Drive Time: Minicamp 2024 Day 2 Recap

inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Draft Time Podcast. Hey Daffy, I am once again fighting the urge to kick this thing off at the quarterback position and we will get there. But what do you say? We start in the trenches. And it began in the morning with this comment from head coach Mike McDaniel when he was asked about the evaluation of the O line D line portion of the team in practices without pads.

without pads well. And that takes an orchestra ration of understanding technique fundamentals, but also how to protect the team and a fine line. You're trying to achieve hat placement and you're trying to you know, maintain your gap but not trying to bury your teammate if you have a vulnerable position. All of those things are work in progress. I pretty much talk about it daily to the team how how we can and and show clips on how we can execute our fundamentals and technique while you know,

protecting each other. And I think the it's a little more complicated on the edges of the defense, particularly the way that we you know, attack defenses offensively and we we attack offenses defensively. There's a. It's kind of a similar mindset of who's going to set the edge. So you have to do a lot of orchestration in terms of teaching on how to get stuff out of it and not develop bad habits but get better. And then internally, the biggest thing is not having the competitive fires fuel

things that don't help us play football. Well, what do I mean by that? Holding when you get leveraged, or shoving a shoving a guy that's you know, maybe at an impass right right around the ball carrier, those types of things. You have to really put the team first while in a competitive individual situation. So it's really good teaching because it the benefits of it you see throughout the entire NFL.

same things the coaches are looking for. And obviously with a young player like Patrick Paul, that's the first and only thing that you're really focused on right now right the technique and at rookie mini camp, sure it was about how does this guy move and get off the football and how does his composition look next to his

peers alongside them. But now as we get more and more reps, he's taken to some coaching, he's been around a veteran like Thron Armstead, and I think there's more value now than even a month ago to evaluate his work. And speaking of Taharn Armstead, we didn't see him working at all, and you would know that coming into the season you weren't going to see him until probably late August. But like all the vets who are not working, he's out there in this unshine with the guys, coaching them

up and giving words of encouragement. And since we haven't seen t Stead in the offseason program, I think it can be easy to forget about guys like that up until training camp. So like, yeah, you do have Tron Armstead and Odell Beckham waiting beckoning Tyreek Hill to get on the football field. On top of what you've already seen. This impressed you so much here in the month of June. So let's go ahead and start with this question that

I had for Tron Armstead about why come back. Was there a Eureka moment, maybe a galvanizing moment where you just realized I have to come back and play football for at least one more year. I thought his answer was great and really helps a tone for practice the rest.

in the month of January. That with the jokes that guys were throwing around Tyreek and Jalen both jabbing Tua about being chubby in their press conferences, or Tyreek giving it back to Waddle in a similar sense. You know, I was talking to a friend about this. You only have that kind of energy for your brothers, the people you love, right. I don't know about you, but that's been my entire experience with male camaraderie. It's when you start being nice to each other that you worry about

your friendship with that person. But of course we have to get back there, and there's lots of games to determine if we do go back to the postseason or not. Will we get there? I would say with a lot of conviction, Yeah, we'll be back in the postseason. And just for your information, we'll hear from assistant coaches on

the show tomorrow. Quick teaser on Butch Barry, he talked about the value of adding depth not just in peer volume numbers, but in the ability to cross train and have guys not just see the field from multiple positions, but the value that creates when the natural attrition of

a football season inevitably occurs. Right, And we've talked about this in a previous podcast, The Chris Furster comments from the San Francisco forty nine ers talking about there's a certain line of production we have to get over with every lineman that we roster, and if we are over that line, then we can kind of coach them up and get production from those guys where the skill positions where we put our biggest investments into, because those natural abilities,

they are not scheme based, they can be beyond the scheme in terms of how they produce and make your offense more explosive and better. And so I was thinking about that and it just all jives together, as Butch was kind of telling me, like, Yeah, that is kind of the thinking about getting deeper in the room and trying to withstand the attrition this offensive line has, you know, endured the last two seasons. And I pretty strongly believe there are ten guys that are either at or above

that line. Maybe one or two of those guys is flirting with that line, But to me, Armstead is well above the line. Isaiah win is well above the line. Aaron Brewer, Jack Driscoll, Austin Jackson. I would also put Patrick Paul when the finished product from the offseason arrives, I would put him above the line. I put Kendall Lamb above that line, put Rob Jones above that line. I think I mentioned a couple of guys that might

be right on that line. I would say Liam Miichenberg probably is right in that category as well as blanking on the last one and go ahead and pull the roster over here and do a live edit on the show. Who is the last one I'm thinking of here? I think Keon Smith is around that line and in terms of what he can offer you. So that's the ten guys? Was that ten? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven eight nine ten. Yeah, exactly ten guys there you go

counting on the podcast. That's what you guys come here for. So I just think it's very imp it's very possible. And one of those guys is, of course the rookie Patrick Paul. Obviously, the goal for him is to be a cornerstone for a long long time here. In fact, we'll have him on the podcast this summer and he told me that his goal is to be the franchise left tackle for a decade plus and then go on to be the president of Nigeria. Like he has big aspirations.

But even though we have two awesome established tackles and a good swinging Kendall Lamb who can also probably kick inside and play guard. The numbers of the NFL tell you that Patrick Paul will play at some point this season, and damn it if this kid is not going to maximize every single moment on the grass that he gets or that he earns. I think Paul has shown demonstrable growth from even the first practice I saw him at to now, and you go back to his tape at Houston,

Compared to now, he's kind of a different player. And if we get that similar trajectory, and you guys watch Blaze and the Monster Machines with your kids, there's an episode they talk about trajectory, I think Patrick Paul's trajectory right now is as good as anybody on the team.

And granted he had more room to grow because of the technique and what you saw on tape of college, but I just imagine that this daily process for him is going to pay off, especially when you consider the just overall collective knowledge that this group of coaches and players can offer to a player like Patrick Paul. So I wanted to ask to Ron Armstead, what are you looking to pour into with Patrick Paul.

young man. But any any and everything that I can possibly give show, say, see, is gonna be offered to him.

month Now did the dofin they're gonna do that? I've been saying for another year that it's it's only gonna make every single player a little bit better, but for a rookie who is just so eager, you know, I was curious to ask to Ron Arms said this, how do you advise he go about that for lack of a better term, you know, trusting the process and absorbing playing a new style of offensive line without getting out over your skis and getting frustrated by maybe the slow

churning you know, wheel of the process. Here's to Ron Arnsten and how he can help Patrick Paul learn a brand new style of offensive line play as a rookie in the NFL.

But I told him, like consistently want to see him winning set every day, every play he controlled where he get and then set with his basis foundation, he's ready to go. So just small wins. He's eager to learn everything, so just kind of make sure it's a process.

of their own potentials. Some practice notes along the offensive line. You know, Paul's movement and size combination stands out every single day just when you fix your eyes to the trenches, and today they were on the far field. So I'm watching a lot of practice through binoculars and trying to just kind of focus on one area of the field, and a lot of that was in the trenches. When fifty two is out there, that's usually where your eye draws to. He's just he's off the ball before anybody else.

He's bigger than everybody else, and he just kind of has a way to pull your eye over to his direction. Now, Austin Jackson is I think this is going to sound maybe crazy considering where he was a year ago, but I think Austin Jackson in the absence of Tron Armstead is the best player on the offensive line. He is an incredible shit. He's moving very very well. He has a full year off that injury that he kind of

you know, progressed from a season ago. He's strong and the technique thing we talked about, he's got this ability to kind of show the edge and be like, you want that here, you go take it, and then just snatch it up and take it away. His side produced like no pressures on the quarterback when he was in there, and you know, then the alternative when he wasn't in there was it was pretty leaky. I thought Brewer looked really, really good today, getting off the football and creating some lanes.

He cleared the space for a long eight Chan run at one point today, and my got Devonte A. Chan is going to have a monster year. More on that in a moment. And then we also had some you know, not so great notes I put for the second straight day of the udfas Andrew Meyer and who's the other kid, Matthew Jones. Sorry, they just they kind of remind me of Brandon Peeley a year ago. They just kind of need another year to get NFL ready to even have

a chance to contribute. There's a steep drop off when they get in there, and there was all kinds of snap issues today with both those guys, with Scott or Thompson. Let's go back to the quarterback and get you up to date on that room. The best ball of the day was probably Mike White finding Jalen Waddle deep for a sixty yard touchdown. He layered a deep shot running across the field. Waddle catches it and stride and out ran everybody to score the touchdown. He was open, but

the ball was right there for him. Otherwise, though, I thought the team drills or the team period of quarterback play was a little bit shaky and just in terms of getting balls completed, and there was lots of balls in the ground. Win two was not in there, so some up and down performances there in that quarterback room. But man, Jalen Wattle, dude, this guy is something else. He also caught a deep shot from Tua for a big game, and it was probably the best ball from

two of the day. The old short side takeoff the boundary takeoff Again, boundary is when you're on the near hash run that route to the same side. It's the short side of the field. It's kind of how it's the exact same play that he beat the Dallas Cowboys for that deep shot to open the game against Dallas on Christmas Eve. Now, the difference here in the past, Jalen usually elevates for these balls. Now he didn't do

that in the Dallas game. But typically he goes up and catches the football and then where he comes down is where the play is over, because that's how it works in football. You get touched down to the ground, you're down. But what I like the most about this play was he plucked the ball and he caught the ball with his hands turned over, not underneath the football, the hands on top of the ball. Pluck it and catch it over your head and then you can keep your feet on the ground and you can get more

yards after the catch. He's been doing that all week long so far. He was dominant. He was unstoppable. Really. Each of the last couple of days here, I did see one rep where he didn't get open or make the play, and the reason for that was because Kendall Fuller peeled back and located him and made the play on the ball. Now, Fuller had a handful of plays as they both in coverage but also shutting down a

short pass wore running back. At one point, I asked Kendall about this particular theme of the day that I was kind of following because I spoke to coach McDaniel in the morning or at his press conference. I didn't talk to him. Mean, I'm not gonna say that, Oh exclusive, I'm talking to coach McDaniel. It was a press conference.

I asked him a question, and I asked him, how do you and your coaching staff balance the act of getting better for an individual who wants to maybe make some tweaks or try some things out and maybe that causes him to get beat on a particular rep. How do you balance that versus the evaluation of who the best fifty three men on the roster are. And I just love this answer from coach McDaniel.

So you're trying to for us in this offseason is establish the healthy relationship boundaries of no. You want for you want a coach to have something to help you, and you want that that whatever, not criticism, more attention to your game and whether it comes in a negative or positive light. If you're constantly bringing up how people respond and paying attention to that, and they can feel that it's more about Like for me, I want to see the next target towards the receiver after he drops

a pass. I'm much less concerned about that capacity dropped in the spring. I know he's trying to catch it. So but what I do find out that you can't really substitute is all right, well, when something bad happens, which will inevitably happen every single time he plays football, how is he going to respond? And players start to understand from each position that that's what we're focused on. You get the right type of energy. That's not short

term result based. You know that's Oh there's a completion, you start cussing like the No, that's or if it's good, okay, I can take the pressures off. No, this is this is a big picture assignment. We're trying to attack things with a game like mentality more so than our opponents. And then and then work through those residual added game reps. Is the is the whole kind of mindset. And I think practice becomes real fun when you're when you're using it, not having it define you for the short term.

it through the segment. No quarterback talk. Let's go ahead and talk tu Tua talk tie very well. First though, I thought Mike White had some moments and even outside the long touchdown passing this on this day also had a chance to talk to coach Bevell about him and Skylar's growth, because you know, bevill answers questions about Tua all day. Let's go ahead and throw the backup quarterback

some love. But man again, Tua was absolutely surgical. The ball came out fast, it's jumping off the hand, his timing and rhythm, everything is just a tad bit quicker. And I think this next point will really get your attention that I noticed because with Tua, you know, mechanically, to me, it was more of the same where it just it's sharp, it's condensed, it's it's compact. But one thing I've noticed is the ability to quickly reset and

get back into full mechanical proficiency. Because in the past, when he's had to load up, if there's a hitch and the drop or the hitch up, then the velocity decreases and maybe that doesn't have enough sissle to get the ball where he wants it to go. But now it seems like he can stride and pump and kind of reset and then get back to where he wants to be mechanically to fire the football from maybe a

more stagnant position. You know, the hitch up for the deep ball is typically how he gets those things off. But I think now there's some more easy action to get the ball down the field when his original you know, thought or read isn't exactly there. And so I want to play two more sound bites here from coach. He was asked how this version of TUA translates, and it had more to do with the mobility aspect of Tua

dropping some weight and moving around a little bit. And you know, coach takes these answer these questions and he'll give you the answer to the question. But what I like about it the most is how he's able to expand upon how they view things. Like if the question isn't how they view it, Hey, that's a good question. I answering the question, but like, that's not how we look at it. Here's how we look at it, and

here's the answer to how we look at it. So let's go ahead and hear first from how the athletic version of TUA translates to on field success comes Sundays.

of being a profession. You know, it happens to a lot of players where all of a sudden you become masters of you become dietitians, pseudo dietitians several years into your career, but definitely not at the start. And see in ways that he could maintain the strength but you know, create you know, some more flexibility and power or however you want to look at it. It's it's uh, he's uh, who's a dude that drives the ball in the on the tour so far? Dish Chambeau. Right, So he just

channeled his quarterback version of that, I guess. And it wasn't like to correct something that that needed fixed. It was an opportunity to get better in his mind, I think, and and the you know, ultimately, you know, we'll see how he does at UH you know, read option and if he if he's trying to be an option quarterback.

You know, house felt is felt. But you know, anything that helps you attack your job and solve problems, problems that he is more aware of now than he was last year or the year before, just in terms of you know, being a problem solver at your position, and you'd you'd learn different things, you find value in different things. I think it's just him maturing as a professional and really going after the the annual offseason, how do we get better?

drilling stuff for the first time. You know, we saw unbelievable results in terms of every situation that he was presented with. He was able to apply the technique and he had the strength.

he hasn't done things to lose weight. He's done things to be in shape, and you know he's I would I would be pumped about where he's at now. Maybe predisposed of a hair of body shaming from last year.

If you wanted to retroactively like he was do it, you know, to be fair though like not many people were going about things that way, to be as proactive with something of that nature jiu jitsu, and I mean he was training jiu jitsu and calling it something else I think at one point judo, right like, but like he really went after it and then you find out new things, just like every year we are trying our best to do the best football plays, and we learn

more about football plays and defenses and stuff, and we do new plays next next year. A little bit that maturation. I think it's I think it's an example of how he is as a professional understanding what his job is to the team and the franchise, and he's going after it, controlling all the things that he can.

as a pro quarterback. And I thought it was so poignant, spot on, and just something our fans should should hear. And so here's the tweet, and it's in a response to the question that I asked Tua on Tuesday about the answer that was provided lending itself to confirming Chris's assumption that tool was utilizing the hips more into his

throwing motion. So here is Chris's tweet. He took a couple of still frames of Tua throwing the ball last year versus this year, and said these still frames were taken one at the end of his wind up and two at the ball's release. And the old setup shows you how much hip rotation he's doing while the ball comes forward, and the newer setup shows you that he's mostly already gotten his hips around before he's even done

his wind up, before the ball is moving forward. And that's again, it's so much like a golf swing man. But I'll hold off my own thoughts on that for a second. Back to Chris. One thing people tend to dismiss about too is how malleable and coachable he is last year. Many thought the jiu jitsu thing was a laughable gimmick. Then we saw an action and there were

discrete changes in the way he played the game. He went from a guy who couldn't keep himself off the injury report to one of only a handful of quarterbacks who actually played all seventeen regular season games. This is a guy who had six different offensive coordinators in the

six years before he met Mike McDaniel. Even in just an NFL career, he went from being an RPO guy under Flores to a West Coast play action guy under McDaniel, winning games regardless of approach, regardless of the quality of the skill players or offensive line. People tend to be impatient and unrealistic. They want a guy to one learn a brand new offense, to rehab a surgically repaired hip,

three change your bodies makeup. Four learn how to handle NFL caliber hits in physicality, and five fine tune your throwing motion and do that all overnight. Oh and let's do that with a rookie as a rookie, without training camp or preseason during a global pandemic. You mean you haven't done all of that yet? What a bum fire him into the sun. Reality is very different, and we

see that in pro athletes across the board. We see it in the NBA's players bam out of bio, for instance, add pieces to their game one offseason at a time. The point is, when Tua hasn't has to undertake these tasks, you discreetly see the progress every time. When he has to learn the new offense, he learns the new offense. When he has to get stronger, he gets stronger. When he has to slim down, he slims down. When he has to rehabit. Make you forget he just had a

career threatening broken hip. He makes you forget about the career threatening broken hip. When he has to learn how to absorb NFL caliber hits without putting his head at risk, he becomes one of the best in the NFL at protecting himself. When he has to fine tune his throwing motion, he shows you new motion while maintaining his trademark accuracy. Don't underestimate how valuable that is and a professional player,

because it's not as common as you think. Most players, by the time they get to a certain point, kind of just are who they are and their circumstances opportunities might change, which can lead to breakouts and such, but the player hasn't actually changed all that much. Players don't get paid retroactively in the NFL. They get paid on what a team thinks they will be in the future during the life of that contract. Miami feels pretty safe in the knowledge that two will be able to roll

with the punches, relearn the things that advisory forces. Adversity forces him to relearn, and improve on the things he sets to improve because he has an established history of doing exactly that. I thought that was just so well said and fits in with the theme of the day about making progress, you know. Tron Armstead on progression. Mike

McDaniel on tua's ownership of the craft. The whole point is we are lucky to have assembled a team full of guys just like this, and the one at the head of it all is the quarterback and the guy that's going to take us eventually to the promised Land. All right, last break, Then final practice notes including another monster day from Devon h Chan that features some pretty fun usage all of that. Next Draft Time podcast your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by AutoNation Devon a

chance here, He's there, He's everywhere. This guy is doing so much with his game. We talked about it on the podcast yesterday, his usage in the passing game, how he himself kind of circled that as something he can improve upon to get more of a piece of the pie of this dynamic offense that has oodles and oodles of skill players who can beat you and burn you

and score on you. And I just think the eighth chan like, maybe he's receiver three because I'm watching this guy line up in the slot and run a slot fade and cook a cornerback where the ball gets overshot, but the pacing and the line up the stem, the explosive step to widen and then cut back inside immediately stack. He looks like a receiver when he's playing the position. He just looks like that. I mean, like this might be the next Christian McCaffrey in terms of overall versatility

and general usage past game, run game. He's just a big play weighing to happen. It's totally wild and something I haven't seen before. I mean, Tyreek Hill kind of changed the way I view NFL practices. Devon a Channer as far as the running back goes has done the same thing. I think he can challenge every level of the field as a pass catcher and the timing and pacing explosion as a runner. He just keeps making play after play no matter how you get him the football.

Run an actual route from the slot. Okay, run a route from the perimeter. I can do that. Run these little Texas routes off of bunch or trips formations where the receivers take the vertical thread off and displace the defense and you run this angle route over the middle, which then creates a gap to run through. Cool. Let's run a swing screen to him. We can do that. Also, Let's run inside zone. We can do that as well.

This guy is gonna be a freaking superstar. I don't know what else to tell you, Like, come watch him in training camp when you get a chance to come out here, because he is one of the best players on the field of a team that I think is one of the best five teams in the national football Like Davon a Chan breakout superstar this year. You heard it here, Well, probably not first, but you heard it here.

Some more random notes. I wanted to get a look at cam Brown, the linebacker signed this offseason from the Giants, because when you watch him an individu Jules, he kind of stands out. He's just lanky, leanky, lengthy length. He's got length, he features length, and the way he hits the pads and the bags, like it just looks different

than everybody else. That's kind of what I focus on during these portions, right, I've been talking about Jody Fortson or Cam Smith or Erica Zuokama, how it just looks a little bit different than everybody else, and so I want to see how it translates into the live action. And even Kimbo Camper, who I watched practice alongside, said he was the most impressive guy that he watched during

individual drills in that position group. So sure enough it did translate to team because they ran a little outside, a little end a round to eight chan and he's able to long arm the edge, get off the block and keep the corner and win the corner and not get beat with the speed of devon chan. That, my friends, is impressive. The safeties are working really really well together.

So they were doing this drill before, you know, during individual drills where they would have these like four bags set up and it was kind of like the w drill they used to run at the combine. I think they might have gotten rid of that where they kind of track the football and that the coach he moves the ball back and forth and you have to flip the hips and kind of open the gate and show the show the scouts how you can move that way.

And he was doing this drill and just moving so like fluidly, and they throw this ball into the back of the end zone. It's behind his head and he goes into a full sprint and the ball sales over his head full extension, one hand stab and corrals it. It was on air, but like wow, Like I talked about it on Twitter, like I think him and Jordan Poyer might have the best ball skills a dolphin safety duo, going back to Brock Mary and Brian Walker. I mean,

that's how far back this might have to go. Rashad Jones and maybe Lewis Delmis or Issa abdul caduce like that. I don't think it measures up quite the same. Speaking of middle of the field defenders, dude, the linebackers, good like it was. I love My favorite part about doing this is watching how stuff translates, like watching individual drills.

They were lining up like mugged up in the A gaps or maybe they're a green dogging or they're kind of playing playing off playing coy and then they come at the last second with the blitz and you just don't know what's when it's gonna come. And they were both timing up these blitzing drills and you know, showcasing the change of direction. Pair with the heavy hands to

operate all these rush games. We think this defense is gonna run and probably will run, and there's just such an obvious translation to what they do well and what Baltimore has done well in the past. And sure enough, they go over there and they convert it into practice reps where they both get sacks in this day and they both win through the A gap by just getting

immediate pressure through these defensive games. I felt like the defense kind of got had yesterday and they bounced back and kind of said, now we're gonna show you what we really can do today and adopt some pressure. And those two linebackers and Walker and Brooks without David Longro practicing this on this Wednesday, who's from my maybe even

the best of the bunch. But gosh, dude, like the middle of the defense is going to be so much better because these linebackers and what they can do going forward, going backwards, and sideline to sideline. Speaking of linebackers, Quintin Bell had himself a hell of a spring man. I think he's gonna make this football team. He looks really good. Might be the end of you know, a certain draftick

from a few years ago. If Quentin Bell keeps going this way that he's been going, and like, I know, you're gonna look at that as like, well, if they cut a former third round draft pick and they keep Quintin Bell, it's a bad sign, like it maybe, but also could just mean Quinton Bell is kind of you know, made a name for himself. Speaking of guys making a name for themselves, Grays and Murphy keep an eye on this dude from UCLA. I think he has a chance

to make the football team. He broke through a would be or for a would be collision in the backfield and just came off the block like screaming. He was deconstructing blocks all week. He's got some good pass rush, some wiggle, some power, very smart, dude. He also joined me for the podcast for Media Day, so we'll hear from him again in the summer. Jordan Colbert, speaking of undrafted rookies, made some plays. Two plays in the football

today for that matter. Shack Barrett had himself a chance to make a player on the football and he peels back into the hook zone. Has a room service. I ont And I don't think Scalar thought he was gonna be there because the ball went right through his hands. He dropped it. And also Zeke Vanderberg dropped a pick from Mike White too, So those backup quarterbacks a little bit shaking those late team periods. But defense was kind

of had had the number there late practice. Last note here, John new Smith and I want to play some audio for you on John new on Tomorrow's podcast because he spoke to the media. I didn't get a chance to hear it, but I want to go back and listen to it and see what he said to us. But he caught this pass in traffic and turned up field and outran guys like we haven't seen a tight end do that here?

and he's been also in camp so far. And then some not so great notes. Bradlin Sarents had a couple drop passes, Ireland Brown the news the new interior offensive lineman. He and Scotlar Thompson had series snapishes throughout practice. I mentioned the UDFA lineman having some issues. Aszukama I had a couple of balls that he didn't secure and put away.

so I hope that came through clearly. But that is a wrap. Tomorrow we'll do more audio from the assistant coaches, Coach McDaniel and some players as well, and then we're going into the summer break summer content, I should say next weekend. I think the Monday podcast, I chatted with the specialists, so Blake, Jake, and Jason joined me for

a podcast. It went about fifteen minutes. I think we're gonna pair that with my David Long chat, so don't miss that on Monday, and then we're gonna get into divisional previews, taking a look at the entire National Football League before coming back together for a training camp in late July. But until then, you all, please be sure to the podcast on Apple Spotify. Review your podcast from go ahead, leave us a rating and leave us a review. You can follow me on social at Winfold NFL and

the team at Miami Dolphins. You've got the Fish Tank podcast with Seth and Juice, the YouTube channel for media availabilities, Dolphins a day, drivetime content, and so much more, and last, butt not least, Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time, Bin's Up, Caroline Cameron, Daddy's coming home.