Dolphins Raiders Preview and Roster Building for the Future

And on today's show, we have a busy one. We're gonna take a look under the hood of this Dolphins and Raiders game on Saturday night, the first primetime affair for your Miami Dolphins this season. We'll get into the matchups the Raiders, key elements of their game, the scheme, the personnel, all that fun stuff. We're gonna hear from Coach Floras on this game and talk a little bit

about Christmas and the holiday season. Plus, we're gonna take a look at some future draft capital and salary cap positioning for your Miami Dolphins and do a little sneak peek into the draft. Here for a second. All of that and more on this Wednesday, December the twenty three edition of the Drivetime Podcasts. They Dolphins Fans, The new

year starts now at Auto Nation. Let's skip the rest of the and get to big New Year's savings on your favorite Auto Nation Chevy's, Fords, Toyotas, Hondas, and a whole lot more shops safely at the Auto Nation store near you or Auto Nation dot com and save now. And we have a bit of a day by day focus here on the Drivetime podcast. But I came across an article that was part of the top news story

on Tuesday up on Miami Dolphins dot com. And the article comes from over the Cap dot com and it's called Salary Cap sunk cost in And the author of this piece is Jason Fitzgerald, and essentially what he's looking at is projecting available flexibility within the salary cap for

teams heading into this offseason. We know Miami did a bunch last year to kind of turn some of those those salary cap dollar resources into extra draft picks and kind of push the can down the road to one after the first year under Brian Flores and Chris Career here in twenty nineteen, and the result of this piece up on Over the Cap dot com is the Dolphins have the third fewest amount of sunk salaries in the NFL. Basically, what you're looking at, there is the amount of salary

that's not contributing to your football product on the field itself. Again,

we talked about this in twenty nineteen. The Dolphins did so much to kind of to pay for salaries like Ryan Tannehill or Robert Quinn in those trades, to acquire draft capital and kind of clear the books a little bit, to get themselves in position to be able to acquire players that fit the vision in the scheme of Brian Flores and Chris Career, and to be active this past free agency going out and getting Kyle van Noyen, Byron Jones and Shack Lost and Emmanuel Agba, Eric Flowers and

Ted Carriss and you guys know the players the cast of that list. But as we look at this list again put together by Jason Fitzgerald on Over the cap dot com, it gives you an idea of how Miami remains flexible in the second year of this kind of process, the third year under Brian Flores and Chris Career. And he has the Dolphins as the third the team with

the third fewest sunken cost. And he puts the Colts, Buccaneers and Dolphins kind of in this grouping together saying how how much better advantageous of a situation they are in from this standpoint, from a cap structure standpoint, and the rest of the NFL. He writes this note, Team three is the Dolphins who have really utilized their salary

cap purge better than anyone ever has thus far. They have embraced a different approach which gives them a ton of flexibility for a time when they want to create a ton of cap room. So that again creates this level of flexibility you have going into the off season with team building in mind, how you can approach either

free agency or the draft. And going into the draft, the Dolphins have the most draft picks we also could be We'll see how it takes out that they could be the first team since the Slash two thousand Washington football team to qualify for the playoffs but also wind up with a top three pick in the NFL draft.

The Washington football team went ten and six and won the a f C East, and in two thousand they actually had the second and third pick in the draft and wound up with LaVar Arrington and Chris Samuels, a pair of all pros. There in Washington, So how they got those picks from New Orleans and San Francisco, that is a fantastic job of putting yourself in position to

win now but also build for the future. Miami's in a somewhat similar position, not gonna have two picks that high, but the current Houston Texans pick that came over part of that Larry Mitunsel trade currently sits number six overall. The Texans do play the Bengals in Week sixteen and then finish up with the Titans in Week seventeen, so we'll certainly monitor that to see where that draft pick lands is right now. It could fall anywhere from third

overall to twelve overall in this year's draft. And going back to the draft in talking about having those high draft picks, we know Miami has the two first round picks and the two second round picks this year, and again that that second round pick from Houston could also wind up being in the top forty as that team plays out the rest of the string plays out the rest of the season this year. And it brings me up to this upcoming draft class, something we haven't looked

at a whole lot. It's been a very, very different season as far as evaluating college prospects with all the college football games being canceled or postponed, or the opt outs that we've had, just the the unpredictable nature of the college football season has certainly changed things and will certainly see a change in the way the Senior Bowl and the scouting Combine has covered all that fun stuff that we've all grown to know and love and really was kind of my baby at first when I started

off doing the whole football podcasting and Miami Dolphins Focused or Centric Focus podcast was taking a look at team building and acquiring players. Well, here we are going into one off season here in a few weeks, where to me, this draft class is loaded in a few areas that you know, I don't think we've seen it that way

for a long time. The running back and why just here positions potentially in this year's class, depending on who declares and who doesn't with all the talent available, whether you're looking at Jamaar Chase from l s U who opted out to prepare for the draft this year, or Jalen Waddle and DeVonta Smith and Alabama, Darius Tony at Florida.

Just talking about SEC receivers. See if you get entering the NFL draft, there are so many loaded receivers in this year's class, and the running back position looks pretty dang good as well. You've got Naj Harris out of Alabama, Travis E. T N from Clemson. E t M was possibly a first round projected picked by many last year by mel Keiper and Todd McShay and Daniel Jeremiah coming out of Clemson last season. He returns and just puts

together an even better season this year. I think the offensive line class might be one of the deeper ones we've seen in quite some time. There are some defensive players I've got my eye on again. I want to do some more studying on this as we go along in the future. But guys like Boogie Bashman, for instance, out of Wake Forest Carlos Boogie Bashman, like two pounds six ft five, kind of has that makeup off the edge to really rush the passer, impact the running in

that way as well. But just our first little primer or glimpse into some of the top players according to the Draft Network and other avenues that do this stuff year round, just looking at the possible top picks Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields the top two quarterbacks that Jordan Reid of the Draft Network has going off the board to Jacksonville and the Jets respectively. Pine Seuled the tackle out of Oregon. He has pretty much in his freshman year there Oregan been just a people mover and an

exceptional athlete with great past protection skill sets. He is a top most offensive line boards. Zack Wilson from b y U. If you guys caught the Book of a tone ball on Tuesday night, he really went ham on the UCF defense. He has been a heck of a player this year with some intriguing skills and traits as well. So three possible quarterbacks off the board here early before the Dolphins. You know that number six pick currently in

this particular draft or mock draft from Jordan Reid. You've also got Micah Parsons, a linebacker out of Penn State. He opted out this year as well, but he figures to be in that top ten, top five range. And that's where they have the Dolphins sitting at number six, which some receiver talent Jamar Chase Davante Smith. You've got Caleb Farley and Patrick's Artan. The two cornerbacks who most folks have along with j C. Horne atop their cornerback

big board. We mentioned Carlos Basham from Wake Forest, the pass rusher Gregory rosso Rosal from Miami and Quitty Pay from Michigan or the top two on Jordan Reed's list here Ray Shawn Slater kind of joins that penais Seul offensive line position. Jalen waddles in there as well to ground out the receiving groove Rashod Bateman out of Minnesota.

So there's plenty of talent at some key positions across the offense, across the defense in this draft, as early declarations have already began this year again in this funky COVID season. But I do want to go more in depth on the draft class with some expert help and some expertise from around the NFL landscape once this season ends.

Just want to go ahead and make a note that we will have a strong emphasis on getting expertise on the podcast and giving you guys some great opinions and draft breakdowns and and talk about this class as a whole as we ramp up towards the draft. But that's that's a little bit ways off. We still have plenty of ball left this season, plenty of meaningful football left

this season for your Miami Dolphins. But I thought it was important sixteen or fifteen weeks into the season to update where we are ahead of the off season, because this season has flown by and the off season will be here before you know it. Let's go ahead and spend this thing forward. To Coach Flores Wednesday morning media availability, almost forgot what day it is, as he spoke a little bit about the Raiders Christmas, some stuff on his

own roster. But I want to start there with Flora's talking about Christmas, his traditions with his family, and just the holiday season for Brian Flores. As far as the second point that question, Christmas, you know, for me is a lot of great memories. Again, like I've said before, similar Thanksgiving. You know, our family and my family would get together all the time and just enjoy each other's company, you know, celebrate you know, Christmas, say Birth of Christ

and just enjoy enjoy one another. To me, Coach really hits the nail on the head there with that last comment about enjoying one another, because you know, get a little bit personal here on the podcast. For a long time, my family hasn't been really a singular unit where I get to spend the holidays around, you know, the people that I grew up with. My my mother passed away five years ago, and that kind of change the dynamic of our Christmas season. I try to spend as much

time as I can with my brother. My one real close true relative that I have is my brother, so we spend most of the holiday together as well. But the impact of having like an adopted family almost so to speak. My wife's family has always welcomed me over to their place and we do this tradition on Christmas Eve that has become kind of a recent tradition in years that I've really grown to know and love and and will certainly miss it in years future when we don't get to do it, you know, being down in

South Florida. But this year we do get to go back for Christmas Eve. I get to go home and be with my wife and my daughter and the family. So that's gonna be something I look forward to. Get the spirits going, get the gifts going. We play these games where you you have to like put oven myths on and try to unwrap this Christmas gift and it just it's a lot of fun to be around people you love, people you care about and and and enjoy

the Hall Day season. So I hope all of you out there as well can't enjoy the holiday season this year and be around loved ones as much as you can in this strange year. But I think Coach Floor has nailed it on the head right there. It's about being around those that you love this time of year. Let's go ahead and get back on track here and talk a little bit more football on this Wednesday edition

of the Drivetime Podcast. And to kind of go back to our opening segment, they were talking about team building and Coach was asked this morning about the twenty offseason and putting together this football team. And to me, this kind of coincides with a few points we've hit on all season long. We talked about, you know, the Dolphins making room for for building this roster, the way the

vision that Brian Flores sees for the football team. We had that clip from Brian Baldinger it was either two or three weeks ago where he talked about the vision of Perry, these physical, aggressive cornerbacks like xaviing Howard and Byron Jones and rounding out the past brush with multiple versatile people that could do several different things for you

and kind of fit that versatility Moniker. We talked about all the time on this podcast, freeing up the roster or the ability to go out and build the roster to that vision, I think was an integral part of what you're seeing right now with this nine and five football team and the you know, second youngest team in the NFL, building towards being you know, improving upon this

nine and five record here in the near future. I think it really speaks of the Dolphin's vision to to clear the space and clear the cap and get the draft capital to go get the kind of guys you want, and those kind of guys. Brian Flora says, let's just go ahead and here from coach, you know, we wanted to add the right people guys so we're tough and smart,

competitive not to play team first. So I think, you know, just with every addition that we had that in mind, familiarity was you mentioned that, but you know, guys like Shack Lawson and h Wyn Jones weren't weren't as food weren't you know, they've never been in this defense. But right, guys like you landed in vanoys. But we're just looking

for the right people, guys with the skill set. All those guys are good players, they want to be coached, They work hard, and I think they worked hard this this year and improved, and that's all we're looking really looking forward. And we're going to hear from rookie quarterback to a Tongue of Byloa here at the end of

this podcast. But first I want to go ahead and get to Coach Flora's answer about the importance of ball security when it came to evaluating the quarterback position this past offseason and how important that was the decision making to ultimately go ahead and draft tongue Bylowa. Fifth. Overall, here's coach. I think that's always at the top of the priority list for anyone looking at any offensive position. Turnovers at the number one, um the reason why people

lose games. I would say that's hopefully at the top of everyone on the Dolphin plan list, at the top of your non um. So yes, at the top of mind. It was at the top of I think it's one of those anyone who's doing an evaluation. If you feel like this guy is gonna turn the ball over time and time again, I don't see why you would take a chance on somebody like that. The two has done a good job from that standpoint. Um, it's something we stressed on a daily basis. H and take care of football.

I know it's not always perfectly. There's a lot of good players in this league who are consciously trying to take them all away. We're trying to do the same thing defensively in the kicking game. So I mean, that's the game. You know, defenders are Defenders are trying to consciously trying to take them all the way, and offensive

players should be consciously trying to secure the ball. Um. So yeah, I would say that's very high my priority list at any anyone who handles the football putterer, snapper, center, quarterback, running back, tight end, receiver. Do you intercept the ball? You got to secure the football. We had that a couple of weeks ago. We get an interception we fund with.

Thankfully we got it back. But ye have ball securities at the top of my list, and ball security certainly provides an interesting segue into the game pre we were gonna jump into here just real quick, but first I want to go ahead and hear from coach Flora's on the challenges presented by this Raider's offense. It's very multiple, a lot of personnel groups last years, our motions. Good players, so good run game, good past game. Yeah, you know, challenging,

very challenging for us. We got to the job, uh communication wise on the mouse technique, I'm trying to limit them. But you know that's some explosive players, good backs, the quarterbacks, you know, regardless of which one is out there. And that provides a perfect segue into the game preview that we have up on Miami Dolphins dot Com for you guys.

As I was researching the Raiders a little bit before I wrote the preview and went back and looked at the same thing that we saw last week with the Patriots offense in terms of two back personnel utilizing a fullback in the formation. We talked about Yakob Johnson having the second most snaps among fullbacks in the NFL this season. Alec Ingold from Las Vegas is number heard in that category, behind Kyle us Check and Jakob Johnson. No offense operates

out of twenty two personnel. That's two running backs, two tight ends, one receiver, more than Las Vegas. And you might recall when John Gruden first got to Oakland, they acquired a bunch of big, physical tight ends. They acquired a big running back and Josh Jacobs later on the line. They also got Trent Brown, the three eighty pound offensive tackle, and that kind of lines up with the vision of that offense. They average three hundred thirty nine pounds to

a man across the offensive line. That's the heaviest in the entire National Football League. And it goes deeper than just the twenty two personnel. They run one wide receiver in the formation, a league high fifteen percent of the time. This is a league where three and four receivers is pretty commonplace in the National Football League, but one out of every oh man, I don't know math, fifteen percent of the time they only have one receiver on the field.

So because of that, the Radar offense ranks eleventh and scoring point nine points per game, as well as total offense at three hundred and seventy five yards per game. Their twealth in the ground game and fourteen through the air, so a top half of the league offense in every single category. On defense, nobody blitzes are only two defenses

rather blitz at a lower rate than the Raiders. They bring an extra rusher on just twenty five of their defensive snaps, but the four man pass rush they utilize provides pressure on twenty two point seven percent of opposing dropbacks, at seventeenth best in the league. So anytime you have a higher pressure rate than you do blitz rate in

terms of ranking, that's always a great sign. Max Crosby is a problem on that defensive line for the for the Las Vegas Raiders, almost at Oakland, You've got to get that guy blocked out of Eastern Michigan as a defense they ran and scoring total defense. They are and rushing defense and in the passing defense game, and that brings us into the matchups for the scan that I'm taking a look at, And the most interesting fact I

found was the money down. The Dolphins defense has formed several habits this season, one of which is the league's top third down defense, allowing conversions on just thirty two point five percent of their oppositions third downs. On the other side of the football, the Raiders enter play with the number two ranked third down offense at forty nine point one percent conversions. Way big battle there, and both teams help set themselves up for success on third down

by winning early downs. The Raiders offense averages five point one yards per play with a strong mix of a power run game but also a vertical passing attack. And what's interesting about their vertical passing attack going to guys like Henry Ruggs and Darren Waller down the field, is they won't utilize play action as much as you might

think off of that look. It's actually they have a dip in production from yards per past attempt by two point three yards from play action compared to nonplay action pass It's kind of a upside down type of stat there in the National Football League. There seven point nine intended air yards ranks twenty in the NFL, so short controlled passing game to kind of go along with that running game, and they build those vertical shots in off of that. Miami's third down defense does more than get stops,

though they create takeaways. Seven of miami sixteen interceptions this year have occurred on third down and a passer rating on third down of just sixty two point seven across the entire national football he does best in the NFL the number two match up here you heard coach Flores talk about both quarterbacks the yen the yang is a car is at Mariota. Either way, the Dolphins have killed

quarterback stat lines all season long. Opponents have a passer rating against of eighty three point nine against Miami that's third best in the NFL. And though both are effective in twenty with Derek Carr having a one or two passer rating that's ninth best in the NFL. And when he gave way to Marcus Mariota, he throws for two d and twenty six yards and as eighty six yards

on the ground in that loss to the Chargers. And Mariota wasn't sacked in his first game as a Raider, but he did take an average of three point six eight sacks per game his last two seasons in Tennessee. And the converse of that is Derek Carr has been stacked just twenty times in his four team games this season and was dumped only twenty nine times last year in sixteen games. This Raider offensive line is very very good, with Trent Brownie mentioned him the three eighty pound tackle.

Formally of the Patriots, Colt Miller's having a hell of a career so far after going off the board in the first round. Rodney Hudson one of the best centers in the entire National Football League. These guys can get it done up front and can move bodies off the football, and they can pass for tech too. We talked about the low number of sacks that would be a good matchup to watch here. Miami's thirty seven sacks are tied for tenth most in the NFL and their forty quarterback

hits our ninth most. Back to the discrepancy between Car and Mariota, Cars interception rate has not eclipsed one point eight percent since seen he takes care of the football. Mariota, on the other hand, has a career I n T rate of two point five. However, Mariota has thirty three career fumbles to cars sixty three fumbles, and that includes

significant more time as a runner. For Mariota, he has one thousand, four hundred eighty seven career rushing yards and twelve touchdowns on the ground compared to Cars two and ten yards and five rushing touchdowns as well. So the turnover battle kind of I guess evens out when you look at the interceptions and fumbles can buy Mariota more dangerous as a runner obviously, Derek Carr more accurate and

more efficient in the short passing game. It's an interesting battle and interesting mix, an interesting game plan juxtaposition among those two guys. Either way, the Dolphins have to prepare for both of them. Both can get the job done if you let them, and my third matchup key here is just to run it back. Talking about the running game.

Last week, the Dolphins faced the fullback we mentioned with with Yakob Johnson, and the Patriots did get sixty four rushing yards on eleven carries out of two back personnel, so finding a way to get that average down a little bit will be a big key in this game. And the Raiders, although they are an imposing ground game with the big beef upfront and Josh Jacobs, who is six in the National Football League with over nine hundred yards on the ground, they haven't been their usual imposing

self in recent weeks. Jacobs did have seventy six yards on the ground in the loss of the Chargers, but he had just one hundred and thirty one yards for an average of three point five four yards per carry over the previous three games prior to the loss to the Chargers. He's under four yards per carry this year. Last season he was over five yards per carry, but still Josh Jacobs one of them dangerous physical running backs in the entire National Football League. The running back portion

refers to Miami's running game itself. They found their legs on Sunday picking up one number nine things in large part to two hundred and fifty yards on the ground. Matt Brita had eighty six rushing yards. If he had fourteen more, would have had two running backs over a hundred yards, joining Savan Akhmed, which would have been the first time since nineteen seventy five Dolphins had two running backs in one game go for over a hundred yards. And this helps provide a boon for the offensive passing

game and quarterback. To a tongue of Byloa as well, we talked about the accuracy rate. Sports Info Solutions has some really cool in depth data they track and they grade catchable VERSU uncatchable passes, and on Sunday they had to with twenty four of twenty six catchable passes. He's seventh among all NFL quarterbacks in that category. So you stay accurate, you stay ahead of schedule, you stay on point,

on time, and on rhythm. With a running game that can do that, man, that pairs so well with the way this Dolphins defense has played. So I think you look at the second half of that game and even include the first drive of the game or the second drive of the game where the Dolphins went nine yards

and turned it over in the red zone. If you can get that type of clock management, that type of running game, that type of efficient play out of your quarterback and long drives, my goodness, this defense can rest up and feast and create takeaways and sack the quarterback. Find that balance could be a big key for this Dolphins team going forward. And it starts Saturday in Las Vegas. So there's your game preview. Take a look at the piece up on Miami Dolphins dot com. Some more details

and notes in there as well. We'll recap the game on Saturday night as we do always, well it's always Sunday, but the game to day earlier this year, so we'll recap it on Saturday night on the website as well. As the Drivetime podcast before we get to our media for the day, and here from Quarterback to a Tonga Byloa. Your boy got his check mark finally on Twitter. I'm sure you saw it if you follow me at Wingfield, NFL. Saw the blue checkmark randomly on Monday night, right around

eleven pm. That was a cool surprise to see. I had kind of given up on the idea of the check mark, but I will be honest, once I saw it, I was in a very good mood after that. So finally verified on Twitter. We made it. Family, finally made it. Let's get to a quick question and answer here for

two a tongue of blow A Dolphins starting quarterback. In his Wednesday media availability, I asked you about the process of applying things you learn in game and later having that situation come back up in the game and taking the lessons you learned from the first look and putting it into the into action on the second look. Here's to we're talking about the interception he threw in the game Sunday compared to the rushing touchdown in the fourth quarter,

with similar looks from both those plays. I think that's exactly what happened there. Were different looks, um but in a way similar, you know. And the first one where I threw the interception, that was really uh es if you will, you know, throwing throwing that ball blindly. Um No, I could have just took the sack. We had points there, whether it was touchdown or field goal, and I threw that away and kind of gave the momentum back to page is the next game. But I would say definitely

learned from that. I don't want to force anything, um no. And if I I could have made it with my legs and that's that was kind of the thing. And if not, then we still would have had point. Thro woud ahead, we would have been able to keep a few good Let's go ahead and put a bow on this edition of the Drive Time podcast. We have a very special feature interview with Kyle van Noy on tomorrow's podcast.

Please do not miss that. For all the injury updates and latest media availability from your Miami Dolphins, go ahead and visit Miami Dolphins dot com or the team YouTube page. We also have the Week six team preview up on Miami Dolphins dot Com as well. Plenty of content for you guys in the website on the podcast even through the holiday season. Until next time. That's gonna be my time, you all. Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcast, Leave us a rating, leave us a review,

give me a follow. On Twitter, It's at Wingfield, NFL. Follow the team at Miami Dolphins, check out the fish Tank and the Audible podcast, and of course Miami Dolphins dot com until tomorrow. On Christmas Eve finds up