Drive Time - Scrimmage Recap

Saturday scrimmage. The venue is as beautiful as ever, as we got premiere seating to watch this day of Dolphins football. We'll play the hits from Coach Flores and all the player media availability, and report on all the action on the field. All of that and more on this Saturday, August twenty nine edition of the Drivetime PODCASTAMI Dolphins And this podcast was set to take a very jovial tone when I began putting the show notes together early this morning.

But sometimes life happens and things change. I'm sure you all saw the tweets. We all saw Fits and Flow leave the huddle of the entire Dolphins operation together just before practice began, arms around one another. They disappeared into the tunnel and then Flow emerged shortly thereafter, but Fitzpatrick did not. The team gathered and all took a knee in prayer as this all happened literally minutes before scrimmage. The scrimmage began on Saturday morning. Ryan Fitzpatrick's mother, Laurie,

passed away this morning. And this November it'll be five years, five years since I was at work also like Ryan Fitzpatrick was, and received a phone call that would change my life. My mother had passed away, and I drove down to my brother's office and we cried, and we hugged, and we began the grieving process, which seemed to take weeks to properly digest. I don't know how sudden this was for Fits, all of it going down. We know

he had that personal day a week ago. I don't know what Lori was suffering from what her ailment was, but nothing about it will make it any easier for Fits and the Fitzpatrick family. I'm thinking of that guy right now, man, And and getting to know these players just a little bit, even for the last couple of months, you really start to see the personal side of the game more and to me that makes it This is hard for me to get through. I do apologize it. I didn't want to get into this too far, but

it's it hits home for me. So to be around these players, it makes it even more fulfilling and more rewarding to see the personal side of this, and they get to know these guys and to see them as more than just football players. I just hosted a specially event with our season ticket members a couple of weeks ago, and Fits was the guest of honor. He was laughing, having a good time, joking about his chest hair poking out from his button down shirt. We talked about his hair.

I gave him credit for having not just an incredible beard, but an incredible flow on top, which he found to be quite funny. And it's I am extremely doubtful that you would ever listen to this podcast, or any football podcast for that matter, because you live it every day. Why would you listen to a podcast about your job? But we're all thinking about you. Man. It's it's tough,

but tough people were made for tough times. And as Isaiah Ford said at his player availability on Saturday afternoon, we'll play the audio from that here in just a moment, Laurie raised a special dude in Ryan Fitzpatrick. Okay, and from that, we try our best here to transition to football.

And reports came out just before practice started on Saturday that the Dolphins were sending linebacker ray Kwon McMillan to the Las Vegas Raiders, and Brian Flores later confirmed that in his post practice press conference say that five times fast, citing that there are things that go on behind the scenes that we just don't know about, not just the fans,

but those in the media. And out of that quote, now, you never expect a coach or a player or a GM to really kind of completely pull the curtain back, right. We keep things in house. You hear that all the time. That's just what you do and rightfully so. But as far as that trade, I can just say this, and you guys have heard it on this podcast for two weeks now. The land and Roberts and COMMU grug Hill

have had excellent camps. So again, if there is a move made, there are things to go into it, as Brian Flores said, and that pretty much is all you need to know. These guys are gonna make the best decisions for the Miami Dolphins, as they repeatedly say over and over again, and they felt this wasn't the best interests of the team to move on and get that draft pick for ray Kawa. McMillan, all right, to the

scrimmage now. And I've been to hard Rock Stadium twice each of the last two years, so four times total. And man, I don't know what it is, but this place just gets prettier every single time I go back, especially arriving at nine am. It wasn't too hot yet. The sun was hitting the building just right for a nice little glow. And then you get inside and my goodness, what a palace that place that Steven Ross put together. It looks gorgeous in there. Man, I think this was

when it really hit me. The upball is almost here, just two weeks away, and that this job, that what I do for a living, really isn't a job at all, just an absolute mecca of a building and a great product to watch on the field. So then the practice broke out. It wasn't live tackling, but it was a great opportunity for us to see about sixty or seventy plays or so, give or take and get some evaluations

on these guys and more of a live game like situation. First, Kyle van Noy and Patrick Laird, they were suited up in their full pads and worked out before the practice, but did not participate. They were down there fore months, but did not play in the actual scrimmage. Xavien Howard did not suit up. He was working out in jim shorts and a T shirt, going through some of his individual work, but he did not play on the scrimmage portion of practice. And the same was true of Kirk

Merritt and DeVante Parker not participating in Saturdays scrimmage. I'm not sure if Parker was out there or not. I didn't see him. I did see Kirk Merritt. I saw the rest of the guys getting some conditioning in and for that matter, I saw Jordan Howard and Matt Brita and Patrick Laird after practice while we're doing our zoom calls with coach and the players getting a lot of conditioning in post practice. So as for the practice itself, there were a few penalties and I'm sure that something

Floras wants to clean up. He even said after the practice that it was good to get that feel of a game situation to feel the importance of how penalties can extend drives and keep the defense on the field or back the offense up and take them out of field goal range. He noted that specifically, but I'm also sure he was very pleased with how well his defense performed, because it was dominant on that side of the ball pretty much from the word go. We saw one touchdown

and three field goals. Jason Sanders hit from fifty eight, forty eight, and forty one. He also had enough leg on a sixty one yarder, but it went wide left after a false start pushed the field goal team back. This was after Tuah took his team down into field goal range in a two minute situation at the end of the first half. The teams were actually listed as two and rosen on the scoreboard. Kind of cool to see that, but he took him to own the field

goal range. They get backed up for a sixty one yard or and that was Sanders was only miss of the day. He had the three long field goals and a p a T. Matt Hawk was also skying some gorgeous kicks boomers for days. These two specialist Danny Crossman talked about them the other day on his press availability that they just felt good about those guys. Talked about maybe getting some people in camp to deal with leg fatigue, but outside of that, they are comfortable with both those guys.

He said, this is a production business, and both those guys have produced, and we saw it on Saturday Kicker Talk, Baby, that's how you know your boys charged up for this podcast. So both quarterbacks had seven possessions. Let's go ahead and just talk about some of the standout performers. I kind of charted the yardage and drive success, but not to an exact science, so I'm not gonna tell you how

many yards were gaining in that type of thing. There were thirteen possessions in total, Rosen and to a split the last possession. There was one touchdown, three field goals, one missed field goal, too interceptions, there was a fumble. But as you'll hear Josh Rosen say a little it later on on the podcast, they decided to maintain possession for the offense as a way to kind of manufacture

circumstances within that practice. It makes sense, right, You control the environment you're playing in, give the players the situations you want to see how they react to because you can control the down and distance, the time on the clock, the situations, the entire environment. I only had two three an ounce on the day, so it wasn't like it was a totally stagnant performance from the offense. But again, the defense got the better of the offense in total

overall on the day. And first things first, it is pretty challenging to evaluate eleven players on one play with no replay and a sideline view, a sideline angle that really doesn't allow you to see how the trenches unfold or even the blocking scheme or plan there. But man, you add on the other side of the ball and call it twenty two players, it's pretty tough as well. So here's what I saw, without the benefit of a tape to reach to rewatch to go back on, and

with a sideline angle of the entire action quarterbacks. I didn't put either of these two guys in my standout performers category to a tongue of Valoa had an interception and his unit did not get into the end zone. As coach said, there were some throws and decisions you like. I like the way that he's able to sense pressure coming from either edge, sometimes both edges, and works his way up into the pocket while keeping his eyes down the field to get through his progressions, to get through

his reads. He made some plays that way on Saturday.

We're gonna hear from Eric Rowe here in just a little bit, who had the interception onto trying to shoot one up the sideline to Mike Gasicki, and that play had really good pass protection, but it also had really good past coverage as well, And that was something of a theme you're gonna hear on this podcast that the secondary rather wasn't tight coverage all day back there really playing well together, communicating and getting those things locked up

on the backside. And Roe said that he was surprised the ball came to him because of how well how perfect his positioning was on that particular play too. I had some chunk gains. He operated well on some hurry up situations and continues to get the ball out so smoothly in the quick game on slants, screens, hitches, curls, those sort of things. We're gonna hear from two here

in just one moment. We're also gonna hear from quarterback Josh Rosen, who had some mistakes as he'll tell you, but he also had some big time throws on Saturday. I asked him to break down the touchdown throw to Ricardo Lewis, the only touchdown of the day for the Dolphins offense, which I thought was his best throw of the day, the best play of the day from the offense in general. But I'll let him do that later on.

He also had a very long strike down the field to Malcolm Perry, and that was another play where coverage and pass pro we're both good, so the play kind of gets extended out a little bit, and Perry was so far downfield when the ball left Josh's hand because we know Rosen has a hand cannon, and Perry did well to kind of decelerate to almost fool the defensive back into decelerating himself. Then he sped up, ran under it,

and caught it at the last moment. I think it was good for about fifty five or sixty yards total, a deep strike from Rosen to Perry at running back. It's tough to gauge without live tackling how these guys are doing. But Brita looked as fast as anybody I've seen all camp long in this practice. He had some nice runs. He gets from that first level to the second level in a flash, and then from there he can hit you home runs. And I think we'll see

that at some point this year for the Dolphins. Jordan Howard got dinged up a little bit early on and I tackle for loss where he slipped right in front of Shack Lawson, who, by the way, another big day for Shack Lawson. More on that soon. But Howard did return and had some more carries. It was the same story for Howard you've heard about all along. He's gonna find those small creases and small lanes and get you

into better situations on third and second down. He's always gonna get positive yards, put his head down, burrow into that line, and create positive yards that way. I love his running style, I love his vision, I love his power. Very valuable piece of the offense there with Jordan Howard. I mentioned Malcolm Perry's long catch that was the play of the day for the offense in terms of total yardage. He also caught one over the middle in practice, but

fumbled when Nick Needum punched it out. We'll talk more about need Him here in just a moment as well. At receiver Isaiah Ford uncovered pretty regularly throughout the course of practice. He caught three or four balls and typically had really good separation on those catches. There was one comeback route up against Byron Jones again we'll talk about Byron Jones in a moment as well, where Ford did an awesome job of stacking Jones, getting on top of him and got Jones to kind of commit the hips.

You'll hear coaches talk about cornerbacks or receivers rather get them to commit their hips, show you which direction they want to flip the hips, then you can work their blind spot from there. He did very well to get Jones to commit the hips upfield and then throttled that thing down and came back down the stem for a nice fifteen or so yard gain on a comeback route that balls from Tah and a really good timing and chemistry look there on that play from Tah to Isaiah Ford.

Ricardo Lewis had a big day, including the Loan touchdown. His concentration was on point throughout practice, not just on the touchdown catch, but a couple of others where he caught the football and traffic was super impressed there with eighty nine catching balls and traffic. One guy we've become accustomed to watching catch passes either in traffic or with

separation is Preston Williams. And he had a couple of catches on this day, but nothing like we're used to seeing where he blows your mind with a one handed catch or a deep shot downfield diving. He just had a couple of catches routine stuff on the day and produce a little bit that way at receiver. The tight ends didn't factor much into the passing game. If they even did at all, it was probably underneath stuff throwing

in the short flats to those guys. And we'll talk about the safeties here in just a moment, because they were locking up those tight ends. Adam Shaheen had a catch. I know that Mike Asiki caught went out to the flat. I think for a short gain, and Durham Smith always has a block or two that springs a chunk gain in the ground game. He did that again on Saturday as well. On the offensive line. I saw Solomon Kindley get himself a pancake and then create push a few

other times in this practice. Liked his game a lot. I liked what I saw out of Robert Hunt, same story there. He's so good at kind of digging guys out of their spot and turning them and using that power and length and size to win that leverage, and then using that leverage to create a lane for his running back. I thought Adam Pinky had a really good day,

especially in past protection. A couple of times. I noted seventy eight out there on a one on one situation, including the deep past to Perry where he locked it down and created a good quarter or a good pocket rather for his quarterback. Again, really tough to evaluate from that angle with no replay, but I did note that Flowers, Carriss, Davis, and Deeter all had key blocks on good gains in

the running game. Now on the other side, that's where the notes really fill up here on the defensive side, we start on the defensive line and where to begin here? Because Shack Lawson finished off what honestly might have been a week where I might give him like an m v P of the week of training camp. He was just great again. On Saturday. I mentioned his tackle for loss that was one of two that he had. He got back in there for a would be sack and

some additional pressures as a pass rusher as well. On one play one of his TFLs, they tried to bring a tight end across the formation to block him and create that lane off the outside part of the formation. He stood that thing up, shed the block and made a stop. A dominant day for number ninety out there now number ninety one on the other side, the story has been the same old camp. Immanuel Ogba has been

a beast all training camp long. They met in the backfield Aga and laws in a couple of times with some nice pass rush, pass rush tandems off either edge on the inside. I noted that Zach Seiler with another huge day. He's getting plenty of mention on the podcast here. Now. That pancake I mentioned from Kinley was on zach Seler, but that was the only rep I saw where he didn't really just get after it. He was constantly collapsing the interior and it's so difficult to move him against

the run with that length and power. I'm a big fan of his game, as I was at the end of last year as well. Devon Gotcha had a really good week of practice and it continued on Saturday just that tree stump on the inside against the run. We saw plenty of that from fifty six. I noted ray Kwon Davis with a bowl rush surge that ruined one pass play and Christian Wilkins with some nice work on the inside to clog things up and create space for

guys to make plays behind him. And those guys are lineback is the land and Roberts Cammu Gruja Hill, Calvin Munson. We haven't talked a lot about Munson, but I find his game to be pretty intriguing. Between the b gaps, he flows downhill and hits guys. Man, he wants to get out there and bang his head into a wall. He gets his face and the fan and really gets after it with the contact and the physicality of the game. He matches that level of a land and Roberts that

way with the physicality of the game. And speaking of Roberts, just consistently, day in day out, Downhill smart as all get out, and Ted Carriss told me on the postgame presser that at land And Roberts is probably the hardest hitting football player he's ever gone up against. The other guy on this list here, Cambu Gruja Hill he starts off practice with a tackle for loss and just rolled

onto a good day from there. I mentioned the safetyes on tight ends, but Gruge Hill was also all over the field and coverage on tight ends, covering guys and that hook zone over the middle of the field. He's a high energy guy and someone who I'm really excited to see get his first real shot in a defense. He was supposed to play a bunch last year for the Eagles. That's what reports said out of camp from Jim Schwartz, a bunch of the players there at practice.

Then he had an injury pre camp and came back mid season and played a good chunk of snaps, but he was supposed to play a lot more. I think he has a chance to really shine here in this Dolphins defense. Finally, on the back end, I mentioned a somewhat quiet day for the otherwise explosive Preston Williams, and a lot of that had to do with the fact that he drew number twenty four Byron Jones over and over and over again, and Jones was just not giving

anything up. Man sticky coverage, good jobs, staying on top, transitioning inside or outside off those breaks, playing the football, big big day for twenty four and one of those days that doesn't get enough credit because if you're not, like if you just follow the football, you're not gonna see him with fifteen or twenty good reps where he doesn't get targeted because you're not watching a cornerback on

receiver and the ball doesn't go that direction. If you're not gonna get targeted, that probably means you're in pretty good coverage for the most part, at least on a high enough sample size, and that was the case with Byron Jones. So smooth and the way he punches and has an initial jam and man coverage and zone coverage. He just as a good looking football player out there

and he had a big day on Saturday. Another big day came from Brion Borders, who had a hell of a pick on Josh Rosen's first series, but he was flagged for defensive pass interference, so you don't get the credit for it, but it showed good ball skills and ball awareness and he does get his hands on the football a heck of a lot. Nick need Um also had a thievery on a Rosen pass, but it was also negated on d P I I thought that one

was much more clear of a penalty. Need Him kind of pulled the guy to the ground that made a play on the football, but he didn't agree with it after he ran it back for six and a touchdown.

But he would get his takeaway later in the game or in the scrimmage, I should say, by punching a football out and forcing a fumble with a good strike to the ball on a completed pass over the middle and on the first drive of Josh Rosen's I found this to be super impressive work from Nick need him here because he got I think it was back to back times against Ricardo Lewis on comeback routes with need Him and coverage. They completed it underneath, picked up ten

or twelve yards, moved the chains. But they tried it again a third time, and Nita made an adjustment to play a little bit more underneath of the receiver and challenge the route, asking them, hey, go up top if you want to beat me, because you're not gonna beat me on the comeback again. They tried to come back.

He gets himself in there for a pass breakup. He also broke on another ball earlier that he almost picked off as well, so two p bus and a forced fumble for Nick need Hum on the day Noah Bonogamy kind of Byron Jones and the way that he wasn't targeted a whole lot, didn't get to see a whole lot out of him, but he continues to show you that athletic ability and strength and press the things you like at the position. Know had a good day in

that regard. Ken Webster was on coverage on the deep ball for Malcolm Perry, but he also responded with back to back pass breakups after that play, So three consecutive plays going after him. You love to see a player respond like that. And then then there were the safeties and they had a day. Eric Row had the pick. I don't recall seeing a pass caught on him. If there was one, it was something in the flat where

he closed down quickly and made a stop. He also got his face in there against the running game and really clawed up some run fits that way, like he's talked about in the past on this podcast. Clayton Federlum had an outstanding interception where he came all the way from center field to the sideline, elevated, picked that thing off high pointed it and then had a big runback afterwards as well. That range and ball skills to get over the top on that throw. Impressive work there from

number forty two. And then Brandon Jones the broken record alert here. He's so instinctive, so quick with the trigger, and he closed his ground fast man. He made a few plays in this scrimmage as well, and that has been the case all training camp long for number twenty nine, and Bobby McCain had such has had such a steady training camp so far. In my opinion, he gets his hands on balls for past breakups. But you just watch the way he interacts with his cornerbacks and the way

he communicates the defense. To me, it seems like he's playing very comfortable and very fast in year two at the safety position. I'll ask him about that later on on this podcast. But to wrap up the notes here, the defense again, they won the day. I thought the offense had some good moments plenty to work on, plenty of tape and digesting, make improvements going forward, get things corrected.

And with that, let's go ahead and start off with Brian Flores as well as a gaggle or perhaps a pod of Dolphins players who met with the media after the scrimmage. Let's go ahead and start here with Coach Flora's and I would encourage everybody to go and watch this on Miami Dolphins dot com because there is some real emotion and a very somber mood from Brian Flores as he informs us all about what happened if Fitzpatrick this morning. This is how we all learned on this

conference call with Brian Flores. Here he is talking about why Fits left the field and that situation. It's that you know, we've talked about him having a personal situation. So his mom passed away this morning. UM, so yeah, there's no quarterback controversy, there's no Um, he's not opting out, he's not retiring. You know that. There's a lot written in the last time. He had a little some personal situations, but his mom passed away. UM. You know, Fits has

tried to work through this. You know, he always wanted to practice. Um, he tried to go out there today. But you know, and I've had multiple conversations with him having dealt with this also, and it's a tough situation and we you know, our hearts go out to him. As a team, as an organization, and uh, this is a competitive guy. You tried to go out there, um, but something is a more important football, So he went. He left to be with his family. So yeah, there's

no quarterback controversy. There's no he's not retiring, he's not opting out. You know, I know it's and uh, you know, I just went to you know, just say, you guys do that's man. It's tough to it's tough to watch man Flora's lost his mother a couple of years ago. I talked about my experience earlier on the podcast here today, It's just yeah, a lot of things are bigger than football, and this is definitely one of them. So I just

I don't have any comment. It just it breaks my heart to watch that, to hear that, and to feel for Ryan Fitzpatrick. The next question here for Coach was again about Ryan Fitzpatrick and that moment they had walking off the field and if he believes, if coach believes that what he had to say to Ryan maybe helped him out in that moment. You know, as a you know, as a coach, as a friend, as a man, is a I mean, you know, they're all kind of intertwined

in this game. So you know, obviously our conversations are going to stay this you know, private, but I went through this year ago. My mom's about the same age. We're about the same age, so you know, we're both I'm a former athlete, he's an athlete. But about competitive guys and leaders, and you know, you want to you want to be strong, but you know their their moments where you know you can't you're not able to be him, So I understand that it's it's I just try to

support him. You know on his team you know is supporting him, and that's that's uh, that was you know, essentially, that was my message to him. Normally, I go back through and I edit the audio so that it kind of doesn't have those lapses and those moments of kind of thinking there for the coach and for the players

that do these audio availabilities for us. But I thought it was important to play that out and its entirety because you can see the kind of pain that Flora's feels as he processes that for his friend and for his you know, his player, and it's it's cool support these guys have for each other. Let's go ahead and move on to this next question here for Coach about the length of Fitzpatrick's potential absence as he grieves the unfortunate passing of his mother. He's gonna take as much

time and as he needs off it. And you know, I think as a as a you know, me, as an organization, we're gonna give this, give him this time to grieve. My thought on this is he's gonna try to get back as quickly as he can because that's that's the competitive nature in him. And you know, like a lot of us, footballs are sanctuary and it's our place to get away from the tough times, the pain,

the english in our lives. So I know he'll try, probably try to get back as soon as he can, but we're gonna give as much time as he wants, any or needs. And credit to Josh Tolentino here of The Athletic for making the difficult, difficult transition from that topic to ask coach about the performance on the football field. I thought he handled that question very well. Here is Coach's response to Josh about how he felt a competitive atmosphere and what the scrimmage was like on the field

on Saturday. You know, I think there's a lot you know about preseason games. That's our first you know, real look you know, in the stadium, sideline, operation, headsets, officials, So there's a lot to clean up. You know, I would just say, just from a coaching standpoint, UM, so we got a little bit of that cleaned up, you know,

from first half the second half. Make an adjustments on the sideline with the tablets, you know, that's something we have, you know, we having been able to do so to incorporate that, you know, going from series to series, that was that was good. You know. On the field, I think we've had some penalties out there and it's it's

good to feel that. UM Defensively, offensively how they you know, extend drives or killed drives in some instances, So the imports to plan and trying to play penalty free, but also being aggressive and playing with good fundamentals, technique and discipline. So I think overall, anytime you get a live look, you know, or as close to the game as possible, it's good. Up next, we hear from coach with regards to the decision to trade linebacker Ray Kwon McMillan. Here

is coach on McMillan and the trade. Well, obviously, uh Rake worn is somebody. I have a lot of respect for this talented player. I think people are gonna say that, you know, people will say what they want to say. He's he's somebody respect a lot. He's he's a good football player. I think he's gonna have a long career.

But you know, there's a lot of depth in that room. Again, you know, like a lot of decisions we make as a as a mooranization, there's there's a lot of things that go into it that you know, you guys aren't gonna you're not gonna know about um, We're not gonna tell you so. But in every decision we make, it's it's in the best interest of the Miami Dolphins. So I have a lot of respect from I wish him all the best and it's a good kid. And we

finish up. Coach Flores Saturday post scrimmage press conference here with a question about his evaluation of the two quarterbacks on the field into a tongue of Valoa and Josh Rosen. Yeah, I think it's hard to really every game is a little bit different. So I think if you don't see a bunch of touchdown score, you feel like the quarterbacks not playing well. That's not necessarily the case. Not my my view as well, although I'm not in my uh not my opinion, I should say, Um, so I have

to go back and look at the film. I saw some good throws. I saw some uh you know, good decisions to could have thrown in some title windows, didn't you know, potential turnovers that guys didn't make the throw. But I gotta go watch the film. To be honest with you, When you don't see a bunch of touchdown score or big passes, you start to think the quarterbacks not playing well, that's just not the case. And um, honestly, I thought those guys, I thought there was a good communication.

I thought, you know, we're in and out of a huddle. Turnovers or down so you know, those are things are important. Give us a chance to you know, to keep the game tight. So go ahead and press on here with receiver isaih Afford his postgame press conference, and uh, I'm gonna try my best to keep my emotions, you know,

and check press this podcast. But man, it's tough because here's for talking about his close friend Ryan Fitzpatrick, you know, it's tough anytime somebody's dealing with a loss, UM, specifically your mother, you know mother and his son's VN is something like no that I couldn't imagine UM if it was me. UM, you know, And I just want to want him to know that whatever UM, we can't do UM as an extended family, UM to support him and help him win his loss, UM, that will be here

for him, UM, you know. And that just that. Next, Isaiah talks about his approach to the daily process and how he can get better every single day. Uh. Yes, each day, I'm just uh, you know, just kind of focus on the little things in the details, and it's trying to get a little bit better, you stay, you know, UM. And whether that's a that's kind of not um focusing on what I've done the day before or even two

days or whatever that case may be. But it's focusing on the current day and I'm doing everything that I can to put one foot in front of other. We're gonna go ahead and pivot over here quickly. Somebody's interviews happened very fast. Couple of questions two or so minutes long. Ted Karas spoke about the rookie offensive lineman and how much joy he finds and helping those guys, those guys grow and develop and watch those young hungry players work every day at practice. You know, I think he's just

he's done a fantastic job. All these rookies Salmon and Rob and Anathan Hubbard and these guys are really come to work every day and it's been a pleasure to help them out and and see them grow. And you know, as I'm trying to continue to grow myself, it's uh, it's fun to be around these younger guys that are really working hard, and I'm really looking forward to going

in a season with these guys. Travis and Ted wanted to ask you about a guy on the other side of the ball that kind of interact with the center position a lot, and it landed Roberts in the communication and physicality he brings. What's a light going up against him every day and practice and some of the challenges he provides you guys on the offensive line, Well, I've known he robbed for uh. This is our fifth season together, um, and he's just about the hardest hitter of ever played against.

So that's the biggest challenge going with it. Very good player and someone I respect um as a friend, as a man. Uh and uh and I'm really really happy that we got to reunite and continue to uh you know, play football together. When Ted said his his word there, he kind of did the yeek face right there. Pretty funny pressor go check that out on Miami Dolphins dot com. Up next, let's go ahead and here real quickly from

Eric row and here is the Dolphins safe. You're talking about his interception he had working against Mike Asiki off the hand of t A Tonga VLOA. Yeah, it would just you know, just straight up man, he ran. It was like an outing up. Honestly, didn't say they were gonna throw it to him because I was it's covered all on him. But once his eyes got big, I just turned my head and the quarterback through it inside. He gave me a chance and I made to play.

And now we'll hear from Eric talking about his teammate, his quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick. It means a lot to it something that just has a teammate which just you know, as a guy in the locker room. Uh, he's brains, consistent, energy, I mean, he's funny, he's just a good guy to be around, and I mean we all feel for him. Uh you know, we all heard the news this morning, and you know, if that was any one of us, and we you know, we feel the same way, and

he can't. It's hard to play when you know you got you know, your parents passed and your mom or dad. So I mean we all feel fun when you know, we all got our prayers going for him and hopeing when he comes back. You know, he didn't come back to a family. I love that last line there about coming back to a family. This Dolphins team is very very tight, very very close knit bunch, and they definitely support each other, as we've heard that the course of

these press conferences. Let's go ahead and spen affward. Now to defensive tackle Devon Gartcha, who talked to the media after the scrimmage. I'm very excited, you know, big thanks to come, you know, starting that practice, working hard, um, getting things we need to do. I mean, she's excited. We got two guys on the edge. You know the rest of passing, you know, set the d stop the running. You know, guys up the middle like me, Christopher and other guys you know, Zack, you know I'm very excited.

That's Devon talking about how excited he is about the Dolphins defensive line and the performances they've turned in so far in training camp and today's practice. And then there was a bit of a follow up question about that. But the defensive line for Devon to make it easier for me, you know, you got guys like that. You know, we can played running play the past, you know what I mean. It makes it very He's just put the

guys inside. And also when you have guys inside to can press the pocket, you know, beat on the lines, and you know, makes it makes it easier for them too. So like I said, it's gonna be able. You know, a two way times, you know, working hand to hand with those guys, they working hand to hand with us, you know. So I'm very excited for it. You know,

I can't wait to the season. And now flipping it over on the other side of the script of Vans asked we evaluate the play of the offensive line up against him in Solomon Kinley and the rest of the Dolphins offensive line. First of all, you know, I like he's an SEC guy, so you know, I like him. He's a he's a big guy. He has a great

feet for BI guy. You know, he's very aggressive, you know, so I like those tangibles about him, you know, but he just gotta keep working, you know, keeping in consistent, you know, keep listening to his coach. And I think the guy's a limit for him. Let's go ahead and go back to the defensive backfield now and here from Dolphins safety Bobby McCain, who talked a little bit about the competition in that locker room, in that defensive backs room to get hands on football's been kind of a

theme of the week. We heard Joel alex Air and talk about it, Nick need Hum Byron Jones. Guys have talked about the compety, aition to get takeaways, to get picks, to get pass breakups, to scoop up incomplete passes and fumbles. Here's McCain on the emphasis on getting the football, just trying to just like you said, you get our hands on the football man and get the balled offense. That's

our job as defenders, um working. We work on turnovers each and every day at private, so making sure we get a chance and opportunity every time scripting the ball. Go pick the ball at the highest point Um, that's really what we won't focus our game on and just being ball halls. And next, Bobby was asked to evaluate a couple of rookies on the Dolphins roster, Malcolm Perry and Brandon Jones. Want offense, one on defense. Obviously. Here's Bobby's answer about what he sees in Malcolm Perry and

in Brandon Jones. He's just a football player. He makes plays. Um, you know, I saying he's a tough kid. He's he's working on making tough catches. Um, as you saw today he had a big catch today. And Uh, Brandon Jones, you know he's a guy that that that he's going, he's gonna be good for us. He's a guy with high energy, he got a motor, He runs around, makes plays on the football, and that's what we need to back end. Just. Um, you know, we all just we're

all coming together as a team and understanding that. Um, you know, we we had we all have our roles to play and um, you know those two guys are gonna help us up. Next, Bobby was asked about his leadership role on this football team, and the question was asked, you go up to Isaiah Ford and talk to him after a catch gets made. You talked to Ryan Fitzpatrick about the competition and practice. Here's Bobby McCain on his leadership role and how he communicates with his teammates. Um,

just just being myself, man, just being myself. Anybody can be a leader. Anybody can step up at any time. And you know what I'm saying, to make people aware of of the things we need as a team. And that's what I try to do. Like you said, he's speaking with Fish, just trying to see what he's seeing on his side from me or anyone else on this on the defense and uh, you know, like we're all brothers,

like helping my brother up. But after you catch the ball, that's not you know, that's that's nothing that hates, nothing to hate on. We We we got to compete and um, you know he's we're all getting better. Okay, Bobby, want to ask you about your number two now for you playing safety and deep off the football where you can kind of see everything kind of unfold in front of you. And I'm just curious, this is kind of the first game type of situation you had here in year number two.

Did you notice any sense of growth for you having that whole year of playing safety under your belt, experience and applying it on the field. Yeah, each and every day you try to get better at practice, and um, you know, being in the game setting today is definitely Uh, it's definitely exciting. But we got to watch the film and just make corrections and um, you know, each and every day I'm trying to get better. And you know,

this is my second year play of safety. So each and every year, man, I mean each and every day he's never practice. I'm trying new things and I want to see, Like that's what practices for, is trying to things and see what you can be good at and what it was not good for you. And let's go ahead and finish this thing up with the quarterback, starting with Josh Rosen, who was first asked about Ryan Fitzpatrick and the team coming together and the support they have

for their quarterback. Um, it's a it's a brutal situation. Um, and I just tried to support him like anyway I could these last couple days, weeks, and months. Um. But I mean Ryan's mom race a hell of a kid, really strong, awesome, independent kind dude. And I've been fortunate enough to sort of be around him in these last couple left couple of months. Almost here now probably, and uh yeah, it's a tough situation, but kind of puts everything into perspective and reminds you that, like we all

are still human. Human things happen. I wanted to ask you about that touchdown pass you had to Ricardo Lewis and just kind of have you walk us through that. It looked from our badge point like you had some tight coverage there. We're able to find that tight window if you tell us what you saw on that play. Um it was. It wasn't wide open. It was more of kind of an opportunity to ball. He's running a corner route in corner, kind of fell off into it

a little bit underthrown and Ricardo made hell of the play. Um, So they're a little bit scrambling there. So I just kind of snapped it quick. It didn get like a crystal clear do the coverage, but I knew where I wanted to throw it and who I wanted to go to and recorded me all the play. So we get some breakdown there on the touchdown pass from Rose and to Ricardo Lewis. Here's Josh talking about the deep ball he had to Malcolm Perry. Um, so that's not really

a part of our read. But the first two guys are going I was going to kind of got trapped inside on some out breaking routes, um, and uh like in my vision through them, I kind of see the go behind it and kind of just noticed that Malcolm might a step on it, and I just thought I chucked it. It's the only one safety in the field, so um, I didn't think he was gonna track it down. But uh yeah, it really wasn't kind of a plan as more of a reaction because my first couple of

guys got stuck inside. Um. But uh yeah, and we finish up here with Dolphin's rookie quarterback to a tongle by Loa as he was first asked to talk about the situation pre practice with Ryan Fitzpatrick, to his relationship with Fitzpatrick and getting injected right into the lineup right before practice started because Fits came off so quickly before the scrimmage started. I'd say that was something pretty difficult,

you know. I I kinda, I kind of you know, told Fits that I'm here for him, you know, but it was something more so emotional for me too, because I kind of thought of my own mom and just the thought of not having a family member, you know, losing a family member, it's hard. UM. So you know, being being given that circumstance, being told that, you know, I had to be ready to go go out with

the first group today. I mean, it wasn't something that I was nervous to do, UM, but it was more so I I kind of I kind of felt what what you know, I would say, kind of what Fits was going through. I got emotional U when Fits ended up leaving to UM and while we were about to pray as a team. But that's that not something that's easy.

And so I reached out to him to telling them that he was, you know, in my prayers and he's been on my mind, in my heart and if they needed anything, you know, they they can reach out to me that I'm here. And here is two of talking about his evaluation of his own performance on Saturday and how it failed to get back onto the football field for his first game like situation, his first simulated game so to speak, since the injury last year at Alabama. Yeah,

I think there was some good today. There were also some not so good. Um, but I think it was a it was a learning curve for for me and

a lot of the rookies. There's some things we need to clean up offensively on my end, and you know, just things in general with communication, um, and then for me not not turning the ball over um in in situations, so being better with situational awareness you know, down in distance and then you know communication you know, and that's why we got a film too to be able to

go over that. Um. So you know, after this interview, I'll probably go and look at at the film and then get ready before our our meeting tonight with what our coaches have to say. Let's go ahead and finish this thing up with one quote here from To about being a lion or being a gazelle, a message that To has put out there into social media, onto his documentary, all these things he was asked to kind of expand

upon that. Here's too, we're talking about his philosophy. Yeah, I think I think that that's saying really relates to life in general. Um. For for me, Um, you know, you got the line in the Gazelle they both wake up in the morning and they both got to run. One is running to something one is running away from something, you know, and which one are you? Um? And so for for me, you take on the mindset of trying

to wake up and become a lion every day. You know, you always want to go and chase, chase your goals for the day. You know, get better, do do something good for the community. Um And And I really think it's just something that I can take in life in general and not just training in camp. Now, I'm chasing to be the best too that I can be both on and off the field. And really that's that's it. So there you go, very very media episode here of

the Drivetime Podcast. A special Saturday edition of the Drive Time Podcast. We are off tomorrow. We're back on Monday with another training camp podcast here on the Miami Dolphins podcast Network. First Real Quick, 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 the crisis doesn't build character, it reveals character. It's also taught us that our health

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