Two fires touch stop Waddles stocked into the end zone of Miami tight brown window. They had to get that touchdown on that play. They give it. What is up, Dolph fans and welcome to the Drivetime Podcast, part of the Miami Dolphins podcast network, covering your team, your Miami Dolphins.
How's it going everybody? I am your host, Travis Wingfield, And on today's show, we go back to the Wednesday podcast and kind of pick up where we left off there and take a look at the off season and what that could look like with one ultimate takeaway that bodes well for the team. Before we do that, I want to look at five things that Dolphins need to do this off season to take the next step. Plus, we'll take a look at our first glance at the
schedule the opponents on that Dolphin schedule. Busy show from somewhere in South Florida. This is the Drive Time Podcast. So before we get into the pathways the Dolphins could take in the off season, I think we first have to go back and look at what pathways we want to explore based upon things that Dolphins need to get
better at. And Coach McDaniel addressed some of the stuff on different media he's done the last couple of weeks, and just based upon the results we have last year, I think some of those are relatively obvious, as they are for most teams around the National Football League. So here are five things I think Miami can do to improve upon the nine and eight record. And I'm sure coach has a list of plenty of things, but the top five for me are as follows number one. Significantly
improve the running game. And truthfully, you could probably expand this into five subsets on its own, that's how multilayered it is. But this is a process over results podcast. But still go ahead and look at the results last year thirty in rushing thirty one and yards per rush and rushing touchdowns. One way you can get better there is adding decades of experience of successful run game coordinators.
It's a good step already done. But also how about the offensive line, look rushing off particular gaps the Pro Football Focus grades the results just they were what they were right and at all points to needing improvement there. Now that said, I think the backs too. I think we saw where this line was at its best in the running game last year when Duke Johnson saw his role increase late in the season, and I'll mention this in our second knee with regards to the quarterback into
a tongue of blow in the passing game. But how many times did we discuss on the All twenty two review podcast this season the well blocked run plays that didn't produce as much yardage as they could have. I think Duke Johnson helped highlight a little bit of that with those two big rushing performances where he generated not just yards after contact, but the explosive runs that were missing for much of the season. Last year, the Dolphins ranked thirty one in explosive runs. That's ten plus yard
runs last season in the National Football League. Another element of that the vertical threat. Last year, the idea of adding Jalen Waddle and will Fuller to stretch not just horizontally but vertically was a legit idea. It's tough to play single high safety when you have those types of vertical threats. But we saw that difficult to come by because number one, no team in the NFL had a quicker time to pressure rate on average than Miami in the passing game, and number two, will Fuller only play
a handful of snaps with that brutal finger injury. And we'll address the latter point here and number four, But first, number two better quarterback production. The reason this is number two is because all those things from number one play into it so much. To a passing with a lead I thought wasn't interesting split for his stats six point seven yards per pass, two touchdowns, and four picks, that's
got to be the opposite. That's where it's supposed to be the easiest to throw the football when the defense has to honor both the run and the pass, and you can get some nice completions from play actions on first down, Like you go twelve personnel and you run play action to kick off a drive where you have a touchdown lead or a ten point lead, your chances of hitting completions on that particular instance are so much higher than it is when you're down by ten points
and the defense knows that you have to run the foot or past the football rather Plus, watch any coach McDaniel coach game and you'll see the impact of the running game has in the passing game every single week, and putting to a more advantageous situations and not playing to the score where it's early down runs and then you ask them to make a play on third and long because that's how the situation dictates. That's not a
practice that's going to yield consistent results. To help your defense close out games, you can close out games both offensively and defensively. You have every every snap is a chance to help the other side of the football out. But also to back to something that coach mentioned on the Dan Lebotard Show a couple of weeks back about what two needs to work on. He said, playing the quarterback position and looks. That goes beyond accuracy, arm strength, escapability,
all that stuff. It's more about the intangibles and the cerebral aspect of the game. And for a quarterback just in his third season as a pro and a limited college resume in terms of snaps played, there's always going to be room to grow in that regard. That's the reason why most of the good quarterbacks in the NFL tend to get better at age and beyond, and a lot of these good quarterbacks until this recent surge, we're on the other side of age thirty. Because the more
you see, the better you can play the position. And look, we were hyped and critical both aside every single Tuesday on the All twenty two reviews about every position. But what was the one consistent mentioned I made weekly when discussing quarterback play this season, finding those hots and having solutions for the defensive look from pre st nap alignment
to post nap rotation. And the one that sticks out to me frequently is that shallow cross against that vacated second level defenders coming on pressure looks or chasing a back or a tight end or getting back into the deep the two as it or the Tampa two coverage down the pipe there and to recognize those that's an area where two has had some sex success, but to be more consistent there that will help change the way the defense attacks you. It will create bigger plays, and
it will obviously create better down and distances. So the nice thing here this is internal and something that comes from training, repetition and doesn't require any of those resources to be spent. If you can get up to that level you need, of course, and that's that's a nice part. It's incumbent, it's it's inherent. It's not we have to go spend this, this and this to go get that fixed. You can do that in House number three. Less explosives
in the run defense game. We've seen this defense just tee it up time and time again when they are a ahead on the scoreboard or be having success against the run. Sometimes it's both. Usually it's both what it is. I think it's something they do well more times than not. But like coach said, if we're not getting better, we're
getting worse, and I think it. I think just a little more early down run game success could really really see this defense come to realize it's true potential for seventeen games opposed to one half of season of football last year, and then the season really getting after it after the first four games and a one in three start. I think this stat best explains with the Dolphins. Run defense was this year very very good, but a few too many occasional big plays, especially late in the season.
They were fourteenth and overall run defense with the rings and explosive plays allowed, So most of that came from the big running plays. Fifty explosive plays fifty plus yard runs.
That's a twelve clip for the opposing offense. So get that explosive right down and you probably move into a top ten run defense, which helps the NFL's second best quarterback sacking defense getting more opportunities to do that, to create more pressure, to create more possible takeaways, and it just creates more opportunities for Exhaving Howard and Javon Holland to make plays back there. Number four offensively, more explosives
in the passing game, more weapons. Mike McDaniel talked about putting the ball in the hands of players who were best at running with it after the catch. And one of the functions of this offense is that all the things that you can catch someone's eye on getting the ball quickly into those guys hands with the design of m direction that can cause those false steps and wandering eyes.
You need to capitalize on that space you create by maximizing yard after the catch, potential break one tackle, and all of a sudden because you have a safety who came down all of a sudden, that third level defender, you get a ten yard after the catcher that turns into a forty yard round after the catch. Does that make sense? The Dolphins were seven and explosive passing plays
this season. Those are twenty plus yard plays and there were twenty six and yak the Niners were ninth in that in that stat this year, Jalen Waddle average four point six YAK average per catch. The next best on the team was three point three, which ranked eighty four
in the National Football League. McDaniel also mentioned in his interview with Marcella Luis Jacques of ESPN that to his ball placement and catchable football and spiral where all things about his game that he liked and the receivers will like, and the best way to maximize that is with game
breakers once the ball gets into their hands. Waddle for sure is that now let's get some more Number five, get special teams back on track, a bit of a detour from what we enjoyed in And honestly, the thing that I worry about the least here is Jason Sanders. The process, the swing of the leg, the consistency he shows in practice, the way he works, his approach, his mindset,
his mentality. I think he's wired the right way. I just think kicking can be a little bit volatible, and I want to put someone in that position who has all the things we just mentioned and trust that his process we will create the results we need. That alone would be a huge bump for the Dolphin Special Teams. But more than that, there was also two blocked field goals.
Get better at that. The special Teams d v O d v o A finished twenty nine this year, and again just to look at the results, things you can improve upon that twenty nine v o A rank the lowest field goal percentage with two blocks in the National Football League and punting average twenty three net punting but fifth and punts down into the ten yard line. I think that's a creditable polarity and the coverage units and guys like mac Hollins to get down there and down
that thing. So that all leads into this idea of free agency and draft resource options. And on the Wednesday podcast last week, we discussed the top two hundred free agent list from Pro Football Focus and they also had market value assigned in that piece. So using that, I want to go ahead and look at routes Miami could conceivably take to get those improvements and take that next step.
But first let's take our first break. We'll come back right to this exercise, right to this portion of the podcast Drive Time Podcast Travis wing Full presented by Auto Nation. Back here on the Drive Time Podcast taking a look at some off season potential options for the Dolphins as they head into another off season where they have the number one available cap space, they have some options to create more cap space, and they have some nice draft
capital as well coming up in April. And to refer back to the current cap allocation, that has every single position group on this roster outside of cornerback in the bottom half of the National Football League in terms of spending, and all positions besides corner and wide receiver in the bottom third twenty one or lower. So I think remove cornerback from the equation and we'll look at the top of the market, mid tier and bargain type of options
for every spot. Let's go ahead and do that right now at the quarterback position, and I think here you just kind of rule this one out as well, because there is not actually allow me to rephrase that as far as the starting quarterback position goes. I think that's really where you have to rule it out in terms of massive potential upgrades outside of some crazy type of trade with the you know, a big time veteran out there who's not really on the market but maybe could
become in the market. But the Dolphins do have an opening at the backup quarterback position, and we saw just this last year how important that is. So this list has some guys that might kind of fall into that realm, but there isn't like the Peyton Manning or Tom Brady
type of player available this year. It's Jamis Winston topped the PFF list, and he's probably looking at more of a low end starter money slash potential top end backup money, kind of like Teddy Bridgewater, the two top quarterbacks on this list. So I don't think this position even applies to the exercise, especially when you consider at the draft at pick twenty nine and what is a bit of a down year at the quarterback position. At best, we're
probably talking mid level investment, right. I just don't know if there's a lot of opportunity there to get a whole heck of a lot better at the quarterback position. At running back, I think this room for the Dolphins has plenty of good players and guys that satisfy particular roles, but like we saw with Duke Johnson at the end of the year, kind of giving them the shot in the arm, I think that's what you need for the
full seventeen games. That one final piece that can kind of make everybody better at the job they do now, is that bringing back Duke. Is that in the draft? Is that in free agency? None of Daniel Jeremiah, Jordan Reid or the Draft Network have a running back inside their top forty players, So it's probably not until the second round pick, which I think qualifies as a fringe premium resource slash mid tier. I typically put it into the premium resource, especially when it's at pick fifty where
Miami's is, but it's tough to say. So. Those guys are Kenneth Walker from Michigan State, Isaiah Spiller from Texas A and M and Bruce Hall from Iowa State, and those are the only three guys in the top two rounds of pretty much every major publication and free agency. To me, there's one guy that could maybe qualify as a premium resource, but just based on what has happened at the running back market over the last decade or so,
I'm not so sure that's the case. But Coral Patterson PFF's projected market is two years, twelve millions, so six millions just not a premium resource in today's National Football League with the cap spaces up over two undred million, it's almost perfectly mid tier. In fact, interestingly, though thirty spots later they have a higher projection for Lenny four Nette would be the age factor there, but even that is two for sixteen eight million per year. Again, that's
not quite it's close, it's not quite premium. Then Edmonds and Connor and Michelle, they've got them all the four or five million per range. That's about it for the running back spot. Not the deepest year running back at wide receiver Will Fuller was the Dolphin's top resource in terms of free agent spending last offseason. Then they used their top draft resource on Jalen Waddle, So it's not like it wasn't a priority last year and one of
those worked fantastically and the other one got hurt. But you have to imagine that will be a priority again to get that second part of that right because of how crucial it will be for this offense. And as we mentioned wednesday, the free agent class is full of guys, and so was the draft. Davante Adams will set the market here. I mean, I've I've seen reports about Davante Adams and written pieces and all types of stuff that suggests he's gonna get the biggest non quarterback contract ever,
what is that thirty million more? Who knows? I mean, you've got nearly double digit names that would garner a premium resource here with the top free agent or money or pick twenty nine. There's so many of them. Chris Godwin four for seventy projection, Mike Williams four for sixty eight. Alan Robinson's projected for three forty eight. Odell Beckham one for fourteen. The years they're probably tied to the A c L injury. He just had. Michael Gallup two for
twenty five. Still in that premium range, but a bit of a drop off. He also is coming off an injury. Juju Smith Schuster one for eight, Christian Kirk three for thirty five, DJ Shark three for forty like it's still back in the premium. Marquez Valdes's scantling three for twenty five. Russell Gauge four for thirty. He's number one oh one on the list and they've got him at over seven million, seven and a half million per year. Speaks to the
depth at the receiver position. Some other guys. Cedric Wilson two for eleven's a Jones three for eighteen, still six, Isaiah Mackenzy two for nine. That's where is that four and a half? I like that number a lot. So some of those numbers make you look at the draft class that has had a handful of guys projected to go in that kind of ten to fifteen range, between Burke's and London and Lave Wilson and Williams and Dots and etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. There's plenty of options there at
tight end. Gazicky and Smith are both up for new deals, with Hunter long entering year two, Sethan Carter signed for almost exclusively special teams work last year, and then Adam Shaheen has another year left as well. Lots of avenues here too, and we mentioned that Mike was in that premium group among the top free agent tight ends as one of the top guys in the Pro Football Focus list at twenty at the number twenty spot. Right behind him as Dalton Shoultz at four for fifty two projected.
Gronk is one for seven. We know his age and that retirement possibility factors into that. David and Joeku three for thirty seven, zach Ertz two for twenties, so we're still a ten mill per year right now. Gerald Ever three for five, Evan ingram to for eighteen. The drop off goes to Max Williams at three for eighteen at six per Moiley Cox three for twenty one. That's seven per we're back up again. Robert Tonyan one for five. That's about where we get to the mid tier level.
It's also a nice draft class with Trey McBride, Isaiah Likely, Jeremy Ruckert, that fullback slash tight end combination that I can't pronounce his name yet from Maryland Man. We're less than a month ago until free agency starts and we still have all these names on this list. But again, the draft class also nice. The receiver tight end positions
really really have some nice names this year. On the offensive line, this is where the options get just really crazy in terms of again, there are so many, especially because of Miami's inherent position versatility. You can go tackle and guard and you can probably plug him in wherever you want to. Because they have so many options. On the incumbents list, let's go ahead and pass on the projected cost here because there's just way too much to
cover for inside outside. But you know there's drill here premiums Ryan Jensen, Brandon Schurf Lake and Tomlinson, Connor Williams. In that mid tier James Daniels, Austin Corbett, Andrew Norral, Alex Cappa, Brian Allen, Bradley Boseman, bargain names, Trey Turner, Quentin Span, Ted Carress, Matt Partis. At the tackle position, premiums to Ron Armstead, Orlando Brown, Dwayne Brown, mid tier Morgan Moses, Eric Fisher, Riley, Reef Germain, a Fetty bargain name,
Brandon Shell. That just there's just a lot of options. We're gonna come back to that here in a second. On the interior defensive line, I honestly probably bok here too. This feels more like a position where maybe you go after it in the draft, because one, it's a pretty solid draft class for a position group that tends to slide a little bit each year. And number two, you already have presumed production in the bank with Wilkins, Steeler,
Davis Butler. So maybe kind of like Noah Ignogeny, but not in round one you draft someone with an eye for the future. Here. Maybe I don't know. We'll see At the edge position. Now we've got one of our own here again, like like we did with Caski and Emmanuel Ogba. But as we mentioned on Wednesday, it's a deep, deep, deep group position here, both in the draft and free agency premium wise Chandler, Jones, von Miller, Jadavian Clowney, Randy Gregory,
Melvin Ingram, Hassan, Reddick Lawn or held Landry. It's crazy mid tier Justin Houston, Jerry, Jeremy Hughes, Jerry Hughes, No Jeremy, Derek Barnett, and the bargain bind Charles Harris, Jason Pierre, Paul Chennon, Dwosu. I'm not sure those guys are even bargains by the way, they could be huge contracts for them.
And again this draft is just pier in Sandy at this position group too, from Hutchinson and Timodeaux at the top too, car lift Us and no Jabo in the middle, to Sanders and Jamaine Johnson, Logan Hall on the second and third round. That's probably second round really. I mean, you can pick where you want to target your edge player and probably find a name that fits the value
there at linebacker. This one is a little more cut and dry the draft with Lloyd and Deana's premium options and then some more mid round values like a Dairy and Beaver's or Chad Muma. But back to free agency premium wise, not a lot to Andre Campbell in the mid range, Alexander Johnson, Olacon from the Falcons, I Philip pronounce his name every time, Layton Vander Esh, Josie Jewel, Dante Hi Tower, Anthony Barr, bargain Wise, Jawan Bentley, Jayon
Brown at cornerback. Probably the same idea here as the quarterbacks and interior defensive line just loaded for the Dolphins team x Byron Needham, Igbo Coleman, and like we mentioned on the interior defensive line, it might be more of a developmental approach. Some free agents that might fit that mold Dante Jackson, Robert Altford, Kawan Williams, Rasul, Douglas A. Killow, Weatherspoon.
Weatherspoon's one for four on PFF, where Dante Jackson's two for twenty, So those guys fall on that mid to bargain range with four million per to ten million per It's a big range there. And then finally at safety. You have to feel good here too. Maybe that's the idea of development since you have really three proven players two of them and year three and Brandon Jones and year two in Javon Holland respectively. Now a few defenses if any use their third safety more than Josh Boyer,
so it's still very important. Probably not looking at Marcus Williams or Jesse Bates are the top two guys in the market, which PF has in the twelve to fourteen million per range. But Marcus Mays at forty four projected one for six, but he has an injuries coming off of so that has to factor in. Because Quandre Digs is next at fifty two on the list and he's up there for three for thirty, that's a premium resource
at safety anywhere, but definitely a safety. Then we get to Jordan white Head at seventy, which is projected three for eighteen. Again pretty spending. I look at a guy like Anthony Harris at one sixty one who's won for four. That's probably more of the speed there if you go
in that direction. So again, countless paths here, and for the sake of the game, let's give ourselves to free agents at the mid and one premium signing for each pathway, and there's no way to correctly assess what that looks like. So this is more for the principle of showing you how many options this Dolphins team has with these what
do you want to call him? Four, five, six, seven eight premium resources, So a premium two mid tier contracts that whatever would happened with the bargains, we're not gonna get into that. Then the draft picks at twenty nine and fifty, so we're talking about what here five players in total to give us those five corrections we need to see that was listed at the top of the show for possible playoff push, not to mention incumbents and internal improvement, which we have mentioned on this podcast so
many times is the most important thing. Path number one. Here's what I did, Ryan Jensen, the center from the Bucks, receiver Michael Gallup, Emmanuel Ogba, and then the draft Nakobe
Dean and Daniel Filele. So premium offensive line, secondary receiver, and edge than to the draft for a linebacker and an offensive line, and that Jensen spot could be a number of players in that range, whether it's lake In, Tomlinson, Brandon Schurf, but the money spent there on interior offensive line opposed to going the tackle route allows us to spend a little bit more in the next two mid tier guys like a Gallop and an og Ball, for instance.
Then we round that out with George's Nakobe Dean and Daniel Filele from Minnesota for that thumping, three down mic linebacker which I also think makes Jerome Baker a lot better a player, and then a massive body an extremely high upside player in Filele. What if we divert those resources in another direction like path number two with Chris Godwin our premium guy and Cora Relle Patterson our second
tier with Brian Allen from the Rams. Then we draft Zion Johnson, the do it all offensive lineman, and Logan Hall, the edge defender from Houston the big price tag on
approval receiver. Then our secondary options for a multifaceted, flexible running back who can also play wide receiver, then an accomplished center playing in a similar scheme, and rounding out the free agents, and then spending pick twenty nine and a guy like Zion Johnson, who I think is gonna be a Pro Bowl level guard at the next level, and then Logan Hall for another edge presence and a
guy that fits the prototype. Let's do one more path number three to Ron Armstead, Emmanuel Ogbon, Layton vander Esh and I also give myself Isaiah Mackenzie here. I added the fourth free agent because well, vander Eshen Mackenzie are kind of a coupled cost at the same rate as a mid tier guy in pass two and three. But then we come back in the draft with Jamison Williams and Isaiah Spiller, and we wind up with one of the game's best left tackles the last decade in Armstead.
We get og Bob back, and we get vander Ashes that thumping mic linebacker, and Mackenzie gives us a really nice electric weapon and depth and return a build and we get more weaponry with Jamison Williams and finish up with another passing game impactor and running back that does a lot of everything, and Texas a and m Isaiah Spiller at pick fifty, which really obviously there with Williams, Spiller and McKenzie helps us supplement our offensive arsenal. There's
probably ten of these. There's probably fifty of these, But it starts to get repetitive for a podcast, and the larger point I think has been proven. They'll spend the next weeks and months deciding which path is best, building options A, B and C and contingencies for each of those steps of the options, and this and that, if this, then that type of scenarios, all that stuff. But there are options. And I probably say this just about every day and ahead of every major event on the NFL calendar,
But can we just fast forward to mid March? I am ready for it, So I kind of want to do a hundred of these. Shoot. I kind of feel like Jonah Hill and Moneyball. Brad Pitt says, I need free reports. I come back and say I did forty seven. Actually I did fifty one. I don't know why I just lied to you just now. It's kind of how I feel. Let's take our last break here on the other side. A quick peek ahead to the opponents in two and a quick note on each Drivetime Podcast. Travis
Wingfield coming right back. We are back here on the Drivetime Podcast presented by Auto Nation. On this edition of the Drivetime Podcast, I want to finish up here by looking at the opponents and a quick comment on each So let's do twenty seconds or so on each opponent. Sound good? And we start in the a f C East. We play these teams twice a year every year. The New England Patriots want to mention the quarterback for all these teams. Mac Jones is our guy for a year
or two. We have three straight victories over this team. Second year for them and a lot of those free agents they signed a season ago, which whether it's the draft or free agency, I always find that year two typically gives you closer to your expectations as far as results go from those signings, as they kind of get acclimated for a full year and don't have to get up to speed in your number one. They're certainly gonna want to make their statement against the Dolphins after those
three straight losses. They play tough defense every year, the smart, they're situationally sound, and it's tough to play them on the road, especially those are tough games. The Jets twice Zack Wilson back for a year or two. We have four straight wins over this team and another year for this young rosster to mature and get better and progress.
I think we saw them get better at a lot of spots, especially running back and offensive line, and they identified a big time weapon and Elijah Moore, and I think that defensive fronts always a challenge for those guys, especially with Robert Saloon charge there. So two tough games against the Jets, or I should say tougher games I think against the Jets, as I expect them to get better too. Then the Buffalo Bills two times, Josh Allen Man. At some point, we have to figure out this code
here they have seven straight wins over US. I gotta find a way to slow down that offense. Now, most teams have not had success with them, but I'll be curious to see if they can find their way into being even more two dimensional with the run game on offense. That defense is an absolute problem too. So they're good everywhere and where teams got them this last year was in their running game, but I have to imagine they go pretty heavy and addressing that as well as their
own running game offensively. But I also have to account for the fact that I think they're gonna be on a mission this year. Like you watch that Super Bowl and conference championship games. I was thinking it, you were thinking it. They had to have been thinking it. We were thirteen seconds away from getting to the a f C Championship game, and frankly, I think a lot of us would have picked them to go all the way
from that point. Another year of two really tough games for the Dolphins here against the Buffalo Bills, who I think are going to be on an absolute mission next year to finally get over that playoff hump into the Super Bowl. At the Chargers, Justin Herbert's their quarterback. It's a road game out Wessels are always tough and they have weapons all over the field. I imagine they'll bring
back Mike Williams. Austin Eckler was a huge shot in the arm for that offense this year after missing him for the most of twenty forget the years at this point, man, it's going by so fast. But there are a challenge for our defense and their focus will certainly be the run defense, which finished this year, and then brand Staley and year two. I'm guessing we'll have that defense up to speed more so this year. Tough pass rush there with Joey Bosa, Derwin James missed some time last year.
He'll be back and you have to really expect to get four straight stops to get their offense off the field, because nobody goes for it on fourth down more than the Chargers. The Steelers. At quarterback, we don't know here. This is really the one. We don't know at all. Who it's going to be, that's the big question there. And Mike Tomlin always has them ready to play. It's
impressive what he's done for two decades now. Loaded on defense at three levels, particularly upfront with the defensive player of the year in j. J. Watt, No check that DJ one, Cameron Heywards also awesome, stefont It. They're just tough to compete against in that arena. But again, what happens at quarterback? Is it Rudolph, is it Haskins? Is a Maleek Willis or another bookie? Can they get one of those big time quarterbacks if they move like a
Rolston or Rodgers or who the heck knows? Also, you know they will get Nase Harris plenty of work, a good test of your tackling, but they'll have to block it better. Just three point nine yards per caring for that talented running back as a rookie. The Cleveland Browns another home game here, for the doll Fens Baker Mayfield, it's the quarterback right now. A bit of a down
year after their best year in franchise history. Is yeah, because they're their expansion in the late nineties and Baker played through a tough shoulder injury, and I think he should be commended for that. One of the game's best offensive lines, the best one to punchant running back when they're healthy, and they added a lot of good pieces to that defense. So I expect a jump in year
two from guys like John Johnson and that defense. And it was a Troy Hill the other cornerback they went out and got not to mention having Myles Garrett and the joker there in uh Jeremiah Woosu Cormo. It's a good defense. We'll go to the Bengals on the road next year and faced Joe Burrow off a Super Bowl appearance, Jamaar, Chase, te Higgins, Tyler Boy, weapons of Galore, weapons weapons. I'm not sure why I went Italian there, but they have
a really good offense and they remade that defense. Their biggest priority this off season will be resigning Jesse Bates, one of the best safeties in the National Football League. It seems pretty evident they'll invest in the offensive line this offseason, and they have done that recently with Jonah Williams and Jack and Carmen. What kind of step does he take in your number two? It's a big one for them, But playing them on the road, that's certainly
a tough matchup. We also go to Baltimore this year on the road for Lamar Jackson and the Ravens never look forward to these games up there. They are so tough to beat, especially at home. First, I'll talk about a kicker here. They have a cheap code at the place kicker position who was basically an automatic three points once they crossed your forty five yard line. Forty yard line. They have a defense that will get so many players back to and then J. K. Dobbins, who I think
was their biggest loss this year. Honestly, they'll be picking the twenty in the top twenty for the first time in the Lamar Jackson era. Perhaps a chance to get him a nice weapon. Speaking of weapons, the Niners on the road for this team as well, should see Trey Lance because his kind of his debut, so to speak. He played a little bit last year but he'll probably have the full compliment this year. You're one of that, You're one of Mike McDaniel, and we get instantly the
McDaniel Shanahan reunion game. You know about this Niners team by now, Samuel's awesome. They're dominant in the running game, regardless of who the back is. To have a super strong offensive line. Trent Williams is the best in the game. Nick Bosa, Fred Warner very talented defense. Might this become a two game West Coast swing with the Charger game back to back, maybe the Vikings at home, Kirk Cousins, Kevin O'Connell some more of that wide zone boot game
type of stuff. And O'Connell has to be giddy about the fact that he's getting Dalvin Cook to work with and Justin Jefferson, which is not system related there, but he's in my opinion, the second miss receiver in the National Football League behind Davante Adams. While I'll be up there pretty soon. That defense will likely get some attention in the off season as well, so plenty of new pieces there. Also have the Packers coming here to South
Florida Aaron Rodgers. They're good for thirteen wins a year. Basically, can they bring back Adams? Aaron Jones is also awesome. They have a good line and they're healthy. One of the best rosters in the National Football League, the best offense really on the schedule, probably besides Buffalo, and defensively, they've made massive strides there over the years to just a truly, truly tough out. I'm happy it's at home.
We'll go to the road. On the road, I should say, to face the Lions and Jared Goth potentially maybe someone else. You know, you're gonna get their best effort. They're gonna be ready for a rock fight. Strong in the trenches. Emphasis in the running game last year, you have to imagine they they pumped some some of those resources into weapons on the offense and start building the outside in general. After a heavy emphasis on the trenches a year ago.
And then also a road game in Chicago for the Bears, justin fields Matt Eberflus. I love the staff he's built there, and I really just hope the Bears get back to their winning ways because I think the league is better when they're good, because they put them on primetime five times a year. I'm also excited for fields and year two. Think they have some big decisions there with Alan Robinson and the chem Hicks coming up. But they are aggressive and get the ball out on defense. Eber Flus has
always done well with takeaways himself. Can they get the line sword of this offseason. That's kind of a big question for them, as is for so many teams in the National Football League. All Right, that's gonna be the podcast you all. Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast from. Leave us a rating, leave us a review. You can follow me on Twitter at Wingfield NFL, on Instagram as well, and the Miami Dolphins across all social
channels at my AMMI Dolphins. Check out the fish Tank podcast you do not want to miss the Dan Lemitard episode. Also our YouTube channel for Dolphins Today, and of course, last but not least, Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time, Fitts Up, Caroline Daddy has coming up.