Christian Wilkins True Impact and Coaches Talk Pats Challenges

it's Wednesday. Players were off on Tuesday, coaches met with the media, so we're gonna take a look at the matchup in Foxborough on Sunday through the words of George Gottzie, Josh Boyer, the Mule, John Pierre, and many many more. Plus our Wednesday Deep Dive takes us into the film room to take a look at Christian Wilkins. I'll tell you why he's far more valuable than he gets credit for.

And we'll scan the interwebs for some season slash season prediction content from some of my favorite content creators from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Drivetime Podcast, so there's no real news or anything like that to get to today, so why

don't we just dive right in. We had a chance to speak to the Dolphins assistance and man, we got some good stuff on Tuesday and morning, let's do a preliminary preview of Sunday's game that we just all cannot wait to get here. Let's go, we hurry on up through the words of the coaching staff, and tomorrow will do a unit by unit matchup breakdown and have John Knjemmy on to help us out with that as well. But today we'll start here with Dolphins defensive coordinator Josh Boyer.

And to me, this was the quote of the day and it speaks to both the prep work but also just how tough the Patriots are to prepare for. We talked about this in the podcast yesterday, and the ability to morph your schematics and your game plans and the courage that takes well. Nobody has been better at that over the last two decades than the New England Patriots. And I always think back to Jonas Gray, for instance, the two dred yard rusher one game and you don't

even hear from him the next game. I remember Garrett Blunt and days where he would do something similar with you know, thirty five carries or whatever the case may be, and the following week you have a team that is a little bit thinner in the secondary, and so la Garrett Blunt goes on the shelf, or maybe he's more of a past protector in there on passing downs and you spread the football all over the field via the air.

Or how about when they were forced to go to their third screen quarterback back in who just so happens to be Jacoby Brissette New Miami Dolphin this year, but in his rookie season as a third round draft pick, after the Tom Brady suspension and Jimmy Garoppolo injury, they came. They show up on a Thursday night on a short week.

They had a game plan that Jacoby engineered just to pure perfection, but it was based lye in the run game, and they just steam rolled the Houston Texans in a game that most people thought might go the other way because of the Patriots on their third stree quarterback, but they found a way to scheme a victory around said quarterback. So what does Josh Boyer say about what you can expect from the Patriots this Sunday, Well, it's not about what you can expect, but rather to expect the unexpected.

I think we're guaranteed to see something that we were not preparing for week one. I mean, you know, uh, I think that was the case last year. I think that was the case the year before. I mean it, you know that you prepare for a lot of things, and you look at a lot of a lot of history, a lot of things that they've done with certain personnel group beings. UM. But there's always an element of unknown

going into it. UM. So I think you just have to be ready to adjust and be ready to adapt, um, you know when we're playing on Sunday, to get things handled that you weren't quite you know, ready to see. And then coach was asked a follow up question about the page for its personnel groupings and the options they have to go to multiple personnel groupings. Here's Coach Boyer, Well, you know again, I think I think it starts with, um, you look at their personnel group as a whole, uh,

even with all their additions. I think you look at the coordinator and things that he's done with certain personnel group beings, and you try to relate that to guys that he's had in the past and how he may use them. UM. So you know, again there will be an element of unknown to it. I think we've prepared, you know, for a lot of different scenarios. UM. Again, in the preseason, they didn't have everybody available to them that they will have available this Sunday. UM. So again,

you know, there's a little bit of a guess on that. UM. I would say it's an educated guest. You know, we've spent some time on you know, what they've done in the past. But again, there's also gonna be an element of unknown that you know that we'll have to handle and be ready to prepare for. What we do know is they're gonna be very well coached, they're gonna play hard, they're gonna play for full sixty minutes, and then we gotta be ready to match that, and we've gotta be

ready to go. I still think the most the reason I began the podcast with the quote, I think we're guaranteed to see something that we're not preparing for Week one. Just really insightful stuff there from the Dolphins defensive coordinator. The d C of last year's number one ranked takeaway defense, number one ranked third down defense, and number six ranks scoring defense. Now coach also said they prepared for Mac Jones,

Cam Newton, Brian Hoyer, and Jared Sidham at quarterback. And I just wanted to put that in there because I think it's a bit of a nod of an appreciation you have to have for these coaches and the time they put in. It's one of the more tiring professions you can imagine, and it's at times, especially with positional coaches,

somewhat thankless, at least on the outside perspective. And to me, it's it's impressive, and it's league wide across all thirty two clubs, and it really kind of, at least to me, opened your eyes to the discourse you see on social media or the like, almost feels kind of ridiculous to debate these guys. It's it's almost like, you know, let's call it a high school degree level graduate compared to a PhD in terms of the experience and knowledge in

this particular outfit. So, finally, the best part about Josh Boyer besides that first quote was Joe Shadd asked him a little bit about Elijah Campbell, the Dolphins new acquisition off the waiver wire last week, who had spent some time in both the A a F and the XFL and Joe was kind of given coach a little bit of a not a rasing, but just trying to find out what animals coach might go to to find tape on a guy like that, and Coach just said, yeah, I've seen a lot of film, Joe, I've seen a

lot of film. I love that answer from coach and fund discourse there with he and Joe shadow the Palm Beach post. Whtch up? Joe, good job on that question. Today. I also had a chance to ask coach Burke's something similar with regards to how do you prepare for a team that's so known for rolling out new things and the in game adjustment mentality? How do you prepare for what will likely be an game adjustment, as Coach Boyer said, because we're expecting to see something that we don't expect

to see. Here's coach Burks. So you know, the main thing is we know that they're gonna be well coached. We know they're gonna be disciplined. You know, uh, mistakes would be limited. So regardless of the personnel, the personality of the team, it is what it is, you know, So that that's what we prepare for. That's what we expect. You know, they've been this way for the past twenty years, so it's gonna be a hard fought fourth quarter game.

So that's that's something you always love to hear about the coaching staff focusing on just the overall picture there and that is no different there and the messaging from coach Burk's next I had a chance, staying on the defensive side of the ball to talk to coach Austin Clark, who has been very insightful in my conversations with him, and that did not change on this Tuesday. For the podcast on Wednesday, September eight. Thanks for listening to the

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Tank with Feth Levin o J McDuffie. But back to Austin Clark, I wanted to ask him about the Patriots offensive line and their ability to use their size, their play experience, and their familiarity with one another to help thwart the games and the past rush packages upfront that you might want to throw it then because the Patriots offensive line for as long as I can remember. You know, it's a twenty five year obsessive fan of this league.

They seem to always roll out very, very good offensive lines. So I asked Coach Clark, how do you deconstruct that line, the communication, they probably have, the experience playing together. How do you get production against the line that's so good? Here's Coach Clark. Yeah, I would say, uh, they work well together. They're very very experienced group. Um. You know the addition of getting getting Brown back, you know, I think it's huge for him. Um, And and they come

off with with low pads. They play really hard, and I think it's gonna be a big challenge for us. You heard him talk a little bit about Trent Brown there, the addition they made back at tackle, a player that was with the Patriots once upon time and then went to Oakland. Now he's back with New England. And you know, I wanted to ask him about that guy, because Trent

Brown is a three d and sixty pound dude. How difficult is it to get a guy like that, you know, either over as skis or off momentum, or just how do you get through him on a bull rush. There's so many different things you have to contend with with a guy of that size and stature. So I wanted to ask coach, you know, how do you approach a guy that's maybe unique in the sense that he is

so large and so difficult to get around. Here's Coach Clark. Yeah, I think for for some guys, yeah, I think, you know, he's an elite level talent. And uh in terms of uh, you know, everybody's different, and every player on defense is going to be different, you know, and so depending on who that is lining up on him, you know, maybe he may have a different mentality. Um, but uh, you know, I think the guys are really excited about the challenge. And it's not just Trent Brown, Michael and when it

was a massive, massive human being too. Along with Shack Mason has been one of the best right guards in the NFL for a long long time. David Andrews is back, Ted Carress is back up there. You also got Isaiah went at left tackle. A very tough offensive line. We'll get into those guys on the podcast tomorrow and break that all down. But over to the offensive side and kind of some of the attacking the Patriots defense questions.

I went to George Godzie here he was asked about early season production and getting off to a fast start with regards to the offense executing. Here's coach Gotzi. Yeah, I think through training camp it's um. You know, you have some good days, you have some bad days. You're going against your a lot of the same guys, UM

for a majority of it. You know, we had some good experiences with other teams, UM, but preseason is one one thing and this is the regular season and we know that they're going to give us their best, and you know, we want to make sure it's competitive and at our best every snap. We need to be on blocks when we were called or asked to do it, UM. And you know, we need to find the open guy, deliver an accurate ball, cast the ball, and get yards. In the pass game, running backs need to run hard.

I mean, it's uh, it's not a complex formula. But going back to your original point, you know, we talk about technique fundamentals, and you know they're well coached and they'll be guys in position and it's up to us to block them. You know, get open kets and football, deliver an accurateball and this is kind of going away from the theme of these questions with regards of the Patriots and how to attack them, and you know, like we mentioned earlier season fast starts and kind of the

execution of the offense. Coach was asked about two A Tongo by Loa some of the strengths that he thinks the quarterback offers and some of the things that maybe attracted the Dolphins to the former overall number five overall pick in the draft out of Alabama. Here's coach on his quarterback. I mean, you know, it's it's there's a lot of a lot of variables there. Um, you know, he's he's pretty good, a lot of different phases in college as far as executing for that team, and um,

you know, play action regular boot game. You know, so that was part of the reason, you know, we looked at him and liked them. And you know, so that this is obviously and jump in and personnel and who's playing and strategy. You know, so a lot of those variables kind of play into that more than it does just actually copy paste and if you will to play that's a little bit harder to do. So he was talking there a little bit about the r p O game and some of the other type of offensive concepts

and action that two excels with. So I thought that was some good insight there from coach god c Dolphins co offensive coordinator. Let's go ahead and flip this thing over. No, check that. How about some of the other problems that Patriots present on that defensive side of the football and their ability to be multiple upfront and rush with a bunch of different guys is one of the key problems

I personally have identified. And it's not a secret I don't think from people that watched this league, But I had a chance to ask coach Lemille John Pierre, offensive line coach here in Miami, a couple of questions. Number one, how do you prepare for a team that has all of the different things that Patriots can do. Let's go ahead and start there. For coach lamil Jo Pierre, Oh, you know everybody knows every week brings you different challenges, for sure, and you got a team where they let

you know what it's gonna be. Kind of one thing you already gotta assume as a coach is that what they're showing you isn't just what they want you to know. So sometimes my guys prepared for the unknown, and sometimes sometimes you work that in there so they present that challenge.

But the best way to attack is like you gotta just film study for sure, trying to see if you just see see until here and there, which they're very good at not giving you that, and then you just keep repping them, repping them like high speed competitive competitive repetition. That way we're gonna work out the kings and see a if you're getting a bapetition, how you gotta recover? Because one of my releases, I can't always praise my guys at um being in the perfect position because that's

not football. You want to make sure be praising if we're get in this position, how you recover, not panics. A lot of times you get panicked. That's what bad things happened. Gosh, I really think the Dolphins are in

good hands there with coach Lemil John Pierre. He has a lot of fun to talk to and break this game down like we'd love to do here on the Drive Time podcast and you heard him say there, which I found so very interesting that teams want to show you stuff they want you to see in order to and this is me going on now to possibly manipulate manipulate you later on in the game. And that's the

beauty of football. I think I even said in my follow up question to coach Lem, They're like, that's what we love this game so much, right, because it is so complex that way, and there's so much of a chess match as far as like here's what I think you're gonna do, so I'm gonna react this way, and this can possibly have this impact later on in the game.

To me, it's like a batter versus picture matchup where the picture is trying to think about Okay, last time I was one two to this guy, I threw the curveball off the plate away then came back in with the fastball under the hands. Like, all of the data you have goes into the data bank, so you can then project what might happen in the future. It's a tough job, a tough task. That's why of these coaches

are so good at what they do. So here's a question for coach about preparing for guys like for instance, Josh you j and Chase Winovitch who maybe you know, have their best ball out ahead of them, and you don't necessarily know what kind of player they are coming back in year two or year three as guys that

have developed over the off season. Since you're seeing them in game number one and your tape that you do have from last season, well it's probably outdated on those guys because they have had a whole off season to grow and prepare and learn the system and lift weights in condition and just get better at their craft. How do you prepare for guys who probably have their best football still to come and decide what they're best at when you haven't seen that yet on tape. You take

all the tape you can. And for both those guys that you mentioned, you know you got you do Judeans and um van Noord because he's been here. Think about those two I'll take specifically because I had part of my job last year was like a passionate study. So those two guys were never hidden like they might be shown them now. Last year he looks at the tape, they were always there. Now they just more experienced, more confidence.

They're probably showing you everybody else more so, at least from an online coach perspective, because I'm focusing on those guys. Those guys aren't surprising me like last year, like I said, you look at the Rams tape. You know they showed the quickness. You know, they show of the ability to kind of verst the pasture same time showing physics physicality. They're very good up front and they're a good discipline

defensive team. So we know that once again, you know that from the tape and just them, and so we have a lot of respect for him, and that's why

we got to prepare how we repair. And let's go ahead and finish up here on the offensive side with coach Josh Grizzard, Dolphins wide receivers coach I had a chance to ask grizz about the Pats and the difficulty again this type of defense with the rush games up front that pairs with numerous coverage looks and different disguises and the ability to get to all those different looks because of how loaded that secondary is. Let's go ahead

and turn this over to coach Gizard. We tried to um tell them, hey, this is what they've shown, but we know with this group that you can't expect anything. So you got to be able to execute your fundamentals and techniques and lean on the things that you developed all the way through camp, just because you don't necessarily know what you're gonna see once we get into it. You might know in the first quarter and then it

could change. So it's all about leaning on all your preparation through camp and seeing coverage the same way and ultimately seeing it the same way through through each position group to know exactly where we need to be on time and ready to ready to uncover. So there you go the preview from the coach's perspective. I think expect the unexpected was kind of the theme of those interviews and of those conversations. Again, a big thanks to the

Dolphins coaching staff for just talking football with me. I love these assistant coach pressers because it puts you in a position where you can just kind of talk to the guys, and number one, it gives me a chance to get to know the coaches. I mean, me and Coach Campanelli talked about food. I kind of took off at Dean's place in that regard on the beat this year talking to coach about food. I talked to Coach Gazzard a little bit about his hometown or his home

area in the Carolinas. I kind of talked a little bit about my drive this last week and going through the mountains and Tennessee and down through Georgia and just you know, getting to know the guys. It's always I like to know the people that I'm covering, and also you know, kind of pulling four here in the Miami Dolphins and and just all the good guys in this building. It makes it. It makes it more fun and more

enjoyable for me. So a big thanks to the Dolphins coaching staff are really just being receptive to my questions and open and honest about everything there. So let's go ahead and pivot here. Outside of the coach's media availability, you can find all of those up on YouTube on the Miami Dolphins channel right now, as well as Dolphins Today. I'm on Dolphins Today once a week for you guys that we have two episodes a week, but you can find me on the Thursday episodes, so I do not

forget to check those out as well. But let's go ahead and move on now to the Dolphins depth chart which came out with the weekly release. Here offensively to a tongue by lower your first stren quarterback with Jacobe Burtt, the backup Miles Gaskin, Malcolm Brown savan Achmedric running backs at receiver, Parker Waddle Grant listed as the starters, with Williams, Wilson, and Hollins the three behind. Gaski, Shaheen Smythe, Sethan Carter

and Hunter Long makeup your tight end room. Austin Jackson, Solomon Kimley, Michael Dieter, Robert Hunt, and Jesse Davis the top five. On the offensive line. You've got Great Little as your left tackle on the depth chart, and Robert Jones is the backup at both guard spots, with Greg Mans at center and Eikenberg the right tackle position. Emmanuel Ogba, Ray, Juan Davis, and Christian Wilkins make up your three down

on the depth chart up front. Then you have Adam Butler, John Jenkins and Zach Seeler the three behind, with Jerome Baker, a Landon Roberts and Andrew Van Ginckel at linebacker. This is a three by three look on the depth chart, with Duke Riley, Sam eg Von Brandan Scarlett and Jalen

Phillips behind at cornerback. The top three are Xavian Howard, Byron Jones and Justin Coleman with Nick Needham, Noah Eganogeny, uh Elijah Campbell, Jamal Perry on the back end, and then in safety you've got Jason mccordy and Eric Rowe, with Javon Holland, Brandon Jones and Clayton Federlin falling up behind. As far as the return specialist go Jachem Grant, Jalen

Waddle and Noah Iggy. How about the Patriots depth chart, we'll go over the players listen as starters and as well as second team here that could see some considerable playing time, but at the quarterback position, Mac Jones listed no quarterback in behind him on the depth chart. On the offensive line, Isaiah Win, Mike on Wino, David Andrews starting center, Shack Mason, and Shrent Brown at tight end to tight ends listed as starters here, Hunter Henry John

Who Smith no surprises there. Nelson Aglar Jacoby Myers are the starting receivers in this twelve personnel package available here, and also two running backs with Damian Harris and James White with j J. Taylor in there behind, as well as Jack Jacob Johnson at fullback, Kendrick Borne and gunner Olshefsky of the third and fourth receivers listed here on

this list. On defense, Dietrich Wise, Lawrence Guy, and Devon Gtscha, with Henry Anderson across the defensive line, Chase Winovich, Kristin Barrowmore, Carl Davis and Chase Winovitch. The three are the four rather behind those guys. At linebacker, Matt Judeon with rookie Ronnie Perkins behind him, Donte high Tower the middle linebacker with Jawan Bentley behind him, and then Kyle van Noy and Josh you j the linebacker behind him. At cornerback, we know know Stefon Gilmour on pup, so it's j C.

Jackson with Jalen Mills the opposite cornerback. Aside Jackson, Jonathan Jones likely managed the slot, or that they could put j. C. Jackson inside with Jones outside when they go Nichols, so Jackson plays outside and two or two cornerback packages maybe kicks inside against or when they go three quarnerback and that Nickel, Adrian Phillips and Devin mccartery or two safeties. But Kyle Dugger the third safety on here, He's gonna play a lot he's a heck of a football player.

So those are Patriots depth chart, and you know we're gonna have the three keys on tomorrow's podcast, but I want to go ahead and tease that real quick. To me, the key is heating up mac Jones and to speed up that clock for the rookie quarterback. And we'll talk about that again in all the parts and matchups that

can accelerate that point tomorrow. But today I want to talk about a deep dive on a player who is a part of heating up that quarterback in the rush package plan and doing a good job of creating chances for other guys. In our deep dive here on this Wednesday podcast, a guy who has quietly had a huge hand in the plan for getting pressure, getting turnovers a play who I think is criminally undervalued in Christian Wilkins.

We're gonna go ahead and look at him and the forties sacks last year and twenty nine takeaways and what his role was on those plays. And number one takeaway here is that he did it from multiple positions three tech to tech, one tech where you're shading the outside of the center, five tech off the outside, and four tech up over the tackle, the four eye. He plays so many spots. I had so many examples here I wrote these all down, Like, for instance, the first one

he's involved in, he's a three technique. Emmanuel Ogba gets a one on one chance right next to Christian Wilkins. Wilkins takes up a double team and occupies both blockers. So not only on this play does he help create a one on one chance for one of your better pass rushers, he pushes that double team back into the quarterback and around the outside of the tackle position, so the Ogball can redirect, comeback inside and scrape for that sack. And there was strong coverage on the play to allow

all that to happen. But it's plays like this where Wilkins is not gonna get any stats on the stat sheet. And Brian Flores talked about this last year. A player can have a great game with no tackles, no sacks, no tipped passes, whatever it might be. You can have a great game if you do your job every single play. And it's hard to imagine a player that does more to create chances for his teammates and help the defense excel overall without the individual statistics go along with it

like a Christian Wilkins. So, for instance, you come back later on the Jets game, the second Jets game, I should say, uh, Christian Wilkins is the nose tackle Brandon Jones. The safety is stacked behind him and Wilkins wins across the face of the center, which forces him to get back and get vertical to match the speed of that get off, and it opens up a lane for Brandon

Jones to come clean on his first career sack. I have another example here of him eating up a double team with a guard slides over a gap and create space for a linebacker rushing on the inside. More examples of the center trying to deal with that get off he has in the explosion we saw at Clemson, where he could one gap, penetrate and shoot into the backfield and take advantage of lesser talents as far as guys

that cannot match his quickness and get off. But the thing I noticed the most was how much urgency he creates on the interior of opposing offensive lines to get into position to just block him and get him. Because the number one responsibility for pass protection take care of the most immediate danger, and that's for running backs usually like which guy do you go pick up the inside rusher that has the most immediate danger to your quarterback?

And with Christian he accelerates that thought. Whether it's the center, whether it's a guard, whether it is the running back stepping up out of the position to help protect the edge and come in there and chip on big number. And that creates so many opportunities for linebackers to fly in the a gaps, for edge rushers to win outside without the worry of a chip from that pesky little running back. He just does so much to impact the game as a pass rusher. And again I wrote down

all I see there's thirty seven of these. I believe because he thirty eight of them because he was the Dolphins had two sacks in the games he didn't play last year as part of the COVID nineteen reserve list, but he had He had his hand in on thirteen of the forty sacks the Miami Dolphins had, plus the one and a half he did so fifteen total plays there. But he misses the Chargers and Broncos games, and in

those games, Dolphins had two sacks and three takeaways. In the fourteen games with Christian, Well, you had thirty eight sacks, so that is one sack per game compared to better than two sacks per game with Christian Wilkins in the lineup. And then, of course, twenty six takeaways is not quite as good as the three takeaways in two games. That's a little bit more of a skewed sample size, but

you get the point. With Christian Wilkins in the game, the defense is much better because he helped guys out so much. And the case was the same with the takeaways too. I mean instances where he eats up blocks and pushes the pocket. I've got three examples here of him getting directly into the quarterback's face with pressure on balls that were picked off. Seven plays where I thought he directly impacted the play as far as making the quarterback leave the spot or throwing the football before he

wants to. Plus he had an I N T N fumble recovery of his own. So nine total plays call it nine turnover plays where number ninety four is directly involved, and fift team plays with sacks. That's twenty nine takeaways and forty six That's a significant chunk of both of those numbers. He played six hundred and thirty seven snaps last year, and we're obviously not counting you know, his tackles, his run stops. That number clearly goes up significantly because

it's one of his best traits. He was the number six player last year and ESPNS run stop win rate

among interior defensive linemen on ESPN. But twenty four out of six hundred and thirty seven plays, and those twenty four plays have massive e p A swings right Expected points added swings turnovers are among the biggest in terms of that number we see in the NFL, and e p A is a great number to go off of, But twenty four of his six hundred thirty seven plays had massive e p A swings attached to it, almost

four percent of his snaps. So if you play fifty snaps in a game, which Christians certainly capable of doing, that's two plays a game at one play a half. That you take that all day long. So we'll be doing these on Wednesday, and I have my list here.

I'm not gonna go through the whole thing because it might be kind of dry and boring, but the overall takeaways is to get into this deep dive to uncover the true value of a player and chart these things to give you, guys, more context as far as how the player performs relative to what you might have as your expectation based upon just the box score, which can be what a lot of you know, if you don't have time to go over all. This stuff is what you kind of rely on. So hopefully this podcast creates

more context for those plays. And we'll do this on Wednesdays again to take a deep dive on certain players, whether it's from the game we just watched, or a possible comprehensive look at a player from the whole season or a stretch of games, whatever it might be. We remain flexible. But a little project here that takes, you know, a few hours to put together for a nice little ten or five minutes segment on the podcast. That's what

you can expect going forward. I hope you enjoyed this one ahead of our Week one game, So let's pivot again and move on to something else. What have we got here? Last week? Daniel Jeremiah of NFL Media Moved the Sticks podcast does a little bit of everything. Fantastic broadcaster and communicator and podcaster and live draft analysizer. That's not a word, but we're gonna go with it. But at the time of roster cut down last week, he sent a tweet out and he's one of my favorite

Twitter follows as well. At Move the Sticks, he put out his checklist for building a championship team. And what else do we do here besides bring it back to the Miami Dolphins. So Jeremiah's list for a championship contender checklist is your quarterback. I think that's pretty clearly obvious. Two pass rushers, three offensive playmakers, three defensive playmakers, and

three good offensive linemen. I want to go ahead and reiter rate here that even though DJ has forgotten way more football than you or I will ever know, I'm not so sure I agree with him in this and that it's short changes the work of the entire fifty three man roster, the coach staff, the entire organization, because we know it's never just one guy or even in

this case, eleven guys. It's everybody. So with that disclaimer out of the way, I think you've just about got that checklist down and then some because I'm looking at

two a tongue of by low. You guys know, I believe in the Dolphins quarterback of the future there Emmanuel Ogbat number three on PFF and edge rusher pressures last season, and then Jalen Phillips goes in the list too, because of course he's a rookie, but projecting from college projection, his ability to recognize what an offensive lineman does to him and his past rush plan and to adapt and apply those adjustments in game in college has me so

excited for his profile. You add to that his physical makeup and the Pro day and the metrics and the get off and the speed, the strength, all that stuff to me, I mean the first past which we're taking in this year's draft, to me projects high upside. So

Agba Phillips there for me. Offensive playmakers again, going back to the rookie well, Jalen Waddle highest college yards per game last year, highest yards after catch average, the best deep threat in terms of GPS metrics and speed, elusiveness, separation, creating scoring from deep, catching twenty one of twenty six deep balls, throwing twenty plush yards in his college career. He's been number one guy on there with Will Fuller, who had nearly nine hundred yards and eight touchdowns and

eleven games last year. Mike get sicky, you know, the top of the tight end leaderboard each of the last two seasons in the major statistical categories among tight ends, plus the highlight players we've seen, the one handed catches, the touchdowns, the posterizations. He gets open, as to us said in his postgame press conference after the first preseason game. And then you've got the guys like Miles Gascon, Devanta

Parker and Jachem Grant. You know, an all t all pro specialist and Miles Gascon at three down back in Devonte Parker twelve hud yards season just two years ago. Defensive playmakers Exaviing Howard led the league in picks last year. Jerome Baker had the second most sax among off ball linebackers. Last year. Javon Holland had tied for the fourth most interceptions over his two years at Oregon between eighteen and twenty nineteen. The offensive line is essentially all projections, and

not for the lack of ability. It's just at the jury is out on pretty much any player in the National Football League and year one year too, even some in year three, which is essentially what the Dolphins offensive line is now Michael Dieters in year three, but he hardly played last year and year two. But I'll put down here Robert hunt, Leam Eikenberg, and Austin Jackson, and again that could be any of the five guys, depends We'll find out who emerges this year up front for

this Dolphins team. But then, you know, as far as this topic to put a bow on it, that I think about, like where do I slide in Eric row and Byron Jones and Andrew Van Ginkl and Zach Seiler and Ray Kuan Davis and Christian Wilkins and Adam Butler, and even then we're still short changing. But this goes back to yesterday's podcast and we don't need to rehash that. Just listen to it again. The depth on the show.

You gotta love it. Continuing on for another blurb, I want to run here from my content that I absorbed myself as a fan as a you know, broadcaster myself, and one of my favorite shows is The Ringer NFL Show. What a terrific podcast, and the addition of Ben's Soulock really got me into it. But they add not just been Solac but also Stephen Ruiz and I just can't get enough of that because it's very in depth football knowledge that those guys provide, along with what Kevin Clark

and Nora oh Man. I'm gonna butcher her last name, Pete uh. Let's we'll go. I'll come back to it. But they both presented a fantastic podcast and it got even better for my money. So I truly really became intrigued when Ben and Stephen agreed on their big preseason takeaway from a podcast about a few weeks ago was that too has shown the signs this August that he looks the part of the prospect that most folks loved

coming out of Alabama. And we talked about that on the podcast a whole hell of a lot, don't we. So I wanted to play this sound clip from Ben on his season preview podcast that dropped on Monday on The Ringer NFL Show as he went division by division and Ben projected Miami as a wild card team that competes with Buffalo in the a f C East. Let's go to Ben, I think they're building a really good offense under two. I love what I've seen in terms

of what they're doing schematically in the preseason. I do like their collaborative approach. It's a little bit unorthodox, but they seem to be building out a really nice offense

for to a skill set. Obviously, Kevin, when you, me and Steven had the pot and we all were just like, hey, that to a preseason game, like that's what it's supposed to look like, Like Like it is noticeable what they're doing throwing the fact that I just think that defense is a threshing machine, and I think the Patriots defense can be and should be as well. But the Dolphins showed us it last year and then mostly retainous talent, added a couple of spots as well. Rookie Jalen Phillips comes

along on the edge. To me, they're they're deep in their study at all three levels, and so I have the Dolphins as a double digit win team. They were very close to the wild card last year. They just need a couple more wins early in the season to get there, and I think they do again. That's The Ringer NFL Show with Kevin Clark and Nora prince Ciati. I hope I got that right as the host and Ben soul Like as the guest here, and they also

have against Stephen Rees. He does the podcast a lot to highly highly recommend Apple, Spotify, wherever you get your podcast from. That's the NFL Ringer Show again, wherever your podcasts are available. And then also this blurb from ESPN s Power Rankings. The Dolphins come in at number a ELEVN on the ESPN Power Rankings. And I had a chance to meet today new ESPN Dolphins reporter Marcel Louis Jacquez, and he was a fun guy to meet and talk to you for the first time today. But he wrote

this blurb. The Dolphins defense features in the elite secondary that could make life tough for opposing quarterbacks, and that combined with two a tongue of by lower leading an upstar offense, helps Miami break their playoff streak. In one man, just seeing all this content, it has me filling a live football is here. It's right around the corner and it's coming your way this Sunday. Let's go ahead and

finish up here with some bulletin board for this Sunday. First, I want to start here with this segment on the Tuesday no the Monday Calling Cowherd Show. Let's go ahead and play this audio for you major skepticism regarding two um in Miami their quarterback. Only eleven executives in the NFL put Miami eleven in the a f C, said one executive with TWA all believe. But when I see it now, you know I've been skeptical of this because I don't see the special. I don't see it in

the arm I don't see it in the athleticism. I don't see it in in the size um. And it should be noted this team went out all right, that's about enough of that. If you don't see the special, I do not know what to tell you. How about this blurb from five thirty eight, which does playoff odds. The Dolphins have a coin flips chance at the playoffs on the strength of their defense number eight in e p A last year and it improved arsenal weapons for two A toggle boy load of target and his second

NFL season. Now that's the part that really gets me. It's this parenthetical to end the blurb, assuming to remains the starter bolton board material. Let's keep it coming. How about Peter King, one of my favorite all time writers, literally my idol as far as football riding goes. At a young age. Him and dr Z were like the two goats in my opinion, but everything is fair game. In the Bolton Board segment, Peter King wrote this on

his recent Monday Morning Quarterback. I didn't pick the Dolphins to make the playoffs simply because I don't have enough evidence to trust to a tongue by loa not saying he won't be good. I just haven't seen it and the blurb and just so you know, the Patriots are his number five seed with a rookie quarterback all right on Tuesday player Day off. I saw this last year, talked about it a lot. Saw Miles Gas can run some routes out there today getting some extra work in.

That's what he does. The guy never stops working. I also saw ray Kwon Davis getting some extra laps and conditioning, and so good to see that stuff here at Baptist Health Training Complex. Coming your way this week Thursday, the preview show, we're gonna take down, or breakdown rather every element of that Dolphins and Patriots matchup in week number one. On Friday, we're gonna come back and pick the games the week this week in the NFL, as well as

some college picks. Talk about some prospects and fun stuff like that, and also gets your questions on the Twitter mailbag. Plenty to come this week, Plenty to come this season. The season is now right around the corner, and in the meantime that it's gonna be my time, Caroline, Daddy is coming home. You all, please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcast. Leave us a rating, leave us a review. You You can follow me on Twitter at Wingfield NFL. Follow the team at Miami Dolphins.

Check out the fish Tank Podcast with Seth and o J. Latest episode, Westwelker available now wherever to your podcast from, and of course Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time finds up