Drive Time: Broncos Perspective with Jeff Legwold

Drive Time with Travis Wingfield begins.

Now, let me check your pulse if you're not.

What is up?

Dolphins? And welcome to the.

Drive Time Podcast, part of the Miami Dolphins podcast network, covering your team, your Miami Dolphins. How's it going everybody? I am your host, Travis Wingfield. And on today's show, we're gonna hear from the coordinators and assistant coaches of your Miami Dolphins. We're gonna pick the week three games

Yeah, you guys get more humidity by Sunday afternoon than we get in a year. So you know, Sean Payton has actually taken a different approach. Now, you know, it's been a while, a few years. I believe twenty nineteen is the last time they've they've played a game down there, but they Sean Payton is bringing the team in on Friday evening and then they're gonna have their walkthrough I believe, at the stadium on Saturday, and then and then play Sunday. So he's and some of that is the kickoff time.

I just got off the practice field about ten minutes ago, and it's uncharacteristically kind of I wouldn't say cool, because it never is cool downe here until the winter months. But it's a little less hot than usual, so maybe the weather going to play some favor here for the

Well, you know, so far, so good.

They don't have the results, obviously, they're going two and the issue spent in the second half of games they've they've been almost two different teams and Russell's been almost two different players comparing the first half of their two games to the second.

Half of the two games.

So that's the issue they're dealing with right now, is how to maintain some of that momentum they've had, you know, in the first and second quarters after halftime. But overall, he's looked much better than he did for most of last year, and there's been a big emphasis on tempo, getting to the line of scrimmage more quickly, you know, getting the ball out of.

His hand more efficiently.

You know, don't put him in a position where he's you know, deep in the down and he's still holding onto the ball. So they've been better about that when they have had difficulty. It's some of the problems that cropped up last year. When the protection goes bad, then his footwork of roads and then when his footwork of roads, he tends to hang onto the ball and try to escape, and that's when when bad things happen. So the emphasis has really been on maintaining ten, moving quicker and you know,

Yeah, that's good.

That's a good point you bring up there with the footwork and kind of how he can you know, do his part to minimize the sacks, because you go back to his days in Seattle, even when the Seahawks offense was rolling, they would have you know, moments or multiple drives where they wouldn't get much done and typically was because of negative yardage via the result of a sack and I've always thought it was kind of a quarterback stat, but it's it's been, you know, off to a shaky

Yeah, I mean they probably all have a little dirt under their fingernails with that one. I mean, it's their line play has been spotty because they have two new you know, they signed a guard Ben Powers and reagency and a tackle Mike mcglinchy in free agency. So and McGlinchey didn't play at all in the preseason. So they're still mixing and matching there and trying to get everybody comfortable. You know, when do you pass a guy when you you know, how do how do you come out of the double teams?

All of those timing things.

They're still getting together up front, and they've you know, they've been sort of compromised on the edges from time to time in the by the opposing pass rush. And you know, they've played two pretty good fronts. You know, Washington's got four former number ones in the front, and they looked like it for a lot of the game.

And then, uh, you know the Raiders.

Max Crosby has always been a big thorn to this team no matter who they've had at quarterback.

Or in the offensive line.

So they you know, some of it was a bad draw for them right away, but you know, again they've they've they haven't always played with the the timing and the you know and some of the combination blocks they need to and Russell needs to be more cognizant when the play's gone bad that just to take the down and get on with it instead of trying to save a play that can't be saved.

I always enjoy these crossover here, these crossover episodes. Here having a guest from the other beat on the podcast, gaving us some inside information on the Dolphins opponent this week, the Denver Broncos obviously in town to face the two and O Miami Dolphins. And let's talk about the weapons at Wilson's disposal here. I know Jerry Judy came back last week. Obviously, Tim Patrick down for the season, and

A little bit, you know, I think that you know, a lot of the angst locally is, you know, folks just want to see the rookie Marvin Mims more. I mean, the guy had two recent on two targets last week for one hundred and thirteen yards and a touchdown, and then he doesn't he doesn't get a third target for the rest of the game. You know, they had a rookie running back, Juliel McLoughlin is their fastest running, most explosive running back.

He had one carry in the game for a touchdown.

So a lot of the angst locally is, you know, hey, why don't you get these rookies on the field more. But Mims is potentially the most explosive receiver they have, and the more he plays, I think the more that will show. You know, Courtland Sutton is the guy Russell really trusts when he's in trouble. You know, if he's on the move and has to escape a lot of the time, he's going to be looking Courtland Sutton's way.

Standing next to the coaches.

It seems like every team, not every team, but a few teams have like these positions where health is just an issue every single year. And I feel like the Broncos have had some of the worst luck at the receiver position in terms of their health annually.

Going over to the other side of the ball here.

Jeff, it looks like Justin Simmons the stats for the game on Sunday, we'll find out what that is tomorrow when the gamestas has come out, but he missed Wednesday's practice curious about his availability. And then just on top of that, the depth in the defensive backfield beyond he and Patrick Surtan, how is that kind of shaped out through two games? And who are some names to keep an eye on in the defensive backfield.

Well, the injuries have been pretty tough on him there too. I mean they're big plans of the preseason have already been dented.

The you know, not a.

Lot of people talk about the injury, but it's one of the biggest the team have has. The Kiwan Williams was their nickel corner and he's one of the best nickel corners in the league. You know, he can play the run with physicality and he can play the deep you know, the deep middle. You know, he has that kind of athleticism to do both. And he's he had

He absolutely is.

And we've seen our own share of attrition in the defensive backfield a season ago and throughout this training camp really but hopefully Miami's getting healthy as long as as well as Denver on the back end. There a couple more here for you, Jeff, I was curious to ask you about Vance Joseph's I guess in corporation into the defensive system there and kind of how he's put his fingerprints on the Denver defense We know he loves to blitz, but this quarterback down here beats the blitz pretty well.

Well, that's been a struggle for them so far because they you know, they haven't gotten a lot of production from their edge guys and because of that, you know, Vance is always walking the line between how many risks do you take in the pass rush, how many how many times do you add the extra rusher and then you put a secondary that's had some injuries you know, under the microscope a little bit when you do that.

So that's been their biggest trouble.

And you know it will be their difficulty against the Dolphins because they you know, you're obviously not gonna want it to just standing there surveying things, and I think they will try a lot of what New England did, which is to play a lot of his own, keep as much in front of them as they can, and then just take their chances in the red zone.

Yeah, it makes a lot of sense.

I don't really know how you best defend this Dolphins offense because they've been pretty lethal with two different completely game plans from the Chargers in Patriots in Week one and Week two. One more question here for you, Jeff. We end these episodes the same way every single time. I like to ask you, the Broncos win this game if and then you fill in the blank.

They win this game if they play offense with a more consistency than they have so far. I mean even last week they scored a bunch of points, but the second half was a slog.

You know, they weren't really themselves. So they win this they if they play a full game.

On offense and Marvin Mims is involved a lot more than he has been.

Very good.

You can find him on Twitter at Jeff Underscore Legwold and his coverage of the Broncos on ESPN dot com. Jeff, appreciate your time today and make sure you try that key line pie up in the press box on Sunday.

I'll do whatever I can to you know, to dent that that supply.

It goes by pretty quick, so get there early. Appreciate it. Jeff, thank you man, Thank you, And there he goes.

Always a fun chat to get perspective from the opposing team, as Jeff gave us there from the Denver Broncos. Let's go ahead and take our first break right here and come back on the other side and talk to the assistant coaches. That's next Drive Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation.

Let's kick off.

Assistant coach Audio here with Vic Fangio first, who was asked, how did you guys improve the run game? What was different on Sunday night versus Week one against the Chargers?

We played better, Number one. I think we had the mindset to stop the run. We took on blocks a little better, just had that little more edge that you need to have to play the run better, and we played the run good.

You know.

It was by my account, you know, twenty for sixty three yards. They got some quarterbacks scramble runs, which I don't I know statistically are rushing yards, but they're not in my mind.

I'm very glad He mentioned that about the quarterback rushing statistics because I think that kind of can skew the way your run defense plays in general, because those are kind of passing numbers. If you think about it, you drop back to pass, you're in coverage, you have pass rush, and the quarterback runs not really indicative of how your run defense plays. Speaking of run defense, the safety is often involved in bringing down players into the box and

Yeah, we'd like to get Brandon going. And the big thing with Brandon is he missed the entire offseason. He missed not all of training camp, but most of training camp, did not play in any preseason games, and he just needs to catch up. And you know, when you're back there, if you're not honed up, they're not just six yard games, they're big ones. So we're giving him more and more practice reps every week and I'm confident he'll be ready to play soon.

Here, let's go.

Ahead and stay on that train of thought. And here from Rinaldo Hill on Dolphins safety Deshaun Elliott.

You know, for the most part, he's been consistent. You know, we've been looking for that partner opposite and someone who can give Javon, you know, something to his game. So Sean's been the one out there has been communicating very well. I think their partnership has been going good. So these first two games, obviously we still have you know, Brandon getting him caught up to speed, but right now, Sean has been doing a really good job for US.

I mentioned Ramsey one question to Goo. There was a question posed to Rinaldo about Cam Smith's progress and his ability to kind of absorb the NFL lifestyle and playbook and all that stuff, and the name Jalen Ramsey came up.

Yeah, he's a leader, and I don't think you know, regardless of the injury, you never stopped doing that. Obviously, he had a lot of experience going against Russ during his time, so he's able to give that that feedback of just being in those shoes, playing in those situations and what Russ balls look like to like help those guys look look for when they're out there playing. So he's given all his tip bits of his experiences and it's really helping our guys. Those guys are receptive to it.

And of course we all saw him celebrate xaviing Howard's interception on Sunday night. How badly does Ramsy want to get back in the fold. Here's Dolphins passing game coordinator Ronaldo Hill on their star cornerback.

I think you just see him just the excitement he has when guys are making plays. You know he wants to be out there. He's locked, he's calling out their concepts. It's just a he's just completely involved, regardless if he's not on the field physically, he's he's he's there mentally and he's there in his action. So we're seeing, we're seeing all that, and he's giving those guys juice when they're out there. He's encouraging when they come to the sideline,

Finally, I wanted to follow up on that point and just ask how rare is that for a player who's out injured to be so involved in everything you guys do.

A lot of times you see those guys maybe in the rehab, you know, position, maybe they're not involved in much. But I think it's I think as coaches we encourage those guys to do it as much as possible. But just one of the ones where you don't have to say much. He's he's up front with it, and we like that as coaches because, like I said, it's letting them, letting him know that he's still involved in this thing.

One last one here for the defense, and I'll go over to the offensive side of the football. Wanted to ask Ronaldo Hill the difficulty of defending a quarterback like Russell Wilson, who has one of the best trajectory, deep arcing footballs that we've ever seen in the National Football League, in addition to his ability to win with his legs on scrambles and design runs.

Here's Hill.

Yeah, I mean, we've got to rely on our front seven, you know, to make sure that they're doing a good job of, you know, keeping a cup on rust in the pocket. We got to make sure that we're keeping the roof on the back end and making it difficult for those guys to find those shots down field. We know we try to do a good job of moving the coverage around, but at the same time, they're going to find these ops and we got to be ready to answer the bail for when we do get those

Let's pivot now to the offensive side of the football and Frank Smith, who was asked about what is it that Coach Berry the offensive line coach Butch Berry. What stands out about his performance and what he brings to the.

Table energy and passion for football, a line play. You know, there's his work ethic, I think, I mean, he has an unbelievable work ethic, energy towards what he does, a passion towards what he does, and I think, you know, like we talked about, when you can surround yourself with guys like that, I mean, good things tend to happen because they have that resolve to always make sure that we're trying to get the best out of each other.

I've talked about this at length, how you can just see the commitment to technique and fundamentals on the pre this field, the way those guys catch and climb and hit the bag, and the intent they have in those practices. It's just a little bit different this year than you've seen in the past. We've seen that play out on game days on Sunday as well, in terms of how they pick up games and pass things off and find extra work.

It's been fun to watch.

What's not been so fun to watch is the quarterback center exchange stuff. But like Mike McDaniel mentioned, two snaps out of sixty in a game is not something you're going to be overly concerned about, especially when the other fifty eight are great, and that's what you get from Connor Williams. But of course something you have to iron out. But Frank Smith stays on that same line of thinking with it won't be an issue very soon. It's basically what he says here.

I think everyone has stuff they're working on, and you know, a quarterback exchange thing just gets obviously magnified. But he had at the same time. I mean, it's just something that you know is working through. It's the second game of the season, you know, I would imagine by week

Coach finishes up here, touching on the anticipation from the quarterback position, but not just how it's an inherent trait from Tua. How it's something that he and the entire offense developed over the course of an off season's worth of work.

It's just the way that you know, he goes about his business's anticipation and understanding, and I think ultimately it goes in Like all plays, you can't say just necessarily it's one guy, you know, doing it on his own. It's a collection of the way you teach things, the way that you execute, the way that you run the route, the way that you do things. So I think ultimately it's a collection. And that's a way that they've trained

Earlier I mentioned coach Barry and what stands out about him. I wanted to ask Eric Stewisville about the involvement that he has with Coach Barry when it comes to get in the running backs lined up in pass pro. It's been so good this year. Here's a great answer from coach Studentsville and how he and Butch Berry put together pass protection plans every single Tuesday.

On Tuesdays, Butch and I spend probably probably a good hour and a half to two hours going through every pressure that we can find, talking through our rules, what we want to do, why, what the adjustments would be, how the offensive line is affected by certain things, how

You have to.

It's it's part to the whole, you know, you take parts of it and then you put it together a little bit more at a time, and then we got to get it executed.

And finishing up here with coach Studentsville.

One of the most exciting guys to watch in that full back room, or that running backroom, i should say, is full back Alec Ingold. Here's coach on just how valuable Ingold is to the offense.

Well, it's just what you said.

He has a unique skill set. I mean, Alec is first of all, he's incredibly intelligent, He's passionate about the game. He wants to be utilized in as many ways as we'll try to utilize him.

He'll try everything, and.

We put him in a lot of different places and we're still sorting out, you know, what those.

Things are that he can do.

And he's done more and more things. That just gives us a huge advantage too, because the defense has to prepare for all those things.

All Right, there we go.

Let's go ahead and finish up this podcast on the other side with my NFL game picks for week number three. That's next Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield.

Brought to you by au Dontnation.

Let's pick the games for Week three in the twenty twenty three NFL season. Good year so far for you, boy a twelve and four week. Last week had a couple of changes late under the wire because of some injury news, but wind up going twelve and four. That's twenty three and nine on the season. I believe that's the best two weeks start since I began doing these on the podcast here two years ago.

Go.

Let's go ahead and pick this week's game starting with Thursday Night Football. What a snoozer Giants and Niners. Give me the San Francisco forty nine ers and a.

Big, big victory there Give me.

Miami over Denver on Sunday. Titans and Browns, I think is a close one, but I think the Browns offense has been a kneemic really since that certain quarterback took over last year. Give me the Titans to keep on rolling after a big win over the Chargers and their home opener on Sunday. Give me the Lions over the Falcons. Big fan of what the Falcons are doing, but I do not believe in the sustainability to beat top level teams.

I'm not sure Detroit qualifies as that.

But as far as their offense goes and the ability to quick strike and put up a lot of points, I'd like them to do that. I don't trust the Falcons to keep pace, even though I love that defense, love the running game, love weapons quarterback, and the fact that we're not getting the ball to Kyle Pitts ever really drives me crazy. But so give me the Lions and that one. Give me the Packers to bounce back

That Packers team is pretty good.

They were banged up in the game against the Falcons on Sunday. But give me a chance, give them a chance to get back to two and one here with the win over the Saints, Chargers and Vikings is the ultimate cornered animal game. The loser comes out of this zero to three feeling terrible about their season. I'm not sure who to pick, quite frankly, because I think the Chargers are a little bit the same story as always right,

It's been proven time and time again.

I think the Jets turned for a long year. Give me the Patriots to get their first win. Jacksonville over Houston. Not much needs to be said there.

Buffalo over Washington.

I think Washington's off to a great start, and I still think they're going to go to the playoffs like I picked, but I don't think that they have a chance to be the roster like the Buffalo Bills. Baltimore over Indy, give me the Seahawks over the Panthers. Gosh, how lifeless do the Panthers look so far through two weeks? And that quarterback took a number one overall?

Is not look great so far?

Chiefs over the Bears and a laugher. Give me the Cowboys over the Cardinals. In the same situation in the primetime games, I'll take the Raiders over the Steelers.

All the hype about the Steelers in.

The preseason was so funny to me because people were trying to find this off the wall quarterback to pick and elevate, and it's like, hey, the Dolphins have a pretty quarterback if you choose that guy, but we took Kenny Pickett instead. Give me the Raiders over a lifeless Steelers offense. The Eagles over the Bucks on Monday Night Football. Feel pretty good about that one, And then this one. I feel liable to change or taking the Rams over

You went to a local school for a STEM program, Is that correct?

Yeah?

So this SEEK program is like after school deal out in Miami gardens and yeah, these kids right after school, they hop on for a couple hours and they work on STEM projects, gardening without soil. Like these kids were teaching us all like super high level stuff.

It was.

It was really cool to see and just like be around those kids because yeah, it was unreal to see what they were doing on those computers.

Things have changed a little bit since you and I were in school.

Huh. Yeah, I mean, I was like Extra Recess was like my after school program.

So no, they're they're way advanced. It was it was really cool to see.

What's something you learned from that whole thing, whether it's you know, something with robotics or from the kids themselves.

I think the kids were really helpful for one another. It was competitive.

They were broke out into teams, and my team fortunately came up with the win. We had the best, the fastest racing car, and some kids were worried about the programming. Some kids were worried about the friction of the car and how it was moving. So it was cool to kind of see them all come together and at the end just build something and then race and then be supportive of one another at the end. So just really well mannered group of kids, and the teachers and educators

Was it like mechanically powered because like I'm thinking back to like Pinewood Derby and Scouts days, or like I remember making like the rubber band cars that you would like use to get rubber band for to push them forward.

It was like mechanically powered though.

Yeah, so they like Bluetooth connected a little motorized deal where they could spin wheels at a certain certain speed. They could count the amount of rotations the tires would do and they could stop it.

It could turn, and it could move a different direction.

And they coded that all out through like Lego robotics. So it was yeah, it was really high level.

And it was it was cool to see them do their alek Ingold digs out three hundred twenty pound defensive tackles, catches, real routes and nose robotics.

Uh, the last part is to be determined.

Still appreciate you man, thank you and the way he goes.

Let's go ahead and pick it up with Dolphins quarterbacks Skyler Thompson. I just talked to Alec about it. He was telling me he hung an l on you in terms of who won the race at the.

End of the thing.

Yeah, it teams got mine. But it was actually like really really cool. You know, I didn't really quite know what we were doing until we.

Got there, and like the kids were explaining.

To me like what they were doing and what this after school program like has taught them, and it honestly like it was like above my head like it was so cool to kind of see all the time that they put into the stuff that they do and how everything orchestrates to work together, because I mean they're building cars on their own, but also coding it to where like control the speed and the way it turned. Like there was a lot of stuff that went into it that was really cool to learn about through.

Like Bluetooth, right, because I was telling you, Alex and I was like, I remember when I was that age, you know, it's a little bit ago now, we would do like rubber bands and like it was all about like creating your own force manually.

But they had plugging the Bluetooth.

Yeah, yeah, No, it was super cool.

It was like a like a little.

Like like a motor essentially that was like connected Bluetooth through the computer.

So like that's how they type in all their number for the coding to.

Like control like the revolution speed, the turn angles, all this stuff.

Like it was super cool. That's wild.

So what did you learn from from the kids in general?

Just being there?

Like it's obviously a cool experience, but I know you're pretty involved in the community. What do you take away from stuff like that?

Yeah, I mean this is super cool.

To to see the like the joy in the kids, you know, like being able to like see them like put effort and time into something and like see it work, and like them being like engaged and.

Like interested in learning about something like so unique. It is super cool, you know, and like seeing the kids work together and like everybody's working as a team, you know, so it's like it's really cool to see how each person on the team kind of orchestrated, like the communication aspect of like hey, I'm gonna go do this, you do this? Hey can you like you can tell everybody who's working together.

Which is so cool to see and bureau man appreciate you. Yeah, absolutely define.

And that is your week three, Thursday edition of the Draft Time Podcast. Tomorrow, fun episode for you guys. The great Kevin Harlan joins us. We'll get five minutes on the Dolphins Draft with Kyle Krabs and hears some sound from the locker room, including my narrative this week, bumping it back to Friday on defensive linemen retracing their steps and making hustle plays. All that to come your way

Until next time, Finn's Up. Carolyn Cameron, Daddy, please come and home