Drive Time: Bills Perspective with Joe Marino

Published Oct 30, 2024, 11:15 AM
Travis is joined by Locked on Bills host, Joe Marino, to get you ready for Sunday’s divisional matchup. Plus, the Week 9 picks.

To on the move, Dall and deep speedways past Hell.

From the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex, this is Drivetime with Travis Wingfield. Please God my hands in the playoffs? What is up? Dolphins? And welcome to the Draft Time Podcast. I am your host, Travis Wingfield. And on today's show, we welcome in an old friend of the program as Joe Marino helps us get ready for Dolphins and Bills. A little bit less luster going into this one, but we're gonna talk about it anyways. We'll also make the week nine picks and talk a little bit about the third year of Dolphins regimes and why does it always get this way? From the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Draft Time Podcast. Heye Daffy to help us get to know our division rivals a little bit better ahead of Dolphins and Bills. Let's go ahead and welcome in the man who knows this team better than anybody else on the planet for my money, he is Joe Marino. You can find his work everywhere Locked on NFL Scouting, Lockdown Bills, the First Read Podcast. He also just launched his new Substack the Herd Mentality and Joe, it's eleven am here doing this podcast with you and this YouTube show with you. But I'm guessing you're probably about six hours or so into your workday, maybe a couple of prospects deep at this point.

You know it, my guy, You know it. Hit the desk before five am and get to work. Man, when you got two kids, you gotta get a lot of work done while they're sleeping. And so I find that the farmers hours are undefeated.

Dude.

Man, no one's bothering you. Everyone's asleep, social media, nothing's happening. So you got to take advantage those early morning hours, my guy.

That sounds kind of nice. I used to be a night owl. I would go up, my wife would go to bed. I'd go upstairs and do all my film work up there. So it's I guess one of the other yachts pick that they're early morning hours of late night. I'm a late night guy. We have an early morning guy with us here in Joe Marino. But let's go ahead and pivot into a football game. We've talked about so many times, you and I on this channel, on your channel, as you talk with my good friend Kyle Krabs as well. Obviously, I'm pretty sure that my first question could provide us with like five or six back and forth follow ups, So we'll just see how it goes from there. But I've done my best throughout the course of the offseason and of course the Week two game to explain Joe the difference in Ken Dorsey and going to Joe Brady, you know, over basically a year now, and I'm curious to hear from the expert. How would you explain the shift from like last November whatever it was when they made the switch from Dorsey as play caller to now Joe Brady.

Wow, there's a lot we can get into there. Obviously, it's been a good move for the Bills offense, a lot more cohesive, performing a lot better. What really comes to mind two things here. I think Ken Dorsey is a very good play designer, and I think in some ways he's good play caller. But conceptually his offense puts a lot on everybody being on the same page. Everybody has to see it the exact same way, and there's answers built in if everyone knows what the defense is doing and what side adjustments to make. And I thought this led to a disjointed offense because Josh Allen might see it different than his receivers or the protection might see it a little bit differently, and if anybody's off, the whole offense kind of fails. And then certainly Josh Allen his physical upside, he can make something out of nothing, but it became that too often, where Joe Brady I think, has made things a little bit more simple. Now there's a lot of layers to the Bills offense, a lot of different ways that they can attack you, but I feel like it's.

Become more.

Just run the play, just run the play, as opposed to, okay, if they do this, then you do that. And I think that's led to a lot of success and simplifying things, but also the run game. And that's really probably been the biggest shift since Joe Brady took over, is this offense has been just as much about running the ball as it is throwing it.

With Josh Allen and James Cook.

Has really emerged, the Bills have morphed into this zone rushing scheme that is very cohesive with their blocking, and that's of course a benefit to your passing offense. So I think becoming a more simplified offense that doesn't put as much on side adjustments.

And then also that ability.

To run the football I think is unlocked a lot of layers for Buffalo offensively.

Do you kind of feel like that better suits Allen's skill set too? Since he can be a guy that you know, we talk all the time about Tua and how great he is in the anticipatory aspect of the position, but Allen can really kind of like see it and then rip it because he's just got those you know, he's got the probably the biggest arm of the entire National Football League. Do you feel like it suits his skill set a little bit better?

For sure? Yeah.

Two is obviously an outstanding anticipatory player, and that's a credit to him and his pre snap reeds and his accuracy and timing and feel. But yeah, that's just not Josh Allen, right, Josh Allen's a much more visual player than Tua. And then of course you can lean into offscript stuff with Josh, and because he does have the physical upside that he does with arm talent, it's kind of just a little bit less required of him to be as anticipatory he could play a little bit more, you know, just instinctively, And I think that obviously works for Josh, just like the way that Tua plays works for him. But I do think some of the simplification of the offense certainly allows Josh to play more free. Right, I don't think you want a physical, physically talented guy like Josh thinking all that much. Just go play and even you could see, you know, Josh can certainly have his moments of high energy and things. Can can you know, teeter on reckless at times. It's certainly been a good year for that not being the case. But you can understand some of the thought process for Ken Dorsey and his defense to say, hey, let's just make this more about just read it, you know, read out these progressions and.

Do what you're supposed to do with the ball.

But at the same time, I think that kind of took away from what makes Josh Allen's better.

You must be enjoying the fact that he just threw his first pick of the entire season and broke the Bills franchise record for most attempts between interceptions. After that was like the one knock people had in this guy, right, he threw too many picks. But you go back over all the great quarterbacks that have gaudy numbers, they have high pick numbers as well because they can just keep going after a defense and sometimes it gets it goes the other direction. But it would seem to me that the less site adjustments in the passing offense would lead to less I guess confusion and less turnovers. Right, So it sounds like that's kind of been a big factor as well.

Yeah, I think there's always a little luck with interceptions as well. And I think last year where Josh through eighteen interceptions, you know, the correlation between turnover worthy throws and percentage of throws that are interceptions was crazy. I mean pretty much at almost every interceptible pass that Josh Allen threw was intercepted, where he's been a lot more fortunate this year, where that's kind of you know, even Josh Allen. It was the Bills played the Jets on Monday Night Football and Troy Aikman was on the play by play, and Troy Aikman said during the production meetings for the broadcast, he talked to Josh Allen about, hey, you haven't thrown a pick this year. He goes, Yeah, I have, they just hadn't got it, you know what I mean, Like, that's that's just that's just how it goes. And it was three hundred and one attempts in a row before Josh throw a pick, and of course it's it's to Amari Cooper. He falls at the top of his route and it's a little quick pass and the DV was able to kind of take leverage and and intercept the pass. So it's it's been a nice it's been nice not having to go on shows just like this and explain to people about interceptions as I think, you know, you know how this goes. Man, it feels like any quarterback unless you win like three Super Bowls in five years or like seven overall, it's just this entire contest of trying to nitpick and diminish and make it like they're not that good. And that's been the thing with Josh Allen and that Look, I know, we all get any You could apply that to any quarterback and and everyone will find their you know, their holes to poke, because nobody wants anybody's quarterback to be good beside themselves, right, So you know how this goes. It's like a contest but yeah, the interceptions in turnovers have been good. The Bills have only turned the ball over three times all season long.

Yeah, I think that Dolphins fans know that as well as anybody does. Joe with the quarterback nitpicking.

And I knew what I was saying that I knew what I was doing.

I knew that you knew, But I just it's funny because like you get these varied box scores to tell different stories, but at the end of the day, these guys are the same players for the most part, and they have their ups and downs in this position that does come with some ebbs and flows, and so I think that it's important to always remember what guys you know, have what skills. And you can see which quarterbacks move the needle, and both the quarterbacks in this game are those guys. I have one more question about this game on offense for you before we go to the Bills defense.

Here.

You know, Stefan Diggs exits stage left this offseason. The Bills receiving corps going into the year is probably the big question mark, and everyone's wondering can they find that same level of efficiency in the passing game. Well, it kind of sounds like they have, and maybe the lack of you know, different page and the being on different pages, I should say for the site adjustment level offense, maybe that Diggs's lack of involvement that way is a part of that. But I'm curious what you think has happened. Was it auditioned by subtraction or has it just been they found other weapons? Like why is it still working? Sands one of the best receivers of the last five years.

That's a good question.

And one thing that I've made a point of not doing is I'm not going to sit and speak badly about Stefan Diggs. He gave the Buffalo Bills the greatest four year stretch of receiving production they've ever seen, right, and that includes some great players along the years like an Andre Reid or James Lofton or Eric Moles, Stevie Johnson. There's been a lot of good receivers and none of them have done what Digs did across four seasons. I will say, though, one of the fascinating layers for me in this team, the Bills team this year was how does Josh Allen execute and function absent of being mindful of Stefan Diggs and you know, you got a funnel one hundred and fifty one hundred and sixty targets a year towards him. And does Josh Allen play differently? Does he read progressions? Are his eyes in different places without that burden? Right? I use that word kind of loosely, but I think it's more than that. I think it's also the Gabe Davis factor. And I think Gabe Davis the Bills tried, I felt for like two years to validate this guy as a legitimate number two wide receiver in the NFL, and I just don't think that's him. I think he's too limited of a player for him to be a prioritize guy, to really prioritize within the regular structure of your offense. So I think it's just two things in terms of Okay, Diggs is great, but he also commands a lot of attention from the quarterback, right, I know he commands attention from the defense, but from the quarterback. But then also this Davis factor of you know, a really limited player that ever since that thirteen seconds lost to Kansas City where he scored four touchdowns, it's been like, oh yeah, he's a number two well, I don't really think so.

So those two things being lifted, I think is.

Almost given Josh just the freedom to play, just just go to the right place with the ball. And the Bills now have this established top four of of pass catchers in Keon Coleman, a rookie who's playing extremely well, Kalula Shakira is like an ever efficient slot player, dal Kin Kaid receiving talent at tight end, and now the addition to Mary Cooper, not to mention James Cook and Dawson Knox and Curtis Samuel. Right, there's a lot of depth to what this team can do, and I think the fact that there's not Hey, this guy has to get his I think it's unlocked a lot of freedom for Josh Allen to execute and make good decisions. And obviously the production and efficiency's been outstanding.

My guest today Jill Marino, locked on Bill's podcast. We're going to take a quick break right here, come back on the other side and talk about the Bills defense against Tua and the Dolphins offense on the Draft Time podcast. Your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. Picking me back up here with my guest today, Jill Marino locked on Bill's podcast, providing great information for us ahead of Dolphins and Bill's Sunday from the Ralph. I don't know if it's no new era stadium now right.

No, you got a lot of street cred right there.

If Bill's Mafia listens to this and you called it the Ralph, that's going to go a long way and then liking you well done.

I mean, I grew up with it being the Ralph, so Orchard Park, all those other names compared to what it actually is. But it's a new note. What is it? Hi Mark Stadium?

Right, Hi Mark Stadium?

There we go.

They make good money for us to say that.

Yeah, might have to cut that out. But I want to talk about this matchup on the other side because and you know, we were talking about this and our content meetings here, like why it does it not matter who the Bills have defensively and they just continue to produce. It seems like because you lose so much personnel in particular, like guys that were stalwarts for a decade and you know who they are, hide poor your white you know, Milanos down, but they just keep on producing. What would you say is about this defense that allows them to do that.

I think they just have a good scheme and there's nothing super complicated about it. It's just a very disciplined operation and it puts a lot of stress on offenses to execute play after play after play after play if you're going to score. The Bills really don't give up explosive plays, and because of that, they're going to dare you to say, hey, if you can execute ten to eleven, twelve plays in a row and not make a mistake, okay, you can have a chance to score. But the Bills are reliant on two things. Taking away explosive plays in the passing game with how they have their covered shelves, but then they also want to get negative plays with kind of an up the field style with their defensive front, and they just they bank on at some point, you're gonna get behind the sticks or you're gonna have a negative play a penalty, and if it gets to second and fifteen or third and eleven, and more times than not, the Bills kind of find themselves in that spot so we can get off the field. That's kind of the mindset, and that's allowed them to be interchangeable with a lot of personnel throughout the years, and they still have talented players, Like I think that's definitely part of the mix. But there's been a lot of intentionality with developing players. I mean, the Bills did lose a lot of good stalwarts in a ploy or a high to Tredevious White. They have not had Matt Malano this year, but they've had players that they've been developing for a number of years to like step into those opportunities and they've been ready for those moments. So I think it's a sound scheme, but also player development, and that's I mean, that's Sean mcdermot's bread and butter, right he's the head coach of the Buffalo Bills because of the defense that he ran with the Carolina Panthers, and so it's been it's been good to see that be tried and true through a lot of different personnel and a lot of different coaches around him to maintain that as a as a core piece of what makes the Bills a good football team.

And in that process, like you mentioned development, there's some players I think maybe Dolphins fans aren't super privy to in terms of how good they've been. Like a Christian Benford, for instance, comes to mind as a guy that in the same year you took a cornerback in the first round, he winds up being the guy from that class that makes a bigger impact. Give us a couple of guys and maybe we haven't heard of as Dolphins fans. We like at Oliver, We know about Dake one Jones, you know about Greg Russau. Who are some guys in that defense that maybe we haven't talked about A whole bunch that are making a big impact right now.

Yeah, you mentioned the most important one, Christian Benford, who's really just developed into an outstanding corner. He takes away the football, he tackles extremely well, and he's just very technically sound. As a six round pick from Villanova beating out as a rookie the first rounder kyrielm out of Florida, Everyone's like, what is this? And it's not that kyri Eland hasn't played well. He has played well when he's had chances. Benford's better and he's been really outstanding, as you know, as an up and coming player that I think is probably playing, you know, as higher level at the position as you.

Can find across the league. This year.

Terrell Bernard. That linebacker is another big one. The Bills only have two team captains, Josh Allen and Terrell Bernard, and we'll see about his availability for Sunday. He missed last week with an ankle. But he is like an impact playmaker, makes a lot of plays and coverage. I think that's really where he's outstanding. He can get downhill and shoot gaps and make tackles, has a lot of range, but his feel for zone defense and what's happening behind him to be able to read the backfield and just navigate and work into throwing lanes.

He just does that at such a high level. He's outstanding.

And then I think Taylor Rapp is kind of the unsung hero of this defense, one of the guys that is stepping in for the tandem of you're in hide. You know, just there's a communication piece to playing defense at a high level, and rap is that guy in the in the back end that's been able to kind of step in and provide that leadership and you know, make some physical tackles that have taken points off the board. But just everyone being lined up and and being on the same page is such an important part of defense, and I think Taylor Rap has been an unsung hero in that capacity for the Bills. Epiness is playing well up front.

You know.

It's it's not like I'm not sitting here talking about Nick Bosa and TJ. Watt and Fred Warner and Patrick certain right, that's not this, But it's a lot of guys that fit the system, that play well together, that communicate, and you know they're not without flaw, but they've really kind of come together and it feels like they're kind of hitting their stride.

Yeah.

I love the answer because I feel like so many times that when you get discussions and social discourse, it's like, well, what does it say on paper? And that's how that's just how it goes. But there's a lot more of football teams what it looks like on paper, and the Bills certainly have figured that out in a big way with their continuity in the both the coaching staff and at the quarterback position offensive and defensively. There a couple more questions for you here, Joe. I assume you've seen the Dolphins and Cardinals taper at least some parts of it at this point. You know, the offense in a lot of ways picked it back up when it was pre prior to Toa's injury. I'm curious to get the opponent's perspective on how this offense challenges a Buffalo Bills defense and where it makes you worry the.

Most, Tyreek killing Jalen Woll Come on, man, nobody wants to deal with those guys.

You know, even it doesn't matter.

Just you can be right on defense with your alignment and your technique, but you give those guys an inch and they can create an explosive play. And so those guys certainly present a lot of challenges. But I think this Miami rushing offense might be as good as I've seen it in a long time. And I think it's it's the combination of what they can do running the football with a deep group of backs. I think the run blocking has been really good. For as much criticism as the offensive line gets, I don't think they have any issues with the run blocking and a Chan and Mostert and now Jalen Wright as he potentially gets more and more opportunity. There's just a lot of depth to that that backfield with a good run scheme, and so it's yeah, it's explosive playmakers in the passing game, and it's a it's a rushing offense, and I think is I mean really it's played its best recently and so it just feels like if that all comes together, I mean, this offense can remind us of everything that it was last year. And there's a number two scoring offense in the NFL. So the Dolphins, I know that this season hasn't gone the way that expected. Obviously Toua's injury plays into that, but it's a it's a potent team on offense that you know, even even if metrically they haven't, they're not what they've been, which is obviously rooted in the starting quarterback being out.

Nobody wants to deal with these playmakers.

Yeah, I think we saw that in the game against the Cardinals. Just eight possessions with a score of five of them, and we're very close to making it four touchdowns. One of those five drives as well, with a drive deep into the red zone into the end of the midbred zone really before the end of the first half. There last question for you here is the exact same one on the defensive side with coach Anthony Weaver. It was really going well until the Cardinals game. The Cardinals kind of figured it out in the second half of that game with four drives of their own the score points in the second half of that game. But curious what your take, because Joe we talked to a lot of like beat riders that cover one team. You know so much about the entire league that I want to just get these questions for you here. What have you made of Anthony weavers scheme so far his first year with the Miami Dolphins.

Seems like there's so much multiplicity to it, right. I feel like that's what's challenging about what coach Weavers putting out on tape is that, Yeah, they'll play man, they'll play quarters, they'll play cover three, they'll play over two, they'll play they'll mix and match so much. And that obviously, I think so much of what defenses want to do is is forced that quarterback to think deeper into the snap.

Right.

You don't want to be able to consistently do the thing that the plays designed to do. And I think once you play a defense that presents so much variety to you, it becomes challenging for you to play fast and efficient and it's going to be interesting I think obviously they're the injuries on the defensive line has kind of taken away from the pass rush. I think that's hindered the defense. But I feel like the run defense has been pretty strong throughout the course of the season, and you know, I think if you can do that, they've been very good situationally, if I'm not mistaken, one of the best third down defenses in the NFL, so you're you're not allowing drives to sustain themselves.

It's been very productive in that capacity.

So I think what's interesting about the Bills is they've they've played this tree of defensive coordinators like so many times you think about that Baltimore staff that obviously Mike McDonald goes to Seattle, Weaver goes to Miami, Dinnard Wilson goes to Tennessee, and then Zach Orr obviously stays in Baltimore.

The Bills have played all of those teams. Man, this is it's like, it's like this defense. The Bills have played this defense.

Now, this is going to be the fifth time in in in what nine games. It's it's crazy. So I think that probably helps the Bills. But you know, from Miami, I think I think also complimentary football matters as well. I think some of the the the challenges that they've had offensively takes away from what your defense can be. You feel like that's kind of normalizing now, or it has the potential to normalize now with Tua back in the fray and you know, obviously they need to get healthy on defense, But the multiplicity of the scheme is what really kind of stands out to me.

Lockdown Bill's podcast, Locked on NFL Scouting podcast, The First Read podcast, The Herd Mentality Substack at the Joe Marino on Social Fellow Girl Dad as well. Joe, we got some big Halloween plans coming up this week.

Oh you know it, my guy, We're the Bluey family this year. I'm I'm gonna be banned. I got I take a little exception. I like Bluuie, but it feels like banned. It's always in a bind man And I got to be this guy and that's what my daughter wants, So that's what we're gonna do. But that episode where he goes to the pool and with his daughters and he didn't bring anything. He didn't bring sunscreen, snacks, toys, chairs, towels, and my guys just sitting there in the pool. It's like, come on, man, I've taken my daughters to the pool. There's no chance I'm forgetting a single thing like that. So I'm a little I'm a little taken back. But when your four year old daughter tells you to be banded for Halloween, boy, you be banded for Halloween, what do you got going on? What's your what's your Halloween? I gotta know what you got going on?

So we have we have our our in house like family night here tonight. So I'm going with the family. My little son's going to be a golfer, and I'm going to be as Caddy, and then my my wife and and our daughter are going to be Elsa and Anna. So we have the whole. It's like the parent costumes, but mix and matching there with those two.

Yeah, that's that's the fun layer. When you've got one of each, you can you can play into that. So very good and enjoy many.

Yeah you as well. I love the blue idea. Thanks for your time today, Joe. You're the best. We appreciate you, and we'll we'll see you next time. These two teams get together, man and away he goes always a fun chat there with my good buddy Joe Marino. Let's go ahead and take our last break right there on the podcast, come back and pick the week nine games. I also have a bit of a diatribe for you guys on the state of the franchise, which seems to be a weekly occurrence now on Draft time. That's next DT your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. So we are on in absolute tear right now with the picks fourteen and zero, three weeks ago, twelve and three, two weeks ago, thirteen and three, this past week. That's a thirty nine and six run by far the best of my not just on the podcast here, but doing picks since I can remember. That is an incredible run. I nailed the Browns over Ravens pick last week. I was saved by the bell on the Commander's Hell Mary. Usually usually when you're red hot, there's a little bit of luck involved too, so we got that as well. Let's go ahead and get to week nine. The Dolphins should have helped me out too, but I digress. We are ninety one and thirty two on the season. Let's go ahead and cue the music. And pick these games tomorrow night. Hey, the Jets are back in primetime and I used to like the hate watch for the Jets. The last couple of years has been literally my favorite thing about the Nationville Football League because if you were a fan of hating the Jets, you're like back to back Super Bowl champions. Right now, it feels pretty good. I'm taking the Texans to beat the Jets, but I'm not going to really enjoy it that much because now I kind of want them. I kind of want them to win some games because I don't want them to have an easy replacement for Aaron Rodgers next year. So maybe not right now, but at some point start winning some games because I don't want them to get Shedur Sanders. I don't want him to get cam Ward. I don't want him to get Joe Milton, and I don't want him to get Garrett Nessmyer. If you want to take Carson Becker, Quinn yorz be my guest. I'm taking the Saints over the Panthers unless unless Andy Dalton starts that game, so I'll flip that. If it is Dalton at quarterback, I'll take Washington over the Giants. I'll take Buffalo over Miami. I'm going back to the well on the jamis Led Browns, and this is more about my lack of belief in the Chargers, which just another quick Dia tribe real quick for you guys, are a point of emphasis, and I should be careful of this because I'm I've got a lot of Dolphins things wrong this year. Although I will still stand by the process of the predictions and point to the fact that the quarterback missing some of those games was the difference in those games. But I digress. But I remember a heck of a lot of commentary about how the Chargers and the Steelers were two teams that built their things right. And granted, right now the Steelers are cooking, they're rolling whatever, but they're beating teams like the Jets and the Giants and these Chargers and the Titans and the colt like they're playing bad football teams and I don't believe in them, and that will be the case come the end of the year. Just you watch it was nine to nine in that Giants game at one point. So with the Chargers case, yeah, this really fun offensive line they built right, like they have nobody to pass to. I just don't think they're a good football team. So give me the Browns at home over those Chargers. I'll take the Titans over the Patriots in the possible cam Ward Bowl. Is that where we are in that game. I'll take the Cowboys over the Falcons. I think that it's gonna be a long year for the Cowboys. But the Falcons seem to get all their wins in division, and right now they're kind of cushy in the NFC South with a full game lead and a sweep on the only other team playing in the NFL in that division, because both the Saints and Panthers are kind of playing in the Mountain West right now. So give me the Cowboys to get back on track. I'll take the Bengals over the Raiders. The Raiders are on that list of teams we are not going to pick the rest of the season. I'll take this is my favorite pick of the week, Ravens by like fifty over the Broncos. I think the Broncos are in that Chargers and Steelers category of absolute frauds who just keep beating bad football teams. Like I'm not talking about the Dolphins were like picked on last year for beating bad teams. I'm not talking about, you know, our wins over the Chargers and Opening Day when they were a decent team, or our win over who kind of point two here, the two wins over the Jets late in the year, or even the win over the Cowboys, which was a playoff team that year. I'm talking about taking the Panthers of the world, these like one and two win outfits and scraping by those teams that will never impress me like you're supposed to beat those teams. I don't think it proves anything other than you get yourself a win in the win column. So for the Broncos perspective, I don't think they're good enough to beat half the league, and I think that's gonna get proven this week is Baltimore's going to wipe the absolute floor with them taking the Cardinals, who I think are going to get hot because I think their quarterback is getting hot and their offense is very good. I'm taking them over Chicago, who has a bit of a late a hangover from that tough loss in Washington. Philly over Jacksonville because duh. I'll take the Rams over the Seahawks because I think that Ryan Grubb is having a hard time figuring out how NFL defenses want to attack him. I think that Matt Stafford having all his weapons back, I think there are a team about to get red hot as well. I'll take the Packers over the Lions. I want to pick the Lions here, but I'm taking Green Bay because simply of Goff's outdoor versus indoor splits, and I think he plays like fourteen games indoors this year, So I'm going to take the games where he's outdoors as the Lions only losses on the season. I haven't seen the weather there, but if it's less than perfect, I like the Packers in that game. Give me this, the Vikings over the Colts. Is that a Sunday night football game? What are we doing? What are we doing? I'll take the Chiefs over the Bucks on Monday night football. Go ahead and cut the music. That's the Week nine picks. And I just want to to leave you guys with this and close with this because I was thinking about this, and I'm as guilty as anybody of this. I was talking about Brian Flora is gonna be the next guy that gets the extension and breaks the playoff at win drought. I thought Adam Gase after that first year was the exact same thing. Never got there was Joe Philbim. I never really felt that way about Tony Sparano either, but with Mike McDaniel, that was my guy. I thought McDaniel should have been the OC back in twenty one when he was on the list of possible OC hires, and then when he got the head coaching job, I was like, Oh, this is party sweat, bro. We're gonna have an innovator who is on top of the current pulse of the NFL in terms of offenses, a guy that understands how to connect with young players. And I don't think that's completely gone because of one bad start to a season with you know, uh, let's see, what was it. Three of those losses sand you're starting quarterback and an offense that hasn't functioned without that quarterback since he's been here. But obviously there's some questions like it's not what you were I think this roster is better than this. I think there's a team component that has caused some of the lack of cohesion and lack of production overall, and it has me like worried, you know, I'm thinking about I mean, I don't expect to beat Buffalo. I don't expect to beat the Rams either, So if that's where it goes, it's a two and seven start. And I'm looking back at these third years of these coaches, and it's like Brian Flores' third year had a bunch of optimism going into it, with Tua's like first really full year starting, and he went one in seven to kick that year off, and you know, if McDaniel's two and seven, that's one went better. And Adam Gase even though that like it never felt this way, but they started off like five and six was the opening record, but there was games of brock Ausweiler in there, and they felt like those teams I just talked about in the picks felt like like my Chargers or my Broncos, like they were in the hunt right that in the Hunt column, but they were never going to beat a team like Kansas City or those New England teams back then, or you know, I guess the Ravens back then, like they weren't that good. And then Joe Philben his third year was eight and eight, but that team sucked. But dude suck. But you know Tony Soprano that his third year was like win loss, win loss, win, loss, win loss all year long. So just like these mediocre teams. And it's funny because I think that McDaniel and Flores, for all of Flora's warts and the way his program was an absolute disaster. Like I those to me are the two best Dolphins coaches since Don Shula, Like I would take both those coaches over Jimmy because Jimmy was checked out and I'm trying to get Heinekens on his boat out in the Keys. And Dave Wanstead, don't get me started on that that was a top five football team that could make the playoffs under his watch. I digress. So why are these good football coaches, I believe, having these slow starts into these years, And why is there always this pattern of like playoff year or a surprisingly good performance in year one where they they outplay there they overperformed the expectations. And then McDaniel's year two was the outlier for all these coaching stats because year two for Flores, for Gays, for Philbin, like all those guys just flopped in year two. But why is it that we get to this point where we finally have a belief and everything, and then it's like, by year three, half a damn fan base is questioning whether or not he's the guy. And I'm not going to get into that because I think it's way too early for that. But it's just like so mind numbingly frustrating. It's hard to reconcile. And it goes back beyond that, because you know, Cam Cameron had one year and he was total trash. Nick Saven had two years and he was like, I'm going back to Alabama. Although I'm not going back to Alabama. It just feels like we're on this hamster wheel and I'm trying to figure out what's what's the common denominator across two decades of that, you know, like is it? I don't know. I don't want to speculate. I have my thoughts, but I won't speculate here on the show. I just keep thinking about that, and I keep thinking about where we are right now, because like, remember twenty nineteen, how stressful that season was from a too many wins perspective, and then the college landscape perspective when Tua got hurt and it was like, oh no, our golden ticket is now down. Now what do we do? And it was like that year you went from it's all about Tua. It doesn't matter what happens. We have to get Tua, and then it was shoot, we won too many games to get Tua. And then it was oh, damn, Tua's hurt. To hey, even if to a flops, we can still revive, Like we can still revive this rebuild and just reset the quarterback position because everything else is still in place, to oh, he's actually the only thing that actually works. And now it kind of feels like we are beholden to a guy that has a very serious injury risk every single year, and a roster around him that maybe has hit its peek conceiling. Like it's the weirdest place I feel like I've been as a Dolphins fan since since I kind of stepped away in twenty fifteen. I met my wife in twenty fifteen, and when the Dan Campbell two game jump was like really exciting for everybody, right, we all love those two games against the Titans and Texans, the blowout wins, and then they played the Patriots and got humbled, and then the rest of the year was like oh yeah, this is the same team that started off one and three with a lame duck coach and Joe Filbin. Like I had to like not make Sundays at one o'clock a priority. At that point, I would check in on the games, but I didn't. I didn't really care. I wasn't like making it a priority. And that was the only time I've ever done that as a Dolphins fan. That's like kind of where I'm at right now. And obviously i have a job in the industry and I'm not gonna do that. But as far as like what I want, I don't really know. Like I've always had a vested interest, whether it was twenty nineteen saying like I hope they lose we get the first pick in the draft, or wanting like hell to win games, to prove people in the media wrong and to get that first playoff win in advance and try to win a championship. I just feel so stuck in this moment, and then like over the course you know, of Tua's injury, it felt like that injury history was what was gonna hold us back, and now it's like he He's like the thing that makes the entire program go. So I guess I'm gonna leave you with this non secuity of sorts on the podcast, but I just wanted to put it out there because it feels very Bill Murray esque in that it's groundhogs to day. Yet again, I just want to stop. I just want the wheel to stop and to We talked about this earlier on the show. I wasn't sure what podcast this was with Joe Marino and about the Bills level of consistency and their plug and play ability, like I want that dog. I thought we were gonna get that. Maybe we will, who knows, we'll see, but right now, not go in that direction. Tomorrow, the game Preview will take a deep dive into the Bills and Dolphins game. Friday, a very special guest will have Kickball Dad in studio. He's gonna be on HQ as well as Draft time. We'll also do our weekly chat with Kyle Krabs. But until then, you all please be sure to subscribe, leave us a rating, leave us a review, follow me on social at Wingfold NFL and the team at Miami Dolphins. Although, to be perfect honest, you guys, I don't really want to tweet anymore. I can't even put out an honest film assessment on TUA without being like okay, dude, like okay, yeah, tell me why you think that way, or someone reply to me about like Chris Career in the offensive line, like okay, tell me why you think they're not playing good, because Louis Flash they are. I just don't. It's so pointless. It's such a pointless discourse. Check out the Fish Tank podcast with Seth and Juice. Check out the YouTube channel for HQ Media Availabilities and so much more, and last, butt not least, Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time, fins up Caroline and Cameron Daddy's coming Home.

Drive Time with Travis Wingfield

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