Will Fuller's Inclusion And Responding to Adversity

few deep dives. On Deep Dive Wednesday, we're gonna talk about the comeback from the setback, plus will follower us back in the fold how could he impact the team and the offense. And that wraps into our final point about how the offense can help to elevate the defense with better production from the Baptist Health Studios inside the

Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Drivetime Podcast. Roster news to get to here first on this edition of Drive Time, Roderick Johnson was added to the Dolphins practice squad in place of Bobby Hart, who was added recently

to that same practice squad. And Johnson was a fifth round draft pick of the Cleveland Browns back in He's played six hundred and twenty six career snaps over twenty nine in his career, both with the Houston Texans, he allowed twenty eight pressures on four hundred three pass blocking snaps per Pro Football Focus. So some of your roster activity on this week three edition of the Drivetime Podcast. We'll get to some possible roster and starting lineup shake

ups here in just a minute. But we started off Tuesday with a assistant coach media availability, and I had one specific thing that I wanted to discuss with everyone that I could talk to, and it was about the approach to coming back from a tough loss like the

Bill's loss. And to a man, whether it was defensive line coach Austin Clark, cornerbacks coach Charles Burke's, wide receivers coach Josh Grizzard, offensive line coach Lemil John Pierre co offensive coordinator, and running backs coach Eric Studisville, it was all the same to a man, and it's that you have to have the same mentality, the same mindset, the

same even kill temperament. Whether it's a big win, a big loss, a close game, whatever the case may be, players will follow their lead and Charles Burke Burke's I thought said it the best when he said, it's a leader's job to set the tone in the temperament for the rest of his particular room, and in this case, panic creates panics, so we're not gonna sit there in panics.

I thought that was an interesting opportunity to talk to the coaches, and it's not like, you know, we're sitting there and talking to each of them at the same time. I'm going from one coach to the next, and they all had a very similar mindset in terms of how you approach overcoming a tough loss like we had in

week number two against the Bill. So with that, I wanted to go and look at some other setbacks over the last couple of seasons here with Brian Flores and how this team responded, because you know, I've always adopted the purse the philo, the philosophy that the bad game itself is not the story, it's what happens after that, and that's true for good games and winning production as well. And the Dolphins have a chance to prove that that

was not the team they're going to be. But can they do it because you have to just you can't just show up and do it. You have to earn it. Shoot, I'm old enough to remember articles in Week one asking the question is Aaron Rodgers done? I mean, dude through for nine point four yards per attempt on Monday Night with an eight one point five percent completion rate and a touchdown every like six point eight passes, with a passer rating of one forty five point six. So I mean, nope,

he's not done. Not not, not for Aaron Rodgers. But you just don't get to show up again. You have to go out there and prove it. And for Miami that comes this week in Las Vegas, and then we have to prove it again next week against Indianapolis, and then against Tampa Bay and Jacksonville and so on and on and on and on. It's a week to week league. And that's how this team last year was able to come off a Week two lost to the Buffalo Bills. That was a three point game, but if you recall,

Buffalo had seized control late. They were up by ten, going down the field pretty much at will in that second half, and we had a late touchdown and I don't want to call a garbage time because I had a chance for an on site kick to recover that and make it a game. But the Bills were definitely in a softer defense, so they had a ten point

lead late in that game. You know, a game that was after midway through the fourth quarter just about in the books, and that had an impact that I know you all will remember this because we all watched the pregame show when the team's on national TV. But just four days later on the road on a short week in primetime a Thursday night in Jacksonville, the higher panel before that game picked Jacksonville to win the game, and

I think it was rather convincingly too. And the discussion was as Jacksonville playoff team and YadA YadA ya, so on and so forth. We had a one in one team versus now and two team. What's the result of Miami in that game? Then the next week, first the Seahawks lose a very tough game where you had chances to win the red zone. Offense couldn't execute enough to get Seattle in a position where they had to storm and make, you know, put together a comeback late in

that game. But you fall to one in three with again kind of a difficult fourth quarter, and boy, it's a tough hold climb out of it one and three. A lot of pundits will claim that that's kind of a death punch to the season, like you get O and two is the first one. I think Ben Solak from The Ringer, Who's does some of the best work of anybody out there in the football stratosphere, you know, he had a good comment calling it oh and tombstone because only ten percent teams in a sixteen game format

schedule have qualified for the playoffs in the past. I've always argued against that because obviously, if you're a bad team, your chances are starting out oh and two are pretty good. But when a good team starts off oh and two, it's not the same thing. So I have always hated grouping teams together like that in that regard. So I don't think that ten percent applies to everybody, but it is a tough hole to climb out of. And after getting oh and two you win your week three game.

If you go to one and four, it's like the exact same thing. So one and three, oh and two, I guess two and five would be the next step in that type of evaluation. But the whole point is when you're up against the ropes, how do you respond, how do the Dolphins respond last year when they were in that one in three hole, Well, they went into the house of the defending NFC champion San Francisco forty Niners who were getting back Deebo Samuel and George Kittle

and Jimmy Garoppolo for that game seventeen Dolphins win. How about that very difficult loss in Denver without your starting quarterback. The following week, no less three win at the meadow Lands, you get a tough loss at him to Kansas City, where the Chiefs would jump out to a thirty three to thirteen lead and Miami's comeback effort put them in position to get the ball back with two minutes to go in that game and just a six point deficit.

But you know how Mahomes and that offense goes. They're tough to stop in those moments or really in any moment. So even within that game, this team responded. And then to have to come up short and then welcome in the Patriots the following league, whose season was on the line at that point, to get a convincing win off

that tough loss says something about your mental makeup. So just last year alone, coming off lost Dolphins were four and one, and technically, if you include game one of this year with Week seventeen last year, which I don't think really counts, but if you want to go ahead and add it in there for the hell of it, that's five and one, So a chance to make it six and one off of losses since the start of

under Brian Flora's with a win in Las Vegas. But again, you don't just get there, you don't show up and it happens. You have to go out there and make the corrections and execute those corrections, because execution is key for sure, right and coach and the staff will certainly say the ability to execute comes back on them. It starts with Brian Flores and his coaching staff. So a better job from everyone included. So how about some areas that they can clean it up well. Penalties is the

first one that stands out. It was the second highest penalty total in the Brian Flores era. Nine penalties for eighty three yards literally never happened last year. There was only a quarter of the games four of the six team that were even close to that eight for sixty four against Cincinnati, seven for seventy five against Arizona, seven for sixty nine in San Francisco, and five for seventy six in Las Vegas. And wouldn't you know it, all

four of those games were w's. And even though again you have to go out and prove it, history tells us that we can expect that to be something of an anomaly. It was the most penalties and yardage assessed on penalties since Week twelve, nineteen in Cleveland, when the Dolphins were in their first year under Brian Floress with a completely different suster. How about drop passes last year?

Per Pro Football Focus, thirty two drop passes on the season. Obviously, easy math there tells you that's two per game Sunday more than double that five drops in that game. And we've already covered a few times the significance of a couple of those drops, possible points on the board with some of those and a fumble to No Less right around the fourth and goal, fourth inches inside the five yard And I should say, how about fourth down success? Right?

They were over four on Sunday their average in twenty Did you know this? I didn't. I forgot about this. They were eight for ten on fourth down last year in nineteen it was forty six thirty eight. So tendencies, history, all this stuff is instructive. So here's getting back to those basics, your fundamentals, your techniques, your alignment, your assignment, the Brian Flores message. This is the week to really

hone in on that message. Then there's something else that we get back this week that I think could provide a nice shot in the arm for an offense. It's off to a slow start. Obviously, thirty second points scored right now is Will Fuller's returned to the lineup. Now, Granted, we'll see how quickly he can get up to full capacity and full speed. And by that I mean the workload you've seen with Davante Parker and Jalen Waddle as

your primary snaptakers at receiver. But first I wanted to go back and look at success rate by package, and man, the resources we have today with statistics is so good, like so so so so good. You know, I think it's a fedor with Safari flaps. It's so good. Inside joke for you guys. Eleven personnel from Miami success right, that has to get better, and it's the primary package. Sixty eight plays out of that package, only less than

a third of them have been successful. What that means is how you cut down your yards to go on first down. If you gain five yards, successful play because you cut the distance in half. Second down, if it's second and eight, you gotta get four yards for a successful play. Cut the distance in half. Third down converting is how you consider a successful play. Twelve personnel. That's one tight end, two running backs, sorry, one running back

to tight ends, and two receivers. Fifty percent success right on thirty eight plays. That's pretty good that you can win with that. And then with third team personnel just five plays ran eight percent success, twenty one personnel, just four plays ran fifty percent success. And then twenty two is two backs, two tight ends. They ran three plays out of that and had zero successful plays in terms of cutting the distance of the yards to go in half.

So back to the eleven personnel package, your primary offensive package for just about every team in the National Football League, unless you're the Patriots with your two tight ends with Hunter Henry and John Smith or your forty Niners who who still run a fullback out there. The majority of the time, eleven personnel is primarily every team's primary package, and that's where I think Miami can make up the most ground. And wouldn't you know it, that's where will

Fuller has traditionally made his biggest impact. Going back to just last year at the Houston Texans, they had a fifty one percent success rate and eleven personnel when Fuller was in the lineup, and this is one of the best offenses in the NFL last year. So fifty percent success rate, it's not like overwhelming, but it's a good number. When he was down the last few weeks of the season, it dropped like a very significant drop in success rate from the time Will Fuller was there to the time

he's not. And I think his inclusion gives you a couple of things. Again, when he's full go, it gives you the ability to separate quickly, which is so beneficial in the scheme in the system that is predicated on pre snap motion and shifts and getting guys free releases. And his release game is exceptional. He puts corners and immediate conflicts just by the nature of his game and what he can do with every route being in the

roll decks for what he can run. And we saw Buffalo squatting on a lot of what looked like to us first read, you know, coming off r p O. We talked about that first play of the game, the sack. There's two defenders bracketing Parker inside and outside and Fuller. Get just gives the defense another speedster like a Wattle, but also a technician to contend with. Like you have to account for the deep speed, you have to account for the ability to break in, to go out the

two way go of the screen game. He can just do it all. I think the ability opens up some options with route combinations to the same side of the field because you've seen some one route stuff and then you get you have to get to the backside once that's taken away, and that really kind of is tough to do when you have the RPO and guys possibly blocking down field or a quick set up passing game where you want to cut or chip or just try to create two seconds of time for the quarterback to

throwback there. And we've seen, you know, the option to to get two men routes on the same side of the field can confuse the coverage. It can possibly pull linebackers out of the possible rush zones if you can beat them and replace those those spots with the football and just a quick aside, real quick, you know. Peyton Manning talked about this on the Peyton an Eli pod uh Not podcast on the broadcast, and by the way, that thing could revolutionize the way we watch football games.

I think that's the best. That's the pinnacle of sports programming. If you ask me, I'm mad that I let this idea become a thing without making it known that I had that idea several years ago. Talked about it last week on the podcast. The Seattle Mariners did a player's awnly broadcast like three years ago, So it wasn't my idea. I mean, I took it from the Mariners, but I had it before football, did I think that? You know, it was like Mike Blowers and j Bunr and like

Dan Wilson talking. You know, there was no play by play guys, so there was no and it comes from mirror. Is a two two pitch off the plate outside three in two, it's a full count. It was just like, oh, nasty slider there. He snapped that thing off. Hey, when you were pitching, how did you get to your breaking pitches? On the late in account like they it was all about the analysis of the game, and I was like, that's brilliant. It's like a podcast during a broadcast, which

is I think the future of sports broadcasting. But back to the point Peyton said when Jared Goff that even though he's a smart, studious quarterback, it's just not gonna be second nature that quickly in a new system to get to your second or third read like to know in the back of your mind, Okay, if it's not there to the right, I know, I come back to this landmark in this position against this coverage, against this leverage to the left, and he's gonna be there. I

know where the ball has to be to make this play. Ha. But he said that that starts to happen or did happen for him in your number two in a new system, And he was saying that lines, fans and golf need patients in Detroit because as he gets comfortable in that system, he'll only get better. And that's obviously applicable to every single quarterback in the history of the world. And this is a new offensive system here, so something to keep

in mind. Back to will real quick he provides conflict at the line, and again we know this offense utilizes motion. They've got crossers and the ability to go quick and stretch the defense horizontally and create spacing that way. I really think that Will's inclusion allows the Dolphins to kind of mirror some of the stuff on the other side with he and Wattle and that speed and ability to quickly separate again four point six yards of separation last

week for a waddle, very very very good. Average can only help dictate coverage either on one side of the field or both sides. And if you have that take the top off the defense type of speed on either side, then the defense has to chew used to contend with one or both, And if it's both, then that can open up the run game, which also opens up further options in the R P O game. So we'll see

how quickly he can get acclimated. But a lot of stuff we talked about on this podcast this offseason with regards to the ability to be explosive and create constant conflict for the defense and open up stuff for the run game and other parts of the offense based upon what you do well. That conversation was had with the thought of both Wattle and Fuller in the lineup on the field together. So I can't wait to see that.

That's how I think this offense can really get back to being successful and being explosive to help this team win games. And one way they can do that is to help the defense out. And just real quick, here some cumulative defensive success rates against eleven personnel so far the season. Check this out. Miami was what we say thirty. Let's go back up, which is low right. Defensively, success like Miami's defense is shutting down the top personnel package

so far. Right now of the opposition of choice and doing lynd didn't run it as much, but Buffalo that was their primary package, a choice in Miami did a good job against it, twelve personnel package. That's again you're winning football right there. Against a Patriot team a week one that ran primarily twelve personnel package, just thirty five of their snaps were out of that package. So again, defensively, you're winning a down on a downbind down basis at

a better than average rate like significantly. And I think these are very encouraging numbers going forward because if the offense can find their rhythm and put more pressure on opposing offenses like for instance, the mac Jones Patriots plan was as effective as it was for them. And look, I think holding a team to six team points, regardless of how you do it is a win regard like doesn't matter if you hold somebody's sixteen points, you won defensively that day. But they were able to stay with

that plan because the scoreboard allowed them to. And if the offense could have put more pressure on the New England offense, maybe they have to start making more taking more chances. And we've seen what this defense can do when the opposing offense takes those chances real quick. Back to Peyton Eli Peyton talked about this against the Lions, how they always start off and too high, and next gen stats can verify that one of their defensive snaps

start off and too high. Now they disguised their coverage that way and they rotate off of that and just real quick for the lesson of the day, too high. It refers to your safeties, and safeties will tell you what the coverage is going to do most of the time, like if unless they have a good disguise on which a lot of dcs do. But the safeties take you

to where you want to go. That's why myself and everybody that watches film and watches a lot of football complains when the broadcast doesn't show you the safeties on the screen, because it tells you everything most things that you need to get a read on what's gonna happen next. So they play out of too high every snap, and they rotate off of that. But Aaron Rodgers, to Peyton's point, essentially had to stay patient to take the things the defense was giving him, which was the run game and

the checkdowns. And you find your backs and your tight ends in the passing game, right, And sure enough, Aaron Jones six grabs forty eight yards, Robert Tonyan three for fifty three, and Rogers only throws five in complations on the night on twenty seven past attempts. Again, just twenty seven past attempts tells you how efficient they were in

both areas of being balanced on offense. But you see, the key in rhyming today is to stay patient because you'll eventually get your chances to attack and to be vertical. And I think two of those in completions from Rogers not mistaken. One for sure, we're deep shots, and I remember he had atoms with a step and a half on the outside and the ball was just out of reach. And the reason I remember that was because Peyton was like, oh, you missed him. Like I love watching Peyton react to

the quarterbacks. He only cares about the offense. He wants him to succeed every single play. But that was the only in complation on the day to Davante Adams. He threw another dimeond right after that, right before and I can't remember, and it goes for a big completion. Adams winds up with eight catches on nine targets for a twenty one yards. You stay patient and you take your chances where you can. That's the kind of efficiency you

can have. So all of this is to say that the offense can help the defense by being more efficient lim the oppositions chances, requiring them to be more aggressive based upon the scoreboard, and then this defense I think can really take off. Look at the big wins last year. What happened. We scored early in those games. Jacksonville fourteen

ZIP three takeaways in that game. San Francisco fourteen ZIP three takeaways again, Jets the first time ZIP to start that game two takeaways, but three sacks and two for seventeen on third down. Rams game seven four takeaways, Second Jets game thirteen to three, start two takeaways on third down. So you get these leads. This defense can really turn the screws when they're playing with that lead, and getting back to that will really prove beneficial to this team.

And my thought is that will Fullor's return can help them get on track as they continue to get more experience and continuity within this offense. So that to me is my upshot, my reason for optimism. Possible lineup changes and the inclusion of will Fuller, and of course we'll see who's at order back on Sunday, so personnel changes. Defensively, that's a little more week to week in terms of deployment. I think you can see the take off when the offense gets going a little bit too, So no real

suggestions there. Defensively, I just think keep doing what you're doing and the other side can take care of you as far as offense and defense goes, and get that complimentary brand of football back on track like this Dolphins team enjoys so far through the first two plus seasons of Brian Flores. All Right Shorter Podcast that's gonna be my time. We're gonna have the game preview coming your way tomorrow and some more video content, both in terms

of the snippet the preview trailer. I'm also on Dolphins Today every single Friday on YouTube. Will check that out breaking down the game coming up that particular week. We'll have John con Gemmy on for Friday show to give him the last word and answer some of your questions on the Twitter mail bag. We'll get back into the pics and the weekend in college football, which, by the way, after an O and three start in college and nine and seven in the NFL in week one, we stormed

right back baby three and O in college. Last week twelve and four in the league. That's what we're talking about. Plenty of content to come your way. But in the meantime, Caroline Daddy is coming home you all. Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcast. Leave us a rating, leave us a review. You can follow me on Twitter at Wingfield NFL. You can follow the team

at Miami Dolphins. The Fish Tank has a new episode up of Anthony Harris, check those guys outside and o J YouTube dot Com, Miami Dolphins channel for all the media availabilities and of course Miami Dolphins dot com until next time depends up