Dolphins Versatility and the Twitter Mailbag

both on the field and on the sidelines. All of that and more on this Thursday, March the fifth edition of the Drive Time Podcasts. And I wrote an article that's currently up on Miami Dolphins dot com and in it, I discussed the versatility of the Dolphins coaching staff, and we'll come back to that here in just a moment, but I want to start with the aspect of the versatility that Brian Flores and the coaches really throughout the

league are talking about right now. The more a player can do, versatility the buzzword of the entire week of the combine. We talked about this on yesterday's podcast with Jordan Reid, Christian Wilkins, Divon gard Shaw, John Jenkins, a lot of those big defensive lineman who have the makeup and look of a classic defensive tackle playing out wide at the defensive end position, and I don't have any data on those specific lineups and snap counts at those spots.

Will get to the defensive backs and linebackers here from Pro Football Focus in just one second, but you essentially have these three guys playing in the Dolphins odd front packages across the d line, and that will often require one of them to kick all the way out to a base five technique or a four eye technique, and that's not something trackable through PFF or any other outlet that I'm privy to. But you can track the defensive backs.

So I went to Pro Football Focus and took a look at where these guys lined up on a snap by snap basis throughout the course of the season, and they track defensive line snaps, box snaps, slot, cornerback, perimeter corner, and deep safety, the free safety position. And you've got several guys in here that played all over the defense in that regard. For the Dolphins. Rashad Jones up first

played forty nine snaps up on the defensive line. That essentially means he's on the ball the box count for him was seventy eight, and that means more of an off ball linebacker position, playing where you might see Jerome Baker, Ray Kawab McMillan those types of guys. Thirty three snaps in the slot, twelve out wide as a corner, and seventeen as the deep safety. Monterrey Hardage played limited snaps

last year. Came up off the practice squad, but he played five snaps on the defensive line, twenty two in the box, nine in the slot, three out wide, and fifty nine as your Dolphins deep safety. Nick need Um had a lot of range and versatility as well, playing five on the line, forty six in the box, one fifty seven in the slot, and then of course his most prominent position the wide corner five hundred and thirty one snaps last season. He also played four as a

deep safety. Eric row is the primary example of this, and we heard Chris Greer bring it up on the Move the Sticks pod cast talking about the versatility and how it gives you more roster flexibility if you have a guy like Eric Rowe who can play in multiple spots, because then you don't have to activate X number of defensive backs and maybe you can put an extra body in the lineup for game day on the offensive line

or wherever you see fit. So Eric Row played sixty snaps on the defensive line, played four hundred and forty six in the box as that quasi linebacker see gap run defender type, two hundred and twenty six snaps in the slot as a corner. He also played to fifty four as the perimeter corner and then eighty six way back off the ball as a deep safety. Some other

guys that played a little more to find roles. Bobby McCain had four snaps on the line, fifty in the box, twenty in the slot, ten out wide, and four forty six as the free safety. Up until his injury, he was the team's free safety in the single high press man looks they run. Stephen Parker got some run at that same position, three snaps on the line, fifty six in the box, fifteen on the slot, six out wide,

and two fifty nine as the deep free safety. And then Adrian Colbert factored in in the second half of the season as well, one seventeen, seven one and then three thirty five as your deep safety. And these stats are also trackable at linebacker, and I was already planning on talking about this before I went to Pro Football Focus and looked up the numbers. But I think ray Kawan McMillan, third year Dolphins linebacker last year heading into his fourth season this year, is a great example of that.

Ray Kuon was really good that first year coming off the A c L from seventeen, especially as the season went along in team, but he was always a stack linebacker and what that means you're playing off the ball, probably behind somebody on the defensive line and kind of picking and choosing your gaps that way. At Ohio State into his first year in eighteen, he was off the ball every snap. Seemingly he played just two snaps up on the ball, which is fine. That's who he was,

That's what he did well. But you know what complacency breeds. It breeds stagnant trajectory and keeps the player on a plateau and doesn't give them the opportunity to grow their game and just get even better. And that's not to say that ray Kuon wasn't great in that role. He was. He was one of Pro Football focus Is top run

defending linebackers all year in. But you know what a great role for a good run defending linebacker is and one that can get him on the field for even more work playing on the ball as a sam backer in the even fronts four down lineman and ray Kuan got some seasoning in that regard his total jumps from two snaps on the ball all the way up to ninety three last year, and that was out of six

hundred and eighty seven total snaps played. An increase from point oh two percent on ball all the way up to thirteen point five percent, so basically from nothing all the way to thirteen point five percent. It's about recognizing

a player's strengths and creating roles for that player. We played you that sound clip from Ashton Davis the other day, the Cal safety talking about Gerald Alexander, who now of course takes over the defensive back room this year on flows staff and Ashton Davis talked about a coach not being stuck in his ways or stuck in his schemes and always trying to find a way to get better. Every single day is an opportunity for the player, for the coach, for everybody in football to get better. And

that's the approach here. It might sound obvious, but there can still be some pretty rigid thinking out there. But Gerald Alexander fits that mode, fits that role. And again we'll talk more here in just one second about the versatility of this Dolphins coaching staff, but I want to go ahead and get to the rest of the housekeeping here as far as the on ball and off ball snap counts of the Dolphins linebackers. Again, this data available

through Pro Football Focus. Jerome Baker played one hundred and forty eight snaps on the ball, eight hundred and seventy off the ball, and there's even some slots some perimeter, corner and safety distinctions in their thirty three, eleven, and eighteen. The guy just plays everywhere, wearing that green dot call on the Dolphins defense on the back of his helmet.

Very important player in the Dolphins defense. Vince Bagel who arrived with the team on September one and just hit the ground running produce using immediately for Miami five hundred and seventy six snaps on the ball compared to forty five snaps off the ball, So he's one of your more true edge players on the defense. Last year, Sam Aguavin two hundred and seventy eight snaps on three four off and Andrew van Ginkl was almost primarily on the

ball to three snaps off the ball. And so if you ask your players to be multiple, why not ask your coaches the exact same thing. And just real quick before I dive into the article up on Miami Dolphins dot com, there was a quote on the Move the Sticks podcast with Daniel Jeremiah and Bucky Brooks a couple of weeks back where they talked about that being one of these new age adaptations of the NFL, but not

every team has caught on. But the Dolphins have four of the nine new coaching hires have experienced on both sides of the ball, or whether it's coordinating the offense

and having analytics in your background or scouting background. They're finding these guys that have been all over the football operations in the National Football League, in college football, and frankly, the guys that don't have that bowl type side of the ball experience are guys that are new in their coaching career, like, for instance, Lemieux Jean Pierre, who's been coaching now in his third season heading down to Miami

as the assistant offensive line coach. So we start here in the article up on Miami Dolphins dot com with

Brian Flores himself the ultimate jack of all trades. You go over his resume with the Patriots and now with the Dolphins, scouting assistant, pro scout, special teams assistant, offensive assistant, defensive assistant, safety's coach, linebackers coach, and then defensive play caller in the Super Bowl, limiting the Los Angeles Rams to three points the number one, number one offense rather that season in the Super Bowl to just one field goal.

Those eight positions served as a prelude to Flora's taking over the big chair here in Miami and his staff welcomes plenty of new faces here in your number two. Of the seven coaches departed from Flora's rookie season, four of those guys received promotions throughout professional and college football. You know about Carl Durrell, the former receiver's coach and assistant head coach, accepting a head coaching job at the

University of Colorado. Jerry Shoplinsky goes from assistant quarterbacks coach to full time quarterbacks coach with the Giants. Former offensive quality control coach Tae Kwon Underwood, who used to play in the league is now the wide receivers coach at Rutgers. So already and you're number one. Brian Flores, his coaching trees beginning to root itself and provide some fruit off the other end for some college programs and some other

organizations across the NFL. But to get back into the first coach on this entire import of new coaches that have versatility, we start with the O G of versatility and Chan Gailey. This was a quote from Brian Flores at the combine. Quote. Having coached against him gaily in the past, he was always tough to deal with schematically end quote. And Gailor's versatility really has that diverse nature about it, both in the titles he held and the systems he implemented as a coach, both in college and

the NFL. He of course, was the first coach to really transport a true spread offense from college to the pros with Kansas City Chiefs and Tyler Thigpen way back in two thousand eight. He also coached on offense. On defense, he's been a head coach five different times. Defensive coordinator Josh Bowyer was here last year, but his promotion will elevate him to a level of constant collaboration with Flores in the defensive backfield and on the defensive side of

the football in general. His specialty, of course, was working that position group safeties and corners and dbs with Brian Flores. Up in New England, his titles have ranged from defensive assistant, defensive backs coach, cornerbacks coach, passing game coordinator, and now defensive coordinator. Shows his pensant to climb up the ranks

in the NFL as a coach. New linebackers coach Anthony Campanelli chose this position to come here and coach in Miami despite being rumored and being connected to several defensive coordinator jobs at multiple Power five schools. That was a report that came from Yahoo's Pete Famil, and that could

have been Campanelli's first ever solo coordinator job. Beyond the high school ranks, where he was an offensive and defensive coordinator at on Bosco Prep in New Jersey, He's also been a defensive assistant, coached wide receivers and tight ends, defensive backs, linebackers, and he was a co defensive coordinator at Boston College. In new quarterbacks coach Robbie Brown returns

to the NFL after a brief stint at West Virginia. There, Brown worked closely with the head coach on analysis and had direct oversight of the Mountaineers offensive game plans, whereas prior to that he was with the Jets and Chan Gailey. On the offensive side of the ball, his title was offensive quality Control, but he spent two seasons there as a defensive assistant. He worked with wide receivers, outside linebackers, and was involved in in game management responsibilities on game day.

He also coached quarterbacks and running backs at the collegiate level, some more versatility for him there. New assistant defensive backs coach coach Kirk Kuntz made the jump from Struthers High School in Ohio to the NFL. It will be his first job in the NFL. And here's what Brian Flora said in reference to Koons making the jump to the NFL. Quote, there are good coaches and pop owner high school college

NFL level. I think there's this idea that because it's a high school coach, he's not ready to coach in the NFL. I just don't agree with that. I think good teachers are good teachers are good teachers. And quote and rounding out the new coaching hires Gerald Alexander, Austin Clark, and Lemil John Pierre, guys we talked about earlier in

the podcast. They don't have that diverse background, but again they're very early in their coaching careers, and the reputations these guys have already earned early on in their coaching careers really speak positively about their ability to grow and take the next steps in their coaching careers. Again from Ashton Davis, who called Gerald Alexander the best coach he's ever had, very driven to be the best that he

can be. He was taking trips in the off season to visit NFL teams and get nuggets from anybody he can, So he speaks very highly of coach Gerald Alexander. Austin Clark, who worked at Illinois last season, took a five star transfer from USC in olah Wali Bettakou Jr. Who was struggling at USC early in his career and then goes to Illinois and really turned it on, became a sack master, and he really praised Clark's ability to teach and explain

his expectations for his players. Betteku says that Clark would pause the film reviews and explain why a play was designed a specific way and how betteck Who's contributions fit within the scheme. And finally, new offensive line assistant Lemile Jean Pierre trades in his cleats for a whistle. A couple of years back, he was a player with the

Seahawks and Lions. Most recently coached the Raiders and the Seahawks before that, and in that stop in Oakland, he was praised by undrafted rookie free agent Andre James, who was thrust into the lineup for All Pro center Rodney Hudson, who suffered an injury in a game in Tighten, and James played well in that game, earning the praise of both John Gruden and Lemile Jean Pierre, and James credited John Pierre with quote thousands and thousands of practice reps

working on the footwork and body weight to block interior rushers and quote, so this coaching staff, versatility and teaching, that's the idea, that's the thought, and that's what Brian floors out and got this offseason Okay, I want to go ahead and pivot now to some more fan interaction on Twitter. Of course, you guys can find me there at Wingfield, NFL, the Miami Dolphins at Miami Dolphins, and I put out a mail bag segment on the timeline today and we'll get to that here in just one second.

But I also put up a request for your best or most treasured Dolphins memorabilia, and I said I was gonna call out one person that got the most likes on Twitter for their memorabilia, but there really are two that stand out above the rest in terms of how many people clicked the heart and favorited those particular tweets. And we start here with what looks like a arcade gaming console that has the Dolphin logo across it. It looks absolutely gorgeous. It's from Reboric at Referic on Twitter.

Go check it out. It looks awesome. I'm sure a lot of us old school gamer fans out there would love to get our hands on something like that. And then the other one that got a lot of love is from Big Mike at m I a fins one. It's a nineteen seventy two helmets signed by eighteen of the players on that perfect team. It's pretty cool. In fact, I would almost go as far to say, yeah, the mad Dog definitely has to weigh in on that one.

And let's go ahead and stay in that same lane here and continue to interact with the fans on Twitter and fans here of the Drivetime podcast, part of the Miami Dolphins podcast network. Also go ahead and check out the Audible and the Fish Tank podcast, rounding out our three shows here on the new updated Miami Dolphins podcast Network. So excited to jump in this season, get more access and get even more content for you guys than before. And we start here with this question from a Rod

the Finn fan at the Great finsby Travis. First Off, congrats on joining the Dolphins. I'm proud of you. Well, thank you very much. Second, now that you're much closer in the news buzz about the Fins, what's your best assumption about these smoke screens to Herbert or anyone else. Well, I can't speak to the players specifically, but I'll tell you this, the Dolphins are gonna tell you what's going on.

Chris Career and Brian Flores, they talk pretty openly in their press conferences and they're gonna tell you what they're thinking, what they're doing, and they're very transparent in that way. So when Brian Flores and Chris Greer bull say we haven't met with quarterback X or quarterback why yet, they're being honest about it. It does nobody any good to go out and tell your plans and your information and to play your hand on the process early. So that's

what they're gonna do. Everything stays in the house and that's the way it should be. So my best advice there, if you want to get the truth, listen to what Flow says and listen to what Chris Greer says. Next one here from Will at Underscore. Will Reeves Underscore, what linebackers outside of Simmons do you think are a good fit for Miami in the draft? What we talked about versatility, right,

so players that can do multiple things. We talked to Jim Naggie down at the Combine, the executive director of the Senior Bowl, and he talked about Josh CH's ability to play off the ball, to come down and rush the quarterback play in coverage. Jordan reads to the same thing on yesterday's podcast as well, that he offers that versatility. Zack Bond from Wisconsin another one of those guys, a

really refined pass Russia with heavy hands. They can get his hand placement initially and then swipe and double arm, rip and club and chop and do all the things you have to do to get off contact in the NFL. But I think both those guys have been mentioned by some of our draft experts here on this podcast, like Jordan Reed for instance. So we'll go with those two. Next one to hear from Stephen f at sp F Underscore. Rip. Greer has a history of going best player available. Do

you think there's a chance he keeps that approach. Yeah? Absolutely, I think they want to get the best player. Brian Flores and Chris Greer both talked about doing whatever they can to add the best players to make the Miami Dolphins a better football team. Whether it's trades, whether it's free agency, whether it's the draft. They want to make the best selection, the best choice for this team to get better in that instance on that day, and that's

how they'll approach this thing going forward. Next one here from Roggie Roj at Rogie Roj on Twitter. How many retakes have you had to do while recording due to mentioning the wrong podcast name. Well, for the sake of full transparency, I haven't messed up the podcast name yet, but where I do kind of stumbles after the introduction where to talk about subscribe rate and review and where I'm from and who I am and how you should listen to me, and so after that intro I would say,

but first before any of that. There have been several instances where I said that on this podcast and had to go back and correct it. So not too bad so far. It's been a good transition. Next one here from Ryan Hving at Dolphin Underscore Spartan. If we agree the Fins will take either to a Herbert or Love with the fifth pick, would you trade the eighteenth and twenty six picks to get back into the top ten

and take someone like Simmons or Beckton? And I hate to sound like a broken record here, but the truth is, any presumptive measures we make probably will take us down a path that just is peer speculation. If we don't have any concrete evidence or concrete proof that comes from the mouth of Chris Career and Brian Flora's, then we just don't know. But as far as being flexible, that's part of the idea of gathering as many picks as

you can. It allows you to control the draft and put yourself in a position where if you decide that player provides us a way bigger value by at that spot compared to this player who is available later on, then you can pull the trigger and go up there and trade the draft picks accordingly, or you can go back and restock draft picks next year by trading back down the board. So to answer your question about Simmons and Beckton, both those guys are really really good players.

Isaiah Simmons is really unlike any player I think that's in this year's draft class or plenty of draft classes before this. McKay Beckton just that rare size and athletic combination you just don't see on an offensive lineman. So both those guys are really really good football players. This one from Mike Conso at Conso five. What is the biggest transition you've had to make going from Locked on

Dolphins to drive Time? I'd probably say just being more receptive to having people help me, because with Locked on Dolphins that was a one man band operation. Every single thing that went into that outside of the network and the platform was all me. But now I have this world class audio team, when world class video team and graphics team, and all the folks at Miami Dolphins dot com that put the articles together there and tweet it

out and run the social accounts. It's it's really really awesome to see how far we can grow this thing and how much better it can be with all those people working with me. But I have to kind of take my hands off a little bit and say here, go ahead, and you guys do the excellent job that you do, oppose to in the past, where it was just me putting the entire thing together on my own. Next question from Dolphins Argentina at fins up a RG for Argentina building the offense front to back or back

to front. I know it's fluid, but I was wondering where the emphasis will be this offseason for Miami. By the way, congrats on the new project. We'll thank you again for that. Really appreciate it. As far as the Dolphins mode of building this thing, I don't think they're gonna pigeonhole themselves into any one particular direction or mode

of thinking. The entire thought process behind it is going to be capitalizing on market opportunities and just really seizing those opportunities when the market presents itself as advantageous for you, like it did with the Laramie tons of Minka Fitzpatrick trades. Those costs for those trades for the Steelers and for the Texans were very, very ostily. And now you go

back to the Larry Matunsel trade. The Dolphins get an extra two first round picks and a second round pick in a year where there are projected six, seven, maybe even eight offensive tackles that can come off the board in the top forty. So that's the approach, every single step of the way, every single day, every single facet of the organization does the move provides you with more value in your pocket than what goes out of your pocket.

And if you stack up enough of those types of moves over and over again over the course of a long period of time, then eventually you're gonna get yourself in a position where the system just never bogs down and you get that sustained success that Steven Ross wants and has preached here in South Florida going forward into the future. Next question here from Adrian Bellow at a Bellow twelve fifty seven on Twitter. You put four questions up, I'll get to one of them for you. We'll go

ahead and take this one. How does it feel to have earned a position with the Miami Dolphins. Well, I'll be honest with you, a dream. It was my absolute dream job from the time I was sixteen years old. This is what I wanted to do. It wasn't really into the podcasting realm back and because when I was sixteen, podcasts were not a thing. But I always listened to the local radio shows or national syndicated shows, and so being on radio was always something I found very very intriguing.

And then also writing, that's my kind of my My background initially began with writing and my bread and butter. So to see my name up on Miami Dolphins dot com or on the Facebook socials, with the Twitter socials, it really just does a dream come true. And I'll never have to work a day in this job because I love what I do so very much, So it just it's incredible. It really really is. Next one to hear from Layton staffer at Stoffer Underscore Layton on Twitter.

First of all, congrats on the gig. Thank you, And what was the best part of your experience at the Combine? I would just say being around so many football people, because that always has been and always will be the number one thing that I care to talk about in social settings is football and this Miami Dolphins team. So just being around guys like Jim Naggie and Bucky Brooks and just being at the event that basically is the mecca of the NFL universe for the entire week. It's

it's like a kid in a candy store. That's the best way that I can describe. The next one here from Burrito at Burrito NFL. What are a couple of your new found favorite parts of covering the Fins, going

from being outside the team verse being inside the team. Well, the best part about being at the Combine was getting to talk to coach and Chris Guer up close and ask them questions and kind of develop that relationship off the top, but also I think in the future, being there for practice every day and having a better understanding of the day to day operation and being more plugged in having players come on the podcast, having people around the building that work here for the Miami Dolphins, on

the podcast. Just being fully inundated with the team in the organization, you can't ask for much more than that. Okay, next one here, and we'll make this the last one from Pat at Patty Perk, who have some standout traits that will be available on day three that the staff can coach into regular contributors. Well, first, far be it from me to project who's going to be available on day three, because every single year the draft does not

go as people will expect it to. So I'm just gonna go ahead and go to the Draft network dot com and look at their ratings as far as players outside their top one hundred, so we'll use that as a baseline, and their number one oh three rated player on the Draft Network is Fresno States and attained Moody, who really has some fun tape when you plug him on, he can blow people up and has the functional awareness to really be in the right positions and past protection.

The only reason he's down this low is because he had injuries throughout his career. But I think that his upside value definitely presents itself there on Day three if that's where he goes, And there are of course plenty more, but I don't want to get too speculative about who it could be because these guys could go anywhere in the draft. We won't know until the end of April when the draft kicks off April Lie from Las Vegas. Okay, I think that's a great spot to go ahead and

call it an episode. You all please be sure to subscribe, rate, and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Give me a follow on Twitter at Wingfield NFL. For allow the fins at Miami Dolphins, check out the Audible and the Fish Tank and Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time, fins Up.