What is up Dolphins And welcome to the Draft Time Podcast. I am your host, Travis Wingfield. And on today's show, we heard from Dolphin's assistant coaches. Tons of content to get to here. I'm gonna touch on some of the highlights from Coach Weaver, Embry, Coach Frank Smith, Bobby and Ryan Slowick, Joe and Butcher Berry, and maybe some more as we go along from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Draft Time Podcast.
So as I type this segment out or this podcast out and I stare at a blank document, I have a note on my notepad app on my phone that was going over the questions I asked to the coaches and things that stood out to me as interesting. And I tell you guys this because I never know exactly how these quick turnaround SoundBite podcasts will come out, because I kind of go. I just take them in and post them into the podcast as I go, and then give you my thoughts on them as I plug them in.
And I know we'll get to Anthony Weaver, we'll get to both coach Berry's, we'll get to the Slowick brothers, We'll get to John Embry and Frank Smith. I have to listen to all the other ones before I can tell you whether or not I'm going to run audio on those guys to see if I want to discuss something that came up in their press conferences. So what I'm gonna do is start with the ones that I asked questions or was at there and kind of go from there.
Does that sound good?
And I want to start with coach Anthony Weaver because well, for one, I just love picking his brain in all things football and the way he communicates it with us and articulates it. But he also had some really good commentary on a few things, and the question that I was most excited to hear him talk about brought back perhaps my favorite answer of the day. And just before I get to that, here real quick, this is one
of those things. And you longtime fans of the podcast, you know I can kind of fixate on some things and spend months like I you know, I remember coming off of McDaniel's first year, I was really fixated on the idea of the second year in the Kyle Shanahan offenses previously and the eruption of those teams, And sure enough, the twenty twenty three Dolphins went on to set records and score points and at a clip we hadn't seen in a long time here in Miami.
That was one thing I fixated on.
I forget what it was last year, but this year, I'm really kind of stuck on this concept of spring football and the value of it and having high attendance
and hearing all the players. You know, they have spoken to us in their veteran media availabilities about the chemistry they're building and having everybody here and how everyone's hungry to go out and play ball and really kind of you know, right some of the wrongs from twenty twenty four where this team they feel like they came up short on expectations and felt like they could have you know, been about our team and won more games and gone
to the postseason for a third straight year. And I am so focused on this as I'm listening to one of my favorite podcasts, the Heed the Call podcast, and Jesse Palmer is a guest on their show, and he used to be on the NFL Network and he alluded to this Kyle Shanahan comment as they were doing a Brock Purdy segment about the value of getting higher attendance at OTAs because in the past, you know, they were a veteran heavy team that would have either Brandon Ayuk
or Deebo Samuel or Trent Williams holding out for a new contract potentially, or guys that were injured coming off the previous season, like a Nick Bosa for instance, or two years ago when Brock Purdy had that elbow injury in the NFC Championship game and wasn't really a full participant until like midway through training camp, and it just
got me curious. I went around in some googling, some searching, and I found this article on Kyle Shanahan on the Athletic and I'm going to read some urbs here for you going into the season, going into OTAs, going into training camp, I do feel there will be as much competition on our team for starting spots as there has been in a while, especially on defense, Shanahan said to the media there at the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach in the owner's meetings. Back to the quote, but we
want to create that everywhere. We haven't had that for a while. End quote, and the story he continues to write that Shanahan insisted he's optimistic about the upcoming season despite all the roster building that still must occur, all
the overchange in the roster. At multiple points during his Tuesday session, he drew a distinct a distinction rather between previous aprils when the forty nine ers were beat up recuperating during the spring practices, excuse me and ruining a devastating playoff loss, with the off season program that began in three weeks after the playoff loss right, and he said it reminds him of how he felt back in twenty nineteen, back to a quote, I want to go to work now more than I have in a long time.
I can't wait for our players to get back. I feel like I've been away from them for too long. I think we'll have a hell of a turnout with all of our guys end quote. And this is me talking again now. I think that's applicable to the Dolphins,
because you know we've been over this. You know last year there wasn't a ton of unknown going into training camp, Like there was a couple of positions up for grabs and really depth spots across the roster, but like you knew about Tron Armstead you knew about Aaron Brewer, you knew about Austin Jackson, you knew the quarterback, and Tyreek and Waddell and John wu and you knew about a Chan and like you just kind of knew where guys were going to slot in for the most part.
And that was a big part of this.
Offseason and what coach McDaniel talked about at his own owners beating press conference discussing setting your culture through the draft and you know, kind of going more of the youth route. And we saw the Dolphins really go back to having one of the older rosters in the NFL a season ago, to scaling things back to being a younger roster, and they entered the draft, excuse me, with the seventh youngest roster in the NFL. And then what do they do besides have the youngest draft in the
entire league by quite quite a big margin. There was a graft that got put up the other day. I forget exactly where it was or what it read, but essentially Miami's average age of their draft picks was like a full year lower than the next youngest team in
terms of their draft. So, you know, in going back to last year, we had various absences throughout spring and into camp, much like those Niners teams, and that that's gonna happen sometimes, especially as you kind of build something year over year and you know put together a program that is used to winning, Like you go deeper into the season, you I guess endure more injuries and players play well enough to you know, renegotiate their contracts because
they've performed at a level that is requisite with that and you're not going to avoid that every off season. But it kind of feels like this year is a bit of a reprieve back to like what Shanahan mentioned there with like everyone kind of chomping at the bit and you know having the taste of last year in
their mouth and it fueling their off season preparation. And you know not to say that guys ever take the off season lightly and don't train properly, but there's you know, certain levels of motivation and factors that can I suppose produce a bigger chip and and maybe give you that one extra rep in this hot weather that maybe you didn't do a year ago. It's it's something that I
think there's there's value to that. So I asked coach Weaver, you know when you've got everybody here and you can get this stuff installed in the spring, especially in the second year of the system, right, Because that was what we heard from coach McDaniel when I had him on the podcast back at the combine, was he was talking about that kind of mid season shift where the defensive philosophy and structure kind of settled and took hold with the players in terms of their secondhand under or their
second nature understanding of the defensive system. And so I asked Coach Weave, like, you have the second year in the defense now, and you've got really good attendance throughout the course of spring practices, and the guys have talked a lot about how valuable that is as a coach when you get these guys out here in May. How does that I suppose you know, ease the installation process,
come camp, come game plan time in September. And as he is wont to do, Weaver did not disappoint with this answer, talking about the value of having such good attendance here and Dolphins Ota is twenty twenty five.
It's huge in a game. That's what communication and coordination obviously, which I'm in charge of is so critical. I don't know how you get that done without being around one another. And then when you just talk about great teams that genuinely care for one another, which which often transcends right just just being a teammate. You have to invest time. If I want to get closer to God, I got to spend time in the work. If we want to get better at football, we got to spend time on
the football field. We want to be better teammates, we need to spend time together. So all these guys that have been here in a voluntary period are truly investing in this team.
And in the process, you're going to hear this theme, or rather I went back to this theme frequently as throughout my questions about intentionality of you know, roster construction and building out these rooms, and it just seems, you know, we talk about guys that are smart players on offense, that can digest things quickly and understand side adjustments, that can deal with motion and the changing landmarks and all that fun stuff, and then defensively, like the same thing
is applicable there. But what I thought was interesting to kind of tie this next answer in was here, as coach, we were talking about the defensive tackle group and the buy in and the effort both being on film and then how they approach, you know, being Miami Dolphins for the last month plus here so or I guess a little less than a month. But you're going to hear something that ties back to our Wednesday episode talking about
Coach Clark. You're going to listen to Weaver here to talk about whatever his potential is with Kenneth Grant, he's going to reach that because of his hard work, but also because the coach he has in that defensive line room.
Oh thrilled about the draft process. It was a collective work of so many just targeting the guys that we did. Really excited about Kenneth Grant and what he brings to them to that defense and him just being in here, have the opportunity to work with Benito and Zach Steeler and obviously Coach Clark whatever he's supposed to be at the end of the day, I promise you he will reach every bit of God given potential. Potential I really
have at Jordan Phillips. God was kind of under the radar a little bit, but the way he plays on film and just the person that he is, it's the same thing. He's going to reach that ceiling. And actually, I have really high hopes for it for both those kids. And I don't know how he got Zick Figgers in the seventh A guy with that size, that link, that mass to play as hard as he plays, he could end up being a steal for us too. So really
happy about those three. They've been putting the work in since they've gotten here, and just I know we'll lift for some growing pains early, as you do with all rookies, but the one thing I do know is that it's going to click faster for them then, just because of the work they put in.
Coach also talked about the drive and chip on the shoulder collectively in the cornerback room when he was asked about that group. And I want to play this part of the SoundBite for you where he kind of not tails off, that's the wrong term, but he transitions his answer to talk about the front. And we've covered this in the podcast you Know at length about how teams
that run this style of defense. We saw four either you know coaches leave or retain there in Baltimore to run the system that was basically ran in twenty twenty three under Mike McDonald, with him with Weaver, with Ronaldo Wilson, and then Zach Or staying there in Baltimore, and the emphasis on like linebackers and defensive tackles and being versatile upfront and how that can kind of help you get some protection on the back end because of how you
play up front. And so coach went into that and talked about the front and talking about guys coming back off injury with Phillips and Chubb and all that stuff. So I wanted to just play this audio about how they feel about the front and how that can kind of really have a net impact on the entire defense.
I also think we're going to be strong up front if God's grace were fortunate that Jalen Phillips can stay on the field. Bradley Chubb chopped coming in a year two. The addition we've made on the defensive line, as zactually or obviously, I think we can help them too by being more disruptive and creating more chaos for the quarterback.
And I try my best to not, you know, like I have my own intrigue with questions in terms of, like, you know, tell us about the scheme and everything you want to do, but also like you know, the coaches aren't going to tell you their plan, like McDaniel famously says, you want to give the entire game plan to the New York Jets, like joking when you ask a question
rest conference, it's maybe too close to the sun. And so I wanted to ask coach, Like, you know, last year, you guys had this situation where your edge group got so depleted early on, and luckily you had Zach and Kalais who could both play some variations of defensive end in the system.
But it also kind of you know, stretched, you guys thin at that position.
And we talk about the intentionality of the off season and going after you know, these linebackers and edges and the youthful, the youth movement at defensive tackle, Like it seems like you saw that as not necessarily a total hindrance last year, but you almost went and protect yourself from that happening again by the way you approached the
off season. What's your take on how last year impacted the way you called this defense and how can being deeper at that spot really open up the menu of the playbook defensively whenever.
You're you're faced with those obstacles, right, usually like the obstacles away, So you got to you got to find a way through them. I thought as a stash that you did a good job of whatever deficiencies we were trying to hide a masking notes that that to me is that's that's why we had the coach tag on our chests. Right. A lot of guys can get up here and complain about personnel. I promise you we will
never do that. Ultimately, we're going to find a way with a bunch of guys that are volunteers and not hostages, right that that want to get better. And if we do that and we can find a way to play as one collective unit, which is what we're always chasing, we're going to play good defense. Whichever combination of eleven however this shakes out. We will play good defense because of the conviction and the trust that they'll have one.
And we'll close our long anthem Weaver segment here, which is going to take up the entire first segment of the show, with this really cool Q and A from cam Wolf who asked him about what are some of the things maybe you saw on tape about how teams attacked your defense and how can they maybe you know, get a full year of your defense on tape and change the way they attack your defense now, And Coach talked about how that happened towards the end of the year.
I'll let him do that and give you the rest of the answer right here one more time, Coach Weaver, I think we.
Saw it a little bit towards the end of the year. Right we played with a lot of air unneeds, so people screen us, we're trying they're trying to force, you know, our under coverage up, so then create those thrown lanes behind them. Any safeties, people are going to try to run the ball. We've tried to address that, but I know the one thing that we have to do is we have to find a way to take them all day.
As well. As I think we played defensively at times a year ago, think of how much better it could have been if we could have had six less possessions because eternals can takeaways. So that's been a point of interest for us, and we'll continue to.
Be all off since I gotta tell you, man, we are lucky, lucky to have that man here.
On this coaching staff.
I just have full trust and conviction and what he does and how he creates things and how he'll get these guys to get the most out of their own individual games. Let's go ahead and take a break right there, come back. I talked to John Embry, Ryan and Bobby Slowick both coach Barrys Butch and Joe and plenty more here on the Draft Time podcast brought to you by
Auto Nation. As my great friend and longtime co host on postgame radio show seth Levitt would say, no one loves getting their own ideas or thoughts confirmed by the coaching staff more than Travis Wingfield, he would say myself in this case, speaking in third person, of course. And Frank Smith was asked about Nick Westbrook Akine and what do we keep talking about? You know, guys that know exactly where they're supposed to be when they're supposed to
be there. What stands out most about NW? I Frank, well, here you go, coach.
Ultimately it goes to kind of who he is as a man, and you can see it's a very detailed, very processed or andy guy is going to be extremely reliable. Like I think, ultimately, if you talk to the guys that new in of Tennessee and our exposures so far, it is going to be consistent at work ethic. I think that's ultimately where he puts himself in positions to be successful, is because he really is a student of
the process, making sure he's on the little things. So therefore on Sundays he can rely on full the quarterback and really arrest the offense.
And if I can link this back to the opening segment talking about using the end of twenty twenty four is feel for twenty twenty five. I mean, you know the attendance, the work habits, and I guess the intentionality of the work. Like here's Frank Smith, you know, once again confirming for us so.
Far, buying with the guys and everyone collectively and trying to use the way last season wins our motivation to make sure we maximize each day. And you don't look into the forward, you don't look.
To the past. You see what do we need to get done right now?
And I think Technique and all the guys are really embracing that.
From one offensive cordator to one that was an offensive cordnator very recently in this league in Bobby Slowick. He was asked, why are you and Ryan your brother on opposite sides of the football, And I just thought this answer was a lot of fun.
We used to be. That's a great question, defensive family, without a without a doubt, I was always the black sheet. I was a guy who played offense, you know. And then actually when I got into coaching, I started in Washington as a defensive coach, as a defensive QC. Mike Shanahan, who's a head coach at the time in Washington, knew I wanted to coach offense, and he had said every good offensive coach to learn and start with defense. So he put me on defense. So I was back with
the family and everyone liked me. And then eventually I got sick of being on offense or on defense, Kyle Shanahan and San Francisco pulled me back over to offense, and then now I'm the black sheep again.
So this stuff was some of my favorite content from the entire day. And I wanted to ask Bobby because
we've heard I talked to coach about this. McDaniel back in shoot February, is that when the combine is march about like adding coach Slowick to the staff, and he talked about like the lens of seeing things in a similar lens for lack of a better term, and to come back to Bobby Slowik three months later and ask the question and like, if if you had any question about like the authenticity of the answer, then this should quell that because he says the exact same thing the
coach McDaniel said, and you just you can't possibly fake that. So that's why I wanted to run this back for you, guys. I asked him about how excited he is or what he thinks about when he lets himself, you know, peer into the future four months down the road when you have a game and we have to game plan for that game, Like what comes to mind when you think about your time with McDaniel in the past game planning and how that might help you guys this time around in Miami.
It's funny because the more you talk to me, the more you're gonna realize I say the same thing a lot, but it's all because, like, really, that's that's kind of just what we believe in football, in our philosophy in general. When we approach it, like being in a room with with a staff that I know believes foundationally and to the fundamental level everything the same way I believe it. And then and then being able to build a game
plan around that. That's what's really fun, as probably dumb as that sounds, you know, like the simplest form of just being hey, you know, if we stem inside right here on this route and we hit vertical speed before we snap it off, I think we have something, and everyone, oh, yeah, we see it, you know. Just expediting that process of it, and being with like minded people that you know, really are all about whatever needs to get done to win a game, that's what makes it enjoyable.
He also talked about the coaching staff kind of let him just pick his spots and go work where he wants to work in certain ways. And he talked about coach Bevill like opening the quarterback room door for him and how excited that was for him because he really likes quarterback play, and so I'm like, well, if you love quarterback play so much, can you give us your take here on Tua Tongue Bay Loa.
And he did not disappoint.
There's a lot, you know, I think I think the person as just a starting point is always the foundation of every like really good player I've been around, it always starts with the human being and the person, and I mean he's an exceptional human. He's really fun to be around. He has positive energy all the time. He's demanding of himself, but he's also demanding of others. You know, What's what he's been doing out there so far this summer has been fun to see. I mean, he's holding
people accountable, he's holding himself accountable. He's really on the details of everything we're doing when we're trying to build the foundations of this stuff. And then as a player, I mean, he's incredibly accurate. He's unbelievable at throwing with anticipation, throwing to space, getting the ball out on time, Throwing throws you may not have thought were possible beforehand. You know, he just has a knack for feeling and seeing things that I just don't think a lot of people have
in real time. You know, you can see it after the fact on film. There's a lot of people that can do that. There's not many people that can do it all in the moment. So it's just been fun. I'm excited to keep going.
Yeah, you got it. I had to retake this part like three times because here I was on the podcast last week bragging about how I've got Jonah's last name down, and I just tried to say it three times in a row and I flubbed every single time.
This time, there's gonna be no flubb.
Let's go on to offensive line coach Butch Berry, who was asked, what was it about Jonah Sviat Jonah Savit Naya? What was it about him? The stuff to you, I'm leaving it to the podcast because it's I mean, I can't get it down the first time.
Here's coach, Well, I think the first thing you see, he's a big body guy that's really explosive that can run right. So he's a big body, heavy handed player that can anchor the pocket. But he's got the explosiveness to run in the run game the way we want him to do it right, and so the explosiveness is there for the run game, he has ability to anchor the pocket. So for us, that's a big deal, you
know what I mean. And so I think from the get go, and I had a chance to go out there and be with him, it was very clear and evident what he could become for us and forecasting you know, where we need him and everything else.
That think is really good.
And again this speaks to the alignment of the coaching staff and in the front office and personnel decision makers, because I've heard coach McDaniel say the exact same thing about anchoring the pocket. Chris Career talk about that in his post draft press conference, not to mention the ability to move at that size has been a big theme of the offseason as well. So yeah, you guys know, I'm excited about Jonah and having him work with coach Barry.
I think there's coaches all over the staff that are great at developing young players and they're going to get their their crack and a few of those guys this year, and Jonah and Kenneth Grant those guys if they can be immediate impact players, What a what a big boom that's going to be for this Dolphins team. Let's go ahead and finish up here with coach Berry on Patrick Paul.
I had a couple of questions for him about what he's seen from Pat in terms of his growth from year one to year or two, and then of course the way he approaches the game. Because this answer from butcher Berry again, I see it all the time, but to hear from the coach that's around him all the time, it's a nice verification.
He absolutely loves the game. He's like a football junkie, okay, and he absolutely soaks everything in, wants more, wants more, wants more, does a ton of work on his own physically and mentally, tape and physically taking care of his body. And you can you can always work with those type of guys because the one hundred percent love ball, right, and anytime you have guys a one hunder percent love ball, you can you can figure it out, right, because we
pull that's weird, we have that in common. We both love ball, right, and so we can work together to be at his very best.
How would you measure his growth from when he got here this time last year to where he was playing in week team last weeks.
A ton ton of growth keeps in and he keeps challenging himself every day, right, keeps challenging stuff every day to be better. Like I just said, that's about the growth every guy's got to have. If we all try to be our best every day we walk in the building, we're going to get better.
One more offensive coach before our last break here, and I'll finish up with three defensive coaches in Austin Clark, Joe Berry, and Ryan Slowek. Let's go ahead and stop with a tight end room real quick, and hear from John Embry who talked about john Us Smith and what he can do to kind of take his game to even another level next year after breaking Dolphins tight end records.
He mentioned like going over a reel with John who about some of the runoff for the catch and some yards that he thinks that he could possibly even get on top of that, which that's what you strive for, right, break some records, cool, let's do more, right, nobody cares work harder type of mindset. That's how that's how you wind up going from you know, great to tow greater. You know that's that's that's how this works, is how
everything in life works. But I want to go back to Julian Hill here real quick, and hear coach talk about a follow up that he had on not just Julian but the offense as a whole. He did just discuss some of the things that he thinks Julian can clean up for next year, And so I was curious to get his take about the challenges or maybe just the overall difficulty of all the stuff this offense features.
And for a tight end position, which you'll hear him talk about here, is really second behind quarterback in terms of responsibility because you do have pass routes, pass protection, and run game, whereas other positions only have two of those things of the three. So he talks about Julian and the question was phrase in the way of, like, you guys have so much motion and tight end motion and changing landmarks and the picture can kind of alter
right before the snap. Like that's a lot to process for a player, And for a guy that's only his second year out of a small school, how much of an advantage can having two full years under his belt really help him come into year three? And that's really true for the entire tight end room, right, So I wanted to frame the question way. But Coach Embrey, you know, as all these coaches are so good at doing they can kind of relate it back to the entire group
opposed to just one player. So here's coach Embry on the uh playing tight end in this offense.
Yeah, you know, again just referring back to when I was in San Francisco in this offense, it wasn't until Kittle was almost all the way through years two before he felt comfortable with it. Part of the issue we also deal with too. You know him, you know, coming from Campbell, a younger player, and then there's times we'll play teams and they play what we call un scouted looks. In other words, they're playing a defense or front that
they have never shown on tape. So it takes a lot of adjustments, some sideline stuff to kind of, you know, change how we might be doing things, end and points and all that. So now that he's gone through it two years and he should have seen most of the things that people have thrown at us, he'll be able to make those adjustments quicker.
Last one here for the offense side of the football. Ask coach Embry what stood out so far? It's been a short period of time, but what'sted out the most so far about newcomers Pharaoh Brown and the undrafted rookie Jalen Conyers.
Big people, you know, we got a little bigger in that room from size standpoint. I'm excited to work with both of them. They've both have done good jobs so far in these phases of things. They think they've got the offense learned, and then they're gonna find out in about a week that, like, holy crap, I don't. And that's okay, but I'm sorry to work both of them. You know, they're, like I said, good sized guys, and they bring Jalen I think can be a three down guy.
I think he can do stuff for it in the passing game as well as the run game. And you know, Pharaoh getting like I said, with his size and his length will help us in the in the run game as well as as pass protector.
That three down comment about Conyers kind of stands out to me because he was a guy that during the entire draft process, I was like, I probably got to get him early Day three, and he winds up going undrafted because that's the part of the draft that is so hard. But but I thought he had you know, I thought he had skill enough to go that high and he winds up here as the UDFA. So cool to hear them talk about him a little bit. Let's
go ahead and take our last break right there. Come back on the other side here from coach Austin Clark, Joe Berry, and Ryan Slowick Next Draft Time podcast, brought to you by AutoNation. I don't even need to set up the preamble anymore because it's been happening the entire episode, but more confirmation here. I probably could have just like skipped the entire draft process and just ran this audio from coach Austin Clark to explain to you what Kenneth Grant offers as a player.
Yeah. Great, I think he's really got the right mentality. Man. That's the first thing that stands out. The way he works when he shows up in the morning, how he is in the meetings, and he takes that on the field. You know, he's been the first guy on the field, you know, before practice working on his craft. He's a mentally tough kid. You know, he works extremely hard, and I think his his lateral agility for his size really stands out out.
Yeah, Coach, that latter lit agility will smack you in the face the first time you see it from a man that size. I just love that so much. Let's go ahead and run this back. More about Kenneth Grant and what kind of sold them on the entire process to bring him in and make him their first pick or their pick in the first round.
Yeah, you know, we did a lot of work on Kenneth. I will tell you had him at the combine and you know the guy he comes in the room, he's all about business. You know, he's really about football. He loves this, you know. And I think for him his stamina in the number of plays he played at Michigan to still play at the level he did. You know, you guys probably just saw that Penn State play, right, It's like all over the dinner. Well, there's a lot
of other plays like that, the way he plays. And then I actually went to Michigan and met with him before the pro day, And what excited me is you is you kind of met with him in the room
and watch some of the things he did poorly. You know, that was what I was focused on, that there is a growth and things were getting better at you know, he's eager to learn, and I think the coaches at Michigan and did a heck of a job with his football acumen for where he was a young player, and then competed his tail off for PRODA.
Let's go ahead and conclude here as coach Clark alluded to the idea of having all three of the guys they drafted Biggers, Phillips, and Grant at the Shrine Bowl as Grant went through the interview process and all the stuff before the actual on field work, and then Phillips and Biggers were on the on field work, and so the Dolphins get all three guys from that all star event, and Coach Clark was asked a question, why did you guys take three nose tackles?
Which I mean, it's on the tape.
You can pull it up and see that neither of these guys or well, besides Biggers, he was a lot of nose tackle, but both Grant and Phillips played a lot of three technique in college.
So I don't know where the idea comes from.
Maybe they're building size, But I thought it was great to get Coach Clark that question so he could kind of refute it and tell you, you know what he thinks.
Yeah, I think you know, you may see him as noses, we see him as versatile pieces.
You know.
I think it's kind of like the analogy I would use for you is, you know, we played nickel defense with Christian and Seeler here for a long time two three techniques, and you would say, well you don't have a notes, Well, it's kind of the best available guys you can get and piece together. I think that's the way you kind of look at it. And then we get them all here and we evaluate what they can do and what they do best, and then we try
to piece them in them spots, you know. And I know sometimes based on where these guys, you know, it's interesting our group, all of them, I think, maybe except one, had multiple D line coaches in college, which when you talk about development, like maybe there was someone who put a guy in a box, is hey, this is just it? Or maybe at their college they didn't have a note so they played them in those you know. So I always try to stay open minded with who we got.
We're gonna find out what they can do, and it's up to them. Their role is gonna be what they make it. But they're doing a good job so far.
I mean, I thought Phillips's best tape was a three technique, and I thought some of Kg's best tape was playing two and two. I so, and that kind of goes back to the whole concept I talked about in the draft pross. Just because a running back didn't have a lot of catches doesn't mean he can't catch the football, right.
It depends on the offense he was in.
And I think that coach Clark having that mindset, and I think, you know, not just drafting for production and taking like the consensus player, but doing the homework and the deep dives and finding out what this guy can be unlocked to what level he can be unlocked at the next level, because you know, these guys are all twenty twenty one years old, like there's a lot more meat on that bones.
So I thought that was cool to hear. Let's go ahead and do two more here, Joe Berry.
I had some good back and forth with him talking about Jordan Brooks and the construction of the linebacker room. Let's go ahead and go to Joe Berry on Jordan Brooks and his phenomenal first year as a Miami Dolphin.
You know, last year, I'd be the first one to tell you we had a pretty special group. We had a pretty special room veterans. Also, we lost a couple guys, and usually you're not lucky enough to be in a situation where, you know, usually we're like Damn. We lost two really good players. We replaced them with two really good players in kJ and Willie. So I don't think
that we took a step back at all. You know, you're talking about Willie Gay that you know, I should know this exactly, but I mean, he's started twenty something plus games in this league. He started in a Super Bowl. kJ Britt was a you know, was a was a started two thirds of the season last year in Tampa Bay. So we're bringing guys in the fold that because every room is about competition. There's no there's nothing set in any room, especially in this time of year. It's it's
about competition and the best guys are gonna play. And we added two really good players that are going to bring great attitude, uh you know, great careers so far in this league. They're bringing it to the table and it's gonna it's gonna up the competition in our room, which is a good thing.
One more here from Joe Berry.
I asked him about the additions this offseason up front and his run game coordinator duties and how that can help the defense play the structures they play the most, which is the Nickel base package, which was the seventh highest nickel usage in the NFL last year. How can those guys help you play the run from those light boxes, which is well kind of the modern game.
Right, Yeah, you know, I think it's you know, that's just that's just today's football. You know, if you can, if you can rush for and play coverage and do everything, play the run, play the pass, you know, it's gonna help. That's kind of our philosophy. Anyways, the D line, we got a coach, Clark's got a bunch of new faces
in that room. But what a what an exciting group, you know, And I was just saying this to to KG the other day, What a great opportunity for a young player to be around a Zach Stealer every day. You know, every team has veterans, but every team doesn't have great veteran leaders, and Zach Steelers as he's as great as a player as I've ever seen in this league. But also he's a phenomenal leader. And uh, he's got five new young pups that get to follow him around.
And but I'm excited about that group, and it's it's you know, they've been here for shoot, I don't even know if they've been here a week yet, but that that it's a good exciting young group in that in that D line room. So we're we're excited to work with him.
Coach also touched on the astute run defense of Bradley Chubb and Jalen Phillips. I wanted to ask him about those guys because of the run game coordinator title on his on his title, and there are more than pass rushers, and so he talked about that pretty well. Also, let's
go ahead and close up here with Ryan Slowik. I asked him what he sees and if fimalafon Wu and why he was a good fit for the defense, and he almost cut me off where I finished the question, which tells me he was eager to talk about our new safety here.
Firstsatility if he can do anything from a safety position you want him to do. He has a corner background when he was coming out of college. And for us, like we've had versatility before, like guys like Jalen from the outside in, but now you get that from that safety position. So from that guy from the third level can drop down, he can blitz, he can cover, he can tackle, he can play deep. So versatility for him as us.
And we'll close this player or this podcast rather with the player that I opened the Hidden Gem segment on Wednesday with Patrick McMorris. We see him working his butt off out here at practice every day. What do you think about Pat mcmorris's development here in a second year coach. We'll go ahead and bring it home with that.
Even way back to when he was injured and then started this season on IR, I would say consistency, Like Pat was in the building all the time trying to soak up more knowledge, trying to stay consistent, understand what it takes to be a pro, super smart who loves the studying aspect of it. So now to get him going and get him rolling full like as a full offseason,
I'm pretty excited. He's a physical player, he plays physically, plays fast, and he plays intelligence, So I'm excited to see what the opportunity to bring for it.
That's what I'm saying, Man, don't sleep on Patrick McMorris. Think that he's a guy that has a real chance to kind of make some headway here. Alright, let's go ahead and call it a podcast longer one there, But I left a ton on the cutting room floor because I'm trying to get it all to you guys in a concise way. You all please be sure to subscribe to the podcast, leave us a rating, leave us a review, Follow me on social at wingfle NFL, the team at
Miami Dolphins. Check out my guys, Seth and Juice on the fish Tank podcast as well as the YouTube channel for Dolphins HQ, Drivetime content, media vels, and so much more. Last, but not least, Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time, Fins Up Caroline Cameron, Daddy's Coming Home,