Potential 2021 Snap Counts and Lineups and Dolphins Veterans Meet with the Media

going everybody? I am your host, Travis Wingfield, And on today's show, we've got about three million giver take topics to cover workouts are underway in Davy, will touch on the few notes that stood out from week one of those air quote practices, will play some audio from some of the guys, and we are going to get into the absolute weeds, taking a look at this roster, the different plausible offensive and defensive packages, and assigned some snap count guest amits all of that and more on this

very busy edition of the Drive Time Podcastime and So I came back up to Washington State to finalize my family's move down to South Florida for good, permanently, me, my wife and my daughter, and I could be I could not be more excited for all that to happen. Over the weekend, my daughter turned one on Friday. We had a great, great birthday party with some family and friends here at the house, fully vaccinated among the crowd.

So it felt good to be normal in that sense, And we got to go out to lunch on Friday, me and my daughter. We went and bought her a birthday gift, which I think is going to be an annual tradition. Now go out and get lunch, and I'll pick her up from school when she's in the future or when she's in school in the future, and go out and get a birthday gift for her as well.

So very excited about starting a family tradition there. And over the weekend and over the week and on the flight here, I spent some time doing lots of classroom work, trying to improve my knowledge of the game and learn more about the schematics offensively and defensively, and otherwise to help make a better podcast. So we're gonna get to all of that stuff here on this edition of Drive Time.

But I did come upstairs to the office, the man cave, the media center, the lab as I used to always call it back in the early days when I was first starting out, and my white boards up here that so many of you I'm sure familiar with. We used to do the white board breakdowns where we had color coding players and and who where they fit on the roster and what their potential was to make the roster and how many snaps they were gonna play that particular season.

And I got up here and I forgot about this since I went back down to South Florida for a month or so around draft time. And one fun little nugget that I have was that I had players grouped by position for the draft into different tiers. And I had listed the positions of need for the Miami Dolphins as I saw it before the draft, and I listened to them in color categories based upon what tier I thought they were of the draft, and just looking at it right now, you know, post draft is a fun exercise.

I had three blue chip players in the receiver slash tight end group. They were Jalen Wattle, Kyle Pitts, and Davante Smith. I had one blue chip player at the defensive end position the edge position, Jalen Phillips. I had one safety in the blue category on my list in the blue chip category, Javon Holland. So how about that that Dolphins getting three of my blue chip players in

this year's draft. You gotta love to see that. And speaking of the white board, as I sit here and contemplate remaking the whiteboard post draft here in the month of May to kind of get a better feeling for where the roster is for my own personal reasons to

give a better podcast. Once again, just looking at the different position groups we have here in the personnel we have here in Miami, I don't know that even the expanded version of the classical or traditional position groups really works for this roster because there are so many guys to just do so many different things and fulfill different roles.

And you know, I know you'll you'll hear the term four three defense or three four defense like that has been beyond antiquated for like ten years now in terms of what teams actually play, because those are two of the least packages you play on defense. And so just looking at all the different variations and options, you know, three to six, two to seven, whatever your defensive package might be, man, Miami has options for all that. So

we're gonna cover that here on this podcast. But first, a couple of notes we've kind of not neglected, just haven't gotten to on the podcast. The last week. We had three phenomenal guests on the podcast last week and those were all pre recorded, so we haven't been up to date with some of the goings on in South Florida and the football world. Want to go ahead and touch on a couple of topics before we get to our main event here and the ideal lineups and positional

snap projected snap counts by position, I should say. And the first thing was some of the two a tongue of by Lowa offseason stuff that continues to pile up, both negatively from certain media outlets, but also the positive stuff that we love to see, and a lot of that comes from his own camp in terms of the training videos he's been showcasing. And I know all of you out there have seen the videos of you know,

the new arms. He's got absolute arm definition. Now he's training for sport opposed to rehabbing like he was last offseason.

And there was a great video clip. I forget the podcast, and I apologize that I don't have it off the top of my hand here even know how to look up what the podcast is, but it was a podcast episode with two US trainer who went on the podcast and talked about added confidence in two of this year from you know a lot of that workout stuff, the added reps and the mental reps and the physical reps

he gets to go to the emphasis on mobility. There's a great, great clip of him going through a drill where they have a couple of hula hoops on the ground and he has to work around those and slide and get his open the hips and close the hips, and he used torque to fire the football down the field. Shows a good strong arm and the the ability to clear those hips and the accurate passes are a result

of the really refined mechanics on those throws. But the thing I really took away from those videos was just how light his feet are. Man like. That's the number one thing that I look for when I first started watching quarterback. How does he move around on the balls of his feet. It's why I was obsessed with Kyler

Murray coming out. It's why I was in that same category with two a tongue of by low because although they are very different players in the way they do that, they are so white on their feet and that creates so many opportunities to be mobile, And as to a trainer says, big plays come from mobility. When you can go off script, you can erase those free rushers. As we saw two ado throughout his college career and last

season as well. That is the foundation for creating big plays on offense outside of the script of the offensive play or the call when you have to get basically coverage bust or just out and out wins in the coverage or that the concept I should say against that defense. So the quarterbacks ability to go off script and make

those plays was a big point of emphasis. And the way he glides around on the on the balls of his feet, and the way he again mitigated past rush pressure last year against free rushes with the ball fakes, the simulated step backwards where he kind of throws the ball back and then steps up and slides away from the pressure and escapes either direction. I think you saw plenty of that on display in the video, and it's

super encouraging. One other thing I noticed was one of these videos he shared was at like two o'clock in the afternoon, And this goes back to what the trainer had said about two his offseason regiment is that he meets up with him in the morning. They get some weights and some cardio and some conditioning and all that fun stuff in they go meet at the field and he throws and then to a goes back home and gets back into the film. He's not out there, you know,

live in the South Beach life. Let's go ahead and call it that. He's in the playbook. He's you know, this is this is what he does. He even told us last year in season that I don't do anything man like. I just I go to practice, I go home, I look in the playbook, and I just I prepare for football. His whole life revolves around football. It always has.

And in this trainer video I'm talking about, they're out there on the same day Miami had walked throughs and you know, had to be in the building for certain you know, team organized activities or it's not O t s, but it was a team a team organized event. And

afterwards two was out there throwing. And it reminds me of the Trent Dilford video back from the Elite eleven camp days when he talked about how they had those practices at the Elite eleven camp and then to with his dad would go out after practic just and rep the things that Trent dilfordth trying to coach him until he got it down. Muscle memory, repetition, all that fun stuff, and so it's cool to see that element of his game and his life and his approach translate over to

the professional level. And that's what it takes to be great, man. So I can't wait to see what this kid can

do in year number two. There was also a great video of Jerry Judy the receiver Alabama a couple of years back in Trayvon Digs the cornerback also a couple of years back, where they spoke about two U's leadership and his impact in the community and the impact of his voice when he speaks up and how guys listen, and how he just has a certain or a certain gravitational pull to him where guys want to rally around

him and be around him. We heard Ryan Fitzpatrick talked about that last year, about the ups and downs of the NFL schedule, the difficulty of this unique position in sports and in in the you know, just the working environment of the world that there's only thirty two NFL quarterbacks that play on Sundays, and how unique that brotherhood is and there's only so many guys that understand and the pressures and the roller coaster and all that stuff and Fitzpatrick talked about how to a spirit was such

a special element coming into work on Monday morning after a tough loss or even after a big win, the same consistent spirit. That stuff goes a long way. It's a quarterback trade, it's a leadership trade, and I just

think Twa has it in spades. And then to kind of finish up that point, I go back to a question I had for Xavier McKinney last year at the combine of Alabama, the safety, who was I think their highest pick defensive back in that year's class, maybe after Trayvon Digs I forget, but he was a highly regarded safety prospect, potential first round pick prospect at the safety position.

And I asked him about two And they're kind of back and forth in the practice field and how they work together and how they speak to each other in terms of what you saw in that practice, what I saw on this player, this coverage, and so it's just this ultimate dedication to the craft, to the game, love of the game. If TA doesn't work out in Miami, it will not be for lack of trying. The kid has all of the intangibles and work habits you want to see and he surrounds himself with the game. That's

what you want to see. Speaking of that, that's a reflection of this Dolphins roster really in total. And if you get sick of hearing tough, smart, physical, disciplined team first you know, we not me and guys it's important to them. It matters to them. If you get sick of here and that, well you shouldn't anymore because now you're beginning to see the fruits of that labor kind

of here and your number three come to fruition. Ian Rappaport at rap Sheet on Twitter, NFL Network how to tweet And this was a while ago, guy, So I again apologize with timing of it. I think last early last week about Miami having seventy plus players on the roster in camp for that voluntary practices whatever you want to call them, and that's the result of getting guys who football is important to them, who live and breathe and want to be on the football field and work.

We heard Andrew Van Ginkle talk about in his media last week. We'll get to that here in one second. Austin Jackson talked about it. To a man, all these guys talk about how much they love being on the football field and working in the job element of it. Lee, Mike and Burgh for instance, like guy, all he wants to do is play football. And when you get seventy plus of those guys rowing in the same direction, man, that boat gets a lot lier, doesn't it. So I'm

excited to watch this thing come together. It's gonna be a common theme of podcast me talking about how excited I am for the season. A couple of other things from that practice I noticed just from our social media videos, which how great are those to see? And again, they do such great work out there in the social to earn the video department, I should say, so many talented talents of people we have here in the building. I

love watching what they come up with. I pitched an idea the other day to one of our video producers with the schedule, and it was like, it was like five minutes after the schedule came out. I had the idea. You know that video I keep playing, you know recently where the guy would you just look at that? Just look at that car. The first thing I do is I look at it and I told him, hey, that's that'd be a cool idea for the schedule. Just look at the schedule, right. He was like, hey, man, no,

stay stay in your lane. I was like, yeah, I'll go back to the podcast. I'll leave you alone. So they do great work, and watching these videos it's just like a little glimpse, a little fix into what we all crave and love in the door and the football, the game of football and on the football field. And obviously I can't wait to get back at the training camp,

but getting these little glimpses of videos. You know, there was one clip of two around some RPO stuff or you know, some action at the mesh point with the running back and Miles gas him and you see Robert Hunt's head pop up next to him, with Eikenberg on the opposite on the right shoulder of Robert Hunts. So your right guard, right tackle on that particular play. Who knows if that was first team, second team, whatever it might be, but it was good to see those guys

getting work. That's a right side of the offensive line that I would love to see. How much push and power and just nastiness they can get more on that here in just a minute with Austin Jackson again. Another thing from last week, Brian Flores dolphense head coach, went on the Joe Rose Show on five six w q A. M. By the way, met Joe Rose for the first time at the draft party. You want to talk about a gem of a human. My goodness, he is just elite

and everything he does. I love Joe Rose. And one of the things they talked about was when coach Flora has mentioned the addition of Jason mccordy, who's like our twelve really good defensive back on the roster at this stage. He mentioned him among the safety group and now he did say he's gonna have to you know, whatever his role is will be what he makes of it. These

guys put the work in. We're gonna find out what they want to be or how they want to approach things, or how the best eleven on the field are going to turn out through the course of training camp. But I found this interesting stat on the you know later in the week on Jason mccordy that he made forty two tackles in with just one missed tackle per Pro Football Focus, and that was good for a two point three percent missed tackle rate, and that was tops among cornerbacks. Now,

he was a cornerback last year. So if he isn't the safety group, I don't know where that ranks, but I know it would be very good because McCain and Row were both high up on that list last year, and they were significantly lower than that rate for Jason mccordy. So you know, I won't tell you again. This goes back to the idea of training camp and making roles for what these guys making their own roles. I won't tell you that he will or won't play either position

because it would be an out right guess. I don't think even you know, coaches might have plans for things, but certain circumstances and elements occur that change plans and you wind up, you know, making adjustments. That's why we get on the field, that's where there's practice. That's why there is this whole build up to the season so you can evaluate, an assess, and even from there you continue that process into the season. So one trap I think that fans can fall into, and I used to

do this a lot and probably still do sometimes. I think everyone's guilty of it is thinking that you have to have everything ironed out by this point of the off season, and I think this is a benefit of you know, being so close to the team and knowing this team and roster so intimately in the way they do things, and watching the games. I mean, I've seen all sixteen games from last season, probably three or four times in the broadcast, probably four or five times on

the all twenty two. You get very close to a project. You start to really become the project. But we will learn about the roster and the construction of those different packages at training camp, the preseason, and as the regular season goes along. But as we'll get to here in just one second, as we're gonna go over the possible lineups, you get a bunch of what you believe are quality options, and you'll be wrong on some of those. That's how

this game works. And so when you bat let's just call it five hundred, half the moves work, half of them don't. And when you bat five hundred, after you put yourself in a position where each position a group has three, four, and even five options, you can exhaust well flipping a coin at three, four or even five times, Eventually it's gonna land on heads or tails, depending on your preference. The idea is you get five coin flips in a row, you're gonna win one of those, most likely.

And that's what I discovered while going through this exercise ideal lineups for this Dolphins team. And you've certainly heard me beat this drum for years on this podcast and before this podcast with Lockdown Dolphins, that there's really no such thing as starters and backups, not in today's NFL, especially not in this defense. Now, granted your quarterback, your offensive line, maybe your perimeter corners, and your safe would

be like one safety. Maybe there are some of the guys that don't leave the field ever, they play a percent of your snaps every game, but the fifty three from top to bottom has never been more important than it is now in today's NFL. And there are different roles that need to be satisfied. And then, of course there's the war of attrition that is the National Football League.

And doing this exercise even just two years ago was kind of a chore because there just weren't enough quality options for that potential doomsday scenario where option one and two and three all fail. I mean there were names and bodies in those positions, no doubt, but we're talking undrafted rookies minimum contract tryout type of players. Even last year, there were some areas where you could say, I don't know,

it's a bit thin there. And so when you know, Vince Beagle, for instance, goes down in training camp with the season ending injury, all of a sudden, you're playing on ball and lost of the snaps every single week. Because the depth beyond that is a fifth round rookie who needs some seasoning. Things like that. So let's go ahead and start with some defensive schemes. And I want to start here with them was complex element first. Now, there are a couple of great videos available on YouTube.

The channel is just called coach VOSS. That's v A. S. S. He's a high school football coach who's been doing it for two decades and just oozes knowledge. And you you watch these videos and you realize, even as we've kind of been learning and growing the game on this podcast on my platform for the better part of five years, you realize just how much you still have to learn

from these great football minds across the world. And I love doing this this time of year in the summer, when it's time to kind of increase your knowledge and and utilize coaching clinics and videos and the like, and I've been doing that this offseason and I just get a chance to learn more football. And so that's kind of what I relate to you guys here and bring it back to the Miami Dolphins. But coach Voss was looking at the dime package, which is six defensive backs.

Nicolas five dime is six half dollars, seven dollars, eight defensive backs. You're gonna hear those terms on this podcast a lot. And he started with what he calls you know, there's different variations. Obviously in the front he was looking out, you're talking about your front, your down lineman, the odd mac zero front, which is a dime defense. So six defensive backs. That gets a bare front onto the field. Now you've probably heard me say bare front before too,

because there are two different variations of bare front. There is the classic three three stack them up where you go nose tackle and then cover up both the guards, so you cover up guard, center guard, and then you stack three linebackers and behind those guys. But then there's also the five O front where you bring mugged up linebackers into the A gaps and you stretch out the

defensive line a little bit here. So there are so many different options you can do, but the odd MAC zero is cover one that gives you flexible gap control

because of player versatility. You want to have all five of those guys that come up and show pressure because you're six defensive backs, five of them are in coverage and man coverage with a matchup responsibility um to handle the five skill players on offense, five eligible guys in the route with five guys up front, and then you have your deep safety who kind of patrols the middle of the field. That's your Cover one and the five

oh is your five guys up front. So what I mean by the gap control and the versatility is that you ideally want all five guys to be able to play all five positions up front, because that's how you get that Amba package where guys are picking different gaps, and it gives you the opportunity to pick matchups and alter who attacks what gap and what game you run up front with stunts or twist to try to create the most confusion and the most problems for the quarterback

and the protection call up front. And we saw Brian Floores and Josh Boyer execute this time and time again last year. But looking at this front basically, so essentially your your base out of this front is a three to six three down line with two linebackers and six defensive backs. And of course all five of those guys in the front seven, the front five are up on

the line of scrimmage. You've got a nose tackle who covers up the center, and then you've got a pair of three techniques or sometimes there are two techniques, but ideally you want to be on the outside shoulder of the guard attacking that gap, and those tend to be mugged up lineback or so like Jerome Baker and Bernardrick McKinney for instance. And then you have your two five techniques, which is your traditional defensive end position. Think Emmanuel Ogba,

think Shack Lawson last year. So this package is ideally for passing situations. Obviously third and long. And if you go back to the game against the Chargers last year, the I'll call it a game winning interception of Justin Herbert when we had a third and long and they confused, uh, they confused Herbert with what looked like a man look on defense. It turned out to be a zone call.

And he throws the ball right into the best intercepting cornerback in the NFL, and Xavien Howard he picks it, takes it back to it, takes it down for a field goal, and that puts Miami up by two scores in the fourth quarter. Very similar idea five man up front, six guys in the defensive backfield and altering you know which gap you rush to create that confusion, to create a poor throw, and to create an opportunity for a takeaway.

So you look at the options here. So those two five technique positions, Jalen Phillips and Andrew Van Ginkle off the edge and kind of maybe a possible quasi two point stance or three point stance to rush the edge or even if they have to drop into coverage, they can do that too. We saw Emmanuel Ogball play plenty of three technique last year and Zach Steeler plays that

very well as well. So maybe both those guys are your three techniques with Adam Butler that new nose tackle pass rushing option, because my goodness, this guy is so explosive, he's so powerful, he can too gap in the running games. If you want to call a draw he can handle that too, but he also can get up field and displace that center in the middle of the offensive line, which then creates a flurry of problems for the guards picking up both those linebackers who were mugged up in

those A gaps. And when I look at Bernardic McKinney and I watched this video, it all kind of clicked, Oh, okay, that's why he's here. Among many other reasons, his great

B gap to B gap run defending among them. But this guy, when you talk about the term pick stunt, where you basically set a pick like in basketball and then you have a looper work off the back side of that, McKinney is so explosive himself, like Butler, and also huge in his frame the two d and sixty pounds that it creates again more space for a guy like Jerome Baker to fly in clean or a guy like Andrew Van Ginkole to loop and clean and get a free run on the quarterback with the shortest distance.

And the Patriots used this back and this is the video was looking at the defense, which of course was called by Brian Flores. You've got your Mac and buck linebackers that was Dante Hi Tower and Kyle Van noy. So I think Bernardick McKinney, Andrew Van Ginko, maybe some Jalen Phillips in that mix with Jerome Baker as well. Again, multiple options. You have different options from there that you can flip guys that play different sides. It gives you

the opportunity to maximize your matchup potential. And that's why looking at the five options I have, I just gave you seven guys because I'm not sure how they all fit in there. Because there are so many options, and it gives you a chance to just create matchups win one on ones. And I think Miami now even more so than last year, has so many more guys that can go out there and execute and win one on

one matchups when we create them for them. Now, based off of the same package, there are different variations like for instance, he looks at Coach Voss does the dollar which is too to seven. They take the nose tackle off the field. This is a Viking front. It's called they take the nose tackle off the field and drop a third safety in there to play a linebacker role quasi over the middle eight of the of the offensive line,

so it's like a nosebacker. And that was Patrick Chung that did that role, and I watched a lot of the stuff that he did up close to the line of scrimmage and I see, oh my goodness, that's what

Javon Hallin excels at. So you have this multiple package defense that just revolves around versatility and multiplicity and confusing opposing offenses like what happened in that Rams game last year, and you start to plug guys in that fit those roles opposed to changing your scheme to adapt to the personnel. Now the perfect marriage comes together where the scheme matches the vision and the draft picks match the vision, and

it could be a lot of fun to watch. So Coach Boss, in these videos, you know, every player learns all five positions, and they learn each stunt call from up front or the twist to get those best matchups. And you know, the primary idea here is that there are just countless permutations that are kind of a little bit impervious to possible injury bugs because they are so deep and the ability to be weak to week in terms of how you match up with certain teams. I

love both those possibilities. I love the possibility of Bernardrick McKinney up in those a gaps, moving bodies off the line. I love the addition of Adam Butler up over that nose. But there are some fronts where they move Adam Butler for the Patriots back in to a shade off the nose tackle because and coach Voss says this, because he's such a good pass rusher that you're almost wasting a pass rush when you put him straight up over a rusher.

Because when you rush through the middle of an offensive lineman, it's really difficult to gain ground, so you want to rush half the man and that creates more opportunities there as well. Again, the Amiba package, it all comes into play here. Patrick chung at the nose for possibly Javon Holland maybe it's Brandon Jones, maybe even Eric Rowan some situations.

And he also talked about the idea of putting your best corner on the oppositions number two receiver and you double and bracket the number one receiver, and then that creates a position where you have to beat our number three corner with your number three receiver. That's a matchup you'd like because of how deep Miami is right now with Justin Coleman, Nick need him know what Imogen. The list goes on and on and on. So some of these packages I looked at here. Let's run through this

real quick. The base four to five Nickel defense OG bab Butler, Davis and Phillips upfront, because I like the pass rush opportunity you have with Butler there and then Davis against the run was so stout last year. That's kind of your base package with Baker and McKinney as the linebackers, Xavian Howard, Byron Jones, Justin Coleman, Javon Holland, and Eric Rowe I think right now would be my top five in terms of the defensive backfield as we go forward. But again Camp can change a lot of

that stuff, and that's just my own prediction. At this point. You look at a possible four three, look you can maybe you go ogg ball here off the edge again with Wilkins coming into the game for possible you know, a breather for one thing, but also the added element of both run and past defense with ray Kwon Davis out there again. Then Zach Seeler comes onto the field because he can kind of play tackle inside as well as you're outside. Rush might bring the third linebacker onto

the field as Baker McKinney with Van Ginkle. And then my secondary with only four guys back, there will be x Byron Jones, Javon Holland, and Eric Rowe. Your three four up front, Wilkins, Davis and Seiler. Again, these are guys that I think can play. All three of them can play the two technique over the guard, They can play the nose tackle over the center, or they can even stretch out and play five technique. Like all three of those guys reversatile. I like them in that three

four look. With Baker, McKinney, Roberts, and Van Ginkel as your linebackers and the same four dbs ex Jones, Holland, and Row, your big nickel package is the same as the nickel only I reverse this because big nickel means a third safety, a post to a third cornerback. That's how you get Brandon Jones onto the field over your potential slot corner. Again, who could be need Um, could be Coleman, could be Bigbo, could be any number of guys. Right,

There's so many options here. Then we look at some options that are more defensive back heavy, like a two three package for instance, which is the reverse of that three two sex we talked about where I'm gonna go ahead and go with Emmanuel Ogba and Christian Wilkins again because they both can play so many spots and they both can rush the passer with my more past defense oriented linebacker group on the field. So Jerome Baker, Andrew van Ginkel, and Duke Riley gets onto the field for

this package because of his coverage prowess. With the six defensive backs ex. Jones, Holland Brandon Jones, Eric Rowe, and Noah Eganogeny my two two I went Ogba and Wilkins again with Baker and Van Ginkel, and I just put Jason mccordy onto the defensive backfield he comes into the game for Duke Riley. How about a three one look that happens sometimes in the defense Ogba, Phillips, and Butler. I think my three best pound for pound pass rushers as far as like variety goes with size and length

and inside ability. Jerome Baker's the loan linebacker because he just does everything well. And then you've got your dollar defensive back seven defensive backs, the same guys I just listed, and again all of these have different variations of different fronts and rush combos and stuff like that. So there are so many things you can do in terms of the variety you have in the different fronts and the different packages and who plays what position. It is vast offensively.

How about eleven personnel. I went Will Fuller, Jalen Battle, Davante Parker with Miles Gaskin and Mike Gasicky. I think it's kind of your base level offense right now. When it's twelve personnel, I brought Davante Parker off the field and brought Hunter long on is my second tight end. I want Fuller and Wattle in this package because of the conflict it creates with added gaps in the running game with speed on the perimeter, that is a tall

order for defenses to cover. When I go third team personnel, Parker comes back onto the field, Wattle and Fuller come off. Because this is my big package. Parker, Gazicky, Hunter Long, Adam Sheheen, and I put Malcolm Brown into the game for the first time here with Myles Gascon coming off the field. The ten personnel packages four receivers, that's pretty basic. I think Fuller, Wattle, Parker, and I went with Albert Wilson here. That could be Preston Williams, that could be

Lynn Bowden, that could be any number of guys. I brought Sevan Akmed onto the field for this to give Miles Gascon a breather, and I think that Akmed's ability to get to the outside on those ten personnel packages is a nice addition to have their My OO personnel my five receivers is Fuller, Wattle, Parker, Wilson, and Williams. My twenty one package Fuller, Wattle, Long, and then in

my backfields together are Miles Gasking with Malcolm Brown. But when I say fullback, I'm going Miles Gaskin with Carl Tucker, the undrafted free agent. My twenty two package is Parker Long, Shaheen, Gaskin and Brown. That's two running backs, two tight ends. So Gascon and Brown together in the backfield with Long and Shaheen in that kind of heavy run personnel package. When I go heavy on the offensive line, my six offensive lineman is DJ Flucker. When I go heavy plus,

it's Fluker with Jesse Davis. Because my starting five are Austin Jackson, Solomon Kinley, Matt Skura, Rob Hunt, and Liam Eikenberg. And so you know, I also came up with this on my lovely six hour flight that I've made so many times this past year. And this is such a

rough copy of the idea. But the idea here is to explain the depth of this roster through a potential snap count projection because in doing this exercise, I just didn't have enough snaps to give, you know, to give all the guys I want to give snaps every position, all the snaps I wanted to give them, So one thousand snaps per position. That's eleventh snap, eleven thousand snaps on each side of the football, five thousand on the offensive line, five thousand at running back, and then defensively.

The numbers are adjusted slightly to kind of favor the secondary because of all those sub packages we just talked about. But here's what I come up with and the challenges I faced. Quarterback to a talk about one thousand snaps. Ideally he doesn't leave the field. Running back Myles Gaskin six hundred, fifty, savan Achman two hundred, Malcolm Brown two hundred, and then I just put the rest with one hundred,

like there are enough staffs are to go around. I wanted to give Gasking Moore, I wanted to give Akman more. I wanted to give Brown more. At receiver, Will full Or nine hundred, Wattle eight hundred, Davante Parker seven hundred, and the rest three hundred. The rest with three hundred is the hardest thing I had to do on this whole project, because there are so many guys on this roster that I think are worthy of five hundred snaps this year. So it's a great problem to have at

tight end. Mike Kasicki, Hunter Long, Adam Shaheen combined for a thousand snaps. I gave Kisiki seven hundred of those, and then a combination of Long, Shaheen and Smythe with four hundred and fifty of those snaps. Of course, they're starting five offensive lineman ideally. Of course it's not gonna happen that way, but ideally they all play every snap on defense. My interior defensive line Christian Wilkins five hundred, Zach Seedler five hundred, Raight Kwon Davis five hundred. How

can I give those guys more or less. I only have so many to give Adam Butler three hundred reps. I even gave John Jenkins their fifty reps because I think all these guys are good players, and I'm trying to find snaps for him off the edge. Emmanuel Ogbas seven hundred. Kind of reduce his work a little little bit, give him some more pass rush opportunities where he's more fresh, because we have more depth there. Jalen Phillips five hundred and fifty I think is a good number as a rookie.

Maybe it's more than that. I don't know. It easily could be. Andrew Van Ginkle five hundred could be more than that. Vince Bagal hundred, Brennan Scarlett a hundred snaps at linebacker, Jerome Baker seven hundred and fifty. That's even a reduction from what he's done the last couple of years. But Argik McKinney seven fifty. I could justify giving him more. Duke Riley two hundred, Landon Roberts two hundred. I want

to give both those guys more too. In the defensive back Philli Xavien Howard one thousand, snaps Byron Jones one thousand, Eric row one thousand, and then Javon Holland got seven fifty, Brandon Jones got six hundred, Justin Coleman got four fifty, egg Bagny got three hundred, and Jason mccordy got to fifty. Do you get the idea here? Why I'm telling you this because there are so many players on this roster

that I think are deserving of snaps. I think we're gonna wind up having some guys that This is how it goes when I think you have a good football team, You're gonna cut guys that have to go on somewhere else and get jobs and play well somewhere else. That's that's the price of being talented. I think this Dolphins team is very talented. Again, a great problem to have. Let's go ahead and close up this podcast with a couple more things. Have we got plenty to cover here.

I want to get to a couple of the media availabilities real quick as we have had Miles Gaskinny Land and Roberts Austin Jackson and Andrew Van ginkle On since I last spoke to you guys here on the podcast. Actually, you know what, Let's go ahead and do this let's go ahead and just recap the media availabilities and if you guys want to go back and watch them in their entirety, which I would suggest because they have been very, very good, you can do that on Miami Dolphins dot

com or the team YouTube channel. And when you were there, to go ahead and subscribe for us on that channel only forty five thou subscriptions. We have way more fans of let's go subscribe to our YouTube channel. So Miles Gascon first spoke with confidence, spoke with brevity, spoke with just a demeanor you see from a guy that has ultimate confidence in himself in this team, in this process,

in this coaching staff. And he talked about takeaways from last season, how he was proud of how the team finished as a team despite all the adversity and the attrition of that season. How he handled the recovery of

his injury. He talked about, but how that's a big focus for himself this year, and being available to the team to not, as he said, to hurt the team in his own eyes, So working to stay healthy, taking care of his body, and what he mentioned specifically when it came to working on his body was knee health, ankle health stability to be more refined around those small muscles.

He talked about doing pilates, about going back to Seattle and really kind of helping his body in terms of small muscles, awkward movements and moving the body and directions you're gonna simulate on a game day field in the

National Football League. And of course another running back here in my ammy that went to you dub with Miles was Savan Akhmed, and they talked about the or He talked about rather their relationship together, how much they work out together, because he said that it's nice having a brother who can compete with you, not just on the field, but when you get away from the field, like when we go back to the apartment at night, we will open up the playbook and have conversations and quizzy quiz

each other on stuff like that. What a great relationship that is. And again back to the to thing and seventy plus players. These guys live, sleep, and breathe football man, It's great to see. He also talked about having to get out of Seattle to go back to South Florida to work out this offseason, and I made the reverse trip this this just this last week and I went from eighty degrees and sunny and nice warm weather to wendy and stormy and wet and just kind of miserable

weather out here. So I'm with you on that, Miles. He also talked about living in his parents house, knowing he had to get out of there. He said, it's all cool until they want you to clean the bathroom or something, and then he laughed, and I was just thinking about, like, imagine being a guy that basically piled up over a thousand yards from scrimmage and you're back at home cleaning the bathroom at your parents house. Like, we don't care that you're an NFL stud at this point, Miles,

you still gonna clean the bathroom. I thought that was awesome. He talked about the benefit of being back in the facility and people being with or the players having a great turnout at the facility, and just talking about how it's nice to go from a different type of setting from a zoom or flash cards or you know, the classroom, to being on the field, even as slow paced as it is, just getting in the huddle hearing somebody else call the play. He said that was a very refreshing

thing to have He also touched on the playbook. He said, just kind of seeing the playbook, it has changed, it's much different than last year's and how exciting it is to kind of get that installed down with the walkthroughs and just knowing where you have to line up, because you can't play if you can't line up, he said.

And then we finished the presser with a question I had for Miles about the growth from where he was at this time in year one, when he was, you know, eventually became a practice squad player, to being kind of the lead dog in the backfield right now. And he talked about the game slowing down for him in the Buffalo game in Week two last year and how that was a big jump for him, and then each week seeing the game just kind of slowed down and being

more eye opening for him. He talked about being better this year physically, knowing what he's looking for, knowing his strengths and his weaknesses so he can get to those strengths and make those strengths stronger, but also work on the weaknesses. He said that when he first came in he was wide eyed, but now he's got a more focused or more I guess narrowed focus on what he wants to do, and I thought that was just a great way. And the presser very very impressive press conference

from Miless, Gas, CA, and go check it out. We got a land In roberts On after him, and he landed is a great character too. Man. He was having some phone with some of the beat writers and the reporters talking about his position on the team and coming back from the injury last season. He talked about where he is in the rehab and the recovery and getting

himself ready. But I also had a chance to ask him about the growth a defense can expect in year number two because of all the changes of defense had last year with all the new personnel, and of course there were changes this year too, but a nice bulk of that core is back, and so I asked e Landon how that can kind of help the defense get out to a faster start because one in three last season just was a little bit not good enough to get that playoff push at the end of the year.

And he agreed that's very valuable for a defense to have those reps together and to have that camaraderie together, and how they were able to build that last season. He said that he feels like the energy around the building since he's been here has always been good. You've got players and coaches that love football, they love the grind and stuff like that. If there's a problem, we try to fix it and we don't care how long we take. That's the good thing about the building is

there's no complacency and stuff like that. You've just got to understand that we're all going to do that. We're all going to try to get better and better every single day. Great attitude to have. He also talked about Jason McQuary said, he's funny. That's my guy. A great leader, a great guy, a great person to learn from off the field. He's the type of guy that gives great advice on and off the field. And then j Mac

that's my guy, he says once again. Later in the week, we got Austin Jackson and Andrew Van Ginkl and they too were fantastic interviews. Man Andrew van Giggle first off, he's expecting his I believe a son, his first child with him and his wife. Congratulations on that. Andrew a chance to tell him, hey man, the first couple of months are rough, but after that it gets fantastic. It's the best thing in your life, and it's always fun to have that level of, you know, non football stuff

to talk about the players with. Then we got to the football and I asked him, you know, last year your goal was to get stronger. You and your coach just talked about that, and I think you achieved that goal at least to that level you want to last season. What was your goal this year? And he said the same thing, keep adding strength, to get faster, but then to just have better knowledge of the playbook this being my third year in it, to be able to be

more assertive with my calls and my adjustments. I think that's a huge part that I'm trying to improve on my game with play speed and thinking less and just playing looser and faster. So Van Ginkle covering that pretty well in terms of how he wants to make the adjustment this season and your number three, I think another jump can be expected because of that comfort level and familiarity. And again, to go back to the seventy plus guys at camp right now, he had this to say, the

mood has been great. Anytime you can get around the guys and just catch up and spend quality time with them and build friendships and relationships. It's a blast. The energy is always up on the first few days whenever you're around each other, so it's good. And just being able to soak in everything as well. So again that same theme. Man, guys that love football, guys that want to be here. It's fun to hear him talk about that. And then he was asked the same question again later

about areas to improve that. He gave a different handswer this time, so he wanted to work on his pass rush. Whenever I can get my win percentage or be able to be a tackle cleaner or whatever the case may be. Quicker and faster is the biggest thing. Just being able to explode off a line and be able to bend the edge or get stronger and counter inside. I'd say that's the biggest part of my game I would like

to improve. And then he spoke about the defense in general taking a big jump last year and what that required as far as going from thirty second to six and scoring defense. He said he thinks that everybody's believing in the coaching and everybody buying in. Everybody was doing their specific job, and nobody was trying to do anything extra. If you take care of your business and make sure your grass is green, everything will be fine. You don't

need to be worrying about your neighbor's grass. Just take care of your grass and everything will take care of itself. And as a defense, you'll come together and you'll be a darn good defense for sure. He also touched on the level of coaching he gets from multiple guys coach Campanelli, Austin Clark, as well as Rob Leonard, the defensive line

linebackers and outside linebackers coach collectively. There talked about how all three of those guys bring different things the table at different viewpoint in different perspectives, so each of these guys just a massive team wide collaboration. Is the overall sense I get from a bunch of guys that just love football, like Brian Flores vision to the tea. We finished up with Austin Jackson, who, again four for four

now was a fantastic interview with the media. I started off by asking him kind of the same question, where would you say you are today compared to where you were at this time last year. He said the pandemic was a big part of that and you know, having the resources available to you this year a post to last year was a big change. And you know this

is me speaking now. The Dolphins had over four thousand snaps among rookies last season, and so to come into a year where they led the NFL with rookies taking snaps with over four thousand, and an off season where they didn't have a chance to get together and have this camaraderie and build up this offseason relationship and all the stuff that Van Ghinkle covered. To me, it's a big deal to have these guys back in there and get ahead of the game this year opposed to kind

of playing catch up with all those young guys. And again that one on three start might be able to be attributed to that unique offseason with so many new parts and so many young players. But he talks about getting his feet set, having more knowledge and knowing what to expect is a big difference for him in that

Year to Jump. Somebody also asked him about the Year to Jump, and that's kind of what people say, that that's the biggest jump you'll make in your career from year one to year two, and he said that he believes that and agrees with that he's heard that. He said, the offensive line wants to be tough, discipline detailed to nasty, and you don't just show up and be nasty. It's in the way you practice every day. It's a mentality. Every day you train. You have to be aggressive with intent.

It definitely starts now and how we train ourselves going into battle. He also talked about adding good way and trimming bad way. So I asked him because the great ice cream question from last training camp when he said that one of his favorite things pregame college wise on Friday nights was the ice cream bar the team had the team hotel or the team facility, and I asked him, so you're trying to add good weight and drop bad way? Does that mean no more ice cream? And he said

that was the case a long time ago. He quit the ice cream Fridays a long long time ago. So Austin Jackson working hard to get his body ready. He also talked about building camaraderie and and uh working out with Liam Eichenberg. Said the Eichenberg's technique is really good. He looks like a great player at Notre Dame and one of you know, many guys from that college to come in and have an impact right away. He also joked about two having a beard this year and having

more base in his voice compared to last season. And he also talked about working on his knee bend getting lower, working on his flexibility, strength and conditioning, torque power, turn power, all that stuff something we work on as an offensive line every single day. So again, these media availabilities are available in their entirety up on the YouTube channel as well as Miami Dolphins dot com. Before I get out of here, a couple more things. I had a question

in the Reviews on Apple podcast. If you put a question there, I'm gonna answer it. So go ahead and do that if you want to hear your question answered here on the podcast. This one comes in from our Burg six. He says, Hey, Travis, big fan, you mentioned on the last podcast that Waddle will likely be a candidate to return punts. Why would we want the numbers six pick to risk injury when it happened to Preston

Williams back in twenty nineteen. Do you think options such as Holland, Iigbo or Grant would make for a safer option. I think that all three of those guys have great return abilities, But I don't believe that returning punts puts an increased number on the likelihood of injuries. Now, what it does do is it adds snaps to a player's workload, and the more snaps you're on the field, the more

likely you are to sustain an injury. Because of basic math, right, more snaps equals more hits, more chances to get hurt. So the way I see it, the question can really be peeled back to do you want Jalen Waddle on the field for seventy five snaps compared to say sixty five snaps? What if that reduction came in offensive usage. I mean, I'm sure there are some instances of load management and in the attempt to keep guys fresh across the league, really, but aside from normal rotation and different

packages that maybe Jalen is not a part of. Like, for instance, he's not going to be on the field when you go heavy plus twenty one personnel because that's seven offensive linemen, two running backs in one tight end. So you get a reduction and snaps organically that way. But I'm not pulling my best option off the field if that's what he turns out to be, and for my money he is. I'm not pulling my best option off the field because I'm worried he's gonna get hurt. Scared.

Money don't make money. And when this kid was a threat to score every time he touched the football in college and average something like twelve yards per pumpt return, that's a skill set that I want on my team. All right. A couple of things before we get out of here, South Florida's sports Man, How good of a

time of year has this been? With the hockey and the basketball playoffs, the Heat and the Panthers, that phenomenal Coach Flora's pump up video for Game two, even though the Panthers dropped that one to follow O two in the series. And we'll get to the Heat and Panthers here just one second. But the NBA play in week Man, that was a lot of fun. I love that tournament. Throughout the course of the week, I had a kind of nt double a tournament field, even though a couple

of games were bad. But I still think I'm conflicted here because I think the way you get a better regular season is to shorten the playoff field. So maybe six teams per conference, maybe even four, I'm not sure, but even that might be too much. I don't know.

I think the NBA could be great at all. A two regular season games had that playoff level intensity, but I dream so the heating Panthers, well, it was not a great weekend for South Florida sports as the heat fall on Saturday, as you the Panthers to go to three one, I think the Panthers and they might be cooked with the heat. To me, they're a better team than then Milwaukee Bucks and had every chance to win that game, but all those miss threes from Jimmy and

just his cold game in general. Had the great buzzer beater just send the game to overtime. But man, I thought Jimmy would be the one to pull that out late in that game. But Miami just comes up short. I think the one that series. Still let's go six, maybe seven games, but I think Miami is the better team. All right, I'm gonna go ahead and get out of

here for this edition of the Drive Time Podcast. We have plenty of content coming your way throughout the rest of the course of the summer, including some big time, heavy hitting guests. In the coming weeks. We're gonna have coaches media available for you on the next podcast, as well as talk about some of the players we haven't covered as far as their film goes from the new

free agent acquisitions. Will cover all of that and much much more the rest of the way, taking you all the way up to opening kick in September for your Miami Dolphins. As for today's podcast, that is gonna be my time you all. Please be sure to subscribe, rate, review the podcast. If you have a question for the podcast, put it in the reviews. Five stars will get you read for sure here on the podcast, Follow me on

Twitter at Wingfield NFL. Follow the team at Miami Dolphins, check out the fish Tank and the Audible podcast, and of course Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time, fins Up.