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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 to everybody? I am your host, Travis Wingfield. And on today's show, it's part two of the mid season review. We'll take a look at the defense, we'll hear from head coach Mike McDaniel, and get you ready for the second half of the season. From the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.
This is the Drive Time Podcast.
Hey got a little bit of news and notes for you guys before we dive into the second part of our two part mid season Miami Dolphins twenty twenty three review. Did the offense on Wednesday?
Had J. T. O.
Sullivan on the podcast on Friday, go back and check those out if you took the bye week off.
We'll go ahead and do defense today.
But first I want to go ahead and just start here and kind of have a wrap around look at the NFL in week number ten, which if you're keeping score at home, we'll get to Buffalo and Denver tonight. This podcast will be out before that game happens. So a perfect weekend beckons here for Miami. I mean, you could not have asked for any more. Baltimore losing a game that I thought they were going to cruise to victory in against say Cleveland team that quite frankly, I think is playing well above.
Its weight right now.
You get a Cincinnati lost to a Houston team that you know, Houston to me could potentially win the division. I think they're a better team than Jacksonville right now. And that same Jacksonville team lost to the San Francisco forty hours at home, thirty four to three, three points at home after I was told all, you know, last couple of weeks that was the true team that was not fraudulent. As much as I hate that word, but can you imagine the Dolphins scoring three points at home.
This year in a game? What the discourse would be about that?
But either way, the AFC North like just kind of looking at the landscape of the AFC like, to me, there's five teams that could make real, considerable noise in the AFC playoffs. They are Us, they are since they are Baltimore, they are Kansas City, and I'm gonna put Buffalo in there.
Even though I think there's an.
Outside shot Buffalo MISSUS the playoffs, I don't think they will. I think they're gonna get right back on track against the Jets next week. But I think those are the five teams that could really push their way through, you know, any circumstances they might see come the postseason, which could make for a crazy, you know, potential home and away scenario for whoever might get to that point of the season. And what I mean by that is, you know, I think this race for the two seed just opened wide
back up again. The Chiefs, to me, even with a tough schedule, I think they're gonna find their way to that one seed. And I think now all of a sudden, the week seventeen game in Baltimore, to me, for my money, could be for potentially the number two seed in the conference. And that's so critical because one you're gonna play the
seventh seed at home on wild card weekend. And I think that this year, because of this parody we have in the AFC and because of all these crazy results you're getting, I think you're gonna wind up seeing a team that probably doesn't belong in that position in that position. Think about last year, right the Dolphins squeaked by the Jets with Skyler Thompson and made the playoffs, and they, to me were the team that deserved that seven seed, despite the fact that at the time maybe they weren't
playing their best football. But a Pittsburgh team that had beaten all kinds of you know, also rans to squeak into a nine to eight record like they would have been that seventh seed, and they probably would have gone to Buffalo and gotten absolutely just trounced in that game. Every year, that seven seed seems to be a team that winds up getting in over a team that's better, right, Like,
that's kind of the beauty of the NFL. And so I look at this weekend and the way the AFC has played out, I could very easily see a situation where not the Jets, because I have a three in the Jets.
We'll get to here in a second. A team like the.
Steelers, for instance, who they are not. They're six and three and they have not outgained their opponent in a single game. That is wild, a wild stat It means they're not a very good team. Let just be honest about that. But they are six and three. If they get in over the Chargers, who would you rather have come here in the seven versus two game come January?
The Chargers of the Steelers. That's why I think that getting that two seed is going to be very important, on top of the fact that you then get the divisional round game in your house, regardless of what happens
across the other games. And if you get to that point, let's say you play the three seed, who in this scenario to me, comes down to the winner of Baldo More Cincinnati in the AFC North in that divisional round, and let's say the winner the loser of that divisional race becomes the five seed, and let's say they beat the AFC South champions So now you would have Miami hosting let's say Baltimore, and you would have Kansas City
hosting Cincinnati. You beat Baltimore, and then all of a sudden, you are a Bengals road victory and arrowhead which has happened multiple times in the past away from hosting the Bengals here in the AFC Championship games.
That makes sense.
I think that's why this weekend was so pivotal for Miami. I think it's so pivotal for Miami to win the next five games and put themselves at eleven to three in position to go get two of the final three and potentially get that second seed in the AFC playoffs, and then from there all the top s turvy potential outcomes. Who knows what it looks like, but I like Miami's chances, and especially with the way the results went this weekend
in the NFL. And my other two points I want to make on that real quick I texted this to my buddy Kyle Krabs locked on Dolphins.
I know you guys know this.
When you have a defensive team that plays top five defense for an entire season, but the offense cannot get out of its own way. And we've seen this before, right, Dolphins fans know this all too well that there is typically a trend that occurs where the defense begins to kind of the threads on the rope begin to snap a little bit. And I told Kyle, if the Jets lose this game to the Raiders on Sunday Night Football, I think there's a very real possibility that defense begins to unravel.
And we'll see what happens next week.
I think, all of a sudden, we are Jets fans against the Bills in that next week's game with Buffalo, I believe hosting the Jets the same week that we
host the Raiders. But if they lose that game and they fall to four and six and they are on this current pace of scoring basically one touchdown per game going back to last year with Zach Wilson, I think all of a sudden, the defense begins to get a little bit more tired, begins to get a little bit more complacent about that performance because I know we're four and six, we're playing you know, Tyreek. To score a touchdown against us. We're not going to be able to match out the rest of the game.
Like it's over. It's over for us, So I think it was critical from that standpoint.
I think the results of the AFC standings on Sunday were critical. And the last this point I want to make is we all got a chance to watch, you know, ten hours of commercial free football. Right, you guys saw the rest of the league. Where do you stack the Dolphins up against most those teams. I know we haven't won the big game. I know we've come up short against the biggest competitors on the schedule, But just watch the games, use your eyes, use common sense. What do
those games tell you? It told me that Miami's one of the best teams NFL. And it's not even like a conversation. So that's my How far are we were here? About eight minute dia tribe that I wasn't planning on doing, but that's that's where I'm at right now. Let's go ahead and get you the injury updates that McDaniel provided for us.
On Monday. Devon A.
Chan had his twenty one day window opened for activation back from ir. I suspect you will see him in the game on Sunday against the Raiders. We will not see Robert Hunt on the practice field on Monday. He was getting some additional work in off of the side, but I don't know that we'll see him for the game on Sunday. To me, if he has to set that game out and rest up for the Jets and
Quinn Williams inside, so be it. That works for me because also the Washington Commanders come up after that and they have Deron Payne and John and Allen, and the Titans have Jeffrey Simmons and then the Jets have Quinn Williams again. So the Raiders game, I can understand if he doesn't play that one and comes back in a couple of weeks. He said that both Rob Hunt and Rob Jones are week to week. We should see River
Craidcraft back this week as well. And for the Jalen Wonnnell folks out there, they're interested in how he's doing. I saw him catch a pass in practice and jump over like a six foot tall, like five foot withth gator rade structure thing that was out there holding. I don't know all the drinks, I guess, but he jumped over that thing like effortlessly, so he looks pretty good to go for me. All right, defensive review time here
on the podcast. Before we get to that, let's go ahead and hear from coach McDaniel, who was asked about the self scouting process this weekend and what this team can learn from a week off and a week away from the game.
Here's Coach McDaniel, less about x's and no's like from my seat from where I'm at with this team, I am very very happy about our pre bye week season.
And why is that?
Because we invested enough to the point that we've we've been able to, you know, win six out of nine games, that's the plus. But in the losses, we got something out of it each time, and that's because guys haven't ran from you know, guys really wanted to win each one of those games and we didn't, but in the process they've we're a different team because of it, because we've really held our held each other accountable and and
haven't ran from any of our failures. So the bye week, I just wanted us to pick up where we left off and not lose sight of the journey that we're in right in the middle of. But all those hours of direct focus of full and other commitment to you know, the things that you that everyone's cheered for on Sundays.
Those are things that.
We've earned through deliberate and deliberate practice and complete immersion into our individual work day. So the bye week allows you to get back to family. It is the biggest gap that you have with your team, Like we see each other every day besides the player day off for like six months straight.
There's a little break in that.
What I wanted, what was important to me is that we get back to exactly. We take advantage of the rest, but we build upon everything that we've really built in the first nine games, which has been unbelievable for this team for the journey.
I know in front of us.
And the six it's not as easy as the successes are positive and the negatives are negative. Like we we've got really good on on time training, real life training. This team has on the things that can that are going to hit us in the face moving forward, So that us getting back to work.
Us being fresh and us.
Remembering the start the first quarter or the first half of the process, being attached to that and doing right by all that work each and every day starting with today is what I prioritize and not the x's and no sense stuff will work into the meetings as the week progresses, with Wednesday starting.
It very interesting stuff there from coaches. Go ahead and take our first break right here and comeback on the other side.
We'll pick it up.
We'll talk about this Dolphins defense on the other side of the break. Your host, Travis Wingfield Draft Time Podcast brought to you by Auto Nation, Segment two on a Monday, we were gonna have a podcast for you guys tomorrow. My guest was not able to record with me, so we just took the day off.
That sound good. We have a.
Eight week stretch here to finish out the regular season, and then of course we'll have three or maybe four weeks of playoffootball for you guys after that as well. So we're gonna go ahead and just pick it up here on the stretch run. Let's go ahead and start off defensive rankings. Ahead of the week eleven game, the Dolphins are allowing three hundred and twenty two yards per game.
That is twelfth in the National Football League.
I think it's pretty cool that the last three games they've played the Chiefs the Patriots and the Eagles, and our third over those last three games, allowing just two hundred and eighty yards per game to those three offenses. Obviously, one of those offenses atrocious. Two of those are very very good. Twenty five points per game allows twenty fifth. That has to come down and will come down. Rushing yards per game one ozh six point two is thirteenth.
The three point nine yards per rush is twelfth best in the NFL, so the rushing defense is slightly above average. Passing defense two hundred and sixteen yards per game is twelve yards per play five point one. That's tied for eighteenth. That has to come down. That will come down. This is a number where I think Miami's gonna make a big swing. Nine takeaways is tied for twenty fourth. They have to get that number way up. Those are Rooki numbers.
You got to pump those numbers way up, and I think they will because Jalen Ramsey coming back changes the entire structure of the defensive coverage. I think our pass rush is really coming on, especially marrying up with the coverage, which means more forced passes, more forced fumbles and the like. They've allowed scores on thirty five point seven percent of the drives.
That's eighteenth best in the NFL.
So on the wrong half of the middle of the pack, twenty nine sacks are tied for fifth, their ninety three pressures are tied for fourth, or sixty eight QB hits are tied for third, So fifth, fourth, third. In terms of quarterback harassment, I suppose sixty seven point seven percent touchdown rate in the red zone thirtieth. That has to get infinitely better. And if we get those in games against Philly, against Buffalo, against KC, those games take on
a different complexion. So getting red zone stops have not been good for Miami. If it can turn around, it can lead to a big spark and a big turnaround for this Dolphins defense. Let's go ahead and take a look at each part of this roster here, starting with the interior defensive line. I think it was fair to be a little concerned early on a new system, a new approach, and guys had to get used to playing with a man down in a lot of those looks.
In terms of having one less man in the middle, with these lighter boxes, fewer zero techniques and one techniques in the game, which puts way more pressure on your three and four techniques. Think about zero technique is head up over the center, right your nose tackle. Your three technique goes out over the outside shoulder of either guard
when you have no one covering up the center. All of a sudden, that center can help on the three technique and give you easy doubles, or you can climb up to the second level and get your linebacker and wash that guy off.
So just I think you've seen it.
Kind of gel in recent games here the Dolphins, I think Sealer and Wilkins have raised their play, which changes the entire structure of the scheme and how it operates. Their ability to take on double teams has somehow gotten better in the scheme, But then they also still make their plays when they're given a chance to go one on one or to one gap penetrate. So the tackles might be down a bit for those guys in the stats category, but man, I think they're both having their
best years. And with Raykwan, I thought the KC game was one of his best as a Dolphin, and I like him over the nose and that base defense to beat a center one on one, not many other roles. I think he fits in here, but that's one that's gonna give you fifteen to twenty snaps a game of value if he can do that well. Coming into the season, we didn't know the depth what was gonna look like, and I think we still don't know. You know, Vic Fangio told us as much back in August. Deshan Han
played five snaps in that last game. We'll see about the depth individually. Wilkins. You know, I wish I could give you guys more of a nuanced take here, but it's more of the same for this guy. The way he reads, you know, and puts the physical skills to use to make those reads, like to make the mind really accentuate his game.
It's just fun to watch.
Like he rides the wave outside and makes those plays outside the numbers. He retraces screens, he can stack up against bigger guards. He is rushing the passer with a variety of moves and speed over both a tackle and guard. Just a great player man. Twenty eight pressures, four and a half sacks, twelve QB hits, five tackles for lost, eighteen stops. Wilkins betting on himself paying off big again with his production. Zach Seeler again, it's a broken record.
Nobody on this team takes on double teams the way Zach Sealer does. It's vital to this defensive front. He's just a ferocious run defender who beats you with brute strength. Has the similar read react skills that Christian Wilkins does, and I don't think he's quite as slippery, but his ability to get momentum going one way and using the grip strength and the leverage advantage, it's just so damn impressive, Like these two guys are so instrumental to what we do.
Twenty eight pressures for him, one QB hit, two TfL's, twenty one stops and four sacks for him, So those guys both getting their sack production. Their pass rush production for both Christian and Sealer has been fantastic. For Rakwan, you know, I was hoping he'd take more of a step this year as a three down player, but it's pretty clear what he is at the stage fifteen snaps
over the nose. But you need him because Christian and Zach have played four hundred and sixty snaps and Rayqwan's the next in rotation at two hundred and seventy eight, so we need him for those snaps like it's if he goes down, you're in trouble. But I like his work in that zero technique role against the Chiefs. Thought he gave Creed Humphrey all he could handle with that length that he offers. Ten pressures for him, a half sack this year, one QB hit, two TFLs, and a
couple of run stops in there as well. We've seen variety of players play those depth reps, right Brandon Peelee, who back on the practice squad, which is where I thought that was always going to go for him. He's played twenty nine snaps. I just never saw it with his game. Deshan hann has played one hundred and he's been the next guy. But I think that he's shown you the most pass rush in those roles. Five pressures
for him. I think that he's gonna be the guy that ends up giving you the most in the second half of the stretch of those next guys. And it wouldn't surprise me if at some point he actually took over Rayquan Davis's role. I'm not going to be on it, but I could see that we're gonna do something fun here called where Travis got it right, Where Travis got it wrong. Where I got it right was that ninety four and ninety two are both absolute monsters. But that's
not a surprise or even close to a bold take. Also, I told you that the UDFA wasn't gonna make a big impact this year. As much as I hate being right or being the guy that says you know, you know, actually you know what?
Real quick, let me go ahead and do a sidebar.
You ever noticed that when someone's coverage is billed as telling the truth, it's just trying to find negatives. Like, we can discuss the negative, but I'm not gonna like dwell on it and make it my entire brand.
I think it's dumb as hell.
You'll take someone like Tua and Tyree can try to nitpick great seasons. Right, Here's why it's not as great as you think it is. I tell you every week where things go wrong, but the whole here's why you should be concerned.
Nasan, that's done. We're not gonna do that here, be honest.
But when your brand is that you don't paint stuns, shine and rainbows, I bet you the coverage is.
Not good or knowledgeable. I don't know where Travis got it wrong.
I thought Raykwan might become more of a three down player this year, but still waiting on that freshman year production from Alabama from him.
Off the edge, talk about a good position group here.
My goodness, man, it took a while to see this group at full strength this year, right with the nagging injury of Jalen Phillips. But my goodness, have they taken it to the next level here behind he and Bradley chubb Bechubbs tied for the league and the league lead and force fumbles. He has a second four straight games. JP has won on three straight games. Van Gekle's been fantastic. We get edge production from both ninety four and ninety two.
Emmanuel Ogba hasn't played a whole lot this season, but you'd be hard pressed to find a better fourth most reps guy in the rotation than him. I think their ability to win one on one or just get pressure without blitzing is going to make this unit really pop off in the second half of the season. And finally, the run defense off the edge has been supreme. Just three point three yards per carry running off either tackle. That's third best in the NFL. And it starts for
me with Jalen Phillips. The stats don't say it, but I think he's one of the best edges in the NFL. The getoff combined with a secondary move and sheer power just makes him so much for any like style of play. Tackle like he can give any tackle that excels with speed or straight he can give them all fits that rep of him getting Orlando Brown to overset, cross face back inside and then just steamroll and run over Tray Smith. There aren't five guys in the NFL who can do that,
and he's one of them. He's already in the throwes B but I think he set up for a monster second half of the season, and he earns his pass rush with elite run defense reps so good in that department. He has twenty pressures despite missing half the first half of the season, three and a half sacks, six QB hits, two TfL sixteen stops. Fortunate to have Jalen Phillips here
in your lineup. Also fortunate to have Bradley Chubb. Finally, those immediate pressures are turning into sacks and fumble production. I don't think anything has changed outside of the circumstances and process finally producing results.
He's tough for anybody to face one on one.
He's got enough juice, and the way he angles around the corner, around the arc to get around that outside shoulder but then angle back to the quarterback is really special.
Good balance and lean.
He's an absolute force against the run a bowl when it comes to slant inside, and this guy takes the B gap like better than any defensive end in the league in my opinion. And he's played the coverage roles this defense has asked of its outside linebackers really really well. Thirty four pressures, six sacks, ten QB hits, seven TFLs, sixteen stops. Chubb has been awesome. So has Andrew Van Ginkel. I get more impressed by this dude every single year
in college. I knew he was fast as hell and had a good sense of spatial awareness and coverage, but he's added so much strength every.
Damn year to his game.
And you see in the way he defeats blocks, whether he's taking on a guard or a tight end coming across the formation on split flow. He can just ruin entire plays by side stepping those and going hitting the running backer, changing the course of the track of the running back. And then the speed he has off the edge is the best on the team in my opinion. Twenty two pressures, four sacks, ten QB hits, seven TfL, seventeen stops.
The numbers just keep on coming.
And then Emmanuel Ogbob hasn't been you know, his chance in the rotation with so many valuable pieces getting more run than he is, but he's as dependable as anybody on rundown plays off the edge. He's gotten the quarterback with two and a half sacks when he has gotten rush opportunities, and he can dent the edge of that length and strength. Nine pressures, two and a half sacks, three QB hits, one tackle for lost, two stops. And then Cam Good has been nearly exclusively special teams and
really good at that. But this position across the board I think has been one of the strengths of this Dolphins football team where Travis got it right. I believe i'd called this a top five edge group coming into the season.
I feel really good about that.
I feel good about saying the coverage getting much better than last year, would finally allow you to see the pass rush production from a stat standpoint where I got it wrong. Malik Reid didn't even make the team out a training camp. I thought he'd be a key part of the rotation, and maybe I oversold a little bit of Emmanuel Ogba's impact in this defense.
So there you go.
Before we get to the off ball linebackers want to play you another quick SoundBite here from Mike McDaniel, who was asked about the raiders current two to zero winning streak and how being happier in the locker room can potentially produce better results on the field. Really cool take here from coach because he takes it from that or you know, the question and expands upon it.
Well, I think that that is a I would love to know the statistics behind teams that make a coaching change in season, but it's it's it's not the first time it's ever happened, and it's not you know. I think that the thing that I always notice when it does occur, when you do have a coaching change and then you have immediate success followed by another game of success, is that you know the locker room feels uh something
of it's like an energy uh an anti divide. It galvanizes people, brings people together.
And you know, no one.
Likes to say bye to people that they know that they work. You know, I don't care what you say. Even if you're going through hard times, it's tough to
say goodbye to people. And when you do have that sort of change, I feel like people try to make it purposeful and come together as and it's a real it's a legitimate tool that makes teams very very dangerous because if you however it happens, if you can get a unit of players to work in one direction and play for each other, you're a very very dangerous team. In the National Football League, it is hard to get
to get wins. I think the the overall records of the of the teams and how you know, there's how many teams have three to five losses like.
The whole league.
That it's little things like that where teams are playing together that can really forced results that maybe some people aren't expecting.
So it's a it's a talented team.
They they they have well coached fundamentals in all three phases. And I think what you're seeing as a team that it means something to play each and every game because they're they they feel that much more a part of, you know, a part of the the journey when when you have as much adversity as one can have in the middle of the season, which is a staff change, So kudos.
I think it says a lot about the the players in the locker room. I think it.
Says a lot about uh, their their talent, but also the type of people that they have that they've been able to band together and rip off a couple of wins, which is the only thing that can make you feel better when you're when your system is kind of.
Un Speaking of being happy and having passion turn to results, nothing makes me happier than watching David Long play football and the passion I felt for him when he got to this football team was at an all time high. I think he is to the front seven what Gilen Ramsey is the secondary just makes everybody better. No one triggers in the running game ahead of time in the NFL like he does. No one does it, and he
goes and he gets it. It's so damn. Zach Thomas to me, I see something pre snap and I'm going cover me on the backside there, buddy, like you know Junior saying I used to do. I think his presence takes away a lot of what Bakers asked to do in terms of being the key man at the point of attack and not having to deal with the physical aspect of the game so much. The depth has not been as good as we hoped, but Long and Baker seemed to be really getting used to each other in
the middle. I thought early on they would sometimes fit the same gap, but now they're very coordinated on doing you know, the job that they are supposed to do individually here as advertised for David Long, so explosive, lightning, quick, first step, reckless, abandoned with how he beats blocks, whether it's physicality or taking on somebody with seven with you know has who has seventy five pounds on him in the weight department, or side stepping a back and pass protection,
just constantly so impressed.
But this guy, what a player he.
Is twenty one stops, leads a team with sixty three tackles, four TfL, three QB hits in a sack this year. Baker, I think has really come on the last few weeks that sideline the sideline speed, never slumps, he just gives you a little bit of pass rush. Has been a very sure tackle this year, except for those hook zone plays that I always getting mad about. But twenty one stops the interception, one and a half sacks, fifty two tackles, four QB hits, a TfL and of course a touchdown,
and then Duke a key special team's piece. And you know depth that you have to have because once again this position kind of thin. Beyond the top two guys. Haven't seen any of Channing Tindall this year aside from special teams. Nine total snaps on defense. We just don't go into the depth like we have in the past. Where I got it right. David Long total monster, and I still think Baker struggles to beat blocks and consistently overruns the hook zone and coverage where Travis got it wrong.
I thought changing Tindall would be a dude for us. This year just hasn't happened. Hasn't clicked for him.
He's young. Maybe it'll happen, but not this year.
Let's go ahead and take our last break right there, come back on the other side and do the secondary and get the heck out of here. That's next Draft Time podcast your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by I Dontation. We talked a little bit on the other side about the Raider locker room and being happy that Josh McDaniels is no longer there, and smoking cigars and winning football games even though they beat two of the worst teams the NFL.
In my opinion, it's still good for them, right, good for them to see that.
Let's go ahead and hear coach talk more about how he views happiness and how instrumental that can be to success with your job.
In particular in the world of football.
It's passion, and your happiness will always be unintended consequence of winning. But when you.
Can have passion.
Towards the otherwise what people would view as the monotonous or you know, when you can have that that's joyful, Like you know, sweating is hard. You see a lot of people sweating having fun and smiling, and to me, I see it. You know, it's something that you're I can tell the The question is kind of geared towards my philosophy because I do I do prioritize people being happy, but that's because I want them to be passionate, and I want them to be one hundred percent all in.
So to be one hundred percent all in, you you have to you have to you have to sit there and look to your side and notice that, Hey, my teammate is really busting his butt for me. You know, I'm gonna go that much harder. Oh, this is fun while we're doing it. I think there's something to be said about.
To be your best self. Uh, you have to be yourself.
So when you're trying to be yourself or it's it's fun being able to do your the passionate game that you dreamed about doing. When you're able to fully be yourself, I think that there's a part of it there, but it's not.
You know, it's not all.
It's not just directly correlated happiness or happy work environment equals I mean completely happy player.
The players want to win.
But if they think that they're doing something productive regardless of how hard it is, but that can help them win and and do all the things in their individual anti oriented goals, you're you're gonna you're gonna have a
more pleasant, more invested, more exuberant individual. And uh, you know so I think that that's a it's part of our jobs to create a situation where guys can feel like they can assert their best selves, because again, it makes no sense to me if we're asking guys to be their very best version of themselves, they have to find a balance of being themselves and also being constructive and focused.
So it can work.
Can be fun if you know that you're not going to be judged for that fun.
Yeah, I could not agree more.
That is.
Preaching to the choir there, coach, let's go ahead and pick it up here in the second Dary Jalen Ramsey, I mean the absolute man.
What else can you say?
Allows us to look similar pre snap and rotate to different stuff. Because if you want to go a man free and let him press the opposition's best, that works. If you want to play off and ask him to be the half man and quarter quarter half, which is a three high structure to prevent long balls, that works too.
He's just good at everything. I'm not sure how else to say it.
No stats here, because I don't really care about the one to two picks that DB's have out of their five hundred snaps at this stage of the season. But you know, judging a dB on picks is worse than judging a defensive lineman on sack.
So Ramsey awesome, Xavier Howard.
If last week was a sign of things to come, I think we're about to get the best run of games X we've seen since his Like all pro years, he ran vertically with guys in face, he bodied them up coming back down the stem.
He tackled well.
I think getting eyes in the quarterback and playing downhill is going to lead to a lot more takeaway production from X and the entire defense. Cater Co, who's the best perimeter run defending cornerback in football. For my money, I think we could see him be even more effective as a blitzer in the second half of the season because he's so good at it. I love letting him funnel with trail technique and to help super quick, super heavy, talented player. Cater is a much needed part of the
secondary thought. Eli Apple did a good job keeping things afloat when we were down Ramsey and at times X as well knew the defense didn't let the ball get behind him a lot a lot of catches, but wasn't a good shape to make plays after the fact. He was definitely the guy they went after and that was, you know, to be expected for a guy that join up in training camp. PFF has Javon holl As the
top graded safety. I don't care about that, but I think it tracks he and Jalen on the field together is just unfair because of what they do to process the game and they get off their landmarks and job responsibility to go make plays elsewhere is just elite. And I know that, like you know, Poop Fart is telling you he has to make more picks to be you know, but you don't. You need to ask poop far if he understands all of what Javon's role is on any given play. I bet you can't, but I digress. Javan
and Jalen make the system go. In my opinion, these guys are so critical to what the Dolphins do on defense. Deshaun Elliott maybe the under the radar signing of the offseason. His range has freed up Javon to do. But I just talked about so much. He's an imposing striker. I just love everything he's about. Absolute dog. And then you have a bunch of guys who have seen limited action and gosh, with this group, we just you know, mentioned
being healthy. How good does all this depth sound? First, I think that Nick Needham looked excellent, albeit in six snaps, in that dime role. I think he's perfect for that in this defense at this point.
Of his career.
First year, you're off the injury getting stronger every single week. Brandon Jones made his first start a few weeks back and was back at practicing after the Germany game, missing that game. Justin Bethel's a valuable slot depth piece and awesome special team piece as well. Elijah Campbell might be the best special team core guy on the club. I think Kelvin Joseph has operated in that role as well.
Perry Nickerson to a good developmental piece there. Where Travis got the secondary right, Javaon and Jalen Our monsters, the depth would be better and the stars would make our pass rush exponentially more productive. Where I got it wrong, I think Cateror has struggled more this year than I thought he would. I thought camps with that have an immediate impact as a rookie, and I did not expect Brandon Jones to, you know, be this slow to pick
up the system as he has. I think the defense is hitting at stride man like I mentioned in the red zone percentage, I think that will flip.
I think there will be a lot more takeaways.
They covered it up so well in case, but Mahomes played such a disciplined brand of football and the offense.
You know, if the offense had.
Kept it close earlier, maybe he does have to take more chances in that game. But I think you're seeing the system click. I think David Long has clicked. I think Wilkins and Seiler have clicked. I think the edge has been as advertised, and then Ramsey's ripple effect on the rest of the secondary. I could easily envision a scenario where over the next three months or the next couple of months worth of games here revisionist history looks back on some early season takes on the defense as
freezing cold takes. I think they'll be view the top ten unit baseline when we head into games post Christmas eve. I do have a concern note, and it's the depth. They're healthy right now, it won't stay that way. Obviously, only thirteen players play more than six snaps in the KC game. Vic told us all summer how he has some guys that he likes. I think that's an indictment
of the depth. And look, there are positions where it's good where you wouldn't take the primary guys off the field, But like corner is now good, but you don't need to see Apple Smith Bethel Nickerson since you have guys up right, same at safety and linebacker for that matter, I think they could use another edge rusher and a couple of bodies inside, probably a third safety as well, So we'll see.
How that pans out. As for today's show, that's gonna be my time.
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