Draft Success Deep Dive and Progress Reports on the 2020 and 2021

We're gonna hear from the PhDs themselves. I've got audio from conversations with coach Fry, Lemuel, John Pierre, coach grizz Coach Burke's coach g A, Coach Clark, and coach Campanelli. Plus we talked about the two thousand twenty and two thousand twenty one draft classes on the Monday podcast. I think it was, but we're gonna take a deeper dive into the progression of those players now one and a

half and a half year into their pro careers. Busy, Busy edition of the Drivetime Podcast from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Drivetime Podcast. It's midweek. It feels like it's been about a month since the last Dolphins game. But in the best way possible, anybody else fired up for Sunday, I share, am, but that's half a week away. We have today's practice and the meetings and all that we have to get through,

as well as the rest of the week. But on Tuesday we had assistant coach availability, and what better way to really examine this theme that I've been going on for a couple of weeks now with these last two Dolphins draft classes and how they are progressing so far a little bit over midway into season. And I'm not gonna be labor this point because you've heard me talk

about it at least twenty five times now. But take a look at the game logs of guys like Xavian Howard and Mike get Sicky and see when their careers began to really take off. And that's not rule by any means. I mean, shoot, look at the trajectory of this year's Dolphins class and the way it stacks up right now. And Coach Flores has talked about this directly before, how development is not linear and it's not the same for any one player. It's a case by case situation.

And the point there is to say it's a process. It's a process. It's a process, develop a plan, get the right kind of guys in the building, and as they execute the plan, they can start to see the fruits of that labor, as their physical traits and the makeup of who these guys are as people in the way they work start to come to the surface because

they put in that requisite work. And that's a theme you're obviously used to hearing, and one you'll hear again on today's pod as we hear from significant portions of this Dolphins coaching staff. I got to as many as I could. I didn't get to everybody, but I got

too as many as I could. But before that, I kind of want to look around the league and just talk about your standard draft class, because I think in order to talk about the Dolphins, you have to compare you know, the rest of the league and see what the norms are and what a good class looks like,

what's the norm and so forth and so on. And I want to start with the great classes of recent memory, and really just the seventeen draft class here, because the last or the best draft class in my opinion, over the last decade. And I'm not sure this is up for debate. Was the seventeen New Orleans Saints class. Marshawn Lattimore, Ryan ram Check, Marcus Williams, Alvin Kamara, Alex Anzeloni, Trey Hendrickson, Alkaden Mohammed and full transparency. I forgot about those last

three picks. Anzeloni starts for the Lions, Hendrickson got that monster free agent contract after like a fifteen sack year last year from the Saints. He's now in Cincinnati, and Mohammed's a big time impact player for the Colts. Not to mention the three all pros off the top with another very solid starter in Marcus Williams. That's the standard, but very very far from the norm, as I found

out going through and twenty nine teen draft classes. And the reason I went there is because I think you you're starting to have enough of a sample size for all three of those classes, especially seventeen and eighteen, now in years four and five, but now year three for nineteen. So this is something of a continuation of the scanning the social segment we did that we do every single week, but I did the one this week talking about this

draft class. I wanted to expand upon that because it was brief in nature and I wanted to expand upon the progress of our own guys where they're going here late in the season, and then look around the rest of the league and kind of see how that measures up to the rest of the league. So with that, I went over every single draft class from those three seasons and I marked how many impact players each team

selected in that given year. And it was up to my own discretion, So it's not, you know, black and white. It's kind of some subjectiveness in here, but um, I just wanted to look at it and give you guys

a comparison overall. So I'm not gonna go through and read the numbers I have for everybody, but I did want to kind of point towards something that stand out, like just taking one portion of this chart, for instance, and giving you the numbers on some of these teams over those three years, like impact players and the years that that happens. Like, for instance, this chunk of teams is just right in the middle, so kind of taking

a look at it. Denver one two and two, Detroit one two and two, Green Bay zero two and three, Houston one to one, Indianapolis one five to Jacksonville to one too. You get the sense there like there are lots of ones and twos in there where teams come out of draft classes with only a couple of guys

that are long term impact players on their roster. So I think the expectation out there might be a little bit misguided because of that, And that was certainly for myself as well, kind of looking at these numbers, I mean eat for instance, like even after the Saints that year they had seven, which is by far the gold standard, the Ravens had six and twenty eight teen that I

thought were impact players. But after that there was not really any juggernaut type of numbers, Like the norm is three or four for the teams that really did well in those particular years. But even after the Saints had that seven that one year, they follow up with one and two the following two drafts. So seventeen the Saints

had seven, nobody else had more than three. On my list, six teams did have three, and fourteen had either zero or one that season, and teen the Ravens had six and three teams only three other teams had four or more, one of which is Miami by the way, and nine teams had one or zero, and then twenty nineteen, this class ended the kind of absurdity set by New Orleans

and Baltimore. The highest number was actually three this time around, so a big drop off from seven and six, and several teams did hit that number, so it's a little more widespread throughout the course of that draft, but twelve teams still wound up with one or zero on my account,

so fourteen teams, nine teams and twelve teams. Again not very good at math, but that tells me twenty six plus nine thirty five teams over three years wound up with one or zero impact players from a given draft class from my own listing here, and this is that's hardly scientific, just going over the draft class and looking at the players and the recognition and the production based upon what I know from their league experience and productions

so far. So in earnest, if you hit three impact players in a class, you were on top of the game, like the very best in the league, and that class accomplished that. In the twenty nineteen classes kind of on that fringe as well, with much fewer picks to work with. But Christian Wilkins Andrew Van Giegel and Miles Gascon play a bunch of snaps for this team and have given you plenty of production over those three years. And then we arrive at one classes the focus of today's podcast,

and you're seeing progress really almost across the board. And sure some of the guys are at a different pace than others, but as coach Flores told us, that's to be expected, and the way that that progress is trending, I think you're looking at at least three per class, and of course it's incumbent upon them to continue to

put in that work. It's a long way to go for all of these guys, but the way they work and the bite they've shown so far, I think there's a really good chance that if we did this exercise in four and we will down the road, you can look back at these last two classes as ones that really shaped a solid quality young core for the Miami Dolphins.

And what's more, doing that with guys that you have on these rookie deals perpetually each and every season for really you know, four or five seasons, depending on first round or not, well, all that does is opens up space to be aggressive with your future draft picks and free agency with the amount of money you're not spending because of all those rookie and early contract players, and you can attack the holes you have on your roster

with veteran maybe some more proven presences, and obviously you have the money as well to spend on your own guys that you want to keep around as well. And to top that off, the draft pipeline just keeps going. Two more first rounders coming your way in twent three. But that's besides the point. I want to show you some numbers slash data that can show direct lines of progress along with the opinions who really matter the most, that of the coaches and each of their respective rooms.

So let's go ahead in order here by when the guys were drafted, and we start in the fifth overall

pick the quarterback position to a tongue of Voloa. And first of all, you know to Ah is kind of the spark plug for a lot of the conversations that come up on this podcast, because you talk about your quarterback as much as anybody, and obviously he's a a figure that's got a lot of notoriety for his college exploits and then also as a professional quarterback, and so just kind of you know, sparking a debate here to a kind of is at the center of that for

how this debate began. But his rookie season, the discourse around that rookie season was honestly completely wild to me. He played just like you'd like your rookie quarterback to play. There's ups and downs, plenty of flashes, some big time moments come from behind wins like the big third down

throws and the scrambles against the Cardinals. You know, correcting mistakes that he made within the same game, that first quarter interception last year against the Patriots, to then later get a similar look for a play breaks down down around the goal line on third down and he makes the move and scrambles in for a touchdown. To see something similar and make that correction within the same game

is what you really want to see. Obviously, the Chiefs come back that he helped orchestrate to get the defense a chance to get the football back for a chance to win that game. So I just think you look at that rookie season and it's kind of looked upon almost with inaccurate lenses in terms of what actually happened on the field. And by the way, since nineteen twenty thinks to stat head for this research that I was able to pull up on this Tuesday recording this podcast.

Among quarterbacks with at least two hundred and fifty pass attempts in the rookie season, two was passer rating since nineteen was sixteenth best all time. And you can talk about era adjusted numbers, and that's a fair argument, it certainly is. But also it's why Dan Marino is the absolute go. He's like the only guy in from the eighties or nineties. He had stats four but some of the names below to on this list, Cam Newton, Andrew Luck,

Josh Allen, just to name a few. But how about the progression, because that's not We're not worried about what he did in his rookie season anymore. He just kind of helps to establish the point we want to see the progression this year. Right, Well, it's here from coach Charlie Fry here in just one second. But how about this.

Two of his four highest rated games as as far as quarterback rating goes, we're the last two games he played, including the Baltimore game which wasn't a start, three of his four games, and this discounts to the Buffalo game, where he played two series and had just four passes thrown. Three of the four games have produced a higher passer rating than his rookie year cumulative mark. So progress, right,

let's hear from coach Fry. Yeah, I've seen growth. Um, you know, the more experience you get, the you know, the game slows down a little bit. Um. And it's just through through repetition, through work in the film room, work at practice, you know, obviously getting to go through uh an offseason or training camp and then stacking all those things and carrying them with you throughout the season.

So yeah, definitely seeing growth, Definitely seeing improvement. Now. I thought this answer was especially not telling, but informative from coach Fry because I asked him about you know, there's a lot made about arm strength and the value of arm strength of the quarterback position, and so I kind of just asked him, you know, when you when you talk about ranking of arms at this level, what is really the difference between a quarterback that has all the

armed talent as far as the physical ability to drive the football, I don't know, fifty yards on the line, whatever you want to talk about, versus a guy that does have more of an adequate arm and has found a way to have success. You might say Drew Brees had an adequate arm, but obviously that led to a Hall of fame, one of the all time great quarterback careers ever in the history of this league. So I asked Coach Fry what's the difference between an adequate arm

and a great arm? And he didn't go towards the arm strength aspect. He talked about what he believes to be the most important trait at the position. Accuracy. Yeah, it's you look back at, you know, the history of the game, and the one you know common trait is accuracy. You know, there's a lot of big arm guys that haven't been as successful as the guys that are pinpoint accurate. I think that's probably the biggest attribute that a that

a passer has in this league. And So to follow up to that question, because I became so enamored by the thirty five yard completion from two of a waddle the other night against Baltimore, I just wanted to ask coach about when you get up to a situation like that, do you know ahead of time on the throw that you're gonna have to kind of layer this ball out because obviously was not one of those just throw the

ball as hard as you can. Yeah, you had to get the ball forty five yards in the air according to next Gen stats, but you also had to layer it over and underneath defender and drop it in in front of over the top defender. So I asked, coach, is that something where you know you have to make this type of throw going into the play? Do you adjust on the fly? Here's coach. Yeah, I think there's

man throws and there's zone throws. You know, whether you have to layer the ball, you know, over second level defenders, and when there's no second level defenders, when it's man and man covers and now you can just throw it on a rope. So the trajectory of the throw is is based on if there's if there's zone coverage, there's guys underneath, or there's man coverage and and now you have there is no windows. It's just now you you're throwing over the flatter ball. But yeah, that ball right there.

Throwing it over, you know, knowing the trajectory of the ball and still having enough juice on it, you know, be the reaction of the defense so that you hear from the Dolphins quarterbacks coach on the Dolphins quarterback let's keep this thing rolling here with the eighteenth pick in that year's draft, Austin Jackson, who of course has kicked

into guard. Let's hear from coach Lemuel John Pierre on Austin Jackson's progression a year and a half into his career, but most with the most progression, just how you see from developed so far through year now? Um, I think I think mentally he's developed a lot in terms of like understanding that the next level either with a lot of guys coming from the college game and just understanding

ball more. Um, he's always been a really good athlete and he's trying to hone it in even now continue to grow in terms of where he's been putting the understanding football and the functions of it, not just at a certain spot. With his understanding, he's like of leverages eye placement and how the defense reacts and stuff like that. And then I wanted to follow up the coach because I've been so impressed by Austin's play through the echo of the whistle. I just asked him he kind of

has an edge to him, right? Is that a new thing for Austin Jackson Nope, a thing for him, No, No, I mean Austin's very you know, he knows how to hand himself in terms of you know, when he's cool and relax, he's a really good guy and like a lot of guys in the room, but when he's when he's not, when he's angry, like you guys remember last year Jacksonville, he got that pilloting no matter awesome, you can't be the same guy, you know what I'm saying, Like he always has that age I got you closed,

But we're trying to help him continue to control that using the positive way, like he's saying, pushing the pile and things like that, changing the ball and not losing it in terms of any other way. So he's always at that age. That's for the last couple of games I thought, rather the last game I thought was Austin's best of the season as far as Pro Football Focus goes. Two pressures surrendered in that game only his low mark

on the season. He's also top ten among guards and run blocked win rate, and when you watch him on tape that checks out too. He's moving some guys in the running game and Also, his last three games have each been his lowest pressure allowed totals of the season, So again progress midway through his second season here for Austin Jackson. Keep this thing moving here, because we got a lot to get to next. Let's go ahead and go back to Coach Burke's for the Dolphins other first

round draft pick that season, Noah Ignogny. I think Coach Brooks pointed out well here about the fact that Noah is really right now learning from and playing behind two of the very best in the game. Here's Coach Burks on no no, no, no, uh, you know, he he just really hasn't take advantage of the opportunities that he's given. Uh. You know, he played for us in the Jaguar game, you know, and I thought, really, you know, there was two catches there, but I thought that was his most

complete game as a pro. You know. Uh, it's the reality of his situation is he has two guys at that position playing at a high level, you know. So, uh, then that's just is what it is with the situation. You know, he comes to work, goes goes to practice, works on his craft, tries to get better each and every day, and that's all they can control, and that's

you know what we're up with that. So we're gonna go back to Lemuel John Pierre here and go back to the second round of that year's draft, and Robert Hunt one of the guys playing really well at this point of the season. He's currently fifth among guards and run win rate at se on ESPN stat tracking. There he has the fewest pressures allowed him on qualifying offensive lineman on this team. Here's what Lemiel John Pierre had to say about Robert Hunt's transition from tackle last year

inside the Garden. I mean Rob's big, massive human being, humongous. Quaus I called him like like quad sore and stuff like that, But I mean Rob, Rob's doing well in terms of just once again learned the ball. He always had the He even talking about us unless see but you know the combine he was like, you know, we had my interview and my my thing with him and y'all like, you know, I want to be the best and he works for that. He does and in the

classroom he works. He asked questions, he always processes, and he always tries the best not to have any repeats and just trying to be the example you're doing right every time. So, I mean, that's been awesome about Rob. It always looks to me like something. I mean, he's a big man and you know, the cur people up and he's focused on his job. So you tell him to do something, he kind of folcus on doing that job,

and then he keeps development from there. You know, the basis up, and he's developed a really nice a bit of a blip on the radar last week with six pressures allowed in the game, but prior to that, he had not allowed more than two pressures in a game from Pro Football Focus since Week three in Las Vegas. And to kind of further that point, the rushing yards off either side of Rob Hunts, between center and right guard and between right guard and right tackle has been

trending upward all season long. Obviously a lot goes into that from play call, tight ends and tackles everything as well as the running back. But it's a good sign the work he's doing that that run block win rate ranking and the running behind him in those particular gaps. The other second round draft pick that season, of course, ray Kwon Davis, and you know, Rey Kuan had the injury this season and Austin Clark said, took him some time to get back to form, but he feels like

he's coming on in that regard. Yeah, I would say the first thing he stands out to me is his preparation and you know, his week to week. He's in a routine now of how to prepare, what to look for.

You know, he knows how to watch state, he knows how to do a lot things outside of just the meeting room and practice, you know, and he his growth there has been exponential, and I think as a player, he's gaining confidence every day every day he's here, you know, especially I think he definitely had that towards the end of last year, but when you get dinged up early in the year, you know, I think that it kind of took a little time. And now he's back back

to where he was I think a lot last year. Uh, very stout in the run game, um, and and becoming effective. You know, he forces double teams, uh, plays really hard, um, you know, and I think that his I still think his best ball. Like he's got a lot of growing left to do, for sure, but he's eager and this guy loves football and he comes to work every day with that mindset, and you know, I'm excited about where

his play can go. Each day. We're focused one day at a time with him, and he's doing a good job. So the natural follow up there for coach Clark was what did ray Kwon do with that time where he was down in terms of taking the advantage of the mental reps and kind of having a chance to step back. Sometimes folks say they have an opportunity to do that and it's a positive for their career. Wasn't the same

way for Raakwon Davis. Here's how he approached that time on I R. According to coach Clark, Oh, absolutely, I mean those games he wasn't playing, he was involved in the game on the sideline and helping guys and understanding the game, you know. And I think it's a real credit to him what he's done, uh, in terms of learning more so not as much the game, but the scheme and what his role is, what we kind of asked him to do and being able to play multiple

spots and do some different things. So yeah, he definitely used that the right way. And moving on to the third round here, Brandon Jones second among all safeties and QB pressures. Six of those twelve pressures have occurred in the last three games, just as four of his eleven run stops have as well. He's playing sub package linebacker, split safety in the box. He does everything. Let's go

ahead and hear from Gerald Alexander on Brandon Jones. Yeah, I think with with Brandon, and you know, just specifically with Brandon. You know, again, understanding leads to control. You know, the more he's experienced, the more games that he's played, the more practice press that he's had. You know, he's really starting to slow the game down through understanding. And he's another guy that works diligently as at his preparation,

you know, from a physical standpoint to a mental standpoint. So, um, you start to see the fruits of their his labor and their labor um starting to kind of be put on display. And we still got a lot more work to do. There's still a lot of things we want to get accomplished, obviously as a as a team and individually, but um, the the work is shown. Will play some more audio from g A when we get to the

other impressive looking young safety on this roster. Back to Lem though, and though we haven't seen him from a couple for a couple of months now. On Sundays, Lemuel John Pierre does say that Solomon Kiley, even though he's not playing on Sundays on offense, is still involved in this team and on the offensive line in that room with everything they do, really been doing great. He has. He's working a hell out to get back on the field for sure and just be important to the room,

into the team. He wants him to that impact. And the cool thing about Solomon is, you know, he continued to just grow mentally, you know what I'm saying. On the price field, He's working his trash, still being a service where he is when he gets his rested in his reps. But also that like you hear him the back being more engaging and like yo, you hear a play and he's over there trying to speak like the sender.

You know what I'm saying, He's really growing growing that way a good bigness really is really impressive about something. And that's one thing that is consistent when you hear these coaches talk is these guys that maybe aren't playing as much as they would like to or are not let it affect them, and they're being positive influences and staying engaged. You'd love to hear that let's go onto this year's class and go to the number six picking this year's draft and hear from coach Josh Gizzard on

Jalen Waddle's progressions. And I think the biggest thing is the work that he puts in his capacity to take on bigger roles or new um positions is something he's eager to do because he just wants to win. Uh. And in terms of his di eleman, I think he's improved uh as a route runner and just understanding timing on plays and and getting open has been one thing.

And then the main thing that I just mentioned to Barry was that I think his understanding of defenses, because sometimes when you come from college, uh, you're not gonna face them amount of defenses you're gonna face here and from a week to week basis so him being able to understand how they're trying to attack him, what's the leverage of the guy over me? Uh? You know this coordinator is similar to that coordinator that we played four

weeks ago. I think that he's being able to retain a lot of that and just add to his knowledge of structures of defenses, because ultimately, if you have an idea on what's going on with that, then you have a better chance of finding, avoiding his own or beating the man that you're lined up across. So waddles on track for a Dolphins rookie record and receptions and receiving yards currently fifth in the NFL and receptions among rookies veterans or otherwise. But as I have said, you know,

I'm really more interested in the progres us. It looks like he's really on the cusp of making some more impact plays while also checking in with those big plays. Two four point one yards average yak and his rookie season and his average depth of target the last two weeks entering those two games was below seven yards on average, but in week nine it was nine point eight, then last week thirteen point eight, almost double his new season average of seven point oh. He also has not dropped

a pass since Week six. He's catching just under seventy of his passes. He's increasing his position versatility. As Griz said, there and I really don't think there's a lot of persuasion that needs to be made here, but he looks the part of the number six overall pick in the draft. Let's go back to coach Gazar real quick. I had asked him about a film breakdown I saw on a route that Waddle ran a while back that was impressive

because of the coverage that came against. And I asked coach about the play and he said, I know exactly what player talking about. Let's just go ahead and here from Coach Gazard here on Waddle. Oh, it is just for him to understand why this guy is playing this leverage. And I want to say leverage that we're always talking to those guys about is he outside or is the inside of my alignment? And then is he pressed up?

I mean basically, is he gonna touched me rounding the ball snapped or is he giving me access or playing off? So on that one, just for him to be able to recognize that and then be able to find the sweet spot in the defense ended up being in that particular play. Um, really by the ticks right by the sideline. Uh. And so just to have the urgency of Okay, I'm pressed, I need to get off of this and I need to continue to get my depth and try to get

to my landmark on time. Uh. It is impressive. And like I said, that's one of the things that he has played outside more now because when he really first got here a lot of it was inside. Uh so he's being able to add that to his game. That was running off a cloud coverage corner who basically is off in a cover to look and finding a gap on the out route, which, as coach Grizzard said, right there was a very impressive thing to do as far as the route running, the depth of landmark, all that

fun stuff. So there you go with Wattle. Let's keep this thing rolling to another first rounder, another Jalen. Let's first go back to coach Austin Clark on Jalen Phillips and his growth from day one till now. Yeah. I think when he came in he worked his tale off and he's been that same guy every day. You know, um physically and athletically he has, he has all the tools. Uh. He plays extremely hard. I think that's the thing that

really sets him apart. It stands out to me anyways, is his motor and how he attacks every player he's in. I think he's he's gotten better each week. He's extremely versatile and you know, like great Kwan. You know, his best ball is ahead of him, and you know, we just gotta take it one day at a time with these guys and UH and keep working him. And he's got a great attitude and he's doing all the right things.

So it's only two pressures this season, a second among all rookies for Jalen Phillips according to Pro Football Focus, and after having four pressures in his first three games, he has eighteen over the last seven and the sack production also coming along at least a half sack in each of the last two games, as well as impact plays the pressure and pursue on Tyrod Taylor that led to an interception creating chances for his teammates, and sacks

for Emmanuel Ogba, flagging down Lamar Jackson on wide runs and as you heard coach Clark say, a guy whose versatility is showing more and more each week so far in the National Football League second round of and one of the hottest players in the league right now, Javon Holland continues to show up and make plays, and Brian Flores said on Monday, the javan Holland is mature beyond his years, so talking to coach at Gerald Alexander. I wanted to see if he could elaborate on what makes

Javon mature beyond his years. I've been just his everyday approach to just being in the building and working diligently every day, you know, really since we got him, um, even before we moved facilities. You know, it just his approach, his questions, you know, the things that he wants to know, the things that he works on, the accountability he holds himself too, out there on the field and retaining the

information really from the very beginning. So you know, when you've got a guy, a young guy who understands what it takes um to go beyond the required time in order to to to be a true pro at this level, I mean that's when you look at his maturity and you see that he's he's well beyond what your average

rookie would be just from a maturity standpoint. Well, to pick us right back up with g A asked him about a play that Brian Baldinger actually broke down where Holland followed someone in motion and kind of changed his priest napp alignment and got the Dolphins correctly aligned. Because you can kind of see him barking out orders and signals.

So I asked you about the impressiveness of that from a young player and how much his ability to communicate this early in his rookie season has helped the defense as a whole. Well, there, we're to play that position in our defense, you have to be a great communicator and to again to his credit, um, he's done the necessary word to figure out what to say, when to say it. Uh, the adjustments that need to be you know,

uh executed in certain defenses. And you know, really the biggest challenge for him as he was trying to get this information and understand what to say is the confidence in the value human which he says. And so now he can establish himself as a guy who's given the primary communication to guys, and guys will listen to him because they know that he knows what he's doing. So Javon Hall and the most pressures of any safety in

the National Football League with fourteen. Pro Football Focus has him in the top ten among all safeties in both coverage grade and pass rush grade, and his run defending grade also top twenty. So he's really well thought of by Pro Football Focus. First impressures and among safeties at least two hundred and fifty snaps and coverage this season. His fifty seven point one percent completion rate allowed his tenth best, and we've seen him coming on the last

few weeks as well as Brandon Jones. Real quick, I want to play some audio here from coach g a about Brandon Jones's comments last week how he and Javon Holland can kind of operate and communicate without even verbalizing their thoughts because they're on the same page and have developed that chemistry. Is that chemistry rare for a couple

of young players like this. You can see that those guys have a good report with one another, and again it all goes back just to the work that they put in um really from the start of the season.

And the more that those guys getting wrestled one another, the more that we're able to kind of go through new experiences with plays and games and in practice, and you know, I get a chance to kind of coach up certain things, and and so those guys, you know, have an opportunity to to to build that chemistry and

sometimes do some things. Not everything requires communication, and they don't got it just yet, but those guys are doing a really good job of, you know, building the chemistry back there and and ultimately the communication is always got to be on point. So one more to go here, Let's go to Lemiel John Pierre on Liam Eichenberg. Here's Coach Lamb on Leam Eikenberg's progress. The toughness is the

first thing that we knew about him. He has his meal of toughness about him, you know, like he always had his trade faces, always focused where you know, I'm always like, you know, just make sure of being a young rookie and playing a lot and loved out in the league, and maybe a player in this league's hard enough until he works his tail off. Extu Metis bottom Field called me texting me, and that's been really impressive being said the young guys from mature. He's not lost.

You know, we recruit, recruit or you any of you guys, you're like, hey, can you handle being in Miami. This guy's all ball. He's always been that way, and he's always kind of care himself that way. Where whatever help the team where you need to put that's fine with me. And he just wants to do his best for the team for the guys room. It's really important for him.

So I asked Coach also about how it kind of works on the line with regards to how your college production and the notoriety and what you have as far as technique and everything you do at that level, how it translates. And I framed the question like this. You know a lot of draft pundens thought Liam was a plug and play type of guy as anybody in this class could be, and really acknowledge level at which he

played from a technical standpoint. So I wanted to ask Lamb if it's something that you can translate or is it something where once you get to this level you have to start from the ground floor. Here's coach l you guys stout over. I mean, you'd like to see the thing in terms of the techniques, and you might like the he's They've done a great, great job. He came from Dame and developing just players there and the

people there. So now when I was fortunate to go to the pro day, it's really impressive just the guys there for sure. And so once you get the lead, those still a brain new animal. You see guys you know, from the smallest schools making the biggest impact because when you get here, I mean, the draft is nice novel. Once you get on this field, this field doesn't have a draft pick on it. You gotta go fight forwards what you need, and he does. He's working on it.

He's working as Crafty's studying it, and he's always trying to be improven every day, not just on game day, but he tries to focus from practice, even the small things. Right. So two guys we didn't touch on there. I did not forget Hunter Long or Blake Ferguson. I just wasn't able to get to coach Croftsman and coach at god C for a question on them. But we know that Blake has been a centerpiece for the team's unit and

Hunter's progress is happening more behind the scenes. So I don't have any data for y'all like right there, just as I don't for Jared Oakes and Larnel Coleman this year seventh round draft picks. But I think in total we proved that hitting on three impact players per year is really well above the league average. You stay in that ballpark, your roster is eventually going to bear that fruit. And we can't we can't sit here and call any of these guys, you know, your fire hits or mrs

at the stage, because that's not how it works. It's a long process. It's not a linear league. There are ebbs and flows, and all of these guys still have so much work to do to both maintain the level of success they've had to this point, but also and of course key among all of it, to improve and

become real difference makers. But after all that, can you look within both the one classes and say you feel good about at least three of those guys from both classes being a part of the long term solutions here? You know my answer, Let's go ahead and finish up with two more comments here because they were so good, actually three of them, one from Coach Clark on Christian Wilkins, then two from Coach Camp because well we haven't had a food take from Coach Camp in Awhile let's actually

start here with Austin Clark on Christian Wilkins. I think the biggest thing for Christian is just understanding. He now knows how to use his hands, what blocks he's getting, what type of pass rusher he is, and and he studies you know him and uh Seiler especially these guys study together and they do a great job of um on their own, you know, outside of just our meeting times and all this stuff we do with him. And uh, you know, he just plays really hard. I think that's

the thing you see with Wilkins. And you know, we're we're challenging him to each week. We you know, last week's over. We're all on the jets here and and we got to replicate that same effort. And uh, if he does that, I think you're just gonna keep growing. So there's Coach Clark talking about Christian Wilkins. Let's pick it back up here with one last coach commentary. Coach Anthony Campanelli didn't have any young guys really talked to

him about on that linebacker crew. But we can talk about Jerome Baker, who I thought showed so much in that game last week, and more so than nod to his overall versatility and willingness to do whatever the coaching staff asks of him. Here's coach Campanelli on Jerome Baker's versatility and playing more down off the edge. Last week. Yeah. Yeah, I think, um, I think he did a really good job. You know, ask him to jump into a different role

there are on a short week. Um, But I think that just speaks to the Like I've talked about the multiplicity of our defense before, and each guy kind of

understanding what what each position is asked to do. And I think because he has a good understanding of the system, he was able to step right in and do a good job and give us, um, you know, a bunch of a bunch of guys that can run on the field against the a team that does a really good job running the ball, and obviously with a good athlete at quarterback, so um, you know, each game plan calls

for different stuff. And like I said that, this last week, being a short week, I thought he did a good job being able to um, you know, play within the game plan and execute getting more speed on the field for a Lamar Jackson type and just kind of talks about or really speaks to the Dolphins ability to get their different game plans for different oppositions and different looks. And also Jerome Baker on a short week to be able to do that again just really points to his

preparation of what he means for this defense. One more question here for coach Campanelli, and you'll surely notice the uptick and his voice. He st right here as I talked about the food question because softa dean formally of a South Florida Sun Sentinel, no longer here to ask uh coach camp the food questions. But I had to ask him. We're not going to talk to him again before Thanksgiving. What does Thanksgiving look like in the Campanelli household?

You know what, my my wife, she does unbelievable job on Thanksgiving. I gotta give her the plug it there on that one. But but yeah, we gotta do something. You gotta do all the Italian food first and then you then you go for the bird and all that. Yeah, you gotta do that first. That's like you know, I remember, you know, I'm talking about something my friends about Dak growing up, and some guys didn't understand that all the

Tanik kids did. But you gotta eat that food first, and then you know antipas or macaroni was lasagnio or whatever, and then you have then you have to Thanksgiving food. Yeah, yeah, so my dad was a stickler for that. He didn't yeah, he was there was He wasn't budget on that. So I'm not sure if you heard that faint laugh there at the end of the question or what I said to coach, But but I basically told him I don't know how you guys do the full Italian and the

full bird thing. After that, I said, I wouldn't have any room for that in my frame. And you thought that much pretty funny. So good stuff there from all the coaches. I hope you guys learned something I sure as hell did. That's gonna be my time on this edition of Drivetime. We'll come back tomorrow and preview the Jets game. In the meantime, 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 Wingfield NFL. Follow the Dolphins at Miami Dolphins. Check out the fish Tank podcast with Hunter Goodwin. This week a great episode with Seth and o J. We're all going to beat the MetLife takeover as well, so come see us, I believe at Slatery's on Saturday and the tailgate on Sunday morning before the game. Also the YouTube channel for all the media availability as well as Dolphins Today and of course Miami Dolphins dot Com. Until next time finds up. Caroline Daddy is coming home,