Free Agent Report Cards, Closing Games, Rams Thoughts and Assistant Coaches' Media

daily dose of Miami Dolphins football. And on today's show, we're gonna hear from a whole heap of Dolphins coaches, the coordinators and defensive assistance met with the media on Tuesday. We'll get you the latest there. Plus we'll continue talking about the Rams as we prepare for Sunday's game at hard Rock Stadium. I'll talk about closers and their coffee too. And yesterday we did the rookie Report, Well, today we'll

do the same for the Dolphins free agent class. Of all of that and more on this Tuesday, October edition of the Drive Time Podcast. Drive Time is brought to you by Auto Nation. There are so many reasons to drive pink, but for Auto Nation, there's only one to finish the fight against cancer. In fact, Auto Nation has helped raise over twenty five million dollars to drive out cancer. To join the fight, visit the Auto Nation store near you, or drive pink dot com. We have a busy show

coming up for you guys today. I want to go ahead and first start with Monday Night football in the Los Angeles Rams, and just a few notes on these guys. As again, we're gonna kind of preview this game throughout the course of the week before the big mega preview on Thursday's podcast. But you watch that offense operate, it's there's no real tricks or bells and whistles. They want to run that wide zone offense, get the ball on the edge like Kyle Shanahan and that forty Niners offense does.

Get the running game on the edge and play the the the bootleg play action game off that off the other side and the way you really defeat that And they talked about it in the broadcast on Monday Night with the Chicago Bears is set. Those wrong edges get

knocked back on the interior. So Christian Wilkins and Zach Seeler and ray Kwon Davis and those big boys inside have to help control the interior of that Rams offensive line while on the outside, Aug Ball and Lawson and Van Ginkle and Van Noy and all those guys help set that strong edge and then from there they want to run those crossing routes from that condensed formation. Right. We talked about it on the Monday podcast. No team runs tighter formations, tighter splits, and you saw it on

Monday night. Both receivers aligned to either side inside the numbers. Nobody runs tighter formations than the Rams consistently, and they want to go ahead and run those crossing routes and try to outpace you from there. We saw Robert Woods get free on a couple of those, and the Dolphins will have to do well to help pass those off or run under those in man coverage whether they're in man and zone, and you can basically combat that with

different zone coverages or man coverage. You can drop into that cover three so that you have three deep players over the top and when they run that crossing route, they go from one third to the next third and get picked up. That way, you can run that six is look where you have a quarter half quarter where you have one player in the middle of the field, take in the half part of the field, and then two deep players taking a quarter each to take up

the four fourth of the field. There as well different options you can do to do that. And then as far as trying to combat that bootleg, look, maybe you peel the backside defensive end off and put a body in Jared Goff's face, because when he runs that peel back, he's not expecting pressure in his face. If you can just kind of collapse on that and give up the backside and put pressure right in the face of Jared Goff,

that can really disrupt that. So it would be fun to watch the way Flores verse McVeigh Part two goes. The last time they called plays against each other was in the Super Bowl, a thirteen three victory for Flora's and the Patriots in that game. Another thing you look at here is Johnny Hecker and Matt Hawk right the punning game. Johnny Hecker was awesome on Monday night pinning

a billion punch down into the ten yard line. He has a powerful leg and a good a punch that really checks up inside the five yard line and bounce a straight up into the air. So those guys the special teams battle would be very, very important. And then defensively, you have to get that guy blocked in the middle, Aaron Donald. He gets double teams pretty much every single snap so far, and he still finds a way to win with that arm over, that swim move, that quickness.

And it's okay that he wins, but you have to find a way to prevent those immediate wins where he completely destroys the play and under two seconds and gets into the backfield and it's just there on the quarterback or the running back, the mesh point, whatever it might be. They played a lot of two high looks last night in the game. I noticed and a goobody can bat that is throwing the ball to the middle of the

field split those two high safeties. And so with Vante Parker and Preston Williams, you like their options there on those end breaking routes. Maybe some RPO action, as Daniel Jeremiah called to a tongue of Bloa, the best rpo quarterback college football has ever seen. Maybe you incorporate some of that run the ball wide off the edge yourself, help put Donald and those linebackers in a bit of a bind. We'll go ahead and cover this game more in depth on Thursday, but I wanted to drop those

notes I took down on the game. On Monday night, I wrote an article up on Miami Dolphins dot com called the Winning Edge, and this piece really kind of illustrates sometimes the beauty of riding to me, where you start off with one con in scepter, one idea and it evolves into something else. Because on Monday we heard from Shack Lawson and he talked about the impact of Emmanuel Ogba and how he's helped free up Shack to

make some plays and vice versa. The book ends, we're gonna hear coach Hobby talk about that here in just one second. But I started off with this quote where Shack Lawson called Emmanuel Ogba beast, a guy who works hard, a guy that gets the job done, a dominant force. Having him on the other side helping opening things up for Shock, a guy that's bawling, guy that's been incredible. It's been a pleasure to work with him, said Lawson

of Ogba. And I started thinking about the emphasis on the edge position on defense this year for the Miami Dolphins, and again coming up soon, we're gonna talk about the free agent acquisitions this offseason and give you something of a progress report on those guys, and I started thinking about the emphasis on the edge position, and you go back to August, Coach Flores has said, yeah, we kind of remade this position, and that was kind of a focal point throughout the course of the off season was

the length and the size these two defense events who are much bigger than your two hundred forty pound NASCAR

speed rusher, so to speak. Guys that could hold the edge, play the run, work inside, condensed, inside, operate all the games that coach Flora's and coach hobby and and coach Bowyer loved to call up front there, and I was thinking about the emphasis on the edge position and how the past rush for this Dolphins team has really helped put games away, And this kind of was sparked for another idea on Sunday that I watched so many NFL games across Week seven where teams built these two, three,

sometimes even four score leads and the opposition just closes that gap in a flash. The Titans overcame a twenty point deficit and had a chance to tie the game there on a forty five yard field goal at the end. It went wide and they did not get the w but they did essentially erase that twenty point deficit to the Steelers. The Cardinals down by ten points to Seattle at halftime. Seattle had won forty one consecutive games with

a double digit halftime lead heading into that moment. Well, now that streak is at zero because the Cardinals erase that in a wash and they went to overtime and compete it with the CTLL Seahawks. Earlier in the week, on Thursday Night, the Eagles down by eleven points with six minutes to play, they overcome that deficit. I saw a stat for the Falcons, who have lost three games this year where at one point or another they had achieved better than ninety eight point win probability. It's tough

to close games out. It's tough to finish games in the NFL. And the point of this entire message is that I think it really illustrates how this Dolphins team plays for sixty minutes. Coach Flora's talks about it. We saw earlier in the year they were in some tough games of the Patriots, the Bills, and the Seahawks, and they just couldn't quite close it out against three good football teams. But then when they had a chance to close it out with the lead and play from ahead.

They showed you that sixty minute drive, that sixty minute focus and emphasis to finish the game that way. And you might say, well, Travis, they only outscored the opposition in the second half of those games by three points two times. And that's my entire point, because you go into a halftime break with a four team point lead in one instance, with the twenty one point lead in another instance, twenty three points in the San Francisco game,

what's that? What's what does the focus of that game or what does the lens of that game now look like? You have one team that wants to basically kill a half an hour of game clock, and you want you have one team that has to kind of pick up the pace and pick up the tempo and try to score quickly to get more possessions out of the game and give themselves more opportunities to come back and win that game. But the Dolphins are having none of it.

In these three games with fourteen, twenty one, and three point leads, the Dolphins won the second half in that element where one team is trying to kill the clock and one team is trying to hurry up the tempo and pace. So I think it really speaks well with this Dolphins team's ability to get pressure from multiple guys to come in waves, to show different different looks and different pressure packages on that defensive front, the relentless aggressive approach.

We saw the fake punt on fourth down to Clayton Federalum in the San Francisco game, and aggressive mindset, a sixty minute mindset, and I think it's awesome to see that with this team in those three victories. So that was the piece, the top news piece up on Miami Dolphins dot com. Go ahead and check that out when you get a chance. We have today's top news piece coming ups here shortly as well, taking a look at what the coaches said, and we're gonna get to that

here in just one second on the podcast. But before we do that, I want to go ahead and do another quick review because by week we have some more content time to cover. Here, know all twenty two from Sunday, as we didn't have a game, but we've gone over the rams, we've gone over the winning edge and the closing out of football games. I want to go ahead and just do a quick primer on the free agent signings this offseason, and start with Kyle van Noy, who you guys all know how I felt about him when

he signed here. I think this was a perfect fit for this defensive system of perfect guys to help communicate and implement Brian Floors and Josh Bowyer's defense. A guy that's familiar with them both in terms of personnel on the football field or calls in the football field, but also how they communicate and how they want to run their program. He has twelve quarterback pressures. That's number two among off ball linebackers on Pro Football Focus, not your

Von Miller on ball types, your off ball linebackers. He's so gap sound. He's an aggressive blockbeater, He's assignment based. He's a leader, a tone center, part of that quiet, confident mentality we have here in Miami. I think Kyle van Noy is a focal point of the system, of the program, and of that defense. But a good signing so far Byron Jones, just sensational, absolutely terrific from camp through what you see now working between drills and practice.

The way he was communicating and getting other guys to join him in between drills to get extra work during practice. The communication you're gonna hear Jerald Alexander talk about that here in just one second. The leadership, the production, shutting down multiple different receivers throughout the course of his career that have had big time careers. The long speed, it helps you with your coverages. That helps him kind of play one side of the field and play that trail

technique underneath. How smart he is and how capable he is of running multiple different looks press man, offman, zone looks. He really just does it all. You can't say enough about Byron Jones. Ted Carriss up on the offensive line. Five pressures allowed in six games. He's been a he's been a stone wall up there, zero sacks allowed. He's got three different offensive lineman he's played with, and they really haven't had communication gaps or free rushers coming clean

on Ryan Fitzpatrick and the quarterback position. I think last week the Jets came clean almost like a delay slash like Looper coming inside. And that was the first time I really recall a breakdown up front where they just didn't get a guy block. And they've been consistently solid and both Steve Marshall and Shan Gilly credit Ted Carriss for his communication and kind of the anchor in the

middle of the offensive line. Eric Flowers, for my money, been the best player on the offensive line all season long. Brian Flores talked a couple of weeks ago about flowers energy, the way he chases down plays and goes down to pick up us running back or his receiver and congratulate them, get the hands clap, and you see it all the

time when you watch him on ALL twenty two. We've covered the bands and the harness that he brought to practice after training camp every day to get the young guys working extra the production, playing pool side, hooking and sealing and blowing guys off the football. Guys try and hump moves on him in the pass rush game and going nowhere. He's exactly what you've been looking for at

that left guard position for quite some time now. Emmanuel Ogba tied for seventh in the NFL and SEX top ten and pressures per pass rush attempt for edge players. Myles Garrett has a pressure every seven point four pass rush reps. He's at seven point eight, just behind the guy who right now probably is the defensive player of the year. He rushes the edge, loops as a stunter,

condenses inside as the three technique. He's long. He holds the point and the edge in the running game, and that's again gonna be a key in this Rams game. He's been an absolute boon to this Dolphins defensive line of defense in general. Shack laws him, same deal here, same strength against the run on the other side, really helping hold up that edge and turn things back inside to your help. The past rush numbers haven't been at a bas level, but he talked about it yesterday about

how he's hopeful it opens things up for him. These guys really complement each other so well. They both placed so gap sound, they adhere to the rush lane integrity and helped execute the system. It truly is an eleven guy type of defense, and I think both lost in the OGA have been big parts of that. We're gonna hear from Mary and Hobby and just one second about how these book end ends have to complement each other well. I think as a good comment there from coach. We'll

get to that just one second. E Land and Roberts. His last two games were great, playing super fast, aggressive. He's a tone setter type of player on that defense, a physical presence, a good communicator, a leader of the defense. He's been a goodbye so far. Commu grug Hill. The coverage, the blitzing we saw the minshoe sac in the Jacksonville game.

The closing speed that he has and how fast he plays, the toughness, the broken finger last game playing through that, the special teams acumen, A four phase type of player, he's been a plus there. Clayton Federlum Special Teams missed a couple of games earlier, but comes right back and gets into this top ranked Dolphins special teams unit. According to Football Outsiders and d v o A, he had the fake punk conversion. He's playing that personal protector role.

There's been no blocked kicks, Our coverage teams have been stout and he's made a couple of plays in that area as well. And the same is true of Cavon Frasier, a guy that really just really plays hard, really gets it. He's big, he's physical, he can come on defense and play that kind of big nickel role for you as well. But he's been so stout. And the special teams unit that just has five, six, seven guys like a Mac Hollands,

Commu Gruge Hill, Clayton Federalum Cavan Frasier. If I'm leaving anybody out, I apologize, But so many guys that have meant so much to a special teams unit that's one of the tops in the NFL with a specialist and the coverage units as well. And then Jordan Howard. It's not exactly an easy thing to punch the ball in down around the goal line. And Jordan Howard has scored three touchdowns this year for the Miami Dolphins. So plenty of contributions from each of the Dolphins free agent signings

this offseason. Got to continue putting that good work together and continue going forward and getting improvement out of these guys. But so far through six games, you have to love what you've seen from the Dolphins and free agency this past off season. So now I'll go ahead and turn this thing over to the Dolphins coaches and coordinator's offensive assistance.

Chan Gaily, Josh Boyer, and Danny Croftsman on this Tuesday, October edition of the Drivetime podcast, brought to you by Auto Nation, where every vehicle sold and service is sanitized. Keep driving safe at auto nation dot com. We're gonna go ahead and play some sound here from Chan Gailey. We talked about the r p O game, the run pass option game, the quote from Daniel Jeremiah the best the college game has ever seen in two a Tongue

of Valoa and the r p O game. So we start here with Chan Gailey with the question about the r p O game. Well, he did, uh a decent amount of that in college. And well, there's different types of r p O s. There's pre snap r p O s, there's post snap r p os UM, and we use you know, some of both, but mostly pre snap r p os is what we have done. And he's what I remember him doing in college was he

was good at reading and seeing that. And UH, as time goes on, UM, we we can adjust and maybe use a few more of those, uh to fit into what he has done in the past. And two will of course the only starting left handed quarterback in the

NFL on Sunday when he makes that start. Here, coach was asked about the difference between going from a right handed quarterback to a left handed quarterback, and he had a good answer here that I hadn't really thought about myself, but of course Chin the footballs are tells you about how a defense wants to make a quarterback scramble a

certain direction. The number one thing I would think about that if somebody's trying to make um right in a quarterback scramble, they would want him to scramble to the left. They probably have to change that thought process to make a left handed quarterback scramble to his right. That would be one of the first things I would think about. And for us, UH, we practice things both left and right,

so um, it doesn't change a lot for us. Um. You know, when if we've had a bootleg that's been to the right for uh fits, then it's been on to his wristband every week that he runs it to the left. So we've practiced it all both ways, so nothing really changes for us. And when you face Los Angeles Rams, you're gonna have to deal with that man number ninety in the middle. How does coach Gailey deal with a player with that dominant presence on the interior

of the defensive line. Here's coach uh. Somebody made a statement. A lot of people want to know where a safety is or where a linebacker is. You want to know where he is is he lined up on the left or the rioties he lined up and on the tackle or on the guard. Uh, you know, you want to know where he is and you want to scheme some things, um to help out whoever's got him. At the same time,

you can't change everything you're doing. You gotta depend on our good players playing well against him too, and we gotta depend on that a little bit from offense to special teams. Up next, we had coach Danny Croftsman here talking to the media, and I first asked him a question about Cavan Fraser and then he was later asked about mac Hollins and what those two guys have meant to the special teams just so far through the first six games. Uh, done a really nice job. Was it

was a good pick up for us. Has good experience and a lot of position flexibility and has really been a good addition for us. You know, he's one of those guys that's really settling in on one of those four phase core players for us. And uh, you know, and those guys need to play well and we need to keep playing better and better as the season progresses. So that was Fraser here he is on mac Hollins, Yeah, doing a good job really on on on each of the phases. You know another guy that plays on all

four for us. I think the biggest thing is is, you know, Max got a great personality that you know, his upbeat personality really transcends and really brings a lot of guys along when you look at him in the locker room, in the meeting room, out of the practice field. Has really got a great demeanor and his approach of how he works, and I think that has a lasting

impact on a lot of the younger guys. Let's go ahead and here next from the third and final Dolphins core Nader Josh Boyer on the defensive side, and we talked a little bit about the rams and the open and one of the things they do in in their offenses run tempo and get that quick huddle, that quick count. We saw it on the Sunday night football game if you watched Cardinals and Seahawks, and if you didn't, what

do you do? And always watched the Seahawks in primetime football, But there was a shot where they showed Kyler Murray smiling and laughing about getting a quick count from from their quick cadence on DeAndre Hopkins and getting him open downfield. If you listen to the podcast last week, we played the audio and to talked about a play in college where he quit counted the LSU defense and caught Derek Stingley, one of the best cornerbacks in the entire country, kind

of off guard with a quick count. Here is Josh Boyer on the Rams ability to go quick, to go with cadence, to go with tempo. Here's coach on the RAMS offense, and the challenge is prevented or presented rather by Sean McVeigh. Well, I would say coach McVeigh does a tremendous job using tempo UM and they use it numerous different ways. Uh, it doesn't always show up at day. You know, you don't know exactly when it's coming. You

have to be ready for it on every snap. Um. They they you know, they got a good skill group, they got a good offensive line, and they meshed well together as a group and a unit, and you know, and they're really really good at changing it up on you. And not just with the tempo of the pace that they're doing. It's the same thing they change the cadence UM. So you know, they get a lot of guys on hard accounts. Um, they do a very very good job.

They put a lot of pressure on the defense. And you know, we're gonna have to do a great job this week of our communication, UH, to make sure that the calls are in, Guys know what we're doing, getting lined up quickly and being ready to go and handling if the ball is snap quick or if they come out survey what we're in, change their call and go. So yeah, there's a lot of multiples this week. Coach

McVeigh does a tremendous job with that has for years. UH, and he puts a lot of pressure on the defense. We're gonna go went to do a feature on Bobby McCain here this week, and I wanted to ask Coach Boyer kind of to follow up on Brian Floores's comments on Monday's pressor about the way Bobby is willing and accepting of his assignment as a communicator, as a leader, as a guy that kind of captains that defense and quarterbacks that defense. I followed up with Josh Boyer the

same question. Here's coach on Bobby McCain. I would say Bobby, Bobby number one is a great communicator um. And he has a unique ability to get along with all types of personalities and um, you know, which in turn helps him on the field handle you know, uh, multiple communications with uh different individuals. So Bobby has been everything that you could want in a communicator. He really quarterbacks our defense, um, so you know, and and he continues to work hard

at that. So and he's a really diligent worker. And that's just part of his game and part of what uh. You know. We've really benefited from Bobby being able to one nurture those relationships and to be able to handle communications to numerous individuals. And we move on now to the Dolphins defensive assistance. And I tease this earlier in the show talking about marrying Hobbies comments on Emmanuel Ogba and Shack Lawson playing off either end that book and

defensive end group. Here's Coach Hobby on the impact of those two guys, those two free agent signings off either edge for your Miami Dolphins. Well, you know, we always say, if you're any good as a defensive vand or defensive if you're getting the old team, Um, that's a credit. But k double team everybody. So I think it's a situation man and that you know, most of the time, if you talk in the world of book ends, those guys really have to play well together. You know, pressure

from one side equals pressure from the other. You know, just over the history of football, you can number the number of book innds that played together. Definitely complement each other as well. And one of the guys that Shack Lawson will he on Sunday is Andrew Whitworth Rams left tackle. And we talked about Drew Brees and Tom Brady and Ben Roethlisberger, all these quarterbacks on either the wrong side of forty or approaching age forty that are still a

productive in the NFL at the quarterback position. That's mind blowing. But what's more mind blowing to me is Andrew Whitworth playing left tackle for what seventy eight years now and holding that thing down, still playing really good football at left tackle for the Rams. I didn't know this, but coach actually has a history with with Andrew Whitworth. Here's coach on the Rams left tackle. Well, I'll tell you what,

He's been a great player in his whole career. Now he went through his college day, he's playing against him. Oven He's a I was at Old Miss, so I've watched his career go through college into the pros man, he's a pro. You know, he's a savvy VETU. He doesn't make a lot of mistakes. You know, you can tell he gained plans for each opponent. He has a plan. I'll tell you what he He is one of the best players in this league, has been in them for

a long time. Go ahead and finish up with coach Hobby here with his comments about Dolphins rookie defensive tackle Benito Jones, who was elevated last week and made his NFL debut in the win over the Jets. I tell you one thing he's probably he is that you know, he can tell he comes from a good program and coming out of Old Miss, and I think the coach Roach and coach McIntyre and those guys on defensive, they did a great job with Um. He understands the position.

You know. Inside you know he's done multiple things coming out of that package. You know, different allotments and stuff. You know. Um, you know, you gotta like Benito. You know his work happ happits are really good. You know, he's uh, he's a He's not very he's not tall, he don't like to say not very tall, but I'll tell you what. He's got good good twitch, he's got good power, and he understands the position. We move now to the Dolphins second level of the defense and linebackers,

coach Anthony Campanelli, who is always a great interview. If you don't watch these press conferences on Dolphins YouTuber dolphins dot com, I highly recommend you do that and check out coach Campanelli first because he always has a food take or something just something off the wall that you're gonna laugh at. He's a fun, loving guy, fun to

talk to. But I went ahead and asked him something a little bit more, I guess in depth about Jerome Baker's personality and character, because Jerome had a tweet other night about perseverance, and I really wanted to ask coach Campanelli about how he sees Jerome and such a young man that has a positive mindset and kind of a broad world worldly view of leadership and perseverance and all these important traits to you know, overcome adversity and and

how football kind of really reflects life. I've always thought sports with the ultimate reflection of life, so I wanted to ask coach Campanelli, someone who's around Jerome Baker every single day, what he sees in this guy. Here's coach on Jerome Baker. No, the only thing I would say about Baking is he's a great person. UM, really a great guy to be around. UM has a great energy.

The players on our team love him. I think he's a really good teammate, UM, and he'll do anything that you ask of him, not just as a player, but as a as a man, as a person, He's one of the people I enjoyed being around every day. To be honest with you, I'm pretty fortunate that way. My room is filled with guys like that, UM, and that's really a great thing. We need to come to work and you feel like you're gonna be around people who are gonna make you better, create a great energy, and

have a great spirit about him. So, just on every level, to be honest with you, he really uh, like I said, has a great way, and and there's a really really good teammate. Great out of coach, And one of the guys I think that has been a little bit overlooked in recent weeks has been linebacker Sammguavin He certainly offers a lot of things you like in this defense from my speed and coverage ability, brushing the passer. Here's coach on what he's seen from Aguavin so far. We had

a big increase in snap count the last couple of games. Um, I think Sam. I want to say I said this earlier in the season when when we're all speaking. Um, I think he's really got He's got a very multiple skill set. Um. He could play off the ball, in the box, you know, physical and the run game. UM, has some pass rush ability. UM, excuse me, does a does a very good job in terms of coverage because he can run and he has some good change in direction. UM.

But he's another guy that brings great energy. You know, I think when you watch him from Afar just as a fan. UM, that's one of the things that he radiates. He's really a guy that plays with great emotion, great energy, has a lot of pride in who he is, you know, UM, where he's from. He's just he's got a lot of great qualities and really another great dude, a great got to be around every day. He will do anything that

that we asked him him. So love coaching that guy and another coach who operates with the linebackers as coach Austin Clark, And I wanted to ask coach this question because in recent weeks I've asked certain pass rushers or defensive ends or linebackers, whoever is it comes after the quarterback,

it's this whole damn defense. I've asked those guys about some of the coaching in the room, and they all refer back to coach Clark, who, if you recall, in his college days at Illinois, really got a lot out of a Wally Betakou Jr. A player who went undrafted this past April, who started his career at USC as a five star recruit, transferred to Illinois with coach Clark, and he turned him into a or help turn him in to a big time production sack machine out there.

And he credited Coach Clark for his emphasis on technique, on this is how you do it and why we do it, and explain certain things about the pass rush game. So I wanted to ask coach Clark about his teaching process and how he gets the most out of guys. Is a uniform across multiple players, does everybody get the same coaching point? Do you have different things you work on different guys. I asked coach Clark about that. Here

was his well thought out, great answer. I thought on Tuesday. Uh, you know, I definitely would say, like there, you obviously have some core principles like anything else, you know, in terms of uh your get off, your stance, your alignment, all those basic things that get you gone. But then yeah, I think, uh, you know, it's kind of like you have your toolbox, you know, you everybody's got different tools and you never know one which one, uh you know,

you need to use in certain situations. And then there's gonna be some guys that just don't have those tools or they're better at something else. You know. I think if you take like emmanual odd versus say like a Van Ginkl, like they got two different kinds of tools, and then you throw a Van Noyan there, who's a savvy guy that's played so much ball that he's gone

against a bunch of different guys different times. So I think it's, um, you know, you've got your core principles, but then it is specific and uh, I think the guy has done a great job so far this year. Let's go ahead and finish up this podcast with coach Gerald Alexander, who first answered my question about Bobby McCain and that ability to nurture relationships, the communication, his role in this defense, and how important he is to that defensive back room, not just on the step on the

box score in the stats, but otherwise as well. I think Bobby has accepted the responsibility of what we want ont of the free safe the position, and being a primary communicator. UM. What allows him to do so is, obviously is understanding of the defense, is understanding of not just his one eleven but everybody and you know, getting guys, you know, getting guys where they need to be in in positions to make plays. And so UM, he's done

a great job at that. I mean, those are the things that aren't reflected on the stat sheet, but it's a very important piece for us to be able to operate defensively. So UM, that's a huge emphasis that he takes pride in, UM and he does a really good job for us. And we'll go ahead and pick it up with a question for coach here about xaviing Howard and how his ball hawking helps create opportunities for other

players on the defense. I think anybody, anybody on our defense or anybody that has the knack for getting turnovers. I mean that that's our job as a defense is to get the ball back for offense and possibly even score ourselves. So um, what he does, um, and not

just from getting a turnover. Um. You know, there's been various games that guy hasn't had a ball call on them, and so just the fact that he's you know, back there and doing a great job, and when they do try to test him, he's coming down with the ball. It makes us very opportunistic and obviously feeds our defense and or for other guys to be able to possibly get turn ups as well. Let's go ahead and have coach keep rolling along here talking about Nick need Um

playing the slot versus perimeter corner. The different leverage, the different help. Always a good insight answer here from coach Alexander. Here he is talking about Nick Needham and a nickel quarterback position in your defense. I think for that position, you know, the nickel position against different than playing the perimeter corner like Nick has experienced. To the data back to last season. UM, for him to continue to develop,

you know, they're gonna be multiple things. We're gonna ask him to do he was gonna ask him play man coverage, gonna ask him to play zones, We're gonna ask him to pressure, and a lot of it really has to deal with playing great discipline because you know, there's a lot of space when you go inside, you know, and understanding where your leverage is. Especially in man coverage, you're a little bit closer to your help us in the middle of the field as present um than you are

when you're on the perimeter. And now when you have you know, offenses like the RAMS will kind of present a lot of pre snap movement that's going to test your eye discipline and making sure that your alignment and your eyes are in the correct place for you to be able to execute George signment. And we talked about this RAMS offense already on this podcast, talking about the condensed nature of the offense. Coach was asked about defending a screen heavy game. I mean, we saw the Jets

last Sunday. They run as much screens as anybody else. But talking about the Rams and in particular just the screen game and how you defend a good screen game on defense, I would say said great edges and maximum efforts to the football. Um, you can never assume that one guy is gonna have the guy on the ground. They do have a lot of really good players, skill guys who can catch and run, whether it be from

the receiver position to the tight end position. Um, you know, they do a really good job, you know, in regards to that. But guys who are setting the edge have to set the edge, especially on the perimeters, to not let the ball get down on the sideline. And then all the other individuals have to run relentlessly to the football, even if you're the backside corner or if you're the further sky away, you have to run with the intention that everybody in front of you may miss a tackle.

And you saw kind of a great picture of that in the Seattle game that's too long ago. Last one here for coach about Byron Jones and having both he and xaviing Howard in that back end and what it does for your defense. Coach says, it's all about their experience that lends you the ability to make plays in that defensive backfield. Is obviously an experienced player, you know, I'm not sure really about the numbers, but I know

when Viyron's in there, Um. Obviously, the the level of communication increases, you know, because of his experience, and it really helps us all out as a secondary. And so you know, having him and having X and having experienced guys um at the perimeter position, you know, it allows us to you know, you know, eventually just played good defense. You know, guys are covering guys and they have the

skills to be able to do so. And and we're talking about different things that may present themselves offensively that we prepare for, and we're communicating the things pre snap, getting getting everybody on the same page. And it was not just Bobby McCain, it was also our corners as well. Um. It allows us for that snap to play good football. Alright, I think that is going to do it. On this edition of the Drive Time Podcast. It is Tuesday. Game Day is now just five days away. Man, I can't wait.

It's feel like it's been forever since we last saw a football game. It was great to recharge the batteries over the weekend, got to go home, see my wife, see my daughter, and man, nothing is better than that, guys. It was it was something special this last weekend and

coming back to South Florida feeling awfully refreshed. I will say Monday, I just feel like there's I subscribe to the idea, there's that yin and yang of life, right like, if something is going to be this good, there has to be a sacrifice or something that bad on the other end. And I felt like Monday, the universe was telling me like, hey man, you had a great weekend, but here's gonna We're gonna go ahead and give you a bad day. Because my microphone took a crap. I

had to replace my microphone at my home studio. Here I told you guys, I got rear ended the other day. Uh, coming home from work in the middle of traffic at a red light, someone brand in the back in my cars. They were texting and driving and drove away. So not a fun situation dealing with a hit and run, but I do have that handled. And then coming back from the airport using the trunk of my car, I popped

the trunk and now it won't close again. So just one of those days where it's like, hey man, it's Monday. Back to life, back to reality. So a little bit of a tough situation coming back, but we're happy to be here. Back on the podcast on Drivetime and man, I can't wait for Sunday. It's coming up quick. We're gonna have a fun week of content for you guys, and of course recap that game on Sunday from hard Rock Stadium. But until next time, that's gonna be my time.

You all, please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple, podcast or Spotify, wherever you hit your podcast from. Go ahead and leave us a rating, leave us a review, give me a follow on Twitter. It's at Wingfield, NFL. You can follow the team at Miami Dolphins. Check out Miami Dolphins dot com for all My and John con Jemmy and the rest of the website's written content, and of course check out the fish Tank and the audible podcast. Until next time finds up