Shaq Lawson's Journey from Adversity to Perpetual Laughs

defensive and new free agents signing this offseason. We got plenty to talk to you with Shack. We're gonna take a look back at the off season, speaking of Shack and some of the moves and the contributions that have been made from new players on your Miami Dolphins football team. Possible here from Coach Flores, a few players, and get the injury layers for Dolphins and Broncos on Sunday in Denver.

All of that and more on this Thursday, November nineteenth edition of the Drivetime Podcast, and Drivetime 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, fors, Toyotas, Hondas and more shops safely at the Auto Nation store near you or Auto Nation

dot com and save. Now, let's go ahead and kick off this Thursday edition of the Drivetime Podcast with Brian Flores. Thursday morning media availability. The hot topic right now you're seeing all over social media and different sports avenues is the Dolphins defense and the Amiba package and the unique

versatility and flexibility of this defense. Coach Flores was asked about the Amiba defense and it led into an answer that really just sparked the idea of creativity and how creativity is encouraged on this coaching staff with Josh Boyer, Chan Gailey, Danny Crossman and of course all of the position assistance. Here's Coach Flores on the defensive looks from

Josh Boyer and creativity on his staff. I think Josh Boyer and our defensive staff they do a really nice job of trying to come up with different schemes ideas that, you know, to answer your question, we can handle, but we also feel like will be an issue for um, you know, for the offense. And again, we try to pre promote creativity here really on all three sides of the ball. An outlandish idea to some. You know, Um, I think we're we're we try to be open. I try to be open to any any idea from a

football standpoint. If we can, if we can get it and we can execute it, we'll give it a shot. And that may be different from week to week, and it should be because when everyone gets to film and I'm sure people have seen what we did last week, and they've seen what we've done in previous weeks, and they prepare for him, you try to give him something different. I think every team tries to do that. But you know,

I think our staff on all three sides. Chan obviously offensively, Danny and the kicking game, and Josh defensively, we try to I try to let them be as creative as they can be, not try to hold him back from anything. But obviously we gotta be able to execute. And how about some hockey talk from a guy that hasn't watched a game of hockey and a decade. I don't I don't know, it's been a long time, but the Florida Panthers and I am all about South Florida sports these days.

Made some big time news when they hired assistant general manager Brett Peterson to that position, the NHL's first assistant black general manager. He went to Boston College coach Brian Flores, his alma mater, and coach talked about that move and his support for South Florida sports. Apparently, he could not find his Florida Panthers hat this morning. I was looking for my Florida Panthers hat this morning. I couldn't find it. So, yeah,

I'm excited for Brett and we went to school together. Uh, I mean, this is a smart, talented Uh, you know, I think they got a great higher there. And there matc Allwell, someone I've I've been in contact with. Also, Look, you know I support you know, the teams down here in South Florida. And yeah, been a couple of Panthers games, looking forward to going a few more. And yeah, I have all my support and I'm excited about the direction that a couple more here for coach, and we'll do

this one with Kyle Van Noy. Coach was asked about his availability for the game on Sunday and his overall health and he did talk about Preston Williams and Miles Gascon as well. He just mentioned both those guys are working. It's hard to get as hard as they can to get back. The same as true for Kyle Van Noy. But I wanted to play this audio because he talked about the role of Van Noel on his defense a

little bit. You know, Kyle, Kyle's like like all the other guys, He's doing everything he can to get back as soon as he can. Um. But we've got guys. He plays a number of roles linebacker, defensive, Van he's inside, he's outside, Russia and coverage. So it's almost you gotta get a couple of guys to say you're a Kyle on this play, You'll play this coles On role on his play. So it's by committee, and we've got we've got a few guys, number of guys, whether it's Commo,

whether it's Skinkal, whether it's Ago Vaughan. Um. You know, we've got a few different guys who can who can feel those roles U you know, in practice and you know, hopefully not, but you know, if if we had to go that route in the game, and I think our guys are ready to step up if that's the situation's gonna do everything you candidate to be ready to play. It's important to him and hopefully we're getting back National Football League. It's nix and boozes happening everywhere, but we're

not going to put up again. Nothing is more important in health and safety, more players and want gonna put anyone in a situation where they get doing further harm.

And speaking of that defense, if you guys read the Blitz this morning, we talked on the stat of the Day about Miami's tackling at that safety position between Bobby McCay and Eric Rowe, and I was able to confirm this both on Pro Football Focus as well as Pro Football Reference, and actually asked Bobby yesterday on the podcast how much pride they take in their tackling and if it's something they have to continue to work on or just just where some of the pillars and some of

the staples of teams that are good tackling teams. And he talked on the podcast about how that's a staple of this defense, that's something we work on not just in training camp, but every single day, each and every day. Some might say and so Bobby answered that question on the Wednesday edition of Drive Time, But coach was asked about the growth and maturation and communication between Eric Row and Bobby McCain in this defense at their new ish positions.

I mean it was last season, but still for guys that have been pros for as long as those guys have to make a position change one year after the fact, give or take, you want to check that progress. Coach Flora has talked about both of those guys kind of coming together, growing together, but also the entire secondary as a whole and their communication skill set and how it's proved or paid dividends. I should say for that veteran group on the back end, they've grown together over the

course of the season. The communication has gotten better week to week, not just between those two but everyone in the secondary, um second level, the linebacker position, the line, really across the board from communication standpoint, But you know,

obviously it starts with those two. You know, at the satan position, you know you're really talking to, you know, obviously each other, with the corners, the linebackers, when you get down on the front, you know, I know, Bobby's been down there quite a bit, so as row, you end up talking to some defensive ends, so they're communications vital and I think they've both done a good job from that staning point, and just as far as their play, I think it's been solid also. And you heard him

talk about communicating to defensive vents. I thought that was a pretty cool note there, because you do sometimes see Eric Rowe come down and sneak inside the outside linebacker even and what I've I've seen called a marble point front. Not that that matters to anybody out there, but I've

seen it called that on different schemes. I don't know what coach Floras calls it, but where you sneak the safety down inside the outside linebacker, the stand up linebacker to kind of take that sea gap on in the running game. We've seen Bobby McCain come down there and blitz off the edge and and go up on the line, screamage and fall back into the deep single high safety look.

So plenty of can fusion, plenty of different looks they try to throw out the posing quarterbacks, and I think it's working pretty well so far with Rowe and McCann on that back end. And so that you have Brian flores Is Thursday morning, November nineteen. Media availability here on the Drivetime podcast part of the Miami Dolphins podcast network.

I referenced the Blitz article from Thursday morning. I want to go back to the top news article on Wednesday afternoon and kind of one of the things I wanted to look at in that particular article was the import of contributions the Dolphins had this offseason, right, because we all knew Dolphins entered the draft of four team picks. They wind up making eleven after signing ten free agents. They made a draft day trade for Matt Breeder, they

signed Cavon Fraser. So all things told, you wind up with twenty three player editions just in that off season player acquisition period. And that doesn't include undrafted free agents, doesn't include like a Savan Akhmed, for instance, who was picked up mid season, or a Lynn Bowden who was acquired in September. So just looking at those players in their production, here's what the Dolphin scott out of those

guys five thousand, five hundred two snaps played. We're just nine games in five thousand, five hundred snaps, seven touchdowns, fourteen sacks, six takeaways, two hundred forty tackles, and here's the big kicker. Here's why you only have seven touchdowns because a lot of those resources were put into the offensive line, right Austin Jackson, Eric Flowers, Ted Carress, Robert Hunt, Solomon Kinley. Five new players on the offensive line. That's

where a lot of your offensive resources went. Outside of two a Tonga Byloa and a couple of running backs as well with Matt Brita Jordan Howard, the offensive line was the point of emphasis for the offense. This's offseason. So those guys, those five newcomers, not including Jesse Davis, who's kind of the old guard around here, the old hat. Those five new guys one thousand, one hundred seven snaps and passed. And that's in past protection, I should say,

not run blocking, just in pass blocking. They've allowed pressure on four point five percent of those collective pass rush snaps, fifty one quarterback pressures on one thousand, one hundred and seven pass blocking snaps. You talk about snap to release time for both Ryan Fitzpatrick and to a tongue by lower the ball comes out. That's how this offensive system

is designed. So what kind of guys do you want to put up front guys that can hold the point and get that clean pocket for two, and for fits in the quarterback in the offense in general, to get the football out of their hand quickly. That big size, that big girth upfront certainly makes things harder on defenses

to to be able to slip past. And whether it's one gap penetration or running games up front and trying to get by that big, thick offensive line, especially on the interior, that makes it difficult, especially in that RPO game, the inside zone games. Some of the stuff we see what the Dolphins getting the football out of their hands quickly and trying to kind of press the holes of running back and cut backside. We've seen Miles Gascon savan

Akma do just that. So these offensive line fitting the system, fitting the style of the offense, especially now I think with quarterback to a tongue about lower back there with the the kind of introduction sort of speak. I mean, it's been it was, it was there before, but a little more looks with the RPO game fits up well. So this offseason the vision of Brian flu Is and Chris Career coming together to produce those stats. But it's not just the players that were added in that portion

of the draft or in free agency. It's players from all sorts of different acquisition walks of life, so to speak. Adam Shaheim, a July trade acquisition, has a couple of touchdowns, is doing great work in the run blocking game. We talked about Lynn Bowden, acquired for a draft pick in September with Las Vegas Raiders. He's had some looks in the wildcat and some receiver options and some screen passes that type of thing. Talked about Savanahman eighty six rushing

yards on Sunday. Benito Jones has a big stop in the game. We go back to last season. Zach Seeler mac Hollins picked up off waivers in December. Mac Hollins, for my money, is one of the best gunners in the entire national football that He has been a monster on special teams and not to mention when Preston Williams comes out of lineup. We talked about adapting to your

personnel last week on the podcast. Mac Hollins goes into the game and fulfills kind of a quasi pseudo tight end role where he comes in tight to the formation, works across the formation, and picks up the backside, the backside force defender in the running game. So he's doing all kinds of different roles on this team for a

guy that you picked up off the street. In last December, Zach Seeler gets the contract extension after beating the crab out of offensive lines basically for the past twelve or thirteen games he's been in Miami Dolphin. It's been it's been fun to watch this team come together and this the singular vision, doesn't matter how you get here. First round draft pick, seventh round draft pick, undrafted, acquired, otherwise,

these guys are are paying big dividends. Whether it's Emmanuel Ogba with the eight sacks or two a toungle by low of the fifth pick in the draft throwing five touchdown passes, no turnovers and his three starts, or a guy like I mentioned, like Adam Sheheen brought over for a seventh round draft pick in July, catching touchdowns, doing work in the pass blocking game and run blocking game. It's been fun to watch the collective of this team

come together. And you know, I was thinking about this on my walk into the to the podcast studio this morning. It's not always about who stacks up the most stats. Do you make a big a did you help the team win the football game? Like I was thinking about Patrick Laird in in particular his seventeen yard rush on third and seven. It's one play. You might forget it in the grand scheme of things, but that put the

game away. That was what gave the Dolphins offense another series, another set of downs to continue running clock off in that Chargers game, and it essentially put the game away for the Dolphins. So it's not about the collection of stats. It's about fifty three guys making enough plays and when you can get Patrick Lair the guy that was I mean he came into the game behind with Savona Ackman

DeAndre Washington on the running back depth chart. Achmed played the majority of the snaps, but Patrick Laird finds a way to make an impact of there. He was on the punt block team and they got the punt blocked. So I just it's fun to me to watch all fifty three guys find contributions on this team. And that's

been the case this year so far. Speaking of offseason acquisitions and guys the Dolphins brought in, Shack Lawson was one of the premier signings of the off season for the Miami Dolphins, coming down from the Buffalo Bill's former first round draft pick. I had a chance to chat with Shack on Wednesday for of this Thursday edition of the Drift Time podcast, and it was fantastic. I'm just gonna go ahead and play this for you guys, because

he is a riot character. We all knew that, but he also divulged to me kind of where that personality came from. He said, at first he was a bit of a quiet kid, but we all in you know. Brian Flores had a mention in his press conference this morning we didn't cover here in the podcast where he was asked about some early influences on his life, and Flow basically said, we've all had to overcome some type

of adversity in our life. No one's is more important than someone else's, which I thought was a great quote. But Shack had some significant adversity. He lost his father at fifteen years old, and he he talked about on the podcast how that was kind of the moment where he decided, I'm gonna have a good example for my siblings and try to show them there's no bad days and I thought that was a really cool portion of

this interview. So let's go ahead and get to Shack last him talk about the highs and the lows, the laughs, the sad times, and the ability to overcome adversity, how he gets himself ready on game day. We talked about bubble gum, meditation, all kinds of stuff. Here is Shack Lawson, a man of many words, and I am so excited now to be joined by my guest today Dolphins Defensive and Shack Lawson. Shack, how you doing, man? How are you doing? I'm doing fantastic. You know, five game winning

Street can't complain. It makes my job easier when you guys are out there getting the job done, and it makes it a lot of fun to watch you guys so much appreciated my friend. Yes, sir, the fun is always and winning. So you know what else is fun? I gotta know. So Travis Kelsey had his dating show, How do we get love? Shack off the ground? See, man, I've been I've been thinking about that. I'm bad you

asked me that. Man, I've been trying to look like anybody because like I got a great personality, I've got a great heart, you know. So I feel like I'm a communication major too, So I feel like I'm ready for the being on TV and I want my own I want my own show, just like Travis Kelsey. Man, I want to work on that. So if anybody out there hear me today, man, I really would love to get my Oh show man, it would be a great show. Well let's let's let's start. Let's start developing it right now.

What's the premise, like, what's what's the general theme of the show. What are we what are we going for? Yeah, I'm thinking I had a little theme like Travis Kelsey. Look, look look look dating show man. You know, hey, ever got me? I haven't found me a girlfriend or anything like that. Yeah, so me going out there, you know, trying to experience and day and and you know, just it have fun with it doing it too. But it's

serious time. It's a serious thing because busically I got to be in a relationship, get married, get old and things like that. But uh, I've been thinking about that. I really want to do it so bad, and I feel like I would be a great host because I'm a character. I'm very funny and and it would just be great. Man. I could just see myself going so correct. So how many understand the show here? So Travis Kelsey show, he's trying to find himself a girlfriend or a day.

Is that how it works? Yeah? Yeah, that's what I'm trying to. You know what I'm saying. I'm trying to That was with me, It was I think I was counting something similar that. But yeah, me, I'm trying to find you know what I'm saying, a girlfriend somebody gate that's going on my show. I want to be about. It's it's kind of like, you know, I'm gonna get your example or flavor flav back. Yeah, I'm similar liked, but not too not too bad, you know, I still gotta keep it p G. You know what I'm saying,

But uh, keep it like that. But something something like that, you know from you know, they always say you find your your wife and stuff in college, like, but I wouldn't have climpsing three and a half years. I did not find my wife or girlfriend. So hopefully this if I can get this show off the ground great and

get this going, this would be a great opportunity. You gotta find you gotta avoid the I love you know, I love New York, you know, contesting on the show, because they might be after their own nefarious purposes there, so you gotta keep an eye out for that. Yeah, you're right. Yeah, you're right. Yeah, you're right. I definitely yea, I'm not to change that. Yeah, it ain't gonna Yeah, make sure I get that right. Hey, let let me let me give you some Let me give you some

some hope here. I actually met my wife, and no one can ever believe this. I met my wife on tender Man. Can you believe that? Yeah? Yeah, we were both we were we were both in it for the right reasons. We weren't trying to do the whole you know, we were trying to meet somebody and it worked out for us. Well that's great. That's great, man, that's great. That's great. How long this will go? Shoot? Shoot, we

we've been together for about five years now. But I met her and we we talked for a couple of weeks, and then we finally decided to meet up. And we had to like exchange Facebook information so we can make sure we both were real and all that stuff. It was kind of weird, but hey, it worked, man, that's the first there you go, perfect perfect. So you mentioned your time back in college at Clemson, and I want to go back to that here in a second, but I want to go further back beyond that. First, I

read again. I did some research on your shack, trying to find out some stuff about your your life and personality. And man, you're you're a fascinating dude. And and obviously the Dating show certainly speaks to that as well. But you spent some time at Hart Growth Military School, and you didn't qualify originally academically at Clemson, and Dabbo Sweeney had a quote and now this had you were literally

in tears. What did that moment and that kind of learning experience do for us for you as far as like motivation for your career Shack? Oh yeah, Man. When I got the call, man, it was weird. I had a weird like because I was in row at Clemson, but at the time they told me how to leave, so it was kind of like you said, I was in tears, man, I really thought it was over for me at the time. I'm not gonna get qualified. I don't have to go to military school, and you know

how military school to paying out. There's some people, some people can barely do military school. So I was thinking, man, this might be open for me. You might have to go back home and just do what what people do at home. And so but I knew, I knew, I knew I wanted to do something way just bigger than

just being back home. I knew, I knew I had an opportunity to play in the NFL, I had an opportunity to get a college education, and Clemson could be the first one in my place, my college, I mean my family, first one in my family to go to college and or even graduating high school type. So I knew it was way bigger than bigger than me. So I knew the heart they made me a man. I'm glad I didn't go to the round m most freshmans.

You go straight to college, you get throwing the fire like me better, like getting up from workouts in the morning, was nothing like making sure I was organized and things like that. It was it really want a problem for me as a freshman coming to college because I already had that that mindset when I was doing the military life. Because you wouldn't just going to school, you were doing military life, going to school, playing football, You're doing all three of that. So, I mean that was just a

great experience. Man, I never take this away from anything. People every day that that that heard gare experience made me the man I am today. That that had to have helped prepare you for a Brian Flores program and playing under Brian Flora's right. Oh yes, sir, yes, sir, yes, sir. Man, I feel like every level of ball I'm play that. Man, it's just been a tough program. Just scrust the light. So Clemson was something similar like that, going up buff was like that. Um I even had the crazy coach

from Hard Knocks one year from the rounds Hard Knocks. Yeah. So so I just I have experienced a lot of man, So I mean that that help me. That helped me a lot for flow program because I know how I know how you'd like to run his things and stuff like that. It's scriptly business. Yeah shock. And you know, there's there's no easy way to transition to this next topic, but I guess I'll try. And I know that coach Flora's recently, you know, had lost his mother to cancer

and that was something he talked about openly. The other day was my five year anniversary of me losing my mother. So you're in good company for my friend. And the next subject again a tough one to talk about. But on that story on the Athletic, you spoke about losing your father at a young age and kind of having to step up and to fill some responsibilities of taking care of your siblings things like that. What would you say that adversity did to kind of help shape shape

the man that you are today. Man, that adversity, man, you know that, you know they said everything happened for a reason. You know, that was a tragic part of my life when I got the news and and found out everything that happened, um, and then the fact that somebody new things like that. But man, it's just it was tough for times. Man, it was. It was tough because I used to work up very day thinking like,

i'mna lee my brothers, sisters in the right directions. So getting up every morning thinking about that, that was the hard part of my life. I didn't want them to see no bad signs, No, not the wrong way to do it. So man, I just I just took the approach as a fifteen year old man, it was my time step up because my mom was in the hospital for people don't know that my mom was like in the hospital for five five months because she was in

the car accident to recovery. So me and my sister had played a part of because we just had a We just had one brother just literally born like one years old. So that that just made me realize, you can't tell you life granted, man, everything is the point. Like at the time, before they even happened, man, I was like that led me to going hard grade. I had bad grades. I was a kid and getting in trouble.

A kid is hanging around with the wrong card. After that, that that turned my whole life around, Like I looked at life different from that as parents that I went through. Uh, from the first year, I had moved to taste in life. Now see that that to me makes the and I'm sure you've seen them all over social media. Your your teammates talk about it. You obviously live at check the laugh, man, the the laugh that is super contagious, whether or not

someone knows you or season on the video. I think that hearing that part of your story and seeing you be able to come out on the other side and be the happy, jovial, go lucky guy that you are. It's it's inspiring, man, It's it's cool to watch and like like you. Like you said, there was many days where I woke up thinking, like, I don't know if I can do this anymore, because, like you know, that's

a big part of my life. It's now gone. But you fight through your persevere and to see you having fun and doing what you love, man, it's it's freaking awesome. It's the only way I can put it. And so just just kudos to you for that, man, Yes, sir, thank you of course. So, uh, I want to stay on that topic of the laugh And I had to ask coach about this morning. I wanted to ask him. You know, he's he's a serious guy. Youah, you see him around, he's he's usually got you know, a pretty

a pretty serious look on his face. And I asked him about what shocks personality does to kind of help keep the mood light around the building. And he said this, He said, they're young guys. They want to have fun, they want to laugh, and they joke around with each other, and they joke around with the coaches and we joke back and Shock is full of life. Shack's got a great laugh apparently, and he's a lot of fun to be around, and you don't want to temper that as

a coach. You want to let him be himself and bring his energy to the rest of the group. They feed off of it, and I think it makes us a better team. So how do you respond to that quote? And also how do you flip the switch from a guy that's losing joking around to business. Oh? Man, you know, it's a time and a place you got. You gotta have a switch, you know. Um, that's why, man, it's important to get winds throughout the week. Man wins every Sunday.

It's a reason. So nobody want to be mad. But yeah, man, that's the time the place to be serious, you know when when when I'm on the lines, it's all business. At the same time, you gotta have fun doing it. I've been on this league my fifth year and I've been around players and myself like, this league can scratch you out if you let the league scratch because you've

got too much how you played. So I mean I just said back man, like I'm saying, man, all the adversity of face man and having an opportunity to wake up every morning to do what I love. Man. I gotta smell man, I just I gotta spell man, and I always lad be be the guy. Just you know what I'm saying, Bring joy it, man, because it could be the up, it could be the opposite around man. I always try to put myself and other people's shoes, man, if I wasn't in the NFL. So that's how I

live every day. And I always keep a smile on my face. We've got Dolphins defensive and Shack Lawson here on the Drive Time podcast part of the Miami Dolphins podcast network, and speaking of serious and business time, your defensive line coach is all business man, Marry and Hobby. I talked about Brian Flores being serious. Mary and Hobby scares me. I see that massive human being walking around

the facility. But you and him go back way back to Clemson, right, yes, yes, yes, sir, yes, sir man he um he was there my first year when I got to Clemson. And then when you said that, when how you said how I scare you? The cop in college was so crazy, man, it was words man like, it was bad. So he kind of cooled down. But man, that that played a road I came and you know, I had a great relationship with him, Kristen, Crispin and Tankishly at the time, people didn't notice, Uh, cour J

Tanks was a part of the team, but people didn't notice. Man, me and him was roommates, are hardred like, so we had a relationships. I had a great relationship down here and then when I was playing those guys two times a year in the division, Man, I know these guys work hard. Man. I knew Flow had those guys in the right direction, and I just wanted to be a part of it. I do want to come back to that decision to sign with Miami. But first you mentioned

Christian Wilkins. Man, has he always been this big of a goofball and did he may be kind of learning from you that one year at Clemson back in I mean, you know, he always been a goopball. He at the first than he really didn't say much, but he started opening up, you know. Uh, But Kristen was always the coupball, big kid. Man. He like me, Man like, I guess we've feed off each other for real, for real, because you gotta get gone laughing and joking around, but you know,

like that we can get serious. But I mean having him around, man, playing with him with campus is great. Man. So you mentioned coming out of Clemson going to the NFL draft first round pick Shack Lawson to Buffalo now in Miami, and at the scouting combine shock back in Indianapolis, you said your best rush move was the inside spin. Is that still the case? It ain't did it? So

he did it? Hey, I ain't did it. I think I did a one a couple of years ago, and I think I had hurt my growing I stopped doing it. But oh man, oh no, I need to get back to that move. Man. You can put me another move back to my head. I need to get back to you know, that changed the game up a little bit. But man, I'm about to get back to that movie. Thanks for reminding me for that. Hey, if I see a sock or a quarterback knocked down on the inside spin,

I'm taking credit for that thing. Baby. Hey man, Yeah, I'm just kidding. Man, it's all you. It's all you out there. Uh, speaking of credit for sacks, another teammate enjoying a lot of success of yours right now up front is a manual ag ball and one of my favorite clips from the off season. Was you talking about how heavy is ff and hands are? That was hilarious to me. But earlier this week he talked to us about putting in more time and effort money into taking

care of his body. And I read in a story last year on The Athletic that you took up meditation. Are you still doing that? Yeah? I'm bad meditating yet. Man. I started off this ship this season not meditating, but man, I've been back on it, uh lately. Yeah, Man, you gotta take care of your body. Man's this is a long season, man, with with a lot going on. How this season is this ship? Man, it's just a little at different seasons. So you gotta take more instecure of

your body and things like that. What does your meditation routine look like? Like? I don't really know much about it, Like I know, there's a mantra whisper to yourself. Look see okay, okay, So Monday I just cleaned out my I mean Monday, you know, I'm going out and just having my sub time being the dark by myself, listen to some music. But I'm planning out the week. I'm

planning out the week that I'm seeing. I'm trying to see how my Monday gonna go throughout this day Tuesday, just planning out my my week before I get there. You know what, what the things I gotta do, the things I gotta do to uh get better at and then how do meditate throughout the week? What I gotta

do during the week. And I meant to take about the game and visualized plays I can meet and that they're a big successful with me last year because I was saying, I mean seeing stuff before for happening, but I was just re lax, calm. You know, you's always you got that time by yourself. Man. It's just it's good for your body. Man. It's good stretch for your body, right right, especially nowadays when you're always around a phone or a computer or TV and you're always kind of engaged.

To be able to turn that stuff off and just have a moment of silence. I think it's invaluable. That's that's cool to hear, especially when you talk about envisioning the rest of your week, that that gives you a good leg up on things. Absolutely. Let's circle back now to something you mentioned about playing this team twice a year and seeing coach Flores. There was an article before free agency, which you would of course wind up signing

here with the Dolphins. But how, if at all, would you say that your perspective and expectation of what the Dolphins might be this year when you signed back in March, has changed now here in November. Oh no, it's the same. I mean, that's on the tenses to win the women and it's so young team and be a part of a great y s. It's been going good. It's been going good. Um, yeah, it's been going good lately. Man. You know, just just move and take a long week

at a time and winning. You went in and you're in South Korta, man, you can't get done better than there. That's damn right. My first year in South Orda. I love it down here. Even with now they want to do much just just the weather alone, it's perfect. But u you know, speaking of good weather, and you talked about it earlier. You did, of course come over from Buffalo and back in week two, Shock Tradavious White was asked at a press conference, what's the biggest difference in

the locker room without Shock being there? And he said, there's a lot more bubble gum in the locker room. What's your go to gum man? Hey, what's the go the big boss man? They had gave me something that's crazy, buff gave me a box of that. Uh it's the big boxes you what's the bottle guns man? They got you got a little plain yellow flavor then, but you got two other flavors with like the multiple flavors in.

So I used to keep the whole look. I used to have about is going to my party, going practice some things like that. So man, I used to think they just keeping that keeping that job strong at all times. So you can talk that trash man. I love it. Uh. But but before you got into a couple more questions for your hair shock, before you got you know, to the football realm, you were kind of a monster on the hardwood. We talked about this back in March when

you signed about being teammates with DeAndre Hopkins. But I have to imagine you would compare your game to the guy you're named after, right, Shaquille O'Neil. Is that not who you're named after? Oh? Yeah, I'm named after him, yes, sir, Yes? Is that is that your player? Your player comparison? Yeah? Yeah, especially for the basketball platy I used to mark my game just like himp is Uh, that's why my dad

gave me a name and stuff like that. They would be Cello O'Neil fans as had an opportunity coming out talking with Shaquille O'Neil um about how I got my name because I I waited like three days after I was born to get a name, and I got shocked and I'm told shack about So we end up connecting with each other and I'm having a great talking. Yeah, I still if I from Tom here, from Tom to Tom know. So you just you throw that drop step

on and slam that thing down. I'm picturing you get getting the ball in the policy throwing the drop step and hospital take it serious. I'll pull it up on YouTube and we'll get it out to the fans here shortly. Jack, I appreciate your time today, man. It's been a lot of fun to watch you play too, to watch you truly enjoy what you do. Man. Again, like like I said, it's just it's so much fun to watch that. And best luck to you on Sunday the rest of the year,

and stay healthy, okay, my friend. Yeah, thanks you so much appreciate Jack, Thanks a lot and there he goes Dolphins defensive and shack Lawson. How great was that. Let's go ahead and try to finish up this podcast with some player media availability. We'll get to injuries later as well.

Let's go ahead and start here first with Dolphins rookie receiver Malcolm Perry, who was asked about what's the biggest improvement he's made from his first game, from first getting to Miami as a bright eye rookie to now eleven weeks into his rookie campaign, where has he made the most improvement? UM? I think probably just knowledge of of what's going on as a defense. Uh. In college everything was a lot more simple, obviously, but um, just getting

a better field for what's going on. Um, what's what's going on on defense and offense, just the whole scheme, what my role is in that scheme and what I need to do to make sure I'm successful in it and the offense has a unit and successful. So let's go ahead and jump from one rookie to the next. And here from Brandon Jones, I asked him if he gets excited like Christmas morning each week when he gets the game plan to see how much am I going to be involved. What are we doing this week? Is

it exciting? With all the versatile packages the defense has? Here's the rookie, Brandon Jones. I do it's Uh, it's definitely exciting. Um with this with the with this coaching staff and just defensive scheme that we run. Um. You know, I've like I've said it, just how versaile wee could be and how many different packages that we have. It's always fun just to see kind of for my position,

just to see where I will be lined up this week. Um, you know, my certain job description this week versus what it was last week, and just being able to adjust. That's one thing, one big thing that I'm still kind of trying to learn each week is just to be able to master, um, my job description and be able to carry that on on a consistent basis from week to week. Let's go ahead and keep it on the

rookie train. Here and here from Dolphins left tackle Austin Jackson, who was asked by me about the matchup with Bradley Chubb, what Chub does well and how to attack the Broncos leading sacker and quarterback pressures pass rusher off that side of the offensive line. Um, he also has some size and speed on him as well, So I would say the biggest thing for him would just be too get down the middle of him. Uh, you know, trying to send myself up with him so I can be in

a good position. Let's react to any move to the initial or counter move, because he will throw a counter move after his initial rush. And you might have heard Austin's dog Pluto who was going to town on that chew toy during his press conference today. Different world here with the COVID nineteen being part of our lives, players doing their zooms from home. Let's go ahead and finish up here with Jerome. Baker had a question for Jerome about keying the offensive substitutions and how that can help

you prepare for the snap coming ahead. Uh. Yeah, you definitely have time, and if you don't have time, you've got to make time. Uh. You know, they definitely have two unique back to what I mean, but that is, uh, you know, you have to be your home because who's in the game, because you can eliminate or all right, kind of have anticipation of what they're trying to do with that that uh, and for us, that's that's been our goal with you know, pretty much anybody we faces.

You gotta know who's in the game. You gotta know who are you going against, What do I do well, I would do to struggle with, and you know, play accordingly. So you definitely have enough time. Um, but you really gotta just really know your stuff. And so there we have it. The Thursday edition of the Drive Time podcast got you caught up on all the latest around the Miami Dolphins with that Shack Lawson interview as well. Go ahead and check out the feature up on Miami Dolphins

dot com as well as today's top news story. Plenty of content for you guys each and every day here on the podcast, Miami Dolphins dot com Social we are everywhere in the meantime. That's gonna 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, give me a follow on Twitter. It's at Wingfield, NFL. You can follow

the team at Miami Dolphins. Check out the fish Tank and the Audible podcast, and of course, one last time, Miami Dolphins dot com until next time finds up