November 6, 2024 • 33 mins
Travis is back for a 30-minute monologue steeped in research and study of why he believes this team found its groove Sunday, and if it’s too late for 2024, why 2025 could be the year. Or, just maybe, we could see a historic run after this 2-6 start.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
To remove dall in deep speedways peas dolls from the
Baptist Health Studio that's inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
This is Drivetime with Travis Wingfield. He's my havn's in
the playoffs. What is up Dolphins and welcome to the
(00:31):
Draft Time Podcast. I am your host, Travis Wingfield, and
on today's show, I have some thoughts about the first
half of the season and where this team is going
in the second half of the season and beyond, with
some examples of some teams that have followed similar pathlines
as the Dolphins could be tracking here in twenty twenty
four and beyond. From the Baptist Health Studios inside the
(00:52):
Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Draft Time Podcast.
I love my Wednesday show because it's usually my time
to be a little bit more freeform jazz and monologue
a little bit opposed to more regimented shows. Which don't
get me wrong, I mean I built the program out
(01:12):
that way on purpose and love the formulaic nature of
the recap show or the preview show. But this is
typically my favorite spot to do and today's topic is
a big part of that. Since it's the middle of
the season, week nine of eighteen weeks. I want to
do something that step back a little bit and do
more of a big picture process, but also tie it
into the team today and going forward into Los Angeles,
(01:36):
into the homestand and eventually lambeau Field and beyond for
Thanksgiving and in December. How I think these last eight
games have informed us further about the program and how,
in my opinion, the record is straight up a bald
faced liar with regards to where this thing is going.
And I want to talk about process today, and there
(01:56):
are several caveats and disclaimers. I have to start with,
the number one being that I think this team is
one win on Monday away from going on a bit
of a heater. If they beat the Rams, I believe
they will go to Thanksgiving at five and six, and
I think they have a chance to win that game,
and then you play the low League Jets. I think
there's a real opportunity here to go to Houston at
(02:18):
seven and six. I do. If it doesn't happen, we
have to make peace of that and accept the fact
that the hole we dug was too big. But I
do think that's a real, real possibility. Now, why do
I believe that. Give me just one second, because I
want to set this all up further to recap my
view on the first eight games. I thought we came
(02:38):
out of the gates a little bit stagnant in the
offensive structure of things, even with Tua. I didn't feel
there was a real synchronicity in how the offense performed,
and they struggled in those first two games as a
result of that. Why did that happen? Well, I think
there are extenuating circumstances, and I won't place a percentage
point on those because in this league, I promise you guys,
(02:59):
it's not like social media. Inside an NFL building, nobody
looks at scapegoats. I know that that's what Twitter is
all about, finding your scapegoat for every single game, every
single season, because that gives you a tangible thing that
you can go into an offseason to know that I
hack to replace this. The bad is out. The next
thing that we get will be good, and that's how
we're going to be a good football team. That's just
not how it works. There are so many elements that
(03:20):
you just cannot forecast about an NFL team every single year,
and to scapegoat one single person or element is typically
bad process. You need to look at all processes. A
good example of that is two years ago we had
the deepest and best edge group in the National Football League,
and today it's probably the worst because of injuries, and
the long term outlook has been impacted by those injuries.
(03:41):
But back to the offense, I think you can look
at two as Ota absences. It's part of that. I
think you know a guy that has typically in the
past not played well off of bye weeks. It seems
like he's more of a rhythm type of you know,
guy that gets hotter or as he goes. I think
you can look at the way the summer program operates,
you know, I think that you have to have some
changes to that next year. I think you can point
(04:03):
to most heavily. I didn't. I said I wasn't gonna
assign percentage points, but I would tend to say that
installing a bunch of new stuff that didn't really work
and wasn't successful. To be honest with you, it was
too much glitz and glamour and too much cutesy stuff
and out thinking. And here's the overplay to the overplay.
(04:23):
It was almost kind of like shoot Coach Clan from
water Boy. He fakes the fake, no, he pretends to fake.
And again, don't get me wrong, there is some cutesy
stuff that works, and it's fun when it does work,
like some of the play action little flips you know,
no look screens. I love those that behind the back
flip to Jalen right for a big run. Love it.
But I feel as though we lost the thread a
(04:43):
little bit with that stuff and probably committed to it
for too long before a hard pivot around week seven maybe,
although the full back dive on first and ten would
say it was still some of that, but I digress,
and that hard pivot was more of the bread and butter,
more downhill line up and just play football, which look
(05:06):
at the game on Sunday and short yardage. What was
successful our traditional running game? What was not successful? Raheem
Moster sliding over to an offset I position and taking
a straight dive into the B gap where you couldn't
cross face on a safety who came in as the
seed gap defender. Like that was cutesy and it didn't work,
And when they went back to their regular offense it
did work. And also a bigger emphasis on something I've
(05:30):
been preaching for the last two years at camp or
in games or otherwise, the concept of spreading the football around,
getting the football to the perimeter, to the checkdowns, further
incorporating the backs and tight ends in the passing game.
Like look back to last year. You could see it
all over the tape. Backs in the flat naked naked
and football means they're not cover you sickos, And we're
trying to push it into these contested windows down the field.
(05:52):
And I'm always like, hey, why didn't you just throw
the ball to Raheem right there? He was open for
an eight yard game. And that reminds me of this
whole argument about the distance of pass passes correlating with
how much you are impressed by the quarterback. And gosh ah,
there's just such a you never want to like demean people.
I don't seek to do that in my apologies if
(06:14):
this next line does that, But holy hell man, that's
like a twelve year old playing Madden approach to football.
The evaluation the game is far more esoteric than that.
A ninety percent completion rate throw like it's probably even
higher than that on the swing route into a space
with five or six yards of runway before the first
(06:34):
defender can even find that running back in space is
much better in terms of, you know, efficiency than to
throw twenty yards down the field with a defender all
over the receiver. Because hey, that's our vertical passing game,
our deep passing game. It just is. And I can't
believe it's even a sentence I have to say, but
I digress, Like I'm impressed by quarterback. They can put
it out there. I'll tell you in a second why
it's impressive that he does that stuff. But on the
(06:56):
other side of the struggles, I made this reference probably
too much in the show. It reminds me of Andy
dufran Shawshank He crawled through five hundred feet of you
know what and found the sunshine on the other side
or whatever. That's that's the other right line, but you
get it. And I feel like we have come out
the other side seeing the light here a little bit.
And I want to start with this sound from Taron
Johnson after the game on Sunday, he was asked about
(07:19):
the Dolphins run game and how much success we had
in that area.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
I just feel as though they have really great weapons
on the outside, so kind of like playing like kind
of them, letting them run the ball. If I want
to say, you know what I'm saying, just not giving
up explosive plays. I mean, we still gave up I
think too many, but just making sure we limit those
explosive plays.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
I think the reason for that chuckle in his voice
there was because you kind of don't want to like
cop to that fact. But it's a truly pick your
poison type of situation where you can't defend it all.
And that's why I talked about all damn summer, wasn't
it when I was talking about breaking records with points
and how this offense is going to be so efficient
we've seen the two weeks because defenses literally cannot defend
(08:02):
the entire field with the continuity you've developed on the
offensive line, with the explosive nature of your running game,
with the better depth at pass receiving options, with Odell
being part of the mix, now John hu Smith being
a massive part of the equation, and then Devon a
Chan's implementation of the passing game. That's basically three more
guys that you didn't have last year. And why I
was so bullish on all this now we get Malik
(08:22):
Washington going river, Kraikraft gonna come back here real soon.
I still think it's a point of contention in the
off season next year. But I digress. You have these
part portions, partians that make you indefensible across the entire field,
and teams have to pick what they feel is less dangerous.
And that's why I think Tyron Johnson just told you
right there. And when I hear that, I think about
how we have been able to get the run game
(08:43):
going and hit it for chunks and stay ahead of
the six the sticks and constantly be in these second
and two positions. But then I think, well, one way
they adjust off of that while keeping their shell. For instance,
you know Raheem Mostert's catch and run for a first
down on third and eleven on that opening field goal
drive when they had three defenders who were five and
(09:03):
then twelve and then fifteen yards beyond the sticks on
third and eleven. So you've shown teams that you can
hurt them where it hurts the most. Right the vertical
passing game, you have excelled in that area and you've
had a forty six hundred yard passer a nearly a
two thousand yard receiver and you went to work in
the passing game number one in the NFL last year.
That is prior to number one for any defense, because
(09:24):
the quickest way to lose games is to give up
long touchdowns. So we play light in the fit and
they're still getting their runs off. But if that's all
they have off of that, we are eventually one negative
play that puts them behind the sticks. We can be
more a little more aggressive and then get them off
the field because eventually they're going to make that mistake
because they do not have that passing game efficiency in
(09:47):
their back pocket that we saw the last two weeks.
So you can either force a field goal, hopefully a punt,
or even best case scenario, force them into a takeaway,
which we saw that too. But the part that was
missing when Tua wasn't out there and the reason I
think you I have seen this offense become the most
efficient scoring operation in the NFL in terms of points
per possession of the last two games and number of
(10:07):
drives that end in points the last two games. It's
because we've evolved to the next element of our offense
I believe, which is that thing I've been talking about
at training camp the last couple of years and finding
backs and tight ends and threatening areas of the field
vacated in the short areas to stay on the field
as an offense, to keep moving the chains and essentially
take the profit all the way down the field into
(10:29):
the end zone. It's how the Chiefs entire operation works.
Ever since teams decided I'm not gonna let Mahomes throw
for five thousand yards and forty eight touchdowns because well,
we can't beat them doing that. Maybe we can force
them to be a little bit less explosive, and because
the Chiefs don't really have the same number of guns
we do, you've seen them be less explosive and you've
seen them have to win games in crazy fashion late
(10:50):
twenty seventeen because they just don't have the guns on
the outside. But it's a better option than letting them,
you know, throw deep to Xavier Worthy and gets single
coverage five times a game, because Mahomes probably to hit
two of those. So it really is a pick your
poison proposition, and I think it's here to stay. And again,
it's such a bummer that we are two and six,
(11:11):
because I think if they were four and four, despite
all the missing parts on defense, I feel like this
is a team that could win the division and make
a deep run. If they were just four and four.
It's going to be difficult to overcome two and six.
But even then, I feel like there's still like this
slight glimmer of hope that if it was just even
one more win at three and five, I would feel
so much better about getting into the playoffs. Now. To
(11:33):
tell you why, I have this belief despite the attrition
on defense and a group that I don't think is
going to really be able to bounce back with the
current position in terms of edge and pass rushers. But
I've made no bones about what I personally believe is
the best way to be a sustained winner in this league.
It's offense. You know. I've done research segments on this
(11:53):
show opening the sustainability of great offense first, great defense,
even going back to the twenty twenty season. I looked
at top ten defenses compared to the top ten offenses
back in twenty twenty one, and how many consecutive years
those groups stayed in that level in that category, And
without having the exact metrics in front of me, it
was pretty clear that the offense was by far the
(12:14):
easier side of the football to maintain. And I mean,
look look at all the teams that make their deep runs.
Three of the teams in the final four last year,
we're outside the top ten and defense, like happens every year. Ultimately,
that's not the case. I'm trying to argue. What I'm
trying to argue is I think the Dolphins offense is
not going to be back to what we got used
to in twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three. I
(12:35):
think it's got high potential to be even better, to
be even more dangerous with how it can create more
areas of conflict for this defense. And like I went
through it the last couple of weeks, like the last
six weeks, being like what the hell happened to this offense?
That's why I was so beside myself with like where
the do we go from here? Because this isn't the
team that I know, But it has been the last
(12:58):
two weeks. Offensively, I know I ran this sound on
the show yesterday. Let's go ahead and go back to
McDaniel on the concept of the short passing game and
taking what's there to capitalize on overplay by the defense.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
Football in general is UH is about maximizing, you know,
specifically in our offense, is maximizing overplay. And if you're
going to overplay with depth, you have to execute and
in high percentage completions and yards after the catch that
aren't necessarily the cross court gigantic plays, but are the
(13:33):
throw at for four and you get seven.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Uh, and that, and that's kind.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
Of the art of that that particular style of defense
when they want to play that, when they want to
play the way they've proven to have success against our offense.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
And I thought.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
It was a a great display of Tua's evolution of
finding can poletions and utilizing his accuracy and challenging the
areas of the field that weren't overpopulated. And you know,
with a team that plays with a bunch of quarterback
(14:11):
vision that relies on turnovers, it's absolutely absolutely imperative to
be able to pass the pass the ball efficiently and
take advantage of the areas where they're avoiding. So I
think that's an art what you're saying, managing the game
(14:33):
against zone defenses, you usually can't. Against really good zone defenses,
you can't manage the game in the way of just
finding checkdowns, because if you go to the checkdown too
early in the play, they play deep and we'll sprint
forward and you'll get you'll get a two yard game.
So you have to play the position to get the
(14:56):
appropriately to get the ball to the eligibles at the
time of the play, and that is an art form
that many many quarterbacks find very difficult, particularly against the
Buffalo Bills. So I thought yesterday was a great example
of aggressively taking what the defense gives you, and you know,
(15:19):
he was able to do some have some success that
we haven't had in the past based upon his commitment
to his craft and being aggressive to all eligibles, based
upon overplay and.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
A real quick peek behind the curtain for you guys.
I caught wind of some of the micd up footage
where McDaniel's telling the guys, if you just run your
route to your spot, that's it. That's all you have
to do. We'll be just final score because Tua is
so dialed in he will get it to you. So
coach knew his quarterback was on a heater and playing
some of his best ball of his career and was
seeing it that well, well, that's how you score three
(15:56):
touchdown drives of seventy eighty one and ninety seven in
the toughest environment. We plan our entire schedule every single year.
All those drives when you were behind on the scoreboard,
and all those hillbillies from Western New York who pulled
out a second mortgage on their shanty just to be
in attendance could scream through their blue cheese breath for
tooth mouths. And to go further on what coach said,
(16:17):
first off, I got some great questions when I tweeted
the quote about some of the finer points of how
this all works. So when we throw a swing to
eight chan up the sideline, it's easy to look at
that and say, well that was an easy throw, no
credit for the quarterback. But what you're not seeing there
is get into the line scrimmage pre snap and deciphering. Okay,
I've got this look that I believe is Cover three.
(16:39):
I've got this route concept two man route combo to
the swing route side, and my one receiver is on
this vertical that I think should pull the Cover three
defender into his deep third responsibility and vacate the first
fifteen yards of the perimeter to that side of the field,
and now I just have to occupy this curl flat
defender who's zoned off to work the first route that
breaks inside, and if it's not there, he's gonna get
(17:01):
with and key the running back on that swing route.
But because we switch release, which is where the one
and two basically switch downfield after the snap, with the
two taking the vertical to lift that cover three cornerback
off the perimeter, and now that inside release gets that
curl flat defender running forward and towards the middle, or
rather towards the middle of the field, meaning the flat
(17:22):
is all alone. And as the quarterback, if I can
convince that curl flat defender, who again he's in zone,
so his eyes are playing me, he's not coming, you know,
he's not playing the receivers in the route, He's playing
the quarterback. And they have to respect my helmet position,
my feet, my shoulders. The way I can influence them.
Every part of the quarterback is a tell about where
the football might go. And since Tua is literally the
(17:44):
best in the league at showing the defense the ball
is going one way and then quicker than anybody else
in the world can do it is able to get
the ball back to the spot that he just opened up.
With his manipulation, he can force that curl flat defender
to totally vacate the flat and then rip the ball
to Chan on a dead sprint on the upfield shoulder
so he doesn't slow down and takes him right into
(18:04):
the round for the catch. It's a five yard air throw.
It gets knocked for that. That gives eight Chan fifteen
more yards of runway before he even gets touched. That
is winning football. So what one person sees as an
easy swing route, you gotta understand the finer points to
go into it. That's what's impressive about it. And if
it were that easy, that every quarterback would do it.
But I promise you it's not that easy. And Tua
(18:27):
took hundreds of thousands of reps as a youth with
his pops back on eva beach to be able to
develop that rare trait which I think you could compare
to when you're in the triple threat position in basketball. Right,
he can shoot, he can pass, he can dribble drive,
and Tua can sell you on the dribble drive attack
and within that same motion where he gets you to
take a deep drop step to get depth to cut
him off on the way to the basket. He can
(18:47):
then pull up and knock down the shot right in
your eyeball. Does that track? Let's go ahead and take
our first break right there. Come back on the other side,
and I'm gonna keep going, baby. Drivetime Podcast, your host
Travis Wingfield, brought to you by AutoNation, simply continuing that
first segment idea and talking about two one and comparing
(19:07):
him to a great dribble drive basketball guard with the
ability to hit jump shots in your face. I think
that Tua's game has grown that way with his ability
to you know, fake the glands and throw the rail
or throw the flat or you know, rip the vertical
whatever whatever he needs to do without having his feet set,
without you know, being able to quickly set his feet
(19:30):
to make that happen. And it just meshes so perfectly
with the skill players that we have, with the run
game that we have, with the system and the entire
operation as a whole. That's why I think this offense
is going to be an absolute problem down the stretch.
It's what I thought we were going to get back
in Week one, which again it sucks that I was
wrong about that early on. It does. I wish it
were different. I mean, imagine Tua stays healthy and hits
(19:52):
this stride back in Week three against the Seahawks and
the Titans and the Colts, and the defense was balling
at that time. I have no proble and saying confidently
we're five and three right now if that's the case,
which is probably disappointing based upon the Cardinals result and
not pulling that Buffalo game out late, but it is
what it is. Five and three, I would say this
team is about to win the AFC East still. Well
(20:13):
maybe not because you got split Buffalo, but I digress
on that once again. I just think that we're at
worse five and three, but that's not the reality. The
realities were two and six and now have to play
damn near perfect to get in. And that's where I
want to go back to this SoundBite from Coach when
he was asked on Monday about the idea of yesterday
on Tuesday being buyers or sellers of the deadline. Here's Coach,
and he gave you a pretty good answer here about
(20:34):
how this team believes in their program and kind of
affirms I guess what I'm saying as the team mouthpiece
right now. This is steeped in research and study and
x'es and o's, and you podcast listeners from the last
six weeks know that this is not I wasn't doing
this two weeks ago, so just bear with me. Here
here's coach on the team's internal review of their own operation.
Speaker 4 (20:56):
Chris great I both share their strong conviction in belief
in this, in this team and what it looks like
if you if you can find a way to get
over the hump, which we fully expect to. At the
same time, you know, Chris Ker's job is to to
(21:16):
field all all business and listen uh and think both
in the short and long term of of the best
interests of the franchise. And then he comes to me
with any and all business that's that's real, and we
discuss you know, from there, and he hasn't brought anything
(21:40):
that is that is real to me. But I know,
first and foremost we are absolutely convicted in uh this,
this this team being better than the win loss column
right now and believe that it can it can make
(22:01):
a turn.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
And that's what we're how we're approaching each and every
day I guess what I'm saying through all of my
rambling and research and points and football jargon, is that
I agree with coach. If you couldn't tell that by now,
I do think this team will finish out the rest
of the year strong, of course, provided to what is
under center, and give themselves a fighting chance in December
(22:22):
to make a historic type of run. Quite frankly, I
think that with our offense the way it is, if
it stays healthy and continues doing what I think they will,
which is have that same run game commitment, have the
same commitment to taking the profit, and also having the
explosive element mixed in like you saw in Buffalo, the
perfect triple threat attack. I think that in those games
against teams that don't have Matt Stafford or Jordan Love
(22:45):
or c. J. Stroud or Brock Purty, I think you're
gonna wipe the floor with those teams. I'm talking about
the Raiders, Patriots, Jets, and Browns, which is five games,
which gives you four more games with Matt Stafford, with
Jordan Love, with CJ. Shrowd and brock Purty. You have
to find a way to win three of those. It
starts on Monday, against the Rams. If you get that one,
then I feel confident that we can find two more
(23:05):
of the other three. But let's just let that happen
when it happens and hopefully make a historic run through
December to turn a two and six team into a
playoff team. But because because of this early hole, maybe
it's too late. And that bleeds into my next point
that you know, to recap. I think this team can
get hot, but even getting hot and going seven and
two might not be good enough. We'll see. I don't
(23:27):
think the seventh seed in the AFC is going to
have an imposing record like was the case last year,
where it felt like you had to have ten, maybe
even eleven wins just to get in the damn playoffs.
I mean, we clinched the playoffs in the Cowboys game
at eleven and four, and we would have made it
at ten and seven had we lost that game. But
at the time, it was like, well, if it lose
to the Ravens and the Bills and the Cowboys, maybe
they don't get in. But you get what I'm saying.
(23:48):
It's I think it's lighter this year, but of course
so much can change. And that's the second part of
this and something I've been thinking about, you know, looking
into the last couple of days. If they go seven
to two and miss out on a tie break, that
would be a disappointing season based upon preseason expectations. Maybe
not so much about the seven and two end, but
the six and the two and six start that made
(24:09):
it so they have to be one of the best
two or three teams down the stretch just to get
a road playoff game against a Baltimore or Buffalo or
whoever it might be. I think there's a bit of
a disconnect on this next part with regards to fans
and patient level, patience level, or the old trope of
no excuses just to accomplish X, Y and z like
that is logically in any walk of life. That's such
(24:32):
a flawed way of thinking of only being results based
and not being processed based because you are not allowing
yourself to see the full picture of things. And again,
I totally get the frustration, and maybe that's why you
feel that way in your sports life because the rest
of life does have gray areas. Maybe you want to
have it black and white in your sports life. Again,
feel free, but just please understand that it's logically flawed, right,
(24:53):
Because the biggest plea that I can make is one
that I think is steeped in logic and not emotion,
and that is this, you cannot let the results of
seasons past informed decisions in the present. Like I keep
thinking about this, if we convert that fourth down in
the twenty twenty two wild card game at Buffalo and
then we pop an explosive that gets us into the
(25:13):
end zone and we win that game and you dethrown
the Bills as a seventh seed, does the fact that
we gain fifty more yards in that one game. And
for argument's sake, let's say that we go to Kansas
City the next week and with Skyler Thompson get absolutely waxed,
which we definitely would have do those extra fifty yards
from the Skyler Thompson lead offense change the way you
feel in twenty twenty four going forward, because all the
(25:34):
discourse I see is playoff win or bust. That would
have been it, and you would have reset the drought.
But does that make you feel any different about twenty
twenty four team. Not for me, And that's my point
in all of this. You cannot let the playoff drought
impact the projection of decisions going forward, because it's simply
not relevant. It is for fans, it's not for anybody
in the NFL that works in this business and makes
(25:56):
decisions based on the information they have, which should not
incl the two thousand and seven season, or the twenty
twelve season, or the two thousand and six like, it
doesn't matter what happened back then. And that's why I've
always firmly disagreed with the principle of no excuses. Whether
they get hot and get in or they come up
a game or two short, maybe that's still just a
few games where we fail to close it out and
(26:17):
we go six and eleven, which is a horribly disappointing season.
I would agree with that, whether it's six wins, eight wins,
or ten wins. I don't think those final results dictated
ultimately who you are and where the program is going.
And to weave this back in, let's actually go ahead
and take our last breakreak there. I went back and
looked at some teams that have had really good runs,
really good programs for an extended period of time, and
(26:40):
pointed out a couple of years where things just didn't
go their way. We'll do that next Drivetime podcast, your
host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. So
to to do the weave and bring this back in,
I just wanted to look at some good football teams,
which I believe the Dolphins will be in the second
half of the season, that just had some bad bounces
(27:03):
or bad injury luck or whatever it was that made
their record a game or two short of what they
wanted to be, but then came back and were right
back to the team that we thought they could be
or had been in recent seasons. And the first one
I thought of was the team that we often get
compared to on the other coast in the other conference,
in the San Francisco forty nine ers. So Kyle Shanahan
gets there in twenty seventeen, they get Jimmy g on
(27:25):
Halloween and they're zero to eight, and then Jimmy takes
a week to get on boarded and starts the game
against the Giants and they win Bila. Then they have
a bye week, then they lose to a good Seahawks team,
but they win the final five games to finish out
six and ten. Now they go into twenty eighteen and
it's like, oh, there's the Shanahan that helped you know,
RG three go off, the Shanahan that helped the Browns
(27:45):
look like a football team that they weren't previously, the
Shanahan that took the Falcons of the Super Bowl. But
in twenty eighteen, they lose Jimmy G in Week two
after one on one start, they lose the next six games.
They go three and five the rest of the way,
finishing four and twelve with CJ. Beth, Nick Mullens and
a bunch of bad backup quarterback play, and this affords
them the second pick in the draft, which turns into
(28:06):
Nick Bosa. Then they go to the Super Bowl and
have a ten point fourth quarter lead, but mahomes right
Then in twenty twenty, they're supposed to go right back there,
but Jimmy G only plays six games and they lose
multiple other key parts, like Moster and Kittle playing eight
games each, Debo playing seven games, Bosa plays just two,
d Ford plays just one, Solomon Thomas plays two, Quiskey
(28:29):
Tart plays seven, Kawan Williams plays eight games. Like you
get it. It is just one of those years for
one of the most talented teams in the NFL, But
then they get healthy in twenty twenty one sort of.
They miss a bunch of guys early. They start off
three to five. Their offense looks like it's stuck in
the mud. They can't get much going. They have a
Sunday night game where they score like thirteen points against
the bad Broncos. Then they win seven of nine and
(28:51):
they have another ten point lead in the NFC Championship
game after winning two more playoff games, and then they
lose Jimmy g again in twenty twenty two, but Brock
Purty so thirteen wins NFC title game. He gets hurt
and they get blown out by the Eagles with Josh Johnson,
who is basically our Tyler Huntley. Then last year twelve
wins Super Bowl appearance. So you get the point right.
(29:12):
Twenty twenty and twenty eighteen were down years because of
injuries and a quarterback that couldn't stay on the field,
and the injuries at other key spots piling up. What
about the Ravens, who have been a fixture in the
AFC playoffs since like two thousand and eight, who have
essentially been a contender for the Super Bowl. The minute
Lamar Jackson arrives. He goes six and one as a rookie,
(29:34):
thirteen wins, an MVP in twenty nineteen, eleven wins in
twenty twenty, but then he gets hurt in twenty twenty
one and they win eight games. And he comes back
in twenty twenty four and twenty twenty two rather and
goes eight and four and gets hurt again. Now they
sneak in with a nine to eight mark. They get
beat in the wild card round, and suddenly questions about
Lamar Jackson's long term viability come up, and he's made
available per reports and to trade. Nothing comes of it.
(29:56):
He comes back, gets his contract, wins thirteen games, another
MVP award, and then right now they are six and three,
and quite frankly, I think this is the year they
get their breakthrough, and I think they beat Kansas City
in the playoffs and go to the super Bowl. That's conjecture.
Or the Eagles, who won a super Bowl in twenty
seventeen won nine games the next two years as Carson
Wentz is coming back off that ACL tear in total
(30:17):
de reconstruction, and then they bought them out all the
way at four eleven and one with their quarterback missing
four games. In twenty twenty, literally all of their top
five eligibles missed at least five games. Some of them
missed ten games that year. If you want a non
injury example. For example, the Saints went seven and nine
four times between twenty twelve and twenty sixteen. They have
(30:40):
a historic twenty seventeen draft class that plays a huge
role in winning eleven and thirteen games the next two
seasons to get them over this hump of a team
that was kind of one dimensional but you know, didn't
make the key plays and they counted or for whatever reason,
they went seven to nine four years out of five.
The entire point is that for every Chiefs or Patriots dynasty,
(31:01):
there are two or three more elite programs that don't
have the postseason success, granted, which is what we all want.
And I'm talking about Super Bowls, and we experienced that
in the nineties with Marino not being able to beat
the Buffalo Bills. Sometimes it just happens. But for every
Chiefs or Patriots dynasty, you have multiple programs that have
these amazing decade long runs. But within those programs, in
(31:21):
those decade long runs, there's like a year or two
where they got off the rails and they weren't very good,
and they bounced right back. And that's my entire point,
because it's football. It's not one hundred and sixty two
game baseball season or even an eighty two game basketball season.
Sometimes you just it just doesn't go your way. And
with some of the early season struggles, the injury to
the quarterback, playing four qbs by week four, incorporating a
(31:45):
new defensive system that was hoping to get stronger as
it went along, only to see injuries decimate the front
entirely by week ten, Like, I just think this is
one of those years for the Dolphins, and in otherwise
really good runs since twenty twenty and maybe I'm wrong.
If I'm right, I think you'll see this team go
on a run and win eight to nine, maybe even
ten games, and then we can reshuffle, reload, and get
(32:07):
back into twenty twenty five with an absolute vengeance, the
way the Eagles did in twenty twenty two, the way
the Niners did in twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three,
the way the Saints did in twenty seventeen, and the
way the Ravens did in twenty twenty three. Now, if
they revert back to old the week one, two, three
four style of offense, I will throw this podcast in
the trash and say I was wrong. But I don't
(32:29):
think I am. I think we finally hit that pinnacle
offensively where this team is gonna be an absolute nightmare
for opposing defenses in the next nine games of the season.
There you go, that's my point. I was gonna do
the week ten picks here on this show, but I
got long, so we'll go ahead and bump that to Friday.
I had Kyle Krabs on Dolphins HQ, which is going
to run the entire interview on the Friday podcast part
(32:51):
of it on the Thursday HQ episode. We got some
really good content there with Kyle. You don't want to
miss that. We'll have the game preview for you guys
tomorrow as well. In the meantime, you all please be
sure to subscribe, rate and review the podcast. Follow me
on social at Lincoln NFL. The team at Miami Dolphins
check out the fish Tank podcast with my guys Seth
and Juice. Check out the YouTube channel for Dolphins HQ,
(33:12):
Media availabilities and so much more, and last, but not least,
Miami Dolphins dot Com Until next time. Finn's Up, Carolina
and Cameron Daddy just come and hope
To remove dall in deep speedways peas dolls from the
Baptist Health Studio that's inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
This is Drivetime with Travis Wingfield. He's my havn's in
the playoffs. What is up Dolphins and welcome to the
(00:31):
Draft Time Podcast. I am your host, Travis Wingfield, and
on today's show, I have some thoughts about the first
half of the season and where this team is going
in the second half of the season and beyond, with
some examples of some teams that have followed similar pathlines
as the Dolphins could be tracking here in twenty twenty
four and beyond. From the Baptist Health Studios inside the
(00:52):
Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Draft Time Podcast.
I love my Wednesday show because it's usually my time
to be a little bit more freeform jazz and monologue
a little bit opposed to more regimented shows. Which don't
get me wrong, I mean I built the program out
(01:12):
that way on purpose and love the formulaic nature of
the recap show or the preview show. But this is
typically my favorite spot to do and today's topic is
a big part of that. Since it's the middle of
the season, week nine of eighteen weeks. I want to
do something that step back a little bit and do
more of a big picture process, but also tie it
into the team today and going forward into Los Angeles,
(01:36):
into the homestand and eventually lambeau Field and beyond for
Thanksgiving and in December. How I think these last eight
games have informed us further about the program and how,
in my opinion, the record is straight up a bald
faced liar with regards to where this thing is going.
And I want to talk about process today, and there
(01:56):
are several caveats and disclaimers. I have to start with,
the number one being that I think this team is
one win on Monday away from going on a bit
of a heater. If they beat the Rams, I believe
they will go to Thanksgiving at five and six, and
I think they have a chance to win that game,
and then you play the low League Jets. I think
there's a real opportunity here to go to Houston at
(02:18):
seven and six. I do. If it doesn't happen, we
have to make peace of that and accept the fact
that the hole we dug was too big. But I
do think that's a real, real possibility. Now, why do
I believe that. Give me just one second, because I
want to set this all up further to recap my
view on the first eight games. I thought we came
(02:38):
out of the gates a little bit stagnant in the
offensive structure of things, even with Tua. I didn't feel
there was a real synchronicity in how the offense performed,
and they struggled in those first two games as a
result of that. Why did that happen? Well, I think
there are extenuating circumstances, and I won't place a percentage
point on those because in this league, I promise you guys,
(02:59):
it's not like social media. Inside an NFL building, nobody
looks at scapegoats. I know that that's what Twitter is
all about, finding your scapegoat for every single game, every
single season, because that gives you a tangible thing that
you can go into an offseason to know that I
hack to replace this. The bad is out. The next
thing that we get will be good, and that's how
we're going to be a good football team. That's just
not how it works. There are so many elements that
(03:20):
you just cannot forecast about an NFL team every single year,
and to scapegoat one single person or element is typically
bad process. You need to look at all processes. A
good example of that is two years ago we had
the deepest and best edge group in the National Football League,
and today it's probably the worst because of injuries, and
the long term outlook has been impacted by those injuries.
(03:41):
But back to the offense, I think you can look
at two as Ota absences. It's part of that. I
think you know a guy that has typically in the
past not played well off of bye weeks. It seems
like he's more of a rhythm type of you know,
guy that gets hotter or as he goes. I think
you can look at the way the summer program operates,
you know, I think that you have to have some
changes to that next year. I think you can point
(04:03):
to most heavily. I didn't. I said I wasn't gonna
assign percentage points, but I would tend to say that
installing a bunch of new stuff that didn't really work
and wasn't successful. To be honest with you, it was
too much glitz and glamour and too much cutesy stuff
and out thinking. And here's the overplay to the overplay.
(04:23):
It was almost kind of like shoot Coach Clan from
water Boy. He fakes the fake, no, he pretends to fake.
And again, don't get me wrong, there is some cutesy
stuff that works, and it's fun when it does work,
like some of the play action little flips you know,
no look screens. I love those that behind the back
flip to Jalen right for a big run. Love it.
But I feel as though we lost the thread a
(04:43):
little bit with that stuff and probably committed to it
for too long before a hard pivot around week seven maybe,
although the full back dive on first and ten would
say it was still some of that, but I digress,
and that hard pivot was more of the bread and butter,
more downhill line up and just play football, which look
(05:06):
at the game on Sunday and short yardage. What was
successful our traditional running game? What was not successful? Raheem
Moster sliding over to an offset I position and taking
a straight dive into the B gap where you couldn't
cross face on a safety who came in as the
seed gap defender. Like that was cutesy and it didn't work,
And when they went back to their regular offense it
did work. And also a bigger emphasis on something I've
(05:30):
been preaching for the last two years at camp or
in games or otherwise, the concept of spreading the football around,
getting the football to the perimeter, to the checkdowns, further
incorporating the backs and tight ends in the passing game.
Like look back to last year. You could see it
all over the tape. Backs in the flat naked naked
and football means they're not cover you sickos, And we're
trying to push it into these contested windows down the field.
(05:52):
And I'm always like, hey, why didn't you just throw
the ball to Raheem right there? He was open for
an eight yard game. And that reminds me of this
whole argument about the distance of pass passes correlating with
how much you are impressed by the quarterback. And gosh ah,
there's just such a you never want to like demean people.
I don't seek to do that in my apologies if
(06:14):
this next line does that, But holy hell man, that's
like a twelve year old playing Madden approach to football.
The evaluation the game is far more esoteric than that.
A ninety percent completion rate throw like it's probably even
higher than that on the swing route into a space
with five or six yards of runway before the first
(06:34):
defender can even find that running back in space is
much better in terms of, you know, efficiency than to
throw twenty yards down the field with a defender all
over the receiver. Because hey, that's our vertical passing game,
our deep passing game. It just is. And I can't
believe it's even a sentence I have to say, but
I digress, Like I'm impressed by quarterback. They can put
it out there. I'll tell you in a second why
it's impressive that he does that stuff. But on the
(06:56):
other side of the struggles, I made this reference probably
too much in the show. It reminds me of Andy
dufran Shawshank He crawled through five hundred feet of you
know what and found the sunshine on the other side
or whatever. That's that's the other right line, but you
get it. And I feel like we have come out
the other side seeing the light here a little bit.
And I want to start with this sound from Taron
Johnson after the game on Sunday, he was asked about
(07:19):
the Dolphins run game and how much success we had
in that area.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
I just feel as though they have really great weapons
on the outside, so kind of like playing like kind
of them, letting them run the ball. If I want
to say, you know what I'm saying, just not giving
up explosive plays. I mean, we still gave up I
think too many, but just making sure we limit those
explosive plays.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
I think the reason for that chuckle in his voice
there was because you kind of don't want to like
cop to that fact. But it's a truly pick your
poison type of situation where you can't defend it all.
And that's why I talked about all damn summer, wasn't
it when I was talking about breaking records with points
and how this offense is going to be so efficient
we've seen the two weeks because defenses literally cannot defend
(08:02):
the entire field with the continuity you've developed on the
offensive line, with the explosive nature of your running game,
with the better depth at pass receiving options, with Odell
being part of the mix, now John hu Smith being
a massive part of the equation, and then Devon a
Chan's implementation of the passing game. That's basically three more
guys that you didn't have last year. And why I
was so bullish on all this now we get Malik
(08:22):
Washington going river, Kraikraft gonna come back here real soon.
I still think it's a point of contention in the
off season next year. But I digress. You have these
part portions, partians that make you indefensible across the entire field,
and teams have to pick what they feel is less dangerous.
And that's why I think Tyron Johnson just told you
right there. And when I hear that, I think about
how we have been able to get the run game
(08:43):
going and hit it for chunks and stay ahead of
the six the sticks and constantly be in these second
and two positions. But then I think, well, one way
they adjust off of that while keeping their shell. For instance,
you know Raheem Mostert's catch and run for a first
down on third and eleven on that opening field goal
drive when they had three defenders who were five and
(09:03):
then twelve and then fifteen yards beyond the sticks on
third and eleven. So you've shown teams that you can
hurt them where it hurts the most. Right the vertical
passing game, you have excelled in that area and you've
had a forty six hundred yard passer a nearly a
two thousand yard receiver and you went to work in
the passing game number one in the NFL last year.
That is prior to number one for any defense, because
(09:24):
the quickest way to lose games is to give up
long touchdowns. So we play light in the fit and
they're still getting their runs off. But if that's all
they have off of that, we are eventually one negative
play that puts them behind the sticks. We can be
more a little more aggressive and then get them off
the field because eventually they're going to make that mistake
because they do not have that passing game efficiency in
(09:47):
their back pocket that we saw the last two weeks.
So you can either force a field goal, hopefully a punt,
or even best case scenario, force them into a takeaway,
which we saw that too. But the part that was
missing when Tua wasn't out there and the reason I
think you I have seen this offense become the most
efficient scoring operation in the NFL in terms of points
per possession of the last two games and number of
(10:07):
drives that end in points the last two games. It's
because we've evolved to the next element of our offense
I believe, which is that thing I've been talking about
at training camp the last couple of years and finding
backs and tight ends and threatening areas of the field
vacated in the short areas to stay on the field
as an offense, to keep moving the chains and essentially
take the profit all the way down the field into
(10:29):
the end zone. It's how the Chiefs entire operation works.
Ever since teams decided I'm not gonna let Mahomes throw
for five thousand yards and forty eight touchdowns because well,
we can't beat them doing that. Maybe we can force
them to be a little bit less explosive, and because
the Chiefs don't really have the same number of guns
we do, you've seen them be less explosive and you've
seen them have to win games in crazy fashion late
(10:50):
twenty seventeen because they just don't have the guns on
the outside. But it's a better option than letting them,
you know, throw deep to Xavier Worthy and gets single
coverage five times a game, because Mahomes probably to hit
two of those. So it really is a pick your
poison proposition, and I think it's here to stay. And again,
it's such a bummer that we are two and six,
(11:11):
because I think if they were four and four, despite
all the missing parts on defense, I feel like this
is a team that could win the division and make
a deep run. If they were just four and four.
It's going to be difficult to overcome two and six.
But even then, I feel like there's still like this
slight glimmer of hope that if it was just even
one more win at three and five, I would feel
so much better about getting into the playoffs. Now. To
(11:33):
tell you why, I have this belief despite the attrition
on defense and a group that I don't think is
going to really be able to bounce back with the
current position in terms of edge and pass rushers. But
I've made no bones about what I personally believe is
the best way to be a sustained winner in this league.
It's offense. You know. I've done research segments on this
(11:53):
show opening the sustainability of great offense first, great defense,
even going back to the twenty twenty season. I looked
at top ten defenses compared to the top ten offenses
back in twenty twenty one, and how many consecutive years
those groups stayed in that level in that category, And
without having the exact metrics in front of me, it
was pretty clear that the offense was by far the
(12:14):
easier side of the football to maintain. And I mean,
look look at all the teams that make their deep runs.
Three of the teams in the final four last year,
we're outside the top ten and defense, like happens every year. Ultimately,
that's not the case. I'm trying to argue. What I'm
trying to argue is I think the Dolphins offense is
not going to be back to what we got used
to in twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three. I
(12:35):
think it's got high potential to be even better, to
be even more dangerous with how it can create more
areas of conflict for this defense. And like I went
through it the last couple of weeks, like the last
six weeks, being like what the hell happened to this offense?
That's why I was so beside myself with like where
the do we go from here? Because this isn't the
team that I know, But it has been the last
(12:58):
two weeks. Offensively, I know I ran this sound on
the show yesterday. Let's go ahead and go back to
McDaniel on the concept of the short passing game and
taking what's there to capitalize on overplay by the defense.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
Football in general is UH is about maximizing, you know,
specifically in our offense, is maximizing overplay. And if you're
going to overplay with depth, you have to execute and
in high percentage completions and yards after the catch that
aren't necessarily the cross court gigantic plays, but are the
(13:33):
throw at for four and you get seven.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Uh, and that, and that's kind.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
Of the art of that that particular style of defense
when they want to play that, when they want to
play the way they've proven to have success against our offense.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
And I thought.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
It was a a great display of Tua's evolution of
finding can poletions and utilizing his accuracy and challenging the
areas of the field that weren't overpopulated. And you know,
with a team that plays with a bunch of quarterback
(14:11):
vision that relies on turnovers, it's absolutely absolutely imperative to
be able to pass the pass the ball efficiently and
take advantage of the areas where they're avoiding. So I
think that's an art what you're saying, managing the game
(14:33):
against zone defenses, you usually can't. Against really good zone defenses,
you can't manage the game in the way of just
finding checkdowns, because if you go to the checkdown too
early in the play, they play deep and we'll sprint
forward and you'll get you'll get a two yard game.
So you have to play the position to get the
(14:56):
appropriately to get the ball to the eligibles at the
time of the play, and that is an art form
that many many quarterbacks find very difficult, particularly against the
Buffalo Bills. So I thought yesterday was a great example
of aggressively taking what the defense gives you, and you know,
(15:19):
he was able to do some have some success that
we haven't had in the past based upon his commitment
to his craft and being aggressive to all eligibles, based
upon overplay and.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
A real quick peek behind the curtain for you guys.
I caught wind of some of the micd up footage
where McDaniel's telling the guys, if you just run your
route to your spot, that's it. That's all you have
to do. We'll be just final score because Tua is
so dialed in he will get it to you. So
coach knew his quarterback was on a heater and playing
some of his best ball of his career and was
seeing it that well, well, that's how you score three
(15:56):
touchdown drives of seventy eighty one and ninety seven in
the toughest environment. We plan our entire schedule every single year.
All those drives when you were behind on the scoreboard,
and all those hillbillies from Western New York who pulled
out a second mortgage on their shanty just to be
in attendance could scream through their blue cheese breath for
tooth mouths. And to go further on what coach said,
(16:17):
first off, I got some great questions when I tweeted
the quote about some of the finer points of how
this all works. So when we throw a swing to
eight chan up the sideline, it's easy to look at
that and say, well that was an easy throw, no
credit for the quarterback. But what you're not seeing there
is get into the line scrimmage pre snap and deciphering. Okay,
I've got this look that I believe is Cover three.
(16:39):
I've got this route concept two man route combo to
the swing route side, and my one receiver is on
this vertical that I think should pull the Cover three
defender into his deep third responsibility and vacate the first
fifteen yards of the perimeter to that side of the field,
and now I just have to occupy this curl flat
defender who's zoned off to work the first route that
breaks inside, and if it's not there, he's gonna get
(17:01):
with and key the running back on that swing route.
But because we switch release, which is where the one
and two basically switch downfield after the snap, with the
two taking the vertical to lift that cover three cornerback
off the perimeter, and now that inside release gets that
curl flat defender running forward and towards the middle, or
rather towards the middle of the field, meaning the flat
(17:22):
is all alone. And as the quarterback, if I can
convince that curl flat defender, who again he's in zone,
so his eyes are playing me, he's not coming, you know,
he's not playing the receivers in the route, He's playing
the quarterback. And they have to respect my helmet position,
my feet, my shoulders. The way I can influence them.
Every part of the quarterback is a tell about where
the football might go. And since Tua is literally the
(17:44):
best in the league at showing the defense the ball
is going one way and then quicker than anybody else
in the world can do it is able to get
the ball back to the spot that he just opened up.
With his manipulation, he can force that curl flat defender
to totally vacate the flat and then rip the ball
to Chan on a dead sprint on the upfield shoulder
so he doesn't slow down and takes him right into
(18:04):
the round for the catch. It's a five yard air throw.
It gets knocked for that. That gives eight Chan fifteen
more yards of runway before he even gets touched. That
is winning football. So what one person sees as an
easy swing route, you gotta understand the finer points to
go into it. That's what's impressive about it. And if
it were that easy, that every quarterback would do it.
But I promise you it's not that easy. And Tua
(18:27):
took hundreds of thousands of reps as a youth with
his pops back on eva beach to be able to
develop that rare trait which I think you could compare
to when you're in the triple threat position in basketball. Right,
he can shoot, he can pass, he can dribble drive,
and Tua can sell you on the dribble drive attack
and within that same motion where he gets you to
take a deep drop step to get depth to cut
him off on the way to the basket. He can
(18:47):
then pull up and knock down the shot right in
your eyeball. Does that track? Let's go ahead and take
our first break right there. Come back on the other side,
and I'm gonna keep going, baby. Drivetime Podcast, your host
Travis Wingfield, brought to you by AutoNation, simply continuing that
first segment idea and talking about two one and comparing
(19:07):
him to a great dribble drive basketball guard with the
ability to hit jump shots in your face. I think
that Tua's game has grown that way with his ability
to you know, fake the glands and throw the rail
or throw the flat or you know, rip the vertical
whatever whatever he needs to do without having his feet set,
without you know, being able to quickly set his feet
(19:30):
to make that happen. And it just meshes so perfectly
with the skill players that we have, with the run
game that we have, with the system and the entire
operation as a whole. That's why I think this offense
is going to be an absolute problem down the stretch.
It's what I thought we were going to get back
in Week one, which again it sucks that I was
wrong about that early on. It does. I wish it
were different. I mean, imagine Tua stays healthy and hits
(19:52):
this stride back in Week three against the Seahawks and
the Titans and the Colts, and the defense was balling
at that time. I have no proble and saying confidently
we're five and three right now if that's the case,
which is probably disappointing based upon the Cardinals result and
not pulling that Buffalo game out late, but it is
what it is. Five and three, I would say this
team is about to win the AFC East still. Well
(20:13):
maybe not because you got split Buffalo, but I digress
on that once again. I just think that we're at
worse five and three, but that's not the reality. The
realities were two and six and now have to play
damn near perfect to get in. And that's where I
want to go back to this SoundBite from Coach when
he was asked on Monday about the idea of yesterday
on Tuesday being buyers or sellers of the deadline. Here's Coach,
and he gave you a pretty good answer here about
(20:34):
how this team believes in their program and kind of
affirms I guess what I'm saying as the team mouthpiece
right now. This is steeped in research and study and
x'es and o's, and you podcast listeners from the last
six weeks know that this is not I wasn't doing
this two weeks ago, so just bear with me. Here
here's coach on the team's internal review of their own operation.
Speaker 4 (20:56):
Chris great I both share their strong conviction in belief
in this, in this team and what it looks like
if you if you can find a way to get
over the hump, which we fully expect to. At the
same time, you know, Chris Ker's job is to to
(21:16):
field all all business and listen uh and think both
in the short and long term of of the best
interests of the franchise. And then he comes to me
with any and all business that's that's real, and we
discuss you know, from there, and he hasn't brought anything
(21:40):
that is that is real to me. But I know,
first and foremost we are absolutely convicted in uh this,
this this team being better than the win loss column
right now and believe that it can it can make
(22:01):
a turn.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
And that's what we're how we're approaching each and every
day I guess what I'm saying through all of my
rambling and research and points and football jargon, is that
I agree with coach. If you couldn't tell that by now,
I do think this team will finish out the rest
of the year strong, of course, provided to what is
under center, and give themselves a fighting chance in December
(22:22):
to make a historic type of run. Quite frankly, I
think that with our offense the way it is, if
it stays healthy and continues doing what I think they will,
which is have that same run game commitment, have the
same commitment to taking the profit, and also having the
explosive element mixed in like you saw in Buffalo, the
perfect triple threat attack. I think that in those games
against teams that don't have Matt Stafford or Jordan Love
(22:45):
or c. J. Stroud or Brock Purty, I think you're
gonna wipe the floor with those teams. I'm talking about
the Raiders, Patriots, Jets, and Browns, which is five games,
which gives you four more games with Matt Stafford, with
Jordan Love, with CJ. Shrowd and brock Purty. You have
to find a way to win three of those. It
starts on Monday, against the Rams. If you get that one,
then I feel confident that we can find two more
(23:05):
of the other three. But let's just let that happen
when it happens and hopefully make a historic run through
December to turn a two and six team into a
playoff team. But because because of this early hole, maybe
it's too late. And that bleeds into my next point
that you know, to recap. I think this team can
get hot, but even getting hot and going seven and
two might not be good enough. We'll see. I don't
(23:27):
think the seventh seed in the AFC is going to
have an imposing record like was the case last year,
where it felt like you had to have ten, maybe
even eleven wins just to get in the damn playoffs.
I mean, we clinched the playoffs in the Cowboys game
at eleven and four, and we would have made it
at ten and seven had we lost that game. But
at the time, it was like, well, if it lose
to the Ravens and the Bills and the Cowboys, maybe
they don't get in. But you get what I'm saying.
(23:48):
It's I think it's lighter this year, but of course
so much can change. And that's the second part of
this and something I've been thinking about, you know, looking
into the last couple of days. If they go seven
to two and miss out on a tie break, that
would be a disappointing season based upon preseason expectations. Maybe
not so much about the seven and two end, but
the six and the two and six start that made
(24:09):
it so they have to be one of the best
two or three teams down the stretch just to get
a road playoff game against a Baltimore or Buffalo or
whoever it might be. I think there's a bit of
a disconnect on this next part with regards to fans
and patient level, patience level, or the old trope of
no excuses just to accomplish X, Y and z like
that is logically in any walk of life. That's such
(24:32):
a flawed way of thinking of only being results based
and not being processed based because you are not allowing
yourself to see the full picture of things. And again,
I totally get the frustration, and maybe that's why you
feel that way in your sports life because the rest
of life does have gray areas. Maybe you want to
have it black and white in your sports life. Again,
feel free, but just please understand that it's logically flawed, right,
(24:53):
Because the biggest plea that I can make is one
that I think is steeped in logic and not emotion,
and that is this, you cannot let the results of
seasons past informed decisions in the present. Like I keep
thinking about this, if we convert that fourth down in
the twenty twenty two wild card game at Buffalo and
then we pop an explosive that gets us into the
(25:13):
end zone and we win that game and you dethrown
the Bills as a seventh seed, does the fact that
we gain fifty more yards in that one game. And
for argument's sake, let's say that we go to Kansas
City the next week and with Skyler Thompson get absolutely waxed,
which we definitely would have do those extra fifty yards
from the Skyler Thompson lead offense change the way you
feel in twenty twenty four going forward, because all the
(25:34):
discourse I see is playoff win or bust. That would
have been it, and you would have reset the drought.
But does that make you feel any different about twenty
twenty four team. Not for me, And that's my point
in all of this. You cannot let the playoff drought
impact the projection of decisions going forward, because it's simply
not relevant. It is for fans, it's not for anybody
in the NFL that works in this business and makes
(25:56):
decisions based on the information they have, which should not
incl the two thousand and seven season, or the twenty
twelve season, or the two thousand and six like, it
doesn't matter what happened back then. And that's why I've
always firmly disagreed with the principle of no excuses. Whether
they get hot and get in or they come up
a game or two short, maybe that's still just a
few games where we fail to close it out and
(26:17):
we go six and eleven, which is a horribly disappointing season.
I would agree with that, whether it's six wins, eight wins,
or ten wins. I don't think those final results dictated
ultimately who you are and where the program is going.
And to weave this back in, let's actually go ahead
and take our last breakreak there. I went back and
looked at some teams that have had really good runs,
really good programs for an extended period of time, and
(26:40):
pointed out a couple of years where things just didn't
go their way. We'll do that next Drivetime podcast, your
host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. So
to to do the weave and bring this back in,
I just wanted to look at some good football teams,
which I believe the Dolphins will be in the second
half of the season, that just had some bad bounces
(27:03):
or bad injury luck or whatever it was that made
their record a game or two short of what they
wanted to be, but then came back and were right
back to the team that we thought they could be
or had been in recent seasons. And the first one
I thought of was the team that we often get
compared to on the other coast in the other conference,
in the San Francisco forty nine ers. So Kyle Shanahan
gets there in twenty seventeen, they get Jimmy g on
(27:25):
Halloween and they're zero to eight, and then Jimmy takes
a week to get on boarded and starts the game
against the Giants and they win Bila. Then they have
a bye week, then they lose to a good Seahawks team,
but they win the final five games to finish out
six and ten. Now they go into twenty eighteen and
it's like, oh, there's the Shanahan that helped you know,
RG three go off, the Shanahan that helped the Browns
(27:45):
look like a football team that they weren't previously, the
Shanahan that took the Falcons of the Super Bowl. But
in twenty eighteen, they lose Jimmy G in Week two
after one on one start, they lose the next six games.
They go three and five the rest of the way,
finishing four and twelve with CJ. Beth, Nick Mullens and
a bunch of bad backup quarterback play, and this affords
them the second pick in the draft, which turns into
(28:06):
Nick Bosa. Then they go to the Super Bowl and
have a ten point fourth quarter lead, but mahomes right
Then in twenty twenty, they're supposed to go right back there,
but Jimmy G only plays six games and they lose
multiple other key parts, like Moster and Kittle playing eight
games each, Debo playing seven games, Bosa plays just two,
d Ford plays just one, Solomon Thomas plays two, Quiskey
(28:29):
Tart plays seven, Kawan Williams plays eight games. Like you
get it. It is just one of those years for
one of the most talented teams in the NFL, But
then they get healthy in twenty twenty one sort of.
They miss a bunch of guys early. They start off
three to five. Their offense looks like it's stuck in
the mud. They can't get much going. They have a
Sunday night game where they score like thirteen points against
the bad Broncos. Then they win seven of nine and
(28:51):
they have another ten point lead in the NFC Championship
game after winning two more playoff games, and then they
lose Jimmy g again in twenty twenty two, but Brock
Purty so thirteen wins NFC title game. He gets hurt
and they get blown out by the Eagles with Josh Johnson,
who is basically our Tyler Huntley. Then last year twelve
wins Super Bowl appearance. So you get the point right.
(29:12):
Twenty twenty and twenty eighteen were down years because of
injuries and a quarterback that couldn't stay on the field,
and the injuries at other key spots piling up. What
about the Ravens, who have been a fixture in the
AFC playoffs since like two thousand and eight, who have
essentially been a contender for the Super Bowl. The minute
Lamar Jackson arrives. He goes six and one as a rookie,
(29:34):
thirteen wins, an MVP in twenty nineteen, eleven wins in
twenty twenty, but then he gets hurt in twenty twenty
one and they win eight games. And he comes back
in twenty twenty four and twenty twenty two rather and
goes eight and four and gets hurt again. Now they
sneak in with a nine to eight mark. They get
beat in the wild card round, and suddenly questions about
Lamar Jackson's long term viability come up, and he's made
available per reports and to trade. Nothing comes of it.
(29:56):
He comes back, gets his contract, wins thirteen games, another
MVP award, and then right now they are six and three,
and quite frankly, I think this is the year they
get their breakthrough, and I think they beat Kansas City
in the playoffs and go to the super Bowl. That's conjecture.
Or the Eagles, who won a super Bowl in twenty
seventeen won nine games the next two years as Carson
Wentz is coming back off that ACL tear in total
(30:17):
de reconstruction, and then they bought them out all the
way at four eleven and one with their quarterback missing
four games. In twenty twenty, literally all of their top
five eligibles missed at least five games. Some of them
missed ten games that year. If you want a non
injury example. For example, the Saints went seven and nine
four times between twenty twelve and twenty sixteen. They have
(30:40):
a historic twenty seventeen draft class that plays a huge
role in winning eleven and thirteen games the next two
seasons to get them over this hump of a team
that was kind of one dimensional but you know, didn't
make the key plays and they counted or for whatever reason,
they went seven to nine four years out of five.
The entire point is that for every Chiefs or Patriots dynasty,
(31:01):
there are two or three more elite programs that don't
have the postseason success, granted, which is what we all want.
And I'm talking about Super Bowls, and we experienced that
in the nineties with Marino not being able to beat
the Buffalo Bills. Sometimes it just happens. But for every
Chiefs or Patriots dynasty, you have multiple programs that have
these amazing decade long runs. But within those programs, in
(31:21):
those decade long runs, there's like a year or two
where they got off the rails and they weren't very good,
and they bounced right back. And that's my entire point,
because it's football. It's not one hundred and sixty two
game baseball season or even an eighty two game basketball season.
Sometimes you just it just doesn't go your way. And
with some of the early season struggles, the injury to
the quarterback, playing four qbs by week four, incorporating a
(31:45):
new defensive system that was hoping to get stronger as
it went along, only to see injuries decimate the front
entirely by week ten, Like, I just think this is
one of those years for the Dolphins, and in otherwise
really good runs since twenty twenty and maybe I'm wrong.
If I'm right, I think you'll see this team go
on a run and win eight to nine, maybe even
ten games, and then we can reshuffle, reload, and get
(32:07):
back into twenty twenty five with an absolute vengeance, the
way the Eagles did in twenty twenty two, the way
the Niners did in twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three,
the way the Saints did in twenty seventeen, and the
way the Ravens did in twenty twenty three. Now, if
they revert back to old the week one, two, three
four style of offense, I will throw this podcast in
the trash and say I was wrong. But I don't
(32:29):
think I am. I think we finally hit that pinnacle
offensively where this team is gonna be an absolute nightmare
for opposing defenses in the next nine games of the season.
There you go, that's my point. I was gonna do
the week ten picks here on this show, but I
got long, so we'll go ahead and bump that to Friday.
I had Kyle Krabs on Dolphins HQ, which is going
to run the entire interview on the Friday podcast part
(32:51):
of it on the Thursday HQ episode. We got some
really good content there with Kyle. You don't want to
miss that. We'll have the game preview for you guys
tomorrow as well. In the meantime, you all please be
sure to subscribe, rate and review the podcast. Follow me
on social at Lincoln NFL. The team at Miami Dolphins
check out the fish Tank podcast with my guys Seth
and Juice. Check out the YouTube channel for Dolphins HQ,
(33:12):
Media availabilities and so much more, and last, but not least,
Miami Dolphins dot Com Until next time. Finn's Up, Carolina
and Cameron Daddy just come and hope
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