Drive Time - Quarterbacks Training Camp Preview

going to Everybody? Happy Wednesday? I am your host, Travis Wingfield, and I am here to bring you your daily dose of Miami Dolphins football and on today's show, a flurry of roster moves to detail on the show today, an interesting analytic study accounting for positional wins above replacement and how to apply that context to the Dolphins off season. We'll hear from coach Flores from his Wednesday media availability

and continue the training camp preview with the quarterbacks. All of that and more on this Wednesday, July twenty edition of the Drive Time Podcast Miami Dolphins The Boy. It sure is nice to have current football news and notes here to detail on the podcast every day, even if it is just a couple of roster designations here and there, and we have a few more of those to get to on this Wednesday edition of Drive Time. Up first one that came out as we published the Monday night podcast.

The Dolphins have released tight end Michael Roberts after he signed with the team back in February. This happened just one day after the Dolphins were initially reported to have acquired Adam Shaheen from the Bears, giving Miami five tight

ends heading into training camp. Other news, the Dolphins Monday placed cornerback Cordrea Tankersley, defensive tackle undrafted free agent Benito Jones, and long snapper the sixth round draft pick from this past April's draft on the reserve COVID nineteen list, and just to relay what that means, this new reserve list category was created for a player who either test positive for COVID nineteen or who has been quarantined after having

been in contact with an effective person or persons. If a player falls into either of these categories, their club is required to immediately place the player on the reserve slash COVID nineteen list. Per agreed upon NFL and nfl p A policy, clubs are not permitted to comment on a player's medical status other than referring to the roster status. Clubs may not disclose whether a player is in quarantine or is positive for COVID nineteen. We also added a

player on Monday. More on that in just one second, but first a couple of news bites from Tuesday. The Dolphins have placed Xavien Howard on the active slash Physically unable to perform list and linebacker Calvin Munson on the active slash non football injury list. That happened, of course,

on Tuesday. Now a pair of cornerbacks in the news here for the Dolphins, and another one coming in by way of former Auburn Tiger and Kansas City chief Javarus Davis, who the Dolphins were awarded off of waivers on Monday. A and just a couple of quick notes on Javirus Davis. He did run a four three nine forty yard dash

back at the scouting combine in February. He had eight interceptions to every year of his career down there at Auburn, twenty seven past breakups over the four year career, and of course he was the other cornerback alongside Noah Igbnogamy, who are now teammates once more in the professional ranks. There was an article written back in April on USA Today that I tweeted out talking about how Davis had mentioned he had visits scheduled with seven teams in the

run up to the draft. The Dolphins were one of those teams, along with the Patriots and Lions, among others. He also referenced in that article his team first mentality and how he's willing to do whatever it takes to help his team win. So you get the idea of how this jive's with the athletic profile and the team first mentality that Brian Flores and the Miami Dolphins covet

at the position. So Flora's, Josh Boyer and Gerald Alexander get their hands on yet another toolsy defensive back heading into training camp, and we're gonna get into the guys defensive backs are trying to stop here speaking of training camp in just one second on the Training Camp Preview. But I wanted to discuss this tweet slash analytics information I came across over the weekend and it came from Eric Eager of Pro Football Focus, and he did a

study on the stat wins above replacement by position. He looked at the median war wins above replacement, coefficient of variation in war, and year to year correlation in war, all by position. Now, if those words have you dreading and thinking back to your high school math days or college math days. Do not fret. I'm not gonna get

too much into that stuff. I just wanted to discuss the disparity here between positional war and the average across each position in the NFL, And of course, quarterback leads the way, and pretty obviously so, with a mean one point six three wins above replacement. And that's to say, the quarterbacks had the greatest impact on games last year on average, if you're going off of wins a of replacement.

Next was the wide receivers, with a pretty considerable drop off there from the quarterbacks down to point to eight from that one point six three up next where safeties and cornerbacks, who tied at point to three. So you get the idea. The passing game here is really the part of the game that has the biggest impact as

far as war is concerned. And I'm not gonna get a whole lot further into these in degree details again, because it feels like something you should probably just go check out for yourself, and I don't think it really translates that well to an audio platform, but I do think we can look at it from my Dolphins roster construction standpoint, and this follow up tweet from a data analyst at Hawk Blogger, a Seattle Seahawks blog notes that defensive backs war is less stable on a year to

year basis than past rushers are, so the stat does fluctuate.

But this is going off of and it goes back to the idea of building the defense from the back to the front, signing a Byron Jones to a big deal, drafting Noah a Monogamy in the first round and Brandon Jones in the third round, a pair of defensive acts playing major college football in the Power five last year, and signing a Cavon Frasier a Clayton Federalum truly investing in the position in the idea of the defensive backs room in the linebacker position had a point one one

median war as well, and that was in the middle of the pack of this position list and this median war stat. And we know how aggressive Miami was going after Kyle van noy, Comu grug Hill, and Landon Roberts this year and last year, picking up Andrew van Gigel in the draft and Vince Bagel in a September one trade by bringing him in from New Orleans and to

tie a bow on this thought. I mean, we knew quarterback was going to be the leader in the clubhouse, and I wanted to just make a note of the Dolphins investment at that position at quarterback over the last two years by signing Ryan Fitzpatrick, who I mean, can anyone really argue his value to the Dolphins. The guy

has been everything we had hoped for. And then some investing in Josh Rosen with the second round draft pick acquired in that nineteen trade down, and then using the fifth pick this year of course on quarterback to a tongue of Valoa. Truly investing in the position, the commitment to invest in these core positions. I like Kirk Cousins. I like that, And speaking of the cubes the quarterbacks, let's get into the next part of our training camp preview series, and just real quick before we do that.

Ahead of this quarterback preview, these photos of the Dolphins reporting to the facility on Monday July We're all available on the team's website up on social media. It showed Ryan Fitzpatrick, Josh Rosen to a Tongue of Valoa, as well as some other Miami Dolphins reporting to the facility for the first day of work here in the off season, and I think Ryan Fitzpatrick's shirt broke Dolphins Twitter there

for just a moment. I personally had multiple text heading my way asking me where people could pick up that shirt. And when you know it, Johnny on the spot, Dolphins Twitter found it. I think it was on chubbies dot com, the Hawaiian Lights shirt. If you're trying to catch that drip up. And by the way, has any thirty seven year old father of seven ever had more swag than Ryan Fitzpatrick. I would argue that no, they do not.

And with that, I think we have satisfied our quota for fashion talk here on the podcast for the next couple of years, if not longer than that. Let's go ahead and talk about this Dolphins quarterback room and go once again the reverse jersey number order, starting with ninety nine through number one, and that means first up, Ryan Fitzpatrick. He has fifteen accrued seasons in the NFL season number two here in Miami for Ryan Fitzpatrick. He wears jersey

number fourteen. Everyone knows by now he went to Harvard thirty seven years old, and when he first got here. I wrote a story up on Lockdown Dolphins dot Com taking a look at his tape, and you go back to his film when he was with the Bucks, when he had that start at the beginning of the season for Jamis Winston, and he was attacking vertically, taking chances, but really taking measured chances to go vertical and getting

those big plays in the passing game. Through the first three games of that season, he led the NFL and all the major categories as far yards yards per attempt, that type of thing, and he really had a confidence in his game. I love the way he trust his eyes and lets that thing rip and just gets it out there before the defense can really have a chance to react, before the defense can have a chance to win their pass rush matchups, and before the defense can

rotate their coverage. He is very sharp that way, getting the football out quick. And he said to us last year in the media that he felt he was playing the best ball of his career in training camp, and I think the stats from confirmed that assertion. While the film last year in nineteen and the metrics corroborate that

claim from Ryan Fitzpatrick. After he rejoined the lineup. In Week six against Washington, he was the tenth highest graded quarterback according to Pro Football Focus over that time, the infectious leader of the Miami Dolphins through one eight one first downs that was second most in football. His three thousand, two hundred twenty six passing yards during that period ranked third, behind only Jamis Winston and Dak Prescott of the Dallas Cowboys.

And he also led the Dolphins in rushing and scored on scramble plays four different times. Over the course of last season. PF credit at Fitzpatrick with thirty five non design quarterback runs that tied for the most over the

twelve week period with Gardner Minshew and Deshaun Watson. So his ability to kind of recognize where the weakness might be in the defense, where the pass rush or the blitz or where an overload blitz can kind of take advantage of the numbers and put pressure on the quarterback immediately. His ability to pick that up, recognize it, and make the defense pay for it was on point last season.

He consistently made plays outside the structure of the offense, extending plays and creating an exciting highlight reel punctuated by Musty celebrations. The Terra dactyl scream as I called it against Cleveland was one of my favorite. After that touchdown run where he kind of did the frank the tank, I'm got a biggest scream out. He had several of those throughout the course of the year with those touchdown runs.

And this quote here coming from Ryan from Brian Flores about Ryan Fitzpatrick, quote, I think Fitzpatrick did a good job, a really good job last year. His leadership something that really helped us out a year ago end quote. And that leadership is beneficial both on the field and in a mentor role for the younger quarterbacks on the roster.

Fitzpatrick spoke about his position as the elder statesman of the room during a virtual press conference back in May, saying quote, I'm an open book, and I try to make sure that the other quarterbacks no and are comfortable with coming to me with questions. I'm also going to express my opinions and thoughts on plays that were watching in two minute drives, things like that, and to just provide some perspective end quote. And Fitzpatrick's performance was not

exclusive to making plays off script. He delivered dime after dime by recognizing the defensive look and where the soft spot was to attack, and accordingly, Fitzpatrick would often throw the football to a spot and rely on those playmakers like a DeVante Parker or Preston Williams and Albert Wilson, Jachem Grant. All those guys might get Sicky to minute to finish the play and make a big play for

the offense. Per Pro Football Focus, the offense quarterback completed sixties seven point one percent of his throws when the ball came out and under two point five seconds, with fourteen touchdowns and three interceptions on such throws. Fitzpatrick over a fifteen year career, has thirty two thousand, eight hundred and eighty six passing yards and two hundred and ten touchdown passes. And another guy who has leaned on the experience and knowledge and tutelage of Ryan Fitzpatrick as the

next quarterback up on our list Josh Rosen. He has two accrued seasons in the NFL. This is his second here in Miami. He wears jersey number three. He came from u C. L A. And he is still just going to be twenty three years old on opening Day and this Dolphins quarterback room features a little bit of everything. You've got the accuracy, the big arms, the knowledge of

Ryan Fitzpatrick. He can impart on these younger players, and Rosen gives the Dolphins a second top ten pick under the age of twenty five, as well as a very cerebral student of the game, a guy that puts a lot of time and effort into football. Of course, football is important to him, as Brian Flores loves to say, in the nineteen season was one of progress and development

for the young quarterback. He went over several of these things he developed last year in training camp, throughout the season speaking to the media, and this quote here comes from coach Flores. Rosen is expected to come in, learn the offense and develop the way looked over the latter part of the season. This is what he said back at the scouting combine in February. He will get an

opportunity to compete and get better every day. And quote and you go back to the playing time Fitzpatrick had last year, whether it was in games or in practice, like for instance, in training camp he had a really good two minute drive at the end of the team scrimmage last year that really showcased his ability to kind of elevate his game in those big moments, or if you go back to the Dallas game, there was a moment in that game where someone dropped a past I

forget who it was, and Rosen had a lot of encouragement for that player, came back to him, had a

successful play on the next play. So you see that leadership quality, the ability to kind of move on and go to the next play a very important trait in a quarterback, and that progress was tangible throughout the course of the season and regardless of the offensive success he had show that leadership and encouragement, he also attacked down filled with aggressiveness and with accuracy, showcasing those traits that made him the tenth pick in the twenty nineteen draft.

He Impresston Williams really developed a rapport in the exhibition season last year, in the preseason and going vertical as well in those spots starts he had in the middle of the early part of the season in September, like in the Dallas game, the Chargers gained the long touchdown pass in that Chargers game to Davante Parker, and just as he praised Tongue Viola for his work, habits and

what he's gotten to know about him so far. Ryan Fitzpatrick also said he had the respect for Josh Rosen last season for leaning on the veterans experience in that quarterback room and learning as much as he possibly could. Here's what Fits had to say about Josh Rosen. Quote, He's always here before six o'clock. He's always here late when we're watching film and whatever else Josh is putting in the time. And I think right now too, he's doing a lot of listening and a lot of observing.

I think that's what's really important at this point. But part of it is just immersing himself in it and being around early morning, late at night. And he's doing a nice job of being here and really showing that he wants to be in here, he wants to learn, he wants to do all the right things. And quote

Matt quote of course coming from last season. And we finished this thing up with the quarterback who was the highest on my quarterback prospect list this offseason heading into the draft and one of my favorite prospects over the

last several years. I just found so many things into a tongue of Voloah's game that I believe translate to success at the next level, with the urgency and the footwork in the lower half, the ability to get off of the spot, immediately recognize where that pressure comes from,

and making plays off script that way. We've also heard Nick Saban and so many other folks that have spent time around to a tongue of Voloa, like his quarterbacks coach Trent Dilford, the offensive coordinators there Alabama, his teammates Xavier McKinney at the combine praise his ability to rise the tide of all ships, so to speak, and really show a spirit and a mentality that really really helps the football team just be better from the top all

the way down. We heard Nick Saban talk about visiting to a tongue of Vloa after the hip injury last year and how he went there to hopefully cheer up to Ah, but it was to a who in turn cheered up Coach Saban with his spirit, with his personality, and of course that ukulele playing. He just has that infectious personality you want at the position, the type of personality, the type of leadership that Brian Floraz and Chris Greer

really covered at the position. You love the way he can layer the football with accuracy to all levels of the field, the way he processes the defense and really

gets through those reads. On the ESPN Detail episode with Nick Saban talking about to Ah and the way he's able to process the defense and get through his reads, he showcases how to a can get through multiple progressions, read the front side, read the backside, and get the football where it has to go and adjust his his location of the football accordingly to how the coverage adapts

to what he wants to do on offense. And another generalized quarterback trade I love to look at is how does the defense view him on third and long when it becomes you know, you win the first two ounds and get the offense into a third and ten or a third and twelve. Do you still think you can get a stop on that play? Where are you still

afraid of the quarterback? And you watch Alabama throughout the course of Tungua Bloa's career, they were always a threat to not only move the chains, but to score from anywhere on the field because of how quickly the ball came out, how he's able to get the ball in the hands of the playmakers. Identify your blitzes and replace the blitz with the football. Just really really good quarterback play there in college. You hope it translates to the NFL. He's gonna be twenty two on opening Day, and by

now we all know about Tongue Boloa's collegiate success. The National Champion, Heisman Trophy, runner up, and the most are the highest rather quarterback efficiency rating in the history of college football. He arrives to Miami to continue this theme of adding talented quarterbacks to the quarterback room. He of course comes the leadership and plenty of fanfare. We know how important that leadership in the way communication is involved

at that position. For this Dolphins brass for this Dolphins coaching staff, and Tongue by Looa played under three different offensive coordinators in college. There at Alabama, and he excelled in each of those offensive systems. He helped transform that Crimson tied offense from a classic smash mouth outfit to an aerial display to the likes of which college football had not yet seen before prior to Tongue of Voloah's arrival. He's deadly accurate throws one of the prettiest deep balls

in the in college football last couple of seasons. With that trajectory putting penety of air under the football, allowing his receivers to run to a spot and catch it and run right through it. He anticipates receivers opening up and processes the pass rush and potential leaks in the past rush with urgency and purpose. Here's a quote from Brian Flora's Tongue of valoah fit a lot of the criteria we talked about at the quarterback position, good player,

good person, leadership qualities. Were very happy with the pick. Now, the veteran of the room, Ryan Fitzpatrick, who will cover here in just one second, he offered up some excitement that he has for Tongue of Valoa and what he can bring to the rest of the quarterback room as well as to Tongue of Valoa as well as a scattering report on to a Tongue of Valoa. Fits had this to say, quote, I'm an open book and try to make sure that they know and are comfortable with

coming to me with questions. I'm going to express my opinion and thoughts on plays that we are watching in two minute drives We've been going over some of that stuff and my mind and the process of how I think through it right or wrong. Just to provide some perspective. I'm excited for him to be here for two of to be here. I loved watching him playing college. I think he's going to be an awesome addition to the team for a long time. All right, let's go ahead

and transition now over to Brian floress media availability. On Wednesday, July, he spoke to members of South Florida media about a variety of topics, including the coronavirus, how the team is preparing to plan this season and go forward in this unprecedented time. We are in currently position battles including the quarterback spot with Ryan Fitzpatrick, Josh Rosen, and to a tongue of voloa, and the competition across camp as a whole.

Let's go ahead now and get to some of those questions with Brian Flora's with the Dolphin South Florida me DA and the first question. I won't play the actual audio from the questions for you guys, because there is some spotty spots in some of these online conferences. Will go ahead and give you the details of the question

and let flow take it from there. The very first question I thought was a great one, a very important one as well, about the position or Flora's this position rather on minority coaches and how to elevate those coaches that are capable of doing the job in this league. Here was his answer on that topic in regard to social justice. I mean I've said this, you know, time and time again, there's you know, very capable minority coaches throughout the league on our staff um and if given

the opportunity, I think they perform and do well. Hopefully we take the steps where you know people, uh, minorities get those opportunities, and I think they would be able to take advantage. Up next was a question about competition and camp, and specifically about the quarterback possession, which Flora's mentions, we want competition at all times. You always want competition in training camp. So there's always you know, it's every

position is an open competition. Uh. Obviously some some players are further ahead than others. I think that's we all kind of know and understand that. But yes, there's a there's we want competition, and there's no jobs that are just gonna be handed out and this training camp in this season obviously will be different than anyone we've ever

seen before. And a question was posed a coach about how the Dolphins are going about preventing the spread of the virus or the precautions being taken by the team and the organization and the entire coaching staff to help mitigate this process and get the healthiest football team out there and keep everyone in the organization healthy and just prevent the spread of the virus. Here was coach's answer to the dolphins measures are taking to make sure that

is handled and taken care of. You know, you know, our message has been more along the lines of let's try to do everything possible so that you know that situation doesn't happen. Um, let's wear the mask, let's distance, let's test. You know, we're testing on a daily basis. Um, that's kind of where our thought process has been. UM. Yes, we had those conversations about you know, what it would

take or what if you know, a catastrophe happened. Yes, we've had those and you know there's an action plan for that. I'm not gonna get into that, but um, but you know, are are you know, most of our energy has been towards uh, doing the things necessary to

prevent that situation. Um. And that's the message I've I've tried to give to the team and really everyone in the organization players, coaches, uh, you know, equipment, you know, training staff, and I think the leadership within the organization, uh, you know myself, Chris Brandon, Kyle Johnston, Dave Poloka, the rest of the coaching staff. Um, they're all they're all

sending that exact same message. And of course, with a flurry of roster moves we have had this week, we had some employers go over to PUP, some players added to the COVID nineteen reserve list, and one of the players that was not added to any of the list was quarterback to a Tongue of Iloa Dolphins rookie quarterback

the number five overall selection in the NFL draft. Coach was asked about his availability heading into training camp and any restrictions or limitations that might be placed on the quarterback. Here is what coach Flores had to say about that. Yeah, I mean he's on he's not on PUP obviously. Do you guys know there's an acclimation period here for the next Uh you know, let's let's just call it two weeks so you know their strength and conditioning and um,

some walkthroughs. So there won't be you know, much strenuous activity. Uh you know from I shouldn't say there won't be strength activity. There will be from a strength of conditioning extandpoint, but from a football practice you know drills that standpoint. Um, you know, there won't be much. But uh yeah, he's he's through the physical and when we do get the practice,

you'll see him on there. And you heard coach talk about the acclamation period of getting guys ready for the strength and conditioning, getting some of the soft tissue stuff, taking care of these guys can be ready to go

full bore when we hit the field for practice. And coach talked about some of the importance of getting that stuff, taking care of having the strength and conditioning program and how i'd say priority every single year to make sure players are healthy and their boys are taken care of. Here's what coach had to say on that topic. I mean, I think it's a combination of both. I think you always want your team to be healthy. Whether it's right now,

covid z is um, it's what everyone's talking about. But you know, when we get into practice, it will be you know, soft tissue injuries or you know, shoulders or knees or you know, things of that nature. So there's nothing more important health of the team. And that's that's gonna be uh, you know, at the forefront this year especially, But at the same time, yeah, we're working towards uh,

trying to d prove on the field as well. Uh. So that's fundamentals, that's technique, that's conditioning, you know, so there's a lot to try to improve upon. So yeah, we need to keep them healthy in order so so that we can't we can't go out in the field and improve. They kind of go hand in hand in a lot of ways. And you know, well, these are these are very very uh let's call it unprecedented circumstances. Um. But you know, I think, you know, we need to

make the best of the situation. And that's been a message to the to the team. There's no there's no real point in dwelling on uh you know, the lack of games or practice. You know, we just have to make the most of very opportunity we get to go out there. Um, and you know, the healthy guys will practice and the guys who weren't, and those practice reps are gonna be very important this season. And so you hear the quote, there are no point in dwelling on

what has happened and the things we cannot control. And that's just gonna be a continuing theme of Brian Floors. He's not going to be one to make excuses for anything going on outside of the team's control. So a very consistent message that way from coach Flores. There was a question and they're regarding Exavian Howard being placed on PUP and coach just confirmed, yep, xaviing Howard is on

PUP right now. He was also asked about players or coaches opting out, and as of that meeting, no Dolphins players or coaches had opted out for the season at the time of the meeting. X PP. He's been rehabbing really the entire summer. Uh, he's making a lot of progress. He'll be back um as soon as he can. I'm not I can't put a timetable on it. I don't know.

I know he's working, I know he's he's uh making some progress, but you know, I'm not gonna put a timetable and when he's he'll be back, but we're trying gonna try to get him out there as soon as

we can. And then finally, Coach was asked about acclimating the players, the personnel change the Dolphins had this offseason with a big rookie class, plenty of free agent signings, how the Dolphins have worked to acclimate all those new player is into the program, and how that will look this offseason, this training camp heading into September and the regular season. I think, you know, every rep is going to be important, Every walk through REP, every practice for rep.

You know, we won't have preseason games. I mean, that's all. That's all we've got. I mean, I think I don't think there's any point And like I said earlier, there's no point in dwelling on, you know, or being upset about the circumstances. All. You know, we just got to make the most of the opportunities that we're gonna be given here. Um. But yeah, every every rep is going

to be important. Every you know, reping individual is those evaluations, UM, those are the evaluations and improvement, those improvements those guys make players make, uh in practice and walk throughs they're gonna be um what other keeps him on a team, what doesn't give him one a team? And so there you have at the highlights from coach flora is Is Wednesday, July twenty media availability to kick off training camp here down in Miami, the season getting underway at the facility,

Dolphins getting to work. You hear him mention the importance of every rep, every walk through, every meeting, not wasting any time again gonna be the theme here of this Miami Dolphins team this season and of course every season under Brian Flores. If you guys want to hear the entire press conference, go ahead and check out our YouTube channel, Miami Dolphins dot com social media as we have that

for you guys available. Go check out the quarterback preview written piece up on Miami Dolphins dot com as well as the written media piece on the website. We have plenty of content for you guys this week, this month, and going forward into the season. As for today's edition of the Drivetime podcast, that is going to be my time you all, please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple, podcast, Spotify, wherever you get your podcast from.

Go ahead and subscribe, rate, and review, the show, Give me a follow on Twitter. It's at Wingfield, NFL. Weve updates for you guys on this Dolphins team throughout the course of the season and beyond. Follow the Dolphins at Miami Dolphins, and of course check out the Fish Tank and the Audible podcast as well as Miami dolphins dot com. Until next time, fins up.