To on remove going deep speedways. Peace do hellas.
From the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.
This is Drivetime with Travis Wingfield.
He's got my advands in the playoffs.
What is up, Dolph fans? And welcome to the Drive Time Podcast. I am your host, Travis Wingfield. And on today's show, practice number twelve, the second joint practice of the camp are in the books?
Is in the books.
We'll take you through a sloppy day and talk about process over results. Plus Malik Washington shines why River Craycraft is so valuable and another rant on what training camp and this team are and is from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.
This is.
The Draft Time Podcast, all right. I had a segment that I wanted to open the show with here with regards to a deep ball that Tua threw to Tyreek on Tuesday, and after having seen the clips of the play from the fans, which again shouldn't be taken videos, but in this instance, it was kind of nice to get a chance to break down a play film wise. And I have some thoughts that I think will excite Dolphins fans with regards to that throw and what exactly
it means going forward. But first, I try not to let Twitter interactions impact the show and the course of the show rundown and what we talk about here, but it's a little bit tough to ignore today. So we're gonna go ahead and open the show with that. And I was tagged in a tweet under Dougley doo Wrong's tweet about his concern over the offensive line is a Dolphins YouTuber and all around great dude and somebody who has carved out a substantial audience in this space for
what he does on his channel. So he tweeted out that he was concerned about the offensive line and somebody tagged me in it, and I just said, well, it was the number one offense in the NFL last year, and that's when I unleashed a hell storm of replies
in my direction. And I don't want to reply to those guys on Twitter because I think if you come at me in that way, then you probably don't listen to the podcast where I explain my thoughts far more thoroughly than I do on a social media platform that has been bought and has been purchased by a lunatic
to you know what, let's not even go there. I just don't think it's valuable to put all of my information and thoughts and takes on Twitter, because this is the space where fans that really want to know and learn and grow and here for me will come to get this type of content. So we've talked about it
all off season. Right in the NFL, you have finite amount of resources, and you have to pick and choose where you allocate those resources on your roster and in this system, with this team and the other branches of this offense, in this system, the San Francisco and Green Bay branches, the area that is often pulled from in order to pay your skill players, which are the ones that make the offense go, is the interior offensive line.
And I keep seeing this concern over the offensive line, a lack of trust into what Chris were talked about last year with we are far less concerned about the offensive line than you guys are. And the reason for that, I say this so many times that I'm blue in the face, is this offensive system schemes around perceived deficiencies or perhaps the lack of resources poured into those position groups. And that's why I always say, like, hey, they were the number one offense in the NFL last year. That's
pretty good. And then of course the replies are, well, what about the offensive line broke down late in the season and they couldn't be as successful. Well, if you go out and you sign Rob Hunt, who missed five games last year, if you go out and you acquire the best center and guard combination on the market for twenty and eighteen million dollars, you can wave goodbye a
Jaalen Waddle. You can probably say goodbye to Jalen Phillips when his contract comes up, because you're putting the money in those positions, and those positions in this offense are I hate using this term, but I'm going to be totally frank with you. They're least important in the entire system because and I saw you guys, not you guys. I should stop saying that. The replies at me in
that particular instance were, well, it would be nice. I know that Tua gets the ball out quicker than anybody else, but it would be nice to not have to rely on that stuff.
That's why they can do it.
That's why they can do it because of their quarterback and his superhuman skill at getting the football out of his hands quickly, and they scheme around it. They know they're mismatch in terms of how the pass rush gets after the offensive line every single week in the NFL, at every single position for ever single team, and so their answer is to get better skill players to help elevate what this offense can be with a quick passing
attack and why Tua is so valuable to it. Do I agree that it would be nice to have a better semblance of pass protection in front of Tua at all times?
Yeah?
I do, But I also understand you can't have the game's best receivers, the game's best cornerbacks, arguably the best edge group in the National Football League, and a highly paid quarterback was a top ten quarterback and the best stable of running backs. You can't have all of those and then also have the best defensive tackles and the best guards. Like you can't have the best of everything. This is not Manchester United, this is not the New
York Yankees. You have to allocate your resources. So they told you how they felt about certain positions with their approach this offseason.
Did they not do that? They did?
They let go a very very good guard, and they let go of one of the game's best defensive tackles, and they went out and drafted an offensive tackle, they went out and drafted an edge rusher, and they've been drafting those spots and receivers and quarterbacks and corners and paying those positions accordingly. So when you watch this offense gain four hundred yards in a game, which, by the way, someone so cal Derek replied to that saying their number
one offense because of the Denver game. Yeah, every team has their best game of the season. Remove everybody else's best game. I freaking hate that argument. We're gonna be ranting today, guys, but I just can't fathom this concept of the four hundred yards per game. The thirty points per game wasn't good enough. I don't understand what plan
that exists on. And when you point to the injuries late in the season they had on the offensive line, yeah, yeah, they achieved all that despite the fact that Rob Hunt, Connor Williams, and Isaiah Winn played a combined twelve hundred out of thirty three hundred possible snaps for those three interior offensive line positions. And so when I make a comment and I tell you, like, just relax, it'll be fine. Just trust me. I'm saying that from a place of knowledge and work.
Here.
I listen, I talk to people, I know things. So when you call me a whole umer for trying to convey that message, gosh, it gets under my skin.
It's intentional.
So when I you know, I just think that I really wish I could kind of open the kimono and show you guys the lack of concern that there is about things like that that Twitter and the fan base is all up in arms about over one joint practice, which shouldn't even be a measuring stick that you use
as a barometer. Because I can go back to last year and I saw all the tweets at me again, I can pull up each one of those accounts and find the tweet last year about how the season was over when Tron arms I went down, or how the season was over when Rob Hunt went down, and.
Was it No, it wasn't.
They still piled up points and had a forty five point output against Washington in December with a banged up offensive line, a thirty six point output without Tron Armstead at left tackle in that season opener, So I just it drives me nuts. I just I guess I just am asking for trust on this stuff, like it's gonna be fine. Okay, it is going to be fine. Let's go ahead and pivot off of that. That didn't really, I guess I didn't scratch the it's the way I
was hoping it would. But we'll go ahead and continue on here with what I wanted to open the show with, and what it was was the long ball from Tua to Tyreek to kick off Tuesday's practice, and having a chance to go back and watch that on a replay gave me the opportunity to dissect what defense it was, the route that it was, the concept, and all that fun stuff. And what I came back with was a
very exciting development for Dolphins fans everywhere. And it plays into this whole concept of overplay and the concept of expand the offense and emphasizing things that maybe teams weren't worried about last year, or that they could take away from you by rolling certain coverages and looks. And what I'm getting at here is something I've covered on the podcast a million times. It's that Tua's best deep shots are the boundary side X takeoff, which is a shorter throw. Right,
it's a condensed part of the field. It's the you know, you have the wide side of the field and the short side. He can throw that perimeter deep shot to the short side of the field very effectively. And when he throws the deep ball to the field typically in the past, go to the Jets game, go look at the Sauce Gardner catch that Waddle had.
It's usually a slot fade, a slot takeoff.
It's a shorter field, a shorter throw once again than it is if you throw to the one receiver to the field, which is the furthest split receiver to the wide side of the field.
What does that mean.
It's just a further throw. So if you go back and watch that play again, what are the falcons in? They roll man free coverage and they present a too high structure and the weak side safety, the boundary side safety rolls into a robber position to run with the two receiver from the field who's coming across the formation.
Are you still with me?
Essentially, they want to take away and double that post route inside because that's a tough ask for a nickel cornerback who has a two way go in that position, and what you have to sacrifice to get that double team is giving Tyreek Hill one on one without safety help. And so when Omar tells you there's no safety help here, I am telling you why they got that and why it's such a valuable thing to hit that pass because in the past, defenses didn't worry about that because TWA
wasn't making that throw. But what I saw was a perfectly placed, perfectly launched, great trajectory deep ball that hit Tyreek Hill and stride to the field to the perimeter fifty yards down the field, which is the strongest throw I've ever seen him make in his entire career. So go ahead and double the post to Waddle on that deep crosser. It wasn't Wattle in the play, but in the season it will be go ahead and leave Tyreek Hill one on one there. Because in the past you
thought two was not making that throw, Well now he is. Okay, now he does that, and that's going to impact the way defenses have to play their shells, how they have to rotate their coverage. And that's what this entire offseason has been about, is finding those ways to tilt the
coverage different from what teams adjusted last year. It's the exact same thing as the Chargers game in twenty twenty two when the Chargers played that two man coverage and we couldn't get off the initial press and couldn't find the gaps in between. And what do we do in the open last year but run up and down the field on that sorry defense with some time to adjust
and prepare. You don't think McDaniel has the exact same thing cooked up in his like every September we come out the last two years and we rose teams offensively to kick off the season.
Do you think it's by accident?
Or is it because we have one of the most innovative play callers and play designers in the entire league and a coaching staff that supports him in the same way? Like what, it drives me nuts that we collectively and again, maybe the royal we of Twitter is the wrong way to approach this, but I'm doing it anyways. Why are we not more inclined to trust that than what you might have seen from three accounts that tweet about plays at practice on August the seventh?
Why do we care about that? It drives me nuts?
And so all I've seen all camp long is this building and evolving and development of an offense that already knows what they have in their bread and butter. What's the point of running the bread and butter stuff every single damn play to get production at practice?
It does you no good.
So we're using these practices to try to expand the things we didn't do well a year ago. That's the benefit of having continuity. And I know the Dolphins haven't had continuity, so you don't know what that's like. And I don't know what that's like either, But now I'm seeing what it's like. And the impact is trying to stretch things to its absolute maximum, to expand everything you're capable of in the offense. And our quarterback got better
to do that. We went out and signed pieces at tight end and running back or drafted a running back to do that. We drafted a receiver who can expand our options to do that stuff as well.
The vision is so clear to me.
I don't know how I can say it drive me nuts, but that one play was a good example of how this team just has more options on this plate offensively, and the production you're getting in training camp shouldn't matter one iota because what they're trying to do is give themselves the biggest menu possible to make defensive coordinators say, oh, they can do that on top of what they did last year when they led the NFL in yardage. That's what I'm trying to convey to you, guys, like it
is going to be fine come the regular season. Please trust me on that. One other thing I wanted to address here was somebody asked me on Twitter. I'm sorry I didn't catch your name, and I don't want to go back to my mentions a game because they're an S show today. But somebody asked me, you mentioned that, like the fifth most important trait for a quarterback? What do you view as the or the sixth most? What do you view as the five more important ones ahead
of that number one? Can you understand and execute the offense by the way it's called. Can you get your shifts and motions and your cadence and get the ball to the right position. Can you make your line checks? Can you see the field and process pre snap the way a head coach or a play caller would That's number one. If you can't do that in the National Football League, you'll never play. That's why Josh Rosen was the worst quarterback we've probably ever seen in this league.
He couldn't do that. He couldn't do any of it. Number two is your accuracy. If you can put the football where it needs to be and when it needs to be there, that is going to go way further than anything else you can possibly do. And number three that teams up with that is the ability to anticipate, and that's a collection of skills. It's processing post snap, it's anticipation or knowledge of coverage and how certain coverages roll against your passing concepts. All of this stuff is
between the ears that pairs with your accuracy. For our first three segment of that, my fourth one is probably elusiveness and creation and playmaking off script because I think that that creates more broken plays and gives your playmakers more chances to expand upon, you know, outside of structure, which is the most important thing, I would say creating space and creating plays, and then after that would probably be arm strength. So I guess that's kind of a
crash course on it. If I spent more time on it and kind of evolved or relayed to you, guys, I should say my thoughts on that. You might get a bit of a different answer, but those are the things that stand way more important and why I think two was a better quarterback than some of these quarterbacks that have these physical traits but don't have the quarterback ability to play the position the right way and execute an offense. Okay, go Lee, It's gonna be a long
one today. I want to get to our first couple of news items here deep into the podcast. So the Dolphins signed Mike Harley Junior from the U and released Chase and Hines, who just never really clicked. He had a really rough day on Tuesday, and I'm sure that that wasn't the only reason why he was released, but he had a rough day of practice against the Falcons in Day one. McDaniel did give us some good news
with regards to injuries. He touched on the absences of Jalen Waddle and Braxton Barrios and even expanded to Jordan Poyer a blanket answer on all these guys that includes Jordan Brooks and Anthony Walker that he said there are some minor things going on, but not long term concerns, which is obviously fantastic to hear. We also got confirmation from Poyer's wife that he's going to be fine, so that's also cool to hear.
I love.
Can we get some more wives that have injury intel for us online?
That would be cool. I like that. Now.
Aaron Brewer did exit practice with an apparent injury on Wednesday. I'll get you guys more on that as we have some clarity on it. Here's what I saw in terms of how it played out. He went back into the Baptist Health Hospital, which is right next door to our facility here, came back out and was watching practice for a moment. He had his helmet in his left hand and was looking at the right hand, so I assume
that's where the injury occurred. And he was walking off with Kyle Johnston when ron Dell Moore went down at the end of practice and had the devastating leg injury that he suffered in this practice, and they were going to go back off, but they kind of waited, so I don't know. It didn't seem like it was crazy serious, but I don't want to speculate any further than that because all I had was my account from you know,
fifteen rows up in the bleachers. Whatever it is, So okay, let's kind of continue my diatribe there of just ranting with the concept of process over results, which is obviously one of my favorite terms in the show. But McDaniel at his press conference on Wednesday use that term, but he also expanded upon it more. And I just think that this should be gospel with regards to what you take away from a single joint practice.
I will say that's off the top.
The results weren't good today, they weren't yesterday. They were today they were not, but there's no scoreboard in August, right again. Players take this time to tinker with their game to try to find out where they can get better. Coaches are not going to game plan in a way that's designed to deceive you, which you'll hear from coach right here. I just really really want to reinforce that point and try my best to convey what you should
make of these training camp practices. It's not like watching a game. It's not black and white. Let's go to coach who can hopefully help us tie together this first segment a little bit better, maybe even than I could.
Well.
The you know, the the the mindset, is isn't totally to to be unpredictable. The mindset is to be able to with conviction, you know, make make a defense or an offense really as an offense defend the whole field and as a defense can press the field. And within that you're trying to assert something and then force the the the opponent to stop that. And the ways they stop that are you take advantage of that overplay literally on all phases. It's that but that's what we're doing.
So from a from a joint practice perspective, you get different players utilizing different techniques within a different scheme. So you can apply your techniques and fundamentals and your scheme, however, your scheme is evolving to how how defensive or offenses are playing. You can It's a great opportunity you have to. You know, there is a competitive advantage when you're finding new tools, uh schematically that you don't want your your
opponents to totally be able to dive into. And you know what those are and how how big of a piece they are. You know, it's up to you know that the scriptors and what you put on the on the paper. But uh, working with the Atlanta Falcons is a and and specifically you know Raheem Morris and my
relationship with him. It's helpful in that we can we cannot worry about some of the nuances that that you might worry with an unknown coaching staff or people that you don't have as strong relationships with, So you can just really put your scheme and what individual players are working on and what you're working on as a group. You can just really apply it without hesitation in situations like that. And that's kind of really the way we
we utilize this opportunity both you know, both teams. In talking to Raheem, it's it's a it's a really cool opportunity to solve problems that you can take out of of all your lists of problems that you have to solve during the season, whether that's different rules, whether that's success or failure. There's a really really good stuff to get out of these things, and yesterday was one of those days that we got some good stuff out of it.
I want to run two more audio clips here before I get to my notes, But it felt like, you know, we had a twenty year doctor a PhD dissertation from the expert in the room. I think that when he talks, we should listen to that guy.
But what do I know.
Here's coach on what he saw day one and as looking for from the defense in general.
You know, okay, so on on on defense, I saw a spirit that I was very very confident in. But you don't know until you actually face a different squad and that spirit, energy and standard of play, you know that it's something that was really cool and definitely ever, it was definitely present throughout the practice. You look at this the first place of the last and and there was some real cool, fun football being played in that way.
And I thought, you know, I think the connectivity you know, from Anthony Weaver down on the coaching staff to the players, and that that immersed common one common goal with with complete connectivity. It was on display and I was pumped with.
That and that spirit he talks about there, Man, it was on display and it's it's really really tough, I think to match that intensity on back to back days. I mean, there's a reason the games are every six days, right, Like, it's not just the body that needs time to recover in this sport, it's the mind and the spirit as well. But I think the defense turned it up a little bit after a slower start to practice number two, which is a great way to kind of kickstart the spirit
energy after a great day one. It's it's still there, we just had to find it a little bit later in and sometimes like the Panther game last year, we started off slow fourteen to nothing.
What was the result of that game forty two to twenty one.
I thought the defense kind of had a similar bounce
back like that game on this practice now. Offensively, I thought the Dolphins gave the Falcons work on Day one and kind of kicked their butts, but today they are rather on Day one, the Dolphins were more physical, were more effective, played faster, and I think that today the Falcons, who are coached by one of the best defensive minds this game has ever seen the last two decades, right, I think they were probably challenged to raise their energy level,
and I think they responded to their head coach. I also thought the Dolphins were a bit out of sync, which we'll discuss here in a little bit. But I want to go back to coach one more time before we take our first break on the show here, As he talked before practice number two about the offense, and just like his answer in the first answer, gosh, if you're looking for some answers to read the reports of
a practice, you did not see this. There is more in this sound bite from coach than anywhere else tweets columns. I'll even include myself in there after my rank I just did. You won't learn more than from this. So here is co which on the first day of joint practices from the offensive perspective.
Offensively as the play caller, you you know, understanding how unique an opportunity is. I'm looking very specifically for things within our game and out on the field. I really am not concerned with the result. And in that I on the field, I was I was looking at things very positive. And then you know, as I looked at the tape, you know, I was pumped about the things that I was really looking for that were tangible things that we've been working on.
Since since April.
And and but beyond that, you're also you have expectations on things that if you're going to emphasize one thing, you know other things are going to be right where they should be, which is in a process of development.
And and so in that your your.
Expectations are like, huh, I'm expecting me good at something. I don't know what what we're not going to be good at, and you know, I think they That was why I felt supreme conviction, and yesterday was fully utilized to the things that there's always things. What you don't want to do is feel like you are at full strength in your first joint practice. I think each each year in this stage, you know, we we've we've been We've had some good production against opposing defenses, you know,
relative to other years. I wasn't really looking at that. I was really focused on on how we like, for instance, how we block people, and then you know, you block people well, but then you have some uh, you know, issues from an offensive dropback standpoint where you either don't.
Like your hot throw or.
Or you're you're really anticipating blitz from one side and it comes from the other. Those things have to be ironed out. And that's I don't expect really any week one practice to really be anything other than that. So it was what I expected. But I was really pumped at the stuff that I was looking for. But I'm expecting improvement from mistakes yesterday, and you know, the same conviction and the same line of scrimmage that I saw yesterday's will be important.
They just don't care about results, man. I think that bears repeating. And we've heard them talk about what they emphasize all the time, right, So I'll hear criticism if you can tell me what they're emphasizing, how that's going, the progress within that, and what they're running compared to the looks they're getting, because that's what you have to know to understand fully what you're seeing on this practice field. And that's why I tell you guys like I don't.
Maybe there's things that I see structurally and schematically that I can point out, but for the most part, it's just trying to identify one on one skills and talents these guys have, and this is a team loaded with talent,
so I'm not really that concerned about it. But because there are, you know, a few pressures in a portion of the calendar where there's install happening, I just can't take that seriously because look at the other field, and you know what, I saw plenty of free runs and pressures. Have we ever have we not seen a camp practice in the past, Like I know, I'm just on the soapbox.
But this stuff really annoyed me today.
Remember back in twenty fifteen when the Panthers had to pull Cameron Waken and Dominican Sue and the Dolphins pass rush to call the dogs off because they were getting so much pressure on Cam Newton the Panthers couldn't get their work in.
Does anybody remember that? I definitely do.
The Panthers went one or went fifteen and won that year and went to the Super Bowl that team. That Dolphins team was one in three and fired their head coach after four games and was dead in the water. Besides a couple of fun games from the Dan Campbell era, beyond that, a travesty train wreck of a season. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills here. I wish I could just show you the calm and the enjoyment I saw today from the players in the lunch room having
their lunch at the cafeteria, enjoying each other's company. I saw a quarterback making his cava and swapping stories of the podcast are about how tough it is to parent a two year old boy. I promise you, guys, the only worrying happening right now is the tweets that you see that's it doesn't exist in here. We know we're a championship contender and this is part of the process. And if you refuse to accept that there's going to be a tinge of adversity along the way, then this
ain't the sport for you. Doug go like you gotta watch Man United or the New York Yankees, these high pay roll teams that drop fifteen points in the season because there's no adversity. Football is all about adversity. This league is parody. You don't dominate very often. When you do, you should enjoy it. And there's a reason this league is so popular because games are close, and that's what the league is built on, is back and forth competitive
games everyday. So put your big points, big boy pants on. Tough enough, and let's move on to Friday. We have a damn football game coming up here. Get excited about that. That's it Segment two coming next Drive Time Podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by AutoNation. Okay, was that instructive or was that just incessant bitching? You tell me, I think it was instructive. Let's go ahead and do you some notes here starting at the quarterback position. I
thought it was another solid day for Mike White. It's nice to see him turn it on here this week, which I think he's had his best three days this week in practice of the entire camp. And that's the progression of camp that you should put stock into. You don't just you know, discard old reps and say that
didn't count. But the culmination is improvement, and you are starting to play at a level that's consistently above what those old practices were, then I think it's easy and you should be able to put those older reps kind of off to the side and elevate the more current reps. And that's a great example of getting to a finish line and not bemoaning missed opportunities in the past, which
we can do that when the calendar turns September. I still think about that Titans game all the time, right like that was a missed opportunity, But that ain't it for this time of year. Man. Mike White drilled some really tight window throws a day and looked good. And if I'm gonna sit here and tell you about all these you know, Tua had one of the best practices I've ever seen from him in his life. I thought today was one of the lesser showings in terms of
the results from quarterback one. He just seemed out of rhythm today. He missed cray Craft, who came open on that bread and butter twenty yard throw between the hash marks we always see and like we never see that. It's so out of character. He also did run around and create a little bit. He got the ball to his checkdowns quickly, but just not the same precision and on time proficiency we're used to with Tua. He also
missed River Craycraft on a deep shot double move. And that's the thing here, Like the Falcons, dbs were cheating all day. They just kept turning or jumping routes, And to me, that's part of the dichotomy of a two day session. They know what they're going to emphasize, what we do well and what we want to get reps on, and they're trying to put good tape out there for themselves.
And Riv hits this double move. The cornerback takes the cheese, he gets a step, and River's on a four to four guy right, So he's going to have to sell you that bill of goods on the end route before going back to the vertical to get that two step lead, and he did it. We missed the throw, which usually we don't miss that throw, and I don't recall seeing a lot of that throughout the course of the day. It's like Coach said, we aren't running those reps to
try to beat the Falcons today. We're doing things to put ourselves in position to be the best version of ourselves come September eighth versus Jacksonville Jaguars.
But no picks.
A couple of sacks, some improvising and some good throws on the move, a couple of touchdowns and red zone work, but on balance, just not the same performance we can typically set our watch to from QB one. I thought Skyler Thompson spun the ball pretty good today, but he didn't get a ton of help from a supporting cast. Durham Smyth dropped a touchdown pass from Mike White. Earlier, Jody forts In dropped it. I think Scallar's best throw of the day.
I don't know.
To me, it was just one of those days that was uncharacteristic across the board, and my only takeaway is your opportunity to come out and do it better next time, whether that's Friday night or Monday the next practice. If it becomes a trend, then that's when concern creeps in. But you have one of these days every five or six days in training camp. It's just how it goes. It's just how it goes like that's such training camp.
So I don't know.
It drives me a little bit crazy, but that continues to be part of the die tribe. Let's pivot off quarterbacks and move on to receivers. But first, I have a lead in here for this segment, so we talk about River Craycraft for a little bit here. Orange Jersey donned today open all day again. I mean, I just I explained this to some people in the stands today.
The value of Craycraft might not be tangible to the naked eye, but I can't tell you how imperative it is to have a guy that knows every play, every check, every shift, every motion, every mic point, and can do it from every single position on the field, not just in the sense of the depth that he provides in addition to special teams value like what I've just described is a perfect number four receiver, which if all goes according to plan with Reek Wado Obj that's kind of
the next spot available right and we have, you know the depth chart that came out. We can stack these camps and have our opinions on who is where, but that's not a set order right now. But if you're going to stack them, to me, River would be comfortably the number four guy on the team right now. And my favorite part, he just continues to assert himself as a perimeter blocker, one of the best in the damn
game at doing that. He escorted Jeff Wilson into the end zone today on an outside run where he drove the defensive back from the fit which is that red line you see on the field. He drove him from that position all the way outside the end line or the sideline, I should say, the white perimeter and ended
up on top of the defensive back. You know. His French toast day today here for breakfast, but Herbert Craidcraft was serving a pancake, so I asked him, what's the mindset for the receivers in the blocking game?
Here in Miami we.
Take pride in it, you know, it's a big part of our offense and the way that our backs run, it's you know, it's one of those deals like if you have a Brax and Barrio set returner, you know, it's like he can. When you have a guy that can take it to the house every single play, that makes you want to play harder. So when we hear run plays called and we know who we have in
the backfield, we want the plays to work. So if the play is gonna depend on our perimeter blocking, because we know the line's gonna handle their stuff, but if a play is gonna depend on us, whether it's a touchdown or not, then we want to make sure that we get it handled.
You know who else was awesome today and spoiler, it's my orange jersey prediction for our next practice. Malik Washington, a guy that if you listen to this podcast, you know we really really like Malik Washington here on draft time.
What a stud.
He caught a takeoff from Skyler and man, you get so used to watching Reek and Waddle just glide under these deep shots. They make the quarterbacks landing zone. They expanded right, more margin for air. Now that's four to two speed. Malik was a four or five guy out of college and it makes me appreciate so much his ability to win those plays because it just highlights all the strength of his game. Toughness, concentration, strong hands, body control.
Those are all things that made him an absolute monster in college. And he talked about that today after practice.
Man, I think that's just a one on one matchup. You know, Skyler has some trust to me on that play. Let it all out there. We just we got to finish those places. Whenever we get those opportunities, we got to make sure we finish.
So that's all that went placed there.
Then he caught it past I think would have been a fifty yard touchdown given his rack prowess, but they ruled him down after about thirty Running across the field, he stacks the dB and keeps him there with a little acceleration once the ball was on him to create that separation for a catch and run.
He also talked about that play.
I kind of say the same thing. You know, a little bit of trust in that quarterback room. We've worked all summer, we worked at all offseason, just getting on the same page with each other, seeing the cover, seeing the shell, and making plays.
He also talked about his mindset when there are a number of receivers down that we have right now, let's go back to Milak for the opportunity you have with Reek and Waddle and Burrios practicing a limited basis today.
Yeah, I think you don't change anything. I think you have to approach every single day like it's a big time opportunity to come and prove yourself, to come and step up.
And today was just happened to be.
A day with those guys are out and we got a little bit more opportunity, so we got to capitalize on those. But it's like any other day, man, you got to come ready to work.
You got to come ready to earn a job.
I should have said Reek on limited basis, Wattle and Barrios were down, But in fact we're going to burn all of our soundbites here because well it was that kind of day for the rookie. Let's go ahead and go back to the head ball coach Mike McDaniel on Malik Washington.
One of the more difficult things in the National Football League is that of a rookie NFL wide receiver. There the game is very different in terms of UH timings, particularly with us UH and and how and the the details with which you do your jobs. I mean huddling and and all the motioning. Uh. The what Malik has done really well is find how to be a professional
very quickly. So he's operating as you know of vet would in terms of his how he's studying, his ownership of the playbook, and how reliable he is with assignments for his teammates. And then you know there's learning tools each and every practice. What I what I'm really happy about with with Malik is that he is getting better with those mistakes. And I'm expecting mistakes, but he improves mistakes, which is the key for rookies.
And as we proverbally proverbally passed the orange jers like a baton from the former Koug to the former cavalier in a Wildcat, here is River Craykraft on his advice to Malik Washington and why he's a great fit in the receiver's room.
Yeah. Well, he's gotten opportunities, which is awesome. A guy like Malik's he's very thoughtful, he's he's very methodical when it comes to his work ethic. He's a good person and I think that's important to have people like that in the room because those guys want to get better, and with these guys out, I have pulled Malik aside a few times, you know, when the time is right,
just telling him to take advantage of this opportunity. I was telling him today we had to play called Up and I told him if they tossed it to him, I said, hey, man, you got to get these crowd going. I want you to go slap high fives across the whole fans that we ended up changing the play, but just things like that to make him comfortable, to put a smile on his face, to let him know he's doing a great job and to keep working. I think that's where I'll come in.
Let's finish up with the pass catchers. Then we'll do some offensive line and defense in segment three. If you're noticing a discrepancy here, the defense was on the far field both days, and when they're operating at the same time as the offense, it is really tough to lock in. So my notes are limited, but I do have some some on the receivers and tight ends here. First off, credit to Mike Harley Junior. You know River Cradcraft said that he first met him on the practice field today.
He was doing onboarding stuff during the morning meetings. So he's on the practice field with like what maximum five minutes of Wes Welker crash course on an offense that takes years to master. But I think that that's a credit to him ticket out there and get involved, because I also have to think that it's probably a big reason why the offense was so disjointed to a certain degree. We have like all these newcomers trying to run this
offense that requires precision. With all these guys that we have down, we're already limited in what we can do. And then you put a guy in there that's essentially automatic run play because you can't ask him to run your timing passing offense because if it doesn't know it yet. And I don't know if you know this, but this
offense is pretty particular on timing, you know. John Conjimi lan to me at one point and said, like, if number four is in the field, that's a pretty big til to run the ball because there's nobody's doing yet.
Like it's tough.
But man, the one area or the one I really liked I want to talk about here is John new Smith because we've been you know, on this kick the last week and a half or so about the tight end position and the versatility that it provides the offense, and I think that we've been seeing.
More and more of them.
Johnny was such a dangerous option for how he can help emphasize that overplay that coach mentioned earlier, like if you want to tilt attention to the trip side with Reek and waddle our speed, guys, we're gonna have Johnnu on that backside why iso position and you can get these screens to him that they run off of that, or motion to tilt the numbers away from Tyreek or run behind Tyreek, and you run these escort swing passes where you know, Johnny's a lead blocker for Devon h
Channery catches a now screen where the cloud corner has been lifted because of the deep coverage, or they just have a one on one backside cornerback was giving up forty pounds, Like that's dangerous man. So he can hit his best blocks out in space. Out there, he can run over small corners who can't tackle him. It's to me, it's the perfect compliment to what this offense did so
well the last few years to me. It's like if Reak and Waddle are are Paul Skemes, the starter for the National League All Stars this year, who throws like ninety nine one hundred every single fastball he throws. And then off of that, we have a Felix Hernandez Hall of Fame change up as our counter pitch that you can't differentiate what they are until one is ninety nine miles an hour and the other one is ninety one miles an hour and looks the exact same.
That's what Johnna is.
He's that change up to the fastball in the sense that once you think you're loaded up and you're ready for the fastball, you're gonna be out over your skis trying to change up, and you're going to be trying to tackle number nine in space one on one with a cornerback who weighs one hundred and eighty five pounds.
Good luck.
So I am jazzed about that and what I think he can be for the offense. Let's go ahead and move on to segment three. Here do the offensive line, the running backs, and to the defense and extra points form that next Draft Time podcast to your host, Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation.
It was tough.
Sledding in the run game today again, though, I thought Jalen Wright really impressed with his performance. He had a mid red zone run where he found the gap off of a jump cut, got downhill and popped the safety and powered his way into the end zone. And that was like I mean, we talked about counters throughout the course of this episode. You know, chase him and Raheem and Devon to the perimeter all day and then you have to deal with that in goal to go situations
and you have to buckle your chin strap. I sure do like that option for the Dolphins offense to finish this group. Chris Brooks had some strong runs and eight Chan showed up yards in the short pass as a TUA that I mentioned earlier. All right, let's talk about the offensive line after a full segment of ranting about it. It wasn't a good day for them. I think the Falcons really got after us today. I don't think that you can point to an individual particularly and harp on
too much. Like it was kind of constant leaks in different spots. You know, they were recent the line of scrimmage in a way that allowed penetration and forced a bubble from the back to change direction or flat out stop his run and have to reread the flow. And by then it was like rally and make a play from the defense.
Now.
I did think that Rob Jones succeeded a lot of penetration. I thought Jack Driscoll his struggles continued. Some same from leam Meikenberg there. I did think that Sean Harlowe looked pretty good. He continues to have the most power I think from the options of some of those other centers we have in that position.
I thought the same of Keon Smith.
He got out wide on some blocks day that were really impressive, and so did Austin Jackson, who got good surge off of his especially with his double teams with tight ends, which continued to be a focal point of this offense. Yeah, just not their best day, but we talked about them at length already. Defensively, I saw more of the same with Ramsey continues to just be a
bully with his physicality. They did get up on a deep shot where he got stacked and took the cheese and Darnell Moody has to come back for an underthrow. You know it winds up being a DPI. I thought Kendall Fuller was very good. They threw hookups into the short areas all day, and in fact, I thought Pennix looked really in control in that regard. I think he's a good looking quarterback. I also saw a Storm Duck
with another pass breakup. I saw Jalen Matrie with a few reps on sticky coverage, which has been a theme all camp. And those are the two guys that Kendall Fuller actually mentioned first by name as guys that have stood out so far among the young guys in training camp. Cater Kohu was once one of those young guys. He still is, but he had another awesome day today. He's able to come on from like practice five or so after a tough first week. He's been feisty, tight in coverage.
When he can play a man and just kind of focus on that and compete with the guy, he usually gets the best of them. That's where I think he's best, and he's been put in position to succeed doing just that. They went after Saran Neil again today. He gave up a few catches, but you know, it's, like I said, tough to see from that far field, but he was in coverage a lot on some of the deeper shots.
I saw.
Duke Riley had two TFLs where he came through untouched and Zeke Vandenberg. He plays so smart and tight to the blocks and the you know the collection of o versus d you know, engage in a block. He scrapes off of those so well and fills to greet the running back with good timing. He really reads how the offense flows. I think pretty damn well. I thought Jonathan Harris was excellent today. I think he's starting to really feel the defense naturally and it's allowing him to play faster.
His length stands out to me. He's controlling some reps with that length and physicality, and he had a sack again in this practice. Isaiah Matt got some penetration a couple of times. I thought Benido Jones held the point of attack a couple of times when I'd get the binoculars on his big butt out there. Another thing that just kind of cover here for the Falcons a little bit.
I'm pretty excited to watch them this year. Man Pitts and Bejon are two of my favorites on top of what they have with London and Mooney and ron Dell Moore, although he's going to be down for the year after that bummer of an injury.
But Pitts and Beijon were tough today.
Man Pitt's made a couple of plays and I saw a handful of runs where Bejeon was like bottled up in the backfield and managed to find daylight. Anyway, that's why you just at that position, you must be someone who's gonna do rare things. If you're going to be a top ten draft pick. There's like three or four backs in the lead that can consistently make haste with poor blocking, and I think that he's one of those guys.
Not to say the Falcons are a bad blocking team, but he just made some wrong plays right for that offense today. Okay, I know, I'm sorry the defensive notes were so short. I wish I had more. I just I don't want to report on things I could barely see. Those are the things I did, so I did see you heard from them, So there you go.
Well, have one more show tomorrow.
I'm gonna do twelve training camp observations through twelve practices. We'll also preview the game with a sense of guys to look out for late into that fourth quarter to give you kind of a viewing guy for that, and we'll see how that all carries over some of these camp performances into the regulars or into the preseason games. But until then, you all please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple, Spotify, wherever you get your
podcasts from. Go ahead, leave us a rating, leave us eight review, Follow me on social at.
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Tell me how you felt about the rant. Follow the team at Miami Dolphins. Check out the fish Tank podcast. That Jason Garrett episode is very very good. Check it out the YouTube channel for media availabilities, drive time content, and so much more. And last but not least, Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time, Fins up Caroline and Cameron Daddy just coming home.
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