive game with a critical takeaway for a short a score or a short field and preventing points late in the game. Then probably the run game

and special teams. But they've proven that all these things can be key factors in the route to victory. Let's go ahead and take our first break and come back for takeaways two through five. That's next on the Drivetime podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. Big picture items from this season so far, the bye week coming up this Sunday, plenty of fun games to

watch around the league. Will get to that here in just a moment in our third segment, we're gonna go ahead and pick it back up with takeaways two through five through ten weeks of two season. And where else can you go besides the emergence of tah tongue of viola.

This on his brief because we've been over it, like high level stuff, executing on structure and putting the ball in locations on time when it's all right and executed like it's drawn up, but also mitigating for the occasional breakdowns when they happen, improvising both with the scramble and pocket mobility, but also getting very deep into his progressions, quickly beating man zone blitz coverage, killing teams on third down, red zone, goal to go the fourth quarter doesn't matter,

it's just seven games. It's just seven games. But those seven games are pacing towards something we just don't see. We're talking about not just the top of this year's leaderboard, the top of some all time leader boards. In those stats, we talked about rating, third down rating, red zone rating,

yards per attempt, net yards per attempt. A quarterback who has full command of the offense in his third year, his first in the system, the full trust and backing of his coaches, players, the fan base, and a true leader of not just the offense but the entire football team. Really, in season, it's been the model quarterback. I don't know how else just say it, and I do want to attempt to say it this way. You know, social media discourse absolutely exhausts me, and I don't engage nearly as

often as I used to. I'm I've instituted a mostly firm policy of not giving a platform to the content created just for the absurdity of it all, like the circus of it all, you know, I asked the media room of other Day, who is that for? Who watches these hot takes on television shows? Why would we care the takes of people that demonstrate time and time again that it's not nuanced conversation, it's not based in film study. I don't know. It's not that hard to find smart

content if you have the Internet. I know, the casual fans not going to go search the annals of the Internet for contextual analysis, but to watch that knowing what it is. I just don't get who it's for. But it's popular, So the joke's on me, right, But man, I see this stuff every single day, inventing new ways to bend back to affirm a previous take. But for what?

For some flowers on social media? I can tell you right now, go back and listen to just about every draft episode of Drive Time and or Locked on Dolphins the year before that. You'll find seventy eight versions of me saying some version of this take two was the

best college quarterback I've ever seen. In the fine details of the position, the subtleties that make for a franchise altering quarterback play, manipulation, accuracy, post nap acumen, paired with a quickness and all of his ball handling and release that mitigates any chance a pass rush has most of the time. I mean, I'll try to not injure myself pat myself in the back here. But gat man, I think I feel confident saying I know about evaluation. But

guess what, nobody cares work harder? Right? So why do we have to regress to mental gymnastics and just hoping that our conditions and justifications for why a player is having success are factual? Because the craft that I see, I can supremely confidently tell you it's not rooted in fact, it's not based on study. It's based on hypothesizing without

doing the research to confirm or deny said hypothesis. How many times do we do segments here where I put out a thought Reese search and confirmed that I was wrong. That's the beauty of chemistry, White, Mr Wright, Yeah, science, growth, decay, then transformation. Cut the tape. It's elite. Do you think Mike McDaniel would lie about that? What purpose would telling the entire locker room after the Browns game? Hey, this dude right here at number one is playing at an

elite level. If he wasn't. Players aren't stupid, They would know that to lie. If it was. You think McDaniels lying about that. I thought we trusted and believed in what he's done here to the point that we can all agree that his word carries some pretty significant weight, right Because you're telling me that Tyreek and Jalen and Mike McDaniel are the only reasons to what is succeeding. Mike himself would disagree with you, So that by its very nature is a contradiction, Like what are we doing?

Why do we have to get definitive confirmation at the same speed of a hungry man meal warming up in the microwave? Why can't we exercise no patience whatsoever? Talent is talent, Sometimes circumstances change, sometimes development occurs. A lot of the best quarterbacks in the league right now did not hit right away to Ah Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts. Look at what's going on with justin fields in Chicago.

It's why we should always factor in context. I mean, we've seen Chargers fans right telling us about the depleted injury riddle roster right now. It doesn't go both ways, though. Don't mistake context for excuses and demand the irrelevance of

anything but the bottom line. Don't do that for two reasons. One, it's just straight bad process and two, these guys are people, two men, and I can't imagine try up using another human being as a prop for hell, I don't even know what for social media clout the ability to promote a blogger, podcast, or handle with the title of I told you player X wasn't good three years ago, it's weird.

Two is the kind of guy that when you're talking to him, he puts his hand on your shoulder, looks you in the eye, and engages with you with the same level of interest and intrigue, regardless if you're a stupid goofy podcaster or the president of the football team. He's truly one of the biggest and brightest spirits I've ever been around. And to me to damn shand that he's covered with a different standard than all of his

contemporaries around him. That's takeaway number two. Takeaway number three. Always thinking about how to improve at first, I thought, let's revisit the off season and look at how many impact newcomers have solidified important roles on this football team. But then I got to thinking, there's a better way

to phrase this. Chris Career always talks about taking every opportunity to upgrade the roster, and a year round pursuit of doing just that right, not just scouting the draft, not just signing free agents, not just moves via the trade market, but scouring things in season. Bringing in Brandon Shell, Justin Bethel, trading for Bradley Chubb and Jeff Wilson. Those

are four big time moves after an off season. That's right up there all time in this franchise in terms of total impact and production being important to the team. Because remember when they began this thing really in earnest back in twenty nineteen, collecting picks, saving up for potential spending sprees in the future by clearing the books into future seasons and keeping your management of that cap flexible and fluid. They always had more resources than what you

would need if you hit on all those resources. And what is that other than protecting against the idea that nobody ever bats a thousand and nobody ever will. But how about recognition of where you might need to continue to funnel resources to hit on a cater Cohu. Maybe the draft pick at that spot in the first round didn't go as you would hope to recognize the first round potential left tackle is better suited at right tackle, and to go get an elite left tackle in to

Ron Armstead in the process. To not sit back on the production of a jail and Waddle. Let's go ahead and pair him with an even more proven version of his play style to say that, Yeah, Eric Rowe, Brandon Jones, Bobby McCain's a nice trio, but Javon Holland's different cat.

You can really take this back multiple off seasons, by the way it's been built with contributions from draft classes going four years back, or six years back in the case of Mike Gasicki, or eight years back in the case of xaviing Howard, the culmination of multiple very good drafts, some clever maneuvering in the trade market, some aggressive but

measured free agent periods with flexibility. It's in really cool attract this thing get built from my chair in my perspective, and it's such a joy to see them enjoy some fruits of that labor. With seven wins in the first ten Takeaway number four coaching staff revisit just looking at the introduction article I wrote on the coaching staff and the five things piece about Mike McDaniel up on Miami

Dolphins dot com back in February or late January. We highlighted in the resumes and staff that Mike had mentioned so many times was such a high priority of his to assemble this group, To bring West and Embo in from San Francisco, to go get one of the most

qualified quarterback coaches on the planet and coach Bev. Then you pull Matt apple Bomb from the college ranks, to add a brilliant mind like Frank Smith, to add legends to the defensive staff like Sam and Pat, and to retain some coaches who have proven themselves here in Miami with production from their particular position groups. To promote someone like Steve Gregory who's played and coached in this system. And to add a time Mackenzie who has an insane

recall and analytical mind for the game. And the production for that room has been something too. From that article, the Dolphins coaching staff features a hundred and eighty three years of combined NFL experience, and in total, between high school, college and NFL has more than three hundred combined years of coaching experience. The two thousand two Dolphins two Dolphins coaching staff has coached five Super Bowl winning teams. Number

five signs of pass rush emergence. I thought the Cleveland game was, like we talked about earlier, the culmination of what's been bubbling near the surface for a while. So, like I did earlier this year, I'm gonna call my shot, like with the points production catching up, the run game catching up, and now with the pass rush coming out

of the by like a house on fire. They are talented, they are multiple, and they can get home with four And there are a lot of elements of this pass rush you can look at and hang your hat on. It starts off the edge. The past rush win rate from ESPN for edge defenders Bradley Chub's number three, Jalen Phillips number ten. We've also seen Melvin Ingram impacked several games. We know that he leaves a team with four sex. We know Andrew van Geekle when what he can do,

and we know about the versatile dudes inside. Christian Wilkins and his potential expanded opportunities as a result of that unrelenting edge pressure really popped up in this last game, and it paid off with Christian Wilkins getting the job done. Get involved in a couple of sacks, He's probably gonna get a lot more one on one chances as teams work to contend with all that talent and speed and power off the edges, those NASCAR packages and the stress

they can put on teams. Sure our fund Wilkins was the focal point of it. In the Cleveland game looks with Phillips, chub Mel and Christian, then a bevy of dbs and Baker or Duke and coverage. It's a tough ask for opposing offenses because you have specialists that can execute multiple different things on that particular look. Speaking of rushing four from that last game, Brissette was blitzed on just nine of his forty two dropbacks. That's twenty one percent.

His pass rating was eighty four point three against four or fewer rushers and one or three point five against the blitz. And that's coming from a team at the blitz right with a thirty percent blitz right this season. So they reduced it by a pretty good measure there. I'm not at all saying scrap the blitz. This defense is multiplicity and ability to get to be week to week game plan specific is my favorite aspect of it. But it's just another nice tool to have in the bag.

So for that reason, and plus cater Co Who's emergence, the play of Justin Bethel, Javon Hollands getting a little bit more and more work down in the box and the mess to make more plays down there, and then just getting healthier over the bye week, I think the pass rush is really bubbling up and getting better every single week and could take off big time in the second half of the season. Let's take our last break here.

We'll come back and look at some seasons stats and the leaderboards for the Dolphins heading into the bye week, and will also pick the week eleven games and talk about that landscape. That's next Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. This was a lot of fun to assemble the stats so far through ten games through ten weeks for your two Miami Dolphins.

We start with the passing game and to a tonguele Bylow's been over this He's first in passer rating total qb R e p A per play, touchdown percentage, yards per attempt, net yards per attempt adjusted net yards per at tempt. You know, I'm a big to a guy. I can't even say I saw this coming. Like I was very bullish from the guy for the last couple

of years, but this, like, come on, man. He's second in completion percentage, fewest, sack percentage, completion percentage over expected via next Gen. His on target throw percentage trails only Aaron Rodgers. Per Pro Football References Advanced Stats, they say that Towa has eighty point six percent of his passes on target Aaron Rodgers eight point eight percent. He's third in yards per game passer rating under pressure and in

fact that Pro Football Focus metric. Let's give you the full pressure numbers there seven for fifty for three d and sixty two yards. That's fifty seven point two yards per past three touchdowns and no picks against pressure, no fumbles either, no turnovers under pressure. And for posterity, that y p A is fourth among quarterbacks with at least forty dropbacks against pressure and the completion percentage is fifth, so top five and pressure categories across the board to like,

what more do you want from the guy? He's fourth in lowest interception rate across the NFL rushing stats. Raheem's twenty four smith tackles are tied for nineteenth among running backs. Jeff Wilson has nineteen. That's tied for twenty one, and in fact, only the Dolphins, Bears, and Vikings have two players in the top twenty one of that category. Jeff Wilson's eleven runs of fifteen plus yards is the fourth

most in football this year. He has a hundred and eighteen carries and the three guys ahead of him have two oh two one sixty, So he has the highest average of fifteen plus yard runs per carry this season. Where he most has the thirteenth most runs of fifteen plus yards, He's got six of them. He's also tenth with eighteen runs of ten plus yards. That's a lot of numbers there. Well, I'm telling you is both these

guys hit explosive runs at the high rates. Jeff Wilson's five point four yards per carry's fourteenth in the NFL receiving buckle up. It's like the quarterback position. Tyreek is first in receptions, receiving yards, first downs, yards per route ran, deep ball receptions and yards fourteen for four seventy three on throws of twenty plus air yards. I thought he wasn't gonna be able to take advantage that anymore. So much for that. He's second in yards per game, he's fourth,

and yards per target. He's tied for ninth with his nine contested catches. He's five ft eight five ft nine. How tall is he? Of the eight guys with more contested catches, Tyreek has a higher contested catch rate than all but two of them. He's at nine of fifteen. The only guys higher are two of the best high partners in the National Football League, Mike Evans and Terry McLaurin.

From that group have a higher contested catch right. Terry McLaren's an elite, elite receiver, by the way, been saying that for a while, Mike and JT and video I make that argument very strongly. Waddle is first, and yards per target he's third, and yards per reception he's fourth and receiving yards and yards per route ran. Only Jefferson, Digs and Hill have more deep ball receptions. He's fifth in first downs in yards per game, and he's tied

for fifth and receiving touchdowns. He's eighth in deep ball yardage and he's twelfth and catches. Defensively, Christian Wilkins is fifth among interior defensive lineman and Pro Football Focuses run Stops Metric, and Zach Seeler is seventh. Jalen Phillips is eighth among edge defenders and PFF pressures and twenty three and run stops. Chubb a seventeenth and pressures and nineteenth

and run stops. The defense is tougher to peg because most categories are league wide, so like Javon Hollands forty and tackles but that includes like all positions, and we play really good team defense. That's not really been a stat piling defense. But I do like these two numbers a lot team pass rush win rate they are six at forty percent and team run stop win rate ten at all. Right, once again, last podcast of the week.

Let's go ahead and make our week eleven picks during the bye and tell you about which games to keep an eye on. Let's go ahead and make the picks first. Give me the Packers over the Titans on Thursday night, football typically take the home team here. I think both these teams are kind of you know, at least the Titans have played above their belt. The Packers, I shouldn't say that they could just came up a five game losing streak, but I think they'll get going more in

the right direction. Packers over Titans. Give me the Bears over the Falcons. I'm so pumped about Justin Fields what he's doing with the Chicago Bears. Give me the Eagles to bounce back over the Colts. Congratulations by the way to the nineteen seventy two team pop in Champagne after the Eagles lost on Monday Night football. But they'll get right over the Colts. Big one here, Patriots over Jets. That's a big game to watch in the a f C East. Give me Houston over Washington. Give me New

Orleans over the Rams. Give me the Bills over the Browns. Let's do Ravens over the Panthers. The Titans will get back or not the Titans. Am I talking about the Lions. The Lions will get to win over the Giants and a big upset there. Give me the Broncos over the Raiders. It's kind of the battle of the upset it team or the disappointed teams. I should say in the a f C West, give me the Cowboys after that emotional win by the Vikings and they'll get right after losing

to the Packers. I'll take the Cowboys over Minnesota. Give me the Bengals over the Steelers, the Chiefs over the Chargers. Great Sunday night football game there, and the Niners over the Cardinals. As far as like what you should be looking for this weekend, uh, there's a really good mix of games for Dolphins purposes. All three times slates, the ten A or the one o'clock slate. How I'm three years in the East Coast, they'll call it tenn a m slot, the one o'clock time slot. Jets and Patriots.

We want the Patriots to win that game. The lower win team in the division take down. The Jets also have the head to head win over the Dolphins, so as long as the Patriots beat the Jets, Miami can maintain their first place position in the a f C East. Also in that same time frame, the Bills and Browns is a big one. I know the Bills are kind of in their mid season slump. They seemed to go

through every year the last couple of years. We know they're gonna wind up getting hot and playing good football at the end of the year, though, But in this game, with like multiple feet of snow and crazy wind expected, perhaps Nick Chubb and that Brown's running game can maybe do some of their stuff with the Bills passing game, maybe can't. I don't know. That'd be nice to see if if we can get a couple of losses there in division coming out of the bye week. Those are

the two big ones. And then in the for noon, I think, just for potential seeding purposes, the Steelers over the Bengals for the second time this year would be nice. That's slate. And then I'm kind of having a hard time to figure out what we want on Sunday night because if you're trying to play for a top seed, like you want the Chargers to win, but if the Bills can come back and win the division, you kind of want to compete for a better wild card spot

against the Chargers. So that's kind of a tough one. I am thinking this team is gonna get really hot, this Dolphins team in the second half of the season, so I am rooting for the best possibilities, which means the one Seeds, so will go Chargers, although I am picking the Chiefs in that one, and that's it. Those are your four big ones to look at this weekend.

The a f C. Of course the Ravens as well, but if you look at the Ravens schedule, they're they're probably gonna coast to the a f C North title, So I'm not really factoring them because they have a really easy road the rest of the way, but they do put the Panthers on Sunday. Uh Texans preview next Tuesday. In the podcast, we'll talk to Mark vander Meer, the voice of the Texans, for Perspective from Houston. That will

be Wednesday. Enjoy the bye week, everybody. Twitter Spaces is back tonight, so check out me, Seth and Juice eight o'clock at my Twitter timeline, at Wingfield and of fel where you can find me on Twitter. You can find the Dolphins also at Miami Dolphins Subscribe, rate, review all the stuff. Check out the fish Tank again. The Twitter Spaces show tonight at eight o'clock. International podcast on the Network. No postgame show this week, but back in two weeks

with the Houston Texans. Check out the team YouTube channel for media availabilities, Dolphins Today, Drivetime and Fish Tank content, and last but not least, Miami Dolphins dot Com Until next time finds up Caroline Daddy. He's coming home for three days.