Dolphins Packers Week 16 Preview

covering your team, your Miami Dolphins. How's it going? Everybody? I am your host, Travis Winfield. And on today's show, it is a game preview edition of the d T Pod. Back to our regularly scheduled podcast here on Thursday, we'll a deep dive into the tape, into the numbers and the matchups as we go position by position to get you ready for Christmas Day and the only game at one o'clock on the NFL Sunday schedule, Dolphins and Packers, plus What's at stake and the Three Keys to Victory

from the Baptist Health Studios. Inside the Baptist Health training complex. This is the podcast. Always enjoy the intro to our pods here with a little walk down recent memory lane of the incoming opponents, specifically against the NFC team since we only see them once every presidential presidential election. The Packers have been the model of stability for a long time. They've had two quarterbacks since with the occasional spot starter in a few games missed by Rogers here and there.

Their head coach arrived in nineteen and won thirteen games all three years ahead of this six and eight campaign. Currently, a loss on Sunday removes them from the playoff equation, and with the Vikings clinching last week, it's the first year under Matt Lafleur that they won't win the NFC North And Brian Gouda Kuntz was there a year earlier in eighteen, and that was one of those rare retool

type of eras for a successful organization. We saw Baltimore do it between Flacco and Jackson, but the Packers didn't change quarterbacks. Now, Rogers did have some injuries in twice seventeen and eighteen that forced him to miss nine games in seventeen and the oneeen didn't make him miss any games, but he just wasn't the same and the Packers went six nine and one that year, and then they came right back and got back to being you know, Aaron

Rodgers of old. That's what's when the drafted Jordan Love right the next year after that. So it's been it's been a lot of good years for the Packers, and especially when Matt Lafleur got there, who won thirty nine games over three season, one championship game appearance, two trips to the divisional round. I mean, we haven't done that

since two thousand one. Now. I would take three straight thirteen win seasons any day of the week, but to go two and three in the playoffs in those years with the winds being over a Seahawks team who limped in twenty nineteen and a Rams team was yeah, I think it was who had a hobble Jared Goff that backed into the postseason that year, and ultimately that kind of end of the year led to his departure with

the Rams. And then last year's one and done against the forty Niners and two of those losses came against two Yeah, that same team, the forty. There's a lot of intrigue there see if McDaniel can kind of continue what's been a personal hell for the Packers and Matt Lafleur going up against a Shanahan or in this case, a Mike McDaniel team. And of course, this is a team that has long been known for building through the draft,

up and down the offensive roster. Aaron Rodgers, Aaron Jones, A J Dillon, Christian Watson, Romeo Dobbs, Alan Lazard, even Randall Cobb after leaving and coming back, all drafted by the Packers. Same up front with bak tr Elton Jenkins, Josh Myers. This defense is a little different because they nabbed with Seuel Douglas after he was cut from the Eagles last year and he has a monster, like one year out of nowhere type of season and gets the big extension and it's been a tough road for him.

This year. Devandre Campbell signed, you know, basically like a come to camp and see what happens type of one year deal back in one and he part laid that into an all pro year and a massive contract extension with the Green Bay Packers. They had imported a pair of dominant edge rushers and free agency a couple of years ago with Preston Smith and a Darius Smith, and that was kind of the to me, the lynchpin of this defense becoming almost the strength of the football team

in some ways. During those thirteen win seasons. They also signed Geron Read to the defensive line, Adrian am Wilson the defensive backfield, and that free agent capital was used to supplement some more good drafting, you know, brought in some dominant figures in Kenny Clark and JayR Alexander and a handful of several more really good players like Darniell

Savage and Quay Walker and Devonte way It. I want to go ahead and talk about that game up coming up here, but first a six and eight teen that I don't think has played really good football this year. It's a defense that doesn't really rotate, you know, at the to disguise their zone coverages all that often. They don't always carry and pass off. There's lots of bust and coverage you see on tape, and they're often scrambling to make up for blitz is that just don't get home.

And offensively, the line has been up and down all year. They're very young a wide receiver, and Rogers just hasn't clicked with those young targets as separation downfield has been a big issue. Their wins Bears, and they beat the Bucks by two points back in September. They beat Bailey

Zappy and the Patriots and overtime. In October, they scored an impressive win against the Cowboys after a five game losing streak, and then they beat the Bears and the Rams, who both have really kind of punted on the season. Uh So, we'll see what happens on Sunday. Let's go ahead and talk about the matchups Dolphins offense versus Packers defense, and the quarterback and offense from Miami versus the safety

and the defense of the Green Bay Packers. Now, we saw to enjoy a really nice bounce back game on Saturday night, and I thought was one of his best tapes against the Buffalo Bills. Thought he made great decisions. I thought he identified what the Bills were doing and often had the right spot in mind and led an offense that piled up over four hundred yards in a

cold weather game. It's a great morale boost type of performance, even if it didn't result and wind up where we wanted it to on the scoreboard, and we might need that cold weather operation again this week because there was a cold front coming in. And these South Florida cold fronts are crazy to me. Like last year at Whiffle Blast, the Jason Taylor Foundation Whiffleball Tournament, which was won by the O. G. McDuffie team and myself on that club.

By the way, it was in the low forties and windy and just downright not fun except for the fact that we won and heated up as the day went along and got that trophy and route and undefeated day. But man, these things show up like an unwanted knock at the door, the drop in guests, your in law coming over that you didn't ask to come over. Friday has a temperature range of sixty to eighty one degrees,

which is pretty typical. And I was just out by the practice field earlier uh this week, and at practice time it was a cool seventy two degrees. Man, then you wake up on Saturday and it goes to fifty to sixty three degrees. And this last part has been shifting all week, but at the time that I'm writing this, the Sunday weather calls for a se chance of rain with thunderstorms and a range of forty seven to fifty

six degrees. That is cold for down here, man, and man, you look at Wisconsin this week is in the single digits. Would have been nice to have them go from like nine degrees to mid seventies. But I digress. So the Packers defense is defined by two things from my tape watch, and those are they blitz a lot, the second highest rate in football, and they play primarily zone coverage, usually Cover three. It's actually the fourth most in the National

Football League using Cover three. Let's go ahead and roll out the tell the tape here and the three four defense is of the time and a four three defense six percent of the time, so a decent number of hybrid reps there. And the big takeaway for me is that are in base you know, of the time, they are in nickel six percent of the time, which is it's pretty pretty much on par with eleven personnel for opposing offenses. And they also roll out their dime defense

on three percent of their defensive calls. Number of high safeties pre snap very even here forty nine plays and cover zero otherwise it's too high and one high, but they don't really rotate. It's like almost the same thing every time. We'll talk about that here in just a second, I mentioned the thirty five point eight percent blitz rate is the second highest there, twenty three point six percent pressure rate is ninth in the NFL. And those numbers

really flipped in that Rams game. They blitzed may feel just four times and produced third team pressures. And you know, granted, the Rams offensive line has been probably one of the worst units in the National Football League this year as they have gone through attrition like nobody's business on that

offensive line, and it's basically derail their season. So the Packers found a way to to capitalize on that and get a w in a game that was really tilted in their favor in primetime in a cold weather, you know spot against a team from Los Angeles. It's awfully banged up and on a quarterback who's still just got

there two weeks ago. But before that game, they had a thirty eight percent blitz rate, so that dropped like by two percent, which is a lot this late in the season, and pressure rate which increased by almost two percent, which is also a lot this time of year. So improvement in that pressure rate without sending the extra rusher. It's a big deal. And Matt Lafleur s had in a press conference earlier this week that they have to find a way to get pressure on two a tungle

by Low And now does that mean blitz him? Does that mean hope to win with three and four rushers? Well, he's not going to tell us that obviously, But I think it's very interesting to see how they attack this.

I don't know. Primarily it's a Cover three defense, and man, there are soft spots all over the zone on tape they play and Cover three, which again is the fourth most in all of football, and it's just like when you watch the games on tape, there's like this delayed action which against this Dolphins offense, like it's not gonna bode well if if it keeps up in this game. That three deep shell typically consisted of Eric Stokes, but he's out, so it's been Keyshawn Nixon filling in for

him and then Darnell Savage and JayR. Alexander as the deep thirds coverage and the two perimeter corners are are Nixon and Alexander, with the free safety being Savage. Their strong safety is Adrian Amos, who will start in that too high look and most often rotate down. Often the conflict defender, kind of that guy that buzzes. You know, that that whip route by Jylan Waddle that led to a sack. We didn't throw those quick crossers, those nows,

those slants, those types of things. He wants to be involved in that fashion, and he's been slower both in the I think the processing but also on the step, the physical step aspect of it this year, turning age thirty this season. But he's often the conflict defender in addition to the linebackers, and this coverage scheme with those three deep shells like keep the roof on the house run back, it puts a lot of conflict on Amos and those linebackers in that middle portion of the field.

We'll get to their coverage numbers in the running back in linebacker section. They played Cover two on just thirty total snaps out of more than eight hundreds, So you know that too high will typically change after the snap, but like it does rotate, but you you kind of know what it's gonna do. And that's another reason why I think to a dice is in this game, not a lot of disguise, and man, when he knows what he's got and he has a good pocket, I'm literally

taking him over. Every quarterback in the NFL under those circumstances, and you might get those circumstances in this game on Sunday. When both safety stay high, it's usually quarters or cover six, which we can run by. We've proven that like a zero or I should say like a zero blitz, all four guys just kind of back off and we throw tyreek deep past them or that cover six. You have some options in the in the deep I should say, the intermediate portion of the field, those over routes to

Wattle that we've seen all your have success. I think we'll see a lot of man coverage in this game, though, because that's where they've excelled at times and that's the only really potential blueprint for slowing Miami. But I don't know. I think they'll play man and blitz and hope to get home with that extra rusher and disrupt timing underneath them in the meantime, which is why I think fans are going to be in for an aerial show on Sunday.

Either way, Really, I think Miami is gonna have its biggest passing day of the season in this one, including some long place. That's my take this week. That would be a departure from their norm to play that much man coverage because again typically Cover three when blitzing, and that means too it has to find those hots, those hitches,

those glances, those now routes to the perimeter. You look at the Packers passing bins on defense, teams are completing of their passes outside the numbers and inside ten yards. That's Cover three textbook right, Like, that's where the vulnerability is in a Cover three defense. Short outside. They're also completing better than fifty five and the ten to nineteen

yard range outside the numbers. That's like a twelve percent jump over league average because a tough spot to throw the football too, and against US Cover three, you can push them back and then when those comeback routes and if two can see and anticipate it, you can get some nice complete aation just based upon the scheme. This is why I love doing this each week, because you have your expectation or what makes sense to you or whatever. But football coaches are smart man like. They adapt and

teams can show their flexibility in any given week. The Packers literally did it three days ago against the Rams. So we mentioned that the safeties don't do a ton of you know, interchanging of the responsibility. So for Tua to get the pre snap check and make his post snap decisions from what he has there has been a pretty solid approach this season. I was watching the Buffalo game when someone on Twitter told me that he missed a wide open Tyreek Hill on that opening the first

field goal driver of the game. It was drive number two, the sack on third and one down by the red zone. I'm like, that's not what happened on that play. Uh. What what it was was the middle of the field was closed by a safety who planted right in the middle of the field, and Tyreek runs a post at the safety. That's an indicator right away pre snap that you're not throwing. You don't throw slants or posts to the middle of the field closed, you just don't do it.

And the pre snap motion showed man covers to the boundary, which is why a waddle ran that whip route. And so to a pre snap syst I'm not going to slant. I know I have the man coverage and he was gonna throw it there, but to Ron Johnson, who's a great player, buzzes that route and takes it away and then the rush got home. So maintain that type of processing on a snap by snap basis and you'll eventually

get yours. That was a good call and a good play by the Bills, But the point is to a To me, it's right back to where he was before that slump, seeing the field very well. And as it pertains to the safety's pre snap alignments and their numbers, Adrian almost in the post in the box. For all their blitzing, they don't do a lot of it with the safeties. He's got nine pass rush reps, but five

pressures on those nine. He's also got nineteen run stops and teams are twenty seven for thirty five for a buck eighty eight and six touchdowns with no picks targeting him. That's kind of some of the zone getting lost in coverage back there, particularly in the red zone. You'll see this trend. A lot of really good players are having kind of career worst years in this system. And it's year two of Joe Barry's defense. I don't know why that's the case, but it's what's what you see on tape.

And then Darniell Savage in the post in the box, but the run stop number indicated who winds up where more frequently just two on the year. For Savage, he plays away from the football, mostly because that's just what he's best at. He has ten pass rush reps this year and no pressures. Teams are seventeen six with two seventy one, two touchdowns and no picks this season on him and then Rudy Ford's played a lot of football at the third safety spot forty three snaps. That's a

little less than half of their snaps. He's the big nickel dimes safety type nine for fifteen in coverage for seventy five yards a touchdown in two picks. He's got more picks than the other two. Guys can bind receivers and tight ends versus corners. Here arguably their best player resides in this group, which makes a fun matchup given our Dolphins wide receivers and what Hill and Wattle have done this year. And you pair Alexander's ability with his

confidence in bravado and trash talk. That makes me pretty excited to see what happens on Sunday. I know Jaiyar and Tiger will probably have a good time on Sunday. With that, he is back to himself after a year of injuries for him last season, just a sixty six point seven passer rating against fifty five percent completion and that's on sixty one targets. Now. The one number that isn't like the others is the yards per catch. He's letting up fifteen yards per catch this year and a

buck sixty four after the catch. So there have been some big plays on him. Five hundred and six yards in total allowed, and that's part of the deal with a player of his caliber. He plays so aggressively that you might have an opportunity here there, but you better hit them because he'll get you on the chances that he does take and make his own plays. Four picks this year, seven pass breakups. He's got eleven picks and forty two pass breakups in his fifth year here. He's

an elite ball hawk, a man coverage savant. He's been asked to play more zone the last couple of years. They haven't been on travel defense. He primarily plays on the left side. Nixon plays on the right side and for Stokes and then Douglas plays in the slot, so we'll see. I don't he might be a guy that I kind of neglect because you look at the rest of the crew here, h Douglas thirty eight for fifty two, four four touchdowns and three picks, and that's that's one thing.

But four six forty with explosive metrics, you know, shuttle, three cone, change of direction, broad vert all measure under forty two percent tile among cornerbacks. He's a stiff player. Keyshawn Nixon twenty two, fourteen yards, no touchdowns in a pick good forty time, but fourteen percentile and three cone, six percent tile and short shuttle and twenty second percentile

in the vert. You get the idea here, right, If it's man coverage, I like our matchups against the stiffer players, Douglas and Nixon, and I just think you look at this and you don't want to shy away from players. But if you start by going after vulnerabilities in an offense, anybody not named Alexander has been that this year for the Packers, structurally speaking, again primarily off coverage. As we mentioned in the open, as it operates. That's Cover three defense.

In general, they play off percent compared to nineteen percent press, and it's a sixty nine nice to thirty one percent zone to man different chill Again, I'm just really curious to see what they do because what they've largely done, or you know, if they altered it all, is play that zone coverage. But teams eventually get to both man and zone decent number of times. But the reason I have so much indecision here with these is how it looks, and how it looks, I should say, is because I

really don't know the right way to defend this. Dolphins receiving corps winning quickly I think will be a key because of their blitzing and hitting those big plays. Teams have gotten deep on the Packers this year. For a couple of big strikes as we've seen from Tyreek and Waddle the last few weeks, could tilt this game and help the defense play from a lead on the other side of the football. Let's go ahead and take our first break and come back and finish up Dolphins offense

first Packers defense. Then I'll go ahead and change over the other side. We'll do special teams. What's at stake three keys planning to come your way. Here on the Thursday edition of the Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation, we pick it back up here with it was always a key in any football game, Dolphins offensive line versus the Packers defensive line.

Previewing Christmas Day, the six and eight Green Bay Packers are in town to face the eight and six Miami Dolphins, who desperately need a victory to get back in the winning ways. We talked a lot about the Miami offensive line on the podcast yesterday and if it's a sign of things to come heading forward, gosh, you gotta be encouraged about the rest of this campaign. Hopefully they can

build on that. I keep thinking back to what Tohron said about this being a new system, a lot of young players in a new system and how you kind of have to see things first before you can really apply lessons and teaching moments and take the coaching to really drill it down to be second nature. And now fourteen games into it, maybe we see that tangible progress as we go forward. They typically say year two is

when a system starts to become more second nature. And I'll never forget Peyton Manning on on Peyton Eli last year talking about how it was year three for him when he personally began to feel like the offense was second nature. But if they keep progressing and getting better week by a week from here, what a boon that would be. Now. The Packers front, they do a good job of tendency breaking and confusing quarterbacks at times. The Jets tape from October was a good example of that.

The Rams tape on Monday was to let's go ahead and look at the numbers here from a pressures and run stops perspective. On the inside, the d tackles Kenny Clark thirty seven and sixteen, Giron Reid twenty five and twenty three and Dean Lowry's sixteen and eighteen off the edge, Preston Smith thirty seven and twenty six, Kingsley and I Bury the rookie nineteen sixteen, Quay Walker eleven and thirty six.

He's more of an off ball linebacker, but he has snucked down onto the line for a handful of snaps, especially since the Rashaan Gary injury. And speaking of Rashaan Gary, they they haven't been will replaced him he's a great player. He was lost for the year after Game nine, and he still leads the team and pressures with thirty eight.

Huge loss for them as a rusher, but also against the run, a defense that has allowed eleven of fourteen teams to run for a hundred yards on them and allowed five yards per carry, the third most in the National Football League this year. But more specifically, the average rushing numbers off of either edge off tackle against the Green Bay Packers and the five games since Gary went down per Pro Football Focus, looks like this. Fifty nine rush attempts for three oh seven. That's five point to

per carrying four touchdowns on those particular runs. So Smith and the rookie uh and I can't say it and Agberry are almost identical body types. At six six it's to fifty eight for the rookie length and burst our hallmark trades for both and Gary. Gary certainly fit that mold as well. And then Quay Walker is as strong as it gets, one of the best at playing through contact and off blocks of anybody I scouted all last cycle.

On the inside, Kenny Clark's first steps sets up so much of what they can do, kind of like Adam Butler did for the Patriots and Dolphins for a year here in terms of how his quickness displaces a gap and that creates chances for the second level defenders to come down and fill and blitz as the Packers love

to do, and Jeron Reid plays similarly football. Our guys have their hands full this week and it's a good matchup of good on good because we talked all year about Brandon Shell's brute strength off the edge that matches the Packers play style, and then that quickness inside matches we have with Big Rob and Connor and Rob Jones and you know, to Ron and Rob Jones a little bit of both of those things. But they all kind of match up in a good way or a fun way.

I should say. It's a great test to see if this group can build upon a great showing last week. It's cliche to say this, but if Miami can win in the trenches in this game, it should be a lot of fun for the offense. Comes Sunday, running backs versus linebackers, where he most are coming off his best game as a Miami Dolphin. That juice was awesome to see.

I thought he looked fast, strong, decisive part of that thing we discussed earlier, getting more and more comfortable not just in the particular system, but further developing relationships with the guys in front of you. The Packers primary backer that remps has been Quay Walker, the rookie who we talked about earlier, seven hundred eleven snaps, a ton of run stops, and the primary rusher from that position with fifty six pass rush snaps compared to just eighteen for

Devondre Campbell. Really the blitz numbers they come from that kind of five to look with edges coming off the off either edge, and that's how they did it with President za Darius Smith in years past, and what they're doing now with Gary and his breakout campaign before he got hurt. Now, Packers have the eight most miss tackles hundred nine per Pro Football Focus, and Whehee made a lot of tacklers missed last week. So does Savon Ahmed.

And if we get Jeff Wilson back, that's kind of his game too, right, So yards after initial contact could help Miami stay ahead of the chains and or hit explosive runs as a result. Earlier we mentioned the Packers backers and how their plates are full and coverage. Here are the numbers. Walker twenty five for thirty eight yards and a touchdown and then Campbell thirty eight forty seven

for three oh five a touchdown in a pick. Let's go ahead and move on to the Miami defense versus the Green Bay offense who the defense has the second fewous points allowed at home this season, and it is home, sweet home back at hard Rock Stadium. Now quarterback Aaron Rodgers Packers offense versus the Dolphins safety's and the defense. And as we know, it's an offense that doesn't fall

very far from our own tree. Lots of zone running, lots of ball out quick, lots of pre snap motions and shifts, and another coach who our coach has worked with, in Matt Lafleur. Still amazing to me how many brilliant minds they had under one roof back in those days in d C. And this is one of the more fun offenses to watch on tape. As far as our opponents go this season, I'm sure that's the combination of a brilliant offensive mind in la Fleur and a quarterback

who has seen everything. They ran this really cool flood concept against the Rams on Monday Night, where they had the layers to displace various portions of that RAMS defense at the short, intermediate and deep level the middle of the field. Then they hit the backside dig to the X taking advantage of that space. They scheme up throws, They give you easy answers, easy solutions, and first downs.

So you kind of have to just accept that because high functioning offenses like that with good coaches and good quarterbacks are going to get that. You have to rally and find ways to make place when they don't have that right As far as how they align again, similarities man eleven personnels fifty eight percent, wealth personnel is thirty or twenty nine percent, and twenty one personnel is ten percent. What's interesting about that ten percent two back one tight

end package. They don't have a fullback on the roster. They do have some tight ends and can give you that quasi fullback roll, but that wouldn't go in twenty one personnel. Uh. They like to get Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon on the field together. Dylan is a big guy, as big as a fullback. They run a lot of that inside zone play from the toss that we saw get popularized in San Francisco and not ran as much

here as I thought it would be. As far as Aaron Rodgers and numbers this year against the blizz he's sixty six percent completion with seven point six yards per pass, seven touchdowns and two picks when not blitzed, same completion rate, but a full yard per attempt lower at six point six and then sixteen touchdowns to eight picks. All the

best long time quarterbacks. You don't want to blitz him when he's pressured forty six percent, five point seven yards per past, four touchdowns and two picks on deep passing. Fifteen percent of their throws go twenty plus yards down the field. They complete thirty five percent for just ten point two yards per attempt. We talked about that with the Chargers and Niners offense previously. That's about where they were, and then the Bills had a much deeper y p

a on the deep passes. The Packers have had issues getting the ball vertically down the field this year. Ten touchdowns and four picks on those deep shots and then five point six percent sack right is eleventh fewist in the National Football League, and just in general talking about the deep shots, and the timing him and his receivers

just haven't really got on the exact same page. It's a kind of like the Patriots used to be for a long time with Brady, Like you draft these young guys and it's hard to get them brought to speed quickly because it's so complex and there's so many side adjustments and things that if you're not on Brady's level, it's tough to execute the same level as him. And there was that story about the hand signals that he poop pooed on the Pat McAfee show. They just don't

separate all that well. And hopefully it's a chance for us to get some confidence going forward and not a game where we all say afterwards, well that was Aaron Rodgers and vintage Rogers, right, we've been saying a lot this year. Hopefully not the case here. Frankly, aside from the running game, the best thing about the Packers offense to me is Roger's ability to play make you know he's the original off platform throw guy. Even at age thirty eight, he's still got some of that in his game.

His time to throw on plays where he's pressured it's just under four seconds, which tells you he's plenty capable of getting out on the edge and winning from there. Now, it's not like Josh Allen where he's liable to put a forty five yard run with his legs, where he runs over tacklers and goes helicopter John Elway mode. But he wants to attack the line of scrimmage to throw

the football. So in that sense, it's not like you need to pull Javon Holland down into the spy roll like we saw last week when he bluffed what looked like Robert coverage and then just kind of kept closing ground on Alan And what a play that was to get him to the ground on third and long, And what a game in general it was from the Snowman. And you saw the blitz numbers. It's tough to confuse Rogers.

It might be as simple as the best way to beat this guy, this offense, this team is to try to win one on ones with your front play coverage and force him to hitch up, heitge up, hitch up, and hopefully your home. By that point, I thought Miami had a commendable effort given how shorthanded they were in the game. Hopefully we get to see Eric Roeback Dawson Knox had a big game. I think it's a pretty direct correlation there, and Elijah Campbell back at safety as well.

This Sunday, Holland speed and range will be needed against somebody like Christian Watson, who runs vertical routes a lot. Speaking of Christian Watson takes us into the cornerbacks versus the receivers and tight ends. He can fly. He's hit some highest top speeds and next gen stats this year. He's turned into a true touchdown maker seven touchdowns receiving one rushing this year on just twenty nine catches. He's an intriguing matchup here because of how well Miami has

defended the deep portion of the field. His average depth of target is a team high thirt teaen point five yards, so Watson going deep typically maybe we'll see Holland capping those off. But Alan Lazard is also the top target in this offense. Seventy six targets this year are twenty three more than the next wide receiver, both Aaron Jones and Robert Tonyan between the two of those guys, but that speaks to the strength of the offense. The backs and the tight ends have been where the offense has

funneled primarily through Lazarre. It is it all is also just like wattson a huge frame, but not the burner that he is. And then Romeo Dobbs is no small man either, six ft two two oh four, so they go six five, six four or six too. And then Ton, you know, top tight end at six five. He was a big downfield threat last year, but his a DOT this year is just five point five. Really, what I'm trying to get at is we haven't seen a receiving

corps like this one in terms of their size. I always like X in a battle, it's going to be about physicality. I think Cater has shown well in that regard, even if he's giving five or six inches of high on some of these guys, and that's also evident his tackling. And then from there it's I mean, every week we have this conversation, right X and Cater, and then what's what's next? Um I suppose it's about who's available and

how do we want to approach it. We continue to see a mix of crossing and Nick monogeny, and I thought he played pretty well on Saturday and Justin Bethel and those guys had to take some kind of safety reps as well because of the depth at the position last week. So much of the Packers game is set up through the run in the screen game though, so really Aaron Jones as a receiver is one of my main focus is here. He has the most catches on the team fifty two and he's also scored five times

through the year. Let's go ahead and take our last break right there and come back on the other side finished the last two position groups on this side of the football will do what's at stake and the three keys. That's next Drivetime Podcast, your host, Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. Our final segment here on a Thursday preview edition the pre Christmas addition, and Merry Christmas and happy Holidays to all of you out there and

whatever you celebrate. I hope it's a great holiday for you and your loved ones. Let's go ahead and pick it back up with the offensive line verse defensive line, the Dolphins defense versus the Packers offense, and I think this is where you can impact the passing game to the point of taking away those deep shots that they want to get downfield to Watson in a speed sense, and then also those back shoulder kind of fifty fifty high point balls to Lazard that they throw to that exposition.

David Batier, you had an emergency app and deck me a couple weeks ago. Doesn't sound like he'll be back against the Rams. It was Zack Tom at left tackle, Elton Jenkins, Josh Meyer's, John Runyon Jr. And Josh Nigeman. H The pressure numbers are really good across the board. It's it's basically twenty five pressures allowed by nidgement and then the rest are all like less than twenty. And

they've all played a lot of snaps this year. Rogers Is time to throw is nine hundreds of a second longer than two of He also gets it out fast, but I'm trying to tell you. And the lines held up pretty well given all the injuries. Zach Tom shows up as a Day three pick and gives them a pretty really good option, you know, for the unavailable box Tr in his absence, and and Tom can play right tackle when box Tr comes back to Not many teams careening plays like that. Nigeman had a rough game against

the Rams, but man he's been good all year. Just two sacks allowed. Leonard Floyd's pretty tough ask and he got four pressures on the green Bay right tackle. But what I saw that was successful. There was a lot of what I think Delan Phillips does well this year, where he rushes upfield and kind of cross that crossover step and swipe the hands away and that change of direction back inside too fast for most tackles to handle. Maybe we see some of that this week. This is

why I get so geeked up about the stuff. Man Nijman has that tape against Floyd to prepare for Jalen, and I can't wait to see if he takes advantage of it or gets beat by it again. That's what makes this game so fascinating every week. Right, If we are going to limit this Green Bay offense, we need Bradley Chub to best a rookie at left tackle in situations when they leave him one on one, and if they help him, then it's JP time. So that's kind of my focus here. If you're gonna help on Chub, JP,

go get it done. If you're gonna help on the other side, Bradley Chub, go get the job done. We need you guys against this quarterback that you don't want the blitz. Miami has plenty of rushers that primarily play at the opposite side, like Chub and Melvin Ingram. That's a hell of a lot to ask, uh for a rookie to go up against pass rush experience of those two guys. So if the youngster can hold up in this matchup, man, they have to feel really good about

they have there. And Zach tom big test for him this week and for Miami too. You gotta get pressure on Rodgers and one on one opportunities with your best rushers. That's how you beat him. Inside. Elton Jenkins is one of the best guards in football. Then second year center Josh Meyers and third year right guard John Runyan Jr. Runyon has been awesome, really good and passpor great technique.

It's funny how that happens with guys like him and pass Artan the second like who have fathers who are legends of the game, and they're averaging five point nine yards per rush off the b gap to the right side behind Runyon. Same story with Chris josh Meyer's almostaid Christmas second rounder from Ohio State and what a career he had there had one game against the Lions this year where three pressures allowed. But it's a bunch of

zeros and ones other than that. Now, while we praise them, you guys know that we have in that position as well, with Christian and Zach Seeler. That's kind of the matchup of the game for me. How do Christian and Zach compete against that side of the line. If we get consistent wins there, keep the Packers in that long down on distance where they have to run deeper routes and hold the ball longer, and I think we have a

great shot at victory. Otherwise, the Packers will be able to sustain drives, keep our offense off the field, making a tight game running backs and linebackers. We arrive at arguably the strength of the Packers football team. PFF loves Jones and Dylan, and I don't blame them. The grades are great, but look at the tangible acts here miss tackles forced. Jones has forty nine, Dylan has eighteen. It's five point two and four point three yards per carry

for the individuals. On top of what we mentioned in the passing game, Jones is three point to seven yards after initial contact on average, is tenth among all running backs who have at least a hundred carries. He's fifth and miss tackles forced, and he's scheme flexible. PFF has him with a hundred and fifteen runs from zone sixty

four and gap man scheme it's one for Dylan. So they do a good job of keeping you guessing in the running game, which tells you your eyes are very important because like in our offense, plenty of I candy false keys, pre snaps, shifting and motioning. And since we play a lot of that two gap read react style that Wilkins has really perfected again, makes for a fun matchup here now at linebacker Jones in the passing game. Man, that's the Packers most dangerous threat. From what I see

on tape. You cannot lose Aaron Jones and the wash. You can't afford to get him out wide in one on one situations against our linebackers, especially with two way goes. We've seen that the last couple of weeks too often and it's burned us two times. And if you call on Jerome and Duke and that coverage rush speed deal with Jones, well landon Roberts. We've got a match up for you, my friend. He's playing so well moving downhill this year. That's just go forward, young man, and he'll

need it again here. I thought the Browns game was his biggest test and his best game, which is obviously awesome to see now a j. Dillon six ft two and fifty pounds and that great video from the Wisconsin Minor League baseball game a couple of summers ago in which he decisively won in Oklahoma against the Mascot. I'm not sure there's a tougher tackle in the NFL than him. He's a short yard mayven. He can take your eyes

off Jones and those two backsets too. And the more I dove into this matchup across the board, the more I'm realizing how good it is. Let's go ahead and get into the margins and special teams mentioned how well I thought Miami played on teams last week. They saw a good jump in d v O A from thirty second dead last up to twenty nine. The Packers two teams looking to get right more on special teams. Quietly, Jason Sanders found his stroke. He's nine for nine on field goals and eight for a on p A T

s the last four weeks. He's twenty one twenty five this season, which is actually ten percent up from his rate last year. Thomas Morris had had that punt down the two yard line on Saturday Night. His rate of punts inside the twenty yard line is now over forty at forty four four, and his touchback rate is just three eight percent forty point three gross yards per point for Thomas Morstead and for the Pack, Mason Crosby's sixteen

of nineteen he's been there forever. He's over two on fifty plus kicks and he has one miss in the forty nine range. So maybe we can force some long field goals and get some good field position that way this game. And then Pat O'Donnell has a touchback rate of just two point one and an inside the twenty yard line rate of forty seven point nine percent. His net is forty. What's at stake a lot. There's a chance Miami can clinch by week sevent team if the

results follow a certain way this week. That's the Jets losing tonight, Dolphins win here and then win again against the Patriots. Boom, you're in the playoffs. So what's at stake besides shrinking your magic number too potentially one with two games to go, keeping pace with the Ravens and Archers and the seating as well. Chargers have the Colts on Monday night, Ravens get the Falcons on Saturday. I didn't expect them to lose those games, but if they do,

we could jump either of those teams. That's really it. A loss could potentially knock you back into the in the hunt category, and after being eight and three, I don't want that to happen at all. Also, stop the bleeding. The last time these teams lost, this team lost three strade games. They hit their stride. But hitting a stride again starts with a strong performance at home in a time slot where you're the only game on. And that's

three straight weeks of that. So another chance to put on a great performance here for our national audience, and I expect big things from the Dolphins team in this game. Three keys number one attack the edges in the running game. We mentioned already. Without Rashawn Garry, it's been tough going for them out there out wide. Continue to hit explosives in the passing game. This Packers defense has been liable to that at times with some spacing and zone issues.

Go after that with what you do best to ten and seventeen, and then limit Aaron Jones and A J. Dillon's production. Everything funnels through those two backs. Shut them down, their offense will struggle. That's it. That's my time. You all. Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcast. Leave us a rating, leave us a review. Follow me on Twitter at Linfoeld NFL. Follow the team at Miami Dolphins.

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