Drive Time with Travis Wingfield begins. Now, let me check your pulse if you're not far of what is up? Dolphins And welcome to the Draft 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, we're gonna welcome in Daniel oya Fuzie to get the Ravens perspective. I know he works on the Dolphins beat, but he grew up a Ravens fan.
He knows that team very well. Plus we'll hear from the assistant coaches, Vic Fangio, Frank Smith, Eric Studis feeling much much more. We'll go ahead and pick the week seventeen games. Plus I have a gripe to pick with regards to the conversation around talent acquisition and the GM of the Miami Dolphins. All of that and more from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.
This is the Draft Time Podcast. Maie daff join me in welcoming and my guest today from the Miami Herald, Daniel oh Yafusie. And since it is Baltimore, Ravens week, we had to welcome back to the podcast Daniel O. Yafusie, formerly of the DMV, now I beat reporter for the Miami Herald. Daniel, Welcome in my man. How was your holiday season?
That was cool? It was cool.
You know.
I had to had to stay back home because the Dolphins played on Christmas Eve. But obviously I get to go back home for a New Year's Eve game in Baltimore.
Hometown meets a current town for you in week seventeen. This has always been an intriguing matchup to me, intriguing opportunity to get other perspectives on being a sports fan who also works in sports. For me, the team I root for is the team that I cover, so it's pretty easy. But I was curious, you know, and what is journalism one on one other than being impartial and not you know, being a fan in the press box. So my question is how do you balance fandom and work,
especially in a game where your two worlds kind of collide? Here?
Yeah, so quick kind of background context for those who may not know, you know, I'm from the Baltimore area. You know, it's no surprise obviously I grew up a big Ravens fan and then actually got the opportunity which to have what was kind of a dream job of like you you know, to cover the Ravens from my hometown paper at Bottom or so. So I did that for two seasons before coming to Miami. And yeah, you know, you never really think about it, you know, up until
the moment. You know, I had an old professor in college who asked me like, do you really want to cover your favorite team? Do you really want to do that? And I never thought about it, And you know, you do have to kind of separate it. You do have to understand that, you know, there is a line. You know, you know, I don't necessarily work for the team in that capacity, but I'm there to do a job and
be a conduit to the fans. But you know, I kind of used my institutional knowledge to enhance my reporting, and now, you know, I think I've kind of leaned into it this week, you know, having so much knowledge on both these teams, so you know, you try to try to use it to your advantage.
Honestly, I saw you talk about the ice Tnar gloves, not knowing that story from the background. That's one of those things that is a benefit of having known the team since you were a child, because you remember Dan Marino pitching ice Tnar Gloves in South Florida and just how funny that moment was in the Hard Knocks episode. So do you I have to imagine you go back and watch the Ravens games like pulling up game pass the next day? Do you do you go that route?
So Honestly, when I first got to Miami to cover the team, you know, I definitely wanted to stay like connected to the team and you know, cover you know, watch them a little bit. But just the nature of the beast with the beat, you know, it's really tough to do that.
You know.
I have a former colleagues in Baltimore and some riders who you know that their their word is like no gospel to me. So I trust them and I make sure to read them the day after, but not too much. You know, if if the Dolphins are playing a night game, with the Ravens are playing a night game, maybe I'll be able to watch them, but not too much review. Honestly, just the nature of the beast with this beat just doesn't allow the time.
That's because you're watching Jalen Ramsey's I'm not trying to figure out. Yeah, definitely, let's go ahead and start though here with the Ravens and the quarterback position where I always do as we get ready for this massive, massive game in the AFC. Because for Lamar, just watching his tape, Daniel, I think he's the best he's ever been from the
pocket right now. But I'm curious as someone that has watched him from first snap as a rookie up till now, what have you seen in terms of the evolution of his game this season and my accuracy playing better and where do you think he has kind of grown in his game.
Yeah, it's really it's really crazy to watch old highlights from the twenty eighteen season and to see how he's changed physically. He's changed mentally, Like his body is different, his throwing style is a little bit different. And you know, jump fast forward to now the present day with Todd Monkin at the helm taking over for Greg Woman. You're seeing them really give him the keys to the car. You know, he really has a mastery and ownership of
the offense. You're seeing him make checks at the line, and yeah, I mean with time, you know, I know that there were a lot of talks when he first entered the NFL about you know, whether he should play different positions, and obviously, you know, he stood on his grounds and he you know, he was steadfast in his belief and as Mike McDaniel alluded to it, you know,
he has he's had to define to find himself. So you've seen him grow and you know, and just the mastery of the offense and how defenses want to contain him and approach him.
So we talked about this with I think coach fanju on Thursday, with the addition of the weapons they have there. We'll come back to that here in a second, but I want to talk about the change in offensive corner like you mentioned, because you I have to imagine that the shift and system has maybe had a bit of an impact in terms of how he's evolved. How is the offense do you think different under Todd Monkin than it was Greg Roman?
Yeah, Well, start, we have to start off with Greg Roman and how we really designed an offense in twenty nineteen around Lamar's rushing ability. And you know that scheme combined with his ability, was really what led him to be a unanimous MVP and to lead the NFL in passing touchdowns, but as time went on, defenses adjusted to that, they found a ways to kind of limit those design runs.
And I think that there was such such a craving in Baltimore for them to really expand the offense, specifically the passing game, bring in some new concepts, some spacing. You know, it seemed like Lamar was kind of playing in a phone booth in the past couple of years. So I think that's one of the main things we've seen with the introduction of Todd Monkins schame like he's retained a lot of the standard gap power run schemes that has made the Raven's offense so successful, but now
we're seeing more modernized passing concepts. We're seeing some space and some kind of like college s spacing in terms of the splits, so of the wide receivers and whatnot. And obviously they've they've made some changes in personnel, given him his kind of best set of receivers since he's been in the NFL, and we're seeing that with some of the success that he's happened in the passing game.
I think there's there's some some lessons being learned there from the Ravens experience over the last several years because you have these great defenses, this great quarterback, these great players, but the playoffs results haven't been there. Right one and three under Lamar Jackson, they missed the playoffs. One of the years that he was in there he was injured that year, but one of the years as of being
a pro for him. But it's almost like a good example for something we've learned with the Dolphins team this year, where like the Chiefs game, you know, didn't go their way, the Eagles game didn't go their way, the Buffalo game, and this whole idea of you know, not beating the teams of winning records, Like there's something to be said about overcoming the hump. And I think I think back
to like his rookie year right that. I think it was the Chargers in the playoffs with Derwin James like matched him, like it was this revolutionary system they ran like dime defense every rep to handle him. And then the loss of the Titans. It feels like the Ravens have kind of taken those experiences in the past and gotten better from them. Would you agree with that now?
Almost definitely?
And it's gradual, you know, it's not a lot of cases where you see a team just go from nothing to on top of the world. So you know, you you learn through a lot of your experience. Mike mc daniel has talked about that, like learning from those from those losses and having those beteachable moments. I think that the Ravens have done that, and that's why we've seen the changes in the offensive scheme and we're seeing the growth from that unit.
It's been fun to watch man there. I like, I know, I root for the Dolphins, but there are so many things that teams do across the league them It's like, that's fun to watch. I appreciate that. And the Ravens have been one of those teams for a long time now, and a big part of that is the other side of the football. And I don't even know where you start here because they're dominant at all levels. They have
stars at every position. I was having a conversation with some of the guys in the video room and they were like, they have star players. I'm like, maybe not to the casual fan, but like Justin Mattopwueke is a star, Kyle Hamilton's a star, like Marlin Humphrey is a star. So I guess we start there with a guy who could be a bit of a swing player, guy that might not play in the game. What do you think the presence or absence of Kyle Hamilton could How could that impact this potential game?
Yeah?
Well, I saw a tweet a couple of days ago about force multipliers the defensive side of the ball. And you know, you have the standard names, the highest whold names like Miles Garrett and and TJ.
Watte.
But you know, I saw a truth that also mentioned Kyle Hamilton, and he's kind of evolved into that type of player. I think he's like had an all problem
to be first team All Pro type season. I just want to bring up a stat that I found from one of my colleagues, Jonas Schaeffer of the Baltimore Sun. Entering the game against the forty nine Ers, which they obviously won very handily, the Dolphins, excuse me, the Ravens had the top offense or top defense when Kyle Hamilton is on the field, you know, first in yards for play success rate. When he's off the field, you know that drops to thirty second.
Wow.
Wow, he has that much of a swing on this defense. And as you mentioned, it's because of the versatility and his ability to do so much on the field.
You know, if you look back to that Week two.
Game against the Ravens against the Dolphins, Kyle Hamilton was a rookie, he was kind of coming into his own. The Ravens really didn't know what to do with him. You know, he played a lot of safety and he was actually involved in one of the bone coverages that results in that in that late comeback. Since then, they've kind of figured out, like, we're not gonna put him in a box. We're gonna allow him allow him to
succeed everywhere. So you see him line up at safety, you see him line up at nickel, which really might be his best position. You see him line up on the edge at linebacker, and he allows them to do so much. So like you can kind of run those three safety looks, but Cayle Hamilton is more of a cornerback in the slot, and then Marlon Humphrey and Brandon Stevens can do what they do. So if he's out, then you kind of have to rearrange what you're doing
in the secondary. And that's why you know his knee injury is something that we're all monitoring because it really could swing with the Dolphins. How the Dolphins could attack the Ravens defense.
Because he has the most snaps in the slot for the Ravens defensive backs. Nobody blitzes more than he does in that defense. So, like you said, it could change the entire structure of that defense. So the first versus thirty second ranking? Is it because he missed high with injury. He was off the field because he's a guy you probably wouldn't want to take off the field.
Ever, right, Yeah, it's more so just whenever he's off the field. You know, you know, this knee injury is really the only thing that he's really dealt with. But it's just like when he's off the field, you know, you know, if he's out, you know, maybe they have to put Arthur Maller, who's you know, in the serviceable slot cornerback.
But it really just changes.
I mean, like Kyle Hamilton, like you said, he's gonna blitz, he's gonna cover, He's like really impactful and run support. So obviously with those those edge runs, those perimeter runs that the Dolphins like to run, he's gonna be very impactful with that if he's able to play. If not, you know, it really does change the complexion of their defense despite a lot of really good players.
It kind of sounds like Jalen Ramsey in a lot of ways, how he kind of frees up the rest of the defense to do what it does, or maybe even Jevon Holland. I know there's lots of examples of that here from Miami as well, So good stuff there. But either way, with or without Kyle Hamilton, they still have that front on that defense, and like, how do the Dolphins contain that rush? Maybe a better question is how do the Dolphins stop the Ravens defense from turning
this game on its head? With the splash plays we saw against a very good nine Ers offense that I think most folks were picking to just roll their way all the way to the Super Bowl over their last three games and a couple of playoff games NFC, but they ran to the Baltimore Ravens and that was not the case. There fifty four sacks, twenty six takeaways. How does Miami prevent Baltimore's defense from basically making this a non contest?
Well, say, the thing that I think could work in the Dolphins favor is that they have a lot of tape that they can really reference.
It's kind of a template, you know.
And in recent weeks, the Ravens have played not only the forty nine Ers, but the Los Angeles Rams, who obviously, you know, they all come from the same same Shanahan styletree. You know, both those teams I think had various varying
levels of success against the Ravens defense. You know, the thirty three to nineteen you know win over the forty nine Ers, I think it kind of glosses over, you know, the fact that early on in that game, the forty nunders did have success, you know, targeting in the middle of the field.
They got some explosive runs with.
Christian McCaffrey, and I think that that's definitely some things that Mike McDaniel and staff are going to try to key on. But when you look at some of the turnovers that they were able to force, you know, some of them were kind of unforced errors.
Sometimes it was.
A matter of the you know, the picture getting muddied and forcing rock Period to hold onto the ball a lot. And you know, you talk about, you know, style of quarterbacks, I guess you would say two and Rock Prairie are kind of very similar in terms of you know, anticipation
and timing and whatnot. You know, so in terms of muddying the picture, sure, you know, if you know, they can find a way to you know, read post snap pre snap kind of get a clearer picture and exploit some you know, some holes in the coverage, especially the middle of the field. I think that there are yards
to be gained against the Ravens defense. But it's a matter of know, when you turn over the ball, you can drive all the way down the field, but if you turn over the ball in the red zone, or if you're turning the ball over after a couple of successful uh snaps, you know, it's all or not.
Why do you think this is going a little bit off script on your here? Why do you think that the Rams were able to have so much success compared to the Niners for the entirety of that game Because I went back and looked, and you know, PFF tracks gap runs versus zone runs, and the Niners are you know, the most prominent out zones outside zone team in the NFL, along with Miami. But they they didn't they didn't shift their model to more man gap, whereas the Rams were
dead split fourteen apiece, fifty gap fifteen percent zone. Why do you think that the man gap scheme runs had more success against Baltimore?
Yeah, well, obviously, you know, we talked about the evolution of the Shanahan style, you know, offense and you know the various you know, offshoot kind of putting their own their own print on it.
So and it goes back to personnel as well.
So it's like if you look at a lot of those successful runs at the fourty nine ers had, I mean they're running right behind Big Trent Williams at left tackle.
It's a difference. Yeah, it definitely makes a difference.
And obviously the Rams have kind of a vault over the years and the Sean McVay as well, where we've seen more inside kind of duo type runs as well. So I think it goes down to kind of personnel, but also keeping in mind what the defense does as well and doesn't do well, and trying to exploit that.
Going back to a separate question I asked you earlier, this is another good example of how the NFL season is full of highs and lows, and you lose a game, and everyone thinks you stink and you can't make a possible run of the championship. With the Baltimore evens as good as they've been all year long. They're twelve and three, thanks in large part to a great quarterback in great defense. But the losses are so curious because they're teams that
you would assume Baltimore would beat. But that's not how the NFL works, right, The Colts, the Steelers, and Browns. I believe at least one of those games was a backup quarterback and the Steelers game might have been as well, but I can't remember. But they wipe out the Lions, a good team, they wipe out the Seahawks, they destroy the forty nine ers. What do you think happened in those losses? Why do they lose games teams that they are clearly better than?
Yeah, I feel like that's what like been the one knock on the Ravens and maybe like the past year or two. You know, there's talented as any team in the NFL, but you know they get these big leads and then all of a sudden they evaporated. You know they're there, I mean you saw it firsthand week to last year. I think that in terms of the offense, you know, they do go through some lows. They are
so predicated on Lamar creating. You know, obviously they have a really good run offense, but that is kind of starts with Lamar in terms of holding linebackers and the defensive front, and then him creating with design runs the
passing game. For the strides that they've made in the passing game, there are times where it is a bit disjointed and we see, you know, the it's not really the the on script plays, but the off script's kind of second plays when Lamar is running around and kind of and you'll see you'll kind of notice, if you know, I know you've watched the tape this year, Lamar is not scrambling or kind of getting out the pocket to run. He's getting out the pockets kind of reset himself and
and throw the ball. But sometimes the passing offense isn't as as cohesive as you maybe like it to be you're a Ravens fan. So they do go through some lulls and then sometimes you know, the Ravens have a have a really good pass rush. But I think it's also you know, we talk so much with Miami about how rush and coverage you know, go hand in hand. So I don't think that the Ravens have a singular, like dominant presence.
You know.
I know Matty Beka is having a career year, you know, eleven double digit sacks, But I don't know if they have like a singular, dominant deep pass rusher that can take over a game. So, you know, if you don't have that in key moments again kind of go back to week two, we've seen that if you don't have a guy that can kind of take over that game on the defensive front, you can be succeptible to, you know, giving up some plays, especially late in games.
That's a good way to put that, because like they have so many guys that can win their matchups. But like, man, watching Micah Parsons was different last week, dude, just the way he was able to just reset the line of scrimmage. And he's so fast and so quick and so agile.
But that's a good point. Even as good as yours, clown, he's having O way and Mattybiki, like you mentioned cal Van NOI I love that Calvin Noise game still due to this day, I always finished these podcasts with this question, and the past I haven't asked how the Dolphins win the game because a lot of these games have been a lopside of the fairs. But I will ask, because this is probably the biggest game of the NFL for
anybody this season. The Ravens can win this game if you fill in the blank, and the Dolphins can win this game if and also fill in that blank.
Yeah, I'll say the Ravens can win this game if they limit explosives and hold on in the red zone. You know, again, I think that there are yards to be gained for the Dolphins offense, but you know, they have been bogged down the red zone a bit. I do think that they're gonna need to score a little bit more than than twenty two points this week, and I do think that they're gonna have to reach the
end zone a couple of times. So you know, if the Ravens do force some turnovers or hold them in the red zone, you know.
It can get a little bit dicey.
On the other hand, I'll say the Dolphins win if their defensive front can control the line of scrimmage, and I mean in the run game.
In the past, game.
This defensi front has been so good against the run, and you know that's how they get into those opportunities, opportunistic third downs where you can kind of let your guys go. But this is a little more of an unconventional run game with Lamar added so on the run game. And then you know, in the past game, you know there's gonna be a lot of offscript like that's just
kind of the nature of the Ravens passing offense. But you know, we just talked to Ryan Slowick about you know, rushing and trusting your guys and rusting up rushing a particular way. If they can do that and kind of limit some of those oscript plays. You know, I think that the Dolphins can get a real season defining when you know, we talked about the Dallas game being a narrative busting win, but this would be like a real defining win, you know, uh, going into the last week of the regular.
Season division championship on the line here as well. Do you have a score prediction you're willing to put on the air.
You don't have to. I will.
I will at the results at the at the cost of you know, getting hounded on social media, and it's it's tough because I think that we talked about it. I think that the Wattle and Kyle Hamilton injuries and even Javon Holland, who's you know, been back at practice.
I think that those can.
Swing the game, and in just a completely different way, depending on who's available right now, just kind of the way I think the injury situation is going to shake out. I think that the Dolphins just come up just a little bit short. I'm saying Ravens twenty seven to twenty four. But I think this is a game that the Dolphins can definitely win. I think that there's a lot of matchups that Miami fans should be, you know, very optimistic about.
All the content I've heard in that same range. Is going to be a close game with three points, three or four points. Whoever wins it. It's going to come down to the fine details. Daniel oya Fuzi The Miami Herald at Daniel Oyafusi on social, thank you for your time as always, and tell the people what you're working on right now.
Man.
Yeah, got a ton of content this weekend, how the Dolphins could stop Lamar Jackson, what this game means for the rest of the season, various updates. You know, Barry Jackson always has his nuggets as well, so definitely stay loud to the Miami Herald.
Good stuff. Man, appreciate you, all right, So there he goes. Fun chat as always with Daniel. Let's go ahead and take our first break right there. Come back on the other side, and here from the assistant coaches. That's next Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation, segment number two on a Thursday. Here, let's go ahead and play some sound from Vic Fangio, who spoke a little bit about Lamar jacks in the
pass rush. How do you deal with that guy? I've got three consecutive Q and a's here with Vic Fangio talking about the biggest question this week. How do you slow down Lamar Jackson?
Fair share of mobile quarterbacks? Yes, then there's Lamar Jackson. You know, he's unlike anybody else. The only other player that's been like him in the last fifty years is Michael Vick, and he's a tremendous player. You know, kudos to Ozzie and Eric for picking him. You know, thirty one other teams that passed him by you know, are
kicking themselves. He's really improved over the years. It's dynamic with the ball, good passer, you know, he makes their offense go the pure definition of a great quarterback.
There's no one.
Way to play him, you know, because if there was, everybody would do it. So you just have to mix up what you're doing and you know, and along the way. They have a hell of a run game and both from their players' ability to online tight ends and runners. But the scheme of it with Lamar at the helm makes it a difficult task. So there's a lot to prepare for, a lot to defend in this offense.
I will say the jtos Holman video of Lamar Jackson's game point not a few holes I think this Dolphins defense can't exploit. So we if we get the you know, off version of Lamar and the Dolphins complicate things with him and change the picture and change what he's seeing, there's a chance you could have a slow game and if that happens, Mini can muddy things up and get
themselves a victory. Let's go to the other side of the football here and talk about this Ravens defense and coach Frank Smith who was asked about the Ravens defensive evolvement from last year in the Week two game to now Here's Frank Smith.
I mean, there's just like new coordinator. We were a new on, you know, new last year as well. So I think like as they've grown in their system as we have, and see guys that are really playing well together, communicating intent, like they are a very good understanding, you know, of what schematically they're trying to do, and they play very well together and their opportunistic defense and you know, obviously they've had some success in recent weeks. So for us,
it's a great challenge. I mean, it's you couldn't ask for this time of year to you know, for these great games, because you know, as a competitor, you always want to face the best and be at your best. So we're really looking forward to it and be a great challenge because they have a good defense.
Made a lot of content this week around adult rather Raven's safety. Kyle Hamilton had to ask the offensive coordinator what does he do to make this defense so flexible and adaptive? And we'll find out if he plays in the game on Sunday. But here's Frank Smith on what he does and why his presence is so important for.
Baltimore range understanding of the system. I mean, you can tell he's he's on his details, like you can see him and the guys in back and communicate well together are really the whole defense overall. You can tell they have a very good understanding. They all know where their role is and inside of it. And I mean it's credit to their you know, coaching staff and their their program. They're a well coached team with very good players who know where they need to be when they need to
be there. And you know, I just think it's you know, a challenge when you play a program like the Ravens, because you know they've been able to do it for a long time and now they have another guy who's stepping into a role and playing well. So it would be a good challenge for us to on Sunday too, you know, for us to execute what we want to do.
Let's go ahead and keep this thing churning and stay on the topic of the Baltimore Evens had to ask Dolphins running backs coach Eric Studisville about those two linebackers, Patrick Queen and Rokwan Smith.
I mean, they're two talented backers. You see them on tape. They run, they hit, and I think you know they're
just they're really good players. But the challenge, as always is, is what we're gonna do with I mean, we know that they're gonna line up in certain spots and they're gonna be there, and it's a challenge for the front now you know, the guys up front to block them, and it's a challenge for us to find the right spot to put the ball in and to hit it downhill where we can, and to be aggressive and decisive in how we're attacking the line of screwmans.
So that is the assistant coach recap here for the seventeenth time this season. We'll talk to those guys one more time next week and then again in the postseason before we get to the third and final segment and pick the week seventeen games and our last Thursday night football game of the season. Monday Night Football already come
and gone. I want to talk about this because I've been thinking about this and once again, Travis scanning the social something I probably shouldn't do, but damn it, if there's anything better than watching the game for three hours, doing two hours of postgame radio with two of my best friends, coming back to the facility and drafting up a rundown, cutting audio, and recording a recap pod that
takes about two more hours. If there isn't anything better after all of that than getting home, putting the kids to sleep, going out onto my porch, and enjoying some adult activities while scanning Twitter for the first time in four hours and seeing all the freezing cold takes you guys bring back up and all the brazen Dolphins fans say we told you so. National media, you know, suck it. For lack of a better term, it's my favorite part of Sunday that in the drive home with music as
low as it coul possibly go. But I digress. Winning is freaking cool. But also inside of those Twitter rabbit holes I come across those accounts, You know those accounts. Tua didn't throw that deep shot to wadle flat footed on a pro day shot Justin Herbert did that and shorts and a headband that was cool, Like he's a better player obviously, or Chris career is still unproven. You have to win a playoff game to justify all of
his work. You know those accounts and It made me think, and I boiled it down to just this take that as far as an executive or GM goes, their draft record should not be thought of the lens of that player good, that player bad, because there's more to a GM than drafting. And the disagreement on Chris Career's draft record, I don't understand the dichotomy there. It's pretty clear he's one of the best drafters in the National Football League.
But outside of that, what determines a good draft? Like everything everything in this league, right, context needs to be applied, the context and study to understand well enough through the ebbs and flows of football that we don't flip our entire process on its head after a couple of games. Right, it's the exact same thing here. We've done the draft hit exercise. We've talked about the veteran talent acquisition, the UDFA pool. This team has conjured up over the last
decade to get starters from that group. Like, I cannot fathom this idea that the offensive line was neglected. They literally signed the biggest left tackle on the market two years ago, the best interior offensive lineman on the market, and Connor Williams to Ron Armstead the first and there's a line. They joined a line full of first and second round draft picks, and they also signed Isaiah Win
to a not super cheap veteran contract. They brought in Kendall Lamb, and those guys gave you basically half of a season of good tackle and guard play. They also gave Rob Jones a few years ago and one hundred thousand dollars guarantee UDFA contract. That's not neglecting the offensive line. There's probably not a position group on the entire team
that has seen more investment in this team. That's kind of away from my overall point that I want to make here, and that point is this, what Chris Greer has done is he has been the GM of this team over three coaching tenures, and all he's done for those coaches, which is what I think is the ultimate test of a good GM is draft and acquire players
for the coach's flavor. Now, if that coach wasn't good, then the GM can't possibly be good either, right, Because Chris Greer went from giving Adam Gase unimaginative slot wide receivers who knew his awesome scheme and valued the offensive line less than you know, less than I value. Colin Cowherd's takes, like remember that, like the offensive guard position, Oh we can just roll out Jermon bush Rod and Ted Larson be okay, Like he literally talked about that.
Oh so Danny Amandola Frank Gore, those are my difference makers. Chris Greer went and got those. It was a doomed plan because Adam Gase was doomed. But you get the point, right. How about Brian Flores. He wanted size up front, a blitz happy defense man corners. So you go out and you sign Byron Jones. You go out in your draft, Brandon Jones, You go out in your draft Rake one day, but you go out in your draft Solomon Kinley, remember him?
How about getting Adam Butler? Was there ever a better nose tackle for the Brian Flores defense than Adam Butler. Chris Greer just gets what his head coach wants. Now you get Mike mc daniel, who's a great head coach who values game changers, novel concept right, who wants superstars in their team.
Not me.
Mike McDaniel does, So Chris Greer goes out and gets him a roster full of superstars. He's got to be in the running for Executive of the Year. Deshaun Elliott, David Long, Vic Fangio, Jelen Ramsey. Are you kidding me? This defense couldn't stop a nosebleed last year and now it's fourth in the National Football League because of what
we talked about all year last year. Right, the pass rush is really good, but they can't get home because the cornerback play is just not good enough because you're relying upon guys who didn't sign here to play cornerback. Key on crossing justin Bethel. I love those guys. There's a reason they haven't played corner almost ever in their career except for last year. So what do you do but go out and get Gilan Ramsey, go out and get Eli Apple, go out and draft Cam Smith who
hasn't played. But you invested in that spot because you knew that if you got that position better, your pass rush would get better, because it's a damn good pass rush. So Chris Greer goes out and gets this roster full of superstars and he be in the running for Executive of the Year. And if we get the one seed, this is where I'm going to lose some of you,
but we'll go with it. If you get the one seed, and let's say you lose a thirty five to thirty three game in the divisional round because a forty five yard field goal banks off the upright, Does that change the job that Chris Greer did because we missed one field goal. That's my whole point here. Having these baseline results void of context. That's how you ensure poor decision making, because if you're making choices based off of results based
emotional thinking, it's not informed thinking. And you might get lucky, you might luck into a good decision, But what is the job other than getting all the information, applying context, applying knowledge and logic, and making the best decision from that. That's what this team does. That's what has produced an eleven to four football team. And if one kick goes wide in the playoffs, it doesn't change any of that.
So the whole idea behind. You know, what makes a good GM, what makes a good draft, what makes a good drafter is a guy that goes out and gets what his coaches asked for. And that's exactly what Chris Greer has done. And now we have a head coach who asked for the right groceries. Chris Greer went and bought them, and now we have a coaching staff cooking up the right recipe for a delicious feast, which is Dolphins eleven and four playing for the top seed in
the AFC in Week number seventeen. There you go. Let's go ahead and finish up this podcast on the other side with the Week seventeen picks. That's all Next Draft Time podcast, your host, Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation, segment number three on a Thursday, the final TNF game of the entire football season. Before we get to that, though, I wanted to put this thought in the universe because I thought about it. Had been putting
more thoughts in the podcast lately. That's what a podcast is. You like the host, you like their thoughts. They give you those thoughts, you like them, right. My thought is this, how about the MVP race? And before we do those game seventeen Week seventeen picks, how about the last couple of weeks toua. You know, we can't win a game
without Tyreek Hill. Cute little espianation article that called him Rootolph the Red Nose Reindeer because nobody has ever gotten more credit for being carried by other people than Tua Tongue Bai Loa, get the out of here. I'm so sick of this because how about the fact that even though that article got written, Tua went out and diced up the number two passing defense in the NFL without
Tyreek Hill, the guy that makes him right? And then how about engineering a game winning drive against the number five total defense in the NFL without Jalen Waddell and four backup offensive linemen. He's moved to number three in the MVP vote. His numbers are basically with Brock Purdy as best for any quarterback in the National Football League. And if he beats Dallas and then Baltimore here and back to back weeks, I think he has to head into Week eighteen as the favorite for the award. I'm
just saying. I'm just saying. This guy was questioned, questioned by people to have eyeballs if he could be a starter in the league. Ridiculous. Week seventeen is here, and it's gonna start with the Jets and Browns. Gross. Actually, you know what, go Jets, because I wouldn't mind the opportunity for the Browns to fall back a little bit in the seeding. I wouldn't mind if things go worst case scenario and the Dolphins have to get in the wild card. I would love that five seed to go
play against the Jacksonville Jaguar. So I'm rooting for the Browns in this one. Let's go ahead and cueue up the music. A horrible week last week, nine to seven. It takes us to one sixty eight to seventy two on the year, which is seventy percent on the nose. We have to get better. Hopefully it starts with a
Jets upset over the Browns. I'm probably crazy for picking that, but I just think that the Jets offensive or defensive line, rather against a banged up Browns offensive line and a quarterback who doesn't really escape that well and as prone to the sack fubble, could provide some big plays with
the Jets defense. Now, everything I just said applies to the Browns front against the Jets offensive line, but I got the Jets winning an ugly football game here because I think at some point Cleveland has to lose a game, as they have played five consecutive backup quarterbacks. Now in Tremor send me in with mid latest one year against the Jets. Give me the Jets over the Browns on Thursday night. On Saturday, I like the Cowboys to bounce back over the Lions, who just had their big emotional win.
Cowboys and emotional loss. Typically, that's an easy pick for me. Give me Dallas in that one. Houston over Tennessee. The Texans have a chance to hang into the wild card playoffs picture here for another week and they get CJ. Stroud back. Give me Houston to win that game big. I like Chicago over Atlanta. I just don't like Atlanta at all. Who really the Colts last week? Chicago I think is probably one of the teams is gonna have that good second half and have a lot of optimism
and hope heading into the offseason. Give me Chicago to win again at home against a warm weather team indoor team rather give me the If Kyle Hamilton plays, I'm picking Baltimore. If he doesn't play, I'm picking Miami. I'm just gonna put it that way for you guys. Give me New Orleans over Tampa in the who Cares game? Give me Buffalo over the Patriots. Although go Pats Philly
over Arizona. I'll take Jacksonville over Carolina. Gosh, she's anybody falling in harder than the Jacksonville Jaguars the last five weeks in the season. My goodness, they were the one seed four weeks ago and I lost four games in the row. Indeed, over Las Vegas, that's actually a big one. And now that the Broncos benched Russell Wilson Vegas, if they win this game, they get Denver next week. If Vegas wins both of those games, they have a sixty
eight percent chance at the seven seed. And if we win one of our final two games, we get the two seeds. So go Raiders. I would love to see Aidan O'Connell back in this building on Wildcard weekend. That's a pretty good option right there. We'll give me the Raiders to win that game over Actually, yeah, I think, of course, let's go with the Raiders. Let's flip that. I'm picking the Raiders. Niners over Commanders, that's an easy one.
Seahawks over Pittsburgh. We'll see if Mason Rudolph can continue his run here. But I don't I'm not picking for it. Chiefs over the Bengals to bounce back after a tough, tough loss in the Raiders last week. I'll take the Broncos over the Chargers and another Who Cares Bowl, and then I'll take the Packers on Sunday Night over the Vikings to keep their season alive. So those are the picks. That's the podcast, that's my time Tomorrow. The Great Charles Davis will be on the call for CBS on Sunday,
will join me to break down this matchup. He's always fun to talk to. We also will have the Sunday coverage. Man, I'm nervous, I'm excited, I'm everything for this game. We'll go ahead and take you through it win or lose though with the Drive Time podcast, with the postgame show, with all that stuff. So in the meantime, you all please be sure to subscribe, rate, review the show, Go ahead and follow me on social at Wingfold NFL. Follow the team at Miami Dolphins. Check out the fish Tank
podcast with my guys Seth and Juice. Check out the YouTube channel for media availabilities, Dolphins Today, and so much more, and last but not least, Miami Dolphins dot Com. Until next time, Finns Up, Caroline and Cameron Daddy's coming home, but you're on town, so I won't see you for a couple of days.