Turning Practice Habits into Game Day Production

Brian Flores and his staff. We're going to discuss the media from the end of last week with Byron Jones, Jesse Davis, and Coach himself. And we'll discuss Father's Day weekend on this busy, busy edition of the Drivetime Podcasts. And I'm hoping all the papas in the world enjoyed their special day on Sunday. How do you guys do Father's Day out there? Do you get the King's treatment

all day? For me, we had some family obligations to fulfill and then once we got done with that, I was granted access to do whatever the hell I wanted to do on Sunday night, which was watch Hawks and Sixers Game seven and more on the sports weekend. Here in just a moment, as well as the season five premiere of Rick and Morty, which, as completely expected, hit the ball not just out of the ballpark, but about

four nine feet out of the stadium. I mean Mr Nimbus Morty's actions causing the culture of an entire planet to be based on defeating him. Just an A plus episode. And just as I was thinking about the last time I anticipated a new episode of one of my favorite shows, the new season of Dave comes out, which, speaking of a plus, the way they intertwined drama and comedy in that show on f x X and Gaeta is quickly becoming one of my favorite actor slash person these is

just absolutely fantastic. That's one of the best shows on TV right now. Then we get on Netflix. I think you should leave season two here in just a couple of weeks. And right behind that is Impractical Jokers. So good times in the TV world. Really for my money for the first time since pre pandemic. Then how about the sports weekend that was And maybe this is the it is the the payoff for all the sports we

missed last year. But it just feels like every weekend we're getting fantastic sports with hockey and basketball and the US Open and F one. I won't mention my Seattle manners more than just to say they swept last year's American League champion Tampa Bay Rays in a four game series. Cool. I guess we're back over five hundred. But that's that's all I care to say about that. But the French

Grand Prix was a thriller to me. It's so weird to see Lewis Hamilton's not be one of that, or not to be the guy rather to make the move

to steal a win last moment. Exciting stuff there from Max First staffing with the Red Bull car, who, even though not a huge fan of his, has made the Driver's championships super interesting because he can challenge Lewis Hamilton's and the Mercedes team and good on my personal squad, the McLaren team for a fifth and sixth finish there at the French Grand Prix with Lando Norris and Daniel Ricardo, my favorite driver. And then there were the hoops and

the hockey. But I'll be real with you guys here for just one second. Hockey is just not sticking for me as a sport for whatever reason. But hoops really are and so much so that I'm officially the owner of some Miami Heat apparel for the first time in

my life. And the team that made quick work of the Heat is now onto the Eastern Conference Finals, and that was the biggest win of the NBA postseason to me because I just can't wait to see the super team kind of go away and become a thing of the past, and it appears to maybe be trending in that direction. The Nets were the only one left, I suppose, with the Lakers seemingly in some disarray with Lebron finally showing some age and Anthony Davis his injury history there,

so to see them lose was awesome. Plug Us, Kevin Durant and James Harden to me are still super songs in my book. So I'm never gonna root for anything, Okay, see related and I love Janice and his story and I'm rooting like hell for that dude to give himself

a championship. So go Bucks the rest of the way, and I'll pull for the Sons in the West because a I love Chris Paul I have since the Wake Forest days, but also our social media coordinator or as of last week, our former social media coordinator Simmer and Dave, congrats on the new gig sim at Bleacher Report. You've

definitely earned it and deserve it. She's a huge, huge, die hard, real Phoenix Suns fan, so it was fun to see how excited she is after all these big Sons wins coming back to the office and she's pumped up. So Sons Bucks is my hope, and I'm hoping it's Milwaukee that captures the crown jewel at the end of it all. Last thing here on Father's Day before the football, I want to make a special mention of the stepfather's out there, the unsung heroes, and the ultimate selfless act

of treating another person's child as your own. I was raised by a stepdad and I am forever grateful for him. So just a shout out to step dad's out there. So how about that football? On the plane ride back to Washington State for what seems like the thirtieth freaking time over the last eighteen months or so that I've made that flight, and it was my final bicoastal jump back over the country before we as a family make

the move here in total for good. The next month, inspiration kind of struck me on this flight as I began to do some writing, and if you couldn't tell, I was trying to establish a bit of a theme and line of thinking in my questions for Coach Flores and the players last week at o T as media availabilities with regards to testing the waters, as Coach Flow put it. And I wasn't just hoping to examine coaches comments or two US comments or anybody else we talked

to about being aggressive and practice. After all, this is nothing new. This is what practice has been in sport since the beginning of time. To relate my own experience in sports, my regular audience knows that I was a baseball guy back in my heyday, and in bad practice, we had some rules. We had to get one down, which is a bunt. Obviously, we had to get him over hit the baseball the other way to the right side.

If you're a right handed hitter and get him in, get lift on a ball to the outfield to get your sack fly. Then my next fifteen or so swings, we're just trying to hit line drives into either gap less in our field or rights in her field, depending on where the pitch was on the outer half. Or the inn half, and I know these are different times pre launch angle. And then I would take a few swings where I did try to pony up and lift

the baseball. Now I ran into a few home runs in my heyday, despite the fact that I was a leadoff hitter who stole a bunch of basses and was always on base. But it wasn't because of trying to elevate the baseball. And you know why I didn't bring it up over into games because I wasn't good at it in batting practice. So I would stick to sprang the ball all over the field because it got me on base better than half the time and created more runs for my team than if I tried to hit

the big three run homers. So I tested it out in practice. That's the time to find out what your limitations or potential limitations are, and find out what you do best on the game day field. And so in thinking about that and thinking about coaches comments, and then consider the results of the development we've seen here with the individuals on this club that has been night and day to what it was before Flow arrived for almost an entire generation of Dolphins fans too. I mean, how

many times, and especially especially to division rivals. Did we see talent and go out the door and then flourish elsewhere? For me, and I want to hear from older's, older Dolphins fans on this, but it probably didn't happen nearly as much because well Don Bleep and Shula was here.

But for me, it started with Wes Welker. Then remember the Rex Ryan Buffalo Bills, not the Jets, the Rex Ryan Bills and that game where he made every ex Dolphin on their squad which was for deep A Captain, Richie Incognito, Charles Clay, Chris Hogan and Dan Carpenter all out there for the coin toss and that was a rough, rough forty one to fourteen game that was really over by mid way through the second quarter. I think we threw a pick six to make it twenty two one

to nothing. And how those guys were the ones doing all the scoring for the Bills. Clay scored the very first touchdown of the game and they got themselves that big lead and started pumping the football to both Clay and Chris Hogan who found the end zone to make it thirty four to six or something like that. In the fourth quarter. So for a long time that was kind of the norm. But now now you see guys

get here and they get better. You see draft picks show a clear trajectory in the right direction, allah of Jerome Baker. And so it got me thinking, we know about the results, but what about the process to get there? Now, I'm not going to be able to take you inside the entire plan of getting a player, concocting a plan first said players development, and then executing that plan for

the players development. And a quick aside one I will never forget was the first season of the fantastic Amazon slash NFL film series All or Nothing, when Bruce Arians, then the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals, was talking about their rook running back that they were very fond of and David Johnson and how he was running back kickoffs, making big explosive plays in the passing game, and Arians would talk not so candidly to his coaching staff that

was of course picked up by the cameras there about how they were going to keep him in more of this complimentary role until about Thanksgiving or so, to keep him hungry, to keep him humble amidst all the success that he was having in that initial rookie season, and to tie it all back together, the ultimate place of development is on that practice field. You put in the film work, you put up the weights, you stay discipline

in the kitchen. But when it's time to apply everything you've taken in the I guess extracurricular portion of the job and put it on the field and test those mechanics and your skill sets you've developed against your teammates and other guys working on the same things. That's when you see the proverbial sausage come through the grinder or whatever that machines called. And that's how you get your display for him, your sausage that goes in front of

the window to sell to your customers. So I want to take a look at the roster and check out some of the names that can definitively point to and say here's a guy. Now, here's a guy that has really blossomed with this team since or you know, whenever it happened within that framework of time. And I start at the quarterback position with well, who else besides starting quarterback to a tongue vloa. Go back to Week fifteen

last year against the Patriots. The Dolphins are on that yard march right into the five yard line, about to score, go up seven nothing, take a lead in a very important game against a Vision rival in New England, and it looks like it's gonna be a Dolphin's touchdown. But then to get some heat, he throws a ball to the outside under pressure and it's picked off by J. C. Jackson has to described it himself a rookie mistake in that moment. But what's the hallmark of the great players

in this league. There are a few, but one of them is the ability to take an occurrence that happened in game, learned from it, and then within that same game, apply those lessons later on. And we heard exactly the same phrase for rookie Dolphins outside linebacker Jalen Phillips from Brett Coleman, who came on the podcast. He's from the

film Room on YouTube does a great work. They're breaking down some some NFL and college football, and he talked about the best traits of each Miami rookie and he said his favorite thing about watching Jalen's college tape at the you was how he could counter moves that were successful early in ballgames, forwarding his pass rush to make an impact in the second half. Now that is the hallmark of a pass rusher you want on your squad. Key third downs in the second half, and he's figured

out how to beat his man. That's choice stuff. Back to to a same game, fourth quarter, third and goal trailing nine to seven. In the game, he gets pressure, he makes a move in space and forces a mistackle right at the goal line to get it across for six in game. Application of adjustments and lessons applied big

time for a then twenty two year old quarterback. At running back Miles Gaskin is inactive through the first nine weeks of his rookie season, gets the call and sees five snaps, next week, seven snaps, then sixteen, then sixteen again, and then thirteen before finally seeing thirty four snaps in each of the next two games, where he posts a hundred and thirty yards from scrimmage and his first career touchdown. Not bad for a rookie seventh round draft pick getting

his first significant action. Then he gets to camp and he's in the Debrief podcast slash story on Drive time in Miami Dolphins dot Com every single day because to me he was looking the part of not just a contributor, but a possible feature back, and lo and behold, he enters Week one and gets overwhelmingly the majority of the Dolphins workload among running backs in that Week one game, and winds up finishing the season as the tenth highest player among all NFL running backs and average yards per

scrimmage for yards from his krimmage rather per game, say that ten times fast, and one of college football's most productive running backs over a four year span. Takes a year to pick up the speed of the game, or

the playbook, or whatever it might have been. Where Miles progressed for himself, the results spoke for themselves here under coach Eric Studisville in that running backs room, and savan akhmed his best friend and team at you dub now teammate here in Miami, goes from waiver wire to a back who averages a team high four point to five yards per carry and breaks the streak the Dolphins had for not having a one yard rusher at twenty five games and finishes his rookie season with almost four hundred

yfs yards from scrimmage and three total touchdowns on just eighty nine touches production from a guy that was undrafted and got here in August after spending the entire summer with another club. Also, he was activated for the first time in Week nine after not being active for the first three games, when he was called up to the active roster in Week five against the forty nine, his former team. So he gets here and learns and does

the process and develops and gets production. For Miles Gaskin with his game and his his skill set jump, I just look at the balance that he showed and the way he's able to not only make tackling and was more difficult, but to bounce off of them and stay on his feet. And he talked about this this offseason with some media availability about getting stronger and specifically strengthening awkward type of movements or muscle groups like your ankles.

Are just finding ways to mimic the football movement that you can't do with traditional weightlifting or even certain agility movements, like you have to find certain ways to mimic football movement. He talked about that in this offseason at the receiver position, you look no further than DeVante Parker sticks number eleven himself. He gained more yards in twenty nineteen than he did

in seventeen and eighteen combined. He also caught thirteen of his twenty two touchdowns in his career since the arrival of Brian Flores and staff, and under the watch of wide receivers coach Josh Grizzard, who went from assistant receivers coach in twenty nineteen to earning a promotion to full time receivers coach in And not just that, but Davante's games played average saw a nice bump from thirteen and a quarter games per season and his first four years

in the league up to fifteen games per season. Each of the last two he's been more physical. I thought his contested catchability has just shot through the roof and he goes up there and that football is his when it's in the air between he and a defender. Speaking of contested catchers, Preston Williams an undrafted free agent to a guy that's played sixteen games in two years. A couple of unfortunate injuries to end those seasons, but he

produced seven hundred and sixteen yards and seven touchdowns. That's really good production from a U d f A in

sixteen games. The tight end position might have the best example of all from growth and Mike get sick and his usage went from in line as a traditional y tight end in his rookie season to less than ten percent to capitalize on those gifts that he shows as a receiver, to help get him more free releases and all the benefits that come from playing detached from the line opposed to being in line, and he responds by showing a just growth in the functional strength, the improved

ability to fight through re routes and demming safeties and linebackers off the line, from two hundred and two yards as a rookie to five hundred and seventy in a second season and then seven hundred and three last year. Also no touchdowns as a rookie, five in that sophomore campaign and a career high six last season. And how about the yards per target jump he saw up to eight point three. That's eight point three for a tight end, that's receiver numbers, and that's up from six point four

and six point three his first two seasons. And really that stretch of production began in Week twelve of twenty nineteen. He scored all five of his touchdowns from week twelve on right around Thanksgiving up through December, and how about a rookie on the offensive line and Robert Hunt. He goes from extra offensive lineman six or seventh guy off the bench in the heavy personnel to starting right tackle and all he does is play out the final six games of last season as one of PF's top ten

graded offensive tackles. Take that for what you will. Onto the defense, we saw ray Kwon Davis get an elevation of playing time right around the midway point of the season and his play took off from there. We've noted his pressures, his run stops, his tackles for loss, all those jumps he saw about midway through the season last year. As we have discussed on this podcast, his teammate on

the defensive line there is Zack Seeler. He gets here in December of twenty nineteen after being waived by the Baltimore Ravens, and he has an immediate impact with some promising reps in a week fifteen game at the Giants and then the production to match the following week where he records a bunch of pressures, hits, sacks, TFLs against the Bengals in that game also had some past breakups

at the line. Then part way into the season he earns a contract extension and and for what it's worth, he claimed a spot in the top twenty on Brandon Thorne's true sack rate for interior rushers. Brandon Thorne evaluates past rushers and offensive lineman. He did the podcast back and I want to say February, which is really impressive to me for Zach because he plays inside and outside and those outside reps didn't count in this particular measurement. So good work there from Zach Seeler as a pass

rusher and the interior defensive line. Christian Wilkins had a nice jump too, and just real quick. Year two jumps I think are interesting because they are automatically assumed by every single fan base, right like you, you think that you're gonna see a like, without doubt, a tangible jump from employer from year one to year two, because that's just how you operate when you don't have the benefit

of full information. But it doesn't always happen. Maybe we've become a bit spoiled into thinking that it does the last couple of years, But I'm old enough to remember the likes of Jason Allen or John Beck or Chad Henny or Jamaar Taylor, and the list goes on and

on and on. But Wilkins took a tangible jump. Pro Football Reference had him with an approximate value A a stat that measures just a player's overall impact on the game and the season and every year of their career of four in twenty nineteen, that number went all the way up to seven in which was the same number as ray Kwon Davis. For comparison sake, I've got several examples of this development and growth in the second level

of the defense. Jerome Baker. I mean, we covered that pretty thoroughly in the episode last week tracking his extension. The box score production was unreal in after showing his medal as a versatile, durable, explosive four down player his first two years in the league. And one thing I liked about Jerome this year personally was the improvement in taking on blocks. I thought he showed real growth in that area. And speaking of that, our next candidate on

this list as Andrew Van Ginkel. Now, if you were riding with me back in the Lockdown Dolphins days, you remember my personal a VG journey. I was not familiar with him with his game when the Dolphins drafted him in twenty nine team, but I got right to work, and after two or three tapes, I couldn't believe this

guy made to the fifth round. He had one big year of production at Wisconsin, and it was easy to see why because watching his tape, you would find him locate bodies, not just grass, but locate route runners, potential threats on his zone drops and take him away. He would gained depth when he got out to the flat to help him locate what what route concept it might be. And there were clips in his rookie season to confirm what I saw on that Wisconsin tape. Shoot there on

my timeline from two years ago. He's not just picking up routes that originate from his side of the football. He's finding backside crossers and walling them off and disrupting pass lanes. A very high level concept thinker when it comes to defending the passing game at that linebacker position. And the one thing that wasn't a consistent occurrence of his on the college tape was taking on and defeating those blocks. And then he misses the first eleven games

of his career with a dang injury. I was so bummed to see that. But then he comes back in and he's doing it all of a sudden, like regularly, he's knifing in there and cutting possible split zone blocks. He's spilling out fullbacks and tripping up the ball carrier for tackles for loss in addition to the zone drops in coverage. And so that kind of just to me, speaks to just because the guy doesn't have something on

his college tape doesn't mean he can't do it. We talked about with running backs all time that don't have pass game production in college, Like if a coach see something and a player that I can maybe developed and turn him into that player, that's great. And maybe that's what happened here with Van Ginkle because he has been really good in that area as a pro and then just last year he turns up the pass rush and

at the most critical times. Shack Lawson, who was a prominent fixture on the defense, played plenty of downs last year, but the two games he missed were San fran in Las Vegas and Gek's stat line. In those two games, he combined for seven quarterback pressures, three sacks, fourteen tackles, a forced fumble, and outside of those games, he also scored a seventy eight yard fumble returned for a touchdown, and he blocked a punt that put us on the one yard line to get another touchdown on the board.

If we're talking about true impact four down players, consider that growth. As a fifth round pick just two years ago at the same position, Sam edgl Van came down from Canada and all he did in twenty nine team was ranked in the top five among off ball linebackers and QB pressures. Now, granted, he also led that group in pass rush reps per Pro Football Focus. And remember, off ball does not include the likes of the Von Millers of the world, the Khalil Max your outside on

ball rushers. This is only off ball linebackers, guys that play on two points stands away from the football. But it speaks to what the Dolphins saw in eg Vaughan and how they were able to use his skills with that quick first step and that closing speed at that linebacker position, which made him a mainstay on the Miami

Dolphins special teams each of the last two years. Also, Eland and Roberts had his highest approximate value on Pro Football Reference since seen last year, he notched a career high eight tackles for loss, despite matching a career lowan

games played with thirteen two again those dang injuries. Vince Bagel led the team and quarterback pressures in twenty nineteen after arriving in September and a player for players swap for Kiko Alonso with the Saints, and it should be noted that he had five total quarterback pressures his first two seasons in Green Bay and in New Orleans respectively, before checking him with thirty four pressures in twenty nineteen, where he also added twenty two run stops and an interception,

all the obviously career bests. And then finally, in the defensive secondary, four players set or tied their career high in I n T s last season under DBS coach Gerald Alexander, Xavien Howard, Byron Jones, Eric Row, and Nick need Um, who matched the two from his rookie season, will start there with Eric Rowe, a midseason positional convert in twenty nineteen who went on to post awesome numbers and coverage, primarily against tight ends, and he said going

into last season, his second as a safety or or his first full season as a primary safety, that he wanted to work on fitting the run and learning the aspect of that position further because as you often see number twenty ones down there in the trash, mixing it up with guys that he's giving an excess of eighty or ninety pounds two at times down there and his highest a v before Miami three the last two years six and seven. Growth improvement, development of rookies and veterans alike.

Speaking of rookies, Nick need Um undrafted cornerback out of you tip, you tip. You know how artists go from a Conference USA competition to the n f L, Well Nick did it. And last year, which was his first, converting from a primary outside corner to a slot guy inside in matchups with Cooper Cup, Keenan Allen, Jamison Crowder, and Tyler Boyd four of the best slot guys in the NFL the last few years. Eight receptions on fourteen targets for eighty six yards, no touchdowns and a pick

that's six point one four yards per target. Not bad at all, not bad at all. So the list is tangible, it's long and It's got me thinking about the proverbial ping pong balls and the hopper that could be on this list next season. At this time, we started the receiver position Jalen Waddle. There's no real precedent here, but if you're a fan of the podcast, you know how good I think Jalen Waddle can be and why the Dolphins took him with that six pick in the draft.

As Daniel Jeremiah says, freaky fast with the GPS records to match, and that changes the way defenses have to defend, especially when you've got another one, an accomplished guy, and Will Fuller with similar vertical speed and oh yeah, Jachem Grant Robert Auster, both who have notched sub four three forty yard dash times once upon time in their pro days.

But I digress. That's not the point here. Staying at that position, Lynn Bowden had late season emergence last year, and now he's got the full benefit of a full offseason working with two and the quarterbacks and the rest

of the receivers. And last year they talked a little bit about the offensive staff, how Lynn was getting caught up as he got here in September and and working through some special packages to get him touches, but how he had to really work extra hard to get the base concepts of the offense down because he was a late arrival. Shoot, he was here and we had a game in a week. That's how much time he had

to get acclimated. And he got more and more comfortable as the season went along and produced more and more late in the season. You go to the offensive line, Austin Jackson, Rob Hunt, Solomonckinley. These guys have such rare physical traits in terms of their athletic ability and the power and the pop and the nastiness with which they play. Again the full offseason, shoot, I thought we saw growth from all three of these guys in season. Now you

get the full compliment of the off season. I think it's only reasonable to expect growth from those guys as well. And then one of the guy on the offensive line, Michael Dieter. I think it was like eighteen or twenty two reps in there that he played last year in place of an injured Solomon Kinley on the offensive line, But they were good reps and I think the year of seasoning could be really good for Mike, who I thought looked a little bit stronger and fitter in the

right places back in minicamp last week. On the defensive side of the ball, I think Jalen Phillips is a pretty prominent name on this list if you talk to fans and other writers that cover the sport. But I'm gonna put Adam Butler in here too, even though this is already an accomplished player with a resume in the NFL. I look at how the Dolphins have rebuilt or reconstructed the interior of this defense this offseason. And you've heard me mention this about I don't know twenty five or

fifty five times or so. But the trio of Baker, Bernardrick McKinney, another newcomer, and Adam Butler, they complement each other so well in my opinion, that the stats might not be evenly shared among the three. But the one common goal that y'all care about is shutting down opposing offenses. I think that trio will play a large part in accomplishing that goal because the combo of their size and their speed in that first step explosiveness, all of them

have it. And like I said, it's hard to predict who's gonna get the sacks that hits the hurries. But I think Adam is in a position to really capitalize and be one of those guys we talked about at this time next year in terms of career highs and some key stats in the secondary. I just point to all the young guys. Javon Holland I've made no secret about how much I love his college tape, the ball hawking, the instinctive nature to pull the trigger before the ball

comes out. He comes in and makes plays in condensed areas and lays the wood in short areas and can play deep as well as far as his college tape goes. Brandon Jones, instinctive players, in my experience tend to benefit the most from that year to jump, and my goodness, I love hearing Brandon talk xs and ohs and the

mental side of the game. He damn near jumped a little hook up route in Jacksonville last year to Lavisco Chanal, and my hope is with a year of experience and playing a tenth of a second fast or he can turn that from a completion to not just a pass breakup, but maybe a pick, maybe even a pick six. I also want to mention the sack he had against the Jets and the block against the Cardinals that he had to spring Shacklaws and for that long touchdown when ob

punched it out. Just two plays that show his will, his hustle, and his versatility as he got that sack on the against the Jets in the red zone when the Dolphins were in a zero zero game trying to get off the field of force a field goal in a very important game last December. So good work there from Brandon Jones. And let's go ahead and finish it up here with Noah ig Manogeny as he provides a bit of a segue here to our first media vail to cover from last week. As Byron Jones talked about

the studious nature of this game. He talked about it last season, how he's here with the coaches before everybody else and he's here after with the coaches working on stuff. We talked about the physical stature that he showed in that workout video I talked about a couple of weeks back on the podcast where he's out there shirtless moving around just looks physically built but also quick and in

those awesome shades too. By the way, and Byron as So mentioned his training camp last year, saying he bought out last camp and that matched my notes where he was often in those debrief pieces and talking about how competitive he was going up against Davonte Parker and Preston Williams, guys that have caught big passes in this league on

game days. And then he has a strong O t A this year as well, and the fact that he has the coach and we've talked about I mean Flora's Bowyer Alexander and Burke's talk about being in good hands there.

And I don't want to leave the other rookies off this list because I love this draft class so much so Eikenberg, Long, Coleman, Doakes, the U d f a S will be keeping an eye on those guys for when we revisit this piece next summer, and not to mention the dark horse candidates who will inevitably produce at least a name or two that we just did not see coming, because that is how football works, and that's

what makes it so much fun. Alright. Byron Jones met with the media last week, and I love talking to Byron because he gives you such thoughtful, in depth answers and I also just feel like he has an interesting perspective and approach to the game. One of the things I wanted to ask Byron about was if you walk Chim during games or practice, when he's not on the field or he's not taking reps, he's usually off to the side doing something, whether it's staying loose or working

on technique. It reminds me a lot of myself when I was back to my baseball days, I had a very specific on deck routine where if I wasn't able to get that routine in before and at bat, I wasn't very happy with the results I would get most of the time, so I always always had to be strict to that routine. It kind of reminds me of that because you just see him he's out there doing some side shuffling or just getting some kind of working

to stay loose. He talked about that. He also talked about his mindset of every single season being a reset and how you have to build up from step one and stack the days on top of each other before you get to where your ultimate goal is at the

end of the season. I thought that was a very unique perspective, But his best answer was when I asked him about another theme of media this week where we were talking about playing multiple positions and how that helps you gain a different perspective of seeing the field from

front spots, as coach Flor has talked about. So I asked Byron about his time playing safety in Dallas and now that he's been a cornerback in his last couple of years there in Dallas and now with Miami going into a second season here about how that helped him, and he gave me a fantastic answer. Talking all things football, let's go to Byron. Yeah, Now, it's very valuable. So

for example, that covered two. As a corner, uncovered two, I could be as aggressive as I want at the line of scrimmage because I do have it over the top safety. But there is a weak spot. It's called the honey hoole. And if you're if you've never been a safety, you don't really know how hard it is to get from. You know the numbers all the way

through the sideline and the quarterback those at dark. So as a corner, I I typically carry those honeyhole shots a little bit longer than most corners because I just know what it feels like to be a safety. So, um, just being a guy. I've been in this league for now seven years, I played multipositions. I try to help out my guys as much as I can. I try to take as much stress off the safeties and they

try to do the same for me as a corner. Um, I try to understand where where my help is, so I play you know, certain leverage inside leverage, outside leverage depending on where my help is. And um, you know, you you gained a better appreciation the defenses in its entirety when you actually understand and appreciate each position. Um.

So now it's it's it's invaluable. That's one thing that that's awesome about some of the young guy to be having our team because they're still versatile and they're playing different positions and learning, uh, those different perspectives. So that's gonna be valuable in the future and in this year as well. To kind of cover some of the verbiage there that Byron talks about, the honeyhole if you consider the little gap between where the safety and the underneath

quarterback are in cover. To think about the mac Hollands completion against the Raiders last year where they had the deep safety off in a cornerback underneath who turned mac Hollins free. And that's what Byron is talking about. With carrying that receiver, you kind of carry him further up and then you kind of close back down the flat if someone's in that area once you pass him off to where you say, I can let him get past me now because the safety has enough time to get

over there. And NFL quarterbacks are so good with you know, velocity and putting rip on the football and and seeing things that if you give them that opening, they can find that soft spot in the zone and attack it. So it's cool to hear Byron talk about that. He also discussed, you know, plenty of other content where he you know, he talked about the younger players right there. He talks about Noah Ignogny a bunch and the work habits he sees from Noga Noah and the physical traits

that he showcases. He also talked a little bit about some of his charitable work, you know, the Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee for the Miami Dolphins last year, and it shows with the way he conducts himself as a leader on the football field as well as in the community. We also heard from coach last Thursdays. He was asked about O t A s and the value of getting these mini camps and some of the offseason

programs to help develop camaraderie and team chemistry. Talked about working on techniques and fundamentals on the field, and he said, anytime you can get on the field to work with our coaching staff, or the players can work with our coaching staff and go through these techniques and fundamentals, get them corrected, go out there, do them again and get better at them. I think repetition is always a good thing,

so we're able to get that accomplished. I'm happy with what we did this offseason and hopefully it helps us moving forward into training camp and into preseason games and into the season. He was also asked about his message to players during this dead period as we call it, and he said his message was to go on vacation, to take this time to recharge, get some rest, spend

time with your families, your friends, your loved ones. He talked about having balance in your life, so that was his message to the team, but at the same time, keep yourself in condition and train. And this is me speaking now because that South Florida heat in August and July it is unrelenting, So these guys are gonna have to work on it. Here, I am doing a podcast in my upstairs of my house without central air. We have an a C unit in the window. I'm preparing

for training camp going through the heat down here. Uh. In this podcast studio, Coach also talked about Liam Eichenberg getting his opportunity to get some reps and what he looks like as a player. Talked about Jillen Wildle two, saying from a health standpoint, I think you saw him run yesterday. I'm looking at him run and it looks like he's doing all right from that standpoint, So that was good to hear him confirm that for US. Coach also talked about the center position. We talked about Michael

Dieter earlier in the podcast. He spoke about his flexibility of playing guard, playing center, playing some tackle, and really across the offensive line, talking about being in competition to get playing time this season and how Michael is excited about the opportunity. He also was asked further about Michael Dieter Match Scurrow and Cameron tom three of the interior offensive linemen that have center attached to their position, and he's talked about signing players with the idea that they

will create competition and nobody's gonna be given anything. And he talks about how at all positions that's always the plan to come in, compete, learn the playbook, communicate with your teammates, and will play the best people at whatever position. He also talked about playing the best five guys along the offensive line, and Jesse was asked about being at O T A S at the stage of his career, and he talked about being accountable and just being wherever they need him to be. So I'm not going to

tell them no. I like playing. I like being out there. I like mixing it up with the guys to be out there for O T. S. I thought that was a cool quote from Jesse. He talked about bouncing around positions and having that experience and then passing out along to younger guys to give them the idea of what to expect. How do you play this guy? How do you set this? He said, I like being a teacher for these guys because they've all got to play too,

and a look forward to watching them. He was also asked about being in that leadership role and how not being scared of competition because vets that helped him along the way weren't scared of his competition and he wants to kind of give that back and help these young guys. And that's part of the role to be a leader. You've got to help your team out, he says. And if you're afraid of competition, this is not the place

to be. He spoke about more confidence from his quarterback into a tongue of byloa, how he's seen that, how he's seen great leadership, how he's taking control of the huddle and knows exactly what he's doing. And on that topic, Jesse weighed in on the first day of practice and he said the only way to get better is by failure.

It's just one practice. It was reigning, Jesse said, And I want to finish up here this podcast with Jesse on a comment that he gave me in a response to a question I asked him about playing multiple positions and the things that he can take away from this training camp or from minicamp. Rather without the pads on because coach Flores talked about there's no bull rushes. There's those guys. You can't lean on people and hit them

because we don't have full pads on. So here's Jesse talking about what you can take from this time of year. I think it's a good reminder of what we're looking at to evaluate in June. Practices. Yeah, you know, you're not. It's mostly you know, passes, not a lot of runs, not like fitting up or anything. Um, you know, you're kind of getting your sets. You're getting your handwork, more

technique base, you know, more funnily with that. But um, you know, I'm just trying to get myself to quiet my feet down, keep my hands tight, and I think that everybody does that in Mobilne too, you know, just trying to work the same thing. It's not as easy it sounds, but I mean that's kind of the thing, you know, you go into these camps trying to work. So there's Jesse talking about his workload and as for the workload on this podcast, that is going to be

my time. One last mention here on the podcast, huge huge amounts of respect for Carl Nassi of the Las Vegas Raiders. He announced on social media he came out as the only currently active NFL player to come out as gay in the league. So very very courageous there from Carl Nassip. He also amounts a one thousand dollar donation to a suicide prevention foundation called the Trevor Projects.

So very cool stuff. They're from Carl Nasseb and Happy Pride Month to Carl and everybody out there in the community. All right, go ahead and finish up this podcast here with reminder to subscribe to the podcast on Apple podcast or Google Play, Spotify, wherever you get your podcast from. Go ahead and leave us a rating and leave us a review. You can follow me on Twitter at Winkfleld NFL. You can 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. Until next time, fins up.