Two on the move, Going Deep, Speedless past Hell.
From the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.
This is Drivetime with Travis Wingfield.
He's joy my hands in the playoffs.
What is up Dolphins? And welcome to the Drive Time Podcast. I am your host, Travis Wingfield. And on today's show, you've heard me say it a few times.
Football is back.
Day one of on field work is a rap and I'm gonna recap the stories of the day with all the practice notes in between. Tua and the quarterbacks, Tyreek and Raheem on the offense taking their next steps. John hu Smith on the way that he practices and You're gonna like it. Kalays Campbell on the defense and how it shined today. Jalen Ramsey on playing with another nine year vet in Kendall Fuller across from him, and of course all the practice notes and the latest news and
updates from head coach Mike McDaniel. From the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.
This is.
The Drive Time Podcast.
Number one rule in broadcasting, play the hits and I know we all want the latest on the contract situation of QB one two A tunga bi looa. He's here, he's practicing, he dazzled as he tends to do. We'll cover that in just a moment, but first let's go ahead and play some sound from coach McDaniel on his outlook and the relationship he and Tongue Bioa share and how it's unaffected by any of the contract situation.
You know, it's important for me as the head coach and my connection with the players and what my bottom line job is to maximize the abilities that I know where my place is in my relationship with him.
I'm not involved in those things.
My job is to focus on him, him getting better solely. I think in terms of uh hedging, Uh you know, I I know, I know as an organization, uh you know, we've priority prioritized it by entering in negotiations a long time ago whenever that started. You know, that's that by doing that, you know, and and I think it speaks to it speaks to kind of how important it is both sides that they're relentlessly working on it.
Great things take time, you know.
I don't think the one thing that's come about this whole process is I am very, very confident in my relationship with two and how he under he can separate the business entity from uh, you know, the ultimate he knows.
Any any way you cut it.
Our focus has to be on what it looks like when he's playing football.
Mostly seven on seven work for Tua and one period of team drills eleven on eleven, which was the formula we saw back in OTAs. And so I mean some players hold out, some players hold in. Tua is here working while his contract gets resolved. And it's kind of funny because I talked about the incremental improvements in mechanics, release gas, easy gas on those throws, and I get the natural inclination to ask, what happens if this, and this being what if he were to miss a practice
or a week. What if he's not practicing until the Atlanta week or after the Falcons game and misses a preseason game that he's probably not going to play in anyways, Well he is, which we got that resolve today. But I wanted to lead with this because all you had to do if you wanted to put any concerns about Tua's mindset or perceived lack of participation and how that might have impacted his game. All you had to do was watch a period of practice to see what we've
been seeing all off season program with this guy. Because what an absolute clinic he put on throwing the seven on seven passes, like an absolute clinic of timing, anticipation, accuracy, and really showing you the five pitches as it were in his arsenal that he can locate for strikes and also waste pitches in timely spots, which doesn't really apply to a baseball analogy for a quarterback because you don't
want to waste throws. But I digress, and what I'm saying is this guy has every pitch that you need
in the back. He threw a honey hole shot right the essential cover two beater where you fit the ball into the corner underneath the safety over the top of the corner with that safety either in half field or third field coverage where they're focused on the perimeter between the hash and the premi and that makes it a tough window, and they're closing down on that sideline trying to decrease the window for the quarterback and receiver, which you then have to really hit well on your timing throws.
And I was sitting up next to the great Oj McDuffie, and we were watching these and he kept saying like, wow, great throw, and he was I was like, that's you know, that's too was Bread and butter Man. That's where he excels AND's like, well, Danny did that stuff too. I'm like, yeah, I like comparing him to Dan Marino because Dan Marino is probably the best to ever do it. So if
you're doing that, you're doing something right. He ripped this fifteen yard throw that got over the top of the cornerback and then had that little humpback action where it descends before the safety gets over the top to make a play on the football. He threw one ball to Tyreek Hill where it was two steps before the break, which I'm used to the ball coming out like on the step before the break, but this one just seemed
super early. And I kind of feel like you got the sense that as we've discussed over the last two years, remember year one, all those deep shots that we had for a big play, like Tyreek kind of caught those on the back shoulder pad. Advanced to twenty twenty three, and all of a sudden, he's catching them in the
bread basket and taking off even quicker. I feel like the next evolution of timing and ball placement showed up today because he just kept putting these balls on Tyreek Hill in a way that just seems like mathematically impossible when you factor in how early you have have to anticipate it and how fast and how quick Tyreek moves to make that all time up and be in sync
with each other. He threw a touch pass up the sideline to Devon Achan for a big game on a little wheel route where he put the ball right in the bread basket on a full sprint to another guy who also runs a sub four three forty not easy to do now. I also saw him in individual drills, which is throwing on air, of course, but just ripping these thirty yard frozen ropes where the ball's jumping off of his hand and quite frankly, I haven't seen that
type of gas on his throws in the past. I saw him throw a strike to Eric Azuokama along the perimeter where the corner undercut it and tried to make a play, but Tua being Tua, throws this pass high and away that gives Azukama a chance to extend and high point the football and the corner couldn't get a hand on it, and it turns out to be a completion. He hit in breakers on time slants in the second window.
In the first window, RPO looks putting his guys into space after the throw, and then his last throw of the day was the sour note, but not really his fault. I do think that Sarandiel made a hell of a play on this football, but he rips this shot into tight coverage that deflected off the chest or shoulder area of Brax and Barrios and Zeke Vandenberg. Johnny on the spot was there to make a diving catch before it
hit the ground. Great catch, but just a sharp day from quarterback, one that really accentuates where he worked this offseason on the v low on the quicker release, which is kind of hard to believe, right, Like, Oh, Randy Johnson's fastball just got faster. That seems like a problem for the opposition.
So that's the hit.
Let's move to the next thing here, And I want to talk about this collection of soundbites. And I say this all the time, right, Nothing beats confirmation on thoughts or takes you have in this industry from players and coaches, because who else would you rather measure your work right?
Your homework that you do.
Like the test, the grade you get is what the coaches and players tell you about your test that you took. And anyone who asked me all offseason what I think of the offense. I just did a radio hit for the Raiders in Vegas and I was like, I think this offense can literally challenge the points record because of the additions they made to round out the weaknesses we discovered down the stretch last season. And I just think they are vastly more dangerous because of the additional.
Weapons that they added here.
And even before you get to the personnel, notice the theme there talking about Tua of all the balls to the perimeter. You pull up our tape last year in games that we didn't win, games where I thought the defense had good game plans, like the Titans game for instance, like cover your eyes and ears if you don't want
to hear about that game. But though Titans would pull their weak side corner into this almost will backer position to help fit and convert into a to insert versus the run, and that would open up this backside speed out route that we never really got to and I would wager I would I can't do that, but if in my mind, I would wager the coaches saw this this offseason and wanted to include it in the emphasis of forcing defenses to defend every blade of grass on
the football field. I also saw Tyreek run a static hookup route, which is kind of against the general offensive philosophy of this Shanahan tree in the versions of the Shanahan tree that have branched off of it. But if that's what's there, and it's third and four, and let's say they tilt the coverage to put a roof on waddle or put a roof on the route, they think that Reek is going to run down the field. Okay, let's throw a five yard hookup to our best player.
It might not be an explosive play or a highlight play, but you know what, it keeps you on the field. The longer you're on the field, the more chances you have to hit big plays. So I love the idea, I love the execution on day one, and in fact, Tyreek Hill on Tuesday address this at his press conference about the added weapons and how he believes that helps the Dolphins sustain more drives and accomplish everything we just talked about.
Well, for us man going back and just looking at all of it from a veteran standpoint, I feel like we have to be able to stay on the field.
You know.
Third downs are like huge downs for us. Like for us, it's either boom or bus. Like we one of those teams that like we don't got the long ball. It's like, uh, oh, hell, he's gonna be a long game. So for us, having a target like Obj, having a guy like Joe Newsmith in our on our team that can help extend those drives are gonna be huge.
You know.
Even having you know, a healthy a chain, having a healthy waddle, having a healthy myself, having a healthy moster you know, helps all the day, you know. And that's one thing that I know that that's what we took head on as an individual group, as an individual offense without the coaches. It's like, hey, here's what we're gonna get better at, you know, outside of what the coaches got, Here's what we think we need to get better at to help this team moving forward.
So I think.
Just being able to extend drives, you know, have those twelve play drives. Have those ten play drives versus having a five plate and under drive where it's like, oh, he hits Wada on a seventy five yard post and it's like, oh, strike up the band, and it's like, bro, we can't do that every game. Unfortunately, we can't. As fast as we are and as much as people want to tell us how special we are, we can't do that. We got to be able to, you know, have good drives.
So that's what we believe we got to get better at.
So you heard him mention Odell and obviously John hus Smith there, John who caught a couple of passes today and the first one that he caught there was more contact than I think I've seen in a day one of non padded practice in terms of guys flying around a little bit, like some safeties were getting close on some of these tight window throws and tagging.
Off a little bit, I suppose.
But one of the things I saw that really impressed me was John hus Smith catching a pass. And this is very very much in the Shanahan offensive system, the McDaniel offensive system, a core coaching point, catch the ball and get the hell up field man, don't go sideways, get upfield and maximize the yards and run to space, run to daylight. And that's what John H. Smith's entire game is. And that's what he did on the very first touch of twenty twenty four as a member of
the Aqua Orange. He drops the shoulder into the safety and like I think it was Elijah Campbell, I can remember who was exactly. He kind of like closed down and then like saw that John wu was all about business and get off the tracks because here comes big number nine steamrolling down the field and then he ran and weaved his way through traffic all the way to the end zone. I saw him do the exact same
thing on the second catch he made. Then I saw Tanner Connor catch a pass and that and Connor's got some wiggle man he can he can go, And.
Then he did it again.
So I asked John new Smith after practice, I saw four balls go to tight ends and all four of them ended up in the end zone after the catch. Is that a tight end room directive? Did you bring that here? I know your game is yack, but I'm curious what the coaching point or maybe what you have imparted personally on the tight end room. Let's go back to Johnny Smith here to hear his thoughts.
And you know, we all, like I said, we all out here. You know, we all here trying to be the best version of ourselves. Man. So you know me and my career, I've made my name and and and establishing an identity for myself in this league with my run after the catch. So that's something I just trying to continue to rep as much as I can every time I get the opportunity. Each individual player has their own goals and minds on how they.
Feel like they should practice.
That's just the way I feel I should practice.
I know it's day one, and I was excited as hell about this guy when we got him. But I could definitely definitely see us looking back around Christmas time and being like, oh yeah, John new Smith was like the difference, the addition on offense that really took this offense and fixed some of its woes from a season to go. I wanted to also put this SoundBite to sort of put a bow on this point and take us into our next one.
Here.
I asked Rahim most of the exact same thing basically about you know, the transition into the third year of the offense, but how it evolves and what is next for this offense. Let's go ahead and go to the Dolphins all time single season touchdown record holder.
I'm very excited for this offense. You know, last year we left a lot of I felt like we left a lot of meat out on the bone and in regards to plays and yards, and we were still the
number one offense in the league. Now that we add the additions of you know, John New and Odell and and getting all these key players back, it's definitely it's definitely an exciting moment to be able to go out here and you know, high flying offense, have fun run around and you know, become even even better than we were last year.
And then on top of Beckham and John who I keep making sure to add a second year eight Chan into the equation because this time last year, like I think the Dolphins.
Knew what they had, But did fans know about Devon h Chen.
He didn't even play in the opener against the Chargers, right, so he didn't really know what you had there. And then week three you sure as hell knew what you had there. But I think that he is the next star playmaker in the league, a guy that if it was you know, two thousand and nine again, he could do what Chris Johnson did and run for two thousand yards if he got the appropriate workload. I digress on
that point, but I mentioned the catch early on. He also hit a run where he wound his way through the traffic in the first and second level. He got to the backside of the blocking, which if Devon h Chen successfully presses front side and gets backside, like, you might want to get the field goal blocked team out there because he's probably gonna score a touchdown. But he got through this thing to the backside, wiggled through the backers, and then the way he excels off of those cuts.
I talk about it all the time. The flat Stanley comparison is so damn true because this guy splits defenders without losing acceleration, and he does it off of these cuts. It makes him look like the Swiss Bob sled team in Cool Runnings versus the first time the Jamaicans get on the ice, Remember how they couldn't walk and John Candy's trying to teach him how to walk on the ice, Like this guy is just Einsviein's dry splitting defenders getting all the way down the field for a sixty five
yard touchdown run. I'm not sure the defense would agree it was a touchdown, but based upon his tape what I know from this guy, I think he scores in the play. So more home runs from Devon Chien. And while those additional incumbent and expected bigger role players are great, we do still have two of the top ten receivers in the National Football League right and they both got after it. So Tyreek uncovers deep on a shot from rookie Gavin Hardison, who learned a lesson today. Gavin Harrison
learned a lesson. You better throw the deep shot early to Tyreek because he got behind the defense and Gavin didn't throw it until I don't know, thirty or forty yards down the field. You have to throw that thing within ten to fifteen yards or else he's gonna outrun it and then you're gonna get coverage that finds it and it turns into a And that's exactly what happened. Only the pick got dropped by rookie Jason McRae, so
Tyreek got deep. He caught the first ball of practicing the hookup r I'm talking about.
He just kept making plays. Then he called the day later on and kind of with Tua.
He got some reps with the two, three and four quarterbacks, but it was less than it was with Tua early on. The other player as involved early was Jalen Waddle, and my goodness, he caught this quick hitter from Tua where I think we would have had a chance to see the rookie year Waddle catch against the Panthers where he ripped off like fifty eight yards and it looked like he was in fast forward compared to everybody else in the field. He did the exact same thing in this practice.
He also had maybe my favorite rep of the day when he had this sick release uncovered off the press, stacked and broke inside and the ball from Hartisin was way up the ladder. And I've seen him do this before and we kind of got used to him over the course of his career body catching. Even when he elevates for fifty to fifty balls, those days are gone, man.
We talked about it on the podcast.
With those workout videos he posts over the course of the summer, he's catching the football with his hands now and it looks very natural and he's plucking it. He's got strong hands. He climbed the ladder. I don't remember what his vertical jump was at the combine. He didn't he didn't have a combine workouts right because it was the pandemic year. But he jumped like thirty five inches
to snatch this thing. And then you know when you were a kid and you had the hot wheels toys where you pull it back and then let it go and it takes off because of the I don't know the mechanics behind that, the science because I don't know science, but it looked like one of those cars. Like he hit the ground and just took off running immediately. Pure speed and electricity from the Penguin, from Jada, from Dubski. He also made a tough catch in traffic where he
kind of got popped by Jordan Poyer. Hey don't do that, but hung on as he went to the ground, and really the first team offense and you guys like, not the first team exactly, but Reek waddle to a chan John or those guys were rolling. But the defense turned the tide very quickly in this practice, and I don't have specific offenseive line evaluations. I'll talk about it here in a second, but they got their butts handed to them against the pass rush, and the pass rush made
life very difficult on the other quarterbacks. Four picks, a handful of sacks I think I had five on the day, and forcing some very erratic decisions and throwers to put the ball in harm's way. Really tough day for the rookie Gavin Harrison. I thought Skylar Thompson had a tough day. Mike White made some plays, but the defense got after those guys. Let's go ahead and cover that after our first break here on the Draft Time podcast, your host
Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. After a strong start from the offense, the defense really put the clamps on the day and ultimately won it in a landslide. There were a couple of quarterback center exchanges failed, which I'm kind of glad the fans were not heard to see that because it's probably all they would talk about, and rightfully so, it's kind of frustrating. It killed some
drives last year, some big drafts for that matter. And the first one was the first play of the day with Tua and Aaron Brewer, so get that cleaned up. Then we had Gavin Harrison had one, I believe Scholar Thompson had two. Come on, now, let's go get this stuff put together. But with regard to the offensive line in the pass rush, it was a constant barrage of different rushes and looks and blitzes that got after them, And I don't think it was necessarily being physically overmatched.
And again, grain of salt, because these guys don't have pads on, so it is technique. It is a little bit of a scheme idea. And we saw this in the spring where the defense kind of got their butts
handed them at times. And I almost feel like this was that like third or fourth day camp last year when the defense just unleashed hell and had like fourteen sacks in the indoor facility and all you heard about was how the Dolphins offensive line cannot compete, and then they went on to like break records for most yards through X amount of games.
But I digress.
I think this was a feather in the cap of the defense because to me, it looked like Weaver was as advertised.
On day one.
We talked to Klay As Campbell about this who gave us I think so far, we've talked to Ted Winn, you know great Ex's Nosrider, We to Sean Sayeb, We've talked to Brett Coleman. We've talked to a lot of guys about what this defense might look like under Anthony Weaver. And those are all great testimonials and great podcast guests. But who knows better than Kalayas Campbell, who played in this defense for two years and now is here in
the meeting rooms with Coach Weaver. Let's go ahead and run a SoundBite here from what exactly this defense should do or what's the expectation of it under Coach Weaver in terms of the structure and how things are ran.
Well, I mean, I don't really think it's that difficult. I think it's really just understanding the terminology or understanding kind of all the different things we can do and it get into a place where we can play free. And I think they did a really good job in the spring of really getting guys prepared. I could tell, like, especially in a D line room, it's a clear understanding of what we want to do and what we can do. You know, guy like Sieler. He's just a very sworitable
guy and understands at high level. And we already talking about things we can do when we're out there together, and so it's kind of kind of cool to see another like brilliant mind that understands the game at the high level. But you know, I mean this defense is
a very very interesting defense. You know, it's hard for office coordinators because we could just do so much and we could do some things that like you know, looks so different, but it's kind of similar, and just you could throw a lot of wrenches in the game plan just by small adjustments and so real the core defense, you know, I think coach Weave is you know, another guy who just you know, he gets it, understands you know, at high level on how to take advantage of it.
And I'm excited to go out there.
Could be for I mean, really a confirmation of the podcast we just talked about, right, because those guys said the exact same thing. So again, you love to get confirmation here on your own show from what you or your guests have promoted to Dolphins fans all over the world. Something else I loved every time they weren't on the field, Zach Steeler and Kaleis Campbell were talking on the sideline we have a new Salt and pepper. I'm won't go that far, but I think they're gonna be a really
good tandem as far as they're play on the field. Kalaiis, as you heard, told us he was picking Stealer's brain and vice versa. Kalaias was also asked a follow up out the identity on the defense. Let's go ahead and hear one more SoundBite from the mayor himself, mister bass in his voice.
Kalay Is camera, Yeah, I mean the style of defense is really built off of, you know, off of being able to blitz different ways. You know, a lot of simulated pressures and then you know, then you know full out pressures and uh, you know, making it a lootle look like you're blitzing, but you're really not. You're only rushing four. But you know, from an office of mindset, it's a blitz because you know, you guy's dropped a lot of d linemen dropped. You know, I've almost kind
of a couple of picks in his defense. You know I've dropped a few, but you know, bad balls I take a PVU, you know, but this defense is unique in the sense that, like anybody can do anything any given time.
So I think constructing this thing, this defense around Jalen Ramsey, which you know we talked about last year, Like you kind of pigeonholed Ramsey last year and he didn't like it too much, right because he got one day when X was down and I think we were down Javon Holling against the New York Jets where Ramsey did shadow the Jets' best receiver and what did he do but go up against him for twenty four reps and not allow a single reception. I think that is smart when you need it.
But I think.
We're Ramsey's true skill set, and I go back to the Jordan rod Reeg podcast from a year and a half ago, is implementing him as somebody the offense must
contend with. And you can do that by aligning him in these star positions, in these buck linebacker positions, in these money linebacker positions, from spots where he has to be accounted for because of how he can change with motion, how he can change his role, how he can play in the box and blitz the quarterback, how he can play off the football and give you, you know, deep third coverage if you want to. He is, I think because he got hurt last year and didn't really play
in camp. I think today was like our twenty twenty two Tyreek Hill reckoning in terms of what Ramsey can do for your football team, not just from his performance but the standard he sets because I saw him doing what he was doing for the Rams, which is literally
everything I just talked about. He shut down a play with an effective run at the quarterback, which was cool because we saw them going through these individual reps and individual in the indie period of practice, and then they were trying to you know, blitz these defensive backs off the edge and go get the ball off the quarterback's hand, and all the dbs would line up and kind of rush like a true edge, like an edge or a linebacker that you know, stands up in the two point
stance and goes after the quarterback. But when Ramsey came up, when you guys played Madden young, when you were younger, I guess college football, now, remember how you could turn off off sides and then you would just run your guy full speed and he would have a running start to the to the backfield. That's kind of what Ramsey did, but he timed it up where he crept the line and just explodes off the snap and goes zero to sixty after the ball. And then he did the exact
same thing and team for a would be sack. He just pulled up and watched the play for a long side the quarterback, which I found pretty funny because like, I would have sacked you, but go ahead and do your thing.
Do what you gotta do here, big Doug.
He also had a great coverage rep where he was all over Brax and Barrios and forced him out of bounds before he'd get the feet down on the toe tap catch. He shut down a short window throw in front of him. He came up and I mean, it's tag off, but he would have knocked down this flat route for an effective stuff. He also broke up a pass working over the middle. He did everything and then Kendall Fuller off of another Jalen Ramsey blitz where I think there was a you know he's gonna blitz this edge.
The quarterback's gonna be hot to your side.
Fuller squatted and drove on this ball from I think it was hardest into Azuokama.
I forget.
It's so hard to watch ninety one guys, dude, but you could see the instincts on display because Fuller jumped it, got his hands on it, and dropped the pick six. But gosh, those two guys have been talking about him all offseason. They were as advertised on day one. I'm just so surprised. Maybe I shouldn't be, maybe I shouldn't be about this, but I guess my prediction, and these tend to be wrong most of the time anyways, for people in this sport, because you cannot predict the NFL.
But I kind of thought like the offense would have to carry this team through the first month or so as guys got back from their injuries. As they incorporated, the system made up more second nature, kind of like last year, right that Charger game. The defense didn't do a damn thing in that game until the very end. Or I guess they'd pretty good against Denver, but you know what I'm talking about. They did the Panther game
forty two points in that game. They just kept on rolling up points after points, and I kind of thought that might be the same idea this year, and it might still be it's freaking day one of camp, but the defense looked so well orchestrated, like when they would blitz, they knew where the hats were and just had answers to what those the quarterback's answers were. And to me, that's the product of having these star cornerbacks who were versatile because you don't know where they're gonna go, where
they're gonna play, what the role is gonna be. Go watch the Buffalo Bills, and they are so good at this because it's kind of how Sean McDermott teaches it from his days back to the Panthers, but now with the Buffalo Bills and his days. You know what, I
almost took a McDermott joke there. I'm gonna I'm not gonna do that with with Taron Johnson and Trey White previously, but also now with Rasuell Douglass and then Christian Benford along with with what they have there in the defensive backfield, they know when they're going to force a hot throw, what that hot throw probably has to be. Right. They're sort of Kendall Fuller, and they put themselves in position
to make plays. I saw that all day today. So I asked Jalen Ramsey about this, like, what is the benefit of having a pair of nine year veteran corners, Like it kind of seems like you and Kendall Fuller share some strengths in terms of your instincts, and he was like, we have more strengths on that, Like, I know you do, big dog, I trust me, I know, but I'm curious how those mental reps that you guys have had for nine years can help this defense really thrive.
Let's go ahead and go to the Dolphins star cornerback Jailen Ramsey.
I would say, so, I mean, just the more you played it, more comfortable you give it the game, the more comfortable you get with concepts and knowing what you want to accomplish within the defensive game.
So so to put this whole puzzle together here, man, like these pressures and simulated pressure looks that Klays Campbell talked about, it just confused the crap out of these quarterbacks. And again it wasn't too too it ever got hit by this because he wasn't out there for that period, which I think changes the equation. And it kind of reminds me of a couple of years ago when two we just kept going after a banged up deft and just shreded him every single day in practice.
It's like, is this defense going to be any good back in twenty twenty one.
I think the defense took advantage of the fact that we had some young quarterbacks out there in this practice, because it's not even like an individual thing, like it's just like constantly freeing up these runners that came after the quarterback. There was a snap issues. I thought the offensive line in general had a pretty rough day. I thought they got after Liam a little bit. I thought they got after Kendall a little bit at the left
tackle position. I thought they got after some of the other reserve guys on the inside, like some of the udfas Andrew Meyer and Matthew Jones.
I thought got beat a couple of times.
I did think that Jack Driscoll had some good work in terms of anchoring and dealing with some spin moves and some of the different slants and games they threw at him, but it was a bit of a struggle. I thought Ryan Hayes had a good day too at the right tackle position. More on that here in a second. But the simulated pressures, and these blitzers just got after
the Dolphins all day long. That the blitzing defensive backs, it seemed like they were just pushing all the right buttons on defense to keep the offense guessing and never really quite got together as to what they were seeing from the defense's plan. What else do we have here?
I thought Jordan Poyer was as advertised. He had that explosive comment he made on Tuesday about the Dolphins in tight situations and hopefully his presence and acknowledging that can help the Dolphins get over this idea that you know, in these big games, maybe they're a little bit soft.
It's kind of what he said.
But coach addressed that and his Wednesday press conference and basically said, like, doesn't mean anything. Now we have to go out and prove that's off the case. But I thought he was as advertised with his play on the field, had the big interception that he made, It was there for a couple of would be big collisions, and I just think there's a bit of a tone setter there
in his presence. I just really appreciate players who know what they're seeing and they play fast because of it, because it's so tough and so valuable to be able to anticipate and just no ball so well that you can see what you know, a quarterback like to a or a mine like Mike McDaniel and Frank Smith. What they're thinking to be able to beat those guys between the ears is just so impressive. Him, Nick Needham, Saran Neil,
and Zeke Vanderberg had the four picks. I will say Neil's pick came like way after the play was over, so I don't even know if it counts, but he got one. And since I know you'll ask about the interception count, Tua had the one, Harrison had two, and Skylar Thompson had one.
What else? So no, David Long, We'll talk about that here in a second.
But I thought the linebackers played really really well without kind of the captain of the group. And I think that there might be another captain, not not a new captain, but an additional captain to go along with David Long, because I think that Jordan Brooks is very, very good
and they were. He and Anthony Walker Junior really compliment each other's skill sets, and I think that Walker also compliments David Long too, So you kind of have Walker as this fit guy right the landon Roberts B gap to B gap, go knock someone's head off in the inside run game. And maybe some pressures where you can disrupt the interior blocking scheme. And then we get the speed on the edge with Chop Robinson to get more pressure.
Like there's all these different ways to do this. And then Jordan Brooks is kind of a scrape guy where he kind of reads and reacts and gets around the blocks and doesn't have to necessarily deconstruct or take him on physically, kind of like David Long and I thought they worked in very good tandem doing that all day long. Like these the ones, really the ones across the board for offense and defense, were just kind of kicking ass
all day. Quintin Bell was a guy that was at the top of my notebook and usually, like I get it, you guys probably want to hear about Tyreek and Ramsey and all these star players, but I like finding out about these other guys. Man Quintin Bell was all over the field, made a big run stuff, shedding a block of Liam Eichenberg. He later teamed up with Isaiah macfer run stuff on one of the bad snaps. He was
the first guy back in the backfield. The defense does this thing where when they deemed the play dead and there's guys around the ball, they like peel off and sprint back, and usually the guys that begin to sprint back first are the ones that made the play. Fifty six was constantly springing back off of the spot all day long. Had a great day. Chop Robinson had. I don't know if it was a sack, probably a pressure
that forced to throw away. He and Cam Brown met at the quarterback for a pressure later on in practice, and that chop burst was on display, and Cam Brown's length was on display as well. Emmanuel Ogba looking strange as hell to me in a fifty one jersey, number ninety one. Usually that blocks into Sean Han. Now he had a sack in his return to the Miami Dolphins. Really nice block deconstruction. I think it was his patented cross chop that he threw out there, which he does
as well as anybody in the National Football League. So yeah, man, fun, fun day. My Gusto is strong here on day one. I hope I can maintain this for the next twenty eight days or whatever it is. But fun day of training camp. We have more practices coming your way tomorrow and Friday, Saturday off and then Sunday you guys are back the fans back in the stands.
Fun day.
As kalay As Campbell said, this is the worst they will be as the work, as they work to get better every single day, this should be the worst they'll be all season long. Let's go ahead and take our last break right there and come back with the extra points to finish up the podcast. Here a few extra
points that I want to make. That's next Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by AutoNation, So that's gonna be the theme of the podcast here on the camp recaps, I suppose offense, Defense, then extra points. Just kind of some additional notes that didn't make it into the storylines. But I mentioned the nice catch from Eric Azukama.
He continues to.
Just like look wiry to me, like the way he kind of moves around. He's springy, he makes some fun catches, and he has a big playability man. I mentioned Tanner Connors right after the catch. He just looked fast, like he looked twitchy, and his ability to run at his size. I think is a benefit on special teams, but also if he can, you know, get the damn ball in his hands, that helps to I really like the way Jack Driscoll anchored on reps against games and guys that
were trying to cross face on him. I thought he showed good balance and patience and timing up his feet and his hands in the punch. And then I thought Bidron Metos had some really impressive reps. And sometimes when you're that large, it just kind of falls into place for you because guys can't get a round your massive frame.
I saw that a couple of times from Matt Dos, which makes him to me very well worth the time to invest to try to develop his skill set, because that's what Jordan Mylotta was, you know, five years ago or whatever. It was not compared to two. But that's that's the thinking there. Let's develop a very rare athlete and see.
What we can get out of it. Nobody. Let's go back to some individual stuff here.
Nobody got more work on bump, flip and locate high point the football than Cam Smith in the cornerback drills and individuals. He just kept getting back in the front of the line, which I thought was cool to see Cam Brown again. The length and quickness combination, just even in the individual rep stands out with how he moves and how he kind of strikes the pads. It looks to me like Jordan Brooks has taken on a leadership
role on defense. He was in the Orange tz he today, by the way, and a great playlist bone Thugs and harmony early on Let's Go. Especially in David Long's absence, he was kind of a traffic cop during individuals at practice today. I thought Elijah Campbell looked good. Some spring in that first step. Love the way he angles and accelerates through the bag on the blitz drill. Is he a potential you know, sub package feet in this defense?
I think he could be that. And then also Mohammed Kamara, who told me on Tuesday, you know, in around the building that he was ready to put his hat on somebody, which kind of tracks with how his personality is. But his bend is electric. There was this rep in individuals where he kind of like jumped the snapcount early and got off balance, and from this awkward start he was still able to generate acceleration out of the stands and then angle back to the target. Just looks like a
very slippery rusher we saw at Colorado State. So those are the practice notes. Let's go ahead and conclude how we started with audio from head coach Mike McDaniel, and first go to coach who discussed the timelines or maybe lack thereof for Jalen Phillips and Bradley Chubb.
The only thing that I can offer someone in the physical rehabilitation standpoint is to not make them worse and chase an arbitrary expectation and to actually listen to their bodies so we can proactively prevent reoccurring injuries.
Next, coach addressed the exact same question with wide receiver Odell Beckham Junior.
He's working his way back. It's so important that with you know, him coming to this team in this offense, that he's able to focus on the timing execution of how he plays the position. If he's compromised in any regard to do that, then the challenge becomes cerebral. Okay, it's to me, he won't be practicing today. When he's
he going to practice, I don't know. The longer that is, it just means how much more you have to be detailed and and you can't miit how much more you have to be on it, the shorter that time gets.
And again these are news items. So the availability of David Long who went on pup. What's the impact of not having David Long, Bradley Chubb and Jillen Philips to open camp as you get ready for the season and being down three stars on defense? Here is coach McDaniel.
You know, I get concerned with things like that when we're supremely down in numbers because I'm I'm not settling roster battles, you know, in a basement with magnets.
And so like.
The opportunity in each position group when someone's not practicing.
That's what I'm focused on now.
When the numbers get dwindled and there's but like there there are with especially at the stackbacker position, there's some great competition. If you want to tell me the final depth chart of that position, let me know, because I have no clue. So guys being out, being able to be out on the field, and as long as we have enough guys that we can fully give dudes good opportunities to set where they're at on the depth chart, then I'm good to go.
And then I was kind of frustrated here cause I wanted to get a last question. I want to ask coach about how he balances going back to the well of what worked on offense and the year previous versus staying on the cutting edge. But I got I got usurped by a question about the toront Armstead plan, which I can tell you the answer to that.
Let coach do it though, is to make sure that we have a good relationship with him because he wants to play football really bad, and to to make sure that he's involved to the point that he's he feels outstanding, while also you know, trying to do right for him and keep him out of his own way because he when he goes, he likes to go, so there's for him where he's at. He can't stand not playing football
all the time. We'll be battling him on that. There'll be days of full participation, days of partial and days that you know makes sense for a couple of young guys to get ops all.
Right, There you go.
That is the Wednesday, July twenty fourth edition of the Drift Time Podcast. Again back tomorrow doing it all over again. Check out the website for the notebook that I'll have it there for you, guys, give some video content. Plenty of stuff coming your way over the next month and a half here of training camp coverage on the Drift Time podcast and wherever you can find me. You all please be sure to subscribe, rate and review the podcast. Follow me on social at Wingfold NFL, the Dolphins at
Miami Dolphins. Check out my guys Seth and Juice on the fish Tank podcast. Check out the YouTube channel. Media Billa buildings will be up there as well, as I believe from Drive Time content coming your way into your future, and last but not least, Miami Dolphins dot Com home in the notebooks. Until next time, Fin's up, Carolina Cameron Daddy, He's coming home.
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