To on the move Going Deep speedwas Past Hell.
From the Baptist Health Studio. This inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is Drivetime with Travis Wingfield.
He's goy my havings in the playoffs. What is up, Dolph Fans? And welcome to the Draft Time Podcast. I am your host, Travis Wingfield. And on today's show, we are halfway through the month of August and on the
back nine of training camp and the preseason. We have some great practice notes that I am very excited to share with you guys, and some even better commentary from two of the best football minds in this entire building and Mike McDaniel and alec Ingold from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.
This is the Draft Time Podcast. Ye gaff First, one of the.
Best things about being a emotional person is that sometimes on the podcast you get the high energy, caffeine induced, just pure adrenaline excitement editions of the Draft Time Podcast. And today is going to be one of those days. One because I felt we got some clarification on some things we've been opining about on the show here. And number two, I saw some things in the practice field that continue to affirm my belief in certain areas of growth on this football team.
Sound good.
Before we dive into all the notes and the rookie class and a ton more here, let's start with a few injury updates here. So we got word that Benito Jones and Jalen Ramsey are dealing with minor injuries, and for Ramsey's perspective, it's more proactive and they will be back here sooner rather than later. Doesn't sound the same for Isaiah Winn, who coach was a little bit noncommittal about with regards to his injury and return to the
practice field compounding issues. Told us it was lower extremity related and that's all he was going to say about that, which is just different language than we're used to hearing coach talk about injuries with.
So that's the news.
I mean, we've got some guys up and down, but I don't think it's worth reporting on every single day because I think that if there was a game tomorrow, ninety percent of those guys we're talking about would be playing in the game. But we have been on this kick and I'm not you know, I have been not really sure why I go the Royal we route on this, but I have been on this kick about the nature of this training camp so far. To me, it's different than the last two years. It's more expansive in terms
of finding those change up to the fastball right. The commentary I've been making on this the entire time about the bread and butter that produces all these explosive plays. A ton of the conversations on this podcast revolve around the third year and the expected growth that I think will get from this football team. And you go back to twenty twenty two, and that camp was fun as hell.
To me, still the most fun camp I've done, because it was two to Tyreek for long touchdowns every day, but to see them install that drill that and perfect what we've come to know and love about this number one offense with the core principles in the middle of the field passing attack and the timing anticipation and the run after catch. All the things that we love about this offense were foundationally put in place back in twenty twenty two. But you've heard coach talk about this at length.
When you fast forward to twenty twenty four. The concept of taking advantage of overplay and what is created in the aggregate by the way of the defense having to move and adjust to take away those plays and those players and spoiler, it's Tyreek and Waddle right, the best receiver in the NFL and for me like number six or seven in the NFL. And today we got alec Ingold at a media availability, who is a critical piece
of how versatile, versatile, versatile this offense can be. Right the comment about tight ends that included Alec from coach a while back, and how unique his role in this offense is and how it ties to your ability to be verse in the offense. It all ties together here. So Alec was asked about the expansion of the offense. Let's go ahead and roll that audio and let alec Ingold do the talking for me on this episode of Drive Time.
It's been fun to see we're in the lab, and I think it's cool for everybody to kind of take that role like there's no comfort in the offense, Like it is like completely competition offense versus defense, but then offense within the offense. To be able to see who can do what, who can do it well, being able to blend all these formations, all these personnel groups and that's what we're developing. So it's been fun, it's been challenging.
It's tough.
You're only a couple weeks in. You feel like you've been playing for three months already. But it's a lot of fun.
I mean, forgive me, but can I get a let's freaking go, let's go baby like one for vanity purposes, But yeah, I've been saying that, right, but beyond that and far more important, that has me so excited about what we can see, not just early in the season when we scored a hund dred and fifty points last September,
but giving you, let's put it this way. Let's say you have everything from twenty twenty three already in place, which if that's the case, you're fine, but you added to that, and let's say, totally arbitrarily, you add thirty percent more. You could conceivably with that thirty percent and
it might be twenty, it might be forty. You could conceivably one incorporate that from the jump, and teams have to contend with the top offense in the NFL with thirty percent extra in terms of what they can do and get to off of that number two off that you can develop the wrinkles and sequences off of that as the season goes along and continue to build and expand that playbook or number three, you could just straight up table some of that stuff for the stretch run.
We've seen some great teams in this league. The Patriots are the most notable, and the Do Your Job documentary back in like twenty fourteen when they covered the Ravens playoff game where they came back from fourteen points down because they essentially cheated. I'm not saying they actually, well, they kind of did. I mean, that's a team that has done that plenty of times in the past, right, but they kind of found a loophole in the rules with regards to eligibles and offensive linemen and how you
could line those guys up. And they surprise the Ravens with this attack that they put in place back in their the first matchup back in like October and saved it for the playoffs so they could use it in that game, and that was what God got them that win in that game. So you could do that if you wanted to, And I think that shows conviction and your belief that you'll be in that position in the postseason to unveil that stuff.
But this is why I'm so geeked up over all of this stuff.
Entering the third year in a system, the world becomes your oyster because you have those banked reps. You're not like, I'm gonna make a golf analogy. I've been golfing like full time, not full time, but like I'm actually working on my game at the range like multiple times a week. Like I'm going into my third year next year, and I my scores got much better in year two. They're gonna get much better next year because you're adding shot
shapes to your proverbial golf swing. You aren't going back to square one and breaking down where the hand placement is, when your hip should ge through the zone, when you should have the club face closed or open. You just have that banked up, like the Dolphins offense. And if you go over the history of the league, the teams that sustain success the best, that's a tough sentence to say.
You know, success breed success, right, If you're good and you win games, you get to keep your job and you get to sustain continuity with your staff and your players, and it just makes you better for it. We have the coach, he has his staff, we have the quarterback signed, sealed and delivered. And for a Dolphins fan of a certain age myself aged thirty six, you haven't seen that since you were wearing Aquan orange starter jackets ripping across
the monkey bars back in the third grade. Right. Gosh, as an ex's and o's junkie, it fires me the hell up. Let's go back to alec Ingold, who further discussed the benefits of said continuity.
But no, I think a lot of the pre snap and post snap like being able to play fast, be able to align. Like we've our offensive line is running off the ball. They're moving people their combination. But it's been fun to watch, it's fun to be a part of in the backfield. So being able to really take that next step tie in a center's eyes to fullbacks eyes to running backs eyes, so we're all seeing the same thing in the run game, same thing with the pass.
Games can be a lot of fun.
And buddy, you see that the part about flying off the football and the combination blocks. In fact, let's go ahead and parlay that into the offensive line assessment from practice today, because to that point and to this next point we'll get too from Alec. I thought Monday went to the offense, and I thought Tuesday went to the defense, and I thought today went to the offense. But even within that, there's this back and forth pull on either side.
Like the box score. The boxing scorecard is ten to nine every day, right they judge Browns, it's either ten to nine or ten to eight. You never get your ten to eight days here it's always ten to nine
or rarely it's ten to eight. But with regards to the combos and flying off the football, I mean, Rob Jones and Leam Miikenberg had some really good inside gap clearing blocks today where they kind of create this wall and wall off the front side and give backs like Jalen Wright the option to hit that cutback lane and the running backs are seeing it more cleanly every single day. And to spoil or to tease a segment here, we're going to talk about Jalen Wright in a moment and
how I'm ready to maybe make him RB one. That's going to be like the clip you pull off the podcast. But I'm telling you, guys, he's special and we got that with a Chan and Jalen today. Moster did not practice. But you've seen it with him before. We've seen hefe do it, seen Chris Brooks do it, all the guys, Greg Dan, all the guys. I tweeted about this. You know, I think I think Jack Driscoll has seen things really
slow down for him. And I can't say this with conviction, you know for sure from my vantage point, and I don't have tape, nor can I flag ninety players every single day, but from my lens, I think Driscoll has shown the most improvement or rather growth of anybody in all of training camp. And the game was sort of a wake up call, like, oh yeah, this guy was
an athletic testing monster back at Auburn. He played some tackle in Philly, but his best tape was at guard, and he's talked about cross training at center last year for the Eagles, played both right guard and center in the game on Friday Night. He's playing so fast and so connected, and he's making his center or guard next to him look good in doing so, and doesn't matter which guy it is, like he is elevating their play because of his ability to stay connected on those blocks.
Speaking of literally all those factors game growth practices, I love what I've seen from Andrew Meyer, the UDFA out of UTIP, the athletic ability, it's there. He's listed at two hundred and ninety five pounds. He plays in space, I mean ninety eight percent tile vertical in broads. That's an Aaron Brewer stat for you. Eighty fifth percent tile or better in the forty yard dash, twenty and ten yards splits. And I think he's probably the second best
natural center on the roster. And you can say, well, that's an issue in and of itself, maybe, but I think if you keep him, you can just have him be your backup center, and then if Brewer goes down, you don't have to uproot your entire offensive line to shuffle guys around. I think there's value to that. We'll see how they view it and if he can get up to speed quickly enough. But I think there's something there for Andrew Meyer in terms of your backup center.
He's a guy that I'm going to keep a very close eye on these next few weeks, and you should too, because it's an important part of this football team.
We moved to the.
Indoor facility and I was standing next to alf Artiego from three yards per carry. He is a I mean as long as I've been coming to training camp, he's been here for every day as well. And we get this awesome view from behind the play in the indoor facility, and I'm locking in on Sean Harlow and he had a one on one rep on Neville Gallimore, who, by
the way, is a find like. He is slippery as hell, He's violent as all get out with his punch, and he has a tremendous arsenal of moves that he can bust out at a moment's notice, and he tried a few of them on this one rep where Harlow engaged his punch, played through his base, kept the feet shuffling, never clicked to the heels, just mechanically a clean operation and shuts the entire rep down. I think with Rob Jones, Andrew Meyer, Sean Harlow, we've seen some guys that have
either not had a ton of starts. In Rob Jones, I've been a swing interior guy his entire career, a rookie who hasn't played a single down in the NFL, or a guy that was available into training camp in
Sean Harlow. And to me, those guys have put their best foot forward and worked their way into the conversation for starting work with Rob Jones or making the team for Andrew Meyer and Sean Harlow, and I'm not so convinced Harlow's not a top seven or eight guy on the team right now in terms of the offensive line.
The converse of that is, I watched some Lester Cotton work and there was a stunt inside where they pinched him, and then you had with Quentin Bell he pinched, and then Zach Seiler was a looper off the outside and he got toasted by it. I'm like, that's man, It's like things that you saw on tape last year still showing up. It's to me that's a concern. I also thought Kendall Lamb lost the edge in a lot of
play today as well. So those are two of the guys that I thought didn't have their best days in contrast to the three guys that I liked a lot on today's practice. Let's finish this segment with one more SoundBite here from alec Ingold, and we still have three more to go to from him after this. I mentioned that pendulum swing earlier in the segment here, you know,
offense and defense trading wins back and forth. And I asked Alec what this defense has done for the offense in terms of the looks they give when it comes to his pass protection rules, the various blitzes, the scheme traditionally has been known for and flashed in the game and then practices out here, and Alec gave us more than that and did the thing this podcast host loves more than anything else, confirming priors.
Yeah, I mean, our defense is playing so fast, so convicted. They're running all over the place. Every day we go back and we watch and practice. Those guys are sprinting sideline to sideline, they're tied in, they're talking, they're communicating.
So it's a challenge for us.
This is one of the most competitive camps I've ever been a part of, like nine times out of ten. It's normally at this time of the year it's either the offense being the defense, defense being the offense, and right now it's going back and forth. So I think that the blitz pick ups, the different looks you can get, the just playing fast, like it doesn't matter if we have pads on or not.
Guys are playing fast. They're setting edges.
We're playing really good, high level football right now during training camp in August, which.
Is really cool to see.
I mean, I appallize for becoming something of a cliche machine on the show here, but damn it. I have been searching for storylines and through lines all through training camp, and I think we've really unearthed them. Going back to that great Butch Berry availability when he talked about the
progression of training camp. But if you are what you emphasize, and if the issues the last two years has been finishing seasons when you began eight and three and nine and three probably gonna be like ten to two this year, I think everything we just talked about is the best way to ensure that you aren't just getting out of
those hot starts, but really hitting your stride. When we go up to lambeau Field on Thanksgiving and then get the Jets twice and the Texans, the Niners, and the Browns to finish things out, there's a couple of playoff teams in there. I think the Niners and Texans will be playoff teams.
The other two do. I do not.
But if you get to that mark eight and three again, I tend to think it's gonna be more like nine to two, and you play better than five hundred football over that stretch. That's twelve wins and some big narrative shifting wins and probably a division title and probably some home games in the playoffs, and you're probably playing your best football. Look, this is way out in front of myself here, but it's a podcast. We're supposed to be
having fun with it. But to end this first segment with one more golf analogy, all the pros and vision what each shot will look like. It's why the back they back off the ball, stand behind it on their line and measure their shot to the flag or wherever they want to shoot that draw or that fade, step up and they make their swing. You have to visualize what you want to do if you want to be great. It's why I have plans for the podcast all the
way through the whole season. I'm trying to visualize what the best podcast can look like. It's the same thing for a football team, and I think that vision is crystal clear, and damn it, I am bought the hell in on what this team is selling. Let's take the break, come back, and I'll tell you why there was some awesome moments from Tuatungua Bai Looa on Wednesday's practice. Here more from alec Ingold and Mike McDaniel, a rep that told me that Jalen Phillips is byk E Bike, some
draft class talk and a whole lot more. Or that's next Drivetime podcast your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. Tua Tongue of Iloa is the quarterback of your Miami Dolphins and he was on one today and stop me if you've heard this before. He had Brayln Sanders for a long touchdown early in practice, but Saran Neil made a smart play and interfere with Sanders to prevent the TD with a defensive pass interference that
gave him about half the yardage. But there was a couple of moments after that that I think you guys will love to hear two of them to be in fact,
to be exact. First, there was a play that was the last one of a period, or rather Tua's last snap before they went to Skyler and made the lineup changes to get the next unit in there and the snap count and got some guys as the ball wasn't snapped, but like half the line went, half the line didn't go, and they were going to change out the lineups right there, like a line change in hockey, right, but Tua waved it off. He's like, no, no, no, get We're gonna run
it again. And Frank Smith was coming in waving his personnel on for the line change, and he sees his quarterback waving it off, and he turned around and said, no, go back, We're gonna do it again. And like the next play was I ripped from two to sneed for a chunk gain. I mean that's like Marino esque, right, like no, no, no, no, I'm running the show here. We're gonna do it my way. That's what Twua has as far as his command of this offense and this team
right now. Thing number two. So from my vantage point, you get to better see two his eyes, you know, from that from the indoor facility behind the end zone. And this throw to Snead was like one of those throws that you can count on one hand the number of players that can make that throw. So first, it's
it's mid red zone. There's tight quarters down there. We've got to be lightning with our processing as a quarterback right, there's eleven guys in a twenty yard you know, plot of grass, and you see to a work to his left. You see him work back to the middle and he goes right back to the right and it's it's like bang bang bang. This is happening within seconds of each other. And you see him work to his back to the
right and he layers this ball. The damn near brought the rain, damn near scraped the ceiling at the facility, not really, but it was a lofty, floating football and when he let it go, Willie Snead was under the goalpost and when he caught this thing, I'm telling you guys, it was near the back pilon on the corner. And the reason he threw this like there was pressure but the route wasn't open yet, but he knew where it
would be open, when it would be open. It's like a great through ball in soccer, like you have to anticipate the defensive back line biting up and you send that thing through to line all Messi and he goes and scores the goal. Like Tua has that vision and that anticipation and that foresight for how the defense can
move after the fact. Once he let the football go and by the time the coverage had worked itself out for the two or three seconds, the balls floating in the air, boom, touchdown, and it was it was perfect, perfectly located. I gosh, it is just so so gorgeous. It makes me feel so fortunate to watch him practice every day because it is every day. It's high, high, high level stuff from an elite quarterback, one of the best ten quarterbacks on the planet. Man, I lie, there's
actually a third thing. So I tweeted this. In individual drills, the quarterbacks were working on fleeing the pocket on their offhand, so for Tua going to his right, and I thought that the way he was flipping the hips and dropping the armslot and driving the football was unlike anything I've ever seen. It was a follow up from what we saw in the team period yesterday at practice. And sure enough, in team drills once again, he gets out on the
move on a bootleg and he freezes this linebacker. It was Zeke Vandenberg where he pulls up on a dead sprint and flips his hip like he's gonna throw the hook. So like, Okay, I'm running to the flat, but I'm gonna throw this ball to the hook. I'll pull up an act like it. But whoops, that's not what I'm doing. As the linebacker pulls up, he flips it back to the flat for a no look completion, which that freezing of the linebacker allowed Durham to find the pileon for a touchdown.
Hold on. There's a fourth thing, double the pleasure.
Here.
We saw a ball placement clinic on an outbreaker, a speed out to Malik Washington, and Jordan Brooks is buzzing under this thing right on the trail hip. He's in phase. He's in great position. If that ball is in side at all, it's a pick and it sicks the other way.
But it's not.
In fact, because it was so tightly contested, and because the ball was so perfect, it actually took Jordan Brooks out of the play without the tackle and not only gave malikue Washington a five yard completion on third and five, it gave another ten yards of run after the catch before the safety found him. So what a day for quarterback one he might be in the Orange jersey predictions at the end of it. Speaking of manipulation of defender Skyler Thompson, had maybe my favorite rep I've ever seen
him have in Dolphins practice. He has a dig fifteen yards to Jakwan Burton. But the way that he influenced the hookbacker and moved him to the flat, he like pumped and got him over there and then threw that thing back across his body for the completion. I want to see a lot more of that. I want to see a lot more playing on time. There's been remnants of it. I don't know how much more time we have to get there, but if it can get there,
that's when you become confident in your backup quarterback. Saw a small sliver of that today. He also made a very strong throw on a stick to alec Ingold to the field the wide side of the field with a cornerback who was all over alec Ingold. You have to drill that thing with velocity, and he did so. So I thought we saw a little bit of the mental growth and the physical traits from Scotlar Thompson on Wednesday. Speaking of alec Ingold, let's go back to him and
talk about this. I don't know, I guess random topic, but it helps us transition into our next topic here because he was asked as the fullback, what the hell was that? As the fullback? Do you sort of take it personally? The offense has had its struggles on short yarders in the last couple of years.
Huh, extremely personal I think that's literally one of the job descriptions of playing f in this offense, whether you're a slot wide receiver, a fullback, second tight end like that f spot, being able to move the sticks is part of your job description. You're playing within those margins
of the game. So the more that we've worked on it all the way throughout OTAs being able to put it out onto the field, I think it's going to be fun to see just being able to make that next first down and giving us three more opportunities for those sixty yard explosive plays that are going to happen, but then being able to stay on track a whole lot more efficiently. So yeah, I did take that personally.
And that ties back a little bit to what we talked about in terms of how this offense number one last year can get even better. That's that's it right there, Like nothing to add, right But what I do want to add, however, is alex commentary on the tight ends and on Jalen Wright and you heard him talk about playing the F in this offense.
That's like the move piece in the backfield in the offense.
I should say tight ends can play the F two, but the responsibility that comes with that. And there was a lot of chatter about the tight end room today among the beat writers and I was like, Julian Hills, he's a top two tight end on this roster right now, and he was in the Orange Jersey and I told you, guys, you know, hear how much I believe he can contribute. And we continue to see that each day from Julian Hill, I mean from Campbell Campbell UDFA to Orange Jersey on
a team full of stars. It's kind of crazy to think about. But it's not just Julian because that room all of a sudden seems to have some of the toughest decisions on the entire fifty three man roster. John Who is John Who? Julian's clearly got that role locked down. Durham Smyth is a guy that I think I could be tight end three, but I would be like the best tight end three in the National Football League if
that's where you want to go with it. Then Tanner Connor has he's a flash player but that he can play right. Jody Fortson's body and reds and abilities are a unique fixture that nobody else has in this roster. And then Hayden Rouchie has the look of a true punishing, like blocking tight end. I think all six of these guys can play at this level, if not five of them, and that's a tough decision to make for the roster cutdowns.
Let's go ahead and go to alec Ingold here on the makeup of that tight end group.
Yeah, the tight end room, like Durham and Julian. We're giving those guys some crap for being like team No YAK. And you know John Who's gonna be one of those guys where you could get the ball in a million different ways with him.
So I think the most exciting.
Thing is the different creativity you're going to see out of the offense and getting nine to the ball in space, being able to run through I mean we've seen a number of times where he's running through contact. You know, we're thudding, but defense is flying around and he's still in playing fast and being able to do his thing.
So he's been a great addition for sure.
And what I like most about that is, yeah, no, yak room.
Well you're kind of talking about Durham there, because Durham had what thirty five catches last year career high, or maybe it was forty, and on twenty eight of those he was just pretty much left alone because of all the attention to other guys get And it's great when he can catch it and get the twelve yards that are there for him. But now picture John hus Smith catching that pass and breaking that tackle and turns a
twelve yard play into a twenty one yard play. Also the screen game emphasis how he can be a guy that catches it but also play the point so it doesn't give away you're doesn't give the tell away to the defense. The why ISO aspect where you can take him on the other side of the formation of wreak and waddle and get backside coverage from like you know, a safety or a linebacker and throw the now screen or throw a hitch or even throw vertical.
If you want.
I mean you heard it there from Alec Ingle. It changes the dynamic when that guy can be a playmaker. And now we have a playmaker there. This offense loves playmakers. John who is a playmaker? You know who else is a damn playmaker?
The way uh uh Jalen was competitive in and around contact. What was something that I think is a trait that is shared in our running back room? I think that you know, for running backs in general form my experience, they do very very well with competition, like you really, you really, as long as you foster a culture within that running back room that Eric Studsville does, you know you have, it really brings the best out of people.
And I think he we saw a competitor.
That that would not be overwhelmed with a lot of talent around him, and so that I think that that sets up for a situation where a lot of guys can compete and you can take individuals that are already on your roster and and help them become the best versions of themselves that he hadn't seen prior. So I think all of that is a residual win for the
Miami Dolphins. I think, you know, a lot of his teammates see that he has the potential to help us, and a lot of people are working together to make sure that whoever the players are on our team, that they're the best version of the Miami Dolphins.
As we could see, Dylan had what I would have called a thirty yard touchdown scampered today in practice, I think other guys would have called him down at like ten or fifteen. But the way he presses and hits that linear jump cut one step is just it's different, man, Like it shows every single day.
It's not a fluke.
It's who he is and how that pairs with the combo blocks and how we get off you know.
The football.
Like I just mentioned, I just think about how linebackers have to process this, and if they can't and they don't slow him down, you've got no safeties, or you've got safety rather coming from depth, trying to make a play from a stationary position on a smooth glider who sees nothing but daylight when he runs. Like there's a reason this guy opened the Georgia game last year with a seventy five yard touchdown run a Georgia team who, by the way, allowed one hundred yards or fewer and
more than half of their games. And oh, by the way, a defense who's second longest run allowed last year was forty two yards. I'm just saying, and I think about that run. I pair it with yet another ten yard touchdown run in mid red zone where he has this little crease and sees it and immediately gets to it, gets skinny at the point, and pushes his way through
the end zone for a touchdown. Let's go back to alec Ingold one more time, who was asked what he's seen so far from the rookie in terms of his vision and decision making.
Yeah, Jay Wright.
I mean he is crazy fast, and there's a lot of tendencies that you transition from college to NFL. It's a learning curve, and I think Devin has been a great resource for him, just going through that last year and being able to have that sounding board of like, Okay, this is where you can put your eyes. We both played then SCC last year. They can have those conversations. So being able to have those conversations, I think those two are really clicking. I think you see it when
he's out there playing fast like it. You know, he obviously did a great job being able to run daylight.
He had that.
Whole like catch turn around cross the field like that normally doesn't happen in the NFL, but he has that speeding that talent, so it's been cool to see him.
Develop really quick and make no mistake about it. Devon a Chan's making all kinds of plays as well, but we know about him. A rookie is an unknown until his first in season action. But every damn day, this guy's playing his way into the notes. And the best part is the tangible aspect of those quick decisions and tying into the work that he put in to learn the playbook by never leaving the building all off season.
And it's why I just keep thinking, are we sure this dude doesn't become running back one before very long? Because we know how this offense creates conflict. They want lateral displacement in the wide zone running game, they want
overplay from the backers to assist the passing game. But one thing they really haven't had is vertical displacement guys off the football and going inside the tackle box and making critical runs down the middle of the throat of the defense, where it's been kind of, you know, softened by the way you've ran the ball off the edge all game. But we saw power and successful power, you know, pull a guard down block and man gap scheme in the game on Friday I keep talking about all these
inside runs and inside zone. So if you have this electric, smart, smooth back who can press his track to the perimeter and in a blink cut it back inside with all the outside zone, with all the inside zone that he's shown up proclivity for the power we just discussed. This is the run game equivalent of a three way go for a wide receiver, which is a slot inside who
has man coverage. I can run vertical, I can run the out, I can run the ind Almost nobody can cover a good slot receiver on a three quay go. It's I viewed the exact same way for a Jalen Wright, and we already gave defenses enough issues and kept dcs up at night enough. I don't know, man, I don't know if I'm getting out over my skis here. I'm just watching this guy, and I think the he online something else in this offense that nobody else does.
And he's a rookie. It's crazy.
What a fun player and yet another weapon to watch coach unleash this year. Let's take our last break right there, talk some defense. Here's some more from coach McDaniel all that next to Draft Time Podcast, Your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. So the first live rep I saw from Jalen Phillips today went like this. Julian Hill has you know, wiped out the edge like all camplong right. Well, in his first rep today, they run wide to this to JP side and Julian has
to seal him to win the edge. And what JP does is not just prevent that seal. He walks Julian two yards into the backfield and widens him out to create this you know, blockage on the running backs track and a massive sea gap for Duke Riley to shoot through, which is exactly what he does. That displacement creates a free run. He comes flying in for the tag off and then JP also gets off the block to finish the play to join him for the stuff.
The lionscre image he'd back.
Baby mcdally talked about getting this monster back on the field before practice on Wednesday morning.
I've noticed that he is who I thought he was.
They are who we thought they were.
You know, this is a guy that's on a mission that that is that is bigger than than just you know, being a player on an NFL football team. He's trying to position himself where he can feel that he's he's the top of this class at what he does, and that he doesn't take a day off from that. You know, I think I've seen some maturity from him and understanding the bigger picture and not being so not being too
shortsighted with trying to be involved in football. You know, he's been very disciplined and and not overstepping the boundaries outlined for him that you know, we we've we've had numerous discussions on intern from our training staff and so I think that he is in a great place and he is take he's taken steps every day. It was great to see him on Monday, and I'll be excited to see him again today.
Chop also got into the action by beating an alec ingold block that forced upon eight Chan back into the flow. In fact, let's go ahead and go back for our last sound by here from coach on the rookie class. He was asked about, right, we played that sound already. He was asked about Chop Robinson, but here he's talking about the entire draft class. Let's just go ahead and roll this audio from coach McDaniel.
Chris and I were pretty fired up working together and the collective departments for this draft class, just because it's our third year so we have a little bit more understanding of congruents and parallel of what the vision is.
For the team moving forward.
And this draft class, I think we felt like we had the opportunity to have several guys come in and contribute, and the particular individuals or cut from a cloth where you know, if you know, as long as they did the work, they might have the opportunity to come in and contribute early.
I think.
It is very hard to be a rookie in the National Football League, and even more so to to be able to contribute from a varsity level in in regular season week and week out.
I do think we have.
The appropriate character in this draft class for for some guys to do that, and the team was counting on it.
So I think that the.
Opportunities that have presented themselves in the various position groups, I've seen multiple draft picks from you know, our first to our last take advantage of those opportunities, and uh, you know, I think it speaks to them and it speaks to the locker room on the clarity with which they've communicated what their expectations are for their teammates being new to the NFL and to this particular.
Locker room, that they're.
Working each and every day to earn the respect of all their peers in that so so far, so good.
We'll see what today presents.
That early contribution point is very interesting to me, one because it's shown. And two, I remember the fans sentiment that they need early contributors this year in the draft, and everyone was pissed off about Chop and Patrick Paul because they might not do that. But Chop share as hell has and Paul looks like a freaking stalwart left tackle at least so far, and it seems like the
Dolphins agree with that sentiment. But also the benefit of this class if you hit on a handful of these guys, it's the flexibility that it affords you in terms of continuing to stay aggressive on the free agent market and extending your own guys. In this post two Areek and Waddle extension phase of this team cycle. Rookie contract production from Chop, Malik Paul, Mohammed Wilkerson who returned today by
not Mohammed Wilkerson, Mohammed Kamara, who returned today. By the way, those are three of the four most expensive positions in the entire game in terms of what they cost. And then Jalen Wright at running back at some of these udfas like in that critical element of sustained success, you have to hit on these guys to do that. And speaking of the UDF phase in an expensive position, I think all three of the UDFA corners can play in
this league. We've talked plenty about Duck and Matrie, but Isaiah Johnson, who was great in the game on Friday, had two pass breakups on fades today where he just washed out the receiver and his length really jumps out at you. His length and physicality I think can play in this system. Let's go ahead and finish up here, extra point style. Zach Steeler had the sack on the stunt that I mentioned. He continues to get after it. Curtis Bolton continues to show some salt. He's aggressive as hell.
Had another big pop today where he just plays super fast. The new guy, David Ania had a pass breakup. Marcus May had a crazy impressive rep running down devon a chan on a throw out wide the escort in front of him. May cuts underneath him and makes the play and tags off with covering the entire field. It seemed like I thought cam Smith had some of his best work today as well. I also had Eric Azukama getting pressed into oblivion a few times, and just in general, the receivers with no reek, with.
No waddle, with no obj.
It's a little thin right now, and I think it's shown in a couple of practices. So my Orange Jersey predictions are to a tongueavai looa.
He was aces.
I thought Jack driscoll was awesome and we'll see if they go rookie. But Jalen Wright, I think is also in the conversation for the Orange Jersey. That's it for Wednesday. Tomorrow, the Commandos are in town. We'll break down the joint practices. We'll have a game on Saturday. On Friday, we have the Kay Adams interview on the podcast, plus a preview of the game against the Commandos on Saturday night. All of that coming away from the Draft Time Podcast Time.
You all please be sure to subscribe, rate and review the show, give me a follow on social at Wingfield NFL, and the team at Miami Dolphins. Check out the Fish Tank Podcast with Seth and Juice. Check out the YouTube channel for media availabilities, drive time content, and so much more than the last butt, not least Miami Dolphins dot com Until next time.
Fins Up, Carolina, Cameron Daddy just coming ho