Drive Time: Wednesday July 23 Dolphins Training Camp Report - podcast episode cover

Drive Time: Wednesday July 23 Dolphins Training Camp Report

Jul 23, 202532 min
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Episode description

We’re back! Football has returned for 2025 and Travis is taking you through all the events that occurred at the Baptist Health Training Complex. Practice notes including a good day for the OL, the Tua to Waddle connection continues to flourish, Tanner Conner and Erik Ezukanma make plays and Jalyen Wright goes off. Plus, the usual suspect on defense - Zach Sieler, Jordyn Brooks, Bradley Chubb makes plays, and all the soundbites and news updates from Coach McDaniel and Tua Tagovailoa.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

Speaker 1

This is Drivetime with Travis Wingfield.

Speaker 2

Is up Dolphins and welcome to the Draft Time Podcast. I am your host, Travis Wingfield. And on today's show, football Football, Baby, Football is back. We are back on the grass for day one of Dolphins Camp twenty twenty five. A rain soaked abbreviated practice brought us a nice little chunk of notes. The run game got clicking. We heard from Austin Jackson on that. We saw Jalen Wright have a couple of big runs. I got some more offensive line notes for you guys. We saw more growth from

quarterback to a tongue of bailoa. Make sure I tell you about that. Here from Tua, Here from coach McDaniel, Here from Austin Jackson, Jordan Brooks, and so much more from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Draft Time Podcast. Ye, daff I gotta catch my breath, man, I am fired up. It was a shorter practice, partially indoors, partially outdoors. Uh, the South Florida weather does not always uh what's the word cooperate?

Almost said participate. It definitely participates, but it does not always cooperate. I will say this. Today was the first Dolphins training camp practice where I didn't break a sweat because it was raining and it was windy and it wasn't that hot that the Dolphins got some valuable work in. I want to kick off the podcast though, with a few news items, because coach McDaniel wade in on a few you know, rostered things, certain situations with guys, and I think it's important to.

Speaker 3

Pick it up with some of the news. He lets go ahead and do that.

Speaker 2

Off the top, slow down, Travis got a long way to go here, Leam Eichenberger, the status of him. Off the top, here's coach McDaniel on the Dolphins offensive lineman.

Speaker 4

Uh Liam is weak. What is that regular season?

Speaker 5

I'm not gonna put a timeline on it, and I wouldn't bet against you know, arguably, it's tough of a player. As I've been around, he's he's played in football games that a majority of players that have coached wouldn't be able to. So I'm I'm feeling good about an unknown timeline because of the player, But I don't It's not like a season ender or anything like that.

Speaker 2

He fought to Mela Fan, who was also placed on a on a list, it's the non football injury list. Coach McDaniel weighed in on that.

Speaker 5

I would say, it's, uh, it's nothing that I'm worried about, and it's rooted in a good amount of preventative nature.

Speaker 2

And a third player was added to the I guess the one of the inactive lists, right, non football injury list, the pup Waller like Liam on Pup. Here's coach McDaniel on that decision.

Speaker 5

You know you're you're trying to be responsible. Literally, there's no gravity to it.

Speaker 4

It's just that.

Speaker 5

This is a very well conditioned athlete who's in great shape. There's a zero to sixty element in science in general that you try to avoid, and so being preventative and responsible as he gets his feet wet. That was our motivation and excited to not be mad at myself on day two when I was like what am I doing?

Speaker 2

And the final roster moves that were announced on Tuesday is that the Dolphins released quarterback Brett Gabert and signed an offensive lineman Daniel Bruntskill, who we talked about on the podcast as a really good potential fit here for a guy that could compete for swing work on the interior, can play some tackle in a pinch, has some center experience. Played four years in San Francisco with forty two starts there, had twenty four starts the last two years in Tennessee.

But it's that familiarity with coach McDaniel. We're playing with him for four years or playing for him for four years on the offensive line. All of a sudden, now Miami, we're gonna talk plenty of o line today. And how impressed I was by the first five, But now, all of a sudden, you've got guys that can play swing spots on the interior, on the outside, do a little bit of both. And Daniel Brunskill fits that mold big time.

Starting an experience in two places, experience in the scheme, I asked coach McDaniel, West stands out about his game, but also how important is that relationship you had with him going back to San Francisco.

Speaker 5

It's cool to have relationships with players where you're fortunate enough to really see the whole journey, and you know, with with Brunskill in particular, you know, I remember watching man well, what was it, There was a there was a league that he was playing in that wasn't college, and it wasn't the NFL, and it.

Speaker 4

Escapes me right now, but don't judge me.

Speaker 5

And he uh, I got to watch him, you know, be a new guy on the team and earn a roster spot and with nothing promised, and then to watch him develop his games so that he could start in the National Football League and have a real career at several positions. That's it's cool to add a guy that you get to be a part of the process.

Speaker 4

So what we're getting, uh is.

Speaker 5

And a guy that not only helps the offensive line, but helps the whole whole team.

Speaker 4

And and that the more.

Speaker 5

Guys you add that that are really focused on being a part of a winning football team and put prioritize that over everything else.

Speaker 4

That the the the strength of the masses is real.

Speaker 5

And you know, I know one thing from Dan Brunskill is the dude is gonna be over prepared competitive. He's assuming right now that you guys have nothing good to say about him, and he's in He's gonna work to prove you otherwise that how he operates. And that's a mentality I think is important in the NFL.

Speaker 2

And then one additional news item here to conclude practice. On the last play of practice, the Dolphins did lose a player, Byron Mattos went down and was put on a stretcher and air looked into a medical facility for further evaluation. He was in stable condition, so that was good to see. But that's how practice concluded today here in Miami Gardens. Speaking of practice, it was earlier than it has been in years past, and that was something

the Dolphins were intentional about. And I've talked about this the entire offseason with the Dolphins approach to roster building and how they can attack certain things within the shortcomings

they've experienced in the recent years. Talked about it on yesterday's podcast as recent as yesterday, and the practice time changes was part of that, and I think it's a good look at how amenable coach McDaniel and his staff are to trying to find different ways to curate what will make the most successful products in the football field. And changing the practice time, a lot of stuff went into that. I'll go ahead and let coach finish our news item dump here off the top of the podcast.

Speaker 5

There's a lot of reasons that are very specific to this particular team and this particular training camp.

Speaker 4

You know, with you know, you get used to a ramp.

Speaker 5

Up period in in reps and stuff, and and being able to do that and and really in the most vulnerable portion of camp, try to minimize some soft tissue a little bit, maybe avoid some.

Speaker 4

Uh you know, some days where you're.

Speaker 5

Having to stop practice in the middle of things and go from grass cleats onto turf, you know, weather stuff. And then you know, we also have some challenging things that I'm factoring in moving forward in the uh, you know, within the pre within the pre season where you have we're going on the road and spending some time away and have some joint practices and you know, several several competitive physical practices and games in a ten day period.

Speaker 4

So we need all hands on deck.

Speaker 5

And then you know that by that point where we've gone on the road and we come back to Florida, we'll we'll adjust to time, keep things fresh and and compete against the heat as we always do. So a lot of things at play. It was very very thought out.

Speaker 2

All right, there you go, there's coach will come back to him for a couple more comments on some specific players, but I wanted to start with this because as the weather did not cooperate early on in practice, we were in the indoor facility. And I've communicated this with you guys in the past and the show. It just kind of changes the landscape for how I cover practice. And I don't have my laptop out, I can't fire off

the notes as quickly. I just don't have the access to get all my thoughts down besides typing on my phone right away. But it does give me a different view of the practice field where we're kind of right on top of the offensive line during the individual drills, and I always appreciate that because that's usually the group it's furthest away from the advantage point we have on the field in the outdoor facility, and it gives you a chance to really hone in on those individual drills.

And I got to tell you guys, the way I just took in Patrick Paul and James Daniels and jonahsavit Naya. They were doing these combination blocks, which is everyday thing, right the individual drills. It's not like something crazy new that you don't expect. It's the same type of stuff you wrapped the technique rep the drills, same as any other sport, and they were firing off the football, which

you know is very important here. You know, it's a comment I've made about every single player on the offensive line who can get out of their stance out of the blocks faster than the guy across from them. And that's kind of the genesis of this offense and the basis of the outside zone game, which sets up the rest of the offense for how it wants to attack defenses.

And I knew this about Jonah. We've talked about it on the podcast, We've broken down his film for you guys on HQ and every different avenue of content we do. But the way he was firing out of his stance and impacting the bag with good pad level and leverage and pop and you could hear it, and driving guys off the football even though it was, you know, an offensive line and holding a bag. I was like, dude, that just doesn't look like anything else I've seen. And

then Kyle Krabs great lockdown. Dolphin's host is next to me, and I keep telling him, please watch seventy two over here and tell me what you think. And we both look up at the same time and he gets into a rep and just fires off the ball and does the best rep of the ones I'm just talking about.

And sometimes I love having Kyle here because we'll see something and just be on the exact same wavelength and it's a nonverbal communication, like just eye contact, like oh, like I remember one time Tua made a throw and we were like, buddy, that'll play. That'll work to a And so I'm just very very excited about what that looks like. What it looked like for James Daniels in his first training camp practice the Miami Dolphins and then watching Patrick Paul settle into his pass sets and his punch.

And this is a guy that he's talked about his time at Houston as a player that was doing more catching technique where you kind of throw the hands out wide and absorb the rush into your chest and rely upon elite physical traits to win the rep that way. And he won that way, but it wasn't what you want to teach him as far as like how to play in this offense. So he had to kind of relearn technique and how to place his hands and where to throw the punch and how to settle into reps

or to pass sets. And I'm watching him go through this individual drill where he's just at a really nice stance right, like his crouch is good, the knee bend is good, He's not bending at the waste. He's into a good, solid stance where you can throw that punch and move laterally, which you have to do in this offense obviously. And then the way Patrick Paul put that together in team drills, I thought he was one of the best players, if not the best player on the

field all day. A couple of two of his passes had plenty of time to throw, and it was because of a one on one block from Patrick Paul beating Bradley Chubb beating Chop Robinson getting movement in the running game, Jalen Wright had a big run off of his butt where Paul was able to seal the edge and really just kind of keep that force defender at bay. So Patrick Paul I looked like the product that I wanted to see here on day one.

Speaker 3

Albeit no pads.

Speaker 2

One day of practice, not gonna like put him in the Hall of Fame, but I thought he was really really good out there at practice. I thought Jonah's work firing off the football really paid dividends in the team drills in terms of how you know the big runs to that they came from these cutback lanes where Jalen Wright or Devon h Cham would press a gap and then find a cutback lane. And the way Jonah could fold down that front side of the offensive line and

then create that cutback lane for the running back. It was noticeable as tangible, and so I thought that was really impressive. James Daniels got some work in there. Key On Smith I think looks like just another year of development for him in terms of his body type and how good he looks and how fast he looks in his position, flexibility to play multiple spots. So I was pretty impressed by the offensive line. Those guys stood out

the most. Austin Jackson got some surge as well. He had some really good one on one bounds with Bradley Chubb. Chubb got him once for I think you could call it a sackle, though I think it ended up being on the right guard, which I think was Jackson Carmen on that particular rep. They rotate guys a lot in this offense, but man, those those front five guys really really really impressive upfront so far on Day one and the way that the individual drills carried over to team drills.

That was the most impressive part of the game of the day, I should say, And to get that vantage point in practice. It makes me excited to watch how these guys develop and how things go because we've heard Butch Berry talk in the past about how, like the results right now really aren't aren't what matters, Like who cares? I saw a Cowboys fan account today tweeting about Gealen

Hurts going like seven for twenty one in practice. I'm like, Okay, well, what was the last time he was on a football field in the game?

Speaker 3

What did he do?

Speaker 2

Like he threw for three touchdowns in a Super Bowl? So I don't really care about that other stuff. And Butch Berry's talked about, you know, this baseline of installing certain things, you know, harping on these techniques and fundamentals, then you grow and expand His camp goes along to see them at that point here in day one, with the athletic traits that just jump off the field at

you if you're watching for it. I'm really encouraged by that, really impressed by that, And that goes off the heels of adding a player like Daniel Brunskill, who I just thought was the perfect addition to the offensive line, especially in the potential absence of Leam Eikenberg. He's got that toughness that you know, kind of the doubted mentality that that coach me down and talked about earlier, can play multiple spots. I just I'm really bullish on where this

offensive line can get to this year. And I'll conclude this idea the segment with a quote here from Austin Jackson, who has asked about his work in the Running game and how excited he is for what he thinks this Dolphins offense or what he knows because he's part of the team, what he knows is going to look like this year in terms of how the running game looks.

Speaker 3

Here's Austin Jackson.

Speaker 4

You're gonna see all types of line.

Speaker 6

I'm really excited for our run game this year as well as our past game, but most of our run game, just because that's kind of what we hang our head on in this system.

Speaker 4

We're very proud, We're very proud of the techniques.

Speaker 6

We used to block, and yeah, we're we're looking forward for everybody, every every concept we have now.

Speaker 3

I think that's instructive.

Speaker 2

And the reason I wanted to play that was because you've heard this from anybody that evaluates film for a living, or national reporters, or anybody that's you know, into these InVogue play callers of the last you know, five ten years off the Shanahan McVeigh tree, and they'll tell you the Dolphins have one of, if not the most expansive run game in the NFL. And the other team that you put up there is the forty nine ers in the Rams, right, two teams that came off that same

coaching tree as far as McVeigh and Shanahan go. And I think about that, I think about what we've seen from the last few years of the Dolphins, and last year, I think the execution came up short, more so than the game plan itself, just in terms of how it

was blocked. But to think about getting these pieces up front right, to get to Patrick Paul in place and get him humming hopefully, and to get Aaron Brewer in his second year, and to get Jonah and to get James and what their athletic profile and their overall football

composition looks like. I think is potentially a big upgrade at that position with Austin Jackson's return, and then you add another layer to that with which is, you know, an added year of experience in the system within the offense with the quarterback, with the same running backs a Chan Jalen Wright coming back, and so much continuity there, same offensive line coach. It excites me about how they

can expand the menu from that standpoint. If this run game can get to that point that can expand their run game menu. It just adds more layers of opportunity to find Reek and Waddle because, like to me, this offense when it runs the ball, you're hitting jabs and then you set the jabs up for the right hook, which is Waddle or Reek on a eighty yard touchdown.

So yeah, man, I think there's a lot to be excited about in that regard with the running backs, the offensive line, and how it can impact the rest of the team from a schematic standpoint in the offense and the quarterback and ultimately the passing game, which we talked about it if you can throw the ball as well as anybody else, you're going to win games in this league. Let's go ahead and take a break right there. Come back on the other side. I have one more quote

here from Austin Jackson. I'll play on the other side, but I want to get back into the run game with Jalen Wright and talk about his big day on Day one. That's Next Draft Time podcast, brought to you by AutoNation.

Speaker 6

Oh, there's something that we as the players decided. You know, we have pre snat penalties. We're gonna punish ourselves for that. You know, things that are in our controllables is what we call that presnat penalties.

Speaker 4

We can control that.

Speaker 6

So if you make the mistake in practice, we're going to self correct ourselves with a little disciplinary action.

Speaker 2

My apologies for the balancing of the audio. That's as loud as I can get Austin's audio there. So the rain, the helicopter over the top was was making things challenging there. But I wanted to lead the segment of the show with that because we saw the team run gass in that practice. I think I counted three false starts in

the day. It's not the cleanest of operation from the offensive line and the offense in terms of getting off the snap properly, but these are, you know, day one things But the bigger note to me here is the level of accountability being put forward. And we've heard, you know, all off season about the accountability of you know, being where you're supposed to be, being on time and things like this, and self policing and how you can you know, earn a certain level of rope based upon how you

self polish yourself. And we're getting an example of it already here in date number one. Things weren't as crisp as they could have been. The offensive line, to Austin's point, punishes itself by running the gassers. And then I'll make it stick with you for you know, going forward. And and I wanted to play this additional sound clip here from Tua who was.

Speaker 3

Fourth right about Tyreek at the end of last year.

Speaker 2

Right, And I'm I'm ready to kind of turn the page on this, but I think because it was talked about today, we can kind of harp on it one more time about Tyreek's Week eighteen comments and actions which are inexcusable in a football field.

Speaker 3

And we've heard.

Speaker 2

You know, McDaniel talk about Tyreek's commitment, We've heard players talk about his commitment and showing what he's about the last three months and he's gonna have to continue that for the next six months, right, And I think that when you talk about accountability and holding each other accountable, Austin making that comment about the offensive line holding itself accountable, well, the best way to have ultimate accountability reminds me of

stories you hear about Tom Brady, for instance, like the great Ted Karras story he told the other day on Julian Edelman's podcast about how Tom wants his center's backsides to be dry. You better, you better, like, you know, listen to Tom because it's Tom freaking Brady, and they're like, we're just happy he's talking to us at any point

of practice. But to have your quarterback, the guy that is the you know, best player on the team, the leader of a team, all that stuff, to have him be the one that sets the standard, like that's like big bro, right, Like you wouldn't you might be more inclined to act up in front of a teacher versus compared to your big brother who's in the same class, if that makes sense. And so I wanted to play this sound from Tua talking about Tyreek and how he's not just going to come back in here and re

earn that trust, like right away, it's a process. I think this is a really good step in accountability and leadership up in terms of two taking that next step and his role as the quarterback and ultimately the biggest leader on this football team.

Speaker 7

I would say we're still continuing to do that. But it's not just with me. It's it's with a lot of the guys. I'm not the only one that heard that. You guys aren't the only people that heard that. You know a lot of people that follow football, that follow the Miami Dolphins, that follow Tyreek, that are fans of his. Everyone has seen that. So when you say something like that, it's you don't just come back from that with hey my bad. You know, you got you gotta work that

that relationship up. You got to build everything up again. And yeah that it's still a work in progress, not just for me but for everybody. But like I said, he's he's working on himself. He's working on the things that he say. You know, he says he wants to get better with and do better on. So that's the first step to me, and so I commend him for doing that.

Speaker 2

I mean, you know, the old shame on me, shame on you type of situation. But I feel like there are better measures in place to withstand the adversity to keep things in line this year. That's my initial read on it. It's early. We'll find out as we go along and put a pin in that note and come back and talk about some more football stuff here.

Speaker 3

So I told you I was.

Speaker 2

Pretty excited about what I saw from the Dolphins running backs on this day, and in particular Jalen Wright, who I've been vocal about my admiration with his game, I guess is a good way to put it, and I think that there's a lot of good vision and power and speed and we saw all that today on the practice field. There was a run where he got off the left side of the formation. I talked about Patrick Paul stealing that edge for him, and he really did a good job of pressing the gap between Pat and

the left guard. And when you do that, you force a defender to adhere to that gap and slide over and then you can recreate a better angle for the

blockers by doing that. And so Jalen is so good at pressing the gap that he did that and basically took a defender out of the hole, by his decision making, by his patience to allow the play to develop the way it had to develop, and he got out the gate for a big run after that, and it was his second big run of the day pretty early on where I just thought he was gashing, you know, back across the grain, finding lanes and hitting that second gear

in open space. He looks good then number five Jersey. I think that he is well on his way for a big role and possibly a big season here for the Miami Dolphins if he keeps going the way he is because spring ball and day one was really impressive to watch. Long way to go here, but man, just the way he sets up his runs to exploit the

defenders from where they have to move to. Very very impressed by what I saw from day one, and a continuation of the skills that I think make him, you know, give him a lot of potential to be effective in this league. Haven't talked about our quarterback at all? Have we two a tongue v I Lois So he had I mean a pretty too a day. There wasn't a lot of passing game, a lot of run game today, not a lot of team reps either, so not a ton to go off of. But a couple of completions

over the middle of the field did Jelen Waddle. That's pretty standard these days. A couple of twenty yard shots, one between a tight window over storm. Duck threw the ball really well on time, got it out quickly, moved off off script a little bit. There was a play where I think it was Bradley Chubb got in for a sack, but he continued to play and sprinted towards the sideline left and threw a ball thirty yards down the field for Waddle for a completion and had some

good velocity. He was spinning the ball in the individual portions. That was something that Kyle Krabs leaned over and said, like, man, ball shopping off one's hand to They looked pretty good and I was like, yeah, that's get used to that when you come out of these practices.

Speaker 3

Man, he's fun to watch.

Speaker 2

But he did a good job of holding off on some deep shot opportunities that weren't there to find the check down. He got alec Ingold out wide for like a twenty five yard catch and run out in space after you know, stepping up out of pressure, and that was pretty common for Tua today. Was stepping up off the back foot, driving up into the pocket, getting a wiggle step one way left or right the other, and finding extra time to buy time to get those completions

in the short area of the field. So I thought he was pretty sharp. Not a lot to look at there. The offense as a whole, I thought had ups and downs. Mentioned the false starts. There was a lot of tackles for loss early on. In fact, the defense kind of came out humming early on. I saw a let's see a Jordan Brooks blitz behind Zach Seeler who bul rushed the guard to move to off the spot. And then two I had to step up and dump the ball off to Leak Washington who couldn't secure the pass in

the rain. Let's see there was a Zach Steeler tackle for loss, Jordan Brooks tackle for loss. I had Bradley Chubb with a sack and a tackle for loss. There was a rep in practice where Jalen Wright you know, sorry, Davon A. Chan got out the gate. Chan had another nice day as well. By the way, he looks so quick and had some really nasty cutbacks to get himself

into space. But there was a play where he got into space and Chubb and Phillips, like the running backs typically run the ball out like either to the end zone or like forty yards down the field because they come off the field and someone else checks in for him. They finished their run, get their conditioning in, and then go off to the sideline. And on this run, nobody like the play was over, but there was two guys that chased the ball, and it was Bradley Chubb and

it was Jalen Phillips. We talked about that during spring ball, with McDaniel mentioning the tone setting actions of those guys and how excited they aread to be back on the field and how it can have this reverberating effect across

the rest of the roster. I think we saw that today and I was very impressed by that, and I think it's instructive going forward about what those guys being back could do, not just for your skill set and your game in general, but what it could do for this team's mindset and how they approach the game following those guys as lead. I'm very impressed by what those guys have done. Some other notes here let's go ahead and do more of this before we get back into

the press conference audio. I thought Tan O'Connor was involved and made some plays. There was a play where he got stripped at the end of the play, but I think it was more him like slowing down the play being over, the whistles had blown, somebody comes in, punches it out, they pick it up and run all the way back, and so it looked like a fumble, but I don't think it was.

Speaker 3

He was involved.

Speaker 2

He caught up several passes looked very quick to me, so he seems to be a guy that's trending in the right direction. Grayson Murphy had a wicked dip off the edge for a would be sack on Quinn Yewers, who did extend the play after Murphy tagged off and threw a really nice ball to Mono. Ray ball went up the sideline. But I thought that was pretty impressive work there from Grays and Murphy, who, again I talked about it yesterday, makes a play every single day in these camp practices.

Speaker 3

What else do I got? That's pretty much it.

Speaker 2

I thought Jordan Phillips had a really good run stuff where he was able to clog up a double team, get off the block and really look impressive in his work. A lot to get to here. We're pretty brief on notes today. It was again rain soaked indoor to outdoor, just not a lot of great opportunities for notes, but

we'll be back at tomorrow for you guys. Let's go ahead and take our last break right there, come back on the other side and finish up with a few more notes or I should say audio soundbites from practice and from the day in general. That's Next Draft Time podcast, brought to you by AutoNation. I mentioned on the other side of the break that I had audio from Jordan Brooks, and I mentioned cater Co who at one point two. We're gonna go ahead and bump those. You can find

him on the team YouTube channel. We're just getting long here, and I have more comments from Tua and McDaniel I want to play for you guys, so you can go ahead and find those on the team YouTube channel. A couple last notes here from practice that I didn't get to on the other side either. I saw a rep where Minka Fitzpatrick kind of walled off a deep route attempt by Jillan Waddell, and it looked like he was really in tune to how that route concept developed, which

is his entire game. Right you heard mcdonaley talk about him, or no, we're gonna have McDonald talk about him in one second. I saw it on the practice field, which also, by the way, Minca was like leading the DBS, like breaking the huddle and lead him onto the outdoor facility or the outdoor practice field. So he's already picking up, you know, kind of where he left off in Pittsburgh here,

and it's been fun to watch him do that. So let's go ahead and play some sound here from coach McDaniel on the Menca Fitzpatrick acquisition a lot of good stuff here from coach on Minca, who they said they watched teach tape of Minca in practice or down here in Miami of his time in Pittsburgh.

Speaker 5

As you enter into negotiations of you know, any sort of trade, you try to identify first and foremost that the player receiving wants to play football for you. So whatever that means, uh yeah, I mean, uhh. We are excited. I'm elated to have to add Minka to the team because it's an opportunity, UH to have a player that I was, that I've been coaching off of and plays the position the way that we here want to play

the position. That he gets to actually play the position, it's a It's a real good fit based on his skill set both in and athletically, and and what he's able to do with his transitions in the open field, and then elite ball skills and then leadership. You know, it was something that you know, National Football League's hard, especially when you're a guy like Minka that puts everything into it, and so you know, there's a lot of things that go on when you're all in with the

team and then your team changes. That being said, you're a football first guy that wants to be around teammates that care about football, and you're driven to win and write your own story. It was very confident that this would be a place that he would fit right in. I know a lot of Bama guys know a lot of guys in the NFL, so had a lot of foresight into what the what he was coming back to. And shoot, he couldn't get in the twenty nine jersey fast enough.

Speaker 2

Let's hear from Minca's X and now current teammate to a tongue of Biloa on how excited he is to have another Bama guy back in the fold.

Speaker 7

I mean, I I don't know that I have so many good things to say about Minco because when I when I was there my freshman year, that was his last year, you know, before we ended up pardon ways when he entered the draft. But I have a lot of good things to say about him. The mentor in a way that he was for that locker room back in seventeen. That's seventeen year and eighteen.

Speaker 2

I mean, the.

Speaker 7

Leadership that he gives off sort of the standard. Like I was talking to Mike about it too. With Mink, you know, there's the standard and then there's like someone that you can look at and you can say that's a standard, and like I don't I can't put words to what that standard is, but I kind of want to gravitate towards that person. And I think that's what.

Speaker 4

Minka gives off.

Speaker 2

One guy I forgot to mention, and Zach Wilson threw a really good ball to him, and quinn Ewers had

one as well. Eric Azukama had two big plays, one that I think might have been a seventy yard touchdown on a slant from Zach Wilson, who I thought you Weers and Wilson both played more on time today than they did any previous practice in spring ball, which that growth is exactly what you want to see, and it was on display with a Zach Wilson completion to Eric Azukama between two defenders where it was so bang bang that they tried to converge on the pass and the

air and they miss because the ball hit as Akama on the numbers and he takes off for a long touchdown looking like you know, Eric Azukama of that first preseason.

Speaker 3

So I think that's good for day.

Speaker 2

One, about thirty one minutes into the show here or give or take. I think we're gonna go ahead and call it right there. So I'll have a training camp notebook up on Miami Dolphins dot com. We'll have social media content for you guys all week. I expect even more tomorrow at practice. So quick one today, but I hope you guys enjoyed it. I enjoyed being back out there,

enjoyed having some cool South Florida weather. We'll see what it looks like for the rest of the week and we'll see you guys here on Saturday as the fans are back. But until all of that, you all please be sure to subscribe to the podcast, leave us a.

Speaker 3

Ready, leave us a review.

Speaker 2

You can follow me on social at Lenkeal NFL, the team at Miami Dolphins. Check out the YouTube channel for Dolphins HQ, drive time content, media availabilities, and so much more, and last but not least, Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time, Bin's up, Carolina and Cameron and Willow, Daddy's coming, Hope,

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