Drive On with Travis Wingfield begins. Now, let me check your pulse if you're not far though, busy day shortened the intro. What is up, Dolphins?
And welcome to the Draft Time Podcast, part of the Miami Dolphins podcast network covering your team, your Miami Dolphins.
How's it going everybody? I am your host.
You're a very fired up host, Travis Wingfield. And on today's show, the fans were back Zach Thomas in the house. The energy was absolutely electric, the long balls were flying, the one on ones were fire, and the defense helped even the tally. By the end of the day, we have tons of practice notes, We have media availabilities from Zach Thomas, Mike White, Jalen Phillips, Savon achmedcam Smith, and a new player and talk about Eli Apple and his game.
We'll go ahead and hear from him as well from the Baptist Hell Studios inside the Baptist Hell Trading Complex. This is the Draft Time podh This pod might go a minute today, guys, because we have a lot to get to. Let's go ahead and start with some news
for the day. First, the Dolphins signed new cornerback Eli Apple to give the cornerback room some reinforcement following the Jalen Ramsey news of his injury, who was also here today at practice and in good spirits, and he continues to give us updates via social with his proactive and
positive mindset into the way he wants to attack his rehab. Man, I can't wait until see this team be where I think they're going to be a December, and then inject that guy back into the defense whenever that may happen. Which quick aside, by the way, I have been really enjoying the discourse around his involvement with the team and
how his teammates are responding to him. We talked about it on the last podcast with the Pressers from the Guys, But I saw over the weekend that Ramsey tweeted about being a little bit bummed on that particular day about the surgery and the rehab, and Bradley Chubb quote retweeting it saying something like we got you five and just seeing the way they've kind of galvanized around that, and obviously his energy and what he meant to the team
even just getting here a few months back. You know, I think every team will say this, but man, I experience it every day with their brotherhood on this team, in this building, It's so fun to be a part of. Like I know, you guys probably say all the time, Travis has one of the coolest jobs, and I will admit that it's amazing. It's this year has been up to a level that I just did not think was possible.
It's been really cool.
And speaking of that, Eli Apple is also here and he told us that Tyreek Hill was showing him around.
The building a little bit.
Weren't those guys supposed to be like number one foes. Despite that lighthearted spirit and fun trash talk they engage him. It takes not even a day for someone to don the Aquae orange and just become one of the guys real quick before Eli Apple breakdown. Also new in the news, Isaiah Winn activated off the PUP, so the Dolphins get some reinforcements back across the offensive line. That leaves us with Tron Armstead, Tanner Connor, and Nick Needum still on PUP.
Going back to Eli Apple, and if you watch his tape to me, it's very clear where he excels. He is a very smart corner with good feel for the position and really really a proclivity for zone coverage. Lou Ana Roumo, who was the defensive coordinator in Cincinnati, formally down here with the Dolphins, but he pretty much helped build, construct and put together one of the best defensive backfields
from a scheme and personnel standpoint up in Cincinnati. And we'll see just how good he is this year too, because they lost Jesse Bates and Von Bell and Eli Apple essentially three fifths their starting secondary this offseason and he, you know again took point to his you know, credentials interview for head coaching jobs this offseason, and he's not an easy.
Coach to play for. It's what we've heard in the past.
He really praised Eli Apple's abilities to grasp the defense, play with that sound technique and really help the defense.
And again they.
Drafted cam Taylor Britt who's a very very good player and got some run towards the end of the year because of Chidobe Awuzay's injury, and he steps onto the field and plays pretty well, but eli Apple held him off all year before that injury to maintain that starting spot. And he went into last offseason after Eli Apple's twenty twenty one season and said that job is it belongs to Eli Apple until somebody else takes it from him. So I just think that speaks really highly to Eli's acumen.
And we'll hear from Eli here in a moment. And his media like guys get a certain rap based upon social or you know the way the it gets portrayed in the media. Eli Apple is a sharp dude man. We'll hear from him here in a second. I think you look at his role here and that will obviously be determined as we go along.
And you know, it's day four.
Of camp, but that's about as good of a July thirtieth signing that you can get in terms of veteran insurance to just add depth to the room, to not put so much pressure on a guy like Cam Smith from the jump. Like if Cam hits right away, great
play in day one. If not, you can wait a little bit and let Eli Apple be the one that goes out there and you don't run to the situation like you had back in twenty twenty where Noah Igbinoghany got thrown into the fire and had rough games and you have to wonder what it did for his confidence. Same with you know Nick Needham as he works his way back, you know, assurance to him, an insurance him.
It's good depth with a guy that you know you can trust once he's coached up on the system to really just adhere to your rules and play the coverages by the way they're designed to play and not you know, get guys in trouble.
Now.
I know people want to ask with the stats and why it's been not good from PFF. There are instances where he likes to gamble and play for the big ball, and that allows the big ball to go over his head, and that gives you negative grades. It gives you negative highlights that really stick out in fans' minds. But go watch Eli Apple's tape, snap by snap. It's a good football player. Man.
It's good to have him in here.
And I think what it also does is in the instance that somebody else goes down down the line, you're not all of a sudden pulling guys off your special teams unit, guys that were signed to be special teamers. You're not pulling them up and saying, go give me
forty fifty cornerback snaps. Because now you have a guy who plays that role in Eli Apple, Let's go ahead and hear from Eli Apple, going back to the Lou and Aarumo comment and talk to him about what that system did to benefit his career and how it benefits him here down with Miami Dolphins. In your number let's see fifteen, sixteen, seventy nine, twenty one, you're number eight for Eli Apple.
Yeah, helps with my versatility.
He makes you do everything kind of in the defense, you gotta be able to press, you gotta be able to play off man different zones, and that's kind of like here. It's very you know, versatile in there, just scheme and I think that fits well in my skill set.
So Eli apples here he was in the practice field.
I thought it had a pretty good first day, and I was going to begin the podcast with Zach Thomas coverage, but I thought that was a little more pertinent to the current team. Let's go ahead and start with this on Zach Thomas and actually go to someone who is not Zach Thomas, because it's hard for the little kid in me to not come out sometimes when the legends are around, the guys that I grew up watching from you know before, you know, before I grew up.
As Gus say something else.
Let's go to Mike White because he knows exactly what I'm talking about. The Pembroke Pines kid getting a chance to meet Zach Thomas here on day four of camp.
Yeah, it was nice. He was nice.
Yeah.
I mean just being back here.
I was telling the quarterbacks walking out here and the fans like that was me when I was a little kid, like going over to the Daby campus and going to practices and watching them, and hell, I got to meet freaking Zach Thomas. Like he told twelve year old Mike White that he got to meet Zach Thomas that he would lose his mind.
So just the whole being back home, it's really cool.
So you and me both, Mike, you and me both.
I posted the clip of Zach answering my question at the press conference, and in that answer he refers to me by name. And then later when he exits the presser room, I bumped into him in the hallway as he's walking out with Nat Moore, you know the Alumni Association, the head of that here with the Miami Dolphins. Now, he said, hey, Travis, good to see him, man, And I told him, this is awesome.
Zach and I gave him a pat in the back.
And I'm not trying to like brag about that because I want to tell you this story, because it seems rather innocuous and maybe even self fulfilling to tell you guys the story. But the reason I'm highlighting it is I met Zach one time before, and.
It was at DCCN.
If you haven't been a DCC before, it is thousands of tens of thousands of people hanging out at hard Rock Stadium and trying to all, you know, getting photos and autographs of all the big time people around here. So hundreds of people were coming up to Zach Thomas in that moment. He was talking to Seth and Juice and perhaps you know, being with those guys kind of helped, you know, lock down the memory for Zach. But he's just getting pestered by people for pictures and autographs.
He meets me briefly one time, just one time, told him my name.
Hey, I'm Traviser, did the podcast here, you know, Seth and Jews coworkers, and he remembered my name. If that doesn't tell you about the kind of guy that Zach is. And you know, now I suppose I'm making a habit of this, but both Zach and Pouncy I unintentionally got
tears from them with their responses to my question. So I wanted to go ahead and play this response to you guys when I asked Zach about the support of all of you, all of you Dolphins fans who relentlessly pestered the Hall of Fame on social tweeted about it constantly, who took every chance you could to let the world know that fifty four belongs in. Can'ton damn it. Here's Zach Thomas. Dolphins fan support through the last twenty five years of his playing career, into his post playing career.
And the Hall of Fame induction. Here's Zach Thomas.
But back to what you're saying, Travis, the fans, I mean, they pretty much fueled me that love ain't gonna lie. I read some of their comments. Pretty cool.
Sorry, So this next part is going to be self serving because Zach was then asked another question when he stepped back and took a drink of water, and I don't think he was done answering the question. So but brought some tears to our Hall of Fame linebacker and just a really cool moment for me personally there, and I thought you guys would enjoy that too, because the question about the fans, and it's the only other thing choked him up was talking about his family. So that's
kind of how he views you guys. Just wanted you to all to know that. But then Zach took us out onto the practice field. I don't know how good this is gonna sound from a you know, audible standpoint, but I really don't care because I just want you guys to hear the crowd reaction, a full house up in the stands and up on the burn behind the practice field here at Baptist Health Training Complex. Let's go ahead and first play Zach's message, his speech to the
fans before practice got underway. I mean, the most talented rosson NFL is Zach can get the guys two fired up for that one. Although I do agree with you on that, not gonna play that whole thing, so I'm realizing it doesn't really translate very well. Let's go ahead, though, and play Zach's message to the fans. To the Fens fans when he had the phone right in front of him a little easier to hear.
Here is Zach Thomas.
Hi, Zach Thomas, sir, if you're tell for fans, I'm out here at training. Can't look at this, guys to work. This is where we win right now.
This is where we win right now. Look at the crowds.
So good to see Zach out here in full force and getting the current fans and the current team fired up. He did meet with the team a little bit before practice and talked about how practice is where it all starts, where it all begins, and we all agree with that. For the entire Zach Thomas Press conference and more media availabilities, go ahead and get over to the team YouTube channel. Let's go ahead and take a break right there and come back with the practice notes. I've got some lengthy
notebook here for you guys. A very fun practice as all the fans and the stands got to see. My thoughts on a very competitive practice today. After the break, Draft Time podcast your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation, let's kick this thing off on the July thirtieth Sunday Practice notes from the Baptist Health Training Complex with the quarterbacks and what I thought was Tua's
best day of camp so far. A real four hundred and sixty eight yards six touchdown type of energy from QB one on this day, and he was dropping them in on every throw. You can possibly imagine for the baseball fans, you know how they say a starting pitcher has You know, they have thirty starts every year, give or take ten starts where they have their plus stuff, ten starts with average stuff, and then ten days taking
the rubber where they don't have it. Tua had the plus stuff working, and it began during one on ones. He was layering long balls into the end zone for twenty five yard scores over and over and over again. He was fitting fastballs in over the middle, and we see this play out in team period two. There was a shot that someone broke up.
Let me go to my notes.
Who was It was Cam Smith working back down the stem on Brayln Sanders, who I thought drifted back into his route a little bit and didn't kind of angle it off back to the quarterback, which gave Smith the opportunity to get over the top and knock that thing down. But it was just a rocket, and I think Standers was maybe late to kind of respond to it. That's probably part of that drifting on the route, because all of a sudden you do that, the timing of the
route does not sync up. And good on Smith for taking advantage and breaking the ball up. But I just thought Tua was seeing it and letting it fly and playing with confidence on this practice, and it was evident by that throw. So he drops deep shot into the bucket the Tyreek and Man. The thing you have to love about Tyreek is how easy he makes on his
quarterback when they load up for the home run ball. Typically, long balls don't come easily, but Tyreek is one of the few guys ever that can make them easy.
Now, we did see two have that.
You know, handoff level placement on shots against the Packers for fifty plus yards down to the one yard line, the dime down the middle against both San Francisco and Baltimore for long touchdowns, the perfect ball outside against the Chargers for Tyreek's second touchdown in that game. But we also saw the second touchdown against Baltimore where he's all alone and the ball just finds him there. He does that better than any receiver I think I've ever seen,
besides maybe Deshaun Jackson, who's close. But I still think it's pretty you know close, it's pretty much decided in Tyreek's favor. But on this one, Tua has a clean pocket, and by the way, pass pro and time for the quarterbacks was much improved on this day. And you know the sac thing, it's like you have these slower developing plays in the script and you have fire zone blitzes on the other side. So it's kind of the results
is not what you're looking for in that day. It's more about, you know, trying to find a way to prepare yourself for a season and give yourself look so never get too bogged down and result it's good or bad in training camp. So Tua hitches up and throws an uncovered a ball to an uncovered Tyreek and in fact, the only defender who was in the area was actually on top of Tyreek. And it's probably a tackle around
the fifteen yard line or so. But the way Tyreek hit the burners to beat him to the angle for the touchdown makes me give it to him. So whether it's a seventy five yard touchdown or a sixty yard completion, gold jacket, green jacket, who gives it?
You know what?
But I really don't trust any human to tackle cheetah in open space. So I think you probably have to have you know, what the government called what was extraterrestrial biology they have in their possession. You probably have to have something like that to be able to tackle a cheetah in open space like the one that Tyreek had today. So Tua had the shot in the bucket. He was
just money in the red zone. First day of red zone practice, I saw a tweet from thou who shall not be named about how they haven't scored enough touchdowns in practice.
Because they're running in plays from their own twenty yard line.
How many eighty yard touchdowns happened? Like Waddle had eighty four last year. That was one touchdown in seventeen games. That doesn't happen very often. So today in red zone they scored a lot of touchdowns. And this is where I think the multiple pitches concept really showed out in practice. He threw a couple of practices with touch over the top of the coverage right in the bucket, most notably
a tear drop to Raheem. Most are on a little wheel route, which seeing Raheem hit a wheel route to the level that I saw on this day, Oh that's got me fired up because cater Cohu was in coverage. Who's having the best Campopheny dolphin right now? I think either him or Christian Wilkins. He took the cheese on the route to the out and then Tua just layers over the top to the back pylon and Cohu because he's so freaking good damn near got back into the play.
But good job by Raheem to put the ball away because Cohu was raking at that thing after he got beat on the route and kind of like he didn't on the one on one pass to Wattle. You keep raaking, keep finding way to separate the hands and get the PBu. But Raheem put the ball away and caught it for a touchdown. Just one play later, Tua catches a snap and Tyreek's running uncapped like no press to the middle
of the field a little inbreaker. And the reason I include that details because think about how fast Tyreek takes to get down the hash in the middle of the field ten yards deep, like probably a one and a half second ten split right, So Tua has one and a half seconds to catch a shotgun snap, put the ball on the upfield shoulder.
Of his receiver and going for six. That's impressive.
Man.
The snap takes half that time, so he has less than a second to get that thing up by his ear and out to his receiver. And I thought today was a good example what we saw all year last year. An offense that just puts immense pressure on the defense, creates vacancies, creates space, and forces you to defend multiple plays of grass at all time and drops in a big play after big play and ultimately lights up the scoreboard.
What a treat for the fans and attendance on Sunday.
Let's actually go back to quarterback Mike White who talked about this offense of what he believes makes QB one two a tunga bai loa so special.
I think just distributing the ball and getting to the getting the ball to the guys kind of accurately with yak angles is what we call it yards after catch. And I think I'm wondering a lot from Tua too too. I think that's what Tua does at at such a high level, and it's really impressive, just the anticipation and the accuracy, and you can tell he's just getting better and it's only going to get better with more reps
and more time in the offense. I mean, the numbers they put up last year for the first year in this offense is super impressive. So I truly believe it's only going.
To get better.
Fully fully agree with Mike on that point. Been staying on the podcast all summer long, and uh, you know, I'm pretty sure that Mike White and I could become best friends at some point, and you're gonna find out why here in just a second. And just to take you into the audio, this is my third question for Mike that I asked him. My first two were kind of setups and there wasn't real anybody around them, so
I felt comfortable asking him some non football stuff. I just said, have you gotten out the golf course at all the summer? And he said, no, it's kind of my family time. I put it away because you know, once football gets here, it's it's kind of time to go, and I want to make sure I have that time with the family. But he said that you better believe any chance he gets, he's taking out the imaginary seven iron and getting some swings on air and kind of
getting the swing down. So I said, was the corner that you threw to Wattle? Was that a seven iron? And here's how the rest of that engagement went with quarterback.
Wouldn't be lying if I grabbed my seven iron. It was just kind of in the house. But no, not a whole lot, probably more like a five iron to him. Yeah, that guy's unbelievable. Yeah, we just ran this little concept. Reek had a curl cater sat on. Reek gave us the pylon and and kind of one thing with those guys is there's no out throwing him, so you can throw it as far as you can and they will get it. And Wattle showed what he's so good at is tracking the balls and making contested catches.
Is unbelievable. I can't wait to watch it on film.
Agree that Wattle is amazing and I too want to see it on film.
Mike.
Let's also also talk to Mike, who had himself quite a day. Started off with that seed to Jay and while we talked about in deep coverage there and you heard him break that play down for us there made a hell of a catch. You can find both of those deep shots on our social accounts. Let's go back to Mike here real quick for one last Q and A with him about the offense bouncing back and how important that was after a pretty rough showing.
On Freda's huge I mean, that's that's the name of the game. That's football.
You can go out and first scripted drive, can go as plan, next drive, you go through and out and you gotta game doesn't stop there. You gotta you gotta go out next drive. And that's that's football. It's ebbs and flows. It's that's what you want in a practice too. You you don't you don't want one side of the ball to be dominating the entire time because at the end of the day, we're gonna have to play other
teams and we're gonna be rooting for our defense. So whenever you can have that kind of back and forth throughout training camp like we got them today, they'll get us tomorrow, you know what I mean that. I think that makes it one competitive and fun and too it's good for the for the organization.
With all the softwor of sports teams, that's going crazier for software in the sports.
How ready for the Dolphins.
Statisticy that next team.
To have that successful Oh, I'm sure it's I mean as I can only speak for the locker room, and I think we all kind of recognize the the timing of everything and what we have at hand and an opportunity that's in front of us.
But you can't look too past it.
You know, our goal tomorrow is to build upon what we did today, and I'm sure defensively, their goal is to stop us tomorrow. And I think if you keep that one one day mindset and you build on it, that's when good things come.
And it was more than just that throw from Mike White. He was fitting windows most impressively so into a shot into the corner of the end zone to Miles Gaskin with very very tight coverage. Like you know, next Gen always tells you the exact yard of separation. This might have been zero point one yards of separation. He was plastered by the defender with the ball sales right into the hands and Miles hangs on through traffic for a touchdown.
Really cool play.
I thought the running game had one of its better days to date. The toughest place on the field to run the footballs in the red zone, and we worked primarily in that area to a Savon Ahmed had a run that was not in red zone.
I think it was their own twenty yard line.
They had everybody owing and aweing at one point, and I was sitting up atop the stands with Crabs and my guys, you know, Big Seth and Joe Rose, and Joe was wondering if that was a chain because they twenty six and twenty eight looked very similar from a distance, and I was able to bust out the but knocks and identify, Yeah, that was Savon Ahmed, and he has different color shorts on. That's how you kind of remember that. He used to wear the orange cleat snow. Now it's white,
so it's tough to tell him part anyway. But the six and the eight jers he really tough to decipher. But it was Savon and he had a run like that just about every single day. Let's go to Savan real quick for that bounce back day from the offense and his perspective on how the offense responded from Friday's showing.
That's what it's about, and that's what's about competing. Now, you know, they had they had a really good day, and I mean, that's that's what we want to see at the end, you know, we're all we're all one team, you know, the offense, the defense, special teams. Everybody's everybody's wonted, so you know, if they have a good day, it's a win for the Dolphins.
Also wanted to ask him about the running back room and offensive line returning so many of the same guys from a season go here.
Savon Akman on the continuity in the running.
Oh man, it's it's always good when you know everyone can everyone can stay together and just kind of you know, work through throughout the summer, working through OTA's and going into camp and just kind of getting like you said, you know, getting a rhythm. So you know, it's been awesome. I think they're out there doing a great job, you know, along with you know, the receivers blocking, you know, quarterbacks, center, exchange,
everything like that. So everything, everything has been been really fun to watch and you know, just got to keep stacking the days.
So not to be what not to be confused with Devon a Chain or Savon achmed A. Chain did have a chance to showcase the speed it all stays in the podcast. He had a chance to showcase the speed on an outside run that he got to the pylon with that speed for six on a six yard run
six points. I mentioned the Raheem most at receiving touchdown, one of the best routes I've seen him run, which is obviously pretty cool to hear because I think that's an element the running backs could contribute more with this year in the passing game, and Devon Ashan is a
big part of that obviously. But Raheem talked about in his last media availability about getting more and more familiar with, you know, this version of McDaniel offense, but also coming back from the second year off that knee injury, and how one area he wants to attack is the passing game.
So he did that in a big way.
But he also had the touchdown run down in low red zone behind the nice Austin Jackson block who got good surge.
Into the end zone.
I like Austin in the running game. It's the pass sets that I think are where the growth has to happen. But the running game has been doing a good job of getting some push off a line scrimmage and that's typically what you want from me right tackle, at least traditionally. But just curious to see him get some more work after pretty much having the entire twenty twenty three season rob from him via injury. Alec Ingolds having an awesome camp.
He caught the first touchdown of the day, coming across the field with Tula rolling out and found him in space and Alec kind of lost his footing but then stayed on his feet and dove for the pylon for a touchdown. Just I can't tell you the routes because it's not how we do it. And by the way, quick aside, quit taking videos at practice. You are giving opposing teams are information.
Quit doing that.
If you're a fan, please just please, especially the whole damn practice.
Man.
But on this play, I just think it showcased how special Alec is and the way he moves, and how most fullbacks don't give you the options that he gives you in the passing game.
What's next?
The receivers Man Waddle and Reek, Dude, these guys are so freaking good. I love how they run the one on ones for the fans right in front of us, in front of the media. We got solid ten minutes of receivers on corners going for twenty five yards and in and it was quite a show.
But the way that cater co who competed.
With Tyreek Hill, was something that really really stood out to me. I told Kyle again next to me at practice after the session, and this is something that's been building from my watching the tape last year into the way he played in OTA's in training camp.
I don't think it's all that crazy.
Especially with the Ramsey injury now, to say that you could end the season with cater Coo, who's the best cornerback on the roster, and that's not a slight to anybody. I think this guy has what it takes to become a top ten player in his position. He is so so so efing good at football. He can flat out play. By the way, I'm taking the win on the orange jersey since I said it wasn't going if it wasn't gonna be Christian, it will be cater Coo who on the orange jersey on Sunday's practice.
So one for two in predictions there.
Tomorrow I'm gonna go with Jalen Phillips though it's a hard one because it was quite a day for quite a few of the guys, but cater versus Tyreek Man. You know how I mentioned how frequently Tyreek is wide open. Didn't happen once in the one on ones against Kater Kohu, and they went out three times. Tyreek made two of the catches, but he should in this drill because receivers
always have the advantage in this drill. But Cater was right there and just the way that he did not back down from the challenge that told me all I had to know, because there is so much confidence bringing that young man right now, and it should be because he is freaking good at football. Tyreek did have his best showing so far. He caught everything and it was
a lot. So did Waddle, particularly that shot to the corner from Mike White where he made the tough catch over the shoulder with color flashing both in front and behind. That's not easy to do and he did it. We
know about those two. How about Chosen getting loose for a long touchdown in one on one, which I want to see more of him in team, but that was cool to see his first big play of really training camp so far, even though one on ones is again very tailored to the offense, same with Eric Azukama had a nice catch in one on ones. The way he opens it up in space at his size, he's got the goods man he can go. David Davis is a name. You're not gonna hear a ton about giving the star
power in this room. But make plays and you'll get noticed. And that's what he's done so far. He caught two in the one on one period after a really nice stab in Friday's practice, and an ota where his name gotten notes a few times. I thought Barrios's work and one on one shows you exactly what he offers the offense. If we can create one on one opportunities, especially with that two way go from the slot alignments where he's played so much in the past, and with the talent
we have in this room, that seems very achievable. I'm just not sure how you cover him because he's so shifty in tight quarters. He ran one route in one on one where the initial move didn't generate separation, like a little whip route, but he just kept moving and angling back to the quarterback and got away from the dB and made the catch. Anyway, that's a great way to earn trust from your quarterback, and it's a great way to move the chains on those third to short
or third to short mediums you'll see this season. Eric Sober, I thought got some good work today. I love the route he ran where Skyler Thompson tried to shoot that back five ball to him. You know, the high five shot to the back of the end zone. Remember two was thrown at Gasiki against Baltimore for six last year. Akin to that, where the rule is back of the end zone. Put it up so high so only your
guy can go get it. I thought Skyler ripped a good one, but maybe it's a little bit short because Sobert did a little move to get on top of the defense and show that target to the back five. But Van Ginkel gets depth time to jump and broke it up. So a little higher for Sabert next time, who had a really good block also on a big raheem Moster run to the second level that sprung him. Encouraged by what I see from eighty to two, Durham Smith had a few catches down in the red area.
I thought the line was much better today. They gave the quarterbacks time. They split the run game probably fifty to fifty with the defense, which is kind of what you want to see, right And we heard earlier from White about the importance of bouncing back for the offense and how you don't want practices to be so one sided. I thought we got that today. I thought Cedric Away he looked really good in this practice. I thought Rob Hunt was excellent as usual. I thought James Tunstall had
some good work that I saw. And daily disclaimer that it's really tough to dissect the trench play without rewatching or without.
Having the end zone angle.
Busy show, Let's take our last break right here and come back on the other side and do defense and some more media from Cam Smith and Eli Apple. That's next Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. Let's go Dolphin's chance all day long. That's always fun to see. The fans also expressed their disdaining for the New York Jets with their version of the Jets Jets Jets Jets chant. I like that one
better than theirs. I saw someone in a Steeler's mink of Fitzpatrick Jersey walk down the aisle, and the reason I saw it was because Booze erupted and I'm thinking, what do they do? They're not like the throwing picks or anything, And of course it was a guy on Mike I fitzs Patrick Jersey. How can you not be romantic about football? And how can you not be stoked
about what's happening off the edge in this defense? Bradley chubbed to me, looks better than he ever has going back to his Broncos days, going back to his NC State days. Looks like a guy that you'd want to spend a first round pick. He's fast, he's playing tons of reps. He's strong, he's holding the edge, he's rushing the quarterback, making an impact both on the running pass game.
There was one run out his way where he did kind of what I got on in for last year, dipped inside and kind of took himself out of the play, but was able to work back outside to force Gask into bubble.
And what's a bubble.
It's when the player with the football has to go back towards their own line of scrimmager kind of widen things out, which just allows the pursuit to get there faster. And that allowed Cater Kohu to come down and tag off. But knowing what kind of tackler Cater is, probably a big collision there and a real live action his counterpart Jalen Phillips might have earned the orange jersey today because he's a monster. He's an absolute monster who's going to
get sacks in the teams this year. He was full go after a couple of days of getting stepped on the foot on Day one and boy, he was healing up just fine. Beat a block for a TfL in his very first snap, had a sack on Tua in red zone, rejected a pass from Skylar Thompson at the line, and had two more pressures that I counted, and.
I didn't even think his workload was that extensive.
He made a massive impact with minimal reps. Go ahead and hear from JP on his goal to kind of take another jump this year and you're number three in twenty twenty six years.
I think, just you know, turning those pressures into sacks, I think that's the biggest thing. You know. Obviously, numbers at the end of the day don't really show the big picture, and I'm not chasing numbers. But ultimately, the more sacks I have, the better it is for the team. And so ultimately that's what I'm trying to do.
And how about the message that Zach Thomas related to the team before practice today.
Here's JP on ZT.
Yeah.
I mean he just kind of related to us that it all starts on this practice field, like how you come every day, how you take care of yourself as a professional, how you take care of your teammates, everything like that, that all matters. So that's what we're really trying to do. Just come out here every day, take a day by day and attack.
So he made his plays.
Wilkins made his plays that he always does, though not as many on Friday. But I'm not sure anybody in the history of football is ever going to make that many plays or mother.
F people as much as Wilkins did Friday.
Christian Wilkins was one of my favorite experiences in a football field I've ever had. I also took note of Zach Steeler and the stack peak shed drill. Essentially, they're trying to simulate in the sho a run going away from the gap that you have to control. So we talk all the time on the All twenty two podcast about leverage, getting seals that are naturally set up in
the play design. So like if I'm the right guard, for instance, and the run's going right and the defensive tackle is the one technique, you know, outside shoulder of the center. Then my task for the one tech, if that's my role, is to just basically turn my butt, seal him off there, and keep him in that place. And it's a rep that I should win because the one tech has to go all the way over the top of my block and that's just not easy to do.
So in this drill, you see the defensive line stack peek off to the side to see where the ball is going. Then they have to showcase the upper body strength to toss aside an offensive lineman get themselves back into the correct gap. And I was watching ninety two do this because legitimately he's the strongest human being I've ever met in my life. And the way that he was tossing his fellow defensive linemen who were giving him the good looks, it looked like when I take my
daughter to the pool. She's three years old, by the way, and wants to be thrown into the air. That's kind of what it looked like.
I thought.
Mitchell Agude showed out once again. I remember my first camp back in twenty nineteen, really trying to identify some unknown guys in the roster like a Nick Needham for instance.
That was full of guys like that that year.
Now we have a lot of known names, so it's easy to forget to watch guys like that making waves udfas and etc.
Etc.
And a good day flashes every single day. He blew up a block on the first run play of the day, got outside to cut off the outside line. The outside run forced the back back inside to be cleaned up by Andrew Van Ginkel, who I mentioned earlier. But he's had another really good day, kind of in that new role he's playing this year. I thought Tyndall had a good day. I thought David Long Junior does what did what he does really well, diagnose and beat people to
the spot. So that's your front seven. Let's go ahead and finish up here. On the back part of the defense. Xavier and Howard had I thought the most impressive rep of the day one on one versus Jalen Waddle. Waddle tried an inside move and X was just all over it broke up the pass. You'd kind of take notice when Tyreek or Waddle or covered that tightly because it never happened. So Cater and X doing their thing. Veron
McKinley had an excellent rundown rep. He came from depth all the way across the field to cut off the angle on an outside run and that allowed Tendall to scrape over the top and make another play. Doing a few of those, Cam Smith made more plays.
Again.
He's got the goods man. I was watching him with Kyle up in the stands, and you guys know, Kyle's primarily a draft analyst, and he was saying that Cam moves at his size, at his length, that has built The way he does move was what made him a top fifty or fifty one pick in the draft. And we praise his feel all the time on the show.
Here. Those two trades combined lead to making plays.
Man.
He did it again today. Very promising start for the rookie. Let's go ahead and hear how he's adjusting so far to life in the NFL.
I feel like Ocia's kind of put it, like put it into a little kind of fast forward, having those practices that kind of dial everything in, get used to the defense, he used to the new takes, niques and stuff like that. So I came in I feel like I came in pretty ahead of where I was when I first came in in May. So just having those practices kind of have me having a better campman I thought I would.
And how about how NFL receivers test you more than receivers at the collegiate level. Here's camp Smith once more.
I can't really speak for the NFL overall. I know offenses, Yeah, I know, our offense is kind of kind of different, only probably like two or three other offenses in the
league that run the same type of thing. So coming out and seeing this is my first NFL offense going against, it's kind of kind of building me to make sure that I stay aware of everything because it's not like every like how in college is you could get one stem and that's the one route, but they run the same stem out of every route, so it's like coming out of those bunches and stuff like that, you gotta kind of stay on your toes and make sure your eyes are good.
And we'll finish up here with cam Smith on the veteran leadership and the tips and advice he's gotten so far from Exaving Howard and Jalen Ramsey.
Here's the rook Really a lot of stuff.
Even after every rep, almost every rep. I go, I'll go ask him, like what you've seen, what I did wrong? Like did I take any step, false steps or anything. They just let me know everything, and then they put they little vet touch on it.
And we go from a rookie to a guy who's been around in Eli Apple first impressed by the way he played in his first day because he puts pen to paper. Then it's time to go out to practice and a defense that he admittedly is not super familiar with. I thought there was a good Q and a between he and a reporter when asked about the twelve hour process of the announcement from reporters on Saturday night to strapping it up at ten forty five Sunday morning and playing the way he did.
Here's Eli Apple in the last one.
Yeah, it's been crazy. It's been hectic. Just handing the ground running especially out there to day just threw me in a fire. Literally, still kind of sweating a little bit from the practice. But I feel good, my body feels good. Just want to continue to, you know, get better and better every day.
He also praised the way the coaching staff and the players have kind of helped him get up to speed already. And the communication being top notch with something that he said. So lastly here, Javon Holland was a guy that I wanted to get a look at today because his work and coverage, to me, is becoming a bit of a storyline. The way that he squats, processes, drives, and finishes, I think is going to really help us in the hook zones this year, in that kind of short intermediate area
that all the best quarterbacks love to attack. Especially with Ramsey being down the potential I think for Holland to kind of take on more of a chess piece role. I think he's built for it. I think the skills that he made him a good nickel at organ can translate here into his you know, not just the position at safety, but moving around the defense a little bit. Hasn't made the splash play yet, but man, he's got a bunch of PBUs here early on in training camp.
All Right, very busy episode. They're happy to bring it to you. I thought it was one of the best ones I've done. You can tell me if you agree or disagree on Twitter or in the rating and reviews portion of the podcast. Back tomorrow with another edition of the Draft Time Podcast. We'll have head coach Mike McDaniel at the podium on Monday morning. In the meantime, that's
going to be my time. You all, please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcast, leave us a rating, and leave us a review.
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