Drive Time - Dolphins Seahawks Preview

coach Flores. Take a deep dive into this game. The preview looking at Sunday's opponent in the Seattle Seahawks, will detail their film, their personnel usage, their systems, the best matchups to highlight. We'll get to the injury report for both teams. And here from some of your Miami Dolphins. All of that and more on this Thursday, October the first edition of the Drivetime Podcast. Dolphins Support from Drop

Home comes from Auto Nation. There are so many reasons to drive pink, but for Auto Nation, there's only one to finish the fight against cancer. In fact, Auto Nation has helped raise over twenty five million dollars to drive out Cancer. To join the fight, visit the Auto Nation store near you or drive Pink dot com. And speaking of the fact that it is October, I mean, is there a better time of year than this for sports fans. We've got the NBA Finals, which you know, that game

didn't go the way we had hoped it did. The Lakers look a pretty good opponent for the Heat in the NBA Finals. Your Miami Marlins have a one game lead in the NL wild Card Series. There, We've got football on tap, the Jets and Broncos playing tonight on Thursday Night Football, and the South Park Pandemic special. There's so much good television, so much good available entertainment for us right now during this month. My favorite time of the year, and it happens to be my birthday month

as well, and my favorite holiday in Halloween. So October, here's to you, October the one. And with that, we have our first October opponent coming up in the Seattle Seahawks. And we have the report from Wednesday for the Seattle Seahawks and Thursdays for the Miami Dolphins. The Seahawks post there's later in the evening because they are a West Coast team. For the Seahawks, this list is too extensive to cover each and every one of them. There are

twenty five players listed on this list. I'm going to tell you who did not practice on Wednesday. Safety Jamal Adams was a d MP with a growing they had. Jordan Brooks, the rookie linebacker, did not practice with the knee. Dwayne Brown also didn't practice because of a knee injury. Cornerback Quentin Dunbar same story there knee injury, did not practice. Defensive tackle Poona Ford had a growing injury. He did not practice, and the story was the same for defense

Eve and Benson Mewia. So plenty of players on that Seahawks list. As for the Dolphins Thursday injury report, we have three upgrades from the Wednesday status. Is safety Clayton federaland was now a full participant with the pectoral injury. He looking to get back for his first game of his Miami Dolphins career. Cavon Frasier was again limited as

he was on Wednesday. Cornerback Xavien Howard went from limited to full on Thursday's practice, and Byron Jones went from d NP on Wednesday too limited on Thursday, where safety Brandon Jones once again a full participant in practice at quarterback to a talk about Lola did not practice. Let's go ahead and get to coach flores Is Thursday morning media availability. He spoke with reporters for about fifteen minutes, as he does each morning here on Wednesday through Friday practices.

Here is Coach Flora's talking first about the work of Christian Wilkins and what he has done to put himself in position to make plays and earn himself a lot of respect among this coaching staff works really hard really on a daily basis, um, in all areas in the weight room, conditioning, obviously football. UM. So he's he's definitely improved really from the day got here through his rookie year and he's continuing to improve. So UM, I'm really

happy with with with that improvement. UM. I think he just needs to continue to um do the things that he's been doing. Uh, he's getting more comfortable obviously, you know this being his I can you're in the league, um, having played, having a full season under his belt. So he's he's a he's much more comfortable, UM, you know with the system and how we want to do things. And I think he understands or what type of players he's going to see on a weekly basis, So um,

hopefully continues to get better improved. I know he works in a way that UM uh he should that gives him an opportunity to improve, and UM yeah, we're happy

with him. I think that comment there about Christian's work ethic and work habits, and if he continues to do what he's been doing, then he'll be just fine, as coach Flores says, And he has been just fine, been one of the most productive players on that defensive line through three games, had a really strong rookie season as well, leading all Ricky defensive tackles in tackles, and he also had the most pressures for an interior defensive lineman per

Pro Football Focus since the Steen season. So Christian Wilkins producing at the level you expect for a first round draft pick. And I think we will look back on Christian Wilkins one day as you know, the first pick obviously of the Brian Flora's regime. But he was a guy that you know, I recovered him with Locked on Dolphins that first year and going into his deep dive of his background learning about the kind of person he was,

the work ethic, the character that he displayed. You just love hearing that type of story workout in this league, and good things happen to good people because Christian definitely puts the work in and and puts himself in position, like Coach said, to to get in the right shape, to be prepared in the classroom to take it out

onto the football field. And I think we've seen that bare fruit so far for Christian Wilkins through the first nineteen games of his professional football career, and then of course obviously now that I'm here with the Dolphins talking to Christian on interviews and in player media availabilities. Just the bubbly personality, you can't go wrong with Christian Wilkins.

This guy, he just really he fits the mold of a Miami Dolphin, a professional football player, a guy who it's important to him and I just love watching this

guy play. So Coach Flora's talking there about Christian Wilkins as for a player who was drafted here before Brian Flora's under Chris career, but has earned his way onto the football field for over a thousand snaps last year and on track to do that here again in so far through three games if you can't tell, I'm writing a story on Jerome Baker that will be out there

today as well. But here's coach Flores's talking about Jerome Baker and what makes him so valuable and why he never leaves the football field or rarely leaves the field for just five snaps this year out of one and eighty two on that Dolphins defense. Uh, you know, Jerome's very athletic, tough, physical, he's a smart player. So there's really he can help us in a lot of different ways from a passwor standpoint, from a coverage standpoint. Just you know, he's got you know, let's call it every

down ability. So um, you know, we feel good when he's out on the field. He communicates well, UM, tackles well. It gives us a guy who's um athletic and you can can and can make some play so and that those are guys who I don't want on the field. So if you can, you can help us and a variety of ways. And he can do that, like I just said, from a that's called blitz standpoint, a coverage standpoint, uh run game standpoint. Then obviously he's got a lot of uh ability and he helps our team, so we'll

leave up there. Yep. The more you can do, that's been one of the themes under this coaching staff, under this regime, as guys that can play multiple roles and do multiple things on defense also helps you disguised, thanks too, because if you don't know which linebacker is coming on the blitz, who's gonna drop in coverage, who is liable to be kind of the free runner, the force defender in the running game, just helps you stay more versatile,

more complex for the offense to prepare for you. And we'll go ahead and make it short and sweet there on the Brian Flores Thursday morning, October the first media availability. Let's go ahead and getting nowt into the game preview. The Dolphins will host the Seattle Seahawks Miami one and two Seattle three and O. As you know by now Sunday at one o'clock Eastern at hard Rock Stadium. Temperatures call for eighty five degrees, fifty chance of rain, fifteen

wins and eight humidity. Who knows what it's gonna look like. It changes every single day out here. It was supposed to be Chili today, or at least compared to South Florida standards. I just went to the bathroom outside to the across the way to the restroom, and it was scorching hot out there. So you never know. But the interesting part of this matchup is that you know someone that has made the Seattle to Miami flights several times

in my life. Now it's a five hour flight from the west coming east, a six hour flight from the east going west because of headwinds and tail winds. I wasn't aware of that, but I learned that recently. But maybe that's why the Dolphins and Seahawks always have. These matchups come down right to the very end. In fact, the last five matchups going all the way back two decades back to two thousand for these cross conference and cross country foes that used to be in the same

conference but not anymore since two thousand to realignment. But in those five contests, the home team has claimed victory and each of them and in all five of those games, the final drive decided who was victorious on that particular day, whether it was the offense scoring points late or the defense bowing up in triumph. The last two contests went to the offense is getting the final touchdown or field

goal in sixteen. I was there in person for that game up at Century Link Field for the season opener. Thought the Dolphins had that game the Ryan Tannehill touchdown run and then Russell Wilson did what he almost always does, it seems like, in the fourth quarter and drove back down for the game winner to Doug Baldwin in that game, the one prior to that. We'll talk about that game, Sprinkler game in Miami, both Russell Wilson and Ryan Tannehill's

rookie year. We're gonna talk about that game on tomorrow's Flashback podcast with Anthony Fasano, so do not miss that. But in that game, Dan Carpenter put one through the uprights at the end of regulation to give the Dolphins a win in that game. But back to the President, the Dolphins are coming off a mini by week here played on last Thursday. Gonna have that ten day rest period, and that gives you a three day rest window between that time and when Seattle was preparing to get ready

for that Dallas game. And of course in that Dallas game, this Seahawks defense has allowed a league high one thousand, four dred and nine two yards. This season, they were on the field for eighty snaps in that game on Sunday. I think that's pretty significant when you consider the long travel, the playing for that long, getting yourself rested back and your body back into playing shape. It's a long recovery process. Eighty snaps is a lot. Typically it's sixty to sixty

five for most teams in a given game. And while the trends of that whole West Coast team coming east typically favor the home team going up against those Pacific time zone teams, the Seahawks are in pervious to that entirely. Since two thousand fifteen, Seattle is nine and one in games that kick off at one o'clock Eastern, and five of those victories came and trips last year to Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Carolina, so they are well versed. This team with

not much turnover from previous year. From the previous season to playing on the East Coast in that early time slot, and three of those games the Seahawks had to overcome halftime deficits. So starting fast is important, and that was one of the statue look out on these West Coast to East coast trips is that the West Coast team typically start slow, but generally speaking, the better team finds a way to win in the end most of the time in those games and in the NFL in general.

But it's gonna be important, I think for the Dolphin in this game to start fast and kind of help keep Russell Wilson on the sideline and also kind of keep the gap the foot on the gas pedal, because Wilson has twenty nine career game winning drives and fourth quarter comebacks over his eight year career, now into the ninth year, with three games under his belt in that ninth season. But of course, the hard Rock Stadium challenge is more than just long travel from the visitors. They

have to wear the blue jerseys. Dolphins are gonna be in the home whites Seattle and their home blues on that sideline, the visitors sideline that has direct sunlight, so interesting contests there. That's your set up to the game. As far as the Seahawks personnel, look, it goes back to the quarterback, right, Russell Wilson. You've heard Brian Fluores talk about him one of the best players in the game, if not the premier player in the National Football League.

And his numbers back that up. The tape backs that up pretty much every way you splice it. You can just look at Russell Wilson's one of the best quarterbacks, not just right now, but really of all time. Aaron Rodgers has the all time best passer rating at one oh two point seven. Russell Wilson's point four points behind that at one oh two point three. He protects the football one point eight percent career interception rate. That's really

good for a career. He piles up yards on the ground thirty one point two rushing yards per game over a nine year career. To do the math there over the course of what was it, sixteen games every every season and nine years, hasn't missed a game at five point six yards per clip there on the rush, and he has a penchant for explosive plays as well. He is number two behind Jared Goff in passer rating on throws twenty plus yards down the field at one forty

nine point three. Remember, the perfect passer rating is one fifty eight point three. Goff has five throws and has hit all of them. Russell Wilson's eight for twelve throwing in the football twenty or more yards down the field. Just absurd. It's absolutely absurd. But for the majority of his career he has operated in a balanced offense that has a really big emphasis on the run game. I'm sure you're familiar by now with the term let Russ cook,

and they have been letting him cook this year. Last year, the Seattle Seahawks running backs carried the ball three d and ninety six times. That's an average of twenty four point eight per game. This year, they run the ball sixty one times. That down to twenty point three rushes per game, so four and a half less rushes per game this year for the Seahawks, and Chris Carson has been the guy that has accounted for most of those rushes. He has of the running backs carries this season, but

his task for the game on Sunday is unknown. He suffered a mile od niece brain and Sunday's win over Dallas, we'll see if he's out there. If he's not, that leaves Carlos Hyde, who has sixteen carries for fifty seven yards this year, and Travis Homer, who has eight carries for thirty nine yards. Formerly of the University of Miami, as the Seahawks top backs. Now, the offensive line in front of Wilson has really improved, and that's been an

area of emphasis for them. They've gone after big mauling dudes. Brought in Mike you Potti from the Arizona Cardinals. Previously, they brought in Dwayne browner figures back in that trade with the Houston Texans, so they found a way to get that line beefed up. They signed Brandon Shill this year at right tackle. He's another really big body out there on the outside to replace George Fant who went to the Jets, and Phant two was a massive, massive human beings, so kind of a type cast there along

the offensive line. They have the seventh highest rated run blocking unit per Pro Football Focus. Last season, they were twenty in that department and run blocking Grade BOOKGND tackles. We talked about him, Dwayne Brown, and Brandon Shell. Those guys, along with Ethan Postage, have not missed a snap Postage the center out of l s U. There, Shell has the most pressures allowed with eight, and rookie Damian Lewis, another l s U product, has the second most with seven.

Both Lewis, though the guard and fellow guard Mike you potty suffered nice brains last week and did not return to that game, so we'll check on the status of those guards as the week goes along. Defensively, they could also be without star safety Jamal Adams, who had a groin injury last week and did not return. He has been an absolute you know you look at this trade feast or famine. He has been feast all day long for the Seattle Seahawks, getting pressure on the quarterback stopping runs.

He has the second most run stops on the team, behind Bobby Wagner and his replacement Delano Hill. Last week. He has allowed and average of better than twelve yards per past target over his last two years with fourteen games and four starts. There so interesting looking there at the Dolphins and Seahawks matchup, injuries and what the Seahawks

offer on a personnel standpoint. We just don't know exactly what it is right now because so many players are on that injury report with their status maybe up in the air. We'll find out more as the week goes along. As far as my top three matchups, as we do every week here on the Drivetime podcast as well up

on Miami Dolphins dot Com. And the Seahawks Dolphins week for a preview, and real quick before we get into that, this podcast is brought to you by Auto Nation, where Dolphins fans drive pink and helped raise over twenty five million dollars for cancer treatment and research. But back to the matchup highlights. Here, I'm looking first at the Dolphins pass catchers against the Seahawks back seven, we talked about the defensive yards allowed of the Seahawks through three games.

They really have two primary fixtures and then a mix of platoon players in that secondary. As far as snap counts are concerned. Right now, Shaquille Griffin there their best cornerback, has been on the field for nine of the defensive snaps and he typically stays to one side of the field. The Seahawks defense under Pete Carroll has been so consistent and so good for so long, and they operate pretty much in the same sy some You might recall the

famous Legion of Boom around that cover three. You've got Richard Sherman on one side, Brandon Browner or Byron Maxwell whoever was on the other side of the field with Earl Thomas kind of playing that deep center field and Brandon Browner or not Brandon Browner, uh Cam Chancellor down in the box making things happen that way. That was kind of the Jamal Adams piece right there. With that with the Cam Chancellor role on that defense, kind of playing in the box, playing all over the field, being

instinctive and being the enforcer of that defense. Pretty much the same thing here. But now we'll see if Jamal Adams can't play in this game. He was one of the other two primary fixtures with more than of the Seahawks defensive snaps. But in this last week, Shaquille Griffin, playing on that left side of the Seahawks defense, saw

Marii Cooper and Michael Gallup. He forced one in completion against each, but both guys caught two and three balls respectively for a total of nineties six yards that per Pro Football Focus. On the other side, you've got Trey Flowers, a long, tall, physical corner who was targeted ten times in the passing games so far this year for one

hundred and twenty nine yards. So I think it'll be interesting to see how the see how the Dolphins want to line up against that Seahawks defensive backfield to typically stay to their one side of coverage, and all three of the Seahawks games this year have been absolute shootouts, and if that's the path this game takes, it's going to be important, as Fitzpatrick talked about on Wednesday, to just be relentless and attack and finished drives in the

end zone. You cannot settle for field goals against teams like Kansas City, like the Baltimore Ravens, and especially not against the Seattle Seahawks offense with Russell Wilson on the other side, and that kind of aggressive mentality could make for an interesting fight between how the Seahawks want to defend Davante Parker, Preston Williams, Mike get Sicky as they afford Jachem Grant this Dolphin's deeper slew of pass catchers on that side of the ball and the Sundays win

over Dallas. Cedric Wilson had a really big day, including a forty yard touchdown that was matched up against kJ Wright, their linebacker, and Dallas went after right. In that game. He was targeted ten times for seventy nine yards and the touchdown. Of course, the one to Cedric Wilson. Three of those ten targets came up against wide against wide receivers of the Cowboys all completions for fifty four yards. So if they want to put kJ right on a receiver,

that might be a matchup. You look for for the seat for the Miami Dolphins offense going up against that Seahawks defense and that predominant Cover three look on the back end the second matchup, flip it over to the other side, Dolphins secondary up against DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett. Those guys don't leave the field. They both can flat out scoop. Mattcalf ran a four three three forty. Locket ran a four four forty back in their days of college or or post college days, I should say, and

it's evident by their deep prowess. Metcalf is the NFL leader in yards per catch at twenty four point eight with a minimum ten targets. He also has the most yards on deep throws over twenty or more yards. He has two hundred and twenty yards on such throws through just three games. Last season. For instance, Tyler Lockett finished eleventh in that category with three hundred and seventy nine receiving yards on deep throws. You take a quick glance

at the NFL next Gen Stats route charting. Metcalfs are both mostly gonna run vertical routes over routes kind of the same routes Buffalo tried to hit my Miami with On Stefon Diggs and and John Brown and those guys. You get off the release, you cross the formation and kind of use that speed and size and length to get position on the cornerback. He runs mostly crossing in deep routes, whereas Tyler Lockett kind of runs a little

bit of everything. He definitely gets vertical. He runs the kind of quick pivot routes with change of direction moving in and out. Metcalf averages two point four yards of separation per route run, with Lockett creating an average of

three point seven yards per route run. Locketts is the fifteenth best in the NFL and one point three yards better than Metcalf on the season, and the contrasting styles give the Dolphins options for how they want to shoot to defend the Seahawks to skill player attack these guys that barely ever leave the field. Xavian Howard's numbers so far through this season are reflective of his eighteen campaign, the last time he played a significant portion of the season.

He's limited quarterbacks to fifty four point five percent completion with a passer rating of seventy two point nine. Back in it was fifty point nine pass or percentage and sixty two point six passer rating, so he's right on

track to get back into that territory. And in consecutive weeks that year after he had two picks and back to back games, he also held Green Bays Davanta Adams and t Y Hilton to a kidbye two catches for forty four yards and a pick, So he can really defend the shifty, fast guy and t Y Hilton or Davanta Adams the bigger, craftier route runner like they have

up here in Seattle. So where he goes where rookie Nonogny goes, who also saw plenty of different styles in college, between Jamaar Chase, Jalen Waddle, Davonta Smith, Jerry Judy, I mean, Terrence Marshall, justin Jefferson, the list goes on and on and on there. For Ignogny at Auburn and now into the NFL, he did have a ninetie percentile explosive rating on his relative athletics scorecard at the scouting combine, so he can certainly change direction, run deep, and stay in

the hip pocket of those speedy receivers. How the Dolphins want to match that up. I find that to be very, very intriguing in this game. And finally, we gotta find a way to run the football man, because this defense of the Seahawks, they have been facing way more passes than running than the running games so far, and that's because they race out to leads of fourteen to three over the Falcons, seventeen over the Patriots, and thirty to

fifteen over the Dallas Cowboys. They have allowed thirteen hundred and three passing yards through three weeks. That's the most in the history of the National Football League through three games, but some context can be applied. Their opposing offenses have thrown the ball one hundred and fifty five times compared

to sixty seven rushing attempts, again because they're playing from behind. Now. Ideally, Miami can even that number with the balance by limiting Seattle's early scoring, keep him out of the end zone, and running the ball effectively. But it won't be easy because PFF has Seattle as the top graded run defense and that's not accounting for just yards gained. It accounts for their grade system, which I don't know how it works,

but that's what they have. And that's spearheaded by future Hall of Famer or potential future Hall of Famer Bobby Wagner. He's got twenty six tackles this year, eleven run stops. He's only missed one tackle attempt. That's just kind of his game, fast, physical, instinctive, one of the best players, one of the most fun players to watch in the National Football League for my money, and the defense and total of Seattle has seventeen tackles for a loss on

those sixties seven rushing attempts. So they're breaking in and getting stops on the running game quickly and often. And you have to just commit to this run and force the Seahawks to honor it for four quarters, to stay true to it so they can't rush the passer with their ears pinned back, and also force them into the deep,

deeper portions of that defensive line rotation. Their top five snaptakers on the defensive line so far have seven hundred and thirty five snaps played, but only to nineteen against the run. Keep them honest keep it balanced, keep them guessing. That's gonna be a big key. The Dolphins have eighty five rushing attempts this year. That's fifteenth most in the NFL.

Miles Gaskin leads the team with one hundred and fifty two rushing yards, and his average yards after contact of three point oh a also leads the Miami Dolphins running backs. Joachim Grant has eight yards after contact, but he has one rush on the season, so not quite qualifying there. As far as the Seahawks system and scheme, look, they've been who they they are who they are, and that's how they've been for a long time under Pete Carroll,

under Brian Schottenheimer. On the offensive side of the football, they just make no bones about who they want to be. They have one hundred and eighty snaps this season. One eighty of those come out of either eleven or twelve personnel. Eleven personnel is one back, one tight end, three receivers. Twelve personnel is one back, one tight end or two tight ends rather and two receivers. Metcalf and lock It are on the field for nine and nine percent of

the offensive snaps, respectively. The third receiver David Moore is out there for forty eight percent, so Metcalf and Lockett don't leave. David Moore is a fifty fifty player, and typically this means you have to match the heavier personnel because you want to get more linebackers and more a linement to deal with big tight ends like Will Disley, like Greg Olsen, and how Brian Flores and defensive coordinator Josh Boyer want to call this game to match Seattle's personnel.

That to me is an intriguing battle within this game, and the aforementioned matchup between the Dolphins pass catchers versus Seattle's back seven on defense can really be further explained through Seattle's defensive deployment. Seattle ranks sixteenth in the NFL this year utilizing dime packages on defense at six defensive backs at eleven percent clip for Seattle. For comparisons sake, the Dolphins run that run that package at more than

double that rate at twenty three point eight percent. So if the Dolphins go four wide, or if you get yourself in a situation where you are in eleven personnel, for instance, with Mike Gisicky as the tight end, you might find a linebacker on a receiver or on Mike Gisicky. Again, that's where Kasicki has kind of made a bunch of money this year so far, taking the top off the defense against safeties and linebackers. The Seahawks blitz on thirty

six point four of their defensive snaps. That's from Pro Football Reference. They ranked twenty two and sacks twenty one, and hurry rate sixteenth and pressure percentage, but seventh in quarterback knockdown rate. And just to finish up this preview and go ahead and check it out on Miami Dolphins dot com as well. The Dolphins lead the all time series with Seattle with a record of nine and four. Each of the last five games came down to the last score between the Dolphins and Seahawks. A few notes

from some players here. Linebacker Jerome Baker can become the first Dolphins linebacker since Channing Crowder in two thousand five through two thousand seven to notch two hundred and fifty tackles in their first three seasons. He needs twenty more tackles to reach that landmark, so he needs a big game to do that. But with only twenty tackles to go in in thirteen more games to play, he should be able to get to that level here pretty quickly Sunday.

If Eric Flowers makes the start as we expect him to, it will be his seventy five career start, a big milestone for him, and Bobby McCaine will make it seventy five career games play if he is out there for the ball being snapped on Sunday, which we expect him to be as well. And then with fifty three receiving yards, Mike get sicky. We talked about him a lot. He can eclipse one thousand receiving yards in his career with

fifty three yards in this game. As always, we're gonna recap this game on Sunday night, both on Miami Dolphins dot Com and on the Drivetime podcast with yours truly, Travis Wingfield. Check out all of our content flashback podcast tomorrow, countdown to Kickoff on Saturday, and actives on Sunday morning, and then of course tweeting through the game and the recap podcast with the audio and the sound from John con Jemmy the three takeaways from the game, as well

as the recap up on the website. So plenty of content coming your way. Let's go ahead and finish out this podcast by hearing from a couple of Dolphins players who spoke to the media on Thursday afternoon, and we go real briefly here to Dolphins linebacker e land and Roberts, who was asked about a fellow linebacker and cammu, Gruge Hill. Yeah, me and Karma were drafting in the same class in New England, so we always had a relationship on and

off the field. Comma was a great guy man, you know, I'm pretty sure that's what you get in front of everybody. You know, he comes to work there, they worked hard, you know, off the bill, he's exciting, got to be around and stuff like that. So that's my guy. Hey, Landon, wanted to ask you about this Sunday's matchup with the Seahawks. We'll see who's out there, but I know they've got a couple of guys like Mike you potty that can really roll up on that second level and kind of

bring that physical mentality. Is that something that you really embrace as a player that really takes pride in your own physicality going up against a team that wants to kind of smash you in the mouth, too. You know, that's what the game is all about, you know, as his physical aspects to you know and whatnot in is football. So just come to play and we stay in the

position group. Here with Dolphins linebacker Jerome Baker, who I first had a chance to ask about any offseason activity he had with regards to his charities, giving back, working in the community, and how much of a challenge it was to get that stuff done despite the COVID pandemic. Uh. Yeah, so a lot of my events, Um, they didn't get canceled either, they either got uh you know, changed quite a bit. Um, I had to back back it away

at my high school. It was originally supposed to be a camp um and everything, but you know, it's the pandemic. We just decided to get backpacks away in Um. That's pretty much all we did. So it was hard. It's definitely still hard, but you just gotta find different ways to I'm trying to be safe and to get through. Next, Jerome was asked about the rookie offensive lineman, but he took that as an opportunity to talk about the entire Dolphins rookie class and how they brought in the right

type of players this offseason. Yeah, so uh, just right off the back, you know, they go hard, um, and they're willing just to get better. Um, they don't matter who who they're going up against. They're not afraid to ask questions. Um. Pretty much most of our rookies, they all just come in and, um, pick everybody's brain and just do things right way. And uh, you know guys like that just come in and had that hunger to him.

You can just tell them and I had success and you can just tell you know, our online has definitely got better, and uh, it just continues to get better. I talked to the other day about Mike Kasicki and Derma Smith getting extra work on Tuesday, the player day off, and the previous week I mentioned it was Miles Gaskin who I saw running on the ladder drills and getting some extra work in on the practice field. Well, now I have a good what's the word I'm looking for here?

An alibi someone looking back on my story up. Here's Jerome Baker on Miles Gaskin and the work the Dolphins running back puts in every single day, doing more than the coaches ask of him. Uh. If if you've been around here, you're not surprised at all about myles. Um. I mean he goes hard. Um, he's smart and I you know, he truly works hard. You know, not just during practice, but you know outside of practice even you know this week, you know, we had a few days off.

I come in and just do some stuff in here. He's on the field, Um, doing ladder drills, running. Uh. I mean he's a guy that he do way more than what they ask him. You know. For me, I'm happy to see guys like that just to work hard and get what they deserve. And for him it's more carries. But nobody's if he's been hearing, nobody's surprised. You know, one of the ones he does great, and one of ones pass press protection he does it awesome. Might surprise

for me. I'm definitely happy for Hey, Jerome, I've been looking back at some of your snap counts over the last couple of years, and you pretty much play every snap and you do come off the field sometimes. I'm curious if when they call you off the field for the couple of snaps a year that you do miss, are you kind of like, no, I don't want to do that, or like, is it just it's hard to

get you off the field. Uh. Some of the times it's it's a little hard, just simply because um, you can be going, you only can get you know, playoff two plays off, I change your energy more to run off the field and run back on and you really don't get no water. You just pretty much just running off the field for nothing. Uh. Overall it's good. Um, I just try to stay healthy, trying to you know, stay ready, to try to stay in the best shape

I can. That's just a credit too. And we heard Josh Bowyer earlier this week talk about the great physical condition Jerome stays. And you heard him talk during the Miles gasket a little soliloquy there that he comes in all his days off, gets a little extra work in there as well. So crowd to Jerome Baker and the types of players this Dolphins personnel staff and coaching staff brings into the building to kind of set that moved to that mentality of how to work in the National

Football League. Up next, Jerome was asked about the improvement in Week three against the Jacksonville Jaguars compared to the first two weeks defensively and what maybe went in to that production on the defensive side of the football. We're starting to jail together. We're starting to really understand, you know, every guy's strength and weaknessis so that just comes with time and we definitely he's moving in the right direction

when it comes to that. I know that, you know, the dbs, they're happy because you know, all it helps all of us. So you know, it's starting to come together. But we just gotta constantly just improve and get better. We're doing that. So we keep hearing these opinions from the veterans on the younger players. Let's go ahead and here next from Dolphins receiver Preston Williams on what makes no Anogamy a good cornerback at this level in the

National Football League. You know, you got all the tangibles and know to be you know, great quantings league one day. Now you don't right now your stuff learning. Uh, but you know he's he's a real patient, you know, but don't be already quenty really patient. Um, you're gonna get hands like he's very physical. I like, I like no idea. I think he's gonna be a great ball player in the years it comes, and no real context with us.

Next bit here but I just wanted to go ahead and play it press and talking about how this is a league full of contested catches. The league is full of contested catches and know a lot of dvs pretty pretty good. It's talk about creating space and making contested catches. So that's one thing we just always gotta do. Always gonna probably be a contesticated with dB in the area.

So let's go ahead and finish up media availabilities with the player who covers Preston Williams and practice in cornerback Byron Jones, who first was asked about how you feeling, man, That feel really good. Um, rehab has been going up to it's been on schedule, which is great. Um, honestly, just day by day, I felt really good today. So

we'll see we're at. And how about a thorough breakdown here of the Seahawks passing game with Russell Wilson, DK Metcalf, Tyler Lockett and all weapons they have on that offensive side of the football. Yeah, they have a really good receiving corps and it's really the combination of the receiving corps and also the quarterback and how he can get the ball to those receivers. So as we've seen in the past three games, Um, they're they're taking deep shots

and um they're getting big explosive play. So as the secondary really has a defense, our job is to eliminate and really minimize those deep shots in those big plays. So, UM, they have fast guys, that have strong guys, that have savvy events. UM, and it's really impressed it to watch Russell and how I can pinpoint through deep ball. So that's something that we have to take care of going

into the game. And next we hear from Byron on going through the paces of the rehab process and what that's like from his perspective a player who just hasn't missed much time in his NFL career. We just got to keep running to the paces. So you know, today was a really good challenge today with what we did, um, and the tomorrow is gonna even be a bigger challenge. So as we go along, you continue to push yourself, you gain that confidence and you start and you go

to sixty. Um, it's just about the workload and the speed and how the recovery is and how I feel the next day. But I say we're on a good track. Hey, Byron. You mentioned that playing long enough in this league, you're gonna get hurt, but you've not really missed a lot of games in your pro career. And something I've heard before is that sometimes it helps a player to kind of get mental reps in from the sideline. Have you had any of that experience the last couple of weeks. Oh,

of course, you know. I I mean I played every single game since I've been in the league. I missed my last game last year, which was the first game I've ever missed. Um, But this year, this is the first time I've had to prepare throughout an entire week knowing, um that I wasn't gonna play on last Thursday. So UM that that was different. It was actually, um, it was just it was just different. It's something that didn't

go through. Actually called one of my past friends who who's gone through in the past, and he's gonna He's given me some really good advice, and um, it's just like you said, it's really going through the mental reps, putting yourself to the caces. It's seeing how play will

develop on the left side of the field. On the right side of the field, you get a chance not just to focus on your matchup, but you get a chance to really focus on Okay, what would it look like from at the nickel position or from the left corner position at the right corner position. Um, so it really does give you that exercise, that mental exercise that

really keeps you sharp. And uh, you know, just I'd probably taking more notes now than I typically do, but just trying to keep my mind and my body fresh. We'll go ahead and finish up the media availability here with two final questions for Byron Jones. They both threw on the same topic about playing with xaviing Howard and playing in this Dolphins defensive secondary and what they expect going forward. Yeah, we're still wrong. Um, there's no question

about that. We have no who's a really talented young rookie, but he just hadn't seen a lot. But I can tell you this, Um, you know, he's probably one of the most impressive young guys I've seen a very long time. And the way he approaches the game, you know, it's this kid is here early. He's early with the coach

looking at film, he's they're late. Um. The way he practices and the way he really approaches practice is really impressive for a young guy to understand that, and for me just to see X when he came back towards the end of camp. I think his first couple of days he got like two or three picks. I'm like, you can see his playmaking ability right away. UM, So it's it's gonna be special, but it's gonna take work. UM.

You really have to bond together as a unit. It's not just about having, UM just really good players on the roster. You really have to develop a bond and really developed that level of communication. UM, that can really lead us to a different level. Um, there's a lot more than just the physical talent. There's a lot of

mental talent. There's trusting each other, knowing that this person is going to be where he's supposed to be, UM, knowing yet inside help, outside help, wherever, whatever it may be. So we're still developing that. But that's a fun challenge going through the year. Yeah, and then that's the that's the that's the exciting part because there's there's really no

timetable on that, there's no script to it. Um. As I watched more films with him and of him, I understand more about him and the same thing and the

same things for for him watching me. Um, And there's really no timetable to it is just playing, getting as many reps as you can, you know, talking you know in the locker room about it, talking you know, off the field about it, talking while you're on the field about it, or whatever play you saw, how you feel about it, how you're gonna play this, how you're gonna play that. Um, it's just it takes time. But there's no timetable. So that's just something you work on every

single day, you know, every single day. Let's keep working on this, let's keep getting right, and let's keep are parents so that we can be great. And that was obviously about rookie cornerback Noah Abenogamy at first, and then at the end there about xaviering how we're talking about how it takes time, but there is no timetable. Interesting

stuff there from the Dolphins cornerback. Before we get out of here on this Thursday preview edition, real quick, while checking on the Jets and Broncos tonight on Thursday Night Football, that's one of your a f C East games over the weekend. Then we have a couple of four kickoffs in the other parts of the division. Chiefs and Patriots. What a clash that's gonna be in the a f C East putting against the former Super Bowl champions of

last season and Patrick Mahomes there for the Patriots. And then the Buffalo Bills versus Las Vegas Raiders in that game, the three and oh Bills up against the two and one Raiders. Good matchups all the way around the division this weekend. We'll be excited to get those things covered for you guys on Drive Time next week tomorrow we have the Flashback podcast. Don't forget to check that out. As for this podcast, for my 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, Go ahead and give me a follow on Twitter at Wingfield, NFL fallow the team at Miami Dolphins check out the Fish Tank and the Audible podcast, and of course Miami Dolphins dot com. We have the game preview, the Jerome Baker feature, and top news all up on the website today for you guys. Until next time finds up