Drive Time: Dolphins Giants Week 5 Preview

up this day. Drive Time with Travis Wingfield begins. Now let me check your pulse if enough for what is up? Dolphins And welcome to the Drift 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 turned the page to the New York Giants. We're previewing Dolphins and Giants Sunday at

hard Rock Stadium. But first before we do that, we're gonna go ahead and evaluate the quarter pool of the season. Busy episode from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Drive Time Podcast may Caffe. We're gonna get to the Giants here in just a moment, even though you know the points spread in that game kind of tells you the expectation of that game, and we'll get into it here shortly. I don't really know

how to break games do like that. Honestly, it's really tough to do games where I think the mismatch is so lopsided. But you know, anything can happen any given Sunday in the National Football League. But every year to that point, the football season goes in a direction that you did not expect. Right. Yeah, you'll be right with some things, but you'll be wrong about a lot more. I thought we tarked the year three and one, but I thought the l would come in the opening road

date with Tron on the sideline. But I digress. Still, you guys know, I spent a whole summer telling you what to expect from ninety players, and not all of that was correct. So here are some players that I think have outperformed expectations and guys that I think we can get more from. And the best part about this, I think at least three of the four on the we can get more from list we'll turn things around here very quickly. So quarter pole evaluations outperformed Devon a Chan.

I mean, what else can you have to say about that? I just didn't think the mental would click as fast as it has for him. It's been as fast as his play speed has been and eighteen percent of his runs have gone for fifteen plus yards this year. The next highest percentage on that list is twelve percent. It's absolutely,

absolutely insane. Julian Hill. It's very difficult to tell how good the blocking is in training camp because it's not full contact, it's not live, but he's been pretty damn good there, very nice addition to that tight end two role. Durham smythe for me by far, the best year, by far, the best year of durham Smyth's career to date. He's been hitting key blocks and I love the way he times up his chip release game to give two of that last option when the downfield options are not available.

Austin Jackson. I thought we were in for more of the same during training camp, and boy was I wrong. And I'm thrilled about it because I love Austin. He's been kicking ass out there. Isaiah Wim I thought he'd be replacement level at left guard, but he has been much more than that. A huge success, and replacement level would have been a huge success, but he's been significantly more than that. Kendall Lamb the exact same thing as

Isaiah win Cut and Pace put it there. Andrew Van Ginkel, now, I just didn't know he had the pass rush moves in his arsenal that he's displayed so far. And he's been pretty what's the word I'm looking for here. He's been a mainstay on the top pass rushing productivity lists you see from multiple different websites. And then Deshaun Elliott. I knew he was a thumper who could come downhill and pop folks in the running game. I just didn't know how much coverage range he had in the back end.

He's a key part of that quarter quarter half type of system they like to run on the backside some players. I believe that we can get more from Jalen Waddle and I this is why I'm talking about like guys that I would I don't say this in disparaging way, just haven't had the productivity we used to have out of those guys. Waddle missed some time back in training camp. But I think the Dolphins would be well served to

get him more involved, and he's been open. You can, you know, change your progressions in your primaries on certain plays and get him more involved. I think that should be a key number one for the offense to kind of find new ways to continue to be explosive. Christian Wilkins. Look, it's a new defense. It's an entirely different scheme, a lot more you know, one gapping than two gapping, but taking on double teams. And it's been the same front pretty much every call we've had light boxes. It's a

tough ask for him. He's played better than what he's showing you so far this year. David Long, I just didn't think that he was going to be wrong so as much as he has in the running game, in the fits, jumping out of gaps. But I expect it as more time goes along here, he'll get that dialed. Bradley Chubb. I've said the pressure rate has improved since he got here, but we need more one on one from him. Dion Dawkins, you know, puts a lot of gu in the zero column in the pass rush department.

But if we want to be a serious pass rush front that can get home with four you have to win those one on ones and it just hasn't been there. And then Jerome Baker not really sure. It's been a tough go there so far this season. So plenty to work on, plenty to get better with a team will progress and get better as we go along this season.

A couple of chances to get right here before the big game in Philadelphia, and then of course the biggest game in about four weeks up in Germany against the Kansas City Chiefs that could have some massive, massive playoff implications there in terms of seating. Once we get to January, let's talk about the New York Giants. They come to town on Sunday for a one o'clock kickoff here at hard Rock Stadium, and they come into this game limping at one to three. And let's go ahead and go

back further. Though. They had a bounce back year last season after some really challenging years going back to twenty seventeen. Someone posted the picture of them on the boat before that playoff game. You know, the week they had off, they did a couple of days they had off before the playoff game against I think it was Green Bay that year in twenty sixteen when they lost, and since then their record is the worst in the National Football League.

You know, twenty sixteen was the last time they made the playoffs eleven and five that year, but since then three and thirteen five and eleven four and twelve six and ten, four and thirteen nine, seven and one, but a playoff win there in Dables first year. And of those you know, what is that seventy something games, probably forty five of those been in primetime, So tough watches for us, you know, not casual what's the word impartial

fans that don't have a preference there. This team that they have right now began taking shape back in the

twenty nineteen draft class when they had three first round picks. Well, I guess twenty eighteen they brought Saquon Barkley and with a second overall pick in a year where it was supposed to be one of these generational quarterback classes, right, And it's kind of funny because twenty eighteen did produce two of those guys, but they were the fourth and fifth No, no, no, they were the third and fifth pick

among quarterbacks in that class. I think most folks projected them to be fourth and fifth in that class, and then you know, twenty twenty one, you got one good quarterback out of that class. Right now, I still believe in justin fields. That's a different conversation for a different day. The offense in Chicago, I think is kind of limiting what he can do. And then what was the other one? I guess this year coming up as the next big one, but twenty twenty was the only class that really hit

for multiple quarterbacks across the board there. But anyway, that twenty eighteen team should have gone quarterback. They took a running back, which you know that flies in the face of pretty much every analytical measure you can make these days. But the funny thing about it is, you know what should serve as you had another reminder of just how little we know about the draft and what's going to happen.

It goes back to my first part about we spend you know, six months evaluating teams and having this perception of what we think they are, and then one game in for some people, you know, four games in for the rest determine that you know, everything we talked about all summer was bs. You know, some some people get some of that stuff right, but for the most part not really. But that draft class, I mean, everybody had Josh Rosen and Sam Darnold. Not your boy, not your boy.

That was my my mona, Lisa Man my rankings year where Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, Baker, Mayfield, Sam Donald, Josh Rosen. Go ahead and inflate the ego there a little bit. Anyway, the two best quarterbacks in that class wind up being Allen and Jackson, so they rectify the quarterback position. The Giants do by snagging Dan Jones with the sixth pick in twenty nineteen, and he just got that big pay day after guiding the Giants to the playoffs last year.

But it is off to a miserable start this season. They did get their very best player in that draft class in Dexter Lawrence, but they bookended him with DeAndre Baker later in that first round. You guys think that you have some issues with only getting you know, four draft picks a year that hit on your roster. How about that first round with Daniel Jones and DeAndrea Baker. As you're a six and thirtieth pick in that year's draft, there's been plenty of resources poured into the offensive line,

and they've had a hit. Andrew Thomas is their second best player for my money, behind Dexter Lawrence, a Pro Bowl franchise left tackle. They missed him this year so far. He's not playing. He didn't practice on Wednesday. They've bookended Thomas with Evan Neil last year with the I think it was the sick pick. If I'm not mistaken, it was top seven or eight. They added a really good looking center prospect this year in John Michael Schmidt's in

the second round, but he didn't practice on Wednesday. Neither did left guard Shane Lemieux, and Evan Neil has been a disaster this year. We'll talk about that more in a second. The skill positions outside of Barkley, they have

not invested heavily in. The only first round pick they have in that group was Kadarius Tony, who got traded for pennies on the dollar last year to Kansas City Sterling Shepard was the highest pick among them, a second rounder, and Jalen Hyat a third rounder this year, the next highest, and it seems like he might be the best player of them all, but they haven't really involved him so far on the offense. Now, they did spend big on Darren Waller with a trade this offseason and a contract

from Las Vegas. I'd argue that was the best move they've made in that group since getting Barkley. And then defensively it's completely front loaded. It still has fingerprints of Dave Gelliman all over it. I mentioned Lawrence. They paid Leonard Williams big and he's a great player. I think Ashawn Robinson and rakeem Nuniez roaches are good players as kind of your nose tackle and backup knows there. I love Bobby Okeerik. Yeah, it was Okareky then Okhara Kaane

Okareki who came over from the Colts this offseason. I was a big fan of his at Stanford. They also got Isaiah Simmons cheap from the Cardinals and man I wish, I wish he would have been available earlier. And then the secondary has seen a lot of resources port in it as well. First round pick Deonte Banks this year, love his game, but taking a bit of time to

kind of marinate. Their third round pick, Cordell Flott, got a lot of playing time on Monday Xavier McKinney was a second round pick of few years back from Alabama. Love his game, and they spent big on a Dori Jackson to play some slot for them as well. So it's the second year under Dable with Wink Martindale. I met Wing Martindale up in Indianapolis of the Combine. Really cool dude, really really cool dude. But he dials up blitzes like nobody else's business. But in a slow start

for the Giants. Looking to get things going, Let's go ahead and talk about some of the key storylines here before he turn it over to the offensive preview against the Giants defense, and then a segment three will do Dolphins defense first Giants offense. But for me, it's all about the Dolphins here. I was not big on the

Giants all year. Last year, they probably cost me a bunch of wins and the picks because they found victories against you know, the bottom feeders, the commanders and the yeah, the commanders of the world, but just playing a pretty soft schedule. This year, things have changed and things have gone back the other direction. So for me, all about Miami.

Just get right man, big game last week. Didn't like you're capable of got a little bit of a not reality check because I don't think it changes anything about how good this team is. But maybe you got some humility there, served your way go put it on somebody, just like you did the last time you played in this building here across the street in Miami Gardens. And I had this conversation with some of our my coworkers here earlier today. I want to hear how you guys

feel about this. Do you like find yourself finding it difficult to be present about this current game, cause, like you know, three and one, you lost in the Bills and everyone's kind of down you right now. But I keep thinking about how, like there's not a whole lot to gain from these next two games aside from the obvious fact of getting wins, which is massive, but in the perception aspect of it, like you expect to win

these games. And it reminds me of the Patriots in a little bit of a way, like completely different but kind of similar in terms of like theirs and didn't start until the AFC Championship game for like eight years in a row, because they would go thirteen to three, they would get that first round by they'd mop up like the nine to seven Houston Texans in the divisional round and then play the Chiefs, whoever the Steelers in

the AFC Championship game. Do you guys kind of feel some of that, like for current time for the Miami Dolphins, like you expect to destroy these next two teams, then you have a big game in week seven? Do you kind of feel like you're not being present enough. I need to do a better job myself just enjoying the process of playing these teams that were supposed to beat and enjoy winning those games. I think that's something we can all stand to do, especially on social media. Back

to the podcast. You know, just get it right, go put it on somebody like you did last time you played in this building. And by that I just mean better basic execution. Cut out the operation issues, the penalties, the mistackles. Let's get fundamentals short up and get better in time for that Eagles game in a couple of weeks. That's not really a storyline. I mean, there aren't much

in this game. Two teams that play once every four years or I guess now more recently with the seventeenth game and having played them back in twenty twenty one off the four year cycle. But I digress, and you have them coming to town really struggling. So what really are there? I guess Dable and McDaniel hired in the same cycle. They get the playoff win. Last year, we go to the playoffs, we have the three and one start versus their one and three start, and you know,

there's not a person on the planet right now. They'll tell you the probably be the a giant situation than the Miami Dolphin situation. But coaches will always tell you it's about the players, right. But it's also nice to go out and out coach and put it on a team and a guy that was hired in the same cycle as you would love to see Miami just get back to deploying design that puzzles opponents, that makes you say, like, man, they can't even keep up today. And then on the

other side, the exact same thing. Let's boggle this team offensively because they have been terrible this year. Don't let them get right against you. Another one here, do you guys know this is the first time in the career of two tongue by Lowa. He's gonna play in a Week five game that to me is crazy. And I just continue to say this like people, are you know, committing Harry Cary as it were this past week over the Buffalo loss. But if we keep this guy healthy,

I promise you will be just fine. And I'll give you an update on that in a prediction I have at the very into the podcast here, first four and one start since two thousand and two. Chance to make that happen first time in twenty years. Let's do that. How about thirteen and two in the last fifteen games at hard Rock Stadium. Just keep winning at home, baby, make it a fifteen and two here over these next

two games against Carolina and New York. And then how about this your defensive splits at home versus on the road. Over that fifteen game stretch this year, the Dolphins averaged three point five yards per rush at home defensively and four point five on the road, one full yard better. Passer rating home versus road eighty four versus one thirteen.

It's a big gap there. Last year three point eight yards on the ground, four point four on the road, about a half yard there or something, I don't know, something like that. And then eighty two passer rating versus one oh nine, like Massive Gaps twenty twenty one, after the winning streak started after the seven game losing or the five game losing streak, whatever, the seven game losing streak. Jesus,

I'm all over the place. Four point three yards per rush, four point five on the road, so no big difference there, but a passer rating at home of sixty nine to one oh three. My goodness, Why is this defense so much better at home? Hopefully it can be that way this week as well. Let's go ahead and take our first break and come back and start on the Dolphins

offense versus the Giants defense. That's next Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Autoundation, picking it back up for segment number two for Dolphins Giants

Sunday at hard Rock Stadium. Let's go ahead and start with a Dolphins offense versus the Giants defense and the safeties that are going to be trying to confuse to a tongue of IOA or Xavier McKinney, former Alabama teammate, and I posted the clip on my Twitter timeline of me back at the combine, which was like my first day on the job here in the Miami Dolphins about two weeks before the pandemic took over our lives for

a year plus. Was talking to Xavier McKinney, who gave me a great sound bite go check up check me out at Wingle NFL on Twitter, where I asked him about what is practicing against two a tongue of I looa every day done to improve your game, and he straight up said the way he looked me off, I didn't understand how he was seeing the field the way he did. If you think Tua can't get off his first read, like it's not what you're worth arguing about, Like you just you don't know ball dog. So he's

back there. He's a really good player. And then Jason Pennock has filled in for Bobby McCain who got injured back in Week one, and it's been a pretty they've had difficulty filling out McCain's bro Let's go ahead and put it that way. A Dori Jackson plays ninety seven percent of their snaps. He kicks inside, then Cordell Flott comes in and plays a little bit inside outside. Deontay

Banks has played seventy two percent of the snaps. Hawkins has played fifty six, and so you're gonna probably see more of a Dori Jackson, Deontay Banks, and Cordell Flott in this game at corner, and of course they go up against Barrios and Smyth inside, but also Hill Waddle, Sedyrick and Chosen with Ee and River Craycraft still down. The biggest mismatch I think we have here if we do not have Connor Williams, I think would be the interior of the Giants defensive line because Dexter Lawrence is

a beast. He's played seventy percent of the snaps, Lendond Williams sixty three, Roaches forty one, and a Shawn forty so they have a prettye rotation up front of guys that can mix in. But I think if Miami gets their center back this week, the communication was much better before when they had him in there, and the pass blocking, the run blocking, everything was just a lot more symbiotic upfront. So I like our chances to at least slow those

guys down if Connor comes back. If not, I think it drastically drastically changes the game plan of what you have to do off the edge. Cavon Thibodeau eighty four percent, Jihad Ward fifty percent, aziz O Jalari has been banged up, he's played twenty eight percent, but I think he'll be

the starter on Sunday in that game. And then Oshane Ximinez seventeen percent, and their off ball linebackers going up against our running backs, Bobby Okarikei one hundred percent of the snaps, Micah McFadden seventy two and the Isaiah Simmons has been getting more and more of a workload after being traded back before Week one from the Cardinals. He's played twenty seven percent of their snaps. Their personnel usage, lots of bass. They're in base forty three percent of

the time. That's three four thirteen percent and four to three thirty percent. So a hybrid front up there, and they'll mix up those fronts and kind of try to confuse the quarterback that way to get different simulated pressure looks. That's wink Martindale. Confuse the quarterback with your fronts, your coverages, and then send the house and make it so he doesn't know where the house is coming from. For this Giants front, it's been pretty effective. They run nickel half

the time. That's fifty percent, and they're in dime seven percent of the time. But here's where I'm curious to see if they change their bread and butter. Because they play primarily single high safety. That's the structure of the defense man free cover one out of that base look with some type of blitz. Try to find out where that fifth man is coming from with seven or eight in the box. If you do that against Miami, you're asking to get beat deep. When they're in that nickel,

it's a lot more zone. But then you get fire zones. Where's the pressure coming. Sometimes it's dB, sometimes it's linebackers. You just consistently will get simulated or real pressure looks. But I think there's two things against that. Number One, Tua needs to be his usual sharp self against that pre snap and try to identify where that stuff comes from.

I'm sure coach will have you know, being at home against this team helps because you can, you know, get the communication better, get into the huddle, and then the fifteen second playclock, you know, the communication shuts down. But I think coach having two in his ear there will be helpful. And then number two, I think a lot of our motion and ability to lean into defenses. Overplay could really help us execute at a high level here.

Some of that crack toss chipping ends using false keys outside running game and then play action off of that to use their aggressiveness and their one gap and get upfield against them. Very good opportunity here to take advantage of some overplay. They blitz so much forty one percent. It's the third most behind the Patriots and the Eagles, which are not that egals that the Vikings. I should say,

go figure right, Belichick and Flores. They pressure on just fourteen point four percent of their total pass rush plays. That's not good. I think that's more indicative of having young corners on the outside than it is the pass rush. But they've got two players who really really make it go up front. Gotta have answers for Dexter Lawrence and cave On Tibadil. Frankly, I don't think you let Lawrence

do anything without two guys on him. And Connor has do in a great job of helping with the guards, which is usually the center's project the projection ski responsibility is going and helping the guards. He does a great job of that, and the communication is just so much better when he's in there than when he's not. So whichever guard he hopefully we can get him back and make that happen this week, because you cannot let him wreck the interior pocket consistently. He's got quicks, he's got power,

he plays a low pad level. Those are all things that will not go well if we don't have Connor in the lineup. Thibodeau, he's built in a lab type of pass rusher with great get off, a great stab, a great long arm, and pretty good arsenal of pass rush moves. Teams have ran at him this year, and I think that's kind of the key, because you can take advantage of his aggressiveness and the fact that he doesn't really play the run on the way to the quarterback.

He kind of just goes and chases the quarterback, and then all the mystery we have with our pre snap to kind of get him thinking a little bit and not let him play that fast or lean into the fact that he wants to play that fast and just use the play action and some overplay with that aggression. Those two guys are responsible for twenty five with their quarterback pressures this year. Seventeen for Lawrence, eight for TIBs and fourteen run stops, ten of those for Lawrence. Yeah,

seventeen pressures, ten run stops. Lawrence is a freaking beast. But then you've also got Leonard Williams, who's still one of the top three three technique, five technique combo players in the business. I'm curious to see how he's deployed. But that's one of the key matchups where I think you've got to win someone on ones here. I've loved the play of the guards this year. And then also you know he'll get some rushes off the left tackle as well, So I'm really curious to see that matchup

against Kendall Lamb. And then also Austin Jackson vus cave on Thibodeau because Austin's been really good against some good players this year. He gets another one here and he can shut down Thibodeau. Man, start thinking about your Jackson extension, because he's been fantastic this season. Two things in the secondary, adri Jackson is playing pretty good football, But beyond that,

there's lots of youth there. Like listen, I think Deontay Banks is going to be a really good player, and Cordell Flott might be a long term solution there for them as well on the perimeter and inside. But I think it's really, really, really tough to cover Tyreek Hill and Jaln Waddle for anybody, but especially for a rookie.

You just haven't seen that type of speed and that move, those types of moves really any point of your career, especially for a guy from Maryland in the Big ten, like there's no big time receivers that do what these guys do. Flott played at LSU, so he has seen you know, some of the Alabama guys in LSU guys every day in practice. But I'm of the belief that the hardest position to come in and have an immediate impact is cornerback and tight end aside from quarterback, but cornerback.

If we've just seen so many first round corners get to the league and struggle, like Jeff Akudo right, he was a slam dunk, can't miss, hasn't been good. We saw no Egguinogany struggle from day one. Here. Banks has the athletic profile to hang with these guys. He has a nine to nine to nine RAS, basically top percentile among all cornerbacks ever to work out in Indie. But Flot, do you guys recall the Lions preview podcast last year when I put a sombrero on the slot corner and

then Waddle scoring two touchdowns on him. I'm gonna do that again right here, because Flot is super stiff, the explosions not there, the three cones super slow, below fiftieth percentile. His thirty four inch vertical was like in the twentieth percent tile, and his four five two forty yard dashes below mid tier as well. So thirty snaps last week, twenty six of those in the slot. I think Wattle, I've been saying this for a while now, Wattle can

get going against this guy. When you kick him inside, I think we're gonna have pockets of space to throw the fot ball into because their second level is just nowhere near the capability of what the Bills had. But in that second level there's a couple of pretty damn athletic profiles in Okareki and Simmons. But what I think made Warner and Greenlaw last year and then Milano and Bernard this year most adept to take away some of

what we do and get those deep drops. I don't think you can completely take it away at all, but to force us to get off those first reads and just be really sharp and precise in the second and third read in the progression, which too, it was for most of the plays in the game on Sunday. And you know, as our coaches say, just beyond your stuff. But what makes them adept at it is the instincts

and field they have. I think that's Okareki's game. I think Simmons is pretty much peer athleticism and trust me, like you long times know how much I loved Isaiah Simmons coming out of the draft class that year, probably my favorite non quarterback prospect ever, which has been a miss for me so far. But I digress. I think Arizona didn't know what they were doing coaching staff wise.

Again I digress, but it didn't work out there. It's just I'm always leary of player that has that type of range and lengthen can ballhawk when I'm game planning in a game like this, But holding those guys at the running game and you know, not being behind by three scores helps that as well. But I think this is an opportunity for an offense to get back to the insanely efficient, explosive self. Gotta seize that opportunity and make it happen. But I think it's there for you.

And then the last thing, they play a fair deal of soft and off on the perimeter and then try to rally and tackle. But that game on Monday night was a bunch of really bad angles. Man. That big play from Noah Fan at the end of the half, that was terrible, terrible football. If you take bad angles against Miami, it's gonna be six points. It's gonna be a good night, nurse. So evident by the Giants forty miss tackles they have this season or second most in

the NFL. Force them to tackle us in space, and you should get some lucrative explosives on the offense as a result. So there you go, Dolphins offense first, Giants defense. Will come back on the other side and do Dolphins defense first Giants offense. That's next Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by I don't know shit.

We've done the Dolphins offense first, the Giants defense. Let's go ahead and flip the script there and put it on its head and do Dolphins defense, and of course Dan Jones the quarterback got a play better, it'd be called Daniel in my opinion, he'll will see the combination of Holland Elliott and Brandon Jones. Hopefully a lot more to Sean Elliott this week if he come back from

the injury, and then on the perimeter. Look like there's a lot of good receivers in the NFL, and not every team has the benefit of having those good receivers. Like we saw the Patriots try to, you know, move the ball against us, and you just cannot win on like hitches and flats and like quick hits like you have to have some explosive, some tackle breaking on the back end, and teams that don't will find themselves in the same situation the Patriots and the Giants areaing with.

They're one to three and just have really little life on offense. So like Slayton eighty percent player, he's he's fine, Isaiah Hodgens sixty percent player, Jalen Hyatt thirty eight percent. Inside Paris Campbell's their primary slot fifty one percent. They do get wan Dell Robinson involved at twenty two percent, but then Darren Wallers, they're eighty percent play at tight end with Daniel Bellinger at forty. I mean a lot

of those guys. I think Waller's probably the only guy on the entire list that it starts like anywhere else, say for maybe New England. So for the Dolphins secondary, a chance to hopefully get some of the rules and coverages back figured out, because last week was really ugly in coverage and busting coverages. Let's get back to, you know, locking some guys down like we'veeen in the past here, this group is you know, I don't know that they're

not going to threaten you vertically. They're not going to threaten you with the ball in their hands after the fact. In terms of the interior offensive line, I don't know what the Giants offensive line is going to look like because their left tackle, left guard, and center did not practice on Wednesday, and they had to run out some guys out there on Monday night that just couldn't get the job done. Eleven sacks in that game. Joshua as Endu as a Do is the left tackle who, man,

he couldn't block anybody. I don't know how to put this nicely. He couldn't block anybody. Marcus McKeithen stepped in. Didn't work out for him. Ben Bredeson moved from guard to center and ran over Shane Lemu is actually from my hometown or one of my hometowns, Yakama, Washington, where I lived for a few years, went to Oregon, got drafted in the sixth round. I believe disaster, absolute disaster. He was the starting left guard. That's out, so we'll

see if he plays. But Evan Neil, their right tackle, who was a high draft pick last year, has the most pressures allowed on the team at running back. Well Barkley play I don't know, forty two percent of the snap so far, but he's their primary guw he's out there. Matt Brida has played forty three percent of the snaps. You guys know him. He caught that wheel route and tripped over himself in the game on Monday night, like okay,

and then bright Well sixteen percent. But they brought back Justin Pew to the practice squad who had a torn ACL last year with Arizona. I think that's probably a solution if they can't get guys back who are missing practice time this week, John Michael schmidtz is down. Sounds like a very impressive rookie. He was knocked out of the game on a quarterback sneak on Monday night, and again they lost Lemiu in the game. They also lost Bellinger the tight end, and of course Barkley was down

and could make his return this week. Getting him and Thomas back would be huge for them, but it sounds not great for Andrew Thomas there as well. So personnel usage wise, there's not a lot of mystery here. Eight percent, eleven, twenty, six percent and twelve and then some variations of other personnel groupings that don't amass to more than like five percent each. Not much variety, but I wonder how much

that changes with the prospect of Bellinger being out. You also wonder how much they might try to help the line and protection after that eleven sack Monday night football game. I mean, you can't help both tackles. And it's been a big struggle so far for Evan Neil in the second season, and they just felt that loss of Thomas because the left tackle position like it was, it looks like elementary for them to get around that edge so frequently.

As Zdu has nine pressures allowed in four sacks on one hundred and forty nine pass blocking snaps like Yike's Lemieux six pressures on sixty seven Nope. Ben Bretteson, who played some garden center four on one twenty two, is actually pretty good, even though center is the position where you shouldn't have that many pressures allowed. Mark Glowinski ten on ninety three, Marcus McKeithen ten on one thirty seven, Evan Neil twenty on one eighty four. Bro has every

seven snaps like it's terrible. Andrew Thomas has three on thirty four. He was injured in Game one. He's one of the best in the league. Probably won't be out there on Sunday. The Seahawks continuously won with a combination of two things around the outside length and get off. That's basically Chubbs and Phillips game man, that's what they're

built off of. And geek. For sure, they get off, but a little bit more of his success comes from the moves and secondary you know, secondary rush moves compared to his length. Those are the matchup with Miami has to really exploit this week and get this defense. You know what they're gonna want against this group is getting those guys around the edge when they're one on one. Daniel Jones looked comfortable in structured last year, with a pretty good mix of pass and designed run, which I

think is where this team is most dangerous. Daniel Jones running the football tells you how much they're struggling. But teams have dialed up pretty similar game plans against the Giants this year, lots of man coverage, they bring extra bodies because between the line play and Jones is phil Phil. If you thought Ryan Dannehill had bad pocket feel, watch this quarterback. Man. He takes a ton of big shots

that just doesn't seem like he knows they're coming. And I mentioned this in the Broncos preview, how I'd never seen a quarterback hit more than Russell Wilson against Washington. The game prior now I have it was Jones versus the Seahawks, and he's tough dude, like he kept getting up and I thought, like he's gonna get knocked out at some point in this game, but he kept getting

up off the canvas. I think this is a good study and a quarterback feeling comfortable versus not because last year, you know, say what you will about Daniel Jones and I certainly have, but throwing picks, he just five last year, but through four games now he's got six already. And last year, yeah, I was like twelve touchdown passes too, So the offense had no explosive nature to it whatsoever.

But you pair six picks this year in four games with the fact that he has forty nine fumbles since he came into the NFL in twenty nineteen, the most by far of anybody. So I think for Miami, you got to get a couple this week, make him uncomfortable, hit him in the pocket, turn the ball over, jump some routes, and just make life tough on them. Two touchdowns versus six picks, he had four fumbles and averages just five point eight yards per pass. It has been

a slug. I think the lack of comfort in the pocket has impacted the decision making a little bit too. So I think we can execute a good mix of man's own. Maybe you see Snowman or X or Cater jump around at some point and get going the other way with a defensive score. The weapons just don't create explosives. It's tough to do when you can't get to protection consistently. Dialed in. But some recent mid round draft picks just have not developed into gems like you would hope they would.

I guess you know, they don't have a clear number one guy. Slayton, Hyatt, Campbell all decent players, but they just have an uncovered a guy that you know the ball's going to go to on third down. But if there is one, it's their tight end. Darren Waller. He's showing the skills that made him one of the game's top tight ends a year ago, but he's a slot receiver. He's not a tight end. You never see him in

the why alignment attached that was typically Bellinger. Evident by the fact that Waller has just twelve pass block snaps this year and Bellinger having twenty six despite playing half as many snaps. You get the idea of their roles from that usage. So if Bellinger can't go, the next tight end is Lawrence Cager, another classic inline why tight end. But I think if you're going to compare this offense to a group you've seen not ready, it's that Patriots group. Man.

You get a pretty similar approach offensively in terms of the desire to run the football and throw quick, hot, short have you guys seen Daniel Jones's passing charge from Monday night. It goes back to the protection a little bit here, but six throws behind the line of scrimmage, twenty three throws nine yards under, and then two throws ten to nineteen yards and none beyond twenty yards. You

cannot succeed in the National Football League doing that. Seattle came after him with the blitz two twenty one dropbacks and they stacked him on six of them, a twenty nine percent sack rate. That's one of every three. You cannot you can't score points doing that. Fourteen pressures, that's a two thirds pressure rate. Jones went eight of eleven on passes he got off under when he was blitzed, but only for forty one yards. That's three point seven

yards per pass when he was pressured. That's twenty three out of fifty dropbacks, almost half. He was four for eight with seventeen yards two point one per pass, a pick, and eleven sacks. Let's just call a space of spade man. This offense is a disaster right now. They've got a really good staff. They have a veteran quarterback who's mentally and physically tough, so I think at some point they could potentially get settled back into like NFL style offense.

But right now, man, it is just bad. I would fire zone the crap out of them, and probably we will. Vic has been pretty transparent what he thinks of opposing quarterbacks in terms of how he plays them, soft and conservative against Herbert and Allen brought the house against Russ and Mack. Where do you think Dan falls in this one?

There's only you know, the only positives they had offensively last week were man beaters like you know, third and four man coverage, runs, some rubs and picks, and he has that Tannehill like feel, prone to big hits and fumbles. I'll be curious see how they attack this. They want to blitz him, do they want to hang back. I also am curious to see how they kind of transition the secondary and who's available, if Elliott's back, if Apple's back up, if cater gets more time back inside opposed

to outside. Like coach always says, you need to progress through the year, and I think Miami needs to use those first four games really the next couple of games as well to continue finding out what works and who the pieces are that can best execute this system and know the rules and know where they're going. I think the recipe for finding you know, stops and splash plays and overall success while the system sets into places to

play aggressive go get stuff. We've seen the blitz production with the third best EPA in the NFL compared to the fourteenth best without it, and sorry, this is the eighteenth best. I'm sorry, And that's skewed because I think you rarely blitz Herbert and Allen, and you came after Russ and Jones. But I think that's maybe a good way to get Jones off the spot this week as a come after him. Frankly, it's a get right game, guys. I want to see Baker and Long mess these dudes up.

Bring the pressure, fit the run, find a body and zone match. And that's true for X as well. It's looking like a corner who hasn't played a ton of zone in his career. And then Brandon Jones if he gets some snaps like it looked like he was learning French in his first day, like French one oh one, and then up front literally across the board, let's get going, Christian Chubb JP. If you play let's get going. Guys, come on, three keys this game. They're gonna be simple.

Make Daniel Jones uncomfortable. They're struggling to protect the quarterback. Just continue to do that. Get some sacks, some takeaways. Number two, get the playmakers in space. Forty missed tackles for the Giants second most of the NFL, and nobody erase his angles like the Dolphins. Speed on offense. And then three play a clean game. Minimized penalties, minimize your coverage, bust no, no special teams, gaffes. Just be on your stuff because the Giants in that game also on special teams.

We're awful there too, So those are your keys. What's at stake? I have forgotten to do this segment to last four games, so I apologize, but this one not a lot. Interconference games technically are the least important when it comes to tie breakers at the end of the year. But hosting a three to one team at home coming off that defeat, I think it's important to get back

on track and get some confidence going again. We also haven't had a four to one start in twenty years, so the best five games start in twenty one years. I think that's pretty cool at stake. Areas of concern, I don't have any I suppose their pass rush interior versus US if we don't have Connor. But if Connor plays, I feel good about that. Then area is to exploit young corners, an offensive line that hasn't blocked anybody. I mean,

really across the board. Prediction time. We missed that one last week, didn't we But this is not a team that should be able to compete with US. I was gonna go high thirties versus teams like thirty eight seventeen, but after seeing that injury report and how I feel about this Dolphins team, I'm gonna say forty two, forty five to seventeen, forty five to ten, forty five to ten. That's my prediction here. But also have another one for you guys, And I see this from a certain Jets

found Twitter that we all know. You know, he talks about all the time, tweets about it eight times a day, how the Dolphins only beat bad teams and they stink right Well, guys, that have some bad news for you. Maybe you know it is for Joey. I don't know, but we have a lot of bad teams on the schedule coming up from now to Christmas Eve. Not bad teams, but you know, not the top cream of the cream of the crump, as it were. I also think we're

a tough matchup with the Chiefs. How we match up against them is tough for them, and of course injuries can always change this. But we're going into the Christmas Eve game twelve and two at worse eleven and three. Fight me about it. Let's get out of here tomorrow. Giants beat reporter. I'm not sure who that is yet, We'll figure it out. In the meantime, I also have Raheem Moster joining me here in studio on Friday's podcast. You don't want to miss that. We are through hump day.

We have the preview in the books much closer to Dolphins football. Hurry up and get here Sunday. I can't wait for some more emmy Dolphins football in the meantime. Subscribe rate review, follow all that stuff, check out the fish tank, check out the YouTube channeut for media availabilities and Dolphins Today, and last button not least, go ahead and play the outro music Travis Miami Dolphins dot Com. Until next time, fins Up, Carolina Cameron Daddy, he's coming on