This is Drivetime with Travis Wingfield.
What is up, dollphans, and welcome to the Draft Time Podcast. I am your host, Travis Wingfield. And on today show we heard from coach McDaniel. Then we had a very rain soaked practice and then we spoke to Austin Jackson, Jalen Wattle, Patrick Paul Tyrell Dodson, and Jalen Wright who at a seventy yard home run today on the ground by the way, which we'll cover in the practice notes from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.
This is.
The Draft Time Podcast.
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Things got started on Tuesday, late morning, early afternoon with Chop Robinson in the Orange Jersey who's been having a hell of a spring so far. He was my top performer last week, comes out in the Orange Jersey today and just keeps things rolling with the way he performed on this Tuesday afternoon. But I want to go here and ronological order, and we'll go ahead and play some sound bites throughout this episode and kick it off here
in the individual portions. And my first note that I wrote down for myself to convey to you all was that it was dumping rain out there, and I would say probably the most rain I've seen in a practice since the infamous twenty twenty COVID year Davy practice where it was a literal, oh, what's the word, not monsoon,
a torrential downpour. I thought I didn't know what torrential meant until I moved to South Florida, and then I learned what it meant because we saw a torrential downpour and the ball was just bouncing all over the place, off receivers hands into defender's bed baskets, and it was a bad day offensively for that reason, and I felt like context kind of got lost in the shuffle on the way that practice was covered a little bit, and today it kind of reminded me of the same, but
it was a much sharper football team, not in the sense of the offense went out and dominated, because the defense actually got the best of the day in my opinion, but the whole operation just looked a lot sharper, and I thought it was worth touching on because that was kind.
Of like.
The inaugural year of like the core of this football team that you saw come together the tu WA Draft. Obviously, Austin Jackson part of that draft as well, and so many key players that joined the team that year that are still around and to see them, you know, five years later after the fact, have a practice in similar conditions.
I just thought it was worth noting and kind of bookending, you know, today with the you know, it wasn't even May back then because the whole calendar got tripped upside down. It's not Meg today, it's June. I keep forgetting that, so there you go. But I thought it was just interesting because that was a big factor in the practice. And also it's the first practice I can recall where I wore a sweatshirt to practice, and the first practice I can recall where I watched for you know, more
than fifteen minutes where I didn't sweat. So that was really welcome here in the South Florida heat, a nice little break from the from the humidity. And he we've had the last couple of weeks and I just wrote a few notes to I talked about cater Co who's growth and professionalism and full transparency. The cornerbacks work out right in front of where the media sits, and so
it's usually the best view you gets. Those guys as well as the edges and the defense, the whole defensive side of the footballs on that side of the field, offense on the far side of the field. So sometimes you might get fewer notes from certain positions from me because I try to watch what I can, so just full transparency. But cater coo who watching the cornerbacks go
through the individual drills. I talked about Cam Smith last week, how his individual portions he just looks different than like other guys in the group, and the way he glides and moves around, and you know, I thought last week was a tougher practice for Cam. I thought he had a better bounce back day today, which it's tough for you know, a person that comes out once a week. I don't have the full not that I come out once a week, but I you know, it's open to the media once a week.
It's it's you know, you.
Say like, oh, we had a tough day last week and a good day today, Like what does that really mean? Because there's practices in between, and it's more about the overall body of work for these guys. I remember last asking coach McDaniel last year, like, at what point do you because he had made a comment about like this grand evaluation and how all the things are considered, and they want to put players in positions to trust the coaches and the technique they employ and utilize that and
trust it and grow from there. And it's like, okay, well, you know, if you're learning a swing change in golf, which we're gonna have some golf references in the podcast today, you wouldn't judge the way you would score when you're going through a swing change. So why the hell would I judge what a football player is doing when he's
working on maybe a new technique from his position. Maybe he's playing a different side of the football and he has to kind of relearn the other half of his body mechanics to incorporate the same thing you have from the other side of the ball. Like, there's so much that goes into it, and so when I talk about
growth and progress, it's not the full comprehensive picture. But when I'm talking about cater Coohu and these drills, just the growth and professionalism and approach you've seen from him, not that he wasn't doing this before, but really getting my eyes on him and you go through a practice and you just watch him steal reps where he can, Like you know, he's often the side when they're doing individuals and it's not his turn, but he's going through
the footwork ladder or you know, working on the technique that he's going to deploy when he gets in when it's his turn to run the drill. He coaches up the young guys or so many young guys in that room between Storm and Cam himself and you know the udfas and bj Adams and gosh, I'm Jason Marshall, the fifth round draft pick. I just think there's leadership qualities
that have developed there. And I feel like in a year where you know, Ramsey's not been here obviously for these practices, we'll see what happens with him long term. Doesn't seem like he'll be here long term, But if that's the case, and a year after Xaving Howard, who was a leader in that room, Like what I'm getting at is that it elevates Cater's voice into one of
the primary voices of the rooms of the room. And just seeing the way I think he like responds to that and the way he's approached his craft, I believe that's a sign of growth and a good thing for this tall cornerback room. But just in general, the way he and Cam Smith move in that drill is different than everybody else.
I thought.
They both look smooth, and Cater catches the football so well when the ball finds him, he does not drop the football. And then I wrote down, speaking of the edges, how explosive I thought Jalen Phillips looked man. They were doing this two man drill where you essentially retrace screens. And for those that are new to the podcast, are new to football in general, retracing is essentially it defines
it in the word itself. You retrace your steps, so you'd lose your keys, retrace your steps right, go find out where you drop those keys at and on a screen pass, the offensive line is going to invite you through the line of scrimmage because they want you to play upfield. They want you to run towards the opposite
end zone and screen the ball in behind you. So you have to retrace your steps and go get back out to the perimeter and find the football and tackle the wide receiver and set the drill up this way where there's no obvious offensive line, but it's bags it's like the weight bags, right, and so they.
Would line up one by one or.
Two by two I should say, with two of the rushers and the bag would you know, invite the rusher into the backfield and then they would have to get eyes on a coach, which you have to have your eyes up in everything in the sport, but especially for a screen pass. And then much like the combine drill where they point to a direction, you run that way, that's what they would do. They would point the football to the right, you sprint to the right. And Chop is the fastest one every time. He might be the
fastest DAN player on the field. And I include that with Tyreek Hill and Jalen Waddle not reality, but Chop is different. He moves different, right. You knew that about his draft profile. You saw it last year in games. You've seen it this year in the spring ball. But damn it if Jalen Phillips was not matching him when they would go together and he had the ACL injury.
I'm looking at my team calendar on September thirtieth last year, it's June third, so we'll call it May thirtieth, October, November, December, January, February March April May. Yeah, it's eight months removed. You wouldn't know that.
He towards ACL late last September.
Watching routes on air once again, I just grow an appreciation for the way Tua puts the.
Ball on the money.
And there was you know, some sporadicness early on in the drill with the rest of the quarterbacks, but like it's one of those things where, I mean, the footballs were all soaked, so who knows what the hell is happening on any given play. We're sitting there under a canopy that covers us the entire time, and it's dry for me sitting there in my hoodie with my I have a freaking, you know, warm cup of cappuccino, and I'm writing notes about football. They're out there and the
elements taking the beating from the rain. So I just I think it's fair to outline that context talking about that stuff because you probably see it from somewhere else, and I want to make sure that this podcast provides ultimate context. And I also wrote down that I kept seeing number twenty three move seamlessly and find the football
and then finish the interception. And again that's not an easy thing to do in this weather, because you see guys take their gloves off and try to catch wet football with their bare hands because the gloves be come more slippery, and you know how how sticky gloves are these days. But every time the ball hit twenty three, it stuck to him and he was moving around there,
and I was certain going into this practice. I haven't gotten to this point yet, but I will buy training camp where I don't know all ninety numbers by heart yet. Number thirty three is who I thought Alardy Burns was, and I looked at my roster. Oh, twenty three is already Burns, and I was watching him do his thing, and I just thought he looked really good in that portion, and I wanted to watch him in team drills, which
I made a point to do that. So we'll come back and touch on that here in just one second. Jonah Seville colley Man, Jonah Savity Naya, there it is Boom.
I just thought he looked like.
And this goes back to the Campsmith comment earlier, like, I don't have the knowledge to comprehensively cover every single practice for you guys here, but from what I saw last week from the opening drill to the end of practice to today, I just thought there was like a ton of growth that was tangible for the naked eye,
and they were running these drills. You know, this defense loves to unveil their pass rush games, and they would do that and he would he would throw a punch and he would he wouldn't get leaned over his skis. He would stay in really good posture into a set and just naturally settle into that position. And then from there he can shuffle. And he's so big and dense and and just a thick dude that it's it looks
easy for him to do that. So I think once he kind of finds that comfort level and he's not going to be there where he wants to be the finished product until you know, probably the end of camp. But I think that we are well on our way towards Jonah being what you thought he was there at Arizona, just based upon how he looks out here in spring football. And then Willie Gay's speed in person today was you know, the first day I had a chance to really hone in on him and watch him, and it was even
better than what I saw on tape. With the way he times up his runs to the line of scrimmage, whether it's a pass blitz or you know run blitz, and gets downhill towards line of scrimmage, even in an install period where it's like, you know, there's no bodies, they're just running around, you know, five trash cans for offensive lines, which they pull out those big tubs and they act as the offensive line just to get the splits of the gaps for the guys to work off of.
And like the way he explodes through that. It's like, I compare it to these these monster trucks my son has, which he is all about monster truck life these days.
Is two years old.
Too young to go to Monster Jam, because I feel like he would love Monster Jam, but I feel like he's also too young. But he has these trucks where you pull them back and like it it you know what's the term for that, It like locks in the wheels to like once you put it down, that takes off. That's what Willy Gay reminds me of with how his first step explosiveness is. So that was the individual portion.
Let's go ahead and run some audio here. I am gonna sprinkle this in as we go throughout the episode. Let's go ahead and start here because there was a comment before practice that Coach McDaniel made when he was asked about something with OTAs, and it evolved into this conversation about attendance at practice. I want to just go ahead and run this audio from Coach McDaniel about the participation and focus of this year's OTAs.
We've had unbelievable participation and focus. The focus in regard for the opportunity, you know, for for for our team in the offseason. It definitely, uh, there's been voluntary activities that haven't appeared voluntary by the nature of their.
Approach. I'll say that it's you know, what I'd hoped in that way.
If that was a little bit too coach speaky for you, and I don't think it was, but just to lay it out a little more clear, like what coach is getting out there is that guys have been here and
they've been locked into their assignments. I mean, we see him running gasers after our practice, we see them doing extra work to get further install after practice, and and the way the defense flew around today, and the way they played connected and communicative and just you know, kind of on the same rope, I would say, as you'll hear from Jillen Wattle later on. In fact, let's go
ahead run this audio from Jillen Wattle. I asked him today about a dominant defensive performance where I just thought everybody looked connected and in line with one one another. Let's go ahead and run this audio to close the first segment that Gilen Walla talked about from what he's
seen compared to year's past. Remember, he was a guy that has been here for this is his what fifth year, So he's seen these defenses change year after year and have to install and kind of, you know, take the brunt of the offense's best most practice days, especially this time of year, because the offense is so finally tuned at this point, but now as defense has some continuity
in their in their corner at this point. So I asked Waddle, from your perspective, what have you seen from this defense and how they're playing in terms of their connectivity and how well they're communicating on the backside.
I mean, it seem like they all over the place. Man. They're saying, like they all connected, they playing together, they all playing on the rope. They're communicating good on the on the backside, man, and they just overall the good on all tharly level with man.
I want to come back to that here in a little bit. Let's go ahead and take our first break and come back on the other side. Get to the practice notes. I have a ton more media sound bites for you guys. That's all next Draft Time podcast, brought to you by Auto Nation. This particular SoundBite doesn't really feed into practice. I want to just go ahead and
run it here off the top. Coach was asked on Tuesday morning about John who Smith, and I just want to go ahead and run his audio talking about the Dolphins tight end.
John is a very important player person to me and to the guys. You know, I think one thing that we can stand on as his professionalism and how he goes about his business. And you know, there's times that business can play a part for sure, and it's as it can make a team can make it as complicated as they would like. If they have a lot of time and to focus on what's going on with John Eu, I would, you know, encourage them to focus on their
own game. Fortunately, I haven't had to have those conversations guys have been very focused on what they can do today to get better for the Miami Dolphins organization.
And just to provide an update on that, Adam Schefter did tweet on Tuesday. This is per reports obviously that the Pittsburgh Steelers will not be making a move for Jonas Smith. He talked about Gabe Davis being a guy they had in for workouts. The Steelers pretty clearly trying to add to their skill group, their arsenal weapons there for Skylar Thompson and Mason Rudolph their quarterbacks right now.
So that's the last on Johnny Smith.
Let's go ahead and get back to practice here and talk a little bit about what happened on that football field, and we kick it off with him seven on seven work where there was to me, when there's this much rain. Offensively, it really challenges you to be even more on point.
Like the very first play of practice, Ta had this deep shot to Devon ah Chan where he got a step and I'll just say this, like, without getting into the nitty gritty of the scheme and whatnot, I'm excited about the next evolution of how this offense can take advantage of you know, the way team have attacked it in recent years. I thought the first play was a good example of that, but Tua was a little bit long on this deep shot to Devon h Chen who
got a step on Ashton Davis in coverage. And again, just to you know, communicate this within the rules of camp reporting, I'll just say this about the defense and we're gonna jump right back into this conversation we had
with Wattall on the other side. The amount of presentations I'm seeing and the post snap rotation and how just well constructed and communicated a kind of tough to digest scheme that looks like it has a pretty advanced stage already being implemented from this fast menu, and we've talked about on the podcast all off season. It's no secret. Coach McDonnel talked about it on the podcast. Back at
the combine, Coach Weavers talked about it. I've pontificated and had confirmation from players and coaches about how beneficial it is to have that, you know, retention of staff and scheme and structure. I think you're seeing that play out and know the quarterbacks have had to be super precise. The very next play after this, Tua had a shot
in the honey hole to Taj Washington. He couldn't quite hang on, but it was a really nice anticipation throw, and the defense is challenging the quarterbacks to do that. And we'll hear from Zach Wilson or talk about Zach Wilson's practice in that regard here in just one second, because I thought he had a big bounce back after
a slow start in this practice. But I'm really really impressed by how this defense is moving and they're communicating and I can't even you know, I try my best, and even though it's not reportable to track all the different you know, schemes and looks that I see, it just looks like what you saw from you know, the coaches that Weaver has talked about as his influences and the guys he coached under who had three four years to put their system in place. It's getting you know,
closer to that look. So that to me is exciting. And then let's go ahead and run some audio here because I heard I talked to Tyrel Dotson about that and some of the guys on offenses too. Let's go ahead and play some audio here from Tyrel Dotson, who I was. I asked him about the communication and how important it is for the back end on the defense.
Yeah, you can lose a game, you can win a game just off of the communication. Communication has to be at an all time high at all times. So if me and JB aren't on the same page, that's a bomb over our head. Yeah, and just with the run game, you know, this defense is built off the intile linebackers. So if you can't stop the run or you know, cover the past, you want to have a long day.
And I thought that was really worth kind of examining further because in this practice and practices of the past, like Jordan Brooks finds a free run. In fact, one of the first notes I had on the team period was that he made a play that nobody in the world was going to block him on because he keyed
it and read it. Zach Thomas, like, you know how you saw him do for ten years, twelve years down here, where he would just read it and anticipate it and go the way two it does offensively like Jordan Brooks is to me is like on that level of intelligence and anticipation and keying what the offensive tendencies are. We
saw him do that. I saw a Tyrol dot to make a play the same way I saw Willie Gay bust through the exact same drill I saw in the install period carry over to the team drill, and he got a sack that way by running down the quarterback with that get off. So I asked, you know, Dotson to continue about that and touch on the urgency of this time of year and why you guys are so tuned in right now in early June.
When you come to work, you gotta be serious about work because you know everyone else around you or depending on you to make plays. And you know, this is how I eat. This is how I feed my family. You know, my mom and my you know, my girlfriend, my cula dog back home this hot this is how they eat. So you know, just assist an urgency as well. You know, we got to go. You know, there's no
more waiting, there's no more waiting in line. You know, you gotta be the first man up and you gotta go make place when your name's called.
That's fitting for a guy that had three picks last year being here for half the season leading the football team in that category. I just want to continue this because I feel like This is the first time I really had a chance to talk to Tyrell, you know,
and this extensively and kind of pick his brain. Is a guy that we heard Jordan Brooks talk about him wearing the green dot you know, at his press conference last week, and how impressive that is for a guy that again got here in mid season last year and then jumps into you know, OTAs and is calling things, you know, for the defense and being a big part
of the communication in the middle. So I asked him more about the defense of connectivity, like what can the inside linebackers do as you heard him talk about the importance of the inside linebackers and.
What do you know?
More confirmation for the ideas we had back in February about the Baltimore defense and how they took off when they got ro Qwan Smith next to Patrick Queen and the Seahawks emphasis on getting linebackers and Ernest Jones and Tyrrel Dotson and the Titans going after linebackers and the teams that run this system, how they've excelled in that arena. Here's Tyrel Dotson on the connectivity of the back end and how critical that is for a defense.
Yeah, one word I just think as one, like we've just been moving as one. We don't care what people say. We don't care if we don't have who and who and who. We're here to work. And no matter if you're a third tring, first ring, you know, fifth string, undrafted, first round, if you're out there, I'm expecting, we expecting, Joe Be's expecting you to make plays. So no matter who you are, you just gotta be accountable and you
gotta go. You gotta come ready to play. So and the guys, our energy is different this year, man, you know, coming in last year midseason is the energies is different. We're just moving as one.
You know, I thought about that energy comment because again, you know last year, like as you were disappointed as fans, like, imagine how these guys feel. I mean, they live it every single day and that's their entire life and livelihood. And Tyrell got here, you know, mid season when things weren't going well and we were losing games and two it was hurt and there was you know, it was tough to deal with, Like it's tough to come to work when you're consistently you know, coming up short on
the results end. And for him to kind of have that perspective to get here for that and then to come back this offseason and be so critical in the you know, the glue, the gelling of all these guys and being that glue part. I just think it's fascinating, especially alongside Jordan Brooks, who we've talked at length about his leadership and the impact he has and the quiet kind of confidence that he, you know, brings to the table.
I just wanted to continue here with Tyrel Dotson and talk to him about that because we taught we have the Jordan Brooks thing last year talking about sitting down with guys and having lunch and just talking about who they are. Well, Tyrel Dotson sounds like he's not too far off from that type of personality as well.
Yeah, I mean it's more of like just hanging out.
You know.
It's just like a relationship. When a person doesn't hear your voice a lot and then you try to correct them, they're gonna naturally just.
Disagree with you.
But when you have that dialogue with each other, you know, each and every day, like a relationship like your wife or anything like that, you know, the tone and the voice is more familiar. Where you're willing to take criticism, you're willing to take more information. So that's what we've been building. We've been going to dinner and stuff like that. So just creating a dialogue.
To reflect this back to my own personal life. We are really struggling right now with my daughter to like follow instructions and listen and clean up after herself. And my wife made a good point that, like we get so frustrated that we only nag her about that. We have to have positive reinforcement and talk to her more about it. So it's not like always could perceive as
this negative thing. And I thought that connects to what Tyrrel Dowson said today at his media availability, So I wanted to go ahead and run that because I was a kind of a big chunk of the podcast I thought was worth diving into in depth. Let's go ahead and pivot now to some Tua Tuk coach mcdanel. I talked about Tua and I'll run the audio here, but I asked, coach, you know, we saw Tua in the Orange Jersey on Monday. We all see like what it looks like when he throws the ball and it you know,
it's the pass looks pretty and the production's there. But I wanted to hear from coach, like what goes into TUA or quarterback in general earning the orange jersey? Can you give us some more detail on how that happens. And here's a great answer from coach McDaniel.
It's a cool question because this one specifically, I thought, you know, to the previous practice to wearing the orange jersey, had most ownership of all all the players on each and every down, particularly in non passing downs. There was double motions where he was aligning people appropriately. He really had command and resolve within the practice of things that you know. Sometimes football for the court for a quarterback can be uniquely challenging because you have the ownership of
the operation of the whole unit. You have one eleventh of the execution of it, and any anything that falls short can be frustrating. So sometimes your play can be exactly how you envisioned it going into whatever the performances, but then you're faced with frustrating things that.
Are out of your control.
What a great rep for the for a player of the quarterback position when you have practices like that. We had some things people weren't necessarily where they should be at the appropriate time and run and pass, and he handled his job and then performed executed and was very very competitive and didn't allow the ebbs and flows of practice to really keep him out of his rhythm. So that for me, there's a lot of layers. It's definitely
not just like, hey, three throws. When you're a quarterback, you throw the ball professionally, so like I feel like you should have good throws, but playing the position and being what the other ten players on the team need you to be on that down, that's a whole another story. That's why I earned it.
And I didn't think this practice was anything like crazy noteworthy from Tua in terms of big time throws. I did think that when the offense was struggling, he came in after a couple of like down reps and down periods and kind of helped stabilize things. And you know, it's one of those things where like a lot of times they run the same stuff. You know, Quinn you Weers's unit runs the same stuff as Tua runs, and so there's like anticipation and expectation there for the defense.
But I thought two was kind of stabilizing force and the way he's what's the word, like whether the storm of the pass rush that was getting after him and this entire Dolphins offense and found quick checkdowns. Like I think it was good for him to get that stuff on tape for the younger guys or for a new guy like Zach Wilson, because it kind of gave them a visualization of like how to mitigate that pressure in those things that could go wrong when a pass rush
is getting aftery like that. So not a crazy big day from Tuba, but I thought those soundbites were good. Let's go ahead and close this to a talk with Austin Jackson on the leadership of QB ONEO in You're six.
He's definitely a lot more confident and decisive on and off the field. You know, he knows what people are supposed to be doing a certain in terms of training. He knows what we're doing on the field. He knows how to take care of his body, he knows how to unite guys, bring us together for you know, team camaraderie and stuff just to get together. He's, you know, he's a full blown leader, and I think he's showing that he wants to take control of his team, and he is.
Spots for a quick break right there. Come back on the other side.
I've got a lot more to get to here, So a long podcast today, Draft Time Podcast brought to you by Auto Nation. Some more practice notes here. I had Dwayne Eskridge. D Eskridge with some really good competitive catches in tight spaces, in particular from Zach Wilson at quarterback where I just thought he continued to pluck balls that were, you know, around defensive backs arms. There was a play where Ethan Bonner was in great shape to make a play on him, but he just snatched it out of
the air. Speaking to Ethan, he had great coverage later on a ball to Jalen Conyers or no such check that to Tanner Connor that twa threw in the whole hole, shot down the sideline that he was in great shape for, but Conyor's made Connor made the catch rather man Conyers and Connor is gonna be. That's gonna be a lot
for your boy at the tight end position. Speaking of Conyers, he did win a nice seam route down the middle with a little arm bar over and kind of got on top of the linebacker stacked and made a catch for a big gain. I had Eskridge for another big catch in tight coverage, and that was not exclusive to Ethan Bonner. I had already Burns consistently in tight coverage.
He had a nice route on Monterey Baldwin, the rookie from Baylor, where he re routed him and undercut him for a pass breakup, and just consistently challenged everything and played on that rope. On the back end, I thought Quinn Ewers had some really good growth in terms of how he saw the field from last week. There was a shot where he he it was like, so he guess what smashes right? Smashes one of the most basic
concepts in football. The one receiver kind of tries to hold the cloud corner with a short route and then you run like either a takeoff or a corner route or a deep out or a comeback, you know, to basically put that cloud cornerback into bind. And I thought Quinn did a good job of kind of selling the throw short and then took the over the top throw and pulled that cornerback up, but he just missed it.
So I think with a player like him and any player that's developing and that young like find those areas of growth. Maybe it's not going to be perfect right away, but to see him get better from last week, I think is a good step for a player like that. So got Ardie Burns here. I want to make a note about some of the past rushers. Man, I'm starting to think this group has a pretty good chance to be pretty good. I've talked about Chop. I mean, Chop has just been a monster. I had him for another
sack today. Guys are having a hard time with his speed, which should be no surprise. But we here at Austin Jackson talk about Chop Robinson after practice and you know about the speed, but this is what I keep seeing too. I'll let Austin go ahead and explain it for me.
Playing very well in his second spring, he's been a lot more active with his hands, playing more physical. It looks a lot more confident comfortable than his rookie year.
So I had Chop Chubb Willie Gay with a sack, and I had Grayson Murphy with a sack one play after he overset the left tackle to eight and inside gap. And I actually talked to him after the practice, like Hey, did you have like two gap responsiblay this? Well, I guys at the edge first off and then if I can play back inside, I will. And that's what he did and got back under the block and tagged off at last Crementchi he is. He makes plays every single day.
And I'm pretty confident that Grayson Murphy is gonna have his say on making this roster because he just looks the part. He looks the part all last offseason and you know, got injured in preseason, but I'm I'm very excited about the way he can play. He wins with you know, peer speed, with some physicality. He can really reset guys. I just think that he's he's got a pretty impressive resume so far this offseason and last offseason.
And on one of the plays where he forced the quarterback off the spot, if emlafon Wu is in phase the entire way, gets under a route, turns his head back around, makes a pick. Might have been out of bounds, but he finished the place. That's all I care about. In practice, just it was like that all day, like good pressure, well connected coverage in the back end, and I was I was pretty impressed. The defensive backs coaches and the defensive coaches in general were going nuts, especially
the dB coaches. They were loving what they were seeing, which tells me that they were executing a new install, a new like, hey, let's let's get more coverage out there, let's get more presentations. And these guys took it and ran with it. It's what it seemed like to me. And they were just fired up to see all of that. I had chanting tyndallal dial up a blitz at one
point and tag off on Alexander Madison in the backfield. Already, Burns got himself in for a TfL after Jordan Phillips had initial disruption, and just they continued to do it. Jordan Brooks had that run through Chubb forced Tua off the spot, but two was able to navigate that and get a check down completion. They try to end around. At one point that storm Duck really shut down. So I just whatever they threw at them, it was like,
we got you, We're ready for you, guys. Now, Ollie Gordon did find some of his some cutback lanes, and he has a real feel for, like, you know, finding those cut back lanes and getting to him quickly. I thought him and Jalen Wright really ran the ball well on this on this day, including a seventy yard touchdown run from Jalen Wright. He was kind of picking his way through the initial traffic in line of scrimmage and then he would he would take off in his second
level speed. I tell you what, for a guy that tolds, he gained six pounds of muscle this offseason. And I saw McDaniel was like behind the play. He likes to watch the plays from behind the safety's perspective. I heard him and he was freaking out about how much he loved that run from jalen Wright.
So I think that he is doing some good stuff.
And speaking of Jayleen Wright, coach talked about his mindset and what he wanted to see from jalen Wright this season or this offseason, I should say, and so far, so good.
Well.
I think jalen Wright benefited tremendously from coming into the league in a very competitive room. I think when that's the case, you learn how little room for air you have to execute your job responsibilities or to be complete, to have complete ownership of your assignments. Because if you're a hair off or a hair laid or a hair indecisive. There's decisive people who are talented that can contribute to the team. So you know, I really saw, you know, when we had exit meetings.
UH.
You know, I was talking to Jalen right about you know, being able to UH nonverbally communicate to me his hunger for a increased role. I see better than not here. And you know for Ota s n that I can see him following through with that. A big thing for him and really our entire team this offseason is UH is each and every day being exclusively UH the exclusive
evaluation time, and we UH awesome one day efforts. We're looking for UH consistency and continuity and and I think that's how we It's the only way that we're gonna be happy with the product come fall.
I might have to run some of these sound bites on a Friday podcast because we're getting long here, and I've got so much more from Jalen Wright from.
Who else I got.
Wattle talked about juggling like three times in his press conference. He's very proud of the fact that he learned to juggle in two days, which I think is really funny.
He cracks me up. Man.
He's a good one. Let's see what else. Okay, I talked about Zach Wilson. Tanner Connor had a big day, a couple of catches, really good smooth transitions from catch from pass catcher to ballcarrier. And I mentioned Zach Wilson I thought struggled in the first period. I thought he really bounced back big and the rest of the practice
and including two really tight window throws. One down the field, up the corner where he had a tight window and just jammed that fastball in there with real velocity and that was an impressive throw. And then later between two defenders, like in the hook riat middle of the field where he threads it between two defenders. I think that was one of the most impressive practices I've seen from a
quarterback not named to at Dolphins camp. Like there's been, you know, some bad practices, some good ones too, but I thought Zach today in that after that first period was as good as I've seen from a quarterback that wasn't too at Dolphins practice. So all kinds of stuff here. Let's go ahead and finish up with a couple more soundbites.
I'll make sure I'm not forget anything I did make this note on Twitter that Patrick McMorris the way he trust his eyes, and you see it on his tape as well, like he makes a decision and he goes. You don't see him second guess himself. And there was a play today where a ball wound up incomplete and he was running towards that side of the field and the ball goes incomplete away from him and he runs over and scoops the ball up like at full sprint.
And I started watching him do this, and he does every single play, and I thought to myself, Yeah, that's muscle memory for how you teach yourself to do that. And now he'll know instinctively every time the ball's in the ground, he'll get there. And it might be irrelevant ninety nine times out of one hundred, but that one time could be the game ceiling pick against the Buffalo Bills that wins the division, you know what I mean.
Like, that's how you.
Prepare in this sport to make plays. You prepare all the time and when that moment comes, you make that play. And I really thought that was impressive. As Zukomma had a big play. I mentioned Ollie Gordon a little bit. I think that's all I've got for you guys. Yeah, Tanner Connor, Willie Gay, Dwayne s Gridge. Yeah, I think we're good there. Okay, cool, Let's go ahead and do two more soundbites from Patrick Paul. I thought they were
cool and worth playing on the podcast. We'll go ahead and close it up with this here from Pat Paul, who was asked about the pressure he might feel or does not feel, replacing Tron Armstea at left tackle.
Ah. Not so, no, not really. You know, I'm built for this, always been ready for the moment, and that's why I play football, to compete at the highest level and to be the best at my job. So I'm ready.
I love that built for this comment. He's obviously confident as well. Let's go ahead and close with this. I asked him about his development and how he kind of has enjoyed that experience and journey and if it ever clicked for him at one point and what that was like when it did click for him in terms of the scheme and get everything down to where he's ready to be a starter here at left tackle for your Miami Dolphins.
Ah.
Yeah, it's definitely. I think I just matured in my game and that just comes with time. I think offensive line is an art, and as you go day by day, you're just going to keep fine tuning your skills, and one day it's just gonna click. Everything that we do out here day by day is just gonna start getting easier. And I think I've reached that point where I know what it is and know what they expect from me, and I know how to do it daily.
To the golf analogy there, Man, the more you can kind of rep it and make it muscle memory, don't have to think about it, that's going to become the best version of yourself as a golfer. Okay, long podcast there. I just can't get enough of these practices. So I do apologize for being long in the tooth, but we will go ahead, long tooth, long winded, Let's go ahead and call it a show right there.
Come back on Friday.
I'm not sure what that podcast will look like just yet, but well, as we always do, we'll get you guys.
Covered with Dolphins content here in the meantime.
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Until next time. Bins up Carolin Cameron, Daddy, He's coming home.