Training Camp Preview 2021 Interior Defensive Line

you your daily dose of Miami Dolphins football. And on today's show, we roll right on with our training camp preview series as we flip this thing over to the defensive side of the football, starting with the interior defensive line. We'll talk about the depth, the production, the youth. To me, this group exemplifies what this roster is shaping up to be in year three under Brian Flora's and Chris Greer,

arguably more than any other group on the roster. I'll discuss that, will preview our se EVENTH Division in our eight division preview of NFL season stopping by the NFC East today, and finally some roster activity will jump into that on a busy, busy edition of the Drive Time Podcast.

And I come in today pretty charged up because I'm recording on Sunday during the F one race and I just watched the first lap intended to watch the entire race then recorded the podcast, but there was a pretty big accident on the first lap with Lewis Hamilton's and Max first Staff and number one and number two in the Driver's Championships, So that was exciting to watch, but for stepping out of the race right away, I had to come record the podcast while they're kind of fixing

stuff up and getting the red flag session stops. So here we are talking football, and just before we get started on the Training camp preview series, some news from Friday that we have yet to cover here on the podcast. A few roster moves, first time we've seen said that in what months now, And I will say I've been very appreciative this run up to training camp that there has been a very quiet couple of weeks here because

last year seemingly every day up before training camp. But it was unique last year because camp was kind of into late August. We didn't know what it was gonna look like, but there was always a move every day, a steamed like some defensive back coming in, someone going out, and it made for plenty of podcast and article editing

as a result. But now here we are at ninety men on the roster at center Tyler Gothier and safety Brian Cole were waived and Isaiah Afford, the receiver that we all know, was added to the roster on Friday. You might be asking yourself, Travis, one minus two does not equal zero, So how do they have nine men on the roster? Well, Derval kires Netto still has practice squad exemption from the roster as part of the International Player Pathway program, so Miami were afforded the opportunity for

players with him holding that exemption. But as we and today we are at ninety. And as for Isaiah Ford, I've talked about this at length on the podcast, how he's been such a pleasure to get to know in my short time here with the Miami Dolphins. And I'll say this about Isaiah. He's coming into an incredibly deep wide receiver room. But here's what he does for you in the interim. Here's what I guarantee you. He's gonna show up and do at Dolphins camp later this month.

He's gonna come in and learn every position in the offense. He's gonna learn the site adjustments from every route, every combination he can, and he's going to learn how to communicate that to his teammates and help accelerate the acclamation process of learning a new system with new offensive coordinators. Here, that's the kind of player he is, that's the kind of professional he is, and the room is better for

having him inside of it. And one last quick nugget here before we get into the defensive side of the football. On the Training Camp preview series, something that I came across that came across my desk that I had kind of forgotten about over the offseason. But there are different tiers of cut down day this year, Like we three weeks in a training camp are gonna go from five players, and a couple of weeks after that we go down

to eight and so forth and so on. And as always on Miami Dolphins dot Com as well here on the Drivetime podcast, we'll have you covered for every single step of the way all the way up to the season opener in New England in Foxborough, and of course beyond that once the year gets here as well. But that is another day. But today, however, we are on to the defense. If you missed any of the last five episodes, we have covered the entire offense to date,

here on the training camp preview series. Last Tuesday was quarterbacks running backs Wednesday, receivers Thursday, tight ends Friday, and the offensive line yesterday on Monday, and we're gonna take you all the way up to the start of training camp, covering each position on the defense. So please subscribe to the Drivetime podcast if you have not done so already. We are presented by the folks at Auto Nation And if you want to give back to the podcast, all we ask for is a five star rating and a

nice little review wherever you get your podcast from. That helps the podcast grow, get up the charts, and get out to more Dolphins fans. We appreciate you doing that, taking the minute it takes to do that for us here on the podcast. Let's get to one of my favorite position groups on the entire roster, the big boys on the defensive line. And a real quick disclaimer here. You can cover this thing defensive line, linebacker, defensive back if you want. That's just not how I'm gonna do it,

because I think it's disingenuous too. Really lump a lot of these guys into any positional category. Now they're gonna

have distinctions on the roster. But so many of these guys play so many different positions that I wanted to go ahead and clarify it in terms of what their overall versatility was, so as as far as interior defensive line goes, because again you know Zack Seeler, Christian Wilkins, some of these guys can play multiple spots inside, outside, But the disclaimer here is the majority of their reps coming from the four technique position or in, so the

four technique is gonna be head up over your offensive tackle any position from there, going in towards the center. If the majority of your reps come from that position, you're in this group, or essentially if you're two plus pounds, you're in this group. The reason we need the disclaimer is because again, all of these guys can play pretty much anywhere, and it's not just Sailer and Wilkins, although both those guys did get plenty of reps off the edge last season and as pros in addition to their

exploits inside. But we start here with last year's triumvirnt those two guys, the trio of Seidler, Wilkins, and rookie ray Kwon Davis. All three of those guys finished out the second half of the season graded in the top twenty of the position group on Pro Football Focus from weeks ten through seventeen. It started with the Chargers game against against the Charges here in Miami, and it it makes me think about perception of football, perception of rosters.

I spoke to a media member here down South Florida or former South Florida media member not that long ago, and he was talking about the names that draw national attention and how maybe there's three or or guys on a roster, and I just kept thinking, like, that's not

what wins you football games. Like it's great to have that, it's fun for the TV ratings, it's great to get your name on the marquis, for the talking heads to dispose of every single day on their shows, on their podcast, on their articles, But since when does that win football games? Like it's good to have those players, don't get me wrong, but if you have that and not much else, you're a top heavy roster, things can go south in a hurry,

like the War of Attrition that is the NFL. This depth and this spread out kind of fifty three man roster that can all do a job. That to me is what you want. And this group is the quintessential example of how the team is kind of coming into focus under Brian Floors and Chris Career. Here in your number three versatility, obvious off the top, flexible players that can help keep each other fresh, specialize in particular traits,

but also keep the defense interchangeable with their calls. For instance, how often do you see a three pound defensive tackle like Christian Wilkins dropping into coverage into the hook zone and getting himself an interception. Doesn't happen very often, but he did it last year because that's what those defense did.

They have so many multiple looks that they can confuse the quarterback and confuse the way the offense operates because of the versatility and the flexibility and the mysterious nature of the defense. And they all play with so much power and there's so much length on this defensive line. Ray Kwon Davis has the pterodactyl wingspan, Zack Steeler not far behind him in that regard. It helps them stack up bodies and create chances for the linebackers behind them.

All of this stuff is cyclical. Coach Flora's talks about it. Josh Bowyer talks about it. It's never one thing, and you even hear coach talk about it when maybe there's a glaring example where it might be one particular unit on the football field. Like we talked about this with coach Flores this offseason about deep passing and how you limit the big plays in this league and how that's that's kind of the crux of playing good defense in

the National Football League. And he did say, well, you know, there are three sides or three elements of the defense, three levels of the defense, but I can't really get on a nose tackle for a fifty passed down field. But then he reverted back to saying it all matters, it's all impactful, and so when you watch the way this team plays, it's not about a guy winning a one on one matchup and that is the play. That's

not what wins you to play. It's about eleven guys executing a role, executing a job because each of those roles is dependent on the guy next to you doing their role, and that helps you get production from so many players. We talked about this top twenty grades among those three guys on PF Wilkins, Davis and Seiler over the second half of the season. The linebacker unit had

three players with more than five sacks last year. That's the first time in franchise history that three players with LB in front of their name got at least five sacks. And it wasn't just they're doing I mean everyone on this roster contributes to that coverage rush, stacking up bodies up front, whatever it might be. Plus the fact that all of these guys can do multiple things again allows Flores and Boyer to get really creative and help confuse

opposing quarterbacks. That's part of the reason why you leave the NFL, and takeaways part of the reason why you leave the NFL. In third down defense, then you go out and you drop in Adam Butler, and my goodness, his film might be the most fun of all to watch for me. He's got an explosive first step that really forces the line to declare their protection immediately. If you want to slide or find protection for Adam Butler, you better get there fast because he is getting to

that back field quickly. And then if you mug up a pair of linebackers alongside him, like a Jerome Baker, like a Bernardrick McKinney, whoever it might be. That is a lot to deal with. That's both size, that speed, that's explosiveness, that's mystery for the quarterback. Not to mention that Butler has largely been a five hundred snap player in his career, which just helps keep everybody fresh on a bigger, longer, deeper rotation. And these guys aren't just

stack and penetration players either. They all come equipped with the requisite I discipline to really help them stay in their gap, do that job, attack the correct part of the man. You go inside, you go outside. You can readjust throughout the rep to help off of a stunt, off of a looper, off of a pick, whatever it might be. All of these guys have all those traits.

The construction of this room is just chef's kiss. It's choice young players that are under contract for the foreseeable future, interchangeable pieces, position diverse, and the competition only serves to make them better. So as far as our article up on Miami Dolphins dot com, again, each of these podcasts coincides with a written piece up on Miami Dolphins dot com. You can find the interior defensive lineman later on this afternoon,

or if you hear this podcast late on Tuesday. It's already up there live for you, and we start with the personnel changes. We talked about Adam Butler coming in. John Jenkins, a familiar face, also added to the room this offseason, and a U d F A and Jerome

Johnson out of Indiana was added to the room. The loan departure was divon Godshaw heading up to the Patriots are week one opponent the coaching staff after one season as an outside linebackers coach and one of the guys that was part of that linebacker room having three players

with five or more sacks. Austin Clark is taking over a familiar position from his career on the defensive line, the same title he held with the University of Illinois from nineteen and Under Clark's tutelage, Miami improved from thirty second to tenth and sacks from twenty with forty one

sacks last year, number ten in the NFL. And prior to his topic at Illinois, Clark coached the d line and outside linebackers at USC where he had some relative high success as far as draft picks go and guys that produced in the PAC twelve and the biggest feather in his cap was Ola Walle Betaicou Jr. Who went from USC a five star recruit out of or rather coming to the States into his high school career. He comes over becomes a five star recruit because he's a

unique physical build. It just didn't happen for him at USC, but he followed Coach Clark to Illinois and wound up posting nine sacks his final season and really helped turn around that fighting a line I defense. So Coach Clark's impact, as we've heard from Andrew Van Ginkle, from Jerome Baker, from plenty of players on this roster, they say they love the way he teaches them pass rush techniques, especially

Van Ginkle. He's touched on that a few time, enmes with how Coach Clark was attributable to some of the jump that Van Ginkl saw last year with his production and with his game. So this group on the defensive line as a whole, again, versatility's the name of the game. The majority of these guys have played reps off the edge, worked inside, and again that flexibility just helps keep things versatile, flexible,

and mysterious for the offense. Christian Wilkins was the first draft pick of the Chris Career Brian Flora's regime, and he's been, as advertised, the bubbly personality who's helped establish a culture while producing a hundred and three tackles, seven of those for loss, an interception, three and a half sacks, seven passes defense in his two seasons, and of course he likes to come down to the end zone and celebrate with the offense. He's caught a touchdown pass, He's

been the fullback on lead blocks on touchdown runs. He does a little bit of everything. And rookie ray Kwon Davis came on like gangbusters in his first season. He finished up with forty tackles, while Zack Steeler made forty eight tackles, eleven for loss, and he recorded three and a half sacks, the most among this position group. The guys are going to cover here. Talked about Adam Butler a little, but he comes down here with fifteen sacks in four seasons as a pro, playing all over the

defensive line. John Jenkins the other veteran acquisition, coming back to his twenty nineteen stomping grounds where he notched thirty nine tackles, the second most in his career with Miami. Second year tackle Bonito Jones played in six games last year as a rookie and then one. Undrafted free agent Jerome Johnson enters his first training camp as a pro, and we start there with Jerome Johnson in order of

jersey number sixty seven. So bring you're out there at camp, taking a look at number sixty seven, the rookie out of Indiana, twenty three years old on opening day. He finished his college career with a hundred and eleven tackles, thirteen and a half sacks, and twenty one tackles for loss. He also forced a pair of fumbles, blocked a field goal, and got himself an interception. PFF credited Johnson with sixty one quarterback pressures on eight hundred and seventy four career

pass rush refs with sixty run stops. Those are tackles within two yards of the line of scrimmage. If you're new to the podcast, get used to run stops. I love using that stat and that came on seven hundred and seventy six rundown snap. So he's big, he's powerful and has that explosive first step kind of like the rest of this defensive line. We go back to Adam Butler, number seventy. That's easy to spot on the defensive line.

Not very many seventies and that group four years as a pro out of Vanderbilt, twenty seven years old on opening day. And again, just the plethora of traits this guy offers. The consistency might be the best of all. PFF has the following pressure numbers for Adam Butler and his four years and seven right down the pike. You

know what you're getting with Adam Butler. He's also averaged thirteen and a half run stops over the four year career in just four hundred and eighty nine total run snaps on defense, so eleven percent of the time he gets a tackle within two yards of the line. Again, the brute strength, he's got, active hands, he can go arm over, he can swim, he knows how to attack and control one side of the body when you shade off either side of the center. And a super super

explosive first step. We talked to Adam on the Free Agent Podcast when he first signed here about this, and he said that his first step and his explosiveness is what he brings. But he also can lock out and engage and kind of keep his eyes in the quarterback help read zone read help read Jet sweeps in misdirection because he can engage and then shed his block en route to a tackle or to create space for a

linebacker as part of a two gap defense. So penetrator but also a discipline to gat tackle with position flexibility. Sounds like a Miami dolphin if I ever heard one. We jump from the seventies up to the nineties and number ninety himself, John Jenkins eight years NFL experience out of Georgia. He'll be thirty two years old on opening Day. Had that career year really in twenty nineteen with Miami, goes down to Chicago rather up to Chicago for a

season and has another productive season. Three twenty seven pound DT has fifty five tackles over the last two seasons, with two tackles for loss and a sack. And there's some good tape of him in that twenty nineteen season, both pressuring the quarterback, collapsing the pocket, holding up the point of attack. You type in my name at Winfield, NFL and John Jenkins and go to videos, you'll see plenty of clips from that nineteen season where he was

getting after it. He added seventy QB pressures over the last two seasons for the eight year veteran Number nine two. Zach Seeler got himself a contract extension last season three years NFL experience, a seventh round draft pick out of Fairish State number. He'll be twenty five years old come opening Day, and you might recall back to twenty nineteen. He was a waiver claim off the Ravens in the last month of that season, and what a success story

he's become since that time. He really parlayed the end of nineteen a very strong close out to that year. I'll never forget that Bengals game. I was there covering that game with Lockdown Dolphins, and he had like seven quarterback pressures, five run stops, two passes defense, one and a half sacks TfL's. He was unblockable in that game. And he just kind of continued that into training camp into the season, and after about two or three weeks, got a big jump and playing time last year and

really took off from there. He comes with freaky measurables, one of my favorite fact toys on the entire roster since two thousand three players have posted the following combination of workout numbers slash measurements in the run up to the draft. The first two guys were at the combine. Zack Seiler was at his pro day at Faris State.

Six ft five two five plus pounds, a sub four eight five forty yard dash, thirty plus reps on the bench at two twenty five pounds, a hundred and fifteen plus inches on the broad jump, and a three cone time under seven one five. Those three players are Mario Williams, J. J. Watt, and Zach Seiler. He is freaky long, athletic and flexible and powerful. He can do all the stuff up front

you want on this defensive line. He finished last season with twenty five QB pressures, thirty two run stops, three and a half sacks, forty eight total tackles, eleven of those for loss. And I'll never forget his big production on the fourth down stop in the Arizona game. That was a key key play in that game. He and Landed Roberts were crucial on that particular rep. Also inside number ninety four, Christian Wilkins two years experience out of Clemson.

He'll be twenty five years old come opening Day, and since he entered the league, he's been one of the most productive defensive tackles from that draft class, a draft class that featured Quentin Williams, at Oliver Dexter Lawrence, and Jeffrey Simmons, possibly one of the best defensive tackle draft classes we've seen really ever. He's registered a hundred and three tackles in two years, three and a half sacks, the seven passes defense to pick, forty eight quarterback pressures,

and fifty nine run stops. He's been consistent. He shows up every week and gives you constant pressure and run defense. And to me, the conditioning allows him to not just play a significant workload, like one thousand, three hundred and sixty seven snaps in two years for a guy that missed two games last year from COVID in twenty nineteen on the COVID protocol list. I should say in twenty nineteen he missed the entire Buffalo game because he was

ejected after the very first series. So you take away three games, you extrapolate that to about thirty four snaps a game. We're talking about, you know, seven eight hundred snaps a year. For this guy at his peak, and in addition to the occasional touchdown reception or the lead block for a touchdown that he allowed, that he helps

create path four. He also goes down there and celebrates the big scores of the offense, like you'll always see ninety four coming into the frame to celebrate touchdowns with the offense. And that helps. I mean, that's an energy source in the locker room. That's a guy that really galvanizes a club and a franchise and he's been that

for this team. But he's more than just that. He finished six and ESPNS run stop win rate among defensive tackles at forty percent last year, number six in the NFL, and after coming back off the covid I R in Week twelve, he finished out the string in the top ten and pressures among defensive tackles as well as in run stops. He had ten pressures and twelve run stops

over those final six games. Very productive player here. Christian Wilkins Benito Jones number last year was his first out of Ole Miss. He'll be twenty three years old come opening Day. A U d F A who had Buzzes a Day three pick as far as a lot of the draft analysts go as a potential draft pick that year did not happen. He winds up in Miami as a U d f A made his debut a week six in the shutout victory over the Jets. He's six ft one, three nine pounds, a squatty body who can

park the bus and hold some space. A true space eating nose tackle with a solid anchor. He's got very active quick hands too. He stays, he keeps those things move and keeps himself alive in reps. And he's also gotten impressive agility for a guy that size three nine pounds, but he can move light on his feet. He made two tackles, one for a loss, and played forty seven

snaps as a rookie. And we conclude here with ray Kuan Davis, also a rookie last season, number out of Alabama, twenty four years old opening day this year, and this guy came onto the college football scene as one of the most impactful interior defensive lineman from the moment he stepped on the field as a freshman. Had a big interception in that National championship game that we all know and loved because the way it ended with our quarterback throwing to Davante Smith of the Big Game when he

touchdown to beat Georgia in that game. But ray Kuan Davis was even more dominant in that game. He wasted little time finding comparable production as a pro in the NFL. Going back to that week ten through seventeen stretch to kind of show you how this guy exploded the the

rookie wall and kept his production on another level. He graded his PFF number seventeen overall interior defensive lineman from that stretch of games, and he finished playing in all sixteen games, made twelve starts with forty tackles and half of those twenty of them occurred within two yards of the line of scrimmage a run stop. Via Pro Football Focus, he also added fourteen quarterback pressures. But I think that when it comes to ray Kawon Davis rookie tape, the

stat sheet doesn't do it justice. And as coach Flores has said, sometimes this is a quote from coach, it's not necessarily the sack total. But I think you can watch a game and see that a quarterback feels us. I think that's essentially what you're looking for. He said, that after the Chargers game when the Chargers posted some big stats because of some third and fourth quarter, you know, a couple of touchdown leads in that game, and the

Chargers got some yards late in that game. And he talked about how the stats might say it felt like we got dominated in the running passing game, but I didn't feel that way, he coach said in a later quote on that press conference. But he touched on this a few times about the splash plays. How the one percent of your splash plays makes up or the splash plays makeup one percent of your total production, and the rest of it is of the production you put out there.

And that's why I saw on Rake one Davis just controlling the line, controlling his gap, creating chances for his teammates, and just playing with that length and that strength in movable and really becoming a technician as the year went along. So Ray Kuan Davis, I think the sky is the limit for that. Fellows. That's the end of your interior Defensive line preview. Let's go ahead and close out this podcast taking a look at the NFC East. We are

six divisions down, going in to our seventh year. In just one second, and we'll finish up with the a f C East later this week taking a look at Miami, New England Buffalo in the New York Jets. But we start here with Washington, who added Ryan Fitzpatrick at quarterback. Jared Patterson the U d f A running back. I love the receiver editions with Curtis Samuel, Adam Humphreys, and Diae Brown. They get Charles Leno from the Bears and Samuel cos Me, a second round draft pick out of Texas.

Jam And Davis their first round pick out of Kentucky can flat out fly. Benjamin st. Juice is a big, physical press corner from the from Minnesota, played with d J flect over there for the Gophers, and then Darryl Roberts and another former Dolphin, Bobby McCain, joins Washington football team this offseason. And you know, fits the storylines here for the Washington football team, like the red Wolves name,

by the way, call him the red Wolves. That's a good that's a good option they had there on that list of names that came out the other day, But fits for the Washington football team last year or throughout the course of his career. Really has been so adept at throwing up the fifty fifty balls. He's always excelled with DeVante Parker, with Brandon Marshall with the Jets, Mike Evans with the Buccaneers, you name it. He's always found a way to get the football to his big receivers,

the yolo ball, as you will. And that was a very nice compliment here in Miami. But I'm not so sure that's the skill set that he has with him in Washington. I'd be really curious to see how he messes with those guys because both Samuel and Terry McLaurin are fastest hell and pretty crafty at getting open down the field, So it might be more of a timing thing a posted just like, see the pressure, identify the coverage, throw it up, give our guy a one on one chance.

I think Curtis Samuel has a real chance to be an absolute breakthrough player. You heard me talk about him on the wide receiver free agent class back in March. It was Will Fuller and it was Curtis Samuel for me. And oh yeah, Terry McLaurin one of the very best in the game. That's it there is to say about Terry mclauren. He is an absolute monster. Then you factor in Antonio Gibson into the mix, a guy that was kind of build as a two way player in terms

of running backslash receiver. No, not not too way, that means offense and defense, but a guy that can play multiple spots on offense. But that just makes the offense even more terrifying to deal with because he can play multiple spots and he's an effective runner, especially since they have a very solid offensive line with Brandon Schurf, Chase Yer, Charles Leno, and we'll find out about Sam cos Me

here as we go along into his rookie season. And then defensively, one of the very best in the NFL. Chase Young straight up is as advertised, nothing else about that physical specimen. You create one on one chances for

that guy, he's going to win them. I love, love love jam and Davios how like Kentucky, and he joins a young front seven that has been built up for years with Jonathan Allen who is an absolute monster, to Ron Payne beast, and you add in Acatoni, Tim Settle, and finally Montes Sweat who can play football really well. They're gonna be a problem for opposing quarterbacks. I also

like the additions in the secondary. You had a veteran like Bobby McCain who can help communication on the back end, there with Landon Collins, a couple of proven veterans in that secondary. Cameron curl was perhaps the best rookie cornerback of class, and then Kendall Fuller one hell of a player. This to me is far and away, despite the fact the secondary is a bit thin off after the top. But this is to me is far and away the best team in this division competing for the division title

also going to be the Dallas Cowboys. They go out and make some additions, tying the and Schecky from the Packers. He comes over, Jeremy Sprinkle the tight end, Osaza the defensive tackle out of U c l A. I know, I butchered that pronunciation. Brent Urban and Carlos Watkins and Terrell bash them on the defensive line. They had to go out and make some improvements on defense. They did

not finish well last season. They get a couple of nice draft picks at linebacker Love Michael Parsons, Shabrille Cox out of l s U can play ball as well, Kean O'Neil, demonte Easy, j Ron Curse, and then Kelvin Joseph, the rookie out of Kentucky. Plenty of moves there on that Dallas defense. And you know, that's that's kind of the off season so far for the Cowboys. Small level moves, not very cowboy fashion in terms of what they typically do.

But when you've got a pony up for your quarterback and pay the big time money, that's kind of the result. Maybe that's a blessing in disguise for Jarah because the big time acquisitions just have not worked out for this team in the past and mostly other teams as well, because typically you pay more, you know, thirty cents on the dollar whatever you might want to call it, for those big time free agent acquisitions that usually sometimes it

works out. Usually you wind up overpaying. So going this route might be preferred here for Jerry Jones and the Cowboys. Dad coming back off the injuries the biggest story here. One of the best quarterbacks in the game, and he was willing them to competitive ball the first four weeks of the season. It led to a one in three record, but the defense just could not get a stop if they did, this team probably could have been four and oh and that's the big change I'm most curious about

with this club. On that defensive side of the football. Dan Quinn takes over the defense and what scheme is he gonna roll with? Because the old cover three that Seattle made popular in the early aughts, the midouts, the two thousand fourteen run there, that's kind of gone by the boards in terms of a base scheme defense. What's he gonna roll out? I'm curious see what he does with the personnel. You say goodbye to Antoine Woods. Sean Lee, although the end of his career was kind of injury plagued,

was an absolute goat at the position. He was so good and so intelligent. He retires, Shadobie Woz has gone, Xavier Woods has gone. It might take some time for these new pieces of new defense to kind of click

together for the Cowboys. But offensively, oh boy, are they dynamic if they can get that line back to health with Tyrone Smith, who I think is the best tackle in football, Zack Martin, who is not really much an argument to me, the best guard in football, and you get Seedee Lamb who is just about to go Ham Ceedee Lamb on the entire league with a Marii Cooper and the criminally underrated Michael Gallup. That is some absolute

firepower they have in Dallas. And will Zeke ever get back to that rook season slash Ohio State form that he enjoyed early on in his career. I'm not crazy about the Hard Knocks decision here, but the upshot is that the Cowboys, because of Jerry Jones wanting to play on center stage and being on Broadway all that fun stuff, They're gonna give you great access because that's just how they do things in Dallas. So hopefully it turns out better than last year. I did not care for last

year It's Hard Knocks because they couldn't do much. There was no fans there, there was no preseason games to cover. There was a lot of masked protocol and stuff like that, which was they did a great job, but they don't get me wrong, it was entertaining from that standpoint, but I missed my traditional Hard Knocks looking forward to that this year. The Philadelphia Eagles, Joe Flacco and Nick Mullins are the quarterback acquisitions to join Jalen Hurts. They add

Jordan Howard back to the backfield. Carry On Johnson also a waiver wire claim from the Detroit Lions. They add Davonte Smith to the receiver corps. They pick up Raven

Clark and Landon Dickerson on the offensive line. Ryan Carrigan makes the jump from Washington to Philly in Division and they go out and get Anthony Harris, the safety formally of the Vikings, one of the best players I thought to change teams that soft season, And you know, I think the big story for this team is Nick Sirianni And the question you ask yourself with any new football coaches, who is he going to be? How is he going to define himself as the head coach of his new

football team? And when he was hired it was something of a surprise on the national media landscape, I suppose. But I think the early impression you get from him is that he's highly motivated and a passionate individual, and

I always root for someone like that. And he comes over on this suddenly active pipeline between Philly and Indianapolis, with players and coaches going back and forth on that pipeline, serving as the offensive coordina there the last couple of years under Frank Wright, and I'm a huge fan of the offensive schemes and concepts that Frank Wright cooks up. That's a fantastic base of knowledge to draw from. So we'll see if he can be the next wounder Kin

in this league, so to speak. But either way, I mean, he's the storyline, right because you fire your coach just three years after a Super Bowl championship, that's super rare, I'm pretty sure. And the decision in that week seventeen game to stick with or to pull Jalen Hurts in favor of shoot, I'm john a blank on the kid's name, that third sud Field, the quarterback sud Field there, they brought him into the game and just became non competitive in that final game of the season that was not

well received. And then also sticking with a very broken Carson Wentz last year. Mechanically, I mean the knees pointed inwards, the toes point towards each other with the ball, the elbow slot dropped the ball with Sale just gotta fix

his mechanics to get him back on track. But sticking with him over Jalen Hurts for that long, I think kind of hurt for lack of a better term for his future prospects Hurts, though, the Eagles do have a pair of first round picks next year, so they are in a nice position to see if Hurts is their guy or not if they have to go out and

address the position next year. I had questions about his ability as a passer coming into the league, but you have to absolutely admire the intangibles and the mental makeup he brings. It's hard not to love Jalen Hurts. He has a competitive, competitive dude, and do they have the mix in the backfield to really help accentuate what he does well in the running game with his own read

and the keepers and the bootlegs and the waggles. I really like Miles Sanders, but it gets thin after that, and he's had some injury issues so far in his career. And the receiver position, among many storylines for this team over the last couple of years, has been the storyline for a few years. And Smith helps I mentally, he's gonna come in and produce right away because he's a fantastic route runner. What are they having Jalen Reagor He was not the same player we saw crush it in

college as a rookie. What do they get from j j Artega Whiteside? Did I say that right? And Travis Fulgum is zach ERT's going to actually be there come opening day? Found it interesting that Hakim Butler, now the former Old House or Iowa State product, rather is trying out as a tight end, a position where zach Ertz exists and then Dallas Godder is the best of the entire bunch there. The other big storyline has been injuries, especially on the offensive line. I mean, every year this

team gets wiped out by injuries. It seems Lane Johnson, Jason Kelsey and Brandon Books three of the very best at their position, but often injured. Can Andre Dillard finally crack the lineup and play well? Goku's but it's been a rocky start for Andre Dillard to into LYA loved Anthony Harris signing to the Eagle is a big addition for that defense. They needed help in the secondary, and I expect Darius lay place better on year two there,

but depth is still kind of a question. Aavante Maddox, Rodney McLeod and Cavan Wallace among the guys that will compete for a significant playing time, But the real strength of that defense is up front with Brandon Graham, Derek Barnett, Ryan Carrigan comes over from Washington, and Fletcher Cox in the middle of that defense. The greatest clip I saw from Fletcher Cox was against Miami back in twenty nineteen when Dieter said, man, how did you get out there

on that block? And that's why I pay me twenty million dollars a year. Might come on great trash talk there. Love that group, but they're getting up there in age and the lack of availability has been the same as it has on offense, just not there so far. And for the Giants, Mike Glennon, Davante Booker, their big receiver moves, Kenny Golladay and can Darius Tony as well as John Ross. They add Kyle Rudolph Zack Fulton. On defense, they make some big moves to Danny Shelton and Reggie Ragland. I

love the azz Oglarie draft pick. Ryan Anderson and from Washington comes over and Dori Jackson from the Titans comes over. It's just the Giants, man. I've been hiring these guys for you know, their off seasons under Dave gentleman in the past few years, and that's not really gonna change here.

I wasn't a fan of Daniel Jones coming out, and he's had his moments and flashes, but the thing that has plagued him is really the most critical element of the position with the potential giveaways twenty nine fumbles, twenty two interceptions. Obviously they don't lose all those fumbles, but it's still an opportunity for a giveaway. Fifty one opportunities for a giveaway in twenty seven career games, twenty six career starts, just a notch under two per game. He

has to clean that up. I'm not crazy about Kenny Golladay. He was a kind of three four route specialist that got vertical and did great with that. Don't get me wrong, but I'm not sure you can construction an offense around that without the true route running Nuance. I love the addition of Darius Tony. He is shifty as all get out and can break tackles and make big plays. But the main storyline here is are we ever gonna see

rookie season stake Kwon Barkley again? Healthy stake Kuan. I want that so badly because he's such a unique player in this league and the Giants desperately, desperately need to get Sae Kwon Barkley back on the field Defensively, They've seen a really nice turnaround from where they were just a couple of years ago. Huge fan of the Ogilary pick. I wasn't always or I was rather always a big Ryan Anderson fan. But man Dorry Jackson got the bag after a mixed bag up in Tennessee with the Titans.

We'll see how that goes. But Dexter Lawrence up front has been unstoppable. Leo Williams a trade from the Jets a couple of years back. He secures the bag after he finally realizes the all pro level potential that he has with a billion sacks last season. I like b J Hills game, and you also add Danny Shelton. The back seven is where there's some question marks there. But Logan Ryan was such a boon for them last season. He's a hell of a player. Love watching him play.

They just have so many guys that are more name potential than production at this point. If I had, you know, if half of the following guys here stick and become producers, Sam Bill, Julian Love, Xaver mckinne, Rha Darius Williams, Quincy Wilson, Isaac Yaadam. All those guys came to the legal last two or three years. If half of them hit, they're cooking with gash. But that's a lot to ask. We'll see if it happens for them. And then finally, the

part of the off season I cannot get over. And the reason I kind of stay on this train of not loving this team's off seasons in the last few years is the lack of addressing the offensive line. It's it's been really, really brutal for a few years. And we saw Eli Manning get killed. We've seen Daniel Jones get hit and hit and hit and fumble and fumble and fullbable and the only move they made up significance

was Zach Fulton. You know, a guy that's been around the league a little bit on the interior offensive lines. You're in a bank on improvement from Andrew Thomas, I guess. But man, with how that tackle class in twenties shaped up, as you know, one of the best we've ever seen. Taking him as tackle number one, that might come back to bite the Giants. We'll see how that plays out. He has a chance to improve and get better and kind of shake those demons. We'll see how it goes.

The division superlatives here. The best player slash quarterback gotta go Dak Prescott. We saw how great the Cowboys could be offensively with him, not so much without him. The best non quarterback probably Zack Martin or Tyrone Smith. But I really want to give a non here to Terry McLaurin because I think he's vastly, vastly underrated and a fantastic pro. The best defenders, Chase Young. I mean, this guy coming out of Ohio State was an absolute monster.

That just he was a Cantoness prospect. A rookie this year for me and Micah Parson is gonna be the top rookie in the division to me. The best coaches Ron Rivere. I think we saw that last year with how he rallied Washington all while while fighting cancer. Like, good for you, coach, you know you went out there and kick cancers. Asked, that was an awesome story. We were thinking about you all along here and you got through that fight. Good on you. The most intriguing team again,

Washington and my champion is Washington. Like this, this division is all Washington for me. All Burgundy and gold go red Wolves. Red Wolves is the name I think that fits the best and makes the most sense. All right, that's it from my time on this edition of the Drivetime Podcast. Gotta get back to the F one race. We'll see you guys again tomorrow for another training camp roster preview. We're gonna look at the edge position with Jalen Phillips, Emmanuel and all the boys from that group.

Until next time. That will be my time you all. Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple, podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Play, tuned in wherever you get your podcast. Go ahead and leave us a rating, leave us a review. You can follow me on Twitter at winkld NFL, follow the team at Miami Dolphins, check out the Fish Tank and the Audible podcast, and of course, last but not least, Miami Dolphins dot com for all the latest and the

updates on these training camp written reviews. Until next time, Vinzo