May 21, 2025 • 49 mins
With the 2025 schedule now out, Lee and Simon take a week-by-week look at each game and pick out some key storylines from each. With the "Rivalries" uniforms being introduced for the first time, they speculate what these might look like and when we could see them. Plus there’s talk on plans being made for the International Series game in Madrid
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's up Dolphins? This is Travis Winfield and you're listening
to the Dolphin UK podcasts.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Well, hello and welcome back to the Dolphin UK podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
We are back for another week. We've got some exciting
stuff to talk about this week, including the schedule release,
some news and some other bits. But to start off with,
let me introduce my co host Simon sy How are
you doing very well?
Speaker 4 (00:56):
Thank you? They always glad to be back, of course,
and you're right, we've got some stuff to talk about.
But now the schedule is out and we can start
making plans, especially for the trips to like placely like Madrid,
can't we wear where A lot of people, myself included
and you to a certain extent, also started to make
plans for that game all the way in the future
in November. Now now we have have had it confirmed.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Travel plans are being made and i'd say by a
lot of people. You can see in the UK groups,
especially on Facebook and on x you're on Instagram, the
amount of people asking how do I go around getting titics?
Where should I sit, where should I stay, what's the
best airline to fly? It's all going around. There's a
lot of people doing exactly the same thing. So it's
(01:40):
great to see that excitement at this time of year. Yeah, definitely.
I was definitely caught up in it on that day
the schedule was released, looking at all the little tidbits
that were coming out about all the schedules, not just Dolphins,
but obviously the main focus on our Miami Dolphins.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
Yeah, it's interesting. I don't know whether you've seen on
our Instagram account, I was having a chat with a
Spanish fan and even he's asking us what is the
best way to get tickets? And he lives in Madrid,
so you can see where there's going to be tons
of that sort of thing, especially in a city that
is not hosted in an NFL game before. And the
role is keen as aren't they to source however many
(02:18):
tickets as they can?
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Absolutely And again Dolphins leading the way with international games,
being the first to play their regular season game here
in the UK and the first game in Frankfurt, and
it wasn't the first of Germany, but the first thing
Frankfurt and the the first in Madrid. They definitely like
to lead the way when it comes to that, and
I something we should be grateful for. Grateful for as fans,
because it gives us a lot of opportunities. Not all
(02:40):
the fan bases get. You know, We've had multiple opportunities
to see the team play here. A trip to Madrid
is definitely not off the cards for a lot of people.
It can be a much more doable trip than heading
all the way to Miami. And also it can just
be a weekend trip, whereas that Miami trip for a
weekend is is a long one. But we'll talk more
about that.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
Yeah, our trip to Madrid is very much on the
cards for me Lee because I'm going there next week
at the time of recording, so I'll be able to
scout as many places as possible with a nod to
trying to find activities to do in November. So I've
got a tour book of the Bernabout Stadium on Wednesday
afternoon because I'm free, and I'm sure i'll check out
(03:21):
the hard Rock Cafe as well at some point, So
lots of things planned for It's a work trip, interestingly,
so I do have to go there and it won't
be a complete jolly, but I will be keeping half
an ale and stuff with a view to a long
weekend in November.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
In Madrid, and I think you were just getting so
impatient about ticket information you were going there to asking yourselves.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
Yeah, calling in the real Madrid box office to see
if they've got any news, But.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Do you put any news on tickets? But we do
also have some news to talk about, so so I
do you want to kick us off with a little
bit of news before we get into breaking down everything
we know about the schedule. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
I think on the back of the schedule at least
there were rumors coming out of what color the Dolphins
rivalry's uniform was going to be this season. I don't
for those of you that don't know, every year and
this year is the turn of the AFC East and
one other division I think I can't remember which, but
we get the opportunity to wear a new style uniform
twice a season against a follow divisional opponent at home.
(04:19):
So obviously we can wear this rivalri's uniform against the Jets,
the Bills, or the Patriots. And the rumors have been
coming out on social media that Week four against the
Jets will feature a black styled Miami Dolphins uniform, and
there have been some concepts mocked up on social media,
and I don't know if you've seen those, but they
(04:40):
look pretty awesome. A Dolphins team wearing all black with
a hint of aqua, sometimes a hint of pink as
well to depict the Miami Vice type theme. But I
think a black styled uniform for the Dolphins is going
to look pretty cool. And of course the schedule release
maybe dropped a hint as well that Sorry, the schedule
(05:01):
release video that the Dolphins put out was very much
geared towards away from their standard uniform colors, and it
was almost like a neon or a luminous dolphin, wasn't
it against a very dark colored background themed set. So
maybe a hint on what the uniform will look like?
Maybe not. We shall find out in due course. We
(05:22):
don't know anything, but it's nice to speculate, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Yeah, it's fun, and I gotta say, I really enjoy
seeing the different concepts and the artwork that people go
out there. It's this is exciting. I've done a couple
of my own in talking in a couple of groups.
I was always a fan of the orange jersey, not
the color rush jersey, but the old what's the one again?
(05:46):
The last logo the last you know, serious logo change
and on from the dolphin and a helmet on the
orange that they wore then, and it was a very bright,
strong orange. I like that, did a concept of that myself.
It's that's fun, I like. But yeah, it's excited, isn't it?
Waiting for news? And it was interesting, Like you say,
there's a lot of rumors. And I saw the media
picked up and mentioned about the schedule release video. But
(06:09):
I think the key eyed of you out there, I
would have noticed that that same logo was also used
during the draft and the graphics for the draft picks.
So if that is hints that it has been going
on a little bit longer than even the schedule release.
So very interested to see how it turns out.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
Good spot, that actually very good spot, but just not
continuing that theme. If they do where the rival's uniform
against the Jets in week four, you would assume that
they're probably not going to wear it in week two
against New England. Otherwise that would have been the focus
of the first rivalry's uniform game, and so let's assume
they're not going to be wearing it against New England
(06:45):
week two. It probably means they are going to be
wearing it if they choose to play against the Bills
in Week ten, which they'll be wearing a black uniform
in the midday sun with a one pm kickoff, where traditionally,
of course is like to wear white for practical reasons
in that weather and that heat. But they may choose
to wear black, So that'll been interesting development if that
(07:08):
actually happens.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Yes, absolutely would be talking about uniforms. I don't know
when the last time we spoke about it was, But
for all the listeners out there, what's your favorite uniform?
Hang on, this is a two part question, really, what
do you prefer to see the team play in? Which
one do you prefer for yourself?
Speaker 4 (07:27):
I like the throwbacks. The aqua colored throwbacks are my
all time favorite, and I like them when they wear
all aqua as well, as they have done a few times,
and they've mostly worn those in primetime games.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
At nine again, but.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
Those all aquas are my absolute all time favorite favorite.
I do like the white throwbacks, which they wore at
Green Bay Away last year. They're a second favorite. So
I know there's been a lot of clamor on social
media to make those the permanent uniforms of the team,
and if they were made permanent, I for one wouldn't
complain about that, but I understand the reasons why they're
(08:01):
not doing that right now. Who knows whether it will
happen in the future, But yeah, I do love those throwbacks.
What about you, lie, what are your favorites?
Speaker 3 (08:11):
I said the white women the white throwback is my favorite.
I really like the old style logo as well. I
like the current logo, and I actually like the current
uniforms a lot. I think it must have been five
or six years ago now they made that subtle change
to remove the blue from around the numbers on the
current uniforms and made the orange a little bit deeper,
and I think that was a really great move. I
(08:32):
think it's a really clean look. I do like the
current uniforms a lot as well. I've got to be
honest with white uniforms are my favorite, both the current
and a throwback.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
I think if the rivalry's uniform is available to buy,
I'll be buying the black jersey for sure. And an
all black kit would just make them look so mean,
wouldn't it.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
It would be me It'd be interesting, wouldn't it, Especially
as you mentioned there. You know, a popular one is
the vice color mocks. The Miami Heat have obviously done
that successfully. They had a long stint with They did
a white version, they did a black version, of the
blue version, of the pink version, they did a half
and half version. And now the Miami Marlins also playing
(09:16):
in a in a black with blue and pink Miami
Vice style uniforms for this season after having changed their
city connect from a red uniform. So it's an interesting
one again, gives us something exciting to look forward to
before the season.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
Yeah, and don't forget into Miami have done the same
as well, with their regular uniforms being pink and black
and their alternate uniforms being a nod to the Dolphins
with them being aquath So there's a lot of kind
of cross collaboration, isn't there between uniform colors. Absolutely, Or
maybe they'd go with a Heat style red as their
(09:52):
uniform with a black trim. Wouldn't that would look cool
as well, wouldn't it?
Speaker 3 (09:56):
Again? You know, I know it talks about the rivalries
and I'm going to bring up a different point about
it in a second, but there's also the connection to
the city and like you say, the heat playing red.
Also the Florida Panthers playing in red. So there's some
interesting ties there that you can go down. I don't know.
(10:20):
The funny we mentioned the schedule release video and the
kind of a very electric, bluish kind of logo that
was used. Hard to describe in an audio format when
I really need to see what we're talking about, but
that was very similar to the color of Florida. Sorry,
the Marlins used to wear when they were the Florida Marlins,
(10:41):
who obviously played a Dolphin Stadium and Joe Robie Stadium
and essentially a hard rock until they moved into their
own board barg many years ago. Now, yeah, one more
question for you. So if you have to go off
the wall something different, so you haven't seen what color
you go.
Speaker 4 (11:01):
So you're saying we can't go for aqua or white
or black because they've already.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Been we've seen. We've seen the orange one as well,
do you know what I mean? I know many years
ago there was a blue one with white and orange numbers,
and believe they wore that in a game. Could be
wrong on that, but it was definitely for sale. So yeah,
what what would you do if it was something's let's
(11:26):
add fuel to the fire by by speculating on someone
that we haven't seen yet.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
Yes, so that rules out black, orange, aqua white, and
any essentially any blue or green color because it would
be too similar to aqua. So you've got to be
looking at something a bit different. And I mentioned just before,
how about if they replicated the Miami heat red date.
It's a deep, dark colored red, isn't it if they blood? Yeah,
(11:54):
and if they wore all of that that color, that
would that would look quite cool. I think don't know
whether the helmets would need to change color that's literally
have it completely red from head to toe. But the
concept of a deep dark, Miami heat colored red would
be interesting.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
What about you?
Speaker 4 (12:12):
What what would you go for?
Speaker 3 (12:14):
I was actually looking at some of the charity work
the dolphins do and their connections to the community, and
I was toying with the idea of what would it
look like if they would have a purple uniform. You know,
there's a lot of charity work that they do and
it's it's kind of centered around that purple color. I
just thought it might be an interesting because well, again,
something completely off the off the color planet. But we
(12:35):
digress from where we started.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
You need to look over your left shoulderly are you
talking about that careful?
Speaker 3 (12:41):
A little bit deeper than that, but yes, very much.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
Yeah, another alternative would be a white top, red pant,
white pants with red sox. I think that wouldn't be
looking pretty cool because it replicates for its Premier League kit,
so I'd be happy with that.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Amazing. So yeah, we look to that announcement. But really
what we're all going to talk about and really dive
into is the schedule. So let's kick it off by
first of all talking about pre season games, because we
can skip over these pretty quickly, but we're going to
let you know what they are. The Dolphins will visit
the Chicago Bears, and then they will visit the Detroit Lions,
and then they will be at home to the Jacksonville
(13:19):
Jaguars in the preseason. And there's no dates or times
on those yet we know that comes out a lot
later on some different opponents. There from usual because often
you'll play against Tampa. Often you're playing against Atlanta, but
you see them on the schedule. This year, they've chose
not to play against them. Now I know in the
past they have still played against them in the preseason
even though they played them in the regular season. Then
(13:39):
they did that with the Orlando Falcons. But that takes
us on to the regular season. Let's do this week
by week. So hey, let's kick off with the opening
week in season. Where do our Miami Dolphins play Week one?
Speaker 4 (13:55):
So they kick off on September the seventh away at
Indianapolis with a one pm kickoff, And the first thing
that sprung to mind for me for this particular game
was that that is the first game the Indianapolis Colts
are going to be playing with potentially a new quarterback
i e. Daniel Jones, or are they or are they
(14:15):
going to go with Anthony Richardson. So there is a
question mark over who is going to be the starting
quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts week one. Presumably they're going
to have a quarterback competition in camp, so it remains
to be seen who emerges as the winner of that competition. Now,
if it's Anthony Jones, then they're sorry. If it's Anthony Richardson, yeah,
(14:38):
If it's Anthony Richardson, then they're going to be facing
a known commodity having played against him last season and
unfortunately they lost that game. Or are they going to
be playing Daniel Jones, who is effectively going to be
in a new offense for the first time. There are
opportunities there, I think to take advantage and get off
to a winning start that week one.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
It's an interesting one, isn't it. Do you think when
we're talking quarterback competitions, we always assume that it's kind
of in the negative because you don't have a starting
quarterback and also you're then splitting time and you're splitting
reps throughout the preseason, throughout training cap Do you think
there is any chance that it can also be a
benefit in regards to it means these two guys have
(15:19):
been playing competitive football because they're playing against each other,
and they probably playing more preseason time then they might
otherwise if they were just the starting quarterback. So are
they perhaps a little bit more game ready by week
one or is that not concern?
Speaker 4 (15:34):
Yeah, it could be a concern because if one of
the two players is an obvious starter, it means he's
performed well in training camp and in games and has
gone a bit of momentum. So there is a slight
concern there, But there is no substitute for a Week
one of the NFL compared to preseason, so it has
its prosen as its cuns, I think absolutely.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
And the Colts have a new defensive coordinator and they're
changing quite a bit on the back end of their
days as well. And the Dolphins head into that game
with hopefully an offense wide receivers that they know, quarterback
her no system. There could be an opportunity to take
some advantage. It should be a tough matchup. I thought.
The only real negative to this was you're getting a
(16:19):
Dome team Week one, when you wouldn't have mind have
seen that maybe a little bit later in the Sea.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
Yeah, but on the plus side, they are the cults
are going to be facing. You would have thought a
fully fit Dolphins offense, whereas they didn't last year and
the game was still close last season. This year you're
going to have to probably play There's going to be
a numerous new players on the offensive line, You've got
new players in the receiving corps, so all things being equal,
(16:48):
you'd have thought the Dolphins would be in a good
spot to win that one on opening Day.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
Absolutely a great chance, and that would give them some
momentum hiding into a week two the opening home game
of the season on one o'clock kickoff on Sunday and
fourteenth against the divisional rival New England Patriots. So what
are your thoughts on this one?
Speaker 4 (17:07):
First thought? One pm September at home. That was the
first thought I had, and it's the only one, unfortunately,
that we have at that time in September. You always
one of the first things you look for is how
many home games in September do the Dolphins have. Now,
they do have two home games, Unfortunately, only one of
those is in that South Florida heat and New England
(17:27):
are coming into Miami with a new coach, a new scheme.
They're going to have extra a bit of a better
supporting cast than they did last year. However, it's going
to be early in the season for them, so given
the fact that it is a new coaching staff with
a new scheme, then may not be in an early
season rhythm. So again, it's an opportunity for the Dolphins
(17:49):
to catch New England a little bit cold and before
they get used to how things work in that system.
So you'd like to think, again, all things being equal,
the Patriots have spent a lot of money in free agency,
so those players will be still settling into their roles
and their new team. So again, the Dolphins should look
to take advantage of that matchup. We know it's not
(18:10):
going to be easy because we were there for that
Jags opening day last year and saw how difficult it
was to overcome a team that you should be looking
to be on paper, and they pulled it out in
the end, but it was difficult. So not taking anything
for granted, but it's certainly a matchup the Dolphins should win,
I think.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
So. I mean, they can't really be a better time
to get a team that's going through so much change,
and I think they've actually made some really good decisions
there and it could be a much different prospect when
we face them later in the year. But I think
it's definitely good to have them at home week two
of the season when things could still be being put
in place for them because it's it's a long process
doing certain new coaching staff and a new you a
(18:50):
full new regime. So an interesting mind. But that does
bring us on to our first prime time game of
the season. So who do we have next?
Speaker 4 (18:58):
By flow Away Football eight to fifteen kickoff on September
the eighteenth, our first and many primetime games, and I
was just grateful that this one has not been scheduled
for late in the season in December. I mean, it
is a cold weather city, but it's not half going
to be as half as cold as it would have
been later in the season. So kind of glad that
(19:18):
this game is going to be They're going to be
getting it out the way early, and whatever the outcome
of this game, excuse me, it's not going to be
a true reflection of necessarily where the teams are at
the end of the season. So win, lose, or draw,
It's just another game at that stage of the season,
with not too many implications in terms of the positioning
(19:39):
of the AFC. Is because it comes so early, so
a good time to play Buffalo away, I think.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
To overcome a loss. If you would take a loss there,
if you were to win that game, it also gives
you tremendous momentum, especially on a short week. It's a
tough assignment on a short week to on the road,
but maybe that's better earlier in the season rather than
after you've played many consecutive weeks of games and then
(20:09):
doing the short the short trip. We will see that
later on in the schedule, but that short week leads
us to a nice break for before another prime time
game where we come home to hard Rock Stadium to
take on the New York Jets on Monday the twenty ninth,
and that'll obviously be a late kickoff. It's actually a
(20:29):
seven fifth down as a seven to fifteen kickoff, and
I think I should have tricked the rest of the schedule.
Is this when ESPN still have double Monday night games,
so it's the earlier of the kickoff, which is great
for us here in the UK. A little bit now,
it's still better.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
Yeah, absolutely, I mean that's the only reason you will
have a seven to fifteen pm kickoff from Monday night
football game. And you mentioned it earlier. Buffalo. He is
playing Buffalo away and a short week is not ideal.
But conversely, it does mean they almost get a mini
by leading into that Jets game, and in fact, they
get an extra day than they would normally because they're
playing on Monday night football, So a good opportunity to
(21:08):
rest and not maybe rest is the wrong word that
early in the season, but it's a good opportunity to
recharge and get ready for that rivalry game that we
talked about earlier. No, I'm quite pleased that one's Monday
Night Football on the twenty ninth, because this morning, at
the time of recordingly I managed to get Oasis tickets
for Wembley on the twenty eighth the day before, knowing
(21:29):
that the Dolphins didn't have a game that particular day
and I wasn't going to miss it. So I was
quite quite pleased about that one.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
That has worked out incredibly well. Yes. Also, I mean again,
three weeks in a row. Here you're playing divisional opponents.
It sounds like a tough task. Also, as we mentioned,
you're taking on New England early, taking on Buffalo early,
which is good. Were taken on the New York Jets
(21:56):
with a new quarterback in the new coaching staff as well.
Relatively in the season. It's four weeks and they should
be getting their stuff together. But as we know, and
this is the danger when you look at schedules this early,
people will assume that everyone is a team they were
last year, and we know how often that is not
the case. In the l It might be for the
two or three teams at the very top, but there's
(22:17):
a lot of movement with the teams underneath them, so
interested to see the Jets could be the Jets of
the last few years and already in trouble, or they
could be turning a corner. Be an interesting matchup and
come with four?
Speaker 4 (22:28):
Should we switch up?
Speaker 3 (22:29):
He?
Speaker 4 (22:29):
Should I go through the next four?
Speaker 3 (22:31):
And absolutely, you take us to the next kind of
quarter of the season, let's called it. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (22:36):
So week five into October and the Dolphins run the
road again, and they travel that relatively short distance in
the whole scheme of things to Carolina, which is the
start of three away games in four weeks. What do
you think of that Carolina matchup?
Speaker 3 (22:51):
Again? Carolina seemed to turn a bit of a corner,
didn't they the end of last year? They did. They
really started playing some good games and they caused some
playoff teams some trouble down the stretch. Even though Caroline
season may have been done, there was some really interesting
match I've had a lot of fun watching them. I
think it's playing the Bucks one weekend where they calls
them a lot of travel. So, yeah, an interesting matchup.
(23:15):
Butler the two former Alabama quarterbacks in Carolina. Not too
bad early kickoff, but again you do have to take
into account the short week. It's kind of a day short,
coming off a Monday night game and being on the
road again on the short week. So an interesting one,
but again again that you think Dolphins would stand a
(23:36):
good Johnson.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
I mentioned about the relatively short trip to Carolina in
terms of travel. Now I do want to talk about
travel in more general details at the end of the
look at the schedule, Lisa, remind me to go back
to that one because I've got some interesting thoughts around
the travel and just how much travel the Dolphins are
making this season, which leads us nicely onto Week six, October,
the twelfth, Dolphins back home Todd Rock Stadium to face
(24:01):
the LA Charges with another one pm kickoff, which also
coincides with Fang Club Weekend as well this year. So
all fang clubs from around the US and around the
world gather every year on an annual basis to attend
Fang Club Weekend. We experienced that ourselves, didn't we leave
a couple of years ago, and it's a great event.
There's lots laid on for the different fan clubs, and
(24:21):
that game has been ear marked this year as Fang
Club Weekend.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
Yeah, I wouldn't mind being at that game. It's rightly
my birthday as well. Maybe maybe time to play another trip.
But yeah, I mean Charges is always a huge match
up for the Dolphins, so isn't it. Because tour and
her being taken so close together, it's always going to
be a talking point. They're always going to be linked.
(24:46):
Jim Harbor being there as well, obviously a huge favorite
of Stephen Ross's with the Michigan Ties as well, So yeah,
that should be a great matchup on paper. I'm actually
a little bit surprised of all the preseason games that that,
you know, I wonder if that was under consideration as well,
because that seems like a really good matchup.
Speaker 4 (25:09):
And of course it's a West Coast team traveling to
the East Coast for an early kickoff, which always proves
to be difficult for that West Coast team to adjust.
I'm surprised that game hasn't been scheduled for four pm
to accommodate the West Coast time. So look forward to
another good performance and again on paper, whilst difficult because
the Charges are much improved, that's a game the Dolphins
(25:31):
should be looking to win again. That makes us lead
into week seven, where they face another trip to the
Cleveland Browns, who they faced last year. The question with
here is we're into week seven. Will the Cleveland Browns
have identified their starting quarterback by week seven? Because they've
got so many on their roster these days, is there
(25:52):
going to be a click cut number one by that point?
Speaker 3 (25:54):
Do you think I mean to be fair? By the
time they playoffs, they could have the freshest quarterbacks in
the league because they just played one game each. They
can take what we might see the start of their
second game and each by the time they get to
playing us in week seven. That is an insane quarterback
room at the moment. And I don't say insane in
a good way. I am glad that's not our team
that has that issue right now, because that on paper
(26:15):
looks to be a mess. You know how hard it
is when teams have two quarterbacks going, and you know,
we spoke about a little bit earlier with Indianapolis and
a quarterback battle. It's always interesting. We've seen it here
in the past. How do you do it when you're
going between four or five guys? How did you split
those ropes evenly, because how do you split them evenly
(26:35):
enough to give each fair representation. The only quarterback I'd
say doesn't need it is obviously Joe Flacco. You know
what you're getting with Joe Flacco. You trust him, and
he's probably run your system as well as anyone in
the last half many years, so you know you can
probably take him out of the equations, say that he's
the safest guy on the roster in regards to he
knows how to play football. But yeah, so obviously makes
(26:57):
it a very interesting matchup. It into there's no way
this states to predict who you could possibly be playing
or what states actually the Brown's team might be in.
Speaker 4 (27:06):
So Week eight sees our first back to back double
header of away games with a trip to Atlanta, another
one pm kickoff, another Dome game, so one again one
you would hope to have seen later in the season.
But Atlanta, of course they're going to have another left
handed quarterback, so we battle of the left handers with
Tour against Michael Pennix in that one.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
Yesterday is the first the left handed quarterback duel in
in quite the number of years I can remember how
many is now I'm going have to have to find
that out. But yeah, that will be a be an
interesting one for the fans. Fans have lifted, but again,
short trip, I'm not having to go too far dome game,
so whether it's not a problem, should be an interesting
match up, but again one that doesn't terrify you on paper.
Speaker 4 (27:51):
Right, that leads us into a nice run of games,
the perhaps the meatiest part of the schedule. Going to
talk us through that one, aren't you the next the
next four or five weeks?
Speaker 3 (28:00):
Absolutely so, let's kick off on October thirty. If after
the Atlantic Falcons are going into a short week for
prime time against the Baltimore Ravens. But this is at
hard Rock Stadium, So what do you think about this?
I have my own personal fears about the Baltimore Ravens.
It's just I've seen too many bad defeats and i
(28:21):
think I've got some unresolved issues with it.
Speaker 4 (28:24):
It's the first game of what looks to be the
most difficult part of the schedule the next three weeks,
with trips with games against Buffalo and Washington to come,
which we'll talk about in a moment, But that could
be the start of a pivotal moment of the Dolphins season,
I think, And the fact is that they played the
Baltimore Ravens in primetime a year or two back and
(28:46):
managed to squeak out a win. That was where Tour
came off the bench to replace Jacoby Brissett I think
it was, and lead them to a comeback win, which
was a great performance. It's in primetime at home, so
we know the danger the Ravens pose and they're going
to be no different that game, so it should be
a good matchup. But it's important the Dolphins put in
(29:06):
a good performance to lead them onto the next couple
of games. Like I said, it's probably their most difficult
part of the schedule. Thankfully they're all the games at home.
But the thing that stood out to me was another
short week against another elite opponent, same way as Buffalo
is on a short week, so is Baltimore.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
Interestingly, you get Buffalo on a short week earlier in
the season, the return leg of their fixture. And I
only say that I saw someone mentioned that they don't
like English people saying the word fixture when it comes
to NFL games, So we'll throw we'll throw that in
there just for fun. You get the Buffalo Bills with
a couple of days extra rest. This time. After that
(29:49):
Thursday night game, we get Buffalo at home at one
o'clock on a Sunday.
Speaker 4 (29:55):
And that's the one we talked about earlier where potentially
it might be another rivalries game if they choose to
where those black units units. So it'd be interesting to
see how the Dolphins react to wearing dark unis in
that one pm heat, And of course it does mark
every turn of the Buffalo Bills playing at one pm
in Miami, and they haven't done that for a few years,
(30:17):
have they since that twenty one to nineteen games where
the hard rock sun was the brunt of a lot
of fans complaints from on the Buffalo side. So it's
good to see the Bills have been and putting that
one PM slot. I know it's not September early in
the season, but it is still going to be hot,
and it is.
Speaker 3 (30:34):
It's still going to be much hotter than Buffalo. But
it's an interesting one, isn't it because it kind of
almost appeases both teams because the Dolphins don't have to
go up there and play in the cold. They don't
really have to come here and play in like you say,
in the high heat of September, so it kind of
feels like the levels of playing fields slightly. You get
them on a longer week here, you've got them on
(30:55):
a shorter week at the beginning of the season. Again,
it all kind of becomes a bit of a wash.
So hopefully you just see good matchups, best team wins
be interesting the implications of that when we get there
when it comes to November the ninth. But that leads
us into maybe the most exciting matchup on the schedule,
as we've already spoken about. Now it's only the sixteenth
(31:17):
November when our Miami Dolphins traveled to Madrid to take
on the Washington Commanders. What is a nine to thirty
am kickoff in the US, and after much debate, is
a two thirty kickoff here in the UK.
Speaker 4 (31:31):
Yeah, and of course three point thirty in Madrid local
time as well. So it should be a good matchup,
really good opponent to face off. Of course, Jade and
Daniels quarterback of the Commanders against Tour It's going to
be a really good matchup. Both teams have got high
powered offense, so hopefully for the Madrid faithful it'll be
a bit of a shootout and a good introduction to
the NFL as far as Madrid are concerned, and hopefully
(31:54):
it will set a precedent for any games that will
be subsequently played in Madrid, whoever the teams are. Hopefully
that will be good advert for American football in Spain
and in Madrid. And the Bernabaus are seventy er capacity stadium.
It's been refurbished recently as well, so I believe it
now has a roof. It didn't before. It had a
(32:15):
sort of semi open covered roof, but now I believe
that it's fully covered roof. So hopefully the Spanish heat
won't affect the players too much. Although having said that,
the Dolphins players will be used to playing in the
heat and maybe the Commanders won't be, so maybe it's
an opportunity to use that heat again to under the
Dolphins advantage. But either way, we want to see as
(32:38):
many Dolphins fans there as possible, don't we. Of course,
lead With it being a home game, tickets are going
to be in high demand for that. We've already got
some potential routes into tickets, haven't we, through the fan
club or obviously through Ticketmaster as well the general sales period,
so hopefully well we'll be there and alongside many other
Dolphins fans, fans from Spain, in the UK and and
around Europe.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
Absolutely always exciting, always difficult, but we hope to get tickets.
One way or the other. We will find a way
to get tickets and will be at that game in Madrid.
Very excited about that, Excited to see a new stadium,
new city. And I say, I think it's I think
it's great that the Dolphins are willing to be the
first team to go to some of these places. And
having spoke with some of the some of the personnel,
you know there was a lot of work going on
(33:20):
behind the scenes for the Frankfurt game. You don't hear about.
All of a sudden, there's a game when the teams
turn up and everything goes off without hitch, and you know,
you realize there was was an officer and spaces made
big because they could't accommodate NFL things and it's all
those little things and Dolphins are willing to take that
that risk, can be that team to go there. I
think it's something you know to be proud of and
(33:41):
saying that, you know, we're very lucky to be able
to take advantage of.
Speaker 4 (33:45):
Yeah, I said earlier, I've got a stadium tool book
for the Bernabout, so I'm going to take as many
pictures as I can just and share on social media,
just so they get an insight as to what the
Bernabout looks inside and out. I don't know where in
the stadium will be allowed to go because I think
there is still some ongoing refurbishment there, but the stadium
tour is on, so any any good pictures, especially of
the inside of the arena, I've certainly taken share on
(34:08):
social media. Okay, So moving on after the Washington game,
we have of course got a buy and the Dolphins
yet again returned to hard Rock Stadium in a couple
of weeks after that game to face the New Orleans Saints,
another one pm kickoff. So it does mean that the Dolphins,
(34:28):
in theory have got four home games in a row
and a bye. And what do you make of that
Saints Gamely nice one to come back to.
Speaker 3 (34:39):
Yeah, a nice one to come back to at home,
So no travel that week as well, which is also
also great to have. Really, I think it definitely can
be looked at as an advantage back in one pm slot,
kind of back in the comfort zone, I would say,
after a long trip, hopefully after and win on the road.
Speaker 4 (35:00):
Okay, that leads us into our first genuine cold weather
game then in December with a trip to the New
York Jets, which is our first away game in six weeks,
another one pm kickoff. You can see a pattern here
with the kickoff times, which I'll go into in due course.
But again, it's getting into the business end of the
season now, isn't it. The Dolphins face this tricky trip
to New York and we don't know what they're going
to be like in real terms right now, but we'll
(35:21):
have a better idea when we play them in December.
How they are on the field.
Speaker 3 (35:26):
Absolutely, Again, you know, a lot to be learned about
the New York Jets. I think the important thing here,
as you mentioned, it could be a cold weather game,
definitely going to be better at one o'clock if it's cold,
no matter what. You know, the later the day it's
obviosly gonna get cold. So you know, I think take
that as a positive before we head back into some
primetime fixtures.
Speaker 4 (35:45):
Yeah, that leads us into week fifteen December. The fifteenth,
they traveled to Pittsburgh on a Monday night. I think
that one is it a Monday night?
Speaker 3 (35:51):
One is Monday night.
Speaker 4 (35:52):
So again back to back away trips for only the
second time this season, another cold weather game at Pittsburgh away.
They are always in tension for the playoffs, they always
have a winning season, so that one is going to
be a really tricky one, isn't itly one that if
the Dolphins can manage to escape with the result, that
is going to be huge at that that time of
the season.
Speaker 3 (36:12):
Yeah, it could be a massive game by the time
you get to this part of the season and really
a tricky little stretch of the season. Maybe here the
next couple of weeks that you say Pittsburgh on the
road probably be cold on a Monday night, technically a
short week before your second back to back prime time
game of the season where you face the Cincinnati Bengals
on Sunday night football. So although it's still on a Sunday,
(36:34):
which is good, so you kind of don't only lose
the one day it's still on the big stage, but
it is this one does occur at hard Rock Stadium,
which is obviously in the Dolphins.
Speaker 4 (36:43):
Flavor, and two of versus Burrow of course, very similar
to Justin Herbert of the Charges. They're always going to
be compared, aren't they, And this is an opportunity for
Tour to come out on top on prime prime time.
It's a crucial part of the season, isn't it to
face the Bengals who have got most likely and improved
roster this year, so they will probably be in playoff
contention alongside hopefully the Dolphins as well, so that one
(37:06):
could be a key game there to determine what route,
if any, that both teams are going to take in
the playoffs.
Speaker 3 (37:13):
Absolutely the ultimate week of the season, twenty eighth December,
another one pm currently scheduled one pm Sunday kickoff against
the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Obviously no real weather advantage there.
I know there is a little difference in weather between Miami,
but obviously far less than some of these other opponents.
(37:33):
But I think you've got to like a one pm
game at home. If you're going to be good, you're
gonna have to win win home games. So you know,
we know the Dolphins are much much better. One o'clock
Sunday team than than they've been in Bryan time o
the last few years. So that's a trend. They had
to Buck this year. You're going to like that. But yeah,
(37:53):
but here you get the Dolphins, you know, here you
get Tabora, who have been a good team over the
last few years, one one that division, been to the
playoff and won a couple of playoff games as well,
So a tough opponent. Baker Mayfield has really kind of
reservated himself there with the Buccaneers and play some really
good football. You know, Mike Evans will have a thousand
yard receiving because it's guaranteed he does it every single year,
(38:16):
so he'll be around that mark by the time of
yet to this time of the year. So again, a
tough matchup before you hit on the road for the
last week of the season.
Speaker 4 (38:25):
So yeah, just going back to that Bucks game, the
Buccaneers are generally part of a weak division in the NFL,
which means that come the end of the season, most
of the teams in that division are still in contention,
and I don't see any reasons why the Buccaneers won't
be in that conversation. So it's going to be they've
got they're most likely going to have something to play
for at the end of the season. So it's very
(38:45):
reminiscent of the game against Tennessee a couple of years ago,
where the Dolphins were heading down home stretch and you
look at the schedule and think, that's again the Dolphins
is going to win to get in the playoffs, and
this one is very similar to that with the home
advantage business end of the season. As I said, that
is a game the Dolphins are probably going to have
to get a result in if they're going to want
(39:06):
to carry some sort of momentum towards the playoffs. And
then last game of the season is you sale away at
New England and the third consecutive cold weather game in
December not ideal, but you have to play those cold
weather games at some point. They can't all be early
in the season. Some are going to have to be
at the end of the season when those divisional matchups
(39:27):
take place. Time yet to be determined, of course, so
we don't know yet whether that's going to be early
or late. But I did find it interestingly that they're
not finishing the season with back to back divisional games
this year, they've got just that one in Week eighteen,
rather than having the Bills and the Jets in focus
in week sixteen and seventeen. I did find that quite interesting.
Speaker 3 (39:48):
Yeah, that's kind of a quirk of getting divisional opponents
three weeks in the road to kind of essentially kick
off the season weeks two, three, four, so there's not
too many version matchups left. I think you'd had them,
I mean, two bunches. It would would definitely have made
for some interesting play. Like you said, that game could
be on the Saturday or a Sunday. That's a true
(40:09):
flex spot we know when it comes to the end
of the season. I actually think New England could be
really interesting team by then. I think was a really
good coach and I think that there's no better spot
for him to be coaching than New England. I think,
you know, I think the time of kind of just
run its course in Tennessee. They couldn't get over the hunt.
They were kind of resetting, so I can see why
(40:30):
they you know, they parted ways, but at the same time,
things a great pick up for New England. They should
be able to bed everything in by them, so that
could be a really spicy matchup come the last week
of the season.
Speaker 4 (40:41):
I do want to talk about travel lee. I mentioned
it earlier, and I've done some research around the number
of miles that each team travel and I know we
talked about it in depth last year when we talked
about the schedule, and I've been looking at the same
distances this year, and interestingly, the Dolphins are traveling the
eighth most mileage in the NFL. They're traveling twenty four
(41:04):
four hundred and nine miles in total this year, which is,
as I say, the eighth most, and given the fact
that all of their away games are in the Eastern
time zone, the fact that they're traveling the eighth most
is purely down to that long trip to Madrid and back,
which is eighty eight hundred and two miles exactly for
(41:25):
those that are interested. So you take those eighty eight
hundred miles off the calculation and they actually ranked twenty
third in total mileage travels traveled, which is pretty good
I think, considering they don't have any short road trips
from South Florida. Being so far south, they're going to
(41:45):
have to fly a few hundred miles from each for
each away trip. And back, and interestingly in as well,
they're only flying across twelve different times for the whole season,
and those time zones, those twelve time zones are crossed
in one trip to Madrid, so in all of their
(42:08):
other fixtures for the remaining part of the season, they're
not crossing any time zones. Now they take off Madrid,
their shortest trip away is to Atlanta, so hence why
they still have a significant number to travel even with
all of their opponents based in the Eastern time zone.
(42:31):
You compare that to somebody like the Buffalo Bills, who
are traveling the second least with ten thousand, five hundred
miles this season, and they've been helped by the fact
they're playing a lot of teams that are geographically grouped nearby,
like New England and Patriots, Steelers, Browns, Falcons and Panthers.
(42:52):
They're all relatively grouped relatively close. So the Bills have
only ten and a half thousand miles. And I just
think it's interesting. We talked about it in depth last year.
Does the amount of Marley travel have an impact on
the performance of your team now? In terms If the
answer is yes to that question and we don't know
for sure, because we're not medical professionals. We don't know
(43:12):
the ins and outs on told traveled, how much it
tolls on somebody's body. But if you said to me
all of their IRA games would be in the Eastern
time zone, then you'd you'd have taken that, wouldn't you.
There's no apart from Madrid, there's no cross country trips whatsoever.
Speaker 3 (43:29):
Absolutely, Yeah, you prefer it to be in these sometimes,
and we know they've generally performed well and that's the case.
And you know last year you get a team like
San Francisco coming in, that game gets moved into the
second window, the nine o'clock half nine start here, and
you know it kind of evens it out somewhat. So yeah,
you've got to think that's an advantage. What did you
think of the schedule overall? Now? I know I said
(43:51):
earlier and I do preface this by saying, no one
knows what all these teams are going to be like,
and there is going to be a lot of change,
a lot of movements. But what were your first thoughts
when you saw it is scary schedule?
Speaker 4 (44:01):
No, not really. I think last year we identified a
couple of blocks of the schedule which really looked really
hard on paper, and looking at first glance of the schedule,
you wouldn't say there is an equivalent block. This year,
we mentioned the home stretch against Baltimore Buffalo in Washington,
which is arguably the most difficult portion of the schedule,
but they're all at home, so maybe the difficulty is
(44:22):
cantede counted out by home field advantage, but generally looking
at that travel is kept to a minimum. Bar Madrid, there
are only two occasions where there's back to back away games.
We go a period of six weeks where there's no
travel apart from Madrid, so they're all home games. So
there's a lot of things in favor of this particular schedule.
They don't finish off with Buffalo at the back end
(44:45):
of the schedule like they have done the last few years.
That obviously has to be a plus because they've not
been able to overcome Buffalo on those occasions. So a
lot of positives to look at the schedule, and they've
got to play each and every ponent anyway, regardless whether wherever,
the whether whatever the week. So but overall it's the
one that looks fairly decent. You look at the early
part of the schedule. As we talked about, there is
(45:06):
a strong possibility, if everything falls correctly, that the Dolphins
will start five and one. If they play to their potential,
they're certainly winnable games, the one exception, of course, being Buffalo,
And I think we chatted off air, didn't we before
we started recording they were a record setting kick or
a mistake made by on a tackle that whether the
Dolphins could easily have won that last year. So so,
(45:29):
lots lots of things. What are your thoughts lea around
the schedule?
Speaker 3 (45:34):
Permise to start with about the number of primetime games,
and I think I Travis mentioned that it was the
most home and primetime games in the team's history in
regards to being in one season. But yeah, I was
intrigued because I think if you read the national media,
don't have you feeling down about things, well, the NFL
schedule makers should have you feeling the complete opposite, because
(45:55):
we know how much the networks put into it. We know,
you know, they don't have sight, but they know they
can request matchups and things in the schedule. And the
Dolphins are in six prime time games if you include
Madrid five, if you just talk about purely night games.
For instance. They're obviously a team in demand, and I
(46:15):
think that that has to speak of hopefully some confidence
in what they will be come the end of the season.
I personally likes primetime games. You know that. I know
that it's a bugger for the UK fans, all those
late games. I just love it. I love the pageantry
of primetime NFL games. I think it's it's great. So yeah,
(46:38):
be very very interested. I never feel scared about schedule
looking at it at this part of you. I just
think there's so there's too many unknowns and it's it's
too easy to get get carried away. I spake to
you off air zon you know, ask at schedule and
it's very easy to get carried away. But you know,
I'm going to predict wins for every week, so so
I look forward to that late on you.
Speaker 4 (47:00):
Ye, you're right, it's easy to get carried away because
we're only thinking about their opponents how they were last year.
We don't know how they're going to be this year.
But just touching on the trip to Madrid, please, they've
got a week off after that long trip, and they
haven't gotten away trip before Madrid, so they're going to
be at home, so it's not like they're going to
be on the road a lot prior to traveling to
Madrid either. So they've got Buffalo at home and so
(47:20):
they will be local before they make that long trip
to Washington. It'll be interesting to see what their plans
are for traveling over to Madrid, whether the team are
going to go and spend a week over there, given
the fact that it's a new territory, new climate that
they've not planned in before, or so they need to adjust,
or whether they're going to do what they've done before
(47:41):
and fly in and fly out really quickly. So I'm
sure plans will become known in due course. I've be
interested to know what they've got planned for that.
Speaker 3 (47:50):
Absolutely definitely interesting to see what coach McDaniel does. Obviously,
playing the Chiefs in Fronkfurt was his first international game
was a head coach, be interested to see his approach
changes this time. Like you said, we've seen coaches do
it all manner of ways. New England used to like
to come in and get out. We've seen teams that
(48:12):
like to spend the entire week and results very from
them and.
Speaker 4 (48:17):
Let's hope we can win an International series game for
a change. Le We've only ever won one of these,
haven't we against the Raiders several several years back now, and.
Speaker 3 (48:25):
It was a great performance.
Speaker 4 (48:29):
It was actually, Yeah, I was quite pleased because with
my dad that day, and he was a Raiders fan,
so I was trying very hard not to kind of
rub it in his face a little bit, to be
quite gracious in victory there because I knew he was
absolutely gutted, so I didn't want to rub it too
much in his face. But we are due to win overseas.
We've lost to the Jags, the Saints, the Jets, Giants,
(48:50):
who else have we played the Chiefs of course in
Frankfurt so amongst others. So we ar due a performance.
We are due a win. It'd be nice to kick
off the Spanish series of games with a victory over Washington.
Speaker 3 (49:02):
M hm. So touched on everything I think we have. Yeah,
So that being said, don't forget to follow us on
social media across all the channels. It's Dolphin UK podcast.
You will had to find us everywhere. Check out the
Dolphins social channels as well to stay up to date
(49:22):
with the latest news, hopefully some Jersey news soon. Check
out Travis and the Drive Time podcast. He's still putting
out amazing content. It's amazing the work he puts in
behind the scenes to get those podcasts out. But I
must say I do enjoy having one in the morning
for my drive to work, and obviously Seth an oj
and a fish Tank podcast. But until next time thins up,
(49:42):
we'll Susie
What's up Dolphins? This is Travis Winfield and you're listening
to the Dolphin UK podcasts.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Well, hello and welcome back to the Dolphin UK podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
We are back for another week. We've got some exciting
stuff to talk about this week, including the schedule release,
some news and some other bits. But to start off with,
let me introduce my co host Simon sy How are
you doing very well?
Speaker 4 (00:56):
Thank you? They always glad to be back, of course,
and you're right, we've got some stuff to talk about.
But now the schedule is out and we can start
making plans, especially for the trips to like placely like Madrid,
can't we wear where A lot of people, myself included
and you to a certain extent, also started to make
plans for that game all the way in the future
in November. Now now we have have had it confirmed.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Travel plans are being made and i'd say by a
lot of people. You can see in the UK groups,
especially on Facebook and on x you're on Instagram, the
amount of people asking how do I go around getting titics?
Where should I sit, where should I stay, what's the
best airline to fly? It's all going around. There's a
lot of people doing exactly the same thing. So it's
(01:40):
great to see that excitement at this time of year. Yeah, definitely.
I was definitely caught up in it on that day
the schedule was released, looking at all the little tidbits
that were coming out about all the schedules, not just Dolphins,
but obviously the main focus on our Miami Dolphins.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
Yeah, it's interesting. I don't know whether you've seen on
our Instagram account, I was having a chat with a
Spanish fan and even he's asking us what is the
best way to get tickets? And he lives in Madrid,
so you can see where there's going to be tons
of that sort of thing, especially in a city that
is not hosted in an NFL game before. And the
role is keen as aren't they to source however many
(02:18):
tickets as they can?
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Absolutely And again Dolphins leading the way with international games,
being the first to play their regular season game here
in the UK and the first game in Frankfurt, and
it wasn't the first of Germany, but the first thing
Frankfurt and the the first in Madrid. They definitely like
to lead the way when it comes to that, and
I something we should be grateful for. Grateful for as fans,
because it gives us a lot of opportunities. Not all
(02:40):
the fan bases get. You know, We've had multiple opportunities
to see the team play here. A trip to Madrid
is definitely not off the cards for a lot of people.
It can be a much more doable trip than heading
all the way to Miami. And also it can just
be a weekend trip, whereas that Miami trip for a
weekend is is a long one. But we'll talk more
about that.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
Yeah, our trip to Madrid is very much on the
cards for me Lee because I'm going there next week
at the time of recording, so I'll be able to
scout as many places as possible with a nod to
trying to find activities to do in November. So I've
got a tour book of the Bernabout Stadium on Wednesday
afternoon because I'm free, and I'm sure i'll check out
(03:21):
the hard Rock Cafe as well at some point, So
lots of things planned for It's a work trip, interestingly,
so I do have to go there and it won't
be a complete jolly, but I will be keeping half
an ale and stuff with a view to a long
weekend in November.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
In Madrid, and I think you were just getting so
impatient about ticket information you were going there to asking yourselves.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
Yeah, calling in the real Madrid box office to see
if they've got any news, But.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Do you put any news on tickets? But we do
also have some news to talk about, so so I
do you want to kick us off with a little
bit of news before we get into breaking down everything
we know about the schedule. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
I think on the back of the schedule at least
there were rumors coming out of what color the Dolphins
rivalry's uniform was going to be this season. I don't
for those of you that don't know, every year and
this year is the turn of the AFC East and
one other division I think I can't remember which, but
we get the opportunity to wear a new style uniform
twice a season against a follow divisional opponent at home.
(04:19):
So obviously we can wear this rivalri's uniform against the Jets,
the Bills, or the Patriots. And the rumors have been
coming out on social media that Week four against the
Jets will feature a black styled Miami Dolphins uniform, and
there have been some concepts mocked up on social media,
and I don't know if you've seen those, but they
(04:40):
look pretty awesome. A Dolphins team wearing all black with
a hint of aqua, sometimes a hint of pink as
well to depict the Miami Vice type theme. But I
think a black styled uniform for the Dolphins is going
to look pretty cool. And of course the schedule release
maybe dropped a hint as well that Sorry, the schedule
(05:01):
release video that the Dolphins put out was very much
geared towards away from their standard uniform colors, and it
was almost like a neon or a luminous dolphin, wasn't
it against a very dark colored background themed set. So
maybe a hint on what the uniform will look like?
Maybe not. We shall find out in due course. We
(05:22):
don't know anything, but it's nice to speculate, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Yeah, it's fun, and I gotta say, I really enjoy
seeing the different concepts and the artwork that people go
out there. It's this is exciting. I've done a couple
of my own in talking in a couple of groups.
I was always a fan of the orange jersey, not
the color rush jersey, but the old what's the one again?
(05:46):
The last logo the last you know, serious logo change
and on from the dolphin and a helmet on the
orange that they wore then, and it was a very bright,
strong orange. I like that, did a concept of that myself.
It's that's fun, I like. But yeah, it's excited, isn't it?
Waiting for news? And it was interesting, Like you say,
there's a lot of rumors. And I saw the media
picked up and mentioned about the schedule release video. But
(06:09):
I think the key eyed of you out there, I
would have noticed that that same logo was also used
during the draft and the graphics for the draft picks.
So if that is hints that it has been going
on a little bit longer than even the schedule release.
So very interested to see how it turns out.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
Good spot, that actually very good spot, but just not
continuing that theme. If they do where the rival's uniform
against the Jets in week four, you would assume that
they're probably not going to wear it in week two
against New England. Otherwise that would have been the focus
of the first rivalry's uniform game, and so let's assume
they're not going to be wearing it against New England
(06:45):
week two. It probably means they are going to be
wearing it if they choose to play against the Bills
in Week ten, which they'll be wearing a black uniform
in the midday sun with a one pm kickoff, where traditionally,
of course is like to wear white for practical reasons
in that weather and that heat. But they may choose
to wear black, So that'll been interesting development if that
(07:08):
actually happens.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Yes, absolutely would be talking about uniforms. I don't know
when the last time we spoke about it was, But
for all the listeners out there, what's your favorite uniform?
Hang on, this is a two part question, really, what
do you prefer to see the team play in? Which
one do you prefer for yourself?
Speaker 4 (07:27):
I like the throwbacks. The aqua colored throwbacks are my
all time favorite, and I like them when they wear
all aqua as well, as they have done a few times,
and they've mostly worn those in primetime games.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
At nine again, but.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
Those all aquas are my absolute all time favorite favorite.
I do like the white throwbacks, which they wore at
Green Bay Away last year. They're a second favorite. So
I know there's been a lot of clamor on social
media to make those the permanent uniforms of the team,
and if they were made permanent, I for one wouldn't
complain about that, but I understand the reasons why they're
(08:01):
not doing that right now. Who knows whether it will
happen in the future, But yeah, I do love those throwbacks.
What about you, lie, what are your favorites?
Speaker 3 (08:11):
I said the white women the white throwback is my favorite.
I really like the old style logo as well. I
like the current logo, and I actually like the current
uniforms a lot. I think it must have been five
or six years ago now they made that subtle change
to remove the blue from around the numbers on the
current uniforms and made the orange a little bit deeper,
and I think that was a really great move. I
(08:32):
think it's a really clean look. I do like the
current uniforms a lot as well. I've got to be
honest with white uniforms are my favorite, both the current
and a throwback.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
I think if the rivalry's uniform is available to buy,
I'll be buying the black jersey for sure. And an
all black kit would just make them look so mean,
wouldn't it.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
It would be me It'd be interesting, wouldn't it, Especially
as you mentioned there. You know, a popular one is
the vice color mocks. The Miami Heat have obviously done
that successfully. They had a long stint with They did
a white version, they did a black version, of the
blue version, of the pink version, they did a half
and half version. And now the Miami Marlins also playing
(09:16):
in a in a black with blue and pink Miami
Vice style uniforms for this season after having changed their
city connect from a red uniform. So it's an interesting
one again, gives us something exciting to look forward to
before the season.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
Yeah, and don't forget into Miami have done the same
as well, with their regular uniforms being pink and black
and their alternate uniforms being a nod to the Dolphins
with them being aquath So there's a lot of kind
of cross collaboration, isn't there between uniform colors. Absolutely, Or
maybe they'd go with a Heat style red as their
(09:52):
uniform with a black trim. Wouldn't that would look cool
as well, wouldn't it?
Speaker 3 (09:56):
Again? You know, I know it talks about the rivalries
and I'm going to bring up a different point about
it in a second, but there's also the connection to
the city and like you say, the heat playing red.
Also the Florida Panthers playing in red. So there's some
interesting ties there that you can go down. I don't know.
(10:20):
The funny we mentioned the schedule release video and the
kind of a very electric, bluish kind of logo that
was used. Hard to describe in an audio format when
I really need to see what we're talking about, but
that was very similar to the color of Florida. Sorry,
the Marlins used to wear when they were the Florida Marlins,
(10:41):
who obviously played a Dolphin Stadium and Joe Robie Stadium
and essentially a hard rock until they moved into their
own board barg many years ago. Now, yeah, one more
question for you. So if you have to go off
the wall something different, so you haven't seen what color
you go.
Speaker 4 (11:01):
So you're saying we can't go for aqua or white
or black because they've already.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Been we've seen. We've seen the orange one as well,
do you know what I mean? I know many years
ago there was a blue one with white and orange numbers,
and believe they wore that in a game. Could be
wrong on that, but it was definitely for sale. So yeah,
what what would you do if it was something's let's
(11:26):
add fuel to the fire by by speculating on someone
that we haven't seen yet.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
Yes, so that rules out black, orange, aqua white, and
any essentially any blue or green color because it would
be too similar to aqua. So you've got to be
looking at something a bit different. And I mentioned just before,
how about if they replicated the Miami heat red date.
It's a deep, dark colored red, isn't it if they blood? Yeah,
(11:54):
and if they wore all of that that color, that
would that would look quite cool. I think don't know
whether the helmets would need to change color that's literally
have it completely red from head to toe. But the
concept of a deep dark, Miami heat colored red would
be interesting.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
What about you?
Speaker 4 (12:12):
What what would you go for?
Speaker 3 (12:14):
I was actually looking at some of the charity work
the dolphins do and their connections to the community, and
I was toying with the idea of what would it
look like if they would have a purple uniform. You know,
there's a lot of charity work that they do and
it's it's kind of centered around that purple color. I
just thought it might be an interesting because well, again,
something completely off the off the color planet. But we
(12:35):
digress from where we started.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
You need to look over your left shoulderly are you
talking about that careful?
Speaker 3 (12:41):
A little bit deeper than that, but yes, very much.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
Yeah, another alternative would be a white top, red pant,
white pants with red sox. I think that wouldn't be
looking pretty cool because it replicates for its Premier League kit,
so I'd be happy with that.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Amazing. So yeah, we look to that announcement. But really
what we're all going to talk about and really dive
into is the schedule. So let's kick it off by
first of all talking about pre season games, because we
can skip over these pretty quickly, but we're going to
let you know what they are. The Dolphins will visit
the Chicago Bears, and then they will visit the Detroit Lions,
and then they will be at home to the Jacksonville
(13:19):
Jaguars in the preseason. And there's no dates or times
on those yet we know that comes out a lot
later on some different opponents. There from usual because often
you'll play against Tampa. Often you're playing against Atlanta, but
you see them on the schedule. This year, they've chose
not to play against them. Now I know in the
past they have still played against them in the preseason
even though they played them in the regular season. Then
(13:39):
they did that with the Orlando Falcons. But that takes
us on to the regular season. Let's do this week
by week. So hey, let's kick off with the opening
week in season. Where do our Miami Dolphins play Week one?
Speaker 4 (13:55):
So they kick off on September the seventh away at
Indianapolis with a one pm kickoff, And the first thing
that sprung to mind for me for this particular game
was that that is the first game the Indianapolis Colts
are going to be playing with potentially a new quarterback
i e. Daniel Jones, or are they or are they
(14:15):
going to go with Anthony Richardson. So there is a
question mark over who is going to be the starting
quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts week one. Presumably they're going
to have a quarterback competition in camp, so it remains
to be seen who emerges as the winner of that competition. Now,
if it's Anthony Jones, then they're sorry. If it's Anthony Richardson, yeah,
(14:38):
If it's Anthony Richardson, then they're going to be facing
a known commodity having played against him last season and
unfortunately they lost that game. Or are they going to
be playing Daniel Jones, who is effectively going to be
in a new offense for the first time. There are
opportunities there, I think to take advantage and get off
to a winning start that week one.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
It's an interesting one, isn't it. Do you think when
we're talking quarterback competitions, we always assume that it's kind
of in the negative because you don't have a starting
quarterback and also you're then splitting time and you're splitting
reps throughout the preseason, throughout training cap Do you think
there is any chance that it can also be a
benefit in regards to it means these two guys have
(15:19):
been playing competitive football because they're playing against each other,
and they probably playing more preseason time then they might
otherwise if they were just the starting quarterback. So are
they perhaps a little bit more game ready by week
one or is that not concern?
Speaker 4 (15:34):
Yeah, it could be a concern because if one of
the two players is an obvious starter, it means he's
performed well in training camp and in games and has
gone a bit of momentum. So there is a slight
concern there, But there is no substitute for a Week
one of the NFL compared to preseason, so it has
its prosen as its cuns, I think absolutely.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
And the Colts have a new defensive coordinator and they're
changing quite a bit on the back end of their
days as well. And the Dolphins head into that game
with hopefully an offense wide receivers that they know, quarterback
her no system. There could be an opportunity to take
some advantage. It should be a tough matchup. I thought.
The only real negative to this was you're getting a
(16:19):
Dome team Week one, when you wouldn't have mind have
seen that maybe a little bit later in the Sea.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
Yeah, but on the plus side, they are the cults
are going to be facing. You would have thought a
fully fit Dolphins offense, whereas they didn't last year and
the game was still close last season. This year you're
going to have to probably play There's going to be
a numerous new players on the offensive line, You've got
new players in the receiving corps, so all things being equal,
(16:48):
you'd have thought the Dolphins would be in a good
spot to win that one on opening Day.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
Absolutely a great chance, and that would give them some
momentum hiding into a week two the opening home game
of the season on one o'clock kickoff on Sunday and
fourteenth against the divisional rival New England Patriots. So what
are your thoughts on this one?
Speaker 4 (17:07):
First thought? One pm September at home. That was the
first thought I had, and it's the only one, unfortunately,
that we have at that time in September. You always
one of the first things you look for is how
many home games in September do the Dolphins have. Now,
they do have two home games, Unfortunately, only one of
those is in that South Florida heat and New England
(17:27):
are coming into Miami with a new coach, a new scheme.
They're going to have extra a bit of a better
supporting cast than they did last year. However, it's going
to be early in the season for them, so given
the fact that it is a new coaching staff with
a new scheme, then may not be in an early
season rhythm. So again, it's an opportunity for the Dolphins
(17:49):
to catch New England a little bit cold and before
they get used to how things work in that system.
So you'd like to think, again, all things being equal,
the Patriots have spent a lot of money in free agency,
so those players will be still settling into their roles
and their new team. So again, the Dolphins should look
to take advantage of that matchup. We know it's not
(18:10):
going to be easy because we were there for that
Jags opening day last year and saw how difficult it
was to overcome a team that you should be looking
to be on paper, and they pulled it out in
the end, but it was difficult. So not taking anything
for granted, but it's certainly a matchup the Dolphins should win,
I think.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
So. I mean, they can't really be a better time
to get a team that's going through so much change,
and I think they've actually made some really good decisions
there and it could be a much different prospect when
we face them later in the year. But I think
it's definitely good to have them at home week two
of the season when things could still be being put
in place for them because it's it's a long process
doing certain new coaching staff and a new you a
(18:50):
full new regime. So an interesting mind. But that does
bring us on to our first prime time game of
the season. So who do we have next?
Speaker 4 (18:58):
By flow Away Football eight to fifteen kickoff on September
the eighteenth, our first and many primetime games, and I
was just grateful that this one has not been scheduled
for late in the season in December. I mean, it
is a cold weather city, but it's not half going
to be as half as cold as it would have
been later in the season. So kind of glad that
(19:18):
this game is going to be They're going to be
getting it out the way early, and whatever the outcome
of this game, excuse me, it's not going to be
a true reflection of necessarily where the teams are at
the end of the season. So win, lose, or draw,
It's just another game at that stage of the season,
with not too many implications in terms of the positioning
(19:39):
of the AFC. Is because it comes so early, so
a good time to play Buffalo away, I think.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
To overcome a loss. If you would take a loss there,
if you were to win that game, it also gives
you tremendous momentum, especially on a short week. It's a
tough assignment on a short week to on the road,
but maybe that's better earlier in the season rather than
after you've played many consecutive weeks of games and then
(20:09):
doing the short the short trip. We will see that
later on in the schedule, but that short week leads
us to a nice break for before another prime time
game where we come home to hard Rock Stadium to
take on the New York Jets on Monday the twenty ninth,
and that'll obviously be a late kickoff. It's actually a
(20:29):
seven fifth down as a seven to fifteen kickoff, and
I think I should have tricked the rest of the schedule.
Is this when ESPN still have double Monday night games,
so it's the earlier of the kickoff, which is great
for us here in the UK. A little bit now,
it's still better.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
Yeah, absolutely, I mean that's the only reason you will
have a seven to fifteen pm kickoff from Monday night
football game. And you mentioned it earlier. Buffalo. He is
playing Buffalo away and a short week is not ideal.
But conversely, it does mean they almost get a mini
by leading into that Jets game, and in fact, they
get an extra day than they would normally because they're
playing on Monday night football, So a good opportunity to
(21:08):
rest and not maybe rest is the wrong word that
early in the season, but it's a good opportunity to
recharge and get ready for that rivalry game that we
talked about earlier. No, I'm quite pleased that one's Monday
Night Football on the twenty ninth, because this morning, at
the time of recordingly I managed to get Oasis tickets
for Wembley on the twenty eighth the day before, knowing
(21:29):
that the Dolphins didn't have a game that particular day
and I wasn't going to miss it. So I was
quite quite pleased about that one.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
That has worked out incredibly well. Yes. Also, I mean again,
three weeks in a row. Here you're playing divisional opponents.
It sounds like a tough task. Also, as we mentioned,
you're taking on New England early, taking on Buffalo early,
which is good. Were taken on the New York Jets
(21:56):
with a new quarterback in the new coaching staff as well.
Relatively in the season. It's four weeks and they should
be getting their stuff together. But as we know, and
this is the danger when you look at schedules this early,
people will assume that everyone is a team they were
last year, and we know how often that is not
the case. In the l It might be for the
two or three teams at the very top, but there's
(22:17):
a lot of movement with the teams underneath them, so
interested to see the Jets could be the Jets of
the last few years and already in trouble, or they
could be turning a corner. Be an interesting matchup and
come with four?
Speaker 4 (22:28):
Should we switch up?
Speaker 3 (22:29):
He?
Speaker 4 (22:29):
Should I go through the next four?
Speaker 3 (22:31):
And absolutely, you take us to the next kind of
quarter of the season, let's called it. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (22:36):
So week five into October and the Dolphins run the
road again, and they travel that relatively short distance in
the whole scheme of things to Carolina, which is the
start of three away games in four weeks. What do
you think of that Carolina matchup?
Speaker 3 (22:51):
Again? Carolina seemed to turn a bit of a corner,
didn't they the end of last year? They did. They
really started playing some good games and they caused some
playoff teams some trouble down the stretch. Even though Caroline
season may have been done, there was some really interesting
match I've had a lot of fun watching them. I
think it's playing the Bucks one weekend where they calls
them a lot of travel. So, yeah, an interesting matchup.
(23:15):
Butler the two former Alabama quarterbacks in Carolina. Not too
bad early kickoff, but again you do have to take
into account the short week. It's kind of a day short,
coming off a Monday night game and being on the
road again on the short week. So an interesting one,
but again again that you think Dolphins would stand a
(23:36):
good Johnson.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
I mentioned about the relatively short trip to Carolina in
terms of travel. Now I do want to talk about
travel in more general details at the end of the
look at the schedule, Lisa, remind me to go back
to that one because I've got some interesting thoughts around
the travel and just how much travel the Dolphins are
making this season, which leads us nicely onto Week six, October,
the twelfth, Dolphins back home Todd Rock Stadium to face
(24:01):
the LA Charges with another one pm kickoff, which also
coincides with Fang Club Weekend as well this year. So
all fang clubs from around the US and around the
world gather every year on an annual basis to attend
Fang Club Weekend. We experienced that ourselves, didn't we leave
a couple of years ago, and it's a great event.
There's lots laid on for the different fan clubs, and
(24:21):
that game has been ear marked this year as Fang
Club Weekend.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
Yeah, I wouldn't mind being at that game. It's rightly
my birthday as well. Maybe maybe time to play another trip.
But yeah, I mean Charges is always a huge match
up for the Dolphins, so isn't it. Because tour and
her being taken so close together, it's always going to
be a talking point. They're always going to be linked.
(24:46):
Jim Harbor being there as well, obviously a huge favorite
of Stephen Ross's with the Michigan Ties as well, So yeah,
that should be a great matchup on paper. I'm actually
a little bit surprised of all the preseason games that that,
you know, I wonder if that was under consideration as well,
because that seems like a really good matchup.
Speaker 4 (25:09):
And of course it's a West Coast team traveling to
the East Coast for an early kickoff, which always proves
to be difficult for that West Coast team to adjust.
I'm surprised that game hasn't been scheduled for four pm
to accommodate the West Coast time. So look forward to
another good performance and again on paper, whilst difficult because
the Charges are much improved, that's a game the Dolphins
(25:31):
should be looking to win again. That makes us lead
into week seven, where they face another trip to the
Cleveland Browns, who they faced last year. The question with
here is we're into week seven. Will the Cleveland Browns
have identified their starting quarterback by week seven? Because they've
got so many on their roster these days, is there
(25:52):
going to be a click cut number one by that point?
Speaker 3 (25:54):
Do you think I mean to be fair? By the
time they playoffs, they could have the freshest quarterbacks in
the league because they just played one game each. They
can take what we might see the start of their
second game and each by the time they get to
playing us in week seven. That is an insane quarterback
room at the moment. And I don't say insane in
a good way. I am glad that's not our team
that has that issue right now, because that on paper
(26:15):
looks to be a mess. You know how hard it
is when teams have two quarterbacks going, and you know,
we spoke about a little bit earlier with Indianapolis and
a quarterback battle. It's always interesting. We've seen it here
in the past. How do you do it when you're
going between four or five guys? How did you split
those ropes evenly, because how do you split them evenly
(26:35):
enough to give each fair representation. The only quarterback I'd
say doesn't need it is obviously Joe Flacco. You know
what you're getting with Joe Flacco. You trust him, and
he's probably run your system as well as anyone in
the last half many years, so you know you can
probably take him out of the equations, say that he's
the safest guy on the roster in regards to he
knows how to play football. But yeah, so obviously makes
(26:57):
it a very interesting matchup. It into there's no way
this states to predict who you could possibly be playing
or what states actually the Brown's team might be in.
Speaker 4 (27:06):
So Week eight sees our first back to back double
header of away games with a trip to Atlanta, another
one pm kickoff, another Dome game, so one again one
you would hope to have seen later in the season.
But Atlanta, of course they're going to have another left
handed quarterback, so we battle of the left handers with
Tour against Michael Pennix in that one.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
Yesterday is the first the left handed quarterback duel in
in quite the number of years I can remember how
many is now I'm going have to have to find
that out. But yeah, that will be a be an
interesting one for the fans. Fans have lifted, but again,
short trip, I'm not having to go too far dome game,
so whether it's not a problem, should be an interesting
match up, but again one that doesn't terrify you on paper.
Speaker 4 (27:51):
Right, that leads us into a nice run of games,
the perhaps the meatiest part of the schedule. Going to
talk us through that one, aren't you the next the
next four or five weeks?
Speaker 3 (28:00):
Absolutely so, let's kick off on October thirty. If after
the Atlantic Falcons are going into a short week for
prime time against the Baltimore Ravens. But this is at
hard Rock Stadium, So what do you think about this?
I have my own personal fears about the Baltimore Ravens.
It's just I've seen too many bad defeats and i
(28:21):
think I've got some unresolved issues with it.
Speaker 4 (28:24):
It's the first game of what looks to be the
most difficult part of the schedule the next three weeks,
with trips with games against Buffalo and Washington to come,
which we'll talk about in a moment, But that could
be the start of a pivotal moment of the Dolphins season,
I think, And the fact is that they played the
Baltimore Ravens in primetime a year or two back and
(28:46):
managed to squeak out a win. That was where Tour
came off the bench to replace Jacoby Brissett I think
it was, and lead them to a comeback win, which
was a great performance. It's in primetime at home, so
we know the danger the Ravens pose and they're going
to be no different that game, so it should be
a good matchup. But it's important the Dolphins put in
(29:06):
a good performance to lead them onto the next couple
of games. Like I said, it's probably their most difficult
part of the schedule. Thankfully they're all the games at home.
But the thing that stood out to me was another
short week against another elite opponent, same way as Buffalo
is on a short week, so is Baltimore.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
Interestingly, you get Buffalo on a short week earlier in
the season, the return leg of their fixture. And I
only say that I saw someone mentioned that they don't
like English people saying the word fixture when it comes
to NFL games, So we'll throw we'll throw that in
there just for fun. You get the Buffalo Bills with
a couple of days extra rest. This time. After that
(29:49):
Thursday night game, we get Buffalo at home at one
o'clock on a Sunday.
Speaker 4 (29:55):
And that's the one we talked about earlier where potentially
it might be another rivalries game if they choose to
where those black units units. So it'd be interesting to
see how the Dolphins react to wearing dark unis in
that one pm heat, And of course it does mark
every turn of the Buffalo Bills playing at one pm
in Miami, and they haven't done that for a few years,
(30:17):
have they since that twenty one to nineteen games where
the hard rock sun was the brunt of a lot
of fans complaints from on the Buffalo side. So it's
good to see the Bills have been and putting that
one PM slot. I know it's not September early in
the season, but it is still going to be hot,
and it is.
Speaker 3 (30:34):
It's still going to be much hotter than Buffalo. But
it's an interesting one, isn't it because it kind of
almost appeases both teams because the Dolphins don't have to
go up there and play in the cold. They don't
really have to come here and play in like you say,
in the high heat of September, so it kind of
feels like the levels of playing fields slightly. You get
them on a longer week here, you've got them on
(30:55):
a shorter week at the beginning of the season. Again,
it all kind of becomes a bit of a wash.
So hopefully you just see good matchups, best team wins
be interesting the implications of that when we get there
when it comes to November the ninth. But that leads
us into maybe the most exciting matchup on the schedule,
as we've already spoken about. Now it's only the sixteenth
(31:17):
November when our Miami Dolphins traveled to Madrid to take
on the Washington Commanders. What is a nine to thirty
am kickoff in the US, and after much debate, is
a two thirty kickoff here in the UK.
Speaker 4 (31:31):
Yeah, and of course three point thirty in Madrid local
time as well. So it should be a good matchup,
really good opponent to face off. Of course, Jade and
Daniels quarterback of the Commanders against Tour It's going to
be a really good matchup. Both teams have got high
powered offense, so hopefully for the Madrid faithful it'll be
a bit of a shootout and a good introduction to
the NFL as far as Madrid are concerned, and hopefully
(31:54):
it will set a precedent for any games that will
be subsequently played in Madrid, whoever the teams are. Hopefully
that will be good advert for American football in Spain
and in Madrid. And the Bernabaus are seventy er capacity stadium.
It's been refurbished recently as well, so I believe it
now has a roof. It didn't before. It had a
(32:15):
sort of semi open covered roof, but now I believe
that it's fully covered roof. So hopefully the Spanish heat
won't affect the players too much. Although having said that,
the Dolphins players will be used to playing in the
heat and maybe the Commanders won't be, so maybe it's
an opportunity to use that heat again to under the
Dolphins advantage. But either way, we want to see as
(32:38):
many Dolphins fans there as possible, don't we. Of course,
lead With it being a home game, tickets are going
to be in high demand for that. We've already got
some potential routes into tickets, haven't we, through the fan
club or obviously through Ticketmaster as well the general sales period,
so hopefully well we'll be there and alongside many other
Dolphins fans, fans from Spain, in the UK and and
around Europe.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
Absolutely always exciting, always difficult, but we hope to get tickets.
One way or the other. We will find a way
to get tickets and will be at that game in Madrid.
Very excited about that, Excited to see a new stadium,
new city. And I say, I think it's I think
it's great that the Dolphins are willing to be the
first team to go to some of these places. And
having spoke with some of the some of the personnel,
you know there was a lot of work going on
(33:20):
behind the scenes for the Frankfurt game. You don't hear about.
All of a sudden, there's a game when the teams
turn up and everything goes off without hitch, and you know,
you realize there was was an officer and spaces made
big because they could't accommodate NFL things and it's all
those little things and Dolphins are willing to take that
that risk, can be that team to go there. I
think it's something you know to be proud of and
(33:41):
saying that, you know, we're very lucky to be able
to take advantage of.
Speaker 4 (33:45):
Yeah, I said earlier, I've got a stadium tool book
for the Bernabout, so I'm going to take as many
pictures as I can just and share on social media,
just so they get an insight as to what the
Bernabout looks inside and out. I don't know where in
the stadium will be allowed to go because I think
there is still some ongoing refurbishment there, but the stadium
tour is on, so any any good pictures, especially of
the inside of the arena, I've certainly taken share on
(34:08):
social media. Okay, So moving on after the Washington game,
we have of course got a buy and the Dolphins
yet again returned to hard Rock Stadium in a couple
of weeks after that game to face the New Orleans Saints,
another one pm kickoff. So it does mean that the Dolphins,
(34:28):
in theory have got four home games in a row
and a bye. And what do you make of that
Saints Gamely nice one to come back to.
Speaker 3 (34:39):
Yeah, a nice one to come back to at home,
So no travel that week as well, which is also
also great to have. Really, I think it definitely can
be looked at as an advantage back in one pm slot,
kind of back in the comfort zone, I would say,
after a long trip, hopefully after and win on the road.
Speaker 4 (35:00):
Okay, that leads us into our first genuine cold weather
game then in December with a trip to the New
York Jets, which is our first away game in six weeks,
another one pm kickoff. You can see a pattern here
with the kickoff times, which I'll go into in due course.
But again, it's getting into the business end of the
season now, isn't it. The Dolphins face this tricky trip
to New York and we don't know what they're going
to be like in real terms right now, but we'll
(35:21):
have a better idea when we play them in December.
How they are on the field.
Speaker 3 (35:26):
Absolutely, Again, you know, a lot to be learned about
the New York Jets. I think the important thing here,
as you mentioned, it could be a cold weather game,
definitely going to be better at one o'clock if it's cold,
no matter what. You know, the later the day it's
obviosly gonna get cold. So you know, I think take
that as a positive before we head back into some
primetime fixtures.
Speaker 4 (35:45):
Yeah, that leads us into week fifteen December. The fifteenth,
they traveled to Pittsburgh on a Monday night. I think
that one is it a Monday night?
Speaker 3 (35:51):
One is Monday night.
Speaker 4 (35:52):
So again back to back away trips for only the
second time this season, another cold weather game at Pittsburgh away.
They are always in tension for the playoffs, they always
have a winning season, so that one is going to
be a really tricky one, isn't itly one that if
the Dolphins can manage to escape with the result, that
is going to be huge at that that time of
the season.
Speaker 3 (36:12):
Yeah, it could be a massive game by the time
you get to this part of the season and really
a tricky little stretch of the season. Maybe here the
next couple of weeks that you say Pittsburgh on the
road probably be cold on a Monday night, technically a
short week before your second back to back prime time
game of the season where you face the Cincinnati Bengals
on Sunday night football. So although it's still on a Sunday,
(36:34):
which is good, so you kind of don't only lose
the one day it's still on the big stage, but
it is this one does occur at hard Rock Stadium,
which is obviously in the Dolphins.
Speaker 4 (36:43):
Flavor, and two of versus Burrow of course, very similar
to Justin Herbert of the Charges. They're always going to
be compared, aren't they, And this is an opportunity for
Tour to come out on top on prime prime time.
It's a crucial part of the season, isn't it to
face the Bengals who have got most likely and improved
roster this year, so they will probably be in playoff
contention alongside hopefully the Dolphins as well, so that one
(37:06):
could be a key game there to determine what route,
if any, that both teams are going to take in
the playoffs.
Speaker 3 (37:13):
Absolutely the ultimate week of the season, twenty eighth December,
another one pm currently scheduled one pm Sunday kickoff against
the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Obviously no real weather advantage there.
I know there is a little difference in weather between Miami,
but obviously far less than some of these other opponents.
(37:33):
But I think you've got to like a one pm
game at home. If you're going to be good, you're
gonna have to win win home games. So you know,
we know the Dolphins are much much better. One o'clock
Sunday team than than they've been in Bryan time o
the last few years. So that's a trend. They had
to Buck this year. You're going to like that. But yeah,
(37:53):
but here you get the Dolphins, you know, here you
get Tabora, who have been a good team over the
last few years, one one that division, been to the
playoff and won a couple of playoff games as well,
So a tough opponent. Baker Mayfield has really kind of
reservated himself there with the Buccaneers and play some really
good football. You know, Mike Evans will have a thousand
yard receiving because it's guaranteed he does it every single year,
(38:16):
so he'll be around that mark by the time of
yet to this time of the year. So again, a
tough matchup before you hit on the road for the
last week of the season.
Speaker 4 (38:25):
So yeah, just going back to that Bucks game, the
Buccaneers are generally part of a weak division in the NFL,
which means that come the end of the season, most
of the teams in that division are still in contention,
and I don't see any reasons why the Buccaneers won't
be in that conversation. So it's going to be they've
got they're most likely going to have something to play
for at the end of the season. So it's very
(38:45):
reminiscent of the game against Tennessee a couple of years ago,
where the Dolphins were heading down home stretch and you
look at the schedule and think, that's again the Dolphins
is going to win to get in the playoffs, and
this one is very similar to that with the home
advantage business end of the season. As I said, that
is a game the Dolphins are probably going to have
to get a result in if they're going to want
(39:06):
to carry some sort of momentum towards the playoffs. And
then last game of the season is you sale away at
New England and the third consecutive cold weather game in
December not ideal, but you have to play those cold
weather games at some point. They can't all be early
in the season. Some are going to have to be
at the end of the season when those divisional matchups
(39:27):
take place. Time yet to be determined, of course, so
we don't know yet whether that's going to be early
or late. But I did find it interestingly that they're
not finishing the season with back to back divisional games
this year, they've got just that one in Week eighteen,
rather than having the Bills and the Jets in focus
in week sixteen and seventeen. I did find that quite interesting.
Speaker 3 (39:48):
Yeah, that's kind of a quirk of getting divisional opponents
three weeks in the road to kind of essentially kick
off the season weeks two, three, four, so there's not
too many version matchups left. I think you'd had them,
I mean, two bunches. It would would definitely have made
for some interesting play. Like you said, that game could
be on the Saturday or a Sunday. That's a true
(40:09):
flex spot we know when it comes to the end
of the season. I actually think New England could be
really interesting team by then. I think was a really
good coach and I think that there's no better spot
for him to be coaching than New England. I think,
you know, I think the time of kind of just
run its course in Tennessee. They couldn't get over the hunt.
They were kind of resetting, so I can see why
(40:30):
they you know, they parted ways, but at the same time,
things a great pick up for New England. They should
be able to bed everything in by them, so that
could be a really spicy matchup come the last week
of the season.
Speaker 4 (40:41):
I do want to talk about travel lee. I mentioned
it earlier, and I've done some research around the number
of miles that each team travel and I know we
talked about it in depth last year when we talked
about the schedule, and I've been looking at the same
distances this year, and interestingly, the Dolphins are traveling the
eighth most mileage in the NFL. They're traveling twenty four
(41:04):
four hundred and nine miles in total this year, which is,
as I say, the eighth most, and given the fact
that all of their away games are in the Eastern
time zone, the fact that they're traveling the eighth most
is purely down to that long trip to Madrid and back,
which is eighty eight hundred and two miles exactly for
(41:25):
those that are interested. So you take those eighty eight
hundred miles off the calculation and they actually ranked twenty
third in total mileage travels traveled, which is pretty good
I think, considering they don't have any short road trips
from South Florida. Being so far south, they're going to
(41:45):
have to fly a few hundred miles from each for
each away trip. And back, and interestingly in as well,
they're only flying across twelve different times for the whole season,
and those time zones, those twelve time zones are crossed
in one trip to Madrid, so in all of their
(42:08):
other fixtures for the remaining part of the season, they're
not crossing any time zones. Now they take off Madrid,
their shortest trip away is to Atlanta, so hence why
they still have a significant number to travel even with
all of their opponents based in the Eastern time zone.
(42:31):
You compare that to somebody like the Buffalo Bills, who
are traveling the second least with ten thousand, five hundred
miles this season, and they've been helped by the fact
they're playing a lot of teams that are geographically grouped nearby,
like New England and Patriots, Steelers, Browns, Falcons and Panthers.
(42:52):
They're all relatively grouped relatively close. So the Bills have
only ten and a half thousand miles. And I just
think it's interesting. We talked about it in depth last year.
Does the amount of Marley travel have an impact on
the performance of your team now? In terms If the
answer is yes to that question and we don't know
for sure, because we're not medical professionals. We don't know
(43:12):
the ins and outs on told traveled, how much it
tolls on somebody's body. But if you said to me
all of their IRA games would be in the Eastern
time zone, then you'd you'd have taken that, wouldn't you.
There's no apart from Madrid, there's no cross country trips whatsoever.
Speaker 3 (43:29):
Absolutely, Yeah, you prefer it to be in these sometimes,
and we know they've generally performed well and that's the case.
And you know last year you get a team like
San Francisco coming in, that game gets moved into the
second window, the nine o'clock half nine start here, and
you know it kind of evens it out somewhat. So yeah,
you've got to think that's an advantage. What did you
think of the schedule overall? Now? I know I said
(43:51):
earlier and I do preface this by saying, no one
knows what all these teams are going to be like,
and there is going to be a lot of change,
a lot of movements. But what were your first thoughts
when you saw it is scary schedule?
Speaker 4 (44:01):
No, not really. I think last year we identified a
couple of blocks of the schedule which really looked really
hard on paper, and looking at first glance of the schedule,
you wouldn't say there is an equivalent block. This year,
we mentioned the home stretch against Baltimore Buffalo in Washington,
which is arguably the most difficult portion of the schedule,
but they're all at home, so maybe the difficulty is
(44:22):
cantede counted out by home field advantage, but generally looking
at that travel is kept to a minimum. Bar Madrid, there
are only two occasions where there's back to back away games.
We go a period of six weeks where there's no
travel apart from Madrid, so they're all home games. So
there's a lot of things in favor of this particular schedule.
They don't finish off with Buffalo at the back end
(44:45):
of the schedule like they have done the last few years.
That obviously has to be a plus because they've not
been able to overcome Buffalo on those occasions. So a
lot of positives to look at the schedule, and they've
got to play each and every ponent anyway, regardless whether wherever,
the whether whatever the week. So but overall it's the
one that looks fairly decent. You look at the early
part of the schedule. As we talked about, there is
(45:06):
a strong possibility, if everything falls correctly, that the Dolphins
will start five and one. If they play to their potential,
they're certainly winnable games, the one exception, of course, being Buffalo,
And I think we chatted off air, didn't we before
we started recording they were a record setting kick or
a mistake made by on a tackle that whether the
Dolphins could easily have won that last year. So so,
(45:29):
lots lots of things. What are your thoughts lea around
the schedule?
Speaker 3 (45:34):
Permise to start with about the number of primetime games,
and I think I Travis mentioned that it was the
most home and primetime games in the team's history in
regards to being in one season. But yeah, I was
intrigued because I think if you read the national media,
don't have you feeling down about things, well, the NFL
schedule makers should have you feeling the complete opposite, because
(45:55):
we know how much the networks put into it. We know,
you know, they don't have sight, but they know they
can request matchups and things in the schedule. And the
Dolphins are in six prime time games if you include
Madrid five, if you just talk about purely night games.
For instance. They're obviously a team in demand, and I
(46:15):
think that that has to speak of hopefully some confidence
in what they will be come the end of the season.
I personally likes primetime games. You know that. I know
that it's a bugger for the UK fans, all those
late games. I just love it. I love the pageantry
of primetime NFL games. I think it's it's great. So yeah,
(46:38):
be very very interested. I never feel scared about schedule
looking at it at this part of you. I just
think there's so there's too many unknowns and it's it's
too easy to get get carried away. I spake to
you off air zon you know, ask at schedule and
it's very easy to get carried away. But you know,
I'm going to predict wins for every week, so so
I look forward to that late on you.
Speaker 4 (47:00):
Ye, you're right, it's easy to get carried away because
we're only thinking about their opponents how they were last year.
We don't know how they're going to be this year.
But just touching on the trip to Madrid, please, they've
got a week off after that long trip, and they
haven't gotten away trip before Madrid, so they're going to
be at home, so it's not like they're going to
be on the road a lot prior to traveling to
Madrid either. So they've got Buffalo at home and so
(47:20):
they will be local before they make that long trip
to Washington. It'll be interesting to see what their plans
are for traveling over to Madrid, whether the team are
going to go and spend a week over there, given
the fact that it's a new territory, new climate that
they've not planned in before, or so they need to adjust,
or whether they're going to do what they've done before
(47:41):
and fly in and fly out really quickly. So I'm
sure plans will become known in due course. I've be
interested to know what they've got planned for that.
Speaker 3 (47:50):
Absolutely definitely interesting to see what coach McDaniel does. Obviously,
playing the Chiefs in Fronkfurt was his first international game
was a head coach, be interested to see his approach
changes this time. Like you said, we've seen coaches do
it all manner of ways. New England used to like
to come in and get out. We've seen teams that
(48:12):
like to spend the entire week and results very from
them and.
Speaker 4 (48:17):
Let's hope we can win an International series game for
a change. Le We've only ever won one of these,
haven't we against the Raiders several several years back now, and.
Speaker 3 (48:25):
It was a great performance.
Speaker 4 (48:29):
It was actually, Yeah, I was quite pleased because with
my dad that day, and he was a Raiders fan,
so I was trying very hard not to kind of
rub it in his face a little bit, to be
quite gracious in victory there because I knew he was
absolutely gutted, so I didn't want to rub it too
much in his face. But we are due to win overseas.
We've lost to the Jags, the Saints, the Jets, Giants,
(48:50):
who else have we played the Chiefs of course in
Frankfurt so amongst others. So we ar due a performance.
We are due a win. It'd be nice to kick
off the Spanish series of games with a victory over Washington.
Speaker 3 (49:02):
M hm. So touched on everything I think we have. Yeah,
So that being said, don't forget to follow us on
social media across all the channels. It's Dolphin UK podcast.
You will had to find us everywhere. Check out the
Dolphins social channels as well to stay up to date
(49:22):
with the latest news, hopefully some Jersey news soon. Check
out Travis and the Drive Time podcast. He's still putting
out amazing content. It's amazing the work he puts in
behind the scenes to get those podcasts out. But I
must say I do enjoy having one in the morning
for my drive to work, and obviously Seth an oj
and a fish Tank podcast. But until next time thins up,
(49:42):
we'll Susie
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