NFL Preseason Best Bets: Dolphins vs Falcons Preview

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00:00Welcome back to Newswire, another night of NFL preseason games, one that we'll focus

00:07on here in just a few minutes.

00:09Dolphins and Falcons will be played at Hard Rock Stadium.

00:12Adam Beasley is covering the Dolphins for Pro Football Network, also covering the National

00:16Football League.

00:17I feel like, Adam, it has been...

00:18I'm going to take a shot at this.

00:19I'm going to take a shot.

00:20I feel like you have covered, in some way, South Florida and the Dolphins, I'm going

00:25to say, for 12 years.

00:30Is that too...

00:31Am I underselling you on that?

00:33Is that right?

00:34Yes.

00:35That's close.

00:36Without going over, you'd be good, and the price is right.

00:37I've been here since 06, so 18 years now.

00:42I did some news work with the Miami Herald for a while, but I have definitely been working

00:47media in this market for way too long.

00:49Yeah, 18 years.

00:50I said 12.

00:51Look, I undersold the guy there, but I've known Adam for a long time, too, at least

00:5410.

00:55Okay.

00:56So, Dolphins going into the season.

00:58They've made a lot of different headlines, and there's some more even going on right

01:01now with injuries.

01:02We'll get to that in a minute.

01:03But let's start off with the players who left in the offseason, and honestly, some players,

01:09I think, could potentially have an impact, and some, I think, were more adieu about just

01:13getting replacements for them, including Shaq Barrett, who we didn't show here, never ended

01:16up playing at all for them.

01:18But Van Ginkle went to the Vikings.

01:20Wilkins was the big one who signed that contract with the Raiders.

01:23Zavion Howard was fantastic for many years.

01:26He left through free agency, and then the Dolphins pivoted by signing Barrett, who it

01:33says that he's in addition here, but he retired already, Frank.

01:36Odell Beckham Jr., Jonathan Harris, I mean, these are not a ton of names that people know,

01:42except for like Calais Campbell, maybe, and a couple of other players.

01:44Did they do enough on defense, Adam, to keep up with how good their offense is going to

01:48be?

01:49Yeah, they never were going to be able to replace one for one.

01:52I mean, I don't think Christian Wilkins, he's just too dynamic and versatile of a player.

01:55He meant too much for their defense for any one guy to replace.

01:58I definitely think the Campbell addition has helped, but what they're trying to do is replace

02:02the aggregate, have enough different parts that kind of makes up for what he brought.

02:09They're going to have a lot more of a rotation.

02:11I mean, their offensive tackles, and Sealer's back this year, Zach Sealer, but he and Wilkins

02:15played an obscene amount of snaps last year, and I would assume that would have come down

02:19for Sealer, certainly.

02:21They're going to need to fill all those snaps for Wilkins.

02:23I think you're going to see probably, they're going to play, it's going to be an odd man

02:27front, so I count defensive ends and nose tackles all in the same batch, and each of

02:32those three positions, three end positions, the nose tackle, I think they're going to

02:35have probably seven maybe guys play in that rotation, at the very least six, and just

02:41keep throwing bodies in there.

02:43Yeah, and that's the thing, as you mentioned, the aggregate, we've heard that term on Moneyball

02:47before, and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

02:50But the aggregate also was accomplished in the draft, where the Dolphins very clearly

02:54early on had the idea of, hey, we are going to have to get an edge rusher.

02:59That is the key in the NFL, getting to the quarterback.

03:01So they drafted Chop Robinson, and naturally there's going to be some other bit players

03:05that they will fit in, Jalen Wright being one of those, but let's focus here on Robinson.

03:10You know, I'm following along here, as training camp is going, I got to tell you, I haven't

03:14seen his name mentioned all that much, so maybe I'm just not reading the right material

03:19or seeing the right things here.

03:21How has he looked so far?

03:22I guess the Elon algorithm has jacked up for you, because we've been writing about Chop

03:27Robinson a ton.

03:29He's had, I would say, he's definitely had the most impactful training camp of all the

03:34rookies, I think, bar none.

03:37He's been pretty active in the backfield.

03:39He's not going to be the big edge setter.

03:41I think that's why they went out and signed Campbell and brought back Emanuel Agua after

03:44Barrett retired, to your point.

03:47If you're looking for a guy who can give you 30, 35 solid pass rush reps a game, Chop Robinson

03:54more than fits that bill.

03:55I mean, they're going to need him, particularly early on, because both Dylan Phillips and

04:00Bradley Chubb are both coming off of reconstructive surgeries.

04:03We don't know the timelines for either.

04:05If I were a betting man, I would say Phillips has a much better chance of being ready for

04:09the opener than Chubb.

04:11He got hurt a month before, and he just seems to have really taken to his rehab well.

04:16But even still, even if you're able to get both Chubb and Phillips back for week one,

04:20they're not going to be playing the number of snaps early on, at least.

04:23You're going to need to have another strong pass rusher, and Chop's been really good.

04:27Now, certainly it helps that he's gone against Patrick Paul a lot in practice.

04:31I don't think Paul's going to be in their plans to play, even as the number three or

04:37even four tackle early on.

04:38I think this is going to be a pretty true redshirt year for him, and we've seen why.

04:43But I think of that matchup, you've got to be the most encouraged, obviously, of Chubb,

04:47because he's been beaten a second-round pick pretty recordly in practice.

04:51All right.

04:52So now, before we get to the season outlook, let's talk about tonight, Dolphins play the

04:57Falcons.

04:58Based on the reports that I've seen, the receivers room has been decimated, at least to start

05:04with.

05:05They brought in a lot of receivers from outside the room, and I've watched those press conferences

05:09with the head coach.

05:10I got to tell you, they're very strange, to say the least.

05:14I don't know what to make of them.

05:16Who do we expect to see play tonight on the side of the Dolphins?

05:19Anybody of interest?

05:20You're going to see meaningful snaps from the likes of Willie Snead, Malik Washington.

05:25I don't even know if they're going to play River Craycraft tonight, because usually the

05:29first preseason game is truly a backup's game for the Dolphins.

05:33If there's some of these position battles, like interior defensive line safety, where

05:38they need to have clarity as early as possible, those guys will play.

05:41But if you know you're on the team and you have a pretty good idea of what your role

05:44is, you're not going to see the field much tonight.

05:46So yeah, what they need, or they haven't had yet, what they need at some point soon is

05:52have Tyreek Hill, Jalen Waldo, and Odell Beckham Jr. all on the field at the same time, because

05:56they have to have at least some kind of sense what that trio is going to look like.

05:59I know they have a vision for all three of those guys.

06:03The Dolphins kind of stagnated last year because teams knew on third down just to double Tyreek

06:08they'll double Jalen, and there's no other answer.

06:10That's all they can do.

06:11Beckham's brought in to break that logjam and to really open things up.

06:15And they've got John and Smith as well, who they hope can take advantage of some one-on-one.

06:19So all those names I just told you, unfortunately, you're probably not going to see them tonight.

06:24It's just how McDaniel runs his preseason.

06:26Yep, and that's the way it's gone for years past, too.

06:29Their season win total, Adam, is nine and a half, with a little juice toward the over

06:32here.

06:33I feel like this is a really good number.

06:35Early on in the season, we would have thought Miami would have flown over this number last

06:38year, and they kind of landed right around it.

06:40What do you anticipate this year?

06:41Yeah, I think the division winner is going to have 10 wins.

06:44It had 11 last year.

06:46I think it's even tighter.

06:48I think 10 and 7 absolutely could get it done.

06:49And I think that nine and a half suggests they're going to be in the hunt.

06:52They're going to be close to that.

06:54It all depends on, to your point, how they handle that preseason juggernaut they've got

06:59of teams.

07:00The last six opponents are all going to be in the playoff hunt.

07:03Dolphins need to start faster.

07:05They're going to have a real tough December and January.

07:07Yeah, it looks like the toughest schedule in the NFL the last couple of months.

07:09Adam, great to catch up with you.

07:10Thanks again for coming on Newswire.

07:11I really appreciate it.

07:12Anytime, Greg.

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