Josh Boyer, Development, Defensive Construction and Previewing Dolphins Bengals

Sunday at hard Rock Stadium. Will detail the performances so far of Davonte Parker and Xavien Howard and how they are just two of the many examples for growth and development on this roster. We'll hear from Coach and tah all of that and more on this Wednesday, December, the second edition of the Drive Time Podcast. Time is brought to you by Auto Nation. Hey Dolphins fans, the New

year starts now at Auto Nation. Let's skip the rest of and get to big New Year's savings on your favorite Auto Nation Chevys, Forwards, Toyotas, Honda's and more shops safely at the Auto Nation store near you or auto nation dot com and save. Now, let's go ahead and start this Wednesday podcast off with your first Dolphins and Bengals injury report of the week. Plenty of intrigue around this one with the quarterback to a tongue of byloa,

Solomon Kindley, Savan Akhmed. Let's go ahead in detail. Their status is right now from Wednesday's practice. Two players did not practice on Wednesday, running back slash receiver Malcolm Perry with a chest DeAndre Washington, the running back has a hamstring.

He also did not practice. Three players were limited quarterback to a tongue of byloa, running back Savan Akhmed, and guard Solomon Kinley for the rest of the report, and the players who were full participation on Wednesday, as well as the Bengals injury report, go ahead and check out our article on Top News on Miami Dolphins dot com. So we have a couple more days of practice to talk about here on the podcast, and then we have

what's coming up on Sunday. We'll preview the game here in just one second, but I want to cover a couple of topics I've written about this week up on Miami Dolphins dot com in the top news story every day at the end of the day on the website and first up this piece on Davante Parker and Xavien Howard and it takes me back to my favorite time of the year, training camp. To me, there is no better football to watch than what you get at training camp.

You get repeated defensive backs, first receivers, one on one matchups, the pass rush one on ones are unbeatable. Remains my favorite drill in the entire game. You get a peek at which guys are making a name for themselves on special teams, which are the undrafted guys are making plays, Who's on what team, who's making plays in what package. You get a feel for how the quarterbacks spend the football, how it jumps off their hand, and then of course

the team period. Few things top that and all of sport. It's it's just constant evaluation. For a football nerd like myself, I cannot get enough of it. And so Davanta Parker Xaviing Howard had some of the most memorable battles this past training camp here in Davy. Of course, no fans allowed, just media. We got to see plenty of it, and when there was fans there, they were treated to a great show by Xaviing Howard back in his camp was some of the best football I think I've ever seen period.

That year. I swear he caught as many passes and interceptions as he allowed receptions from the opposing receiver in that year's camp. But Parker got some too, and that continued this season. And frankly, you could put Byron Jones and Preston Williams in there because these guys were involved in several of those great battles as well. But for the sake of this article, I wanted to ask Davante and X about those matchups and how that stiff competition

on the practice field helps make them better on game day. First, here's X. I've been great, but since I came in the league, that companies station is gone, and he just made each other to get better. And you know, I feel like you've been doing a great job to getting each other better. You know it pay off on Sundays when he put his other guys talking about paying off

on Sundays. Let's go ahead and hear from Davanta Parker now on what the matchup between xaving Howard has done for him to make game day easier because it's so tough in practice. Going up against a cornerback like xaviing Howard every day, you know, musun go ahead like every day in practicing during camp and made us better. It just made us play hard and games because he made it. He made it hard in practice, so games made it a lot easier. Let's go ahead and start here first

with xaviing Howard. We'll come back to the Vanta Parker topic. But first off, you heard me raving about the type of tape that he had on Sunday's game on the Tuesday Drivetime podcast, Just an unreal film. An opportunity for four maybe five interceptions, had one poked away, had another impeded by an offensive pass interference. Sam Donald did a good job to locate high to avoid another possible interception, and he obviously did get the one at the end

of the game, as he continues to do. And I talked about this back when he had that run of four straight games with an interception. How they come in bunches, man. He had one in four straight games this season. Now he's got one in three consecutive games after not having

one for three games, and he's right there again. He had two against the Broncos to kick off his career in seventeen, the first two of his career that year in one game, comes back with two in the next game against the Patriots, and then he had three in two games at the beginning of before snagging four in two games at the end of against the Colts and

the Bills. This guy gets them in bunches and his ball hawking skills are among the best of all time and context of statistical frequency, the only player close to his interception every nine point one pass targets since two thousand seventeen is New England's J. C. Jackson, who has won every eleven point one, so two full targets more per interception for Jay's Jackson over number one. Exaviing Howard.

Nobody else is less than every fourteen targets, And you go back to Richard Sherman, who went to three straight All pros or he was named in All Pro three straight years between. He grabbed twenty interceptions in those three seasons and did it with a pick every ten point four targets, so one point three targets more than what exaving Howard is currently doing. The fifty point three pass rating against is the second best among corners with at least forty pass targets, and he is Pro Football Focus

his second highest graded cornerback. These are numbers that are on pace and extrapolated better than what Stefond Gilmore's numbers were last season as a defensive Player of the Year in the NFL. So exaving Howard on that same track, he is just flat out playing out of his mind right now. It's been fun to watch for Dolphins fans everywhere. I'm sure you guys are enjoying as much as I am.

And then we get to Davante Parker and first, coach talked about some separation, the topic of separation in his Wednesday morning press conference. So here's coach talking about wide receivers creating separation and the context in the case by case scenario with every player, every pass and every instance in this league receiver separation. I know they got the next gent stats and it's you know, he had half

a millimeter separation or something like. You know, they got all that those statistics, but you know, I think a lot of times, uh, you know, guy like Davante, who's a big body's long, there might be a guy right on him. But if you throw it inside, the guys on his back and you throw it inside and you know his arm length is the separation. So you know, while it might be you know, a millimeter or centimeter based on the next gent stats, you know you can you can get that ball in there. So again it's

case by case. You know, as a as a defender, you want to be you wanta have tight coverage. UM. As a quarterback, I think you just need to know, UM, you know the frames or the builds of your receivers. You know, got a smaller guy than UM, you know that that separation or or the coverage being tighter, UM, you might have to fit that when that men into a tighter window, UM versus just getting the ball out in front of a taller, longer receiver. So M again

it's to me every it's all case by case. I mean, I think you look at a lot of statistics and they say they talk about this separation or uh, you know, flight of the ball in the air, and you know they had all these statistics. The practical application of some of those things are are They're different when you're on the field, I would say so. But yes, you know, much as you can separate from a defender, it always helps but I think when you start getting into the

you know, what is enough separation? When you start you know, it's subjective in a lot of ways. Yeah, I just I can't talk that answer. I mean, not that I ever could talk an answer Coach Flores and football talk, but you talk about the subjective nature of statistics and how you always need context to him, I just I can't agree enough with that. So let's continue on here talking about Davanta Parker, who is catching sixty five eight

percent of his passes this season. That's a career high with an average of one point seven yards per separation, again per Next Gen Stats, And of course coach talking about not being the biggest fan of that, but I think it has it tells you a bit of the story here. Only Corey Davis and Tennessee has a higher catch percentage among players with less than two point five yards of average separation. That's just who Davanta is. He

catches contested footballs and does it with regularity. He did all the way to twelve yards last year and nine touchdowns down the field, elevating making all those big plays. But he's not just that. He's not just a contested ball guy. He's catching passes in a variety of routes. I've talked about this before. His ability on square ends, digs, and slants, all those inbreaking routes I thought were his best in his in his tool bag because of how he can stack the de us of back on his back.

And then Flora's his comment really comes into play there. The arm length and the strong hands to separate that way because the player can't get through his frame and get around those arms and disrupt the past enough. I mean, we've seen this guy catch a pass for a touchdown against the Rams, for instance, when he was being tackled. So one of the best contested ball receivers in the league who can create that separation through his frame, through

his body. He caught four in breaking routes on Sunday, three on the back shoulder throw and one on a comeback route working back down the stem. And we've seen that vertical game prowess we talked about where he uses that frame to kind of shield the defender while he

elevates to make the catch. And those long arms. Again, you look at a lot of those jump balls or whatever you want to call them, fifty fifty balls last year a lot of the time he's putting his back into the defender and fading into him with his arms extended and makes the catch away from his body in a way where the defender cannot poke it out. And actually, on Tuesday's press conferences, George Godzi talked about Mike Asiki's touchdown catch the rebound, pulling the ball off the defensive

back's head. How you don't want to tuck it in your body because that's where the dB goes to try to get the PBu once you've already snatched the ball, get away from him, pull the ball away from him. Gasick. He did it there, and I think Devanta Parker does that consistently on those deep shots. And for Parker, six of his ten career one yard games have occurred in his last eighteen outings. The breakout season a year ago earned a vaunting the contract extension for four more years.

So we've got this guy for the foreseeable future making these plays, being this reliable, dependable guy. And that's a prelude into our next topic here, the ability to develop players of all ages. Because Parkers in his sixth season, and you know, last year was when he really production wise got the most out of him so far. He's kind of continued that this season, just being a consistent playmaker. But it's not just a Vaunte, it's not just a

sixth year guy. It's guys all over the roster from all types of different acquisition arrivals in Miami, all different ages and stages of their careers. Anytime you can ride on the podcast, you have to do it. And this was kind of sparked by a passage I read from Albert Brier on his Monday Morning quarterback piece where he, in just one paragraph gave a nod to the Dolphins for being seven and four just twenty one months after Stephen Ross's declaration of his decision to make changes and

rebuild the team under Chris Greer and Brian Flores. And you look at all these draft picks and free agent signings, and those are great and certainly have had a large impact, no doubt about that. But it's more than that. It's systemic. It's teaching, it's developing, it's finding roles for guys to make them the best versions of themselves on your football team, within your scheme. And there are tons of examples of all of that let's go ahead and start first with

the veterans. And I don't want this to be misconstrued because both Bobby McCain and Eric Rowe were good players previously before Brian Flores got here, before Eric Rowe got here. But just consider what they had to do to make themselves into the player they are right now as the

Dolphins to primary safeties on the field. McCain, a slot corner back who in seventeen and twenty eight team played inside, played outside, played a little bit of safety as well, played all over the defense, was a good player for the Dolphins. But now the Dolphins are one of the best deep defending passing teams in the NFL. And that's a lot of that is because Bobby McCain's back there, just consistently being in the right spot and communicating with

the veteran cornerbacks underneath. Eric Rowe is top ten and so many categories, shutting down tight ends, making sure handed tackles, sticking his nose in there in the running game. And McCain's the same way as well. We talked about McCain's open field tackling. These two guys to change positions and just what is it like twenty five games into this thing. They're both playing at high, high levels at that spot. Development, teaching, getting the most out of your players, no matter how

old they are. Emmanuel Oddba free agent, comes over from the Chiefs, and he was a good player, good player for Kansas City, good player for Cleveland. Had a really good rookie season in twenty six team. But now, what about now he is a one of the top ten sackers, one of the top ten pressure rate defensive ends in the National Football League. He can enses inside and defends the run. He bats down passes guys playing at a pro bowl level right now, And that's not what he

was the previous years. He was good, He's gone to another level here in Miami's first year in Miami. How about Eric Flowers now to an extent, last year he moved inside to guard. He's talked about his relationship with Bill Callahan in Washington and how they kind of built him into that guard. But he's doing it here and again taking it to another level, playing at a high level at that guard position again six years into his career.

How about a guy like Adam Sheheen matching his career high and touchdown receptions yards per catch, and he's coming up on the yardage totals, catches and games played as well. In his career highs. It's not just high price free agents, it's these you know, you trade a conditional pick for Shaheen and you turn him into a productive tight end on your roster. Speaking of tight ends, Mike Kasicki, he's just in his third year, but there was a clear line of demarcation for this guy when it kind of

clicked for him in a sense. Since Week thirteen of last season, he's caught all eight of his career touchdowns post Week thirteen, So basically his career has been blitt in half so far, and the first half was development, the second half has been production. That's the fourth most

touchdowns among tight ends over that span. He talked about his growth on Sunday after the game as a route runner, as did George Gotzie on Tuesday Earlier this week on the podcast, I played both those for you guys, So regular listeners have heard that already, but if you haven't,

go back and check out those podcasts. The audio from Mike Gasicki and George Gotzi from twenty two catches as a rookie to one of the most explosive, who leads the league in yards for exception among tight ends, one of the most explosive tight ends, most frequent touchdown scores at the position. But what about guys who are even earlier in their careers than those veterans or a Mike get sick Like a Zach Seeler who has nineteen quarterback

pressures twenty two run stops. He's disruptive every single week. Went from a waiver wire claim to a contract extension in twelve months. Time Andrew Van Ginkle three forced fumbles, had the seventy eight yard touchdown fumble returned for a touchdown, blocked upunt, disrupts the quarterback to the tune of two and a half sacks six QB hits this year, he's defending the run. We talked about that play against the Jets where he knifed in and tripped up Frank Gore

for a big stop in the running game. Nick need Um gets his first pick of the year, third of his career, one seven team point to passer rating as a rookie eighty two point five this year in his second year. That group of free players is a fifth round draft pick, an undrafted free agent and a guy who was cut just a year ago. Now each of them a key contributor on the Dolphins defense. Then there are the young guys. Brandon Jones gets his first sack

of the career. He's playing increasing snaps and making impact plays every single week. It seems ray Kwon Davis same deal. More snaps, more run stops, more disruption. He's getting knocked back consistently. He's been a Bowl in recent weeks. Solom McKinley having a damn good year at right guard before missing last week with the foot injury. He's been playing some good football. Austin Jackson had some impressive games this

year as well. Robert Hunt has to now. Coach Steve Marshall talked about the ups and downs of the offensive line, but there have been plenty of ups for those guys as well. To a Tongue of Valoa showing you a lot of the same things you love about his game in college, with a timing, accuracy, anticipation, the twitch, the off script playmaking that yard drive in Arizona. We saw all of those things add up. We saw on the touchdown pass in the Rams game. We saw it on

the touchdown pass in the Broncos game. He's made several players that you say, Okay, that's where the ability is. But that group of players, those rookies, they remain incomplete. Hell, a lot of these guys do all of them do as Josh Bowyer said, if you're not getting better, you're getting worse. So it's the entire roster. I think the development of Needham, Van Ginkl, Seiler, og Ba, Roe, McCain, Flowers, Gasicki, and on and on and on. That all applies to

our draft class this year. It applies to future draft class with double digit picks coming down the pike here in the next season and in future draft classes beyond that. The development is the core essential factor of this team that continues to grow. My confidence about what the Dolphins are building here in miamis go ahead and finish up. Coach flores as Wednesday morning media availability, just a couple

more questions here for coach. He was asked about his input with different elements of the game and the I suppose delegation of responsibilities among the coaching staff and where his input comes. Here's Coach Flora's on just that. Yeah, I think, I think you know, on a on a week to week basis, it's it's different. Um. Again, we do a lot of work over the course of the week, you know, so I'm involved in on the offense and

involved defensively. I'm involved in the kicking game, situations, game management. So there's a lot of things that I already talked about. UM. And I think, you know, no different than anyone else on the offensive staff or the defensive staff, or the kicking game or from a game managing the standpoint. UM. You know, I offer suggestions. Uh No different than you know, ex students will offer suggestions and uh, Athony Campernelli offers suggestions and say, hey, maybe we should do this or this,

you know, depending on the game. It's a case by case. UM, I wouldn't say, I mean, I would say, I let my coaches coach, and I'm not sitting there and going, hey, you know call this call that, UM, because at the end of the day, you know, because I'm working all three sides of the ball, UM and game management. You know, Chance spent more time on offense. He's seen more of it. Josh spent more time on defense, He's seen more of it.

Danny spent more time on the kicking game. So you know, for me to sit there and say, hey, I'm I know better in any of those um, I think it's been really you know, I'm spending we all have the amount of the same amount of hours. You know, let's say they spend you know, those hours all on one one side of the ball. I just, you know, I trust that they're gonna they have the the answers we're

looking for on their respective side of the ball. Now, I'll make suggestions, but at the end of the day, try to let I'll try to let those guys coach. And then obviously occasionally, you know, um, I'll make my thoughts known, and but I think it's it's worked out for the most part. Coach did address the possible Wednesday Actus availability of quarterback to a tongue of Valoa, but we already updated that in the first part of the podcast,

because coach goes on before practice. We did that after practice. But he also talked about the running back position. He was asked if Myles Gaskins should be expected to step in and assume the same role he had previously before the injury when he comes back. Here's Coach talking about the ramp up and the build up of coming off an injury, and how it's not just as easy as coming off the injury reserve and stepping right into the lineup. I think it would depend on, you know, what he

shows in practice. I practiced some last week. Look, when you're out a few weeks, I mean there's a conditioning element, there's a getting back to it element, there's a physical element. So h no, the idea guy could just walk back in and here's the same player he was, uh, you know before the injury normally takes a little a week two weeks until you're back to hopefully back to where

where he was. So we take that into consideration, you know, you know, I hope a guy like Miles, you know, does what could uh you know, get right back to form quickly, But I don't think there's any assumptions that it will be that way. So there you go. Good stuff from coach Flores. Let's go ahead and spend this thing forward to our Week thirteen preview, Dolphins hosting the Bengals back at home after a two game road trip Miami seven and four of the Bengals are to eight

and one. It's a one o'clock kickoff. Thank God love the one o'clock kickoffs at hard Rock Stadium. Seventy two degrees, partly cloudy, humidity, nine mile per hour wins and that's seventy two degrees. It's getting chilly out here in South Florida this week, a little bit of a cold front coming through. But these two teams return to the scene of of last December's epic overtime shootout. I was there

in person for that game. Fun one to watch as both these teams have kind of tried to build off of last year, with Zach Taylor matching his win total from a year ago. Brian Flores are passing it already. Coach obviously has his mind on the what's ahead, talking earlier this week about how you can't get to where you want to go without handling what's right in front of you. I don't know, maybe some other people can. That hasn't been the case for me in my life.

You don't just jump to graduations and things of that nature. They just don't happen. You have to deal with what's in front of you. That's just been my approach, and that's gonna be the Dolphins approach heading into this game against the Bengals. Look, it's a team that can can offer some challenges with their skill players with Jesse Bates the safety on the back end, and a little bit

of pass rush upfront as well. So the Dolphins need to come in and play their best game to get a win and get to eight and four, and some key ways to do that is keep forcing the quarterback issue or issues. Opposing quarterbacks have a pass a rating of eighty four point three against Miami this year. That's the third lowest in the NFL. And the Dolphins come in with the stingiest third down defense in all of the NFL at thirty two point eight percent and have

the third most takeaways with nineteen. Gardner Minshoe, Jimmy Garoppolo, Joe Flacco, Jared Goff. All four of those quarterbacks had one of their two worst passer rating games this season against the Dolphins, and it's been a total team effort. Twelve Dolphins have at least a half a sack and

five or more quarterback pressures. Eleven members of the Miami defense have had their hand in on one of the nineteen turnovers, whether it's an interception, of forced fumble or recovery and second year quarterback for the Bengals Brandon Allen Well, technically he's not second year quarterback. This is a second year playing He was drafted twenty sixteen. He's up. He replaced the injured Joe Burrow in the lost last week

to the Giants. Sixth round draft pick was seventeen for twenty nine for one and thirty six yards, a touchdown and an interception, and previously, in three starts with the Broncos, he completed forty six point six percent of his passes for six point one yards per attempt, three touchdowns, two interceptions, and a passer rating of sixty eight point three. Last week, the Jets picked up ten first downs against Miami. The Bengals had eleven first downs in their game against the Giants.

If the Dolphins can do that again, keep those first downs low, keep the offense off the field, they should be in good shape. Number Two, finding footing in the ground own game, and we talked about Myles Gaskin's potential return. We'll find out more this week, but he was put

on injury reserve back in Week eight. He was the leader of the team in the six and six of the first seven games in rushing yards since then, Savon Akhmed leather Way three times, and last week it was DeAndre Washington who leved the team with forty nine rushing yards. Eric Doulless Phil said we'll find out this week if Myles Gaskin will or will not be back, but he

did say he's been working hard. He wants to get back out there in the worst way, being in every meeting, being a great guy to be around, and just has that high energy. Last season, Gaskin had his first double digit carry game of his career against the Bengals In that Week sixteen game. He finished with this season high that year with fifty five rushing yards and scored his

first touchdown. But whether it's Gaskin, Akhmed Washington, Matt Brita, or Patrick Laird, the Dolphins offense would just benefit from generating more balanced heading into the stretch run chan Gilly talks about it as an offense, you just have to be good enough to counter what they do and be able to adjust to what they to take advantage of what they're doing. I still keep try to run the

football because I think you need balance in there. Sometimes it's not as productive as it needs to be we have to find different ways to maybe get that done end quote there from the Dolphins offensive coordinator. So finding some running lanes would be a big boost to the offense to the team in general. I think that Chan Gailey and the offensive line have talked about it several

weeks in a row now. They want to emphasize it, and getting more production in that area of the game would certainly go a long way towards a more balanced offense. Number three, just taming the Bengals weapons. The Dolphins dbs have been sterling all season long. If you take their top five defensive backs in terms of snaps played Xavian Howard, Byron Jones, Nick Meedum, Eric Rowe, and Bobby McCain. They have a collective pass rating against of just seventy one

point two. And the Bengals come to town with a dangerous arsenal of weapons for the young quarterback. Tee Higgins rookie receiver forty eight catches, six hundred thirty seven yards and five touchdowns. Tyler Boyd leads the team and catches with seventy two and receiving yards with seven twenty five, also has three touchdowns. Boyd does most to his work on the inside. Only Buffalo's Cole Beasley has more yards when aligned in the slot position. He's got six. Beasley

has sixty one two BOYD six three. He's in the slot for eight six point two percent of his plays, and eighty of his ninety two targets have come from that inside position. It's a big test for Nick Needum, who's played three hundred and forty nine of his four hundred nineteen defensive snaps inside. All of that according to Pro Football Focus, so three kind of general areas the Dolphins can take advantage of and improve in this game against the Bengals. A couple more personnel notes here. For

the Bengals. Jonah Williams, a first round draft pick. He's having a good second season. He missed all of his rookie year. He's allowed just twenty one quarterback pressures on four hundred and six pass blocking snaps. That five point one percent pressure rate is far and away the lowest

among all Bengal starters on the offensive line. Defensive end, Carl Lawson, on the other side of the football, has double the quarterback pressures thirty six of the Bengals next best pocket disrupter with Sam Hubbard at eighteen and we talked about Jesse Bates off the top one of the premier ball hawking safeties in the game. I talked about Brandon Jones instincts and his quicks and the ability to get out of that back pedal and trigger forward and

the way he plays the game. Bates is the same way. His instincts are on point three interceptions, forty four point seven passer rating against both those lead the team, and his ninety point nine PF grade as tops among all safeties in the NFL. Bengals offense ranks twenty six and scoring twenty six and total twenty nine and rushing and eighteenth and passing. And we all know about Zach Taylor making his return back to Miami for his second game here.

He was a quarterbacks coach and an assistance quarterbacks coach for four years in Miami, went back to college before winding up with the Ram staff, and you see some of that blend into his offensive personnel. They call eleven personnel seventy percent of the time, with their second most frequent packaging coming via twelve personnel. That's twelve point two

percent of the time. So you're gonna get Higgins, A J. Green, and Tyler Boyd on the field a lot, with a little bit of Giovanni Bernardo out of the backfield as well, and they'll mix in those two tight ends as well with Siege at Usama and Drew sample. Defensively, the Bengals ranked twenty second scoring twenty six and total defense rushing defense, and twenty two in passing. They blitz of the time,

that's the sixteenth highest rate in the NFL. But they are thirty feet and pressure rate at sixteen point four percent, and they mixed that coverage up a lot. They run plenty of dime nickel and four defensive backpackages thirteen point six percent of the time and dime. That's one of the top half dime defenses in all of the NFL. So check out the article. Miami Dolphins dot Com will update you guys on injuries throughout the course of the week.

Let's go ahead and finish up this podcast with some player audio, starting with quarterback to a Tonga Bloa, and let's go ahead and just start with a question for two about how you feeling. I'm feeling good. Um, you know, I think that's that's a question for for coach Flow and for our head trainer. Um. But yeah, you know, as a competitor, you always want to you know, go out there and you want to be able to play. Um.

You know. But Flow and and our our medical staff, I mean I would say they're there, they have the best interest for us, and you know, I would say they wouldn't put me out there if they felt like they'd be alright being you know, kind of harmful for myself. So um, you know, just taking it one day at time and trusting trusting those guys, and let's go ahead and finish up with your Dolphins quarterback here, who was asked about some comparisons between what he experienced under coach

Saban and coach Flora's. I'm gonna go ahead and jump to the part where he talks about coach Flora's and how he sets an example and preaches an example but also walks it as well. But I would say the way Flow gets his message out to us is, you know, he says it, but then you can also see it through his actions, um, being out there in practice, just the passion that he has for coaching us, UM, and

then also in our team meetings too. Up next, we had Jachem Grant for his Wednesday press conference and he was asked a question about Coach Flora's talking about not getting trip up along the way and your ultimate vision and the way you do that is to keep a focus on what you're doing that particular day, the day by day focus and and not looking too far in the future. He was asked, Joachim was about some of those quotes and some of those those mottos and mantras

that Coach Flora's Liz By. Here's what Jachim has to say about Coach flores As mantras and how he applies

it to his own career in his own life. When like quotes like that is like he's saying, don't be complacent, continue to grind, because once you think you got it, you don't got and that's where it comes and kitchen and so I think overall that that messages and those quotes that you're saying, it's saying never be complacent and always keep your head down and keep a state tunnel vision and continue to grow in Let's go ahead and flip over to the defensive side of the ball and

kind of get back on the theme of the earlier portion of the podcast, when I talked about the Dolphins defensive surge this season, Let's go ahead and hear from Dolphins safety Eric Rowe, who has spent the majority of his career playing under Josh Boyer. Wanted to ask Eric about what it is that make Josh Bowyer the guy that's been the one in charge, as Brian Flores says, with the calls and doing a great job this season.

What was it about Josh Bowyer that makes this this defense so successful and makes him unique as a defensive coordinator. I mean, yeah, I've been waiting for Yeah, I would say probably pretty much my career. Yeah, I think about it. But yeah, like a couple of things about him is, uh, you know, the attention to detail is really the same as Flow, like him and Flower basically the same you know,

person ain't the same mindset. Uh, the energy they bring every day, the attention to detail within the defense of any scheme, technique, fundamentals, all that. So really it's just the consistency of since you know, it would have been the spring, so you know, we just had training camp, but since training camp, just the details of you know, everybody's fundamentals, you know, everybody, you know, whatever the scheme is, like the fine things and just kind of like consistently

executing it. And ero gotta follow up question about how Josh Bowyer's to meet and approaches on game day. Aggressive was the term he used. Aggressive. He definitely has an aggressive mindset, which I mean I liked it. I like being the aggressor instead of you know, being passive kind of just you know, playing back. You know, he he wants to you know, he wants to dictate what, you know, the offense does, so you know, kind of have the

defense kind of run the game. So uh, with any team, doesn't matter, like that's usually the game players be aggressive. Let's go ahead and get one more here from Eric Rowe about slot quarterback and second year player and Nick Needham, who has made a lot of progress in his two years with the Dolphins. Yeah, he from you know from last year. I've never training camp. He was undrafted and you know he was he was out there making plays

kind of consistently against you know, our offensive. Now you know that kind of kind of gets you on the radar. I'm like, you know, all right, who is this guy? You know he was undrafted at the el Paso. Uh, I'm not gonna lie. When he first came in, he was overweight. He was he didn't move too well, but he kept mak him plays. And now fast forward to now you know he could play inside outside. He always had like the tough task of you know, where there's

covering like Crowder in the slot. Uh. You know, I think this week Tyler boys on the side. He's a you know, really good receiver. I mean he's always up, he's always up to it. So his development, he's a he's a key piece of defense. And so there you go. There's Eric Roha, j akeene Grant to a tongue of by Loo. We also had Jason Sanders with his press conference.

I was busy doing other stuff for the podcast tomorrow, but you guys can check those out on Miami Dolphins dot com as well as on the YouTube channel for all your Dolphins press conferences. As for this edition of the Drivetime podcast, that is going to be my time you all please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple, podcast, Spotify, wherever you get your podcast from. Go ahead and leave us a rating, leave us a review.

You can give me a follow on Twitter. It's at Wingfield, NFL fall, the team at Miami Dolphins, don't forget the Fish Tank and the Audible podcast and of wor Miami Dolphins dot com. Check out today's top news story. I think you all will like it. Until next time finds up