Drive Time - Training Camp Day 2 Recap

on the horizon. We're gonna hear from Coach Flores, get you all the practice notes and details from the Dolphins on the football field, and we'll talk to DeVante Parker, Eric Rowe, and e Landon Roberts. All of that and more on this Tuesday, Training Camp August eighteenth edition of the Drive Time Podcast Miami Dolphins. I'm the only Rossom

news ahead of today's at the Dolphins News. Safety Jeremiah Denson has chosen number thirty six as his jersey number as he and his Miami Dolphins teammates are about to hit the field, and we'll have that covered in its entirety here on this edition of the Drive Time podcast. But first we're gonna hear from Coach Flora's and before we do that, it's a good time to remind you guys 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 we will go ahead and start with Coach Flora's as press availability from Monday morning, and you're gonna hear a lot about this guy today. The first question was about Davonte Parker and things that he worked on this offseason to improve his game and to take it to another level after last year's breakout. Well, you know, obviously Davante had a solid year last year. What I liked about him, you know, over the over the course

of the off season, you know, virtual meetings. It just seemed like he was, um, well, I know he was working extremely hard. Um, from a conditioning standpoint, catching balls, route running, I'm hoping to see um improvements in all those areas, catching a football, route running. Obviously, it's a new offense, so understanding of his position and um, you know a few different positions offensively. So I think he's done a good job. I think he's you know, we're

still you know, in the early stages here. Um, I think he's feeling more comfortable within the offense. You know, he just you know, he just needs to keep stringing good days together. But now I'm very pleased with Davante. And the next question was about the competition on the roster and where he might find the most intriguing battles, a question you're just not going to get him to answer, because he does believe in competition on the entire roster.

But he did talk about the way the Dolphins built this roster this offseason to create competition at every spot, and if that includes the rookies involved in those competitions, well, I would say it certainly involves the rookies. I think there's um, you look we brought in, you know, some free agents, We brought in some rookies. We have some holdovers from last year. So I think there's a lot of competition on the team. Old line, D line, secondary receivers, quarterback, uh,

running back. We try to create a situation where there was competition everywhere. Like you said, so, I'm I'm anxious to see, you know, who rises to the top at all positions. It will be a good two weeks here, um and adds three weeks or fourteen pad pad days at thirteen left. I thought yesterday was a good day of fundamental as the technique and um, you know, running the football and getting out of the huddle and communication. But the guys did a good job from that standpoint,

and uh, you know, hopefully we build on that. But you know, from as from a competition standp want you know, we wanted at every position. We feel like we kind of created a situation where there would be a lot of competition. Guys we feel best about. Other guys were gonna play, but we got a long way to go till we get there. Up next, you're gonna get a really good, insightful answer on the decision to move Eric Road to safety from cornerback, and that decision didn't come

from Brian Flores, but rather his new defensive coordinator. Well, I mean, Eric's a team guy. Um, And I wasn't my decision. I was actually Josh Bowyer's, um, you know idea. It was something that he thought would be a good fit for Eric. You know, he's coached Eric, he's uh. I spent a lot of time with him, and obviously, uh, you know, Josh felt like, you know, we had a conversation about him, you know, actor. It wasn't it wasn't

a thought I had. He'd been playing corner, play corner really, um, you know, his entire career, and I thought it was an interesting move. So we made it. And you know, there was some you know, uh bomb set there earlier early on, but Eric worked worked at it, and he watched a lot of film. He improved over the course of this last season. Uh, he's still you know, he's still early at the position. He's still uh you know,

pretty new at that position. Uh. But you can see, you know, some growth there even in these early stages of training camp. But communication standpoint, playing corner and safety is very different. Um, So there's still you know some things that he can improve on from that standpoint, but he does a lot of good things, um, and hopefully we can we can build on on some of the things we did a year ago and you know, continue to improve the fundamentals and techniques that tackling the communication

at the safety position. Again, what belies would Eric as well? Up? Next, coach was asked about the condition of his players and how he felt they responded to the coronavirus pandemic and how they had to work out in unique different ways this offseason. What's your reminder here? We did see Eric Flowers on the field on Monday getting extra conditioning in, so he is getting caught to speed in that regard, and he looked good getting loose, getting running up and

down the sideline there in the first practice. I'm sure we'll see more of that on day two. Here is Coach Flora's talking about the condition of his football team on Tuesday, August. There's always room for improvement, but I would say, by and large, you know, most of these

guys came in in fairly good condition. Uh, obviously there's some there's some guys who need some exture conditioning and need to work at it, but you know, I've been, I've been uh you know, I want to call it for surprise, but I think for for for the most part, you know, I think these guys are working. I think they were. I think they were working, you know, in the garages wherever they could during the during the quarantine. But we still got a long way to go, and

a lot of that. You know, for us as coaches, it's, hey, let's make sure we're hydrating. Let's make sure we are uh you know, cold tubs and hot tubs and and doing all the things you know outside off the field correctly, UM, so that we can get out there and practice and work the fundamentals and techniques and get better. You know, there's a lot this year it's, you know, let's do let's do a good job off the field from a protocol standpoint, as far as wearing your mask and distancing

and trying to quarantine as much as you can. But it's also from a football standpoint, let's hydrate, let's stretch, let's uh, you know, do some extra conditioning on your own. UM. I think they all understand that. You know, there was no off season program. You didn't have, um, you know, O ts or mini camp, especially specifically for the young guys. I mean this is there's they will have you listen to be the least amount of practice or O t A s you probably in NFL history that for these rookies,

for any rookie class. So, um, just knowing that, understanding that, uh you know, putting some extra working. I think our guys have done that. Um, but it's it's it's one thing to do it for two three days, it's another thing that's string together to three weeks, months, etcetera. So um, that's the go for us. And we'll continue to hit that as a coaching staff and um, you know, hopefully

our players will. We'll do those things up next, coach was asked about Xavier Howard, his availability, the depth behind him, and the competition at that cornerback spot. Here's coach flow on his defensive backfield. Well, you know, there's a lot of competition at that position, you know, with uh Byron to Noah to Nick need Him to uh Small Perry to Tay Hayes to Ken Webster. I mean there's there's

there's a lot of competitions. So uh, you know, we're kind of focused on the guys who are here obviously as abens Um one of our top players. So we're hoping to get him back as soon as we can. Um. He's on COVID I R right now and we're just working through the protocols from our standpoint. Um. But you know, to answer your question, as of right now, we're working without him. UM. So you know, from you know, as as far as answering that specific question, yes, um, we

have to. We don't have a really, it's it's our only option. Um. But as far as the season goes, we're really just taking this one day at a time. So yeah, we're working without X right now. UM. And when he comes back, UM, you know, that may be a different conversation. So you heard coach there talking about rookie cornerback Noah Egnogny how he's fitting in. He also talked about rookie running back Malcolm Perry, who's played some

receivers and running back and quarterback in college. Here's coach Flora's talking about his seventh round draft pick out of Navy and Malcolm Perry. Well, he's got good quickness, he's got good hands, he's an instinctive player. He's just got a good feel for the game. Um, but you know, look, he's you know, college quarterback, he's the receiver position, a running back position. Uh, they're all different. We're asking to

do a few different things. So the techniques, the fundamentals, uh, you know, playing at this level for a rookie against you know, to obviously a higher level of competition, getting used to that, getting used to speed of the game, all those things. That's kind of what he's going through. And really all the rookies are going through right now. So I think so far he's done a good job. We've got a long way to go. It's off it said, Uh, in a short amount of time. Uh, So he's doing

a good job. But you know, he loves to play, he loves to compete. Um, there's a lot of things we like about him. You know, we'll see how this this shakes. You know, obviously there's a lot of competition in that in the wide receiver room as well. And again we talked about this, You're gonna hear a lot about Deavontae Parker. Again, coach was asked about the motivation techniques behind getting Vantae Parker to try to produce at the same level he did last season. And how he's

kind of a self starter and a self motivator. Well, you know, Devanta, I don't really have to push many buttons. He's he's you know, he's he's a self starter, he's self motivated. Um he's a competitive guy. Um So, I think he pushes himself and you know, occasionally I'll find the right buttons to push, but you know, with him, they're they're really you know, there aren't there aren't many that's been you know, my experience in over the last

eighteen months. Um So, I like where he's at. If I feel like he needs a nudge, I'll give it to him. I don't have a problem doing that. But um he's, he's he's a motivated young man. And there's other players who may need a nudge. He's he's he's one who who who's he competes every day. And one last question here for coach. He was asked about the utilization of new safety and special teams. Ace Cavan Fraser, coming over from the Dallas Cowboys. Coach mentions the versatility

and the contributions on special teams as Fraser strong suits. Well, you know, ca Von, uh, you know, we got from a as a free agent played Dallas. He's tough, he's fast, he's very good. Um Or, he's had a lot of production in the kicking game. I like him coming out of college. Smart, you know, he's he's done a good job you know thus far. Um he's a physical player. Look, right now, we're just we're working a lot of guys and a lot of different groups, just trying to find

the right, um combination of players. But he's he's shown up, you know, positively so far. Kind of O T A s and the walk throughs and you know, not one padded practice. So I'm happy where he's at. And you know, hopefully we can continue to grow and improve and over the course of the training camp. But um, he's you know, an experience, you know, has some experience in this league

provising leadership or as a potentially provising leadership. So and as coach finishes up there, his mony is Tuesday morning press availability. Rather, we're gonna go ahead and jump right into the notes from practice and right off the top and doing so, I'm gonna do something that would have Coach Flores putting my ass on the first bus out of town if I were a player. We're gonna go ahead and make an excuse here. The Dolphins alternate between the near field and the far field every other day

at practice. I'm not really sure exactly why this is. My theory is that it gives them one more or the one field more time to recover from the previous day's work and getting chewed up like that because it takes a beating and consequently the field is not in

the best shape afterwards. That's not to say that nothing happens on the near field, but the all all of the eleven on eleven drills occur on the far field on Tuesday, and so with that vantage point that's even down the line on the far field, it's really difficult to get a good look at some of the interior

offensive line and defensive line battles up front. I focused more on the tackles and edge rushers, and we got some juicy, juicy nuggets for you guys there, including some pit drill action, my favorite drill, and all the football. Let's go ahead and start as we do with the construction of practice. Similar feel, similar tone to Monday. One thing I loved was the guy's follow the if you're on time, you're late idea even on the football field.

The quarterbacks and centers were out there lining up for their opening individual drills as the clock was ticking down to the start of practice. So literally as the horns sounded, I heard the quarterbacks barking out their cadence. We're all about efficiency here, baby. You're talking to a guy on this podcast that will get his toothbrush ready while Netflix is loading. I live to not waste time, so I

appreciate that. Speaking of pre practice number fourteen, first one out my new favorite Dolphins camp tradition, and Solomon Kindley and Eric Flowers came out together, and they hang out a lot together from what I saw, and you just can't miss them because they are massive, massive human beings. It blows me away every time I see the sheer density of those two dudes. Much more on Eric Flowers here in just one moment the quarterbacks. You can see

the idea of getting galvanizing personalities right. We've had coach Flora's and Chris we are talking about how important it is to be able to command the locker room, command the huddle, have that huddle etiquette, the communication we know about Ryan Fitzpatrick and to a tongue of Byloa and Josh Rosen. You see this with the bond the players have with the other players, like the offensive lineman, for instance, on Tuesday's practice, they were all kind of chatting it

up and laugh him. I saw to adapting up each one of the linemen that were near him, and they were having a pretty animated conversation with plenty of laughs. That's always fun to see. The first song they played was some form of reggae, and my apologies for my lack of music knowledge here, my lack of music diversity, I should say, is that they're playing some reggae and T and Jesse Davis we're kind of showing some dance moves back and forth. I always enjoy watching how those

guys interact with one another. And speaking of dancing, I might have to start calling Jerome Baker a b d because he always be dancing. He loves to have a good time. He was out there, Phil and Lewis getting after it, and finally, what's go ahead and get into

the individual drills. Here, defensive backs were breaking through two paths they had set up to intercept the past, kind of like stepping in front of a curl route or a stick route, so the focus on the ball, as you're gonna hear Eric Roll talk about later on this podcast, is definitely evident strip sack and scoop. For the defensive lineman chasing strip drill, they had a shuffle, shuffle, tackle drill, a rotation on defense of all these drills, so everybody

works through it and these guys sprint from drill to drill. Again, no time wasted. The offensive linees on a two man sled working on combo blocks, and for the skill guys they were doing ball security drills once again. The receiver started working on the releases on attacking the defensive backs hips. Malcolm Perry showed some of that quickness and instinctiveness you heard Flores's talk about this morning and his press availability really took note of his releases as a receiver because

he's not used to play in that recently. He played some receiver, running back and quarterback in college. But he looked good out there playing off the line and working on those releases off the line of scrimmage. DeVante has got a really interesting release and the way that he can kind of close ground and also use his hand fight to get over the press of the cornerback. Because of his power and his framed he can pretty much run through guys most of the time. It's kind of

fun to watch Preston Williams. I did not see him out there today, and again, there were a few more drops in this drill that will be something I'm sure that coach wants to be cleaned up, especially in these individual drills. Chester Rogers, I plugged the tape in on him when we signed him a couple of weeks back, and I talked about that wiggle. You could really see

that in this drill. They run when they set up these cones in a kind of arc fashion and the receivers have to run a curl route around the cones. He showed a lot of shiftiness and quickness in that route running. Quarterbacks were on point throwing the football on air, but that's what you'd expect, right There was another great

drill on the other side of the field. The safety is kind of playing a center field type of drill, and Clayton Federalum has to have some baseball background playing the outfield somewhere, because I was watching him drive out of that back pedal and get to the sideline. We've seen that drill at the combine for years, where they throw the football way down the field they have to turn and track it and catch it over their shoulder. He looked fantastic doing that. I talked about this on

his tape study way back when he signed. Also, but I loved him on sub package defenses with the Bengals on third and long when they would throw the ball short of the sticks and he would come up at the sticks and close down and make that tackle short of the line to game. Saw some of that early here as well, and Bobby McCain looked really incredibly smooth in those drills. We talked to Bobby a while back.

He played catcher as a baseball player back in his day, but he looks like a center filler out there the way he flips those hips and gets on his horse. Also, happy birthday to Bobby McCain. And a couple more notes on the one on one receiver on cornerback drills, because I had a few notes on that but focused more on the pit drills on the offensive line of defensive line. But real quick. Ricardo Lewis had a nice touchdown on a double move where he got wide open after that

little fake a pass from Josh Rozen. Noah Egmonogamy had a really nice pass breakup on Devonte Parker on a contested play in the end zone. Working on goal line and the red zone package down there. Isaiah Ford and Bobby McCain had a really good battle where Ford Ford pulled down a touchdown catch. And you'll hear more from both of those guys here in just one second. Let's talk about those Pitt drills, baby, my favorite drill and

all of football. When they line those guys up one on one across from each other at the Senior Bowl, for instance, they get the camera right down the field from the from the end zone angle, so you can really see what's going on there. A lot of fun to watch those the winners in this drill and this

will be the premier matchup of the day. In the written story the top news story up on Miami Dolphins dot com where Eric Flowers and Christian Wilkins, they went head to head twice that I counted, and they both had the one rep that the other player lost. They split the series one to one, but they pretty much wanted every other rep that I saw against other guys, but they wouldn't add it really strong. They're both so powerful. With Eric Flowers, you just see that anchor and action.

He closed out the year. Last year was some really good past protection numbers, allowing very minimal hits and sacks on his quarterbacks. I think throughout the course of the entire year from Pro Football Focus, he was number two behind David DeCastro in terms of total hits and sacks on the quarterback at that position. He's so patient into his past set. He doesn't let the defensive lineman give

him the cheese. He doesn't take that cheese. Rather when they try to do too much with the hands and kind of throwing things at him, and he locates that punch and controls the rep really well. Initially good looking day for Eric Flowers. Christian Wilkins looked crafty, lean and quick. He would work under guy's pads and get up in their business so he could really just take them where he wanted to go with them. He was turning the corner quickly, causing holds and really disrupting the pocket from

up in the inside portion of the defensive line. Austin Jackson also had some big wins. I love the way his length and athletic combination works to his advantage. You can see the defensive guys and the pass rushers feel a sense of urgency when going up against him because they know if they don't get up field quick enough, he's quick enough to get there and beat them. But he also has the length to recover when they go

inside back to the outside. Ted Carriss showed a really strong anchor against some of those big boys on the interior today. That's something you love to see because you know the sheer beef next to him with guys like Kinley and guys like Flowers will really help and can handle those bull rushers one on one. But man, if he can really take care of that pressure inside and

lock that stuff down. I had him with good raps on back to back plays against both Zach Seiler and ray Kwon Davis, and both those guys are absolute behemous. Jesse Davis had some good raps as well. He does a good job, like I said with Jackson with the patients and kind of letting guys run themselves out of the play. I have Davis with a win on Ogball on Emmanuel Ogball rather, but that might have been the only one because I don't think anybody got the best

of Emmanuel Ogball on this day. He just looks different out there than most of these guys. Do you remember Randy Johnson throwing that six eleven frame, throwing at batters with that nine nine our fastball, and it somehow seemed like he was throwing even harder and coming at you faster because there was so much action in so much length and just height. Out of Randy Johnson, you kind

of get the same centerm Emmanuel Ogball. There's a lot of man to block there, and he does really well with those vines he has attached to his shoulders on moving guys out of the way, keeping his frame clean, and really working both inside and outside moves because of that length and that power. Benito Jones had some good reps inside. I thought he plays very low. He got a lot of power and explosiveness to knife in and

gain leverage against pass blockers. Some other wins. I had Zack Seeler with a couple of nice really pass rush wins, and back to Jackson, I did have him with one rep where I thought the rush one when Van Ginkl did a really nice job of showing a step inside to get that slide step and get him off balance a little bit, and then go back around the outside off the edge for the win. Tyshon Render had to win. Shack Lawton had a couple of wins and he left for a minute but came back to practice. That was

great to see. And the drill finished with a terrific rep where Jesse Davis held up like a brick wall against a really powerful bull rush. I couldn't make out who the rusher was, but hey, guys, let's go ahead and roll those jerseys down and help us out a little bit here. Man, I can't see the numbers on your jersey. I can't evaluate the play that way. All

in good fun. Of course, Wilkins was the most boisterous after the drill, and I think that he thought he won the drill, and I would not disagree with him on that. He and Eric Flowers looked very, very good. All right, let's go ahead to move on to the eleven on eleven team portion, everybody's favorite. A little bit sloppy early on. The first play had the quarterback and the running back. It was Fits and Jordan Howard going

in different directions at the snap. There was a couple of bad quarterbacks center exchanges to had two of those. Then he went on and worked off to the side with Michael Dieter on those exchanges. Isaiah Ford, though, talk about good performances. He really got it done in that first period. Caught two balls uncovered nicely against the first team defense. That trust that fits hasn't him and we've talked a lot about that here on this podcast. That

was on display at Tuesday's practice. I made another note of Jackson handling his own against some of the first team rushers off that week side edge. I know we all love to hear that as Dolphins fans. Austin Jackson playing really well out there through the first couple of days. Then we got a deep shot from I think it was Fits going after Jachim, but it was more about the matchup with a cornerback in the receiver because we know that Jakim can flat out scoot right. That's his

calling card. He has speed to burn well Byron Jones matched him stride for stride, showing off wheels of his own. Really impressive work from those two. Really competitive battle, but Jones able to get his hands in the football and break it up. And speaking of Byron. He talked earlier in the week, maybe was last week, about his work off to the side of the field during practice, working on tracking the football, trying to get that interception number up.

Over the course of his career. We saw him at practice off the side of the field with an assistant. They walked up and down the field with his back turned to the coach. The coach would throw the ball, yell out, and then Jones would have to snap around and catch the football, always working on that craft. Speaking of catching the football, Dietrich Nichols had a great chance of a pick. Really drove out of his back pedal, got his hands on the football, but he couldn't squeeze it.

And then we went back to the individual drills. Did some ball scooping drills for everybody on defense. Offense is kind of taking a water break. The receivers were also scooping things up. They had some punt blocking drills with a gang of players. They would sprint towards this pad. Coaches would put a football out for him and they would have to dive on that thing and slide across the padding and then it was right back into eleven on eleven. Jamal Perry. We talked about him getting in

there and mixing it up in the running game. I love the way he does that. He's so competitive and sticks his nose and there he made a nice play on Matt Brita on a run stop in the backfield. And speaking of Brita, man, this dude is so so dang quick. In addition to the long speed, he's explosive. I feel the same way about Miles Gaskin with those stutter steps they have back there. Gaskin had a run where he really pressed the whole hard force a linebacker to down, then turned on the jets and won the

edge accordingly. And how about some more Davanta Parker. My goodness, this guy is balling out there. He caught a slant pass and slipped through an arm tackle and was off to the race. Is probably good for about thirty to forty yards before they wrapped him up and got the whistle. He also went up and got another jump ball like he tends to do. That's kind of his game at this point right just looks fantastic. For the first two days of practice, I got a ball in for another sack.

I got Noah Igbanogeny breaking up a back shoulder throat to Davanta Parker from FITS, I just wrote down I love watching this mffort compete. He is an absolute dude. Referring to Noah Egg. Two of them checks back in and made some nice plays. There was one play where the defense brought the safeties down and they bailed out quickly at the snap and two was able to quickly replace the rush with the football. We talked about that

all the time here on this podcast. How he did that in college, very quick to react to the movement of the defense. Rogers caught that pass and then Nate Brooks punched out and the defense recovered. So takeaway there from the defense. Christian Wilkins was in the backfield again, had him down for a TfL that happened before to a found Adam Shaheen on a little curl route for ten yards down the field, finding a nice rhythm as

the practice went on. And then again I got aug butt in there with a long arm, just looking absolutely ridiculous. It forced a quick throw and then Igman Agny jumped the route, but like Nichols, he too couldn't squeeze the football. And then Bobby McCain decided to just go off and

rightfully so. On his birthday, he was playing his normal safety spot and like coach Flores talked about, I think it was on Monday, about how the safeties have to be able to play the second or the middle of the field, the two deep half come down play the buzz does a little bit of all that fun stuff. And on one instance he was hanging out in the middle of the field and Fitz tries to drill a dig route and Bobby closes down on the play, picks it off, takes it back the other way. Really really

nice looking play. There is Bobby close and finished the play. Then two plays later, Jachim gets open on a condensed split to the boundary. Fitch tried that turkey whole shot between the safety and the cornerback. In between the two of them, it was Noah Eganogeny and Trail and Bobby McCain closing down over the top. Jachem out to the football, but Bobby got there a second later and separated the

football from Jachim. Really big day for Bobby McCain. I saw Eland and Roberts put some more dudes on their backs. He is a mean, physical, tough dude, love watching him play. Rosen hit a really nice screen pass with some good ball fakes and patients to set that thing up. Patrick Larry had a nice run after the fact on that play. But I also took note of Jason Strowbridge with a great hustle effort to chase that play down from the backside.

A few more notes here. Jason Sanders was hitting the building from fifty yards out and the building is fifteen yards or so behind the goal post. Just an impressive right leg there for Jason Sanders. We had another big play, this time from Tua to mac Hollands for about thirty yards on a well placed crossing route that let Hollands run right through the catch and make a big play. Afterwards, Kaseki caught a nice flat route and put a defensive back on his back and when he dropped the pads

and lowered the shoulder and put him down. Didn't see the number there, but Kaski running through tackles and that was it. All in all, I think Monday's practice was a little bit sharper, But as you'll hear in an interview with Eric Rowe, we have coming up on the video show later the week, guys are still getting adjusted to the level of conditioning these practices call for. So we'll ride the camp wave and be with you guys every day here on drive time. Let's go ahead and

play some sound from our player interviews. We had Parker Roberts row in a late edition here with Mike GASICKI. We start with Davante Parker, Hey, what's going on, Davante? Um I wanted to talk about your breakout season last year and kind of picking up where you left off the last couple of days and practice on these deep balls and jump balls. And Coach Flores talked this morning about your work habits and your workout regiment in the

off season. I was curious coming into this year, what are some things you feel that you can work on and how did you attack those in the off season. For me, I just relacking. I still have right to do on you come back wrassing things like that, and you know, and you know, just just get it off the down pad. So I'm going to be ready to go and now a five year vet in the NFL. After a breakout season, Davante was asked about his leadership

role in the Dolphins receiver room. Obviously, little guys doing a little thing that from from what I's as rookie. You know, just tell them what they need to do and what they're doing right, you know, just there be their forward for them whenever they needed. And here's a good answer from Davante following up on the exact same theme we talked about with Fitzpatrick, Changilely and Jachim Grant on the freedom and the routes receivers have in this offense.

Just say, probably a little more freedom to do different things this year in this offense. Now Davante is pretty to the point. But here he reflects upon his film study and how that's changed over the last couple of years compared to his early years as a Miami Dolphin

and as a professional. All Right, I watching now change the lot you know you have You have to see you going up against that Weeksted there one of the top corners in You just have to be prepared to come out, you know, you know, let the main switch of the technique or something that you have to know that. Up next, we got new Dolphins linebacker Eland and Roberts, and he talked about his early stinting here with the Dolphins and what he brings both of the locker room,

to the film room and on the practice field. Uh. Man, every day I walk into building just trying to be the best teammate I can be, you know what I'm saying, the best, best coachable player I can be, best leader I could be. That's all. Uh, you know, and have

fun out there, you know what I'm saying. And we all out there playing a game that we've been wanting to play since it was all the kids, so uh, you know it was it was just more so being competitive, being a great teammate, being a great lead on the field. Also up Landing was my question about the physicality of them. Hey, what's going on in Landing. I just wanted to kind of go back to that first question and have you

expand on that two days in now. I just want to get your opinion on the physicality of practice and how intense it's been out there under coach Flora's well, you know coach Florida's uh, you know, he comes from a background of you know, scouting. Uh he started off in scouting. You know, he did a little special, he did a little offense, and you know, his his pride and enjoy defense. You know, so you know, the physicality of practice is gonna be up because that's a part

of the game and stuff like that. So, like I said, man, were out there, were being physical, but at the same time, we're taking care of on each other, having fun and within they're fun doing our job. Roberts was one of two linebackers to sign and this year from the Patriots three if you count Comma grouge Hill. But here he discusses his relationship with new Dolphins linebacker Kyle van Noy. But Kyle Man, you know, great guy, owning off the

field and whatnot. He's like, you know, the same as me. Whatever, coaching staff whatever, you know, coach Josh Boyer, you know, Florida's whatever these guys actually do, We're gonna do it. You know what I'm saying. That's that's throughout the whole team. So every guy kind of had the same mindset, you know what I'm saying on the team, you know, do my job, be physical, doing my job, have fun, be

a great team. And he came back to the topic a little bit later on, well, you know, me and Kyle have been in there for four years, man, so it'd be fun. In the meeting rooms man, real smart guy. Uh, you know, great team and great family guy. Man, our kids are like two or three. We support you know what I'm saying. So me and me and Kyle has a great relationship and stuff like that. So him being in that that that room and stuff like that. The

environment just seeing him, it's great, you know. And but at the same time, you know, it's kind of the coach around the organization. So every day you walk in, we got a job to do. But you know that you're gonna get better. You don't have coaches to push you don't have players pushing you and stuff like that because you know the expectation. And up next we got Dolphins safety Eric Rowe, who was first asked about the transition going from cornerback last year to safety mid season

and how he dealt with that transition. Uh. I mean, yeah, there's there's always stuff to work on, no matter what position you're how long you play. For me, personally, all we work on, you know, man and man technique, press technique. But another thing I need to work on was actually run game and run fits man as a corner That's not something you know you see a lot of. Uh.

And safety obviously it's a lot more prevalent. So I know that's the thing I need to I need to work on, well, stuff to work on, and obviously because you know, nobody around, but you know, for this training camp, you know, work on the rough fits. Uh and you know, kind of seeing the run quicker than I did last year.

But as you know, as far as exceeding my expectations of of last year, uh kind of you know, when I you know, when they moved me there, I just you know, worked on the game by a game, and you know, I found it easier to cover obviously, to cover tight ends, you know, even not as quick you know, as receivers in the league. So I mean some of them were pretty fast, but you know, not all of them, you know. And whichever one I covered, it was just

my goal out there, just dominated. And he would expand on that question a little bit more later in the interview and talk about the knowledge he has in the defense and how it really attracted the coaching staff to thinking about putting him in a position where he could play safety and helped communicate the defense more from that position. One, because we had injuries at safety, and then uh two,

I guess when I was back there. He saw it was a good I mean, I have a really good knowledge of defense, and I was making I was making communication cause you know, away from the corners spot way out there, you know, making and safety cars way you know, way on the islands. And so you know it's kind of mix of like injuries and him seeing that and then uh, well you know once I guess once I started covering tight ends, it was you know, they was

just a done deal. So but you know the men that I heard it, you know, I was not thrown back, but I was like, you know, okay, you know, you know, we gotta help team. You know, we're we're super low at safety. Uh you know, right now we had you know, we had some pretty good you know, we had X and you know, Nick Needa was kind of coming on our rise, like, you know, we got some good corners. So you know, I moved back there. Every team out,

you know, however, it goes down. And as one of the leaders of that secondary, Eric was asked about some of the goals that Secondary has this year and what they can achieve in the season. I mean, first, our you know, first our goals to you know, gel together because you know, every year, it's a new new team, right, So we got new players in the secondary. Uh, you know, we got like Noah and Brandon and you know, Byron and even you know, whenever X comes back. So the

first thing is, you know, we gotta jail together. And then our second goal is get the ball. Like this year were putting a huge emphasis on, you know, getting the ball, like getting the interception, getting the pick, batting the balls, tipping the balls to get a pig. You know, however, how we gotta get like that's our huge emphasis for this year. And you know, and it starts right now in training camp. That's you know, we even got a

point board like whoever get the ball out? You know, you know, everybody got a little point list and like so, I mean that's how that's how, that's how horror advertising it. Eric would go on to talk about Dolphins first round draft pick at cornerback, his old position and no monogamy, and the things he has seen so far from the rookie. Oh,

I mean, here's a lot of potential. He's he's really he's explosive, strong, quick, and obviously he mean he works hard to tell and he doesn't care that he's you know, first round or when you know, whatever round you win. I can tell you can see in his eye that you know, he wants to be great from the start. Um, So what I've seen from in camp, I mean, you know, it's hot and tire. He still makes ricky mistakes, I mean like everybody does. But his you know, I can

tell his learning progression. He's gonna he's gonna be a good guy in the league. And Eric did play some safety in college at Utah, but he did play free safety opposed to the strong safety spot he plays more now here in Miami. He was asked about that transition of going to safety. Enough his experience in college helped him at all with that transition. Yeah, the most, Uh, even though I did play in college, I was mainly a free safety, so I was in the you know,

I was in the deep the post a lot. I didn't really have to deal with you know, run fits and all that. So, uh, when I make that transition and that that was probably the most difficult thing was knowing that, you know, I actually have a gap that I need to fit and it's not like the corner has like you know, the d get are the most outside gap. You know, it's easy. Like there's some places, you know, I have to actually read old lineman, watched

the pool. You know that happens fast. At the same time, focus on my tight end in cases you know it's a passport and so like that. That's probably the most difficult thing, you know, for me, was trying to pick up on on the run game, trying to understand, you know, front because now I gotta understand, like, you know what front is our d N and you know the D line in that corner. You kind of like, yeah, yeah, I don't really need to know that because I'm on

the island. But now to say to you, like, I have to know which front we're in, which gap I have if you know, if the old line pools and my guy flashes, I have to get to this gap or it's gonna be gaping, and you know all that. So that's probably the most difficult thing when I had to transition, and you heard real talk a lot there

about covering tight ends. We're gonna finish up this podcast with an interview with tight end Mike Kasicki, and he first starts off talking about his time playing inside in that slot position. I think that you know this offense is kind of built for um people to make place. So you know, no matter what position you're in, you know, whether you're running back, tight end, receiver, quarterback, you know,

it doesn't really matter. Um. I think that you know, if you're gonna get open, if you're gonna you know, know your role, know your assignment, uh, and go out and execute to the best of your ability, then you know you're gonna be put in a position to you know, be successful and you know, help our offense make some plays. So I mean in terms of you know, just playing you know that slot that that you're talking about, Um, I think that you know, that's just the same mindset

as well. So I mean, if you're in the slot and you know, no matter who's covering you, and you know, no matter what the coverage is, whatever it is, your role, uh, you know, go out and get open um and you know,

just let everything else take care of itself. Up next, Mike details the value of having the experience and knowledge in the locker room, in the quarterback room of Ryan Fitzpatrick and how he has gone into that quarterback room to try to lean on that knowledge and get experience for himself here learning this offense, learning this system and just learning how to be a professional from his quarterback

Ryan Fitzpatrick. Yeah. I mean I think, you know, playing with fits um helps you know everybody, you know, no matter of your position. But uh, you know, with his experience and his knowledge of the game, UM, you know, you'd be you'd be stupid not to you know, ask him questions and try to see it through his eyes and get you know, his perspective. Uh. This way, you know, you kind of get some of his experience as well.

So UM, I try to talk to him, you know, no matter what the situation, just kind of asked him, you know, how he sees it, how he sees me, you know, getting open, you know, getting some of my releases, that kind of stuff, um, and then just kind of understanding where you fall in the progression of the play.

And so I think that you know, all those things are you know, super important because you know, if you're not the first read and you know you're you're on the back side, and you know, you know you have more time to get open, you're you know you have um, you know, you can run your route a little bit differently.

So I think you know, understanding those uh, you know minor details of the route rather than just hey I know I have this you know backside in cut if like you know, understanding you know, the full concept of the play, just like the quarterback to And then I was up next to ask Mike about how he feels about the matchups he gets inside when Davanta Parker and

Presston Williams are on the outside. Hey, Mike, kind of a similar question here is in regards to what you just finished up on that last question with the personnel groupings. When you guys have you DeVante and Pressing on the field and all that height and leaping ability that three of you guys offer, how does that How does having those guys on the field kind of helped create mismatches for you or maybe change the way you approach to

how you execute your route. Yeah, I mean I think, you know, especially after you know the seasons that you know those guys had last year. You know, obviously Pressing before he went down, Um, you know it was making a ton of place for us. And then Davonte uh seemed like every time you know, you put the ball up to him, you know, he was making a huge play.

So to have those guys on the outside. UM, I think it's hard to you know, send you more attention to a tight end or to a slaughter or anything inside just because of you know, the threats that they are, um in their you know, individual positions. So you know,

having those guys out there definitely helps. And then, uh, you know, when you know, when you get your you know, man and man and you get your single coverage, you gotta be able to win and uh, you know, dominate your matchups this way, you know, uh, you know, there's more trust than you do make plays. And then also you know, maybe then you can draw a little more attention than those guys are you know, getting their opportunities

as well. And so there you go. Another very lengthy episode here of the Drive Time Podcast, breaking down day number two from training camp, hearing from four of the veterans on this Dolphins team, as well as coach Flora's We're gonna come back tomorrow and do it all over again. First, I want to remind you guys, 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. Learn more at Baptist Health dot net, slash coronavirus, and are gonna come back on tomorrow's podcast and do all of this over again. Practice reports up

on the website. Top News will have the blitz for you guys in the morning. We have a new edition of the fish Tank podcast out. I saw Bo and John around the building here this week too, so the audible should have some new stuff coming out for you guys as well. We're gonna have you covered wall to wall Miami Dolphins dot Com the podcast on social media wherever you get your football from. The Miami Dolphins are

gonna be there covering this team, covering these practices. In the meantime, you all please be sure to subscribe, rate interview the podcast wherever you get your podcast from. Go ahead and follow me on Twitter at Wingfield NFL. Follow the Dolphins at Miami Dolphins and of course, Miami Dolphins dot com until next time fins Up