October 22, 2025 • 31 mins
Travis has some thoughts on the highs and lows of being a sports fan. Plus, the NFL is a league of trends and we are experiencing a big swing from years past. Travis breaks that down and pays homage to the late great Jason Jenkins as we celebrate this year’s Jason Jenkins Days of Service on a busy Wednesday show.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Drivetime with Travis Wingfield.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
What is up, Dollhans And welcome to the Draft Time Podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
I am your host, Travis Wingfield.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
And on today's show, we're gonna break the usual formula
here as we typically do on the Wednesday programming, but
I've got three different essentially monologues, one for each segment.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Here.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
We're gonna talk about sports fandom in general. We're gonna
talk about the shifting landscape of the National Football League
and how teams are being built around analytics and the
idea of the short passing game and the running game.
And we're gonna conclude with an ode to the late
great Jason Jenkins as we get closer to the end
of October, which means the end of the Jason Jenkins
(00:46):
Days of Service. From the Baptist Health Studios inside the
Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Draft Time Podcast,
So I've got a much different show planned for y'all
today than what I usually do here on these spots.
And you know Teams one and six struggling right now.
Your boy just endured less than twenty four hours from
(01:08):
this taping the biggest heartbreaking sports moment of my sports
fandom life, and I just wanted to go differently here
because you know, we've incorporated a lot of golf talk, fatherhood,
other sports, my Seattle Mariners. Of course, yes, it is
Drive Time in Miami Dolphins podcast, but it's also called
Drive Time with Travis Winfield in. My position in the
(01:30):
world of podcasting is that the topic is what brings
the listeners in, but the host is what you stay for.
And I know there's a collection of listeners that want
to get right to the football right now. As much
as I study the game, I also study broadcasting and
I hear people's complaints, suggestions, everything in between. And a
buddy of mine, I guess you could say colleague, he
(01:53):
is the USA Today lead NFL writer, Doug Farrar. I
know he's adamant that each show start to talking about
football in the first five seconds. No introduction, Noah, here's
what you're gonna hear on Today's podcast, get right to
the content. Conversely, my first boss in this business, David Locke,
the owner of Locked On Podcasts. The format of the
(02:14):
show still runs today by the outline that he taught
me back in twenty sixteen. Tell the audience who you
are what your credentials are three segments and get into it.
You'll notice Kyle Krabs's intro and podcast and format is
the exact same way. That's how he did it because
he was a radio man for a long time. He
taught me about the radio reset, all of that. And
it's my belief that the personality, the quirks, the consistence,
(02:40):
the consistency of that person's voice, their ticks, their bits,
They come back to the parasocial relationship you feel with
the host of a show you frequently listen to. That's
what makes the show right, the sound drops, the investment
in the product and the character itself. That's a long
lead in way for me to start the show with
(03:01):
the topic I think is apt to talk about today.
I want to talk about the fan experience. And this
has been bubbling percolating here for a little while here
in terms of my you know, wanting to do this
on a Wednesday show, but how the fan experience changes
through stages of life, how it changes with the success
and failures of your favorite teams. People ask me all
(03:22):
the time, what has been your favorite moment as a
Miami Dolphins employee, And there's a few I will never
ever forget. And this was probably pretty dangerous on my part,
but I'll relay the info anyway. We all remember that
twenty twenty two comeback in Baltimore, right. It was the
second game of twous third year. It was the second
game of Mike McDaniel's career, and the two of them
(03:45):
rewrote Dolphins record books that game and the next two seasons,
quite frankly. And it goes further. If you're a lifelong
Dolphins fan, that day was special because for years, the
dramatic comeback like that was just not in the cards
for this team. That just wasn't how they were built.
This was a team that was built on the back
of its solid defense to Hall of famers Jason Taylor
(04:06):
and Zach Thomas and a bunch of great players around
them as well. But a total shift of roster landscape
from what this team was in the Marino years. Right.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
That's football. It's cyclical.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
I mean, some teams, you know, they're defensive oriented for
a decade, the next decade they can be offensive oriented,
and maybe the next decade they are nothing oriented. But
that's how it works. And in twenty twenty two, I
did postgame radio with WQA WQAM. Sorry, we've shifted since
then to iHeart, and that means a change in studio location.
(04:39):
The iHeart studios are right next to my house, literally
a three minute drive. It's lovely at the Pembroke Shops
in Pembroke Pines. But the WQAM studios were in North Miami,
so a bit of a jont for me. And after
the Dolphins one o'clock games on Sundays on the road,
I would drive down the Turnpike after the game was over,
after radio was over, come back to the facility and
tape my podcast about an hour after doing two hours
(05:02):
of postgame show. And that day I was on cloud nine.
Who wouldn't be a twenty one point come back in
the fourth quarter?
Speaker 1 (05:08):
You kidding me?
Speaker 2 (05:09):
And I remember distinctly taking the two X exit to
the turnpike, that massive ramp that if you guys are
from here, you know what I'm talking about, that wraps
all the way back around the freeway right in front
of Hard Rock Stadium, And I was just driving windows down,
music loud. I was partying in the car basically with
you know, without any you know, substances party with, but
(05:30):
the music was blaring, just high on life at that point,
and I'm yelling four hundred yards six touchdowns, We'd beat
the Lamar Jackson Ravens.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
To my friends that didn't care, right Cloud nine.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
I mean, the best moment of my life taking a
snapchat there. Not the best moment of my life, but
you get what I'm saying, taking a snapchat there driving
down the freeway. I remember watching the very next week
from our visiting radio booth. We did the show on
location for home games, in studio for road games, so
we had this little booth they would cram us into
back then we do the postgame show for that spot,
and you can overlook the field, and we watched the
(06:02):
end of the game because we were on the air
right after the game ends. That's why sometimes, that's why
I never tweeted in a football games, because I'm getting
ready for radio and we're watching the clock run out
on the Buffalo Bills in that marathon September game under
the hot, hot heat to get to three and oh
right with wins over the Patriots, Ravens and Bills the
first three games, and the McDaniel era was beating Bill Belichick,
John Harbaugh and then Josh Allen the Buffalo Bills, and
(06:24):
I remember rushing to get to my headset and Seth
and Juice panicking looking for their setups as well, and
I just kept uttering.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
We beat Buffalo, We beat Buffalo. Oh my god, we
beat Buffalo.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Like I couldn't fathom that, because at that point, Dolphins
fans recall the last time we had beaten Buffalo was
it would have been twenty sixteen the JGII game. Right, No,
we beat him in twenty eighteen here, but they were
not the Bills that we know now. But it was
rare to beat the Buffalo Bills if you're a Miami Dolphin,
and nothing will top. Despite all of that, the Cowboys
(06:53):
win in twenty twenty three because those were September wins,
this was a critical December win. There were external factors
around that to playoff clinching win against a good Dallas
team in a year where the narrative was we couldn't
beat good teams. And it was Christmas Eve on the
first year that my daughter was really like cognizant of
what Christmas was, right, she knew about the gifts she
was getting, how cool they were.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
She was grateful for that.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
For the first time and setting up that win, set
up a week seventeen matchup with the Ravens for the
one seed, And that was my favorite moment on the
job because I got to enjoy the win with Seth
and Jews, with my you know, my coworkers here. I
remember lunch the next day talking about like what it
would look like to like pick out ring sizes and
stuff like that, and the Christmas you know, celebration the
(07:35):
next day, like knowing that we have six days off
until the Ravens play, and there was a big Ravens
and Niners game on that night, Like it was just
a perfect setting up.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Take me back.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
I always say that, like in this job as a
Dolphins fan, the best moments are reveling in the win
you had or like, you know, getting ready to watch
somebody else play after you got your big win. Like
I never enjoy the game itself as much because of
the stress that it brings. Those are the moments I
recall the most. And that Cowboys game was just good
vibes for a whole week until it wasn't. And I
go over all of those to discuss sports fandom in general.
(08:08):
I have two true sports loves. I've had various things
pop up as a number three option, but what's been
consistent since I was a boy the Dolphins and the Mariners.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
I've gone the rides with the Miami Heat. I like
the Heat a lot.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
They're my third favorite team, but the emotion I have
attached to them is just nowhere near the same. I
enjoy watching Victor Hovlin on the PGA Tour. I like
the US men's national soccer team. The Koogs were in
that third spot for a long time with the Dolphins
and Mariners until college football removed Washington State from the
entire conversation. And the more I have these ponderous thoughts,
(08:41):
the more I realize. I think my attachment to sports
is probably different than most people. I love sports to
the point of where I attach significant memories and like
my also moments in my life to sports events.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
That's how I grew up.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
That's all I knew when I was a kid, and
that's been the case as an adult too, And I
even came into the I remember coming into McDaniels press
conference on Friday ahead of Game five in Seattle between
the Mariners and the Blue Jays, and that pivotal Game
five that would swing you know, three to two either
direction for the series. And people ask me like, oh,
you must be tense today. I'm like, you know, if
(09:15):
they lose this game tonight, it might walk out into
the Atlantic and call it a life. And they were
like Jesus Travis, And I was like, hey, man, it
means a lot to me. I really care about this
result tonight. And the highs of those wins are absolutely incredible.
It's it's I mean, it's the best feeling that there
is besides seeing your newborn kid, right like, it really
is that big of a deal to me. But as
is the yin and yang of life, if it can
(09:37):
be that good, it also has to have the ability
to be that bad.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
And it was that bad on Monday night.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
As I write this, it's a Tuesday, the day after
the Mariners lost that first Game seven and franchise history.
And it comes on a three run homer in the
bottom of the seventh, eight outs away from going to
the World Series, from the first pennant and franchise history,
and off the bat of a guy who was the
central piece of the Astros sign stealing scandal, which was
(10:06):
the Manner's biggest obstacle for multiple years, including our last
playoff appearance in twenty twenty two, when they lost on
a three game sweep in the American League Divisional Series
to that same Astros team. George Springer does it again.
It's a three run bomb to send the minor season
to can Kun. I'm not sure you can lay out
a painful sports moment that conjures more pain than that,
quite frankly, so close on the doorstep of a new experience.
(10:29):
In fact, I've never seen my team play for a
championship on either of these two sports. I've seen the
Miami heat there, but again, the emotion's not the same.
But this playoff run, okay, I saw the Sonics when
I was a kid, but again, we're gonna get to
that here in second two. This playoff run was all
new experiences to me. I even planned to write some
Mariner's thoughts, like a column on this, just for myself
because I enjoy writing, and was going to send to
(10:51):
a couple of buddies who have Manner's blogs. If they
wanted to run them, they could do it. If not,
that's fine too. But the premise was going to be
centered around this. The idea of a thirty seven year
old thirty eight next week, my god, a year thirty
eight year old fan of the Dolphins and Mariners, these
deep playoff runs being completely new experiences for me, and
the Mariners claim to fame for a long time. After
(11:12):
the Buffalo Bills ended their playoff drout in twenty seventeen,
the next team in that line was the Seattle Mariners.
As the longest playoff appearance drought in professional sports.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
They broke that in twenty two.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
But got swept out of the Divisional series in a
fashion that just proved they weren't contenders against the Astros
that year. And then nobody here needs a history lesson
on the Dolphins' current playoff win drought. You guys know
about that very well. The agony of accepting defeat in
this American League Division championship series tied two games apiece,
(11:43):
knowing that Trek Scuble is coming out of that bullpen
for seven innings for the Tigers in Game five, Right,
That was a depressing game to watch because I knew
how tight the margins were, even though the Marrions won
that game in fifteen innings. But the pondering of the
matchup the next day and how it tilted against you
if you didn't be Trek Scoobel or balancing the highs
of watching the game five condensed game on YouTube three
(12:04):
times a day after the Mannors won that game. That's
what I did, because it was a moment in franchise
history that was the best of the last thirty years
and won the Island member for the rest of my life.
Every pitch in these twelve games was intensified. Each pitch
changes the math on the projected outcome of that bat,
of that inning of the game, each base runner providing
hope on offense and utter nerves and anxiety on defense
(12:27):
to live and die through every single pitch, which would
translate to each snap in a football game, maybe each drive,
I don't know. Over the course of twelve playoff games.
It was a unique experience, unlike anything I've ever experienced
for lack of better term, and the Dolphins have been
in similar positions. The twenty twenty three season was like that.
Essentially from what the Eagles game on being five and
(12:50):
one on Sunday night football, trying to beat the powerhouse Eagles,
a chance to prove ourselves in that spotlight.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
They have a setback.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
They demolished the Patriots the next week and have another
bigpportunity against Chiefs the next game. Similar script, right, you
lose that one, you beat up the Raiders and Jets
and Commanders. The pit in your stomach feeling of that
Titans result, the thrill of putting it on the Jets
and the Cowboys the next two games. I experienced those
in the same way I experienced the game five au
Hannio Swarez Grand Slam. It was the thrill of sports,
(13:20):
the peak of sports fandom. And experience the Baltimore and
Buffalo games the same way I experienced the George Springer
home run on Monday.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
It sucked. I'll never forget leaving the.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Postgames or going out to the postgame show in front
of twenty five thousand Buffalo fans who just stole the
division from us. It sucked just as much fun as
that Cowboys game was fun two weeks earlier. That's sports, sports, baby,
And I've learned about myself as a sports fan that
my preferred method of dealing with sports heartbreak is to
turn off the TV or maybe watch like South Park
(13:53):
or a slasher horror film, something that has nothing to
do with sports where they won't even mention the Seattle manors.
Of course, life was spent building towards a career with
the Miami Dolphins and doing three hours of postgame content.
Can't exactly have that option of football, and that's got
its upside with regards to the therapy of it all
dissecting a tough loss after the fact, but also the
extreme high of like gloating and smiling ear to ear
(14:16):
and being just jubilant through a two hour post game
show after you beat the Cowboys to clinch a playoff spot.
I write all of this to say. I say all
of this to say, and I think some of you
that have a secondary rooting interest, like the Celtics or
the Dodgers or the Alabama Crimson Tide, whichever successful franchise
that you may be into, you're probably like, yeah, Doud Travis.
(14:38):
But some of you are Mariners and Dolphins fans. Some
of you are Dolphins and Colorado Rockies fans, some of
you are Dolphins and Pittsburgh Pirate fans. You know, but
outside of a faint memory of being at the nineteen
ninety five American League Championship Series Game six loss, Manners
and Indians. I mean, the only thing that I remember
(15:00):
about that game I was eight years old now I
just turned nine, was the lone Cleveland fan in our
section who had a Manila envelope that he wrote go
Indians on. That's what life was like back then. You
didn't have extravagant signs and cell phones. It was just
a manilla envelope that go Indians. And all the Mariners
fans in that section heckling him all game long. And
he was a bald man. And the best heckle is
(15:22):
the thing I remember the most, The only thing I remember.
What do you got in there? What do you got
in there? Palia hair? It was like a New York accent,
but in Seattle somehow, but they were. They were an
epic burn pretty good, right. But the memory made it
dawn on me that sports memories before age twelve are
pretty faint. I have a similar memory of the Stoyanovich
miss field goal in the ninety four playoffs against the Chargers.
But the one that I really remember well at the
(15:43):
forefront of my mind from youth was a Lamar Smith
touchdown run in the win over the Colts in the
two thousand playoffs, the last Dolphins playoff win, an absolutely
u FOROK moment, albeit twenty five years ago. The point is,
I've seen the mountaintop here with the Mariners yesterday, the
last couple of days, last couple of weeks, and it
allowed me to dream and to fantasize about something that
(16:04):
quite frankly, I didn't know what it was all about
before this week. And though I didn't get to experience
the ultimate high, it made me realize that just getting one,
just seeing it one time, it's gonna make it so
worth it, dude. One day it's gonna happen, and all
the difficulties, heartbreak and tough seasons, all they do, all
(16:24):
those things, dude, is serve to sweeten that moment even
more when it does get here. All Right, that's my
alrid to the editor on sports fandom. This episode's gonna
continue in a similar mood as I talk about some
of the NFL wide trends. Next, we'll close the show
with an ode to Jason Jenkins as the Jason Jenkins
Days of Service, month and years.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
It's conclusion.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
That's next Drivetime Podcast, brought to you by AU Donation.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Second segment on.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
A random Wednesday, All Things Considered podcast as I break
down something else here on the show, and I know
we have a lot of die hard daily listeners here.
In fact, research says that more than seventy five percent
of your podcast audience is retained audience. And that's why
I firmly believe in sticking with your fastball to continue
(17:10):
a baseball theme. Do what you do, because the people
that you're doing the show for are the same people
that liked your approach to content in the very beginning.
And I bring this up because I was curious to
pull the audience around the concept of a show I
did way back in twenty twenty one, four years ago,
almost to the date, because we were one and seven
when I ran this bit, and I remember it like
(17:31):
it was yesterday, because I had a hard time getting
it through to you, getting it through the process to
get to you, guys, we had just lost in Buffalo
twenty six to eleven, after close losses of the Jags
in London and the Falcons here at home, before leading
Buffalo at halftime but eventually losing that game, as we
do up in Buffalo annually, and in that game, Tua
(17:54):
got hurt. We started jacobya Brissette against the Texans and
won seventeen to nine despite turning over the was it
the case Keenum Texans? I don't even know who was
a nurse cent there, but they were terrible and we
got five takeaways and scored just seventeen points. And that
I actually remember getting to that game, like at eleven
thirty and I got out of my car and got
a text that said, like no two today hunt from
(18:16):
a friend, and I was like, why I'm even here, man,
This is so stupid, Like I get to games at
ten o'clock now compared to you know, eleven thirty back then.
That shows you how checked out I was on that operation.
But we came out and had nothing working against the
Ravens until Brissett got hurt and they put two in
and he'd leaves us on a comeback victory and we
go on to win five more games after that, but
(18:37):
at one in seven, playoffs were a long way away.
They were essentially a nine game winning streak away, right
because we did win eight of the last nine, but
needed all eight all nine rather to kick in that
playoff door. And in the midst of what looked like
a last season, I started wondering about what's next, what's
the best approach. And mind you, this was off another
couple of seasons of bottom half the league offense, right,
(19:00):
and I talked about earlier with the Dolphins being defensive centric,
twenty something years without a top ten ranked offense. We
were still searching for the next quarterback in the post
Merino world, twenty years into that venture, and little did
we know we were less than twelve months away from
having both of those things secured. But at the time,
I was looking around the makeup of the team and
(19:21):
how to get it to the top of the AFC,
And I did a research segment on the cyclical nature
of defense and how difficult it was, you know, Brian Floores,
lead coach led football team, how difficult it was to
sustain a top ten defense compared to sustaining a top
ten offense. And what it essentially boiled down to was,
if you had a top tier quarterback, you could almost
(19:42):
be guaranteed to have a certain level of offensive success,
a certain floor right, and you could rotate the surrounding
parts as long as you weren't putting you know, tomato
cans out there on the offensive line and running out undrafted.
You know, free agent receivers every single year, like you
could make it work. You could replace offensive line, you
could replace receivers. Usually had a mainstay or two at
(20:04):
those spots, like the Chiefs who kept Creed Humphrey and
Trey Smith, or the Niners who always went back to
George Kittle, or the old school Colts keeping Marvin Harrison
and Reggie Wayne there alongside Peyton Man.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
You get it.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
But the rest of the offense, you can pick and
choose who your guys are as long as you have
that general under center at quarterback. On defense, it's difficult
to be a top ten defense year over year because
there's not really like one piece that can have the
impact on the rest of the unit the way the
quarterback does, and various other reasons as well. A lot
of times good defense happens through a certain chemistry and
(20:37):
connectivity and a balance of skills that complement each other.
It's much more of like a stew you have to
kind of find the right ingredients for compared to, hey,
I've got Patrick Mahomes, we'll figure it out from there.
But that was the hypothesis that was proven right through
research and as we fast forward four years. Say that
four times. Fast fast forward four years. My goodness, how
(20:58):
the league has changed. I wasn't even really privy to
this until late last year. Last season, I guess was
when it began, and I wanted to just do this
briefly touching on the way the league is going and
how that can inform team building, not just for the Dolphins,
but the entire National Football League, and it starts with this.
The game is different in a way that it hasn't
(21:20):
been since, Like I want to say, pre Marino, but
Marino was such a unicorn in the sense that he
was an outlier to what teams were in the eighties
and nineties. Right, the NFL was still spearheaded through dominant
run games and good defense like Priest Holmes, Ricky Williams,
Clinton Portis, you know, Larry Johnson after Priest Holmes wanniyball approach.
(21:41):
But I would say the NFL now more closely reflects
what it was in the late nineties and early two
thousands than ever before, and the numbers back that up.
Just look at the over the pass over expected rates
from this season compared to what it used to be. Again,
going back to you diehards in the podcast. Remember in
the Fitzpatrick years when I would be like, hey, that
(22:02):
first down, maybe you probably remember this. The first down
play action dig to Preston Williams or Devonte Parker is
our best play, the first play of the drive. It's
usually good for a fifteen to twenty yurd play, and
then from there your offense can kind of get rolling
because the defense has to play off their back foot
because of what you've just done and what you've just
shown them. So I went back and looked at some
charts that basically collect data about pass rate over expected,
(22:26):
which is essentially throwing the football in situations where the
running game is typically more prominent. And it used to
be like twenty five teams in the league would go
to the throw would go to the passing offense in
those situations. And right now there's one team that does
at a crazy high rate, and then there's like five
more teams that do it more over the run rate,
and the rest of the league is like, we're running
(22:47):
the football in this situation. So that has changed, and
the other numbers back it up as well. When I
first started doing this podcasting was twenty sixteen, and these
were the passer leading the yardage be geez the passing
yardage leaders in twenty fifteen forty eight hundred and seventy
forty seven ninety two forty seven to seventy forty six
sixty one forty five ninety one. That were twelve quarterbacks
(23:09):
that had over four thousand passing yards. There was nineteen
that had thirty six hundred or more passing yards. The
league average in yards per attempt was seven point three.
Fast forward ten years later to this year, the league
average ypas down to seven yards per pass. Last year,
six quarterbacks with four thousand passing yards. The year two
won the passing title. In twenty three, just two quarterbacks
(23:29):
through for over forty five hundred yards him Jared Goff
and Dak Prescott. When I did that podcast episode, I
reference from twenty twenty one two guys through for five
thousand yards. But there's another number that will help illustrate
this point further, the average depth of target. How far
down the field are these quarterbacks throwing the football, which
is the entire point of the speech. The average depth
(23:51):
of target in the NFL in twenty twenty five is
seven point six eight yards. In twenty fifteen, it was
eight point four on any given play. The ball was
being thrown oh Man Live Math on the air, zero
point eight yards further every single snap across the NFL
ten years ago than what it is today. And that
(24:14):
was consistent from two thousand and six all the way
through twenty nineteen. It was never below eight point one
over those thirteen years. In twenty twenty, with a first
year in fifteen years, it dropped below eight, down to
seven point nine in twenty twenty one seven point eight,
twenty twenty two, seven point seven.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
You get the trend.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
It's decreased about tenth of a yard each of the
last four or five years to where it's at today
at seven point six. So the NFL is undergoing something
of an analytics shift like we saw a few years ago.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
In the NBA.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
We only take twos, or the only twos. We take
our layups, and we shoot threes. Layups and threes. That's
the mathematical equation to maximize the points you score on
a give a night in the NBA, in the NFL,
and especially in today's league, where a lot of the
games that teams win are just by not losing the game.
Right If you play a clean football game against us
right now, the Raiders, the Titans, the Jets, You're gonna
(25:06):
beat that team if you just don't turn it over
and don't commit a million fouls. And there's a decent
chance if you do that the opposition will just lose
the game. There's in the NFL now, there's at least
ten teams a year that are like that. So if
you run the ball and throw short, high percentage passes,
you reduce the likelihood of turnovers, You keep the clock moving,
you keep yourself ahead of the chains, and give yourself
(25:28):
better down distances on second and third downs. And you
can track this through pretty much any stat Interception rates
are way down, explosive play rates are way down. It
might not be the same explosive, exciting, fantasy driven league
that it was ten years ago. And I'm more than
okay with that. I like a twenty seven twenty four
football game. I think most diehards are. I think forty
five to forty games are kind of boring. Personally, Never
(25:50):
getting stops is not fun to me. But that's the
game now, run game and short passing game. And my
plan was to extend this into like here's where we
go next with that, But I think we'll go ahead
and put a pin in that because we're up against
the clock and I have one more segment I want
to get to on the show here today, So we'll
go ahead and put a pin in that and come
back next Wednesday and talk about what that might look
like for the Miami Dolphins.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
Here going forwards? Sound good? All right? Cool?
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Last break? Come back and talk about the late great
Jason Jenkins. That's next Draft Time podcast, brought to you
by AutoNation. The Jason Jenkins Day of Service expanded this year,
and I had another opportunity to participate in one of
the many charitable events the Dolphins take part in to
celebrate his life, and so I wanted to talk about
him for just a moment here. Jason Jenkins wore a
(26:35):
lot of hats. He was our senior vice president of
Communications and Community Affairs here with the Dolphins, but he
was also a husband, a father, a friend. He was
the champion of the underheard and of the less fortunate.
He was a unifying force. Jason believed everyone should have
a voice and that we were all on the same team.
He represented the best of us in all walks of life,
(26:58):
and he always made himself available. We often joked around
here that Jason had clones because of his ability to
be at multiple places at once, or so it seemed,
And that's the spirit behind the Jason Jenkins Day of Service,
which was launched in twenty twenty two after his passing,
a day where we celebrated Jason by doing what he
did best, uniting the South Florida community through charitable events
(27:19):
and service, and throwing the Miami Dolphins into the fabric
of the same community. But just as Jason was larger
than life, this event had to be too, so we expanded.
It no longer is at the Jason Jenkins Day of Service,
but rather the Days of Service plural. One day couldn't
possibly match Jason's reach, So during his birth month of October,
(27:40):
we celebrate thirty days of doing what Jason did best,
giving back and uniting. And I know those thirty one
days in October we don't do on Halloween. On a
more personal level, Jason Jenkins was my mentor. He was
a father figure, a best friend type to me. I'm
here today because of Jason. You guys know that Jason
was many things, but the two elements of his character
that always stuck with me was his desire for inclusion
(28:01):
and innovation. It didn't matter what walk of life you
came from, Jason wanted to hear what you had to say.
How else would a small time podcaster and blogger from
Washington State, rural eastern Washington get on the radar of
a professional football team twenty five hundred miles away. Well,
Jason had a vision for the future of content. He
foresaw audio and video taking a stranglehold that it has
(28:23):
right now in the media landscape, and he yearned for
the connection between organization and fan base and in me
and all the content we've produced over the last six years. Here,
Jason saw a direct line to meet the fans of
the Miami Dolphins where they were with coverage, analysis, and
inside looks at your favorite football team. He wanted to
be on the cutting edge of innovation and want to
(28:44):
include Dolphins fans from all over the globe. And as
I read this copy, I can't think about how proud
Jason would be of where the podcast and where my
career is gone and our vision for content here on
the podcast, on the Drivetime Podcast, I can see that
grin the one that stretches ear to ear every single
time we met, and it didn't matter if we were
talking content, strategy, fatherhood, or our shared first loves in life,
(29:07):
the game of baseball. Jason was a Houston kid. He
grew up going to the Astrodome, just as I grew
up going to the Kingdome in Seattle. Go Maher's, and
when I went to what I thought was a job
interview with Jason back in twenty nineteen, we wound up
talking about collecting baseball cards, figurines, and tracking the stats
of our favorite players as kids. The bond over baseball
became the primary source of our trash talk to one
(29:29):
another over the coming years, rooting for opposing American League
West rivals in the Astros. Heyday, he would call my
Seattle Mariners a palate cleanser because we'd go to Houston
and get swept every single time. But I made sure
to kick the trash cans nearby his office and say, hey,
fastball's coming, boss, because his beloved Stros, well.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
They didn't do it the right way.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
In my opinion, the part of Jason the All Member,
more than the friendly sports banter or strategic podcast outlines,
was the personal moments. I remember this like it was yesterday.
My first year in South Florida. I had a scheduled
meeting with Ja and I was going to bring my
firstborn daughter with me to his office at the stadium
so that he could meet her. Caroline had We had
to call an audible because my baby girl got sick
(30:09):
in the back of the car and threw up all
over the entire car. Stress, panic, anxiety, said Sam. I
take her back home to get cleaned up and come
back to the meeting alone, to Jason's surprise, and he's
wondering why I left her at home because I'm frantic,
I'm late, I'm paranoid about this being a bad look.
And I walk into Jason's office an absolute wreck, nervous
about what had just transpired. But there's that smile again
(30:31):
greeting me, the smile that didn't leave his face while
I'll explained to him how tough my day was and frankly,
how challenging and becoming a new parent was. Yet the
smile persisted. He listened, and when I finished my spiel,
he stayed as cool as the other side of the
pillow and calmly told me, ma'am You're in the best
years of your life, buddy. And that lasting memory I'll
(30:52):
always have with Jason, and it so fittingly matches what
his job was with the Miami Dolphins. Nobody was better
under crisis than Jason, even if the crisis was a
little meeting mishap that was brought on by some spit
up in the car right over. That's who Jason was.
He was he saw the best in everything and the.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
Good in everybody.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
All right, you all, please be sure subscribe to the podcast,
leave us a raging and leave us a review. Follow
me on social at Winklin NFL. Follow the team at
Miami Dolphins, check out the YouTube channel for Dolphins HQ,
Media availabilities, and so much more. And last button, not least,
Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time, will furns Up, Caroline, Cameron,
and Willow Daddy.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
He's coming home.
This is Drivetime with Travis Wingfield.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
What is up, Dollhans And welcome to the Draft Time Podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
I am your host, Travis Wingfield.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
And on today's show, we're gonna break the usual formula
here as we typically do on the Wednesday programming, but
I've got three different essentially monologues, one for each segment.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Here.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
We're gonna talk about sports fandom in general. We're gonna
talk about the shifting landscape of the National Football League
and how teams are being built around analytics and the
idea of the short passing game and the running game.
And we're gonna conclude with an ode to the late
great Jason Jenkins as we get closer to the end
of October, which means the end of the Jason Jenkins
(00:46):
Days of Service. From the Baptist Health Studios inside the
Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Draft Time Podcast,
So I've got a much different show planned for y'all
today than what I usually do here on these spots.
And you know Teams one and six struggling right now.
Your boy just endured less than twenty four hours from
(01:08):
this taping the biggest heartbreaking sports moment of my sports
fandom life, and I just wanted to go differently here
because you know, we've incorporated a lot of golf talk, fatherhood,
other sports, my Seattle Mariners. Of course, yes, it is
Drive Time in Miami Dolphins podcast, but it's also called
Drive Time with Travis Winfield in. My position in the
(01:30):
world of podcasting is that the topic is what brings
the listeners in, but the host is what you stay for.
And I know there's a collection of listeners that want
to get right to the football right now. As much
as I study the game, I also study broadcasting and
I hear people's complaints, suggestions, everything in between. And a
buddy of mine, I guess you could say colleague, he
(01:53):
is the USA Today lead NFL writer, Doug Farrar. I
know he's adamant that each show start to talking about
football in the first five seconds. No introduction, Noah, here's
what you're gonna hear on Today's podcast, get right to
the content. Conversely, my first boss in this business, David Locke,
the owner of Locked On Podcasts. The format of the
(02:14):
show still runs today by the outline that he taught
me back in twenty sixteen. Tell the audience who you
are what your credentials are three segments and get into it.
You'll notice Kyle Krabs's intro and podcast and format is
the exact same way. That's how he did it because
he was a radio man for a long time. He
taught me about the radio reset, all of that. And
it's my belief that the personality, the quirks, the consistence,
(02:40):
the consistency of that person's voice, their ticks, their bits,
They come back to the parasocial relationship you feel with
the host of a show you frequently listen to. That's
what makes the show right, the sound drops, the investment
in the product and the character itself. That's a long
lead in way for me to start the show with
(03:01):
the topic I think is apt to talk about today.
I want to talk about the fan experience. And this
has been bubbling percolating here for a little while here
in terms of my you know, wanting to do this
on a Wednesday show, but how the fan experience changes
through stages of life, how it changes with the success
and failures of your favorite teams. People ask me all
(03:22):
the time, what has been your favorite moment as a
Miami Dolphins employee, And there's a few I will never
ever forget. And this was probably pretty dangerous on my part,
but I'll relay the info anyway. We all remember that
twenty twenty two comeback in Baltimore, right. It was the
second game of twous third year. It was the second
game of Mike McDaniel's career, and the two of them
(03:45):
rewrote Dolphins record books that game and the next two seasons,
quite frankly. And it goes further. If you're a lifelong
Dolphins fan, that day was special because for years, the
dramatic comeback like that was just not in the cards
for this team. That just wasn't how they were built.
This was a team that was built on the back
of its solid defense to Hall of famers Jason Taylor
(04:06):
and Zach Thomas and a bunch of great players around
them as well. But a total shift of roster landscape
from what this team was in the Marino years. Right.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
That's football. It's cyclical.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
I mean, some teams, you know, they're defensive oriented for
a decade, the next decade they can be offensive oriented,
and maybe the next decade they are nothing oriented. But
that's how it works. And in twenty twenty two, I
did postgame radio with WQA WQAM. Sorry, we've shifted since
then to iHeart, and that means a change in studio location.
(04:39):
The iHeart studios are right next to my house, literally
a three minute drive. It's lovely at the Pembroke Shops
in Pembroke Pines. But the WQAM studios were in North Miami,
so a bit of a jont for me. And after
the Dolphins one o'clock games on Sundays on the road,
I would drive down the Turnpike after the game was over,
after radio was over, come back to the facility and
tape my podcast about an hour after doing two hours
(05:02):
of postgame show. And that day I was on cloud nine.
Who wouldn't be a twenty one point come back in
the fourth quarter?
Speaker 1 (05:08):
You kidding me?
Speaker 2 (05:09):
And I remember distinctly taking the two X exit to
the turnpike, that massive ramp that if you guys are
from here, you know what I'm talking about, that wraps
all the way back around the freeway right in front
of Hard Rock Stadium, And I was just driving windows down,
music loud. I was partying in the car basically with
you know, without any you know, substances party with, but
(05:30):
the music was blaring, just high on life at that point,
and I'm yelling four hundred yards six touchdowns, We'd beat
the Lamar Jackson Ravens.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
To my friends that didn't care, right Cloud nine.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
I mean, the best moment of my life taking a
snapchat there. Not the best moment of my life, but
you get what I'm saying, taking a snapchat there driving
down the freeway. I remember watching the very next week
from our visiting radio booth. We did the show on
location for home games, in studio for road games, so
we had this little booth they would cram us into
back then we do the postgame show for that spot,
and you can overlook the field, and we watched the
(06:02):
end of the game because we were on the air
right after the game ends. That's why sometimes, that's why
I never tweeted in a football games, because I'm getting
ready for radio and we're watching the clock run out
on the Buffalo Bills in that marathon September game under
the hot, hot heat to get to three and oh
right with wins over the Patriots, Ravens and Bills the
first three games, and the McDaniel era was beating Bill Belichick,
John Harbaugh and then Josh Allen the Buffalo Bills, and
(06:24):
I remember rushing to get to my headset and Seth
and Juice panicking looking for their setups as well, and
I just kept uttering.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
We beat Buffalo, We beat Buffalo. Oh my god, we
beat Buffalo.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Like I couldn't fathom that, because at that point, Dolphins
fans recall the last time we had beaten Buffalo was
it would have been twenty sixteen the JGII game. Right, No,
we beat him in twenty eighteen here, but they were
not the Bills that we know now. But it was
rare to beat the Buffalo Bills if you're a Miami Dolphin,
and nothing will top. Despite all of that, the Cowboys
(06:53):
win in twenty twenty three because those were September wins,
this was a critical December win. There were external factors
around that to playoff clinching win against a good Dallas
team in a year where the narrative was we couldn't
beat good teams. And it was Christmas Eve on the
first year that my daughter was really like cognizant of
what Christmas was, right, she knew about the gifts she
was getting, how cool they were.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
She was grateful for that.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
For the first time and setting up that win, set
up a week seventeen matchup with the Ravens for the
one seed, And that was my favorite moment on the
job because I got to enjoy the win with Seth
and Jews, with my you know, my coworkers here. I
remember lunch the next day talking about like what it
would look like to like pick out ring sizes and
stuff like that, and the Christmas you know, celebration the
(07:35):
next day, like knowing that we have six days off
until the Ravens play, and there was a big Ravens
and Niners game on that night, Like it was just
a perfect setting up.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Take me back.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
I always say that, like in this job as a
Dolphins fan, the best moments are reveling in the win
you had or like, you know, getting ready to watch
somebody else play after you got your big win. Like
I never enjoy the game itself as much because of
the stress that it brings. Those are the moments I
recall the most. And that Cowboys game was just good
vibes for a whole week until it wasn't. And I
go over all of those to discuss sports fandom in general.
(08:08):
I have two true sports loves. I've had various things
pop up as a number three option, but what's been
consistent since I was a boy the Dolphins and the Mariners.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
I've gone the rides with the Miami Heat. I like
the Heat a lot.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
They're my third favorite team, but the emotion I have
attached to them is just nowhere near the same. I
enjoy watching Victor Hovlin on the PGA Tour. I like
the US men's national soccer team. The Koogs were in
that third spot for a long time with the Dolphins
and Mariners until college football removed Washington State from the
entire conversation. And the more I have these ponderous thoughts,
(08:41):
the more I realize. I think my attachment to sports
is probably different than most people. I love sports to
the point of where I attach significant memories and like
my also moments in my life to sports events.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
That's how I grew up.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
That's all I knew when I was a kid, and
that's been the case as an adult too, And I
even came into the I remember coming into McDaniels press
conference on Friday ahead of Game five in Seattle between
the Mariners and the Blue Jays, and that pivotal Game
five that would swing you know, three to two either
direction for the series. And people ask me like, oh,
you must be tense today. I'm like, you know, if
(09:15):
they lose this game tonight, it might walk out into
the Atlantic and call it a life. And they were
like Jesus Travis, And I was like, hey, man, it
means a lot to me. I really care about this
result tonight. And the highs of those wins are absolutely incredible.
It's it's I mean, it's the best feeling that there
is besides seeing your newborn kid, right like, it really
is that big of a deal to me. But as
is the yin and yang of life, if it can
(09:37):
be that good, it also has to have the ability
to be that bad.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
And it was that bad on Monday night.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
As I write this, it's a Tuesday, the day after
the Mariners lost that first Game seven and franchise history.
And it comes on a three run homer in the
bottom of the seventh, eight outs away from going to
the World Series, from the first pennant and franchise history,
and off the bat of a guy who was the
central piece of the Astros sign stealing scandal, which was
(10:06):
the Manner's biggest obstacle for multiple years, including our last
playoff appearance in twenty twenty two, when they lost on
a three game sweep in the American League Divisional Series
to that same Astros team. George Springer does it again.
It's a three run bomb to send the minor season
to can Kun. I'm not sure you can lay out
a painful sports moment that conjures more pain than that,
quite frankly, so close on the doorstep of a new experience.
(10:29):
In fact, I've never seen my team play for a
championship on either of these two sports. I've seen the
Miami heat there, but again, the emotion's not the same.
But this playoff run, okay, I saw the Sonics when
I was a kid, but again, we're gonna get to
that here in second two. This playoff run was all
new experiences to me. I even planned to write some
Mariner's thoughts, like a column on this, just for myself
because I enjoy writing, and was going to send to
(10:51):
a couple of buddies who have Manner's blogs. If they
wanted to run them, they could do it. If not,
that's fine too. But the premise was going to be
centered around this. The idea of a thirty seven year
old thirty eight next week, my god, a year thirty
eight year old fan of the Dolphins and Mariners, these
deep playoff runs being completely new experiences for me, and
the Mariners claim to fame for a long time. After
(11:12):
the Buffalo Bills ended their playoff drout in twenty seventeen,
the next team in that line was the Seattle Mariners.
As the longest playoff appearance drought in professional sports.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
They broke that in twenty two.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
But got swept out of the Divisional series in a
fashion that just proved they weren't contenders against the Astros
that year. And then nobody here needs a history lesson
on the Dolphins' current playoff win drought. You guys know
about that very well. The agony of accepting defeat in
this American League Division championship series tied two games apiece,
(11:43):
knowing that Trek Scuble is coming out of that bullpen
for seven innings for the Tigers in Game five, Right,
That was a depressing game to watch because I knew
how tight the margins were, even though the Marrions won
that game in fifteen innings. But the pondering of the
matchup the next day and how it tilted against you
if you didn't be Trek Scoobel or balancing the highs
of watching the game five condensed game on YouTube three
(12:04):
times a day after the Mannors won that game. That's
what I did, because it was a moment in franchise
history that was the best of the last thirty years
and won the Island member for the rest of my life.
Every pitch in these twelve games was intensified. Each pitch
changes the math on the projected outcome of that bat,
of that inning of the game, each base runner providing
hope on offense and utter nerves and anxiety on defense
(12:27):
to live and die through every single pitch, which would
translate to each snap in a football game, maybe each drive,
I don't know. Over the course of twelve playoff games.
It was a unique experience, unlike anything I've ever experienced
for lack of better term, and the Dolphins have been
in similar positions. The twenty twenty three season was like that.
Essentially from what the Eagles game on being five and
(12:50):
one on Sunday night football, trying to beat the powerhouse Eagles,
a chance to prove ourselves in that spotlight.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
They have a setback.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
They demolished the Patriots the next week and have another
bigpportunity against Chiefs the next game. Similar script, right, you
lose that one, you beat up the Raiders and Jets
and Commanders. The pit in your stomach feeling of that
Titans result, the thrill of putting it on the Jets
and the Cowboys the next two games. I experienced those
in the same way I experienced the game five au
Hannio Swarez Grand Slam. It was the thrill of sports,
(13:20):
the peak of sports fandom. And experience the Baltimore and
Buffalo games the same way I experienced the George Springer
home run on Monday.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
It sucked. I'll never forget leaving the.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Postgames or going out to the postgame show in front
of twenty five thousand Buffalo fans who just stole the
division from us. It sucked just as much fun as
that Cowboys game was fun two weeks earlier. That's sports, sports, baby,
And I've learned about myself as a sports fan that
my preferred method of dealing with sports heartbreak is to
turn off the TV or maybe watch like South Park
(13:53):
or a slasher horror film, something that has nothing to
do with sports where they won't even mention the Seattle manors.
Of course, life was spent building towards a career with
the Miami Dolphins and doing three hours of postgame content.
Can't exactly have that option of football, and that's got
its upside with regards to the therapy of it all
dissecting a tough loss after the fact, but also the
extreme high of like gloating and smiling ear to ear
(14:16):
and being just jubilant through a two hour post game
show after you beat the Cowboys to clinch a playoff spot.
I write all of this to say. I say all
of this to say, and I think some of you
that have a secondary rooting interest, like the Celtics or
the Dodgers or the Alabama Crimson Tide, whichever successful franchise
that you may be into, you're probably like, yeah, Doud Travis.
(14:38):
But some of you are Mariners and Dolphins fans. Some
of you are Dolphins and Colorado Rockies fans, some of
you are Dolphins and Pittsburgh Pirate fans. You know, but
outside of a faint memory of being at the nineteen
ninety five American League Championship Series Game six loss, Manners
and Indians. I mean, the only thing that I remember
(15:00):
about that game I was eight years old now I
just turned nine, was the lone Cleveland fan in our
section who had a Manila envelope that he wrote go
Indians on. That's what life was like back then. You
didn't have extravagant signs and cell phones. It was just
a manilla envelope that go Indians. And all the Mariners
fans in that section heckling him all game long. And
he was a bald man. And the best heckle is
(15:22):
the thing I remember the most, The only thing I remember.
What do you got in there? What do you got
in there? Palia hair? It was like a New York accent,
but in Seattle somehow, but they were. They were an
epic burn pretty good, right. But the memory made it
dawn on me that sports memories before age twelve are
pretty faint. I have a similar memory of the Stoyanovich
miss field goal in the ninety four playoffs against the Chargers.
But the one that I really remember well at the
(15:43):
forefront of my mind from youth was a Lamar Smith
touchdown run in the win over the Colts in the
two thousand playoffs, the last Dolphins playoff win, an absolutely
u FOROK moment, albeit twenty five years ago. The point is,
I've seen the mountaintop here with the Mariners yesterday, the
last couple of days, last couple of weeks, and it
allowed me to dream and to fantasize about something that
(16:04):
quite frankly, I didn't know what it was all about
before this week. And though I didn't get to experience
the ultimate high, it made me realize that just getting one,
just seeing it one time, it's gonna make it so
worth it, dude. One day it's gonna happen, and all
the difficulties, heartbreak and tough seasons, all they do, all
(16:24):
those things, dude, is serve to sweeten that moment even
more when it does get here. All Right, that's my
alrid to the editor on sports fandom. This episode's gonna
continue in a similar mood as I talk about some
of the NFL wide trends. Next, we'll close the show
with an ode to Jason Jenkins as the Jason Jenkins
Days of Service, month and years.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
It's conclusion.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
That's next Drivetime Podcast, brought to you by AU Donation.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Second segment on.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
A random Wednesday, All Things Considered podcast as I break
down something else here on the show, and I know
we have a lot of die hard daily listeners here.
In fact, research says that more than seventy five percent
of your podcast audience is retained audience. And that's why
I firmly believe in sticking with your fastball to continue
(17:10):
a baseball theme. Do what you do, because the people
that you're doing the show for are the same people
that liked your approach to content in the very beginning.
And I bring this up because I was curious to
pull the audience around the concept of a show I
did way back in twenty twenty one, four years ago,
almost to the date, because we were one and seven
when I ran this bit, and I remember it like
(17:31):
it was yesterday, because I had a hard time getting
it through to you, getting it through the process to
get to you, guys, we had just lost in Buffalo
twenty six to eleven, after close losses of the Jags
in London and the Falcons here at home, before leading
Buffalo at halftime but eventually losing that game, as we
do up in Buffalo annually, and in that game, Tua
(17:54):
got hurt. We started jacobya Brissette against the Texans and
won seventeen to nine despite turning over the was it
the case Keenum Texans? I don't even know who was
a nurse cent there, but they were terrible and we
got five takeaways and scored just seventeen points. And that
I actually remember getting to that game, like at eleven
thirty and I got out of my car and got
a text that said, like no two today hunt from
(18:16):
a friend, and I was like, why I'm even here, man,
This is so stupid, Like I get to games at
ten o'clock now compared to you know, eleven thirty back then.
That shows you how checked out I was on that operation.
But we came out and had nothing working against the
Ravens until Brissett got hurt and they put two in
and he'd leaves us on a comeback victory and we
go on to win five more games after that, but
(18:37):
at one in seven, playoffs were a long way away.
They were essentially a nine game winning streak away, right
because we did win eight of the last nine, but
needed all eight all nine rather to kick in that
playoff door. And in the midst of what looked like
a last season, I started wondering about what's next, what's
the best approach. And mind you, this was off another
couple of seasons of bottom half the league offense, right,
(19:00):
and I talked about earlier with the Dolphins being defensive centric,
twenty something years without a top ten ranked offense. We
were still searching for the next quarterback in the post
Merino world, twenty years into that venture, and little did
we know we were less than twelve months away from
having both of those things secured. But at the time,
I was looking around the makeup of the team and
(19:21):
how to get it to the top of the AFC,
And I did a research segment on the cyclical nature
of defense and how difficult it was, you know, Brian Floores,
lead coach led football team, how difficult it was to
sustain a top ten defense compared to sustaining a top
ten offense. And what it essentially boiled down to was,
if you had a top tier quarterback, you could almost
(19:42):
be guaranteed to have a certain level of offensive success,
a certain floor right, and you could rotate the surrounding
parts as long as you weren't putting you know, tomato
cans out there on the offensive line and running out undrafted.
You know, free agent receivers every single year, like you
could make it work. You could replace offensive line, you
could replace receivers. Usually had a mainstay or two at
(20:04):
those spots, like the Chiefs who kept Creed Humphrey and
Trey Smith, or the Niners who always went back to
George Kittle, or the old school Colts keeping Marvin Harrison
and Reggie Wayne there alongside Peyton Man.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
You get it.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
But the rest of the offense, you can pick and
choose who your guys are as long as you have
that general under center at quarterback. On defense, it's difficult
to be a top ten defense year over year because
there's not really like one piece that can have the
impact on the rest of the unit the way the
quarterback does, and various other reasons as well. A lot
of times good defense happens through a certain chemistry and
(20:37):
connectivity and a balance of skills that complement each other.
It's much more of like a stew you have to
kind of find the right ingredients for compared to, hey,
I've got Patrick Mahomes, we'll figure it out from there.
But that was the hypothesis that was proven right through
research and as we fast forward four years. Say that
four times. Fast fast forward four years. My goodness, how
(20:58):
the league has changed. I wasn't even really privy to
this until late last year. Last season, I guess was
when it began, and I wanted to just do this
briefly touching on the way the league is going and
how that can inform team building, not just for the Dolphins,
but the entire National Football League, and it starts with this.
The game is different in a way that it hasn't
(21:20):
been since, Like I want to say, pre Marino, but
Marino was such a unicorn in the sense that he
was an outlier to what teams were in the eighties
and nineties. Right, the NFL was still spearheaded through dominant
run games and good defense like Priest Holmes, Ricky Williams,
Clinton Portis, you know, Larry Johnson after Priest Holmes wanniyball approach.
(21:41):
But I would say the NFL now more closely reflects
what it was in the late nineties and early two
thousands than ever before, and the numbers back that up.
Just look at the over the pass over expected rates
from this season compared to what it used to be. Again,
going back to you diehards in the podcast. Remember in
the Fitzpatrick years when I would be like, hey, that
(22:02):
first down, maybe you probably remember this. The first down
play action dig to Preston Williams or Devonte Parker is
our best play, the first play of the drive. It's
usually good for a fifteen to twenty yurd play, and
then from there your offense can kind of get rolling
because the defense has to play off their back foot
because of what you've just done and what you've just
shown them. So I went back and looked at some
charts that basically collect data about pass rate over expected,
(22:26):
which is essentially throwing the football in situations where the
running game is typically more prominent. And it used to
be like twenty five teams in the league would go
to the throw would go to the passing offense in
those situations. And right now there's one team that does
at a crazy high rate, and then there's like five
more teams that do it more over the run rate,
and the rest of the league is like, we're running
(22:47):
the football in this situation. So that has changed, and
the other numbers back it up as well. When I
first started doing this podcasting was twenty sixteen, and these
were the passer leading the yardage be geez the passing
yardage leaders in twenty fifteen forty eight hundred and seventy
forty seven ninety two forty seven to seventy forty six
sixty one forty five ninety one. That were twelve quarterbacks
(23:09):
that had over four thousand passing yards. There was nineteen
that had thirty six hundred or more passing yards. The
league average in yards per attempt was seven point three.
Fast forward ten years later to this year, the league
average ypas down to seven yards per pass. Last year,
six quarterbacks with four thousand passing yards. The year two
won the passing title. In twenty three, just two quarterbacks
(23:29):
through for over forty five hundred yards him Jared Goff
and Dak Prescott. When I did that podcast episode, I
reference from twenty twenty one two guys through for five
thousand yards. But there's another number that will help illustrate
this point further, the average depth of target. How far
down the field are these quarterbacks throwing the football, which
is the entire point of the speech. The average depth
(23:51):
of target in the NFL in twenty twenty five is
seven point six eight yards. In twenty fifteen, it was
eight point four on any given play. The ball was
being thrown oh Man Live Math on the air, zero
point eight yards further every single snap across the NFL
ten years ago than what it is today. And that
(24:14):
was consistent from two thousand and six all the way
through twenty nineteen. It was never below eight point one
over those thirteen years. In twenty twenty, with a first
year in fifteen years, it dropped below eight, down to
seven point nine in twenty twenty one seven point eight,
twenty twenty two, seven point seven.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
You get the trend.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
It's decreased about tenth of a yard each of the
last four or five years to where it's at today
at seven point six. So the NFL is undergoing something
of an analytics shift like we saw a few years ago.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
In the NBA.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
We only take twos, or the only twos. We take
our layups, and we shoot threes. Layups and threes. That's
the mathematical equation to maximize the points you score on
a give a night in the NBA, in the NFL,
and especially in today's league, where a lot of the
games that teams win are just by not losing the game.
Right If you play a clean football game against us
right now, the Raiders, the Titans, the Jets, You're gonna
(25:06):
beat that team if you just don't turn it over
and don't commit a million fouls. And there's a decent
chance if you do that the opposition will just lose
the game. There's in the NFL now, there's at least
ten teams a year that are like that. So if
you run the ball and throw short, high percentage passes,
you reduce the likelihood of turnovers, You keep the clock moving,
you keep yourself ahead of the chains, and give yourself
(25:28):
better down distances on second and third downs. And you
can track this through pretty much any stat Interception rates
are way down, explosive play rates are way down. It
might not be the same explosive, exciting, fantasy driven league
that it was ten years ago. And I'm more than
okay with that. I like a twenty seven twenty four
football game. I think most diehards are. I think forty
five to forty games are kind of boring. Personally, Never
(25:50):
getting stops is not fun to me. But that's the
game now, run game and short passing game. And my
plan was to extend this into like here's where we
go next with that, But I think we'll go ahead
and put a pin in that because we're up against
the clock and I have one more segment I want
to get to on the show here today, So we'll
go ahead and put a pin in that and come
back next Wednesday and talk about what that might look
like for the Miami Dolphins.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
Here going forwards? Sound good? All right? Cool?
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Last break? Come back and talk about the late great
Jason Jenkins. That's next Draft Time podcast, brought to you
by AutoNation. The Jason Jenkins Day of Service expanded this year,
and I had another opportunity to participate in one of
the many charitable events the Dolphins take part in to
celebrate his life, and so I wanted to talk about
him for just a moment here. Jason Jenkins wore a
(26:35):
lot of hats. He was our senior vice president of
Communications and Community Affairs here with the Dolphins, but he
was also a husband, a father, a friend. He was
the champion of the underheard and of the less fortunate.
He was a unifying force. Jason believed everyone should have
a voice and that we were all on the same team.
He represented the best of us in all walks of life,
(26:58):
and he always made himself available. We often joked around
here that Jason had clones because of his ability to
be at multiple places at once, or so it seemed,
And that's the spirit behind the Jason Jenkins Day of Service,
which was launched in twenty twenty two after his passing,
a day where we celebrated Jason by doing what he
did best, uniting the South Florida community through charitable events
(27:19):
and service, and throwing the Miami Dolphins into the fabric
of the same community. But just as Jason was larger
than life, this event had to be too, so we expanded.
It no longer is at the Jason Jenkins Day of Service,
but rather the Days of Service plural. One day couldn't
possibly match Jason's reach, So during his birth month of October,
(27:40):
we celebrate thirty days of doing what Jason did best,
giving back and uniting. And I know those thirty one
days in October we don't do on Halloween. On a
more personal level, Jason Jenkins was my mentor. He was
a father figure, a best friend type to me. I'm
here today because of Jason. You guys know that Jason
was many things, but the two elements of his character
that always stuck with me was his desire for inclusion
(28:01):
and innovation. It didn't matter what walk of life you
came from, Jason wanted to hear what you had to say.
How else would a small time podcaster and blogger from
Washington State, rural eastern Washington get on the radar of
a professional football team twenty five hundred miles away. Well,
Jason had a vision for the future of content. He
foresaw audio and video taking a stranglehold that it has
(28:23):
right now in the media landscape, and he yearned for
the connection between organization and fan base and in me
and all the content we've produced over the last six years. Here,
Jason saw a direct line to meet the fans of
the Miami Dolphins where they were with coverage, analysis, and
inside looks at your favorite football team. He wanted to
be on the cutting edge of innovation and want to
(28:44):
include Dolphins fans from all over the globe. And as
I read this copy, I can't think about how proud
Jason would be of where the podcast and where my
career is gone and our vision for content here on
the podcast, on the Drivetime Podcast, I can see that
grin the one that stretches ear to ear every single
time we met, and it didn't matter if we were
talking content, strategy, fatherhood, or our shared first loves in life,
(29:07):
the game of baseball. Jason was a Houston kid. He
grew up going to the Astrodome, just as I grew
up going to the Kingdome in Seattle. Go Maher's, and
when I went to what I thought was a job
interview with Jason back in twenty nineteen, we wound up
talking about collecting baseball cards, figurines, and tracking the stats
of our favorite players as kids. The bond over baseball
became the primary source of our trash talk to one
(29:29):
another over the coming years, rooting for opposing American League
West rivals in the Astros. Heyday, he would call my
Seattle Mariners a palate cleanser because we'd go to Houston
and get swept every single time. But I made sure
to kick the trash cans nearby his office and say, hey,
fastball's coming, boss, because his beloved Stros, well.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
They didn't do it the right way.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
In my opinion, the part of Jason the All Member,
more than the friendly sports banter or strategic podcast outlines,
was the personal moments. I remember this like it was yesterday.
My first year in South Florida. I had a scheduled
meeting with Ja and I was going to bring my
firstborn daughter with me to his office at the stadium
so that he could meet her. Caroline had We had
to call an audible because my baby girl got sick
(30:09):
in the back of the car and threw up all
over the entire car. Stress, panic, anxiety, said Sam. I
take her back home to get cleaned up and come
back to the meeting alone, to Jason's surprise, and he's
wondering why I left her at home because I'm frantic,
I'm late, I'm paranoid about this being a bad look.
And I walk into Jason's office an absolute wreck, nervous
about what had just transpired. But there's that smile again
(30:31):
greeting me, the smile that didn't leave his face while
I'll explained to him how tough my day was and frankly,
how challenging and becoming a new parent was. Yet the
smile persisted. He listened, and when I finished my spiel,
he stayed as cool as the other side of the
pillow and calmly told me, ma'am You're in the best
years of your life, buddy. And that lasting memory I'll
(30:52):
always have with Jason, and it so fittingly matches what
his job was with the Miami Dolphins. Nobody was better
under crisis than Jason, even if the crisis was a
little meeting mishap that was brought on by some spit
up in the car right over. That's who Jason was.
He was he saw the best in everything and the.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
Good in everybody.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
All right, you all, please be sure subscribe to the podcast,
leave us a raging and leave us a review. Follow
me on social at Winklin NFL. Follow the team at
Miami Dolphins, check out the YouTube channel for Dolphins HQ,
Media availabilities, and so much more. And last button, not least,
Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time, will furns Up, Caroline, Cameron,
and Willow Daddy.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
He's coming home.
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