Drive Time with Travis WingfieldTwo on the move, Going Deep, Speedless, peace hell.
From the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is Drivetime with Travis Wingfield.
He's got my hands in the playoffs.
What is up, Dolphans And welcome to the Drive Time Podcast. I am your host, Travis Wingfield. And on today's show, yesterday I said was one of the more fun days of practice. Well, today might have upped that. Anti competition pads popping, chirping, physicality, energy and intensity. It was all there today And most days when the quarterback plays at a high level, that's what gets me fired up. But today it was all of the above. Plus the defensive backfield balled out. We'll discuss that and the versatile nature of Ramsey and Fuller and how they are clearly define themselves, in my opinion, as the best cornerback tandem in the National Football League. Plus how seeing this defense is helping the offense play faster. A big day from the offensive line. Soundbites from Joe Barry, Brian Duker, Skyler Thompson, Moe Kamara, and Ezekiel Vandenberg. All of that and a heck of a lot more from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Draft Time podcast. I want to start with a general theme today about the level of competition we saw out on that practice field. There was hitting, there was intensity, there was some chirping, and you could just sense it from the visuals and you could hear it from the reaction. It's really all six senses kind of got the feeling of the smell of it. Wait, five senses. Yeah, it's one of my frigging vigan Bruce Willis from my m Night Shamalan. But you could just feel and sense the competitive nature of this practice, and we heard it from the players the audio version of the Senses. After the practice is over, let's go ahead and begin with practice notes on the two cornerbacks that I keep mentioning on these podcasts that I think are to me going to be the best cornerback tandem in the NFL, and Jalen Ramsey and Kendall Fuller. The offense tried today to push the ball vertical several times and it just was not there. And I even go back to like the twenty twenty one season, there were so many instances in the past where Tua and this offense, even with Albert Wilson and Isaiah Ford, Devonte Parker and Will Fuller, we're getting vertical on this defense that was pretty bad that year and then last year started off slow and all the deep balls came out of practice last year. This year, there has been those, but it's been way more competitive as far as the back end goes. And I'm sure the combination of having Ramsey who was out here for two days last year, and Kendall Fuller and Javon Holland now in his fourth season, and Elijah Campbell's progress and what we've seen from Marcus May and Jordan Poyer, it's just flat out better. Man. They're doing a great job of taking away the vertical options for the NFL's top vertical passing game. So I know that exists, and if this defense can handle it, it tells me they're good on both ends. And there was a ton of coverage secks really more so than out and out rush Victory Sex throughout this practice. In fact, you know, I thought the offensive line had really good protection all day long, and just for the posterity two straight days without a snap on the ground, but every time I got my pre snap checklist with five and twenty nine, and then when follow the route and stems and coverage, there's twenty nine and there's five running down the field with ten or seventeen or anybody else and passing off to a safety who capped the route off. And we know this defense is very, very multiple and can show one thing and present another. And given the nature of both Ramsey and Fuller skill sets and that versatility to go along with it, it just makes me think the offense is really having to process quickly in to term, and you know post snap what the actual matchup is they want to attack with regards to the coverage and who winds up covering who. So to me, it's the ultimate ironing, ironing, iron sharpening iron and I mean, just for posterity again, listen to past game specialists Brian Duker when I asked him how this offense challenges their coverage principles.
Certainly, we have a lot of dynamic playmakers and that makes us have to be very specific and good with our techniques. And you learned very quickly when you're off just a little bit, because it can get exposed.
That's right.
I got one more for you from the defensive perspective clip here from coach Joe Berry and how this offense and how the various looks and good quarterback ball handling in the backfield, how it challenges defenses getting into their keys, and how this is kind of back and forth between these two sides.
Well, this this this offense. Having been on the other side defending it, it's it's it stresses you in every aspect. It stresses you on the perimeter, she in the run game, in the past game, and the things that they're able to do from a ball handling standpoint with the quarterback to us specifically, it's it's always been a nightmare and I it's it's hard, and it's a challenge every day, but it's it's I think that's an advantage for us because there's nothing that we don't see from our offense on a daily basis. And you know, that's what you want, you know, especially this time of year when it's OTA's, when it's training camp, when you're when you're you know, sharpening your sword, go against the best that we're doing that every single day. So it's great.
And listen to Skylar Thompson when I asked him how this defense and all they can do and throw at you. How that speeds up your processor as a quarterback and as an offense the last couple of weeks, how has that cramped up your processing?
Well, it's been awesome, honestly, it's been so fun competing against our defense. They they bring a lot of energy every day. They give us tons of different looks, you know, and I think that's it's so good for us as the quarterback is you know, you can even throughout a game week, you know, you can prep for something and defense come out and play something totally different. And you always got to play each play, you know. We always says, you know, each play standards, own merit, you know, and just taking one play at a time, you know, and trust our progression, trust our read not predetermining pre snap what the defense is doing, and being able to react and feel the space. And you know, they send us a lot of different stuff, a lot of different pressures and looks and disguises. It's really good, really good training for us. So it's been it's been fun to competing with those guys.
I just thought this was a cool juxtaposition because of the laughter on each of those you know, Coach Duker on the back end, Skyler on the front end. With regards to how they challenge each other, that's kind of like the you know, Mike White, I asked him about Tua's processing and envision and he gave me the same thing. Oh brother, it's it's insane, Like you can't manufacture that type of natural reaction or non verbal communication right, Like, that's natural. And that's why I think those are so cool to hear and so genuine to hear those guys. I do want to come back to Scalar Thompson, who I thought had another really good day today to build in his strong camp so far. But back on the Ramsey and four notes man and it began the first play of team period when Jalen took on Aaron Brewer a block from Aaron Brewer full pads, and it looked like they were going live at times today. By the way, it was very physical and chippy out there. And he beats the block and then goes and pops John news Smith on the end around and David Long comes in and cleans it up and they start dapping each other up, slapping each other's helmets, screaming in celebration. You just knew it was gonna be a day of high intensity and juice. And if we get that on Sundays, good night, good night to anybody else. And lo and behold we got Mo Kamara at the end of practice. And if you heard him in the Draft Time podcast back in June, you know, there's nobody who's more high intense, high energy than he is. So I asked him, these practices are really about the competition, right man.
It's like the sink.
It's like top tier every day and a real like you know the thing about football, Like you're not always gonna feel well. Like some practices you're not gonna feel well. And I've had practice what I haven't felt with well. But some of these guys, like yesterday wasn't feeling the best. But I saw that Javal and Holland.
Like streaming and doing whatever he had to do.
But that's every day for him. And it's like watching these guys in their competitive nature, you see why those guys are superstars. You see why whatever case may be, but also not just the superstars who are going off every day, the second and third.
Year guys, you know what I mean, Like.
You know you're gonna have clips on those guys too, So you know it's not just the star guys that are funny with their hair on fires, you know what I mean, it's everybody else too.
So after that first play, the third play of practice among this defensive backfield where he moster gets a beautiful bend back lane where he had good lanes cleared up by Robert Jones and Keon Smith, where he pressed the offense to the left and then cuts it back inside and hits the hole. But down comes number eight Javon Holland to put a hat on the football, force the fumble and fall on it. And so Javon was all over the field. He was fantastic. And I want to go ahead and play some more audio here for you from Brian Duker on Javon Holland and how they can maximize his unique skill set as a player.
I don't know that it's up to us to unlock it as much as give him opportunities to do it. Like he certainly has the versatile that you've talked about, and I think us it's a more matter of him comfortable doing a variety of techniques and then once he knows those within the defenses, he just kind of makes a match which techniques he's doing, and maybe one play he's lined up somewhere you wouldn't expect him to be not on a traditional safety role. But the more technique he knows he can execute it, I think it makes it really easy to do if he's certainly smart enough, personal enough to do all those things.
Next period, they the ones are out there, Kendall Fuller runs down the top of an inbreaker and beats the receiver to the dart, which is an extended slant but a ten twelve yard slant route well for an incompletion. Next play, he comes down off the edge and ends up as the forced defender and long arms the tight end to keep outside contained. And this is an outside linebacker technique or a defensive end technique where you basically hold the tight end or the offense the left tackle right tackle with one arm and maintain your balance and position and keep them at bay while you keep your outside arm clean so you can shed that block and make a tackle should they challenge your outside contained. But most frequently the back will see that outside contained there and bang that thing up inside. And that's what Kendall Fuller forced him to do. I just can't get over how connected the coverage really was all day long. I can't get over the versatility of Ramsey and Fuller and the options that gives the defense, and Javon Holland for that matter, Ramsey inside, Cater Kohu outside, Javon Holland creeping around the box, playing in the post man. It's so multiple, And so I asked Brian Douker, what is having all these versatile pieces in your defensive backfield do for the defense?
What I think that does is the playbook is already a very diverse playbook. What that allows us to do is present much differently to the offense, but it's all the same thing for us. So I think it lets us put a lot of window dressing on things that we already do, and it doesn't add volume for us, but it's only adds volume for opposing offense.
Let's keep it rolling here with one last clip from Coach Duker. A main theme of that Ravens defense that Weaver came from was the ability to get pressure with Kyle Hamilton, Arthur Mallett, Marlon Humphrey, Brandon Stevens, any of the eleven guys can come into a time, and if you get into a rhythm of calling the game, you can make it absolute hell on the opposing quarterback because every picture he sees is different, and each time you confuse him, it compounds and turns it into an ultimate day of stress and anxiety. It's kind of like a pitcher in baseball. The idea for an offense, on top of scoring runs, to hopefully get to more runs, is you want that pitcher throwing high stress, high leverage pitches. You know, pitches where he's got runners on base, Pitches where you know he's deep into the pitch count in the inning and you're starting to stress. You know, if I don't make a great pitch right here, this might cost my team a run, or maybe he's going to get you know, another guy on base. And we're pitching from stressful situations. And there's a hint of that idea for quarterbacks in the league two with regards to making reads. And if you can make it easy on a quarterback and give him stuff that sequences and there's run games and easy reads that kind of gets him into the flow and can reduce the amount of high level, stressful reads. He can play faster and looser, and what this defense did today I thought was kind of compound that confusion and really force the quarterbacks to have high stress reps on every single rep. And more on that in a moment that you guys are gonna want to definitely hear, but real quick, here's Coach Duker on the mindset of having defensive backs that can not just cover, but also impact the passing game through how they rush the quarterback.
What it allows us to do, is defensive backs is alleviate some of the pressure and coverage because there's so much worried about the pressure and different guys coming. It adds a lot of stress on the offense to get the ball out, and you know, it makes them a little bit more protection conscious and certainly takes any the stress off from the person abouts to that point.
Elijah Campbell made a play off of a defensive back pressure today where Javon Holland came screaming in off the corner and enforced to it into a hot throw and he undercuts the route and was there for the pick and just flat out dropped it, which got to make that play, but shows you Elijah Campbell being in the picture once again and coach. Weaver mentioned him as a guy by name, not even prompted, as a guy that's had a massive camp so far. Thought Marcus may had another fantastic run fit from depth once again, something he does essentially every single day. So man, this defense just flat out brought it. I couldn't get enough of it. Let's go ahead and take our first break right there, come back on the other side and continue to the theme of talking defense. I have some audio from Joe Berry that will make us all smarter football fans and the impact of veteran leadership in that linebacker room on a player like Ezekiel Vanderberg. All of that and so much more. I promise you guys don't want to miss the rest of this podcast. That's all Next Drive Time, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Autnation, covering the back end on the first segment of the podcast. Let's go ahead and move up to the second level and the linebackers and a ton of fantastic audio here from Joe Barry, Dolphins linebacker coach and run game coordinator. And I can't imagine a better setup for this because it was at the end of it myself, Kyle Krabs and a guy that's been a linebackers coach in this league going back to his legendary Buccaneers defenses where he coached Derek Brooks, and the guy that you know coach defenses as the guy right the defensive coordinator there in Green Bay. So we got this doctorate level PhD football answer for questions asked by two students of the game dying for that knowledge. And I'm sure Kyle conveyed that on his show today and I'll do the same thing here, and we start with the question about the ability to expand the defensive menu from the modern game or for the modern game, I should say, with the stress of speed and the expanded hook zones of this offense can pound the football into with those you know, eighteen yard incuts to Tyreek and Waddle where Tua throws it to a spot that intersects with the route right on time and turns into a big run after the catch. With all the shells these defenses want to popularize the last couple of years to combat the vertical passing game, which is essentially you know, expanded by Tyreek and Jalen and the Miami Dolphins. But also within that the need for linebackers that can do that to get vertical, to get depth, but also get downhill in the running game because when you play those split high safety looks, that usually invites the running game. So it's such a challenging position in the modern NFL. And coach gave us a great answer about the traits required to play linebacker in this league that features all that mumbo jumbo I just told you about.
I think in any defensive system, playing the inside linebacker position, it starts with three things. And it's smart, fast, and physical. I think you got to be in this day and age, with the way offenses are going, with all the different formations and movements and styles that you have to defend, you got to be smart. I think to play defensive football really at any level of football now, it has become such a speed game, you know. And to play the linebacker position, you know, because we ask our guys to do a lot of things.
They gotta they gotta.
Cover people from running backs to tight ends to receivers. Uh, they got a blitz. So you've got to be able to run. And then you know, the final thing is and really it's probably the most important thing, is that football is and always will be a physical game. So you got to be tough, you've got to be nasty, you got to be physical. So and that's the great thing about our position, is what you alluded to is that we are as linebackers, we're part of the front, and then we're also part of the back end. So I think that's that's the fun thing about at least coaching the position, and I know for the guys playing it, but you've got to have those three things and that that's I think for you to be a well rounded NFL linebacker. If you're smart, fast, and physical, you know you're gonna be able to play in this league.
And this, you know, I mean Jordan Brooks, Anthony Walker Junior, David Long Junior. I mean, that's their entire game. So it totally tracks. Two of those guys were brought in after the hiring of Joe Berry, so it makes sense that's what he prioritizes and identified in David Long as a trait or you know, a player that fits all those traits. And this, you know, was a theme that we covered on the show after the Dolphins were eliminated from playoff contention last year or the playoffs, I should say, and giving thoughts on the divisional and championship rounds and who were the final four teams? Kansas City had Nick Bolton, Drew Trankle, and Willie Gay, Baltimore had Roquan Smith and Patrick Queen. San Francisco had Fred Warner and Dre Greenlaw, and Detroit had Jack Campbell and alex Anzeloni. All those guys are uber athletic linebackers that can do a little bit of everything in the NFL. And that might be, you know, that's possibly the eight best linebackers that fit those categories. And yeah, I'll give you Jordan Brooks and David Long and factor in Matt Lano and c. J. Mosley, Like, yeah, there's plenty of guys that do that, but that's eight of the very best. And there's no surprise to me there was multiple of those guys on each of those teams. Let's go ahead and go back to coach on you know those three guys on Long, Walker and Brooks. Here's coach Barry.
David's a guy that you know, it's it's crazy to think, you know, I mentioned this the last time I talked to you guys as a as a as a coordinator, which I was, you know, you you learned the entire draft. And then now being a position coach, you know, it's neat to go back and say, oh, yeah, I remember when he came out, or I remember when he was a free agent we tried to get him. So with with really, with all those guys, With all my guys, I've known them and respected them and admired them from afar at different places. But to have you know, four veteran leaders that have all played a lot of football, you know, David Long, Jordan Brooks, Duke Riley, Anthony Walker, all those guys have have played really good football and have have been starters, you know, all four of them. So I think to have those four guys as kind of our core in our room, it's pretty special. And then you got a guy like Channing ten Dall, who's you know, I still I put in the category. He's still a young player, he's going into his third year. I tell him all the time, what an advantage for him to be around three veteran leaders like that, because you talk about, you know how important veteran leadership is. Every team doesn't have every team has veterans, but every team doesn't have veteran leaders. We have that on our team and we specifically have it in the linebacker room with you know, with with David, Anthony, Jordan and Duke. It's pretty special.
And how about Zeke Vandenberg, who's been fantastic all camp. He also talked about those players and the playerpect on having that much leadership in the room around him.
Jordan Brooks, he's a good friend at this point, this man of God. Really wise guy Anthony Walker. I've been watching his film all summer from OTAs and his feet are just so clean, and his his reads a lot of the split safety stuff that we do. Watching his tape really helped me makes some progressions from the spring. I feel like I'm doing better than I was in OTAs just learning from those guys and I mean Duke, Davey Long, all these guys are just experienced players that every day I'm just trying to pick up something from him, whether it's a walk through practice meetings. There's just a lot to learn and learning so much every day. So it's a lot of fun.
So to get to Jordan Brooks here and what I've seen today and really all camp, Long Man, what a special talent and what a special leader man like. He was all over the field again today and a big part of every aspect rush coverage run game. Yesterday we talked about how he deflected a screen pass that showed the speed and length that he features, and fittingly enough, we have a SoundBite on just that once again from Coach Barry.
But when players have length and allows them to do a lot of things, and Jordan not only has length, but he has explosion, he has speed. Those are the things that allow him to be, you know, the playman. And that's what play in linebacker is. You know, like we talked about, you got to be equally as productive in the run game as you do the pass game. And I think his length and speed is something that he brings to the table and brings to this defense and it's going to be exciting.
And you guys heard Jordan Brooks talk about his leadership approach when he was available for media. I forget what day it was, might have been Sunday. Really cool story that I don't tell these stories because these are kind of moments in the building that are you know, captain the building. But this is harmless. I think I happen to overhear Jordan Brooks today walk past Small Kamara in the lunch line and he was like, he asked him, you know, how's how did today go for you? Rook? How'd you feel like it went? And Moe told him what he felt about his game and his practice. And I just think that type of leadership, you know, it's something we heard about in the press conference. I don't doubt that he was, you know, being truthful about that, but just to hear it play out like that, it was a cool moment to see, you know, this the kind of full circle aspect of that, and to put a bow on all of this with these players, because you know, David Long was all over the field and crashed the backfield party a few times in his own right. I wanted to go ahead and play Coach Barry Audio here once again on you know, the idea of confusing the quarterback and the stress of that second level with their ability to both play coverage and rush. Once again, let's go back to Joe Barry on this question that was asked about the trends of too high and how that trickled down what the linebackers have to do with the expanded range expectancy of that position.
I think that this goes into the overall philosophy of what defense you are because everyone plays man, everyone plays split safety, everyone plays single high, whether you know it's single high zone or single high man. But always it's what that pre snap look that you're trying to give the quarterback. You know, there's teams that start with a single high presentation and then on the snap they very easily could play split safety. So I mean, I think the biggest thing is that in this day and age in football, you're trying to confuse the quarterback. You're trying to give him, you know, a mentality and a thought pre snap and then play something differently. So and we'll do both. You know, we'll show single high and play all three coverage principles. We'll show split safety and play different coverage principles. So it's just all in that presentation that you want to do to you know, cause a little bit of pre snap communication for the quarterback.
Just a really fun day of learning football. Man. Let's go ahead and finish up here the linebacker point here with some audio from Zeke Vandenberg, and I asked him just about the challenge of getting hurt early in your rookie year and then finally getting a chance to come back and play football and showing out and not just that, but getting so much words of affirmation from your teammates.
Last year was a weird year. Right after OTAs, I hurt my knee, got surgery, and then I really hadn't done anything for the team, for the organization, and they chose to keep me around, and I just had a lot of gratitude for that and gave me an opportunity to come back the next year, and so I got to do OTAs this year, got a whole summer to prepare for camp, and it's just been a lot of fun, and I'm really thankful.
I really love that he talked about the Dolphins investment in him and how he kind of thought like that might be it for me, but they kept him around for the entire year. Kind of just a special answer, I thought, there from a guy that is going to appreciate and maximize the opportunity he has here as much as anybody else. Let's go ahead and move down off the edge as we continue talking defense here, it's been That's Brown one week since you looked at me. I don't think anybody could have foreseen the production of the Edge group when you consider the league's best tandem is on the sideline for these practices. No Bradley Chubb, No Drelen Phillips, who by the way he looks, he looks ready to go to me, along with Cam Good and then Shaq Barrett's retirement on the eve of camp or a couple days before camp. You wouldn't expect this group to have a lot of production, but lo and behold, they have because Quentin Bell again, that's all I'll put there. Just he's just been playing with his hair on fire all camp long. Chop Robinson had a speed to power rush and one on ones that got Austin Jackson on skates, and there aren't many guys doing that these days. I also saw him rush over the guard in that period and give the guards issues, which going back to his Penn State days, he would be a nosebacker and line up in the A gaps and give guys fits that way. I just think he's going to give teams problems because of pure physical traits, and it might take him some time to get everything down from a rundown perspective. Early down perspective getting off blocks and all that that might take some time that we haven't had a chance to really get a great look at with a lot of non padded practices. But you can't tell me there's not a specific issue that he can cause. Opposing pass protection schemes on obvious passing downs right away from the jump come be a special talent. I think you know you probably with Phillips coming back. I think earlier than sooner or then later. Sooner than later, I should say, and maybe not maybe not full go. This is kind of speculative, but think about having like a manual Ogbas his kind of rundown guy, and then maybe Quentin Bell's the rundown guy early on. Then you go to chopping JP in passing situations, just kind of flushing this thing out as we get healthier at that spot. I just don't think it's going to be as big of a problem as maybe you or I even anticipated. As we headed in a training camp, I also had Mo Kamara going speed to power, splitting blocks, playing fast and physical. Gosh, he looks impressive too. Do you guys remember when Mo Kamara did a presser back in OTA's Probably not and you definitely weren't there to see this, but we talked about it in the press conference. He was studying film on his iPad as we approached his table to do this media availability, and he when we got over there, he closed it and did his media availability, and he was like, I'm not trying to waste any time. I want to get this defense now as fast as I possibly can. So if I have fifteen seconds to look at a play here, I'm gonna do it. So I asked him, Hey, how's it been going since that day picking up this defense to now?
Oh? Much much, much much.
You know, Coach Crowe, Coach Beeve, they do a great job of getting pushing information to us, pushing information to off. Also this our assistant coach Ryan, he does a.
Great job of They do a great job of even if you do have a question in stopping and give you that one on one feedback and.
Stuff like that.
So it's been really, really well.
And Mo had an awesome play where he blew up the tight end. It was Hayden Rouchie that the Wisconsin rookie and forced the back to bubble two wide to make any yards again. Bubbles when you extend your track back towards your own goal line, which allows pursuit to get there. And in the National Football League, if you bubble at all, pursuit arrives, and he's really getting after it in the run game on top of his rush. So I gave you four names with Agbah, Quentin Bell, JP, and Chop Robinson. I think Mo Kamara is right there, and I think Grayson Murphy is right there. And speaking of Grays and Murphy, he had a play today this once again, and I asked Ryan Crow, Dolphins outside linebackers coach, about how he's fitting in, and he said something that was confirmation to me. He said, you know, you watched the UCLA defense last year. They did a lot of stuff that we want to do. And it's true, lots of games and condensed rushers from the outside coming inside. Just a good compliment of Grays and Murphy's skill set and how I think it benefits him here. All right, let's go ahead and take our last break right there, and we'll finish up on the offensive side. No quarterback talk. Two segments in. Who is this guy behind the microphone? Are you even Travis Wingfield? Yeah, it's me. How do you like that? We'll do that next, and all the offense and a couple more notes on defense, mostly in extra points form. That's all next, along with Orange Jersey Predictions Draft on podcast to your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Atnation, I said I would get back to Skyler, and here is that promise. Let's go back to Scyler Thompson, Dolphins quarterback, who talked about the way he's seeing it better his third year into the system, you.
Know, not thinking about the little tedious things of the offense. It kind of is the second nature to me in some way. Shapes or form just allows allows me to play faster, you know, I feel like and that's what I felt so far this camp. And you know, just being able to move on to the second third level things with this offense, you know, not just learning the formations and shift trades and emotions all that type of stuff, Like you know that stuff pretty well now. So it's it's being able to expand on that and really being able to grow and truly what the system is.
And I wanted to play that because to me, it shows I've been talking about it all camp long. Replacing Blitz is with the football that's seeing it the ball's coming out hot. He's been more productive. There's you know, the rookie year tape where you kind of get it frustrated by the ball being held onto for too long. It's not games yet, but I don't see that happening, and it makes me very excited. And I gotta say this. You know, it was Tua who kind of had what an old schylar practice might have looked like in terms of the football, you know, not getting out and here's the caveat and some inside Bay why you should not trust play by play pactice reports, even from myself who don't know these types of things going into it. The practice was called for a lot of play calls that asked a lot of the quarterback, particularly against coverages that weren't beneficial to him. And I saw, you know, I think it was was Kevin Clark from Omaha Productions who had a great riff on the downfall of social media and the overall dumbing down of football audiences through aggregation websites. He talked about how Patrick Mahomes' first year was used for sharpening his game what he can get away with, and he threw like seven picks in the first four days of practice as a rookie, where Aaron Rodgers saying that that's his time of year to try to really maximize and take chances and see what he can get away with or which receivers he can trust to be in certain spots, because the location of the football in a practice isn't going to kill you if it's off in those situations. And I think that applies here to what Tua went through today. And one of the you know, the best quarterbacks in the league is as they use these practices to really stretch the envelope and find out what they can do and get away with. And you know, if the play call that he had was against the coverage that wasn't beneficial, stay with those looks, even if the look wasn't a good one, like you're throwing into you know, oh, if we're going to run this this cross, this deep bender against cover three, well, if he flattens that over route into the you know deep third, there's a guy for that. There's a defender for that. If he keeps the bender on the post, there's a middle field safety for that. But let's go ahead and run it anyways and see what it looks like. Put it on tape and we can maybe better improvise from that look. So rather than getting out of the play, let's put it on tape and see how we can sharpen our reeds and quickness which by which we process. So the two offense had a lot of coverage sacks, again going back to that Ramsey and fuller portion of the show, and I think that's okay. It's it's okay to get some stuff on tape where two it can dissect tough looks and get better from it. Because again, that's training camp. It's not about how many yards you throw for out here on practice. No one cares about preseason stats. What was two preseason stats last year? And but remember them? But you don't. I don't either practice stats. Definitely remember that. But Tua was in the orange jersey after being absolutely diabolically surgical and I use those that term, you know, emphatically on Thursday because he was. And this tells me that Tua will come out tomorrow at the stadium and put on an absolute show. Now, all of that said, he did have a twenty yard rip to waddle, had some really good decisions in the short game in terms of not there up top, not there vertically check this thing down to Raheem Moster, to Jonan Smith, to Devon ah Chan and pick up some yards. He did throw a couple of picks, but there was one deep shot that was in a kind of like hell Mary situation where the pressure was in. It was like his third or fourth read, and by the time he let this thing go, Tyreek was already forty five yards downfield. And if you ever see Tyreek run a deep route and catch a touchdown for this team, if he's going to catch a vertical route to what has to throw it by like by no more than twenty yards downfield. Usually it's ten or fifteen yards downfield. But if you kind of lose it the forty five and the ball takes four seconds to get there, that means Tyreek is now ninety yards away, which no quarterback and throw the football that far. So this ball hung up there and Ethan Bonner got back there for a So just something to keep in mind from context. You know, they sometimes they run these end of half situation stuff where it's either incomplete throw it away, or maybe you try a window and you throw a pick end of half, because who cares if you throw a pick. It's the same thing as you know, the clock running out. And I saw a couple of fans like throwing their hands up today because two was throwing the ball away on a drill where it was midfield. Fifteen seconds, no timeouts left, end of the first half. We need to get the ball advanced and then kill it with a clock play to have a chance at a field goal. And if it's not there, if your first read is not there, take a sack. The half's over throw it away and he would do that, and I saw hands going up, like just look at the scoreboard. That's all you have to do. Let's go a little bit faster here, extra points to close the podcast out as we are approaching the thirtieth minute or probably over it a little bit by now. Jalen Wright, he's nice, dude, He is nice. I cannot wait to watch him in game action. He hits the gap with so much conviction and it's quick like once that gap opens, he's in it full speed and then he drops his shoulder or gets skinny. And I saw him lower a shoulder on Marcus May and pushed him a good five yards back before slowing down. I thought Willie Sneed's release package looked very, very polished. That's a good sign. I think he's obviously here for some depth options and a received room that's a little bit banged up right now. Julian Hill had another really good day. You just feel his physicality off the edge. We do have two soundbites from him to roll here real quick. First, the question was what did last year teach you about this year? And this play is nicely off of the John Embrey comments from yesterday about what a first year player does compared to a second year player. Let's go ahead and listen in the.
Details of the game last year. I'm just trying to run my route right, Coach says, running out route. I'm running the out route. Coach says, block this guy. I'm just blocking this guy. But now I'm understanding, Okay, what the second second level doing if I have inside leverage too hot? Shelle, Now I know it's a little pit instade level two. Man, how I'm gonna win on the top of the route. When to win late in the drive, win early in the drive? You know what I mean. So it's just none of all the intrinsing details, because that's what I think makes you a really good player at this level.
I also wanted to ask Julian about his perspective in a kind of unique situation that he runs that nobody else besides the other tight ends and alec Ingol runs where he comes across the formation and that jet motion and then has that wrap block off the edge where he contains the defensive end. And he gave me great perspective on that. What's your perspective going into those blocks back to the Dolphins tight end for sure.
Yeah, it's just you know, staying on your angles, staying with good pad level. You know, most of the time edge defenders they have one job and that's to you know, keep containing. So he just knowing that you can meet them at a certain angle and just staying on your angle with you know, good pad level just like anything else. You know, low man's gonna win on the edge and just you know, having that mindset to be physical, be nasty as Embo likes to call it, and you know, win to.
Play all right, More quick points. Brayln Sanders has had a very nice week. Kind of a nice catch on a deep throw over the middle from Mike White today. I thought Rob Jones was fantastic, and he's had a really good week at camp as well, and continues to progress towards a possible starting opportunity if that, if that makes itself available. His relationship between his hands and his feet like he's always chopping his feet and the hand punch looks you know, fast and intentional. He he goes gets his block too. He's been picking up the different games and going out and finding the looper before they have a chance to angle around that corner and build up speed. He goes and gets it. And he's also played with an edge. I thought Rob Jones had a really good day on the offensive line. Thought Aaron Brewer had another fantastic day, really clean past that to continues to get outside on some wide runs. I thought Lester Cotton got some good surge in the running game today. I mentioned that to Kyle, like, I don't know Less was having a good day today. He said, well, yeah it is. You know, he is going against you know, certain threes and four, so that's something to you know, think about some defenders I forgot about. Zach Seeler had a sack and his effort just always is on display. Also an absolute one on one pass rush clinic from Steeler today, Deshan Han did a good job pushing the pocket pretty consistently. I felt Jonathan Harris had a sack in team drills. He's really picked it up the last five or six days or so. And then saran Neil I mentioned this to Kyle, Are we sure he's just a special teams guy? Because he makes plays at cornerback every day and there's a real intensity to him. And you know, Kyle told me that Joe Marino, locked on Bill's podcast Friend of Our Podcast, said that he would go up to camp every year and be like, all right, I'm excited to see more reps from saran Neil at cornerback, and they wouldn't do it. And he said that he would talk to the coaching staff, you know, at Media Availabilities and like, well, he's so valuable to us on special teams that it's more of a break glass, you know, in case of emergency. And maybe that's what they view it here. I don't know. I don't know the thinking there, but when I watch him play cornerback, he looks really damn good. Actually, last one here, So Jason Miitre had a run stuff today. Another pick in one on ones. That's two picks in two days, and one on ones in a drill that is designed for the offense to make the defense look silly, very fun day. Let's do some rough days real quick. Austin Jackson wasn't his best day, but he's been a good all camp long, so not concerned about that at all. Jaquan Burton had a couple of drops, bracks and barrios. Just there's not the extra gear there on the vertical shots, and it's they've been so close to some deep balls from two of the just didn't quite get reeled down by the receiver trying to accelerate through that. Hayden Roucchie, Andrew Meyer, Ryan Hayes, Ethan Bonner, and Patrick mc morris were all guys that were kind of getting picked on. My it's a little bit today. Orange Jersey predictions for the scrimmage at hard Rockstadum tomorrow. I got Jalen Ramsey's my first pick, Kendall Fuller is my second, and Rob Jones is my offensive pick there. So if you guys want to come out to the scrimmage, go ahead and reserve your tickets right now. Miami Dolphins training camp dot com. You can do that. Come out. It's free to watch the practice at eleven o'clock tomorrow morning. Gates open at ten, so we will see you guys out there. In the meantime. You all please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Spotify. Review your podcast from go ahead, leave us a rating, Leave us a review. You can follow me on social at winkfold NFL and the team at Miami Dolphins. Check out the fish Tank podcast with Seth and Juice, the YouTube channel for media Availabilities, Dolphins Today, Drag Time content, and so much more, and last but not least, Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time, Fins Up, Calin and Cameron Daddy Stumping home
