Drive Time: Answering Your Mailbag Questions

gonna answer that as well. I'm just gonna go ahead and go off the cuff though, and read these things as we go. Whatever you can think of, we're talking about it here on the podcast. From the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Hell Training Complex. This is the Drive Time Podcast.

in seeing what he can do for said player? And what a way to start this podcast off. Coming off the heels of the Friday Anthony Weaver episode, which you haven't heard yet, go back and check it out. I had the great Mark vandermiro on who just was spitting hot fire with what he thinks about the Dolphins new

defensive coordinator. And then we also heard from Coach Weaver on that podcast, and I alluded to this in an answer the coach put on the or that he mentioned in his press conference on that Friday podcast, And I mean, the easy money here is Jalen Ramsey, right, But I'm gonna go somebody else in that defensive backfield and say it's Javon Holland. And I think that what coach Weaver saw this past year with the usage of Kyle Hamilton, who for my money is already the best safety in

the National Football League. And by the way, This is like getting way out into the weeds, Jason, and I apologize for that positional.

up in these trivial things in the sport. In my opinion, hey draft good football players and it works out right. The same thing is true with Kyle Hamilton, and I remember the lead up to the draft that year with him, with the disbate about the value of safety or the value of you know what, he's good, but you can't take him in this position of the draft. They should have taken him even higher because he changed the way that defense operates, and safeties can do that when they're

not just safeties. And that's what Javon Holland is because if you go back to Javon Holland's tape at Orgon, it wasn't him ranging around in center field picking off, you know, go balls that don't They just don't happen

that frequently anymore. In the National Football League, it's important to have someone cap those off in your deep cloud coverages, whether you're in a cover two, whether you're gonna cover three to cover six, different variations of having different guys take different deep valves of a passing game away.

And in Oregon, what I thought he was best at was understanding his job, the defensive structure within what his job entails, how the concept the offense calls attacks that, and his ability to make plays because of what he sees and what he processes in his mind to go make those plays like coming off of a bunch where he's got a front side crosser and he bails because he recognizes Mesh coming back from the backside and jumps into that and go get goes and gets a pick

where the quarterback I guarantee you comes back to the sideline on that play and says, what the.

he normally does is fantastic and elite fashion. I think that his ability to match up to you know, keep your scheme fluid on a weekly basis, and that's another big kind of bomb drop that coach we were put in that press conference was kind of revealing what he envisions the structure of this defense looking like, which is some crossover with the Dolphins zone principles. And obviously this

Dolphins defense was effective. They were good and kind of styming the offense with the same exact look every single play, which then disguises how you rotate in your coverage that way. And I thought for the most part, this past season for the Dolphins was one of the best in terms of you know, when you watch the broadcast and like you can't really see what's going on down the field and then like the quarterback hits the top of their drop when they have conviction they throw on time, usually

it's going to be a completion. I felt like this year when we were kind of in that mystery world of being, you know, subject to what the broadcast showed us. I felt we were better equipped in coverage down the field on those situation, situations and scenarios, and it played out that way on tape as well. So I think Miami's ability though, to take that structure, take the personnel they have, which is very good. By the way, and

another quick aside, Sarry, you get lots of burn time here. Man, the great Kyle Krabs had a great reply to a guy on Twitter who just loves to be miserable, right, and we know I won't give it the time of day, but like just bitching about every single little thing this team does. And Kyle went back and said, like, oh, they've got the most sacks and it fell.

premium positions. Like they have the pass rushers, they have the corner, they have the matchup piece in Javon Holland, they have the Zach Seeler wolfing that about Christian Wilkins, and that's a question coming on the podcast here in a minute, but you get the sense and David Long, by the way, phenomenal football player, Like, there are pieces and I think that what coach Weaver is going to see with this is the ability to maximize their skill sets.

And who better to maximize their skill set than Javon Holland in the capacity of what you can do from disguise and movement and in the box and off the football and matching up on a said player, it's it's nice to have him, and then you pay that with Ramsey. I think this defense is going to look a lot different although also similar in the way they attack things

this year. And Javon Holland's my pick. I's a long, long first milbag question and answer there We're gonna have to go faster to get through all these at b one, Nick is that Beneck, I don't know what is Tua attacking this offseason. My hunch is play EXTENSI when routes are blow up the lines, scrimage. And I tend to agree with you on that, ben being. I'm sorry, man, I don't Yeah, I know it's clever wordplay, but I'm

just not clever enough to figure it out. Pretty stupid person. Yeah, that's that's gotta be first, right, because and I don't feel it's not I feel it's not something that he

can't physically do. I think it was more of an ingrained in his mind to play smarter and safer this year, which we you know, only eight quarterbacks played all seventeen games, and it gave us a chance even when the offense was struggling down the stretch because a year ago, going into the playoffs with a rookie, seventh string or seventh round quarterback, third stree quarterback wasn't gonna work out. So

having to a healthy is paramount first and foremost. But I think we need to play a little more, almost like Patrick Mahomes in the Super Bowl, Like let's go make some more plays, and so I think it's there.

I think the skill set is there. I always allude to that play against the Commanders when he had a free rusher in his face and was able to kind of do that little pump fake and then you know, tuck the ball in side step attack lane scrimage and throw the ball on time hot that way, or obviously the play on opening day against the Chargers to Tyreek Hill down the field there, or the one to Braxon Burials in that game moving left off the spot.

especially those last couple of games of the year. I thought that he felt the rush more than he did earlier in the season. So I guess being more confident and having a better calibrated mindset on top of just getting a little bit maybe slimmer, maybe a little bit more agile, which is all stuff that he's gonna knock out with Nick Hicks. You just know he's going to next one here from at Dolphins Fan five, what improvements do you see the Dolphins doing with the offensive line?

It's a good question because I mean, we saw Austin Jackson get extended and the Connor Williams ACL injury definitely open up a unique situation there with how he will approach the offseason and his market on the open market. Tron Armstead has been very good, if not always available, and has alluded to the fact that the body sometimes hasn't cooperate with what he wanted to do, and that might invite the scenario where maybe he doesn't want to play anymore.

really don't know. So if that's what the scenario you're playing with, where you have Austin, Robb and Tehran, that's a very good starting three to begin with, You're gonna have to fill out the other spots. And I kind of feel like I love Liam Eichenberg is like my seventh offensive lineman, Like not my swing tackle, but my swing interior guy. Maybe is a good position for him, Maybe it's Isaiah Win if you want to go back

that route, but I don't. You have to, like, you have to have somebody else you feel comfortable with and capable with at that position, because he's never finished a season in his career, kind of like to Ron Armstead. So with that in mind, I think that your incumbents another year in the system will get better. But I also think you have to just get better and bigger on the interior. That's kind of my that's my main focus this offseason is getting much bigger and thicker on

the interior. And there's some more questions in here that I saw. We're going to go ahead and answer more of that for you at Dolphins Fan O five. But I think that's my number one thing is getting much bigger. I'll talk about the particulars here as we go along. At Tutio Javier, I hope I got that right. I apologize, but I didn't. Who's the first player you see the team re signing. Who's the first one you see them trading or letting walk.

career except for one stretch of games last season. So to me, it's a non premium position, right, you can probably afford to It's not going to cost you as much as a premier receiver, a premier edge, a premier corner, premier tackle. It's affordable usually, So Rob hunts my option there on the first part of the question. The second part I talked about this last you know, before the injury to Bradley Chubb, it was Andrew Van Ginkle because I thought he played himself out of our price range.

But now with that volatility of what might happen there, maybe you do bring Gink back and he has his own injuries coming back off of So that was my answer just because he was too good for us, like he outplayed our ability to afford him, I thought at that time. So that would have been my first answer.

But now I think it's Connor Williams because of the injury, because I think the ask is going to be still for premier center money, and I think that where the Dolphins have to get better and where they can improve their short yardage, their true passet pass protection is by getting bigger on the interior, and Connor Williams, I think is a top five or six center of the National Football League. But I think that getting bigger has to

be a priority up front. So that would be my two choices there along the offensive line at it's me Nick, good morning, Travis. Do you see the Dolphins drafting up or maybe down for more picks? What's your take on that? Thanks, and have a great day. Trading up right, go ahead and assume that's what he meant by drafting up. So the thing about trades on draft day is that I always see like, oh, what I would do is trade down. It's like, I'm sure you would. I'm sure that's what

every GM wants to do. But it takes two to kango oshapnet Adam Taandler. Yeah, I think I think that Acquir I would love to get back in the third and fourth round of the draft, and so like I would be intrigued by a potential move back that puts me in that same range. In twenty twenty, when the Packers came up for Jordan Love, we went back four spots and we recouped I believe a fourth round pick that year.

but number two on a Monday. Man, these these like between actually the summer podcasts when it's really dead are pre taped and it's like season preview and we're kind of getting geared up and enjoying the last part of summer break with your kids being out from school. For me, my wife works in a school, so she also has summers off, and then for me, obviously that's the one time year where I'm not working all the time. So it's nice, but this time of year, like we're in

this really weird position. Like I talk about draft prospects, I talk about free agent film I'm watching.

help the Dolphins get over the hump? And I don't think you're gonna like this answer because it just doesn't jive with what I see fans talking about on social media. I just think it's incumbent improvements, man, I really do. I mean retaining our own guys, I think is going to be a critical venture this off season with regards to how this thing gets built and where the money that we do have goes.

I don't really dive into it because it's over my stupid brain and I don't really want to like flesh out like where you move money around and restructure. But just understand that the way this organization or front office structures things is to keep themselves flexible, to give themselves outs, to keep themselves with the ability to change things that the drop of a hat for a scheme change or

a coach change, or whatever the case may be. They find opportunities to move money around and keep themselves flexible. It's the job of an entire guy. Brandon Short is a great job in the organization of making that all happen. So just please remember that it's the stuff you hear from people that think that a nine technique means the defense nine gaps, like, don't take your opinions too seriously

from that, that's my only thing. So with that all set, gi Ortega your question about what moves the Dolphins might make this off season to make them get over the hump. I think the third year in the offense for the quarterback and play.

that can keep up in the thirties. I would say there's twenty four teams if you score thirty points against, they really don't have much of a chance to beat you. And now we have to find out how to beat the other eight teams that have the quarterbacks like the one that we have or even better than the one that we have, which is the case for a handful

of teams right. So to me, it's just being better detailed at everything, minimizing pre snap penalties and mistakes, giving yourself a better glance at what the pre snap alignment of the defense and postnapp rotation might be. Having my quarterback have more answers and critical situations, having better third down conversion and communication with how we attack a good defense with a good pass rush and the pass protection plan.

I think for year three, for Tua being more well versed in his protections and how to get that stuff all sorted.

Party had the answers to this all the time. And so for Tua, who I think has really taken a big step the last couple of years with his professional approach, with his mental aptitude.

Better and true dropback situations and maybe a more refined offensive approach that has a little bit more What's what I'm looking for here, not like not predictability, but can just when you when you know what you have to do, you can do it right. And that is kind of what the Rams and Niners have done the last couple of years. They've converted to a little bit more of a power running scheme that gives them more opportunity to convert those situations that we came up shorten.

That's been big on my list this offseason, so plenty to look at there, and of course, you know we'll have some newcomers to come in and help with that as well. Next question here from at Laramore underscore Ben keep one cut one McDaniel into a you are diabolical, sir.

out of context. But I would say, I would keep McDaniel by a slim margin because I think that once you get a head coach, he can certainly tailor thanks for that quarterback, And I think that eventually, you never know, it took us twenty years the first time, eventually we could find another quarterback. A head coach can be even tougher to find. If you ask me at ross PB, of all the players who are due to hit free agency, which two do you re sign? One offense and one defense,

I'd pick Wilkins and Hunt. I put this question in there because we already discussed this earlier. My pick was Robert Hunt for the defense. Yeah, I think you nailed the head there with Christian Wilkins. I will say, though, if it gets to a point where it's not really you know, tenable for your your structure and your cap and it's going to really really suck if you have

to lose a player like that because of that. But I will say, if it comes down to that, a cheaper option at the safety position, and Deshaun Elliott probably is my pick because of the financials of that and the flexibility we'd have with that, you know, twenty million dollars per year, which of course you can sparse out through the course of the contract and you know, roll the money down the line and all that fun stuff.

But I would say, just from a value standpoint, if it's not Wilkins, which it is, right, it's probably just Shaun Elliot because I thought that he played way above board in terms of what he was paid this year and his production on.

thought Miami. I thought we had everything else at center besides that last criteria there the size and strength, which I talked about it right in training camp. I watched Raykwon Davis walk Connor Williams back into the lap of the quarterback frequently, and he doesn't do it against anybody else like some guys he does. But I mean Connor Williams, if there was one issue in his game, it was the size and the stature at that position and just overall anchor in the lakes. But I mean, for the

most part he was. He's a fantastic player, right But between that and short yardage movement, pushing guys off the football QB sneaks or even just full back dives. When you watch Jackson powers Johnson play, he is on that level of a Creed Humphrey who fell out of the second round, on that level of a Frank Ragnow who did go.

smart as hell. They both played a million snaps at college. Zach Fraser is a captain who's tough as hell. He's right there too, But I just think that JPJ is on a different tier. He's on that Creed Humphrey tier. He's very, very good, and there are other centers in this class that I think make good sense in the second round as well. So it's a good position to need and it's part of the reason why I think that the current guy. I think my assumption would be

that you don't see him back next year. Let's go ahead and take that last break right there, come back on the other side and finish up your questions on the mail back edition of the Drift Time podcast That's next brought to you by Auto Nation some more mailbag questions. Don't forget DCC on Saturday. You can come by and find my guy Seth and I will be at the finish line, I believe, in the paddock area at the f one track. We're gonna be hosting a radio show

live on the air from ten to noon. We're gonna have some pre tape segments, but also gonna have some guys stop buying and do a live hit. I believe Jalen Phillips will be with us, but we'll also have tons of players and Coach will be there. Gonna be a fun time hanging out for a couple hours there at DCC on Saturday. With that, let's go ahead and get back to your questions here and a couple of quick ones. First one at Finn's finish why aren't they

addressing the special teams coaching. They actually did let go of an assistant special teamers, Brandon Dale.

that's how I'm going to get back at you. And it's at stubbornness, man. That stuff don't play. That don't play at all. So I think camp Smith is your obvious option. I watching him all camp long, I feel pretty confident in my evaluations. I do get some stuff wrong. I thought no Ignogony was gonna be a good player. Well he wasn't, so you get some stuff wrong.

I think the next obvious answer is changing Tyndall. I think a lot of the player development loving guys up putting your arm around him, not putting him a freaking you know, a Mike Leach storage shed out somewhere and just forgetting about him for a couple of days like that was kind of how the last guy did it right.

But for Coach Weaver, I think he's gonna come in here and give these guys a fresh start, a fresh opportunity, and then for a more I guess not obvious answer because those kind of were obvious to me would have to probably be Sjalen Ramsey. I mean I talked about it in the you know who stands to get it to benefit the most, But I think that Ramsey's ability to play in different positions, you know, that's as he said a detriment to Ramsey. If you just tick them

at field or boundary corner, leave him. They're like, no, move this guy around and maximize his ability to make plays by putting him in positions where the ball will definitely go. Because you're not going to avoid Tyreek kill all game right. Put him in spots where the ball will go and watch him make more plays. At Xander Gomez, any chance xaviing Howard comes back, I talks about his cap hit, would be a waste to issue the best

Dolphins cornerback I've seen the last twenty years. Sir Sam Madison's on this team twenty years ago, so I take.

just kind of depends on when the game is. It depends if I can get my family out there as well. We definitely want to go home and see our family. But that's the plan. I'm hoping to be there at Skeeter doing on are we going to resign Christian wilkins Man. I think there's some hope there. I think they're trying.

plays that were easier to key on later in the year. Well, if that's the assessment, then off of what you're saying, I would say the it would be the proficiency in the true drop back game, because that was something they had back in twenty twenty two when they did get themselves into some long yard situations at times, it seemed like and we're able to get out of those situations with a very proficient third down and especially third and

long passing game. They were actually first in the NFL and third and long and twenty twenty two, not the case last year.

he can't be on honest, YadA YadA yah. And I just want to address that part real quick, because, first of all, if you're saying that you have listened to the show in a while, I will admit the first year on the job here there probably was some of that because the person that ran the department was very very much thumb on the scale, with me not so much the case anymore. And also, like you can see my tweets, I tweet about the games live and tell

you where the shortcomings are. I talk about the shortcomings in the podcast here. So I just take a lot of exception to that. I take exception to just by the nature of my position and my job that it's thought that I my credibility is less then, and how is my credibility less them?

have on the show, I agree. But there's also a reason I don't put my four year old on the podcast because when I ask her, how was your Valentine's Day, sweetheart, she says purple.

vetting them for quality. I will never put stuff on the podcast that doesn't provide quality for you, guys, that doesn't make us collectively smarter as a Dolphins fan, as a football fan, as a human being talking about films or experiences, or evaluating draft prospects or Tua's mistake on a third down throw on a Week fourteen game, I will always give you the best in that regard, and never, ever, ever, even if I leave the Dolphins, I will never hill, I will never grift I will never put myself in

that position, So I just want to address that. I'll do more on the Wednesday show, But gosh, guys, like, what is what is going on out there? All right? So Saturday ten to noon, Seth Levitt and myself are going to be at the finish line of DCC, which I believe is in the Paddock Club this year. No more JANKI finish line back in some random parking lot. It's on the actual F one track at the Paddock Club, and Seth and I will be hosting a two hour

radio program. We'll have some pre taped interviews. We're gonna have the great Liz Jenkins. Jason Jenkins' is the late Jason Jenkins. His wife, Doctor Nimmer, the head of Sylvester Cancer Research Group, will be on the show with us, and I believe we're angling for Jalen Phillips as well. We're also gonna have OJ McDuffie and a live feed to OJ on his ninety nine mile ride at DCC. So come check us out, Come say hi to me and Seth, take some pictures, whatever you want to do,

come meet some players, all that fun stuff. Please come out and support DCC if you are not part of it already. We'll see you guys out there on Saturday. So y'all, please be sure in the meantime to subscribe to the podcast on Apple, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts from. Go ahead and leave us a rating, leave us a review. You can follow me on social.