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Dolphins? And welcome to the Drift 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 we have now gone past the divisional preview series and we are into training can't preview next week? It
all gets started here from Miami Gardens. We're going to talk to Mike White today, Dolphins quarterback, and we're also going to preview the quarterback and tie end positions here on the training camp preview series, which starts right now. From the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Draft Time.
Podcast, Maggie Jeff.
First, let's go ahead and kick this thing off with another walk and talk.
We've been doing a whole bunch of these.
Let's go right back to that quarterback room and hear from new Dolphins QB Mike White.
What's up, guys.
Travis Pinfield here again for another edition of one hundred Yards with Travis Winfield Dolphins quarterback Mike White joining me today. Mike, Welcome home, man.
Thanksah, we're happy to have you.
So Pembroke Pine Native.
Right, that's correct.
I was just telling you My home golf course is the Pembroke Lakes Golf Course. Yeah. There very hot.
Oh yeah, I've been out there at time or two.
What's you favorite hole?
Whatever? Aren't the park? Three's Part three are my nemesis.
Yeah, they're rough. I like that a dogleg on number nine, So you know it way better than I I'm there all the time.
Yeah, it's impressive.
Yeah, between you know, watching the kids being here at work, it's playing golf. So that kind of takes my next question. It's the father of two, is there anything in the world you miss more than sleep. Oh my gosh.
No, it's just the things you take for granted are just like even when you do get to go to sleep, the whole time in the back of your mind is just like please don't wake up, like please just let me. So you're not even getting a good night sleep, like I'm sure you know.
Yeah, yeah, watch TV. You hear the little cry in the background.
It's like, oh, yes, yes, you start hearing these phantom Krajet's that a baby exactly right?
So what are you up to since you got back?
You're enjoying the hometown and getting back to your old routie, exploring some new stuff. What are you up to?
Yeah, I mean it's it's it's funny just driving the old streets I would drive just like going to high school or like hanging out, you know what I mean. So it's it feels weird coming back. A lot's changed, but everything's still the same, if that makes sense. But no, I've just been trying to hit make sure I hit all my South Florida food spots like Flanagans Flanagans as might go to. I've had Flannigans easily six to seven times. I've been trying to go as many Panthers games as
they can. Big Panthers guy, even the heat. I haven't made it to a Heat game, but been watching the heat. I mean, La Caretta has been fantastic. Trying to get as much Cuban coffee as I can, and it's just, yeah, I've been soaking up the sun, not worrying about am I wearing a hoodie outside this time of the year.
It's fantastic. Choice every day is the way to go. So you come down here, a new team, new offense, all that stuff. I know, the offense a little bit carry over from what you did with the Jets with Michael Floor now Mike McDaniel. How you're fitting in, how you're enjoying the system. Just kind of talk about getting here for the last couple of months.
Yeah, No, just being in here for OTAs is good, just to learn the receivers and kind of learn everybody's got their own unique way of running routes and their body language coming in and out of cuts and all that. So just learning the guys and then the system is similar. But there's definitely a lot of nuances that the guys here have have been able to do, and I think a lot of it is just the speed that we have here. It's it's it's nothing like I've ever been around.
It's it's like a freaking four x four team out here. So getting used to that has been has been different but cool. It's cool to watch.
How do you dial? Like do you have to recalibrate your dep balls because.
You got to get out of your own head? Is the big thing? Is like listen, like, just as long as you throw it on time at the required yards, like, you'll be good, but just know that if you take a second hitch, you might be right.
So you join a quarterback room with two A tongue by low obviously what's been like getting to know him two has been awesome.
The quarterback room in general has been great. Just being able to watch to you kind of watch from afar being in the same same division, but you don't get to watch as much as you do obviously being here every day. So just like taking as much from his game as I can. You know, the anticipation, the accuracy that he plays with is very very impressive, and being able to see it every day is cool too, as opposed to just like on Crossover film when I was up in New York.
Absolutely so in that same quarterback room coach Darryl Bebbell. I mean you go down his list of his quarterbacks, he's coach. It's like hall of famer, hall of famer, hall of famer. What's just like playing under him? Yeah.
So he we did an introduction our first day here, and he hit us with that coach Daron Rodgers, Bright far Matt Stafford, Russell Wilson, and you're like, holy cop, it's cool. So yeah, when he draws back on that, like, hey, listen, this is how Brett thought of this, or Aaron gave me a good tidbit here, Russell, Matt. So when he gives you those nuggets, it's you definitely got to soak it all in and get what you can from it because he's seen a lot, a lot of good quarterback play.
So when you get down here with the one yard line of the practice field here, when you get down here, what's your go to play call?
You want to go quarterback? Sneak?
Got it be?
What's the selling when you get in See that's like I always have all these ideas of celebrating, Like I remember when when like my kids were born, and like I said, all right, my first touchdown, I'm going to do some type of oh to them or something.
But like I score, and I just lose my mind. I black out and just like find the nearest teammate and just start yelling in his fade, just losing my mind. So if I would be lying to you, if I told you I had a celebration, because knowing myself, I would just lose my mind and go nuts and stuff.
I appreciate you, man, Like why Dolphins quarterback and away he goes, We're gonna go ahead and take our first break right there and come back on the other side, talk about this quarterback room, talk about the tight end room. That's next Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield.
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Originally, when I put together the summer content plan here, my thought was I was going to be doing a divisional preview with a walk and talk and a positional preview. But as I am wont to do, I typically go long winded, and that happened on every single divisional preview, And so we're going to go ahead and just give you more episodes. Does that sound good? I think it does.
Let's go ahead and crank these training camp preview podcast out this week as well as Monday and Tuesday next week before training camp kicks off here in South Florida on July twenty sixth, And we start at the quarterbacks because well we heard from Mike White, but also that's usually where you start right top of the list in terms of For me, it goes quarterback, running back, wide receiver, tied end O line, and then defense interior, edge, off ball, linebacker, cornerback,
safety specialist. That's how I've always done it, the same way I do AFC, East, North, Southwest, and then NFC. Same rotation there. But I'm getting into the weeds here. Let's talk about the Dolphins quarterbacks and start with number one. To a tongue of Bay Lowo, you're starting quarterback for the Miami Dolphins, and most teams go as their quarterback goes right, at least to a certain extent, you get outliers where teams bring it all the way home without
premier quarterback production. Fittingly, the one season of his career where he was not producing like an All Pro was one of those two years that Peyton Manning hoisted a Lombardi Trophy in his final year with the Denver Broncos.
There you go back to the Trent Dilford debate.
Brad Johnson, Rex Grossman started in a Super Bowl once upon a time, But by and large, the teams who qualify for the postseason and perform well there typically have a quarterback who was among the best in the league that season. Just look back at the AFC playoffs last year. Josh Allen, Patrick, Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert, Trevor Lawrence, and then Lamar Jackson to a tongue by low did not start those games with a worthy primary quarterbacks for
those teams. Pretty cut and dry, those were the top seven quarterbacks in the AFC a season to go. And don't get it twisted. The category he's the piers in which two are ranked among those categories, it's those same guys you mentioned, Alan Mahomes, Hertzburrow, Tua. He was absolute aces eight point nine yards per pass. I mean, all of these are top three finishes in the NFL last year.
Eight point nine yards per pass, a three to three point one two five touchdown interception ratio, two hundred and seventy two point nine yards per game. He was second in EPA per dropback. He was also up there in sack percentage just under five percent tops and passer rating at one oh five point five and number two in total QBR at sixty.
Eight point nine.
And in those games that he started and finished, the Dolphins were eight and four. They were competitive to the last play in those four losses, and those games all could have gone really either way. And then the victories for the most part were offensive clinics with the Dolphins just posted big time point totals four consecutive games with thirty points against Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, and Houston. Obviously the
fantastic comeback in Week two against Baltimore. You had some big time production in the Buffalo game that Saturday night, and some big wins too against you know mentioned.
Baltimore beat in Buffalo.
Those are big time wins for this franchise, and you know, led by a quarterback that was playing some of his best ball within those games. And I'm looking back at my notes from a season ago, and here's what I wrote.
His ability to was to attack the whole field based on a snapshot of information, the strides he made with this eye discipline, the downfield threat that was among the best in the league, and the ability to make plays against pressure, mitigating free hitters or create with his pocket mobility, the accuracy that turns a fifteen yard completion versus the Packers into a chance for Jalen Waddle to run at eighty four yards all the way to the end zone,
or the fifty seven yarder in Baltimore, or the sixty seven yarder in Buffalo. Like you get the idea. I think we have a quarterback who has shown high, high level play in terms of between the ear stuff. He took a professional approach, put in the work and showed you he has what it takes to excel in the most important arena of the position, the processing, manipulation and application of the skills once the ball has been snapped. And the best part about that, he's twenty five years old.
He was twenty four last year. But he's only twenty five years old. It's only going to get better. We even saw growth with things this past year. Even in game Mike described the mistakes of the second interception of the Baltimore game and what he was able to do after that, where he's able to compartmentalize it, forget about it, and move on to the next high level stuff. So
that was twenty four a season ago. Now at twenty five and having seen him get that second go round in the system for a couple of brief ota practices, take ownership of the offense and really take ownership of the team in general.
I just think you can see those.
Fine details buttoned up even more. And when you get to this level, this level of a profession, it kind of reminds me of golf, where you just make a minor tweak, a very small calibration.
And it can have the biggest impact.
Like if you just make a small change in your putter, all of a sudden, you're shaving a putt per hole, maybe you know ten puts per round, it's a huge deal. Going from you know, nine to eighty is a big deal on the golf course. And for Tua, those small tweaks,
those fine calibrations. In the second year, I think you can really see that ratchet up the play to even a further step because last year what were some of the shortcomings for this offense in general was offensive penalties, a little bit late, getting out of the huddle in the operation to have mentioned that being one of the
focal points this offseason. Going into the twenty twenty three season, you button those things up, all of a sudden, you start seeing a better third down conversion rate, longer time of possession, which is going to need to more points, and obviously keeps your defense fresher on the other side and keeps them off.
The field too.
So fine calibration, I think can have big, big impacts. We played the sound from Ronaldo Hill back during OTA's where he said two is in a great job of forcing that defense to really harp on their rules and play through each progression as to a stress them all, like understanding that we have this shell coverage, whatever it might be, well, you have to be able to rally up and tackle because two is going to find that fourth or fifth option in the passing game if you cover up.
One, two, and three very well.
So he gets his information pre snap, he assesses quickly post snap, and the ball is out. Not only is this great for obvious reasons, but it also helps the offensive line that wants to play aggressively downhill. It helps the wide receivers operate in space once they catch the football.
It just helps the entire offense.
Obviously, we have to keep the quarterback upright and keep them healthy because if that happens, we can see this offense really shine for an entire season. That's the key this year to this guy's game. He has all the tools in the tool bag to be a highly efficient, highly effective quarterback like we saw a year ago, and I cannot wait to see what year two under Mike McDaniel looks like for Tua. A healthy Tua makes this team incredibly dangerous this year.
In the National Football League.
Number fourteen, Mike White, you heard from him, held likable of the guy as he also two kids, loves to play golf, South Florida guy like hey spider Man meme. And in the instance where we do have to turn to another quarterback, I think this room is well balanced this year with a lot of potential for a potent, a possible spark off the bench, starting with my White. He just has something to him, that kickstarter type of
energy off the bench. You know, I think about Ryan Fitzpatrick or Gardner Minshew who just kind of have that backup quarterback. I'm gonna come in right now, cold, I'm gonna go to the golf course and not hit balls before the round, and I'm gonna my first t shot is gonna be excellent.
You know, too many golf metaphors or parallels here.
But his teammates love him. He plays a similar pace and urgency as you see with Tua. He's got familiarity in a similar system, and he's had huge days of production in this league. I mean two separate games over four hundred yards. How many quarterbacks can can say that. I mean the top guys can multiple times, but not a lot of quarterbacks kicking around out there that have
multiple days over four hundred yards. Two years ago, he came off the bench in a Week six game up in New England and posted this following stat line seventy three eight yards per pass and five touchdowns within the next three games after he came off the bench for that game against the Patriots, before suffering an injury against
the Colts on a Thursday night. This year, he gets the nod for a game versus the Bears after the Jets lost a ten to three heartbreaker to those same Patriots, where they again only scored three points, and he posts a twenty two for twenty eight day with three hundred
and fifteen yards through the air and three touchdowns. I don't know if you guys remember the following game in Minnesota after that, which I remember watching it very tightly because the Dolphins were playing the Niners in the late window, and the Dolphins and Jets at that time, I believe we're both seven and four within one game of each other, and watching the Jets, we needed to see them lose against the Vikings that day, and Mike White was not
gonna go down, you know, quietly. He did get picked off twice, but there was a couple of drops in that game that essentially prevented the Jets from winning that game against a team who won thirteen games a year ago, including a drop in the end zone and the final minute of that game that would have put them in the lead.
I just like the way he plays.
He sound from the pocket, He's quick in everything, he does, a little bit of scramble ability. Those are all really good traits for QB two off the bench. And then we'll have number sixteen out here as well in camp James Blackman out of Florida State and then Arkansas. After that, I should say he was a transfer, a circuitous route as a collegiate Lands blackman in his first NFL camp here with the Dolphins, and there's a lot of talent there evident by some of those games I mentioned Back
at Florida State. I remember watching him early on in his career there and saying, man, that I can push the football down the field. Playing time became a bit of a scarcity that final year, just four games in that pandemic shortened season, or however you know teams handled their schedule that year. I know the PAC twelve canceled after like four games, so that was a bummer to see. But just two seasons after he played only three games
due to an injury. He wound up getting a fifth and sixth year of eligibility and transferred to Arkansas State, where he played nineteen games and through twenty two touchdowns compared to just seven picks.
Smooth released, high arching deep.
Ball, and some pretty good athletic ability for the position. So I mentioned Mike White as a you know, potential spark off the bench. Well, he's gonna have to battle with Skyler Thompson number nineteen here, the second year quarterback for that role. Like White, we saw Skyler get some action in relief, but also as a starter.
Go back to that.
Vikings tape when you know, despite some penalties, he was in that first half and showed you some of the improvisational skills that helped him in the offense stay on schedule in that game For a seventh round pick. I don't know that you would have expected a rookie to get that much time a year ago, but how valuable
that could that experience possibly be. He did some big plays and OTAs had that one day in mini camp where he just threw a bunch of touchdowns, and I thought he showed you the improvement you want to see from a rookie season to second year quarterback. I think you have a different quarterback room this year than you've
really had going back to when toul was drafted. We heard coach say this offseason that he felt like the quarterback room needed to be changed from a year ago in the sense that Toua was now like the man in the room right and not that he wasn't a year ago, but he was again still just twenty four
years old. So you often see teams in that situation drop an experienced veteran into the room and kind of prioritize that position and pay top end dollar for a backup quarterback who has started games and been in multiple quarterback rooms. It's just kind of the mo of how you build a quarterback room around a young starter, just to give that additional experience inside the room. But coach felt the need for that was less this year, and thus you get a crack at a high upside guy.
And that's what I think he is, like a Mike White. There's just a lot of good football ahead of the career of Mike White. Then of course some valuable playing time last year for Skyler as a rookie, and then a talented looking rookie there in James Blackman.
As well in the room.
So those are your quarterbacks. Cannot wait to watch these guys spin the football out here at camp. Gonna see plenty of Tuam, Gonna see plenty of Mike White and Skyler, and we'll see how many reps we can get for James Blackman. But we'll have you guys covered on all four of those quarterbacks heading in a training camp. We're also gonna have you covered on the tight ends, which will take a break here and come back on the other side and talk about the quarterback's best friend position,
the tight ends. That's next on the Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation.
We heard from Mike White. We broke down the quarterback room.
Let's go ahead and button up this episode talking about the tight ends. We'll see out here at the Miami Gardens practice field at the Baptist Health Training Complex here in Miami Gardens. Of that kind of backwards, we start off for the tide ends here number forty eight. Tyler Croft, a newcomer in this kind of reconstructed tight end room. I think this is one of those under the radar signings where he could come in, give you a few hundred snaps and really maximize his impact within those reps.
He's a two way type of tight end in terms of how he can execute a wide variety of blocking schemes from the attached classic y alignment, but also has some juice as a pass receiver. He joked at his first media availability with the team that he's viewed as a blocking tight end exclusively, and I agree with him. He said that's not how he views himself. I agree with that, because there's some tape out there. Where he
gets on top of guys. It never hurts having knowledge of the system, coming off back to back years playing with Shanahan in San Francisco and Mike Laflor with the New York Jets. So he's got the new terminology, or got to get the new terminology down, I should say, and varied wrinkles of Mike McDaniel's system. But he's very familiar with the concepts and rules of what this offense wants to do. And how about this, He averages four point five yards after the catch per reception in his career.
He's allowed more than one QB pressure in two of his eight seasons, just fifteen career pressures allowed in three hundred and thirty six total pass blogging snap. So Tyler Croft first year here in Miami, number eighty. Tan O'Connor second year here in Miami, had a couple of reps a season ago in regular season action. Every time I think about Connor, I think about that preseason kickoff coverage snap where he would fly down there and he was clocked at a top speed of over twenty miles per hour.
In one of those runs. We saw him get a little bit of run on offense.
But he's got that seam busting ability where he can get on top of the second level and make some plays down the field. Former college wide receiver who showcased to those ball skills in camp last summer kept popping up, who's number eighty not rookie Tanner Connor? Huh, the kid from Kent, Washington. We've heard so often how tough it is to really get the tight end position down pat As a rookie, you have to be able to play all three phases of the offense, receiving, run blocking, pass blocking.
So for a guy to.
Be a positional convert, I think that you can hope to see everything move a little bit slower for him or g faster as the game slows down for him. And a second year player like Tanner Connor from the inexperienced to the very experienced Number eighty one Durham Smyth from a second year wide receiver convert, green behind the years player to one of the longest tenured players here in the building. Mister reliable durham Smyth. He's earned extensions
each of the last two years. And don't look now, hope this doesn't make you feel as old as it does me. Durham's heading into year seven, where does the time go. Durham is at the point of attack so often that split zone flow, He's matching up on the force defender, and I think what I respect most out of Durham is he shows up and does his job, regardless of how that job might evolve year to year
or even week to week within the opponents. Think back to twenty twenty when this offense went heavily through the tight end position, scores a couple of touchdowns, had some big catches, But if you need him to go knock heads in the running game for sixty minutes, he'll do that as well. He has a chance to surpass one thousand career receiving yards this year. He's at eight twenty nine averages, four point two yak per catch in his
career and one point oh four yards per route. Ran Durham Smith Year seven for durham smyth number eighty two. Eric Saber another newcomer here to the room. One of the players I'm most looking forward to seeing in camp because I've seen him do a little bit of everything on tape and his pro career. I can't wait to see the role that coach McDaniel and John Embry cook
up for him. I think he's got a springy first step in the ability to play over defenders in coverage with his size, but also the big mits he has for hands to haul in the football just vacuums that thing and when it hits him in the hands, especially in tight quarters, like you're gonna get down on the red zone, like you're gonna get at a position that does not typically traditionally generate a ton of separation, you have to make contested catches and big hands will go
a long way with that. He had career best last year fifteen grabs one hundred and forty eight yards in his second career touchdown, also had one back in twenty twenty one. He was pretty predominantly featured in a blocking role for much of his career. PFF loves his pass blocking work five of seven years greater than their green category, which is well above the average, basically signify the good
player in that regard. Also has a couple of years in that same distinction regarding his run blocking, which I think is a strength of his game, especially in an offense that wants to play fast and can take advantage of that ten split of his, which is going to be a theme in this room and on this team. Like number eighty four Elijah Higgins, the rookie sixth round draft pick here of your Miami Dolphins. And speaking of ten split, the first thing I noticed watching Elijah at
Stanford was the way he fires off the football. It is fast, and his release package, whether it's simply chewing up a cushion or thwarting press and getting into his stem with physicality. I just like his work as a route runner really in general, and of course, like Connor, he's making the position change and that can come with some learning curves. But like coach McDaniel has said, as long as he learns from his mistakes, then he'll be in a good shape to help the football team.
You know, maybe right away.
I'm really intrigued by his ability to make that conversion, but really just the varied roles of the skill players and how some of those roles can be occupied by wide receivers or tight ends just need the right makeup, and I think Higgins has that in a few categories.
I can see him being the lead motion man on blocks on outside runs.
He's also got the potential to run down the field on special teams. Very excited to see how this guy develops here in his time with the Miami Dolphins. And we finish up here with the second rookie, the Campbell product number eighty nine, Julian Hill, big dude who can move,
which is obviously a theme in this room. Had a chance to chat with him at Rookie Media and he's just a really fun, easy going personality who just kept going back to the joy of the work and the game and how grateful he is to be here.
He caught thirty eight balls for.
Six hundred and fifty nine yards last season and five touchdowns there at Campbell.
So there you go.
Quarterbacks, tight ends in the books. Mike White's interview also in the books. So here's the schedule for the training camp preview episodes tomorrow Wide Receivers. We're also gonna hear from Miles Gaskin and de von A Chain on Wednesday, the nineteenth, offensive line Isaiah Win, Austin Jackson going to join me, and then on the twentieth we'll do running backs and linebackers and talk to David Long, new Dolphins linebacker.
On Friday, the twenty.
Fourth, we're going to do the edge position and talk to Emmanuel Ogba. We'll come back on Monday the twenty fourth and do DBS and cater Ko who will also join the podcast. Then the twenty fifth special Teams and interior defensive Linemen with Raykwon Davis and Jake Bailey joining me on the podcast, and then his training camp. So that's a schedule. That's the podcast.
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