October 13, 2025 • 35 mins
Travis is back in the film room to tell you what stood out from the Dolphins Week 6 loss to the Chargers.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Drivetime with Travis wing for you.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
What is up Dolphins and welcome to the Draft Time Podcast.
I am your host, Travis Wingfield. And on today's show,
it's the All twenty two review day. We go in
the film to assess the Dolphins Week six loss to
the Chargers from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist
Health Training Complex. This is the Draft Time Podcasts. A
lot of different topics out there being discussed today in
(00:31):
Dolphins Land. If you want to get into the drama
of it all, this is not the place to find that.
We're gonna talk just about the film on the show
and start on the offense as we do each Tuesday.
With the general points here, I am still, to the
surprise of nobody, fascinated by how the offense has evolved
will evolve in the post Tyreek Hill world we saw twelve,
(00:51):
twenty one and twenty two. Groupings have a lot of
success in the Jets and Panthers games, and again if
you're new to the podcast, those are basically just heavier
person It's two receiver sets finding ways to get two
backs or two tight ends on the field, and the
Dolphins continue to lean into these packages. More as we
go along twelve personnel and Sunday's game six plays again
that was the season high after last week was the
(01:12):
season high in that personnel grouping. It produced twenty nine
yards and a touchdown on those six plays, but also
an interception. Twenty two personnel. This is the one that
Travis likes a lot, right. We did a whole breakdown
on this talking about this last week and on HQ.
Fourteen plays, the highest of the Mike McDaniel era, which
is basically just playing Julian Hill and Darren Waller along
with either eight Chan or Gordon with alec Ingold or
(01:35):
sometimes it was a Chan and Gordon together and Ingold
off the field. But fourteen plays, one hundred and ten
yards and two touchdowns, also a pick. So those two
groupings combined for twenty two plays, one hundred and thirty
nine yards and three touchdowns. It's a great day and
frankly that spawned the return of the explosive play right
Wattle last week, the long touchdown Waller's thirty plus yard
(01:58):
catch last week.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
We're both from that grouping.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
All of Waller's touchdowns have been from these groupings, all
four of them. Eight chance touchdowns forty nine yards and
four yards yesterday, both from these groupings. The offense has
been good. Has it been as good as twenty two
or twenty three? No, But it's literally the next best
offense you've seen from the Miami Dolphins this century, the
third best EPA per play in twenty twenty five since
(02:21):
Marino retired, with twenty three and twenty two being one
and two. So you're still in that realm. And that's
not a high bar to clear, because before McDaniel got here,
the Dolphins offense was notoriously never in the top fifteen
of the league. Right, But this offense is good again,
not as good as it has been, but it's pretty good.
And while it all goes for not amid what has
(02:41):
been historically or a historically bad start for the defense.
This is the part that I want to keep pressing
on y'all, and again there's not Look, you are all
well within your rights to say enough with the hope
and we'll get here eventually, Travis, I trust me, I
get it.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
I get it. I've watched my team. You know. I
have two loves in sports. I like the heat.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
I like the kugs. I loved the Cougs, but they
got robbed from me. I loved the songs. They got
robbed from me. But the Mariners and Dolphins are my
two true loves, and sports my thropple of soulmates, if
you will, when it comes to Travis in sports. And
the last time I saw a big, important win in
a huge game was the Colts playoff game, right or
the Mariners. They won a couple of wild card games
(03:23):
against the Blue Jays and twenty two and that was fun,
but they got wiped out by the Astros in the
American League Division Series. But in two thousand and one
the Mariners won the Alds, and back then I was
kind of mad at them for trade and Griffy still,
so it was more like the nineties. And let me
tell you, with a fully frontal lobe develops now at
this point in my life, experiencing the Mariners win that
(03:43):
Game five on Friday and then come back and win
Game one of the American League Championship Series on Sunday,
depleted of all their arms and the Blue Jays having
rest and their ace on the bump, and the Marrior's
number four pitcher going and winning that game pretty surreal.
I'm kind of on sports high despite my number one
love the team that I've dedicated my entire freaking life
to being one and five, But that kind of keeps
(04:05):
me going for the Miami Dolphins when it looks bleak
one in five and look, I'm able to laugh at
what the season has become for the most part, because
it like, I don't know, it's just like what else
can you do? Right? If you can't laugh, you cry?
But the Mariners are helping in a big way to
help me get to that position. But allow me to
convey this point to any of you that only root
(04:26):
for the Dolphins, or maybe you root for the Dolphins
and the Colorado Rockies or whatever it is, right, a
team that doesn't ever go anywhere, it's gonna be worth
it someday. The Mariners historically have horrific ownership that doesn't
put the money that the fans give them back onto
the field. They prioritize profits and they hoard free agency
(04:47):
dollars to put it into their own pockets, which is
what baseball. Half the damn league is that in baseball.
But in baseball, you hope that you can develop a
core that pushes beyond frugals right, and the Marriors have
done that because this is an ownership group that has
given the entire fan base for twenty years. They've made
the playoffs six times and forty nine years, guys, and
(05:09):
this is an ownership group that has given their fan
base every right to loathe them, but then they catch
fire like this. It's worth it. I'm telling you right now,
it's so worth it. Back to the point, there are
elements of this offense that make a slight philosophical approach,
a shift in that and really get back into the
(05:30):
top ten of the league in offense because they're on
the fringe of it right now, and there are really
good parts. And we are finally seeing what we talked
about with Kyle myself on the show all off season
about centering this thing around the general idea of the
offense and not one player. And again, Tyreek Hill gave
you two of the funniest years you've had if you're
a Dolphins fan of a certain age, I will never
(05:51):
disparage that in what he accomplished, but by the end
of it, it became almost more about the individual in
certain aspects, maybe not even intentionally, but that's what felt
like watching it right but I think what you're seeing
and this is what I was hopeful for, and maybe
in hindsight you know this. You could have gotten to
this before the first game of the season. But we
are seeing what it looks like when you have that
(06:11):
ball distribution, run game, heavy play action for this quarterback.
It works pretty well. And I think you're right around
the corner or if not already there to finding an
identity on offense that can really work for this group
of players with hopefully additions, you know, down the road
in the future, because at one in five it's tough
to think about possibilities in twenty twenty five. But thinking
about the long term vision offensively, you've got some parts here.
(06:35):
Defensively that might take a little bit longer. It's been
rough on that side of the ball. For further posterity
here eleven personnel they ran eighteen plays and gained ninety
nine yards. That's five point five yards per play. That's
really good. It's not as good as the other packages,
which combined twelve and twenty two was six point three
yards per play and three touchdowns, so way almost a
full yard more and your three scoring plays. Twenty one
(06:56):
personnel they ran that sixteen plays seventy five yards four
point six yards per play. Not great but decent. It's
not bad, but nothing beats twelve and twenty two personnel
for this Dolphins offense right now to further this point.
They're cooking up some new formations from these groupings that
I think are encouraging about the further development of the
offense and where they can go. Because the Waller miss
that the deep over route. You know, we'll talk about
(07:17):
the throw here in a second, but they were in
twenty two personnel and the boundary the short side of
the field. We know that by now right the boundaries
the short side the field's the wide side. You had
waddle and a condensed split as the one receiver to
the boundary. Julian Hill is stacked right behind the right tackle.
That's a pretty unique formation set up, and a Chan
was offset right behind him to the right, and Olie
(07:38):
Gordon was offset off of him to the left, so
it was like trips in the backfield behind the right tackle.
I've never seen that before. Maybe I need to watch
more football. I watched quite a lot of football. But
Darren Waller is the field side receiver, which makes him
the X the weak side of the formation even though
it's the wide side of the formation, and the run
action with a pair of swings that basically switched release.
I've ever seen that either in the backfield, like where
(08:00):
the guy to the right went left and the guy
to the left went right. You know, it's almost like friggin'
water boy.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
He fakes it. No, he fakes the fake.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
He pretends to fake, but it actually is like it
actually is clever. And the run action with those pair
of swing routes from that trip's bunch back there. It
got the Chargers defense completely on false keys. It got
them sucked up, and then Wattle busts his butt to
get on the clear out route as he always does,
and frees up the cover three of the defense and
Waller runs to open grass. It's a cool design from
(08:28):
a grouping we hadn't used a whole lot until the
last three games. But then you get to the design
like the one on the two a half roll to
Waddle where he checks up and throws a hitch or
Waddle runs the hitch with no secondary option on the route.
That's kind of a microcosm of where we are where
one thing looks awesome but then the next play is
like a shoot yourself in the foot or a poor
design or a poor execution or a pre snap penalty.
(08:51):
And as my good friend Seth Levitt will tell me,
greatness on one play and disaster on the next means
you're just frankly average and the offense to me is
above average. But you get the point, and that's where
you have to iron out to maybe the bad plays
are more baseline, and then your great plays are way
up there, and then you can settle into a happy
medium where you're great, not like great great, but like
(09:12):
great one great. The a Chan touchdown run one of
two pin and pole concepts they ran on this day.
Pin and Pole is a very different scheme than what
the Dolphins typically run with their running games. So outside zone,
the first step of every offensive lineman pulls in the
same direction you try to get with You try to
basically change the launch point of the defensive line and
give the back a chance to kind of stretch it
(09:33):
out and pick his gap and go hit it with
speed and conviction. When you run pin and poll, it's
more direct about where that gap is going to be,
so off the outside of the formation, both the tight
end and the right tackle, they down block, they block
in towards the formation inside and then you pull the
guard from the backside of the formation and he comes
around and kicks out the outside defender and that's the
(09:53):
pin inside and the pole on the outside, and it
gives a Chan a very specific lane. Aren Brewer climbs
to the second level and makes a block on that.
You get huge pins from Julian, from Larry from Strange.
Jonah has a nice cutoff block slanting off the one
shade and a chance speed takes care of the rest
and he ran that thing tight to his blocks. A
really impressive run there from devon Ah Chan. The next
(10:13):
run goes back to outside zone, but eight Chant hits
the cutback. It's a different variation that just compliments what
we do. So this is what I'm talking about, and
I've been talking about the ability to hit variation in
your zone scheme to call upon heavy personnel. We saw
the inside zone game against the Buffalo Bills right to
be able to call some gap scheme stuff like a
pin and poll and then your play action game off
of that. It kind of reminds me of shades of
(10:37):
the Ben Johnson Detroit Lions offense. And that's why I
think this quarterback needs And you can debate whether or
not you know the future for one is here, like
whatever you want to talk about the quarterback position. I
think there's a winning offense you can build around this guy.
And I think the way the NFL has shifted their
coverages that this is the new way forward for the
Dolphins in this iteration, and I think you're seeing some
(10:58):
of that and maybe by force in terms of Tyreek
Hill going down, but I'm excited about that element of it,
about some of the core building blocks. Waddle's bona fide
number one, a chance one of the best running backs
in the game. Brewer is the best center of the
American Football Conference. Patrick Paul is an elite left tackle,
and Jonah's going to develop. Like you've got pieces here,
Julian Hill looks really, really good. We'll talk about that.
(11:20):
You've got pieces here to be that to be a
flexible offensive running scheme that gets your play action game,
and I'm excited about that. There's an interesting dichotomy across
how that looks, but also with how they call their
protection scheme and the run calls for the offensive line.
Because the help is almost always going to the right side,
and that's a lot to ask for Jonas of I Unite.
(11:40):
He's getting one on one matchups against some really good
players in this league, and they're getting the best of
him at some times.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
But there are some reps where he gets it right.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
There's some good reps where he condenses inside with Patrick
Paul against rush games. But they're also while helping out
the side of the offensive line that is pretty clearly
the one that needs the help in terms of how
they call it with the run game running behind that
right side. So that's an interesting dichotomy, one that I'm
curious to kind of, you know, unfolds we go along,
because it's kind of turning into an evaluation season right now,
(12:07):
right But I mean, it's it's worth watching to me.
I know nobody wants to hear that because you guys
want to see results, and I get that, but this
is what you know, this is the job I'm trying
to and the coaches will do the same thing too,
trying to find out what works and what we can
get to and whether it's you know, this year or beyond,
Like you have to you have to evaluate and find
out what you got. Now, one thing they have is
some crazy formations in a good way. The Wattle wind
(12:30):
back play. I talked about the trips in the backfield.
You've got Waller is to the boundary on the numbers
the short side of the field condensed. Julian Hill is
on the opposite side of the formation as an attached
why why tight end Oli Gordon's and the shotgun alongside
Tua and a chance like just to the right of
Allie Gordon who's alongside Tua, and then Wattle is in
(12:52):
that same position next to Olie as well. So it's
again another like trips formation in the backfield or even
like a diamond formation to that side of the formation
with Waller being in close to the boundary. Like I'm
digging these formations from these two back and two tight
groupings because you're getting you're getting a challenge in terms
of how they fit the run from that position, but
also how they pick up all that trash from you know,
they can't press you from there. They have to sort
(13:13):
out switch releases from there. Like they're finding success with
those tight trip formations out of twenty two personnel with
the trips being behind the right tackle it's interesting. One
thing we need a deviation from, in my opinion, is
those escort swings where you have a blocker out in
front and the running back behind him.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
That became kind of in vogue in the NFL two
years ago.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
The Dolphins went way too heavy after it last year
and kind of backed off of it. We've seen some
more of it this year. But the play after the
wattle bomb after the forty five yard played a wattle
We run one of those and it gets blown up
because the block gets missed and a chan drops it
because his eyes look downfield and there was so much
space over there. But also if he just like runs
the escort route the swing, but puts his foot in
(13:54):
the ground and turns it into a Texas route where
he angles back across the formation, there's like nobody in
the middle of the field and quite we could use
some more middle of the field offense right now. Or
if you just execute the block, that'll work too. But
I think there's variations off that that you can get to.
You're getting so many wrinkles off these new looks where
I think you can have that further development happen here.
It's like a whole other section of the playbook the
(14:15):
opposition has to think about and the reaction to those
wrinkles they might have, Like they don't have the answers
for that, yet they have the answers for all the
other stuff we ran, the RPO, the rail slide combo,
you know, the dagger, some of the middle of the field,
like the digs and stuff. It's that has been adjusted
to This stuff is all new for opposing defense. Is
like the Julian Hill middle screen on the go ahead
(14:37):
touchdown drive. You can see that with something the Chargers
had no plan for. So I'm excited to see that
aspect of things. I'm not telling you guys, I'm excited
about the rest of the season, Go Mariners, but I'm
excited about how it develops and how we can kind
of learn from this the rest of the way. We
talked about two touchdowns and a field goal on the
final five drives against the Jets. After Tyreek Hill gets
(14:57):
hurt twenty four points last week, twenty seven points this week,
you haven't lost your production in the post Tyreek Hill world.
And if you can say that and you can save
the thirty million dollars and the draft capital, like that's
a pretty good net win, right, So that's kind of
my thought. Let's take our first break right there, come
back and talk about the quarterback as well as the
rest of the individual's on offense. We'll also talk defense
(15:17):
and the third segment all of that ahead Drift Time
podcast brought to you by AutoNation.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
It is time to talk to a drink of water,
to a talk time.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Very well, the first interception was good quarterback play. I mean,
that's all it was. Dayon Henley go Kooks is pushing
the hook. Tua moves to Julian Hill, who has an
over the ball hookup route. Just go run over the
middle of the ball, show your numbers and Hill or
Henley rather drives on that, and Tua resets his feet
and comes back to Wattle with a clear window. This time,
(15:50):
the ball's right on the chest. There's nothing else he
can do. Wattle has to make that catch. The next
throw to Waller is about as bad as you'll see
from Tua, and I mean that in like a complimentary way,
in the sense that he doesn't miss those throws usually. Ever,
this year has been more of them in that regard,
but typically not his miss in his bag to miss those.
It's a well designed clear out with the backside over
(16:11):
to attack the cover three coverage. And remember that twenty
twenty game against the Buffalo Bills down here when Stefan
Diggs went crazy and the Bills kept throwing these clear
out over combinations against our cover three, when Byron Jones
got hurt and they had to force Noah Igbinogny into
the game when he wasn't ready for it, and Diggs
just got after him for like two hundred yards.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Similar.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Look here, we saw that on this play and he
missed it. His best play from the game didn't count.
It was a holding call that got it called back.
He gets immediate a gap pressure, sprints to safety, sets up,
and throws a dot to waller across his body climbing
in the pocket. And this is where I think Tua
needs to continue to do this more. When he scrambles
scramble to throw a big dog. We'll talk about that
here in more. In one second, the second pick was
(16:51):
the only one of the three that was on him
and mattered. And upon I hate the concept, but don't
care through three picks that is that is dumb. That's
just flat out dumb, Like doesn't matter.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
It like.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
A pick on a hell Mary. I'm not going to
blame the quarterback for that wasn't a hell mary. But
they weren't going to score, you know, Miami miracle was
going to happen again. But upon further review, the pick
was more on two than it was eight chen and
in fact, Han did a good job to press it
and angled it horizontally back across the field. But two
was late and behind, and the late nature of it
allows the defensive back to get downhill ahead of the football,
(17:23):
and the location of it allows to make a play
on the football. So two bad things result in a turnover.
We've see in these types of throws man, they just
continue to be a tick off more than they have
in the past. And Kyle Krabs provided these numbers on
his podcast the other day. Tua this year is ten
for seventeen throwing in the middle of the field in
the intermediate portion ten to nineteen yards, right, that's our
(17:44):
bread and butter. For the last four years between the numbers,
it was fifty eight percent, eight point eight yards per attempt,
no touchdowns, and four picks, and he passed the rating
of forty eight the previous three years twenty two through
twenty four, he threw two hundred and ninety four of
those passes, so way above the current rate in twenty
five where we're just not attacking that area of the
field very much. Seventy three percent completion, twelve point nine
(18:07):
yards per pass, that's what four more yards per pass
and a fifteen percent completion percentage hike and ten touchdowns
compared to nine picks. Most of his picks will come
in that area because that's where there's bodies, but at
one hundred and thirteen passer rating compared to a forty
eight passer rating, that's the biggest difference in to his
game right now.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
There's a lot to like.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
I think, all things being equal, if he were on
the same production in this area alone as he were before,
we'd have won a couple more games and we'd be
talking about two in that same eight ten top twelve
quarterback range. Conversely, we've lost the four close games and
it's probably more like he's in the fourteen, sixteen to
eighteen range. The next throw to Waddle was an open comeback,
the ball was too high and that was it for
(18:48):
the misses. As a quarterback, you get three or four
bad reps in a game, they get magnified. Everybody else
will have that many reps that are bad, and you
don't see as much talked about it. But you can't
expect him to play perfect, but you do think you
should hit those three because in the past he has.
And there was another example of him committing to a
scramble when I felt he should have thrown it. It
was the first play of the penultimate touchdown drive, the
(19:10):
first touchdown drive of the fourth quarter. He breaks contain.
Eight Chan gets into his route and Tua was behind
the last scrimmage. As eight Chan goes over behind the
defender who committed to come try to tackle Tua and
if he just pulls up and flips it over his head,
ah Chan has a possible explosive, but he commits to
the run and slides down for a short gain. The
pump to the flat on the Darren Waller touchdown to
(19:32):
free up that space was high level quarterback play. All
in all, pretty good game for Tua. One really costly
mistake that led to a pick and then a few misses,
but he made a bunch of plays in quick game instructure,
had some outer structure plays. He was fourteen for fifteen
in the fourth quarter with ninety nine yards passing and
two scoring drives to bring us back. So a pretty
good day for Tua all things told. The rest of
(19:52):
the offense the standouts Aaron Brewer obligatory kickoff here with
Aaron Brewer, I mean the eight chan forty nine yarder,
the sixteen yarder getting to the sp before the second
level defender, riding them all the way out of the play.
There was an eight chan run early in the second
quarter where Brewer has to reach a one shade and
he fires across his face, kind of stumbles out of
the blocks, but gets back on balance and he winds
(20:14):
up running off the nose tackle without even having a
hand engage with him like, he just finds ways to
win even when it's not right. He is an elite player.
He is the AFC Pro Bowl Center for the first
third of the season, and I don't think it's close.
He also had a stunt pick up on the Wattle
bomb where he and Jonah did a fantastic job. Speaking
of Wattle, we did that breakdown Dolphins HQ last week
(20:35):
and I was very proud of how that turned out.
I just love this guy. The first play was as
bad of a start to a game as you can have, right,
but he was great the rest of the way on
that deep play action dig where he caught it for
nineteen yards. That off corner gets run off so hard,
and it goes back to our breakdown last week where
he earns the space that guys give him with his
nuanced detail in his route running. He takes a step
(20:57):
inside off of the release and accelerates through a step
where he widens it back out, and that is selling
multiple routes to the corner back without decreasing his ability
to get down the stem.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
It sells the vertical.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
The corner flips the hips and at that exact moment,
Wattle sticks his foot in the ground and he's wide
open twenty yards downfield on the dig, and if he
doesn't have to slow down to catch that ball, it's
a fifty one yard touchdown. And then, holy moly, man,
holy moly, what are you thirteen years old? The forty
five yard play was so much better on tape than
what I even realized. First off, there's a miscommunication somewhere
(21:31):
between he and Tua because Wattle expects that ball off
the inside shoulder and it goes way over the outside
shoulder on the corner. But the way he ran his
route tells me if the ball's inside, it's gonna be
a long touchdown because he killed the route. It was
exceptional detail. He takes an inside release, he's got a step.
But he could just cheat the route and say I've
already gotten beat. I'm gonna try to go here now.
(21:52):
But no, he's gonna finish the route to maximize the separation.
You see him lean the corner to angle towards the
corner route and the shoulders go that way. You see
the seventeen of his jersey flip and then it widens
the corner by one step and then Waddle already knows
that it's a fake step so he can reaccelerate, and
by the time that corner takes that widening step, Wattle
gains an extra step and a half because of that.
(22:14):
It is such intricate detail that doesn't get noticed enough.
And then to locate the ball to head whip it
to concentrate through the babble through the man. What a
freaking stud this guy is. And here's where the route
detail shows up again and again and fiens for win
again the comeback that Tua was high on. It's the
exact same coverage, It's the exact same looking route as
both the dig and the takeoff, and the defensive back
(22:36):
does a full spin cycle as a result. He cooks
guys up. And then how about the catch on the
go ahead touchdown drive off the tip corrals that thing.
He is my biggest reason for excitement on this offense
the second half of the season. He's gonna get his
and I cannot wait to look up at the end
of the year and see JN. Waddle with thirteen hundred
yards and seven touchdowns, whatever the heck he has. Speaking
of special, Dvan a chance pretty special too, man. The
(22:58):
way he gets guys to stop their feet without pressing
with pressing angles, then hits the gas and attacks the
upfield shoulder and just leaves them grasping for legs trying
to get tackles. It's the same idea as Wattle, speed
and detail of angles and leverage.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Special stuff. Man.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
I thought Jonasava united some good stuff in this game.
He had some misses, notably a sack and a pressure
that kind of forced end of a drive, which you
got to do better than that. But this is one
of his better games. I come away from this tape
thinking he's going to get there. It might take some time,
but he's going to get there. I think a lot
could be solved by just being a little more patient
with his feet to get more of his weight behind
some of these blocks, both in pass pro and kicking
(23:35):
out wide defenders when he's getting into space. It just
looks to me like he's thinking a tad too much,
and I'm confident he'll iron it out over the course
of the year.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
And I would agree that.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
If this team was contending right now and they were
three and three or four and two, then maybe you
consider a move to make a change there, although with
Eikenberg and Daniels and meyer down, I don't know who
the hell you're gonna put out there, because he's the
better of the two guards right now. But I do
think we'll wind up looking back at twenty two twenty
five in terms of Jonah's development as a critical step
(24:04):
in developing the future of the left side of the
Dolphins offensive line with Jonah and Patrick Paul and I
thought it was similar for Julian Hill. Some misses in
the game, but man, he's having a really nice year,
and he looks to me like the future why of
this team. He's the current Why of the team, but
a good physical player who has seen the game slow down.
There was a rep where he dummied a full on
collision like I'm going to run through you, and then
(24:24):
kind of pulls up and then restarts the feet again
and goes and runs him over. It got the edge
on his heels and made the block easier. So he's
catching like better technique. He's catching the ball with more
confidence and more fluidly than he has in the past
earlier in his career. And then the the ability to
run through tacklers is there as well. A nice developmental
hit for the staff, you know, in patience to get
(24:44):
the development in three years in he had a key
block on a Chan's big run on the last touchdown.
Drive had a tough angle coming off motion was able
to kick it out and create the gap that Devon
hit there.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
The misses Cole Strange.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
By the way, this is a deep cut, you guys
in the movie Strange from like the early two thousands
or ninety or maybe even eighties.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
Whenever.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
The hell that was, like the fact that we have
Strange and Brew next to each other, and I haven't
heard that yet. Strange Brew, I don't know. But Cole
Strange makes a lot of strange decisions against pressure. He
also has these immediate losses that kill plays. And also
if he makes the block on the wattle throwback to
eight Chan, that's a touchdown. He falls off like he's
so good at getting into good shape. But he's the
(25:23):
opposite of Velcro I guess Crisco because he falls off
blocks almost immediately. I thought Patrick Paul had one of
his worst days of the season, and he struggled. He
couldn't uproot guys with his usual power. They would plant
and not let him hip toss them. He also got
beat on a couple of jump sets. He got beat
across his face. A lot of the true dropback situations
where they forced Tua to move, and that's okay for
most quarterbacks, but when to A moves, it kind of
(25:44):
cuts down parts of the field. Jun access right. His
hands and punch just weren't right. Wasn't landing them. Malik Washington.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
I like Malik.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
I think he's a good like number four, maybe three
option and return man, but he gets clamped in single
coverage more than I thought he would coming out of
UH out of college. It often cuts some of our
plays in field in half because he's really good when
you can motion him and run him from free releases
with bunches and stacks, but he struggles to separate sometimes
against true one on one coverage. And then alec Ingold's
(26:12):
batting average has kind of falling back this year. I
put that note in there, and this wasn't a miss,
But Nick Westbrook Aakine kind of gets overlooked in the
route tree sometimes and I'm just kind of curious why
that might be the case. I don't know the answer yet,
but I notice it watching it on tape. And by
the way, if this guy, if a guy's not in
the hits or misses, it just means I kind of
had them down the middle like Larry Borum was down
the middle in this game for me. Snaps two in
(26:33):
the offensive line, go the distance all fifty nine eight.
Chan played all but six snaps in the game, fifty
three for him, fourteen for Olie Gordon, twenty three for
alec Ingold. Waddle played forty eight. Nick Westbrook Aikine played
thirty seven, Malik twenty six d s Bridge played twelve
and then Waller and Julian Hill seventy nine combined snaps
forty for Waller, thirty nine for Julian Hill, and three
(26:54):
for Tann O'Connor. We're gonna come back on the other
side and briefly cover the defense because it was tougher
on that side of the ball's Next Draft Time podcast
brought to you by AutoNation All twenty two review from
the Dolphins and Chargers twenty nine twenty seven a loss.
We are about thirty minutes away from the American League
Championship Series Game two.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
I'm excited to watch that.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Defensively, I think they found something that worked in the
sense of getting their pressure numbers up with the use
of Phillips inside as more of a three technique, but
also getting his rush off the perimetery. He's kind of
coming along right now. The overall pressure rate wasn't very good,
and especially against a team that Bobby Hart and Austin
decklists like, that's a problem and I think it's going
to continue.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
To be a problem.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
But they they did get to a lot more of
those three and four edge groupings the NASCAR package, and
quite frankly, it schemed up two wins on the last
drive that should have closed out the game. I think
you're seeing some relationships start to mature to where they
have to be. Like we'll talk about the safeties and
two man calls here in a second, but the games
up front. I thought Zach and Kenneth Grant had their
best day together working as tandem. In tandem, I should say,
(28:00):
the combination of JP and Chopp as like a five
technique and a three technique or a four iye and
a six like whatever it is in terms of being
on the same side of the formation. I think it's
starting to click over there as well. I also thought
Jordan Brooks and kJ Brick clicked really well together. A
lot of man coverage in general, that's a change. I
want to look at the numbers before I get an
exact number on this, but I think it was more
man coverage when you've seen under Anthony and Weaver that
(28:22):
with the rotation Storm Duck probably gonna come back soon.
We saw some juju. Brince Brince, I'm curious about him.
There were some different looks here, and like the offense,
I'm just kind of curious to see how it evolves
and just kind of track things here and kind of,
you know, not be too harping on wins and losses
because you're one and five. But two things in the
last drive. First, the incomplete pass that Herbert throw through.
(28:44):
Watching this on tape was way harder than even watching
it in person. The incomplete pass. If you pause that thing,
He's got that ball dangled out there like a loaf
of bread, ready to blow another game winning situation right there,
and the Dolphins have three players on him, and there's
Chargers offensive lineman all over him. I cannot believe that
it didn't hit a helmet, a face mask, a shoulder pad,
(29:05):
someone's hand. He did end up losing it, but was
able to push it forward and throw the ball to
the you know, incomplete but like he's got six bodies
in his direct vicinity and he's holding the ball with
one hand, and we don't like it's just like you know,
bad football points of the season in the game, for sure,
but like sometimes bad luck get you two. And then
(29:25):
on the Ladd Mconkee completion, we should have finished that sack,
but we bust the coverage. They run Mesh What's mesh?
Speaker 1 (29:31):
Travis?
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Two routes from opposite sides of the formation cross at
the linebacker. It's a man coverage beater, and I don't
know if it's manner zone because we saw two guys
do two different things. But you get Arondez Gatston from
one side of the formation with kJ Britt and then
Ladd McConkey on the other side of the formation with
Minka Fitzpatrick covering him, and they're going to cross at
the linebacker, and Minka passes it off and sends mconkie
(29:53):
to BRIT's way, but Britt chases Gadsden across the formation.
If we zone that thing off, if kJ passes out
of off and just chills there, it's either a quick
tackle on Maconkie or Herbert has nowhere to go and
eats the sack. Either way, you're going to cause them
to burn clock or time out right there, and it
creates a what third and long situation never saw on
the broadcast. But that was the reason why that play
(30:15):
went the way it did. Individual standouts Minka Fitzpatrick, he
continues to get more comfortable each week to me his
man coverage, like he completely wiped away McConkey on a
third down play from Herbert in the first quarter where
it's a two way go a little pivot route, stayed
on top of it and makes a good breakup on
the ball. We also had a lot of two man
coverage concepts where he's consistently keying the release and getting
(30:35):
on top of the route before it breaks, just to
make that receiver completely irrelevant. Along with the good trail
technique from the cornerbacks underneath. I thought Jayden Phillips had
his best game since he got hurt in twenty three
against the Jets. He looks fully back to me now.
I think it was a bit of a slow start
for him, but he looks healthy in full swing. We
saw him getting depth and width on a little play
(30:56):
action boot where he was the curl flat drop man
and he runs the Trey Harris and got him out
of bounce quickly. That was a good sign to his
health to me. But more importantly the hand usage as
a rusher. He has a great base and a powerful
strike to really get offensive lineman off balance where he
can then explode like he still kind of kept the
explosion in like the tank and the handswipe then leads
(31:18):
to the explosion and he can you know, make him
a guy get off balance and then split the gap
with the urgency. I know he's sick about how the
game ended, but his upside we saw peaking in twenty
three was on tape. In this game, he's another guy.
I'm super interested to track his evaluation the rest of
the way because he could be a guy that kind
of turns this corner here and gets back on track
what we thought we had after the twenty one, twenty two,
(31:38):
and twenty three seasons. Rasseull Douglass is playing some damn
good ball man. His instincts, the variety of coverages you
can roll with him, playing trail, playing press. I don't
love the off as much, but you play some of it.
That punch out on the forced fumble, he looks like
a good blitzer to me. He's been a nice fine
for this Dolphins defense. Jordan Phillips is a legit run defender.
Every single week he strikes guys, stands him up, sheds blocks,
consistently makes plays at the point of attack, and the
(31:59):
running game kJ Britt. Despite that, bust I liked his flow,
his violent nature. He did enough when he got flexed
out on matchups with backs and tight ends. I think
you need his presence on this football team right now.
And then Juju Brents was three snaps. But I just
I'm intrigued there because his length and change of direction
are calling cards that I think can play at this level.
And I think as much as he gets more and
(32:21):
more familiar with some of the alerts to pressure and
some of the stuff that they do in the slot
position here, you can see him continue to grow in
this role on this defense, and I want to see
him more of him. It's time to you know, I
want to evaluate guys. Jordan Brooks nothing crazy, but the
impact of his hitting just stands out like he continuously
sticks guys and they go backwards. As far as the misses,
chop Robinson had nice two nice rushes at the end.
(32:43):
Didn't finish him, But I think that the juice coming
off the edge off the corner as a pass rusher
hasn't been there this season, and the run defense guys
are still getting into his chest. I didn't think Butler
but Hedo played particularly well in the game. I thought
Ethan Bonner's more of a reactor than an anticipator. I
don't think there's much there in terms of like picking
up tell and he's more of like a rely on
the athletic ability in this league that can kind of
get you beat sometimes. Zack Steeler's pass rush the run
(33:06):
defense is getting better. He gets doubled a lot, but
the pass rush the juices hasn't been there this year.
Ashton Davis, the run support is often late and often
jumps inside of the outside contained. He's kind of a
grass cover and zone coverage sometimes. The Lad McConkie touchdown
like he tried to wall it off. I don't know
what you're trying to like. I get the call might
(33:26):
be that, but he was never gonna be able to
hang with mconkey on that play and he just runs
by buy him for an easy touchdown.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
Dante Trader.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
I think he'll be a fine for us as we
go along, but that was a rough game for him
in terms of taking angles and taking on blocks coming
from depth, all those things you want to see from
your safeties snap counts. We saw Minka, Jordan Brooks, Rasoul Douglas,
and Ashton Davis go the distance. kJ Britt played all
but one snap sixty one. Trader played thirty four, so
you got a lot of big nickel there. If he
played two snaps. Jack Jones played forty six and then
(33:56):
the drop off to Bonner was sixteen three for Brent's
Seeler played fifty two the sixty two snaps. Benito played
thirty four, KG played twenty seven, Jordan Phillips played twenty six.
I still think that should go into the forties, and
Matthew Butler played thirteen and then off the edge JP
played forty eight. Chubb played forty seven. Chopped down the
twenty two snaps, Matthew Judon seventeen snaps. Top five tapes,
(34:16):
Minka Fitzpatrick number five like his game quite a lot,
Rasoul Douglas number four, Jalen Phillips number three, Jalen Waddle
number two, and Devon Han takes a top tape home
after his performance against the LA Chargers.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
That's it for the podcast. We're gonna go ahead and
get out of here.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
You please be sure subscribe, rate review the show, follow
me on social at Wingfold NFL. The team at Miami
Dolphins check out the YouTube channel for drive time content
for Dolphins, HQ, mediavailabilities and much much more. And last
button not least to Miami Dolphins dot com Until next time,
frum drum, Caroline Cameron and Willow Daddy.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
He's coming home.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
Go Mariners, the Seattle Mariners,
This is Drivetime with Travis wing for you.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
What is up Dolphins and welcome to the Draft Time Podcast.
I am your host, Travis Wingfield. And on today's show,
it's the All twenty two review day. We go in
the film to assess the Dolphins Week six loss to
the Chargers from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist
Health Training Complex. This is the Draft Time Podcasts. A
lot of different topics out there being discussed today in
(00:31):
Dolphins Land. If you want to get into the drama
of it all, this is not the place to find that.
We're gonna talk just about the film on the show
and start on the offense as we do each Tuesday.
With the general points here, I am still, to the
surprise of nobody, fascinated by how the offense has evolved
will evolve in the post Tyreek Hill world we saw twelve,
(00:51):
twenty one and twenty two. Groupings have a lot of
success in the Jets and Panthers games, and again if
you're new to the podcast, those are basically just heavier
person It's two receiver sets finding ways to get two
backs or two tight ends on the field, and the
Dolphins continue to lean into these packages. More as we
go along twelve personnel and Sunday's game six plays again
that was the season high after last week was the
(01:12):
season high in that personnel grouping. It produced twenty nine
yards and a touchdown on those six plays, but also
an interception. Twenty two personnel. This is the one that
Travis likes a lot, right. We did a whole breakdown
on this talking about this last week and on HQ.
Fourteen plays, the highest of the Mike McDaniel era, which
is basically just playing Julian Hill and Darren Waller along
with either eight Chan or Gordon with alec Ingold or
(01:35):
sometimes it was a Chan and Gordon together and Ingold
off the field. But fourteen plays, one hundred and ten
yards and two touchdowns, also a pick. So those two
groupings combined for twenty two plays, one hundred and thirty
nine yards and three touchdowns. It's a great day and
frankly that spawned the return of the explosive play right
Wattle last week, the long touchdown Waller's thirty plus yard
(01:58):
catch last week.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
We're both from that grouping.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
All of Waller's touchdowns have been from these groupings, all
four of them. Eight chance touchdowns forty nine yards and
four yards yesterday, both from these groupings. The offense has
been good. Has it been as good as twenty two
or twenty three? No, But it's literally the next best
offense you've seen from the Miami Dolphins this century, the
third best EPA per play in twenty twenty five since
(02:21):
Marino retired, with twenty three and twenty two being one
and two. So you're still in that realm. And that's
not a high bar to clear, because before McDaniel got here,
the Dolphins offense was notoriously never in the top fifteen
of the league. Right, But this offense is good again,
not as good as it has been, but it's pretty good.
And while it all goes for not amid what has
(02:41):
been historically or a historically bad start for the defense.
This is the part that I want to keep pressing
on y'all, and again there's not Look, you are all
well within your rights to say enough with the hope
and we'll get here eventually, Travis, I trust me, I
get it.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
I get it. I've watched my team. You know. I
have two loves in sports. I like the heat.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
I like the kugs. I loved the Cougs, but they
got robbed from me. I loved the songs. They got
robbed from me. But the Mariners and Dolphins are my
two true loves, and sports my thropple of soulmates, if
you will, when it comes to Travis in sports. And
the last time I saw a big, important win in
a huge game was the Colts playoff game, right or
the Mariners. They won a couple of wild card games
(03:23):
against the Blue Jays and twenty two and that was fun,
but they got wiped out by the Astros in the
American League Division Series. But in two thousand and one
the Mariners won the Alds, and back then I was
kind of mad at them for trade and Griffy still,
so it was more like the nineties. And let me
tell you, with a fully frontal lobe develops now at
this point in my life, experiencing the Mariners win that
(03:43):
Game five on Friday and then come back and win
Game one of the American League Championship Series on Sunday,
depleted of all their arms and the Blue Jays having
rest and their ace on the bump, and the Marrior's
number four pitcher going and winning that game pretty surreal.
I'm kind of on sports high despite my number one
love the team that I've dedicated my entire freaking life
to being one and five, But that kind of keeps
(04:05):
me going for the Miami Dolphins when it looks bleak
one in five and look, I'm able to laugh at
what the season has become for the most part, because
it like, I don't know, it's just like what else
can you do? Right? If you can't laugh, you cry?
But the Mariners are helping in a big way to
help me get to that position. But allow me to
convey this point to any of you that only root
(04:26):
for the Dolphins, or maybe you root for the Dolphins
and the Colorado Rockies or whatever it is, right, a
team that doesn't ever go anywhere, it's gonna be worth
it someday. The Mariners historically have horrific ownership that doesn't
put the money that the fans give them back onto
the field. They prioritize profits and they hoard free agency
(04:47):
dollars to put it into their own pockets, which is
what baseball. Half the damn league is that in baseball.
But in baseball, you hope that you can develop a
core that pushes beyond frugals right, and the Marriors have
done that because this is an ownership group that has
given the entire fan base for twenty years. They've made
the playoffs six times and forty nine years, guys, and
(05:09):
this is an ownership group that has given their fan
base every right to loathe them, but then they catch
fire like this. It's worth it. I'm telling you right now,
it's so worth it. Back to the point, there are
elements of this offense that make a slight philosophical approach,
a shift in that and really get back into the
(05:30):
top ten of the league in offense because they're on
the fringe of it right now, and there are really
good parts. And we are finally seeing what we talked
about with Kyle myself on the show all off season
about centering this thing around the general idea of the
offense and not one player. And again, Tyreek Hill gave
you two of the funniest years you've had if you're
a Dolphins fan of a certain age, I will never
(05:51):
disparage that in what he accomplished, but by the end
of it, it became almost more about the individual in
certain aspects, maybe not even intentionally, but that's what felt
like watching it right but I think what you're seeing
and this is what I was hopeful for, and maybe
in hindsight you know this. You could have gotten to
this before the first game of the season. But we
are seeing what it looks like when you have that
(06:11):
ball distribution, run game, heavy play action for this quarterback.
It works pretty well. And I think you're right around
the corner or if not already there to finding an
identity on offense that can really work for this group
of players with hopefully additions, you know, down the road
in the future, because at one in five it's tough
to think about possibilities in twenty twenty five. But thinking
about the long term vision offensively, you've got some parts here.
(06:35):
Defensively that might take a little bit longer. It's been
rough on that side of the ball. For further posterity
here eleven personnel they ran eighteen plays and gained ninety
nine yards. That's five point five yards per play. That's
really good. It's not as good as the other packages,
which combined twelve and twenty two was six point three
yards per play and three touchdowns, so way almost a
full yard more and your three scoring plays. Twenty one
(06:56):
personnel they ran that sixteen plays seventy five yards four
point six yards per play. Not great but decent. It's
not bad, but nothing beats twelve and twenty two personnel
for this Dolphins offense right now to further this point.
They're cooking up some new formations from these groupings that
I think are encouraging about the further development of the
offense and where they can go. Because the Waller miss
that the deep over route. You know, we'll talk about
(07:17):
the throw here in a second, but they were in
twenty two personnel and the boundary the short side of
the field. We know that by now right the boundaries
the short side the field's the wide side. You had
waddle and a condensed split as the one receiver to
the boundary. Julian Hill is stacked right behind the right tackle.
That's a pretty unique formation set up, and a Chan
was offset right behind him to the right, and Olie
(07:38):
Gordon was offset off of him to the left, so
it was like trips in the backfield behind the right tackle.
I've never seen that before. Maybe I need to watch
more football. I watched quite a lot of football. But
Darren Waller is the field side receiver, which makes him
the X the weak side of the formation even though
it's the wide side of the formation, and the run
action with a pair of swings that basically switched release.
I've ever seen that either in the backfield, like where
(08:00):
the guy to the right went left and the guy
to the left went right. You know, it's almost like friggin'
water boy.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
He fakes it. No, he fakes the fake.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
He pretends to fake, but it actually is like it
actually is clever. And the run action with those pair
of swing routes from that trip's bunch back there. It
got the Chargers defense completely on false keys. It got
them sucked up, and then Wattle busts his butt to
get on the clear out route as he always does,
and frees up the cover three of the defense and
Waller runs to open grass. It's a cool design from
(08:28):
a grouping we hadn't used a whole lot until the
last three games. But then you get to the design
like the one on the two a half roll to
Waddle where he checks up and throws a hitch or
Waddle runs the hitch with no secondary option on the route.
That's kind of a microcosm of where we are where
one thing looks awesome but then the next play is
like a shoot yourself in the foot or a poor
design or a poor execution or a pre snap penalty.
(08:51):
And as my good friend Seth Levitt will tell me,
greatness on one play and disaster on the next means
you're just frankly average and the offense to me is
above average. But you get the point, and that's where
you have to iron out to maybe the bad plays
are more baseline, and then your great plays are way
up there, and then you can settle into a happy
medium where you're great, not like great great, but like
(09:12):
great one great. The a Chan touchdown run one of
two pin and pole concepts they ran on this day.
Pin and Pole is a very different scheme than what
the Dolphins typically run with their running games. So outside zone,
the first step of every offensive lineman pulls in the
same direction you try to get with You try to
basically change the launch point of the defensive line and
give the back a chance to kind of stretch it
(09:33):
out and pick his gap and go hit it with
speed and conviction. When you run pin and poll, it's
more direct about where that gap is going to be,
so off the outside of the formation, both the tight
end and the right tackle, they down block, they block
in towards the formation inside and then you pull the
guard from the backside of the formation and he comes
around and kicks out the outside defender and that's the
(09:53):
pin inside and the pole on the outside, and it
gives a Chan a very specific lane. Aren Brewer climbs
to the second level and makes a block on that.
You get huge pins from Julian, from Larry from Strange.
Jonah has a nice cutoff block slanting off the one
shade and a chance speed takes care of the rest
and he ran that thing tight to his blocks. A
really impressive run there from devon Ah Chan. The next
(10:13):
run goes back to outside zone, but eight Chant hits
the cutback. It's a different variation that just compliments what
we do. So this is what I'm talking about, and
I've been talking about the ability to hit variation in
your zone scheme to call upon heavy personnel. We saw
the inside zone game against the Buffalo Bills right to
be able to call some gap scheme stuff like a
pin and poll and then your play action game off
of that. It kind of reminds me of shades of
(10:37):
the Ben Johnson Detroit Lions offense. And that's why I
think this quarterback needs And you can debate whether or
not you know the future for one is here, like
whatever you want to talk about the quarterback position. I
think there's a winning offense you can build around this guy.
And I think the way the NFL has shifted their
coverages that this is the new way forward for the
Dolphins in this iteration, and I think you're seeing some
(10:58):
of that and maybe by force in terms of Tyreek
Hill going down, but I'm excited about that element of it,
about some of the core building blocks. Waddle's bona fide
number one, a chance one of the best running backs
in the game. Brewer is the best center of the
American Football Conference. Patrick Paul is an elite left tackle,
and Jonah's going to develop. Like you've got pieces here,
Julian Hill looks really, really good. We'll talk about that.
(11:20):
You've got pieces here to be that to be a
flexible offensive running scheme that gets your play action game,
and I'm excited about that. There's an interesting dichotomy across
how that looks, but also with how they call their
protection scheme and the run calls for the offensive line.
Because the help is almost always going to the right side,
and that's a lot to ask for Jonas of I Unite.
(11:40):
He's getting one on one matchups against some really good
players in this league, and they're getting the best of
him at some times.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
But there are some reps where he gets it right.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
There's some good reps where he condenses inside with Patrick
Paul against rush games. But they're also while helping out
the side of the offensive line that is pretty clearly
the one that needs the help in terms of how
they call it with the run game running behind that
right side. So that's an interesting dichotomy, one that I'm
curious to kind of, you know, unfolds we go along,
because it's kind of turning into an evaluation season right now,
(12:07):
right But I mean, it's it's worth watching to me.
I know nobody wants to hear that because you guys
want to see results, and I get that, but this
is what you know, this is the job I'm trying
to and the coaches will do the same thing too,
trying to find out what works and what we can
get to and whether it's you know, this year or beyond,
Like you have to you have to evaluate and find
out what you got. Now, one thing they have is
some crazy formations in a good way. The Wattle wind
(12:30):
back play. I talked about the trips in the backfield.
You've got Waller is to the boundary on the numbers
the short side of the field condensed. Julian Hill is
on the opposite side of the formation as an attached
why why tight end Oli Gordon's and the shotgun alongside
Tua and a chance like just to the right of
Allie Gordon who's alongside Tua, and then Wattle is in
(12:52):
that same position next to Olie as well. So it's
again another like trips formation in the backfield or even
like a diamond formation to that side of the formation
with Waller being in close to the boundary. Like I'm
digging these formations from these two back and two tight
groupings because you're getting you're getting a challenge in terms
of how they fit the run from that position, but
also how they pick up all that trash from you know,
they can't press you from there. They have to sort
(13:13):
out switch releases from there. Like they're finding success with
those tight trip formations out of twenty two personnel with
the trips being behind the right tackle it's interesting. One
thing we need a deviation from, in my opinion, is
those escort swings where you have a blocker out in
front and the running back behind him.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
That became kind of in vogue in the NFL two
years ago.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
The Dolphins went way too heavy after it last year
and kind of backed off of it. We've seen some
more of it this year. But the play after the
wattle bomb after the forty five yard played a wattle
We run one of those and it gets blown up
because the block gets missed and a chan drops it
because his eyes look downfield and there was so much
space over there. But also if he just like runs
the escort route the swing, but puts his foot in
(13:54):
the ground and turns it into a Texas route where
he angles back across the formation, there's like nobody in
the middle of the field and quite we could use
some more middle of the field offense right now. Or
if you just execute the block, that'll work too. But
I think there's variations off that that you can get to.
You're getting so many wrinkles off these new looks where
I think you can have that further development happen here.
It's like a whole other section of the playbook the
(14:15):
opposition has to think about and the reaction to those
wrinkles they might have, Like they don't have the answers
for that, yet they have the answers for all the
other stuff we ran, the RPO, the rail slide combo,
you know, the dagger, some of the middle of the field,
like the digs and stuff. It's that has been adjusted
to This stuff is all new for opposing defense. Is
like the Julian Hill middle screen on the go ahead
(14:37):
touchdown drive. You can see that with something the Chargers
had no plan for. So I'm excited to see that
aspect of things. I'm not telling you guys, I'm excited
about the rest of the season, Go Mariners, but I'm
excited about how it develops and how we can kind
of learn from this the rest of the way. We
talked about two touchdowns and a field goal on the
final five drives against the Jets. After Tyreek Hill gets
(14:57):
hurt twenty four points last week, twenty seven points this week,
you haven't lost your production in the post Tyreek Hill world.
And if you can say that and you can save
the thirty million dollars and the draft capital, like that's
a pretty good net win, right, So that's kind of
my thought. Let's take our first break right there, come
back and talk about the quarterback as well as the
rest of the individual's on offense. We'll also talk defense
(15:17):
and the third segment all of that ahead Drift Time
podcast brought to you by AutoNation.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
It is time to talk to a drink of water,
to a talk time.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Very well, the first interception was good quarterback play. I mean,
that's all it was. Dayon Henley go Kooks is pushing
the hook. Tua moves to Julian Hill, who has an
over the ball hookup route. Just go run over the
middle of the ball, show your numbers and Hill or
Henley rather drives on that, and Tua resets his feet
and comes back to Wattle with a clear window. This time,
(15:50):
the ball's right on the chest. There's nothing else he
can do. Wattle has to make that catch. The next
throw to Waller is about as bad as you'll see
from Tua, and I mean that in like a complimentary way,
in the sense that he doesn't miss those throws usually. Ever,
this year has been more of them in that regard,
but typically not his miss in his bag to miss those.
It's a well designed clear out with the backside over
(16:11):
to attack the cover three coverage. And remember that twenty
twenty game against the Buffalo Bills down here when Stefan
Diggs went crazy and the Bills kept throwing these clear
out over combinations against our cover three, when Byron Jones
got hurt and they had to force Noah Igbinogny into
the game when he wasn't ready for it, and Diggs
just got after him for like two hundred yards.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Similar.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Look here, we saw that on this play and he
missed it. His best play from the game didn't count.
It was a holding call that got it called back.
He gets immediate a gap pressure, sprints to safety, sets up,
and throws a dot to waller across his body climbing
in the pocket. And this is where I think Tua
needs to continue to do this more. When he scrambles
scramble to throw a big dog. We'll talk about that
here in more. In one second, the second pick was
(16:51):
the only one of the three that was on him
and mattered. And upon I hate the concept, but don't
care through three picks that is that is dumb. That's
just flat out dumb, Like doesn't matter.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
It like.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
A pick on a hell Mary. I'm not going to
blame the quarterback for that wasn't a hell mary. But
they weren't going to score, you know, Miami miracle was
going to happen again. But upon further review, the pick
was more on two than it was eight chen and
in fact, Han did a good job to press it
and angled it horizontally back across the field. But two
was late and behind, and the late nature of it
allows the defensive back to get downhill ahead of the football,
(17:23):
and the location of it allows to make a play
on the football. So two bad things result in a turnover.
We've see in these types of throws man, they just
continue to be a tick off more than they have
in the past. And Kyle Krabs provided these numbers on
his podcast the other day. Tua this year is ten
for seventeen throwing in the middle of the field in
the intermediate portion ten to nineteen yards, right, that's our
(17:44):
bread and butter. For the last four years between the numbers,
it was fifty eight percent, eight point eight yards per attempt,
no touchdowns, and four picks, and he passed the rating
of forty eight the previous three years twenty two through
twenty four, he threw two hundred and ninety four of
those passes, so way above the current rate in twenty
five where we're just not attacking that area of the
field very much. Seventy three percent completion, twelve point nine
(18:07):
yards per pass, that's what four more yards per pass
and a fifteen percent completion percentage hike and ten touchdowns
compared to nine picks. Most of his picks will come
in that area because that's where there's bodies, but at
one hundred and thirteen passer rating compared to a forty
eight passer rating, that's the biggest difference in to his
game right now.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
There's a lot to like.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
I think, all things being equal, if he were on
the same production in this area alone as he were before,
we'd have won a couple more games and we'd be
talking about two in that same eight ten top twelve
quarterback range. Conversely, we've lost the four close games and
it's probably more like he's in the fourteen, sixteen to
eighteen range. The next throw to Waddle was an open comeback,
the ball was too high and that was it for
(18:48):
the misses. As a quarterback, you get three or four
bad reps in a game, they get magnified. Everybody else
will have that many reps that are bad, and you
don't see as much talked about it. But you can't
expect him to play perfect, but you do think you
should hit those three because in the past he has.
And there was another example of him committing to a
scramble when I felt he should have thrown it. It
was the first play of the penultimate touchdown drive, the
(19:10):
first touchdown drive of the fourth quarter. He breaks contain.
Eight Chan gets into his route and Tua was behind
the last scrimmage. As eight Chan goes over behind the
defender who committed to come try to tackle Tua and
if he just pulls up and flips it over his head,
ah Chan has a possible explosive, but he commits to
the run and slides down for a short gain. The
pump to the flat on the Darren Waller touchdown to
(19:32):
free up that space was high level quarterback play. All
in all, pretty good game for Tua. One really costly
mistake that led to a pick and then a few misses,
but he made a bunch of plays in quick game instructure,
had some outer structure plays. He was fourteen for fifteen
in the fourth quarter with ninety nine yards passing and
two scoring drives to bring us back. So a pretty
good day for Tua all things told. The rest of
(19:52):
the offense the standouts Aaron Brewer obligatory kickoff here with
Aaron Brewer, I mean the eight chan forty nine yarder,
the sixteen yarder getting to the sp before the second
level defender, riding them all the way out of the play.
There was an eight chan run early in the second
quarter where Brewer has to reach a one shade and
he fires across his face, kind of stumbles out of
the blocks, but gets back on balance and he winds
(20:14):
up running off the nose tackle without even having a
hand engage with him like, he just finds ways to
win even when it's not right. He is an elite player.
He is the AFC Pro Bowl Center for the first
third of the season, and I don't think it's close.
He also had a stunt pick up on the Wattle
bomb where he and Jonah did a fantastic job. Speaking
of Wattle, we did that breakdown Dolphins HQ last week
(20:35):
and I was very proud of how that turned out.
I just love this guy. The first play was as
bad of a start to a game as you can have, right,
but he was great the rest of the way on
that deep play action dig where he caught it for
nineteen yards. That off corner gets run off so hard,
and it goes back to our breakdown last week where
he earns the space that guys give him with his
nuanced detail in his route running. He takes a step
(20:57):
inside off of the release and accelerates through a step
where he widens it back out, and that is selling
multiple routes to the corner back without decreasing his ability
to get down the stem.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
It sells the vertical.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
The corner flips the hips and at that exact moment,
Wattle sticks his foot in the ground and he's wide
open twenty yards downfield on the dig, and if he
doesn't have to slow down to catch that ball, it's
a fifty one yard touchdown. And then, holy moly, man,
holy moly, what are you thirteen years old? The forty
five yard play was so much better on tape than
what I even realized. First off, there's a miscommunication somewhere
(21:31):
between he and Tua because Wattle expects that ball off
the inside shoulder and it goes way over the outside
shoulder on the corner. But the way he ran his
route tells me if the ball's inside, it's gonna be
a long touchdown because he killed the route. It was
exceptional detail. He takes an inside release, he's got a step.
But he could just cheat the route and say I've
already gotten beat. I'm gonna try to go here now.
(21:52):
But no, he's gonna finish the route to maximize the separation.
You see him lean the corner to angle towards the
corner route and the shoulders go that way. You see
the seventeen of his jersey flip and then it widens
the corner by one step and then Waddle already knows
that it's a fake step so he can reaccelerate, and
by the time that corner takes that widening step, Wattle
gains an extra step and a half because of that.
(22:14):
It is such intricate detail that doesn't get noticed enough.
And then to locate the ball to head whip it
to concentrate through the babble through the man. What a
freaking stud this guy is. And here's where the route
detail shows up again and again and fiens for win
again the comeback that Tua was high on. It's the
exact same coverage, It's the exact same looking route as
both the dig and the takeoff, and the defensive back
(22:36):
does a full spin cycle as a result. He cooks
guys up. And then how about the catch on the
go ahead touchdown drive off the tip corrals that thing.
He is my biggest reason for excitement on this offense
the second half of the season. He's gonna get his
and I cannot wait to look up at the end
of the year and see JN. Waddle with thirteen hundred
yards and seven touchdowns, whatever the heck he has. Speaking
of special, Dvan a chance pretty special too, man. The
(22:58):
way he gets guys to stop their feet without pressing
with pressing angles, then hits the gas and attacks the
upfield shoulder and just leaves them grasping for legs trying
to get tackles. It's the same idea as Wattle, speed
and detail of angles and leverage.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Special stuff. Man.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
I thought Jonasava united some good stuff in this game.
He had some misses, notably a sack and a pressure
that kind of forced end of a drive, which you
got to do better than that. But this is one
of his better games. I come away from this tape
thinking he's going to get there. It might take some time,
but he's going to get there. I think a lot
could be solved by just being a little more patient
with his feet to get more of his weight behind
some of these blocks, both in pass pro and kicking
(23:35):
out wide defenders when he's getting into space. It just
looks to me like he's thinking a tad too much,
and I'm confident he'll iron it out over the course
of the year.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
And I would agree that.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
If this team was contending right now and they were
three and three or four and two, then maybe you
consider a move to make a change there, although with
Eikenberg and Daniels and meyer down, I don't know who
the hell you're gonna put out there, because he's the
better of the two guards right now. But I do
think we'll wind up looking back at twenty two twenty
five in terms of Jonah's development as a critical step
(24:04):
in developing the future of the left side of the
Dolphins offensive line with Jonah and Patrick Paul and I
thought it was similar for Julian Hill. Some misses in
the game, but man, he's having a really nice year,
and he looks to me like the future why of
this team. He's the current Why of the team, but
a good physical player who has seen the game slow down.
There was a rep where he dummied a full on
collision like I'm going to run through you, and then
(24:24):
kind of pulls up and then restarts the feet again
and goes and runs him over. It got the edge
on his heels and made the block easier. So he's
catching like better technique. He's catching the ball with more
confidence and more fluidly than he has in the past
earlier in his career. And then the the ability to
run through tacklers is there as well. A nice developmental
hit for the staff, you know, in patience to get
(24:44):
the development in three years in he had a key
block on a Chan's big run on the last touchdown.
Drive had a tough angle coming off motion was able
to kick it out and create the gap that Devon
hit there.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
The misses Cole Strange.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
By the way, this is a deep cut, you guys
in the movie Strange from like the early two thousands
or ninety or maybe even eighties.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
Whenever.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
The hell that was, like the fact that we have
Strange and Brew next to each other, and I haven't
heard that yet. Strange Brew, I don't know. But Cole
Strange makes a lot of strange decisions against pressure. He
also has these immediate losses that kill plays. And also
if he makes the block on the wattle throwback to
eight Chan, that's a touchdown. He falls off like he's
so good at getting into good shape. But he's the
(25:23):
opposite of Velcro I guess Crisco because he falls off
blocks almost immediately. I thought Patrick Paul had one of
his worst days of the season, and he struggled. He
couldn't uproot guys with his usual power. They would plant
and not let him hip toss them. He also got
beat on a couple of jump sets. He got beat
across his face. A lot of the true dropback situations
where they forced Tua to move, and that's okay for
most quarterbacks, but when to A moves, it kind of
(25:44):
cuts down parts of the field. Jun access right. His
hands and punch just weren't right. Wasn't landing them. Malik Washington.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
I like Malik.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
I think he's a good like number four, maybe three
option and return man, but he gets clamped in single
coverage more than I thought he would coming out of
UH out of college. It often cuts some of our
plays in field in half because he's really good when
you can motion him and run him from free releases
with bunches and stacks, but he struggles to separate sometimes
against true one on one coverage. And then alec Ingold's
(26:12):
batting average has kind of falling back this year. I
put that note in there, and this wasn't a miss,
But Nick Westbrook Aakine kind of gets overlooked in the
route tree sometimes and I'm just kind of curious why
that might be the case. I don't know the answer yet,
but I notice it watching it on tape. And by
the way, if this guy, if a guy's not in
the hits or misses, it just means I kind of
had them down the middle like Larry Borum was down
the middle in this game for me. Snaps two in
(26:33):
the offensive line, go the distance all fifty nine eight.
Chan played all but six snaps in the game, fifty
three for him, fourteen for Olie Gordon, twenty three for
alec Ingold. Waddle played forty eight. Nick Westbrook Aikine played
thirty seven, Malik twenty six d s Bridge played twelve
and then Waller and Julian Hill seventy nine combined snaps
forty for Waller, thirty nine for Julian Hill, and three
(26:54):
for Tann O'Connor. We're gonna come back on the other
side and briefly cover the defense because it was tougher
on that side of the ball's Next Draft Time podcast
brought to you by AutoNation All twenty two review from
the Dolphins and Chargers twenty nine twenty seven a loss.
We are about thirty minutes away from the American League
Championship Series Game two.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
I'm excited to watch that.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Defensively, I think they found something that worked in the
sense of getting their pressure numbers up with the use
of Phillips inside as more of a three technique, but
also getting his rush off the perimetery. He's kind of
coming along right now. The overall pressure rate wasn't very good,
and especially against a team that Bobby Hart and Austin
decklists like, that's a problem and I think it's going
to continue.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
To be a problem.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
But they they did get to a lot more of
those three and four edge groupings the NASCAR package, and
quite frankly, it schemed up two wins on the last
drive that should have closed out the game. I think
you're seeing some relationships start to mature to where they
have to be. Like we'll talk about the safeties and
two man calls here in a second, but the games
up front. I thought Zach and Kenneth Grant had their
best day together working as tandem. In tandem, I should say,
(28:00):
the combination of JP and Chopp as like a five
technique and a three technique or a four iye and
a six like whatever it is in terms of being
on the same side of the formation. I think it's
starting to click over there as well. I also thought
Jordan Brooks and kJ Brick clicked really well together. A
lot of man coverage in general, that's a change. I
want to look at the numbers before I get an
exact number on this, but I think it was more
man coverage when you've seen under Anthony and Weaver that
(28:22):
with the rotation Storm Duck probably gonna come back soon.
We saw some juju. Brince Brince, I'm curious about him.
There were some different looks here, and like the offense,
I'm just kind of curious to see how it evolves
and just kind of track things here and kind of,
you know, not be too harping on wins and losses
because you're one and five. But two things in the
last drive. First, the incomplete pass that Herbert throw through.
(28:44):
Watching this on tape was way harder than even watching
it in person. The incomplete pass. If you pause that thing,
He's got that ball dangled out there like a loaf
of bread, ready to blow another game winning situation right there,
and the Dolphins have three players on him, and there's
Chargers offensive lineman all over him. I cannot believe that
it didn't hit a helmet, a face mask, a shoulder pad,
(29:05):
someone's hand. He did end up losing it, but was
able to push it forward and throw the ball to
the you know, incomplete but like he's got six bodies
in his direct vicinity and he's holding the ball with
one hand, and we don't like it's just like you know,
bad football points of the season in the game, for sure,
but like sometimes bad luck get you two. And then
(29:25):
on the Ladd Mconkee completion, we should have finished that sack,
but we bust the coverage. They run Mesh What's mesh?
Speaker 1 (29:31):
Travis?
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Two routes from opposite sides of the formation cross at
the linebacker. It's a man coverage beater, and I don't
know if it's manner zone because we saw two guys
do two different things. But you get Arondez Gatston from
one side of the formation with kJ Britt and then
Ladd McConkey on the other side of the formation with
Minka Fitzpatrick covering him, and they're going to cross at
the linebacker, and Minka passes it off and sends mconkie
(29:53):
to BRIT's way, but Britt chases Gadsden across the formation.
If we zone that thing off, if kJ passes out
of off and just chills there, it's either a quick
tackle on Maconkie or Herbert has nowhere to go and
eats the sack. Either way, you're going to cause them
to burn clock or time out right there, and it
creates a what third and long situation never saw on
the broadcast. But that was the reason why that play
(30:15):
went the way it did. Individual standouts Minka Fitzpatrick, he
continues to get more comfortable each week to me his
man coverage, like he completely wiped away McConkey on a
third down play from Herbert in the first quarter where
it's a two way go a little pivot route, stayed
on top of it and makes a good breakup on
the ball. We also had a lot of two man
coverage concepts where he's consistently keying the release and getting
(30:35):
on top of the route before it breaks, just to
make that receiver completely irrelevant. Along with the good trail
technique from the cornerbacks underneath. I thought Jayden Phillips had
his best game since he got hurt in twenty three
against the Jets. He looks fully back to me now.
I think it was a bit of a slow start
for him, but he looks healthy in full swing. We
saw him getting depth and width on a little play
(30:56):
action boot where he was the curl flat drop man
and he runs the Trey Harris and got him out
of bounce quickly. That was a good sign to his
health to me. But more importantly the hand usage as
a rusher. He has a great base and a powerful
strike to really get offensive lineman off balance where he
can then explode like he still kind of kept the
explosion in like the tank and the handswipe then leads
(31:18):
to the explosion and he can you know, make him
a guy get off balance and then split the gap
with the urgency. I know he's sick about how the
game ended, but his upside we saw peaking in twenty
three was on tape. In this game, he's another guy.
I'm super interested to track his evaluation the rest of
the way because he could be a guy that kind
of turns this corner here and gets back on track
what we thought we had after the twenty one, twenty two,
(31:38):
and twenty three seasons. Rasseull Douglass is playing some damn
good ball man. His instincts, the variety of coverages you
can roll with him, playing trail, playing press. I don't
love the off as much, but you play some of it.
That punch out on the forced fumble, he looks like
a good blitzer to me. He's been a nice fine
for this Dolphins defense. Jordan Phillips is a legit run defender.
Every single week he strikes guys, stands him up, sheds blocks,
consistently makes plays at the point of attack, and the
(31:59):
running game kJ Britt. Despite that, bust I liked his flow,
his violent nature. He did enough when he got flexed
out on matchups with backs and tight ends. I think
you need his presence on this football team right now.
And then Juju Brents was three snaps. But I just
I'm intrigued there because his length and change of direction
are calling cards that I think can play at this level.
And I think as much as he gets more and
(32:21):
more familiar with some of the alerts to pressure and
some of the stuff that they do in the slot
position here, you can see him continue to grow in
this role on this defense, and I want to see
him more of him. It's time to you know, I
want to evaluate guys. Jordan Brooks nothing crazy, but the
impact of his hitting just stands out like he continuously
sticks guys and they go backwards. As far as the misses,
chop Robinson had nice two nice rushes at the end.
(32:43):
Didn't finish him, But I think that the juice coming
off the edge off the corner as a pass rusher
hasn't been there this season, and the run defense guys
are still getting into his chest. I didn't think Butler
but Hedo played particularly well in the game. I thought
Ethan Bonner's more of a reactor than an anticipator. I
don't think there's much there in terms of like picking
up tell and he's more of like a rely on
the athletic ability in this league that can kind of
get you beat sometimes. Zack Steeler's pass rush the run
(33:06):
defense is getting better. He gets doubled a lot, but
the pass rush the juices hasn't been there this year.
Ashton Davis, the run support is often late and often
jumps inside of the outside contained. He's kind of a
grass cover and zone coverage sometimes. The Lad McConkie touchdown
like he tried to wall it off. I don't know
what you're trying to like. I get the call might
(33:26):
be that, but he was never gonna be able to
hang with mconkey on that play and he just runs
by buy him for an easy touchdown.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
Dante Trader.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
I think he'll be a fine for us as we
go along, but that was a rough game for him
in terms of taking angles and taking on blocks coming
from depth, all those things you want to see from
your safeties snap counts. We saw Minka, Jordan Brooks, Rasoul Douglas,
and Ashton Davis go the distance. kJ Britt played all
but one snap sixty one. Trader played thirty four, so
you got a lot of big nickel there. If he
played two snaps. Jack Jones played forty six and then
(33:56):
the drop off to Bonner was sixteen three for Brent's
Seeler played fifty two the sixty two snaps. Benito played
thirty four, KG played twenty seven, Jordan Phillips played twenty six.
I still think that should go into the forties, and
Matthew Butler played thirteen and then off the edge JP
played forty eight. Chubb played forty seven. Chopped down the
twenty two snaps, Matthew Judon seventeen snaps. Top five tapes,
(34:16):
Minka Fitzpatrick number five like his game quite a lot,
Rasoul Douglas number four, Jalen Phillips number three, Jalen Waddle
number two, and Devon Han takes a top tape home
after his performance against the LA Chargers.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
That's it for the podcast. We're gonna go ahead and
get out of here.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
You please be sure subscribe, rate review the show, follow
me on social at Wingfold NFL. The team at Miami
Dolphins check out the YouTube channel for drive time content
for Dolphins, HQ, mediavailabilities and much much more. And last
button not least to Miami Dolphins dot com Until next time,
frum drum, Caroline Cameron and Willow Daddy.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
He's coming home.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
Go Mariners, the Seattle Mariners,
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CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.