Drive Time with Travis WingfieldTwo on the move, gLing deep, speedless, peas doing Hell. From the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex.
This is Drivetime with Travis Wingfield.
He's got my advands in the playoffs. What is up Dolphins? And welcome to the Drive Time Podcast. I am your host, Travis Wingfield. And on today's show, he is here. He is glorious in the building. He is Odell Beckham Junior, and we are talking to him on the podcast. Here, really fun interview. We'll also go ahead and play some soundbites from his press conference with the South Florida Media. We'll talk about playing with Tua joined the Miami Dolphins, how he fits in this Miami offense, and so much more, plus some additional schedule notes. And I'm gonna tell you about playing against the best teams in the NFL at home versus on the road, and why last year's Dolphins is not a good example of what you can expect going forward. All of that and more from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is.
The Draft Time Podcast.
Maggie Daffy.
First, let's cueue up. First here with my interview with the great Odell Beckham Junior?
What is up?
Dolphins?
Welcome back into the Draft Time podcast. My new guest today here is new Dolphins wide receiver Odell Beckham Junior.
Odell Welcome in man, Yes, I appreciate.
So.
First off, the suit looks great. I feel a little bit underdressed being next year right here.
Yeah, well just a little little blewis suit. The Miami Vice had to go all white, right yehead?
I think I think Jayleen Ramsey had the exact same Miami Vice white get up on his first day back in Miami.
Yeah, I'm upset, you know what I mean? Then I feel like I look like him, and I always want to look a little.
Bit, if that makes sense. This is from the middle aged dad catalog that I have here. If you want to get into some of that, but I don't think you do. Yeah, you're getting there, getting there. Let's go ahead and start here with football though the Dolphins.
Why why, Miami? Why do you want to come down here and enjoy up his crew?
It honestly was God. When you follow him that, I feel like no mistakes can really happen. And this year it just it was the opportunity that kept presenting itself. It never left my mind, my thoughts or anything like that. And you know, I'm super excited about the opportunity. You know, I got brothers here, like I said, Jalen Dug, a couple of other guys on the team, and coach Mike kind of sold me as far as when we were speaking football, when you were speaking life and he was speaking my career, it seemed like, you know, this is absolutely the right.
Place to be.
I know, no two offenses in the NFL are the same, but you had a lot of success in a similar offense from Sean mcvagh with the Rams in twenty twenty one. At least there's some conceptual crossover there between him and Mike McDaniel. Right, How excited you to play for Mike McDaniel on this Dolphins offense?
Very Again, like I said, I think it was a major of the decision sitting in the meetings in here, in some of the verbiage and the plays and all that you could definitely LA was my favorite place that I had been because of everything that I had been through, and it reminded me how much I loved football, And.
That's kind of what this is here. This is, you know, strictly football.
Obviously there's fun and all that, but the idea of what that offense is and just being able to hear that and see the concepts and do all that.
It's what got me most intrigued about coming here.
When you think about an eleven personnel package that has Tyreek, Waddell and yourself and you guys can all kind of play different positions, move across the formation. I'm curious, how do you think that you guys having three game breakers who can line up anywhere.
How does that challenge a defense? In your mind?
I think it's just dangerous. You know, It's like you got those two guys that everybody's gonna worry about, and then you know, maybe one day everybody forgets about me. I would absolutely love that. I'm catching passes wide open and turning up and going crazy, and then you know, you do that and it's like, all right, we got to focus on that a little bit. And I mean, you can't forget about I mean, no, you won't, but you definitely can't forget about ten and seventeen. They're you know, liable to score anytime they touched the ball, and not even a minut the whole running backer, you know what I mean.
Like, it's just I've really seen an actual opportunity.
When I came here to be around a bunch of playmakers, bull gets spread around. It's just it seems like it'll be something very hard to stop. And I think one thing about coach. I always you know the old quote they say, offense wins games, defense wins championships.
I think Coach takes.
It semi personal to to change that statement and be like, you're gonna have to outscore us, and our defense is gonna get stops, but you're gonna have to outscore us.
And you know, it's always fun as an offensive player to be in a high powered offense.
Thirty points per game last year, hoping to get even more this year with you in the fold there and speaking of that, the quarterback that was behind all that to a tongue, Bai Lowa posting video game stats the last couple of years here in Miami, and when I watch a lot of your big plays from your career, it's a lot of similarities between what Reagan Waball have done with their big plays. You know, go ball slams, taken run after the catch, a lot of similarity there. How excited are you gout playing with two and how he can kind of get the most out of your game.
Absolutely again, you know, Coach Mike and I were talking about that and he was he was just telling me all about too, because you know, I've seen the numbers and all that, but when you don't really get to watch the film and see what they're doing, because when you're in the season, you're watching out the team's defense, so you don't it's not much time for you to tap in. But we sat up there and watched film for an hour and a half and we were just talking about, you know, the plays in my career and how you're catching it run away and I'm watching all the plays, you know, Water and Tyreeq, and it's it's a lot of everything that's all timing, you know, like real football, detailed stuff that happens catching the ball and you know you're catching it out of your break, that's when you have the most separation you catch it. Now, I'm catching it and I got two yards to run away, And you know, they were just telling me how accurate he is, how good of a ball he throws. You know, all of those things so I'm super excited about it. I met him today, great person. Seems like his energy is just infectious. Maybe we're supposed to catch around and golf or get something to eat. So I'm just excited about, you know, the opportunity to get to know him and be a part of his journey as well.
Pretty good on the golf course, I have to ask him. I'm obsessed with the game myself.
You know, I was all right, and then the ACL and then you have to rebuild a second so you know, I've had the bug, but then I've been I've.
Been stopped in my process.
But I can swing them, you know, I just need to, you know, have some more patience.
Yeah.
Well, you're in a great place for a tons of great courses down here, as I'm sure you will know. I want to ask you about the McDaniel meanting, because you talk about going up there and watching film with him. Is that kind of an uncommon visit compared to what you've done in the past.
Yeah, for sure, just for him to be able to talk about football and to show me to like open my eyes as to.
Why he wanted me here, how you want to use me.
It was excited you know, it was exciting. It was exciting to see myself being able to see what's for coming.
So that's kind of really how it all happened.
I really enjoyed to hear you talk about kind of the evolution of your not just your football career, but you as a man over the course of a decade plus. The NFL and the Dolphins drafted a couple of rookie receivers this year, so I was curious to ask you, as you look at the way you've evolved as a man and a leader, just what the NFL has taught you about your leadership and paying it forward to the guys that come after you.
Yeah, you know, for me, I kind of was forced to become the leader at a very very young age.
You know, I was a rookie.
The catch happens next thing, you know, you know, I was I was only able to have Victor Cruz for I think two years or so or something like that, or maybe a little bit more than that, but I didn't really have much of the.
Role model that was in a receiver room.
So just being able to give what I've learned my experience is, you know, never teaching them anything but giving them your experiences so they can learn on their own. I know my role is important in that part, and now that I've been in that place, it's kind of something that I look forward to.
I'm sure some of those guys grew up watching you and tyreken Wet was probably pretty surreal for those guys to come into a room with.
Sometimes they you know, they killed me with that one now I used to watch.
Yeah, that hurts a little bit.
Speaking of some of your past accomplishments, you were a key part of a championship team just a couple.
Of years ago.
I'm curious when you think about that and just being again in the league for so long, what do you think this team has in terms of their DNA for a championship contender.
You know, when you look at it, there was two games away from first place last year before going up to Baltimore. You know, if that game goes a different way than you know, Dolphins get a first round by yea. The games are at home. You don't travel to KC in a record freezing you know game, it's just a different thing. So obviously I think it was first and offense and scoring and the defense is what it is, and it just it just seems like this team is is complete and they're in a place where they are ready to compete for a championship, you know, So I'm just excited to be a part of that.
Also heard you talk a little bit about coming back off of the ACL after the Super Bowl when you obviously had that defictiting injury and you don't play in twenty twenty two. Then last year is your first time back off the injury playing, I have to imagine a full offseason of being full go. Is that kind of a breath of fresh air for you?
It definitely is.
And you know, even even last season after you know, you're toured, you trained, and you got to the season and it was just it was just really hard. And then on top of that, I wasn't really playing, so you're like, you're in and out. It's hard for you know, a receiver to get a flow. It's like a three point shooter specialist. You know, if you don't get to put up you know, two or three threes in a game, you know, he's not he's not.
What he is. So it wasn't the easiest situation for me there.
But I feel like obviously I handled that well, and just now being able to be in a place where you're free and just be able to train.
I'm excited about how my body feels. I don't really feel.
Like I'm in pain or anything at all right now, so I'm excited about that.
Well.
Like I said, Man, I really enjoyed watching your film, even even last year with Riems. I thought it was a lot of stuff on there that's going to translate to the Dolphins, and a couple of those plays put you in the end zone where you spike the football and you do your dancing. So I think you are one of the best in the league at that. But the Dolphins last year, in my opinion, set the standard for celebrations. What do you think about when you consider a collaboration of Dolphins twenty twenty three celebrations and what Odell Beckham brings to the end zone?
You know, like I said, like you said, I've been doing it since my first touchdown. It's just kind of like, you know, I love dancing. I love having fun. It was never to like gain more attention or this that. It was what is in my heart, you know what I mean to cut up to have fun, Like that's just where we're from like New Orleans. We just we just kind of like that. We're just you know, loose energy, high energy people. But seeing the celebrations and even you know, being on hard knocks and listening to them talk about it, you get excited about that because you think about all the hard work and preparations that you put into it just to score. In the NFL, I don't think people actually comprehend that concept.
You know. It's like, oh, yeah, you're supposed to score touchdowns, but it's.
Like no, every every eleven people have to do the right job just for the opportunity for a receiver to catch up pass or running back to run, score whatever. It is so excited to be able to add some ideas to the celebration station.
You know, I know that they've been holding it down and it's just an exciting opportunity.
Sounds like you really are all about being who you are, being yourself. You're gonna fit in really well here with with this coach and this team. Magnet said what they're all about here in South FLORTHA.
So welcome in.
Man Odell Beckham, junior new Dolphins wide receiver, Thanks Agiver for joining us.
Man appreciate it. Appreciate I mean, how good was that.
Let's go ahead and pick it back up here with OBJ and his introduction press conference with the Miami Dolphins, and we kick it off here with a question for him about head coach Mike McDaniel, what you think his offense can do. And yes, we did cover this briefly in my interview with Odell, but come, let's go ahead and play the audio at the press conference and him talking about Mike McDaniel and that pre signing film session with the head ball.
Coach alive just watching the film just seeing what it is, it kind of reminds me of, uh, well, a place where I had a lot of success. And as far as the giants and timing and all of those things that he talks about and preaches, it's just, you know, he was speaking football. We sat down for hours and we was just talking football, and it just it just got me excited thinking about it. You know, he pulled up my film compared to what you know they're doing here and just kind of you know, married the things and I've seen an opportunity and I think Tom will till in the end this is.
The right decision.
I say it all the time on the show, and that's probably a bit of the ego inflation that happens on the podcast here. But I mean, did I not talk about exactly that on the podcast just last week talking about the third down opportunities that I felt like Miami missed on and had a vacancy in terms of someone who could beat certain types of coverage and exploit the space created by both Tyreek Hill and Jalen Waddle. I just feel like there's nothing better than some vindication from the PhD level experts who do this stuff. When you're an amateur ding dong like myself trying to figure out what's going on the football field. When you get that confirmation, it feels pretty good. Let's go ahead and move next here to probably my favorite answer from Odell Beckham during his press conference with the media, because he touched on this concept of being the number one receiver or the number of targets you get. And we've heard in the past about you know, will he be happy with Baker Mayfield and Jarvis Landry and David Najoku and all the weapons of the Cleveland Browns have.
That's just not where he is.
And you can get that from his interview with me, and you can get it from his press conference here with the media. Let's go ahead and hear him talk about the competition in the receiver room and just the balance of having so many stars within that room.
I think you just all push each other, you know.
And for me at this place in my life and my career, you know, I haven't been the number one in a minute. You could go look at targets, you can go look at anything. It's not really that's not really where I've been at. So just understanding your role and how can you be the very best at that role, maximize those opportunities, don't look for more or less, like just stay within that you know, present moment, and I think you'll find a way to succeed.
We finish up here with the question that I think is on everyone's mind, and it goes back to the third down concept and the slot idea.
And he hasn't played a ton in the slot.
He has, but I just think that this perspective, once again understanding it's a different game from that position. Let's go ahead and hear from Odell Beckham on his idea of playing in the slot with both Reek and Waddle on the perimeter.
But again remember.
Both Reek and Wadle can play inside too, and that's the real value of Odell Beckham. It's easier to find slot guys, it's not so easy to find guys that can beat one on one coverage on the perimeter and get vertical. That's what Odell Beckham does, and that alone frees up in League Washington to do what he does best in the slot. Let's go ahead and hear from Odell Beckham. I'm playing multiple positions, but in particular the slot.
I don't mind getting in there.
I don't feel like I've actually had an opportunity to play in the slot much, and it's just such a different it's a different game in there. I've been very much x by yourself, clouded, you know, decoy ish over there. And I think that you know, you got Jalen and Tyree, who guys are going to focus on so much that there's room for, you know, opportunity. Like I said, when I really sat down and watched the film and I understood what Coach was talking about, I think I just along with you know himself, I think I see something that you know, other people aren't seeing. At the moment, and just like always, time will te.
So there you go.
Odell Beckham content in the books, we probably won't talk about him much until OTA's come up we get a chance to watch him on the football field, because we have given you a lot about Odell Beckham. I do believe it's a critical, critical signing to a team that needed some depth at that position, and just an overall great fit for the Dolphins in that spot. So very fired up. Let's go ahead and take our first break right there. Come back on the other side and do some more NFL schedule notes. That's next Draft Time podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. I want to pivot back here to the NFL schedule that came out on Wednesday night. I have some additional notes about the Miami Dolphins, but also about the rest of the NFL and the Wednesday podcas has comes out right at eight o'clock, and so I had the show preloaded and had a chance to rattle off the Dolphins breakdown for you guys right at eight o'clock. But now I've had a chance to digest some content and provide further interesting notes about the rest of the league, how it impacts the Dolphins games. And I also want to take a look at the prime time schedule because that's a very important thing for someone that works in the NFL. So the Dolphins have the second most mileage traveled on their schedule, and they're the only team among the top five without an international trip. So MIMMI making two trucks of the West coast YEP, that'll do it. And I already knew it's because of the Seattle JOHNT literally the longest flight in the continental US. It will travel just a hair under twenty six thousand miles and crossed sixteen time zones of travel, I believe is the correct way to phrase that, because like in Seattle, you go three time zones away, travel back three more time zones. That's six, and then the LA trip gives you six more, so that's twelve. And then you have one each way for the Houston and Green Bay games. So sixteen time zones traveled. Really it's not that bad. It's basically two long flights and then the rest the schedule is pretty manageable from a short flight perspective. The Chargers, for what it's worth, have thirty six time zones covered eight time zones each way just to get to England for their international contest. Also Warren Sharp. You know, I know there's probably lots of opinions on Warren Sharp's content, but I think that this is where he really shines as the go to schedule breaker downer of schedule breakdowns. He produced some interesting nuggets on the fins. He did a breakdown of the easiest and toughest schedules based upon projected win totals, and that formula is concocted as a game handicaper right from how Vegas does it. I know there's some interesting dynamics there about promoting Vegas and betting games and the league where it's not allowed for the employees, but I mean, it's the best way to It's the best way to grasp the most accurate projections you can get because we can go listen to Mike Greenberg's projections. He's gonna have the Jets at fourteen and three and the Dolphins at three and fourteen.
So it's like, do you trust that?
No, you don't, So you go to a guy that actually has math based models, and not just Warren Sharp, but just Vegas in general, and we have an entire segment coming out talking about win totals projected over unders and how the Dolphins' schedule plays out that way in their home schedule versus their road schedule. That's in the third second. Let's go ahead, though, and talk about Warren Sharp here, who has the Dolphins at nine point nine wins. I know you can't have fractions of wins, but that's how the math works out in this instance. So he says the Dolphins have the second easiest schedule in terms of opponent projected win total from weeks one through twelve, but the second most difficult schedule from week thirteen through eighteen. Again not a math major, but six weeks of the second toughest schedule versus twelve weeks of the second easiest schedule. It's a two to one balance, right. It's like, if we're gonna be on the idea of picking games, if someone gave you two to one odds on picking a straight up winner in a game, you like those odds. And speaking of balance, on balance, it is actually the fifth easiest schedule in the National Football League. More on that in just a moment, and look, just a disclaimer, these are hardly an end all, be all thing, but there's also just little advantages and disadvantages baked into a schedule. I talked about this in the Dolphins the Wednesday schedule recap, playing the first five teams against first five games against teams that have brand new defensive coordinators, and how difficult it is, in my opinion to get ready for the Dolphins offense, and when you have a new DC it makes it just a little bit more difficult, like stuff like that. But now we have the entire schedule, so I can tell you about some potential look ahead games or sandwich games or trap games, all that fun stuff. So the first one I have is that before the Week nine game against Buffalo, they are in Seattle before that game, and it just starts the week a little bit late when you have to travel all the way back, like they won't be getting home from Seattle for a four to twenty five kickoff on Sunday. Game gets over at seven thirty, give or take. You take a couple hours to get onto the bus onto the plane. Let's say you leave by ten o'clock at night Pacific time that is, or sorry, East Coast time.
You get back at.
Three am, right four am, and then your sleep is interrupted, your Monday is impacted. So it's the same thing as pointing out a short week playing from that Sunday night football window. Like, it's kind of the same idea. It just starts your week a little bit later, and every single hour in the NFL is counted in terms of advantages in preparations. That's how they view it. That's how I'm gonna go ahead and tell you guys about it. There's a few more of these, Like Seattle is in New England the week before they play us, so coming back across the country the other direction has that same impact. New England is at San Francisco before we play them up in Foxboro, so they have that long travel back before our game, and the Packers play the Niners before us on a short week. And I thought that was very interesting because you can go back last year to teams that collapsed, whether it was Jacksonville or the Eagles, after they played the Niners, their season fell apart. And that's kind of a trend almost for teams, because teams that played the Niners last year went five to twelve the following week, and that's a trend that actually extends a couple of years under Kyle Shanahan. Something about their physicality and their play style. To me, I think it's a defensive thing with their one gap upfield just kind of beat you up for sixty minutes and being so good in all three levels and firing off the football. It's kind of like playing us in a way. But they have a better defense than we do obviously, But I suppose you know, that makes the bounce back a little bit tougher playing a team like that, and so maybe something of an equalizer for us being on the road and losing those crucial hours in the air on a short week going up to Green Bay. Just something to think about there. And the Cardinals are off a short week coming into the game against US. They play on Monday Night Football, the game before they see us for a cross country trip. No less, that's a brutal a brutal look for those guys. And this one was interesting to me as well. It's more of a handicapping thing, I think when you consider, you know, looking ahead or sleepwalking or whatever. But we play two games where we're sitting, we are sandwiched between two divisional games for that opponent. So the Indianapolis game they play at the Titans and at the Texans before and after they play the Dolphins, which can sometimes be like, Okay, those are the more important games and divisions, maybe we sleep walk a little bit. I don't think it really exists for the Dolphins because we are one of the best teams in the NFL and no one's gonna take us.
Lightly.
Cleveland late in the year is book, and then by games at Sincy and at Baltimore. So those are two not so interesting topics spot I thought they were myself. The Raiders and the Texans are both off of a bye before they play us. We had zero teams off by last year, two this year, and the Niners have a mini buy before they come to us. They are on Thursday Night Football, the week before they make the trek across the country to Miami. I also put this note in here. The Jets are in primetime and six of the first eleven games of the season, and that is not just the most in the league, not just tied for the most in the NFL this whole year. That's the most ever through the first eleven weeks of a schedule. And the Jets are my second favorite team to watch because I love watching them lose on national TV no less, and they're gonna get to do that for us a lot this year. So watching the Jets get be always fun. You're gonna get and lots of opportunities to do that. And then my last general thought here is just again the primetime slate. Since I'm only watching the Dolphins when they are on. So the Dolphins play at one o'clock on Sunday, I miss half the damn games that happened that week. Probably more than that because I also miss the four o'clock games because I'm doing postgame radio and the podcast for you guys, right, what's my job. So I usually am working till about eight o'clock at night on the one o'clock kickoffs, and so that primetime slate, you know, once the kids get to bed and I get some dinner in me, it's super valuable because it's a long workday and then it's like, all right, I finally get a relax and do my favorite thing in the world and just watch some football and it's not work. And I know for a lot of you it's probably the same, whether you're going to the games here and you're driving home, you know, a couple hours to wherever you're from, or you're just locked in and only watching the Fins, And if you're like me, I think many of you are. The best games to watch Besides Dolphins games are the ones that have playoff implications within the AFC. I love love to root again teams that positively impact US. I don't think I cheered more last year than when the Broncos missed that field goal that Bill's had too many men in the field and the Broncos bring the field goal team back out and put it through the uprights, and a huge upset in a game that was so unexpected for Buffalo to lose. That was probably my favorite game to watch of the entire year, outside of some of the fun Dolphins games obviously, So I wanted to go ahead and just talk about the primetime schedule because it's super valuable to me. So right off the bat, the Baltimore KC opener is fantastic, obviously, but the rest of the way you get some NFC matchups in there, but we do get. Of the six primetime teams, one is an AFC team and it's the Monday night game Jets and Niners. How much better of a Week one can you get than beaten Jacksonville at home? And then on Monday night, you come home from work and you get to watch the Jets lose embarrassingly to a way better football team than in the San Francisco Fort Nits. I cannot wait to watch that with a one to zero record in our back pocket, watching the Jets lose on mon than at football once again for or they won last year, but they lost their quarterbacks.
I was like a perfect fotball game last year. But I digress.
Week two, it's US and then two more NFC games boo. Week three, the Jets and Patriots are in primetime. I'll be pulling for the Patriots in that game because I assume they're going to be zero to two against a one to one Jets team. Always fund the root against the Jets, Like I said, then we get the Chiefs and Falcons. Anytime you get an AFC team versus an NFC team, especially one that you know is gonna be in contention to compete for you for seating down the stretch, run root against the Chiefs. There we get Jacksonville and Buffalo is the It's one of the Monday night. It's a Monday na'll doubleheader. I'll be watching that one over Washington vers Cincinnati, but go Jaguars, and week three over the Buffalo Bills. In Week four, we get Buffalo and Baltimore on Sunday Night football. What a gem of a game that is. And you're watching football all day that Sunday ahead of a Monday night game for the Dolphins. We play Kings of the Titans in week four, but on Sunday Night Buffalo and Baltimore. Man, I don't think it's gonna happen, but hopefully we can knock off Buffalo in week two.
I think that will happen. But then if they can lose to.
Jacksonville in Week three and then get knocked off by Baltimore in week four, we could be looking at a one to three Bills team after the first four games if it goes that way. Hopefully in Week five it's NFC NFC, and then the Chiefs play the Saints on Monday Night, So go Saints, but I mean come on, and then oh, Sunday night's actually Dallas and Pittsburgh, so go Cowboys.
In that one.
Week six we have an NFC game and then the Bengals and Giants, and then the Jets and Bills is the Monday night game that week, so another time where you get a chance to root against two teams at once, maybe get the same exact result from last year. That'd be great, but I don't know. Week seven Denver and New Orleans is the Peyton Bowl obviously, but like two snooze fest of a team on Thursday night football, So thanks for that one, NFL. Then we get the Jets and Steelers again, which is another great one to watch if you're a Dolphins fan. And then Baltimore and Tampa and the Chargers and Cardinals are the Monday night doubleheader there, so another AFC vers NFC split. Love those games. It tells you exactly who to root for if you're a Dolphins fan. In Week eight NFC NFC, and then Giants and Steelers, that's a terrible primetime slate. Week nine, Houston and the Jets is the Thursday game, and again love it. I have to love that one. Houston's getting some serious pop here, but I just they look good on paper, but we'll see. I always feel like the darling who finished the year strong that wasn't that good last year but finished strong with a good quarterback like Thoseth. Teams always get propped up, like look at the Jacksonville jaguarsprints, as with Trevor Lawrence, Like it's never really been that good, right, I think Trout's a lot better, But I digress. Then you get Jacksonville and Philly, Tampa Bay and Kansas City, another AFC versus NFC team that you know who to root for. In Week ten, Cincinnati and Baltimore. Put them on primetime every time they play. That's a great game. A great matchup usually has a big impact on the playoff race in AFC. You'll love to see that. Then Detroit and Houston and the Dolphins and Rams on Monday Night football. In week eleven, Washington Philly on Thursday Night boo. But then the Colts and Jets again. The Jets are all over this damn schedule. Houston and Dallas on Monday Night football, So go Cowboys there. In week twelve, Pittsburgh Cleveland Thursday Night tilt. That's usually gonna have playoff implications. Most likely the Sunday game is a early sun night game is an NFC matchup, and then the Monday night game is Baltimore and the Chargers, the hardbabble. Probably go Chargers there. I think they'll be out of playoff contention early in the Baltimore wins. Is gonna be right there again like they always are. Week thirteen is the Thanksgiving game with US on primetime with obviously the earlier Thanksgiving games two, and then San Francisco Buffalo is a Sunday night game, so you get to watch a whole day of Sunday football, hopefully coming off of Dolphins win. And then Root against the Bills with a very good opponent coming into their house. And then Cleveland Denver on Monday Night. I guess go Broncos, but I think both those teams aren't gonna be good this year, so who cares? Week fourteen NFC, and then the Chargers and Chiefs on Sunday Night football is always a fun matchup. Probably go Chargers there, like what I just talked about. And then Bengals and Cowboys Monday Night again AFC vers NFC, Go Cowboys. Week fifteen NFC game, NFC game, NFC game, and then Atlanta Las Vegas. Oh, woof, that's rough, and then think it's good. I love these new Saturday slates that they've been rolling out the last couple of years. In Week sixteen and seventeen, so Cleveland Cincinnati's Thursday night fantastic. I love that matchup Houston k C on Saturday, Baltimore and Pittsburgh on Saturday boom AFC afc AFC, and I think I think four of those teams will be in playoff contention. So that's a really fun slate to watch. And then Cowboys and Bucks and Packers and Saints two NFC games who cares? And then Week seventeen Casey and Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh is like gonna get some love this year, but they they're gonna stink.
Dude.
It's Russell Wilson. He's been terrible for a couple of years.
And Justin Fields can't see the field, so like cool that he has a lot of talent, but if you can't see the field, you can't play quarterback. Baltimore and Houston's another Saturday game there. You have to love that one. Then we get an NFC game, and then we are on Sunday Night Football, and then another NFC game on Monday Night Football. So plenty of fun primetime slates to look at remember last year, like there were some some slates where it was like all these AFC games that impacted Miami. I was like, this is just heaven, dude. So I think it's fun to talk about that. Maybe you don't feel that same way. I'm sorry if you don't, but we'll go ahead and get out of the segment now and finish up with our third and final segment here in this edition of the Draft Time Podcast, I have a research project I did looking at playing good teams on the road versus at home. That's next the Draft Time Podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. I wanted to conclude with something I've actually been sitting on for a little bit now, a segment that I brainstormed and researched quite a while ago, but today feels like the ideal time to drop it. With a schedule coming out earlier this week and last year, this whole project, the Dolphins' opponent's record saw a very, very stark contrast when separating it into home and road. The Dolphins went seven and two at home against teams that finished with a thirty or rather a three to ninety three win percentage. They went four and four on the road against teams with a four seventy eight win percentage, And I do think it's naive to say we were the same team on the road because we had more pre snap penalties, we scored fewer points per game. And your eyes, eyeballs were a good thing I have in the sport, right, they can just flat out tell you it was not the same elite efficient offense in those road games, and the entire operation just looked a little bit more stagnant, and that had big ramifications in terms of the results you saw in those scores. And we've kind of become used to these high powered offensive attacks that I think that in comparison these road games where they score twenty points or seventeen points or you know, fourteen points, nineteen points, not great numbers, but there are still more offensive production in those games in terms of yards and scoring opportunities than what we've seen from many, many Dolphins offenses in the past.
Right.
But I wanted to go back and look, you know, well, going back to twenty twenty two, because the last couple of seasons, you know, the home and road splits were kind of stark.
But if you look at the twenty twenty two road slate.
The Dolphins did score forty two in Baltimore, thirty one in Detroit, thirty five in Chicago, and twenty nine in Buffalo, albeit in a losing effort, which actually kind of supports my whole argument here that the narrative, this narrative based around Miami's inability to compete on the road, is a farce that was perpetuated by a very difficult road schedule balanced across or balanced against I should say, a softer home schedule in twenty twenty three, And so I wanted to look at how other teams fared in this department to compare it, because we can talk about the Dolphins results and numbers and all this stuff, but it's never really that valuable unless you have the comparisons to put it up against. So first I think to really kill the narrative, we must first identify exactly what it is. And it's good teams on the road, right, So when we beat Detroit and Chicago in twenty twenty two, they were one and six and two and six, respectively. Buffalo was a good team later on in the year, but we didn't win that game, and Baltimore was a good team too, But I also think September games can be a little bit surprising even by NFL standards, and the Ravens, quite frankly, their defense got it figured out pretty much after that game and going forward, and they were banged up, and it was early and cramping and tyreek like. It just was a lot in that game for a normally very good Ravens defense. So the four road losses last year came to teams that were at the time of those games two and one, five and one, six and two, and twelve and three. A combined twenty five and seven, and I mean twenty five and seven is that would be the one seed over a two year span, right, thirty two games. It's the old sixteen game schedule, But that's an average of twelve and a half wins per year. That's like a one seed most years, or maybe a two seed at worse an accumulative two year schedule. So we lost games to the best team in the NFL in a certain sense, right, Two of those games were not competitive. Two of those games were decided in the fourth quarter, one on the final drive of the game. I'd like to believe another year of continuity, another year of improving, another year of just learning from your losses and taking those lumps and growing from those losses, would help us narrow the gap in those games to get to two close ones that you win and make the two runaway games competitive that maybe you come up short and maybe you get one of them. Because if you're even just two and two in those games, and you beat Casey and Philly last year and then you lose narrowly to Baltimore and Buffalo on the road, the entire perception completely flips. First, well, you're now a thirteen and four team, which that you can't argue against that, But nobody would have this. They can't win a game in January and Baltimore take because they if they would have kept that same pace, they would have had home games in the playoffs, right and so, And not just that, But if I'm going to do this whole research product I'm talking about right now, basically tells you that good teams against good teams on the road don't even win half the game. So we'll get to that here in just one second. But that's why I look at this twenty twenty four schedule as a great chance to really reshape this narrative, if you go off projected win totals of the Dolphins schedule, here's what bet MGM has for their over under totals. And we'll say it again here in a minute, but there's a reason that Vegas has all those bright lights, right. So the Jacksonville Jaguars eight and a half is their projected win total. Buffalo ten and a half the most on the schedule that game at home, of course, on the road in Seattle seven and a half wins for them, the titan six and a half, Patriots six and a half, The Colts are projected at eight and a half wins, the Cardinals also six and a half, back to Buffalo ten and a half.
Again, the Rams eight and a half.
Then you get the Raiders at six and a half, Patriots again five and a half, Packers nine and a half, Jets and Texans are both nine and a half, And I lied. The Niners are actually the highest win total at eleven point five in Week sixteen, and then the Browns are eight and a half and the Jets, once again on the road, at nine and a half. Did you know the cumulative projected opponent win total of one hundred and fifty two wins, and that's using the half's there is the fifth lowest or tied for the fifth lowest in the National Football League. No big deal, just one of the easiest schedules in the entire NFL. Based upon Vegas's projections. If you remove team's divisional games, ours would actually be tied for the easiest schedule in the NFL. And yes, some of these will be wrong, but I promise you nothing will be as accurate as a bookmaker, because once again, there's a reason that Vegas has all those chandeliers. And I think we can provide context by looking at other teams, even the best teams, and how they fared on the road against the other top tier teams. So what I did was I went back the last couple of years and looked at teams that won double digit games and looked at their games on the road against other teams who also won double digit games. We track in that teams that won ten or more games on the road against opposition that also won ten plus games. And here's twenty twenty threes less. Buffalo was two and one in those games. The Ravens were one and one. The Browns were two and one and the Steelers went oh to three. I removed the Week eighteen Baltimore game because they rested everybody in that game, and that to me was not the thirteen win Ravens that they beat. The Texans went oh to one. The Chiefs didn't play a game on the road against a ten win team last year. Oh and oh, the Eagles went two to one, Cowboys went oh to four. My heamy Dolphins did. The Lions went one and two, the Niners went two and one, and the Rams went oh to two. And I also moved their way Week eighteen game because it was Blaine Gabbert versus I don't even remember who was the quarterback for the Rams in that game, Stenson Bennett. I don't, I literally don't remember. But nobody won more than two games, and in total they went ten to seventeen. That is a three to seventy win percentage. The takeaway here for me actually became that we had four of those games, tied for the most of the NFL with Dallas, who was also zero to four. The Chiefs did not have a single one. But even though the results are a little less than what I was thinking, I thought the record would be worse than that. I mean, these are the best teams in the NFL, right and they went to win went on to win thirty seven percent of these games. That's not good. Now we went over and had four cracks added, obviously, and that must get better. Obviously, that has to get better. But it's hard to win in the NFL. It's hard to beat the best teams in the NFL. It's the hardest to win in the NFL when you play the best teams on the road. And in twenty twenty four, off of the projected win totals, we have four road games against teams projected to win better than nine games. We have one against a team with a projected record of better than ten wins. Last year we had four of those games, And I get the pushback will be but we're gonna have to beat those teams on the road in the playoffs, or will we? Because if the schedule provides us a little bit of an easier path and we can get to twelve or thirteen wins, guess what, bucco, The playoffs go through hard Rock Stadium, maybe except for the AFC Championship game. But if I told you today that we are at Arrowhead for the AFC Championship Game. You're gonna sign up for that right now and take it today because why because you're a Dolphins fan that hasn't seen that since the nineties. In twenty twenty two, Buffalo went two to one in these games. The Bengals went oh to two, and one of those losses was to the dakless Dallas Cowboys. The Ravens went oh to one, the Chiefs went two and one. The Chargers and everyone's golden boy quarterback that is so great went oh to two. That's pretty common for his career so far. The Eagles oh to one, the Cowboys one in one, Minnesota one and one, and the Niners that year did not play a game against a team that had double digit wins on the road. So for the total six and ten, that is exactly thirty seven percent. Once again, so the two year total is sixteen and twenty seven, a three seventy two winning percentage. It's hard to win. It's hard to win on the road. It's hard to win against good teams. It's the hardest to win on the road against good teams.
Fien.
That's my ending point right there. That's gonna be it for the podcast today. The next time you guys hear from me is gonna be on Tuesday. We're gonna change the schedule because the Dolphins are on the field and practice is open to the media on Tuesday, May the twenty first, So we'll be back on Tuesday evening to bring you a practice recap edition of the Draft Time podcast. And you guys know, my favorite part of this job is being around the guys, being around Odell Beckham, being on his Instagram story no big deal, and you guys can do that too. Finns Weekend returns May thirty first through June first in Coconut Grove. Joined Dolphins players, coaches, alumni and more for one of a kind offshore fishing competition and an eve of celebration with food, drinks, and great music. Register your boat or purchase party tickets on finnswekend dot com. All proceeds from Fens Weekend will benefit the Baptist Health Foundation. Also, please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple, Spotify, wherever get your podcasts from.
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