Training Camp Preview 2021 Running Backs

As we stay in the backfield and stop by the running backs room to take a look at Miles Gaskins, Van Akhmed, Malcolm Brown, Patrick Laird, Carl Tucker, and Jordan's Scarlett as well as Jared Oakes the rookie. We continue the NFL season preview taking a look at the NFC North and we'll get into what I'm watching on Tell Division right now and what you should be watching on your streaming services or otherwise. Plus my new show recommendation

that I just picked up this past week. All of that and a heck of a lot more on this edition of the Drive Time Podcast, No Filler, No Gimmick. Today,

we're jumping right into the running back room. If you missed Tuesday's podcast, we previewed the quarterbacks with two a tongue of by Loa Jacoby Brissette as well as read Senet, and we'll talk about the coaching staff as well at those positions and continue this every single day up until training camp before we get you the daily reports from camp, which, of course, if you have not seen it so far or have not registered your spot so far, you can

get tickets to training camp right now. They're free. Just head to Miami Dolphins dot com and get yourself a reservation for Dolphins training camp fans back in session. It makes practices way better to hear the US and the os and all the stuff you guys bring to those practices. It's my favorite time of the calendar, my favorite football to watch. The evaluation period. Ninety guys of just nine ninety players, two hours of pure chaos in terms of trying to keep your eyes on all the action. It's

a great time. I cannot wait. And one of the positions I'm excited to watch is the running back position because well there's a lot of competition in that room and maybe a bit of mystery and intrigue and unknown. Now, granted, this is the time of year where we're building the team, like nobody knows what this Miami Dolphins team is gonna look like come September, and then again from September to December.

As coach flora Is and Josh Boyer and the rest of the Dolphins coaching staff tells you, you want to be a different team, a better football team than you were at the start of the season. And this is the part of the calendar where the initial building kind of begins. We've done the roster building, we've done the

off the field type of building. Now it's time to develop those fundamentals, those chemistry, find out what kind of football team you are, and then we'll get to finding out which guys make it click, which position groups make the entire operation go the most, and how this team wins football games ultimately at the end of the day. So we're keeping on all of that for you guys. But here we're gonna talk about the running backs first.

And if you haven't checked out the Miami Dolphins website Miami Dolphins dot com, we also have written elements that go along with this to kind of help you track. You know, it's like a training camp guide for you in a way. Jersey number of the college they went to how you can keep an eye on these guys, what their stats were from last season, all of that fun stuff. And we come into this year with some

changeover in the running back room. Jared Oakes the only draft pick at the position in the seventh round out of Cincinnati. He comes in. Carl Tucker was a full or a tight end, slash, h back, slash, a little bit of everything in college. He's a fullback on your Dolphins roster. Can't always talk about this guy. Undrafted free agent.

We bring in Malcolm Brown from the Rams, another big, physical, tough running back, and Jordan's Scarlett, who was with the Lions last year after beginning his career with the Panthers. He also was added to this roster. In some departures, Matt Brita is up in Buffalo, and DeAndre Washington, who was acquired last year at the trade deadline, is still a free agent out there on the open market. The

coaching staff, you guys know who it is. Coach Eric Studisville, who enters his fourth year with the Miami Dolphins and his first as co offensive coordinator. In addition to his new role, he still retains that position as running backs coach. And he's worked with running backs pretty much since I've been watching football. He was either running backs coach or run game coordinator of some type all the way back to when he was with the Chicago Bears. He was

the interim head coach of the Denver Broncos. And now where this gets interesting is he was with the Broncos for a lot of those Mike Shanahan years, which of course was one of the principles of the zone running game, the I should say, the innovators of the zone running game and really capitalizing on the old doesn't matter who the running back is in Denver, he's going to give you a thousand yards from Mike Anderson Orlandis Gary Clinton Porters got traded out the year after he had that

big monster rookie season because they needed cornerback help and they got Champ Bailey for a running back and continued rushing for a thousand yards. So he was there for the Broncos in the height of all of that stuff with Mike Shanahan. He then got the interim job in and then reverted to an assistant head coach role after that with the Broncos all the way through seen before joining Miami in the guys he has in that room.

At a glance here real quick, they find production from all walks of the acquisition period, whether it's waiver wire claims, uh training camp cuts, trades, draft picks, undrafted free agents. The highest drafted player in this room is Jordan's Scarlett, who was a fifth round pick of the Panthers in nineteen. You've got Miles Gaskin and Jared Oakes a pair of seventh round picks. You've got Patrick Laird, Savan Akhmed, Carl Tucker,

all undrafted free agents. Malcolm Brown was the U d f A when he came into the league with the

Rams back in so very interesting collection of players. By now you know that Myles gaskins nineties seven point two yards from scrimmage per game was tent among all running backs, and savan Akhmed led the team with four point three yards per rush and that thirty one yard gallup in the Week fifteen win over the Patriots was the longest carry by a Dolphin's back in twenty The intern Patrick Laird has been a mainstay on Miami special teams unit

the last couple of years. He was a big part of that blocked punt Andrew Van Ginkl had last year in the Chargers game, which set up a one yard touchdown plunge from Savan Akhmed in that game. So he had made a big couple of big plays last year. Malcolm Brown, similar story, kind of carved his path as a U d F A up through special teams. We talked about Jared Oakes going in the seventh round. He's another one of these guys that's big and thick and

powerful and can contribute in the passing game. Same deal with Jordan Scarlett. He's he's got some juice as well. And then Carl Tucker looks to make that switch from tight end to the full back position. So taking a look at the cast and what we have here, I see a bunch of guys that can play all three downs, and so that gives you the option to really not allow the defense to focus and key on what one

particular guy does well. So I look at some plays last season the Dolphins ran, and for instance, one of my favorite plays of the entire year was the screen pass in the Arizona game to Durham Smith. Right down

the pipe. They fake to screen a little orbit screen to the outside, fake another screen on a swing pass to the left side and then smith sneaks back inside down the tunnel and catches that thing and goes for about twenty yards or so in that Cardinals game to set up one of Miami's touchdowns in the first half

of that game. But they it gives you the ability to threaten the defense because you can sit here and say, we're gonna get in let's just say, twelve personnel, whatever the example you want to use, we're gonna get in twelve personnel. And because of that, because we're in that package, it's going to cause the defense to react a certain way way why so to speak, And it might, but it always helps when you have the pieces that forced

the defense to react that way. And that's to me, guys that can play all three downs and be versatile. And you're not gonna put a guy in the game and say they're running gap scheme right here, because that guy only runs gaps. Team you have a mix of gap and zone outside inside, physical finesse, passing, game screen, game pass pro. You get guys that can do it all. You're interchangeable that way, and that keeps your offensive playbook

expanded and open to the fullest. So I think in a lot of ways, what you've done with this room

this offseason is you've added that variety. I mean after you know, the mid season point last year when Jordan Howard was no longer with the club, the room did I think suffer a little bit from being a bit to one dimensional, and that your top two reliable guys in Achmed and Gascon there are sub two hundred pound backs, so they didn't have that true hammer of the likes of a Malcolm Brown or a Jared Dikes possibly and what they offer purely from a size and explosive metrics standpoint,

both those guys can jump out of a gym at two d twenty five plus pounds Brown to Jared Dikes to and then both Gasket and Achmed are sub two hundred. But doesn't mean they can't break tackles. We'll talk about that here in just a second. But in terms of pure physicality, you add that to the room with those two players as well as or in Scarlett and talking about that screen, the reason I wanted to get into that was that the feature or the option of two

back personnel sets. Remember two thousand eighteen, going back to Eric Studisville's first year here in Miami. I was so happy with what I saw in terms of additions to the running game on on the film, in terms of the run scheme, because first in sen it was almost

exclusively outside zone. And granted with Jayed Gi and the way he ran that year and how he really made that season go with the option of Ryan Tannehill and his play pass heavy offense and kind of playing from those tight end heavy sets and playing off the running game.

It's his bread and butter. It worked for that team, and that was the word around kind of why he was traded Jedgi just a year later, because he wanted to stick to that bread and butter offense, and the idea was that bringing in different personnel would allow the

attack to become more multiple. But it just didn't really take hold until coach Students Vielle got here in and like I, I go back to the opener against the Titans that year, and there was some fun like fake toss, fullback dive stuff where Frank Gore is the up back taking carries and plodding ahead for eight nine ten yards just because of misdirection kind of through the defense into the wrong gap. And freed up a certain gap for Frank Gore to push through, which he always hits the

right gap for his entire life. Now at age seventy one, he's ever missed a gap in his entire life. That's why he's one of the best bring backs of all time. And some of those two back sets you would get and Albert Wilson or a Jachem Grant type two guys that are still here. And now you've also got Jalen

Waddle who can do that. Robert Foster was a possible jet motion guy will Fuller obviously, but when you go ahead and get there from two back personnel, you can almost operate in a classic or traditional I'm not sure the term I want to use. Their a tailback fullback look where you have these two d and twenty five pound plus guys dotting the I or splitting the quarterback alongside Miles or Savan. You get that variety in those two back sets, and all of a sudden you then

can influence the defense. It is because of what all those guys do with their variety of skill sets, but the fact that they all can play on three downs. So the added size also gives you an added bonus in short yardage. And that's also it also helps you and what I consider to be the real true value of running the football and running downs in the National

Football League. To me, the number one job of running back and the running game is to convert first downs and also to create easier shorter down a distance later in the down count. So like when you have a

running game that can do the three things. Number one obviously is to keep the defense honest, because, like we talked about with the Ryan Tannehill j gi E offense, one false step downhill makes things difficult to defend at a second level on crossing routes, on the hook zone, the curl zone, all that fun stuff, and especially especially when guys running those crossing routes are Jalen Waddle and Will Fuller and Robert Foster and jakeem Grant and Albert Wilson,

all these guys that run sub four four forties. Makes life difficult on those linebackers as they have two things they have to think about before they get to their spot. Drop Number two with running the football is turn over the down marker. Get first downs. Everybody wants to talk about. You take your play action deep shot, on second and short right, And by everybody, I mean the Madden community, because if I missed this shot right here on second and two, I can just run the ball on third

down and convert. But we know that's not real life. Just look at the Dolphins defense last year. How many fourth down, third and short or fourth and short stops did this defense get. I can recall the Denver game, the Arizona game, the Oakland sorry, the Las Vegas game, big clutch fourth and short stops. In those games, it's not always a given the offense will convert and that's

a turnover. So I'd rather go second and second and three and run the football than count on trying to run the ball and turning it over on third or fourth down. But second and four or less is probably my personal favorite running down because I like first downs. I'm weird like that. And then three for me is to hit home runs. You look at the balance of

passing yards per play versus the run. One is clearly superior because you aim for what seven eight yards per pass when you throw the football, and four and a half yards per run on the ground is good. You see where I'm going here. The ability to hit chunk run plays to bump that average, but also to give yourself chunks in the running game, the ten plus yard runs.

That's where I get most excited, and frankly a little bit of a side here why I'm most excited about year two of Savon Akhmed because I think he was beginning to really kind of scratch the surface on those big chunk games last season. More on that here in just one second. So to bring this point full circle, if you can convert your short distance first downs, you extend drives, you put your defense on the sideline for more plays, and you put the opposing defense on the

field more. It's science. So we want to specialize in versatile players, and that's true for the entire roster. But despite that versatility, we'd still like to identify some traits that each of these players bring to the table individually as their individual skill sets. And we'll get to that with each player here in just one second. But first

my final point on the room as a whole. You wonder if perhaps the running backs maybe you need to really present a lot of value at the bottom part of the depth chart, the guys that you know, because you you come into a game with three, four or five running backs active, you probably only expect to give

two or three, maybe four of those guys carries. So you do have to come into the game with those guys with the mindset that they're gonna play a lot on special teams, and maybe this running back room does have to give you more on special teams. Why is that, Well, typically every position and on the roster besides quarterback obviously

contributes to special teams in their own way. But you also have a lot of proven, experienced receivers on this roster whose primary job in the past has been offense exclusive in recent years, Let's say, and this is purely hypothetical, like, what if you keep six receivers and those top six receivers are guys that the coaches decide at the end of camp are Waddle Fuller, Parker, Williams, Wilson, and Lynn Bowden.

That's six guys. How many of those guys are gonna be your noted gunners or kick return guys or wedge busters whatever it might be. I'm not saying you can't ask them to do it, but maybe that option is there to go with that receiving group that you you want to get more offensive production. Out of because you have more special teams ability in the running back room. Does that make sense, am? I explained that correctly. I feel like I am. But again, this all goes back

to just having options. Something I think Miami did a good job of this offseason to give themselves their potential presume whatever it might be, Plan A, and a contingency to that plan, and a contingency to the contingency plan, and on and on and on and on. So maybe the back end of the running back group is geared a bit more towards what you do on special teams.

Maybe it's the opposite of that, and I'm completely wrong, but I think it's a point worth at least exploring as you continue to improve the depth of this roster and start to get closer to having forty or fifty guys that you feel really good about with in terms of their straight up offense or defensive ability on your roster. As far as the cast of running backs we're dealing with here, we're gonna start with Miles Gaskin out of the University of Washington. He's played two years now in

the NFL, both with your Miami Dolphins. He wears number thirty seven. He's gonna be twenty four years old come

opening day. And I talked about this all the time, but I just really really admire what Miles brings to the locker room and the rest of the running back room and the team as far as how you're supposed to work, because he's talked about it in his media availability with US just this offseason, how he was working back home in Seattle, but he wanted to get back down here to fully utilize the resources he had provided

to him and just be back around work. Because you can go back home when you have your buddies and your family and everyone around you, and you can get your same your your trainers and your workouts in. But utilizing what the Dolphins facility has to him is obviously the best option for him. So he came back down here,

plus a lot of people trained in South Florida. And so you know when one day the Goofy podcaster is walking by the practice field from a solid fifty yard advantage point away and you can see Miles Gaskin doing ladder drill and drilling that footwork on a player day off on a Tuesday, less than forty eight hours removed from playing sixty snaps on Sunday and mind you that and presses me alone. But then the next day we get Jerome Baker on media and he's asked about a

breakthrough performance that Miles had the previous week. And you guys, remember after Week one last year, the narrative was, what a surprise the Miami Dolphins going with Miles Gaskin as their top guy in the backfield getting the bulk of

the workload. Well, if you listen to drive time, that wasn't a surprise because Myles Gaskin was in the training camp notes pretty much every single day, ripping off big runs and making things happen and showing you that fluid vision and proving as much as you can as a running back in training camp. It's kind of hard when there's no hitting. Luckily, this year we get preseason games

to watch guys take hits and break tackles. And that's what Jerome Baker was able to detail for us, saying, if you've been around Miles Gaskin, his success is no surprise to anyone here in this building because the way he works his mindset, he's got that dog like mentality. So I did a podcast last December with You Dubs running Backs coach Keith bon Offa, and he said, that's how it always was with Miles. He brought a level

of maturity and seriousness to the room. And in college, you know, you get guys out of high school, maybe they don't know how to work yet having Miles and that you Dub running Backs room was so valuable for them. And obviously the production was also valuable. But he just knows when it's time to work and that had a positive impact on the rest of that you Dub running Back room. And just look at how Savan talks about him.

A big brother, little brother type of relationship. They live in the same complex down here in South Florida, as they both talked about many times, and Miles told us they are with each other, you know, every night, quizzing film, going over terminology, little things that can make them sharper and react quicker on the football field. Again, that positive impact has a reverberating effect on the rest of the roster. And here's what coach students Ville had to say about

Miles earlier this summer. I think the big thing about Miles from at least last year, going from year one to year two for him was his growth in football and what he learned and how dependable he became for what we needed done. Just talking about again getting those assignments and knowing your checks, knowing your terminology. It's so valuable to play fast. If you don't have to think about it, and you can just you know, jump on a podcast and record and not have to worry about

your mechanics, you're gonna sound better. Same thing for football players. So, despite missing six games last year, playing in just ten of the six, team Gasket led the team and snaps played among running backs with four hundred and fifty three, and his production definitely validated what Miami was doing and their belief in him, as he piles up five hundred and eighty four yards on the ground, three through the air, and five total touchdowns, averaging five point three yards per touch.

He also forced thirty one missed tackles per PFF and average two point five four yards after initial contact. Both those numbers lead the Dolphins. His nineties seven point two yards from scrimmage or tenth among running backs. But how about this little nugget your boy found for you. Miles Gaskin forced thirty one missed tackles last year per Pro Football Focus, that ranked tied for nineteenth in the NFL

despite playing in just ten games. And that mark equals a missed tack will forced every four point five eight carries. That's the exact same number for Minnesota's Dalvin Cook, who finished second and total mis tackles force with sixty eight. And he's been one of the best running backs in the NFL for a couple of years now. All Pro

candidate there in Dalvin Cook. He also Miles had at least one ten yard run in all games but two that he played last year, the Cincinnati game and the Buffalo game, where he had just seven carries in that game.

And as for the tape, I see in Miles kind of something similar to what I discussed with Tua, and that the things that make him successful are not the flashiest things that are going to really pop. I think to the and I use this phrase, you know, very carefully, the casual observer, Like there's something wrong with being a casual observer. But if you don't know the finer nuance of football, maybe you don't know what to look force.

That's why I want to educate on that his balance is so good that he can plant and he can cut and change the angle of the tackle before the defender even has time to react. He knows how his blocks can develop, or what the blocks are supposed to develop, and he can change his launch point or the aiming point, the mesh point of where he wants to hit the whole.

And that's how these sub two pound backs managed to post a missed tackle force rate with the likes of Dalvin Cook, because his vision and the quickness and the decision making is good enough to where you can change that tackle angle. Then you get tackles off the side of the hip opposal square and a guy up and

he can bounce off that. And you couple that with his footwork and the quick feet and the fact that his feet never go dead upon contact to help pile up yards both as a pro and definitely definitely back in college. He's quick to read it and quick to hit it. He's also a more than capable receiving back.

You saw it last year, whether he's taking a simple five yard hookup route down the sideline for a fifty plus yard touchdown score against the Raiders, are catching a screen pass and setting up blocks for a big chunk game or turning on the jets on a swing or a flat route to the outside. Miles Gascon is your true three down type of back, and I'm excited to see what he does here in your number three. He's only gotten better so far. You have to imagine that's

the trajectory. Four. Miles Gaskin and year number three. Speaking of his U Dub team, A savan Akman, number twenty six. One year of experience at you dubs his college, and he's twenty two years old on opening day. Young guy claimed off waivers in August from the forty nine and signed to the practice squad. Okbed made his NFL debut

in November. One week later, he makes his first career start, rushing for eighty five yards and that win over the Chargers and that touchdown we mentioned eighty six touches As a rookie, he produced three hundred and eighty yards from scrimmage with three touchdowns, rips off nine runs of ten plus yards, and forced nine missed tackles on those seventy

five carries. But back to the Keith bonoffa interview from you Dub, he compared Miles gaskins running style to smooth jazz and Savon Akhmed's to hip hop and that it was in your face and you better deal with it right now because if you don't, Savon can win the edge, and he has that speed to burn where it's maybe a little more aggressive than patient, and I think we saw that in the New England game when he ripped off that thirty one yard to help salt that game

away late. You give him the edge, it's bad news for the defense. And he's the type of back that when he's on, he can give you that one twenty yard day and pick up another twenty or thirty yards in the receiving game. I like having that instant offense

option when I needed in a pinch. And his season high and missed forced tackles last year was in fact that in New England game he had four and the average two point five seven yards after initial contact, and his season number was two point three two yards, so just a bit below what Miles registered last season. However, his ten plus yard runs are often fifteen or more yards. Five of his nine ten plus yard runs went for more than fifteen yards, so the chunk games there for

Savon Akmed. He also rushed for eighteen first downs on seventy five carries a nice first down rate. Malcolm Brown new free agent acquisition here a number thirty four, Big Ricky Williams fan went to Texas six seasons NFL experience. He'll be twenty eight years old on opening Day with seventy career games played. He is the old hat in the room, the most experienced in the running back room.

In his career, he's rushed for one thousand, one eighty eight yards and eleven touchdowns with a myriad of contributions in both the passing game and on special teams. Per Pro Football Focus, Brown has yet to allow a sack in his career on one hundred and forty pass protection reps and has surrendered just three QB hits over that time.

He has a career special teams seven career special teams tackles, I should say, with six hundred thirty one reps in the game's third phase, and he also excels in short yardage. Last season, he converted six of his eight rushing attempts on third or fourth down and three or fewer yards to gain, So a big boon there to the Dolphins short yardage offense. I love the fact that he was

expanded more in the passing game. Last year at the Rams, he caught twenty five or thirty four targets, which is seventy for one D seventy five yards and one ninety four of those yards. So catching the ball behind the line, we're after the catch a focal point of the Rams screen game in that offense last season. So Malcolm Brown,

I love the fact that he has great balance. He can really corner and get square to the line of scrimmage, which packs a punch and allows him to fall forward, which then gives you that conversion ray on the short yardage and picking up first downs and down around the goal line as well, and again really added to his past receiving arsenal this last season. Speaking of past game gems, so to speak. Jared Doakes number twenty three rookie this year out of Cincinnati. He'll be twenty three years old

on opening Day. He checks a lot of those boxes we talked about for a modern day running back in the passing game. Two d and twenty eight pounds packs that punch, uses a strong lower body to run through tackles and protect his quarterback and pass protection PFF charge Dokes with just one sack allowed in one hundred thirty career reps in college as a receiver, he added four hundred and seven yards and four touchdowns just through the air last year with the Bearcats offense and didn't drop

a single pass. He also averaged fourteen point four yards per catch out of the backfield at Cincinnati last season. Fourteen point four. That's like a downfilled receiving threat number.

Crazy good. And if you recall our draft coverage of NFL Draft, we talked a lot about Jared Doakes kind of earning the hire the praise of his coaching staff there at Cincinnati because he had some injuries he fought through and he was able to keep his head down and just work through it and became a guy that rose from basically coming back from an injury to special teamer to kind of third down back to get the true bulk of the workload last season, and coaches really

praised his ability to both work and get himself back into a position to be the top back on the roster once again. But the big time receiving focus there, the past protection and his workout numbers I think really suggest that this guy could have some upside coming into the league. Two eight pounds, explosive, thick build, thirty nine point five inch vertical one in broad jump, those tests in the ninety six and eighty four percentile among running backs.

Also benched nineteen reps of tow and ran a four or five seven. So he's a physical back that can help bring the load. And again that kind of fits the mold of what the Dolphins brought into the running back room this offseason with Doakes, with Brown, with Carl Tucker,

and with Jordan Scarlett being the acquisitions this offseason. Speaking of Carl Tucker, he's next number thirty one rookie out of Alabama, twenty four years old an Opening Day, and he began his college career at Chapel Hill with the Tar Hills, then transferred to Alabama as a sixth year senior, where he and the Crimson Tide capture a national championship last season. And during that six year college career, he played a little bit of everything, some fullback, some h back,

some tight end, and special teams. He also talked in an interview with the Draft Network about not just his favorite aspect of his game, the physicality of it all, but the fact that he was a receiver in high school and when he first kicked in the tight end in college, he had no idea what he was doing, so he kind of learned on the fly, got better, and then took his talents to Alabama, so to speak, and went there and won a national championship. And you

watch that tape with Bama last year. It is riddled with punishing, crushing blocks, showcasing that trait that he loves of his the most, the physicality. You look at the tape, he just wants to punish guys. He can bury them on their backs, he can open up lanes, and he talked about his favorite part of the game was creating a big lane and then watching his back run right off of his back and then they show the defense their tail lights, but this guy explodes into his blocks.

He decleades guys with relative ease, at least in college, and he can do it working backside, play side lead. He can seal and he said again that his favorite thing was to seal those lanes and watch his back go through. And he also talked about his favorite parts of his game, where his loyalty, his work ethic, and a guy that just does his job without asking questions. Said that he went to go play for Alabama because he wanted to get a piece of that winning culture

and learn what it meant to be a champion. And when you watch the way he plays, by golly did I just say that, But by gosh, golly, did he reflect that mindset on the football field. And fundamentally I thought he was just so sound and how he approached his blocks. He always kind of came to balance and gets his feet under him and explodes through the rep

rather than lunging. And you might recall back in the Hard Knocks episode, Les Brown, who was a lacrosse convert trying to learn football and play tight end, was trying to learn how to explode into the blocks. And he also often would take a step and then each and that gets you off balance, that gets you kind of over your skis. I don't see that in Carl Tucker's game in college. He really steps into the block and just throws the punch as he comes through that initial step.

Also in the backfield. Patrick Laird, number thirty two, has two seasons of NFL experience. He came from cal He'll be twenty six on opening day, made the team as an undrafted free agent back in twenty nineteen, and he has worn several hats the intern himself despite just twenty three touches last year. There were two players that I thought were crucial in the Dolphins season that Patrick Laird

was a big part of. Number One a first down he converted against the Cardinals on a third and five pass play where he gets out into the flat, makes a guy miss, gets around the chains, and extends that drive to get three points on the board before halftime in a game that we won by three points plus. He also had a big first down on a third

and six carry against the Patriots. Actually got a chance to ask coach Flora's about that play, about going to a run situation there right on the fringe of field goal range and they had the right look to have got to it and and Laird took it through for a first down to extend that drive and get points on the board as well in a huge Week fifteen win.

And his two year career, Laird has six special teams tackles per Pro Football Focus and four hundred twenty six reps that he's played again special teams, whether he's running down, throwing, you know, blowing up the wedge or what used to be the wedge anyway, or just hitting his blocks or making big blocks on special teams. Both coach Flora's and Danny Crossman have praised the way this guy works, and that's how he's earned his his way into a role

on this team the last two seasons. And we finished up here with Jordan's scarlett number twenty eight. It might take some getting used to say a different twenty eight out there this season. Two seasons in the NFL. He played his college ball at Florida. He'll be twenty five come opening day. He's played in nine games. That was all as a rookie with the Panthers in twenty nineteen, carried the ball just four times that played a hundred

and eleven snaps on special teams. He's the highest drafted player in the room, the fifth round pick back in twenty nineteen. He rushed for one thousand, eight hundred forty six yards at Florida with twelve t d s. And he also explained or exhibited, i should say, exceptional con tech balance with quick feet that remain active in traffics. That's why he was able to burst through lines. And burst through traffic and get big runs there At Florida.

There just isn't a lot on him with regards to NFL tape, but in college again that contact balance on the quick active feat. He also works out with two of this offseason, or has worked out with TWA and his trainer, so he's probably seen some videos of him. He's looking cut, looking ready to go, excited to see what he looks like in training camp. Another one of these big body backs that I think was really missing from the equation last year. So enter Doakes Brown Scarlett

and let the chips fall where they may. That is your running back preview, also available on Miami Dolphins dot com. So go check out the written piece up on the website. Give us some love there, give us some love on social media. Also, be sure to subscribe to the podcast if you have not done so already, on Apple, Spotify,

wherever you get your podcast from. Up next, we're gonna finish this podcast with our division by division preview NFL preview, and this entire process really serves to me as a reminder of what happened in the NFL this offseason, and I hope it does the same for you today. We take a look at the NFC North and we start with a team and a player that makes this one of the more intriguing divisions in the league for my money,

the Chicago Bears and Justin Fields. Now, Matt Nagy has already announced Andy Dalton as their Week one starter, but I refuse to believe that's written in penn because Justin Fields has been playing really good football at a high level for a long time at a big time program, and I think he could be ready as early as Week one if he gets through that early development phase that kind of needs to be expedited this this part of the calendar, because it's a lot to learn fro

a wiki quarterback. But that's the first storyline here. At number one. The Bears are going to get prime time games because they are a huge market and one of the more iconic brands in the NFL. So even through all those years of let's call it quarterback purgatory, we would still get four to five Bears primetime games a year, and the infusion of one man alone makes those games

instantly more watchable for me. And this is where my real urge to see him play for a Week one checks in because I want to see those new look Rams first, the new look Bears, and that means fields, not Andy Dalton. For me, I think the strangest thing that happened this offseason was Kyle Fuller, one of the top ten or so cornerbacks in the NFL for my money, getting outright cut. So how they replaced his production is

going to be interesting. Taking the football away has never been more important in the league than it is right now, where it's increasingly getting more difficult to stop these high powered offenses. And Fuller was kind of a Peanut Tillman the way he punches and dislodgers of football with such regularity. Nineteen picks, three fumbles and eight two passes defense in a six year career. Can you make that up with Artie Burns, Desmond Truffont and to Shaun Gibson. We'll see.

I'm curious see what happens in the backfield with Treat Cohen coming off in a c L. They draft Kalil Herbert, and they also have the ever patient and impressive running back in David Montgomery. Alan Robinson's back and he has been kind of DeAndre Hopkins like early on in his career where he has straight up just produced regardless of quarterback play, and Anthony Miller is in a bit of a make or break year. They're coming out of Memphis

and year number three. I loved his game in college, and they also have a lot of speed there into mere Bird and Marque's Goodwin plus Darnell Mooney might be the clear cut number two at this point. He's had a really nice career so far. At this point through one season, I think he's the second best route runner on the team. They attempted to remake their offensive line, which was kind of beaten down last year with injuries. They cut Charles Leno, but one of the mainstays up

front was Leno. They replaced him with Tevin Jenkins, one of my favorite overall players in this entire draft class. But they're gonna flip into the left tackle where he played right tackle throughout his college career, so that bears watching, no pun intended. I also really like James Daniels, the center out of Iowa. A couple of years ago, they got to get more consistent in opening lanes and turning guys early so Montgomery can see it and hit it

that way. Accordingly, get that run game balance justin fields should help when he enters the line up two with the running game. Defensively, they're still pretty loaded a Keem Hicks is among the most underrated players in the league. I love Eddie Goldman up front, and they play big ends to help maximize those edge rushes. With Robert Quinn and Khalil Mack, I think Mac will bounce back this season. That's a big story for this team that wants to cre eight one on one matchups and let Mac do

his thing. He just didn't quite win them with the same regularity we've become accustomed to over the years. But having Robert Quinn I think helps in that way to those explosive first steps of those guys can help with can kind of compliment the big bodies they have on the defensive line. Roe Quan Smith is teetering right on

elite status. For me with linebackers, I've always liked to answer Vathan and in the secondary, as we mentioned, there's some turnover, but the mainstay is Eddie Jackson, who's just another one of these stud defensive backs to come from Bama, and he makes a big difference. He is an awesome,

awesome player. The offseason additions for the Bears, Andy Dalton, Justin Fields, Kalil Herbert, Damien Williams remember him crazy what one year can do for a player, Tevin Jenkins, Mario Edwards Jr. Jeremiah Taco, Christian Jones, Dion Bush, Desmond Truffon already burned. So some significant change over there in Chicago. We'll see what happens this year. I think that they're gonna have to win some games this year to keep on chugging along and see what happens as far as

fields development. Up next is the defending Division champs and NFC Championship Game participant, the Green Bay Packers, And I'm gonna say this, then we'll move on. Is there anything more exhausting than Packers offseason quarterback drama? I mean, I remember despising the coverage of Brett Farve Watch for what

seemed like five straight years. And granted, this is my fault for always having Colin Cowherd on when I'm home mornings on the West Coast afternoons here on the East Coast, but I swear Rogers has been the b block story on that show every day for the last three months. He'll be back, but that doesn't really make for good TV or radio. So Aaron Rodgers and Jordan Love. You know, we know what. Rodgers is one of the best quarterbacks

in the league, one of the best quarterbacks ever. And count me in the group that wants to see Jordan Love play because you've seen some of these bigger, physical, physically gifted quarterbacks like Josh Allen Starts to really realize their potential. That's what Jordan Love has in terms of the physical makeup. I want to see him sooner than later. But with twelve in town, that ain't never gonna happen.

So they bring back Aaron Jones in that backfield, and he's just one of the best pure runners in football. Big get for them to bring him back, and he pairs very nicely with the hammer at his A J. Dillon. The story with this team always seems to be about what happens behind Davante Adams at receiver. The best NFL are the best receiver in the league for my money, Alan Lazard has some proven tape now and the name that I love on that list is a Mari Rodgers.

I love the way he creates separation, the way that he runs his routes, the urgency and the sure hands that he has in traffic, He's gonna be a nice little option there for Aaron Rodgers. You've also got Robert Tonyan scoring all those touchdowns, so there's no shortage of players there, especially when you consider on the offensive line David Batr Elton Jenkins anchoring a line that has made

some nice additions this offseason as well. The defense is led by JayR Alexander were my favorite players to watch in the league, and they have remade their system in recent years, I mean a couple of years ago to play more zone and kind of play ben but don't break and create takeaways. They play plenty of dime defense as well, six and seven defensive back packages, and that's where jiyears at his best, creating havoc and creating takeaways. Adrian Amos comes over from the Bears a couple of

years ago and gives them another solid safety alongside Darniell Savage. Also, I'm a fan of Kevin King, Eric Stokes, and Josh Jackson. Upfront. Kenny Clark is underrated as they come in my opinion. He holds the point, eats blocks, and creates chances for guys around him. Kind of like Christian Wilkins does in a lot of ways, and Russia's presidents and Darius Smith off the edge, and Rashaun Gary another bullet in the chamber man that second level of that defense can really play.

Their off season was mostly taking care of their own guys, A great strategy for a team who's won thirteen games each of the last two years and made it all the way to the conference championship weekend and damn near won the thing last year. Not so much in twenty nine team, but their off season looks like this. Blake Bortles, Kylan hill A, Marii Rodgers, Josh Myers the rookie out of Ohio State on the offensive line, to Andre Campbell, the former Falcons linebacker, and Eric Stokes in the draft.

The Minnesota Vikings starts in the same spot here as does for the other two teams at the quarterback position. Kirk Cousins gets the big deal as an unrestricted free agent back in ten, gets another extension with the Vikings and now Minnesota drafts a possible era apparent. You remember this team was among the most loaded rosters back when they brought Cousins in, and it was thought that the

quarterback will push them over the top. They've only made the playoffs once in those three years, and they got a big upset, went over the Saints in that playoffs, but that was it. You expect more than one playoff win with that roster they had, So how long is that leash there? Does Kellen mong get special packages? Is he a threat to win the job? I'm really excited to see what happens there at the quarterback position in Minnesota. Now on the other side, Mike Zimmer is one of

the defensive masterminds of our generation. But last year's Vikings defense was a bit of a struggle. The worst he's ever overseen from my yardage allowed standpoint, and that's just not gonna happen again. A big reason why for my money, they were young in the secondary and that's tough to overcome. But their big offseason gets possibly a soul for that in Patrick Peterson, and maybe he can recapture the old

form that he had there with Mike Zimmer. But I'll be curious to see if he can, as he's now thirty years of age, and you know, it's kind of a young man's game, a mid twenties game. Especially at that cornerback position. But back on offense, Dalvin cook Man, this guy, he is elite, the best running back in the league for my money. Him and Alvin Kamara, a guy that the offense truly can run through, but they

have to have him healthy for that to happen. And justin Jefferson Man, you lose Stefon Digs and you don't see a drop off there. That's ridiculous to talk about. Just Jefferson's pure competitiveness of what he brings the table. He is that dude plus Adam thieland just continues to quietly cook up dbs with great route running and another ho hum, one thousand yards season. Well it was fifteen games, but you get it. IRV. Smith is a big factor

here for me to do. They can they still go too tight without Kyle Rudolph because they ran so many packages out of twelve personnel last year. Who's going to be that second tight end? And ken IRB. Smith take the Reins as the true tight end number one. They completely remade their offensive line and I love it. Christian Derrisau is awesome. Getting Mason Cole on a trade and they draft Wyatt Davis out of Ohio State, and they already had a couple of nice pieces in place there

and Garrett Bradberry and Brian O'Neill. But I like this the most as far as their off season, the way they're able to reshape the offensive line. Defensively, you get back Danil Hunter that's the biggest boon, and Dalaln Thomas in a huge edition on the inside to go along with some linebackers that can flat out play and move. Eric Kendricks is so good. I love his game. Always have a modern day linebacker. Anthony Barr still gets a job done playing forward, and Chass Sarratt is a nice piece.

They're out of UNC will see how he develops in that defense. They're off season, Kellen mond uh A, Mere Smith Marsette, Christian Dry, saw Mason, Cole Wyatt Davis mostly draft picks, Dalvin Thomason a big free agent, and Patrick Peterson as well Patrick Jones. The Pittsburgh defensive end from the University of Pittsburgh, I should say, is their Chas Sarratt, Nick Vigil and then Patrick Peterson in the defensive secondary. Then there's the Detroit Lions and one an off season.

It has been one of race car helmets and bringing lines to practice and biting off kneecaps messages of bravado. They did well to get draft pick compensation back for Matt Stafford, but I think they're going to realize just how much he did for that team, and so will the Rams. Matt Stafford is so so good. I'm concerned what it might look like without him. They're obviously kind of stepping back and reshape in that football team under

Dan Campbell's vision. Jared Goff is their guy now. If they lose Kenny Holliday and went heavy on the offensive line, We'll see if that's enough to get Golf protected, because he has to be protected to function the way he can at his highest level. I love the remade defensive tackle position with levi own Wuzariki out of you Dub he is a dominant force. I liked Ellen McNeil a lot too out of NC State, and they also go out and get Brian Price to add to that group

up front. I'm curious to see what happens with Trey Flowers in the post Matt Patricia era, because play for the Patriots, play for the Lions, and those types of defenses now They're gonna wipe out that scheme and try something else. Can he still play at the high level in a different scheme. I don't doubt it. He's a great player, but I'm curious to watch it unfold. And then that secondary needed a rehaul. And the biggest thing I'm looking for is that year to jump out of

Jeff Okuda rookie cornerbacks. It's always tough on those guys. I can't wait to watch him play their off season. Jared Goff Jamal Williams from Green Bay comes over. They drafted Jamar Jefferson out of Oregon State. Love his game, Aman Ross st Brown from usc In Brashad Perriman the two big receiver acquisitions. Pane Sewel is probably the best player they brought in all offseason. He's a great tackle

out of the University of Oregon. Darren Fells, a Lean McNeill, Brian Price, leve On woz, Rique Alex Anzaloni the linebacker formerly of the Saints, Quentin Dunbar corn Elder, and f two Melifon Wu the brother of Obi Melifon formerly of the Patriots and Raiders. So for the NFC North, to me, the best player Aaron Rodgers, your best non quarterback, Davante Adams your best defensive player. Daniel Hunter gets that nod. The best rookie for me is gonna be Justin Fields.

I think the best coach is Matt Lafleur. The most intriguing team is the Vikings. I'm really curious to see how the offensive line and kind of remaking it helps rebrand that offense. The champion is gonna be chalky, It's gonna be boring. I'm taking the Packers once again. There's your NFC North preview. You should definitely watch. I think you should leave on Netflix. It's one of the funniest

damn shows I've ever seen in my entire life. I'm gonna skip on giving you my skit, my skit rankings that I did the other night because we're running out of time here, and we'll go ahead and talk more out TV in the next episode. Because we're short on time. I'm gonna get out of here. 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 that really helps the podcast grow and get out to more Dolphins fans, so if you have not done so, please do today. If you can, give me a follow on Twitter at Wingfield NFL, follow the team at Miami Dolphins, check out the Fish Tank and the Audible podcast, and of course Miami Dolphins dot com, all your written training camp previews can be found. Until next time, defensi