Tom Pelissero on Mike McDaniel's Rise up the Coaching Ranks

How's it going everybody? I am your host Travis Winfield And on today's show, Tom Pella Sero joins us to talk about the Dolphins newest head coach Mike McDaniel, some weekend tape study and how coach and staff can taylor the offense to the weapons they have. Plus that's a rap on the NFL season, a few things we learned after crowning a champion on Sunday. From somewhere in South Florida. This is the Drivetime Podcast Miami Dolphins. We have another great guest lined up for you today on the show.

Let's go ahead and welcome and NFL net Works own Tom Pellisero, and I'm joined now by NFL Network reporter and Sirius XM radio host Tom Pellisero. And Tom, I heard that we have the hottest super Bowl on record on tap, I would have pushed all of my chips to the middle of the table if that would have been happening here in South Florida, but I guess it's in Los Angeles this weekend. The difference, Travis is it's a drying heat out here. You can just feel the

sun baking on you. You don't feel like you're in a swamp and gotta change closed five times. Of course today. That was a summer lesson when I first moved down here, was that if you go outside at all, you're gonna have to go back and take a shower, like you mentioned there. So you know, we talked about California, south Florida. Pardon the bad transition here, Tom, but from one California

to Florida transplant. Is the new head coach of the Miami Dolphins and Mike McDaniel and Tom you had mentioned on one of your hits. I think it was this week that you crossed past with coach McDaniel quite a while back. What do you remember What do you first remember hearing about him as he kind of began his sent in the coaching ranks and on stood out to you about him early on. Well, I initially met Mike through Kyle Shanahan many years ago, and Mike has been

a long time Kyle Shanahan assistant. UM, he had brought him along to every place he'd ever been, between obviously being in Houston and being in Cleveland and Atlanta, San Francisco. I'm sure I'm missing one in there, but they've always

been side by side for a long time. And then you know, obviously got to know him a little bit better at the Super Bowl uh five years ago when the Falcons were in it, and had a fascinating conversation, a deep conversation with Mike that started a Super Bowl media day and continued on the phone over a couple of nights. We just Mike talk to me about some of the things that he's dealt with in the past, and some of the challenges that he's had to overcome

in his personal life. The way that the Falcons helped him through all of that. UM, you know, certainly when you get to know him, when you talk to him, and I think that's already a parent for just a press conferences and and you know the vir videos and everything else there. He's a multilayered guy. He was certainly unique individual, highly intelligent individual, and somebody that I think that the Dolphins fans are going to really enjoy hearing

from five times a week come to see. Yeah, he did a whole round the whole gamut of media yesterday after his press conference, and he kind of has that dry humor where he'll give you a joke and kind of see how you react and then continue on. And a few of the guys got a sample of that. I got a sample of that. I think I missed the boat on my joke opportunity with coach, But I guess I'll learn as I go along. I would say

that that's fair. You know. The one thing of Mike is he's He's very authentic, and Kyle Shanahan said that recently the Mike is himself. He is and Kyle has also referred to him as an acquired taste. He's just he's a little bit different of a personality than a

lot of times get from head coaches. But when you're evaluating, and I think that this goes for teams across the league, every team is gonna have its own criteria in terms of what they're looking for in their head coach, and not everybody is gonna lead the same way and out of her per ssonality is going to fit into a precise box. And this is what we think the head

coach is going to be. So provided that you feel like you can translate your skills that you've used in assistant coaching roles into the head coaching role, it's just a matter of taking that and going, Okay, can we see this winner lose? Can this guy be the person who stand in front of the room winner lose? And I know the Dolphins did a ton of background on Mike McDaniels of diget into some of those same issues, you know, can he be that guy? How does he

interact with people? What can he draw out with people? Obviously they found the answers that they were very satisfied with, and that's why he's their head coach. Yeah, you mentioned, you know, the Dolphins doing their background research on him, Stephen Ross at the press conference multiple times, out of the box thinker and we've heard that all the time. And Tom, you're obviously as well connected as anybody in

this league. And you know, as this and even past hiring cycles have come and gone, has there been one common trade that people kind of mentioned about coach McDaniel And if so, what is that? One trade. Intelligence is the number one thing, and that's always been there for Mike. You know, he went to Yale and he's, you know, just a very well thought out person. I think that just in terms of football, A big part of it is, you know, he has a reputation as an innovator, not

an imitator. In other words, there's so much play stealing that goes on in the NFL, and sometimes people can get the impression that somebody's really thinking, you know, has these new ideas, when really all they're doing is watching college stape, watching other NFL teams, plucking plays With Mike and working with Kyle Shanahan. They do some things. They

will show things that nobody has seen. They can take a guy like Kylie use Check, who you know, was a guy who you wonder, okay, you know, kind of what's his role. They made him like a seven million dollar fullback because they saw him as this chess piece that they can move all over the place. And you know, that's something that's a comment trade. Within that offense, Mike has a heavy uh hand in the running game. He

has in the past with the forty Niners. That's kind of been a balance there because Kyl Shanahan's obviously a brilliant past game guy, knows how to get the people open. Mike was kind of his second set eyes on game day too. So the way that Mike can see the game, he sees things that other people don't see, and that obviously is something that you know, schematically has been a serving well as he not only moves into his first head coaching opportunity, but his first opportunity really calling plays

all the time as well. It's a great trait to have, obviously, But I'm curious, how do you think that will benefit him in both assembling his coaching staff and then ultimately the collaboration with the coaches he has on staff. Well, I know the Mike it it put a lot of time in with the coaching staff. There have been some things that have been you know, relatively set up for a while in terms of the types of people that he was going to be bringing in. You'll see those

names Trick went out here in the coming weeks. Obviously, the expectation is Josh Boyer and much of the defensive staff remain in place because a lot of people who are eager to work with Mike. There are a lot of veteran coaches who are eager to work with Mike because again, even though his profile was lower and you know, you don't see him in a press conference, he doesn't talk away some other guys do. People who have been

around him know how smart he is. Some of the smartest coach is in the NFL worked with Mike at various stops. Talk about the sounding board that he can be, and so when he gets a head coaching job, absolutely there are people who want to go into this with him and want to be a part of it. You know, he may too. We'll see how the exact composition of the staff happens. I would not be surprised if you bring in a former NFL head coach, somebody who can

help with some of the administrative stuff. You see that with a lot of first time head coaches. They'll bring people in just to kind of ease some of that administrative burdens just so much that comes with being the head coach. But I fully believe that it's gonna be a really strong staff he puts together in Miami, because that's the type of respect that Mike has in terms of being a football line in the league. Yeah, you

mentioned the respect among his coaching peers. And obviously a big part of getting a head coaching job is your ability to round out a coaching staff, but also recruiting players. I know it's not you know, on the college or even high school level, but when you when you look at how his his makeup and his character can possibly attract free agents, do you think that also will go a long way and making players want to come here

and play for Mike McDaniel. I would say that if any of those players want to do homework on Mike McDaniel, they should call the forty Niners players and here the types of things that those guys uh say about him. You know, everybody from obviously Kyle Eustchack has been very outspoken about what Mike means to him. Guys like Deebo Samuel I know, um, you know, put together some thoughts that he got to the Dolphins during the interview process because he wanted them to know he always he was

preparing for a playoff game. Deebo wanted him to know how special of a guy that Mike is. You know, it'll be interesting to see just kind of you know, obviously he's he's talked to a tongue by lower already. We saw that video, the expectations. He's there, he's a believer, and he pitched them on the plan for how he was going to you know, how he was gonna work with two of It wasn't well, here's our options quarter like, No, here's how we're gonna get the most out of to

And that's something we've seen throughout Myke's career. Two is, there's a lot of quarterbacks. Obviously again he's been with Kyle Shanahan, but basically every quarterback that that Mike's been in countering has had their best year when he's been there. And part of that because they've run football so effectively, and that's a big thing that Mike does, and so talent acquisitions. Always the Dolphins are always aggressive in free agency. They're not afraid to spend money. Steve Ross is willing

to invest in the team. I would anticipate that that continues, and I think that if yeah, again, if I players call around to the forty Niners players or even guys who have played for Mike in the past, I mean guys like Andrew Hawkins, who I worked with here at NFL Network, will tell you he's one of the smartest guys you know that you're ever going to come across a lot of people that have a lot of love for Mike, and I think that word of mouth is a big part of you know, when you're when you're

kind of analyzing where to end up. Yeah, you mentioned the testimonials. I was going to mention that Andrew Hawkins quote. He talked about receivers room in Cleveland, how he believes they never got pressed or jammed to the line because of the techniques and the stuff that Mike McDaniel taught them. So really good stuff there across the board on those testimonials.

And you had mentioned in your reporting that he kind of presented some well thought out plans for specific players, and the idea of developing players and getting the best out of them is very high on the to do list. What's the book on his ability to do that, to take players and take them to their absolute peak of their performance. It's very strong. And that's another one of

the big selling points with Mike is player development. And yes he has plans for that for the entire offense, but also specifically for developing to a Toko Valoa who when he was healthy last season to have played well and they won. Maybe I don't know off the top of my head you might have what to his record as the starting quarterback, but it's pretty good. You know, his issue has been injuries, which was his issue and at Alabama to all the way through just you know,

got banged up a lot. This season. He dealt with the rib injury. I think he had a hand or a thumb or some kind of injury too, So he's dealt with stuff when he was healthy down the stretch. That's the best we saw in play. Now you bring in somebody who this is what they do. They are

a guru. In terms of offense, It'll be interesting to see two because two has played so much from the shotgun throughout the course of his career, and that was kind of the idea when the Dolphins first drafted him, which was bringing chan gaily run that spread it out, shotgun, quick hitting type of an offense. Well, Mike's history in that offense, the outside zone scheme, it's a lot of play actions, a lot of blue legs, it's a lot

of under center stuff. So how Mike balance is that in terms of getting to under center, which I would I won't guarantee anything, but I would certainly bet they will see two under center more than he has been in the past. And then you know some of the other fundamentals that offense, things like turning your back to the line of scrimmage on playthings which a lot of these quarterbacks haven't done. So how they kind of teach some of these elements of the offense while also preserving

what toa is comfortable with. I think it's going to be an important part of how this offense and this entire team involves. It's very interesting because there's some carry over in terms of the Niners lead in the NFL last year and twenty one personnel you mentioned Kyle, you check a big part of that. The Dolphins like the NFL and twelve personnel with two tight ends, so maybe

there is some carry over there. And earlier, Tom you mentioned you know your relationship with Mike and it goes back quite a few years, and you've detailed some of the obstacles he's overcome and his coaching career, in his life and all that kind of ties together. How do you think that helps him connect to his players? Well, certainly, Mike had a you know, unique, a lot of unique things in his life going all the way back to

his childhood. And of course he's addressed, um, the race issue, which became the sort of Twitter sensation in recent days because of the current environment. There are things that are going on within the league. But growing up with a black father and a white mother and seeing certain things that may have been a little bit difficult people experienced. Um. And then obviously as he got out of college and got into the NFL, one thing that that followed him

was problems with alcohol. You know, he had issues going back to and we talked about all this five years ago with the Super Bowl. You know, things like you know, being in his office in Cleveland and you know, having a drink to try to jumpstart his creativity, and coming in Atlanta sometimes you know, smelling like alcohol on a Saturday morning before I walk through. And he got to the point where Mike had the self awareness to go to Thomas mit Rock and Dan Quinn and say, I

need some help. I think I need did to do something here, And so he went and he got treatment and he's you know, over the past five years here, Um, you have been a different person. As he told me at the time, you realize people like him a lot more when he's not drinking. You know, that's brought out. I think even more of the creativity than Mike has um, just in terms of his ability to focus on not having other things that are, you know, going on in

his life. I think that it's a good trade in a head coach, not in any way you know, compare personal issues to professional but I do think it's a good trade in a head coach, sometimes, especially a first time head coach, to say I can't do this all of my own. I need help, I need to delegate, I need input from different people. And I think those are all lessons that Mike is going to apply now. Um that he's a head coach and he's gonna be fun.

I'll tell you that too. He's gonna be fun to cover, he's gonna be fun to watch how his offense involves. The fans are gonna have fun too. In the end, it's all about winning football games, and that's what he's gonna be tasked with. You're not taking over a bottom feeder here with the Dolphin. You're taking over a team that's had a winning record the past couple of years. Even though you know, not going to the playoffs, but certainly been a competitive team, probably too streaky for anybody's

liking long losing streaks, long winning streaks. During the course of time there, Mike said'm certainly you know, I'm sure it's gonna try to be smoothing that stuff out. But he's taken over a team that's got some talent the guy guys like Jalen Waddle, who's really intriguing young player on offense, who thought about six billion passes uh this season. They've obviously got some you know, all pro caliber talent on the defense too. Let's see how they bring it together.

Let's see how they do, you know, through free agency and the draft pers careers there, so you've got continuity

on the personnel side. I think this the whole thing is gonna be really interesting to watch because Mike is and again I don't mean to minimize this, but he is outside the box in terms of you don't immediately meet him or you know, have a conversation and go, Okay, that guy's a future head coach, but understanding how smart he is, the impact he's had on so many different teams, the way the players view him, the way that everybody

in the building views him. Uh, there is real upside to him being a head coach, and I'm really excited to see it. Well, Tom, I gotta say, you got me wanting it to be September already. It's it's a few months away. But no, please, no, just I'm not I'm not ready for you. Yeah. I understand you've been

a busy man. This is this last entire season, the extra week to extend your scheduling for further So we'll go ahead and enjoy the break in the time off before we give you that, though, quick, Tom, one more question. What do you think ultimately will make Mike a successful head coach in this league? Well, Tom will tell and

I think that everybody's got trades. There's a reason guys get hired, and everybody believes that, you know, the guy they're hiring is gonna have the trades to be a successful head coach if it pans out that way from Mike, and if he is able to be as good as he has the capability of doing. It's just that the

way that he sees the game is very unique. The way that he can pick things out, innovate, um be able to push the envelope on certain things, and some of them may seem minor some of them if you're just a fan tuning into the game, it may be imperceptible. But you're always challenging the status quo. And when you're doing that, not simply by watching tape of what other people are doing. You're figuring out unique things that you can do. You're figuring out ways that you can adjust

on the fly. It's that ability it's really gonna help Mike and what he's gonna have to grow into is just the leadership role. Being at the front of the room every day. He's obviously been an offensive coordinator. He's been heavily involved. I've seen him present. You might see the guy at the press conference and not recognize them in terms of the guy presenting in the room because

they are a little bit different. Um, he has some experience, ere it's the first time for everything, so growing into that that leadership role, in the front of the room role, but being able to rely on I'm as smart as anybody in terms of how they're drawing this up and the ex's nose and the way that we're gonna game plan every week. That is what in the short term is going to have the give the Mike the opportunity

to be really good. Well yeah, I mean it's from the sounds of it, sounds like when he needs to, you know, kind of look in the mirror and and make improvements as he goes along. He's certainly capable of that as he gets kind his feet went his experience here in South Florida. Tom Pellicero, NFL Network, Serious XM Radio, Tom, really appreciate your time today. I understand you're going back on the network for a live hit. Keep an eye out for those scooters out there. Okay, we'll do appreciate

And there he goes Tom Pellicero, NFL Network. Great stuff there on the new head coach of the Miami Dolphins. And before we get to our first break here, want to go ahead and just let you guys know that we will have the entirety of the coaching staff updated for you when we haven't finalized and published and everything on Miami Dolphins dot com and we announced it. We'll

cover it here on the Drivetime podcast. But I want to go ahead and let you know that we did hear from Mike McDaniel on local radio here in South Florida on Friday that Wes Welker would be joining his staff as a receiver's coach, and that Josh Boyer would stay on as the defensive coordinator. Mike McDaniel himself confirmed that, So that is what we're going forward with. We'll get you updated on the rest of the coaching staff as we go forward. Next, I watched some tape this weekend.

I want to talk about what I saw, so we'll do that next turn on the Drift Time podcast. Travis Wingfield keep it locked right here the B block here on a Monday edition of the Drive Time podcast. And when I set out to record this podcast, I did not intend on putting more coach sound bites into this episode. But then I heard the Lebotard podcast and look, I'm very proud of the interview I did with Coach McDaniel. He made it one of the more memorable moments of

my career so far. But my goodness, was this Lebotard spot good. I guess that's how you generate a national audience and launch your own podcast network. Huh. But I think a lot of this supplements the segment I had planned on doing. And there's a theme I want to focus on with his answers that jives with this segment that I had planned, but I just wanted to relay

this part, he said. With regards to the resources he's provided in this position as head coach of the Miami Dolphins, he talked about putting in request for certain things and the expensing process can sometimes take some time. And he said that he heard stories about being here in Miami. Hey, you want to hyper barrack chamber and a peloton is gonna cost you three dollars and then it shows up

the next day. The thought of giving this man all the resources he needs, you have to love that all right, back to the theme here, and he really detailed some of his approach to the offensive side of the ball and sort of taking inventory of the assets that he has. It's threefold, the quarterback, the offensive line with the running game, and wattle, Wattle. Let's go ahead and start here first with two a tongue of Vola. His answer about what too One needs to improve on this offseason. He needs

to work on playing the position of quarterback. We we need to teach him our system. He needs to work on fundamentals You get with him and without any shortcut. You see things he's comfortable with within your offense, and then you need to have other offense around the original point of focusing on the run game within our system. The first year that I had that, I was in coach he Knows with Jake Plummer and the Broncos and

we went to a c championship game. One could say that, hey, Jake Plummer needs to work at playing in the pocket on third down more. Or you can say we need to run the ball, we need to feature what he's good at, and yes, he needs to work at it all. But more of the focus was let's create the offense. Let's establish the system. He should know how to call the plays where everyone's at, but let's have an offense that he operates within. So it's hard for me to

say this one thing. I want him to work. I want him to be invested, and I want to see what happens with that. And that reminds me so much of things I learned when I first got into reading war and Sharp's work. Who does so much work on analytics and down in distant situational football, And that's essentially I think what coaches kind of driving home there was creating more advantageous situations, not just for your quarterback but

for the entire offense. And the ability to run the football cannot only put you in better down and distances, especially when you go away from tendencies and run the ball when you're expected to pass, and pass the ball when you're expected to run. But the influence it has on the defense is also tenfold. Let's go ahead and get to this next clip here of him talking about

the offensive line. Here's coach McDaniel. Um. I think historically, if you go back and look from year to year, you know what was the Atlanta Falcons o line productivity in two thousand fourteen. Historically, our system does help people because we commit the stuff and all those things back there. Very aware of that. But to me, that's where we have to flourish. So that is obviously a point of emphasis because we haven't. But the line of scrimmage is

paramount importance. That was the pillar of our success in San Francisco last five years. I mean, it makes perfect sense if you can have success in terms of gaining yards, possessing the football, and then also having an influence on how the defense attacks your passing game. When you do want to dial up the ball through the air. It makes so much sense. How about the offensive line. Let's go and continue this follow up here about being within

one system across six different teams, here's coach McDaniel. But I'm running a system that I've ran with six different teams for fifteen years and one system which no one really talks about. But that's unprecedented. Why because Kyle Shanahan kept getting jobs at different places? What does that mean? You learn how to play with different types of players and then you adjust, which is why we're We're not like,

I'm not creative for creative sake. I'm just trying to trying to put players in success and we've got a lot of different ways to do it because we've had to adapt to a lot of different players. We didn't know how to do zone read until we got his own read quarterback, and so are we zone read guys, And to only do that, no one had done it in Pistol. We just didn't Pistol because it made sense.

So stuff like that. You know, being in the same system for that long, the system completely evolves and doesn't even look the same, but you learn how to figure stuff out. Um, once you get all your assets. We're gonna circle back to that one. But first, real quick, let's go ahead and finish up here. You're gonna hear Lebotard's question towards coach and he doesn't even finish the question before giving him an answer. Let's go back to it.

Give me a name, please, just to excite the Dolphin fan base where you were looking at the roster and you're like, oh, I can get I can get something special at that guy. Okay, Wattle? All right, so you're you're telling you're promising us, you could promise it Wattle. If he's healthy, you're gonna see a little Deebo Samuel. You're gonna see someone who's used super versatile. No. I just I just talked with him on Monday, and I think he understands his leadership role on this team. He's

a phenomenal talent. And guess what the best and easiest way to uh get yards is give it to a really talented player. Is the last five or four or five years have led the league in the act. The reason is because we we're addicted to getting our skill position players that are good with running the ball the ball, and so yes, I would start him in fantasy. Beyond that, I think, UM, I think you should see some jumps

in the Miami Dolphins offense next year. What those look like, UM will be determined this offseason and the way the players work and attack things moving forward. Welcome. You can hear that entire interview on the Lebotard Show with Stu Got's on the Dan Lebotard podcast Network. Great great stuff there and to just finish up here real quick. Lebotard asked him about the best trait that he brings to the Dolphins, and McDaniel said, the true strength he's been

afforded over his career is adaptability. He then points out how many players have had their career years within this system and again not a rigid system, but the system with adaptations to fit those players. Coach said that variables and different positions and how they helped him understand the best way to get the ball to the best players in unique ways and adjusting to their skill set. He

thinks that empowers the quarterback. The run game empowers the quarterback, and he finishes up with this quote, adapting to talent and versatility to do whatever our skill set necessitate, necessitates would probably be my best trade. So we know there's a draft still to happen, obviously, and the most cap space when next month's free agency period opens up, so he can get to work putting his fingerprints on this roster. But what about what he's inheriting here in South Florida?

How can he adapt to that? Where are some of the potential upshots on this roster? Well, first, I think it's important to understand a little bit about the zone running scheme, specifically wide zone. Now, Coach himself has talked about how they've altered their systems, not just in that interview, but in other various articles and interviews that he's given before about tendency breakers, and we'll touch on that here

in just one moment. But in my interview with coach last week, he talked a little bit about play design, how his thought was to come up with salutations to the problems the defense presents, and how from there you can sequence off the stuff you have, And that, to me is a big reason you're attracted to what he brings from not just the head coach side of things, but the offensive structure side, because this is a playbook that has developed over the better part of two decades

and just keeps adding chapters with the more experience that he gains. A law of the zone read stuff he mentioned with Robert Griffin the third and how none of the staff there in Washington had any experience with that and they didn't go to any clinics to learn that. They just did the old fashioned grind route. Grind it out,

develop your offense for the player. So why I'm telling you all this because I think there are opportunities to maximize the incumbents on offense before you even consider supplementary pieces in the player acquisition period of the calendar. That is the most prevalent offensive system. This is, I should say, the most prevalent offensive system in the National Football League. And it's not close between Shanahanna San Francisco, la Fleura

in Green Bay, now McDaniel in Miami. How about Mike la Fleur's the o C with the Jets a new head coach in Minnesota with Kevin O'Connell coming off this tree, We're up to what a quarter a third of the league having ties back to this system and the godfather of it is well, Mike Shanahan. But you could argue that his Son's resume is closing ground fast and might have already pulled a max first stepping on the last lap of the F one season and overtaken top position.

And if Kyle Shanahan is sort of the model, well, who was in the office right next to his for the last five years. Who's the coach that Kyle Shanahan brought with him to every stop in Cleveland, Atlanta, and San Francisco as his right hand man. Mike McDaniel so again coaches Rollo decks of plays and principles as rivaling that of the Miami Dade and Broward phone books combined. But wide zone has been one of the most successful elements of that offense. And that's where I want to

start here. First zone means you're gonna get a zone step to start to play from the offensive line. That's where every offensive lineman takes their first step in the same direction, ideally in unison to the play side of the formation. Their aim is to block an area opposed to having a specific assignment like you see in gap

in power schemes. This creates more flexibility to run against multiple fronts and gives you a lot of opportunities to utilize one of our favorite terms here on the podcast, the old catching climb to the second level and wall off those linebackers flowing to the football and then use that flow against them. Matt Bowen and ESPN analyst wrote about zone and he says the NFL teams that feature the zone concepts look to have backs who have vision, speed through the hole, and cut back ability to find

the running lanes at the point of attack. Some examples he listened with Lashawn McCoy, Arian Foster, Matt Forte, Reggie Bush, Jamal Charles and Marshawn Lynch and Alfred Morris. Remember that podcast we did last week. Alfred Morris blew up as a sixth round rookie in this running scheme in Washington

and Shanahan and McDaniel were in the Capitol. So there are so many different types of zone concepts, and I don't think this is the platform to get into the nitty gritty of each and to go through every single rule. But I think the most basic explanation is this that play side initial step puts your offensive line in position to reach, which is a block where you're out flanked and you have to get wider than a player who began wider than you are at the start of the play.

You have to get around that portion of the block, get your butt out there, and wall that thing off. And interestingly enough, the Niners offensive line had a pretty specific prototype on the offensive line, but that doesn't always equate to the norm or even the preference. In fact, I found a pretty interesting little clip when coach McDaniel was asked about this last season with the Niners and their average height weight across the offensive line. Here's coach

history of smaller offensive lineman. Um, but that's really we haven't invested second round draft picks in the offensive lineman. We've prefer everyone to be pounds and six if you could, if you could engineer that. I found that interesting because here in Miami there are a bunch of recently drafted first and second rounders, and to a man, those guys do have the size athletic profile that coaches kind of

hinting at about right there. Maybe not six ft ten, four hundred pounds, but a pretty consistent six ft three, six ft four pound range. And this to me is fastening because to see how they want to approach the construction of the offensive line under one of the game's most successful run game coordinators over the last half decade certainly bears witnessing, and so I think it only stands to benefit that group. I think it stands to benefit the quarterback and the receivers. More on that in just

one second, but a couple more notes here. The best wide zone teams can run the same concepts from a variety of groupings and formations. That talks about the versatility which jives with this offensive line we currently have in place. And then for the quarterback, one nice part about the system is typically has a this or that type of scenario. Audibles that a quarterback can check to in order to take advantage of favorable box counts. Are also get out

of bad run looks. It's imperative that the quarterback can I d these types of things. And I forget who it was. Might have been Dan Orlovsky, there was a former quarterback who really broke down the importance of quarterbacks in the running game getting out of bad looks, things of that nature. And guess what coach said similar things in his Lebotard spot talking about to and playing the quarterback position. Those are the details you never see in the box score. And you sure as hell won't see

it in the discourse after games. Big key here, and in a given playbook, you'll have your concept, and this is beyond the running game, the best look to run that concept against a look that could give that concept problems, and then the looks with checks to give you answers to those problems. So again, you don't always consider the quarterback's role in the running game, but it's absolutely paramount and I trust that McDaniel can get to UH playing

at a high level in that regard. And the best part about all this at such an evolved system in terms of how long it's been around, how much has been added to it based upon adjustment and tendency breakers, and what it does is gives the defense so much to think about, which just causes slower play and slower reaction. We talked about the different looks you'll see. Having that knowledge with a resolution to it, and the ability to get the defense to false step, to get their eyes

off where they're supposed to be. All of these things

open lanes in the passing game. So that's the run game basics, like not even one on one high school level introduction, but also how it can impact the quarterback off the running game, and it also dictates the way the defense plays as I go back to this article from twenty nineteen on The Athletic where McDaniel was one of the many many coaches interviewed about this and talking about creating defensive personnel groupings where they have to subtract

rushers in passing situations and then keep those rushers on the field and running situations and calling it accordingly. It's all situational based and coach McDaniel want to create as many advantageous situations for you and the passing game possible. So who else can benefit from that spacing? Well? Waddle waddle right. One thing I love the Niners did was incorporate the screen game as a look into their r

P O looks. So you have flow in one direction with an option for the quarterback to give and then he can also pull it out and flip it out to the screen, or he can come to the backside

and find the slant route. And there are so many examples of Garoppolo doing just this and getting the ball to the backside slant to a receiver who has easy inside access because of the pre step spacing and look motion, and then depending on how the safety reacted to the run fake and screen look, potentially a foot race to the end zone or a one on one situation in the open field. To surmise here motions, motions and more emotions pre snap indicators, man and zone. Also on motion.

The ability for the jet sweeps widens the edge and creates an extra fit for the defense. Also, it creates that flow. There's examples of the up back and twenty one personnel Kyle you check you motioned him from the left of the right, and when they flow at that motion, the niners will then hit wind back runs, which creates

again advantageous lever situations for the offensive line. You get some ghost motion looks with the receiver runs back around the quarterback, and then they also can incorporate some wham looks with unblocked defensive tackles, which becomes the responsibility of the quarterback to read the option for that give the flare, the pop pass, all that stuff. It creates options for the quarterback. It creates conflict, identify those passing lanes and

attack them, create vulnerabilities and exploit them. It influences blocks, blocks from the edge and the force defender to cause a false step on them, which helps the actual blocker that draws him in the assignment. I think about a trap or a guard pulling around play side. You fake a block on that force defender, his footwork gets out of sync, the guard comes over and wipes him out.

It's so much complimentary stuff that helps each other out and supports everybody, like coaches talked about, and the fun part about it from those looks, wrinkles developed off of that. It's game plan specific and at think it really benefits the line, the run game in general. TWA and waddle not bad. Huh. That's my very early observation from some teap some tape detail. More to come this offseason. I'm halving a blast looking at this stuff already. Coming up

next the big game, the Super Bowl. We'll talk about some lessons learned from that game and the season at large next here on the Drivetime Podcast. Travis Wingfield your host. We'll come right back back here on the Monday edition of the Drivetime Podcast, and the Rams are the world champions of one football season. They overcome injuries in the Super Bowl and with a great I think it was

fift team play. Drive there at the end put it into the end zone for the go ahead score of the kid from Yakoma, Washington, where I lived for about five years of my life, has the game winning touchdown and ultimately the Super Bowl m v P to bring home with him. And I think within that game, plenty of lessons exist and really ultimately what you can take away from the entire NFL season this year and look,

every game hinges on a few moments. I mean there's a we see some blowouts and lopsided games and things that get away late in the fourth quarter and so on and so forth, But in large part, most games are one within a few moments of the game. And the best way to be able to ensure that you make those plays when you need to with a higher frequency than not making those plays is to give yourself

multiple ways to win games. We saw the long touchdown pass to t Higgins, which was, you know, the Bengals opportunity to take advantage of one on one coverage to their second receiver in terms of the primary targets that those guys receive, the ability to control the game on the ground for them with Joe Mixing at times had them ahead late in that game for for long stretches of that game and help them control the game on the defensive side as well. Playmakers that can create explosive

pass players again with Chase and Higgins. We saw with Cooper Cup in the game Odell Beckham early before his injury, offensive lines that can handle relentless rush. The Bengals couldn't put the Rams away because they just could not keep enough rushers off Joe Burrow. How about a defensive struggle back and forth. It featured the most dominant at ball player in all of all time for my money, and

Aaron Donald. And that's my second lesson in this game. Honestly, I'm not talking like goat or whatever you want to describe it as or you're classified as, but just on a snap for snap basis, who not just wins their matchup on a down by down basis, but a guy who dominates them. I was texting a buddy about that final driving. I just said, there's no way Donald doesn't make a play here, and sure enough he does, back

to back plays in fact, incredible. I think we saw the importance of multiple options in the passing game regarding Cup and Beckham, and also again with Higgins, winning that one on one matchup on the other side, with Chase commanding attention in the passing game as well, and Hella Rams went out and got Beckham after losing Robert Was

to an injury. Do you think they realized how important it was to have a secondary option that was also capable of consistently beating one on one coverage when he gets it with Woods and Cup and then now Beckham, I think the third one here and really the biggest one, and I suppose the ultimate takeaway from this game and the playoffs and the strange reason that was one that featured a pair of four seeds in the Super Bowl, which I don't believe had ever happened before this season

was just the overall parody that the league has really achieved. And how I think looking at things in a one game sample size is just always it's always gonna be too much one way or the other, good or bad. Like seasons are long, the journeys are winding for damn near every team except for a handful of all time great teams that never really had the hiccups, and even those teams probably did. And I always want to try my best to enjoy these seasons because they seem to

get shorter every single year. So that's a rap. The Rams are world champions. That's my time on this edition of Drive Time. You all please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcast. Leave us a rating, leave us a review. You can follow me on Twitter at Wingfield, NFL, as well as Instagram. You can follow the Miami Dolphins across all socials at Miami Dolphins. Check out the Fish Tank with Seth and o J. They

have a great episode coming your way Tuesday. I won't spoil that one yet, but fun we want to hear that one. Check out the YouTube channel with Joanna Torres on Dolphins Today as well as myself and all of our coach Mike McDaniel content that's been up there in the last couple of days and throughout the last week here as he gets the job here in Miami as the head coach and last but not least, Miami Dolphins dot Com until next time finds up Caroline, Daddy gets coming home