What is up, Dolphans And welcome to the Draft Time Podcast. I am your host, Travis Winfield, and on today's show a little bit of a Hodgepodge episode here as we tether the draft and schedule release into the actual football and the OTAs and try to bridge that gap. I want to talk a little bit about our newest signings in Kendall Sheffield and Matthew Butler, who has claimed off waivers.
I want to touch on some of the veteran media from last week, and then with practices just around the corner, I want to talk about a few of the things I'm looking for in this year's OTAs. From the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is
the Draft Time Podcast. Two new players to talk about, and I've been kind of waiting on this and maybe waiting for more down the road, but I've been wanting to talk about some new players in their film and we got two of them on the defense, Matthew Butler from the Las Vegas Raiders and Kendall Sheffield who's been in the league for a while but most previously was with the New York Jets. And I came away from these film watches really impressed by one of these two players,
and that was Matthew Butler. So the way I watch the tape is I start with the highlights, I sort through pressures and run stuff.
So you can do that now through some of the.
What's the word, I'm looking for the filter features that we have on the websites that we have available to us, and you can see like all the good and then you can kind of, you know, peel it back and go watch a full game and maybe a poorly graded game and a highly graded game and kind of mix
all that together. And when I watched Matthew Butler's highlights, it took two plays for me to be like, oh, I can see what the thinking is here with bringing him to Miami and the theme we've seen really across the entire Front seven since Anthony Weaver arrived. He's explosive off the football and he has some of the most violent hands I've seen in a cut up in quite some time.
Like watch this.
You know, I hadn't looked up. I wrote this in the copy, so I know what it's going to happen here. But this was a surprise to me, as I did in real time, and I think I tweeted about it too. I hadn't looked up his relative athletic scorecard, but I guaranteed you it was eightieth percentile and the vertical in broad jumps and the ten split, and yep, there it is, as I pulled up, eighty fifth percent vert eighty nine percent tile broad jump, and a ninety second percent ten split.
He gets off the football quickly and he is explosive in his movement. I would be pretty surprised if he were not to find his way into the rotation upfront, and you never know, things can change. I was a big I was a big believer in Tier Tart last year, and he was cut pretty early in camp, and then he would want to have a good year for the Chargers.
But I think this guy is an NFL contributor, and I'm kind of like, I was really curious why he was cut loose in Vegas after watching his tape, and I even text Crab someone and I was like, what am I missing here? Why did they cut this guy? And he said, well, new regime, and that's kind of
what I would guess too. And as I pull up the Raiders coaching staff, I had kind of forgotten that Pete Carroll retained Patrick as the DC, and so Pete Carroll has his method, and I thought like, well, they would play four down, one gap, get up field and
seattle on those cover three days. But Patrick Graham, as you guys might recall from twenty nineteen, remember the the longtime locked on Dolphins listeners will remember this, remember the breakdowns of the bear fronts with Devon Godshaw, Shoot, who the hell was it was?
It?
Vincent Taylor part of that rotation as well, Christian Wilkins, I suppose part of there as well, but it was always no.
John Jenkins was the nose tackle in those looks.
So it would be a head up nose tackle over the center and then head up defensive tackles over the two technique. As a two technique over the guard, it would be a two zero two look a'ts a bearfront. That's what Patrick Graham loves to run. And when you run those types of fronts, you're two gapping, so you're more about power drop the anchor stack and shed and Butler on tape is a one gap penetrator with a
wickedly quick first step. So to me, that's why you had a chance to get him, and being a waiver claim tells me Miami was like, he's a vail.
I would like to get me some of that.
And he was part of a six man cut down they did to continue to reshape that roster for a new staff, so it wasn't just Butler that got cut. My favorite thing I saw was his ability to create space between he and the guard. And what I mean by that is you're rushing in a very a vacuum, right, and a very small condensed amount of space, and so anytime that you can essentially reset him the offensive lineman, because once you engage, they want to stay locked right.
But if you can knock him back and force him to lose that grip in that punch, and he has to rethrow that punch from a position where he's not able to kind of load up into it and explode from the lower half up through the upper half, he's playing on his back foot, and then you can really get some silly reps where you long arm the guy and you basically dump him to the ground with a one steady push, and then you can angle around him
and route to the quarterback for a big play. So he can really displace in the hand fighting and keep guys at bay while he unfurls that quickness around the edge and the way he can kind of, you know, get them a technique off balance where they're out over their skis and then he can access that quick first step.
That's how he wins.
You see, guys you know went back and have to rethrow their punch a lot against him. The hand usage just keeps getting better that I watched with each rep and on his pressure reel, it's not him collecting a bunch of sacks, but he's creating opportunities for Max Crosby to get cleanup sacks off double teams where he has to like kind of you know, find his angle and shed and rework and try to anticipate where the new
launch point from the quarterback is going to be. I saw a couple of sacks that Crosby had last year where he got those cleanup sacks on double teams because of the work of Matthew Butler forcing the quarterback off the spot and kind of wrecking the entire protection plan because he beat the guard so badly.
The motor runs hot.
There's a lot of effort plays on his tape he made a tackle on a screen versus Pittsburgh last year where he rushed his man into the backfield and then retrace the screen and just walloped the ball carrier. I think it was two years ago. I forget who was against, but Christian Wilkins had a peelback tackle on a screen where he retraced and just destroyed the guy and it was a very violent collision. It reminded me of that. So he's got that. He's a he's a collision wiging
to happen. He hits guys and it looks violent and the body pliability and natural leverage leverage, like, I don't know, it's it's a limited collection of snaps because he didn't play a ton. He got hurt in twenty twenty three and just played like fifty snaps and last year was actually his career high after a rookie season where he only played like seventy snaps. Last year at one hundred and one reps was the career high. So I look at it and say, like, it's a regime change. That's
why he's not with the Raiders anymore. I think sometimes because the question I'll get and push back to this, Brady and sorry for getting really bad with that, but I like it kind of annoys me because, like, I'm just watching the film and telling you what I see, and sometimes teams make mistakes, sometimes guys slipped through the cracks. Might I remind you that Zach Seeler was once a waiver claim.
I'm not going that.
I don't think anyone's gonna be as good as zac Seilery time soon, but I think this guy can play Kendall Sheffield. I didn't come away from the tape with the same impression. He looks the part, six foot tall, two hundred and ten pounds. He was a slot for the Jets. He would come in with Michael Carter. The second was down last year with those injuries. He played starter snaps his first two years in Atlanta. He was a slot as a rookie, a perimeter guy his second year.
Then he got hurt in twenty twenty one and missed most of that year as well as the twenty twenty two season, and played just twenty four snaps for the Niners back in twenty three. So it basically two year starter, gets hurt and is gone for three years and then comes back for the Jets. The next year, which was last year, and plays ninety two snaps. His Special Team's tape I thought was his best work. He had some
good work as a gunner. I think that's his ramp, his entrance, if you will, onto the freeway, that is the roster to make the team good speed, good tackler. But when I watched him in coverage, it was panicky. It was late reactions. It was see it and then react, not anticipate and kind of have a feel for things. I didn't think it was great technique where he'd often be kind of like out of off balance and over his skis. I don't think the thought here, from what I saw on tape is that this is a fix
on defense more so special teams competition. And with that, we'll get a look at Kendall cheff Field and Matthew Butler for the first real time here in like nine days. I think our next our first practice that the whole thing is available to the media, I believe is next Wednesday. I'll have to check back on that for you guys,
but we get our first practice here. And I've been kicking around these ideas for a little bit, and I wanted to talk about a couple of things that to me, you know, it's always the biggest draw of OTAs and even camp. And look, we aren't going to divulge the entire playbook or even tell you what they're going to run in practice, because that's not allowed.
And that's how I would prefer it.
And reminder, if you come to training camp practices and put the entire thing on Twitter so people can like your video, you're a bad fan because you're giving out our place and the Chargers or the Colts rather are watching them and you're giving them our offense.
So please don't do But every team does this every year.
Where the season ends, you self scout and you try to find ways to strengthen the things that you were good at. But what fans mostly want to see, and I think both of these have the same value is attacking the things that you came up short with, and that can be through any number of avenues. Right. You can do it with redoing your personnel, you can alter your schematics, you can alter the way you teach it. Sometimes it's just not communicated effectively. And sorry to do
this again, but here we go. It's kind of like a golf swing. If you know you're slicing the golf ball. That's the result. Great, what's the cause, what's the symptom that's causing that? What's the no, what's causing the bad swing? I just ruined the whole thing. But like the cause to a slice can be an over the top down swing where you come across the ball from the outside in and it has this like boomerang effect where you're creating side spin that causes the ball to go fifty
yards shorter and way to the right. It could be that your club you're losing it too far in on your takeaway. It could be a lack of body rotation. The cause could be any number of variables. And when I go back and look through the comments of coach of Chris of the assistance from the end of the season, and I look at the offseason and how that played out, and the shape of the draft and how free agency
played out. I mean, it's not a mystery, right. Teams tell you all the time what they think of themselves by well, like they tell you what they think of their quarterback based upon how they call their plays on third down. But they also tell you what they think of themselves of how they approach their off season and their changes, and when I look at the defense, shoot like to nobody's fault. But the edge group was just decimated before it really ever even got going, And I
worked these show notes kind of backwards. So later on in the episode, I'm going to come back and have a bit of a conversation about the linebacker and edge position groups towards the end of the show. But it's very much in the same vein of how the Ravens
defense was constructed when Weave was there previously. Anthony Weaver and I talk about the twenty twenty three Ravens backers and the twenty twenty five Dolphins, but even in twenty twenty four, I mean we brought in Jordan Brooks and Anthony Walker with David Long already here, so there was
an an emphasis on being three deep at linebacker. And we've been over the stuff with the edge group getting decimated and how these defensive tackle additions more reflect what the Ravens had in that area with their big body athlete and you know Kenneth Grant being the Michael Pierce analog, the do.
It all all Star which is Zach Seeler for.
NOMDIU Madawueke and then a bunch of guys with different variable traits to round out a deep rotation, which I think you kind of went for that last year, but you went more of the bargain route with Jonathan Harris, with Neville Gallimore, with Tierra Tart and I think now it's like, well, let's get Austin Clark, one of the best defensive line coaches in football, a bunch of talented youngsters twenty twenty one year olds that are hungry and want to learn from this guy. Let's get them in
the rotation. And now Travis Jones for the Ravens, who was a very good rotational piece, can be reflected by Jordan Phillips Washington. That could be your Zeke Biggers. You want Brent Urban, Well, maybe Matthew Butler is that guy as well. And I say all this because I think there's a vastly deeper menu of fronts that Anthony Weaver can get to. And it's more than four down and three down, you know, for four to three three four. That's you're gonna hear about that from other podcasts and
other sources. That just is not how it works anymore. It's when we talk about fronts. We're talking about alignments. How a four man front can be an overfront and underfront. It can be even, it can be odd. The way you can shift guys around to create different matchups and different gaps and runs fit run fits to create opportunities for linebackers and safeties.
It's more than just four three three four. It's what I'm trying to tell you.
And I think the deeper menu that we can get to from all that stuff. I think some of the injuries and shuffling of the guys inside last year, you know, with with Phillips and Chubb and Barrett just piecing out before the season starts, caused you to lose some of your defensive tackle snaps from Zack Seiler and Campbell, and that reduced the versatility and the depth of the playbook, especially now that we have more linebackers in the rotation
as well. I don't know that we need to go through every front known to football, but rather let's just
do it this way. So Zach Steeler has proof of concept in literally every position, from the zero technique right over the center to the five technique off the outside tackle, off the outside shoulder of the tackle, I've got film I can show you where he clogs the a gap is a nose tackle, and where he's used a pulse wipe move to get a sack as a true end as a five technique Kenneth Grant, I think his best as a three, two and two I, which is basically
from the outside shoulder of the guard to the inside shoulder of the guard.
That's like, I think those alignments are his best.
But I do think he's more than capable, like more than capable of playing the zero and the one, and the same is true of Jordan Phillips, though Marylynd used him plenty on the nose.
Matthew Butler, we talked about his versatility.
He can play all the way out to the three technique and kick inside for some one shade as well. Zeke Biggers is primarily a nose but he does move well enough, so I think you can get him out to the two technique and some of those bare fronts or two I and some of those tight fronts and basically maybe get some three technique reps. But I've got like four guys I like better than him in those spots, and then I would say that's very true. Of Benito
Jones exactly what I just said about Zeke Biggers. So you are two sometimes three players deep, and I think quality players in terms of guys that you can roll out on the nose in those varied roles, Guys that can kick outside as a five technique defensive end, and true three techniques that kind of have that wiggle and pass rush flair. And that's what we heard about Jordan Phillips, despite not a lot of sack production in college, the Dolphins pass rush metrics that they value was something that
he shined in. And we saw that with Bradley Chubb a couple of years ago. It's not about sacks to value how you get after the quarterback, and to me, Jordan Phillips's tapes as he can get after the quarterback
as one of those three techniques. And that's before we even get to Jalen Phillips or Bradly Chubb, who were both incredibly adept at kicking inside and playing three techniques and giving you Chop Robinson off of JP or off Beachubb or with Jordan Brooks or really gay coming down off the edge like you've got so many options in the front seven. Is what I'm trying to say, and with those big bodies inside, remember Miami played the seventh
most nickel defense in the NFL last year. They want to play too high, two safeties up in the you know, in the post, with five defensive backs and create disguise through those similar presentations. And as we've been over and over and over, getting the big body nose tackle allows you to play the run better from those traditionally invite
the run packages, not run defense packages. And from there you can do more to get a better presence off the edge without losing juice inside because of a bigger body.
So I can get.
More freedom for Jalen Phillips or for Chop Robinson because of what Kennith Grant can do inside in those lighter boxes. Like rather than have a nose tackle, you have a you play a four down front with a five technique off the weak side, a two eye technique off the weak side, and then your strong sides are three and
a wide nine. So that's a player off the weak side, ta wheat side tack outside shoulder, a defensive tackle on the inside shoulder of the weak side guard, and you get a backer to fill with that gap in between there, and then another defensive tackle on the outside shoulder of the strong side guard, and then a nine technique who's
way out to the strength beyond the tight end. And I think you can get to these fronts where you're too gapping with these big defensive tackles, set a strong edge on the preimiter with j Jalen Phillips and Bradley Chubb, and then you've got two way goes because of the stoutness stoutness. I try to say strength and stoutness, the strength and the stoutness of Kenneth Grant and Zach Seeler and the guys we just talked about. Now I got two way goes where Jordan Brooks and Tyrrel Dotson and
Willie Gay have free runs. You know, we're sort of into the weeds here, but there's another fifty feet of depth we can discuss. I don't want to go any further than that. I want to take our last break right here. But I think this effectively communicates how much more playbook we have to get to on the defensive side.
For a guy that, in my mind, is one of the best defensive coordinators in football and is going to be a head coach next year, Let's go ahead and take a break right there, come back and talk about the offensive things I want to see in OTAs. That's Next Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by automation. That was kind of a weird spot for a show break, but I didn't really know where else to do it, so it comes in right there.
I did want to touch on the offense, and it'll be much quicker, and that's why I think it was a weird spot to have the break. But I'm not even sure where exactly to go with this. I do look forward to seeing what they cook up to start the year, and I think one of the biggest disappointments for me last year was opening the season kind of
stuck in the mud offensively. And you know, I think you can attribute that to guys not practicing and holding out for for money and not being here throughout the whole course of the summer and the practice of maybe not being as demanding as they possibly could have been. But the year before that, I mean, I'll never forget when I went out to practice like one day before the Chargers game and Tool was hitting everything. It looked like the game did on I was like, oh, we
might be in for something fun this year. And they had the exit motion that took the league by storm. All of a sudden, everybody's copying that offense. And that was the same way in twenty twenty two for some of the stuff they did. And last year there was some innovation, but it was like through the screen game
and it wasn't effective. They had like that flip screen, the little tight end, you know, show the numbers to your quarterback and then catch the football like the little like misdirection screens.
They weren't very successful on balance.
They had a couple of big plays pot but it wasn't like it had been in years past. But I'm curious to see what McDaniel and Frank Smith come out of the lab with this this fall. And I'll go with this. I can't wait to see the route combinations they cook up from the various groupings they now have ability to get to with all the unique personnel you have offensively this year and the multiple players who are
vastly adept at attacking certain areas of the field. And allow me to take a Maya kulpa rate here, because I actually saw I posted a picture on Facebook last year of me and Odell Beckham doing the podcast and I was like, I haven't met a more humble superstar than this guy.
And it was like, whoops, got that one wrong.
But so I just want to just you know, hey, sometimes, yeah, boy, he gets them wrong sometimes. Odell Beckham's tape was very good. The fit was not very good here. So when I look at the personnel and the ability to attack different levels of the offense, and I should say of the defense from an offensive perspective, you got to think about this from like we want to attack areas of the field.
It's not about like certain players. It's about threatening portions of the field and having a roster that can stretch it vertically and horizontally. So the vertical guys you have, obviously, Wreak and Waddle are two of the best in the game, and we have to get back to that. I'm sure you guys have seen the video going around of two
his throws of twenty plus yards down the field. He had like a league average completion percentage last year on those throws, whereas the year prior he was number one. And I think the receivers were part of that. I think the offensive structure was part of that. I think the offensive line was part of that. And to what had his misses as well, I think it's an anomaly.
I think we'll get back to that and I think we'll see Reacan Waddle going back to making catches down the football field and Nick Westbrook Akine and I've been asking for this for three years for a number three that can get vertical.
He's not as explosive as Odell was.
I'm not gonna say is as he was, but he is very nuanced in his ability to get vertical and I think that he can be that third vertical option. And if you do keep the UDFA Mona Ray Baldwin. He's a four to three to two guy, so he's got that in his back pocket as well. We just haven't really had that outside of Reacan Wattle in the past. A true Berner speedster and Baldwin gives you the option or gives you a potential to have that option down the line. Your intermedia options are the same two guys,
I mean, Reacan Waddle. The twenty plus yard players are great, but where they make their most Hayes, those fifteen to eighteen yard dig routes on dagger concepts. Right, you push the linebacker out of the middle of the field, you bring that d breaker across the middle. Two is right on time. They catch it in stride and it turns into a foot race. And Westbrook Akine is also very
good in this area. And then I think you can sprinkle him in the league Washington on some of these types of routes Devon a Chan has a flexed out player A Chan hasn't been adept vertically, and maybe that'll happen this year. But it seems like some of those linebacker deep shot opportunities are there. But it's kind of like a thin margin for airon if you like I always this is a pet peep of mine. People talk about like underthrown balls, like as an arm strength, you know,
a knock on the player's arm strength. It's they just missed the throw. Man like, there's no difference in missing long or deep. In fact, I'd rather miss short because then you get an opportunity for a comeback, you know, DPI come back to the football where if you miss it deep, that's just an incomplete pass. And so when you try to get those narrow margins to Devon Ahchan the ball comes up short or long. It just seems like, for whatever reason, the timing in the chemistry hasn't been there.
So I won't put him in the vertical category yet, but I think he could be that. But I do like him the intermediate area, and that gives you five players I think can occupy that space, and John Us Smith can do some of that as well. But in the short area that's where John Wu Smith really really excels as a screen guy, a flat route guy, a hookup route guy, all kinds of stuff in the ten yard area. Devon Aham obviously swings and screens and jet
motions on that stuff. Malik Washington, for my money, is the best screen runner on the team. I thought Waddle and Tyreek just not really their game. Especially Waddle, it's not really his game catching screens and making plays. But Leak, if you get him one in one on one coverage, he can beat that in the short area with whips and returns and pivots and China routes and all the stuff that you can do in the five six yard box. And then Farrell Brown I think he can work in
that area as well. I think it's like the defense, you have a plethora of options and depth at each spot. And to close it up, we're not going to see everything in OTA's and that's not something we can report on anyways. Again, but just through common sense and deductive reasoning, Like I think fans think it's the same offense every
year and just the players change. But I guess what I'm trying to communicate is I'm excited to see how those personnel changes dictate schematic changes and changes to the way they approach offense conceptually. I think they we're in for a treat in that regard. And the thing I'll close on this with and maybe we'll go to the next segment.
That was a pretty short one.
No, we can go to the next segment, but I'll close on this and a little inside baseball, like there was an emphasis and you can see it in the personnel acquisitions on smart football players, guys that can process it and get it, and they're out here and on
these spring practices and they're repping it. So I think you're going to see a team that last year, right, Like when Tua came back for the Arizona game, it was a little bit shaky to start and then we kind of hit the ground running later on in that game, and then the Buffalo game it really took off. They were sharp and spurts offensively against the Rams and then
the Raiders and Patriots games. They were on their stuff right, but we started off the season slow, whereas in twenty twenty two twenty twenty three of the offense started hot. One of my predictions is you'll see this offense return to the opening day like firepower we saw in the past, and on the road against a not great personnel defense that's breaking a new DC in on turf and indoors with no elements. I like our chances to score a lot of points against the Colts in the first game
because of the emphasis on smart football players. I just hope that Ten is motivated this year to be the best player in the league again, because when he is and he shows up that way, if he can do that, this offense will be unstoppable. I know you don't want to hear it that it comes down to this, but to me, if Ten is locked in and doing his stuff and on his p's and q's, I have no issues saying this offense will possibly score the most points
in the league. If he's not, then I think you could see a little bit more we saw last year, which even in that instance, if two was the quarterback, you can still have your lengthy, possession, ball control offense that can still score twenty four to twenty seven to thirty points a game. It's just not as explosive and as consistent because you can't mask for the mistakes by hitting the big play over the top. But I think that if you get Tyreek locked in and you have that,
then I think you're back to twenty twenty three. Even if you just have tu, you can have that stretch of Cardinals, Bill's, Rams, Raiders, Patriots for hopefully you know, twelve of the seventeen games, and that can help you win double digit games. I do think, after some thought on it, I do believe in the personnel and everything, But I do think I want to retract one win off my eleven and six prediction that I gave you and kind of land on ten and seven. I feel
more comfortable at that number right now. Just wanted to put that back out into the ether. Let's go ahead and take our last break, because this actually does segue into our last segment here it's veteran media. We heard from Devon h Chan, we heard from Chop Robinson, and this follow up is a good kind of question about talking about the smart players in the offense and the defense as well on the entire roster and being here for the entirety of the spring and the value that
can have. We'll come back and hear from Devon h Chan on that next Drift Time podcast brought to you by Auto, And as promised, here is that quick follow up to the idea of everyone being here for camp. I won't hear from Chop on this as well, but here's a question for Devon A Chan who spoke to the media last Wednesday about the preparation of this year and going from year one to year two. He was asked more about himself, but he talked about the team as a whole, and I thought this was telling, you.
Know, I feel like even as a team, I feel like we're doing better than we did last year, cause you know, a.
Lot of guys here in Ota like were trying to.
Build our chemistry earlyer than trying to do it like in Chinese camp.
So I feel like it's more of a like team thing.
We are a lot of people's here, you know, everybody, make sure that you know our body is healthy for like when the season do come. You know, we don't be like okay, like everybody like angel I got like Linix.
Next, and then this follow up on him to me says a lot about the team that everyone is here. One one more time back to Devon for this topic, I'm.
Gonna say a lot like you said, all the people being here.
It just we're just building that chemistry early and not waiting until like you know, when to see the start.
Dan trying to be like doing the season.
And you know, I just keep thinking, man like, like what if you know, what if because the beauty of sports is hope and optimism and getting excited and having a fun release outside of your normal life, what if they get on the same page. What if they correct the approach to being you know, involved in meetings and not being aloof and not missing practices or those meetings. They stay healthy because of the extra training this time of year and preparing the body earlier for soft tissue stuff.
It goes back to the draft and the free agent philosophy, right, like will it work? We can't know that until the games get played, but at least at least they've given themselves a chance for it to work. They know where it went wrong and they're attacking it head on. And if the quarterback does the same thing with keeping himself healthy well keeping himself healthy, then I feel pretty good about things.
And I just want to add to that.
When you see the practices going on out there, you know, this time of year. I don't know the exact number, but it sure is looks a lot like ninety one players to me, and seeing Reek and Waddle out there, I'm pretty sure the only one who's not been here is five and he's not going to be here right so, and I can also tell you it hasn't been that way since twenty twenty two, So that's that's a good sign,
I think in many ways. Next, let's go ahead and move this over to more of Devon hchan discussion about his own game, and he talked about where he can grow and I have a lot of feelings and thoughts on this next part, as you guys recall from the all twenty two reviews this season, Let's go ahead and here on Devon on what a good season would look like for him and the part of the question he kind of answered on his own was a back part
of the answer. Here's Devon talking about where he thinks he can get better.
Me watching field, Like I said, I feel like I left a lot, like a lot of players, so I feel I could have did more, you know what I'm saying, Like while going back and watch the year and like the cut ups, I feel like, I mean, I left a lot of yards on the table.
Follow up in what ways did you leave yards on the table?
Just the day to day stuff.
I feel like it was just more more so like me rushing and I you know, like me just not going like the small details like I'm knowing I'm hot to do this, but like just trying to me trying to make a big play instead of like just doing the right thing. And it was there just because it wasn't there, like the play before being okay, it's gonna be deferents playing knowing, but just stuff like that.
You guys know how I talk about attacking weaknesses, right, This is what gives me a confidence they are adept at self scouting, because I guarantee you devonn didn't just stumble upon a negative cutup of himself by himself. He was shown it by someone that told him it has
to get better. And if he can run more convicted, or if he doesn't, and you reduced his work in those roles and you give those carries to somebody else that does have those conviction in the carries, I think it's gonna health the offense in a big, big way. So let's finish up here with Devaughan, who was asked, like what that looks like?
Exactly? Back to Devon eh Chan one last time.
Like that, this is always trying to get the ball back to the line of scrimy, even doing a bad play.
And like again back to the film reviews, it wasn't even just the bad plays. It was well blocked plays we didn't see and couldn't get to. And you know that. I go back to that Seattle game. It was just a really rough watch from a decision making standpoint and of reading blocks and reading angles and the running game standpoint. And I thought we saw the Patriots game when Devon
got hurt. Jalen Wright capitalized on those looks and those opportunities and made the most of it, and I thought that was a big change and a reason we won that football game, and this is a team that had the most negative runs in a single season in the NFL since twenty seventeen. And the edge blocking wasn't good enough. But I think the running back decision making, particularly Devon, which it sounds like that's been addressed, was a very,
very big part of that. But I do think Devon did get better at it as the year went along, because when I go back to my film notes, excuse me, I thought that Seahawk game was his worst of the year. He had some other games with poor decisions, but the
Niners game was great. Devon hen the flat Stanley of Devon Han's that we all came to know in Love, where he's squeezing through tiny gaps and accelerating through gaps and banging it up in there and showing some of that contact balance through contact, even if he's not a Pyle pusher. But I thought we saw it get better than Nyers game. I thought he had some really good reps in the Jets game, pressing the whole and finding cutback lanes. So, as I wrote down, do I do
a Devon a Chan film dive? Maybe we'll save that for the later episode. We're getting deep into this one already, but I think that I think that he could through a shift in his focus.
Or losing out on those reps.
But if he doesn't shift that focus, I think that's going to be a good thing for the football team. Let's go ahead and close up here with some Chop Robinson's soundbites. Who was asked first about having Zach Sealer, Kenneth Grant all those good defensive tackles.
What that does for an edge I.
Mean, when the offense got to focus on more than just one guy, they can't just set a slide to the edge rusher. They can't just you know, send a tippered s side When you got interior that can that can tear up the whole game. So it's kind of a different game plan than it is without having guys like that.
Back to the topic at hand, here, he was asked to follow up about the Devon h Chan comment about players being here, being focused, being present.
Here's Chop on the exact same topic.
I mean, just everybody being here, you get to see the team chemistry, Like everybody just wants the same goal. Everybody wants to be great, everybody wants to win. So the only way to do that is doing it all together. So the chemistry is definitely better than it was last year.
We've talked about that at length.
Let's go ahead and just not offer any commentary and close up with we have two more here.
Actually, let's do this one.
He was asked about how psyched he is to have a pair of former Maryland teammates here in Jordan Phillips and Dante Trader.
I was super excited, especially Dante. I came in with Dante. Jordan came in a year after I left, but I knew. I knew of him because his board, the type of player he was, But me and Dante was kind of a real close when I was there. I remember coming in first day, we both sat down in the front row in the team meeting. So just him being in pro and seeing at as a young age and he's still being that guy is just I'm excited for him.
And the fact that that they were tight to me is encouraging. And this might be like grasping for straws a little bit or whatever on the surface, but what's the old saying right right like you are the company you keep and I subscribe to that fully in every sense. And hell, this is a Dolphins podcast, So you're not here for me talking about my own life, but you kind of are because it is my show and you're
here for the host a little bit, right. But I played organized sports from the time that I could walk all the way up through college. Like most of my relationships came through sports and the camaraderie of being on a team. And I was very, very very clique in high school. I was with the jocks and we made fun of other people, like I was a bad dude, probably.
But as I've grown and matured and sort of moved on from some of those lifelong relationships, the ones where all we did was stay in the same town after high school, going to the same bars every single Friday and doing the same game stuff every night, you kind of realize how small minded you can be and how singular your worldview can be. And now I really don't have anything in common with most of those guys. As I surround myself with more people that have a more
worldly view, you know, as I get older. And that's a long tangent, but it's true in every facet. I have this conversation with one of those newer friends that fits in more with the present views and requirements for friendship that I have at this stage in my life. You guys know him. His name is Seth Levitt, one
of my best buddies in the entire world. But we have these long phone calls about the business and industry, and since we're both grinders, we wind up up getting to the same point about how the biggest rivalry there is is the one between hard workers and lazy people, and those birds of a feather they flock together. So this is all a way of saying, I've seen what Chop Robinson's about and getting to know Dante Trader and
Jordan Phillips, albeit very briefly. If they're all tight, then that tells me those two rooks are all about the right stuff. Like a good example, Zach and Christian were best friends, right, and they had nothing in common when they first got together. But you know what they did that in common their desire to work their butts off to be the best pros they could be, dogged workers, a shared goal and journey. That stuff bonds people, all right,
That got off the rails. Let's go back to Chopp, who was asked about what this past rush unit can look like with Chop JP, Jalen Phillips, or with Bradley Chubb as well one more time Chop Robinson me.
I'm super excited.
Just just imagine the three of us want to feel all at the same time.
We're just me a JP, or JP and Chubb at the same time.
It's kind of hard to for tackles say all right, you gotta study JP, you gotta study Chubb, you gotta study me, And if we're all on the foot at the same time, kind of mess up the offense mind because they wouldn't.
Know what to do.
And do not sleep on this comment, because that was the idea last year, right We saw Phillips make it back for the opener, and that likely means the team had a pretty good idea that he was at least going to be close to returning early in the season.
At some point during the summer.
We'd never got Bradley back, but I think that was a bit of a surprise for everybody. I thought he was more in line to come off the pup like when he was eligible.
Just never happened.
Shaq retires at a date where we didn't really have a choice or chance to replace him. So like the defense, you saw, and we've been all over this on how Zach and Kalayis expanded their workloads to play more edge. But that wasn't because that wasn't because of the plan playing out. It was more of an adjustment to the attrition. And thank goodness we had those two versatile studs. But now I think you get a better idea of the
vision they have for weave scheme, which is very front driven. Right, not to disparage the linebackers from the past, but this is the most attention the off ball linebacker group has gotten in quite some time. I mean, there are four guys that have produced in this league in this room. Usually it's two maybe three that's common, going back to the Ravens defense that he was a part of, with
the plethora of edge guys. I mean, look at the Ravens linebacker room edge off ball weaves last year there literally Roquan Smith and Patrick Queen with Malik Harrison and Trenton Simpson who are both starters now for the Ravens and Steelers accordingly, and that's four deep of starters. And then you look at the defensive line. We covered it up top. I just think it's a good place to end with a little circle back reiteration. I just think there's a lot to look forward to this year and
this camp on both sides of the ball. This got a lot longer than I planned. Let's go ahead and put a pennanut rate there. Come back on Wednesday. I was going to do a deep dive on hidden gems talking about guys like Patrick McMorris and Taj Washington. Will bump that to Wednesday. I also have a segment plan for Austin Clark, will do that as well later on
and his track record of developing players. Until then, you all please be sure subscribe, rate review, follow me on social at week the NFL, follow the team at Miami Dolphins. Check out the fish Tank with Seth and Jews. Check out the YouTube channel for Dolphins HQ Media Availabilities, drift time content, and so much more and last butt not Lee East Miami Dolphins dot com until next time finds up col on camera and Daddy, Let's come home.
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