Drive Time: Dolphins Falcons Preseason Week 1 Recap

to thirteen over the Atlanta Falcons. We'll talk about the hits, We'll talk about some of the stuff to work on. We'll talk about Mike McDaniel and his postgame press conference and some news item updates on some injuries. All of that in a heck of a lot more from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This

is the Drive Time Podcast. When we get going, I think anything that is in this game cannot be more important than some injury updates that we got from McDaniel following this game, including an update on Aaron Brewer and it sounds like he will be week to week with the hand injury that he suffered back on Wednesday's practice. Great news. There a very critical part of the interior offensive line. Sounds like with the week one game a

month away, we should be good to go there with Brewer. Also, Chop Robinson was down in this game, as many Dolphins were. He was missing the game because of a minor injury concerned that held him back from out of this game, so that's why he was not on the field. Mo Kamara obviously was out with an injury for the game. So those two rookies did not play in the game,

but the other rookies had themselves quite a game. Before we get to that, though, I want to go ahead and run some audio here from the head coach who was asked in the postgame press conference about the value of preseason games versus practice tape. Here is Mike McDaniel.

And then when guys specifically in game situations, really harness stuff that we've focused on from a technical standpoint that it's really cool to see. You want to see that because that's what you're practicing for. You're practicing for these moments, and you're hopeful that in these moments that practice can pay dividends. So when you see that, it gets you pretty fired up.

football game. Very competitive. I think you saw the new mindset of the defense. I think you saw the same old things we know and love about the offense, and you got some individuals that really popped in this game that we'll get to here in just one second, But two hundred and sixty five yards for Miami, that's like half of what we're used to to two twenty six for the Falcons. Miami outrushed them one hundred and forty four to eighty one yards. Both teams had two giveaways

or two takeaways, depending how you look at it. The Dolphins were five for seventeen on third downs, the Falcons just two for seventeen. No sacks for the Falcons. Dolphins had one sack of their own, and Miami was penalized four times for twenty five yards. A pretty good figure. You're running in that many different players, that many substitutions, and they got out of the game without too many

flags throwing them eight for the Falcons. By the way, A couple of things I like, just conceptually as we came out of this game, or watching the game from a schematic standpoint, from a play style and approach and aggressiveness. I just love the fact that you can kind of

bank on this running game. There's always a prowess of that, and there's a stable of deep, deep backs you have here, and without your top two guys even playing in the game, you saw a lot from Jalen Wright more on him in a second, and Chris Brooks really powering through some of those runs, and just how they always run the ball well. In the exhibition games mentioned one hundred and forty four yards on the ground. I mean, I remember watching a lot of Dolphins August football my life where

it was like twelve rushes for thirty one yards. So it's nice to be able to go to that and hopefully that's a theme for this football team, not just in the exhibition season, but all the way to New Orleans in February. I like, and this is every single week from this offense, the play sequencing and the design of the offen There was two jayalen Wright, not explosive runs.

I think it was a nine yard run and then like a twelve yard run which isn't explosive for a running play, but two big runs that he had that went off the left side, and the very next play they play action boot this thing to the other side on the third play and it creates a wide open short throw for Jody Fortson coming across the formation and split flow action, which is exactly what McDaniel always talks about, and taking advantage of overplay where they're gonna probably sell

out because they know they're going to have to run hard to the perimeter if they want to get Jalen Wright on the ground on another carry, and off of that, let's go ahead and sneak our split flow blocker, which is essentially split flow just means you have a tight

end that comes across the formation against the grain. So when you run outside zone left, the split flow action coming right is your tight end and he usually kicks out the backside pursue defender or in this case, on a play action, he sneaks out there in the flat four a route Fortson's wide open, has a room service catch and turns it up for a nice game. So I just love that there's always thought and there's always design that can move the football even when you have second, third, fourth,

fifth stringers in the game. And then on defense, I think you saw the fingerprints of Anthony and Weaver all over this defense. I think what I liked most about it was that he seems to know his players and what they do best and put some impositions to excel at what they do best. And I think because of that and already showing you know, proof of that, I think you're gonna get big time buy in from the players,

and I think they're gonna just love him. And it's gonna be a reciprocated relationship, much like the offense has with Mike McDaniel. More on that moment as well, the play where Connor Tanner Connor got opened deep. You know, three for seventy for Tanner Connor. He runs this little

like half fade. I'm not really sure what you call the sproute, but like essentially it's a takeoff and you run straight up the sideline, but then you settle yourself into the little gap there between two men or cover two and the cloud corner that's supposed to you know, get depth on that route essentially gets den until he sees color flash in front of him. And so what does McDaniel Miami always have in their back pocket. We know what you want to do and how to get

your eyes elsewhere. They run the shallow cross right in front of that defender and he sneaks up and then we have an explosive play over the top with Skylar Thompson hitting ten O'Connor in that gap and you know it's a perfectly thrown ball. The safety was late to rotate. And then because of that, because you get this big athlete, you get a big run after the catch. That's good play design and then a supreme athlete making the most out of that play. The playing time of some guys.

I love the fact that we saw these guys for such a long period of time because I think when you get you know, into exhibition games where to of plays deep into the second quarter perhaps, or you know, you want to get Austin Jackson a bunch of reps or whoever it might be that is a starter for this team and plays, you know, significant time in the preseason. If you do that and you tune up those starters down the stretch of the preseason, then you are are

minimizing reps of the backups. And so why not let those guys get some serious run. For instance Patrick Paul, who it almost seemed like he's gonna go wire to wire there until he got yanked towards the end of the game. But I just think it makes sense to work these guys in that were that, you know, when you have so many guys down tonight who are going to play next week in Week three, get these young guys plenty of snaps. And Patrick Paul got a lot

of snaps in this game. Injuries is another big takeaway from the game, just speaking of guys that are down, I suppose you know you see why you gave so many guys the night off. I mean, Tanner Connor exited with an injury and we saw him kind of grab at his rib and an oblique section when he came off the field, he seemed angry, which is never a good sign. I always feel terrible for these guys that are trying to, you know, fight and make the roster.

It always sucks to see anybody get hurt, But when you have guys that are battling to make the roster who now have an even steeper climb because of a possible injury, there's nothing I hate more in the game than that. Speaking of that UDFA, Grayson Murphy, who was having a great camp and played really well out of the game, went back in and then came out, went to the locker room. So we'll get an update on him at some point next week. I'm sure Keon Smith

looks not great. Hopefully he's okay, But the injury that he had to limp off of and it just looked like his foot got stuck in the ground and some bodies landed on it on the knee, So you never know. What happened to that, but it didn't look great. Zeke Vandenberg also had an issue that made him exit the game. Jody Fortson got popped on a block and you know, he came out of the game after that. Sir ran Neil, big night for him. He too got hurt, and Jaquan

Burton got hurt. So just tons of injuries. Man, you hate to see it part of the game, but that is what happened tonight. Let's go ahead and get to my guys who popped. We'll do the guys that I thought did not pop, and they'll get out of here and make it a quick podcast for y'all and come back and do practice reports on Monday. But in the game, Jalen Wright first guy that kind of comes to mind here. Actually, you know what I'm going in order of the positions

I always talk about. You know, I always do the quarterbacks, running backs, like all that stuff. So let's go ahead and start here with Jalen Right, the running back, I mean, the vision, the decisiveness, the creativity, I mean that big play, like when you reverse field like that and go backwards. Typically that works in high school, sometimes it works in college. It just doesn't work in the NFL unless you're the fastest player on the field, and that's who Jalen Wright

was tonight. And how impressive was that. I also just cannot get enough of how he continues to progress forward with that forward lean while he's making those jump cuts.

There's not a lot of indecision to his game. And I'm glad that you guys got to see it tonight because I continue to or last night, i should say, because I talk about it every damn camp practice, and I kind of feel like I'm getting redundant saying, like Jaylen Wright another inside zone run for ten yards where he was decisive and hit the gap with conviction and leaned into the hit and fell forward and picked up ten yards and scored a touchdown, by the way, But

you never really know with a running back, you know, until it's live, and tonight it was live, and he was live. With the live action, it made the whole stadium come to live. Ten for fifty five and a touchdown for Jalen Wright. Let's go ahead and close up the first segment of this podcast with Mike McDaniel what he saw from his rookie running back.

back room, right. You do that when you have a full compliment to reduce the workload as far as like in the tackle run into the tackle runs for Devon ah Chan and you can now maximize his receiving skill set even more and get him back in that two hundred and fifty touch range and average eight yards per touch. That would be you know, it's pretty good. That would be uh, what is that? That's that's two thousand yards of scrimmage. It's pretty good if he does that. And

then obviously Jeff Wilson ran his butt off tonight. Chris Brooks ran his butt off like you have way too when you get running backs in this for him, I wonder if there's a draft pick you can get one of those guys down the line, because we have I think every back, all six backs on this roster to me, are worthy of the NFL rosters, and you can't keep six. I mean, Wilson, Wright, Achmed Eighth, chan Ingold, Raheem, and Brooks, all those guys belong on NFL rosters and you can't

keep them all. So but Jalen Wright very impressive tonight in the game. And you heard the coach talk about a guy that you know, he loves his game what he offers. Let's go ahead and take our first break right there. Come back on the other side. Do the rest of the guys that pop for me? In the Dolphins preseason opening win over the Falcons twenty to thirteen here at hard Rock Stadium, that's all next Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation

Dolphins winners. In the preseason opener, we're talking about the guys who jumped off the screen tonight. We've already done one of those players, a rookie running back, and we move next to a rookie wide receiver and Malik Washington. You can see it pretty quickly. And I don't get this sentiment that he might not be ready to contribute right away. I do understand that there is some nuances.

This offense requires for players to be able to do multiple things and play multiple positions, and that's not necessarily his skill set as far as a you know, flexed out receiver. But they didn't draft the guy to do what he's not comfortable doing. That's the entire theme of this you know, offense, defense, and entire football team is we're going to maximize what you do well. And Malik Washington is just kind of a gym rat who outworks

people and out muscles them and out toughs them. And you see the run after ability catch in those punt returns. I mean the way he that the way he just gets north and south and kind of attacks that way. I thought that was evident on the punt returns and also on the end around where now we have probably you know, five guys that if they had the ball on that play, probably score you know, sixty yard touchdowns on that play. But you see his vision, his north

south mindset. He's got a nose for the change and the goal line on that play as well as the returns as well. I would have like to see him get some better looks in the passing game because I

thought he was open a lot. But man, the mentality that he showcases in the blocking game as well, Like that's gonna really win over his teammates and his coaches, and it's gonna get him reps because he had an absolute cracker of a crackback block on the gillen Wright touchdown that sent a guy to the moon to Jupiter Florida. Not Jupiter the planet, but to Jupiter Florida a few miles up north. It was impressive debut there from Lake Washington. One for five as a receiver, one for twenty one

is a ballcarrier. Four punt returns for twenty one yards total and two kick returns for forty six yards. Who else popped in the game, and I like the way he bounced back and is Tanner Connor because my first couple of notes in him where it's it's not going to be if you have him in line, it might cause issues because there was leaks where they guys were getting through his gap in the in the running game.

But it's also so easy to see why he's someone that you can't quit because the athletic ability that the guy, the type of runaway speed at that position that he showed and we saw them, you know, sort of bust a coverage on that play in the first half, which was by our design that we talked about, but with that space, he made the safety miss. And that's that's what you want, Like, you want to create plays with your design that creates opportunities and then watch your premier

athletes make those plays even better. That's Stevon ah Chan, that's Tyreek Hill, Gilen Waddle. Tonight, it was Tanner Connor who went for three for seventy before exiting with an injury. So really really good work from him. I thought the best player on the field tonight, and I gave him my game ball in the postgame show with Seth and juice was Patrick. And I've been telling you guys, been telling you all camp and despite you know, detractors saying otherwise,

dude looks pretty good. He's remade his technique, he's more patient, he's more in control, he's got a good bend, his pad level is good, his tenacity is there. And I mean you might say, like this was all backups against him tonight, Travis, So I don't really care. No, it wasn't. He took Arnold Ibachette to school all night long on Friday night here at Hard Rocks, and he is EBIKINDI is a guy that's gonna play probably five hundred plus snaps,

half the snaps on defense for the Atlanta Falcons. And I think if he falls asleep on the plane ride home, which is happening right now, he might wake up to Patrick Paul in his nightmares, like Freddy Krueger's style. Like that is a guy that was in his face all day long with the Bain face mask, just getting punishment and displacement with surge all night long on Ibucheta and everyone else that he went up against. He had excellent redirect and his feet to mirror the pass. Rushers moves.

He was patient and didn't get out over his skis and my face. Part of his entire game was how well he processed things. Because go back to that Jeff Wilson touchdown reception and they said an extra rusher and this is number one. Goodbye Skyler, goodbye this protection slide, good bye the play caller. Really good work by Patrick Paul. When you have a blitz, and when you have five guys in the protection scheme and the defense is bringing more than five rushers, your only your sole focus is

inside out. You want to get the most immediate threat to the quarterback. Take the A gap, first B gap, second C gap is the last one you want. And on that play, the extra rusher came off the outside and Patrick Paul squeezed in tight to his guard and got the interior pressure taken care of. And that created a situation where Scalar Thompson's blitz the free runner was right in his face, right in front of his target we always talked about on the podcast, replaced the blitz

with the football. It gave him a chance to do that. He did that, and Patrick Paul did a great job of helping squeeze that b gap to maintain the opportunity for the touchdown on that play. He also busted his big butt getting out in space on that beautiful jal and right play, and really the entire team, Jakwan Burton was out there in space and Kyrik McGowan was out in space on that play making some nice blocks. To just effort, strain, get out there and make a play

for your teammates. Speaking of the left side of the offensive line, once Keon Smith went down and Sean Harlow came in, I thought things kind of changed for the Dolphins offensive line. And Harlow is a guy that from his first day here at camp, I think it was actually Kyle Krabs his last day here at camp. I was like, can Harlow play a little bit? And he was like he might be bottom of the roster type of guy, your depth piece on the interior offensive line.

And I'm like, yeah, he looks like it, because he came out here again tonight and played like he's played at practice since he got here. He had a really good pull backside where he let up into the playside B gap on that right touchdown where he just knocked somebody out of that gap completely to really create that touchdown run. I thought he got consistent surge all night.

Thought he anchored well in the pass protection. In pass protection him and for a guy that just got here, seems to be playing really tight and aligned on double team's you know, shoulder to shoulder, hip to hip, climbed to the second level, and also finding work when the one technique loops and leaves his rushing like he goes out and gets that position. So I was really impressed by Sean Harlowe. Could be a nice little in camp.

Addition here for the Dolphins Neville Gallimore and shout out to Kyle Crabs who got on us for not giving a game ball to Neville Gallimore. I'm gonna tell you right now, Kyle Gallimore was close. He was my fifth option for game balls based upon what we did. I was Patrick Paul, Juice was Jalen Wright, and Seth was Saran Neil. I thought Patrick mc morris was next. I think Gallimore would have been next for me on that

list because he was possessed. Didn't have the stats that jumped off the page at you, but he was doing it for multiple positions and his best rep of the night was a third down pass rush where he hit the quarterback to get his one QB hit with a pure speed rush around the edge. And that's what he did at Oklahoma. But the Cowboys at three hundred pounds, thought let's kick him inside and make him a nose tackle.

I never got that. But tonight we saw him play the five tech and the three tech and have that speed rush around the end. We saw him stack and shed some blocks inside and get upfield in multiple pass rush lanes. I'm just really impressed by what we saw from him. One tackle, three pressures at a quarterback hit. He's had a strong camp so far and continue that with a good preseason opener for the Miami Dolphins. Speaking of defensive tackles, Leonard Pain, My goodness, what a game for

Leonard Pain. Now I knew about his quickness and get off and again, you know the guys that did in the first half, you know, Patrick Paul on Ebakette is a different story than some of these guys doing this late in the fourth quarter against you know, I hate the term, but like future you know, ups drivers or whatever you want to call it, Like, that was the situation. But what can you do besides dominate those guys, and

that's what Leonard Paine did. I didn't know. I knew about the quickness, but I didn't know how he played with length and his lockout ability, like the way he rode the wave down the line of scrimmage and outside zone. It's good footwork, man, that's good balance, that's good I discipline and ability to get off those blocks as well. He flowed so well with those wide runs effectively, and then to be able to get out there in space like outside the numbers and shed the block and make

the tackle. That's pretty impressive. And that's what he did all night long. Two tackles, one of those for a loss. Grayson Murphy also a guy that popped for me the UDFA from UCLA in an edge group. That is, my god, it's banged up. Murphy went down. We're already down. Phillips, we're already down. Chubb were down, Camaro, we're down. Chopped tonight. Shaq Barrett retired like Quentin Bell. You're the only one left here, dude. And Emmanuel Ogwall was inactive. He's available still,

but that's pretty much it. The whole room is pretty much hurt right now. But he was he came out of the gates hot the first play of the night. Been seeing an all camp long like tonight was a good a good night for drive time, Like I gotta be roll with you guys. I'm gonna go ahead and and pat myself on the back because he comes out of the gate, long, arms the edge, keeps his frame clean, gets off the block, and makes the play just super impressive.

That's his game. He's a good football player. One tackle tonight, one tackle tonight, and it was for a loss. So saran Neil got a game Ball in the post game show. He gets into the guys who Popps category here he makes the first two tackles on kickoff coverage. And I talked to Danny Crossman about saran Neil. You fired about having this guy? He said, yeah, I am. I'm pretty pretty freaking fighted up for saran Neil, And you can

see why from the jump. He also had a tackle on a wide run that sets up a second down on long play, and and that second down long play gets himself a rep in zone turn where he sees a route go vertical and passes it off and takes the short hookup throat and closes downhill on that and puts a big hit on the on the receiver who didn't see him coming, and then doesn't celebrate the force fumble, finds the football and lunges for it and jumps on it and recovers it. That tenacity is who he was

on tape. It's who he's been in camp, and it's who we saw on Friday night. Three tackles, two more on special teams, forced fumble, forced fumble, recovery. What a night for saran Neil. Storm Duck had himself a good ballgame too. He had back to back plays on deep shots. He bumped, he mirrored, he got into phase, got that arm across the numbers, locates the football, separates the hands rapp when the ball arrives. That's like picture perfect teach

tape for a cornerback. And the next rep was the exact same thing, but the throw was high and away, thinking like, oh, we can't put it there because Storm Duck can get it. And because of that, the ball was uncatchable. Mainly because Storm Duck pinned him. I thought. He also really inserted well off the edge of the running game too. Two tackles and a pass breakup for

Storm Duck. Let's go ahead and take our last break right there, come back on the other side and do a couple more hits, and we'll talk about some of the downside of the game tonight. That's all Next Draft Time Podcast to your host, Travis Wingfield, brought to you by I don't nation. It almost feels like we are just pulling up practice notes and going over all the same guys again, because those are kind of the guys

that popped. And I also thought Jason Matrie showed you what he was made of in this game as well. The very first rep of the game, he knife into the backfield on the strong side sea gap and beats the block and lays out for a stop. I've seen him make plays all camp long, but I didn't know he had that in his bag. As far as the run support, because you don't see a lot of that

from cornerbacks. You know, Storm Duck has done some of that, but it's just not something that these guys typically do because you're tagging off and so seeing him play with that Tanasi in the running game was like, Okay, that's another part of the game. I wasn't sure that he had, but he definitely does. And then the very next play, he comes in and makes the back bubble and that

creates another negative run. Then he gets a rep in the slot, which you know we could always you can always use more nickel cornerbacks, and he mirrors this fade route, runs the route for the receiver and I praised. You know a lot of guys for their vertical you know, passing past defense prowess, and these guys are in phase. Jason Matrie ran the damn route for the guy like that's he stacked him. He got on top of him

like a receiver supposed to do. Forces the incompletion. That's been all training camp for Jason Matrix had one tackle in the game, but that coverage rep who that was nice. Patrick McMorris. If Pat Paul was my offensive game ball, that rhymes Pat McMorris is my defensive game ball dog. Like they had to take him off the field because he was gonna you know, he's doing too much, like the way he was flying downhill and hitting guys super

super impressive. But I think that my favorite rep of the game was him reading a two man route concept where he was the boundary half field safety, which, by the way, is so nice to be able to talk like actual X and O's here is excell and O's here on the podcast because you know, training camp has rules against that and all four, you know, protecting the team and what the designs and schemes are. But in a game everyone can see it, so we got to talk about it. But half field boundary, so the short

side of the field too high safety. Look, he's playing that short side, and that position is an opportunity to kind of make plays where you can kind of read the front side crossing routes and your tight end hookup. You can go crash on a running back on a swing route. But in this particular instance, there was a two man route combination that essentially had an inbreaker that allowed him to say, okay, now I have one guy

to concern within this portion of my coverage. And it was a corner route, which is a pretty typical stick constant like a hitch or an in breaker with a corner route and behind that and he read it before the quarterback threw it, jumped it before the ball came out, and got there for the pass breakup, and was also really good on special teams. Seven tackles in a pass breakup. What a night for Patrick McMorris and then Jason Sanders.

I know he missed a fifty nine yard kick, but he made a fifty eight yarder and if I can go one for two from there, I mean, that's pretty good from a long distance that you're probably only gonna try at the end of half an end of game situations with a lot of room to spair. By the way, on that fifty eight yard field goal, like that thing drilled the net behind it for an extra ten yards. What a weapon that is to have in your back pocket. He was two for three, made the fifty eight and

forty six yarder. The miss was fifty nine. That's a pretty good night for a kicker if you asked me. All right, So wasn't a great night for everyone? I think there's definitely some stuff we can talk about here from a can work on standpoint, and one of those to me was both of the quarterbacks, and we'll hear from Mike McDaniel on that.

get Mike in a in a rhythm. Uh and uh you know there's some there's some stuff outside of his control uh that I wanted to see how he would respond to that. And I thought he did a good job responding.

in the game. I mentioned the ability to find that blitz and replace the blitz with the football, But man, there was so many plays where he was able to create off script and off structure and then was just like missing those throws, Which that's something you can drill an individual because he is a good creator, and if he can get a little more consistent with the placement, that can turn into a weapon that you can really utilize as your backup quarterback in a situation where hey,

if two was down for a game, let's get our running game going, Let's get Tyreek and Waddle involved on end of rounds and jet sweeps, and then Skyler just make a couple of plays for us and beyond schedule and protect a football. You can win games doing that. Maybe not every game, but one game here and there, you can win doing that. And so I would love to see him drill on the accuracy on those throws on the move because those create openings in the defense.

He just seemed to miss a lot of those. And then the pick was like old bad Skyler that I didn't want to see. I thought there was a couple others like that where he was late, just got to be more on time, but I think more reps. I'm encouraged by what I think he can be in this offense.

And then Mike White, you know you heard coach talk about that they're like it was the same way for Skyler in the second half of that opening game last year, and you know, won't you know you heard Mike say that for Mike White, there's lots to work on, and I agree with that. It wasn't a good stat line.

It wasn't a good night for Mike White. But you have to recognize the situation there because I don't know many quarterbacks that could have succeeded with you know, one tight end available, which limits you know, Fortsune was down, and so was Connor, and so Julian Hill and John Smith and durham smythen' dress. So it was Hayden Rouccie, undrafted rookie was your one tight end that was up.

You had like two running backs available when they pulled right out of the game, they had you know, they were just banged up, man, they had a receiver down, and so it's tough to operate from that situation. Wasn't a pretty knight for Mike, But I think you can kind of give some grace there with how that looked based upon what it was around him, just like we did last year with Skuyler in the second half of the opener. But by and large, not a great night

for the quarterbacks. Very obvious to go ahead and say that, but let's always maintain context. Willie Snead had that one target where he slipped and then dropped it. I know he's made that play a million times, but I think it's worth mentioning because the one target he got would have been a first down conversion, but he dropped it. I thought Jaquan Burton had a lot of chances for catches that he didn't make. Either would have loved to

see that get you know, hauled in. It sinks that Keon Smith and Jody Fortson got hurt, but I thought they both were struggling before that. The two reps of Smith that where he got hurting on before that he got way out over his skis and Whift got walked back in pass pro. But I don't think he's a guard. I think he's more of a tackle. We saw him play guard tonight, so good on him for getting some flexibility and playing some different positions. But it wasn't a

great night left guard for him. And then Jody Fortson, I thought, you know, had a couple had a catch you could have made in the flat that he didn't catch, and some blocking that was leaving plenty to be desired, and then the right side of the offensive line to kind of open game with Ryan Hayes and Lester Cotton. Hayes had a really rough night. I thought he struggled all night long. And Cotton there was some some leaks

on that right side with the running game. That was Cotton and Lester or Cotton and Haynes back and forth. But man Haynes and passed pro too. It was it was constant pressure off that right side. I want to end here with the Ethan Bonner portion of the podcast because I think we're gonna see lots of mixed reviews on his game. I think that's not fair because cornerbacks are gonna get beat. He got beat on that play.

He went to jam, he missed, and then the receiver through the arm bar over and stacked him in one one fell swoop and from there the route's pretty much over. You can't recover from that as a cornerback once you get stacked. But he bounced back. Man, he showed you his mental toughness, his mental fortitude. He came up and made some big plays in the running game. He was targeted plenty of times and allowed just three catches. It was basically that one play for like forty one yards

and then two more for like six yards. You acknowledge giving him a big play, but the way he fought back and bounced back was what I think really will impress this coaching staff from his game. In fact, let's go ahead and hear from coach on Ethan Bond.

you have your eye on. So I thought it was a day of growth for him.

wasn't because going after Ethan Bonner. It was the design of the Falcons offense, like, oh, that's where the one on one coverage, let's go after that guy. And I think that that's instructive of how they want to get a look at him and what he can do because of how they view his ability. That's kind of how I took that away. I think they did that for a lot of players in this game tonight to kind of give them the maximum, you know, look in terms of what they excel with and put guys in positions

where they can get more information on them. So this whole thing man preseason training camp, it's all about getting better, finding out what you have and so like the result, that's why we don't care about it at the end of the day. It's all about the process and getting better. I think stuff like that really helps this team find out how to get better and be the best versions

of themselves. All things told, I was pretty pleased. I love the ability to run the football, Love the way the team came out with energy on all levels and all teams, you know, special teams as well. They won the game, not to mention, looked in control for the most part. I thought the best quarterback on the field was clearly Michael Pennix. And so it's a testament to the entire team when you can win a game when you're outplayed at the quarterback position. And that's what happened

here for the Miami Dolphin. So plenty to work on, plenty to critique, plenty of positives, and we'll do all that stuff as we go on here on the Practice Report podcast on Draft Time, which we have four of next week Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, the Commanders are in town for Thursday, and we'll do this all again on Saturday night as the Commanders are in town for the game for another seven o'clock kickoff next Saturday. In the meantime, it's going to be my time. You all please be

sure subscribe, rate, review all that fun stuff. Follow me on social at Winkfield, NFL at Miami Dolphins from the team. Check out the Fish Tank Podcast with Seth and Juice. Check out the YouTube channel for media availabilities, drive time content, and so much more, and last, but not least, Miami Dolphins dot Com. Until next time. Fins up, Caroline Cameron. It's late, but Daddy is coming home.