Drive Time - Fitzpatrick Returns

Back on the field for this Monday, as we are just thirteen days out from kickoff in New England against the Patriots. We're gonna hear from Coach Flores a few selected Dolphins players after practice, and of course get you caught up on everything in between here and the latest from Davy here. All of that and more on this Monday, August the thirty one edition of the Drivetime Podcasts. It

is the last day of August. Tomorrow is the beginning of the second best month on the calendar for my money, October taking the title here for best month out of the year in a normal year, at least that is with the middle of the NFL calendar, the start of conference play in college football, the MLB Playoffs, Halloween just around the corner, and of course, the best weather back where I'm from, back home in the Pacific Northwest, on

the entire calendar. Might have to revise that, now that I'm a South Florida man, which month here is the best for weather? I'm gonna go ahead and assume it's February, maybe March, you guys tell me. But enough about the weather. Let's go ahead and talk about coaches media on Monday morning. But first, before we do that. As the official wellness provider and sports medicine provider of the Miami Dolphins, Baptist Health is ready and committed to continue caring for you safely.

This pandemic has reminded us that crisis doesn't build character, it reveals character. It's also taught us that our health is truly what matters most. We have the power to protect each other by wearing a mask. So who do

you wear a mask for? Mask up, South Florida, Keep caring, live healthy, stay strong, and learn more at Baptist Health dot net slash coronavirus and let's go ahead and get to Brian flores Is Monday morning Media availability he spoke to the media for about ten fifteen minutes, and last year I spoke with my buddy Kevin durn We know who he is at Kevin m d four on Twitter.

He writes for Dolphins Talk these Days. We talked about how when football is around the corner, or when there's a game on tap, or it's getting closer, there's a bit more of a jovial look from Brian Flores. And maybe I'm talking out of my backside here, but I just noticed he seems a little more jazz, a little more, a little more smiling at the camera during these media availabilities,

a little more joking with the media. So I thought this one was a great media availability from Brian Flores, kind of joking back and forth with some of the reporters. Let's go ahead and start off here with a question to update you on the status of Ryan Fitzpatrick. So fitz was back in bil this morning. Spront listen it so fits is back. That's obviously great news to hear. Looking forward to seeing him on the field with his

teammates up next. Coach was asked about relationships with players that were here last year, how those evolved from year one to year two, and also how he developed relationships with the players who are in their first year under a Brian Fluores program. I think it's like, um, any relationship, you have friendships, relationships over time. He raised relationships involved evolves. Excuse me. You know, the players who were here a year ago, they're more comfortable with me. I'm more comfortable

with them. Um. And you know what, the new players that are here, you just you know, uh, you put the time in and get to know them, get to know them on the field, off the field, some of their quirks are trying to build, build that trust, build that camaraderie. So it's been uh, obviously, you know what, a year later, some of those relationships are stronger than they were a year ago, which, you know, I think that's the way should be. I'm sure it is that.

I think that's the way it is in most relationships. We've talked before on this podcast about the number of first and second year players on this Dolphins roster. I think it last time I checked, it was thirty eight, but that number could have gone up or down a couple of spots because of some recent roster news and roster movements. I should say and so Flora's talks about the importance of finding out about how each guy responds

to different situations. You hear him talk about what guy's quirks are and how you coach players differentely that way. And so this roster has plenty of rookies, plenty of young players, but it also has some guys that came over here that had pre existing relationships with Brian Flores, like a Kyle van Noy, like e Land and Roberts Cammu, Gruge Hill, some players that can kind of come over here and help the coaching staff communicate that message and

what's expected of players on this young roster. Next we get health updates on Xavien Howard and Davante Parker obviously ex coming off of the knee, uh, just coming off of p P COVID conditioning. And then just those fundamentals, those techniques and footwork and hand placement, and everyone takes for granted that people just think just happened. Um, he needs to work on those and he he has been, uh,

but he needs to kind of work work on those techniques. UM, work against the receiver, you know, work with his teammates. From the communication. I think a lot of people, you know, just kind of take those things for granted. Um, I know he doesn't know. He's working diligently to get in and get those reps, and he has talked about it, and he's anxious to get in there because he knows he needs him and I think he'll he'll work, it'll

work towards get to where he needs to be. And look, if we feel like he's he's ready to go a week one and we'll let him go. And if we feel like he's not, then you know, we'll make the decision when we get to that point. As far as Davante, uh like he's working, you know, every day to get

back out there as soon as he can again. Yeah, you know, he's he's been through some of the training camp and some of the conditioning and some of the fundamentals and techniques and uh, you know, when you're out a couple of days, you just don't want to lose those which if you don't practice them, you know, they start to you start to lose them a little bit. Um. But he's built up enough or I feel like he's built up a good a good amount so that uh, you know, he hopefully he can kind of get right

back to it. He will lose a little bit, but then he can get right back to where he was

and continue improving and elevate. Hopefully I will elevate. I've talked about how I thought xaviing Howard looked on the practice field and the individual drills and the warm up sessions, and you hear a coach they're talking about how he is working diligently to get back to his full strength when it comes to conditioning in the strength and and working on the fundamentals and the techniques and how those things can be taken for granted but not on this

football team. And x is working hard in those areas, and personally, I just can't wait to see him get out there with Iron Jones and Noah Ignogny and Nick need Um and Bobby McCain and Eric Rowe and Brandon Jones and Cavan Fraser. Think the secondary has a lot of nice parts, a lot of guys that can do different things. So excited to see how they turn out and how they look when this is all, when this all comes together and everybody's healthy on the field together.

As far as Davanta Parker, you heard him talk about how Davanta was out here during the early portions of camp, so he doesn't have as much ground to make up. But of course it's important to get back out there, to try to get back and sustain the level that he felt Parker was at before he missed a few practices in a row. So Parker, Exavian, we'll get We'll get attendance on those guys for you here in just

one second. Up next, coach was asked to evaluate practice on Saturday and how he felt the team performed after watching the tape on you know, I was starting to pick in the kicking game, so um, I thought our specialists, m you know, played well, I mean, had a couple of really good punts. Jason kicked the ball. Well, we got some good snaps out of Blake. Just from you know, the phases, I thought, you know, working our techniques and fundamentals and communication you know on punt and punt return,

kick off, kickoff return. So again, still a lot of work to do there, but I thought it was, you know, a step in the right direction, and it's always good to you know, get onto the stadium field and you know, work through those phases, uh offensively, you know, from no line standpoint. I thought, uh, you know, we made a few moves there. We played Robert Hunt with some different guys played so some different guys. It was good to get you know, Hunt up there with with you know,

some of those more veteran players. Um, so that was good. I thought he played well. Um again, I thought all you know, the line as a whole, um played well, you know, both units that were out there. Uh, but you know, we can always get better communication, a little bit better fundamentals technique. You know, the quarterbacks were played well. Ou there, they made some good decision I think they made some not some good decisions defensively. I'm not gonna

go through the whole thing. And then just could quickly defense of league. Um again, you know, just communication. A couple of instances where we you know, have the wrong amount of people on the field. So again we gotta get that cleaned up. Until they played hard at these conditioning was you know, okay, still needs some improvement, but just you know, we've still got a long way to go. All the days it kind of running to get whatever practice their tune or something like that. So they're working

and trying to get better. Some interesting notes are about the offensive line. Two rookies he mentioned Robert Hunt and Solomon Kiley. We'll talk more about them here in just a moment on the podcast, But we heard coach earlier, was it last week or maybe the week before that, talking about how this season is going to be unique and that they might do more combinations on both the offensive and defensive side when it comes to regular season

games and trying to get more guys involved. He talked about the rotation on the offensive side of the football with the quarterbacks, how they're trying to rotate each quarterback with different lineups on the offense, not just first team, second team, third team, so it's been a unique approach. Coach addresses it. Their coach also address us. Is here a comment he made earlier last week about not being a good recruiter. Here's coach talking about where that comment

came from. I've never I've never been in college football. That was the first kind of I thought, the king of mind, And it's probably just me being self deprecating to be honest with you. Uh probably you know, if I wasn't college to be, I feel like I probably wouldn't be uh a great recruiter. I like to be hard on guys. That's not a big part of recruiting what I hear, so, but I don't know much. That's

kind of where that came from Stephen. So you hear him talking about being hard or being difficult on players, especially young players. Here is coach talking about a trend on social media about the looks he gives to ray Kwon Davis on photos that capture him in the rookie Here's coach talking about those smiles, those looks, and how we should has ray Kwon Davis, how he feels about how coaches to him on and off the field. Yeah, I don't know if Rake won't say that, So am

I gonna ask him? If I'm always smiling at him? Someone catches a pick, Sure at the right time, Rake Won happens to be in the in the area. It's a good picture. And I mean, have got sent to me a few times. I could see, uh where someone can get a few last night. I'm not sure Rake Korn feels like I look at him with that much admiration on a daily basis. You should ask him now, or any of the rookies to be honest with you.

Speaking of rookies in college football up next, Joe Shadow of the Palm Beach Post pulled out a reference to the Austin p Central Arkansas game that took place the other night. Stayed up late and watched that game on Saturday night and talked about how one of the teams had to use their fourth long snapper because of COVID type of contingencies they had to go ahead and enact.

He asked coach about any possible contingencies at the long snapper position and who might be in line to fulfill that role should something happen to Blake Ferguson, Should we be without Blake Ferguson and need to find a backup long snapper. This is something we talked about at length. So we've got three other guys who can snap on the team, you know, the most interesting one of the three was Mac Collins. I didn't realize that so that

was it was. But the more you can do in this league, uh and obviously this year in a pandemic, we've got to be ready to go, you know, at all positions, you know, especially um as as a long snipper position. What you don't want is to have a situation where you don't have anybody to you know, long or short snap. So um, no one really kind of take it for granted until it's until it's an issue. So um, but we we we We've had that conversation for sure, joke as well as at all positions, but

definitely long sniper, definite pointer kicked. It's something we've thought about. First. My apologies for having the laptop keyboard right next to my microphone there for the recording of that. You picked up a lot of the audio there. Kind of sounds like a real press media availability though in a non COVID situation when you're gonna have reporters sitting in front of coach as he addresses the media, and you would hear that laptop clicking in a normal season, So maybe

I'm not too apologetic about it. Up next, Coach talks about the depth of the running back room and how he feels about all five guys in that room. Uh, well, I feel good about you know, um really all five guys. You know, Salvin just who just got him Salving, I mad and um, you know looking forward to see him, you know what he can do today. Um, it is really just being his first time out there. Um. But Laird and Gasking and Brita and Jordan's um. All four

guys are capable, all competitive guys. All have you know, some role in the kicking game. UM, and there are different styles back. You know, I'm comfortable with with with any of the five guys. UM, well, four guys. I've been seen Salven you know close and up close. Yet, yeah, I'm comfortable with all guys. I think. You know, they're hard there. It's a hard working group and a competitive group.

Those are the things I'm looking for. They run hard to get their fast uh, they'll block, catch the ball out of the backfield. Looking forward to seeing what they can do. Thirteen days you hear a coach talk about the diversity of that running back room. All five guys can do something different. Obviously, Chandler Cox the big banger as far as the full back go is knocking guys out of holes and creating space for the running backs. Matt Breta one of the fastest players in the National

Football League. We've talked about Jordan Howard's patients and vision and power on this podcast relentlessly. You know, I'm a big fan of Miles Gaskon how he can make that one quick cut jump and get off to the races. I think Salvin Achmed is a good running back as well. He definitely hurt me and some Apple cups at Washington State. A big you Dub guy there. He and Myles Gas can share the load at you Dub and he caught

plenty of passes there as well. We'll go ahead and finish up this portion of Brian Flores's Monday morning media availability with a question about soft tissue injuries and the emphasis on hydration, nutrition and how the Dolphins prepare for that type of thing in a shortened training camp. We're constantly emphasizing hydration, stretching, getting the training real room, cold tubs, hot tubs, nutrition, you know, it all plays a role

in it. Something I talked about really every day. They're probably sick of hearing me, you know, say it, but I say it every day. Um Oderation testing. I know it's been a little bit of an issue around the league. I know that, you know, coming off of and the the lockout year, it was an issue. So we tried to do everything you know, we can from an education standpoint to help educate them to do all the things we can to prevent them Obviously, it's football and things happen.

All we can do is educate them let the chips fall where they may. So we're gonna go out there in practice and try to get better and improve hopefully, you know, from a soft tissue standpoint, and we make it out. We make it out clean every day. So there he goes, There goes Coach Flores for his Monday

morning media availability. That marks the point of practice where media is only available for the first fifteen minutes, So we're gonna go check it out, see who's out there, who's playing, who's on the field, and we'll come back and finish up this podcast with player availability and some oats on some of the players coach talked about there in his presser this morning, and then we got onto the practice field for the warm ups and stretching portion

of practice, a little bit of individual drills. But as we turn to the regular season form of practice now that means no media after the first fifteen minutes, so no practice updates for you guys. From here forward. We're gonna be talking about this team, some of the individual players and the evaluations of those players. Will get into some regular season content next week as well. Here, but we do have media availability coming up with some players.

But as far as what we saw on the football field, Ryan Fitzpatrick is in fact back out there in his red fourteen jersey along with the other quarterbacks to and Josh Rosen. And then also in a red jersey is Patrick Lair, the running back who injured his shoulder last week. He was out there pre scrimmage for workouts and did not participate in the scrimmage, but he is back out here again on the field on Monday in the red no contact jersey, not in pads, but out there working

on the exercise bike. Was number nineteen. Jachem Grant. He will not practice on Monday. I did see Xavien Howard over there. He's back practice once again getting some individual instruction as coach Floras talked about building up some of those fundamentals and some of those key aspects of the game that everybody has to learn at every position and especially at that cornerback spot for Xavien Howard. So he

is back in working some roster updates. The Dolphins waived James Crawford, the linebacker in his place as receiver Andy Jones. He war number eight on the practice field. You might recognize that name. He's been with the Dolphins previously and in number forty five running back Solving Ahmed out of University of Washington. He was out there on the practice field as well. No DeVante Parker, he was absent, No

Jonathan Hubbard, and no Kirk Merritt. So those three still down not practicing on Monday, and without having practice notes to cover, I want to just talk about a few of the players that Brian flora Is mentioned in his Monday morning media availability, and we start with quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, and I go back to a quote from last training camp when he spoke to the media and said this quote, I think in the last four or five years, I've really gotten better every year, and I think, as funny

as that sound ounds, I think my best football is still ahead of me. And quote there for Fitzpatrick, and I've talked about that on this podcast, how his timing, his repetition of all these different offenses, of all these different play calls has really allowed him to just play with the ultimate anticipation, the ultimate confidence. And the first thing I said when watching Fitzpatrick's tape back in twenty

nineteen when the Dolphins signed him from Tampa Bay. Was that he trust his eyes as well as any quarterback I had watched in recent memory. He sees it, he lets that thing fly, and he plays with that gun slinger mentality, and it's certainly benefited guys like Preston Williams and DeVante Parker, and both of those guys vertical skill sets last season. Now, I do want to make it a point to say that I don't believe that that Williams and Parker are the same player by any stretch

of the imagination. I think Parker's game is more about elevating and pulling the football down when he does get vertical. I think Preston Williams is more about creating separation and getting open that way and kind of attacking the football and stride. So difference employers, even though they have similar body compositions. But just to go back to fitz Patrick's comment here about playing the best football of his career,

listen to these stat lines. From two thousand five rather through two thousand thirteen, he had a fifty nine point eight percent completion percentage, six and a half yards per attempt, four point one touchdown rate, and three point six interception rate and a passer rating of seventy seven point five. Now from nineteen the last six seasons where Fitzpatrick says he feels like he's getting better at this point of

his career, here's his numbers over that stretch. Sixty point eight percent completion and improvement there, seven point four yards pertempt up almost a full yard, a four point eight touchdown rate up point seven percent, and a three point one interception rate down a half of percent there, and at eighty six point three passer rating that is almost ten points better than what it was the previous portion

of his career. But you narrow that focus to the last couple of years with Tampa and the last season with the Miami Dolphins, he had a sixty three point five percent completion percentage, seven point nine yards per attempt, a four point nine touchdown rate, and a three point three interception rate with a passer rating of nine point four. You can quantify his tangible progress at this point of his career, like he mentions, and if you even want to boil that down to a more specific sample size.

Once he was inserted back into the lineup last season, in Week six, he threw nineteen touchdowns compared to just nine picks. He had a completion percentage of sixty three point one percent, and he rushed for two hundred and twenty nine yards and four touchdowns on twelve carries. That twelve game stretch produced twenty three total touchdowns for Fitzpatrick. That's a rate of one point nine two touchdowns per game.

That's the franchise's highest single season touchdown rates since Dan Marinos one point nine three touchdown rate, so a one hundred of a point higher than Fitzpatrick back in and from Week six on, Fitzpatrick was the tenth highest graded passing quarterback in the NFL courtesy of Pro Football Focus. When you factor an overall performance and grades, he was twelve.

That of course accounts for rushing as well, so like I like Lamar Jackson might jump up there, but also fitzpat or two because he ran the ball very well.

He ranked second and first downs over that stretch of play, eleventh and touchdown passes, and a Cumulatively, he was sixteenth graded quarterback on Pro Football Focus last season among quarterbacks with at least twenty down field throws, Fitzpatrick ranked ninth and passer rating on passes that traveled over twenty yards in the air on throws in which the ball came out in less than two and a half seconds. Fitzpatrick's

fourteen touchdown passes were sixth best in the NFL. He also had the seventh most completed air yards and football that according to pro to player profile dot com, rather and ranked thirteen and completion percentage while under pressure. He finished eighth in rushing yards per game among quarterbacks and fourth and touchdowns on the ground. And just to kind of finish this thing off here, you go back to the tape from last season we talked about the anticipation rips.

I think you go back to the touchdown pass Devanta Parker, the first of two against the Giants in Week fifteen, to watch the way he's able to see what the defense is going to do before the ball is even snapped, based upon their pre snap look, and he lets that thing fly with that confidence. It led to the big improvement in his numbers, the Dolphins improvement on the offensive side of the football, and of course that five and

four finish to end the season. So Ryan Fitzpatrick I think in a great position right now to continue that streak of playing good football in season. Another player we talked about in Brian flores Is Monday morning media availability was receiver Davanta Parker, who of course we mentioned was not back on the field for practice. But we go back to the season Devanta Parker had last year. We know the stats by now fifth and receiving yards, fourth

and touchdowns among all NFL players. Here's a quote from Ryan Fitzpatrick last year. Quote for us and for me as a quarterback, I'm always going to rely on my playmakers, and Devanta has been that guy all year long. He said that after the week's seventeen win in New England, there were a couple that maybe I didn't get in there make the throw or Stephon Gilmour did a good job with talking about the cornerback of the Patriots covering

Davanta on that day. But I wasn't going to shy away from a matchup, not because I don't respect the other guy, but because I have that much confidence in our guy. Davante really stepped up today. It's of that game and playing up against another cornerback in this division. There are two cornerbacks in the a f C East who were All Pro in twenty nineteen. Devanta Parker's filing two games against those two guys in Buffalo and New England. He can bind for fifteen catches and two hundred and

seventy two yards in those games. We talked about Devanta trying to add elements, trying to add weapons to his arsenal and to his game this training camp in this season, he talked about it in his media availability, how he wants to get sharper on routes like the comeback for instance, try to create more separation as you sell that takeoff because at this stage of his career, you have to honor the deep part of the field against Davanta Parker because you get down there one on one, Fitz is

gonna take his chances, and odds are he's gonna pull it down. We saw it all year last year. So if Devanta can kind of round that part of his game and build off of that, like Brian Flores talks about and building improved from there and Devanta talks about on the comeback route, you're gonna see even more production from Devanta Parker. He even showcased that the very next day up against Byron Jones, running a great comeback route getting a catch, running after the catch roughly twenty yards

or so on that particular play. So growth and improvement for these guys that have production. Davante Parker's December last year was the best five game stretch from a yards and touchdown perspective since Chris Chambers in two thousand five, So big time production there for he and Fitzpatrick down

the stretch. Another player we heard Flora's talk about this morning is cornerback Xavian Howard, who of course comes back in the Dolphins this year after missing the second half of the season with that knee injury, spending some time this training camp on both the COVID nineteen reserve list as well as the physically unable to perform. But he's

back and just going back. Off some of the numbers here from Pro Football Focus, he has limited opposing quarterbacks to a seventy five point three passer rating and a completion percentage of just fifty five and a half percent through the course of his career. He plays the football so well in the air we know about the seven interceptions he had back in He disrupts the timing of

the passing game at all levels of the route. At the line with his press throughout the course of the m We've seen him get physical, like on the interception last year against Juju Smith Schuster, who wanted to get the inside track on Howard to kind of run a pivot route and get back to the sideline. However, was

having none of that. He played physical throughout and then broke on the football and made a big pick on that we see in that same play there an example of how he works off the top of the stem as the receiver makes as a break and then of course the undisputable ball skills that he shows year in

and year out. I go back to that interception he had in the Raiders game back in two thousand and eighteen where he ran the receiver out to the sideline, pinned him up against the perimeter, basically walled him off, and then elevated and made a play on the football. That was receiver level skill right there, and xaviing Howard doing that from his cornerback spot to get a second interception in that game and to seal a victory for the Dolphins in that game. He also has a hundred

and forty tackles over the course of his career. He's about eighty five percent tackler out on the edge, So very gifted and very talented there as well. So a couple of players he talked about there on the offense. On the defense, I want to go back to the offensive line. You heard coach talk about Solomon Kinley and Robert Hunt. They got some work on Saturday and that team scrimmage, and let's go ahead and talk about Solomon Kinley.

Just going back off the draft notes, he was called one of the best combination blockers in the entire draft by PFFS Mike Renner because of well that sheer size and power that he displays, but he also can move very well. We know he has the quick feet from that basketball and swimming background, the lifeguard background we had on the podcast a couple of weeks ago, and he

was available for media. But listen to these pressure numbers allowed from Solomon Kinley, who has played consistent level snaps over the three last three years. Rather at Georgia three fifty pass blocking snaps last year, three hundred seventy the year prior, and back in a hundred and eight one pass blocking snaps last year he allowed just five hits on the quarterback and nine total pressures on those three

hundred and fifty snaps. One hit didn't allow a sack and just five pressures, So six times out of three hundred seventy reps in that season, he allowed his quarterback to even get pressured by his man. And I think we've seen some of that sheer density show up in his work out here at training camp and in the scrimmage.

I noted this on Saturday's podcast about the scrimmage, how he had a pancake block and then had some really good work picking up some games up front from the defensive line and really walling off and communicating well that way as well. So a good camp so far for

Solomon Kinley. As far as the Dolphin's second round draft pick, Robert Hunt out of Louisiana Lafayette, coach Flores talked about his performance a little bit as well at today's presser, and I want to go ahead and just start by reading this note once again from Mike Runner of the Pro Football Focus NFL Draft Guide. He said this quote, It's a shame we only got to see four hundred and twelve snaps of Hunt in twenty nineteen, as he was one of the most dominant tackles in the country.

And if you think his level of competition as a serious concern, he says, go pop on the Mississippi State tape from Week one this past season, when he tossed around a Bulldog defense as much as any SEC tackle did all season long. And yeah, you want to talk about the numbers backing up the tape you see on the field, we talked about four hundred and twelve snaps, how about a hundred and nineties six of those snaps coming and pass blocking. Now many pressures he allowed last year?

One one player on almost two hundred snaps got a pressure on the quarterback going up against Robert Hunt. The year prior to that, only seven pressures on four nine pass blocking reps. So this guy has been completely locked down. And as Mike Renner mentions there, he competed in the SEC as well and had one of the best tapes against that good Bulldog defense as anybody we saw in

college football last year. So a couple of Dolphins rookies getting some mention from Brian Flores talking about them in the scrimmage, talking about some of their data last year in college. As we go ahead and pivot forward, now two player media availability from Monday, and we start with safety Clayton Fedelm, who was first asked about his interception that he recorded in the scrimmage on Saturday, was post

high safety there. Um, I was just able to get a good read off of the quarterback, go up in the air, high point the ball, and defensively our jobs to get the ball back for our offense or of course scoring our case. So that was a big play, got us off the field and kept kept this moving defensively. Up next here I thought a really good question from Omar Kelly asking what's the best way to get noticed from this Dolphins coaching staff? Just to win your matchups.

Like you said, there's a lot of ways to to fit in, um, because it's a it's a very you know, it's a match defense. So it's just to go out there and when when you're one on ones, do your part. And that's what's huge. Time these get to understand the entire scheme and you know, worked work to your help, use your leverage and be accountable. So both Clayton Federalm and Dolphins center Ted Carriss grew up in the state of Illinois and they know each other dating back to

their high school days. Here's Federal. I'm talking about his relationship with Dolphins center Ted Carriss and reuniting here in Miami. Oh yeah, he's he's the same guy. He's football through and through. He's got a deep, deep bloodline of football over there in Carris family. Um, but yeah, he's He's been a great guy since the moment I transferred Illinois and our relationship is going through to where I today. Just you know, a great friend of mine, great teammates.

Another good question here from Cam Wolfe asking Clayton about how this off season was different for him and how he had to kind of keep himself in check and be accountable because they didn't necessarily have a coach breathing to their neck all the time, and they had to be the ones to self police themselves this offseason. You you really just have to be a pro um. And when I say that, I mean it's not like anyone's

breathing down your neck in the off season. For you to put that, you have to take care of your business. You have to get yourself on a routine, and you have to make sure that you're doing the proper workouts, working on yourself, which it doesn't sound like a big deal because everyone's but day did they add up you're down here in the South Florida heat, But you really have to take care of yourself, take care of your nutrition,

and be on top of it yourself. Which when you're at the facility, you have a lot of those moving pieces taking care of for you. So this year it was a little different in you know, you're responsible for everything, you're training, your nutrition, you know, the whole nine yards. So take care of your own business and and and staying on top of it was probably the most difficult from just a league wide instance. Um, and we'll see coming here week one who who stayed on top of it.

Up next, Clayton answers the question about why he chose to come to Miami when he had free agency this past spring. I'm here because, you know, I really feel everything that Miami is doing. You know, I had the option to come down here, and I just loved what coach flow and what they're building down here. Um, it's also not too bad to move down to the South Florida area. Hey, Clayton, I want to go back to something you said earlier about kind of the self accountability

you had to have this offseason. We've heard coach Flora's talk all the time about he wants guys that love football, guys that it's important to him. I want to just kind of get your take on how you've noticed that atmosphere around here at Dolphins facility and just is it kind of prevalent across the football team? It really is. Um, the guys here are here for a reason. We have a very young staff. Um, it's not only that you

know football the job we're here at football. There is a lot of our our lives, our passions, and uh, I mean, if you're not accountable, and if you're not you're not willing to do whatever it takes here. This isn't the building for you, because right here you know we're building, We're building towards something special. Verry Clayton before he stigned here, did either Florists or Boyer or Greer

or Danny Croftsman reach out to you? What did they tell you if they did, and was the idea of needing a skilled special teams player part of that discussion. If they did reach out to you, with with all the COVID going on, it was definitely Uh, it was my first free agency and it was a different one at that um I mean, travel restrictions, all those kind

of things, so there wasn't a lot of communication. But the system that Danny Danny Croftsman runs here is similar to what I ran the last four years, and it's it was, it was, it was a good transition. You can definitely hear the traits and the qualities there. And Clayton federlind attract of the Dolphins staff and front office

to acquiring the safety from Cincinnati this offseason. Up next, we stay on the defensive side of the ball, and here from Dolphins defensive tackle Christian Wilkins, who was first asked about this offseason and not having been able to tackle anybody since last December at the end of the Dolphins season. And if that makes it difficult now heading into a season without any live tackling, not really, you know, that's that's like one of the challenges, one of the

biggest things. But like you know, all the all the adversity we're going through this year, and just like you know, the you know, just like the new guidelines and everything is tough. We really haven't been able to tackle anyone. Are go fully live, um, but we've done a lot of drills, a lot of things that kind of similate that, and really just even in practice, you know, kind of taking the right proper angles, setting guys up, getting a good poppet and a good tip, but just not bringing

guys all the way to the ground. So if you practice the right way, I hope, you know, hopefully it will carry over pretty pretty well into the game. Next, Wilkins was asked to evaluate year one to year two for coach Floras and if he notices any differences in coaches approach. Here's what can's answer. He's still same old coach. He does a great job every day and you know

he's just that guy you could look look too. You know he's gonna bring it every day and you know, you know he's gonna you know, he's gonna have it every day and challenge us as a team. And I really wouldn't say his approach is different, but I just would say like he's kind of like I don't know, like you could kind of it's weird, like like you can see growth with players, you can see kind of growth with coach. With a coach though from the year one year two. Um, you know, not saying he was

a bad coach anything. Last year I had like many flaws or anything, but you could still kind of see growth and it's it's good to see that. And you know, just his confidence and everything. Um, and it's and you know, he's a great leader for us to follow up. Next, here's Christian talking about the two rookie offensive lineman he's gone up against in camp so far, Solomon Kinley and Robert Hunt, and what he notices in their game. I

think both of those guys are pretty good. Um. You know there, I think I think we did pretty well getting and you know, getting the right guys in here. Um. And you know, those guys have been competing working hard every day. Um. You know, and I you know, I could definitely see it. And they both have great potential and they'll they'll be if they keep their head on the straight now, they'll be, you know, pretty good in

the sleep. Hey, Christian man thirteen days away from the opener, and you guys are kind of in this phase of end of training camp started transition into you know, preparing for an opponent. I'm curious for a player like you, when do you start to kind of make that switch to all right, I gotta start planning for a certain

opponent and a certain guy across from me. Um. Well, I feel like right now until like training camp like fully breaks, you know, I'm still locked in training camp trying to compete against you know, our offense every day, trying to prove prove myself, trying to work on my technique, polish up those things. And then you know, once camp officially breaks and is over, then I'll start focusing more, locking in completely into the game plan, focusing on the opponents.

And you know, I've even started to do a little bit of that now just to kind of get some familiarity, um, but not too much. I haven't fully you know, delved delved into that, um, but definitely uh probably that then it has probably come this week and I'll really start

looking in to New England. And so away goes Christian and incomes tight end my GASSICKI who was first asked about going up against these Dolphins safeties who you might recall I said on Saturday had a really good scrimmage in coverage and run defense and otherwise going up against this Dolphins offense. Here's Mike Gasicky on Eric row and that safety room and the job they're doing so far in training camp. Um, yeah, I mean Eric's done a

great job. Is this entire training camp? Um, you know he's done a good job, you know, playing physical, you know, using his hands. And I think that that's how you know me as well, you know moving forward, Uh, you know, just being aware of you know, different moves of the line of scrimmages. I gotta be aware of, you know, being ready to use my hands, you know, get off

press coverage. Um. So I think that you know, that entire room, Um, you know, the safety is gonna have done a good job on the on the tight ends. And it's been a competition that has been you know, day in and day out. You know, sometimes you know, they get the best of us, sometimes we get the best of them. So it's been fun. If you haven't seen it by now, you should. The Mike and Smith Show Durham and Mike Gasicky. They talk about all kinds

of topics on Miami Dolphins social media. Here is Mike talking about his relationship with Durham Smith and how they help each other get better on the football field. Yeah. So, I mean I always you know, joke around with Durham. Um, I'll call him like an extended tackle and all that kind of stuff, and I'll joke around with him. But you know, honestly, he's done a really good job this training camp. Uh, you know, making a ton of plays

in the in the past game. Um. And then you know, obviously the other way around, You'll he'll joke around with me and you know, tell me I should be in the receiver room and all that kind of stuff. And um, so me and during my best friends, you know, we got you know, we we got a really good relationship. But while I was joking around with each other, Um, but we did you know, Uh, you know I've I've kind of watched him and his footwork when it comes

to run blocking and his technique in his hands. Uh. You know, I'm still trying to you'll put it together in that aspect. And then you know he would you know, talk to me just about just just rouse releases. Uh, some things that you know I kind of got better with last year. Uh you know when George came in and you know helped me out with that. So I think, you know, we're just kind of building off each other.

And uh, like I said, you know, there's a lot of town in our tight end room that you know, we're gonna try to continue to you know, build a build a route. So hey, Mike, awesome times you'll hear people talk about the challenges of a tight end coming into the league in the first couple of years because you have to worry about run blocking, past protection, running routes, you have to know all the assignments on offense. How do you feel you're doing in that area now coming

into year three? Is there like another level of comfort you've kind of stepped into this year? Yeah, I feel good. Um, you know, I'm excited to you know, just continue to develop, continue to you know, get better and more comfortable day in and day out. It also is you know good you know, playing with you know, the same the same receivers outside, you know, the same quarterback back there, all that kind of stuff. So I think from that aspect it's been it's been good as well, just that chemistry

and the continuity. So you know, I think sometimes you know, I'm running route and you know, fits kind of knows where I'm gonna be, or you know, I know what he's thinking, you know, pre snap, So just you know that like I said, you know that that chemistry and um just that comfort level. I think it's just gonna continue to grow. And so there he goes Dolphants tight End,

Mike ga Sicky. Definitely some interesting tidbits that are talking about Ryan Fitzpatrick and Durham Smith and Eric Rowe and those Dolphins Safety's plenty of good sound there from Federalum Wilkins and Mike Gatsicky. We're gonna have this this type of format basically the rest of the week here on the podcast. Will be sure to check out our daily podcast. We got ourselves back into the two hundred on Apple podcast on Monday, so a big thank you to all

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