January 1, 2026 • 30 mins
The final preview episode of the 2025 season. We’ll break down the matchups the Dolphins can win and build some momentum heading into the offseason. Personnel, scheme, keys to victory and much more!!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Drivetime with Travis Wingfield. What is up Dolphins
and welcome to the Draft Time Podcast. I am your host,
Travis Wingfield. And on today's show, one more time for
twenty twenty five. Well, I guess the first one of
(00:22):
twenty twenty six, but just off the U for the
sake of a clean break at the end of a season.
This is why I liked it when there's only sixteen games,
because the regular season ends at the end of the
year and the playoffs start in January. But they had
to go and screw it all up. One last preview
podcast for the twenty twenty five campaign Dolphins and Patriots
with a heavy eye on Dolphins matchups for evaluation purposes
(00:44):
from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.
This is the Drive Time Podcast, Week eighteen at the
New England Patriots. Going to be about twenty five degrees
come for twenty five. Once that sun goes down, it's
going to get cold in Farborough, probably below twenty by
the time the game ends. But so much has changed
(01:04):
as we get into the Patriots introduction here. In the
three months since we have played them, we've learned about
a quarterback that went in the wrong direction. They've seen
their young quarterback turn into a superstar. And going back
over my notes from that game, I thought the Patriots
were a year away, and boy was I wrong. They
found what appears to be another generational quarterback, which you know,
(01:27):
like you know, they had a down period between Brady dynasties,
and they literally won divisions and playoff games and conference
championships in those quote unquote down years. And then they
get another three super Bowls the second half of the
Brady dynasty. They go to another Super Bowl beyond that,
and they don't win that game against the Eagles. They
play in the AFC Championship Game for eight consecutive years,
(01:49):
and they bookend those years with a fourteen to two
season with a divisional round loss to the Jets, the
Jets last playoff win in twenty ten, and then twelve
and four with a wildcard exit against the Titans in
twenty nineteen. So their down years are basically would have
been the best year for the Miami Dolphins in the
last twenty five years. They finally missed the playoffs in
twenty twenty, the Cam Newton year, but they go back
(02:12):
to the playoffs in twenty one with Mac Jones each
your heart out his rookie season, and then they finally
hit some tough years, an eight win season, but then
back to back four win seasons where the Patriots faithful
got tested for a two full years. And that's the
come up, and so they get for being the best
team in the NFL for twenty years. I'm not bitter.
I'm not at all. I swear, I swear I'm not bitter. Yeah,
(02:33):
probably pretty damn bitter actually, because here they are playing
for the one seed in Week eight. Team their second
year quarterback is probably gonna wint MVP this year because
when they do these voting, when they do the votes
for MVP, they forget what happens before like Week sixteen,
and they just go from there. And so Matt Stafford
had like two not great games, and so he's not
gonna win it, and Drake May probably will. They had
(02:53):
an awesome, an awesome rookie class. They did really well
in free agency. They look to be a power for
at least the next few years. And I don't like
to get out over my skis because we do this
every year with the Commanders. Last year, the Texans prior
to that a lot the Texans do look to be
one of those teams. We have prematurely anointed teams in
the past and they haven't gone that way. So hopefully
that's what happens here for the Patriots. And it's just
(03:16):
tough to reconcile a team like this man, a team
like the Packers and the Ravens and the Niners. These
teams that can go through these soft resets, they have
crazy injuries. I mean the Niners without Nick Bosa and
Fred Warner all damn year, or you change quarterbacks and
you go from Farv to Rogers to Love just always
comes up. Roses must be nice, right. My buddy Kevin
(03:39):
Dern made a comment and text to me today about
feeling bad for another fan base for something that might
potentially happen there, and I'm like, listen, Bud, I don't
feel bad for anybody. I feel bad for me at
everybody else. I'd kill to see an AFC championship game
a divisional round game. The last one was against the
Raiders in two thousand and one, following the two thousand season.
As far as their current construction goes, well again, since
(04:00):
it's been like three months, Milton Williams, Harold Landry, Robert Splaine,
Carlton Davis, Marcus Epps. That's a total facelift to a
defense that has sort of regressed the last couple of seasons.
But now they're playing better football on offense. They add
Stevon Diggs and Matt Collins and Morgan Moses and Garrett Bradbury.
They have a great draft. They hit on Will Campbell,
Travon Henderson, Kyle Williams, go Koug's got some good value
(04:22):
in Craig Woodson and Josh Farmer. Later on, Farmer is
on ir but Woodson is more than their starting safeties.
They've also seen guys develop in a big way. Drake
May obviously, but Kayshawn Booty has gone from kind of
a jag to a hell of a ball player. Maybe
that was more opportunity and system than anything else, but
here he is. Ramandre Stevenson seems to have patched the
fumbling issue he once had. Christian Barmore's back to his
(04:45):
dominant ways. Jalen Hawkins has taken a nice step this year.
Kiris Tonga has enjoyed a breakout season. They're a good
team and think you could be looking at potentially two
superpowers here in the division. For the foreseeable future. We
thirteen to three, their AFC East champs, already playing for
anywhere from the one to three seed in the AFC.
(05:05):
In this game against US, they play at the same
time as the Broncos. If the Broncos win, they will
get the one seed. The Jags play at one o'clock
against the Titans, which we know how that's gonna go.
If the Jaguars win that game, the Patriots have to
win to stay in the two seed. Of course, if
Denver loses, they could then play for the one seed,
So you're gonna get their starters to begin the game.
(05:26):
Maybe if Denver pulls away, maybe they change their mind.
Or if the Jags had lost in the one o'clock
window to the Titans, maybe you see them start making
some changes at halftime. But the last time this happened
to US, we went unto Buffalo and lost fifty six
to twenty, So who the hell knows? Now again, they
would be playing the Patriots for either most likely either eight.
(05:48):
I mean, the Broncos are getting the Chargers backups, so
they're gonna win, and the Patriots could then choose do
we want the two to seven matchup, which could be
I think against Buffalo or Los Angeles, I'm not really sure,
or the three to six matchup. They should have more
information by the time we get to halftime on Sunday,
so lots to keep an eye on here. If you're
(06:08):
a Patriots fan or for the Dolphins, how it's going
to change kind of how you evaluate this last game
of the season. Their depth chart is as follows. Drake
Mays the starting quarterback. You know about that. Josh Dobbs
is the backup. Do we see some Dobbs in this
game for the first time this season outside of blowout games.
Traveon Henderson and Romandre Stevenson are the one two, d
Ernest Johnson the number three there. Stefon Diggs is the
(06:28):
big ticket item miss offseason. Kayshawn Boody, but both those
guys there's some legal trouble, there's some injury trouble there.
Could they miss this game. Matt Collins is on IR
so it would then become Pop Douglas and Kyle Williams
and Efton Chisholm. You know Efton Chisholm at tight end.
Austin Hooper is the number two behind Hunter Henry. Why
did I go backwards there? I don't know. At the
(06:49):
tackle position, Verderian Lowe and Morgan Moses start because fourth
overall pick this year, Will Campbell's out for the year
with an ACL. The swing tackle is Thayer Monford. They'll
bring him on for some six offensive line. I could
just left guards Ben Brown. He replaces Jared Wilson when
he's down. Garrett Bradbury's also been a little bit banged
up this year, but he played in the game on Sunday,
and then Mike Onwen who is the right guard. At
(07:11):
defensive tackle, they have Milton Williams who's gonna miss the game.
He's on IR. Christian Barmore is also potentially in legal trouble,
so we'll see if he can play in the game.
It's the same as the receiver position. Man, if they're
down these guys like it's gonna be Kyros Tanga and
Corey Durden starting in the interior for the defensive line.
That's a big opportunity for Miami to get the run
game going. If it goes that way, I imagine Barmore plays.
(07:31):
They're not going to probably, you know, I don't know.
I'm not gonna say any more about because I don't
know anything else about it. Harold Landry's the top edge,
he's injured. Anthony Jennings is next, Kalevon Chason might recall
him from the twenty nineteen twenty twenty Lockdown Dolphins podcast
lore and then Braden Swinson is the number four edge
there who's been playing some ball because of Landry's injury.
At linebacker, Robert Spiline he's been down. Christian Ellis is
(07:53):
the number two. Marte Mapu and Elijah Ponder kind of
rotate in that two to three roll without Splaine being
out there. Rrisian Gonzalez is one of the best cornerbacks
in football. Carlton Davis is the number two. In the slot,
they go Marcus Jones, and then Alex Austin gets some
run in there as well. At safety, Jalen Hawkins and
Craig Woodson, they have Del Pettis and Miles Battle plays
a kind of a slop safety hybrid role in some
(08:16):
dime packages. They're injuries again, will Campbell, Mack Hollins, Milton Williams.
Just see her Durant at tackle. Running back Antonio Gibson,
a defensive end Josh Farmer, all on injury reserve. They
could be without starting left guard Jared Wilson, receiver Stefon Diggs.
Again legal matter, no idea how that plays out, but
it's worth mentioning starring linebacker Robert Splane, starting edge Harold Landry.
(08:36):
You guys know who that is. He missed the Jets game,
so we'll see if he gets back for this one.
Receiver Kasehawan Boody, defensive tackle Kyris Toanga, and then again
potentially defensive tackle Christian Barmore. So if man If Williams
is already out, Milton Williams, if Barmore doesn't make it
to the game, and Tonga has to miss, Like do
you throw the football a single time in this game?
You might not. Patriots defensive personnelts go ahead and kick
(08:58):
it off on that side of the ball for some today,
I don't know. I'm a little bit just kind of
brain today. The injuries here are quite notable. First things First,
we start with a player who did not play in
the week two game, cornerback Christian Gonzalez. His athleticism stands out,
but it's his movements and like the recognition of how
he can get to those movements. It's almost like poetry
in motion. It's why to me, he's a really good
matchup if you're trying to take Jill and Waddle out
(09:20):
of the game. If he can play in this game,
he's not going to face a bigger test all year,
provided he goes with that rib injury that cost him
most of the Buccaneers game. I hope he can because
he's what ninety ninety yards away from one thousand, which
that's a tall order, you know, with our current passing game.
But we'll see last year we avoided Christian Gonzales the
entire game. He saw three targets, one against each ten
and seventeen, and OBJ had one as well, two for
(09:42):
fourteen on him. The one in completion was the Beckham target. Hilarious.
I think Wattles skills that make him a Bona five
number one in this league are the areas that Gonzales
excels in. So the twitch reading, the release of the
line of scrimmage, finding out where he wants to create
that breakpoint, and the ability to match all of that.
I think you could see like a meg game and
everywhere he goes zone everywhere else, or perhaps you just
(10:03):
like that matchup so much and say there's not a
player on our roster that we don't think can stop
Malik Washington, Cedric Wilson and the oise other matchups for
a good evaluation of guys. I think it's a lot
like the Bucks game in terms of ability to win
off the edge, and we sure saw that right Patrick
Paul was awesome in that game. Austin Jackson had a
slow start and got rolling towards the end. But without
(10:24):
Harold Landry, they're kind of piecemealing this thing together right now.
Anthony Jennings has been a nice developmental piece there. He's
kind of come along here in the second half of
the season. I thought what happened sooner for him, but
he's been a really good gap discipline who can redirect
and rush the quarterback with his rush land integrity from
multiple alignments. I do like our tackles ability to win
against those guys. I think that both Jackson and Paul
(10:45):
will end the year strong here with two back to
back good performances, although Paul's been awesome all year long.
Don't listen to anybody says otherwise. The big test comes
inside here do we get Aaron brewerback. That obviously changes
things because you go from the best ander in football
to a second game starter and Andrew Meyer who had
a hell a first start. Don't get me wrong. If
it gets the nod again, it's a big test for him,
even without Milton Williams, because Christian Barmore is that power,
(11:06):
quick combo that kind of gives you know, most guards
and centers problems across this league. So a big test
for him if he can go, if bar War goes,
and then for Jonah and for Cole Jonah I worry
about against Barmore because he has the type of stuff,
a little push pull, the crossover that can kind of
get Jonah stuck in the mud there. So I do
want to see Jonah's finished strong here with a good
game against the Patriots. It'll be a big test if
(11:27):
it is Barmore, provided Brewer does not go, it'll be
you know, an even bigger test upfront. And again, adding
in Barmore has the legal matter, I suppose it could
cause him to miss the game. In that instance, I
think this matchup then becomes a heavy advantage for Miami
with or without Arian Brewer. I think it's a big
devon eighth Chan game, and he's something like three hundred
yards away from Ricky's record for yards from scrimmage in
(11:49):
a season. He's not gonna get that, but he can
go over two thousand quite easily. In my opinion. This
is like possibly one hundred and fifty yard from scrimmage
game for a Chan because the absence of their best
pass rusher opens the door for him in the pass
so you have to account for that. And then Robert
Splaine being down opens the door for him to win
at the point of attack, as he usually does. If
he gets some good push against the defensive line. He
(12:09):
can beat a linebacker, he can beat a safety, he
can stretch, he can he can do it all. We
know this by now, and I think that if it's
Elijah Ponder out there, or if it's Marte Mapu, he
could really go off in this game. Jalen Hawkins and
Craig Woods in an area of that roster that concerned
me back in August, but they play sound assignment football.
I don't think we'll get the deep game options we
had against Tampa because Tyke Smith was taking some chances
(12:30):
out there, and I don't think the Patriots will play
with that similar lack of discipline that we saw throughout
that game against the Buccaneers. First break right here, come
back and talk about the Patriots offensive personnel on the
Draft Time podcast brought to you by AutoNation. Patriots offensive Personnel.
We know that Bradley Chubb had a slow start to
(12:50):
the game in Tampa after kind of a rough couple
of weeks against some backups, and then he kind of
got it going against Ben Chakwuma. I believe that's how
you say it. He gets swing tackle Darian Lowe with
Will Campbell out this week, So a fourth consecutive game
against a backup tackle here for Bradley Chubb and he's
racking up the incentives and doing his dance, doing his thing.
Good for him. He deserves it. Now if a Darian
(13:11):
Lowe and Morgan Moses to me present the exact same
opportunity for us to win with speed. I hope we
get Chop Robinson out there. I would love to go
into the offseason with a positive Chop game compared to
what we've had the last couple of weeks where he
hasn't done much and against a heavy footed kind of plotter,
and Morgan moses he could possibly do that. He's good
in the foam booth. They both expand their gap scheme
(13:31):
attack offensively. But I think the dropback spots, you know,
if you can create third and six or longer, could
be an area for Chop to get some wins and
hopefully build some confidence going into the offseason. We have,
like I watched David Bailey, the Texas Tech Edge, who's
like two hundred and forty pounds and kind of gets
washed out in the run game too, and I'm like, man,
he's a freaky pass rusher, but we can't really afford
(13:52):
to do that again because we already have that on
the roster and the pass rush hasn't been there, so
like we kind of have to go more towards a
Reuben Bain type. I guess I just kind of talked
myself into what happens in the first round once we
get there in April. But that's neither here nor there,
because as me and Kyle talked about on the Wednesday show,
there are about six options that could greatly improve your
team once you get into the draft, whether you're pick
eight or fourteen, which is the range of Dolphins could
(14:13):
wind up in So who cares when the game, We'll
talk about the rest later. Because if it's Sunny Styles,
I'm happy with that. If it's Caleb Downs, I'm happy
with that. If it's Mikayia Lemon or Carne I'll tay,
I'm happy with that. If it's whatever, if it's Ruben Bayn,
I'm like, you can do so many things here now.
On the interior, I think there's an opportunity there as well,
Like this roster is super banged up, and quite frankly,
I don't think it's like a crazy great roster. I
(14:35):
think they've been a better coached team than most of
their opponents this year, and they've certainly got a better
quarterback play than just about everybody they've played this year.
So that's a big part of it. And they make
you take advantge of mistakes they've they've beaten teams that
are not playing good football. They've beaten bad teams like
they got the Bucks when the Bucks began their one
and eight run, right or one and seven run whatever
it is, So like yeah, man, like it's it's weird.
(14:56):
They're gonna be fourteen and three most likely the Patriots,
and I like, still I'm not doubting them. I just
don't know if that's who they'll be next year, if
that makes sense. But anyway, if Jared Wilson's out, he
would joined he Garrett Bradbury might play in the game.
I think he played last week but got nicked up
a little bit. And then right guard Mike Onwen, who
is the best player on the interior, I think, and
(15:17):
he is all power, power, power power, which is what
Phillips and Grant have been winning with. So a good
test for the rookies there to see them kind of
test their strength in the final game of the season.
Same with Zach Seedler obviously. And then Zeke Biggers is
more of a three and wider player, like he plays
more like heavy end than anything else. So his matchups
come against Low as well as Moses and that's kind
of a good matchup for him too. He's kind of
power and try to play through you. So I think
(15:38):
that what you could get is some potential one on
one situations inside with a threat of speed off the
edge as they try to help those guys with possibly
Chubb and Chop if Chop can go. Of course, now
that quarterback can mask a lot of this stuff. And
that's why, like you're gonna hear me talk about personnel,
like you know, questions this team has for the Patriots,
and like you're gonna be like, well, they're thirteen and
(15:59):
three travels with the are you talking about It's cause
Drake me it's pretty good. Oh god, he's really good.
And he's been that way the whole season. Something else
that helps the fact that Trayvon Henderson, remember when I
talked about him being running back one. I've been wrong
a lot this year, but I was not wrong about
those two Ohio State running backs. My goodness, he has
been awesome and Rondre Stevenson is not fumbling the ball anymore.
They got a good mix of gap and zone. Between
(16:20):
those two, they can put you in a bind with
your eyes, which terrifies me for Terrell Dotson because he
can kind of cover some grass at times, but Jordan
Brooks does happen to specialize in that area. With their
wide receivers. However, I wonder what we do with Rasull
Douglass this week. He had a really good game last week,
traveling for the most part with Mike Evans kind of
taking him out of the game. Jason Marshall did some
(16:41):
awesome work in the slot as well. I think he's
built a combat with Kyle Williams go Koug's and Pop
Douglas feature on the inside with his length and strength
to kind of take away their twitchiness without you know,
having the advantage of a stack or a bunch. Now,
if Kayshawn Booty can't go, that could really give some
advantages to the Miami Dolphins. I think Jack Jones is
a guy that they're going to attack. If I'm watching
(17:02):
the Dolphins defense, that's kind where I'm going to try
to attack with possible eye discipline, especially after I establish
a running game where they're pretty damn good in that regard,
and I think like Jack could either have a huge
play that like a pick six or possibly give up
a long touchdown in this game. I think that could
swing which way the game goes or whether or not
it's close towards the end. You just have to be
sharp offscript, man, because like you got a plaster to
(17:24):
these guys. McDaniels, not McDaniel McDaniels. Josh McDaniels creates solutions
for may pre snap and he can id coverage really well.
We broke it down Dolphins HQ this week, which comes
out later tonight, where I showed you him deciphering a
cover two pre snap presentation that wheels into cover zero
and he finds the solution and rips it and he's
very good. Anthony, we were gonna have to mix things up,
(17:46):
but I do think personnel wise we match up pretty
well there. But once you get off the timing of
the play, it becomes backyard ball and Drake May is
extremely difficult that way. So just real quick. Yeah, Ramondre
Stevenson had the two fumbles back in Pittsburgh and Week
three had one against the Bills two weeks later. He
has not fumbled since that game, so the fumbling issues
possibly resolved. And it's given this Patriots run game a
(18:08):
real dangerous one two attack with the play action game
working off that as well. And then I also just
wrote down Davis an if he game. I think Drake's
the kind of quarterback, a good one like we saw
Ina or Cincinnati, and even against Tampa there when they
were kind of cooking in the first half, they can
be got and I think they could get got in
this one. Hunter Henry is a mismatch for most and
(18:29):
that's why Minka's potential availability is important here. I don't
think he'll play, but we'll see. They really do a
good job involving their tight ends in the past game
from run heavy fronts, and I really do like the
Jimmy's and Joe's element of this, but that coordinator battle
will be appointment feeling like Josh McDaniels versus Anthony Weaver
is two guys that could be head coaches. McDaniels has
kind of proven that it's not really his bag. Weaver
(18:49):
is going to get that opportunity at some point. Like
they're both really good at what they do. Good scheme
on good scheme. Our personnel didn't get the wins it
needed against a great Bengals eligible group, but it did
against a good Bucks group. The Patriots have been good,
but they're not at the level of those two teams,
especially if they don't have Booty and especially of Digs.
I don't know what's gonna happen there, but if he
doesn't play, it changes their entire offense. Some scheme calling
(19:11):
cards here against the Patriots defense, the scheme really changed
to Vrabel's approach compared to what it was for decades
with the Patriots, right, I wrote back in Week two,
like will it be more man coverage because they have
Christian Gonzalez, who's one of the best man cover corners
in football. Like I would say Pat Sartan and then
probably him are the top two guys. Now, what they've
done over the course of seventeen weeks is twenty eight
(19:31):
percent man and twenty four percent of that so a
quarter of their snaps is in cover one, you know,
if that is a single high safety, whole player in
the middle, man coverage everywhere else, which lends itself to
a twenty seven percent deployment of Cover three, which is
three deep defenders, two corners in a safety. The other
safety kind of comes down a buzzes or robs or
fits the run or possibly you know, drops into a
(19:52):
curl flat, Like there's so much you can do there
with that robbing safety or that safety drops down and
Cover three. So that accounts for what is that fifty
fifty five percent of the defense. And then between Cover
two in quarters, which is a similar concept, just depends
on kind of how you back off of the cornerback
position in quarters versus playing two accounts for forty percent,
(20:14):
So there's your ninety five percent of their defense right there.
I covered this back in week two. I had gone
back and looked at the twenty twenty three Titans game,
and the big takeaway was the variety of coverages they
threw to us, just a bunch of different stuff. They
specialized with front diversity as well. So big game for
Quinn to kind of get some some different looks. And
when I've seen the last two games against defenses that
are really struggling, this one is well coached. I think
(20:37):
it's the biggest test that Quinn will have on top
of bad weather. If he doesn't have waddle, that could
be a big deal too. So you can find out
some information here about Quinn. You weres this week Milton
Williams was playing basically he was like there two to
two I and three primarily, and then Barmore plays a
lot like Zach Sealer in terms of anywhere and everywhere.
But you could use both those guys on the nose.
(20:57):
You could play them both in odd fronts and a
nosetap end combination or even up front with a one
shade of three combo. So like they had all these
options with different fronts to deploy these guys, and without
Milton Williams, they have to kind of pigeonhole bar More
and everybody else as well, and it changes the entire
complexion of how they call their defense. And if they
don't have bar More, then they're gonna have to PLoP
guys in there. They can't really move or play multiple positions,
(21:18):
and you're gonna get the same front throughout the course
of the game, or at least it won't be like
you're not gonna have to guess and kind of patchwork together,
because it's gonna be like, hey, this is what they show,
it's what they're gonna do. And that would really benefit
the Dolphins in my opinion, if that happens, because of
not just the personnel, because of how it changes the
way they call their defense. If they don't have those guys,
they don't have one of them for sure, we'll see
(21:38):
about bar Moore. They'd have to present those looks, which
would open up opportunities for Dulcic and Waller and Julian
to be forced multipliers in the running game, not so
much Waller, but for Julian and Dulsage to get some
movement off line of scrimmage against a pretty rough edge group,
I'd say, and then those slides and those drags and
those pivots and those hookups, like you can throw all
these things at these tight ends because of the potential
(22:00):
lack of front diversity they would have with that Patriots front.
I think because of that eighth Chan I'm pretty sure,
pretty sure Devon ah Chan is gonna go off on Sunday. Stylistically,
they want a one gap and shoot across your face
with penetration. That goes back to the like the creeper
rat in the hole from the back end we've talked
about on the show, where you can really bring somebody
down and try to force the issue and then peel
(22:21):
somebody back from the rush plan into coverage. Like that's
a key for quinn ewers to id if they're gonna
pull guys back into the hook and play that whole
position from the defensive line. Now, one gapping can be
great when it's effective, but it also can lead to
spring leaks and the explosives in the running game. We
talked about that with the Jets aggressive attack for years
here right with Solo versus McDaniel. So you might absorb
a tackle for loss or two. With the upsot to
(22:44):
that is, they blow an assignment and you get a
Devon h chan On a safety for a potential sixty
yard touchdown, which I will take that all day long.
Former Patriots defender that played with the Titans as well
under Vabel Logan Ryan said this, we did a lot
of complicated secondary pressures, blitz stuff to make it hard
on quarterbacks. Because we have had a really smart veteran secondary.
(23:04):
We found a way to simulate pressure. We found a
way to be multiple and complicated. That's why that comment
with the potential losses from a personnel standpoint like, could
change the complexion of this game. And quite frankly, the
Patriots playoff chances because if they have that against the
Chargers or the Bills running game, and they can't get
to those looks without Williams or without possibly bar More,
(23:25):
they're gonna get one and done. Man. Like it's gonna happen.
So I'm curious to see how it works out for
the Patriots this week and going forward. But I also
think that Logan Ryan comment has been solidified a little
bit as the years gone on, because they didn't have
Gonzo in that Week one game or Week two game.
But they also got those young safeties and Hawkins and Woodson,
you know, kind of up to speed as they've developed
and progressed this year. Within the defense, they'll do timely blitzing.
(23:46):
I think, especially with how Quinn attacked it last game.
Vrabel said before the Week two matchup, you can't live
in a blitz world. They will get after you, but
it'll be about picking spots and it'll be paramount for yours,
you know, with two back then to recognize when those
tennessees will show up and answers for how to beat them.
So that's the calling cards for the Patriots defense. We'll
talking about the offense, the quarterbacks, and the keys to
victory and prediction on the other side. Draft Time Podcasts
(24:08):
brought to you by AutoNation the very last segment of
the preview podcast. We have done twenty of these now,
going back to the Chicago bursh back in August in
the preseason. Maybe I didn't do preview podcasts. I did
recap podcasts for those games. I don't think we preview
the preseason games, do we? Now we don't. But the
(24:29):
Patriots second time this year they're calling cards offensively, power
pen and pull work on doubles, create teams for the
running game, and let Henderson and Stevenson, who are sizzle
and steak but also both have really good vision and
fuel to set up blocks. They can get after it
with that run scheme up front. Josh McDaniel's one of
the originators of those Dynasty power run game teams. And
then in the passing games, side adjustments, mann and zone beaters.
(24:52):
A lot of trust between the quarterback and the pass
catchers on those because of drilled repetitive work over and
over again. That's what repetitive means. It's timing side adjustments
in breakers, trying to create advantageous looks closest to the quarterback.
They love their tight ends. You know about that from
the Gronk and Hernandez days. They love their slot receivers
with Welker, with Edelman, with Amandola, right, was there somebody
(25:15):
else in there as well, some other white dude. But
when they get their run game going, they get to
your backers and safeties and slots. You get him concerned
about fitting the run game and fitting a gap in
the run game. They become super difficult to stop, because
then they can get the one on one matchups they want.
It's why I wonder if you show more zone than
flip to man and then bring the heat on Drake
and try to win early and create a takeaway or
create a negative play. He has really cleaned up his game,
(25:38):
but from earlier in the year in his rookie season,
but he was prone to throwing some balls of the defense.
That's not part of my game plan anymore because he's
not doing it. It's risky. But what do you have
to lose in this game? Like I would just beat
him up? Why not? You're not gonna get home. You're
not gonna get home even if Chub and Chopp playing
this game. That's not This front's not been winning with four.
You're gonna have to find a way to create pressure
and then figure it out on the back end. I'm
(25:59):
curious how they might do that their quarterback Drake maybe
and glazing him the entire show here. But my book
on him, big strong, difficult to bring down, tough plays
with power, plenty of juice in the arm from various platforms,
and he's taken the next step with the how he
sees things and he trust his arm as he should,
will take some chances and he's not been getting burned
for it too much. My book in week two was
to change the picture from the pre snap along with
(26:21):
a good rush plan to move him. But we don't
have the rush I thought we had back then, and
he's been a much better player than I thought he
was going to be this year, so it's kind of
changes the whole dynamic there of how you attack him
as he evolves his game. I think the biggest thing
here is to be privy to him not forcing it
when you went with the call, because he's now decided
like I can just tuck this and make plays with
my legs. His legs present a huge issue and his
(26:43):
arm once he does extend, is even bigger issue. We
will break it down h Q four. He to is
He's deadly man. He's a deadly, deadly player to face.
We talked so much about the matchup advantages from Miami.
This is where New England takes the pendulum and says
back to you, like, we will take the huge advantage
here at the quarterback position. He is playing so well
and he can carry that team to victory on any
given Sunday. Our quarterback. Another good game of growth here
(27:05):
for Quinn last week. Super impressed by the anticipation reading
out the defense quickly last week. He'll need to be
on it again this week because those two defenses he
faced were not exotic. There was busted coverage, there was
bad re like, there was bad connectivity. I'm not taking
anything away from Quinn. I've been very impressed by him,
but this is the real challenge that he's gonna get
this week, and I hope it gets sixty minutes of
the Patriots starters and a real contested game plan. It's
(27:27):
gonna have to be on it. They're gonna tilt the
field and the best way to get away from that
is to run the football. Waddles availability gonna be huge.
I think we just commit to the run game and
create potential situations where Quinn has to win on third down.
But I think this is a case where you anticipate
they know you run, so you get pass happy. Don't
fall into that trap again. It happened against Pittsburgh. I
think it's what they want you to do. Run the ball, run, run, run, run,
(27:49):
run like a son of a gun. My keys to victory.
We're not doing special teams and miscellaneous, because who gives
a damn and there's nothing at stake anymore. So the
keys of victory. Number one, challenge the Patriots receivers at
the break point. That's where they win. He wants to
put the ball on them out of breaks with that
Josh McDaniels inside passing game, So challenge that. Jason Marshall, Gosh,
I hope Mika can play Jordan Brooks. Anybody that can
(28:10):
find their way into the interior of the passing defense.
Find a way to challenge those receivers at the break point.
Number two, reset the lage scrimmage. On offense, they might
be down some bodies. The linebacker, their top linebacker, their
top defensive tackle are both going to be out. Most
likely Milton Williams will for surest Blaine will see. And
then if Barmore goes, who knows if he's in the
right headspace after a charge, a very serious charge against him,
(28:31):
So knock him off the football. You can do it,
like you have the personnel. Just do it. Number three,
limit damage when May goes off script. You can't stop
it entirely, but just don't let the game become about
Drake May making plays outside of the pocket. My prediction,
we're ten point underdogs, ten and a half. Actually, it's
supposed to be run twenty five degrees. They have a
defensive scheme against a rookie who hasn't seen one like this.
(28:53):
They have everything to play for. They're banged up, but
we are banged up too. I think we're able to
mask the injuries and get after some busts on defense
the last couple of weeks. Doing it twice in a row,
though with the injury aspect of it is tough. I
was way wrong last week. I hope I am again
this week. So I'm gonna say thirty one fifteen Patriots win,
Dolphins goes seven to nine, and they can go as
(29:15):
high as eighth in the draft with a loss. Here,
they can fall as far as fourteenth with a victory.
So there you go. We'll come back tomorrow. We'll pick
the NFL games. I'm gonna give you the Dolphins twenty
twenty five team awards, or Travis's team awards, I should say,
and I will also recap the four college football games
that happened over the last couple of days or the
next two couple of days coming up here. Yesterday and today, whatever,
(29:36):
this is coming out Thursday, tipping on Wednesday. Whatever. In
the meantime, you all please be sure subscribe, rate review
of the show, follow me on social at Wingfold NFL,
the team at Miami Dolphins, check out the YouTube channel
for Dolphins HQ, media availabilities and so much more and last,
butt not least, Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time,
Jump Caroline Cammeran and Willow Daddy's come in Home in
(30:01):
sub says ext
This is Drivetime with Travis Wingfield. What is up Dolphins
and welcome to the Draft Time Podcast. I am your host,
Travis Wingfield. And on today's show, one more time for
twenty twenty five. Well, I guess the first one of
(00:22):
twenty twenty six, but just off the U for the
sake of a clean break at the end of a season.
This is why I liked it when there's only sixteen games,
because the regular season ends at the end of the
year and the playoffs start in January. But they had
to go and screw it all up. One last preview
podcast for the twenty twenty five campaign Dolphins and Patriots
with a heavy eye on Dolphins matchups for evaluation purposes
(00:44):
from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.
This is the Drive Time Podcast, Week eighteen at the
New England Patriots. Going to be about twenty five degrees
come for twenty five. Once that sun goes down, it's
going to get cold in Farborough, probably below twenty by
the time the game ends. But so much has changed
(01:04):
as we get into the Patriots introduction here. In the
three months since we have played them, we've learned about
a quarterback that went in the wrong direction. They've seen
their young quarterback turn into a superstar. And going back
over my notes from that game, I thought the Patriots
were a year away, and boy was I wrong. They
found what appears to be another generational quarterback, which you know,
(01:27):
like you know, they had a down period between Brady dynasties,
and they literally won divisions and playoff games and conference
championships in those quote unquote down years. And then they
get another three super Bowls the second half of the
Brady dynasty. They go to another Super Bowl beyond that,
and they don't win that game against the Eagles. They
play in the AFC Championship Game for eight consecutive years,
(01:49):
and they bookend those years with a fourteen to two
season with a divisional round loss to the Jets, the
Jets last playoff win in twenty ten, and then twelve
and four with a wildcard exit against the Titans in
twenty nineteen. So their down years are basically would have
been the best year for the Miami Dolphins in the
last twenty five years. They finally missed the playoffs in
twenty twenty, the Cam Newton year, but they go back
(02:12):
to the playoffs in twenty one with Mac Jones each
your heart out his rookie season, and then they finally
hit some tough years, an eight win season, but then
back to back four win seasons where the Patriots faithful
got tested for a two full years. And that's the
come up, and so they get for being the best
team in the NFL for twenty years. I'm not bitter.
I'm not at all. I swear, I swear I'm not bitter. Yeah,
(02:33):
probably pretty damn bitter actually, because here they are playing
for the one seed in Week eight. Team their second
year quarterback is probably gonna wint MVP this year because
when they do these voting, when they do the votes
for MVP, they forget what happens before like Week sixteen,
and they just go from there. And so Matt Stafford
had like two not great games, and so he's not
gonna win it, and Drake May probably will. They had
(02:53):
an awesome, an awesome rookie class. They did really well
in free agency. They look to be a power for
at least the next few years. And I don't like
to get out over my skis because we do this
every year with the Commanders. Last year, the Texans prior
to that a lot the Texans do look to be
one of those teams. We have prematurely anointed teams in
the past and they haven't gone that way. So hopefully
that's what happens here for the Patriots. And it's just
(03:16):
tough to reconcile a team like this man, a team
like the Packers and the Ravens and the Niners. These
teams that can go through these soft resets, they have
crazy injuries. I mean the Niners without Nick Bosa and
Fred Warner all damn year, or you change quarterbacks and
you go from Farv to Rogers to Love just always
comes up. Roses must be nice, right. My buddy Kevin
(03:39):
Dern made a comment and text to me today about
feeling bad for another fan base for something that might
potentially happen there, and I'm like, listen, Bud, I don't
feel bad for anybody. I feel bad for me at
everybody else. I'd kill to see an AFC championship game
a divisional round game. The last one was against the
Raiders in two thousand and one, following the two thousand season.
As far as their current construction goes, well again, since
(04:00):
it's been like three months, Milton Williams, Harold Landry, Robert Splaine,
Carlton Davis, Marcus Epps. That's a total facelift to a
defense that has sort of regressed the last couple of seasons.
But now they're playing better football on offense. They add
Stevon Diggs and Matt Collins and Morgan Moses and Garrett Bradbury.
They have a great draft. They hit on Will Campbell,
Travon Henderson, Kyle Williams, go Koug's got some good value
(04:22):
in Craig Woodson and Josh Farmer. Later on, Farmer is
on ir but Woodson is more than their starting safeties.
They've also seen guys develop in a big way. Drake
May obviously, but Kayshawn Booty has gone from kind of
a jag to a hell of a ball player. Maybe
that was more opportunity and system than anything else, but
here he is. Ramandre Stevenson seems to have patched the
fumbling issue he once had. Christian Barmore's back to his
(04:45):
dominant ways. Jalen Hawkins has taken a nice step this year.
Kiris Tonga has enjoyed a breakout season. They're a good
team and think you could be looking at potentially two
superpowers here in the division. For the foreseeable future. We
thirteen to three, their AFC East champs, already playing for
anywhere from the one to three seed in the AFC.
(05:05):
In this game against US, they play at the same
time as the Broncos. If the Broncos win, they will
get the one seed. The Jags play at one o'clock
against the Titans, which we know how that's gonna go.
If the Jaguars win that game, the Patriots have to
win to stay in the two seed. Of course, if
Denver loses, they could then play for the one seed,
So you're gonna get their starters to begin the game.
(05:26):
Maybe if Denver pulls away, maybe they change their mind.
Or if the Jags had lost in the one o'clock
window to the Titans, maybe you see them start making
some changes at halftime. But the last time this happened
to US, we went unto Buffalo and lost fifty six
to twenty, So who the hell knows? Now again, they
would be playing the Patriots for either most likely either eight.
(05:48):
I mean, the Broncos are getting the Chargers backups, so
they're gonna win, and the Patriots could then choose do
we want the two to seven matchup, which could be
I think against Buffalo or Los Angeles, I'm not really sure,
or the three to six matchup. They should have more
information by the time we get to halftime on Sunday,
so lots to keep an eye on here. If you're
(06:08):
a Patriots fan or for the Dolphins, how it's going
to change kind of how you evaluate this last game
of the season. Their depth chart is as follows. Drake
Mays the starting quarterback. You know about that. Josh Dobbs
is the backup. Do we see some Dobbs in this
game for the first time this season outside of blowout games.
Traveon Henderson and Romandre Stevenson are the one two, d
Ernest Johnson the number three there. Stefon Diggs is the
(06:28):
big ticket item miss offseason. Kayshawn Boody, but both those
guys there's some legal trouble, there's some injury trouble there.
Could they miss this game. Matt Collins is on IR
so it would then become Pop Douglas and Kyle Williams
and Efton Chisholm. You know Efton Chisholm at tight end.
Austin Hooper is the number two behind Hunter Henry. Why
did I go backwards there? I don't know. At the
(06:49):
tackle position, Verderian Lowe and Morgan Moses start because fourth
overall pick this year, Will Campbell's out for the year
with an ACL. The swing tackle is Thayer Monford. They'll
bring him on for some six offensive line. I could
just left guards Ben Brown. He replaces Jared Wilson when
he's down. Garrett Bradbury's also been a little bit banged
up this year, but he played in the game on Sunday,
and then Mike Onwen who is the right guard. At
(07:11):
defensive tackle, they have Milton Williams who's gonna miss the game.
He's on IR. Christian Barmore is also potentially in legal trouble,
so we'll see if he can play in the game.
It's the same as the receiver position. Man, if they're
down these guys like it's gonna be Kyros Tanga and
Corey Durden starting in the interior for the defensive line.
That's a big opportunity for Miami to get the run
game going. If it goes that way, I imagine Barmore plays.
(07:31):
They're not going to probably, you know, I don't know.
I'm not gonna say any more about because I don't
know anything else about it. Harold Landry's the top edge,
he's injured. Anthony Jennings is next, Kalevon Chason might recall
him from the twenty nineteen twenty twenty Lockdown Dolphins podcast
lore and then Braden Swinson is the number four edge
there who's been playing some ball because of Landry's injury.
At linebacker, Robert Spiline he's been down. Christian Ellis is
(07:53):
the number two. Marte Mapu and Elijah Ponder kind of
rotate in that two to three roll without Splaine being
out there. Rrisian Gonzalez is one of the best cornerbacks
in football. Carlton Davis is the number two. In the slot,
they go Marcus Jones, and then Alex Austin gets some
run in there as well. At safety, Jalen Hawkins and
Craig Woodson, they have Del Pettis and Miles Battle plays
a kind of a slop safety hybrid role in some
(08:16):
dime packages. They're injuries again, will Campbell, Mack Hollins, Milton Williams.
Just see her Durant at tackle. Running back Antonio Gibson,
a defensive end Josh Farmer, all on injury reserve. They
could be without starting left guard Jared Wilson, receiver Stefon Diggs.
Again legal matter, no idea how that plays out, but
it's worth mentioning starring linebacker Robert Splane, starting edge Harold Landry.
(08:36):
You guys know who that is. He missed the Jets game,
so we'll see if he gets back for this one.
Receiver Kasehawan Boody, defensive tackle Kyris Toanga, and then again
potentially defensive tackle Christian Barmore. So if man If Williams
is already out, Milton Williams, if Barmore doesn't make it
to the game, and Tonga has to miss, Like do
you throw the football a single time in this game?
You might not. Patriots defensive personnelts go ahead and kick
(08:58):
it off on that side of the ball for some today,
I don't know. I'm a little bit just kind of
brain today. The injuries here are quite notable. First things First,
we start with a player who did not play in
the week two game, cornerback Christian Gonzalez. His athleticism stands out,
but it's his movements and like the recognition of how
he can get to those movements. It's almost like poetry
in motion. It's why to me, he's a really good
matchup if you're trying to take Jill and Waddle out
(09:20):
of the game. If he can play in this game,
he's not going to face a bigger test all year,
provided he goes with that rib injury that cost him
most of the Buccaneers game. I hope he can because
he's what ninety ninety yards away from one thousand, which
that's a tall order, you know, with our current passing game.
But we'll see last year we avoided Christian Gonzales the
entire game. He saw three targets, one against each ten
and seventeen, and OBJ had one as well, two for
(09:42):
fourteen on him. The one in completion was the Beckham target. Hilarious.
I think Wattles skills that make him a Bona five
number one in this league are the areas that Gonzales
excels in. So the twitch reading, the release of the
line of scrimmage, finding out where he wants to create
that breakpoint, and the ability to match all of that.
I think you could see like a meg game and
everywhere he goes zone everywhere else, or perhaps you just
(10:03):
like that matchup so much and say there's not a
player on our roster that we don't think can stop
Malik Washington, Cedric Wilson and the oise other matchups for
a good evaluation of guys. I think it's a lot
like the Bucks game in terms of ability to win
off the edge, and we sure saw that right Patrick
Paul was awesome in that game. Austin Jackson had a
slow start and got rolling towards the end. But without
(10:24):
Harold Landry, they're kind of piecemealing this thing together right now.
Anthony Jennings has been a nice developmental piece there. He's
kind of come along here in the second half of
the season. I thought what happened sooner for him, but
he's been a really good gap discipline who can redirect
and rush the quarterback with his rush land integrity from
multiple alignments. I do like our tackles ability to win
against those guys. I think that both Jackson and Paul
(10:45):
will end the year strong here with two back to
back good performances, although Paul's been awesome all year long.
Don't listen to anybody says otherwise. The big test comes
inside here do we get Aaron brewerback. That obviously changes
things because you go from the best ander in football
to a second game starter and Andrew Meyer who had
a hell a first start. Don't get me wrong. If
it gets the nod again, it's a big test for him,
even without Milton Williams, because Christian Barmore is that power,
(11:06):
quick combo that kind of gives you know, most guards
and centers problems across this league. So a big test
for him if he can go, if bar War goes,
and then for Jonah and for Cole Jonah I worry
about against Barmore because he has the type of stuff,
a little push pull, the crossover that can kind of
get Jonah stuck in the mud there. So I do
want to see Jonah's finished strong here with a good
game against the Patriots. It'll be a big test if
(11:27):
it is Barmore, provided Brewer does not go, it'll be
you know, an even bigger test upfront. And again, adding
in Barmore has the legal matter, I suppose it could
cause him to miss the game. In that instance, I
think this matchup then becomes a heavy advantage for Miami
with or without Arian Brewer. I think it's a big
devon eighth Chan game, and he's something like three hundred
yards away from Ricky's record for yards from scrimmage in
(11:49):
a season. He's not gonna get that, but he can
go over two thousand quite easily. In my opinion. This
is like possibly one hundred and fifty yard from scrimmage
game for a Chan because the absence of their best
pass rusher opens the door for him in the pass
so you have to account for that. And then Robert
Splaine being down opens the door for him to win
at the point of attack, as he usually does. If
he gets some good push against the defensive line. He
(12:09):
can beat a linebacker, he can beat a safety, he
can stretch, he can he can do it all. We
know this by now, and I think that if it's
Elijah Ponder out there, or if it's Marte Mapu, he
could really go off in this game. Jalen Hawkins and
Craig Woods in an area of that roster that concerned
me back in August, but they play sound assignment football.
I don't think we'll get the deep game options we
had against Tampa because Tyke Smith was taking some chances
(12:30):
out there, and I don't think the Patriots will play
with that similar lack of discipline that we saw throughout
that game against the Buccaneers. First break right here, come
back and talk about the Patriots offensive personnel on the
Draft Time podcast brought to you by AutoNation. Patriots offensive Personnel.
We know that Bradley Chubb had a slow start to
(12:50):
the game in Tampa after kind of a rough couple
of weeks against some backups, and then he kind of
got it going against Ben Chakwuma. I believe that's how
you say it. He gets swing tackle Darian Lowe with
Will Campbell out this week, So a fourth consecutive game
against a backup tackle here for Bradley Chubb and he's
racking up the incentives and doing his dance, doing his thing.
Good for him. He deserves it. Now if a Darian
(13:11):
Lowe and Morgan Moses to me present the exact same
opportunity for us to win with speed. I hope we
get Chop Robinson out there. I would love to go
into the offseason with a positive Chop game compared to
what we've had the last couple of weeks where he
hasn't done much and against a heavy footed kind of plotter,
and Morgan moses he could possibly do that. He's good
in the foam booth. They both expand their gap scheme
(13:31):
attack offensively. But I think the dropback spots, you know,
if you can create third and six or longer, could
be an area for Chop to get some wins and
hopefully build some confidence going into the offseason. We have,
like I watched David Bailey, the Texas Tech Edge, who's
like two hundred and forty pounds and kind of gets
washed out in the run game too, and I'm like, man,
he's a freaky pass rusher, but we can't really afford
(13:52):
to do that again because we already have that on
the roster and the pass rush hasn't been there, so
like we kind of have to go more towards a
Reuben Bain type. I guess I just kind of talked
myself into what happens in the first round once we
get there in April. But that's neither here nor there,
because as me and Kyle talked about on the Wednesday show,
there are about six options that could greatly improve your
team once you get into the draft, whether you're pick
eight or fourteen, which is the range of Dolphins could
(14:13):
wind up in So who cares when the game, We'll
talk about the rest later. Because if it's Sunny Styles,
I'm happy with that. If it's Caleb Downs, I'm happy
with that. If it's Mikayia Lemon or Carne I'll tay,
I'm happy with that. If it's whatever, if it's Ruben Bayn,
I'm like, you can do so many things here now.
On the interior, I think there's an opportunity there as well,
Like this roster is super banged up, and quite frankly,
I don't think it's like a crazy great roster. I
(14:35):
think they've been a better coached team than most of
their opponents this year, and they've certainly got a better
quarterback play than just about everybody they've played this year.
So that's a big part of it. And they make
you take advantge of mistakes they've they've beaten teams that
are not playing good football. They've beaten bad teams like
they got the Bucks when the Bucks began their one
and eight run, right or one and seven run whatever
it is, So like yeah, man, like it's it's weird.
(14:56):
They're gonna be fourteen and three most likely the Patriots,
and I like, still I'm not doubting them. I just
don't know if that's who they'll be next year, if
that makes sense. But anyway, if Jared Wilson's out, he
would joined he Garrett Bradbury might play in the game.
I think he played last week but got nicked up
a little bit. And then right guard Mike Onwen, who
is the best player on the interior, I think, and
(15:17):
he is all power, power, power power, which is what
Phillips and Grant have been winning with. So a good
test for the rookies there to see them kind of
test their strength in the final game of the season.
Same with Zach Seedler obviously. And then Zeke Biggers is
more of a three and wider player, like he plays
more like heavy end than anything else. So his matchups
come against Low as well as Moses and that's kind
of a good matchup for him too. He's kind of
power and try to play through you. So I think
(15:38):
that what you could get is some potential one on
one situations inside with a threat of speed off the
edge as they try to help those guys with possibly
Chubb and Chop if Chop can go. Of course, now
that quarterback can mask a lot of this stuff. And
that's why, like you're gonna hear me talk about personnel,
like you know, questions this team has for the Patriots,
and like you're gonna be like, well, they're thirteen and
(15:59):
three travels with the are you talking about It's cause
Drake me it's pretty good. Oh god, he's really good.
And he's been that way the whole season. Something else
that helps the fact that Trayvon Henderson, remember when I
talked about him being running back one. I've been wrong
a lot this year, but I was not wrong about
those two Ohio State running backs. My goodness, he has
been awesome and Rondre Stevenson is not fumbling the ball anymore.
They got a good mix of gap and zone. Between
(16:20):
those two, they can put you in a bind with
your eyes, which terrifies me for Terrell Dotson because he
can kind of cover some grass at times, but Jordan
Brooks does happen to specialize in that area. With their
wide receivers. However, I wonder what we do with Rasull
Douglass this week. He had a really good game last week,
traveling for the most part with Mike Evans kind of
taking him out of the game. Jason Marshall did some
(16:41):
awesome work in the slot as well. I think he's
built a combat with Kyle Williams go Koug's and Pop
Douglas feature on the inside with his length and strength
to kind of take away their twitchiness without you know,
having the advantage of a stack or a bunch. Now,
if Kayshawn Booty can't go, that could really give some
advantages to the Miami Dolphins. I think Jack Jones is
a guy that they're going to attack. If I'm watching
(17:02):
the Dolphins defense, that's kind where I'm going to try
to attack with possible eye discipline, especially after I establish
a running game where they're pretty damn good in that regard,
and I think like Jack could either have a huge
play that like a pick six or possibly give up
a long touchdown in this game. I think that could
swing which way the game goes or whether or not
it's close towards the end. You just have to be
sharp offscript, man, because like you got a plaster to
(17:24):
these guys. McDaniels, not McDaniel McDaniels. Josh McDaniels creates solutions
for may pre snap and he can id coverage really well.
We broke it down Dolphins HQ this week, which comes
out later tonight, where I showed you him deciphering a
cover two pre snap presentation that wheels into cover zero
and he finds the solution and rips it and he's
very good. Anthony, we were gonna have to mix things up,
(17:46):
but I do think personnel wise we match up pretty
well there. But once you get off the timing of
the play, it becomes backyard ball and Drake May is
extremely difficult that way. So just real quick. Yeah, Ramondre
Stevenson had the two fumbles back in Pittsburgh and Week
three had one against the Bills two weeks later. He
has not fumbled since that game, so the fumbling issues
possibly resolved. And it's given this Patriots run game a
(18:08):
real dangerous one two attack with the play action game
working off that as well. And then I also just
wrote down Davis an if he game. I think Drake's
the kind of quarterback, a good one like we saw
Ina or Cincinnati, and even against Tampa there when they
were kind of cooking in the first half, they can
be got and I think they could get got in
this one. Hunter Henry is a mismatch for most and
(18:29):
that's why Minka's potential availability is important here. I don't
think he'll play, but we'll see. They really do a
good job involving their tight ends in the past game
from run heavy fronts, and I really do like the
Jimmy's and Joe's element of this, but that coordinator battle
will be appointment feeling like Josh McDaniels versus Anthony Weaver
is two guys that could be head coaches. McDaniels has
kind of proven that it's not really his bag. Weaver
(18:49):
is going to get that opportunity at some point. Like
they're both really good at what they do. Good scheme
on good scheme. Our personnel didn't get the wins it
needed against a great Bengals eligible group, but it did
against a good Bucks group. The Patriots have been good,
but they're not at the level of those two teams,
especially if they don't have Booty and especially of Digs.
I don't know what's gonna happen there, but if he
doesn't play, it changes their entire offense. Some scheme calling
(19:11):
cards here against the Patriots defense, the scheme really changed
to Vrabel's approach compared to what it was for decades
with the Patriots, right, I wrote back in Week two,
like will it be more man coverage because they have
Christian Gonzalez, who's one of the best man cover corners
in football. Like I would say Pat Sartan and then
probably him are the top two guys. Now, what they've
done over the course of seventeen weeks is twenty eight
(19:31):
percent man and twenty four percent of that so a
quarter of their snaps is in cover one, you know,
if that is a single high safety, whole player in
the middle, man coverage everywhere else, which lends itself to
a twenty seven percent deployment of Cover three, which is
three deep defenders, two corners in a safety. The other
safety kind of comes down a buzzes or robs or
fits the run or possibly you know, drops into a
(19:52):
curl flat, Like there's so much you can do there
with that robbing safety or that safety drops down and
Cover three. So that accounts for what is that fifty
fifty five percent of the defense. And then between Cover
two in quarters, which is a similar concept, just depends
on kind of how you back off of the cornerback
position in quarters versus playing two accounts for forty percent,
(20:14):
So there's your ninety five percent of their defense right there.
I covered this back in week two. I had gone
back and looked at the twenty twenty three Titans game,
and the big takeaway was the variety of coverages they
threw to us, just a bunch of different stuff. They
specialized with front diversity as well. So big game for
Quinn to kind of get some some different looks. And
when I've seen the last two games against defenses that
are really struggling, this one is well coached. I think
(20:37):
it's the biggest test that Quinn will have on top
of bad weather. If he doesn't have waddle, that could
be a big deal too. So you can find out
some information here about Quinn. You weres this week Milton
Williams was playing basically he was like there two to
two I and three primarily, and then Barmore plays a
lot like Zach Sealer in terms of anywhere and everywhere.
But you could use both those guys on the nose.
(20:57):
You could play them both in odd fronts and a
nosetap end combination or even up front with a one
shade of three combo. So like they had all these
options with different fronts to deploy these guys, and without
Milton Williams, they have to kind of pigeonhole bar More
and everybody else as well, and it changes the entire
complexion of how they call their defense. And if they
don't have bar More, then they're gonna have to PLoP
guys in there. They can't really move or play multiple positions,
(21:18):
and you're gonna get the same front throughout the course
of the game, or at least it won't be like
you're not gonna have to guess and kind of patchwork together,
because it's gonna be like, hey, this is what they show,
it's what they're gonna do. And that would really benefit
the Dolphins in my opinion, if that happens, because of
not just the personnel, because of how it changes the
way they call their defense. If they don't have those guys,
they don't have one of them for sure, we'll see
(21:38):
about bar Moore. They'd have to present those looks, which
would open up opportunities for Dulcic and Waller and Julian
to be forced multipliers in the running game, not so
much Waller, but for Julian and Dulsage to get some
movement off line of scrimmage against a pretty rough edge group,
I'd say, and then those slides and those drags and
those pivots and those hookups, like you can throw all
these things at these tight ends because of the potential
(22:00):
lack of front diversity they would have with that Patriots front.
I think because of that eighth Chan I'm pretty sure,
pretty sure Devon ah Chan is gonna go off on Sunday. Stylistically,
they want a one gap and shoot across your face
with penetration. That goes back to the like the creeper
rat in the hole from the back end we've talked
about on the show, where you can really bring somebody
down and try to force the issue and then peel
(22:21):
somebody back from the rush plan into coverage. Like that's
a key for quinn ewers to id if they're gonna
pull guys back into the hook and play that whole
position from the defensive line. Now, one gapping can be
great when it's effective, but it also can lead to
spring leaks and the explosives in the running game. We
talked about that with the Jets aggressive attack for years
here right with Solo versus McDaniel. So you might absorb
a tackle for loss or two. With the upsot to
(22:44):
that is, they blow an assignment and you get a
Devon h chan On a safety for a potential sixty
yard touchdown, which I will take that all day long.
Former Patriots defender that played with the Titans as well
under Vabel Logan Ryan said this, we did a lot
of complicated secondary pressures, blitz stuff to make it hard
on quarterbacks. Because we have had a really smart veteran secondary.
(23:04):
We found a way to simulate pressure. We found a
way to be multiple and complicated. That's why that comment
with the potential losses from a personnel standpoint like, could
change the complexion of this game. And quite frankly, the
Patriots playoff chances because if they have that against the
Chargers or the Bills running game, and they can't get
to those looks without Williams or without possibly bar More,
(23:25):
they're gonna get one and done. Man. Like it's gonna happen.
So I'm curious to see how it works out for
the Patriots this week and going forward. But I also
think that Logan Ryan comment has been solidified a little
bit as the years gone on, because they didn't have
Gonzo in that Week one game or Week two game.
But they also got those young safeties and Hawkins and Woodson,
you know, kind of up to speed as they've developed
and progressed this year. Within the defense, they'll do timely blitzing.
(23:46):
I think, especially with how Quinn attacked it last game.
Vrabel said before the Week two matchup, you can't live
in a blitz world. They will get after you, but
it'll be about picking spots and it'll be paramount for yours,
you know, with two back then to recognize when those
tennessees will show up and answers for how to beat them.
So that's the calling cards for the Patriots defense. We'll
talking about the offense, the quarterbacks, and the keys to
victory and prediction on the other side. Draft Time Podcasts
(24:08):
brought to you by AutoNation the very last segment of
the preview podcast. We have done twenty of these now,
going back to the Chicago bursh back in August in
the preseason. Maybe I didn't do preview podcasts. I did
recap podcasts for those games. I don't think we preview
the preseason games, do we? Now we don't. But the
(24:29):
Patriots second time this year they're calling cards offensively, power
pen and pull work on doubles, create teams for the
running game, and let Henderson and Stevenson, who are sizzle
and steak but also both have really good vision and
fuel to set up blocks. They can get after it
with that run scheme up front. Josh McDaniel's one of
the originators of those Dynasty power run game teams. And
then in the passing games, side adjustments, mann and zone beaters.
(24:52):
A lot of trust between the quarterback and the pass
catchers on those because of drilled repetitive work over and
over again. That's what repetitive means. It's timing side adjustments
in breakers, trying to create advantageous looks closest to the quarterback.
They love their tight ends. You know about that from
the Gronk and Hernandez days. They love their slot receivers
with Welker, with Edelman, with Amandola, right, was there somebody
(25:15):
else in there as well, some other white dude. But
when they get their run game going, they get to
your backers and safeties and slots. You get him concerned
about fitting the run game and fitting a gap in
the run game. They become super difficult to stop, because
then they can get the one on one matchups they want.
It's why I wonder if you show more zone than
flip to man and then bring the heat on Drake
and try to win early and create a takeaway or
create a negative play. He has really cleaned up his game,
(25:38):
but from earlier in the year in his rookie season,
but he was prone to throwing some balls of the defense.
That's not part of my game plan anymore because he's
not doing it. It's risky. But what do you have
to lose in this game? Like I would just beat
him up? Why not? You're not gonna get home. You're
not gonna get home even if Chub and Chopp playing
this game. That's not This front's not been winning with four.
You're gonna have to find a way to create pressure
and then figure it out on the back end. I'm
(25:59):
curious how they might do that their quarterback Drake maybe
and glazing him the entire show here. But my book
on him, big strong, difficult to bring down, tough plays
with power, plenty of juice in the arm from various platforms,
and he's taken the next step with the how he
sees things and he trust his arm as he should,
will take some chances and he's not been getting burned
for it too much. My book in week two was
to change the picture from the pre snap along with
(26:21):
a good rush plan to move him. But we don't
have the rush I thought we had back then, and
he's been a much better player than I thought he
was going to be this year, so it's kind of
changes the whole dynamic there of how you attack him
as he evolves his game. I think the biggest thing
here is to be privy to him not forcing it
when you went with the call, because he's now decided
like I can just tuck this and make plays with
my legs. His legs present a huge issue and his
(26:43):
arm once he does extend, is even bigger issue. We
will break it down h Q four. He to is
He's deadly man. He's a deadly, deadly player to face.
We talked so much about the matchup advantages from Miami.
This is where New England takes the pendulum and says
back to you, like, we will take the huge advantage
here at the quarterback position. He is playing so well
and he can carry that team to victory on any
given Sunday. Our quarterback. Another good game of growth here
(27:05):
for Quinn last week. Super impressed by the anticipation reading
out the defense quickly last week. He'll need to be
on it again this week because those two defenses he
faced were not exotic. There was busted coverage, there was
bad re like, there was bad connectivity. I'm not taking
anything away from Quinn. I've been very impressed by him,
but this is the real challenge that he's gonna get
this week, and I hope it gets sixty minutes of
the Patriots starters and a real contested game plan. It's
(27:27):
gonna have to be on it. They're gonna tilt the
field and the best way to get away from that
is to run the football. Waddles availability gonna be huge.
I think we just commit to the run game and
create potential situations where Quinn has to win on third down.
But I think this is a case where you anticipate
they know you run, so you get pass happy. Don't
fall into that trap again. It happened against Pittsburgh. I
think it's what they want you to do. Run the ball, run, run, run, run,
(27:49):
run like a son of a gun. My keys to victory.
We're not doing special teams and miscellaneous, because who gives
a damn and there's nothing at stake anymore. So the
keys of victory. Number one, challenge the Patriots receivers at
the break point. That's where they win. He wants to
put the ball on them out of breaks with that
Josh McDaniels inside passing game, So challenge that. Jason Marshall, Gosh,
I hope Mika can play Jordan Brooks. Anybody that can
(28:10):
find their way into the interior of the passing defense.
Find a way to challenge those receivers at the break point.
Number two, reset the lage scrimmage. On offense, they might
be down some bodies. The linebacker, their top linebacker, their
top defensive tackle are both going to be out. Most
likely Milton Williams will for surest Blaine will see. And
then if Barmore goes, who knows if he's in the
right headspace after a charge, a very serious charge against him,
(28:31):
So knock him off the football. You can do it,
like you have the personnel. Just do it. Number three,
limit damage when May goes off script. You can't stop
it entirely, but just don't let the game become about
Drake May making plays outside of the pocket. My prediction,
we're ten point underdogs, ten and a half. Actually, it's
supposed to be run twenty five degrees. They have a
defensive scheme against a rookie who hasn't seen one like this.
(28:53):
They have everything to play for. They're banged up, but
we are banged up too. I think we're able to
mask the injuries and get after some busts on defense
the last couple of weeks. Doing it twice in a row,
though with the injury aspect of it is tough. I
was way wrong last week. I hope I am again
this week. So I'm gonna say thirty one fifteen Patriots win,
Dolphins goes seven to nine, and they can go as
(29:15):
high as eighth in the draft with a loss. Here,
they can fall as far as fourteenth with a victory.
So there you go. We'll come back tomorrow. We'll pick
the NFL games. I'm gonna give you the Dolphins twenty
twenty five team awards, or Travis's team awards, I should say,
and I will also recap the four college football games
that happened over the last couple of days or the
next two couple of days coming up here. Yesterday and today, whatever,
(29:36):
this is coming out Thursday, tipping on Wednesday. Whatever. In
the meantime, you all please be sure subscribe, rate review
of the show, follow me on social at Wingfold NFL,
the team at Miami Dolphins, check out the YouTube channel
for Dolphins HQ, media availabilities and so much more and last,
butt not least, Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time,
Jump Caroline Cammeran and Willow Daddy's come in Home in
(30:01):
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