You're listening to the Miami Dolphins podcast Network. This is Drive Time with Travis Wingfield. Back to throw to a looking clips about a wide Dolphin touchdown, trick call uncrelievable, just blue.
Bye for a second time.
Don knew where he was going right away.
I want to hit that man.
I'm gonna help you.
Someone will keep on your man.
Away Wattle, Wattle to a shotgun, back to throw, looking at them up myers touchdown.
It's Waddle his sixth touchdown.
Pats the King.
Drive Time with Travis Wingfield begins.
Now, let me check your pulse if you're not for.
What is up? 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, we got a special one for you. Fitz is in the house. Ryan Fitzpatrick joins us from Prime Video to talk about the Dolphins two games that were released on Wednesday. The Dolphins will travel to Germany to take on the Kansas City Chiefs. They also will go to New York or Jersey to face the Jets
on Black Friday. The primetime game the first ever Black Friday game, Dolphins at Jets.
We're gonna talk about that.
We're gonna talk about two a tongueo by Lowa, Mike McDaniel, Vick Fanju and much much more with the former quarterback of your Miami Dolphins, plus a signing. We'll break down Tyler Croft's game. We'll also hear from the players that spoke to the media on Tuesday, May the ninth, that was chosen Anderson and Javon Holland. Busy Busy episode from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.
This is the Drivetime podcast.
Maye Jeffish, Let's go ahead and jump right into my interview with former Dolphins quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick. And joining us today is the former quarterback of your Miami Dolphins. Now he's part of the NFL on Prime Video Thursday Night Football on some Well, it's Ryan Fitzpatrick.
It's been a long time, fitz How are you man?
I am good. You were looking good, Travis, You're beautiful man.
How do I follow up with that?
I wanted to work in the Isaiah Schwartz or Isaiah Ford Shorts at practice and in my opening here, but I didn't know how to do it, but you kind of went there just now, So I guess I'll compliment you in the same way you just did with me.
Thank you. Do you still have those? I gifted those to you?
I think did you leave my locker? I didn't see him in there?
Oh okay, that was That was a pretty It was a sad day because Isaiah was gone, but a funny day. How that kind of caught fire a little bit.
Maybe I stopped by Joe Chamio's Neck of the Woods. I'll pick some of those up for myself as well. You know, I did want to tell you, man, because like we did that Isaiah Ford feature podcast with talking about his foundation, and you jumped in there and put him over his goal for the donation. I never got a chance to thank you for that. That was really cool, man.
Yeah. I mean there are just certain people you run into that I've run into throughout my career that you know, I absolutely love him, do anything for. And Isaiah fits into that one where he's just a really special human being. So it was happy to help him out.
Yeah, he definitely was.
He'd always asked me how the family was and stuff in between, you know, walking between meetings and things like that. So just a unique guy and really cool to be around. And it was cool to experience that with both you guys and see you drop that donation in there and get him to his goal. So we wanted to talk about the twenty twenty three NFL schedule since we released on Thursday at eight pm across NFL Network, ESPN, all the major networks. But we already know about two of
the Dolphins games here on the slate and fits. Let's go ahead and start with the first ever Black Friday football game on Amazon Prime, Dolphins at Jets. The rivalry renewed there on Black Friday. Now you played on both sides of this rivalry. Can you kind of forecast what you expect the environment to be for Dolphins and Jets the day after a holiday Black Friday in New York.
It's going to be so incredible. We're so fired up about having the first ever Black Friday game. Obviously big shopping day of the year, but to be in New York, to have that game with Miami in New York, to have Aaron Rodgers in the game, you know, all the excitement surrounding Miami. What Tua was able to do in healthy last year. To have another year in this system, Mike McDaniel, another year as a head coach, another years of play caller. It's going to be such an amazing
environment and we're really looking forward to it. But that being in that part of the country, being in New York City, you know, the day before Macy's Day Parade all that, it's going to be a pretty unreal atmosphere.
Have you thought out your on set uniform, your retire yet for what you're gonna wear that night?
Not yet? You know what, Ironically, it's my birthday as well on that day, so right now birthday suit is in the running. But I don't know if Amazon's going to go for that or not.
Well, we'll see.
Maybe you can pitch it, see what they come back with, and then maybe we can go with a compromise there, because I think everyone wants to see that, you know, that's what they came for.
Really fits yeah, I mean everybody wants access to that.
So very good.
Well, you touched on a few things I want to fall up here in just in a second, But first we want to talk about the other announcement here for the Dolphins schedule, they will travel to Germany to take on the Kansas City Chiefs in a marquee matchup there and fitting enough, you played in an international game once upon time, and it was beforementioned Jets and Dolphins rivalry. Now, I don't really want to talk about what happened to that game fits because I'm.
Sure you remember it pretty well wasn't good for us, But.
I do want to get your perspective on playing in the International Series and how electric that scene is going to be over there in Frankfurt. Yeah.
Well, I do want to say I was on the winning side, but that was when I was with the Jets, not when I was with the Dolphins. But it's really cool as players to go over there, to experience a different culture, to see how excited these fans get about the game. I mean, the thing was, there's a lot of different jerseys in the stands, and maybe not any of the players playing in the game, but you can tell that there are NFL fans and there's excitement over there.
There's a lot of whistling, which is a little bit strange as well. But I was I had the good fortune being able to play in Wembley and just walking out to that stadium. It gave me chills to be able to do that in that environment, which was neat so for Miami to be able to do it, to be able to go to Frankfurt. I think it's going to be an incredible game and obviously the storylines number one probably being Tyreek and the Chiefs. It's going to be a great game to watch.
So when you would get the schedule, you know, being the dream in that you work, if it's going across so many teams in the NFL, when you got the schedule, we would you ever look back to I can't wait to see that former team or this former team or that former teammate or coach. Would you kind of do some of that when you were playing?
Well? It happened so many times. I think for me, the only one I really really remember and remember circling and being like, all right, I gotta do well in this game is when I was with Houston and we played the Bills. It was the first time I'd played the Bill since being there. I was there for four years, so that was the probably the one time in my career.
But by the end it was the running joke, you know, every game was a revenge game, just like now with Amazon, it's like, okay, every week, Oh, this is fits his former team. Oh fits his former team. So by the time, I mean, the NFL is so incestuous, everybody knows everybody, and by the time my career was nearing its end, I had pretty much played for everybody. I guess, so no more revenge games.
Well, I know Tyreek was fired up to try to score a touchdown back and everyone. That's not going to happen for him this time around. Hopefully he does find
the end zone over there in Germany. But you touched on this earlier, throwing the ball at the tyren because the guy that you played for or played with, I should say, four year into a tongue Bai Lowa, who enjoyed that breakout season last year in twenty twenty two, I was curious, you know, your quarterback perspective, your quarterback's mind, what you noticed about tous growth and where his game is now heading into year four.
Well, I think it's the perfect system for him because it is a system that relies on accuracy, the catch and run ball and really focusing in between the hashes over the middle of the field, and that's something that Tua really thrives on, using his anticipation, using his accuracy, and then just having speed all over the field, you know, at the running back position, the wide receiver position. I mean, it's like a track team basically with the guys that
have out there. So you saw last year when Tua was healthy, that offense was really buzzing. And a lot of that is because it's not just him being able to make the right decisions and being able to anticipate, but it's the ball placement and putting it in a place where Tyreek can catch and run or a Watta can catch and ron. So there is not a better system or place for Tua to be than in Miami right now with Mike mcdanie.
So one of the questions I've been asking all my interview subjects of this offseason because I went backfits and looked at you know, Mike McDaniel and Kyle Shanahan together in the second year in a new system for each stop they went to always had a big increase, a big trajectory in terms of their production, and so I was curious from your perspective, you know, year two with the Miami Dolphins here from Mike McDaniel's system, and not
just two with the entire offense. How that familiarity for year two in your words, how much can that benefit an offense to have that familiarity coming back from you know, the off season, going into camp and just already having the groundwork from the first year, and how much you can kind of grow in that second year of the system.
Yeah, I think you should expect to see a really big jump, And really it starts with coach McDaniel. I mean, first time head coach, first time play caller, So just being more comfortable a year later, Tua, being able to know his cadence a little bit, being able to anticipate play calls, and then just the rapport of Tua and his receivers and the things that they know they can expect from each other. But all of that, there's going to be less learning this year and more just chemistry growth.
I mean, the chemistry is going to be so much better with those guys having another year under their belt, So I expect a big jump out of them, and definitely at a coach McDaniel as well, and just his comfort level.
So speaking of coach McDaniel, you know, we love our characters and this sporting down here, and you were certainly loving for us here for a while fits and Mike McDaniel has kind of become that in addition to the football intellectual. So I kind of wanted to ask you a two part question about coaches. One, what do you think it would be like to play for him? You know, a guy like yourself that likes to have fun but
can lock it when you have to. And then too, just talk about if you can the offense that you see from him and what he showed that first year as a play caller, first time head coach, and the like.
Well, I finally had the chance to meet him at the owners meetings down here in Arizona and just talk to him for a little bit. He's a very interesting guy, as you know, pretty quirky guy. Definitely remind me of an Ivy leaguer and a lot of my buddy's college. But I think the guys, they really get them, understand them,
and like them. You know, I think, as a player, as long as you see that your coach is consistent, as long as you see that your coach is putting in the work and really cares about winning and really cares about putting his players in the best position possible. Then that's the makeup of a good coach and somebody you can respect. And I think he's a guy that has done that and will continue to work on it and do it more. But his scheme, I mean, this is kind of the this is the go to scheme
right now in the NFL. You know, with the way that you're able to run the ball, the way that you're able to plug and play all these different types of running backs and just consistently be able to run the ball, then play action and find those tight windows over the middle for the catch and run balls. It's been so successful in San Francisco, you know, they're leading
the league every year in yards after catch. So to be able to develop those explosive plays, but also to have a rhythm and be able to exploit kind of what defenses are doing now and getting smaller and faster, this is the in vogue offense right now. And he's a guy that is is pretty brilliant in terms of the schemes and what it takes to be successful.
So it sounds like you keep up with you know, your film watching, you know, post playing career because you're talking about, you know, the different systems and schemes here. Do you notice a big difference in the way you watch tape when you were playing compared now as an analyst.
Yeah, it's different. I mean part of it is when I speak on a pregame show or a halftime or post game show, I mean it's in a ten second SoundBite, you know, So there's not I can't get real deep into the weeds with some of this stuff. So a lot of it, you know, fortunately or unfortunately, is surface level analysis this but uh, just as a fan of the game, loving football, that was what was so much fun for me last year, especially guys like Sherman Witt,
who are just off the field. I mean, these guys are obsessed with football, and so it's so much fun every week to go on the road with these guys and to talk about what we're seeing and feeling and the different relationships we have. And I just think that's what's part of what's so fresh with what we do at Amazon is you've got these guys that are right
off the field that absolutely love football. You've got Tony Gonzalez, who's a Home Hall of Famer, Sherman Witt are probably going to be Hall of famers, and then in my mind, you know, I've always been a Hall of Famer. So but yeah, I just we enjoy each other and enjoy talking ball.
Hall of Fame, Beard, hall of Fame. Here, hall of Fame. Look, I mean you've really got the whole package. Man.
There you go.
Yeah, Now, you guys do a great job. It's fun to watch.
It's it's definitely a different a different approach to it than you see on most networks. And I really enjoy what you guys put out there. I have to ask you this because you know, we look at the skill positions this Dolphins team has, and it's been a long time since they had, you know, top line receivers and
explosive playmakers like they had the last last year. Now going into twenty twenty three, man, how much would you love playing in this offense with that has Tyreek Hill and Jalen Waddle And you mentioned the speed in the running back position. Do you kind of look back it's like I wish I had that one point in my career.
Well, I'll tell you, just just watching Tyreek play, I mean, my goodness, there's it's just so rare that you see a guy in the NFL that is that much more explosive and athletic than everybody else on the field, And you know, it's almost you kind of got to see it in person to really believe it. But I know you got a lot of it last year were you able to watch him. And he plays so much bigger than he is as well. He can go up there and grab a ball for you in a fifty to
fifty you know, contested situation. But I think that's part of the growth we're going to see this year. So there's a lot of times he doesn't look open because he's not open yet on some of those deep routes, but he will outrun everybody in the league. So that's going to be some of the growth with TUA two is being able to figure out, you know, in the when when am I taking those shots? What moments are we doing these things? But then to throw in waddle
in the chemistry they have already. I'm really excited to watch this offense this year.
Yeah, it's not if he's even he's leaving it.
If he's five yards ahead of you, he's it's he's already even, right like he has. It's five more yards of cushing. You have to give that guy fits. The way the way this guy practices in Ota is like in the month of May. Like I remember when you were here, we had the whole like birthday cake was it March or May? And all the birthdays forget what that was.
Yeah, I've got three in January, three in March, and one in April.
So yeah, okay, yeah, so we had like those discussions.
But you watch the way this guy goes o Ta's it is. It is full throttle all the time. So it's it's a lot of fun to watch. I have one more for you here, Fits, And I hate to do this to you, man, but you are pretty familiar with coach BC Fangio. I did some digging here and I looked at your stats against coach fangio defenses, and you made one career start against coach You appeared in three other.
Games four total.
And again, like I said, I hate to do this to you here, but thirty seven for sixty five, three hundred and sixty nine yards, no touchdowns, three picks. My question is what makes the defense is so tough? You know?
I did some digging as well, Travis and I believe that Vick was the defensive coordinator in Houston my rookie year. When I came off the bench and we won, we were down twenty one. I threw three touchdowns and we won. So you know what you're digging, I'll tell you about journalism.
Had a hard time with a vig Fangio defense. So much of what I did was based off of anticipation, getting the ball out quick, me being able to recognize what a defense is doing and trying to exploit it, but getting the ball out of my hand, and so a vic Fangio defense what's difficult and why I think some of these guys, especially an x and a Jalen Ramsey,
are really going to thrive. It's so much about the defense, having the secondary, especially having eyes on the quarterback, being able to recognize patterns and doing certain coverages by the way that the offense reacting to the way the offense is running their patterns. So for me, for them to have their eyes on me all the time, when my biggest thing was I'm getting the ball out as quick as I can. I'm going to try to explete this defense and get it in my athlete's hands, they had
the ability to watch me. They didn't have their back to the quarterback. They were able to recognize and study what an offense does and the patterns they were going to expect. And so as long as they can generate pressure with four guys, his defenses have always been very, very successful. So I think it's a great pickup. I think he's well respected in the league. You know, Sean Payton really wanted him, you know, and obviously Miami had already locked him down. But I think it's going to
be awesome. I think there will be some growing pains because it's so different from what Miami had done the last few years with Flores and then with Boyer. It is so different, But in the end, I think we're going to develop in a pretty good defense. Obviously, historically for him, he's had a pretty good track record.
Yeah, my dude, diligence only back twenty ten there when he was working for the forty nine ers, So I should have known better than trying to get one up on you there.
No was like I knew that I never did well against him, so I was so happy to see, you know, five he was with the Texans, so I could say that because it was always he was always tough to go against for sure.
Yeah, we're excited to have him done. Here great stuff fits again. You can see the Dolphins at the Jets.
A three pm kickoff on Black Friday.
On Prime Video with Ryan Fitzpatrick and the entire crew.
There fits.
Thank you again so much, man, it was great to catch up with you again. I hope you're doing well.
Man.
All right, great seeing you and.
Away he goes one of those moments in this career that's just like, all right, man, that was really really cool. So there you go, Ryan Fitzpatrick. Let's go ahead and take our first break right here and come back on the other side. We'll talk about the Tyler Croft signing as well as here from Javon Holland Chosen Anderson. That's all next Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you.
By Auto Nation. It is tough to follow up fits.
We're gonna try that here with talking about a new Miami Dolphin, going from a former Dolphin to a new one with the signing tight end Tyler Croft is here, and I'll tell you what. He's probably immediately the best true why tight end on the Dolphins. Roster now, as they now have five heading into rookie Minicamp this weekend with the additions of Elijah Higgins and the udfair report
of Julian Hill from Campbell. The group of tight ends we have here is full of F's right, the guys, the Mica Sicki role, the move piece, even a little bit of h back role in there as well. What you'll see Durham smyth do. You'll even see Tyler Croft do some of that as well. He has some versatility in that sense, but he aligns in that true why position the most, just under eighty percent last year in the why position.
He makes his hay as a blocker man.
I think his best tape was a twenty twenty one Jets game against the Bengals. He runs a stick nod route which we'd broke down Jalen Waddle's ability to run that route in the Ravens game for a massive run after catch and this play he's the three to the strength.
What does that mean?
You know? The one receiver is the furthest out, the two is the next one closest in, and the three is the closest one to the line of scrimmage.
Is closest one of the quarterback.
The strength is the wide side of the field, so he is the essentially furthest and slot receiver to the open side of the field, and he runs a stick route which basically draws a linebacker up and then pivots off of that route to the nod back to the goalpost and leaves a linebacker completely in the dust for an easy walk in room service touchdown off the hand
of quarterback Mike White now Miami Dolphin as well. But my favorite play in that game, and my favorite play that I've seen on his tape in general, was a great block in space, and to me, it was akin to the role you saw Trent Sherfield fulfilled last year as that jet sweep lead blocker where Croft escorts the back right into the end zone by perfectly squaring up a defensive back at the point of attack off the edge, the force defender right that the key player off the
edge on an outside run. He aligns in essentially what is looks like a trap play almost where both a tight end and tackle pull play side and just widen the line of scrimmage and you know, get bigger bodies out wide on dbs and you take care of the interior guys with the speed of the back. We've seen that here many many times. We're going to see more of that with Devon a chain joining the running back room.
With how much speed that group has. And so when you can basically displace the lion of scrimmage and move it out wide and go from two hundred and fifty pound guys blocking two hundred and fifty pound guys to two hundred and fifty pound guys blocking one hundred and ninety pound guys, advantage offense, right. I just keep looking at this tight end group with thinking about the roles they all can play. You know, I saw some bickering on social which get off social Travis, it's bad for
your mental health. But about the tight end position, and I just wonder if that bickering comes from a position of knowledge of what this offense wants to be, because you don't need a one hundred target tight end when you've got Tyreek Hill and Jalen Waddle, you just don't. I mean, the ball should go there three hundred times, right. Not to mention Raheem Moster, Devon a change, Braxon Barrios Chose and Anderson Seasac Wilson, and on and on and on.
I think you've now got a pretty well rounded tight end room, and this gives you a capable body. Why while you sort out, you know which of the young guys can contribute right away, whether it's Tanner Connor, Elijah Higgins or Julian Hill. But I mentioned that sherfield role, right, I just think we have to stop thinking about apples for apples and positional comparisons and thinking about more of the roles you can fulfill from various positions. It doesn't
have to be receiver, does this tight end? Does that it can be we have this role. It's adaptable to a receiver tight end. A running back doesn't have to be a carbon copy. And so for Croft, he's been in the league for a minute now. He began with the Cincinnati Bengals back in twenty eighteen, went to the Jets or sorry, twenty seventeen, went to the Jets and Bills,
and spent last year with the forty nine ers. So you know that he knows the offense from almost that Trent Shirfeld, River Creycraft type of addition, in the sense that they can be the conduit between the staff and the players when it comes to communicating things out on the football field. And again the year prior being with the New York Jets. I mean that's mich Lafleur's offense. So he basically was in this offense for the last two years. He now will head into his third variation
of it. But the third season within this offense, he's not gotten many targets. And honestly, again, do you want the ball going away from ten to seventeen when you don't have to?
I don't.
The blocking numbers are very very good, positive round blocking grades really since he came into the league back in twenty seven team and just fifteen pressures allowed on three hundred and sixty six career pass blocking snaps. Good tight end depth, fulfills a role that we didn't have prior to the signing. I compare it kind of to Cody Zeller for the Miami Heat, a valuable player in a certain role off the bench. So Tyler Croft, your new
Miami Dolphins tight end. Let's go ahead and take our last break right there and come back on the other side and hear from Chosen Anderson and Javon Hall, and that's next on the Draft Time podcast, your host Travis.
Wingfield, brought to you by AutoNation.
Let's go ahead and conclude this podcast here in the third segment with some media availabilities. From Tuesday, May the ninth, we heard from wide receiver Chosen Anderson and safety Javon Holland. That's where we'll start here with Javon, who was asked about Vic Fangio's defense and what he's seen so far.
Rams is ahead of a player clearly.
He's just got so much knowledge that's you know, put us in a position to be able to put me in a position to be able to like develop more. And he's a he's a great guy, funny dude, so you know he's he's very nice for the locker room.
So you hear him close there with the comment about the locker room. He was asked next, Javon was about why this defense in the secondary works so well together here's a dolphin safety.
I think we got a lot of easy going personality. I think everybody in the in the room enjoys each other's presence, so we're willing and able to, you know, maneuver around any kind of difficulty that we have together. We come to a common ground and they're able to
work through it. And I think, you know, we make sure between guys who are extremely talented, guys who are extremely smart, guys who are both people who are vocal, people who are quiet, everybody kind of knows each other's personalities so that we can, you know, kind of balance off and basically, you know, be successful.
So yeah, let's go.
Ahead and finish here with Chosen Anderson. I was going to run a bunch more of these Q and a's because he was really good. So I encourage you all to go over to the YouTube channel and check it out. He talked a little bit about his earliest childhood Dolphins' memories of Zach and JT and Chris Chambers and going back to Joe Robbie Stadium when it was called that
the Wildcat offense with Ronnie Brown. Talked about Wes Welker and how thankful he is to be coached by a guy who played the position at such a high level. Talked about his efforts in the community, how it was a dream come true to become a Miami Dolphin.
Talked about how much.
He respects Tua because of how he makes you feel like part of the family immediately, which I thought was really cool to hear that. I'll go ahead and play this last bit of audio for you guys here about his first impressions of coach McDaniel. And this just tells me about how special of a coach we have. Here is the way that he the way that Chosen talks about Mike McDaniel.
I was very you know, honestly, it was a conversation that it was very honestly fulfilling for me because I felt that over the years, a lot of things that he's noticed about my game, what I've gone through, what I've been working towards, He's noticed that and made that very evident, and it felt, you know, felt good to find me. You know, have hear that from a coach, a great coach, to a coach that's had a lot of success and knows what it takes to be successful.
And you know, our conversation that we really connected, We had like instant chemistry and pretty much was on the
same It was on the same page about everything. And you know, I pretty much told them before I left, you know my decision has made you know, they told me, you know, just still sess things, but you know my heart led me to, you know, get here, and you know I took my time with making this decision, and you know made sures now with my purpose in life and what truly matters and then my ultimate goals of what I'm here to accomplishing playing football.
Yeah, man, I'm roote for that guy. That was a fun review. All right, go ahead and get the heck out of here. In the meantime, you all please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts. Leave us a rating, leave us a review. You can follow me on Twitter at Wingfield NFL. You can follow the team at Miami Dolphins. Check out the fish Tank podcast with Seth and Jews. Check out the YouTube channel for these media availabilities in their entirety, and of course, last
but not least, Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time, Finns Up, Caroline Cameron, Daddy, He's coming.
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