Drive Time with Travis Wingfield begins.
Now, let me check your pulse if you're not for 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 to everybody?
I am your host, Travis Wingfield And on today's show, the great Seth Levitt from the Fish Tank Podcast joins me to talk about December football, the Walter Payton Man of the Year and Dan Marino in the Fish Tank. You don't want to miss that. Plus we'll hear the latest from coach McDaniel on his Friday press conference. We'll do some locker room audio from Rob Jones and Elijah Campbell. All of that and more from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.
This is.
The Draft Time Podcast, Maybe Daffy, let's welcome in my guest today from the FishTank Podcast. You know who he is, Seth Levitt and joining us now on the Draft Time Podcast is the brethren of the Draft Time Podcast. Seth Lemt from the Fish Tank. You guys know who is Seth. Welcome back in, my friend.
It's great to be back here. Riding shotgun next to Travis Wingfield and Juice isn't here, so you know, nobody's here to keep me in line. It's good luck to you there. But yeah, man excited to be back.
In and we're sitting down this time.
We are face to face, opposed to the radio show, which we're side to side, So it's kind of a different dynamic for us here. But you know, I said that you're the Brethren podcast here. But Seth Claus has arrived. You brought everyone to hear gifts today. Everyone got their fish tank, Jersey's I got my fish tank, hoodie.
How's the holidays. He's been treating you so far well, it.
Seems to be treating everybody else really well.
Now, I love this time of the year and what you were alluding to, OJ and I just wanted to kind of say thank you to all the folks that people don't hear about, that help you, that help us, that do all the really cool stuff that everyone's tweeting about and posting on social media. That there's a whole team here of incredibly talented people. And yeah, it was just our way of saying thank you to them. But holidays have been great. But they could be a lot better if we can win a few more games here.
It's a great segue there to the next segment. Yeah, like this whole process doesn't happen without JT helping us get audio figured out here. So to your point, lots of people behind the scenes that make all of our content go. And before I get into the Dolphins and Cowboys, which is ultimately why I have you here on the show today. You got the ultimate gift this year and getting number thirteen on the Fish Tank podcast.
Yeah, man, Marino episode is out. It is popping off.
As the kids would say, it's been four days since that dropped. Are you still kind of gliding around South Florida as if you're in some kind of dream state.
It's well, I mean, this is like the third interview I've done that people are asking me about my interview and OJ's interview with Dan Marinos, so that in and of itself is cool. But yeah, this was like when we conceptualize the fish Tank back in twenty eighteen, you start to do the shortlist of who do we know, who do we think we will do it, who do we have to get and right there at the top, as he always is, and anything Miami Dolphins was Dan
Marino and we knew he would do it. Danny told us as much getting them and when it would happen, you know, that part was a big question mark. But this was the year thanks to Anne Nolan and everybody else who was involved in making sure that that could happen and finally come to a head.
And Dany was great.
And that's I think what has been the best part for me and for oj is he seemed to enjoy it. You know, we love when people come on the fish tank and it doesn't feel like they're just doing us a favor, that they're actually having a good time. And then the response from people externally is like, wow, we've never heard Dan like that, you know. Or I talked to somebody today who knows him very well and it was like, that's Dan, Like that's the Dan that we
know that not everybody gets to see. And so that
was a really cool thing. But I'm laughing about when you said the ultimate gift because earlier in the week we did this, I got to be a part of this fantasy camp that we did with Dan and he at the end of it, he was taking pictures with all of the participants and he literally he was kind of like going to get pictures with Santa and the mall and he sat down there and everybody sat down next to him and they took a picture, and it was like, kind of what do you want for Christmas?
A picture with Dan Marino? And I was like, oh, you look like Santa.
He goes SE's getting cold, you know, And so that was just classic, right, classic Dan. But yeah, it was super cool seeing you get this a lot more frequently than we do, Travis, but seeing the podcast appear on the Apple top charts and.
All of those things amidst the damn Reno effect, and it's awesome.
Absolutely, it's cool to see that, and like you said, having him in his natural element too, because the text I've been saying from guys that I know that, like the fish Tank podcast, same type of reaction in terms of we've seen Dan do things where he's maybe you know.
Put into a box a little bit, but this was not that at all.
It was the genuine article and then the fact that someone that knows him says that to what better confirmation than that? So you are knocking out a bunch of things off your checklist by coming to the studio today because you got the gifts dropped off. But the main reason you come in, aside from the podcast here is to get the press release right. You do not want to see Seth Levitt pulling up to hard Rocks anyone without his press release or his laptop will just happened too.
Yes, laptop, which I mean the two things that are most important to me and my credential I haven't forgotten yet. I do not want to have to reach out to VIA and say, hey, Verra, bad news, but I don't have my credential.
No, but I need my laptop.
I like to have my and I I worked in the media relations department that press release and what it means. And again, the next stop on the gift giving is going to be to the communications staff. All the time that they put in when everybody's celebrating a win or frustrated after a loss, they're still up there for three hours, you know, pounding away at the keyboard and coming up with numbers and finding ways to tell the story of this team.
And that stuff helps me, It really does.
I look at the game differently than you do, certainly different than jew differently than Jews does but having that the totality of that perspective is great.
So I love getting that release.
I think besides Mike McDaniel and Butch Berry, who are confirmed in the building at four oh eight after the Titans game, I think Brett Breckaisen was the other one in the building also breaking out the weekly release there for the Jets game last week. And speaking of the credential, have I told you the Jason Taylor story about Chicago Uber to the game?
Oh?
Yeah, and I dropped my credential. I tell you that.
Oh I didn't know you dropped the credential. I just told you, you know. I got to text, Hey, I finally met JT. I'm like, are you in the uber wog? Because I knew it because he was texting me.
I do you know?
The frickin' bus left, so we got all its all.
Here, yo, JT's not here.
I felt good about being with JT in that regard because talent was not all there at that point. But we're walking up to Soldier Field and we get to the checkpoint or like the security point in the stadium and I looked out at my belt, My credentials not there anymore, and JT Bless his heart, He's like, I feel bad, but bro like.
So I had to.
Run back and luckily it was about one hundred yards.
Behind us on the WOW so it literally fell off.
It just had fallen off my belt loop. So I found it. Anyway, that's in the weeds.
Let's get back to this game, and I want to start here and resurrect a segment we did on the postgame show this past Sunday from the four you can come find us out by the Dan Marino statue in the South Plaza in front of the team store at hard Rock Stadium. And I'll talk about this later on this podcast. With both Rob Jones and Elijah Campbell, we talked about good losses right and gosh, I hate that term so much. Good loss So I'll borrow from coach
here a purposeful loss against the Titans. The fans of draft time have heard me talk about this and make this case about how special this team is, not just from the talent on the field, but the rottery has hide that locker room. But I'm calling on my press conference, Consiglieri here and Seth Levitt, how do you think this team, this coach can make that loss purposeful and how it can benefit us heading into this gauntlet, which is basically the playoffs.
Before the playoffs, Cowboys, Ravens and Bills.
Yeah, win right, that's right, that's how Now I listen. As we know, and we like to talk about here, only one team in the history of this sport has gone undefeated and had no losses.
So every team every year is going.
To suffer a loss at some point, or multiple losses at some point, and then what do you do from there? And if losses start to snowpile and become five in a row, seven or zerwo things that we've seen the last handful of years here as well, I don't know that any of those.
Are good losses. You know, what do you learn from that?
Mike McDaniel has done amazing job of making anybody who cares about the Miami Dolphins understand adversity is an opportunity that things are going to be tough. He loves the word strain, and all of those things come out of losses. And so it's once that does happen, where do you go from there? Do you try and burn the tape and look to the next opponent, as I've tried to do on a postgame show or two much of the
or do you dig into it? And how cool was it that we got to see that on Hard Knocks where he's like, look, I know we don't want to do this, but we're gonna spend twenty minutes here, We're going to take it all in. But then where do we go from here? How do we make it purposeful? They it galvanized a team, they bonded together. We saw what they did against the New York Jets. But it can't just be a one and done because now it's
the most important part of this season. And I you know, I've got the radio show later today, and you know, I've every now and then I break out, and you know what I think, And I think that this is this has the potential to be the most the most meaningful game of Mike McDaniel's coaching career and of this group of Miami Dolphins, primarily because it's the next game, you know, but there's this is a great opportunity for this team to play meaningful games in December and to
beat teams that are the caliber of teams that you will face if you play in the playoffs. To understand that you can beat those teams and to beat them when it matters most. And so if all of that can happen, then yeah, I could say that was a good loss if you could pinpoint that that collapse at the end of the Tennessee game, a game that if they had held on, they didn't play particularly great. I
mean you said you dug into the tape. It wasn't great tape from start to finish, but they did enough to get a lead that they probably could have and should have held onto. They didn't happen that way. Maybe if they did, if it did happen that way, they wouldn't be as focused, they wouldn't be as understanding of what's in front of them as they are right now. And so if the next couple of games go the way we'd like to see them go, Travis, then yeah, I think you could say that was a good loss.
And all will be forgotten for sure if you get a couple of wins here in your back pocket, especially think in the Buffalo game. If you can make that game irrelevant in terms of the division race, that would be I think I'll be forgiven at that point.
I'll tell you a quick story and since we talked about j T.
Jason Taylor, not you know Jonathan Santos, who also amazing guy. But as we talked about Jason Taylor, go back to Nick Saban's first year where that team was reeling and there's a great story about them getting destroyed in Cleveland by a Cleveland team that was not supposed to be good enough to beat them, and coach Saban after, you know, kind of just saying what he felt he could say, he was at a loss at that point. He says,
does anybody have anything to say? And here comes Jason Taylor, future Hall of Famer, flipping over tables and essentially told the room like, you know, no matter how badly we're losing, you never quit and if you want to quit, just quit now. And then he said he'd pay their salary the rest of the year, which is a classic line, but the point being is they went on and won the rest of the games that year.
And so, did you want to lose to Cleveland?
Did you want Zach Thomas to tear a rotator cuff for whatever he did in that game?
No, you don't want any of those to happen.
But if you were able to make that lost purposeful and turn that into a run like they did, or a run that this team is even better positioned to make.
Then yeah, that's not so bad.
And having the right guys in the locker room two JT was that right guy this locker whom I think full of guys just like that.
So that's really a really good point there.
And to kind of continue the point about this Dallas game, so we saw Buffalo on offense run the ball very successfully against this Cowboys defense. And you know, no offense has run the ball more in neutral situations in December. It's basically like an option in terms of the analytics about a first down first and ten for instance, as neutral. No one has ran the ball more in neutral situations than Mike McDaniel so far in December, and he said
he was going to do it. There was a press where he talked about running football more in the month of December, playing defense and running the football. So my question is, do you think the Dolphins in this game, like Buffalo did last week, can turn back the clock to some of those great seventies Dolphins in Cowboys games a Super Bowl, no less, and run the ball with that kind of success.
It'd be fun to watch. And look how we talk about fun to watch. I mean what we've seen with Tua and Tyreek and Jalen Waddle and the passing game has been incredible and it's exciting. But man, who doesn't get fired up in December watching you know, watching a team just grind it out and they've got the guys to do it. This as much adversity as this offensive line is faced, no matter who they put up there,
those guys seem to run block really well. You know, there's some malers up there, and it's fun to watch those guys connect and make that happen. Raheem Mostert is playing like I don't know what planet he's from. The the things that he's doing, the records that were talked about this past week, and at the age that he's doing it, and he is playing at such a high
level that he's ready to go. You know, he's hungry to get the rock, and devon a Chan seems to be, you know, picking up where he left off now that he's getting healthy.
I think that they have the ability to do it.
Now they have to go out there and make it happen, but I think they have the ability to do it, and I think think this is the time to do it.
It is December.
Yes, it's gonna be seventy four degrees, knock on wood and great conditions, but it's not always going to be that way, and so yeah, why not start now.
Not to mention a trip to Baltimore next week where it could be a little bit chillier. I saw the weather, and they're going to run the ball degrees. Yeah, exactly, They're gonna run the balls balls anybody. They did just lose their trying running back Keith Mitchell to an ACL so they're gonna be down him in that game.
But that's that's for next week.
And like you said that, potentially, if you take care of business, that could be your last World game of the year, which would be obviously very ideal. On the topic of the running game, quick detour here from the game itself, because I know that you have a close relationship with this guy, the Walter Peyton Man of the Year nominee and an award that you track very closely.
JT had once won that award.
So I'm just curious to get your take here because Alec is so critical on the field for this offense. I mean he does things that you cannot replace, the role that he fulfills and the options that gives you in terms of personnel groupings, but also in the community. Tough to find a better guy than Alec. Ingle just kind of tell me about your relationship with Alec and what he's meant to the community, said down here in South Florida.
Well, you were just saying couple of minutes ago about having the right guys in the locker room, and I think you were specifically talking about leadership on the field.
Alec checks that box.
Then, as you said, leadership off the field, Alec checks that box. He's just he's kind of a unicorn. And those guys exist, but a lot of times they're playing quarterback or they're you know, in this this high profile position, or they're a first round draft pick. And here's a guy who he's playing full back. There's like seven of them in the league anymore, you know. I mean, so
he's he's playing that position. That's you know, they kind of put those guys in the dark room with raw Meaton and I mean that's that's like what you expect from a fullback. And you know, the story of him not being drafted and all of those things.
And he's on his second team.
And it wasn't because he was a two time All Pro and then signed some big free agency deal. It was because he was a team captain there, suffered an injury and they said, we don't want you anymore. So he's got all of those scars, he's got all of those things that Mike McDaniel loves to see you players because he identifies with it and and he is just a special individual on and off the field. I love his micd up when he does that. But I never
realized it. I could appreciate what he was doing on the field, but when we had him on the fish tank, I was like, who is this guy? And he I mean, what an incredible guy. I have gotten to know him a little bit. He's reached out to me to talk about foundations. And how many times have I had a guy call and say, I want to talk about a long term sustainability of my foundation.
You tell me, I don't.
Get that call very often, Travis.
For a guy who was only four or five years in the league, I mean, that's I can't say Jason didn't start his foundation until he was seven years in the league. And long term sustainability. You know, we had to develop an understanding of what that meant and why that was important. And so you've got a guy now who recognizes that he's so invested in the community and it hits so close to home because of his personal
story with adoption. So really special guy. There's a handful of guys that probably were worthy of that nomination, but certainly alec Ingold is And as you said, Jason won that award in two thousand and seven. It's very meaningful to us as an organization. I have it sitting there in our office kind of like we want a Grammy, because that's what it feels like as a nonprofit director.
And so every year we don't pound our chest or announce it, but we always reach out to the winner and make a contribution to a charity of their choice just in honor of them being the team's nominee, because we know how meaningful that ward is.
Awesome stuff there.
Also, go ahead and get to the Pro Bowl voting website, the NFL dot com, mimyd Dolphins dot com, Twitter, and get alec Ingole to the Pro Bowl. He deserves it this year and all your Miami Dolphins players as well. Let's go ahead and take a break right there, come back. I have two more questions here for Seth. That's next Draft Time podcast, your host, Travis Wingfield, brought to you
by Auto Nation. We left off the previous segment talking about the fullback alec Ingold and some special things that he does on the field and in the community.
But I want to spend it now to.
The player that everyone seems to be talking about these days game in particular, like Dak and Tua are these lightning rods. It's crazy, it is, and they're great players who have these polarizing I guess personas in terms of you know, the major networks talking about them.
You know, did you see the rich Eisen story.
But he talked about meeting Tua and he was telling him, like I have the segment about Salty too at the press conference, and two is like that that it's not me.
Yeah, where's my kid's toy just so I can think about it?
Yeah exactly. I'm like, that was such a cool story to hear that.
So it's it's funny how you know he's getting these guys all ride up and he's just like, brother, I'm here to play football and then do nothing else. So exactly, and you know, for the quarterback, for Tua, And I hate this idea asking questions that I hate apparently all day to day.
Yeah, why am I that?
Yeah?
You kind of soften the language on it, right, Like words matter, I've heard just hate before, but legacy defining games or even a stretch of games for a twenty five year old quarterback. And my argument is that he's got so many more games ahead of him in big games. But I digress on that. So I'll frame the question this way. What you hope to see from Tua over these final three games?
I want to see what we've seen all year from Tua, you know. I want to see leadership.
I want to see good decision making and certainly elite performance, which for the most part is what we've gotten.
And more than anything, I want to see Tua.
I want to see him behind center, which has been so exciting that each and every game this season. They're fourteen games in Travis and there has never been a question, like never been a question that Tua would be your starting quarterback. That has not happened his entire career here, and so obviously I don't want that to stop. They've got more games to play, hopefully a lot more than are you know, even printed on the schedule right now, but they need him under center. I think that that's
when this team performs at its best. It's when the offense performs at its best. We know when he performs at his best. He's an elite quarterback. You're the first guy to pound the table and say that you told me that, You told just that, and I think Tua's proving that. But this team responds to him. Team, this offense, and really the entire team. There's a reason he's a captain. He wasn't just he wasn't anointed a captain. He was selected as a captain by his teammates. You can tell
how much they love the guy. You can see his growth in every press conference. You can see his growth and what you hear from him on the field and the conversations he has with two of them, because again, we have this great insight from hard knocks and what I do hope though, is that we know how good he can play. I am hoping that he is able to show how well he can play in these big moments, because these are the biggest games. He didn't even get
to play in December basically. I mean, he played some games in December, but we really didn't get to see two at his best in December last year. I hope that we have the opportunity to see that because I think it's in there, and you know, he wants to win. Gosh, he wants to win for all the right reasons, and I think all of those things are there. The games are a lot of warm weather games as well, and so I think the table set for him to be successful.
I hope that they can keep them up right and keep them clean and let to a cook and we can see that he is the quarterback that you believe he is and that most of.
Us believe he is.
That's I mean, you're preaching to the choir here, and I think, like you said, it sets up for a chance for him to really do something special here. And speaking of doing something special, a win would equal a first eleven win season in fifteen years. It would get him into the playoffs. It woul clinch a playoff spot, which would be the first back to back playoff appearances since two thousand and two thousand and one. There would still be two games to go and much more to achieve.
But that feels a little bit like a bit of a reason to celebrate if you can this week, because you always rud Us on the show like the Dolphins are ten and four, Travis and Juice, like you always give us the bird's eye thirty thousand foot view. If they win this week they do those two things, that's a reason to celebrate.
Right, eleven and four. I think what did it's say in the release. It's the first time since nineteen ninety that they've started a season eleven and for forty three years. Who's behind center in nineteen ninety that's Danny, That's Dan Marino. That's right, you're talking Dan Marino. Don Shula is the
head coach. If all of a sudden, you can do something that hasn't been done since you had Dan Marino and Don Shula and you're not doing it with Tua tonguea Iiloa and Mike McDaniel, that's promising for this season and I think many seasons ahead.
Where Seth Levitt nineteen ninety.
Uh Seth Levitt in nineteen ninety was at Piper High School. There you go hiding in the corner.
I was waiting for you ask me how old I was. I was three.
Yeah, I figured that was coming.
Seth, good stuff, man, You guys know where to find him. The Fish Tank Podcast with Oj McDuffie. Check out the Dan Marino episode. In fact, if you're a true fan, I'll go ahead and challenge you right now. If you're a true fan, listen to the podcast and you watch the YouTube. Double up on those things at the fish Tank eighty one on social my postgame co host along with Juice on the iHeart at Fox Sports nine forty
and Big one oh five nine FM. And then Seth, I'll give you the last word here, tell the people about your brand new radio show with Juice coming up, or rather with Juice, and then what's coming up on the fish Tank.
Uh yeah, We've got the the Dolphins Happy Hour Show now on Mondays and Fridays. It's a lot of fun. We're doing that on iHeart through the end of the season here and seeing how it goes. Monday are going to be at a restaurant at Twin Peaks where people can come out and enjoy it in person. And then you know, we'll be in studio on Fridays, like as in this Friday, we'll be in studio. But it's just a way to kind of react to the game and react to our postgame show and then on Fridays.
Look ahead to the game.
I love we've got the Wears Wingfield segment that we do on Mondays because you love to tell us where we are and who you met and who you see, So we've got to get that update every Mondays. But it's just a cool way for us to continue to talk about the current team, kind of like we were doing in spaces back in the day, as in last year, and so now we can do that on the radio. People can call in and it's a lot of fun.
And then this coming Tuesday, right after Christmas, you're talking about the running game, talking about these home run hitters we have on this offense. So Lamar Miller dives into the tank. There's a guy who's taking it the distance once or twice in his career.
Ninety seven yard touchdown rush once upon a time. Yeah, it's two of them in his career, ninety seven.
One here one with Houston, the only player in NFL history to have two ninety seven yard touchdown runs from two different team.
That's I did not know that crazy, And check that out on your fist Tank podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Go ahead and dive in Seth, appreciate you man, and happy holidays, and away he goes. Great chat there with my good friend Seth Levit again. Check out the fish Tank podcast. Let's go ahead and finish up segment two here with some soundbites from head coach Mike McDaniel, who
first talked about the injury report. The only player that was not at practice on the practice field was Robert Hunt, so everyone has a chance to go.
It looks like come Sunday.
He did tell us that Austin Jackson was back at practice and potentially could play Sunday.
Feels good about Tyreek Hill.
We'll find out about guys like Javon holland Devon a Chan will play in the game. But for your injury report, go ahead and check out my Twitter right around four thirty or so five o'clock, it should be up there. We'll get to the full game status for Dolphins and Cowboys on Sunday. Let's go ahead and go to Mike McDaniel here though, because he had some good informative stuff at his Friday press conference, starting here with how does the offense evolve from September through December?
Great answer here from coach.
You're very aware of what your.
You're practicing and the concepts that your players are comfortable with, and then you're very aware of what defenses see and what your tendencies are. And so then you're you're evolving things constantly. Problems, new problem solvings occur, and by the end of the season, you're you're orchestrating like our.
Offense knows more.
Plays and and knows the offense so much better than they do week one, and that some of the stuff that you do week because you're accumulating reps and you're as long as you're building upon things and building upon each other. We couldn't come to the players week one with the game plan that we have week sixteen because it would be like WHOA.
You're adjusting to what works for your players, You're.
Doubling down on new things, and then you're evolving to how defenses there are going against you.
So it's a.
Multiplicity of evolution every single year. And I've always found that at the end of the season, you know, typically especially last year, this year for our guys is our offense is more complex because they've spent more time and been more diligent and no more things, and we have new motions and different snap points and new combination blocks
and all sorts of things that are building. You know, It's one of the best parts about everything we're doing here is truly the player's scheme because it is highlighting what they do well and having them evolve live.
Speed during the course of the season.
So it is very much a different different scope than when we first start in September.
Next he was asked about from me dan Quinn in his past relationship with the Cowboys defensive coordinator and if you go back to the previous experiences playing the Cowboys in the playoffs with the forty nine ers being on staff with dan Quinn back in twenty sixteen, do you draw on that stuff or is it just the current Cowboys. Once again, here's head coach Mike McDaniel.
You know when you watch tape, I know firmly where I can actually hear him conduct a team meeting. There's a couple of players I was watching. I was like, oh, he loved this clip. He said, this is us for sure, and then you kind of know where he's gonna where he's gonna emphasize.
But it's for me, it's like once you see it, you can and see it.
I can see all of his his relationship with his players, how connected he is and how willing they are to strain, like on every play that I watch, so I can see his coaching just littered within the actual scheme. And then you also know that, uh, I knew the second the game happened last week that the version of the Dallas Cowboys we're about to see was going into the game expecting to have their best tackling day and to
force some turnovers. Because the second that a defense that has really been as good as anyone in the league.
At both of those things. You know everybody has down games, but you know you're going to return to your your priorities, to your mantra, to to the backbone of what makes you you after a game where guys are a little irritated, so much like us two weeks ago, this Dallas Cowboys team, you know, has a bone to pick with football in general and wants to and we'll want to or we're gonna get their best shot, which is what we want, because you know, we're not just trying to we're not
just trying to accumulate wins. We're trying to get better and be our best in this time of the year. That'll we've built up all year to have a challenge like this, so we're excited to take it.
And this stuff kind of got the juices flown in the press conference because people were asking great questions about playing or calling plays rather And the last question here for coach McDaniel was how far in advance do you plan plays? Here's McDaniel talking about his in gameplay calling process.
Fascinating stuff.
Right here.
You script the first twenty four to start the game off, but typically on any down, I'm thinking one of three things the next call, Like so the plays called, I'm i have about three plays on my mind, one for an earned first down, one for zero to negative gain,
and one for like half the game. So like, for instance, if it's first and ten, I'm thinking for the next play call while we're lining up for first and ten, second and five or second and ten, So then you have those three so that you can keep the tempo of the game and then you get to second down and then it goes to two scenarios, or I guess it's three. Still, it's your first and ten call if you get no yardage with that third down in distances,
and if you're somewhere in between. So you're doing that on every play at least, that's how I do it, every play for three hours, which is why you shouldn't judge me so much on my postgame press conferences.
There you go, segment two in the book. Let's go ahead and take our last break right there. Come back on the other side. We're gonna hear from Rob Jones and Elijah Campbell on adversity, a couple of guys that had to overcome a lot this year to put themselves in position to help this football team down the stretch. Plus, I have another Friday rank for you guys on big games and legacies and what it all means. That's all next Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to
you by Auto Nation. Let's go ahead and dive into these chats I had in the locker room this week with Dolphins offensive lineman Rob Jones and safety Elijah Campbell. Let's go ahead and kick it off here. First with Rob Jones I've been thinking about you because you had obviously a adversity in the beginning of the year, right injury and training camp, had to come back, don't get a chance to start, you trying to get your chance
to get out there and play. I'm just curious, like how you've processed all that, how you feel to have gone through on Sunday and played so well in a big way for the team, after all you've been through this year. Man.
You know, it's just you know, it's just take it one day at a time. You know, I went through a lot this year so far, and to keep trying to you know, these stag days and just keep getting better, keep getting back to myself.
And that's all it is.
You know, I went out there Sunday. I'll just try to do the best I could. You know, it's the less I can get it better for him, you know, I'm just keep stacking from there. But it was all about just me, like just trying to get back to it. Like you know, it's a hard journey, but I mean football not easy. If it was easy, everybody can do it.
Do you feel like this year you a little bit about adversity? Uh?
Yeah, for sure.
You know, like this year is just it just taught me, you know, just keep my head and I'll just keep grinding feeling no matter what happens. You know, I gotta do attack whatever happens. You know, if I get hurt, tack rehab tech, you know the treatment you know, had discipline fa me, No.
You're good enough because my my parallel to that is, like the team obviously went through I think their most adversity in the Titans game, right, Like you guys were all pretty down, sure as the fans were. How do you think that this team experience in that adversity here in December can benefit them going forward the next couple of games?
I mean the Simmer.
The Simmer is one of you know guys, you know that's when football really imported. You know, they support all on the way, but you know, best football get playing the summer, you know, because that's when you know everything for it comes, you know, you start looking to the future. But you know, you know, us just having that little adversity just helped them become close as a team. Maybe you know, just focus on a little details, just keep getting better.
About the offensive line being so every game we're having we have a new combination on the offensive line and you guys continue to produce at a high level. What do you think that says about the makeup of that room for how you guys have been able performed this year.
I feel like, you know, it's an amazing job that you know, Gria, Mike Frank you know even that and Bush did you know it was just you know them picking the guys and everything, you know, but getting everyone ready to play, you know, just coaching us play at.
A high level. You know, the coolos to them.
And then the last one I have for you here is watching the tape on Sunday, Like every big play you guys make, it was cool to watch the sideline like come to that guy and like celebrate them like Ethan Bonner's PBu you guys swarm him. Just curious about the camaraderie across this entire team, not just the old livery but the entire fifty three.
You know, we just we just love each other.
We love playing for each other, and you know that's all come down to and anybody get the opportunity. We just happy to see everyone get opportunity to go out there and play because you know, football is playing the NFL. You know, it's a blessing. You know, it's a hard thing to go out there and to be able to participate in this, you know, everybody being able to go out there, you know and just you know, contribute and
just help each other, you know, that's amazing. So we just we love seeing everyone get opportunity and show the world what they could do.
Appreciate it.
And then of course Elijah Campbell's been through a lot this year, right, Like you come on into the season looking to get some some more defense res so you had all year. You get injured in training camp and it kind of carries into the season and now here you are making big plays in a big game for the team in December. I just want to kind of hear your your perspective on the journey of the season and kind of what overcoming that adversity meant to you.
Yeah, from a personal standpoint, I feel like everyone's been through some adversity within their career. Me whether it be on a certain team or just throughout my career having to go to the XFL and having to work my way through whatever situation I've been in. It's just about keeping keeping your nose down and just doing the work.
At the end of the day.
It's sad to say, like nobody's gonna feel bad for you at the end. So it's like you can't feel bad for yourself. You can't can't really expect sympathy. So like when things go bad, like us taking a loss, you know, you just got to know, like it really no one cares. All they're going to do is talk bad about you in the papers, you know, and it's
just it's another little news clipping. So you just got to really hone in too, like your for one, when it comes to a team standpoint your own team and your teammates and understand that all you got is each other and kind of just build that chemistry in those moments, you know, when when you guys are all down, at
least you're down together. And the one thing I'd say about this team is so far knocking with but like when we lose one, we're not losing one to the next week, you know, So it's like we we definitely learn from our losses.
What do you think so you think that low Because we had this conversation on our post game show me and you know, Jay and seth On, we do the postgame show at the stadium, and we were talking about is there such a thing as a good loss? Like, obviously in the standings, it's not good, but like you can you can learn from that, right. Coach talks about what we saw a Hard Knocks too. I don't want to ask you was that a good loss, but like it sounds like you guys took that and really made it purposeful.
Right, Yeah, No, for sure.
I would rather lose a few games in the season, then win all season and then take that loss in the end, you know, so at least we know what it takes to lose, and we can learn from those losses before it's too late, you know, when it's a one and done kind of game. So as long as you're learning from those games, I mean, you can turn any loss into a good loss, you could say. So, yeah, as long as long as you're able to come back the next week and play, you can just capitalize on
those mistakes and learn from them. But like when it comes to these later in the season of playoffs and stuff, it's like there's no there's no good loss. Yeah, So it's like that's when there's no time for those mistakes, you know, you really got to find two of those things.
That's really good stuff. What did it mean to you?
Like the past breakup you made on Sunday was so cool to watch just kind of the range you showed and make making that big play the ball.
What does that mean to you?
To be able to get on the field and defense and go make a big play like that.
It meant a lot just to be able to do something for the team. You know, it's something for obviously special teams. I'm always trying to make plays on that, but and I try to do my best with that. But like from a defensive perspective, you know, you kind of get lost when you're a backup. You know, people are focused on who's on the field. So whenever all of us, myself, Ethan, any of the guys that were in there V. Jones, like we're able to prove to them that we still have that ability.
You know.
So you you allude to Ethan's play on the football like you had the big one too. Every time I watch you guys on tape, y'all like celebrate each other like it's the biggest play.
Y' all just made like the Ethan PBu.
Like I would have thought that was for like a conference championship. Just watching the way you guys celebrated. Why do you think this team is like that? Like what's different about this team and the way y' all have that camaraderie.
I feel like a lot of people have been through Ethan's been through that situation in some someplace in their career. You know, So when you see somebody who's been on peace squad the whole time, who's been told no at the end of the day, obviously you're being here on the team, but who who hasn't got the green light and like said, you can go start whenever they succeed. It's it's always nice.
To watch that, you know how does like coach McDaniel loves to talk about himself in that way right in terms of not making about himself, but in terms of, like, I'm not supposed to be here because look at me.
No one would look at me and.
Say that guy's one of the best coaches on the planet. Do you think that his journey in that way kind of like reflects upon you guys, Yeah.
No, for sure, And I like coaches the way coaches. He doesn't make it about himself, even though media tries to like make him bigger than it is, but like it's not about himself. He just tries to be as relatable to the players as he can. And he's been through adversity himself throughout his career, you know, ups and down, so it's kind of a testament to like what he's been through, and he he looks for players the same attributes that he has, he looks for in his players.
So yeah, that's kind of a I appreciate you.
So that was Rob Jones and Elijah Campbell there, and I want to finish the podcast with this one of my my rants, right, something I've been doing more of on the show here and having a good time with. And it's something I've been thinking about that stems really from Twitter, which isn't the best place to get your content ideas from, and admittedly it is probably the worst place to get a pulse of the fan base or
anything that stems from actual reality. But I am so in trenched in it Twitter and social media that I think we can all get a little bit lost in it, right, But then in reality, I heard the question post to every single assistant coach who spoke on Thursday, even the defensive coaches were asked about these games and the legacy and the trajectory of one's career, namely the quarterback. How
does this affect Lebron James's legacy? Not just getting to a tongue a by lower right, Because quarterbacks are judged by how they play in the biggest games. Some quarterbacks transcend that Dan Reno does, because we know why Peyton Manning did. But during his career, it was the conversation before he actually did the Dan thing in two thousand and six behind a really good Colts defense, which in the playoffs that year, the defense kind of carried that
Colts team. And now you think of Peyton Manning differently. Right, context often get subbed out for narratives. And I'm old enough, I should say, I'm not old enough to remember the Marino discourse, but I'm certain that I know what it was because I have a brain, I suppose, but the old heads can confirm this for me here. But I'm certain it was loud for him too, right, I'm sure that was the conversation all throughout the early nineties towards the end of his career. But think about how we
remember Dan Marino now today. I imagine it would have been the same for Peyton had Brady not been picked off by Marlon Jackson on that final drive in that two thousand and six AFC Championship game. And I'm also not trying to hear a single word about Manning's twenty fifteen ring because he had about as much to do with that as Monics did for those Celtics championship teams. And yes that is a semi pro reference Will Ferrell's best movie, Everybody, Love Everybody. So here's my point, and
this is where I'm gonna lose you. But that's okay because I have the microphone and the opportunity to bring you back, in which I will do. These next three games won't define too his legacy. They won't even matter for two his legacy. The reason because he's young. He'll have so many more of these games. And he'll have many more because when he quarterbacks a football team, high school, college or otherwise National Football League, they're gonna win games.
And winning games means you get to play in big games. Justin Herbert had a few big games the last couple of years, like the playoff game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, the greatest second greatest playoff comeback of all time, or the twenty twenty one game at a four and thirteen Houston team that they lost because of a pick six he threw.
I digress.
Now, big game record does matter, but not really for a twenty five year old. A lot of quarterbacks didn't win right away, Hence the preamble talking about Peyton Manning and Dan Marino. Shoot, look at right now, I don't see people talking about Lamar Jackson's playoff record that frequently. Maybe I'm not as innudated with Rayvens information and conversation as I am.
Miami Dolphins.
They will talk about it if he loses again this year, right, But then the next season in twenty twenty four, they'll go back to marveling over his skills, which they should. He's a great player, but he is one to three, including a loss as a fourteen and two dominant football team with his MVP season over a kind of also ran wild card Titans team. Tua is only going to get better with the more football that he sees. His
superpowers are not ones that deteriorate quickly. Let's actually go ahead and get a reminder on that from coach Bevell, who talked about those superpowers at his Thursday press conference.
Well, it's I mean, it's one of two of superpowers, you know, really, I mean there's every every player has, you know, skill sets that you know that really help them, that they're really good at. And then you know there's some that you know that they're not as good at. You know, you can just stack up all the quarterbacks speaking specifically, you know, some guys have disability. Some guys
have that ability. You know, if you compared Michael Vick to a Tom Brady, both outstanding quarterbacks, but different styles of play. Two two, his secret powers are his anticipation, his timing, his vision, and his accuracy. And he does that as well as anybody that that I've been around, and not everybody can anticipate. As far as the quarterback play goes, you know, you have to have obviously a pre snap read then then a post snap you have
to verify what's happening at the post snap. He knows where our guys are going to be and it goes part of that that trust that I'm talking about. Our guys have a certain landmark or spot that they need to be at and there you know he has got to be trusting and that hey, they're going to get there when they're supposed to be there. So I think you've seen that time and time again. You could pull up clips and and just say, Yep, that was one where he trusted it. Yep, that was one where he
trusted it. And so there's there's part of trusting, but then the vision is what allows him to have some of those anticipation throws, Like I go back, one of the one of the really good ones.
Was at h at the Chargers.
You know, he hit one.
Come there's like four guys. You're like, how did he throw that thing in the middle of that. It's because he trusted the guy was going to be there, but he anticipated that window being there that we talk about and just let it go.
Sunday is a big game. One I think they'll win.
But if they don't, there's not that's not a reason to demand change. Just remember that because there'll be many, many more and a PostScript. Finally, it's a home game, a home game for a big game. Finally, I was thinking about my confidence in this game because you heard the Wednesday podcast, you heard the Thursday guests, like, I am very set on Miami winning this football game, even though I realized there was a possibility they do not
win the game. And maybe I should be more impacted by history than I allow myself to be, because I always tell Dolphins fans, I don't care what happened in nineteen seventy four doesn't impact twenty twenty three Dolphins. And you're conditioned to believe the Dolphins will blow it in the big games, and they've proven you to be right in that regard, even though it doesn't translate. It's like
being superstitious, right. Superstition doesn't actually do anything. Maybe it puts you at ease in a pressure field moment, but it doesn't actually do anything right, because every freaking time we have one of these games, we get let down. It goes back to last year at San Francisco eight and three, seventy five yard touchdown pass to start. At the game at trent Sherfield, You're thinking, this is the zenith, We've made it, we've arrived. Didn't work out that way.
Then you go to the Chargers the next week, a chance to kind of undo that loss, and you kind of get smacked in the face once again. And then it goes back at twenty twenty one at Tennessee. Steinker of a game at twenty twenty in Buffalo, probably the worst game you've seen for the Dolphins team this decade, New England in twenty eighteen at three and oh against a one to two Patriots team shellax thirty eight to seven. We always lose these games, and they're always on the road. Somehow.
It's time to change that. But if we don't, there's always more. It's a big game, but it's not the last big game I've been Travis Wingfield. That's my time on the show. Please subscribe to the podcast rate review Us, follow me on social at Wingfield NFL and the team at Miami Dolphins.
Check out the fish Tank Podcast with.
My guest Today, Seth Leven and his co host Oj McDuffie, and the Great Dan Reno episode. Also the YouTube channel for media availabilities, Dolphins Today and so much more, and last but not least, Miami Dolphins dot Com.
Until next time.
Fins Up, Caroline, Cameron, Daddy's come and hope.
Yeah,