To on the move Going Deep speedwas Peace Doll. From the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.
This is Drivetime with Travis Wingfield.
He's got my ad hands in the playoffs. What is up, Dolphans And welcome to the Draft Time Podcast. I am your host, Travis Wingfield. And on today's show, the fifth practice of camp is in the books. The defense tightened up the screws from the last two offensive heavy practices. Plenty of wins on either side. We're gonna talk about some of the standouts outside of the usual stars you're
used to hearing about and help us do that. We'll hear from David Long, Durham Smyth, Patrick Paul and Nick Needham. Plus we will not gloss over a very sloppy practice in general. From the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.
This is.
The Drivetime Podcast. May I want to shift the theme of the show just a little bit. Today we'll tell you about the day. We always will do that for you guys. My boots on the ground, are my eyes in the stands, are my lips to your guys's ears about everything going on at Miami Dolphins practice, but I think the some of the soundbites we had, some of the repeat performances we've.
Had through the first five days.
I want to make sure to get some notes on there on some guys that have been consistently good that maybe you haven't heard about outside of this podcast, and probably Lockdown Dolphins with the great Kyle Kravis, guys like Zeke Vandenberg, Elijah Campbell, Julian Hill, Quintin Bell, who all made plays on this Monday, which, by the way, what's the longest you've ever operated on thinking it was the wrong day? Like I thought it was Tuesday all day today.
I took my trash bins out on Sunday night because the trash the garbage man comes on Tuesdays. That having a day off and then coming back on Sunday. My god, I haven't gotten the schedule right this week a whole lot. I'm just now realizing once again that it is in fact Monday and not Tuesday. But first, you don't care about that. Let's talk about sloppy football. Not Jacoby Brissett big slops, but just some sloppy play and balls on the ground and false starts and mishandling and some off
target throws and some drops. It just wasn't very crisp on this first day of padded to practices. And I want to also try to set the narrative straight here, because this was again a totally sloppy practice by far, the worst of camp so far. And you're gonna have those,
but let's also apply some context here. Yes, the ball was on the ground a lot several players were or plays rather were shut down because we just couldn't get the operation right from the onset and that's frustrating, and honestly, it kind of robbed a lot of the two reps you might have been expecting on this particular day. Now, that's unacceptable, unequivocally, right, we agree on that it cannot
happen come September. And I do agree with Ryan Smith, the pro football focused Dolphins guy who tweeted about this, that even the best centers in the NFL have snap issues at times, especially in the modern NFL. Like go to Chiefs Twitter, and I remember this last year when Creed Humphrey was I think it was either his Pro Bowl nomination or announcement, or maybe it was all Pro and they were like well, maybe next year we can
move Creed to guard because his snaps stink. And it reminds me of last year when we saw a lot of tweets about moving Connor Williams to guard, and I kept saying, trust me, his athletic ability at the center position is what you do not want to have to replace. He's been the best center of this Dolphins team has had, probably since Mike Pouncy. Which is funny because now all I see is how bad people want Connor back first center. I saw some content creators. I saw lots of fans
last year imploring we moved to Leah Miikenberg. At times, I saw that from some folks. So, you know, maybe we use knowledge from years past to apply to future you know, outrage, but maybe we don't.
I don't know.
But Ryan Smith from Pro Football Focus is right to a degree. I mean, like again, it cannot ruin drives like it did last year. Right, it's an issue at that point, But I want to say this, you know, this system, especially when it's a brand new center with brand new guards around him, with Isaiah Winn not participating in practice yet that's going to take a minute, but especially in this system, where getting off the football is
literally the core principal number one. I think the results you saw today they're an occupational hazard of a pretty new core in there, paired with a scheme that stresses getting the hell off the football. So I saw a lot of tweets passing blame around. I put the tweet
out there. I wanted to put the tweet out there to give you guys comprehensive coverage so that it's not all sunshine and rainbows from my account, because typically I like to focus on the plays that are made, not the negatives, and I'll usually give you the guy that got beat right. But I thought it was important on this day to help craft what we're seeing and to help generate a timeline for evolution or de evolution from
where this offense goes from here. Because it was an ugly day, I think that's important to get out to you guys. And again, I get the panic that comes from the results of last year, and it's okay to work the kinks out in July. But again, you can't have the opening season drive that you march right down the field against the Chargers result in a failed exchange, turnover or the Titan snap on that opening drive that
cost us seven points in that game. That would have changed the entire season, right, you would have hosted the Steelers in the playoffs or the Chiefs snap that probably cost us that game. Where also you would have hosted the Steelers in the playoffs, and we don't have a twenty four year playoff drought anymore if that all happens. I'm right there with you guys with the pitchforks. But it is July, so give this thing to time to breathe. That's my whole point. But again, it was a very
sloppy practice from Miami Dolphin. Let's go ahead and start where we typically do with the quarterbacks. And I thought this was one of the best practices I've seen from Skyler Thompson. And I think he's actually been putting together a pretty good start to camp. In fact, to me, by far, his best opening five days of his three years of training camp. He dialed up an absolute dime on a deep shot the Tyreek for a sixty yard touchdown.
In fact, I saw the play happen to play out because I was watching the offensive line with the binoculars.
I see it's a runfake. I pulled the binoculars down.
I look down into the route stems and try to pick up what's going on in the coverage, and there I see Tyreek Hill burning past everybody and the ball just descends right into the bread basket. Like, oh, that was good throw to a It wasn't doing it was Skylar. I was like, oh, I didn't There's one guy in the scene that I thought could make that throw. And man, Tyreek tracks that thing so very well, just smooth in control, good acceleration over the shoulder, doesn't like attack the football,
it's to come to him. We had some other deep shot connections that did not happen for whatever reason, including one from Tua to Waddle where he got a step and I thought it was right on the money from Tua but Wattle kind of stumbled to it when it was in flight. And Tanner O'Connor had one where he got three steps on top of Patrick McMorris and tried to adjust and it looked clunky and it was an
underthrow from Scylar Thompson on the play. So he comes back to the ball, but his adjustment actually did produce a window for him to catch it over mc morris but then he dropped the football, so it just wasn't sharp in that regard. And then you see Cheetah do it and glad to know for the touchdown. It's like, oh yeah, if you're struggling to just go ahead and throw up to Tyreek and he'll make that play for you.
But which again, like that's why Tyreek is so special, right, because like we've seen so many guys come into this league with blazing speed, like John Ross, right, the former record holder for the fastest forty yard dash time until oh man, who broke it this year.
I just forgot his name. That's gonna haunt me.
You guys, get at me on the replies who broke the forty yard dash record this year? I forgot anyway when it was John Ross, like he couldn't play because he couldn't really do anything, you know, stay healthy. But tracking that deep ball is a very very difficult task, and Tyreek is the best I've ever seen at it. But unbalance, very nice day from Scalar Thompson, who I think has really pushed Mike White this week.
In the number two race.
Skyler did try to force one in that could have been picked off by Vandenberg, but he instead deflected it and it was then secured by Jilen Ramsey, who if the ball finds you know, five's wingspan, he's gonna catch the damn thing. It was an impressive stad that he made to bring that thing in. And then Mike White
also got picked by Jason Mira. I think I'm saying that right when his eyes took Mike Tray from a cloud corner position, he fell back into coverage, reading the quarterback size and got a room service pick off of that, peeling back into the fifteen yard or twenty yard curl zone down the field. It's been a rough camp for my guy, Mike White, but I hope hopefully he can bounce back from this and pick it back up tomorrow
and get playing better. So not that electric of a practice like we had on Friday from two a tongue of by lower even Sunday, but it was his usual sharp self outside of the you know, failed exchanges that I don't you know, I don't think it's a two A thing. I think it's the center trying to get the hell out of the snap count. But I really appreciate the footwork, the ball handling and the variety of drops that you can get to because of Tua's skill set where he can move and reset and reposition the
feet and throw from these different armslots. There was a lengthy install period, and in fact, Joe Rose was up in the stands today and he said that he believes the sloppiness that happened in the day was likely a result of loading up some install and you kind of chip away at it, like try to find out what works, what doesn't, and let's go ahead and boil this thing down through difficult circumstances and get better on the other
side from that which all tracks. Because again, it was a sloppy practice and not what I'm used to from a Mike McDaniel Dolphin's football team. I've had lots of these practices under the previous regime, and Brian Flores haven't seen many of them under Mike McDaniel, But I can't say for sure, but all of that adds up to me. But in that install period, the quarterbacks are going through different tracks and routes and different ways to get to
their handoffs. We saw that play that was so popular last year where they would you know, fake the dive to a side of the formation that was vacant of a running back and then flip it back across the grain. And there was some big plays that came from that, some big losses that came from that. Like those types of things only get ran in this system or San
Francisco as well. And Tua's first throw of the day was one where quite frankly, I don't think there's another quarterback in the league that you can call these types of plays into. And we go back to the Baltimore game last year. Remember Lamar Jackson took that like reverse pivot drop step and everyone's like, oh, look at Lamar messing with the Dolphins defense, Like he got that from Tua. Like Tua did that all year last year. And you know, if Lamar can do it, great, and he did and
he burns for a touchdown. But Tua does these subtle little things that this is why I don't think Tuda gets the love that some other guys do, because of the cebleties in his game that are so much better than his counterparts. And you know, I referenced jt O Soldan on the podcast a lot last year, and he raves about Tua's ability to go from a position where he's not a threat to throw, which the defense can
read and key on. And then all of a sudden he's back in Pozzi or that one where he's in pistol and he fakes to the right and comes the rpo glance off the left like it's like a blind throw with a one point eighty spin.
It's just really impressive to watch him go through that.
He did the exact same thing todayhere we hit a nice rip to River Craycraft for a nice gain in a sauce spot in the zone. He had some pops to wallow for good gains. Had a throw on the move that I thought was a thing of beauty where he escaped a pressure from Jordan Brooks off of a
really good pass pro pickup from Raheem Moster. Stepping up through the outside pressure, attacks the lion of scrimmage, flattens the line, don't run the football, go ahead and stay vertical to the line of scrimmage so we can still throw the ball. And he puts the thing on a dot between the one and the zero Tyreek who did a great job coming back to the football for about fifteen yards.
So a nice day.
From number one and for Waddle and Riek as well, and just real quick here on waddle Man. He's had a really good camp. And this is a guy that got injured on the first day of joint practices against the Falcons last year in the opening one on one period, and we didn't see him again until that Chargers game on opening Day where he was limited in a snap gap play. But I think forty five percent of the snaps against the Chargers an opening Day, and so now he's got a full camp and I think that he's
he's maximizing it. I think he's maximizing what he did this offseason because I haven't seen him let a single football get to his body.
I haven't seen him drop a single football.
And I've seen him make several catches off of his frame where he plucks it with very strong hands, and he's been tough over the middle. He's been making sliding catches over the mill like he did today. I think Waddle has comfortably had the best camp of the receivers, and that includes Tyreek Hill, which is good because Tyreek's not been too shabby himself either. I thought Brax and Barrios had his best day so far. Some nice catches
in intermediate. In fact, I just saw him down getting a snack and I said, hey, Braxon had a few catches to day, Honey goes yeah, a few, Like yeah, he had good day today, dude.
God good good football. Good football is good. The good the football is good.
But had a nice diving catch on a over route from Mike white Lay in practice, Jalen Wright continues to.
Impress me. Be quite honest with you guys.
He had a couple of nine pops today and his easy glide running to the perimeter where he can stretch it, see it and then hit it.
It's so smooth.
You see the fit in this system so very clearly. Like we did with a Chan in the last year. I see the exact same thing for Jalen right, and they're different players. It is a chan esque with maybe a little bit of sacrifice in the speed department, but in exchange for more physicality and hopefully but our durability, because that's like all the only things standing into Bond
eight Chan's way right now is durability. And I'm not at all interested in saying like goodbye to Raheem Moster because he scored twenty one freaking touchdowns last year, and he runs like he's pissed off all the time when he's fast as hell, and he's a great fit. He's a great locker room guy and a great leader on
this team. I think he has lots of good football left in him, lots of good a football Mario and the big But I think the future is ridiculously bright with those two young guys back there, because they're going to both be ambrickey contracts through the twenty twenty five or no sorry, twenty three, twenty two, four to the twenty twenty sixth season, twenty seven for Jalen Wright, and that's if you don't franchise tag them. But I think it's it's the fruits of this room are gonna bear
out very nicely with those two guys. Raheem hefe Chris Brooks like it's the best running back room in football.
If yes, me, what else here? Let's do this.
Actually, I'm gonna go through the roster for the day and we'll stop on the unsung players and do it throughout here because I get here to the tight end position, and I want to talk about Julian Hill, who I thought was just an absolute menace today was clanking noggins with dudes out there. And we saw him last year come across the formation on that jet motion where he would pick off the edge and just inflict punishment on that force defender and clear some room for our backs
going around the outside. And today he was on point over and over again doing that and durham Smyth, you know the vet of the room. I guess Johona Smith is too now. He touched on this. That physicality, he said, is unlike anything Durham Smyth has ever played with in the National Football League.
I mean, I would venture to say Julian might the most physical tight end in the NFL across the entire board. I don't care what year you are. He's the most physical player I've ever played with. And he's he's a professional from day one. This is the main thing, is the main thing for him, and this is what he cares about. And that really sets apart rookies, especially undrafted free agents, some guys who care as much as he does.
And the sky's the limit for him, you know. He like I said, he's he's the most physical guy I've ever played with. He's got talent outside of that, too, that he's building on as a young player. The sky this really the sky is the limit for Julian Gosh.
I love hearing Durham smythew media.
He's so intelligent, articulate and just sees the game in a way that makes him so valuable to this offense. And those comments about Julian man like, hey, stay close to eighty one eighty nine and you'll do just fine. I had a few runs today where Hill was the
one that wiped out the edge entirely. But I thought his best block was in past pro because there was a play where Connor was in this like backfield set in twelve personnel and that they were the two tight ends in the field to the same side of the formation, and Grayson Murphy gets a pass rush against both of them, and he splits them with his rush, and Connor kind of gave ground and his anger didn't really take against Murphy, and Hill kind of peeled back and put Murphy on
the turf and it prevented another Grayson Murphy sack. And it was really impressive, like a quarterback saving block. Just really impressed by his work as kind of this like sixth offensive lineman sometimes and that can be something that maybe you factor into how this team is built with regards to the offensive line, you know, maybe not looking like you guys want to as far as the fan
base goes. Maybe that's where Julian Hill and guys like that, and Johnny Smith and Dermam Smyth maybe in alec Ingold like, there is some more you can do scheme wise to get more out of your pass pro and we always see that with this offense in season, Like it's never gonna show up in training camp when you're not trying to game plan for teams, but it always shows up.
I think that's very important to think about. To me, for Julian Hills, this says that he's seeing it as the old cliche says for a player in year two, right, like the game slows down for him. In fact, let's go ahead and go back to Durham Smyth who discussed how Julian has harnessed that physicality in his game.
I think one of the things is, you know, just tempo control. He's always been not one to shy away from contact. He's always been a very physical person. But there were times early in camp last year, maybe early in the season where he was just out there trying to crush somebody every time, and maybe half the time he is. Half the time he's missing. Now it's a tempo thing where he understands when to pull the trigger and he's not missing a lot, and when he doesn't miss,
he's making himself felt. So I think it's just something that it takes time to get used to with the speed of the game, players speed, and he's definitely understanding that.
Now.
We'll hear more from Durham later on. Let's go ahead and get back to the offensive line real quick. In a couple of soundbites here from Patrick Paul and the guy that had yet another good day of work. We highlighted him yesterday with Kendall Lamb's comment, so I wanted to ask Pat to give us an update on where he felt he was at the technique changes he talked about back in and how he's applied them here for the month of August.
Although it's late July.
Here's Patrick Ball say, it's been good, you know, been coached up by Butch and all the other guys. It's been good. You know, they're just telling me every day it's small victories and focusing on the small goals and details every single day. Once you keep doing that over time, it's just you know, stacking jail together.
And one thing every single offensive lineman has to get used to down here, right as we've heard Mike frank and going back to Rob Hunt or Austin Jackson. Really, anyone who's played done here running off the football and that takes some time to get acclimated to. Here is how Pat thinks he is getting acclimated to this new offense.
I'd say acclimation to the speed of the ball. It's definitely something that you got to keep honing it on every day. But during OTAs and stuff and rookie minicamp, you know, you get the hint of it. And my coach, Butch, he's very great at just showing you what needs to be done. So every day we're just going to keep attacking it, learning the playbook, getting the understanding everything.
And yeah, and just.
To finish up this segment and put a bow on this, how fortunate are we to have Butch barry Man, like, we've heard nothing but these testimonials from guy guys again going back to Austin or brewer're talking about it or Patrick Paul. Now we saw what happened last year with AJ. We've seen so much progress from so many guys, and damn it, if Patrick Paul becomes that bookend long term opposite Austin Jackson, tackle play is vastly more important than interior offensive line play in the system.
Just trust me on that. And if you have those two guys at what Austin.
Jackson's current salary is and Patrick Paul in a second round rookie contract, well then you can go out and you can buy your big time guard if you want to, or just keep paying you know, star players on the outside to give you the number one offense in the National Football League. And look, I don't expect this to
pick up just yet. I think these struggles are to be expected as they work through who the best five are as they work in the usual stars, because remember your left tackle and your left guard haven't practiced yet, and we've seen Keon Smith and Ryan Hayes get worked inside a little bit. Rob Jones has had some up and down play. I haven't been a big fan of seventy four. Iikeenberg's work. Brewer has been up and down. Lester,
I think it's a lot like last year's tape. I can't imagine this is the final product we get, and that's beyond getting Armstead and Isaiah winback. Driscoll, I think it's had it pretty tough so far, but he's also played you know, three different spots. And that's why I just say, like, give it time. If you project, you know, day five as the final product, you're just flat out doing it wrong.
This is the time to work through it.
They're working to develop, not to win a game tomorrow, which is why I don't care about a sloppy practice so much as long as you respond the right way, and those things are going to happen. And sorry, I talk you know too much golf here on the podcast, but one of the things that happened to me in my golf game was that helped me go to the next level of my golf game was accepting that there are going to be days where you do not have it.
Accept the days where you're going to shoot eighty seven and learn from those days and stay on the grind and stay to it because when you commit to it and you're consistent, that's when you get better results. It gives coach a chance to correct those things to get them on tape so now we can correct and refine.
That's my whole spiel.
Bad day for the offense, particularly on the line, and just sloppy football, but I have little doubt it'll be just real quick. Before the break, shout out to alec Ingold, who had some awesome blocks today, including one where he got on the perimeter and squared up David Long to spring a Chan for a big play. Another steady as she goes camp for the captain back there. All right, first break, We're gonna go to the defense the rest
of the way and talk about some more unsungs. We have more audio extra points and the Orange Jersey prediction killing it so far over four. That's all next Drive Time Podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. Let's get to the defense here in segment number two and start up front on a line that got some criticism over the summer for how it was constructed.
And you guys know that one of my favorite content creators is Brett Coleman, and he has the Dolphins missing the playoffs because of lack of depth on both lines, and I just don't see that on the defensive line. And I've told you guys about how this team is built from the offensive line perspective, I just strongly disagree with that, although I respect the hell out of Brett's opinion, and I just you know, especially when you can say the lines that Weaver had in Baltimore that were built
around one or two guys who you know. Quite frankly, I think look a lot like Seeler and Campbell do with like Matdabueke and oh Man who Brent Urban or what not? Brent Urban who I'm thinking of, who's the oh, Michael Pierce.
Michael Pierce.
Yeah, their nose tackle. But Seeler and Campbell can do a lot of that stuff and then a very healthy rotation of guys that can get their wins in three hundred snaps a season, which is what I see for Benito Jones and Jonathan Harris and Neville Gallimore. And we saw one of those guys score a lot of wins today.
Nevill Gallimore had two sacks by my account, including an awesome swim move that quickly dispatched Keyon Smith from that three technique going against against the guard where he blended quickness and power and that low center of gravity that we saw at Oklahoma where he won all kinds of different pass rush reps from five and three techniques. Then he got bumped inside to the nose tackle or the one shade you know over the center in Dallas. But we saw him utilize those same skill sets today for
a bunch of big wins. He got a guard to overset with an upfield rush and then face again for the sack. A very nice day for number ninety. One of my stars of the day was the guy in the orange jersey, Zach Stealer, and I just noted his effort because like, yeah, it's your job, and if you don't work hard, you're not going to produce like Zach has. But I put a lot of stock into a proven six year veteran who plays on July twenty ninth like it's January twenty ninth.
In the AFC Championship Game.
His effort on two plays to the perimeter was so damn impressive. From that position, he needs an edge to help make the back bubble or bang, which is, you know, cut it back inside up into the grain or bubble and widen his track to the outside, which allows better pursuit angles from the second level defenders. Well, Steeler's not going to outrun him on a chen, But that's the entire purpose of team football. If you do your job, and if I do my job, we can make a play.
But if one guy doesn't do the job, then my effort doing my job doesn't get noticed because the play is not there to be made. And Quentin Bell forced a steep edge that got him caught on a block, but it freed up Zach Stealer to win the race to the perimeter for the stop. I just think that Zach looks like he's in mid season in form. He looks fantastic. Speaking of Quentin Bell, I don't have a lot to add, but he's just been fantastic all camp.
And that includes is a unsung guy that I think we need to really start paying attention to collectively, because these are the stories that I love. I remember like Julius Warmsley back in twenty sixteen was a guy that just kept on getting better and better at camp and in the preseason, and he made the opening day roster. That's why I think could happen here for Quinton Bell. And he's a guy that you're not familiar with going
into camp, they flashing camp. Then if it becomes consistent into the games, that's when you can start talking about being a fifty three man roster player. Deshaun Hand made
some plays. He's also had a nice start to camp, and man, those guys eating blocks, and then the work that comes off the back of that, Like look at the defensive tackle numbers across the National Football League, right though usually thirty or forty tackles per season for a good year, right, it's thankless in terms of national exposure and stat compilation, But you need guys to make plays off of that, right And we've seen fits and fills to me at a very very very high level, whether
that's Jordan Brooks or Anthony Walker or it's dB coming off of a blitz, they just seem to really be tethered so far. And I think that's off to a better start than it was last year.
For instance.
Let's go ahead and do some audio on all of this, first with David Long on why he thinks they can get off to a faster start this year because of better camaraderie, because of the chemistry.
I would say, you know, it's easier to learn when you can Gail together, you know, and also as far as you know, hanging out, hanging outside of the facility was a bigger emphasis this offseason. So we did that, you know, whether it was Mick me and Nick Needom and Tannan just having a young guys around. Uh that that that that plays a part, you know, just the little stuff just going to get something to eat or whatever.
That may be.
Uh, it's easy to come out here and you know, hold each other accountable because you know it's not coming from a bad place.
And then to continue this theme, we've talked to a lot of guys about the principles and focal points of this defense and it's kind of coming together now right full picture. But how challenging is the ability to get to these different games and blitz is from the same look, but with different guys playing different roles that you know, I can have Kalays Campbell's my nose tackle once and AAP and the next nap he can be the five technique and run that you know those tracks as well.
Here's Durham smile on how that challenges your offense.
It does, It keeps everyone on their toes and it's just it's it's different looks. I think it really expands the offense too, when you have different things that you don't see on a regular basis really from every position, and then the other offense expands, and then players roles expand.
All right, So we talked to d Long there and Durham Smith.
I want to finish up this segment with the off ball linebackers because that might be the one of the most impressive groups so far of camp. You know, I saw Jordan Brooks lay the wood multiple times today as the pads came on. I see him scrape in tight to his key and get himself in position at the right moment. Far more often than not. He's having perhaps the best camp of anyone.
For my money.
I want to go back to David Long now to talk about Jordan Brooks because he had some very nice things to say about his new teammates.
He's like a quiet assassin, That's what I'd be calling him. Don't really say much, man, but you know, you know some ball. He's physical. You know, he fits right in, you know, with the play style we want to play.
And that brings me to our next unsung zeke Vandenberg, who if I'm being honest, I was a little bit foggy coming in, but going back now in hindsight and thinking about it, he was making plays last camp too, And I remember him being a great interview when we had him, and then he got hurt and you never hear from him again because you can't interview injured players,
so it's like he kind of gets forgotten about. But my goodness, you know, if Brooks has been the best linebacker, Vandenburg is right there making a case to push for that honor. And we are just loaded right now with stack linebackers. That's what Zeke's been playing so far as stack backer. He made some big plays in the fit. He got his hands on that one pass that got picked off. He's rushing, doing everything, and like I said, has earned the respect of David Long.
Just making plays. Man. You know, he's not like he's just like Jorin he has to come in. You know, he's not a talker, thrill. You know, he chops with and then you know, I was no seeing Zeke through it off season. You know he hurt, he got hurt last year. But you know, even like you could ask Hibody camp last year, you know he's making plays. You know,
it's unfortunately he got hurt. I'm just happy to see him back in action, man, because I know what I how I feel when I'm not playing ball, So you know, just to see him out there having another chance to get after it's cool.
Duke's made some plays as well. We talked about Anthony Walker, you know, d Long getting back in there. So I had to ask, like, what's the secret sauce from Joe Berry because quite frankly, I haven't seen linebackers play this in Miami since Zach Thomas was here.
Man.
I can't say enough good things about Joe Man. You know, he makes the environment fun. But it's also we learned. We learned so much, and it's it's great to have a coach like him because I mean I've had like I've had five I've been in the year, like six league six years. I had like five six linebacker coaches, So you know, I've been learning different styles, you know,
as my years went. You know, Joe, It's just so it just showed a little different you know, a little style and what I'm used to in a good way, you know. But he fits right in as well with the coach, and you know what We're trying to you know, establish here, and we.
Had to finish right here real quick because these are kind of the observations I want to always be on after coaches kind words. The other day, David Long was on the end line taking mental reps off of the field in his first practice back on Sunday, So I asked him about that.
I mean, I'm just eager. I was eager to get that got there. I did like three plays yesterday, so I was really kind of pissed, and I was just like trying to get any type of work I could, you know, but just watching Anthony and then Zeke. Zeke's having the hell of a camp, you know, just watching those guys work, you know, just finding ways to still learn, you know, while I'm not there, all.
Right, I want to go in depth off the edge and the defensive backfield. Will do that next with a couple more unsungs and extra points and the Orange Jersey prediction and get out of here. All of that coming up Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to
you by Autoation. You know who I thought really got after it on Monday, Well, Halloed Kamara and the speed and the ankle flection to really bend that arc is all awesome, right, Well, today I saw him do that, but also bluff a rush upfield and then cross face of the tackle and go speed to power on a guard.
And just mow as big old butt over dude.
Impressive, impressive rep and day from the rookie. And you pair that next to Chop Robinson and the urgency that he creates with his get off. He is consistently using that get off to cause issues all training camp long. That's why I keep looking at this defense as more of a sum of the parts type of approach and the traits that fit what we're learning about these core philosophies and core you know principles, quickness and tone setters
inside size that can expand outside. You heard Durham talk about how it makes the offense expand, right like you really see that Baltimore blueprint here, which has become the new Shanahan try for defenses. Seattle got you know, Mike McDonald, the Ravens promoted Zachary or we got Weaver, and the Titans got Denard Wilson from that Ravens staff last year. And on top of those fronts and the traits we
mentioned there, what do they have? They had ro Quand Smith inside and Patrick Queen, who are both tough mffors, and I see us putting a huge emphasis on that and getting a guy that has the ro Quand Smith mentality in Jordan Brooks and then versule defensive backs which who has more than we do with Ramsey and Fuller and Holland, and I'll put Jordan Poyer in there as well. So just the process and the execution so far has
me very excited. And you know, Grayson Murphy was in the unsung category again, another productive day from him with a couple of pressures in a sack. I mentioned Quentin Bell earlier. He continues to get after it. And Emmanuel Ogba was also very good. He's had a great camp so far.
And let's go ahead and move back to the secondary because I'm watching this defensive backfield move around and blitz and caused, you know, confusion, and it reminds me of what like Kyle Hamilton and Marlon Humphrey and Gino Stone and Brandon Stevens and Arthur Molett and all these and Marcus Williams and all these studs the Ravens had I talked to Nick Needham about this today after a practice. Who got himself down in the mud from that new safety position, and by that, I mean just coming up
and filling gaps in the running game. Here's Nick Needham on how he's enjoying the physicality of his new position.
Oh yeah, and I love it.
Yeah.
Like I said, I ain't really got to hit that many people last year with the limited reps in the game coming back halfway through the season, so I'm trying to just fill it out and I love contact. So today was fun and I hope we have passed tomorrow.
And then just to put a bow on the Ravens influence, I asked him about this defense and empowering defensive backs to be versatile and flexible, and have you guys gone back to that Ravens tape to do that?
Here is Nick Needam.
Yeah, we've is always pulling up key plays from their defense, like in critical situations and just showing us how the safeties are moving on the string and playing off each other. So he kind of allows Jordan and javaon with the ones obviously, and Elijah as well, just play off each other so different disguise and they're all really learned how each other plays and they can create more opportunities.
For each other.
And to go off of that point, we saw Ethan Bonner have an impact rush where he flags down Devon a chan to the other side of the field. We've seen Ramsey and Fuller have impact rushes. Saw Elijah Campbell get in there today, another unsung guy who has really made his mark this camp You heard Nick mention him alongside Poe and Holland like, that's a job that Elijah Campbell is in the running for. He's playing well, he's earning it all rightlet's go ahead and do the rest
of this in extra points. I thought Marcus May looked fast and smooth today as he continues to ramp up. I thought or not thought, but storm Duck did make a couple of plays, particularly with the big hits. He put a big hit on Jalen right that I was like, hey, you don't do that, But he came up and made employees against the run. Patrick McMorris had a nice play
on a deep shot to Tanner' connor. Jeff Wilson had some more good runs today and a really nice catching traffic that caught my eye, but it too Jones had some some stops and stacked up the running game. Just so many contributors on the defensive line there, and I guess that we were pretty thorough. So a shorter extra points today. My Orange Jersey prediction, oh for four today, just killing it. I'm gonna go zeke Vandenberg. He was
all over the field again. Nouvelle Gallimore is my second prediction, and Julian Hill going way off the beaten path for those predictions. All right, one more tomorrow, off day Wednesday, and then back at it Thursday through Saturday before a Sunday off day. We're gonna have you here on all that on the Draft Time Podcast. In the meantime, you all please be sure to subscribe, rate, review, and follow on social At weekle NFL, follow the Dolphins at Miami Dolphins.
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