Drive Time with Travis Wingfield begins.
Now, let me check your pulse if you're not for though, What is up? Dolphins?
And welcome to the Draft 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 wingfielding on today's show, reviewing the tape from another Dolphins victory, taking a look at the All twenty two. The snap counts the key metrics from PFF and other websites to tell a story behind the game via the numbers from the Baptist Health studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Draft Time Podcast, Ye Dafe. Caroline kicks us off as she does every single Monday here on the All twenty two
Review podcast. Let's go ahead and talk about some of the news that occurred in Dolphins Land on Monday, as Mike McDaniel met with us in the media and gave us updates on injured players, including Devon a Chan who was pleading to get back into the game on Sunday, but the team held him out because it was the same need that he just got back from and coach said he could play Friday, he could miss Friday. It's
more of a day to day thing right now. Did say there's no surgery needed involved, So it sounds like we should get Devon back at some point this season. I'm not gonna give you timelines because I just don't know, but it sounds like it's a little bit positive in that regard. With regards to the rest of the team, coach said that all the players that missed the game on Sunday will be questionable for the game on Friday
because there's not really any real practices this week. Mostly it's walkthroughs and just trying to get yourself, you know, ready to play on a short week. But did say in that press conference that the idea behind having those guys out for the game, the vision was to have them ready to go for Friday, because, as we know, big big divisional game here on the road in New York.
I feel like, if you get this one, you have to feel very very strongly about your prospects of getting through till Christmas Eve without a blemish on the record. Even though this you know, the Jets are going to start Tim Boyle in the game, which good luck. I don't know what's worse they're here or the alternative option at this point. But that's for a different podcast down
the road. But the point is these divisional games because of Buffalo losing to both New England and New York this year, you know, if you beat Buffalo in the final game of the season. I guess if you beat the Jets both games and you beat Buffalo, you're probably gonna win the division just based upon that alone, if that would give you the tiebreaker over Buffalo, which obviously they have a tall, tall hill to climb to overtake
us in the AFC East. But you will be Bills fans in two or three weeks, I think, because they play the Chiefs here coming up, and that could be a game you want the Chiefs to lose.
But I digress. We're all the way off the reservation.
And those injuries on the offensive side of the football I thought were the biggest reason for the lack of production in terms of points on Sunday, which, of course, a turnover on downs at the three yard line, a miss field goal, you kind of feel like that could be ten points right there you could have had on
the board. So you know, thirty points if you get those and then you do that with your guard number four and number five playing in the game, you're really only top line functioning tight end that you have in terms of playing every snap and eleven personnel. Some of those twelve and twenty one personnel packages was not out there.
I never thought i'd say this last year even that Durham Smyth was a key missing component, but he was in this game, as were the guard positions and eventually the running back spot as well that lost to eight Chan and for moments in the game Savon akmed. So let's go ahead and start as we do on the podcast here on Mondays breaking down this tape with the big play breakdowns. We go here back to back dig routes to Tyreek Hill that produced sixty seven yards and
seven points. And it's funny because I was talking to my guy Seth Levitt Fish Tank Podcast check them out on your podcast apps, as I do every single game in the press box, I was telling him, you know, we haven't had a lot of those in breaking routes, like those eighteen yard digs or some of the glances or skinnies or bang eights that we throw that take advantage of the space.
That we create in the middle of the football field based upon.
Our design and spacing, and it just hasn't really gone that way until those two plays. Like I literally said it before those two plays, and they hit him back to back for sixty seven yards and a touchdown. The first one you see two was hands separate right before Tyreek has throttled down into his break. We say it every single week, and it's just working one side of the field because you have Wattle on a slide off
of jet action, you know, the jet sweep action. Then he just kind of continues that action to the flat and that's designed to hold that curl flat defender. Maybe you get the attention of the hook defender as well to open up that space in the middle portion of the field, and then it's just Tyreek on the dagger in behind.
That ball was a little bit.
High and outside or inside rather which was kind of a theme for Tua in this day, but Tyreek still corralled it and we got a big chunk of yards right there.
Then they go right back to it.
And what I love about it is the same exact route for Tyreek, but a entirely different concept to get to it. And I love the spacing on this one because where it was Wattle and Tyreek in a two man route combination, this one had all five eligibles out.
You get motion from the one that's the furthest out receiver right, he motions down coming down the line Scrimmage to run a basically like drag or a mesh type of route over the middle, just runs the Mike linebacker and that holds Robert Splaine at that depth, does not allow him to get the depth he's pretty good at.
I probably undersold him on the preview show with how good he is at getting depth going vertically backwards, and that allowed Tyreek to work underneath the safety and you get Croft and Raheem run.
A levels type of concept to the other side.
That widens that field side corner who was kind of on outside leverage against Tyreek on the play. And I gave you maximum spacing. And then once again, the ball is just right out at the break a tad high again, but because it was high, you see both the defenders in the frame kind of hesitate, and I think that's probably why Tyreek scored after making a great catch up above his body.
Just a three man rush.
But Tron Armstead drew Max Crosby one on one, and I'm not sure I've seen Max Crosby handled like he was on that rep. Like he tried to first move, no, sir, second move uh uh. And then, like Dennis Reynolds says, there was penetration fighting crime. Penetration fighting crime, and then it just sort of ended. He just kind of stopped his rush right there. But impressive work there from a top line left tackle, shutting down one of the best edge rushers in the NFL.
And they moved Max.
I don't know how often they do this on tape and other games, but they moved him from either side, trying to get some rushes on t Stead, trying to get some rushes.
On Austin Jackson. And it didn't really have a lot of an impact in the game. So we have two damn good tackles here.
Man three weeen you account Kenda Lamb the Savon Ahmed touchdown literally the perfect play call for the defense they called. They blitzed five times in the game. On this particular play, the only play all game they rushed more than five players. They brought six, and that includes a safety who vacated the middle of the field right where.
Our pass went.
You love when that happens, But this play happens because of Connor Williams.
And I get the snap concerns.
I get that it frustrates you at home, but please please understand how valuable Connor Williams is to this offense. This play doesn't happen if you don't have him on your roster. There's probably five centers in the NFL that you can execute this play on because it's a college concept. It's a Texas route with a screen component built in the middle screen where Connor has to kind of hook the nose tackle and prevent him from getting a clean
run down. The a gap on your quarterback. He has to hook him and keep him in that spot, but also be able to climb to the second level. And when he does get up to that final block, he knocks it right out of the park and clears Savan for a walk in touchdown. And it was a good job by Savon on the Texas route, which is one
of my favorite routes in all of football. All it is is you angle out wide and then cross face in the linebacker once you widened him with your initial outside like pressing outside It's just a little angle arrow route, Texas route.
It's got eighteen names, like all routes do.
Savon does a good job of angling this thing out, making the block easier on Connor, and then for Tua, just that soft, little touch on those little flip throws underrated element of his game. I say that as a person that watched every snap of Ryan Tannehill's career and he could not, for the life of him, finess a pass to save his life. Also, Julian Hill key blockdownfield as well. The first Ramsey pick is our next big
play to break down. This one was even more impressive on tape because he had no business even being in that spot to begin with. But if the coverage is what I think it is, and quite frankly, I wrote it down that way because I want to be like a little bit ambivalent on it.
But it was quarters.
He had four guys lined up fifteen yards off the ball, all on a deadlined birds on a fence style, and the Raiders run three routes that push it vertical. So in your cover four Adams runs this post clear out that I'm sure he wants to occupy both the middle safeties and then run the dig route with number eleven.
I didn't see his name. I don't even know who.
That is. A dig route in behind that against outside leverage of Jalen Ramsey. So they got that, they got the post, they got the clear out. The far side route was a comeback. That's irrelevant to the equation. Now, if this throw is to a tongue of I Lowa level anticipation, it's a completion. I don't think Ramsey has a chance to get over to make a play on the football. But he knows this route is not vertical.
How I'm not sure, because he plays it like he knows it's never going to go deep into his quarter.
Which that's so impressive because if you can do that, if you can.
Play a stroke sure and say I'm gonna jump out of my responsibility here and go do that, those are like season changing plays, like results of your season are better because of that. And I'm talking about winning more games into January and making a push for that game in February that we all want to see this team play in. But he comes off of his outside leverage and drives before the quarterback has even separated the hands.
So he's got eyes in the quarterbacks and he breaks on the receiver at the same time as the receiver does around the route.
I should say, and it looks.
Like a complation when lets the ball go, but he dives across the face of the receiver and makes the catch, like with his chest parallel to the ground, like to hang on to that ball, to land on top of it, roll over and can maintain control.
This guy's I've never seen something like it. I really haven't.
Speaking of Jalen Ramsey our top five tapes, number one, who do you think it is?
It's Jalen Ramsey, the.
Perfect perfect defender for the system man zone turn eyes of the quarterback, the break slash, anticipation to make those breaks go from PBUs to game changing interceptions like an incompleation second they could get a first down. The next play you take the ball back like it changes the freaking game. It's like, I can't describe it. I'm kind
of freaking out right now. But then he'll go press up and DeVante Adam's face and get one of the best route runners and release guys in the game to not be able to do that, playing the forced defender on their early outside run attempts and giving Bradley Chubb a chance to cheat inside and go make plays, or Cater Kohu to slot slide down on there and go make plays. It's just it's fantastic. What can this guy
not do then to call game like that? I mean, those catches on both those interceptions are tough grabs for wide receivers. Dbs are not supposed to make those catches. It's not four kids. The way he got vertical on that flea flicker. Do you guys ever understand the references I make here? I know like my buddy Noah does, and half of them are for you, Noah, So hats off to you. That is I think you should leave
the Ghost Tour sketch. The Night Tour is not four kids, but the flea flicker they ran like Adam slow played it and and Jalen just kind of stood there with him and was waiting for the results of the play. Then he takes off and he just gets on his horse and shrank the window to zero. Quite frankly, I think Aidan O'Connell should have underthrown the ball because Ramsey probably would have had to run through Adams for DPI, but just the way he did that was so impressive.
And then the fourth down play that he got to stop on the Jakobe Myers attempt, the way he pressed him and pinned him to the sideline and then kind of said, you're not gonna get on my upfield shoulder. I'm gonna run the route for you, and then boxed him in and then ran up the hash marks on the perimeter for him like chef's kiss.
It's perfect.
And then finally I didn't put the interception to end the game in the big play breakdown because it's simple.
It's just four deep.
O'Connell wants to throw a post route between split field safety, which is the throw. That's the throw against middle of the field open. But Elliott got over there. I think Ramsey kind of baited him into that play because he was just getting depth and stayed in that position and he knew that, you know, a fifty yard throw, I can close that ground that fast. He went before the ball even go up in the air, closing speed, erases the throw and again pulls in catches the football right
takes it away. Have an absolute day. How about these numbers? Ten targets? They got one ball on him? They were ten percent throwing at him for four yards. They averaged point four yards per target. Tyreek Hill averaged thirteen and a half yards per target.
Two of those were picks. He also had a stop in tackling defense.
Like, Okay, dude, I'm just blown away guys like this is one of the best football players I've ever watched in my entire life. I remember coming to training camp in twenty nineteen being like, Oh, Monterrey Harder, that's a guy that I like. Like, dude, we've come a long way.
We have come a long way.
Second top tape, Tyreek Hill. I liked Monterrey harderch He was an undrafted player out of Northwestern, very nice kid, talked to him. Didn't last in the league. And that's just what we're talking about here in terms of talent. This team has turned out since they rebuilt this roster.
That's the difference there.
Tyreek Hill. I thought this was his best game as a Dolphin from a hands standpoint, pretty important trait for a receiver. He just caught everything, and some of those balls were not on the face mask like they usually are. His ability to snatch the ball off of his frame, I think is a very very underrated element of his game.
And if you ask Chiefs fans, like, what's his problem?
He drops too many balls, they would tell you, But I mean he's got like a couple, but nothing crazy. The detail in his route running does not get enough love. In the third quarter, the drive after two was pick. They're in cover six, which is quarter quarter half. What does that mean? You have one defender covering a deep quarter, another defender covering a deep quarter, and one defender covers a deep half.
What is that?
Two quarters and a half is four quarters? So you have your cover four structure from three high. Does that make sense? If not, go figure it out. Tyreek has the two quarters to his side of the field, so they're giving more attention to Tyreek. In case they want to run the post, they're going to cover that. If he wants to run vertical, they're going to try to cover that. But they run a twenty five yard out route and this is why Tyreek's route running is so good.
So he's the one to the field. But in a condensed split, which is inside the numbers on the football field, the ten twenty thirty to forty with the widest quarters defender the number so he has outside leverage on Tyreek's pre snap alignment and he wants to get outside of him. So how do you convince him that you're going to run inside of him? Well, he widens his release right to the numbers and gets on the exact same plane.
Because if I'm.
Even with you, then I have a fifty to fifty proposition to go inside or outside.
You have to figure out what I'm doing.
Then ten yards upfield, he just angles that route slightly inside to kind of get on the inside of.
Marcus Peters' jersey.
I guess is the best way to say that, and it puts He puts his shoulders parallel to the goalpost like I'm running a post route, running right to the goalpost, right.
But then the.
Minute he sees Peters like commit to the post, it's slam on the brakes, break it back outside. And I posted a still shot of Jalen Waddle last week two weeks ago, three weeks ago, turning around Jonathan Jones or maybe it was j C.
Jackson. This is what ty Reek did.
To Marcus Marcus Peters on this play, turn him all the way around. And he did that with little stab step inside and then whips it back out to the outside two lets it fly very early, and when he gets to the spot, the ball's right there with the corner ten yards away. It's these little intricacies and understanding of leverage and space, paired with elite speed that makes Tyreek Hill the best receiver.
In the National Football League.
A couple drives later, it's the exact same play to the other side of the field and does the exact same thing, but instead of the hard stab step inside, he stabs outside, then cross his face and that gets the other corner. I think it was Nate Hobbs committed to covering inside and the exact same thing happens. He winds up running towards his own goal line, not knowing where Tyreek Hill is.
It's he can.
Vary the route on the same route and still get to the real estate he's trying they're trying to take away. He's one of the Him and Ramsey I think are the best football players I've ever watched in my life. In person, it's freaking I watched Tom Brady, which is you know, but I didn't put this kind of detail into his work, But it just like blows my mind. Ten for forty six in a touchdown on eleven targets. That's thirteen point three yards per target and a cool
five oh three yards per route ran. The record for that from PFF is two seven to two, so he's almost double over that number. Again, he's almost a full yard better than that. On the season, he had just four yards of yak per catch, but a lot of the routes he just wins running the route down the field for an eleven point three average depth of target. My third top tape goes to Jalen Phillips. The impact
off the edge is just something you feel. The way that he re routes tight ends or works them over in the run rush game, the depth that he can get in coverage. They completed one to Mayor that I thought he was gonna have a JT in two thousand and six in Chicago pick six.
Do you guys remember that one?
Rex Grossman just snatched it out of the air and took it back on a stiff arm for a six, but just out of his reach. But man like guys feel his presence. He shocks them with those long arms in the punch to reset the line of scrimmage. Then he has the quick burst to accelerate around the edge or through the contact inside. He can go with speed, he can him with power, with length, it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter. And then he just unleashed his rush
arsenal in that fourth quarter. The first oversets the tackle with a great upfield first step, then cross his back face inside because he overset him and wins with power to get to O'Connell. The second one, he gets past the tackle upfield, then again puts his foot in the ground and uses the right hand to shove the tackle back towards his own goal line. All the momentum he creates to shove him that way, and then the speed rush back inside and finds O'Connell. What a game for Jay.
Then Phillips and then the pick right place, right time. Two sacks, four pressures, three QB hits, four stops in the running game or pass pass hand run game.
And an interception. That's a have a day fifteen.
Fourth best tape Christian Wilkins utterly dominant from ninety four and he's playing better than he did last year. Guys, hate to break it to you, but he is the way he plays under guys like he just gets under their chest play and it has to be a nightmare for them because once he gets his hands inside of those guys, I mean, put your hand up, Kermits. Butt Man becomes a puppet master at this point, like he is controlling this guys and takes them wherever he wants
them to go. It's fun to watch the way he can sustain two gaps but then also get off a block and make a play. It's such a critical element of our light box fronts that we operate from and then to do that A ninety five percent clip of the snaps awesome, awesome, awesome player. The Phillips pick is a sack for him that would have been five and a half on the year, a career high, but because O'Connor knew it was fourth down and a pick is
just as bad as a sack. There like he just you know, threw it up in the air, but he bowled over his managed Christian Wilkins eight pressures, two hits a stop should have had the sack, but I digress. My fifth top tape goes to Connor Williams. What an awesome game for him and the way that he gets
displacement when he attaches on a double team. Like there are a few reps where Connor rather Lester Cotton or Liam Eichenberg have a two technique a tackle headed up right over the front of them, right like they latch onto those guys, but there's no displacement because it's tough to get movement on a guy right acrossrom because you can't like use momentum to run into them. And then here comes Connor And it's probably one of the easiest things for a center to do to just bulldoze a
guy who's already engaged in a block. But you usually see those guys like topple over them, so's it's like we wipe out two for one.
That's a win for the defense.
But to run him off the point like just I'm gonna knock this guy off of you, Liam, and then I'm gonna go get that linebacker and put him on his butt two Like he comes off in perfect shape. And it's a testament to his fundamentals and the work at his craft that Connor puts in drilling those fundamentals until they are second nature. And then in pass pro he's playing awesome too. Two technique over the guard, Go get him, go find him snatch him, trap and put
him on the ground. Awesome tape for Connor Williams. I asked coach about him in the Monday press conference. If you guys around YouTube, go check it out about how Connor opens up more for your offense, and he said, yeah, there's a few centers in the NFL that can do that. And the fact that Connor is doing that with his athletic ability and pass pro combination, like the fact that he's a new center just a year and a half into it, is very very impressive. One pressure on forty two,
pass block snaps, no hits, no sacks. My just missed the cut on the tapes where, in no particular order, Jalen Waddle I thought I had a fantastic game.
We'll talk about him in the second segment.
Austin Jackson, Bradley Chubb, Xavian Howard and cater co who We're all just off the mark, but a lot of good tapes out there. This team is hard to do this with man back in twenty twenty, twenty nineteen, I'd have been doing this with maybe top three and had a hard time finding them. I'm having a hard time keeping under ten with these guys, because this team is freaking awesome. Let's go ahead and take a break right there and come back on the other side and do
the offense. We'll talk about the offensive notes and defense on the third side. That's all next Draft Time Podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought.
To you by Autoundation.
Segment two means it's time to talk some Miami Dolphins offense from there twenty to thirteen victory over the Las Vegas Raiders, And we used to the whole first segment and didn't talk about to a tongue by low. Can you believe that we'll go ahead and pick up this segment talking about not to But let's go ahead and talk about some general notes here that I wrote down. Kind of realized watching this tape just how depleted we
were in this game. The tight end position as thin as it is, right because Durham and Julian are pretty much the only guys that have played this year, and so Durham being down was a guy that played pretty much like a ninety ten split to Julian Hill just in terms of experience in the system. Like without Durham, it just changed the scope of a lot of the running game action or execution some of our bread and
butter stuff that we do. Obviously, you're down your opening day left guard, you're starting right guard who I think is one of the top guards in football, and then also your top swing guy and Rob Jones. You're down to guard four and five. You lost eight Chan Savan went down for a few plays. You have just one
healthy running back at that point. You're just deep into your depth against what was a pretty good Ridder defense that again, I think I might have undersold to you guys a little bit, and I think that's how you wound up with some plays that just flat out didn't work, like where the Raiders had more hats to the perimeter than we could block. Like Raheem taking a toss play and having to make a man miss without any real runway.
To beat up to build up speed three.
Yards short of the line of scrimmage. That it's just not typical for him and for us. Usually we are the ones that dictate the terms out there and force the issue with our speed. But when the back cannot get up to speed, those plays are not going to go anywhere. The fourth and one stop the Raiders had in the low red zone is tough because I don't know if there's like a give option there for Tua on that play, but it's blocked so well inside that you would if he could have given it off, would
have been a walk in touchdown. But of course we can't know that, and he can't know that until after he makes the decision. But I think the Raiders just played it really well. You see the inside defender of on Craik Craft really aware of like crack action, like the crack tossing me run because his head's moving back and forth before the snap. Then the off corner just
triggers instantly. He read his keys and made a good play and Tyreek actually kind of gets out of the tackle sort of from that corner, but the pursuit was what put him down. And River appeals off the inside guy and tries to go get the wide block, where I think the best option for him would have been to just go commit to one block and let Tyreek make one man miss, because he didn't do that, and then he had two guys on him, which he wasn't gonna get out of that. But full head of steam
downhill on Tyreek, who was stationary. That's a tough tackle. To break there and I get your banged up on the offensive line, so I fully understand not trying to you know, jam it up inside and get it wide on the perimeter. Because like every football fan wants to
question play callers. And by the way, the people calling him boy genius on Twitter as like some kind of slight like you're showing your cards that you're an old boomer dude, Like you're probably the same guy that said the term tannakill at some point, right, Like, let's chill on that, because Mike McDaniel, you should be like you've been waiting for this guy for thirty years, like stop, just stop, stop before.
You embarrass yourself.
Okay, sound good, all right, But the quick game like that worked really well against the Panthers and the Giants like it worked, sometimes doesn't work, so and it's fair to question, like why didn't it work. It's just let's not take these general overarching themes from a couple of play calls it didn't work and make definitive statements off that, because definitive statements in this league, in this in this
sport make you look silly. As we learn every single week, look at teams that win and lose their like your opinion of teams changes so much. Just try to remember that this is long season and sample sizes are small on football, and over the course of the year you can then begin to evaluate what you saw. But to make rash decisions off a seven to three first place football team, just be careful.
Let's go ahead and talk about Tua.
I talked about the two throws Tyreek on the touchdown drive already, the first note I have for him start and the first play of the second quarter on a shot between a trio of Raiders defenders, on a play where Tyreek pinballed off some tacklers and just kept going
the guys, he's crazy. I screenshot the play when Tua's hand separate on the third and eight and Tyreek is legitimately between a triangle of Raiders defenders, and then the location of the pass that gets there like what two seconds later.
I don't know how long the ballflight takes.
Like it's one thing to throw into open windows with the anticipation, like the Charger game, for instance, But this throw is not just into a triangle. It's a condensed triangle where it's also on Tyreek's back shoulder, because right in front of Tyreek is a stationary defender who's just waiting to wall him off and put a big lick on our star receiver, and not just cause an incompletion, possibly tip it up into the air and pick it off,
but to hurt him right. And so it's even more impressive when you look at the coverage structure because it's eight yards to go, they don't have to play the run, so they have three hook or curl flat defenders to you know, off at right around the sticks, and they all just plant their heels at the sticks. They start in that too high, but the boundary safety to Tyreek's side buzzes a crossing route from Cedric Wilson and so
it rotates to one high. So Tua has to process that and it all happens in less than two and a half seconds. To process the rotation, to process the hook defender location, to process you know, where Tyreek's timing, if its route's going to be. And the reason I'm spelling this all out is that this play personifies Tua's superpowers and to you you're watching the game, you know, having a couple of beers thinking like, hey, cool, catch Tyreek.
But it's elite quarterback play that drives a play like this.
You know, third and long.
How many games do you watch? Did you watch the Broncos game on Sunday night? Like the rush gets in, the quarterback has a tucket and just throw check down so Sam a GP Ryan or try to scramble for a first down like it happens all the time around the league.
But this quarterback.
There are a few guys that can test super tight windows and you either have to throw fastballs that you are not great at anticipating, or you have to see it before it happens. Tua is exceptional. Exceptional in the latter category, and we saw it right here. We saw a lot in the first half because his offense was humming in the first half. Besides the one turnover and low red zone, the very next plays more of the same.
A rail glance one of our bread and butters, right, it's the route up the perimeter, and it's the route that goes in the scene like a little slant glance route. And Tua widens that conflict defender that's between both those routes by locking onto the rail to Tyreek Hill. It's basically a flat for all intents and purposes, like he just runs to the sideline pretty much doesn't really run the wheel to the side. Actually it's Julian Hill, not Tyrek Kill, and that gives him space to throw the
glance into Cedric Wilson. But splane is getting with and tries to jump it.
So what does Tua do.
He alters the ball placement and throws it off of Said's back shoulder to make a spinning adjustment catch and Spelaane dives and you can see a like distraught like I was there for that play, What the hell happened?
Like you got to it? Bruh, you got to it.
The more tape I see on two of the more I kind of know what I'm going to like and dislike on tape when I watch the game live on Sundays. And it's funny because just leaving the ballpark, I thought to myself, I don't think I'm gonna like this tape very much. And we still have to get to the second half, so there's a chance I will get there. But the thing of it is like the guy misses three or four throws in a game, We're like, WHOA, just not the usual tour. We're used to and that's
where we're spoiled, like that's a good thing. But I've got another no look past here on a glance to Wattle, just baffling defenders like you want to flip your butt to the sideline with a zone drop and key to his eyes. Yeah, I don't think that's smart, bro, because he's gonna move you off that spot. One of the best in the business, one of the best I've ever seen to do that. And that's where the tape kind
of didn't go well. After that, only the second half things got worse, starting with one of the strangest interceptions I've ever seen this guy throw. Wattle runs another amazing route, and my only thought here was that there was a sight adjustment that they had on different pages for both the So the Raiders are in cover six, which is quarter quarter half we've described that.
I think I'm pretty sure Tyreek.
And Wattle run like a kind of crisscross from opposite sides of the formation. But the man covering the deep half runs with Tyreek, which frees up half of the field deep to Wattle to flatten his route to the sideline. Now that said, the way he comes off the line looks like he's running a post route, and that's probably why the dbs ended up where they were, because it looks like a post route, which is the route that
toa threw. But if he flattens that route like a deep over like I think the best way to describe it is that Wattle is changing it on Tua.
That made for the room service pick.
But I think Tua should have seen what Wattle saw, which was a patch of uncovered grass on a flattened out route. And if we lay it out over there, it's like throwing the ball into the chuck e cheese ballpit. It's like a thirty yard shot for a thirty yard play with all kinds of you know, gazing grazing pastures of grass to throw to. I thought the miss to Cedric Wilson before the Sanders missfield goal was his worst throw of the day. He got off a spot, attacked
the line of screen, threw on the move. I'm thinking great creativity to but then he misses him like he hasn't missed those throws. He was open for a first down on third down in the red zone. Critical miss. There nothing more to it. You can count the number of misses Tua has like that in his career. On one hand, so whatever next drive hits an RPO pop glance to Waddle just wanted to note the ball handling quickly on him, the trigger off of RPO or zone
read or play action. It just to forged you to really stress the second level of defense off of those looks because of how quick he gets to all of it.
Not many quarterbacks can do that. The splane drop pick another terrible decision, but really he did a good job of knowing where he was going, like Tua was reading that front side and he was playing backside like will linebacker, which is why I assumed Tuo just never figured him part of the equation, and he just got all the way over there and got a hand on the football. It wasn't really that close to being pick it off the fingertips, but still a really good play from Roberts Splain.
Two balls that I didn't realize were pretty damn good a third and seven mid third quarter where Waddell went to the ground to make the catch and had to scoop it up but could not. Then something similar on the next drive to Ingold. Both guys got their hands under the ball and if you slow it down the balls between their chests and their hands, they just don't
finish the catch. But the location I thought was good because in traffic to guys like that, you want to throw a low to protect your receiver from a big hit. Although on the ingle one, crey Craft was open downfield and Tua can make that throw. I wish he would have tried it, but he didn't. A last we miss, he made a rip to Cedric for twelve yards where he surveyed the front side, didn't like it, snapped its head back backside, and rips a shot again on an
inbreaking route that settles Cedric down before contact. And that was a big theme in this game because the Raiders were all over those inbreaking routes, and he did a good job of settling guys down into zones to protect them. So tough good catch from Tedrick Wilson there and the only place we're going to get a completion from that location from Tua. Another example of process, location, release, all that stuff I thought he had savon on a wheel route on the play that he got tabbed for grounding.
Then the next drive he threw a swing away when I thought he had Tyreek on a second window, dig just a few things. I'm sure he'll go back and see on tape and be better for But all things told, not my favorite to a tape. I'd say this is probably my second worst game, behind the Giants game, or ahead of the Giants game, I guess. But again, that's a super high floor. And to go back to my point, this team just beats teams it's supposed to because of that high floor. Two is now twenty and five in
games the Dolphins are favored in. So it's nice to be able to have those misses but still get your explosives and win games as a result. PFF had him three for four on throws twenty yards downfielder more for eighty six yards. The miss was the pick. On throws ten plus yards eight for thirteen, one hundred and eight yards, one touchdown, one pick. When pressured, he was four for eight with sixty three yards. When blitzed, he was five for five with forty eight yards and two touchdowns. Probably
don't blitz that guy. Let's wrap up the offense here and talk about the eligibles.
Jalen Waddle.
I just love when he catches a screen, shows you the wheels and then lowers the shoulder and runs a safety over at the sideline and then just starts flexing. To his teammates and coaches, I talk about temperature changers on the show all the time, He's one of them. Man. There's a rhythm and pace to this guy, especially to his routes, to the way that he can tempo his routes. Like I saw someone talk about the difference between Jamar Chase coming out and this year's top prospect and Marvin
Harrison Junior. How Chase was going to melt your face off going one hundred miles an hour with pure physicality all game long. But Marv can like alter his pace and timing to find spots and zones and use the acceleration when he needs it. Wattle has a little bit of both of that. He caught a glance spout where he slow plays it then just hits the jets right when he turns around the corner around that hookbacker into a right on time with it. That's hard to stop when they can vary their.
Speed like that.
The very next play, he's got what I think is either a choice or just him selling run action. I'm not quite sure, but he climbs up to the linebacker like he's gonna block him, and then just puts his foot in the ground and breaks it to the outside before he engages, like foot in the ground, snap it off. The linebacker's like, what the hell. It's just such a fun route running combination to watch between he and Tyreek. If there's one thing I've been totally wrong on this
year about this team, it's Wattle's production. I call the breakout every damn game and we've only gotten it one time. But damn it, I'm gonna push back on the team here.
And say he's being underused.
I think that there's more meat on the bone there for mister Wattle hitting key blocks on cracked tosses on divine diablo a guy that has thirty pounds on him Like games like this is why Waddle is my favorite player in the nfl raheem moster, tough, running, smart, decision making quick. I thought he looked fresh off the bye week,
good lateral cuts, just ran smoothly all game. The thing I mentioned in the general portion how they had extra hats sometimes you know, the running back hats to beat those guys, And there was a handful of examples of him doing that, like he's manned up with Robert Splain in the gap and just makes him miss. Really good running from him all game long. The run before the Julian Hill fumble, drop the shoulder, run through your man, textbook stuff for him.
Great game from him, thought.
Alec Ingold consistently makes good decisions on where to go with his two way go block options, consistently wipes out a gap or a second level defender. Such a pardon my French, such an effing good player man. Julian Hill not his best game, whipped on some blocks, had inside help on Max Crosby and just let him split it for a pressure on Tuo that forced a check down that had an open Tyreek Hill twenty yards down the field,
or rather Wattle. It was Tyreek Hea threw the ball to in the check down, but Wattle's twenty yards downfield open and we can't get the ball off because of pressure on Julian Hill.
There.
I should have mentioned he was one on one with Max Crosby, but like, at least make him go the long way around, don't give up the inside post. I guess he's blocking to his help. So really just a failure offensively across the board, but he missed some key blocks in this game. I had the fumble as well.
Tyler Croft I.
Thought earned some more reps in the event that drum Smith cannot go. Some good work on the perimeter, primarily on the screen to waddle for nine yards offensive line. You know, Crosby switch sides both ways and they would slide away from Austin Jackson.
Like, think about that.
Austin's locking down isolation blocks one v one against some of the best rushers in football. That's pretty crazy. Let's go ahead and stay there, because the trajectory of.
This guy is just unreal.
You go from not knowing what you have at right tackle this camp, right, it was fair, a fair assessment to say he might not work out. Then he plays well and you're like, okay, they have a quality starting to right tackle all of a sudden, Then he keeps getting better, and now all of a sudden, you're like, is this is this one of the best right tackles in football? There it might be.
It might be one of those guys.
I'm willing to go there for his performance this season because after the game yesterday, like the ISO work, the fundamentals, the knowledge of space and what to do with his man. Max tried to win with a speed rush, so that AJ just went out there and lengthened the track and ran him all the way around the quarterback like he's playing super smart football. There's a rep on a Tyreek
reception where Tyree Wilson tries to crash inside. AJ shoots the hands and the feet follow just put a at typewriter and then the action goes back outside and he just changes directions and wait transfer and gets back out to the outside. Wilson tries to spin out there and it just chops him down and it takes it away. He's on balance, good panch, good punch, hands and feet working together. Austin like this gives me goosebumps talking about this because
this is my dude. We've been buddies since we both got here in twenty twenty. He's been through hell and back to the first three years of his career. To do this in year four. It speaks to his mental toughness, to his character. He's the kind of player that brings me pride. As weird as that sounds, I'm proud that he's on my team.
I love this guy. Great job.
Austin Toron Armstead some good but more bad than usual. Got beat by Malcolm Coots on that third and long holding call that wiped out a Raiders stop on us early in the game. I just wrote down because I haven't seen him get beat like that before. I thought he fell off some blocks more than usual in this game too. It's oddly not his best game here. Liam Eikenberg I thought was his best game as a Dolphin, but that.
Bar is not very high.
There was the usual ice skates and pass pro reps, but he got some some pretty good surge and some running plays and had some dents where he was creating some lanes. I thought our connectivity inside on games was as good as its bends as we lost both win and Hunt.
I thought Liam was a big part of that.
But again, like before the savonn Akhmed touchdown tool was sacked, or maybe it was a short game not a sack, but Liam just gets pulverized after over s heading to the right. It gives up the a gap inside excuse me, and ruined the entire play. Those are in there every single week. But if he can play at this level and we get rob hunt back and you have, you know,
one guy that's the replacement level. I think that's about the level of a swing interior play, like he can be your top guy off the bench and be okay for a few games.
That's her lineup.
But disappointing trajectory for a second round pick, but it is what it Lester Cotton.
Oh boy, not not a good game.
He had a reach block in the first play of the game but just overran it. The degree of difficulty wasn't very high on that and that was consistent throughout the course of the game. Just fell off blocks and situations where had he made the key block, it would put Raheem Moster one v one in the gap with a safety for like a long touchdown run, and if he gets three of those, I love his odds to hit at least one of them, at least one. It's a lot of mental stuff too, like motion removing second
level defenders. Then we're just out there taking terrible angles with those guys. Doesn't lend itself to success. The first level rob hunting this spot Liam back to left guard or hopefully Rob Jones soon or even win down the road. Obviously, to me, that's where the fixes come from. I'm not sure if we'll see the run game get back to levels it was. If this is the lap they have around there, and that's just something you're gonna have to overcome with other game planning and passing games.
So hopefully we'll see that change.
We'll see PFF numbers Tea stead one pressure caught in just the two Connor Williams, Liam Eichenberg, and Austin Jackson all had won apiece. In fact, the only hits in sacks that PFF attributes to the offensive line or to the team was to Tua, which makes sense because the sacks and pressures were placed where he held the ball longer than usual. Oh boy, long podcast, last break right here, We'll come back on the other side and talk about
the defense and the snap counts. That's next Draft Time Podcast to your host, Travis Wingfield, brought to you by it I don'tation.
Final segment on a Tuesday or Monday. What day is it all?
Twenty two edition of the Draft Time Podcast. Let's go ahead and wrap up the defense here, because man, the structures were just top notch all day long. The only real chunk plays they got came from bunches and stacks where they maybe didn't communicate it well enough on a banjo call and you would get a tight end leak out into the flat naked alone. First play of the game that happened. There was a third downplay on the second drive they were able to get Michael Meyer out into the flat unmanned.
He'd gained some yards doing that.
Then, of course the long DeVante Adams touchdown as well was a big gaff is there too, But Javon Hollin spoke to the media said it was a vision air and you just see him, Elliott, Ramsey and x all playing the sticks in quarters, the Raiders running a two man route combo with a little crosser action in the
middle of the field. Deshaun jumps the front side wide receiver who checks up and then it looks like Javaon is expecting him to run vertical because he slows down for just one step and that was all Adams needed. But it was a great throw by O'Connell. Didn't know he had that in his bag. Hats off to you, rookie. But yeah, that's the first long block that we'd been up in a long time. Here. I don't expect that it happened very much going forward either upfront Bradley Chubb.
Did you guys watch the YouTube breakdown? Yet like copy paste man run game pursued down the line as the unblocked man from the weak side setting the tackle wide to set the edge and then work back over the top to make the play. It happens time and time and time again. I think where you see the stats begin to pile up for him in terms of tackles is the fact that he can still play when engaged, like he can still get off those blocks. He has no problem just staying on the block until the action
eventually flows to him. Then he can disengage and get in on the stop. They did it a few times on Sunday also after the turnover on downs we had them backed up. They have a wide open drag route that comes open on a coverage bust. That would have been an easy conversion, but O'Connell misses the throw because Chubb gets in the in like two point one seconds and hits O'Connell's arm back to the run d real quick.
There's a rep where I laugh because a left tackle sets up and tries to pin him and Chubb goes in with the cross stab and the elt.
The left tackle just buckles.
Like he was sniped, and Halo it was funny to watch comical on tapes. To me, he had five pressures and three stops. Ray Kuan and Zach were both really good against the run. Pass rush wasn't really there for them in this game, but both got knocked back when singled and then held the point when they were doubled in double teams. Zach had a deflected pass and Rayquon had a great screen retrace in this game. Rayquon had a pressure and a stop. Seiler had four pressures and a stop in this game as well.
Second level players. Look, three of our top tapes were.
Defense, so a lot of these guys have already been taken off Christian Phillips and Ramsey, But David Long like he's the Tua of the defense. To me, I've never seen a Miami quarterback process like Tua does. I didn't have Marinos all twenty two, so I can't say that. But I've also never seen a linebacker key and go like this guy does.
Didn't have Zach Thomas either, did I.
But second play screenplay he beats everyone there and forces Adams back into the trash where Raykwan is there for that good retrace I mentioned. I always wind up loving the way he sinks into the trash and then kind of pulls an offensive lineman out of his gap or out of his track and then just creates enough separation between he and that guy to flow and go make a play. Just has a natural feel and knack for the position in for the game and is by far
our best off ball linebacker in the secondary. The perimeter tackling, but the Baker effort, I'm aware of it. It's not good enough, right, That's all it's gotta be said about that. The perimeter tackling in the secondary has been awesome. X coming downhill to dump Adams right away, rams that we
know about him, co who we know about him. But all this just makes you a tough to run wide on and b makes you nearly obsolete in the screen game and against these offenses with younger quarterbacks, which we're gonna see the next four weeks here, it's if you take that away, there's not much else they can go to consistently. It's the easiest way to give quarterbacks built in completions, and we shut that stuff down a lot,
Cater kohu the screen game work. I just like when players can use context clues from other parts of the field and Cater reads the screen action from what he sees playing out in front of him. That's the only way you can go as the quarterbacks hands separate is because of the process and how in real time you can see things play out that way. Then how about the third and eight rep one v one right before the halftime on their field goal attempt.
It's DeVante Adams with a two.
Shoot a little choice route. Why can I think of the words A three way go?
My bad?
And Cater stands on the upfield shoulder is all over it, jumps over the top, forces the incompletion, gets the field goal team out there. They targeted him five times, four catches, thirty six yards, thirty seven covered steps. I also thought Xaving Howard was in great position all game long. Thought Deshaun and x or Deshaun and Javon rather really communicated well after the deep ball to Devonte Adams. So that's your film review. Really good from the defense, really across
the board. Offense injuries are killing you at some spots. The interior offensive line play wasn't great, position wasn't great. Tua had more downs than ups than usual, but Waddle and Tyreek both were awesome, so that really helped big time there. Snap counts wise, the entire offensive line went a distance sort of.
The quarterback.
Waddle was the leading receiver. He's healthy, man, he looks good. I think he's gonna have a big second half of the season. Keeps saying it gonna happen eventually. But he played eighty three percent of the snaps. Tyreek played fifty nine percent of the snaps. Cedric Wilson actually out snapped Tyreek, he had sixty four percent of the snaps, and then Craig Craft played twenty one snaps and Chosen played five
snaps in the game. At running back, Mostert led the way with eighty percent of the workload, played fifty five snaps.
Geez, hopefully he's good to go for Friday. It's a big workload there.
And then Savon was next at twenty and of course eight Chan had three. Have to imagine we'll see Jeff Wilson on a Friday in New York. Ingold played fifty percent of the snaps, and then Julian Hill played two thirds of the snaps forty seven reps in total, and Tyler Croft gave you thirty percent of the snaps, so it just speaks the attrition. They're nothing to take away from that, really, just they're banged up man defensively though, really interesting change here, So five guys went the distance.
It's Holland, Baker, Ramsey, Elliott Howard, your entire secondary with your Mike linebacker there, but David Long was the one that left the field twenty eight snaps in the game, forty six percent of the workload, though that was strange to me. Up front, Wilkins played ninety five percent, and see they played eighty nine percent.
Those guys are crazy.
And then Ogma just played eleven percent of the snaps, like some of the stuff that he has to do in the scheme just does not really his game. So we'll see what it looks like going forward for him. Ray Kwan played thirty four percent of the snaps on the nose.
Cater played three coreters of.
The snaps seventy four percent in the game. Bradley Chubb and Phillips both played fifty two fifty four for Phillips fifty two for Chubb and then Deshaun han had three snaps, Riley had one, and Nick Needham had won in the game.
So it's there.
They're telling you who they like on either side of the football with the snap counts. But I think offensively, it's more about getting healthy and defensively, just keep these guys out there, man, because this unit we have right now, if it stays intact like this, we are going to be tough, tough to score on all right. Long a podcast there, subscribe, rate review, follow all that stuff, Fish Tank podcast. You guys know, the drill YouTube channel. Check
out my Bradley Chub breakdown. I got on the tellustrator and drew up some place for him to check that out on YouTube Bradley Chub Breakdown. Also the Media Availabilities and Dolphins Day and last but not least, Miami Dolphins dot com. So next time, pins up Carolin camberan daddy
He's coming home.