July 25, 2025 • 43 mins
Strap in for a supersized episode as Travis is talking culture through the vets and youth being established, the beauty of disguise in the defensive backfield, the intent of practice and training camp and all the notes from a busy day at practice. Plus, soundbites from Coach McDaniel, Jaelan Phillips, Jonah Savaiinaea and Kenneth Grant.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Drivetime with Travis Wingfield.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up Dolphins and welcome to the Draft Time Podcast.
I am your host, Travis Wingfield. And on today's show,
Day number three is in the books, and I think
it was my favorite one so far. A lot of
clear reps were obvious winners and standouts were made available.
Plenty of big plays to talk about, a good mix
of run and pass game, defensive wins, individual standouts. Plus
(00:35):
I want to talk about the idea of culture through
youth and competition three days in and the progress report
on that. I want to talk about the outside running
game and the Dolphins' strength off either edge offensively and
defensively with Pat Paul Austin Jackson, Bradley Chubb, Jalen Phillips,
Chop Robinson, and so much more. And the one I've
been kicking around for a while now, what makes a
(00:56):
good practice and the true meaning of July and August reps.
All of that, all the practice notes, the audio from
Kenneth Grant Jonas of Iitanaya, we heard from coach McDaniel today,
and much much more from the Baptist Health Studios inside
the Baptist Health Training Complex.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
This is the Draft Time podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
I like to kick off these shows with the most
pertinent news items. We covered the signing of Cornell Armstrong yesterday.
We're gonna go ahead and get audio from coach on
his acquisition. But let's go ahead and first hear from
a an update on a player that hasn't been out
at practice at least in the team portion of drills yet.
And Aaron Brewer here is coach McDaniel on the progress
of Miami's seventh team game starter last year in the
(01:39):
pivot at center.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Well, he's not on pup and you know we did that,
you know, so he can date, he can you know,
participate with Tua a daily with with some snaps and
stuff that. But it's a lower extremity, slight soft tissue.
Not over concerned. You'll you should see him sooner than later.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
And that's really great news.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
As we heard from Jonas savit Naya today, and we'll
play some audio from him talking about playing that left
guard position alongside Patrick Paul and getting that same five
together with continuity throughout the course of the summer, into
the preseason, into the regular season. I think could really
pay dividends for this Dolphins offense. So looking forward to
brew getting back out there and working with those guys.
We also again touched on the Cornell Armstrong signing. The
(02:28):
Dolphins also brought in obina Ise, the offensive lineman who
has spent time on practice squads across the NFL the
last couple of years, placing Ardie Burns on IR and
waving ted Kushy, let's go ahead though, And I wanted
to run that back for you guys from yesterday's show
because we heard from coach McDaniel on Friday morning about
Cornell Armstrong and what he brings to the Miami Dolphins
defensive backfield.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
You know, I have experience going against him, familiar with him,
and then you know, just with interpersonal connections, really like
where this guy's mind's at, where his talents at. I
think he he has a a chip on his shoulder,
(03:09):
and I like the way he goes about his business.
I think he's I'm excited to ad him.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
To the group.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
And now we'll pivot to one of the you know,
I've kind of fallen into the structure of like themes,
big picture items, practice notes and then soundbites and kind
of put all that together for you guys for a
full day, a full report of what happened at the
day at the Baptist Hell Training Complex here in Miami Gardens.
And one of the things I've been kicking around, and
I mentioned the JJ Watt tweet yesterday where he talked
(03:35):
about like the absurdity of taking stats in these practices.
And I've talked to veterans and rookies and coaches and
position coaches and everyone that I can over the last
five years about this because you know, again another golf analogy,
like it reminds me of when someone goes up to
somebody on a driving range who's in the midst of
a swing change. And first off, like in the gym,
(03:57):
at a golf at a driving range, never give of
unsolicited advice, right, But sometimes that happens. And it's you know,
if someone comes up to you and says like, hey,
you need to tuck your back elbow in and you
need to rotate through your finish better. It's like, listen,
I'm trying to drill a specific thing right here, leave
me alone. And I think that's that's applicable to football
practices in the month of July and into August, where
(04:20):
you know, we hear all the time like this is
the one time of year where we can really just
drill fundamentals and technique. And once we get into weeks,
like we're not trying to, you know, spend an hour
on your fundies and technique. We'll have an individual portion
and maybe some post practice stuff, but we have to
game plan for the Buffalo Bills, for the New York Jets,
Like it is different once you get into the season
and the flow of things, and so to evaluate these practices,
(04:43):
and I say this as someone who has kind of
built my career on observing training camp and providing note
and providing updates and notes and analysis on these practices
that I'm very fortunate to get to see going back
to my time before the Miami Dolphins hired me, Like,
I'm really very well aware of how much this has
kind of put food on my table and advanced my career.
(05:03):
But at the same time, like, you know, check your
ego at the door and understand that trying to be
results based in this time of year is is kind
of silly and that's not what it's all about. And
so if you're watching something with an entirely different lens
in perspective than what the coaching staff and the evaluators
are watching, you probably should find a way to get
connected to what their thought is, and we can't know that,
(05:26):
so it's tricky and you have to do some guesswork.
I guess my point is like trying to completely admonish
what a player does or put them in the Hall
of fame at the same time, on my end of
the spectrum, is a little bit foolish this time of
year because it's there's just so many variables where the
results are not the primary focus. And we try to
talk about on this show all the time being you know,
(05:47):
a process driven, not results driven, and that's even in
the season to a certain point, but that is magnified
times ten at this time of year. And so I've
been harping on, you know, the structure of practice, and
we've heard the players talk about self policing, and we're
going to hear a sound by here from Jalen Phillips
in just one second where he talks about the different
ways we can manage reps and workload and make sure
(06:10):
that you're fresh and ready to go, but also not
missing those reps me mental standpoint or the conditioning standpoint
that you maybe got some fewer reps in a certain practice.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
That's all part of it.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Coach McDaniel, who has interjected himself more in these practices
for the first week of twenty twenty five than I
remember seeing in the last couple of years. And I
think his press conference today was more direct and to
the point that we've seen in the past, like intentionality
behind what you do and the purpose of these practices.
So I wanted to run two soundbites here, and it
(06:42):
connects to this greater concept of something we saw this
team verbally put into motion back in the spring. And
as a person that you like when the Dolphins do
certain things, and this is probably a big reason why
I'm here and I caught the eye of the Dolphins originally.
I've covered the team this way since before I was
with the team, Like I am willing to like open
(07:04):
myself up to the possibilities of what they're trying to
do more so than harping on like what could go wrong.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
That's just my personality.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
And you know, maybe like maybe there is a little
bit of like aqua colored glasses in this concept of
buying in every single year, But damn it when it
adds up, when I see two plus two and the
answer is four. It it calculates that way to me.
And when I heard coach talk about setting the culture
through the draft back at the owners meetings, and I
(07:32):
saw them go out and draft a guy like Kenneth
Grant and jonasavit Naya, who we both talked to today
and both said that they have a competition about who
can get to the building first and who can leave last.
And I hear Patrick Paul talk with just an insane
level of confidence yesterday, and I watch them go on
the field and kick people's butts the entire day, like
that resonates with me. I see what Chop Robinson has
done in practice and the work that he's put in
(07:54):
to just build his game and build upon the success
from last year, and hearing Jalen Phillips talk about about
him being a potential Defensive Player of the Year candidate
this year, I think that everything that they've talked about
getting tougher, being more flexible in the running game to
convert shortyards, and having more adaptable running schemes to adjust
for what teams are doing to take away your bread
and butter. Everything that I've heard, and it's only three days.
(08:18):
So again, let's be like not put this team in
the championship and into the Hall of Fame. But I'm
getting the results that I was hoping I would see
from what I heard back in the spring. I'm now
seeing it here in the summer. And so I wanted
to play a couple of sound bites here from Coach
that one of the questions I asked, one of the
questions Kyle Krabs asked, And it's kind of fitny and
that it goes that way because you guys know how
(08:38):
high regard I hold Kyle's opinion and the way he
attacks this stuff. Let's go ahead and play this first
portion here where I ask Coach about the attentionality and
the purpose for stopping practice and how do you calculate
in your own head when you should stop practice and
step in and cut things back versus when you let
things play out and let the guys figure.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
It out on their own.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
And maybe you know in that adversity or in those
thoughts for a minute, like I was curious about his
psyche because Coach is so measured in the way he
does all these things and so deliberate. Let's go ahead
and play the SoundBite.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
When you're observing it from the side, just do the
inverse of what common sense would tell you. Because like
for me, if if things aren't going the way that
I necessarily want them, that's a perfect game rep because
you don't get to call time out and quiet the
crowd to make a point. Generally, when you know things
(09:34):
are frustrating me, I'm walking around and letting everyone know
exactly how things need to adjust and try to work
through it with the players on the field. If I'm
stopping practice, I'm making a point within the structure of
(09:54):
the practice. Maybe I'm emphasizing something that we're working on
that day, could be emphasizing finishing something that we said
we're gonna start. Just points for guys to be focused on,
because again, you know, I think the big thing that
we're all trying to do is every day focus on
(10:18):
actually what matters and solely that. So when you're stopping
for me, when I'm stopping practice, I'm trying to test
the guy's focus, ask for something and see how they
respond to that.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
And so there was a continuation of that concept today
at practice because early on the offense was kind of
getting whatever they wanted and in the final period. It
was the defense that really kind of put their foot
on the gas and took things back from the offense.
And at one point we heard practice get stopped and
I'm not sure whose voice was, but we heard like,
wake up.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
That was the message from one of the coaches.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Wake the f up, right, And so I wanted to
kind of run this audio here from an answer that
Kyle asked about, how do you There's so much that
I'm going to kind of unpack and weave in here,
So with me, how do you measure what you want,
what your vision was for how you constructed this roster
back in the spring and summer into now what the
(11:09):
roster tells you it is based upon the performance and
the production of the guys. That's a very Mike McDaniel
is right, and I praise Kyle for that because using
the coach's language to ask a question about what he
thinks is a good way to get him to really,
you know, give you an in depth answer on what
you've asked him. So Kyle asked that question, Let's go
ahead and play the audio and I'll come back and
continue my pontification after the fact.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
From an integrity standpoint, I think it's super important that
I don't that I coach the team for what they
need to be coached on. So they have to tell
me who they are and so I can reach them
and push them in the right ways. And you know,
(11:51):
I think the biggest I don't know, it's a very
quick test, but you're adjusting on the fly very fast
after your summer break because technically you don't know if
anyone's done everything or nothing. You don't know where their
botdis are at. So you find that out live speed,
and then you feel the energy of the team and
(12:14):
you can kind of set your direction for that team.
What I found out with this team from coming back
to summers, it's the most in shape they've been. They
were ready to practice, So now I can go I
don't need to focus on how important these practices are.
I need to focus on what's important within them. Okay,
(12:36):
they already know it's that important. They've shown me by
being in the best shape that they've been in before,
so that it's always an adjustment. I think that's it's
not about doing the perfect thing. It's about having the
right and tent and shooting your shot. And I think
players and teams respond.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
To that, and there's so many things again that I
mentioned that I want to kind of peel off of that.
Let's go ahead and start with this, and I guess
I'll go to what coach just talked about there with intent,
because Coach was also asked later on about when is
the time to consider bringing another cornerback to the roster,
And I was having this conversation with Kyle up in
the stands, like you know, you spent months in the
(13:18):
entire off season talking about how important it was to
set your culture through the draft, getting younger players on
the roster, being more youthful, and really emphasizing competition and
practice to sharpen the sword for getting yourself ready to
create tougher conditions come game day. So those guys are
more battle tested because you were able to manufacture those
(13:39):
type of adverse moments in practice to get you ready
for the adversity of an NFL season. And how much
would it be going back on what you said to
go out and drop in a veteran cornerback and say
never mind, he's here today, and maybe it happens a
week down the road or two weeks down the road,
and you've kind of gotten the information you needed from
the first seven or fifteen practices, whatever the number might be,
(13:59):
are arbitrarily. But I love the consistency of the message.
So let these guys go out and compete and let
them tell you whether or not you do need to
go to that veteran market and find a new player.
I think there's so much value in that. And I'm
just really intrigued by the way it's all gone down
because like you're again following the roadmap, it all tracks.
I'm on this freeway, I took my exit, I'm onto
(14:22):
my next stop. You know, I made a cross country
trip trip from Seattle, Washington to Miami, Florida. When I
drove down here and moved down here and there was
you know, I had to hit up Ogden, Utah. I
believe it was Clarksville, Tennessee, And I think that was
it for my overnight stays. Like I had to get
to those certain road those certain points on my trip,
and if I had a mistake or we had a
(14:43):
tire blowout in Wyoming and that threw our schedule off,
we had to adapt to that.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Like it's the exact same thing.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
You have this roadmap for how you outline it from
March up until you know July, and you stay on
those those triggers and those main points, and you continue
to be consistent in that message throughout your entire process.
That's how you build this trust and this culture of
accountability to you know, shore up the things that you
were just dissatisfied with last year with you know, being
late to meetings or not being out of practice on time,
(15:09):
or you know, not being accountable to each other, whatever
it might be. That's how you set in stone what
you want to accomplish by by laying the message out there,
walking the walk every single day and continuing on that
same path and so far through three days. Again, hilariously
early to have this in depth conversation, but it's what
I've seen and I think it's played out both in
(15:29):
press conferences and what guys have said and what I've
seen on the field, and you cannot manufacture that outside
of it just being fully authentic with with Kenneth Grant,
Jonas of Vite, Nayah Patrick, Paul, Mike McDaniel, all the
guys relaying that same message. It's like when you get
in trouble in high school and you try to get
on the same page with all your friends and have
the same story for when the principal calls you win
(15:51):
one by one, you better have the same story of reality.
Otherwise they're going to pick you apart and see that
you're frauds, right, So I think it's comparable that way.
I have so much more to get to on this
I'm excited about this podcast. I have a million sound
bites to play for you, guys. Let's go ahead and
take our first break, come back on the other side,
and pick it right back up where I left off.
Drivetime Podcast brought to you by Auto Nation. Yeah, I
(16:14):
gotta be honest with you, guys. I'm rather tickled pink
about the concept of this team coming into a camp
in really great shape, ready to hit the ground running. Because,
as we've seen in the past, Dolphins teams have a
way of starting out fast. I think the schedule this
year provides an opportunity to get off to a fast start,
maybe help change some of the narratives around what people
think about who you are. And besides that, because that's
(16:35):
not important, just stacking up a good record, stacking up
wins is a good way to get yourself back in
the mix and into the playoff picture and all that stuff,
and this is a good start to get yourself in
position when you play these games in South Florida that
people come down from the Northeast and have a lot
of issues acclimating to what they're dealing with from a
weather standpoint. I just think all of that tracks in
a really big way. Let's go ahead and play some
(16:56):
sound here to kind of continue that theme before I
pivot back to my first sound bite from coach talking
about intention of practice and making things tough on you
from a scheme standpoint. I have a couple of soundbites
I want to run through here. Let's go ahead and
start with Jalen Phillips and that comment about Bradley Chubb
and how he sets a tone and a culture on
his own with his actions and his leadership.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
But you know, Bradley has been you know, really critical
for me and for everybody in the room and defense
of holding us to a really high standard. So you know,
today took a little less reps, and so to make
up for that, we're running spints on the sideline. So
you know, I think our thing is finding an edge
wherever we can, whether that's extra reps in the weight room,
you know, extra rehab, extra prehab or doing things like that.
(17:35):
You know, something that's really led by Bradley something I'm
very grateful for having someone like him to kind of
hold me accountable and guide us to do that.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Like how many times have you heard about Bradley Chubb
in that capacity Coach McDaniel talking about the way he
makes guys practice in a different way, because like, hey,
you want you want to tell Bradley Chubb that practice
doesn't matter when he doesn't have a chance to practice.
Really all of last year, like it's a different type
of culture center. And there was a skirmish in practice
and who was on the scene right away to break
(18:03):
it up? It was Bradley Chubb was first on the scene.
Minka Fitzpatrick and Willie Gay were all part of that collection.
We'll talk more about Minca's leadership later on. And Willy
Gay had a massive, massive day to day. We'll talk
about all of that. But I think that's just instructive
about what he means, what Geln Phillips means this football team,
and it's an example being set by the veteran players
on the roster. But again back to the culture setting
(18:25):
nature of who you draft right the twenty four and
twenty five classes are imperative for Miami coming off of
a veteran Leyden acquisition group in twenty three and twenty
two and kind of bypassing a lot of parts of
the draft. It's imperative Miami hits with talent and with
the right type of guys that you can keep around
here for a long time. And you know, again early
(18:45):
and I'm not gonna put guys in the Hall of
Fame right now, but based upon what I've seen so far,
Kenneth Grant, Jonas of vite Enaya, Patrick Paul and Chop
Robinson your first and second round picks the last two years,
I have a lot of confidence, a lot of confidence personally,
just Travis Wingfield speaking that those four guys are going
to be four of the most important players in your
football team and be very productive for a winning football
(19:06):
team here in Miami.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
So I feel good about that.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
I'm excited about what they were able to accomplish after
their words told us that were going to accomplish these
certain things, and a big part of that is what
I heard from these guys and the actions they've shown us.
We heard Patrick Paul talk about he and Jonah being
in the building every single day studying tape, watching all
the other thirty one left tackles, in addition to his
weight training and getting his body looking. I mean, Patrick
Paul is huge, and he looks like he's in great shap,
(19:30):
like I could go play a freaking NBA game tomorrow.
Let's go ahead and hear from Jonah who talked about
that and the competition with Patrick Paul, or rather the
relationship with Patrick Paul and what that time meant between
them studying all that tape, being in the building and
working their butts off here this entire summer and spring.
Speaker 5 (19:46):
My mindset was, you know, noviac cans, Nova casion for
me until this is all over. So I wanted to
stay here, get acclimated to this weather because everyone's been
saying it is only going to get hotter. So I
gotta stay here and having Pat you know, here all summer.
You know, we got to build that chemistry, especially I'm
playing next with him, so just building chemistry not only
on the field, but off the field, you know, just
(20:08):
being able to trust each other.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
So you've got your most veteran players out there setting
this certain example, you've got your rookies buying all the
way in and just being all about football. Like gosh,
I wish I had that type of direction and focus
when I was twenty one years old. Let's go ahead
and hear from Kenneth Grant on the competition that he
and Jonah Savit and Ia have with regards to who
can be the first one in here and who can
be the last one to leave.
Speaker 6 (20:30):
It's about every day, to be honest, you know, I
mean me and Coach Clark. We're in there watching a
film of the walkthroughs. You know, we're still we're baling
in the walkthrough still even though we're out, not in
paths or anything. So I mean everything, you know, we
do everything together, first in the building, last in the building.
So we're just challenging each other, you know, on the
field and off the field.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Yeah, just to be clear, he was talking about Jonah
there at length, so really really cool stuff there. I
hope that resonates with you guys the way it does
with me. Let's go ahead and peel back to my
first question to about stopping practice and the intentionality and
him talking about, you know, the inverse of what you
think it is in terms of like the rep has
to be a certain way, and he's had this discussion
(21:09):
and I talked about with Kyle a little bit today
in practice, like how do you decipher play calls? Like
do you challenge Weaver, like, hey, go ahead and make
this call to give us the toughest look against this
cover or the toughest coverage against this look that we
want to run, or do you give us the ideal
look and see how we process that way? Don't tell
the quarterback and see what he can decipher. And one
of the things I noticed in practice was how the
(21:31):
offense was just clicking. We're gonna get to the notes.
Stay with me here on that. If you're looking for
just player highlights, we're gonna get to that here at
the end. But one of the things I noticed was
Tua was again just on point. I had a joke
with a friend like, you know, Tua's gonna throw his
first pick on like day five of camp, and it's
gonna be, you know, set Twitter ablaze. And sure enough,
he's three days in and hasn't had a football hit
the hands of a defender yet.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
But he was sharp as hell.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
And then the defense came out and I really kind
of focused on the coverage structure on the back and
how they were mixing things up and disguising rotating post snap,
and there was a lot of variety, which is no mystery.
We saw it last year on tape with Coach Weaver.
I think the strongest part of the defense last year,
outside of what just Sack Steeler and Jordan Brooks individually were,
was the ability to rifle through all these different zone
(22:16):
presentations that have just variations that are kind of, you know,
a little bit different than the previous thing you showed
to kind of confuse opposing cornerbacks and you put guys
like Brock Purdy and Matthew Stafford in a buying two
quarterbacks that are very sharp that couldn't see what you
were doing, and you confuse them and you beat them,
and they had bad days that day because of the
way you played your defense. I think that's very true
of this defense. I think that it is basically the
(22:41):
concept behind like maybe you don't know the names of
the cornerbacks as much as the production they can possibly
provide you because of the connectivity of that safety room
of those cornerbacks in the back end, and I think
there's just so much value to that because I saw
to a struggle to see some of those reps and
the receivers couldn't get opened, and it provided the defense
on the front more time to get in and pressure
(23:02):
to and move him off the spot. You know, Minka
Fitzpatrick's a guy that has gotten here and has had
a major impact on the way things have gone. I
talked yesterday about him capping some of these deep routes
and taking away passes, and we're gonna go with kawah here.
Coach's answer was awesome And to throw an old fish
tank seth Levitt Juice McDuffie trope that I used to
run to those guys all the time on our postgame
(23:22):
radio show. Travis loves it when the coach confirmed something
he thinks he saw in practice confirming that observation. Well,
here's what coach said about Minka Fitzpatrick and the early
impressions of him so far.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
You get super pumped when you're like, yes, that's what
I was hoping for. You know, that's my initial impressions.
Why because I see, you know, a quiet guy that
I engage with a mild mannerd He's he's cool, but
he's you know, kind of mid energy in a building,
(23:55):
and then watch him put on a uniform and step
on the grass and you see it a different energy
and command. Just you can tell that that's his sacred
place on the football field. You know, there's a couple
plays yesterday that within the defensive system he was able
(24:16):
to utilize some of his football FBI and really disrupt
a couple pass plays in particular that to you guys,
were just a random and completion, but he was taken
away where we're trying to go. So and then I
see a guy that doesn't underestimate the importance of earning
(24:41):
his relationships within the team, like understanding that you need
to get to know people before you can affect them
or influence them or help them. So I see him
really leaning into a lot of really relationship building within
the team, which can tell it tells me what I
(25:05):
what I already knew that you know.
Speaker 6 (25:08):
He.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
Somewhat sees himself as a leader of this team that
wants to earn it the right way and that's how
you do it.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
And so that kind of was all put together because
I thought just the coverage structure late in practice with
a variety of players, and I thought the safety group
was really good today. Minka had another good day. I
thought Ashton Davis with his both the way he moves
in individual portions and the transition drills, like it just
looks a little different. He's a former track star. He
can really pop those hips and get loose and really
(25:39):
turn and run. And I thought Elijah Campbell I had
his best day of practice, a bunch of pass breakups
and getting hands on footballs and jumping routes and just
being a force multiplier in the middle of the field.
I thought John Saunders, the rookie, had himself a really
good day, including getting in the mix with everything that
he was doing on defense and special teams, just being
heavily involved in everything. And you could like see him,
(26:01):
you know, visibly celebrating himself and the teammates being around
him as well. I just thought the connection with those
guys and Patrick McMorris and Dante Trader, like the versatility
and the ability to be so smart. I mean, Mink
is a smart player. Ashton has a lot of experience
in this league. Patrick mc morris, that was kind of
his bread and butter coming out of col Elijah Campbell's
a guy that the coaches freaking love down here, Dante Trader.
(26:22):
We had Mike Loxley, his coach in college on the
podcast talking about his professional approach of the game, like
it is intentional with how they built that group to
make it that way, because if they can be experts
in the way they disguise and present and know their
rules and they can bump and slide an invert coverage
and I got this role, he goes emotion. Now it
changes my role to this and you take on this role.
(26:43):
I got first break in, you got second breakout. Like
if they can be just intellectually on that same page,
then you're gonna get more production than the value of
what you perceive the roster to be from the individual standpoint.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
So I'm fired up about that.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
I think all those safeties had a great day today
and kind of set me off on this course to
talk about this. And here we are twenty five minutes
into the podcast and having him got to the notes yet,
But those guys all made a big impact. And I
guess I'll go ahead and breeze through my other themes
because I'm getting very long here on the show. But
so the culture, setting, mentality and attack and the way
it's kind of played out through three days, the defensive
structure concept and how you can confuse with your post
(27:20):
snap changes. Something else I saw in this practice was
the way the Dolphins ran the ball out wide, and
this kind of helps us pivot into our actual notes
here as well. There was multiple runs from Devon h
Chan where he hit the corner with speed and had
an explosive run. And Patrick Paul had a great day.
He was blocking guys at the second level. At the
point of attack, he was ceiling, he was letting the
(27:42):
you know, if the defense man would try to backdoor him,
he would just get a piece and then get wide
and let the running back take care of him. I
thought there was a lot of good connectivity on those runs.
Austin Jackson had some big seals around the corner to
create big lanes for Devon ah Chan, for Jalen Wright,
who had another great day, and that running back position,
And you know, I think it's so valuable and instructive
with the guys they're going up against right now, because
(28:04):
one of I talked about since they both got here
in twenty one for JP and twenty two for Bradley
Chubb is the edge presence in the running game, which
we talked about the pass rush so much, but their
presence in the running game off the edge is what
really kind of sets the tone to get to those
passing downs. And when you have that strength going against
an offense that is no mystery wants to be an
outside zone team first, to set the entire rest of
(28:26):
the offense up. That strength on strength, that's good on good,
that's getting reps against what you might see on your
best opponent on a given Sunday. And so I thought
that was all really cool and valuable. And I asked
Jalen Phillips after practice just about that concept of this
team being so prevalent with outside zone and so good
at it versus a team that has good edge setters.
What's the overall benefit or impact of those two things
(28:49):
clashing every single day for the next month.
Speaker 4 (28:52):
I mean, it definitely challenges our edges. You know, when
you have our offense who runs a lot of outside
zone and you have our tight ends and tackles, who
are you know, pretty much masters that at this point,
being in this in the scheme for this for this long,
it definitely challenges your footwork, challenges your eyes, challenges your
pad level, your hands, so really challenges everything. So it
makes us better. And truly when it gets to the
(29:13):
game and you start getting inside zoned and you know,
gap scheme concepts, it kind of makes it easier in
a sense, not that it's ever easy to play against anybody,
but you know, I would say that in terms of
for the edge position, our offense really challenges us in
a different way.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
And one of the things that excites me about the
running game is we've seen the inside runs have success,
but the bread and butter still there. And I asked
Jonas about you Naya about this. You know, when you
think about how you know they they want to coach
it to make sure that your fundamentals and technique is
Last year, we heard from butcher Bery early on in
camp and he talked about the starting point and how
we're going to be at this position, that we're going
(29:47):
to progress to this area and what I'm looking for
is simple right now, and we'll put more on our
plates that we go along. I wanted to ask Jonah,
who has this profile as a guy that can fire
off the football and really good athletic traits how he
balances playing fast just like that with trying to make
sure that he's you know, dotting his eyes and crossing
his t's with the technique. In fundamentals, let's go ahead
and throw it back to the Dolphins rookie offensive lineman.
Speaker 5 (30:09):
There's no stopping you know, there's no slowing down, there's
no going lateral. Our mindset is fast off the ball.
We're always going on the angles or vertical. There's no
going ladder for us. So being able to balance that,
you know, it's always it's in a mental mental game too.
You know, I always gott to expect some some type
of you know what they're bringing. But uh, you know,
our standard is running off the ball, and bottom.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
Line, we are not at a natural breaking point right here.
But I'm gonna go ahead and take that break because
we are deep into the show and I have a
lot more to get to. Let's go ahead and take
that last break. Come back and pick it up right
their Draft Time podcast brought to you by Auto Nation.
I want to pick it back up here on our
third segment with some sound from coach McDaniel talking about
in what ways Jonas savit Naya has stood out so
(30:53):
far through three days of camp.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
Here's coach on the rookie old lineman.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
Well, first and foremost, I have it's interesting with with
young players, but you can get so much information by
their veteran teammates and quite literally, you know, you I
don't ask them, hey, because guys are nice guys and
they're gonna, you know, I'm the head coach, they'll say something.
(31:18):
But you watch how people, how the veterans interact with
a rookie player.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Very got a lot to learn.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
Love his approach, but you can tell, uh, the veterans
believe in them, and so he's, uh, he's doing a
great job. Fired up because he you know, you have
to earn that in a real way veteran trust, and
(31:49):
especially you know as a young guy where you're probably
gonna have errors here or there. So when veterans can
see that he's made of the right stuff, that's the
best news I could get.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
And Jonah was asked about that comment from coach after practice.
Speaker 5 (32:06):
I take that to heart because you know, I come in,
but you know I hold myself to a higher standard
every time I touched this facility or enter this facility.
You know, you got guys here that wants to win,
that has been here more than myself. So obviously I'm here,
I'm playing playing for something bigger than myself. So I'm
not only play for myself and my family, but also
for the guys next to me that that has been
(32:27):
here and that once the Super Bowl here. So that's
my mentality and the standard you know, keeps getting on.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
Let's go with some more offensive line notes here. Today.
I thought Jonah had himself another day.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
I thought James Daniels had a really good day moving
guys off the line, being really solid and pass protection
with his sets and communicating the different moves and twists
and games up front.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
I thought those guys were rock solid.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
Addition to what Patrick Paul and Austin Jackson did off
the edge, I thought Larry Borum had a good day,
and then Keyon Smith and Daniel Brunskill had some combo
blocks they pushed guys off the football that looked really
impressive there. You know, I was just talking with Kyle
Crabs about this, like, you know, Jackson Carmen started a
game last year for US, and there's he's probably in
competition with you know, eight, nine, ten guys that he
(33:08):
could be, you know, fighting for playing time ahead of them.
So if you were to come and last in that competition,
you're talking about like O line eleven or ten right
who started a game for you last year. I think
that speaks really well to the Dolphin's depth on the
offensive line. Let's go ahead and finish up some more
soundbites here with coach McDaniel. He was asked about Austin
Jackson's impact and the impact they feel of losing him
(33:28):
last year. To put a ball on the offensive line.
Here's coach on Austin Jackson.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
Austin's quiet, he's he really really speaks with how he works,
and I didn't maybe I have a different appreciation for
how much he rubs off on his teammates, how much
his his fearless attack at his at his craft, and
(33:55):
his mental toughness to put everything into something and then
it not works sometimes and that not you know, set
you back, which is which is a problem for most people.
So learned a lot about him, and I think I
have a better appreciation of how he rubs off on
(34:17):
his teammates.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
All Right, we're over a half hour into the podcast,
and I haven't told you about what happened on the
practice field in particular. Let's go ahead and rip through
this real quick first off cater Coo, who was in
the Orange jersey today. He had a really good day
on Thursday and I thought competed his butt off once
again today. Tua I thought was super sharp man. There
were some passes where he was and I can't assume this.
I have to assume this, but knowing to I know
(34:38):
it's what happened, intentionally locating the ball in different spots
to get around the coverage. Like the first play of
the day was a rip to Jalen Waddle for what
could have been a seventy yard touchdown. I think I'm
gonna call it like a thirty yard play, but if
he makes a safety miss, he does go for six.
On this play where the cornerback was in trail technique,
the linebacker was Terrell Dotson, who tried to jump the
route but he couldn't get to it wide enough because
(34:59):
to A put so on the back shoulder as Wattle
was breaking in and t dot was.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
Like, I could have had that one. I should have
had that.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
One, but to A put it in a really good
spot and they got back to work in the running
game like a Hm was ripping off big runs as well.
It was helping to in the play action passing game.
He was throwing those intermediate shots to Waddle and Reek.
He found Nick Westbrook a Keene on a nice little
sideline shot between the safety and the cornerback up the sideline,
and I'm like, he might get hit pretty good on
that play in live action and Kyle goes or it's
(35:26):
like the Minneapolis Miracle with Marcus Williams overplaying it and
does be a sixty yard touchdown. I was like, all right,
I like how your brain works there. I thought Zach
Wilson had a good day. He's really kind of progressing
in the way he sees things and reads things out.
Quinn Ewers had his best throw of camp in my opinion,
where he was on time with an anticipation throw over
the middle for the third and long conversion that I
(35:47):
thought was really impressive work by him. I think the receivers,
you know, Reek and Waddle, Nick Westbrook a Keene had
a big day today at Theowese with a catch at
one point working on Cam Smith, and I thought Julian
Hill had his best day of camp so far. He
was knocking head in the running game every day. The
Dolphins have pretty effective run game success at least at
certain points, and it's kind of different guys chipping in
(36:07):
and contributing that way. We talked about the defense a
little bit, mostly the backfield, but up front. Zach Steeler
was reckon shop pretty regularly. Today. He was in the
backfield a lot, moving guys around, and Terrell Dotson and
Jordan Brooks had really good days working off him, scraping
off his ability to kind of stack things up. Jordan
Phillips also in the mix his strength. There was a
rep today with Coach Clark. Let's actually go ahead and
(36:27):
play some sound here Fromkenneth Grant about Coach Clark, because
Jordan Phillips had a rep on the sled and Coach
Clark did the Tony Sperano field goal fist pump like
he was fired up about that. In fact, let's go
ahead and play this sound by here from Coach from
Kenny Grant on Coach Clark's approach to making sure your
fundamentals and technique are right.
Speaker 6 (36:46):
That's the main focus, to be honest, because what you're
doing in the technique wise, you take that to team.
So if we could focus on individual and doing the
right techniques, you know, take that to team. But you know,
if it's not perfect from him, you're doing it again.
So if you're on one drill, you might do that
drill like six times until you until you get it right,
because he's all about perfection. So yeah, oh yeah, uh,
(37:14):
it's about every day to be honest, you know, I mean, uh,
me and Coach Clark, we're in there watching a film
of the walkthroughs. You know, we're still we're baling in
the walkthrough still even though we're out, not in paths
or anything. So I mean everything, you know, we do
everything together, first in the building, last in the building,
So we're just challenging each other, you know, on the
field and off the field.
Speaker 2 (37:33):
So you're from coach on what Kenneth Grant has shown
so far through training camp.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
Yeah, he's been awesome. I think the way his emotional
intelligence on this football team has been phenomenal. Knowing that
on a football team that's hungry, that is not that
that is trying to diligently work like a pro as
a first round draft pick, you it is that the
(38:02):
team wants to see a guy that knows he's a
rookie that knows that we need a lot from him
and is willing to do whatever to be his very best.
And that's what I see from Kenneth Grant and is
one of the reasons we were so high on him
is because this is professional football. We needed his skill
(38:23):
set to contribute and we couldn't hold our breath if
we're going to get a guy that can be a
force on our defense. So I think he's He's working
relentlessly and I like where he's at right now, and
(38:46):
I want to see his game continuing. I know the
rest of the team does as well.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
I thought Grant had a really good day today as well.
He continues to just kind of progress every single day,
and I think he's working on some things, you know,
kin to what we talked about with with training camp practices,
being about the productress in the development. I think he's
showing really well in that regard. And then we heard
Jalen Phillips drop a pretty good bomb on what he
thinks about Chop Robinson, who had his third sack in
as many days. He's had one sack every single day.
He's been awesome in the run game set in hard Edges.
(39:12):
Let's go ahead and hear from Phillips on the day
Chop Robinson's had and what he thinks so far of
the second year pro being on the field with.
Speaker 4 (39:18):
Him is great. But they adding Chopping's had equation, Like
I truly feel like Chopp is going to be one
of the best players in the league very soon. I
think he already is supremely talented. But you know, the
more comfortable he gets, the more confident he gets, and
everything he's doing, I think he's, you know, a future
Defensive Player of the Year candidate. So really excited to
get on the field with all three of them or
all three of us, So it's gonna be great.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
I mentioned Dotson and Brooks, but my practice player of
the day I think was Willie Gay. He was blitzing,
rushing the quarterback. He was playing the run effectively, getting
around the edge and knocking you know that the pulling
tight end or the pulling guard whoever might have been,
you know, backwards. He jumped a flat throw from Zach
Wilson and had his hands on it for a possible
(39:59):
pick sick, but could not secure the catch. He's been
impacting that middle passing window in the kind of curl
flat hook zones really all training camp long, I thought
he's he's been really sharp, and I thought Storm Duck
had a really good day in the back end as
well with his coverage. He had a pass break up
working on Tyreek Hill at one point today. A couple
of dames I forgot I know if I mentioned Nick
Westbrook Akine had a big day. Dwayne Eskridge had some
big catches as well. Again, Orange Jersey prediction, I'm over
(40:23):
on this so far. I'm going with Willie Gay tomorrow.
I think Tua and Patrick Paul would be my second
and third, so I'm hoping for one of those three.
Derek McClendon in the notes as well. Changing Tendall had
some good tag off at Las Skrimmage also, And that's it.
Let's talk about a few guys that I didn't think
had the best day. Farah Brown had a drop and
had some failed blocks and a couple of one procedural
penalty that I think could clean up tomorrow. Tanner Connor
(40:44):
continues to kind of fight the ball and some drop
so I thought he had a tough day. Cam Smith
I watched him a few times. He kind of got
invited into the wash in the running game and got
taken out of the play and kind of got beat
on a couple of plays in coverage. I thought Andrew
Meyer didn't have his best day and the pivot Ethan
Bonner had some up and down moments as well. Ollie
Gordon had some bumbles in college, had a fumble today.
That's always gonna get on the negative because you've got
(41:05):
to put that football.
Speaker 1 (41:05):
Away, young man.
Speaker 2 (41:06):
I thought Grayce and Murphy and Quentin Bell kind of
struggled off the edge there a little bit. Let's go
ahead and conclude with this from coach Mike McDaniel, who
was asked about the gassers and the self policing after practice.
A good way to put a bow on this podcast.
Here's coach one more time.
Speaker 3 (41:21):
It's a way to for for players to re emphasize
the importance of doing the little things the right way.
And it's something that you know when when you're looking
at ways to improve your team, like right at the
beginning of the controllables, are the the yards lost because
(41:48):
and you didn't do a play pre sat penalties those
type of things. So the the nucleus of the locker room,
the leaders of the locker room. You know, they're put
in charge of being the being the police after practice
for all the things that the officials noted that we're illegal.
Speaker 2 (42:12):
All right, tomorrow back at it before our first break
on Sunday. You guys are gonna be back in the
stands tomorrow on Saturday, and we have the great Orange
Jersey practic or fan of the practice, which you can
sign up for. Go check out my Twitter timeline for
details on how to get yourself in the running for
the Orange jersey at practice on Saturday and every day.
We have fans in the building until then. Come say
(42:32):
hi if you see me. But until then, that's my time.
You all please be sure subscribe, rate, review the show,
go ahead and follow me on social at Winkfold NFL.
Speaker 1 (42:40):
The team at Miami Dolphins.
Speaker 2 (42:42):
Check out the YouTube channel for Dolphins HQ, Draft time, content,
media availabilities, and so much more and last, butt not least,
Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time, fins up, Caroline
Cameron and Willow Daddy. He's coming home.
This is Drivetime with Travis Wingfield.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up Dolphins and welcome to the Draft Time Podcast.
I am your host, Travis Wingfield. And on today's show,
Day number three is in the books, and I think
it was my favorite one so far. A lot of
clear reps were obvious winners and standouts were made available.
Plenty of big plays to talk about, a good mix
of run and pass game, defensive wins, individual standouts. Plus
(00:35):
I want to talk about the idea of culture through
youth and competition three days in and the progress report
on that. I want to talk about the outside running
game and the Dolphins' strength off either edge offensively and
defensively with Pat Paul Austin Jackson, Bradley Chubb, Jalen Phillips,
Chop Robinson, and so much more. And the one I've
been kicking around for a while now, what makes a
(00:56):
good practice and the true meaning of July and August reps.
All of that, all the practice notes, the audio from
Kenneth Grant Jonas of Iitanaya, we heard from coach McDaniel today,
and much much more from the Baptist Health Studios inside
the Baptist Health Training Complex.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
This is the Draft Time podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
I like to kick off these shows with the most
pertinent news items. We covered the signing of Cornell Armstrong yesterday.
We're gonna go ahead and get audio from coach on
his acquisition. But let's go ahead and first hear from
a an update on a player that hasn't been out
at practice at least in the team portion of drills yet.
And Aaron Brewer here is coach McDaniel on the progress
of Miami's seventh team game starter last year in the
(01:39):
pivot at center.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Well, he's not on pup and you know we did that,
you know, so he can date, he can you know,
participate with Tua a daily with with some snaps and
stuff that. But it's a lower extremity, slight soft tissue.
Not over concerned. You'll you should see him sooner than later.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
And that's really great news.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
As we heard from Jonas savit Naya today, and we'll
play some audio from him talking about playing that left
guard position alongside Patrick Paul and getting that same five
together with continuity throughout the course of the summer, into
the preseason, into the regular season. I think could really
pay dividends for this Dolphins offense. So looking forward to
brew getting back out there and working with those guys.
We also again touched on the Cornell Armstrong signing. The
(02:28):
Dolphins also brought in obina Ise, the offensive lineman who
has spent time on practice squads across the NFL the
last couple of years, placing Ardie Burns on IR and
waving ted Kushy, let's go ahead though, And I wanted
to run that back for you guys from yesterday's show
because we heard from coach McDaniel on Friday morning about
Cornell Armstrong and what he brings to the Miami Dolphins
defensive backfield.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
You know, I have experience going against him, familiar with him,
and then you know, just with interpersonal connections, really like
where this guy's mind's at, where his talents at. I
think he he has a a chip on his shoulder,
(03:09):
and I like the way he goes about his business.
I think he's I'm excited to ad him.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
To the group.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
And now we'll pivot to one of the you know,
I've kind of fallen into the structure of like themes,
big picture items, practice notes and then soundbites and kind
of put all that together for you guys for a
full day, a full report of what happened at the
day at the Baptist Hell Training Complex here in Miami Gardens.
And one of the things I've been kicking around, and
I mentioned the JJ Watt tweet yesterday where he talked
(03:35):
about like the absurdity of taking stats in these practices.
And I've talked to veterans and rookies and coaches and
position coaches and everyone that I can over the last
five years about this because you know, again another golf analogy,
like it reminds me of when someone goes up to
somebody on a driving range who's in the midst of
a swing change. And first off, like in the gym,
(03:57):
at a golf at a driving range, never give of
unsolicited advice, right, But sometimes that happens. And it's you know,
if someone comes up to you and says like, hey,
you need to tuck your back elbow in and you
need to rotate through your finish better. It's like, listen,
I'm trying to drill a specific thing right here, leave
me alone. And I think that's that's applicable to football
practices in the month of July and into August, where
(04:20):
you know, we hear all the time like this is
the one time of year where we can really just
drill fundamentals and technique. And once we get into weeks,
like we're not trying to, you know, spend an hour
on your fundies and technique. We'll have an individual portion
and maybe some post practice stuff, but we have to
game plan for the Buffalo Bills, for the New York Jets,
Like it is different once you get into the season
and the flow of things, and so to evaluate these practices,
(04:43):
and I say this as someone who has kind of
built my career on observing training camp and providing note
and providing updates and notes and analysis on these practices
that I'm very fortunate to get to see going back
to my time before the Miami Dolphins hired me, Like,
I'm really very well aware of how much this has
kind of put food on my table and advanced my career.
(05:03):
But at the same time, like, you know, check your
ego at the door and understand that trying to be
results based in this time of year is is kind
of silly and that's not what it's all about. And
so if you're watching something with an entirely different lens
in perspective than what the coaching staff and the evaluators
are watching, you probably should find a way to get
connected to what their thought is, and we can't know that,
(05:26):
so it's tricky and you have to do some guesswork.
I guess my point is like trying to completely admonish
what a player does or put them in the Hall
of fame at the same time, on my end of
the spectrum, is a little bit foolish this time of
year because it's there's just so many variables where the
results are not the primary focus. And we try to
talk about on this show all the time being you know,
(05:47):
a process driven, not results driven, and that's even in
the season to a certain point, but that is magnified
times ten at this time of year. And so I've
been harping on, you know, the structure of practice, and
we've heard the players talk about self policing, and we're
going to hear a sound by here from Jalen Phillips
in just one second where he talks about the different
ways we can manage reps and workload and make sure
(06:10):
that you're fresh and ready to go, but also not
missing those reps me mental standpoint or the conditioning standpoint
that you maybe got some fewer reps in a certain practice.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
That's all part of it.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Coach McDaniel, who has interjected himself more in these practices
for the first week of twenty twenty five than I
remember seeing in the last couple of years. And I
think his press conference today was more direct and to
the point that we've seen in the past, like intentionality
behind what you do and the purpose of these practices.
So I wanted to run two soundbites here, and it
(06:42):
connects to this greater concept of something we saw this
team verbally put into motion back in the spring. And
as a person that you like when the Dolphins do
certain things, and this is probably a big reason why
I'm here and I caught the eye of the Dolphins originally.
I've covered the team this way since before I was
with the team, Like I am willing to like open
(07:04):
myself up to the possibilities of what they're trying to
do more so than harping on like what could go wrong.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
That's just my personality.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
And you know, maybe like maybe there is a little
bit of like aqua colored glasses in this concept of
buying in every single year, But damn it when it
adds up, when I see two plus two and the
answer is four. It it calculates that way to me.
And when I heard coach talk about setting the culture
through the draft back at the owners meetings, and I
(07:32):
saw them go out and draft a guy like Kenneth
Grant and jonasavit Naya, who we both talked to today
and both said that they have a competition about who
can get to the building first and who can leave last.
And I hear Patrick Paul talk with just an insane
level of confidence yesterday, and I watch them go on
the field and kick people's butts the entire day, like
that resonates with me. I see what Chop Robinson has
done in practice and the work that he's put in
(07:54):
to just build his game and build upon the success
from last year, and hearing Jalen Phillips talk about about
him being a potential Defensive Player of the Year candidate
this year, I think that everything that they've talked about
getting tougher, being more flexible in the running game to
convert shortyards, and having more adaptable running schemes to adjust
for what teams are doing to take away your bread
and butter. Everything that I've heard, and it's only three days.
(08:18):
So again, let's be like not put this team in
the championship and into the Hall of Fame. But I'm
getting the results that I was hoping I would see
from what I heard back in the spring. I'm now
seeing it here in the summer. And so I wanted
to play a couple of sound bites here from Coach
that one of the questions I asked, one of the
questions Kyle Krabs asked, And it's kind of fitny and
that it goes that way because you guys know how
(08:38):
high regard I hold Kyle's opinion and the way he
attacks this stuff. Let's go ahead and play this first
portion here where I ask Coach about the attentionality and
the purpose for stopping practice and how do you calculate
in your own head when you should stop practice and
step in and cut things back versus when you let
things play out and let the guys figure.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
It out on their own.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
And maybe you know in that adversity or in those
thoughts for a minute, like I was curious about his
psyche because Coach is so measured in the way he
does all these things and so deliberate. Let's go ahead
and play the SoundBite.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
When you're observing it from the side, just do the
inverse of what common sense would tell you. Because like
for me, if if things aren't going the way that
I necessarily want them, that's a perfect game rep because
you don't get to call time out and quiet the
crowd to make a point. Generally, when you know things
(09:34):
are frustrating me, I'm walking around and letting everyone know
exactly how things need to adjust and try to work
through it with the players on the field. If I'm
stopping practice, I'm making a point within the structure of
(09:54):
the practice. Maybe I'm emphasizing something that we're working on
that day, could be emphasizing finishing something that we said
we're gonna start. Just points for guys to be focused on,
because again, you know, I think the big thing that
we're all trying to do is every day focus on
(10:18):
actually what matters and solely that. So when you're stopping
for me, when I'm stopping practice, I'm trying to test
the guy's focus, ask for something and see how they
respond to that.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
And so there was a continuation of that concept today
at practice because early on the offense was kind of
getting whatever they wanted and in the final period. It
was the defense that really kind of put their foot
on the gas and took things back from the offense.
And at one point we heard practice get stopped and
I'm not sure whose voice was, but we heard like,
wake up.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
That was the message from one of the coaches.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Wake the f up, right, And so I wanted to
kind of run this audio here from an answer that
Kyle asked about, how do you There's so much that
I'm going to kind of unpack and weave in here,
So with me, how do you measure what you want,
what your vision was for how you constructed this roster
back in the spring and summer into now what the
(11:09):
roster tells you it is based upon the performance and
the production of the guys. That's a very Mike McDaniel
is right, and I praise Kyle for that because using
the coach's language to ask a question about what he
thinks is a good way to get him to really,
you know, give you an in depth answer on what
you've asked him. So Kyle asked that question, Let's go
ahead and play the audio and I'll come back and
continue my pontification after the fact.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
From an integrity standpoint, I think it's super important that
I don't that I coach the team for what they
need to be coached on. So they have to tell
me who they are and so I can reach them
and push them in the right ways. And you know,
(11:51):
I think the biggest I don't know, it's a very
quick test, but you're adjusting on the fly very fast
after your summer break because technically you don't know if
anyone's done everything or nothing. You don't know where their
botdis are at. So you find that out live speed,
and then you feel the energy of the team and
(12:14):
you can kind of set your direction for that team.
What I found out with this team from coming back
to summers, it's the most in shape they've been. They
were ready to practice, So now I can go I
don't need to focus on how important these practices are.
I need to focus on what's important within them. Okay,
(12:36):
they already know it's that important. They've shown me by
being in the best shape that they've been in before,
so that it's always an adjustment. I think that's it's
not about doing the perfect thing. It's about having the
right and tent and shooting your shot. And I think
players and teams respond.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
To that, and there's so many things again that I
mentioned that I want to kind of peel off of that.
Let's go ahead and start with this, and I guess
I'll go to what coach just talked about there with intent,
because Coach was also asked later on about when is
the time to consider bringing another cornerback to the roster,
And I was having this conversation with Kyle up in
the stands, like you know, you spent months in the
(13:18):
entire off season talking about how important it was to
set your culture through the draft, getting younger players on
the roster, being more youthful, and really emphasizing competition and
practice to sharpen the sword for getting yourself ready to
create tougher conditions come game day. So those guys are
more battle tested because you were able to manufacture those
(13:39):
type of adverse moments in practice to get you ready
for the adversity of an NFL season. And how much
would it be going back on what you said to
go out and drop in a veteran cornerback and say
never mind, he's here today, and maybe it happens a
week down the road or two weeks down the road,
and you've kind of gotten the information you needed from
the first seven or fifteen practices, whatever the number might be,
(13:59):
are arbitrarily. But I love the consistency of the message.
So let these guys go out and compete and let
them tell you whether or not you do need to
go to that veteran market and find a new player.
I think there's so much value in that. And I'm
just really intrigued by the way it's all gone down
because like you're again following the roadmap, it all tracks.
I'm on this freeway, I took my exit, I'm onto
(14:22):
my next stop. You know, I made a cross country
trip trip from Seattle, Washington to Miami, Florida. When I
drove down here and moved down here and there was
you know, I had to hit up Ogden, Utah. I
believe it was Clarksville, Tennessee, And I think that was
it for my overnight stays. Like I had to get
to those certain road those certain points on my trip,
and if I had a mistake or we had a
(14:43):
tire blowout in Wyoming and that threw our schedule off,
we had to adapt to that.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Like it's the exact same thing.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
You have this roadmap for how you outline it from
March up until you know July, and you stay on
those those triggers and those main points, and you continue
to be consistent in that message throughout your entire process.
That's how you build this trust and this culture of
accountability to you know, shore up the things that you
were just dissatisfied with last year with you know, being
late to meetings or not being out of practice on time,
(15:09):
or you know, not being accountable to each other, whatever
it might be. That's how you set in stone what
you want to accomplish by by laying the message out there,
walking the walk every single day and continuing on that
same path and so far through three days. Again, hilariously
early to have this in depth conversation, but it's what
I've seen and I think it's played out both in
(15:29):
press conferences and what guys have said and what I've
seen on the field, and you cannot manufacture that outside
of it just being fully authentic with with Kenneth Grant,
Jonas of Vite, Nayah Patrick, Paul, Mike McDaniel, all the
guys relaying that same message. It's like when you get
in trouble in high school and you try to get
on the same page with all your friends and have
the same story for when the principal calls you win
(15:51):
one by one, you better have the same story of reality.
Otherwise they're going to pick you apart and see that
you're frauds, right, So I think it's comparable that way.
I have so much more to get to on this
I'm excited about this podcast. I have a million sound
bites to play for you, guys. Let's go ahead and
take our first break, come back on the other side,
and pick it right back up where I left off.
Drivetime Podcast brought to you by Auto Nation. Yeah, I
(16:14):
gotta be honest with you, guys. I'm rather tickled pink
about the concept of this team coming into a camp
in really great shape, ready to hit the ground running. Because,
as we've seen in the past, Dolphins teams have a
way of starting out fast. I think the schedule this
year provides an opportunity to get off to a fast start,
maybe help change some of the narratives around what people
think about who you are. And besides that, because that's
(16:35):
not important, just stacking up a good record, stacking up
wins is a good way to get yourself back in
the mix and into the playoff picture and all that stuff,
and this is a good start to get yourself in
position when you play these games in South Florida that
people come down from the Northeast and have a lot
of issues acclimating to what they're dealing with from a
weather standpoint. I just think all of that tracks in
a really big way. Let's go ahead and play some
(16:56):
sound here to kind of continue that theme before I
pivot back to my first sound bite from coach talking
about intention of practice and making things tough on you
from a scheme standpoint. I have a couple of soundbites
I want to run through here. Let's go ahead and
start with Jalen Phillips and that comment about Bradley Chubb
and how he sets a tone and a culture on
his own with his actions and his leadership.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
But you know, Bradley has been you know, really critical
for me and for everybody in the room and defense
of holding us to a really high standard. So you know,
today took a little less reps, and so to make
up for that, we're running spints on the sideline. So
you know, I think our thing is finding an edge
wherever we can, whether that's extra reps in the weight room,
you know, extra rehab, extra prehab or doing things like that.
(17:35):
You know, something that's really led by Bradley something I'm
very grateful for having someone like him to kind of
hold me accountable and guide us to do that.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Like how many times have you heard about Bradley Chubb
in that capacity Coach McDaniel talking about the way he
makes guys practice in a different way, because like, hey,
you want you want to tell Bradley Chubb that practice
doesn't matter when he doesn't have a chance to practice.
Really all of last year, like it's a different type
of culture center. And there was a skirmish in practice
and who was on the scene right away to break
(18:03):
it up? It was Bradley Chubb was first on the scene.
Minka Fitzpatrick and Willie Gay were all part of that collection.
We'll talk more about Minca's leadership later on. And Willy
Gay had a massive, massive day to day. We'll talk
about all of that. But I think that's just instructive
about what he means, what Geln Phillips means this football team,
and it's an example being set by the veteran players
on the roster. But again back to the culture setting
(18:25):
nature of who you draft right the twenty four and
twenty five classes are imperative for Miami coming off of
a veteran Leyden acquisition group in twenty three and twenty
two and kind of bypassing a lot of parts of
the draft. It's imperative Miami hits with talent and with
the right type of guys that you can keep around
here for a long time. And you know, again early
(18:45):
and I'm not gonna put guys in the Hall of
Fame right now, but based upon what I've seen so far,
Kenneth Grant, Jonas of vite Enaya, Patrick Paul and Chop
Robinson your first and second round picks the last two years,
I have a lot of confidence, a lot of confidence personally,
just Travis Wingfield speaking that those four guys are going
to be four of the most important players in your
football team and be very productive for a winning football
(19:06):
team here in Miami.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
So I feel good about that.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
I'm excited about what they were able to accomplish after
their words told us that were going to accomplish these
certain things, and a big part of that is what
I heard from these guys and the actions they've shown us.
We heard Patrick Paul talk about he and Jonah being
in the building every single day studying tape, watching all
the other thirty one left tackles, in addition to his
weight training and getting his body looking. I mean, Patrick
Paul is huge, and he looks like he's in great shap,
(19:30):
like I could go play a freaking NBA game tomorrow.
Let's go ahead and hear from Jonah who talked about
that and the competition with Patrick Paul, or rather the
relationship with Patrick Paul and what that time meant between
them studying all that tape, being in the building and
working their butts off here this entire summer and spring.
Speaker 5 (19:46):
My mindset was, you know, noviac cans, Nova casion for
me until this is all over. So I wanted to
stay here, get acclimated to this weather because everyone's been
saying it is only going to get hotter. So I
gotta stay here and having Pat you know, here all summer.
You know, we got to build that chemistry, especially I'm
playing next with him, so just building chemistry not only
on the field, but off the field, you know, just
(20:08):
being able to trust each other.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
So you've got your most veteran players out there setting
this certain example, you've got your rookies buying all the
way in and just being all about football. Like gosh,
I wish I had that type of direction and focus
when I was twenty one years old. Let's go ahead
and hear from Kenneth Grant on the competition that he
and Jonah Savit and Ia have with regards to who
can be the first one in here and who can
be the last one to leave.
Speaker 6 (20:30):
It's about every day, to be honest, you know, I
mean me and Coach Clark. We're in there watching a
film of the walkthroughs. You know, we're still we're baling
in the walkthrough still even though we're out, not in
paths or anything. So I mean everything, you know, we
do everything together, first in the building, last in the building.
So we're just challenging each other, you know, on the
field and off the field.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Yeah, just to be clear, he was talking about Jonah
there at length, so really really cool stuff there. I
hope that resonates with you guys the way it does
with me. Let's go ahead and peel back to my
first question to about stopping practice and the intentionality and
him talking about, you know, the inverse of what you
think it is in terms of like the rep has
to be a certain way, and he's had this discussion
(21:09):
and I talked about with Kyle a little bit today
in practice, like how do you decipher play calls? Like
do you challenge Weaver, like, hey, go ahead and make
this call to give us the toughest look against this
cover or the toughest coverage against this look that we
want to run, or do you give us the ideal
look and see how we process that way? Don't tell
the quarterback and see what he can decipher. And one
of the things I noticed in practice was how the
(21:31):
offense was just clicking. We're gonna get to the notes.
Stay with me here on that. If you're looking for
just player highlights, we're gonna get to that here at
the end. But one of the things I noticed was
Tua was again just on point. I had a joke
with a friend like, you know, Tua's gonna throw his
first pick on like day five of camp, and it's
gonna be, you know, set Twitter ablaze. And sure enough,
he's three days in and hasn't had a football hit
the hands of a defender yet.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
But he was sharp as hell.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
And then the defense came out and I really kind
of focused on the coverage structure on the back and
how they were mixing things up and disguising rotating post snap,
and there was a lot of variety, which is no mystery.
We saw it last year on tape with Coach Weaver.
I think the strongest part of the defense last year,
outside of what just Sack Steeler and Jordan Brooks individually were,
was the ability to rifle through all these different zone
(22:16):
presentations that have just variations that are kind of, you know,
a little bit different than the previous thing you showed
to kind of confuse opposing cornerbacks and you put guys
like Brock Purdy and Matthew Stafford in a buying two
quarterbacks that are very sharp that couldn't see what you
were doing, and you confuse them and you beat them,
and they had bad days that day because of the
way you played your defense. I think that's very true
of this defense. I think that it is basically the
(22:41):
concept behind like maybe you don't know the names of
the cornerbacks as much as the production they can possibly
provide you because of the connectivity of that safety room
of those cornerbacks in the back end, and I think
there's just so much value to that because I saw
to a struggle to see some of those reps and
the receivers couldn't get opened, and it provided the defense
on the front more time to get in and pressure
(23:02):
to and move him off the spot. You know, Minka
Fitzpatrick's a guy that has gotten here and has had
a major impact on the way things have gone. I
talked yesterday about him capping some of these deep routes
and taking away passes, and we're gonna go with kawah here.
Coach's answer was awesome And to throw an old fish
tank seth Levitt Juice McDuffie trope that I used to
run to those guys all the time on our postgame
(23:22):
radio show. Travis loves it when the coach confirmed something
he thinks he saw in practice confirming that observation. Well,
here's what coach said about Minka Fitzpatrick and the early
impressions of him so far.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
You get super pumped when you're like, yes, that's what
I was hoping for. You know, that's my initial impressions.
Why because I see, you know, a quiet guy that
I engage with a mild mannerd He's he's cool, but
he's you know, kind of mid energy in a building,
(23:55):
and then watch him put on a uniform and step
on the grass and you see it a different energy
and command. Just you can tell that that's his sacred
place on the football field. You know, there's a couple
plays yesterday that within the defensive system he was able
(24:16):
to utilize some of his football FBI and really disrupt
a couple pass plays in particular that to you guys,
were just a random and completion, but he was taken
away where we're trying to go. So and then I
see a guy that doesn't underestimate the importance of earning
(24:41):
his relationships within the team, like understanding that you need
to get to know people before you can affect them
or influence them or help them. So I see him
really leaning into a lot of really relationship building within
the team, which can tell it tells me what I
(25:05):
what I already knew that you know.
Speaker 6 (25:08):
He.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
Somewhat sees himself as a leader of this team that
wants to earn it the right way and that's how
you do it.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
And so that kind of was all put together because
I thought just the coverage structure late in practice with
a variety of players, and I thought the safety group
was really good today. Minka had another good day. I
thought Ashton Davis with his both the way he moves
in individual portions and the transition drills, like it just
looks a little different. He's a former track star. He
can really pop those hips and get loose and really
(25:39):
turn and run. And I thought Elijah Campbell I had
his best day of practice, a bunch of pass breakups
and getting hands on footballs and jumping routes and just
being a force multiplier in the middle of the field.
I thought John Saunders, the rookie, had himself a really
good day, including getting in the mix with everything that
he was doing on defense and special teams, just being
heavily involved in everything. And you could like see him,
(26:01):
you know, visibly celebrating himself and the teammates being around
him as well. I just thought the connection with those
guys and Patrick McMorris and Dante Trader, like the versatility
and the ability to be so smart. I mean, Mink
is a smart player. Ashton has a lot of experience
in this league. Patrick mc morris, that was kind of
his bread and butter coming out of col Elijah Campbell's
a guy that the coaches freaking love down here, Dante Trader.
(26:22):
We had Mike Loxley, his coach in college on the
podcast talking about his professional approach of the game, like
it is intentional with how they built that group to
make it that way, because if they can be experts
in the way they disguise and present and know their
rules and they can bump and slide an invert coverage
and I got this role, he goes emotion. Now it
changes my role to this and you take on this role.
(26:43):
I got first break in, you got second breakout. Like
if they can be just intellectually on that same page,
then you're gonna get more production than the value of
what you perceive the roster to be from the individual standpoint.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
So I'm fired up about that.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
I think all those safeties had a great day today
and kind of set me off on this course to
talk about this. And here we are twenty five minutes
into the podcast and having him got to the notes yet,
But those guys all made a big impact. And I
guess I'll go ahead and breeze through my other themes
because I'm getting very long here on the show. But
so the culture, setting, mentality and attack and the way
it's kind of played out through three days, the defensive
structure concept and how you can confuse with your post
(27:20):
snap changes. Something else I saw in this practice was
the way the Dolphins ran the ball out wide, and
this kind of helps us pivot into our actual notes
here as well. There was multiple runs from Devon h
Chan where he hit the corner with speed and had
an explosive run. And Patrick Paul had a great day.
He was blocking guys at the second level. At the
point of attack, he was ceiling, he was letting the
(27:42):
you know, if the defense man would try to backdoor him,
he would just get a piece and then get wide
and let the running back take care of him. I
thought there was a lot of good connectivity on those runs.
Austin Jackson had some big seals around the corner to
create big lanes for Devon ah Chan, for Jalen Wright,
who had another great day, and that running back position,
And you know, I think it's so valuable and instructive
with the guys they're going up against right now, because
(28:04):
one of I talked about since they both got here
in twenty one for JP and twenty two for Bradley
Chubb is the edge presence in the running game, which
we talked about the pass rush so much, but their
presence in the running game off the edge is what
really kind of sets the tone to get to those
passing downs. And when you have that strength going against
an offense that is no mystery wants to be an
outside zone team first, to set the entire rest of
(28:26):
the offense up. That strength on strength, that's good on good,
that's getting reps against what you might see on your
best opponent on a given Sunday. And so I thought
that was all really cool and valuable. And I asked
Jalen Phillips after practice just about that concept of this
team being so prevalent with outside zone and so good
at it versus a team that has good edge setters.
What's the overall benefit or impact of those two things
(28:49):
clashing every single day for the next month.
Speaker 4 (28:52):
I mean, it definitely challenges our edges. You know, when
you have our offense who runs a lot of outside
zone and you have our tight ends and tackles, who
are you know, pretty much masters that at this point,
being in this in the scheme for this for this long,
it definitely challenges your footwork, challenges your eyes, challenges your
pad level, your hands, so really challenges everything. So it
makes us better. And truly when it gets to the
(29:13):
game and you start getting inside zoned and you know,
gap scheme concepts, it kind of makes it easier in
a sense, not that it's ever easy to play against anybody,
but you know, I would say that in terms of
for the edge position, our offense really challenges us in
a different way.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
And one of the things that excites me about the
running game is we've seen the inside runs have success,
but the bread and butter still there. And I asked
Jonas about you Naya about this. You know, when you
think about how you know they they want to coach
it to make sure that your fundamentals and technique is
Last year, we heard from butcher Bery early on in
camp and he talked about the starting point and how
we're going to be at this position, that we're going
(29:47):
to progress to this area and what I'm looking for
is simple right now, and we'll put more on our
plates that we go along. I wanted to ask Jonah,
who has this profile as a guy that can fire
off the football and really good athletic traits how he
balances playing fast just like that with trying to make
sure that he's you know, dotting his eyes and crossing
his t's with the technique. In fundamentals, let's go ahead
and throw it back to the Dolphins rookie offensive lineman.
Speaker 5 (30:09):
There's no stopping you know, there's no slowing down, there's
no going lateral. Our mindset is fast off the ball.
We're always going on the angles or vertical. There's no
going ladder for us. So being able to balance that,
you know, it's always it's in a mental mental game too.
You know, I always gott to expect some some type
of you know what they're bringing. But uh, you know,
our standard is running off the ball, and bottom.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
Line, we are not at a natural breaking point right here.
But I'm gonna go ahead and take that break because
we are deep into the show and I have a
lot more to get to. Let's go ahead and take
that last break. Come back and pick it up right
their Draft Time podcast brought to you by Auto Nation.
I want to pick it back up here on our
third segment with some sound from coach McDaniel talking about
in what ways Jonas savit Naya has stood out so
(30:53):
far through three days of camp.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
Here's coach on the rookie old lineman.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
Well, first and foremost, I have it's interesting with with
young players, but you can get so much information by
their veteran teammates and quite literally, you know, you I
don't ask them, hey, because guys are nice guys and
they're gonna, you know, I'm the head coach, they'll say something.
(31:18):
But you watch how people, how the veterans interact with
a rookie player.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Very got a lot to learn.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
Love his approach, but you can tell, uh, the veterans
believe in them, and so he's, uh, he's doing a
great job. Fired up because he you know, you have
to earn that in a real way veteran trust, and
(31:49):
especially you know as a young guy where you're probably
gonna have errors here or there. So when veterans can
see that he's made of the right stuff, that's the
best news I could get.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
And Jonah was asked about that comment from coach after practice.
Speaker 5 (32:06):
I take that to heart because you know, I come in,
but you know I hold myself to a higher standard
every time I touched this facility or enter this facility.
You know, you got guys here that wants to win,
that has been here more than myself. So obviously I'm here,
I'm playing playing for something bigger than myself. So I'm
not only play for myself and my family, but also
for the guys next to me that that has been
(32:27):
here and that once the Super Bowl here. So that's
my mentality and the standard you know, keeps getting on.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
Let's go with some more offensive line notes here. Today.
I thought Jonah had himself another day.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
I thought James Daniels had a really good day moving
guys off the line, being really solid and pass protection
with his sets and communicating the different moves and twists
and games up front.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
I thought those guys were rock solid.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
Addition to what Patrick Paul and Austin Jackson did off
the edge, I thought Larry Borum had a good day,
and then Keyon Smith and Daniel Brunskill had some combo
blocks they pushed guys off the football that looked really
impressive there. You know, I was just talking with Kyle
Crabs about this, like, you know, Jackson Carmen started a
game last year for US, and there's he's probably in
competition with you know, eight, nine, ten guys that he
(33:08):
could be, you know, fighting for playing time ahead of them.
So if you were to come and last in that competition,
you're talking about like O line eleven or ten right
who started a game for you last year. I think
that speaks really well to the Dolphin's depth on the
offensive line. Let's go ahead and finish up some more
soundbites here with coach McDaniel. He was asked about Austin
Jackson's impact and the impact they feel of losing him
(33:28):
last year. To put a ball on the offensive line.
Here's coach on Austin Jackson.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
Austin's quiet, he's he really really speaks with how he works,
and I didn't maybe I have a different appreciation for
how much he rubs off on his teammates, how much
his his fearless attack at his at his craft, and
(33:55):
his mental toughness to put everything into something and then
it not works sometimes and that not you know, set
you back, which is which is a problem for most people.
So learned a lot about him, and I think I
have a better appreciation of how he rubs off on
(34:17):
his teammates.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
All Right, we're over a half hour into the podcast,
and I haven't told you about what happened on the
practice field in particular. Let's go ahead and rip through
this real quick first off cater Coo, who was in
the Orange jersey today. He had a really good day
on Thursday and I thought competed his butt off once
again today. Tua I thought was super sharp man. There
were some passes where he was and I can't assume this.
I have to assume this, but knowing to I know
(34:38):
it's what happened, intentionally locating the ball in different spots
to get around the coverage. Like the first play of
the day was a rip to Jalen Waddle for what
could have been a seventy yard touchdown. I think I'm
gonna call it like a thirty yard play, but if
he makes a safety miss, he does go for six.
On this play where the cornerback was in trail technique,
the linebacker was Terrell Dotson, who tried to jump the
route but he couldn't get to it wide enough because
(34:59):
to A put so on the back shoulder as Wattle
was breaking in and t dot was.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
Like, I could have had that one. I should have
had that.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
One, but to A put it in a really good
spot and they got back to work in the running
game like a Hm was ripping off big runs as well.
It was helping to in the play action passing game.
He was throwing those intermediate shots to Waddle and Reek.
He found Nick Westbrook a Keene on a nice little
sideline shot between the safety and the cornerback up the sideline,
and I'm like, he might get hit pretty good on
that play in live action and Kyle goes or it's
(35:26):
like the Minneapolis Miracle with Marcus Williams overplaying it and
does be a sixty yard touchdown. I was like, all right,
I like how your brain works there. I thought Zach
Wilson had a good day. He's really kind of progressing
in the way he sees things and reads things out.
Quinn Ewers had his best throw of camp in my opinion,
where he was on time with an anticipation throw over
the middle for the third and long conversion that I
(35:47):
thought was really impressive work by him. I think the receivers,
you know, Reek and Waddle, Nick Westbrook a Keene had
a big day today at Theowese with a catch at
one point working on Cam Smith, and I thought Julian
Hill had his best day of camp so far. He
was knocking head in the running game every day. The
Dolphins have pretty effective run game success at least at
certain points, and it's kind of different guys chipping in
(36:07):
and contributing that way. We talked about the defense a
little bit, mostly the backfield, but up front. Zach Steeler
was reckon shop pretty regularly. Today. He was in the
backfield a lot, moving guys around, and Terrell Dotson and
Jordan Brooks had really good days working off him, scraping
off his ability to kind of stack things up. Jordan
Phillips also in the mix his strength. There was a
rep today with Coach Clark. Let's actually go ahead and
(36:27):
play some sound here Fromkenneth Grant about Coach Clark, because
Jordan Phillips had a rep on the sled and Coach
Clark did the Tony Sperano field goal fist pump like
he was fired up about that. In fact, let's go
ahead and play this sound by here from Coach from
Kenny Grant on Coach Clark's approach to making sure your
fundamentals and technique are right.
Speaker 6 (36:46):
That's the main focus, to be honest, because what you're
doing in the technique wise, you take that to team.
So if we could focus on individual and doing the
right techniques, you know, take that to team. But you know,
if it's not perfect from him, you're doing it again.
So if you're on one drill, you might do that
drill like six times until you until you get it right,
because he's all about perfection. So yeah, oh yeah, uh,
(37:14):
it's about every day to be honest, you know, I mean, uh,
me and Coach Clark, we're in there watching a film
of the walkthroughs. You know, we're still we're baling in
the walkthrough still even though we're out, not in paths
or anything. So I mean everything, you know, we do
everything together, first in the building, last in the building,
So we're just challenging each other, you know, on the
field and off the field.
Speaker 2 (37:33):
So you're from coach on what Kenneth Grant has shown
so far through training camp.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
Yeah, he's been awesome. I think the way his emotional
intelligence on this football team has been phenomenal. Knowing that
on a football team that's hungry, that is not that
that is trying to diligently work like a pro as
a first round draft pick, you it is that the
(38:02):
team wants to see a guy that knows he's a
rookie that knows that we need a lot from him
and is willing to do whatever to be his very best.
And that's what I see from Kenneth Grant and is
one of the reasons we were so high on him
is because this is professional football. We needed his skill
(38:23):
set to contribute and we couldn't hold our breath if
we're going to get a guy that can be a
force on our defense. So I think he's He's working
relentlessly and I like where he's at right now, and
(38:46):
I want to see his game continuing. I know the
rest of the team does as well.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
I thought Grant had a really good day today as well.
He continues to just kind of progress every single day,
and I think he's working on some things, you know,
kin to what we talked about with with training camp practices,
being about the productress in the development. I think he's
showing really well in that regard. And then we heard
Jalen Phillips drop a pretty good bomb on what he
thinks about Chop Robinson, who had his third sack in
as many days. He's had one sack every single day.
He's been awesome in the run game set in hard Edges.
(39:12):
Let's go ahead and hear from Phillips on the day
Chop Robinson's had and what he thinks so far of
the second year pro being on the field with.
Speaker 4 (39:18):
Him is great. But they adding Chopping's had equation, Like
I truly feel like Chopp is going to be one
of the best players in the league very soon. I
think he already is supremely talented. But you know, the
more comfortable he gets, the more confident he gets, and
everything he's doing, I think he's, you know, a future
Defensive Player of the Year candidate. So really excited to
get on the field with all three of them or
all three of us, So it's gonna be great.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
I mentioned Dotson and Brooks, but my practice player of
the day I think was Willie Gay. He was blitzing,
rushing the quarterback. He was playing the run effectively, getting
around the edge and knocking you know that the pulling
tight end or the pulling guard whoever might have been,
you know, backwards. He jumped a flat throw from Zach
Wilson and had his hands on it for a possible
(39:59):
pick sick, but could not secure the catch. He's been
impacting that middle passing window in the kind of curl
flat hook zones really all training camp long, I thought
he's he's been really sharp, and I thought Storm Duck
had a really good day in the back end as
well with his coverage. He had a pass break up
working on Tyreek Hill at one point today. A couple
of dames I forgot I know if I mentioned Nick
Westbrook Akine had a big day. Dwayne Eskridge had some
big catches as well. Again, Orange Jersey prediction, I'm over
(40:23):
on this so far. I'm going with Willie Gay tomorrow.
I think Tua and Patrick Paul would be my second
and third, so I'm hoping for one of those three.
Derek McClendon in the notes as well. Changing Tendall had
some good tag off at Las Skrimmage also, And that's it.
Let's talk about a few guys that I didn't think
had the best day. Farah Brown had a drop and
had some failed blocks and a couple of one procedural
penalty that I think could clean up tomorrow. Tanner Connor
(40:44):
continues to kind of fight the ball and some drop
so I thought he had a tough day. Cam Smith
I watched him a few times. He kind of got
invited into the wash in the running game and got
taken out of the play and kind of got beat
on a couple of plays in coverage. I thought Andrew
Meyer didn't have his best day and the pivot Ethan
Bonner had some up and down moments as well. Ollie
Gordon had some bumbles in college, had a fumble today.
That's always gonna get on the negative because you've got
(41:05):
to put that football.
Speaker 1 (41:05):
Away, young man.
Speaker 2 (41:06):
I thought Grayce and Murphy and Quentin Bell kind of
struggled off the edge there a little bit. Let's go
ahead and conclude with this from coach Mike McDaniel, who
was asked about the gassers and the self policing after practice.
A good way to put a bow on this podcast.
Here's coach one more time.
Speaker 3 (41:21):
It's a way to for for players to re emphasize
the importance of doing the little things the right way.
And it's something that you know when when you're looking
at ways to improve your team, like right at the
beginning of the controllables, are the the yards lost because
(41:48):
and you didn't do a play pre sat penalties those
type of things. So the the nucleus of the locker room,
the leaders of the locker room. You know, they're put
in charge of being the being the police after practice
for all the things that the officials noted that we're illegal.
Speaker 2 (42:12):
All right, tomorrow back at it before our first break
on Sunday. You guys are gonna be back in the
stands tomorrow on Saturday, and we have the great Orange
Jersey practic or fan of the practice, which you can
sign up for. Go check out my Twitter timeline for
details on how to get yourself in the running for
the Orange jersey at practice on Saturday and every day.
We have fans in the building until then. Come say
(42:32):
hi if you see me. But until then, that's my time.
You all please be sure subscribe, rate, review the show,
go ahead and follow me on social at Winkfold NFL.
Speaker 1 (42:40):
The team at Miami Dolphins.
Speaker 2 (42:42):
Check out the YouTube channel for Dolphins HQ, Draft time, content,
media availabilities, and so much more and last, butt not least,
Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time, fins up, Caroline
Cameron and Willow Daddy. He's coming home.
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