Field Yates: People and Process

Buccaneers are world champions. We're gonna welcome in Field Yates of ESPN to talk about next steps for the Miami Dolphins. Will look back at the first two years under Chris Greer and Brian Flores and project where this team is going. All of that and more on this Tuesday, February, the ninth edition of the Drive Time Podcast. Miami Times. And So, the Super Bowl is in the books. It's a rap not the game. I think from a competitive standpoint, the

neutral observer typically roots for. I was personally pulling for the a f C side, because typically I do root for the conference the Dolphins are in, unless it's been a division opponent over the last several years. But the Chiefs come up short to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Tom Brady's first year in Tampa Bay yields a Lombardi Trophy number seven for Brady all time. What a heck of a run he's had, What a heck of a career

he's had with that Buccaneers team. Thought it was kind of cool with seeing Dominican Sue get his first ring. A guy that's been a productive player in league for a long time, was a member of the Miami Dolphins for quite some time as well, he gets his first ring. So congratulations to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They pull off the upset in the Super Bowl. I you know, I thought the Chiefs were gonna win that game, and they

just were sloppy from the start. It seemed like in terms of the penalties, how many flags came out in that game. They had double digit flags for over a hundred yards in that game. Patrick Mahomes on the move constantly throughout the course of the night. Some of the incompletions he had in that game were, I mean, the highlights of the game because of how impressive they were

throwing the ball falling to his side. One of the best memes I saw on Twitter on Super Bowl Sunday was a side by side shot of that incomplete past that Mahomes through on fourth down where he's basically parallel to the ground falling to the ground side by side with White Goodman from Dodgeball, Ben Stiller's character and that great Vince Fawn movie back in like two thousand five, pretty much the exact same throw there from Patrick Mahomes.

So he remains ridiculous despite the fact that he and the Chiefs are now one and one in Super Bowls with that collection of players. But that means the end of the season now, it means it's all about one free agency on the periphery draft season, well within draft season right now. And I put the off season calendar for the NFL up in Monday's Blitz article up on Miami Dolphins dot com, where we look at the timeline

for and events to occur around the league. Of course, this year we're not going to have the scouting combine with everybody descending onto Indianapolis, but there is the window for the franchise and transitional player that is from February to March ninth, where teams can designate one franchise or

transitional player. From March fifteen through seventeen, those are the three days before free agency begins where clubs are permitted to contact and enter into contract negotiations with players with agents of players rather who will become unrestricted free agents on the new league year. And that new league year starts on March seventeenth at four pm Eastern. Set your calendars right now, set your alarm clocks for March seventeenth,

the start of the new league year. That's when everything really gets going here, and that's on a Wednesday for you guys here. So free agency, we're gonna have that covered on Drivetown at Miami Dolphins dot com in depth. Every signing, every action we take will be all over that. So the official start of the new league year March seventeenth,

Wednesday at four pm Eastern. And on April nineteen, offseason workout programs can begin, and on a bull the last day for restrictive free agents to sign their offer sheets occurs. And then finally we have the draft on April through May one, and the draft is scheduled to take place this year in Cleveland, Ohio. All R, let's go ahead and get to my guest now on this edition of

the Drivetime podcast. The Tuesday February the ninth edition. Field Yates of ESPN and writing Shotgun Now on the Drivetime podcast is Field Yates. He's an NFL insider for ESPN and co host of the Fantasy Focus Football podcast and Field I think you're missing one major skill set here from the Twitter bio man Senior Bowl Anchor extraordinaire. I had a lot of fun down there in Mobile. And you know, I'll go through the usual and say thank

you for the opportunity to my employer. But I'm easy to see when I say that, right, the ESPN put some faith in me to go down to Mobile and be a part of the tremendous coverage. Such a fun event though in so many ways, you know, I think in any year it's fun. But you know, I was talking about this with some of my colleagues that were down there in Lewis Red, my pant About and Todd McShay. Just so good to be on a football field. You know, many of us have not been in the football stadium

for close to a year. Much has been on the field to be a ground level to be amongst not just the players, but the two great coaching staffs, the Miami Dolphins, and the Carolina Panthers. Was that's a pretty special opportunity to be Okay, Yeah, the things that we that we took for grant in the past, right, we no longer do. Like you mentioned that, there was actually

the Week two Dolphins and Bills game. I was there in the press box and the CBS feed had got cut for like three or four minutes, and so I was literally like tweeting out my fan base and they're like, Travis's Twitter's timeline is where we're gonna find the place

for the game today. So it's has been a crazy year, man, But I thought you killed it, and and you mentioned McShay and Riddick and tannem baumb man, I wanted to ask you this because those are three, you know, heavy hitters in terms of football knowledge and football insight and resumes in the in the league. What is it like being around those guys when you're evaluating a hundred and thirty five prospects, like you have to soak up some information,

I'd imagine. Yeah, it's so unique because each one of them brings a different perspective as well. Right, you know, Mike Cannon almost start there obviously very familiar to Dolphins fans. He was, you know, either a GM or the e VP of football operations for basically twenty years. Obviously led the show in Miami, led the show in New York. Yet and of course in the fact that it was a Dolphin staff and there were time people that Michael

is very familiar with. I felt like I was walking around with the mayor of mobiles when you were near Mike Sannon bombs. But Mike has basically seen every single situation. Lewis Riddick did not just play the game. He also was a scout for many years, a working personnel for many years of both Washington football team and the Philadelphia Eagles. And now he's evolved into one of e fpn's foremost

game analysts. Obviously part of the Monday Nights Football Books broadcast, and you can tap into all the different uh tenets of his coverage. I think you've got Todd McShay who is still library and I'm fortunate to do the podcast called The First Draft with Todd McShay and mel kiper Jr. Ever, single two they would drop an episode for PM E. Sterns.

I'm fired from the shameless plug and it never ceases too amazing that these two have an energy that is unmatched and a passion that's unmatched, rolldecks of information that's unmatched about these prospects. There thousands, and I'm not exaggerating. There are players they are responsible to be somewhat familiar with. By the time the draft rolls around. Each of them could basically uh discuss those players as if they were their own children. They have such good knowledge of them.

I love working with all those guys. That's what makes the draft, watching the entire seven round, you know, extravaganza for a week and an ESPN does such a great job on the coverage because you get these inside stories on these kids that you probably didn't know beforehand, like for instance, last year Solomon killing the big fish the lifeguard for the Miami Dolphins and that great story that that provided us so much content this year for Miami Dolphins dot Com and here on Drive Time that we

didn't know about before the ESPN shared that story. So that was that was really cool to see. And you mentioned, you know, being down there on the field and mobile for the press for the Senior Bowl, for all those practices and feel I think my favorite part of the coverage was the micd up segments with the coaches, like what was that from your what was that like from your guys perspective? As far as getting those coaches miked up and just hear what they had to say on

the practice field. Yeah, there's no two ways about it. That's the best part. And you know when we go down there at the four hours, well two hour broadcast, thirty minute breaks and then two hours more for each of the practices. And in speaking with our producer Brian Rider going into the event, you know, I was hammering him with questions like, what are you gonna do here? Is We're good, We're gonna hang for two hours. We're gonna watch football for two hours and talk about it.

And it's unlike anything else that we do, at least in terms of my response building the b SPN everything else. You know, you spend a day working on NFL Live Rundown and you know starts at seven am that morning until you go on the air at four pm. That's just so great about the senior is that the best part, without question is when the coaches are animated, the coaches are giving you sounds, you get to see the passion of East coaches, and there's not one way to skin

the cat when it comes to coaching. Not every coach has to be you know, in your face. Not every coach has to be sort of this quiet, stoic leader. Not every coach has to be a guy who you know, doesn't with energy or enthusiasm or positivity or you know, criticism. Everybody is different, and that's what I really enjoyed watching both the Panthers and of course the Dolphins staff, as we got to see a handful of different Dolphins coaches,

Mike up and um. You know, it was great to be able to chat with them a little bit, you know, between drills and before practice as well. But to hear that sound when they're on the field doing what they love. I think it's the coolest part of the broadcast. Because football coaching sounds like a dream job to a lot of people, and it is for many. It's also a

life that is incredibly demanded. You might as well based to say good body to your family from the time of your report to training camp until the time the season is over. But the reason why they do it is not just because they want to feed their family and they want to provide you know, great life for their family is that they can. But it's because they love teachings. They love to be teaching, they love to be on the field with the players. And that's the

sound that you get. You can see how contagious their energy is. And we got a good up close shot there of coach Campanelli, the Dolphins linebackers coach, and I think he lost his voice about halfway through one of those stack and shed drills, and I was gonna say, maybe you go ask him about some food too, because he's a kind of guy that we had him every other week on the on the press conferences here and he would talk about his Sunday dinners back in Jersey. Man.

He's he's a character. He was fun to watch out there. Now you mentioned something their field that I want to touch on further, because you talk about these guys being teachers.

That's a point of emphasis for Brian Flores and he he's kind of made this staff into his vision in terms of bringing in guys from different areas of you know, whether it was coach kurk Kons from last year, who was a high school coach in twenty nineteen and comes in and leaves Dolphins third down defensive meetings this year for the number one third down defense in the National Football Like now Charlie Fry here the quarterbacks coach kind of turning over the coaching staff and getting his staff

under his vision. What do you make of the changes coaches made to his to his coaching staff. Yeah, I mean, so this is this is gonna be flows third year with the Dolphins, and there has been quite a bit of change. I mean, obviously they had a change of defensive coordinator and offensive coordinator last offseason. They did it again on the offensive side of the ball this offseason with Jan Giles is a great, great man, and I wish invest in retirement deciding to retire once again from football.

So I think one thing that we learned this year, Travis, is that we have on the outside it's our job, I mean, in the media, it's our job to make judgments and and for opinions and to do our best with the much as much information as we have, uh, and we try to do so responsibly. The reality is that as much as we think we might know, or we perceive ourselves to know, the people on the inside have a much better foundation of knowledge to work off of and decide what's right for the staff, what's right

for the team. So as we've seen all these changes, not just this offseason, but even dating back to last off season, you know, I'd be easy to say, like, oh, you're changing up coordinators after one year, but that seems unusual, right, Well, I think it worked out pretty well. And it's not just the coaching staff. We saw where a major decision was made by Brian Flores that receives some public backlash.

I mean, obviously the decision at quarterbacks this year to go to to us entering the bye week with the team playing well and Fitsy having led a couple of back to back wins. One thing I've come to know about Brian Flores, and I've been fortunate to know him for I want to say seventeen or eighteen years now, is that, um, he's a man that will refuse to be sucked onto the emotional roller coaster. And that's a that's a very positive strength of his is that you

can say whatever you want about him. I don't think he's particularly phased by that. And if you're gonna be a football coach for a long time, you better not be faced by it because there's a lot of noise.

I mean, we're having podcasts and do a TV show, the radio shows, and writing articles every single day, and I think that it's important for coaches to be able to block out the noise while also addressing what might be topical and the media would need be and flows on an unbelievable job and sort of telling that line actively. And you mentioned it right there at the quarterback position, right that was the kind of the storyline down the

backstretch of the season. And I wanted to touch on that because you mentioned, you know, Lewis Riddick and Todd mcshade they had kind of gotten into that conversation at the end of one of the days of Senior Bowl practices. I forget which one, Wednesday or Thursday, but they touched on it. And you know, Louis has never one to mince his words. That's why I love about him. And he's so assertive and confident in his opinion. And he put it on Twitter. He talked about it like, I

don't understand this. You know, it's not new to but it's this concept of the quarterback has to show you he's a superstar. In the first few stars, otherwise you have to find the replacement. But he was adamantly against that Todd McShay, who was a big fan of two US coming out of college and still remains. So they both were very much focused on this point that let's see what too can grow and develop into year two, Like where does the league sit as far as quarterback development?

How long it's supposed to take? Like is it really the way fans talk about it on social media? Or does the league have more of that pulled back classic like let's develop this guy mindset? Well, I think probably speaking generally, and I want to see generally to start, and I think the league and teams are more inclined to develop. You know, you didn't invest the fifth overall pick on a player to prepare yourself to pull the

plug one year later. Which that's been part of the conversation surrounding two of this offseason is and I want to get to the second part of that a minute, But there are examples around the league of players that have thrived with development. Whether it's a player, I think the best example this year is obviously Josh Allen with the Buffalo bill who has reached incredible heights in his third season when many were ready to write him off

two years ago. Right, I mean, everybody's any can so accurately he's not, and it makes too many bad decisions. There was a playoff game last year, as in the season against sex Ends where he's laddering the ball haphazardly. So as an example of somebody that has grown and developed tremendously, I mean, there are guys that make those strides and it takes some time. So but there are two dynamics that I want to get into, and I'll

start with this, is that you're right. The other issue we have is that we're gonna leave where we have examples of quarterbacks bursting onto the scene. Justin Herbert this year is a great example. And the fact that he was taken one pick behind two US is a fact of this conversation. I'm not trying to, you know, uh, revisit who made the right pick or who did it.

That's not what I'm trying to do here. I'm just stating the fact that when you have one guy going fix, one guy going fix, and the pick six player ends up having a tremendous offensive rookie of the year's season, that enters the minds of fans that are wondering whether it's time to reconsider things. The other dynamic here is that the Dolphins, and I don't want to say the word gift because it's my agift, they pulled up a Master Strokes trade to acquire two first round picks for

the Houston Textris, I don't believe. I obviously have an active question, but I would be surprised if Chris spore Brian's lawrence is respecting the one first round pick to be third overall. You have this incredible asset on your hands. Again, I'm not here to state my opinion about whether who they should pick with number three overall. But the only reason why this is so different than a different circuits than another circumstance is just that you have this opportunity

potentially to draft the quarterbacks. We know it's not gonna be Trevor Lawrence available, whether it's a Zach Wilson, whether it's a Justin Field, one of those two players have guaranteed to be available at picks three. It's opportunity cause and again I'm not here to say that they should

or should not. I think it's important, though, to identify the dynamics of why this conversation is taking place momily, and this is all things being equal, is my preference is to invest in a player, to ELPA player, support

that player. And you and I having this conversation the morning after the Super Bowl, and I understand that this player is not a rookie, but I felt that the ascension of Leonard pour Neett in the playoffs for the Buccaneers was really notable because many myself included, had some fun about the idea that this guy who was supposed to be, you know, a franchise altering running back, all of a sudden it's not from Jabars. Right, You're like, wow,

Leonard Fournett, he didn't get picked up off waivers. And I understand that salary was more significant, time, etcetera. But no one was talking about Leonard Fournette is like this massive game changing player anymore? Right, it was wow? That guy was a buck Well in the playoffs. I'm not saying he was the Buck's best offensive player, but he was phenomenally scoring every single game, caught nearly fifteen passes, ran the ball effectively in a long rushing touchdown last night.

It's a team sport man and you've got to invest in these players. You gotta believe in them, and you've got to prove to them that if you are going to ask of them to get everything they have, then I'm also willing to reciprocate by developing you and putting everything I can behind you to make you a better player. And I think the Dolphins that even though it's a brief tenure with Brian Florence, have a pretty good track

record of developing players. So that's why if you, you know, told me right now date my case, are they taking a quarterback or not? Or the two again next year? I believe will be too again next year. And I'm really glad you brought that the development hallmark up of Brian flores because he talks about it all the time.

I mean, I've I've written so many pieces this year field about how Emmanuel Agba had a breakout season, or how Eric Row and you know you're number six is having the best year of his career at a new position, or Bobby McCain moves to safety a new position and has you know, kind of a resurgence in his career as well. So it's not just exclusive to rookie's, first year player, second year players. I mean, guys develop all

the time at different stages of their career. And you know, that brings me back to kind of an interesting point about where this Dolphins team is right now today. Field you talk about the morning after the Super Bowl in one compared to where they were. Let's go back to when Brian Flores was highed the day after the Super Bowl, back after the season, where this team was coming in they knew they had some contracts to get off the books,

they had to kind of restock the draft capital. Like where was your thirty thousand foot view be of where this team has? Like how far they've come in those twenty four months from the day Brian Floors was hired with Chris Careers the GM to now where they are with all this draft capital. They're they're in good shape cap wise, They've got a much better roster. How would you say they've kind of growing those twenty four months masterfully?

And I'm not trying. This is not one of those where you go on a podcast that runs on the team's website and you do your best to say as many nice things. So it sounds like a great interview and you get a bunch of listons and clicks and retweets and all that. I'm saying this because it's back and and maybe Dolphins fans don't want to revisit this two years ago. Less than two years ago. At this point,

the Dolphins were losing games and historic fashion. There's always that joke that rears itself on Twitter, could Alabama beat the worst team in the NFL, And that's it's always lame and it's obviously never gonna happen, and would the Dolphins at the time would have creamed the Alabama Christen time. But the point is that this team reached about as low of an on field performance point as you could in the NFL. We haven't seen and and we all understand this was you know, short term pain for long

term game. But I wasn't expecting that long term game to happen a year later, right, And so we got to address a few things. The people and the people are unquestionably the right ones in place. You know, Brian Flores, you know we didn't did not win it, but it's you told me, Brian Flores, with the nfls Coach of the Year the fast year, I would have said good. He deserved it. Chris Greer, phenomenal job, outstanding person, level head and leader. Process. How's the process been. Have they

made investments that have proved worthwhile? We just mentioned Emmanuel as an example. Guys really good maybe and Howard a players they've developed themselves by the way, a second round tack and I know that was the previous regime, but still player who was right there in the stick of the defensive Player of the Year conversation. Guys on the offensive side of the ball that we're rookies that were contributing right away, Sam and Kamley, Robert Hunt playing something

the past year. Guys like Jesse Davis who are under the radar, acquisitions in time that have evolved into other team captains or useful pieces. So process, I am on board with people. I'm on board with The big question is simply going to be and I'm not trying to make this about one person, but as you know, the quarterback German League too makes that next step watch out. It's just a fact and you and obviously there's some

pieces you gotta probably reinforced. I think you could stand at a little more size at wide receiver, um, but this is a team that I think is equipped to make more strides going forward as as you kind of gather the you know, like to go back to the quarterback position, like you mentioned their fields, you kind of gauge the temperature of the league. Is that a pretty general expectation for the quarterback from year one to year

two to make that jump? Like? Why for fans that maybe don't understand the difficulty of going from college to the NFL at that position where lights, camera, action, man, everything's on you. There's thirty two faces of the franchise when it comes to the quarterback position. What's the biggest

challenge for that big step? And is there a league wide expectation like Yeah, once the guys out of that rookie season, especially in a pandemic driven off season where there is no off season where this guy's coming back off of a hip injury that basically he had to rehab the whole off season, is there a general expectation

for a pretty big leap there. Yeah. I don't know that I've heard this specifically from Brian flores Um, but I know that I heard this for many years when spending a lot of time around the Patriots and also spending a little bit of time covering them too is Bill Belichick has always remarked on how typically the player's biggest leap in his NFL career is going to be

from year one day year two. You know, I always laughed at like people ask what happens during rookie mini camp when these guys arrived from the facility under normal circums for the first time, and it's like they teach them where about the locker room? And like what the person who, like you know, the security guards name is right. It's not like they're getting right in. So here's how we're gonna play. Cover two was just you know, down in distance. It's no, no, no no, not like it's fundamentally

you're learning. Like I know this sounds ridiculous, but one of the first instullege you'll have is for offensive players, how do we huddle up? Where's the left tackle? Where's the right tackle? Some guys obviously never huddling college, and sometimes it's a little bit different than how other guys who did huddling college. So my point is that typically that jump happened between the first and second years. Now

we've also seen it between years two and three. We thought it was somebody like Josh Josh Allen, excuse me. And then there are other players who it might happen later, like Sam Donald might be an example of the guy that circumstantially hasn't had quite the same pieces around him.

So that's why I think this upcoming year could potentially be one that we have all eyes onto him, because let's let's just operate onto this presumption he's the guy going into the season and that the Dolphins use some of their resources available to maybe pad the offensive playmakers a little bit, whether that's addressing As I mentioned, wide receiver to me is an area they could add some depth. And then I don't know that running backs is a

need or if it's not, I need. The reason why I say that is that, on the one hand, mild Gaskin seventh round pick and Savan Akhmed a waiver wire ad play tremendous when given the opportunity. On the other hand, the Dolphins also turned to five running backs this year.

For stretches between those two players, plush Jordan Howard before he was waived, Matt Brita who's going to be a free agent, but Patrick Lair, So maybe the team says, Hey, rether than five guys, let's streamline, let's go to you know, let's let's find one workforce back for lack of better

a term. So if those pieces are put in place, and assuming that the system, which I don't think will be overhauled, because the two promotions to co offensive coordinators, I think that too could be primed for quite a leap this year. Now. I did see the Fantasy the Fantasy Focused Football podcast love for both Gasking and Akhmed feels.

We appreciate that definitely here on the Drivetime podcast. And you know, I'm glad you mentioned the story about having the rookies find the locker room, for instance, because I got a good story for you real quickly. Here. This was my first year in Miami covering the team, and my first week in the building. You know, our old practice facility, which will be we'll move to the stadium this year at in Miami Gardens. But the practice facility

and Davy the upstairs hallways, it's amaze. It's an absolute maze. And if your first time up there, you do not know where you're going. And it was like my third day on and I was still trying to find the kitchen where the bathroom was and stuff like that, because you just get lost up there. And ray Kwon Davis. So you've got hundred fifty pound me and three thirty pound Rey Kwon Davis comes intersection and we I saw him in the in the lobby earlier and he's like,

where the hell am I going. I'm like, I think you turn around and go that way, but I'm not sure. Luckily I was right, so it looked like I knew what I was doing. But just a fun little story about how you know, you gotta find your way around the building first before you can worry about playing three technique right totally, I mean I know what you're talking about. I mean it's much different scale and not that being in the SPN employee is its physically demanding as being

an NFL player. Remember I first got here. I showed up to the gym first time I get there, and the like, oh, you gotta bring your own power. So like I finished up the workout and I'm like, great, where is it? You know? Much? Meaning? You know, I'm like walking back into uh, into the office with the sweaty forehead and like these a little filly you know, tiny steps that you gotta take that that impact your day to day that you gotta learn in you're a rookie or a new person on the job. Yeah, exactly.

You you mentioned the Super Bowl happened on Sunday, And remember Chris Godwin on Hard Knocks one time. They the coaches were so impressed, like this guy went guys on apartment, He went and took care of his own things. Like it's it's a different a different world for a rookie coming in to the league, especially you know, guys that

are going out on their own for the first time. So, uh, you know, speaking of that Super Bowl, I wanted to ask you kind of you know, going back to the Chris career and you talked about the people in the process. I thought that was a great quote. Field you mentioned, you know, Chris Career putting together this his personnel staff. I I've known that he's he's good at delegating. He has plenty of people that he puts into position of power to to make these decisions and help them kind

of collaborate and a team effort. But we just saw the Tampa Bay Buccaneers shut down what, in my opinion, is the greatest offensive engine of all time, and and Indie Reid and Patrick Mahomes and all those guys. And we saw the Chiefs get there because of that offensive engine and that quarterback. So when you consider the end of the season and how far teams that one ten games like Miami are to these teams that are competing for Super Bowls, what have we learned from that super Bowl?

And how can the Dolphins kind of apply that to the offseason to get closer and close that gap between Day and the Chiefs and the Buccaneers of the world. So I would start here is you're right, is it was a great performance last night by the Buccaneers, masterfull defensive effort in so many ways. I mean, I think most people, um, you know, watch the game and are acutely aware of what happens. I'm not going to rehab you know, every single detail of what the Bucks did

right or wrong. I will just say that there were some lessons that were reinforced last night. Because I mentioned earlier to the quarterback German League, and I'll stand by that. But it's a team game, right, That's what we forget sometimes is that the masterful performances of somebody like Patrick Mahomes. Sometimes none is up to the impact of everybody else on the field. And I'm not saying I think sometimes people get like they may be misconstrue analysis and that

Patrick Mahomes could have been better last night. He could have His offensive line was completely overmactual last night. And we knew coming into the game that offensive tackle injuries were concerned for the Chiefs. They stepped up in a major way last night. Those injuries did right if they reared themselves in a major way last night. So the

team building lesson is that it's a team team building, right. Um. I also think Travis, one thing that's really interesting to me is that this is being the Super Bowl champion is really tough. You know, it's been sixteen years since we had a repeat champion, and that's the longest stretch ever in NFL history. A matter of fact, I looked this up this morning. It's twice as long as the next longest stretch, right, And so what it reinforced to me.

Another reinforcement reference is that not only is it hard to get back to the mountain top, but any given Sunday, it takes out the elements a predictability that you can sometimes see another sports. And I'm not saying that other champions aren't deserving, but as we know in the n B A to borrow this reference right now, like the Lakers are gonna be really tough to beat provided in Lebron James and Anthony Davis are on the court for

seven games. Right in football, I don't know how many times the Bucks beat the Chiefs or the Chiefs beat the Bucks if they play a hundred simulations. Maybe it's five, maybe it's I don't know, but it didn't matter because they played once in one game that matters. And so for the Dolphins, it's not just addressing the needs. It's not just elevation of quarterbacks play from two and next year. It's also that you've got layers of death because it's

the ultimate team building sports. And if you've got those layers of death, you've got a chance exactly right, especially when you when you think about the the you know, coaching up a scheme or or developing a scheme for a certain game plan. We saw that with the Bucks in that game and Todd Bowls and the fantastic job

he did in that game. I want to ask you one more thing here, Field with regards to the roster building idea, because I'm curious and it pertains to the idea of, you know, having a multi year snapshot as far as how you build a football team. And maybe this isn't back to more of a general question for you. Since you are plugged into all thirty two franchises, you know, we're in year three hour or approaching your number three

here with Brian Floors and Chris Career. Is there a certain point in an organization where, whether it's the timeline of the rookie quarterback contract or the third year of the process, fourth year of the process, where you switch and say, now, maybe it's not so much about acquiring

all that draft capital. Maybe we turn the wheel a little bit now and we get aggressive, like for instance, the best example for me is Los Angeles Rams, and this goes back to before these recent trades and theyve go out and get Brandon Cooks or a key to leave. Is there a point in the franchise where you say, okay, now we're ready to twist the screws and be more aggressive. I don't think so, only because you know, here's what

I would say. It's not based off of the year it's based off of the quarterbacks readiness, right, So for the Chiefs just to go back to them for a second, their quarterbacks proved in year two he was ready to be a league altering player. So a year after after the Chiefs they lost in the AH championship game that year, well, they're gonna go out there and they're gonna they're gonna take some big swings now, right, because they know they can. They acquired Frank Clark as an example, trade for a

trade for the Seattle Seahawks. Those are the kind of things you do because you're like, you know what, let's do it. Our quarterback is ready to do it, and that might be the difference between us winning and losing. But conversely, if your quarterback is not there by year two, you might need to keep waiting. I will say this though, if your quarterback proves that he's ready during the first three seasons of his rookie contract, you start thinking about

it only just a financial thing. It just is. Quarterbacks becomes extension eligible after year three. Usually a team is motivated to extend the player if he is worthwhile an extension already. Unquestionably, after year three, there's some advantages to both by. So if you have a quarterback that shows he's ready within the first three years in this contract,

the wheel does turn a little bit to borrow your plates. Yes, yes, it's certainly easier when those draft picks come in the late twenties too, opposed to you know, like you mentioned, having the third pick in the draft this year, definitely a benefit hopefully an area of the Dolphins not picking in very very often for very long. Here under Brian

Floors and Chris quer Field Dates. He's at field Dates on Twitter, the host of the fantasy focused football podcast NFL Insider at ESPN, and the best dance Senior Bowl anchor in the game. Field, I appreciate your time today, man. If you've got to get back on the peloton, I understand, but I appreciate your time today, sir. I live. I love that that peloton, man. That thing is often so I appreciate you. And that's the loft during the off

season and we chup again. Sometimes your student sounds good. Field, appreciate it, man, all right, and there he goes, Man, how great was that? Just some good nuggets there about not just the Dolphins but the league in general. Some really good insight there into how things kind of operate this time of year. I've said it before in the podcast, the off seasons kind of where you know, a fan like myself lives because you get a chance to to play with the scenarios and it's not so black and

white like a result on game day. There's so many different simulations and permutations you can operate with and mock drafts and and if you guys are a fan of of doing the mock drafts, like the Draft Network stuff. Also check out fans Speaks Mock off Season simulator. A lot of fun you can have there with giving out players contracts and stuff like that. Just a lot of

fun to participate as a fan this time year. Put the GM head on as we trust Brian Floors and Chris we are to build this Dolphins team to their vision and continue that trajectory they are on. So Field Yates ESPN. Check out his work. He's a great follow, a great fantasy football expert, a great insider. Plenty of great stuff to say about Field here on the podcast.

As for this edition the Drivetime Podcast, that is going to be my time you all please be sure to subscribe, rate, review, follow me on Twitter at Wingfield NFL, follow the team at Miami Dolphins, check out the fish Tank and the Audible podcast, and of course Miami dolphins dot com. And until next time, fins up.