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Fire for a second time.
Don't know where he was going right away.
I want to hit that though.
Man, I'm wanna help you.
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Drive Time with Travis Wingfield begins. Now let me check your all, baby.
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What is up?
Dolphins? And welcome to the Draft Time Podcast, part of the Miami Dolphins Podcast Network, covering your team, your Miami Dolphins. It is week number two, a Friday variety hour. Here on the Draft Time Podcast. We're gonna hear from Kyle Krabs in the Finns Draft in five here later on, also a stop by the locker room and talk to some of the guys. But first and what I'm most excited about. Jeff Darlington joins us on the podcast today. You do not want to miss this interview from the
Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Drift Time podcast. Let's right away get to my interview today with ESPN's Jeff Darlington. Please join me in welcoming back to the show from ESPN the great Jeff Darlington. Jeff. When I turned on NFL Countdown on Sunday and they cut to the quad box with all the reporters on site, I was shocked to see you at Hines Field and not out here at so far for the Dolphins game.
That's right, I was in Pittsburgh. Oddly, I don't cover every Dolphins game and we actually just have inside baseball stuff. But Lindsey Theory, a wonderful reporter who lives in Los Angeles. She is now going to be more full time with Countdown, and she was out there. She lives there, and she is perfectly adequate dandal that task. But I will see you very soon, Travis. I'm sure we'll do a lot of Dolphins games this season.
I was gonna say, yeah, you kind of have a front row seat to one of the most exciting teams, at least for the first week of the season, and I have to imagine that continues here going forward. But yeah, I always love having you around here. Maybe the Broncos home game, maybe, I don't know.
I don't think there'd be a lot. I think there'll be. I mean I might be stationed there now that you know. I don't want to go too far here, but the AFC East is looking quite different than it did not too long ago.
It's crazy how that happens. And like you said, one weekend, the entire paradigm seems to have shifts so far, at least through one week, and I'm sure it'll shift again next week and a week after that. That's how this league goes, why we love it so much. But I
want to get you on here, Jeff. Today we talk about, you know, speaking of a Sunday countdown, your piece on coach McDaniel, and I'll never forget we had you on the Twitter Spaces Show, one of our first ones last year with Seth and Oj and you were adamant that the addition of coach McDaniel would be one that would maybe not just parallel the Tyreek acquisition, but even supersed it in terms of its importance. And we saw a great game plan play out here. So I want to
revisit that question with you about McDaniel's impact. Let's go ahead and start there and just kind of give us a week, one year two rebuffer on that comment and just what you saw in this first game with McDaniel, the Dolphins getting the win in Los Angeles.
Well, you know, I would say that two things I knew about micah Ready was his brilliance as an offensive mind, which obviously was no mystery really once anybody did a deep dive to understand his impact on the forty nine ers. The second element that I believed he'd be successful at is managing a locker room in terms of the personalities
that are in there. He is such a likable person but also a very open minded person, someone that really, if you get him in a room, the initial impression is a bit quirky, and beyond that you start to realize the loyalty the understanding of people. And I thought that those two things would be why he'd largely be successful. What I've been especially impressed by by him and his coaching staff is how well run the organization has been
since he arrived. I think one of the very understated components to a coaching staff or any NFL organization is how difficult it is to have a well oiled machine, whether it's organized practices, whether it's clear messaging, whether it's the meetings themselves. And I think that I've been very impressed, not surprised, but there was an unknown there about how Mike would handle that component of being a head coach, and so far, to me, he and his coaching staff have knocked it out of the park.
I recall the social ideas about whether or not he had the look for an NFL head coach, and I always found that to be so funny, because who gives a damn what you look like if you can do the job at a high level, and you know, back to your piece on Countdown. Can't imagine there's a person listening to this podcast right now who has not seen it. But if you have not, go check it out. It's on Jeff's timelines on ESPN and sports and there's timeline all that good stuff. But I was hoping to get
some some behind the scenes from you. First of all, have you done a piece like that before? Pretty unique to be able to join up with a head coach at two o'clock in the morning and drive to work with them.
No, I have not. You know, I've I've gotten really good access with players in the past, and I'm proud of the access that I've gotten players. But a head coach is a different a little bit of a different situation and a world that that really, I know many people have really entered into. And I'm really thankful to first of all, Mike and the Dolphins organization and Nolan and pr for really not only buying into the idea
but really kind of catapulting it. And I think that one of the elements here that was so special about it with Mike is that not just his willingness to provide the access, but to be vulnerable in topics that are you know, both wide ranging and intimate, and I think his story, you know, one of the things that Mike is so passionate about is to make sure that if there's any spotlight on him, that it is for
the greater good of the organization. He's so adamant about that, and you know, I think that was probably a concern for him, like is this I don't He's not comfortable with the idea of it just being about him. Can it be better for the team, And to a degree, superficially. I'm sure people might look at it and say that it is just a story of Mike and his past, but I would argue that, you know, whether by design
or not, and I don't think it was. I think it's very helpful for the team and the organization to understand who he is and where he comes from, and he can stand up in front of a room and say it, and there can be you can read, you know, past articles, but to feel it, and that was I think my goal going into it was to show that Mike is not just a quirky, funny dude. He is, but that he is also he has a past, he has scars, and so too do so many people in
that locker room. So again, not that is by design, but if that can galvanize a room and players can potentially learn something about their head coach that helps that locker room, then you know, I think that that's a positive as well.
Yeah, to your point, I mean, most of these players, I mean, to be able to achieve excuse me, Jeff, to be able to achieve this, you know, to get to this level of this profession, you probably had to go through some trials and tribulation. So to be able to share his story. I'm sure really connects with a lot of guys who've gone through their own, you know, issues in the past and overcome those you know, adversity
as an opportunity, he always loves to say. So how perfect is that that he can kind of use his own life experience to really drill that point home. You mentioned you wanted to prove and show the non quirky side of Coach, But I have to ask you because in that piece, you're doing it for a specific reason, but you spend so much time with him. I know that Coach threw some jokes at you. You guys probably have
some fun levity moments. Can you give us some behind the scenes look at the content that got left on the cutting room floor because it did not fit the piece.
There is always with Mike, I mean, and always has been and always will be, no matter of the setting, whether it's with a camera there or not. I mean that literally is who he is and it can fly over people's heads very quickly. I remember saying that the second he got hired, like, hey, guys, buckle up. There's gonna be a lot of things that he says, and
you're gonna walk out of the room. You're not going to have laughed at it, and you're gonna twenty seconds, a minute, five minutes literally as you're going to sleep, you're gonna be like, oh, that's what he was joking.
To be at my podcast with him, you were like, Travis hasn't gotten to know him quite enough yet? Not true?
Do you not now understand it? Yes?
It is.
I mean it is nuanced. Sometimes he is literally practicing bits on you because he loves comedy on me and I you know, we there was plenty of those moments. I'm trying. I can't really necessarily think of specific ones. But it was funny when we got in the car and he just the second we got to his house. We left our house, my house here with my crew at like two am. Make sure you're prepared that you're there early. You know, you never want him to be waiting.
I mean we pulled up and like the second we pulled up, the garage door goes up, and I mean it's got to be two twenty. I mean it's not like he hits the alarm clock and you know, struggles
to get out of bed. Like he walks out and he's like ready to go, and even in the car right again there he's like, yeah, I'll apologize like I and he's he's talking not you know, he's obviously overcome his struggles that we've talked about, and it's not like he doesn't know how to sleep in and all those things, but he goes when I wake up, I'm immediately going a mile a minute, and to like my friends in college, to anybody that I've ever known, he's like, I realized
how wildly annoying that is. You know, for most people they need a minute with Mike, he does not. He is full go pedal to the metal. You know, you talk about cutting room floor one of the things that I actually thought could carry the piece. This wasn't even funny, but it's it's a good opportunity to share it. When we left his house, there was at one point where I thought this was going to be the framework of
the piece. It just didn't end up being that, and we just went a little bit different way with the structure. When we left his house, we went east instead of west, towards the stadium. And this is a good opportunity to show the story because a lot of people from South
Florida understand this. We go east toward because he lives near the water, and we go over one bridge and then we go come back over another bridge, very roundabout way, and I at one point I go and I'm from here, so I understand it, and I go, why did you just go that way? You realize that is not He's like, oh, yeah,
the GPS definitely does not like that. But he told me he never saw the ocean until he was I believe, he said in high school or in college, being from Colorado, and now he lives so close to it that he cannot help. But every day to start his drive, go over a bridge and see water. And he's like, it's the first five minutes of my drive are about perspective and about appreciating the moment. And I was like really taken back by that, Like, I mean, how cool is that?
Like that this guy, yes, he is waking up so early to get to work because he has a level of urgency about him, but he's also still willing at this point to take that five minutes out of his day and kind of reflect on it. And I thought, how fitting and sort of from a storytelling standpoint, again,
it didn't really necessarily go this way. He was a little too complicated to say, but like the road less traveled, I mean it is his path, the entire way, literally, very literally from the second he gets in the car in the morning.
Our imitates life, right, I mean, stop and smell the roses a little bit. It kind of reminds me of what coach Darryl Bevell has you know, drilled into Tua about be where your feet are, because Mike has made that same comment several times about just kind of being present in the moment and how he owes that to the players in the organization, the coaching staff, to be president and not think about, Wow, my first NFL game, Wow,
this big moment. That's you know, I could think and make it about me, but I don't do that, and it brings me my next question here, Jeff about the quarterback and with with Mike McDaniel, the relationship between he and Tua. What a performance on Sunday? Surprised expected that? What do you think about Two's first game here in twenty twenty three?
Certainly not surprised, I think I think anybody who continues to be surprised by two his ability is fooling themselves. I mean, he's shown it, and that's not just about two that this happens too often in the NFL in general. I feel similarly to a guy, like a good example would be a guy in Jared goth I talked to him about this ever since that game when he had against Patrick Mahomes, when it was fifth, four to fifty one. It was the most unbelievable regular season game I've ever
seen in my life. And then a couple of years later people say, oh, he sucks, Jared Goff, you know, he's not good enough. I refuse to accept or believe that a player, a human being, can go do something as athletically special and gifted as that and then just not have it. That is not lightning in a bottle. And the parallel here is with Tua. Last year, we saw it. I mean it was there in front of
our eyes. Yes, the injuries, I get the concern, and honestly legitimate concern, which Tua has done his best to try to alleviate those concerns literally in his preparation. But the idea that he couldn't go out there and do what he just did, to me, it's ridiculous. Of course, he can do it. He's showed us that the beauty of it is going back to Mike and the offense. And I don't want to take any credit away from
Tua here, he's the one who did it. But I just love the empowerment and the confidence that has been bestowed on him, whether it's from Tyreek, whether it's from his teammates. We are seeing that, and I think that that goes a very long way in his ability to attack and be the guy that he is capable of being.
Yeah, I think that the conference to a displayed in that game because there was a couple of throws early on into some coverage where it's like, man, I don't know that probably shouldn't have been tested in that window. But the confidence to keep going back to with the ball placement he shows. Yeah, the game went to Tyreek for instance, there's he's not open open, unbelievable.
And at first you're thinking, when you see that, that's Tyreek, and again it takes a special wide receiver. The second you see the replay, you're like, wait a second, that ball disappeared through the defender, like it literally looks like it went through the body of the defender and somehow ended up in Tyreek's hands. It was unbelievable and that was absurd, I mean, and that's not I saw someone
saying this the other day. It's not necessarily a timing thing, I mean, or it is more of a timing thing. It's not touch pass, yeah, because he doesn't know that the defender's going to be there. But it is a timing thing where he put it so perfectly where there was only one person at one point who's going to be able to catch that pass. That is where Tua is absolutely elite. And that, by the way, is what Mike has always seen in him from the second he
got here. He didn't see all the flaws that previous people have seen. He saw the positives, namely his ability to have elite ball placement.
The one that made m run around the building and tell everyone, look at the seven hundred play real ef together of this quarterback and the way he can kind of mitigate pressure and the idea of surrounding him with weapons and not you know, I mean, not that they didn't invest in the offensive line to Ron Armstead and Connor Williams were both massive gets for this team. Now getting Austin Jackson back and Kendall Lamb looks pretty good,
Isaiah Win looked pretty good. But they knew that they had a skill set in this quarterback where he could really maximize playmakers on the perimeter more than you know, going out and building a you know, five first round track pick type of offensive line. I want to take a break right here and come back on the other side and talk more about Tua and Mike's relationship, what we can expect the rest of the way for the Miami Dolphins here in the next sixteen games of the season.
That's next. My guest today Jeff Darlington on the Draft Time podcast brought to you by Auto Nation. Back here with ESPN's Jeff Darlington, who had a great piece on Sunday NFL Countdown detailing Mike McDaniel and the kind of history that he had to overcome to get to this position where he's now leading to Miami Dolphins out of the gates to a want to know start here in
his second season. We talked a little bit about Tua on the other side there, Jeff, and I just want to go back to the relationship between those two guys, because you have this you know, like you said, the access to coach, to kind of get to know him and just know a little bit more about him than we get to see outside of the quirky jokes and the way he leads this football team. How would you describe that relationship and is it unique for a quarterback and coach to be so tight and to be so
intertwined like that. I know that there are obviously, you know, coaches and quarterbacks around the league that do have good relationships, but this one seems a little bit unique to me, you.
Know, is unique for I think that the most successful partnerships are often the ones that are where the quarterback is an extension of the locker room, but somewhere in between the coaching staff and the locker room. So from that perspective, on paper, maybe not, it is a very special relationship. And again I'm not necessarily one to harp on the past, but in this case, I can't ignore
it either. Brian Flores as a head coach was a different type of coach, much more militant, much more, you know, coming from the Bill Belichick model, and his expectations maybe in certain regards were different. And that doesn't mean that that's necessarily bad personally, I think you have to adjust to your players, but I'll give him that you can win like that. Bill Belichick proved it with Tom Brady. The way that he handled Brady in this situation, it
was clear that too, his confidence was shattered. It was obvious. I mean, it was obvious to It should have been obvious to outsiders, but internally, I can tell you it was obvious. So for Mike to come in with his optimistic and it is authentic and genuine, and I don't think that as by a coincidence at all. Steve Ross, Chris Career, Tom Garfinkel, I think recognized that that quality in Mike immediately recognized their quarterback and and where his
mental state was. And I'm not saying that you make the higher just for the player, but it certainly has to be a factor. And I know that they felt that way coming out of that higher that they saw Tua and said we're going to do right by you. Yes, I mean we could look at Ted Lasso, you know, as a great example of that dynamic. You know, I'm not saying it's not that, but there is there is power in optimism, and Mike sees that and to a need of that and I think that that makes it
very special. One of the reasons why last year was so difficult to watch when it came to a lot of the criticism that Mike was facing to a situation was I mean, if you had any sense of Mike's care for Tua and for players in general, you would
know how ridiculous that take was. That I thought was that was tough, and I think it it will ultimately though time allows people to see who Mike is and understand that his relationship with Tua will absolutely it won't change his ability necessarily to go out there and do everything on the field. There's a lot to be seen here, but I think that everybody right now is in a really nice situation.
Well, like you said, a lot to be seen because you know, still sixteen games to go. You mentioned off the top how much the landscape and just this one division seemed to shift so rastically just with a couple of ball games that happened over the weekend, and so I'm just curious to get your take on where you see things going for this team going forward, because like you mentioned, you know, and Jeff, you've been here for press conference as you've seen to us speak to the media.
It is night and day compared to a couple of years ago with how he just addresses us, the confidence, the bravado he displays, and you see it on the field as well. I think so thinking about all that, you know, the offensive line performance was awesome. Tyreek Hill is Tyreek Hill. We'll see about the defense kind of getting their sea legs under them here for the first game in the Vic Fangio defense. Where do you see things going from here for the Miami Dolphins in twenty twenty three.
Yeah, I think the good news is that the offense is usually the thing to kind of take its time to come around. That's really speaks volumes to the off season preparation for them to go in and be just firing we saw from the Bills, for instance. I think the Bills will figure it out. I don't think we should take week one as a complete litmus test of
the entirety of the landscape. I'm surprised the way Josh Allen played because all off season you've expected to see a different Josh Allen in terms of not running so much, doing weird things with his legs, and throwing those picks. I tend to think that that will be corrected eventually. The Jets. Obviously, that's not changing with Aaron Rodgers. The Patriots. Look, I know they held up with the Eagles, but to me, I still think that they are still on the outside
looking in of the potential playoff picture. I mean, that's just how I felt a whole off season. I'm not just using Week one as the example. So it's all in front of them. But you know, it's part of the game is we'll see what happens with injuries. You know, you got to stay healthy. I mean, you saw it with the Jets yesterday. Everything can change in a second. The Dolphins fans know as well as anybody. But if you're looking for a good, healthy start, that's exactly what the Dolphins.
Had, especially in the league where offense was kind of hard to come by in this first week across the NFL. But Mike McDaniel's side and Kyle shannon and side seem to have it figured out as well as anybody. One week.
Wasn't wasn't obviously wasn't on the game. Armstead wasn't even active for this game, right, He.
Did not play. He was rolled out on Friday, So yeah, it was.
Like Armstead's out, Jalen Ramsey's out. Uh, and you still kind of are firing that way in Week one. That's against by the way, a very talented team that some people believe will challenge the Chiefs in that division. So it can much more than.
That pick for the Super Bowl from a lot of people as well. I mean, that's as talented as it comes. That defense has players up and down the roster there, and Miami just went up and down the fill on them. So very good. Jeff, appreciate your time today, man, ESPN. Where are we going to see you this week? You're you gonna be in Foxboro for the that game.
I will not. We don't do a lot of those. I'll be in Jacksonville for Jaguars Chiefs see Patrick Mahomes can get back on.
Track playoff rematch.
Yeah exactly, Jeff. Appreciate game, and then we'll get there for the Dolphins soon.
Don't worry, it's coming up. We got the home games are coming up. They kind of push it off where you shouldn't have to go in that hot suit and sweat and the like it.
Man, can't wait.
Appreciate you, ye, and away he goes. I told you. That was good man that I was excited to get a chance to get Jeff here on the podcast. Let's go ahead and take our last break and come back on the other side. We'll hear from the locker room and the great Kyle Krabs from Lockdown Dolphins. That's next Draft Time Podcast to your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by a donation. A couple more items here on
a variety Friday of the Drive Time podcast. Let's go ahead and first hear from Tyreek Hill when I asked him, if they want to bracket cover you, what's your mindset going into that matchup.
I'm still gonna dominate that no matter what, man you feel me. I mean, I still got a job to do, and that's to run my route. So put two guys, only one guy on me, three guys on me. I'm still gonna, you know, run my route to get open.
So also caught up with Emmanuel Ogball, who played just seventeen snaps in his first game back from the tri steps injury that cost him pretty much the entire twenty twenty two season. But here's a manual talking about his first game back, playing in front of you crazy Dolphins fans out in California and the matchup this week in Foxborough. First, I was curious to just ask me how it felt to get back out there after missing so much time last year.
Oh, Now, it felt really good being out there. I'm not wanting more action, but it felt good just just being out there with the guys, you know, actually playing for meaning for games. But it's really felt good.
How do you feel like that kind of helped you knock some rust off or just kind of get back in the flow of things.
I'll say that's what preseason's for, you know.
It just helped me, like get back out there, get back moving, just in that on and seeing what I can do.
And I felt good, felt good to kind of, like you said, to work the try set back out of here.
Yeah, kind of like striking somebody, shetting off the gloss and everything there.
So, so you're facing a team this week that I don't know if you I don't know if you guys look at this, but their injury report on the offensive line there's like four or five guys on it. How do you prepare for an opponent when you could have all five of them available, all five could be.
Out prepare like everybody else's point, Like everybody's could we watch from on Trim Brown? I saw about Shrimon Brown, but we watched from on everybody. Make sure you know we're ready at all time so we can't be caught off guard.
So I know this is more of an offense question on the road. But Patriots fans are pretty you know, pretty loud most times. What's what's the challenge of playing in that building?
I mean, they came really get loud when we're out there, but uh, I don't know, it's always a challenge, you know. You know Patriots, you know they dynasty, you know they're fans, they're die hard fans too. But I'm sure our fans gonna be there, you know, getting loud, just like they were wearing Cali.
It's gonna say, show out pretty well in caliy, right, Was it anything more Dolphins fans.
There than Oh?
For sure?
It got to a point in a game I was like, well, what, yeah, what stadium were playing there? You know, I thought it was a Dolphins stadium, But it was nice to have all fans out there.
When they threw that grounding flag at the end on the broadcast, like it erupted. The place erupted, like yeah, I was like, damn, was that a good golf for the Chargers?
But yeah, So it's like it's crazy because you know, we had a different environment but still had our fans travel with us.
That's awesome.
What's the message this week after showing that you guys probably would like to get corrected to get you know, approved next week, what's the message from the coaching staff to you guys?
Stop them wrong, be more stopped on defense.
Last week wasn't us.
We gotta do a big job this week.
So it feel like you can contribute more in the running game.
Than almost definitely when I get out there, I'll do my things.
So appreciate it and a way, he goes, let's go ahead and spend to Friday and Mike McDaniel, who spoke to the media and he gave us some updates on injuries and potential playing time for Sunday. If you want to see the full injury report, I'll have it up on my Twitter timeline the moment it comes out. I
want to push this podcast out to y'all. First, I don't think it's impertinent to put it in the podcast because by the time you guys hear this part of the show, you've probably already seen the injury report, so we're always going to have it on my Twitter timeline. Let's go ahead and get back to coach here, who was asked about the Patriots game plan. If you expect them to adjust to what you do offensively, do you expect them to do what they do best? Regardless? Here's coach on just that.
Generally, in the game of football, and it goes on both sides of the ball, is.
The you have.
You're always given the opportunity to correct and or improve.
In a phase of the game because because.
What happens is if you get as an offense, if you get beat on a blitz, you're probably.
Gonna see the same blitz again.
Coaches get paid to assess the tape and when you're vulnerable, you kind of have to stop the blitz before you stop seeing it. Same thing is the case for defense. If if a team has success running the ball, turn the page.
The next week, you know the next team.
Will will have high intent so to to replicate the same thing. So there's no hiding in the National Football League. And it's kind of a cool thing, you know, that's what I told the team. It's like, it's it's weird because you have so much build up for game one, so much build up. I mean, we're talking about it endlessly and really realistically. Players after the loss of against Buffalo in the playoffs, we're talking to me about this season.
So they're talking about week one and then and then in the game of football, you have a game all that build up, and it's one game that stands alone and is the identity of everyone for an entire week. And so we're all talking about what we just built up for. You know that, and then you go to
another week. That's another story. Well, in that every single opportunity are on the field, you have the opportunity to define who you are and what And you know, if if you don't fancy yourself as a poor run defense, then you know, if you don't fancy yourself as.
If your team.
Wants to run the ball more, or you want to run the ball better, then run the ball better.
You have an opportunity the next week. It's the beauty of this game.
And there's people you have to you have to stop people from doing something or they'll continue to do it.
Let's do just one more here from coach. He was asked about guarding against the hype the Dolphins have received as a team and their quarterback in the MVP discussions already through Week one. He was asked if he feels the need to address that this year versus last year. I found this to be really interesting here from Mike McDaniel and how the team has changed from a year ago.
You know, it's an interesting point.
Last year, I definitely felt the urge to, you know, I think we've spent.
So much time, you know, I try to get proactive.
With it and tell people as much as I can what will happen, so that when it happens, it's you don't look into it too much.
You know. I think I.
Haven't felt that need with this team just because I honestly feel like they understand.
One win.
A one win team, it is not a very good team.
There's a lot more.
You have to win a lot of games, and that's that's hard in the NFL. So I do think, you know, last year was a big, big help in that being able to, you know, experience what happens when you have any sort of win streak and how people are making I mean there's just so much conversation about things that are impossible to predict because one player changes the complexion
of every team. You know, one one, I mean, And it's all about continuing to develop and to grow and getting too excited about one win is and what people are saying about you.
Is setting yourself up for supreme.
Failure because I don't I don't think that anyone will be surprised when you know, whenever the you can't be surprised what what happens.
Literally with with every team.
If you do well for that week, you'll you'll be considered something worth keeping your job for, and then you don't, and then it's up in the air.
But that's the way. Uh, it's it's kind of the black.
And white part of the game that I really enjoy, just because you have to be kind of tough minded in both avenues and whether you're getting praised or you're getting harassed, literally, it doesn't matter for the next game that fans are paying to see. That is one of the finite amount of games that they're that each and every player and coach is able to be.
In because nothing is nothing is forever.
So that's the biggest thing with them or it's been kind of cool because I haven't had to feel that. I haven't felt that neat. I think they understand that we're way early in the journey.
Let's go ahead and finish up this week of podcast with a look at the college game. Kyle Krabs joins us to break down what you can can expect to see this weekend in college football for the second straight week, and we're going to do this every single week here on every Friday podcast to get you guys caught up not just around the National Football League, but what's going on in the college landscape, to get us prepared all year long for April and the NFL's Draft, because the
draft season never sleeps. He is Kyle Krabs locked on Dolphins and locked on NFL Scouting with the great Joe Marino. They do a great job giving you guys all kinds of content on the NFL Draft every single year. Kyle, how we doing, how we fill in? After Week one? It's good to be back in the swing of things I don't know about.
You get a chance to kind of process these games, and then you get into your own respective game flow, just like the team does. Get ready for the next team on the schedule and then having the college later on top of it is just it's a blast, man.
I'm doing great.
Yeah, getting back into the swing of it. I agree big time. I actually, you know, the first week, like even for me as a podcaster, is kind of like a filling out process in terms of how the content's going to go. And I actually kind of messed up on my All twenty two podcast and got way too excited and did way too many notes and broke down way too many plays and by the end of it was like a forty five minute show and it was way too the third quarter six twenty three to play.
Here's a play now. I'm just like, you got to reel it back a little bit, man. But we're excited about being one to zero, and I know you're excited about that and the college football weekend ahead. I want to go ahead and start here with kind of the same thing I asked you last week, and we'll do this every single week. Here is some under the radar guys that you think could potentially in twenty twenty four long way out potentially be fits for what this Dolphins
offense or defense wants to do in the future. Who are some guys you're watching for Dolphins specific scouting this weekend.
Yeah, I got two names. I got an offensive lineman and I've got a tight end. The tight end is very much under the radar, but has been a player who every time I've watched this team over the last couple years when he's been healthy, has really popped. His name's Isaac Rex and he plays for BYU, and he is playing BYU is playing Arkansas this weekend, so a really good opportunity to see Mountain WHI. I think he
can't keep track of these conferences anymore. I think they're still in Mountain West this year, but going to Big twelve playing against an SEC program, so that'll be a good spotlight for him. I think he's got a pretty well rounded skill set. And then the offensive lineman is a guy who's probably in a lot of first round box but I only recently got around to doing the deep dive on his tape, and it's Graham Barton from Duke.
He plays tackle for them. His freshman season he played center, so you hear positional versatility and how the Dolphins like having the ability to have guys be cross trained at certain spot just to be able to have the best combination of five guys. He's built like a tackle, but he moves like a center. So there's there's really intriguing elements.
There for Barton.
I think he's probably somebody in the right system zone system that could feasibly play all five spots on the offensive line, almost kind of.
Like a Joel Tipman from last year in terms of the athletic ability and that that lengthy had on the inside there was And just speaking of that real quick, like you talk about those positions, and uh, for the Dolphins, all of a sudden, like you look at the offensive line, all of a sudden, you know, Rob Jones and Toront Arms.
There are two players that you know, Toront's a potential Hall of Famer at some point in his career, and Rob Jones, the guy that you and I will feel pretty good about, not even available to the Dolphins, And all of a sudden, their offensive line with two key guys not available, is playing pretty well. So depth for
the Dolphins front looking definitely sharp right now. But I definitely want to keep an eye on the offensive line every single year because every team could draft o line every year, and the thing is.
Too many good offensive lineman on a roster.
There's several positions against that about, but I think offensive line might be v one at this point with how the kind of talent disparity is in the NFL. By the way, there's a great clip of the BYU kids not knowing where Arkansas is on a map. Again, I had a chance to go check that out. Pretty funny ahead of this weekend's matchup against the Razorbacks. Kyle am I right here, there's no games among two ranked teams this weekend.
As far as I am aware, that is a correct and factual statement to make on Drive Time.
Yes, well that's lame anyway. I was going to ask you who you're going to be watching in the big games and then give us the off the radar game, but I think I'll do it this way. Let's just get some top prospects here that have challenging, prove it type of matchups this week in terms of NFL prospect versus potential NFL prospect.
Yeah.
So there's another tight end that I have written down here who I think has the potential based off his athletic profile and stature to push pretty high up and he's going against UNC and that's Minnesota's Brevian span for this is like a six seven to sixty tight end with some really nice athleticism. Interested to see him in a spotlight against a un team that has a lot of offensive firepower, you may end up needing to get
into a shootout if you're in Minnesota. So span Ford, I think, is a guy who has a really big opportunity, and the other one is maybe not necessarily super Dolphins relevant, but number eleven Tennessee is at Florida and Joe Milton at the quarterback position, former Michigan Wolverines guy, big time tools like handcannon for an army man, ridiculous ability to throw the ball, but the consistency with offensive execution and pre snap process and decision making posts like all of
that is kind of to be determined in Tennessee's offense. Obviously, you saw what it did last year for Hendon Hooker, who kind of had some of the same questions before playing full time as the starter last year. So I'll be watching him Joe Milton against the University of Florida as kind of the hallmark power programs clashing against each other with I think the prospect who has the most approved.
You just got that in in five minutes and once second, so Finn's draft in five zero one. We're gonna call it on this. Okay, we can take you addition right here, but I'm going to stop the clock right there, because, first of all, great stuff, and Joe Milton reminds me of like Scout dream coaches, Maybe not so much because there's so much you kind of have to rain in and kind of, you know, mold that ball of clay
as it were. I love those kinds of prospects because you can kind of see how they grow over time, if it works or it doesn't work for them. In terms of the pro skills, clicking Kyle, big matchup Sunday night Football here, just real quick thoughts on Dolphins and Patriots.
Yeah, I think it's really interesting for Miami's defense to have a bounce back opportunity. Obviously, the discussion point all week was the Russian defense, but you know, the Philadelphia Eels was the team that the Patriots played last week, and the defensive coordinators is Sewan Deci, who's worked in the
past with Vic Fangio. There's some parallels in how they play defense and Philadelphia had a good amount of success in the trenches, and that's where my eyes will be obviously with the talent that the Dolphins have and see Big Fangio said, you know, he took his level of responsibility this week for getting them ready to play versus getting ready to play. I'm really interested to see how ready to play this defensive line is gonna be this week, and.
I gets a Patriots offensive line that might be banged up coming into this one. Dolphins and Patriots eight twenty on Sunday Night from Foxboro, Kyle Finns Draft in five. Appreciate your time, man, Lockdown Dolphins and lockedwn NFL Scouting. We'll see you soon, my friend.
Thanks Grevs And.
There he goes, and there we go for our Friday show for week number two. Hope you all enjoyed the week of coverage. We'll be back with you guys on Monday morning for the recap from Dolphins at Patriots. Until then, that's gonna be my time you all. Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Leave us a rating, leave us a review. You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram at Winkle NFL. Follow the team at Miami Dolphins. Check out Seth and Juice on the
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