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Back to throw to a looking clips about a wide open touchdown.
Trick call uncrelievable. It's just blue by it for a second time. Don knew where he was going right away. I want to hit that man.
I want to help you.
Someone will keep on his man.
Away Wattle, Wadle to a shotgun.
Back to throw, looking at them.
Up myers touchdown. It's Waddle his sixth touchdown.
Parados tea.
Drive Time with Travis Wingfield begins.
Now let me check your pulse if you're not.
What is up? Dolphins? And welcome to the Drive Time podcast, part of the Miami Dolphins podcast Network, covering your team, your Miami Dolphins.
How's it going? Everybody?
I am your host, Travis Wingfield. And on today's show, Mini Camp.
Is a wrap.
The off season program is a wrap our last practice until late July and training camp gets underway. We're gonna hear from head coach Mike McDaniel from Tyreek Hill. We'll hear from some of the assistant coaches as well, and of course get you the practice notes from a busy Thursday here at the Baptist Health Training Complex. That's where we come from.
This is, as you know, the Drive Time podcast.
Maya Gafi.
Gonna do it a little bit different today than the previous two shows, but I want to make clear that's my planned format for training camp when we ascend back on the Baptist Health Training Complex here once more in July.
It was just a little bit hectic today because we had some weather that forced us off the field right at the end of practice, and then getting the assistant coaches for their availabilities was kind of scattered as well, so I just didn't have really the notes and colentary to go along, or I should say that paired together very well. So we're gonna go back to the old style here of notes, media and space it out that way.
So I do apologize because I think the storytelling stylistic approach I've taken, at least in my opinion, has been better than what we're gonna do here today. But like I said, I didn't have the opportunity to ask the questions in the way that I would.
Do to build it out that way. So here we are.
But first, gosh, the defense got after it on Thursday. Five interceptions that I'm calling it four because one of them came when Jalen Wattle got on top of X quickly on a release off line of scrimmage and had a chance to go get a throw from two of It was under pressure and he just basically caught the snap and flicked it out there for it a little like wheel takeoff type of route at the line of scrimmage.
But Vern McKinley made a nice play getting over the top of it and making the play on the football. But Wattle was brought to the ground because X interfere with him pretty significantly easily a flag on that play. But let's go through the other four actual picks we saw today in practice. The first was during seven on seven, which is very rare. You don't get interceptions in those drills.
Almost ever was covering Waddle and it was kind of the same as the other play that resulted in a pick, only this one was more legal, or I should say legal in general. He just jammed him, disrupted him, got him off the route, got him off his timing to a put the ball at the landmark. I thought was a good throw in terms of where it was supposed to be when it was supposed to be there, and X just got on top of the route and ran the route for Jalen. Doesn't happen for seventeen very often,
but it happened here for number twenty five. It kind of reminded me of the pick in the Niners game when Jeff Wilson slipped down to the ground and the ball just wound up right in the lap of the Niners defender.
Those are going to happen sometimes.
As a quarterback, there's absolutely nothing you can do about it because your job, if you want to play the position the right way is to play on time, and that means you know, trusting your guys to be where they're supposed to be, and if they're not, you can
pay this way. And so in this instance, it comes back to bite two, but luckily it's during seven on seven during a practice, and it was a great play by X, which I think is the is the big takeaway here because he has been outstanding all camp long. I think he looks healthy, coming back from the two growins that he was trying to battle through last year and obviously slowed his game a little bit, and he talked about that. I think he looks reinvigorated by the
system change. He was asked to cover, you know, the entirety of Orchard Park last winter in that playoff game. I think he's the kind of guy who rises to a challenge and going and getting a guy like Jalen Rams, he just gives him another superstar at the position to compete with.
And that's like, hey, you want to bring him in here?
Is he better than me? I'm going to try to prove that he's not. You know, iron sharpens iron. Right, there we go again using that phrase that's overused, but I think it tracks here in this situation. His feel his physicality paired with how he's getting out when he's challenged vertically, like he's getting that depth quickly or I should say quicker than he was last year when it wasn't right. And he's been around the football with some
interceptions and a forced fumble in practice as well. Might be one of my top takeaways from the entire offseason program. In fact, let's make that a segment here in just a minute. Just go ahead and add to the show as we go along here. The rest were in team portions of practice eleven on eleven one from Justin Bethel who peeled off and you know, made a great play
from it. What looked like a robber role to me, which is, you know, something you see from safety is more typically than a cornerback, but kind of camped out in the middle of the field and Skyler Thompson didn't id him through the ball to an area where he was camped out and he jumped it. Made the play really head he play diagnosing the route concept, getting to the position before the quarterback, could you know, execute his role, got to beat that guy to make picks. That's what
Justin Bethel did on this play. Bryce Thompson capitalized on two overthrows from quarterback Mike White, who had a rough day today and a week that I thought wasn't you know, comparatively to the last couple of practices nearly as good.
I thought.
He struggled throughout this week and it's kind of been that way for the non two quarterbacks, up and down, some inconsistency, that's typically what you get at the quarterback two and three positions and so forth. But they were just high of the target and Bryce Thompson was camped out and you know, in a shell position back behind those throws and just scooped him up off the turf making tough catches. That's three picks this week for Bryce Thompson,
the former CFL player of the Seattle Sea Dragon. See so, on balance, probably the toughest day for quarterbacks collectively. But I don't think that should take away from the fact that they were good and the other practices we saw on balance, and that's you know, not even to say
they weren't good today. You know, I did test when and this is kind of how it goes if a guy throws a pick, or if a guy throws a long touchdown, he had a good practice or a bad practice based on that one throw from a lot of the reports you'll see out there. I did test doing that, like take the entire practice into account for how you
evaluate this stuff. And there were some good throws in there from all the quarterbacks, but you know, predominantly Tool was the one that had a bunch of them, and a bunch of those throws from Towa were ones that
got out as soon as he got the football. He peppered Wattle on a handful of throws, you know, the quick hitters, the glance, the now, the just the immediate throws, and I say all the time, give me the VR Alternative Reality headset that shows me what would have happened in live football, because I think that he might still be running on some of these shots that to have put right between the one and the seven on the
old jersey. There he caught one where I thought he had the angle on Javon Holland to go the distance. Now Holland tagged off with the way Watald got skinny as he accelerated past what Holland. I should say, I want to see that matchup one on one because we have a great tackler and a great tackle breaker. Just good on good there. But you know, good football is always good for the home team here. One of my favorite two of reps was very akin to a rep
we saw in practice on Wednesday. He had alec ingold out to the flat and that's where he wanted to go with it, but there was a free runner right in his face. So you have to take care of that guy because he could tip it up in the air, he could put a big hit on you. He's just in the way of where you're trying to go. And so what Tua does is he gets again, his helmet and hips and shoulders aligned down the field to the
middle and separates the hands. I even a pump fig just quick separation, and that's what the edge is kind of reading. You know, if this hands separate, the ball's coming out gets him to leave his feet and then just slips at a round the side of the defender's hip, you know, throwing it around the airborne defender to alec ingold.
And it's that ball handling that I continue to be so impressed by and as such an underrated aspect of the position and one of those areas that Tua really excels with that I feel like we mentioned here in the podcast, with various aspects of his game that doesn't get enough credit, enough love. Moving on to the backfield, thought Devon A Chain had some really nice runs. Man, he is decisive at the point of attech, he sees it, he goes that backside vision shows up every single day.
I thought Lester Cotton had some really good work today. A couple of times you saw him get push and then as the play goes by him, you know, he holds the hand up to celebrate, and that's the universal sign of an offensive lineman. Saying, we just hit a big run. So typically you celebrate those when you're the
one that springs them. I thought Liam Eichenberg, who was in the Orange Jersey today, had some really good work, particularly one rep where there was a rush game thrown at him and he slid and picked up the original slant and then came back and picked up the looper. It's just, you know, the type of stuff that we need.
I don't know a guy like Liam Mikenberg. James Tunstall, the rookie from Cincinnati, had one of my favorite reps as he got depth, dropped the anchor strike, the punch, redirected inside, and held off a rush in a position where the quarterback needed to maximize the time because it was a slow developing play down the field, and he afforded all that time for a throw from Mike White to hit chosen on a big gainer on the defensive side.
Christian Wilkins absolute menace once again. That's what he does, just play after play.
This guy is causing issues.
I thought rayk One had one of his best days of practices I've ever seen. He was playing inspired and actually got into a bit of a tiffole tiff tiffle Is that a word? My making up boards with Leam Mikenberg on a couple of plays that he continued throughout practice, but he caused a lot of issues on the interior.
Josiah Bronson flashed again and again that's the spot that we've talked about, right, you know, I keep here seeing stuff about the running back position which I don't get, but we'll see the offensive tackle position, tight end, that backup nose tackle spot, Like who's it going to be? Is it going to be one of the guys on Is it going to be someone that we have to
go find to fulfill that John Jenkins role? And I thought Josiah Bronson put himself in position to you know, I guess meg a case to give himself more work at training camp, which is where you can carve out that role and get yourself some regular time come the season. But he had I think a sack or would be sack on Skylar Thompson at one point, I had Anthony Montalvo, the other defensive tackle, the rookie from UCF with the
run stuff. Mitchell Agude had another pressure which he's kind of the rookie that stand out the most of me. So far, at least among the undrafted guys. I thought Cameron Good capped off a nice week of work.
Work a week.
I mentioned the DBS a little bit, but Bryce Thompson getting the two picks, exaving Howard doing exaving Howard things. Javon Holland had a couple of plays every day, you know where he's lined up for what would be a big shot in a game setting. But you can't do
not here I mentioned Bethel. Yeah, I guess I covered this already, So why don't we go ahead and do my top five takeaways from OTA's It was five total practices out of you know, I don't know how many the team actually ran, but the fid that we got to see. Number one was taking the football away last year, just fourteen takeaways, worst starting field position on average. I
think that's one clearly tangible path for improvement. And the way this defense has played in these camps, I really think they're going to generate a lot of opportunities for takeaways, and I think they have the playmakers to go make them. You know, like Xavin Howard, who's been an interception machine his whole career, had just a couple last year, not the usual amount we're.
Used to seeing.
But you know, facing this quarterback who does a good job of protecting the football, not gonna get a lot of chances there, but they've done a good job finding a few. But also I think where you might get some more takeaways and negative plays that really turn into splash plays for the defense is all those coverage sacks and coverage you know, confusing the quarterback we've talked about.
You do that in game days headings.
The pass rush gets their chance to actually tee off from the quarterback. That's how you jar balls free, much like the Jdan Phillips pass rush on Josh Allen last year. So Number one, I think this defense is going to increase takeaways, maybe even one hundred percent, Like they're going to get a lot more takeaways than they had last year. Number two, speaking of that quarterback adding to his game, this is kind of a reiteration of what we talked
about in the podcast previously. I'm not going to repeat the entire episode that was essentially a two year conversation around his game and the evolution of his game to this point in the commentary. To back that up from coach and Tow himself but I just love the way that he's seeing it, getting it out taking What's there? More on that from Ronaldo Hill here in just a moment. Number three set and forget guys. The guys we've grown
accustomed to making plays were added again this camp. Waddle, Wilkins, Holland the guys that we've seen make a million plays, just doing it time and time again. Guys that do it to win games. And that's how you do win games, right, You have a bunch of really good players that make a bunch of really big plays, stepping up consistently. It takes talent to win in this league, and there's no
shortage of that here. Plenty of other guys to list, but those were the ones that I thought, really, you know, saw their opportunities or rather were put out there consistently to make plays, and they did. Because some guys didn't give as much work as the other guys did, Like you know, Jelen Phillips made his plays, but he didn't gives much work. And you know, Bradley Chubb was not out there very often, Tyreek Hill not at all.
Stuff like that.
Number four, earning your opportunities. This list is certainly longer than what I'll give you. But coach, you know, always talks about guys earning a chance, an opportunity to carve out a role for themselves and loves the process of taking each day by day, each and every day to determine who deserves those those chances and not really pigeonholing yourself and saying like this guy is this role you know here in the month of June.
No, let it play out.
And he talks about managing each player's workload case by case, and again like we know Tyreek Hill, we know what his role is, right, He's the number one receiver. He's he's the biggest playmaker in the NFL. But for a rookie looking to make a name, or a second year guy like an Eric Azukama, he's one that I put in there. They run after the catch he had the other day. I didn't know he had jets like that. That was impressive. I think Chosen has been really good.
Bethel Johnson's been fantastic. I think Deshaun Elliet it's been good. I liked Mitchell Lagude and Garrett Nelson from the UDFA class mentioned Josiah Bronson Gott in the notes A lot. I thought Liam Eichenberg had some of his best practices we've seen so far as a pro. Rob Jones and Lester Cotton got into the notes as well. So some chances for those guys to grow and improve and build a pump they did here in springball. Come summertime and number five, I actually have a five A and a
five B. So much versatility. I was so impressed by the secondary and the more I watch, the more I think you have so much interchangeability and options for what you do in terms of groupings and alignments in that back end. The play that Bethel Johnson I keep saying, Bethel Johnson, the play that Justin Bethel made today was a good example of that. Have I been saying, Bethel Johnson?
I do that all the time. Justin Bethel put guys in positions to suit their skill sets, opposed to just saying like you're a corner, go play corner, like you're defensive back, or maybe even you're just a defensive player. Go you know, show this cloud coverage from this cover three look and then peel off and go rob the back crosser, Like that's.
Not really a cornerback role, but you can do it.
Because you have these guys that are you know, quick twitch and have eyes in the quarterback and have a good feel for spacing and route concepts. I think that's true all over the secondary and kind of all over the roster as well. And then the five B part is we'll see on the offensive line. It's tough to get a gauge out here. I don't think it's been great.
But without Tehran, without Connor Williams, your two best offensive linemen, it would make sense that they would struggle against our front that is this good and has most of the guys there. But I just think that matchup point as you would expect in terms of the pass protection and offensive line in general versus a tough front. All right, let's go ahead and get to some audio. Next, that's the end of the practice notes. We're gonna talk all head coach Mike McDaniel next. He was long but as
good as ever today, which is saying something. And then we'll talk to Vic Fangio, Ronaldo Hill, Tyreek Hill, Ronald Frank Smith. I think that's it, yeah, Hill, Hill, Smith, Fangio, and McDaniel. Well, all that coming your way next here Drift Time Podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by automation.
Let's go ahead and.
Pick it back up here with head coach Mike McDaniel, who addressed the media for the third straight day. We should be so lucky to get that much coach commentary like we did here in the month of June. The first question for coach, what did you take away from the spring program? What's your evaluation of what you got accomplished here during the spring program?
Here's coach.
That's a That's a good one, because I'm to be honest, I'm I'm very very happy with as happy as I could be. I think with where we're at right now. You know, talk to the team at length. We have a lot of good players that have ambitions to be great. A lot of people have high expectations for this team, and so what does that mean. That means, you know, in my opinion, and I think as I've observed our shared team's opinion, is that means we need to put our best foot forward and go to work each and
every day. So I'm super super pumped about where we're at in Phase three with with one practice really left, and that that's awesome. Now, what does that mean again, it means check that box. Oh yeah, by the way, nothing, because you know, the players have to understand that this is a stepping stone. You know, now in front of us, we have an extended period of time off where you know they're gonna have to count on each other to
stay in shape and being in training camp shape. So you have to show up to training camp in shape to have it, and you have to diligently go about training camp and step by step by step. That's where our focus has been this offseason. Because of that, I've seen guys. We had a very hard working off season last year, and I think, you know, if we had time travel available and we would practice against ourselves from last year, extremely confident that this year's version twenty twenty
three would get the best of them. Now, we had a tremendous time off period and I had a very good training camp last year. So again it just means checking the box. But for a goal oriented team, I've seen people transfer their emotions the right way, which is into their work and into their investment. And we have a tight team now because shared sacrifice.
A little bit surprised that coach does not actually have a time machine, I would I would venture to guess he's the kind of guy that would have a time machine sitting around somewhere, or at least the parts, you know,
a flex capacitor, at very least sitting around somewhere. Let's go next to his take on the addition of Ronaldo Hill, who I think goes a little bit under the radar as far as a you know, valuable experienced type of coach, knowing this system, knowing this scheme, being in the building now and in his roots back in South Florida. Obviously, let's go ahead and hear from coach on the addition of Ronaldo Hill working under coach Fan No.
I think this is you know, obviously, you know, I have such a high opinion of Vic Fangio and have have really admired learned so much before I even worked with him. And you know, as soon as you know he he made his decision to take his talents to South Beach. We started talking about, uh, you know, the the functionality of a defensive staff and the way you can look and you know, one of one of the things that is paramount and in trying to implement a
new system is having really good coaches. Obviously, but you're talking about so many things, so many little details that have to be answered, and familiarity with with a system. We're working with someone with a system is tremendous advantage
for VIC and there by the entire defense. So and then you know through conversations and and how how it played out over the moon to have the opportunity uh to to add a coach of his caliber, and it was it was more out of the opportunity rather than necessity, I would say, to empower the players with the most and best knowledge possible. So now you know, I think it's very important that that players understand that coaches their purpose is to serve their serves, to just make them better.
So it's very important. It's critical that a coaching staff works together well and that people are trying to utilize the various talents. And that's all I've seen from the from Vic's staff really and specifically the entire every coach in the back end, because there's multiple positions. There are good players that want the investment, that yearn for the investment, and as long as they're working together, which they'd an unbelievable job with Joe and Sam and Matthew collectively going
after it. It's been cool to see it. I've very much enjoyed my time, my professional time with Ronaldo. I feel very fortunate to have them.
And just again from the early returns of Fangio of Ronaldo Hill, Sam Madison, and you heard coach list off some of the assistant coaches there, Joe Casper and Matthew Rojo. Those guys have played an integral role here obviously in getting the stuff going, getting a cranking and we'll hear from coach Fangio here in a second, but it's looked sharp so far, so I just have high hopes here for the secondary and how they can bounce back after
a tough year last season. Let's go ahead and move back to the offense here in the tight end position. As coach was asked about the combination of f and why tight ends, it wasn't listed that way. It was in line offline guys, which that's not how we phrased that. But he talked about the development of those guys and how the different roles have to be nurtured at the same time that you cater to what they do well.
Really intriguing. Coach had a bunch of.
Good philosophical stuff for us today, Let's go ahead and hear from him on the tight end position and developing those young guys that have maybe a strong suit and maybe area is not as strong.
I think it's incredibly important that offensive players have rigid roles and make sure you tell the defensive coordinators that that they'll only do certain things, that that there are certain things there's a teaching progression, I would say, and you try to take. You know, it's important for players as they develop to there's always parts of the game
that they need to develop. Specifically tight end. It's a unique position where you're both receiver and offensive linemen, right, so you need them to do what they already walked in the door good at or like in their minds their strengths so that they can continue to develop something
that is they're confident in their game. But with tight ends specifically, you're always you're just in a person by person and some faster than others, but you're always trying to really work on the stuff that maybe they're they're not as confident in as or maybe they didn't have as much production in so in OTAs you kind of see guys doing a lot of what they've they've they've done in the past with little nuggets each and every day, so you can still keep them confident in playing football,
because that's that's the only way you can get real reps going out and be like, uh, doesn't get anyone better, including the defense. So you'll you'll see a progression of usage so that defensive coordinators can't notice the same thing you did.
Just love that answer from coach for so many reasons. First, obviously the the joe off the top.
It's it's quick witted. It's always good.
It puts the media guys on their heels here, and you have to be you know, you have to be pretty quick witted to match wits with this guy in that sense too, So I thought that was kind of cool to hear, and it reminds me of, you know, some of the scouting terms we viewed here in the podcast before, scouting ideals and theories about how you know, sometimes quarterbacks that have the fleet of foot athletic ability can buy more time to develop the mental side of
the game that you have to have to play at a high level in this league because you can kind of make some haste in the interim while you get that part of your game ironed out. Kind of reminds me of that answer here with the tight end position, where like, let's get you know, a guy like Elijah Higgins running routes and catching the football while he comes along in other areas that maybe are not as developed
as that area. Let's go ahead and hear from coach now with a question regarding Jalen Ramsey, and it was really geared towards Miami Heat head coach Eric Spolstra talking about how competitively a lot of the guys are on the same page on that team and speaking the same language. And coach was asked about in corpor bring the similar idea with newcomers with a guy, for instance, like cornerback Youlen Ramsey.
Here's coaching. The National Football League is set up so that there's a natural turnover, just in general, so that even you know, I talked to the team at the end of the last season, talked to him the beginning of this season, like it's never the same. So I think to approach with assumptions can leave you vulnerable to missing stuff. So you go with an open mind new season.
And what I've seen from this team is, however, however you want to if you want to say it's the new guys coming in, or if you want to see the say it's the learned lessons from the team from last year. Collectively, to me, I see him more mature, more intentional, more focused group. And we had a fairly focused group last year. But you know we have we've really everything that we've done, every Phase two, every phase one, meaning every Phase two thing on the field, every Phase
three practice. I can honestly say that guys got something out of each day and that it's hard, hard pressed to do with all the different variables, and it takes the cohesion of an organization because players have to trust the intent of the coaches. Players have to trust the awesome, the unbelievable training staff we have so that they have to and they have to be the right type of human beings that are trying to be great and willing to do the work to be so, and so you
better have the right human beans. Uh you're directed at with the personnel department, All of that stuff comes into play. But I see this team being for some of the things, some of the things that you know you may have felt like you were lacking as a team last year that could have positively affected outcomes. Those things I'm seeing glimpses of at this stage with this team.
The way Coach has been talking about some of the stuff makes me really believe that this team is going to correct some of the things that held them back a year ago, like the operation standpoint the two would discussed yesterday at length, you know, the short yardage, lack of conversions of the takeaway stuff like that just seems
like they really really improved those weaknesses. Let's go back to coach here for some more philosophical type of questions and answers here as he was asked about the idea of resource allocation about big positions, and we've seen them trade and pay big money to Tyreek Hill and Bradley
Chubb at those premium spots. And I just want to play Coach's answer here about philosophical resource allocation, but also not pigeonholing yourself, because he gives you the whole, you know, the whole compliment here.
Let's go back to coach.
You know, that's a cool question because the answer to it I'm very convicted in, and I think that sometimes in the effort to have a philosophy, you can pigeonhole yourself into a formula that I don't think any formula is the same. So I'm what I'm attempting to say is that it's case by case, but that's intentional and I don't think, you know, with Chris and I talking, we think that you can fall into traps. It's not okay, always this, always that it's okay, what is what is this?
Is this worth the cop If you're going to trade away an asset, how attainable is that asset? Oh, this is the only time you'll have the opportunity to have a player of this caliber unless you're a top ten pick. Well that's a reason, you know, or you know what. There's just so there's a litany of it. So for me to say, okay, philosophy is this is this you trade away assets or you devote assets, which is what
a contract is because we're in a salary cap. Those things are dependent on all, right, well, how much of a risk is this this investment? And oh, this is worth it? Then we'll build around that. So and so it's that having an open mindedness to you know, I think that that's one of the things that have allowed us to get some really good players through transactions of
trade in the past two years. Though that was not necessarily a philosophy as searching, but when the opportunity presented itself, it made a lot of sense considering you didn't you know, it's all about the collective of the team and what you can offset. It's a I see it as an ever changing equation.
Last one to hear from coaches he was asked about and again philosophically, just great questions and answer here about areas he thinks the team can grow in.
It was cut off early in the answer.
I'm gonna cut that part off and just play the entire thing for you. Let's go back to coach about areas he'd love to see this team improve or grow this offseason.
Like I have said before, the only thing keeping me from being critical about everything that I do is insecurity, and so like I, that's the way I look at it. So if you're unwilling to consider an action that a component of your job, If you're unwilling to do that, that's to protect yourself because you'd, well, what if it wasn't the best way to do it. I think you can challenge yourself in every decision or every everything that literally you do, you can challenge yourself and say is
that the best thing? And if it is awesome, If it isn't, who cares change it. It's about continually developing and getting better. I think is kind of the race in my opinion of this job. So I look at everything across the board, and by and large the things that our team wasn't good at. You know, I mentioned some stuff before. You know, it's one thing to try to be UH an offense that's explosive, it's another thing to be that and be diligent in your pre snap
formations and and penalties in general. You know, it's you know, turnovers are our priority, which I think as a matter of fact, I know the UH the the schematic change that we've made really puts us puts our best foot forward to rectify that. And then you know, from press conferences to teams speeches, to game plans to play calling, I'm not doing my job unless I'm trying to be
better at it. So I if I'm gonna ask players to try to improve, and coaches to try to improve, and trainers to try to improve, I look at it as like they're not gonna My voice is loud, but they're not gonna just do it because I said so, it's my job to set the precedent. So what am I looking to do? Better? Literally? Everything? Because I don't think I'd be doing right by the Dolphins, the franchise, the fan base, you guys. If I was like, no, I'm good.
I mean I could listen to coach theorize and talk philosophy all day, and not even just football. I'm sure he'd offer a unique approach on how to maximize the efficiency of dipping your tortilla chips into salsa and getting the perfect salty salsa combination equation. There, let's go ahead and take our last break and come back on the other side and hear from coach Fangio, Ronaldo Hill, Frank Smith, and Tyreek Hill. That's all next Draft Time podcast host Travis.
Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. We are going long.
Today, but you know what, it's the last of the three episode per week editions here of the Drive Time podcast.
So why don't we go ahead and go along? If it, we'll do it live.
Let's go ahead and hear from coach Fanjou, who was asked about bringing on Ronaldo Hill into his coaching staff.
Well, Ronaldo was with me in Denver for two years, really liked him as a coach. Was really happy and excited to get him back and to join us here. He's been a great help to me. You know, he's really the only guy on the staff that has worked with me before and had good knowledge of our system. So he's been a great help. He's a great coach with a great future.
Next, coach was asked about what he does this time of the calendar after mini camps heading a training camp. He said, to go on vacation first. But here he is talking about the process of implementing a new defensive system into a new team.
Yeah, we're at that process. We gave him a lot this off season on purpose. We wanted to expose them to a lot of stuff. See what fits them, what doesn't, what looks good, what doesn't, what needs to keep being work done. You know, these guys have done a good job picking up what we're doing. If by no means it's perfect right now, but I think they have a good feel and a good foundation that hopefully we can build upon in training camp.
I don't have the sound here for you guys. But he was asked about what intrigues you about Javon Holland, he said, there's a lot everything. He's a highly talented player, highly instinctive player, smart player, tough player, loves the game. There's nothing about him I don't like. Pretty damn good. Let's go next to Ronaldo Hill, who I asked him about the comments that Jerome Baker made on Wednesday about how it takes a smart player to play this defense.
Here's Ronaldo Hill on why you have to be smart to play this defense.
Think.
I think our personnel, you know, fits very well, especially what a game is changing. You don't have those big backers that's that's sitting inside, you know. I think you've got to hassle flex you gotta have, you know, edge guys that can possibly move and play different things, and you got to have backers that can get in and out of different packages. I think the offense has challenged you that way. I think the more they can figure out what you're in, it's easy for them to adapt.
And we want to stay as multiple as we can and be unpredictable as we can too.
I mentioned that one of the things that defense does so well is holds their shell.
I'm curious how.
You've seen him react to that, because this is the league that wants to push the ball on the field. He obviously the league in yards for past last year. How have you seen him adjust to the idea of you know, that shell holding high and I guess taking the short stuff.
Yeah, it seems like he's figuring out really fast.
You know, he may if he if you see one thing and it's not there, he knows the next adjustment. The next time. He may go up against it. But it seemed like a lot of the NFL is starting to morph back into the shell concept. It's more and more teams trying to that's either more from Fangio system or been part of it, so we're seeing it more and more.
I also don't have sound here for offensive coordinator Frank Smith, but he did mention today that the offense tried to put themselves in challenging such to see how they would respond to certain things, and they'd probably see you from the defense. So it's always interesting for me to hear those perspectives because you get the coverage of practice.
And I'm certainly guilty of this myself.
That like this is how it was, is how it went, But you don't know the context behind the stuff, so it's hard to evaluate. And I know everyone on Twitter has you know, their YouTube channels and their evaluations they do, but you really don't know what you're talking about. So it's kind of how it goes. Biggest area of growth for quarterback to a tongue of Bailoa. He was asked, it's just year one, you're learning a new language, and then your two you're mastering that language and you're really
putting your flavors on it. How you see things, your anticipation of routes, how you're communicating with the guys and what they're looking to do. So just his growth has been awesome, his understanding and timing and just anticipation and then the added chemistry with the guys because last year was the first time for all that. This year now it's okay, at this point, we get this. You have increased dialogue and what everyone's trying to do inside of
a play. So he's been great. Commanded, the offense has been great. Couldn't be happier with where he's at. Let's go ahead and finish up here with Tyreek Hill and that same question, how have you've seen growth from Tua in your number two?
Ah man, I will tell you this man, Tua has stepped up a lot, you know, in his in his leadership role.
You know.
I know last year was my first year playing with him, you know, but seeing him this year, you know, he's more vocal, you know, with the offense and you know, leading, you know, in in group chats and stuff like that, organizing you know, outside workouts outside of the Miami Dolphins stadium. Because I told him when I first got here, I said, bro, like you should be comfortable with telling a group of white house to just meet you somewhere, like we're gonna
pull up regardless. So he's been doing a great job.
I also do not have audio here. I thought I did, but I do not. Was asked about the off season workload this you know, spring program, and he said that year two is all about learning the playbook more for him, understanding where Tua wants him to be on the field, and just how everything operates.
He said, last year for me was like a blur.
I had to come learn the playbook, had to get to know my teammates, and this year everything has slowed down. So I'm just really trying to understand the playbook formations and routes and route depths, stuff like that. Tyree talking about how it could get even better. It's kind of crazy to think about.
So there you go. That's the podcast. That's the week of practice updates.
Next week we're doing roster Reset, taking a look at the entire ninety man roster. That'll be two parts, Daniel OYOFUSI doing defense, Marcel Louis Jock do an offense from Miami Herald and ESPN respectively. We'll get their takeaway from OTA's as well, and then we pivot into summer content. We're going to talk about every team in the NFL,
every division. We're going to talk about every player on the roster and give you a training camp preview, fun times ahead, vacation ahead as well, and then training camp will be here before you know it in football right around the corner. In the meantime, that's gonna be my time you all. Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Leave us a rating, leave us a review. You can follow me on Twitter at winkfld NFL.
Follow the team at Miami Dolphins. Check out the Fish Tank podcast with Seth and Jush Jeff Wilson just dropped earlier this week. Check out the team YouTube channel for media availabilities, Dolphins to Day and so much more, and last but not least, Miami Dolphins dot Com. Until next time, fins up Caroline camera and Daddy is coming home.