Drive Time with Travis Wingfield begins.
Now, let me check your pulse if you're not far though.
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, I have to be honest with you guys.
I'm back.
We're gonna smoke the Jets on Sunday, We're gonna beat the Cowboys the following Sunday, and we're gonna be back. That's my takeaway. And we're gonna talk to Kyle Krab today about this team about how they can get over that hump, about how they can learn from that loss, how they can learn from last year. We'll lost talk a lot about the college football season and the draft coming up in April for your Miami Dolphins, first first
round draft pick in three years. All of that in a heck of a lot more from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Draft Time Podcast.
Maggie Daffy sh.
Feieling Silly, feeling ready to go for Sunday. It's Friday, that means the Variety Show. Let's go ahead and welcome in my guest today for not one, but two segments. Kyle Crabs making his fifteenth Variety Show appearance.
We have fifteen weeks.
I think might have missed a couple weeks, though maybe thirteenth, fourteenth. I don't know who cares anymore. But first time on the front end of the Variety Show, Kyle Crabs, Kyle sup.
I didn't realize this was my first time on the front end. I guess I'm better bring the juice today, be fired up.
Maybe I'm doing it backwards because you know, we've had like Lewis Riddick, We've had like Kevin Harlan, and like you close the show typically, So maybe I'm doing that wrong. But maybe that means you just are like the Dave Chappelle of podcasting, and you always are the ones that close the club down.
Coffee's for closers. So I'll myself a cup and we'll knock this thing out. Speaking of coffee, I like mine iced. Some folks likes there's let's do a temperature check real quick. You like that transition, so you know I do this.
Often, Kyle, where like after a big loss the last couple of years, all like monologue to kick off my Sunday recap show and just kind of try to connect
with Dolphins fans. And even though I was the meme of that girl who's crying yet dancing through the tears during that monologue on Sunday or Monday, rather, I want to present a I wanted to present a force for the trees viewpoint, but I kind of want you to do the same thing, because man, and look like I think we learned that no game is a gimme, even though our calling card was we don't lose games we're not supposed to. Maybe that's why fans are so upset now.
But I see, like I've seen tweets like they're gonna finish nine and eight, miss the playoffs, they have no chance to beat the Jets, a team that we beat by twenty one points just three weeks ago. And I mean people that pick these games think Miami is a clear favorite in it. So my question, finally, what would you say to that obviously very emotionally invested but very upset Dolphins fan after the Monday night collapse in the end of the game.
I think everybody who is emotionally invested in the team, walks away from a game like that and they're upset and distressed that the Dolphins were in the position that they were in and a very rare level of collapse.
But Mike McDaniels talked in recent weeks about eight and three last year versus eight and three this year and the scars of that team and the lessons that they learned, and we're going to find out, you know, because they got four games left to play, they have an opportunity to achieve all of the goals that they set out
for themselves throughout the regular season. Everything that they still have a game and a half lead in the AFC East with four games to play, including a head to head matchup in Week eighteen against the team that they're looking to close out.
You have two divisional games left. We'll see what comes.
But to be that upset this early in the process, I think is just leaning back into some of the heartbreak that this team has provided fans in the past, which has really nothing to do with this year's team.
That's that's exactly how I always feel about that argument. Like we're Dolphins fans, we have PTSD from December collapses in the past, like the four or not the four. That's a bad example, the O two Dolphins. It doesn't mean anything to the twenty twenty three Dolphins. So I never get that argument, But I do understand the emotional investment because, like you know, the reason that it's that hard is because it's that fun when you have those big fun wins like the game in Baltimore last year.
I'm sure Ravens fans felt the exact same way when Miamedia race to twenty one fourth quarter deficit to win that game. So I think we both came away from the Titans game and the tape study thinking they had a pretty good plan Kyle defensively, and I opined this, how this might be a good thing to get on tape here, and OJ talked about in the post game show as well, So I was I was curious to hear his viewpoint on that or even a loss that can maybe even like hone them in the rest of
the way. So I'll ask this question to you too pronged here. Number one, is it a positive to have a game plan that was effective against you like that on tape going forward? And then the follow up to that would also be is a wake up call a real thing, and then that football league, I think it can be.
And I think for the Dolphins specifically, you've seen them go on these runs of winning games and then they have a disappointing outcome, and then they've bounced back all season long, whether it was Buffalo or whether it was Kansas City or whether it hopefully now is Tennessee, you're going to have a bounce back opportunity, and this time of year, especially when you're so close to the end, I think it's a very healthy reminder to be talking
about what might McDaniel talks about how today's the most important day of our lives every day and just take that day and focus on that opponent. I think you heard some concessions from the team that are a couple of players in the post game that they had heard a lot of scenarios in the build up to the game and then you get up fourteen points and you blink and it's all gone. So I do think it's
potentially a healthy refocusing for this team. And I don't know if it's healthy to get a game plan like that, but I think the more things that you can experience that you would anticipate or how teams are going to try to defend you when you start playing for keeps here and you're trying to close out a division title and you're trying to clinch a playoff berth, and then when you get into the postseason, having exposures to as many different ways that they attempt to defend you can
only help you to try to have as many answers for once you get into a game.
That's a really good point. And I'm thinking about last year because off of the Charger game that I think was kind of the analog to this game in terms of the performance and the offense just kind of being stuck in the mud for the majority of the sixty minutes. Then after that you got you know, thirty points whatever it was in Buffalo and a first half against the Packers where two to three for over two hundred yards.
I think there was twenty plus points in that first half as well, until things went the other direction in the second half of that game, and then you lose your quarterback and the rest of the year is a struggle offensively. But I think that might be you know, history is instructive. Sometimes maybe that can be the case here for these Dolphins heading into this pivotal stretch right against the Jets, Cowboys, Ravens, and Buffalo Bills. And I do think the performance against the Jets will tell us
exactly how this team is wired. And I've felt all year that is wired the right way, So I do think we'll get one of their best performances of the year. That's kind of the way I see it. Kyle, one more here before we pivot to the college game and the draft. I think the emotional revolt is a fabricated thing. It's not tangible. I also implore fans to recognize that the reason that you can be that upset is because you have been that thrilled. Like I mentioned earlier the
Chargers game Opening Day. Remember how you felt about your team after Opening Day and that very fun victory. And you probably thought before the Titans game that this team had a chance to win the Super Bowl. Maybe now you don't. And I think that perspective is important to maintain with where your emotion is as a Dolphins fan covering this aspect of this team. That's a good team you were super excited about a few days ago.
That's my die.
I try My question is this is the injuries are a tangible thing. Every team has them, some to their quarterback and it wiped out their season for good. But for Miami, we finally get stability at quarterback for the first time in about eight years, but otherwise are the
most injured team in the National Football League. So my question finally after all that is injuries are essentially just another problem that coaches have to solve, right, how can Miami scheme around the losses they've accrued the last few weeks in this entire season. I think you look at what you have on the defensive side of the ball, and you feel better about that group kind of rallying
and getting everything back together. I admire the effort that Duke Griley's put forward in the absence of Jerome Baker, but you need to We've heard some of these assistant coaches talk about how these safeties are the quarterbacks of this defense and they call, you know, it's a safety feature defense. So between Deshaun Elliott and Javon Holland, we need to see those guys get themselves right physically and be out there for this defense to be the best
that it can be. And I think if you have that the communication breakdowns that you saw Miami experience and and you're late in the game against Tennessee, you feel like you probably can avoid a little bit of the frequency of that if those guys are back out there for you offensively. I will be interested to see how the run game evolves. We've seen this running game without Connor Williams for stretches of the season. We've seen it without Robert Hunt for stretches of the season. We've seen
it without Tron Armstead for stretches of the season. We've seen it without Isaiah win for the last half of the year. Like, you've had to endure so many moving parts that you get a sense for the skill set of the guys that are going to be in these spots. And I think for Miami what will be really interesting is so much of their perimeter run game success came because you have these athletic offensive linemen that are getting up in space and getting on linebackers and cutting off horizontal flow.
Does that change? Do you run a little bit more downhill? Do you challenge teams? Do you run the toss action but it's a designed wind back, or you're expecting the back to stick his foot in the ground instead of pushing to the edge, and he's hitting between the tackles where you've seen them have success with some of those runs. You think about the two runs that they took against Kansas City late in that game when they were trying
to run the two in an offense. Those were runs that were toss action, but they didn't hit outside on the edge. They stuck their foot in the ground and got north. So I think things like that are gonna be really interesting to watch for this run game, because I do think the key to all of this is to stay balanced offensively. Anytime that you regardless of who your quarterback is, your skill players are your offensive line. When you get one dimensional, and that's when teams can
really dictate terms to you. And I think for Miami, being able to consistently run the ball is going to.
Be the key. I love that point because I think that one thing that gets kind of lost in the sauce as far as like coach McDaniel's expertise in this offensive staffs expertise and of course the players who execute it, is the variety in the running game and the different just kind of action and scheme schema that you run in the back of some of those tosses that wind up going as inside runs, like you talk about the wind back runds, like there's a lot of plays in
the playbook for lack of a better term, they can go to and perhaps you do have to alter that with different personnel up front on the offensive line. Really really good point there, my friend Kyle's. While we're having the podcast here, we also having the podcast here to talk about the NFL drafts. We're gonna go ahead and pivot off of current Dolphins and look ahead as you've done all year long.
But there are.
Are bowl games this weekend, yeah, Saturday, a couple of bowls.
Bollseason has begun.
Indeed, all right, well that's coming up, but we don't have the usual college sleigh, so we're gonna change the way we do this portion of the podcast here. And I just want to hear you know, I guess your December fifteenth expectations for the fact that the Dolphins have a first round draft pick for the first time since twenty twenty one, and think about what could possibly be on the board there in that twenty two to thirty two range. Hopefully this is a thirty second pick you
could be picking at this year. But I'm wondering, what position groups do you think have the goods in this year's class at that point of the draft. Who's a guy or two or three that you like as fits at whatever position group you want for the Dolphins in that range in the first round.
Yeah, I think you can take this conversation to the trenches and there's a lot of names that I think are really relevant.
There's some offensive tackles.
We've talked about the depth of this offensive tackle class in prior shows that we've done together, Travis. But some of these guys have positional flexibility and can play inside. And some of these guys, if they're penciled into the inside players, that's going to probably put them in that stratosphere just positional value wise, they're not going to be
prioritized quite as early in the draft. And when you think about Miami with Isaiah Wins an expiring contract, that left Garden will be coming off of an injury, and Connor Williams is an expiring contract at center and he's unfortunately just had this season ending injury that he endured last week. And Robert Hunt currently does not have a contract beyond this year, Like the entire Intier trio is generally wide open. So that for me is whether it's
Troy Fittanu from University of Washington. Some people think Talis Fuaga from Oregon State is an inside guy. Some people think that Ram Barton could play all five spots. He's from Duke on the offensive line, Jordan Morgan from Arizona's attackle, he's going to the Senior Bowl. I think he could
play multiple spots, including playing inside. Like you have this embarrassment of riches in that section of the draft that I think for Miami, if they choose to kind of reset from a salary perspective and bring a rookie contract in for somebody who's expected to be a starter. You don't want to put all your eggs in that basket prematurely because then you kind of box yourself into draft for need. But if the board falls that way, that is an area where I think there's some good depth.
I also think interier defensive line is an area where there's some appropriate depth in that stage of the draft. That's really fascinating for Miami too.
I think you've probably just checked all the boxes as far as what a Dolphins fan wants to hear with regards to building to the trenches, and like, that takes me back to a comment that McDaniel made back when he was with the forty nine ers talking about the nature of those Niners offensive lines that hadn't didn't have high draft picks across the board, and he was like, well, ideally you have you self engineer six ' eight, four hundred pound linemen that can move like a guy like
Austin Jackson does or Tron Armstead, and so it sounds like there are options of plenty in that regard. So I think that the Dolphins would have plenty of options that way. But also, like you mentioned, I don't like boxing yourself in in ahead of the officers, and so really curious see what that looks like going forward. But like we talked about earlier, a lot of games left to go. Kyle, do you have one more segment and you're here to talk more draft with me?
Yeah, let's do it.
Second segment with Kyle Crabs coming up next. The co host of Locked On NFL Scouting and the solo host of Locked On Dolphins Drive Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield brought to you by it.
I don't nation.
Back here with my guest today, Kyle Krabs locked on NFL scouting, locked on Dolphins. So we touched on the first round prospects there, and I want to go through this segment just a little bit faster in terms of Actually that was pretty fast, so I guess you don't have to speed it up at all. But with our current structure of our roster, expiring contracts, draft picks, things you touched on there, all things considered, just some players that you think could wind up on Miami's radar and
specific spots. For example, first round quarterback probably not likely, right, I mean, they're going to be picked off the board by that point. You have a really good one here in your building already, but maybe you begin to entertain the idea in the middle rounds that makes sense, right, So let's go there. Tell me about quarterbacks that could potentially, conceivably five months out makes sense for the Miami Dolphins.
What's fascinating about the quarterback class is, with nil and the transfer portal being what it is, you really don't have a middle class, and you generally haven't had a
middle class beforehand. With quarterback play. But this year in particular, when you're thinking about guys like Quinn Uher's going back to school, cam Ward going back to the transfer portal and looking to play elsewhere, Riley Leonard from Duke, there's a slew of guys that you thought, hey, these might be mid round guys based on how many guys go up at the top of the class that are all back in the college portal or in the college world
in realm for another year. I think from a injury perspective, the player who is really fascinating is Michael Pennix from Washington. I think his tape is probably first round tape. Not a left handed quarterback, but he's had a kind of a laundry list of medical issues throughout the course of his career that has led to him being there or being in college for an extended period of time. And he's got big time accuracy. He's got the ability to push the ball down the field. He's used to throwing
vertical shots. They got three NFL wide receivers there at Washington, so I think penis as far as guys that would be Day two quarterbacks, probably based off of medicals, that would probably be the one that I would look to.
I mean, I told you I love his game so much. I just love guys that can put the ball where they want. I think the proverbial tires wing. I think he is that guy most of the time. And you also talked about cam Ward. He's currently on his tour right now of the Florida schools. I think Miami and Florida State are on his list, and I kind of want him to come here selfishly so I can just
watch him play football. But that's an interesting point about the middle class because I remember back in the day, like I would, you know, we do the mock drafts that like the twenty nineteen season, right, everyone's like a mock draft, mock draft, mock draft, and it was like take a quarterback in the second or third round, like that's you almost almost not always, almost always waste a pick because they either can't start for you or you
can't get them on the football field for a proper evaluation, and then it winds up being a pick that can't get special teams reps or backup offensive guard reps, whatever the case may be. So that's a great point there, and the transfer portal windling that down even more not great for that position in terms of how it gets drafted, but maybe later on you have your Tommy DeVito's of the world who can come in and make an impact. Let's move on to the eligibles here, Backs, receivers, tight ends.
What do you like in that group? I know last year tight end was like the class everyone was all excited about. But Dolphins running back room has uncovered a pretty dangn good rookie where he moster has found the fountain of youth. The receiving corps here is pretty good as well. What you look at in this year's group of eligibles. Yeah, so the wide receiver classes loaded. So if Miami ends.
Up with a little bit, probably a little bit more mid round picks at their disposal, they could probably go there in the middle rounds and get a player that in a vacuum, would be off the board a round or two earlier.
Just based off the amount of talent.
There's like legit twenty one wide receivers that have legitimate arguments for being like top one hundred picks. It's just an obscene amount of wide receiver talent, which is a testament to kind of the seven on seven culture. Where guys play their their high school seasons and then they're seven on seven that they're so involved in ball, and
it really has helped develop that position. I look at running back and I think that's an interesting one from Miami just because you do have Jeff Wilson and Raheem Moster are expiring contracts after the twenty twenty four season, so they'll be here next year or they're currently scheduled to be. And Raheem's been outstanding. He's been everything you
ever hope that he would possibly be. But if you're looking at the long term outlook of that position, probably having another younger player to pair with Devon ah Chan is probably the long term play beyond the next couple of seasons for Raheem. Does that make it a position that you draft now?
Maybe not?
But I love Bucky Irving from Oregon. He might be my favorite back in the entire class. He's declared. Trey Benson from Florida State is super explosive. Braylan Allen's kind of everything that is the polar opposite of what you have in Devon ah Chan is Braylan Allen is this six foot three, like two hundred and thirty pounds absolute bruiser, but like probably runs four or five, and Wisconsin's got a pretty nice pipeline there of running backs to the NFL, so.
They got different options and directions that they can go.
I like the tight end group, but I think the tight end group is probably more of a top sixty. Four to one hundred is where the range is for getting good value in that group, and there's some all
different kinds of body types. I think that's one of the more fun position groups to eval every year, just because there's such a wide array of players at that spot, whether it's Tavian Sanders at Texas who's a flex tight end, big time, high weight speed guy, or Kate Stover is this smaller inline blocker type.
You touched on the offensive line briefly there, So let's go ahead and talk about the interior defensive line because you kind of said that was an area that this is a deeper group, but we didn't get into the names of that position in particular. And Miami's you know, in good shape with Zach Steeler. We'll see what happens with the Christian Wilkins long term. Ray Kwon Davis also coming up, but as a group that you know, they've Deshaun Hand, They've signed some guys in the practice squad.
Like the depth there hasn't like it's not as glaring as it has been at other positions on this football team. So maybe it's a way you look to kind of build for the now and the future. What do you like on the interior defensive line this year's class? There are some good players that big time programs look at. Chris Jenkins junior University of Michigan, and that's if the name sounds familiar, it's yes, the son of Chris Jenkins' former NFL long time Intoier defensive line starter, so that
that family blood line is quite strong. Johnny Newton will probably be long gone by the time the Dolphins picked from Illinois, but he's far and away the most disruptive player. He hasn't wrung up a huge number of sacks this year, but he is a bowling ball with contact balance and really fun to watch. I point to Leonard Taylor from University of Miami, who also hasn't had the production come, but he's as physically gifted as any interior.
Defensive lineman in the class.
And I think from a penetration standpoint, that's really where you'd get the best version of him. So getting acclimated to this Dolphins defensive system, hypothetically, if he were to be a target of their's a little bit more of a developmental place. So he probably want some veterans in the building to help you there. But one guy that's not going to need any help acclimating quickly is to
and Andre Sweat from Texas. This continues to be one of my all time favorite prospects in this year's cycle. He is like the six foot seven, three hundred and sixty pound mountain of a man that has three down disruptive qualities. He plays in the gaps, but he can play in the B gap. You can play a high snap volume, and for those big guys like that to have the ability to eat space but also eat snaps,
I think is a really fascinating player. And I think he may get dinged a little bit because he is primarily an o's tackle type player, But that's a player that I think would be a plug and play starter for any offen or any defensive unit.
I was gonna say it sounds like a first round draft pick just by the tape or by the measureables, I should say, but yeah, that's a I guess one of those situations where position of value can depress fore ego, because someone like Kyle Hamilton should not have fallen to fourteenth in the draft this year to the Baltimore Ravens, and that's what happened. Now he looks like at all pro even though he's banged up right now. But I digress on that point. Let's move to linebackers, both edge
off ball. What do you think about that group, because I mean, you mentioned Duke earlier in the show. Duke's playing some good ball. David Long's looked awesome for us this year. Jerome Baker, you know, banged up right now but played well this year as well. And then off the edge like loaded at the edge group when you have JP back here, what are you looking at at that position for this year's draft cycle. I would not be surprised if Minmi brings somebody in just because JP
and the timeline for an Achilles and his return. You have Andrew Vyn Ginkless expiring contracts, so it's kind of hard to know what you're gonna have there at the start of the year. If they don't bring back Van Ginkle, so I'd be surprised if they didn't bring somebody in. That is a position where I could see it going one of two ways. You could wait till post June first and get a vet and usually those guys come relatively cheap.
They're they're pretty good bargains.
Or you draft a guy on a rookie contract and bring a guy in who you're gonna.
Have several years of control for I like Braylen Trice from Washington.
I think he's a big bodied, physical guy, like Jack Sawyer from Ohio State. As far as guys that are probably day two type targets, Jonah Ellis reminds me a little bit of Andrew Van Kingle, just as far as the effort. If you're looking for an Emmanuel Odwa type body type, Brandon Dorless from Oregon stands out. I think Chop Robinson from State is a twitchy, bendy, explosive guy, but maybe not somebody that would get a lot of run in early downs as far as against the run
game early on in his career. So you got like different body types that can fit into different roles. And then at stack linebacker, Peyton Peyton Wilson from North Carolina State is the guy for me. He's an absolute stud. There's medical questions there that may cause him to slide, but he's the same caliber of a player of Jack Campbell, who just went in the top twenty to Detroit last year. I'm a huge fan of Jeremiah Trotter junior. If that
name sounds familiar, he asked, that's Jeremiah Trotter. Yeah, it's his kids playing at Clemson, and he is a baller. He's not a super league, super big player, but he is very instinctual. He's pretty explosive in short spaces. And then the other name that I would throw out there is Cedric Gray from North Carolina. I think that's definitively a Day two early Day three type prospect, but I like a lot of the qualities that he brings to the table as well.
And Wilson tape is fun.
Man.
I've enjoyed Wathington since you kind of put me on too him a couple weeks back. Good stuff. There one more group here, we have a few minutes left. Kyle defensive backs. It's been a deep group from Miami this year. Like you mentioned, the safety spot the communicators have been key in this defense. Obviously Ramsey X and co who have had good years. What do you think that group brings us in terms of the Stuart draft class.
Well, I think the good news here is I like the safety group better than I like the corner group.
Yeah.
Nice.
So for Miami, obviously they just invested a second round draft pick last year on a corner. They got a couple big money contracts. They have cater Cohu locked it in on a rookie contract as well. So I look at safety where you have Deshaun Elliott is an expiring contract, and whether it's Cole Bishop from Utah who I think is he's a tackling machine and he's had some really nice ball production. A big high upside guy would be
like Andrew mccooba from Clemson. Tyler Nuban from Minnesota is probably my favorite fit for the Fangio split zone scheme that they run so much of, as far as the zone match and these two high presentations and all of the variations that they run off of that. He's at University of Minnesota. I like Javon Bullard as well. He's
a little bit of a different type of players. Is a little bit of a smaller player, but he gives you some positional flexibility to move him around on the back end as well, So there's a lot of options. I didn't mention Cameron Kinchins from University Miami. I would
be surprised if he's not a first round pick. But he's a little bit more of the true center field free safety if you're going to play a lot of middle of the field closed coverage where you need a guy to just kind of roam the center field and the high post by himself. And I don't know that that's something the Dolphins will continue to do a ton of as they continue to press forward this coaching staff.
But he's an absolute stun in his own right. And safeties you get most years, these first round caliber safeties, they're not off the board till the mid thirties. It's another one of those positional value propositions where that's an area that I look at and say, for Miami, okay, there may be some good better than regular return on investment because of the positional value and how that makes those guys it available a little later in the draft.
One of the benefits of I think a conversation you and I had this offseason talking about how Miami's stacked up in all the premium spots in terms of, you know, the tackle position, the pass rushers, the receivers, the quarterback, the defensive backs. Good spot to be in, right there, Kyle, great stuff. As always, we always get smart when it comes to the draft talking to you. Just real quick expectations for Sunday against the Jets. What do you think
we see? I think this team gets back on the horse.
I think they're remind everybody that last year's team is last year's team and this year's team is a different one. You know, you do keep in mind that this is a team that's a little bit banged up. They're going to look to try to get themselves healthy for the stretch run here, So I would not be surprised if it's a scrappy game. But nevertheless, I do think Miami
takes care of business. I think the defense balances back in a big way, and I think the offense continues to find the balance that they're going to want to have down the stretch.
It'll be a weather game as well. They're supposed to ran the next five days here in South Florida. But Sunday or four days rather is the last of that, but.
It could move.
It does sometimes seventy percent chance of rain in Miami gardens. Kyle, you're the man. Appreciate your time today, Locked on Dolphins, locked on NFL, skying with the great Joe Marino at grinding the tape on Twitter.
You're the man, Kyle, thank you, thanks for revs.
And away he goes. Let's go ahead and take our last break right there. Come back on the other side and hear from head coach Mike McDaniels. That's next Drivetime podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. All right, so we heard from head coach Mike McDaniel on Friday morning, who gave us the injury updates for the game on Sunday against the Jets, and let's be
quite honest about it. Going to be a skeleton crew for your Miami Dolphins, potentially, although we could potentially see a somewhat healthy lineup, we do know that obviously Connor Williams will not play for the rest of the season and Rob Hunt is out. So you're starting center, You're starting right guard. Both going to be down is Liam, Mike and Berg gonna go. Sounds like he'll be questionable for the game. It sounds like to Ron Arms, I'll be questionable for the game. Tyreek Hill as well. We
will be without Deshaun Elliott on the back end. On Holland should be questionable also. So there are scenarios where you could have a lot of guys back, could be scenarios where you have almost nobody back. And coach would not commit to who's going to play in the game on his press conference because he doesn't know. He has to find out through the course of practice on Friday and of course to the rest of the weekend in the pregame workouts on Sunday. So that's your injury updates.
I'll have the full injury report for you guys on Friday afternoon as I record this right around noon on Friday, but you kind of have an idea of what's going to look like already. I want to play one sound by here from head coach Mike McDaniel. I'm punting on the assistant coaches media availabilities because I just it was kind of the same questions and they're talking a lot about Monday and quite Frankly, I'm over Monday. I don't
want to know about the Monday process. I want to know about how it impacts this team and affects this team for the game against the Jets on Sunday. And if you guys can hear Carolina in the background, she came to work with me on Friday because we shot a thing that's going to go up on the video boards for the Christmas Eve game against the Cowboys, and she was a great little actress for us. So she
is with me in studio today taping the podcast. But I want to play this one sound by here from head coach Mike McDaniel, who was asked about the response from the game on Monday, because again, that's all I care about Monday's history.
It can't be changed.
No matter how many times I look at the scoreboard behind me on the breakdown video and see Miami twenty seven, Tennessee thirteen. It ain't changing, baby. I want it to, but it ain't gonna happen. But what you can change is your record on Sunday and get back to ten and four, and if you get a Dolphins win over the Jets on Sunday and the Bills lose to the Cowboys, your magic number becomes one to win the division, which means you can beat Dallas, Baltimore or Buffalo to win
the division. I love our odds to take care of that. If Dallas does or Buffalo does beat Dallas. On the other hand, the division most likely most likely will come down to Week eighteen. So be the team we.
Thought you were.
That's what it comes down to, right, That's why I wanted to play this sound by here from coach and talk a little bit more about this. Let's hear from McDaniel on the response this team has show him this week and what he expects on Sunday against the Jets.
I think that all has to do with the collection of individuals. I think, as you know, a coaching staff, we try to do our best to kind of you know, yeah, into game and there's so many things that happen. Individuals think about this play this way, with this play, and
then quite naturally you're like, how did this happen? I think as a coaching staff, we kind of look at things and then you deliver a mindset message on like okay, well this is how we can kind of categorize that, and then it takes a bunch of like minded individuals who are interested in things much beyond themselves, who are strong minded with will to to listen to that and then decide, hey, you know what, collectively, this is the
way we're going. This is how we agree that we can file this under in this envelope and say okay, that's what that was and learn from it. And that's why I love the locker room because they are not blinking, feeling sorry for themselves. They are one hundred percent focused on the jets, which you have to be in this league. That's another reason, another example that will always present itself in every NFL season of why you have to come prepared.
Everyone gets paid and there's a lot of teams that win games that.
Beat Vegas as odds.
So all of that being said, I think the bottom line is none of it matters unless you have the right human beings as players. You know, my expectation is that as coaches, we we funnel the information appropriately because that's our jobs. But I can have the I could be Newt Rockney, and if I have the guys that aren't about about each other and focused on the right things and committed to this team and organization in the city,
it didn't matter. So I would say it's a credit to the to the locker room that has been built up in the individuals in it.
And that right there is exactly what I was hoping to hear from head coach Mike McDaniel, what I expected to hear from him, and it aligns with what I talked about in the podcast all week. Because good teams lose games all the time, there are blips on the radar.
The Packers, for instance, were red hot, right and they had a schedule that was favorable to them, that looked like they could possibly run the table and compete for the NFC North and put themselves well within striking range of a wild card position as well, and they lost
to the New York Giants on Monday Night Football. And they're going to have to find out if they are a team that is that red hot squad that won a couple of games ahead of that, or are they the team that dropped a game to a team they should have beaten. And for the Miami Dolphins, they've responded to every loss this year with an emphatic win on the other side of that loss. For a lot of good teams. That's how it goes. Like the Eagles bounced back after their Jets loss against US, the Chiefs bounce
back after a loss they had against the Broncos. Against US, the Bills came out of the gates and stormed basically everything we did defensively and beat the crap out of us. But we responded to that game with an ephatic win over the Giants. So you can find out about your team and the week after a loss. You know, it's not playoff time, it's not where a loss is fatal. That loss is gonna hurt us. It's probably gonna hurt
us in the standings most likely. Right, we'll see what happens over the course of the final four games with this team. Like teams lose players. All the Titans were without Christian Fulton and Jeffrey Simmons in that game, their two best defensive players they probably have on that side of the football, and they dominated the Dolphins offense. Like you can win games without injuries. I trust this coaching staff to find their contingencies, to find what works with
what they have. Go win a football game against a bad Jets team and put yourself right back in the conversation not just for the AFC East, but for the first seed, which if you win this weekend and the Ravens lose the Jaguars, you're back in that one seed. So keep winning, keep pushing forward, and we'll see where the chips fall. In week number eighteen, that's my time of the podcast here. We'll come back and recap the game on Sunday, and like I said, if they lose
that one, all bets are off. You can tell me how bad this team is all you want, because they'll be earned at that point heading into that final stretch. But even then they'll have a chance to prove themselves again over the final three games. But you can't afford to lose. You cannot afford to lose this game. So that's where my mindset's at. Let's go ahead and get
to the weekend. Subscribe, rate review, follow on social, check out the fish Tank podcast, check out the YouTube channel for Dolphins Today, media availabilities, and so much more, and last but not least, Miami Dolphins dot Com Until next time.
Fins up.
Caroline and Camper and Daddy just coming home. Caroline, say bye bye. Figure out