Drive Time: August 13 Dolphins Camp Report

raps against a competitive defense. Plus full practice notes including plenty of individual breakdowns and some additional audio from Nick Needham and Jordan Brooks. All of that and more from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.

still kind of out of reach. As we get towards the end of the exhibition season, you're on a grind to get better, right, But for QB one, all of these practices add up to the culmination of improvement heading into the new season.

on training camp practices. But I thought that that was evident in terms of like, oh, yeah, this offense does scheme up wide open walk in touchdowns and does have a you know, sequential conceptual, sequential conceptual element to it that you just don't get in these training camp practices.

And to kind of further these two points that Tua made here, I thought it was all very evident today with some of the reps, some repetitions of the same plays that we saw getting different looks and reactions from the defense on the same rep. Like your RPO rail concept rail flat concept. It plays into the commentary from coach on the concept of you are what you emphasize. And I say this all the time, but it's worth repeating here once again. I think that we know what

this offense can count on at the end of the day. Right, You've seen the same concepts have success time and time again the last couple of years. It's the old you know, when you're tired in the fourth quarter, we run this play over and over again so that you have those banked reps in practice that you ran until you puked, so we could commit it to memory so when there it's the fourth quarter, it's second nature. I think that was Hoosier's Gene Hackman, right, I think so same concept

we know or was it remember the Titans. I think it was Hoosiers. We know we can manipulate the middle of the field with our quarterbacks ball handling, his timing, his accuracy as anticipation on top of what the offense is designed to do to create that space and second, guessing for the defense eye candy all that we know, we have the ron fakes and the run action off

of that. That's been put on tape hundreds of times these last two seasons, and it's been arguably the most successful bread and butter package, if you will, in the entire NFL. In fact, without looking it up, I would confidently assert or wager I suppose that it does average more yards per play than a any other team's bread and butter again, if you will, So, what's the evolution on offense? What's the tangible benefit of continuity between play caller,

play designers, not singular player roal. Remember mc McDaniel has a team of quote unquote scientists conjuring up all this cool stuff that we see on Sunday's same quarterback skill players for the most part, and a good deal of continuity across the offensive line. I mean, in all honesty, the center is new, the right guard is new. You added a rookie back, a rookie wide receiver to the mix, and a tight end that I think is the starting

tight end tight end one. But the basis of what you do and who does it, it's all here again, But that evolution that's where this offense, again number one in the NFL last year, can take yet another step. And why I think it's not just in the realm of possibilities. I flat out think it's a better offense and think they'll go out and prove it. And it would not surprise me one single iota if they scored more points and gain more yards in twenty twenty four,

twenty three. And that's a long winded way of saying that's the challenge for coach and his staff. That's the benefit of the off season and the shape that it took, this conceptual thought that you can do more. Now you pair that with guys making their own individual strides to their own physical capacity on top of their own mental growth within the system. And that's where the growth can come internally, not just from the imports that you imported. Hey, get it the source, buddy, this off season.

But I thought better of it because that's just not who he is, and it's not really It's kind of an unfair comparison because nobody mahomes has redefined the way the position has been played. But when you see a quarterback create like that, that's who you always have come to your mind because of his transcendent nature in this league, maybe it was a little more prime Russell Wilson. That seems he's much more athletic than Tua is in his prime.

I'll go with Matt Stafford, very Matt Stafford type of play. More on that in a moment. Let's go back first though, to Tua. When I asked him about this is maybe my best Q and A with QB one and five years of doing this with him, I asked him about the concept of making it harder on each other because I keep you know, I like to follow threads and themes and relay kind of how the team is thinking and my own perspective and my own analysis on what the team is thinking on top of the product we

see on the practice field. And I think I think that makes this podcast the most informative with regards to giving you the actual what's happening on the practice field, not just results based only. Like I hear all the time that you know, the beat discussions up in the media section of the of training camp practices where this constant argument about whether or not he was sacked, Like who cares, dude, Like it doesn't matter. You don't need

to be results based in this instance. You can give the sack to the player, but you can also acknowledge the extension of the play and get more valuable work out of it. In fact, if you go talk to Mike McDaniel, Rahee Morris last week, there are intentions in joint practices will let everything play out and let's get

the full rep. That's how teams run this stuff. So I wanted to ask too it because I keep hearing this thread about you know, coaches and players are saying that they think that they've done a good job this camp of making it as hard as possible on each other. How their focus is to be what you emphasize and to make those hard looks the norm, so that when you come to game time and you have the easier stress free reps, these ones are easier to execute because

you have ten, you know, stress free reps. And then all of a sudden, when it does get hard and you get a bad look and you have to run into a tough coverage, you are prepared for it. You're more than prepared for it. So I asked, too, what does that mean for your perspective to go out and make it harder on one another.

sort of makes it a little easier. And so going against these guys, they've seen a lot of the plays, they've seen a lot of the tendencies that we have with motions, motion, snap points, and then where we're trying to beat them with the weakness of their coverages.

He was asked, how are you going to overcome that Brandon Staley plan? From the December game in twenty twenty two when LA was able to really disrupt the timing of the offense, play that two man coverage and just have the passing game out of rhythm all night long. And then what do they do but go rip off thirty six points behind a four hundred and sixty yard day from QB one and two hundred plus from Tyreek Hill. And in McDaniel's first year, you got eighty plus points

in three September games. Very good rights was that that's over twenty five points per game in his first three games as the NFL coach. Last year, you got over one hundred and fifty points in September, and sure, a little bit blowviated by a seventy point output. But I mean if you take away seventy that's still oh boy, live math. Eighty points and two that's still wait, my math sucks there, it's but it's pretty good. Trust me, it's good numbers. The numbers are good. The numbers are fine.

The bottom line of this whole point is I can't

do math, dude, like I suck at math. The bottom line this whole point is I think they are deliberate in the way they approach camp to put themselves in position to have that hot start and be kind of the cutting edge of offensive evolution in terms of, oh, the Dolphins are doing that, we better go study it because that's what happened last year and the year before, and evolve this offense in the sense that they can have the same core stuff that we can count on,

but continue sharpening their entire toolkit and expand that toolkit to give you more. It's what I talk about every time. It's a pitcher who learned a splitter in the offseason, who learned a circle change up? You're adding more pitches in your bag and it makes you more diverse as

an offense. Let's go ahead and continue this team here with Nick Needham, who I had a couple questions here for him, asking him the exact same question, what does it mean from your perspective on defense to make it tough on one another?

in space. You had this dummy return motion and inside fake to the running back reverse pivot from John new Smith, and it's like a schemed up walk in touchdown. That's the part of camp that I think kind of gets lost on you know, general fans, like they aren't scheming up touchdowns yet, they're not working on that because it's going to be there in their back like they have that, and that'll be for practices that are not open to

the public. In fact, a great example of this is Patrick mc morris talking about why he was able to make so many plays against the Falcons. He basically said he was asked, was it coaches giving you tips on their offense or was it your own tape study what were led to the big night for you? And he said, no, it was the Falcons offense that was so you know pre season vanilla that I figured it out really quickly in the game and then just went and played fast

from there. And Buddy, if there was ever a more air quote pre season football end air quote, comment than that, especially in today's game. I have not yet seen that, So I thought that the last couple days at practice, and that's probably why the question was posed to Tua about are you guys kind of honing in on what the offense might look like. It's looked more like the Dolphins offense in a game than what you would see

at practice. If that tracks for you guys. I'm not going to go further detail on that because it's it's not allowed, but that's just know that, okay. So we've seen more of that this week. I think part of that plays into, you know, having to a play in the game on Saturday against Washington. All right, let's go ahead and take our first break right there. Come back on the other side and get to Tua's actual day

of work and the entire clip of practice. Notes also here from Jordan Brooks all that next Draft Time podcast to your host, Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation, segment two on the second of the second week of August, and the first big play of the day from Tua's perspective was actually a big play for the defense where he tried to thread a tight one into Brilin Sanders, but it was tightly contested by siran Neil, who has had that sentence said about him a lot so far

as a member of the Miami Dolphins. He bats it into the air and got the ball, was corralled by Marcus May for six in the other direction, but then it was right back to control for Tua. He was in control in the short intermedia game getting through his progressions. I noticed his ability and this is without knowledge of the progression itself, but just kind of seeing it play out where he's working like front side of his read in unison. As the stripe of the helmet kicks over

to the backside, the throwing motion begins. And that's what I praised Michael Pennox for in the game on Friday, that based upon the front side snapshot and what you get from the defense, you can decide what you have on the backside without having to see it first. It's the theme of playing fast. That's how this game works. If you can't do that, you're not going to play very long in this league. The ball handling was also

very very good. I look ingold had a big catch and run up the sideline, which has been more of theme the last couple of weeks here in practice, Durham Smyth had three catches of ten plus yards, all those quick hitters that he keeps on pulling in kind of like last year, like Durham Smyth was often the guy that kind of got turned free and coverage and tuas hey, if you're open, I'm gonna put it on you. Crave Craft had some catches on some quick pops as well,

a lot of glances and darts and seams. Things in the middle of the football field. Seemed like a point of emphasis today. Now, there were three misses that I thought were uncharacteristic of Tua. He was high on a few throws. He missed Smith on a high throw over the middle. He had another high ball to Brilin Sanders, and had a near pick from Jordan Brooks where jb read his eyes right into that quick pass and nearly

picked it off but dropped the pass. Kendall Fuller nearly had a diving interception on a late throw to the perimeter that was kind of like after the play after the sack, and he kind of flung it out there

and Fuller almost made the play. So there was some back and forth from up and down, but as we'd point out some of the negatives there, I want to close with the play that I thought was most indicative of what has put Tua in position to take his game to yet another level in twenty twenty four was a scrambled touchdown throw to Eric Azukama, who was back practicing today. By the way, he and camp Smith both had pads on getting some live reps in practice for

the first time in a while. Because I've just not yet seen this from two in the National Football League Soudid Alabama haven't seen it at this level. He gets pressure off of his right the pass rusher crosses face at the right tackle and he's kind of like waving his arm off of the block trying to get at Tua.

And the best way I can describe this is think about any zombie movie when they're boarding up the windows of the house and like the rush is on and they're trying to keep these zombies out, and one zombie gets an arm through the boarded up window and is reaching through just trying to grab anything that he can infect or get his claws into or his teeth into. That's how the rusher looked on this rep like he's kind of glued to the block, kind of trying to

get off of it. So he swipes low and tua with both hands in the football, lifts the ball up and kind of raises it over like eurostep style, like in a basketball game, and then has a quick release with the feet in terms of like getting himself out of there. And that's just been so consistent with how he stepped up around pressure. He does that every single day. Typically resets in that position and fires from there. But

in this rep, he gets out into space. And when he does get into space, he's always attacking the line of scrimmage with the intent to try to find a receiver and if he crosses it, he'll tuck it and run.

But we've seen him do this time and time again, and today he extended and extended and extended and kind of held it back and didn't go into the you know, beyond the line scrimmage as a runner, and he held it and then with his back to the sideline, moving right for a left, you know, he's going towards the sideline with his back, he drops the arm angle and flicks the wrist for this touchdown pass to Eric Azukama.

I thought it was a beautiful piece of quarterback play that if he has that in his bag this year, I mean, we hear about the ability to create all the time, and even in a year where he didn't do a ton of creating or any at all, really, he leads the NFL in passing yards and just about everything else. And I think among the people whose opinions you should listen to, is regarded as a top ten

quarterback pretty unanimously in the NFL. And adding that might be a pretty big boon to a quarterback that among those top ten probably had the least amount of extended plays in the NFL. And if he can add that to his game, I don't think most quarterbacks have the ability who have that and not the other stuff to be able to add the mental capacity to their game. So good on you to a man. He keeps getting better.

He's our quarterback here for a long time, and I think that he's taken ownership of that fact, and it makes me excited about not just this season, but where he can get better continuously as we go along here. Speaking of quarterbacks, Mike White had the play of the day, finding Tyreek Hill for what I'm calling a sixty yard touchdown pass. He dropped it in the bucket on a

deep over in the corner to Tyreek Hill. Excuse me who got on top of the cornerback who was kind of fading off his own coverage on that side, and the safety up top was late to rotate over in middle of the field. Closed run the over route across that defender and throw the corner route, and then he cuts it back and I think he found pay dirt. The defense would argue he was down, but I think that his cutback, you're not going to tackle that guy in open space. A nice day from Mike White, Tyreek.

I don't feel like he gets in the notes that often because, like you know already, it's kind of like Tua in the one on ones. I always talk about you can set your watch to it, but like the number one player in the National Football League, when he practices, you feel it right, So I just I don't feel the need to go over to in depth. Maleague Washington had an awesome down block akin to the one he had on the touchdown run of the game that gave Jalen Wright a big corner for a big run after

the catch, that he made River. Craycraft also had one on Ogba that was the difference in a running play of having the edge versus not cray Craft and Washington in the blocking game's I'm excited to watch those guys get after it. Willie Steen had another rough day. He had another rep where he got just kind of blanketed, not kind of, he did get blanketed by shoot who

was the cornerback? Now I lost it. I think it was there, it is, it was, it was Isaiah Johnson got all over him and made a play and got the ball batted up into the air and nearly picked off.

know the personnel in that aspect. And then with the footwork that we have for different inbreaking routes, the timing of.

angles on tacklers. It's it's kind of hard to explain, but it's just so smooth and how he does it. And I'm sure you all have heard that story about him staying in South Florida all off season, coming into the building, you know, studying lifting, doing everything here, being a first in, last guy out all off season and during training camp. It tracks because he plays faster than

any rookie I've seen in quite some time. He had a rep on the on a swing screen escort that we throw these little swing routes where the there's a lead blocker out in front, and he was the guy out there and he made it like a really impressive block in space. So I'm just overall so blown away by what his game is and where it's going. Alec Ingold I thought was awesome again today the way coach has talked about the tight ends and how it can

be tracked along with your offensive versatility. I feel like that's true about alec Ingold as well, all the things that he does. I won't go in the detail here because I'm not trying to give away the goods, but man, the way he opens up the offense, you just see it and you feel it every single day. Some offensive line talk before we go to the defense. In segment three, we saw tarn Armstead and walk through yesterday. We saw him in live action today. Always great to see. He

thought he looked great. And Patrick Paul Man. So there's this thing with Patrick Paul and it's sort of an offshoot of what Chris Greer said about him on Raph Knight. Even when the technique is off, he's still caching wins because he's so physically imposing, and you can see that with the length. There was this rep in one on one pass rush first pass pro where I thought he was cooked around the corner. Initially I didn't see the rusher.

It had to have been Chopp or Quentin Bill because it was just so freaking fast, shot out of a cannon and I'm like, this is gonna be a sick and Paul just calmly gets his depth throws the punch and takes the rusher around the ark and dose he does Man's little square dancing around the corner. He comes back and gets dapped up all around, and I'm like, I thought he was smoked, but he still won the rep.

Like when he lines up as a rusher, you're already at a disadvantage, and gosh, what a benefit that is to him while he continues to learn the pro game. It reminds me of something to Move the Sticks podcast used to always talk about with athletic quarterbacks you can keep your head above water production wise while you learn to play the position with the athletics doing so with the athletic ability. It's the same thing here Patrick Paul, because of his length alone gives him an immediate advantage

on every guy he goes up against. He also had some more edge denting blocks in the running game the team period. I couldn't be more impressed by I've seen from the rookie here in fourteen practices in one game. Speaking of rookies, I also thought Andrew Meyer had his best day, and it started with the one on ones where he still made it. A couple of rushers by himself, Isaiah Mack and Neville Gallimore on two of those reps, and Gallamore was getting the other guys, so I'm like, okay,

the rookie had some salt today. And then we saw it translate in the team where there was a lot of lengthy pockets today for Skyler Thompson and Mike White, and there was the offenses were kind of run differently for two and the other two guys, Like it looked like Skyler and Mike were more in training camp mode where Two was more in in season mode as far as the offensive script went, but four and five second pockets, and I thought Andrew Meyer was a big part of

that for the way he anchored inside. I thought Liam Meikenberg had a pretty good day today. He was getting out in space on some of those outside runs and sealing big lanes on cutback runs as well. Also had a good one on one period, So some good stuff there from the offense. The defense played really well today. We'll cover that here next including some sound from Jordan Brooks. All of that. Next Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield,

brought to you by Autoation Defense Defense Defense. So we did one on ones on the offensive line and the winners on the defense for me were the guys that won the day in team drills, Seiler and campbell Man and the way they can win in a phone booth. And that's where you're gonna have to get your one on ones here, I think, because when JP and Beach Hubb are back in full go, you know, and then you got the get off of Chop and Kamara and

Q like. If you don't get help there with a tight end or a back on the edge, you're in trouble. But then that means you have one on one rushes on guards for two of the longest, strongest players in the National Football League who can deconstruct those blocks and tight quarters as well as anybody else in the entire NFL.

So I just think it all tracks. Man. I thought Leonard Payne had a great one on one session and carry that over the team drill where you had some good pass rush work following up some really good rundown work on Friday and just a maya Kolpa here, guy, I have to take the l on tier Tart. He was released today. I thought he would be a big part of this rotation and I was wrong.

I was wrong. You were right. You were very good looking. I'm not attractive. Emanuel Ogbaught had some strong edges and some one on one wins, another good day for him. I thought it was Quentin Bell's best day since the Orange Jersey day he had. I think it was weekend before last. He was good in one on ones and he consistently resets the line of scrimmage with that long arm move that keeps him off the edge and allows him to dip back. It's how to make a play

if he needs to. Just such a strong player off the edge, and you know what works really really really well off that work by Seiler and Campbell and what they do for you. An instinctive linebacker who plays with the ferocity on the field and studies with a focus that puts him in position to make play after play

after play. The way he cut off that quick throw from Tua that I mentioned was just pure key reading, filling the flow, doing the bull dance, you know, all that stuff, knowing the offense's looks and what they do from said looks. Just didn't squeeze it for the pick. But man, you see this stuff from him every single day.

He made a play early in practice where he got with stayed on the downhill track and read the blocks and there was an edge set from Emmanuel Ogbaugh and he reads that and shoots the shites the B gap. Don't do that, shoot the B gap for a big run stuff. And he just plays so aggressively, so smartly. I just can't say enough good things about Jordan Brooks. But I did ask him after practice, what is what is it that you do that allows you to play

so fast? And we're gonna play that first and we'll come back with a secondary audio here on Jordan Brooks.

an some camp so far. He had another one of those TFLs like three or four yards deep into the backfield. He seemed to do that every single day. Kendall Fuller was excellent today. He was in coverage on two deep routes by Tyreek that resulted in checkdowns, so that means they're well covered. I thought he was in good shape. He also had a near diving pick on that throw that I talked about in short red zone. All over the field. Cater Co who had some good work on

Tyreek as well. I thought Sarran Neil was excellent once again. The way he challenges routes, there is no one that he's afraid of. He'll challenge anybody. And he had the deflection that led to the walk in pick sex for Marcus May. That's a play that goes in the box score for May, but Neil made the play. We could eat some clay. What do you say? This is a happy Gilmore podcast today. He's done just about everything every day. He's made life tough on the offense when he's out there.

So was Patrick McMorris, who was all over the field once again. He had a stuff in the running game from depth, where he just showed you the same salt we saw on Friday night. He also sniffed out a short throat at Julian Hill where there was an escort of rather a lead blocker offensive lineman that got wide and he dipped under the outside shoulder of the block and made a play on Hill in the backfield and tagged it off. I was pretty impressed by that. So

fun day Orange Jersey predictions. I forgot to make one yesterday. I'm taking the l for that reason, and I wouldn't have picked Rob Jones, but he might have been close to my top three because I thought the offensive line really got after it on Monday. But hey, horseshoes and hand graades, right, So for tomorrow, for Wednesday, I'm going number one, Jordan Brooks, number two, Tyreek Hill number three. I almost said will Fuller, Kendall Fuller. All right, let's

get out of here. You all. Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple or ever get your podcasts from Leave us a rating, leave us a review, Follow me on social Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, even at Rinkel NFL and the Miami Dolphins at Miami Dolphins check out The fish Tank Podcast with Seth and Juice, the YouTube channel for media availabilities, drift time content, and so much more. And last but not least, Miami Dolphins dot Com. Until

next time. Fin's up, Carolina and Cameron Daddy, He's coming ho