Thursday: Dolphins Move On from McDaniel

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I remember a game.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
I think it was in the twenty four season when
Miami was having a little bit of a renaissance, and
I think they were playing Philadelphia on a Monday night.
I believe that was a Monday night game, Dolphins at Eagles,
and I think the Dolphins at the time were either
five and one or six, and I was something like that.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Then there was.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
A lot of people thinking that the Dolphins were for real.
And I made the comment that day that my concern
about the Dolphins is not the cold weather. It was
an October game and it was sixty five degrees, so
cooler than two I would probably like it, but certainly
not thirties where he kind of, you know, that isn't
able to perform at all. And I just didn't think

(00:38):
that the Miami Dolphins were very tough, not on the
offensive line, not in the defensive line. They were kind
of a finesse football team. If they could get in
a track meet with you and you didn't tackle them
very hard, and they could run up and down the
field and they could shadow block you, they were going
to win the game.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
But if they had if you.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
Had to hit somebody to open up a hole for
their running back or hit somebody to get to the quarterback.
They weren't up to that, and that's exactly the way
the game played out. And I just don't think that
the Miami Dolphins the last couple of years have been
a very physical football team, and that's one of the
things that they're gonna have to get to if they're
going to win, especially in that division, because Buffalo certainly

(01:18):
is when they've been in their heyday. The Jets are irrelevant.
They haven't shown that they can play anyway in a while,
and New England is starting to get that kind of
reputation as well, and certainly the rest of the NFC
when you look at the Steelers and the Ravens and
even the Chiefs defensively have been a hard hitting, physical
football team in the offensive line two for some time.

(01:41):
So that's going to be, to me, has to be
the charge of the Dolphins going forward. And I can
tell you that most Dolphin fans are hoping that it's
John Harbaugh that becomes a coach because his teams in
Baltimore did play physical. Now this year they were hurt,
especially defensively, so they didn't get the chance to play
as physical, but I think that's that's keep number one.

(02:04):
The second part of the equation is what do you
do at quarterback? And my thought is this is is
Quinn yours the quarterback of your future? And if you
think he is, whether you're John Harbarr, whoever you hire
to be your offensive coordinator and part of your offensive staff,
if you think he is, then it's time to probably

(02:26):
move on from Tua. If you don't think he is,
or he's going to be a career backup, then you've
got to find a quarterback, whether it's too or somebody else.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
Do you keep Tua for another year? Do you try
to move him now?

Speaker 2 (02:40):
Because there isn't really a lot of quarterback depth in
this draft, and especially if with Mendoza and More basically
be being one and two, and most people think that
Mendoza is limited because he doesn't throw the ball deep
down field a lot for Indiana and that More is
a little bit limited because of his youth and he
really hasn't figured out how to play football yet and

(03:01):
will be the better quarterback down the road, But do
you have time for him to develop right now? If
you're going to go after a quarterback that's not named
Tua or Quinn eers, it better be somebody that can
be the franchise guy for the next several years. I
don't think you need to go to the Kirk Cousins
route or get some free agent in there or stop
gap for a year, unless you decide we're going to

(03:24):
go that direction and we're going to get everything else
well for whoever we get a quarterback down the road.
But if you get a guy like Kirk Cousins in
the mix, then all of a sudden, you're not going
to be drafting at the eleventh spot. You're probably gonna
win enough games to be a playoff team or on
the verge of one and be drafting somewhere around the twenties.
My thought if I'm the Dolphins is I would kind

(03:46):
of go that route, unless I would go that route
if I could get somebody to give me a future
number one pick for Tua, because I don't want to
draft who's ever in the draft this year. I'm pretty
convinced that the Raiders are going to take either Mendoza
or more and the Jets are going to take the
other one, and then the Cardinals are going to be
out and left field looking for somebody to play a

(04:07):
quarterback because the rest of them aren't worthy of a
third round pick. I would move on from Tua, and
I would see if I could make a trade to
where I could get next year's number one from somebody.
I don't think it's going to be very good that
needs a quarterback, but it's probably going to be in
amongst the worst five teams in the league next year.
I don't think the Jets are going to be very
good next year. If the Jets are interested in Tua, yes,

(04:29):
I'll take him for a player of this year and
your first round draft pick next year, because I think
you're going to suck again next year, and maybe I'll
get a top three or four pick in the draft,
because I think you have to while you have to
build a quarterback. I don't think this is a one
year fix for John Harbaugh or anybody else in Miami.
I think he can get them from seven wins to

(04:50):
nine or ten wins, just because of the chemistry that
he'll have as a coach. But to get them from
ten wins to twelve or thirteen wins is not till
twenty twenty seven. I don't see that happening in twenty
twenty six, regardless of how he structures the roster. So
if I'm going to pick at eleven and I can
get to it for a future pick, then I want
to make sure my offensive line and defensive line is

(05:11):
the most physical in the league this year, and then
try to get as much as I can out of
the offense to get into a position to where I
can taste the playoffs or be the last team out,
and then in twenty twenty seven be a winning playoff team.

Speaker 3 (05:27):
Where does the where does this Dolphins job rank in
the available jobs to you? Because I think obviously Baltimore's
probably the best team, it's the best organization, it's well
and you have your quarterback.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
Yeah, well, it's the it's the family that runs it.
It used to be the Modell family. I don't know
that they're still in charge, but they've always It's kind
of interesting because Art Modell when he moved the team
from Cleveland to Baltimore, brought Ozzie knew Something along with him,
who was one of the greatest Gennel managers.

Speaker 1 (05:56):
Of all time.

Speaker 2 (05:57):
And as as they've taught the people but need them
to run the organization, they've kept the same mindset and
it's a very well run organization. Injuries this year are
why they're not in the playoffs more so than anything else.
They would have won three or four more games in
October had their team not been devastated with injuries, and
that just goes to show you the backups are backups
for a reason. But yes, I think Baltimore is the

(06:19):
best job, with the best organization that's out there. And
it's one of the reasons why I think it was
kind of puzzling that they got rid of John Harbaugh.

Speaker 1 (06:25):
I don't think he was the problem.

Speaker 3 (06:27):
See and looking at you know, we all agree Baltimore
is the clear number one, and then it's kind of
everybody else in whatever order you think. I'm not so
sure this Dolphins opening isn't the worst of the eight
right now, because every other one that's available either has
their quarterback, has the guy, like Tennessee has cam Ward,

(06:48):
the guy they think is going to be their quarterback,
or in the situation with Vegas has the pick at
the top of the draft to get their guy. And
you look at you know where Miami is currently Miami is.
We think of the Dolphins as a heritage brand, but
they've done just as little winning in the postseason as

(07:11):
the Browns over the last thirty years.

Speaker 1 (07:14):
Exactly.

Speaker 2 (07:15):
I mean, so it's the Raiders, Dolphins, Browns, Atlanta, Tennessee.

Speaker 1 (07:18):
Those are five of.

Speaker 2 (07:20):
The job openings, and the others are trying to remember
who the other two are.

Speaker 1 (07:27):
Say those again of the Giants.

Speaker 3 (07:29):
Yeah, I think Giants is a great job.

Speaker 2 (07:32):
Well, especially with the fact that they've got Dart in
Scataboo and neighbors that only good started for your offen.

Speaker 3 (07:37):
The only problem is your general manager is still Joe shown.

Speaker 1 (07:41):
Well that if I'm if I'm the Marra family, he's
not long for this world.

Speaker 3 (07:44):
Yeah, now I think the worst I think the argument
at the bottom of the rankings is which job is worst,
Miami or Arizona. Because you're both, you're kind of in
the same position, which is also why it wouldn't surprise
me if Tua and Kyler were to end up just
getting trade to straight up for each other, because it
feels like just you're stuck with those guys financially. You

(08:06):
know they're not taking you anywhere, but it's who you
have under contract with all that dead money. I don't
know what you do to get out of that there's
just not a lot of immediate hope to climb out
of that.

Speaker 1 (08:17):
Thus, I brought this up the other day with the Raiders.

Speaker 2 (08:20):
And I know the WNBA is a completely different league
than in the NFL.

Speaker 1 (08:24):
It's apples and oranges. I get it.

Speaker 2 (08:26):
But Mark Davis has hit a home run with the
Las Vegas ass They are always competitive. He hired the
best possible coach.

Speaker 1 (08:34):
GM and Becky. He hit a home run there.

Speaker 2 (08:37):
And I don't understand why you can have arguably the
best run franchise in one league and arguably the worst.

Speaker 1 (08:45):
Run franchise in another league.

Speaker 2 (08:47):
I mean, I don't understand how you combat zero in
one situation and about one thousand in the other. And yes,
I know the leagues are different, but you still have
to build culture, and you have to build structure, and
you have to are a GM and a coach that
knows what they're doing, and they clearly have in one
league and they clearly have it in the other. And
so to me, the Raiders' job is attractive because they

(09:09):
have genty and they have Max Crosby, and they have
good position players in other places. Now they just have
to find the right guy to mold that team, not
only from a coaching standpoint, but from a GM standpoint
as well.

Speaker 3 (09:23):
Yeah, and I think you know, the Vegas one is
way more desirable for all of those reasons than you
know at Atlanta kind of into that same group.

Speaker 2 (09:32):
Atlanta seems to be a ruddlers ship almost every.

Speaker 3 (09:35):
Year, almost every and they you know that the.

Speaker 1 (09:37):
Worst job is Cleveland.

Speaker 2 (09:38):
I mean, I'm sorry, when you have six coaches in
twelve and ten years, that's the worst job.

Speaker 3 (09:42):
That's the worst organization. Yeah, and who's gonna play quarterback?
I was about to say, I mean it's hard to
go to.

Speaker 2 (09:48):
Schadur and uh and the guy from Oregon slash OUs quarterbacks.

Speaker 3 (09:54):
Outside of the quarterback that you paid to not take
a single snap this year in Deshaun Watson.

Speaker 1 (10:00):
Which he shouldn't take another snap ever in his life.

Speaker 3 (10:02):
Yeah, besides him, you're not committed to any any of
those other guys financially.

Speaker 2 (10:08):
And you're the one that really skewed the quarterback market
by overpaying for a player that has no business even
playing right now because of his behavior.

Speaker 3 (10:15):
And giving him one hundred percent fully guaranteed money.

Speaker 2 (10:18):
Yes, that that that was you were asleep with a
switch on that, all right, coming up, we got more
stuff to get to it in the six o'clock hour.
We'll talk more football with the playoffs coming.

Speaker 1 (10:29):
Up this weekend, and we got we got to talk
about Trey Young. What is he thinking? Five point forty
seven on the ticket