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Dolphins? And welcome to the Drive Time podcast, part of the Miami Dolphins Podcast Network, covering your team, your Miami Dolphins. How's it going? Everybody? I am your host, Travis Wingfield, And on today's show, Week two in the NFL kicks off tonight, anybody else just like incredibly fired up about all things football because your team looks like one of the best teams in the NFL. We'll give you the picks for the week. And since it's Thursday, that means
opponent's perspective. ESPN's Mike Reese joins us from Foxboro to break it all down. Plus the weekly narrative focuses on running routes without getting the football. We call him for love of the game routes. And we conclude with some audio from assistants and coordinators on Thursday who met with the media from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Drivetime Podcast, May Guff.
Let's go ahead and kick this thing off with the Patriots perspective for week two, Sunday night in Foxborough, eight twenty kickoff a nice crisp fifty five degrees up there in the Boston, mass area. Welcome to my guest today, Mike Reese joining me now is ESPN NFL Nation reporter covering this week's opponent, the New England Patriots. He is Mike Reese. Mike, thank you for your time today, Sir.
A screet to be with you, Thanks for having me, Very happy.
To have you on. I saw I can't remember who it was. Might have been Evan Lazarre, might have been Taylor Kyle's, I'm not sure, one of the local beat guys up there who was sharing some of the notes that you provide for training camp and kind of the hustle that you produce up there during the month of August. I fancy myself a very what's the word I'm looking for here? I guess acclaimed training camp reporter or cover guy that takes a lot of pride in my notes.
Is that something you've always done for a long time is getting Patriots training camp notes out there to the fans.
I love that, Travis, you know, I think with reporting, like the best time to get to know any team is through training camp, right because you're watching the team come together. And I don't know about you guys, your crew down in South Florida, But once the season starts, we're limited with how much practice we actually get to watch in New England, so you don't feel like you're as dialed in as you are during training camp.
So I do.
I really do love that time the year.
Yeah, the stretch and individual then get the heck out of here. We got practice to run, so pretty pretty common across the league, I believe I noticed for us, but it's it's really cool to see that, and it's cool to see how fans really embrace this extended coverage. We have now really twelve months out of the year, but let's go ahead and pivot now to the game
on Sunday night, Dolphins at Patriots. The Patriots run, you know, as flexible of a defense as anybody going back over a couple of decades now, and I was looking at some of the numbers that they produce against to a tongue of Iiloa, and it's it's kind of all over the place in terms of how often they blitz him, how often they play man versus zone. I'm curious why you think that plan might change maybe what we could see on Sunday for this matchup.
It's it's great thoughts, trevis, because two is four and oh against the Patriots, as you know, and so what they've done in the past hasn't produced necessarily the bottom line.
Results that they are hoping for.
So Bill Belichick talked about that a little bit earlier this year week in terms of if you want to devote more resources towards the rush, you better hope that you can bring down Tyreek Hill, Jalen Waddell and company, because the fewer guys you have around them, you're really susceptible to giving up the big play. So I think from a just sort of a big picture standpoint, that's sort of the main question they're probably going to be asking themselves is you know, how much do we want
to bring pressure? Knowing that Tua can get the ball out so quickly. He's very accurate. And the Patriots generally are a defense that the first thing they say is don't give up the big play.
It's and we saw that down here for a couple of years too, And it makes me really fascinated to see how this game script might change on Sunday, since it's always followed the same script for the last few years, Mike, where it's limited possessions, kind of keep the roof on top of the defense and not a lot of explosive plays, and you know, both teams get seven or eight cracks at it and by the end of it, it's like a twenty to sixteen final. So I'm really curious to
see how that might change. And on the Patriot side, they have a pretty big change as well, bringing back Bell O'Brien into the offense and being the OC there. How has Mac Jones and really the entire offense taken to that new system. I know it's only one weekend, but going back to camp and preseason. How have you seen them take to Bill O'Brien's system.
It's been a notable difference, Travis, and I think it's the best way to sum it up is it's basically going back to the way it was before under Josh.
McDaniels, but with you its own unique you know, twists to it.
And I know coach McDaniel mentioned this down there this week that he can tell the connection already.
You know that Mac and Bill O'Brien have.
There's a lot of optimism up here in New England after Mac regressed in his second year, that they're getting him back on track. There were some real positive signs in Sunday's season opening loss to the Eagles. In the second quarter, Mack put together a stretch that was as good as anything that we've seen from him, you know, in his three years with the team. The challenge for him now is going to be, you know, can he
do that consistently and avoid the killer turnover? You know, he had a pick six in the first quarter that got away from him, a high throw and can he come through in the clutch.
I always hope that folks learn from history with regards to the quarterback position. Because oftentimes surrounding you know, circumstances can be you know, prohibit you from reaching your ultimate ceiling. And we saw mac Jones really thrive that rookie season, and I think that where he excels is kind of akin to where two excels in ways that maybe are not as obvious to you know, just a fan that pulled up the games on Sundays and doesn't spend much
time otherwise, you know, studying the game. I think that those are the areas that Matt can really excel and potentially take his career to the next step as well here in this new system. And of course, part of the surrounding cast for any player is the offensive line. For a quarterback, I should say, And this Patriots line pretty banged up right now. What do you think we might see on Sunday? And with whoever the lineup is?
What can we expect to get from some of these guys that I don't know much about.
Mike, Yeah, So this has been their their achilles heel since literally day one of training camp. They've had a run of injuries, illness, and I would say inconsistency that has really they had led me at one point to write an article asking the question, you know, will the offensive line ultimately be the thing that holds the team back? And part of it is out of your control, right,
Like you can't script up injuries. You can build as much depth as you know possible, and sometimes you just get a run of injuries where it seems like you can't catch a break. So I will tell you, Travis, the one stat like, when they set their initial fifty three man roster, they kept eleven offensive linemen. I mean that's a huge number. The league averages nine. You know, they're down at ten now after putting one of them on injured reserve.
But so what will we see. It's a line that hasn't played in a game together before.
I can guarantee you that I'm probably not going to see the starting left tackle Trent Brown, He's got a concussion. The big question is will the starting guards Cole Strange at left guard, Michael Wenu at right guard.
Will they be ready to go? They didn't play in the season opener.
If they play, I think that will help stabilize a very unstable situation at the moment for the Patriots.
Yeah, it's really interesting. I saw they were limited all week last week in practice and did not go, and they were limited as we taped this podcast on a Thursday ahead of the injury report. They were also limited
in Wednesday's practice. So very interesting there, And it's funny you mentioned that because I felt like, for as long as I can remember, the Patriots offensive line was always maybe not the strong suit of the team because the defense has been so good for so long, but certainly something they could bank on, as you know, a stabilizing force on that offense, regardless of who's a quarterback outside for the weapons and going back to that defensive side
of the ball. Two more questions for you here, Mike Reese from ESPN my guest today on the Draft Time podcast, and does Patriots defense fascinates me for so many reasons? But I'll start up front right here, because I just feel like they have so many pieces that maybe don't get the individual shine but ultimately makes up a cumulative, really good group. Up front, I'm talking about guys like Lawrence Guy and Dietrich Wise that you know, they just
don't get national recognition, but they're dang good players. Obviously, Christian Barmore, Matt Judon, a lot of guys coming back and returning to this front seven, how important do you think that continuity is upfront for this Bill Belichick defense.
Yeah, I think the continuity definitely helps.
I'd add Devon Godschow, the former dolphin in there that you know, fans listening to this will obviously remember him.
But then I go back to something Bill Belichick says, like, you know, look, Travis, we could bring you and me back and put us on the defensive line, and that probably wouldn't look too good, you know, So I think continuity gets you in a you know, in a good place, but you have to be good players, right, And they've done a nice job, you know, combining continuity, meaning like this defense retained every single player from last season other
than their longtime safety and captain Devin mccordy. And that's relative to the league. That's a league leading stat by far. You know, no team brought us that many players back on defense. So between that and the talent that they have and the versatility that they have, they can do a lot of different things, play a lot of different
you know, give a lot of different looks. They have guys who can play different techniques at a high level, and it allows them to do some things like they did in the season opener against the Eagles that had Jalen Hurts and some of their players. Really i would say tipping their cap, you know, to the plan and execution that the Patriots had in Week one.
Yeah, you want me right into my next question here because to kind of follow up on that, And I'm not sure how much it tracks because to your point, the Patriots are as amenables any team out there defensively to be able to, you know, run one game plan one week and then switched up entirely for a second week. And the Dolphins offense, you know, Jalen Hurts and Tuatungua bai Looa could not be more different players in terms
of how they attack opposing defenses. And so I'm not I'm not sure if the plan carries over at all. But how did they stop that Eagles offense that last year seemed like for you know, twenty straight weeks could not be stopped.
So they you know, they they gave him a lot of different disguise, and they held their disguise, you know, until really very patient with it, not given a lot of pre snap indicators to him.
So that's sort of the so detailed.
That's sort of the simple answer, you know that, I would say, And they were competitive in coverage. You know, they have a first round pick, Christian Gonzales out of Oregon, who played every snap and you know, seven tackles, a sack, a pass deflection, a big pass deflection late in the game, they give them the ball back, can give him a chance to win.
And I look at that as sort of a key, a key this week.
Christian's a taller, longer, fast corner and I would say he probably hasn't seen the speed you know, that he's going to see from the Dolphins receivers. So what does that matchup look like? And Travis, I will tell you this. I did peek a little bit at the Chargers Dolphins game just to get familiar with, you know, the Dolphins.
I have to believe the Patriots are going to have a more.
Say more competitive, but a more innovative plan, you know, to try to slow down what Miami's doing. I was I thought, I thought there were some things that in that game that looked like it almost made it too easy for me, you know, for for the Dolphins.
Yeah, Tyreek had a lot of one on one coverage, and he made them pay for that pretty much every time they ran with it. And that makes it takes me to my final kind of question or a cluster of questions here. Mike is obviously going back into the
defensive secondary. I do want to follow up about that point here in a second, but we'll circle back because my question was, how is that defensive backfield which they fascinate me every year, Mike with how often they can run you know, dime packages even against you know, twelve personnel where it's necessarily not matching up against what you're seeing, but they find a way to be competitive against the
run from these six defensive back packages. But now in the post Devin McCarty world, how is it looking for you know, Kyle Dugar is such a good player, but Jabrill Peppers had a good season opening game, Adrian Phillips. How is that entire group kind of operating in the post Devin McCarty world.
Yeah, so they actually meet as a group, so they don't do like corners in safeties. I don't know if if the Dolphins do it similarly like it or if they split up the corners in safeties, but the way the Patriots do it it's sort of interesting. They lump them all together, and so they meet as defensive backs. So start with the safeties. You know, last week it was really Dugger, Kyle Duggar and Jabriel Peppers as the main guys, and Adrian Phillips in a little bit more
of a minor role. They also have a rookie, Marte Mapu who mixes between linebacker and safety.
He's sort of one of those hybrid types.
And so between those four and Jalen Mills of fifth, you know, mixing in there, they have different skill sets. I would say I'd be surprised if they do the same thing this week with Jabrio and Kyle as the main guys. I think we might see more of Adrian
than we did last week. I think Adrian Phillips only played seventeen snaps only because a lot more like those motions, Like you watch Miami's offense, Travis, I mean you see it closer than me, Like it's fun to watch, like a lot of motions and at the last minute and it's so fast, and I think Adrian is sort of like a prime communicator, right, like who's a glue guy?
And I can see them wanting to put him on the field a little bit more, just when you're trying to slow down, you know, such an innovative and exciting offense that it looks like it's one thing. And then I'd say, like, one second before the ball snap, do you got a guy like jetting out in motion?
And next thing, you know, like it's like, okay, did you how do you react to that? Right?
Like?
And so I think that'll be sort of a fun chest notich to watch on Sunday.
Night, Mike. We've waited a long long time for people to talk about our offense that way. It was a lot of years of you know, seventeen thirteen victories. Now we have an offense that we feel can compete with
most teams across the National Football League. And obviously you don't have the answer to this question, but I just want to get your opinion on it because and I'm trying to figure out myself, not that it matters, but just for the fans slash like amateur coach and me, how would you defend this Dolphins offense when it comes to hill and waddle Because we've seen in the past, like Jonathan Jones is one of the few guys that's had success against Tyreek Hill. We've also seen when he
was with Kansas City bracket coverage. Do not let Tyreek Hill catch a single pass on you. And there he had Travis Kelcey to help take the load off of him. But what would then be the play for Waddle if they went that direction? How do you see, in your opinion, the Patriots planning to deal with these two receivers.
I think it's great. I've been thinking about it a lot, and I think, you know, the first thing is I just think two is so.
Accurate, you know, in my view, right, and and I think he makes good decisions. I think I think I would bracket Tyrek and I'd take my chances, you know, with Jalen and and maybe you know, see see where that gets me because I think what I try to do is take it, take away Tyrek and see how Tua reacts to that. You know, when the first read maybe isn't there. It's so much easier said than done, right, Like, if it was that easy, more people would do it.
And I think they tried to do that.
And I think Jalen got him, you know, quite a bit last year and that first matchup, if I remember off the top of my head, or maybe it was two years go, Travis, but so I think.
That that's probably where I would start.
And it reminds me of one year when Tony Gonzalez, the great Chiefs tight end. It was like Bill Belichick was so like determined to not let him beat him, Like he put like Rodney Harrison on top of him, and then another player right next to Rodney and almost treated Tony like like a like he was a gunner on the punt team and they viced him at the line of scrimmage, you know, like like it's like literally like okay, like where he is that explosive, he is that important to what they do.
Let's try that.
And I think you can't do it every play, but like that's sort of my thought process going in.
Yeah, I've seen that. I've been watching some old clips from the Kansas City games and they would do that to Tyreek as well, and it's like, yeah, this is gonna make us a man light, but we have to do this otherwise this guy can go off for two hundred yards in a game like he did in Week one. Mike, appreciate your time today, man, ESPN NFL Nation Patriots coverage.
He's on Twitter at Mike Reese. If you're gonna follow one person on the Patriots beat, I know it's hard for you all to do that for as Dolphins fans, but this is your guy, Mike. Thank you for your time today. We really appreciate it, sir.
All right, Thanks Travis, and there he goes to great Mike Reese.
Let's go ahead and take our first break right there and come back on the other side. And here from the Dolphins assistant coaches and coordinators. That's next Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. Let's go ahead and do some Patriots preview content. Here we got to hear from the coordinators and assistant coaches today. Let's first go to Dolphins quarterbacks coach Darryl Bevell, who touched on the challenges the Patriots defense present to an offense.
Well, I think, Roddie, you know that, like how well their coach over there, you know, and those guys are just their their coach so well. They play their techniques very well there. They're multiple in the defense with with with players in terms of you know, one time this guy could be a safety, one time this guy is a linebacker, and so being able to id all of it, being able to you know, to to kind of undress it as best as you can to make to make
good decision. I think what make it challenging. They do a great job of playing their techniques, and it's they're just a very well coached team. Obviously, when you put the players' abilities on top of being well coached, it makes for a tough defense.
And of course, the second straight week, the Dolphins will face a team who is imploring a new employing a new offensive system this season. So I asked coach Fangio, what's the benefit of going into a game where there's one game tape on that offense versus what you face in Week one against Kellen Moore and the Los Angeles Chargers with no game tapes. Pretty obvious answer here, but I think coach gave us some good stuff that you want. Here's Vic Fangio.
One's better than none, And particularly in this case because Bill O'Brien has been in college while the last two years, and prior to that, he was the head coach of the Texans, and they you know, they have a different style quarterback with Watson his year there and New England's always had an offense that kind of their offense no
matter who's the offensive coordinator. You know, they had Josh McDaniels a long time obviously, but and now build you know, off of last week it's been was a little different than what New England's been traditionally known for offensively. So one game tells something, but it doesn't tell the whole story.
Obviously, the Patriots averaged under four air yards per attempt in their game on Sunday, and I saw some boasting about how the Patriots had more yak yards because to efforted over ten air yards per throw. So obviously, when the ball on average is going seven yards shorter, you're gonna have to make up more yards after the catch.
But I digress. So Fangio was asked about the Patriots game plan for a team that we have kind of come to know, even during the Brady era at times, but especially after it that wants to be a power running football team to put the ball in the air fifty four times. Well, Obviously being down sixteen zip can create some of that need for the passing game, but also there was like twenty screen passes in the game
behind the line scrimage. I think you're gonna get a lot more of that in this game, because it looks the Patriots could be down several offensive linemen, like three starters, potentially a backup to one of those starters as well, Trent Brown a concussion protocol. Patriots actually did not play a single player who was in concussion protocol during the week last season. So let's kind of a tell what
might happen here. But here's coach Fangio on the Patriots game plan and why that passing number is mislead.
Yeah, the fifty four passes you're talking about New England, right, Yeah, they had in the mid twenties. Of those were a two minute situation, So the fifty four number is very skewed. We'll say it's just one game sample. What's different is they don't have a fullback on the roster, and they used to carry a fullback a lot of times and you'd get some two back stuff and right now most of their stuff is one back.
So there you go. That's the coaches. We're gonna go ahead and take our last break right here and come back on the other side and do the NFL picks and the Thursday narrative all that. Next Draft Time Podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation, segment number three for week number two on a Thursday edition here of the Drive Time Podcast. And we do the picks every single week for the last three years
now our guess two plus seasons. As we are in the third year of doing this, and I gotta be honest with you guys, off the top, feeling pretty good right now about my Dolphins over Cowboys Super Bowl pick. We'll see how that shakes out over the next twenty or so weeks here, but let's go ahead and start with week number two. Actually, first go back to week number one, where I went eleven and five, which is my best week one mark since I've been doing the
picks here on the show. Nailed a couple of good ones. I thought Buffalo would find a way to beat the Jets, even in with Aaron Rodgers in the game. Once he went out, I was certain that was a victory. But you know what, that was a perfect result for the Dolphins in that instance. Buffalo getting a divisional loss early on in the season as a potentially could play a big role down the stretch in the race for the
AFC East Crown. That Week eighteen game could be a huge one against Buffalo, but I am getting all over the map and way ahead of myself. Let's go ahead and pick these Week two games beginning tonight with the Eagles and Vikings. Give me the defending NFC champs over a team that I think is going to be more paper tiger this year in the Vikings, who won thirteen games last year and had a record setting eleven victories
in one score games. While the regression to the mean already reverts back in Week one of twenty twenty three, as the Vikings drop a heartbreaker at home at home to the Baker Mayfield led Tampa Bay Buccaneers, give me the Eagles big over the Vikings on TNF. I like Jordan, love to keep it rolling. I think the Falcons offense is incredibly strange. I love their defense. I said as much during the joint practices down here in Miami Gardens against that club. But Drake London won target Kyle Pitts
getting open, not seeing any footballs. We've drafted all these talented players and we don't want to see him to use them. Tyler Algier outsnap B John Robinson what gives. I think Jordan Love's a really good player. I think he's gonna be a top ten quarterback come the end of the season, which would mean that there's going to be what Burrow to hurts Herbert. I'm forgetting someone four quarterbacks in not twenty twenty class I believe will be in the top ten by the end of the season.
Give me Buffalo over Las Vegas. I don't want to happen, but the home opener for the Bills. I think they're gonna take care of Josh McDaniel's squad up there in Western New York. Give me the Ravens over the Bengals. Even though the Ravens are awfully banged up right now, no Marcus Williams, no JK. Dobbins, Ronnie Stanley has once again taken an injury. The Bengals looked dreadful and weak
number one. I think it's gonna be a bit of a slow climb for them, like it was last year, missing Burrow for the first or through all of training camp a season to go do it to an appendectomy this year due to a calf strain, I think it's gonna take some time for them to get clicking, and the Ravens just seem to have their number even without Lamar Jackson. Last year, in that playoff game, they are a fumble on the goal line away from potentially taking
a fourth quarter lead in that game. Give me Baltimore over the Bengals. This is not going to be a popular pick, but give me Seattle on the road over Detroit last year one of the games of the year. Both teams got into the forties. Gino Smith kind of had his coming out party in that game. Detroit riding high off a big victory in Week one, but I think it's going to be a bit of a comeback down for them as the Seahawks look to avenge a
terrible loss of the Rams. I picked Selex whin the NFC West, and if they lose this one badly and look like they did against the Rams again, I might pull the ripcord on that pick altogether. Maybe it was a bad decision, but we're taking the Seahawks and saying by our preseason pick over the Lions. Give me the Chargers over the Titans. Although I would prefer the Titans win that game, I think that as much as I've given Ryan Tannehill plenty of flowers and love on my
podcast over the years. I think that maybe the end is nigh, as he looked really bad in that Week one game, and I could see them trained to Malak Willis or Will Levis at some point in this season. Give me the Chargers in that one. Give me the Bears over the Bucks, even though it's on the road. Man Luke Getzy's offense was a tire fire in that Week one game with the But give me the Bears to find a way to get their first victory of the season. Here, Chiefs over Jaguars. I know that the
Chiefs will get Chris Jones back. It sound like they're gonna get Travis Kelce back. I think they clear Jacksonville pretty easily in that one, even though it's down here in Florida. Houston over Indy. It's Richardson healthy, I'm not even sure about that, but I still like Houston to get their first victory. I think that Indie played their hearts out against Jacksonville and that was a tough loss
for them. But I'll take the uninspiring Texans, even though I don't love him in any game, but I'll take him over the Colts this week. Give me the Niners over the Rams. I think I might have undersold the Niners. I've done that for a few years in a row. Now give me them to clear the Niners pretty easily or the Rams pretty easily. I should say, I'll take the Giants over the Cardinals. I am going to be against the Giants a lot this year, but playing the
Cardinals that's a pretty no brainer for me. Give me the Cowboys, t Romp the Jets and Zach Wilson. You can support the kid all you want in terms of coming out in social media and talking about how much you support him, but it doesn't mean he's gonna be any better at football. Give me the Cowboys big there. Give me the Broncos over Washington. I think Denver bounces back. They just typically don't lose games in that building in September.
It's tough for teams to get acclimated to that, to the heat and the altitude this early in the year, when Denver's been training in it all summer. Give me the Broncos, even though I kind of like the Commanders, but Sam Holl didn't play well and I'm really conflicted there. It's like their teams, their quarterback not so much. Give me the Dolphins big over the Patriots on Sunday Night Football. You already know why. Give me the Saints over the Panthers.
I'm just not buying the brightshown experience in year number one. Not enough weapons, not a good offensive line. He's gonna take some lumps this year. Give me the Saints to get to two and zero. And Pittsburgh over Cleveland. I think Cleveland won that game because Cincinnati was terrible in Week one, and the Steelers I think can bounce back after a really tough Week one matchup against the Niners.
Don't think either team's gonna be a playoff squad. But give me the Steelers over the Browns on Monday Night Football. Those are the Week two picks eleven or five. We'll revisit those next Thursday ahead of TNF in Week number three. Let's go ahead and do our weekly narrative here. And I'm really excited about this part of the podcast because
I think I'm gonna talk some personal stuff here. I think I've found a way to make myself a better podcast or a better reporter, someone better at covering this team by kind of having more foresight about what I want to do. It's something my boss and I have discussed several times with regards just to how to make drive time better for you all. So I've been kind of lying in the weeds, as it were, thinking about different aspects of football of this team that interest me.
And then, of course, with the resources and access I have to ask people questions about this stuff, it obviously makes for a fun, fleshed out theory that I can kind of put together, go through, get my interviews, and then kind of decide what I want to do with
that at the end of it. So I mentioned this on the Tuesday Breakdown the All twenty two podcast that my hypothesis was that nobody runs harder without the football in their hands than Jalen Waddle, right, like a great score in basketball, the guys who move the best without the football are typically the best receivers as well. And so I went to the advanced stats and GPS rankings, and I have access to more of this stuff these this year, which is awesome for me obviously and for
you guys listener to. And I talked to some of the guys as well, including the Penguin himself, on what we call for love of the game routes, routes where you're late in the progression. And to extend this notion with this quarterback who's the best at seeing it and getting the ball out fast in the entire world. The ball's out so fast at the fourth and fifth option among the eligibles within a progression, they know the majority of the time the ball is not going to come
to them because it's going to be out earlier. But that's not the mindset they have. In fact, Jalen Wall told me as much when I talk to him in the locker room on Wednesday. So I had a comment on Twitter last night after watching your game that I think that you're one of the best receivers in the league without the football in your hands. I know Wes likes to call them for love of the game routes. Yeah, what would you describe as a love of the game route?
Just a route?
You know, you not really the primary, but you know you can be a decoy to you know, get either a safety or or anybody in the back end out to open up something for someone else.
That's kind of what we call it, to take a lot of prime.
Oh yeah, definitely, it's it go hand in hand with blocking and all that other stuff that you know you don't get much, you know, praise and shine for, but is a part of the game.
Appreciate Jon.
Good stuff there from the Penguin aka Little Skeet as we call him around the locker room down there with the guys. Yeah, really good stuff there for one of my favorite players in the entire National Football League. And how about this. I went out and found some metrics that measure how many yards a player travels on pass plays without getting a target at over sixteen miles per hour. Are you with me batting average in the month of September when the moon is in Sagittarius and there's a
Republican president in office. No, but that's pretty much the stat here. That's the threshold that has been determined sixteen miles per hour to be sprint speed for wide receivers. Can you guess, Can you take a wild guess who the top two through Week one in the National Football League might be? If you guess Tyreek Hill and Jalen Waddell, you would be right. But I'm going to tell you why. It's not just their speed that puts them in that position here and one second. So first, Tyreek Hill, these
are crazy stats man. Three hundred and ninety five yards above sixteen miles per hour that he traveled on thirty five snaps. That's eleven point two yards per snap. That he travels faster than sixteen miles per hour. Jalen Wattle covered three hundred and twenty four yards at over sixteen mph on thirty two snaps, which is ten point one per snap. That's only the only two receivers in the
NFL who were over double digits in this category. I used two other players here to kick this off for comparison, justin Jefferson. This is where it gets crazy. Jefferson was a four to four forty guys, so he doesn't have the blazing speed. But it tells you about and this is not to disparage Jefferson. He's I think he's right there with Tyreek as the best receiver in the National
Football League. But this tells you the difference here, two hundred and forty two yards above sixteen miles per hour on forty four snaps is five point five yards per snap, literally less than half of what Tyreek did in just a little bit more than half of what Jalen Waddell did, and then I wanted to find the other blazing fast receivers in the NFL to come out recently under four to four guys, and the first one I thought of was two to two Atwell, who ran a four to
three to nine a couple of years ago. And by the way, it was a big two to two at will fam look at him week number one in this third season, having a big day. Three hundred and twenty eight yards traveled on thirty four snaps at over sixteen miles per hour, was nine point six yards per snap. That he was over sixteen mph. That was third best in the NFL. So then I went back and looked at two recent Ohio State grads. They were under four to four, Chris o'lave four to three nine, Garrett Wilson
four to three eight. For o lave two hundred and ninety eight yards on thirty three snaps, that's nine point h three and Garrett Wilson was one hundred and ninety nine yards on twenty seven snaps that's seven point three seven. Maybe a little bit to do with the fact that he lost his quarterback and was mad. I think we saw him celebrating a touchdown run that was not by Breise Hall opposed to blocking down the field, which would kind of give you an indication of maybe where his
head was at at that injury. So those are the guys with the absurd times, right. So what about little old River cray Craft from Washington State University here for the Miami Dolphins. And I think this is where the point is driven home. He was a four to five flat guy at his pro day, not even a combine invite pro day up in the police four or five. And you can see the correlation there with the guys forty times in yards traveled right well, in sixteen snaps,
River covered one hundred and forty seven yards. That's good for nine point one better than a Lavee, better than Garrett Wilson. It's just how it's coached down here. It's an emphasis for coach Wes Wilker. Let's hear from River Craycraft, who I caught up with for about five minutes. We talked about that, and of course Washington State's big win over Wisconsin last Saturday night. First of all, Cobs and Badgers, what'd you think of that one? Did you get us
to watch it. Of course, game loved every bit of it.
Yeah, the Coons came out hot, put him a lot of points. Scared me at the end. Well, but I'm lucky if their game can. Cooks came out with a W for the second straight year.
Was there any types of bets or anything on the game shirts or anything like that?
Last year Alec and I had whoever lost had to wear the team gear of the opposing team to practice.
So he'll be head to toe in some.
Washington State stuff one of these days. I can't wait.
I need to see that's. I gotta sweet that out and get my collar. I'm very much known as the Dolphins reporter who went to Washington State. Yea they gradular.
I don't know if they do.
I talked about it a lot, but anyway, Yeah, I love it. Yeah baby, Yeah. So I'm kind of running a theme this week on the podcast about and watching the tape. I was noticing, like, you guys do such a good job when maybe you're late in the progression, or maybe not even part of the progression at all, of busting your ass almost Routes for love of the game, Routes rights that what you guys call him.
You can. I mean, yeah, I mean you have to have the mindset every play that there's a chance you're going to get the wall, you know. So that's the way I like to look at it. But you're not wrong for love of the game routes, But yeah, that's kind of what it is.
What's the message to to really accept that home? Like I know, Wes is probably big.
On that, you just never know when your opportunity is coming, you know. And for me, a great example was last year versus Baltimore. It was there was no way I should have had that touchdown and it was just like you said, love of the game route and and to it broke the pocket and that's when that was my when my chance came to make a play, you know, and then I was able to score a touchdown off of it. So it's like you have something good like
that happened. It really lets you know why you have those routes and why you have those you know, why you're always giving full effort because you never know what can happen. And sure enough Chargers the same exact thing. Basically, it was like I was not supposed to get that ball, and I did so good things happen when you run.
River a great craft touchdown maker, right, I mean like it was like like fifteen catches, like free touchdowns, Like why why do you think you're catching so many places?
I don't know, just you know and at the right time, I guess, and you know too, And I have been working on our connection and I'm glad it's showing up in the right areas.
Someone told me that you had a potentially a river dance plan, but you maybe.
No, no, no, I never had that plan. Somebody asked me that after the game if they said, when are we going to see the river dance? And I just said, and I said, that's already been done by an Ocho Cinco.
So yeah.
Also I don't know how to do it, so.
No, no, no, no no.
My dad taught me to hand the ball on the rest.
So it's probably what I'm gonna do. Back to the routing real quick. So how critical is that in terms of creating space for the passing concept that all you guys like you don't loaf on the route, Like, how critical is that to getting that.
Space for you?
Creatly important? I mean, I think that's something that everybody
tries to do. Across the league, and it's super important, especially when you're an offense like this, because it can affect players in different areas and you run your out full speed with with intent and understand the concept you're running and shouldn't know you know who is the first raad and who's not, because there are plays where I am the first read, and there's obviously plays where you know someone else is the first raid, and you have to sell it like you are the first raid every
time because that's how you get to grab people and open up other things. So you know, as that being part of my role, it's only going to open things up for me when I am the first reading.
Coach mentioned this morning that you had been cut by seven teams before you actually made a roster. What do you take that experience and how do you apply what you learned in that process of trying to get into the league to now that you are, you know, kind of have a spot on this roster as one of the kind of key guys you receive.
Just you know, just staying resilient, knowing what you're worth and you know you have dreams, you have goals, and you don't let anybody say no beside yourself. So I've actually been cut fourteen times, not from seven teams, but I have been cut fourteen times, and that's that is frustrating. But you know you, like I said, you know what you're worth in and you're always gonna keep your foot on the gas and you know when I'm ready to stop all s time. And that's the way I like to look at it, right.
The best part of that was the very end of the interview, and Savon Achmed's locker is right by Rivers when I walked out and the rest of the media swarmed rib to talk to him, and he dropped to hey, go, Koog's on him, and I saw Savon look up like, man, get that stuff out of here. But we love it.
Before we get out of here, one more SoundBite. I asked Frank Smith, Dolphins offensive coordinator, the same question of this theme, love of the game routes, what's the importance of it and how do you coach your guys to bust their butt every single play.
When you understand the concept and what we're trying to do and how you fit into the timing of the play and what the defense. You know, what look they gave you I mean, I think it's just the understanding of all routes are live at all time, and when you have a quarterback like Tua, who's you know, who distributes the balls so well. I mean the minute that you think that you're not getting the ball, you will.
So you have to run everything with intent, right because you might think that you're running a vertical and next thing you know, they drop coverage because they're we got guys moving different spots. So I think it's just our guys' commitment and that's why the way we practice is the most important thing is like trying to make sure it's deliberate and put ourselves in the games so that way when Sunday or Monday comes, we're we've already practiced.
All right. Fun podcast there, man, let's go ahead and get out of here. Tomorrow again, we're gonna have the great Jeff Darlington on the podcast. Very special edition of the show is he's going to come on here and tell us about the behind the scenes day that he spent with coach McDaniel for the Sunday countdown piece. Plus Kyle crabs Is Finn's draft and five and more locker
rooms sound for you guys, that's tomorrow. In the meantime, you all please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast from. Go ahead and leave us a rating, leave us a review. You can follow me on social at Winfield, NFL. Follow
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