January 29, 2025 • 38 mins
Lee and Simon review the 2024 season and announce their choices for the end of season awards. Listen to find out who they select as Team MVP, best free agent signing, the unsung hero and a lot more!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's up Dolphins is juice and big Seth. You're listening
to the Dolphin UK podcast and juice, I can't wait
to dive in. Let's go on, Jeep, Steve take them
(00:29):
away around. Hello and welcome to the Dolphin UK podcast
and our much awaited season review. We finally got there
(00:49):
after some breaking Spanish news last week. First of all,
I want to introduce my host Simon. How you do Simon?
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Yeah, well, very well, thank you Lee. Yeah, looking forward
to doing this episode as always. But it was nice
to chat with Hugo on the back of the Madrid
announcement last week, wasn't it. So some good insights into
what we can expect going to Madrid, but that's in
the future course. And obviously today we'll focus on the
end of season review and one or two other bits
and pieces.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Absolutely, and I think to start off, should we go
through some notes and some news notes that just pupped up.
The Dolphins are reportedly hiring a new wide receiver coach
to replace Where's Welker aside don't give a little bit
more information.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Yeah, the news broke via Tom Pellisiero last week that
the Dolphins have reportedly turned to Dallas Cowboys wide receiver
coach Robert Prince to fill the vacancy following Were's Welker's
departure of the team. He brings with him a wealth
of experience on the offensive side of the ball, both
at the NFL and college levels, and he had his
first NFL position came with the Atland Falcons in two
(01:56):
thousand and four. But he's worked his way up the
ranks now and he was a similar wide receiver coach
at the Cowboys. Actually, so later or move for him,
but obviously it feels the need for the Dolphins, so
we'll look to see what different team makes to that
wide receiver corps. But pleasing to know that he brings
a wealth of experience at that kind of role, which
is great for the team.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Absolutely always needed when you're replacing someone with experience on
the team. And in exciting news, Johnny Smith has been
named to the Pro Bowl Games as an alternate.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Yeah, it's great. I mean, the Dolphins didn't have any
phnominees this year, did they to the Pro Bowl. So
it's at least recognition for the efforts he made. And
you never know, he might crop up in one or
two of our end of season awards that we're going
to give out later we shall see, but great to
see his efforts being recognized and awarded a spot on
the Pro Bowl Games roster, should.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
We say, Yeah? And I think it's kind of I'm
sure not at the end of the season that he
would have wanted in regards to I'm sure he would
rather have been playing in the Super Bowl than going
to the Pro Bowl Games. But it feels like an
app ending at Cherry on top of the season, you know,
breaking Dolphins records, breaking personal records, and then getting your
first provoal not as well, even if it is an alternate,
(03:11):
I think you know it deserves that for the tremendous
season that he put together this year. Yeah. Absolutely, So
that being said, let's move on to some of our
thoughts for the last season starter review, and let's just
start really high level. What were your thoughts on the season?
Speaker 2 (03:27):
So, I think one word disappointed springs to mind. I
think considering we came into the season with very high
expectations and they felt they were quite justified as well,
giving given the performance certainly on the offense last season
and with a new defensive coach hoping to make an
impact this year, and anthink weaver, of course think I
(03:49):
don't think it was unreasonable to expect a little bit
of progress on last year. Obviously, last season they got
to the wild card against the Chiefs, and you're looking
to take the next step beyond that, and that was
a realistic goal. Over the years, I've come to expect
not a lot when it comes to the Dolphins and
(04:10):
getting the playoffs, and this year was the first time
in a long while I thought they had a really
good opportunity to do something good and better than the
previous season. So to not achieve that goal was disappointing
the end. And obviously they had a four years in
a row with a winning record, and that streak also
(04:30):
came to an end. And that was a streak to
be proud of because only three other teams in the
whole of the NFL had got that, with the Chiefs,
the Bills, and the Steelers alongside the Dolphins the only
teams to have a winning record over the last four seasons.
So that was a streak I was quite proud of
the team having, and of course they've relinquished that now
and because in these days of the NFL's that's not
(04:53):
an easy thing to maintain, so overall disappointing. How about
ye Lee, what were your thoughts? I know you're always
is the optimist coming into every season. You're always hoping
for a Super BOWLD appearance. Of course, what your thoughts
in terms of how the season turned out?
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Yeah, I mean, obviously I think you summed it up right.
You know, disappointment has to be the way you look
at I think when you we'll go through it later.
But when we looked at our season marks that we predicted, you,
me and Travis all came up that I think the
same answer. I think we all went twelve and five,
and yeah, you know that didn't feel unrealistic. It's probably
(05:37):
a little bit of case of the same old story
in regards to it feels like there was enough talent
and enough games there to be one to put this
team into the playoffs, but ultimately it was injuries that
held the team back. And you know, I said a
couple of weeks ago, it's where do you see that
as a reasoner or an excuse? Is? You know, is
(05:59):
in the eye the beholder? Either way? You know, effectually
there was weeks there where you were not fielding your
strongest team due to injuries. It's a tough one to swallow,
isn't it, because you know that there was so much more,
and as it's always the case in the NFL, you
know that change is ultimately coming across the roster because
that's just the nature of the NFL and the way
(06:21):
these teams were.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Should we go break down our thoughts on the offensive
and defensive side of the ball league, because I think
there are cases to be had for good and bad
in terms of looking at both sides independently. I know
we've just given a high level overview, but there were
periods where the offense were good and not so good,
and the same on the defense. Really, so shall we
(06:45):
split the review and look at each unit independently.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Yeah, let's do that. Let's start on offense. I thought,
for me, on offense, the offensive as far as Tour went,
and that's not meant disrespectfully to the other guys that
came in and played, I thought they did the best
they could in in you know, difficult circumstances, in a
difficult system. We were a lot of expectation. There's a
lot of people that thought that they would be able
(07:09):
to come in and just continue on the way Tour
plays in the offense, and then I think we found
that that's not necessarily a easy or the case that
someone could just come in and do that. I think
we saw to a player an incredibly high level at times,
I think, and this would be reflected later in our
plays of the year. For me, there were some plays
too and made where I thought he showed real growth
(07:31):
from the player that we've seen over the last few years,
and it's it's what gives me cause for optimism. But yeah, essentially,
it was games that we went into to a start
and felt like games we could win. The games we
went into with him start and felt almost like don't lose,
as opposed to I think you can win.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Yeah, yeah, I absolutely agree with what you were saying there.
It became obvious, didn't it. As soon as Tour when
out injured early in the season. The performances dipped quite tremendously,
didn't they, And then conversely when he returned they picked
up again. But I still look at the picture and think, well,
(08:15):
there are still a lot of unanswered questions even when
Tour was playing. For example, the production of the wide
receivers Jalen Woddel and Tyreek Hill, for example, even with
Tour in the play in the offense, they weren't as
productive as they were last year, and that's something that
they're going to have to figure out ready for next season.
(08:35):
But it ultimately impacted on their production on their performance
levels this season. So it's not just all about Tour,
It's about finding ways to get your skill players involved
more as well. I mean, Rauhie Moster was one of
the best in the NFL at running back last year,
league leading number of touchdowns and this coming season didn't
(08:57):
play a lot and certainly in comparison last year, and
obviously Dane a Chan was clearly that the RB one
and he performed at a very high level. So you
can see where I'm coming from in terms of some
players playing at a high level as expected and some
players not playing at the level they were expected. And
that's a that's an issue to address going into next season.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Yeah, I think there's a Sorry, I just I think
it comes into I think there's a bit of a
consistency issue, isn't there there's games that you go into thinking, know,
this is a game where you're playing a team. Let's say,
for instance, that don't play well against the run for
some reason. Those would be games that we wouldn't necessarily
have our best games on the ground, and it's like,
(09:41):
why is it playing out that way when for every
other team that seems to be the only way to
combat this, whereas we would go in there and then
it'd be Jonny Smith and tour because we know the
wide receivers were struggling more than usual, but that seemed
to be kind of a consistent but it was the
up and down of the performances throughout the season. So
being interesting to see how they can take what they've
(10:02):
learned from this year and use it to move forward
and try and get that consistency.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
And it's reflected in the overall rankings. You look at.
The last year, the Dolphins ranked number one in yards
per game. This year they were ranked eighteenth. The passing
game was ranked fifteenth, and the Russian game twenty first,
So quite a fall from grace compared to what we
were seeing last year. And it's finding the answers to
those unanswered questions, if you like that, as to why
(10:30):
that was the case, and obviously improving it on it
ready for next season.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Yeah, it feels like there's a sustainability question, doesn't there
where you need to be a little bit more versatile
in regards to things that you can do at a
higher level rather than having a large gap between Plan
A and what Plan B might be. It seems to
be it causes some head scratching performances, doesn't it. I mean,
(10:56):
we were there in Week two and I know two
have got hurt in that game, but up until that
point that game was not going well on either side
of the ball. It was, oh no, this is another
one of those performances. But then the Dolphins go up
to Buffalo and play that same team and play them
close again like they have done over the last couple
of years. Is that inconsistency that causes you know, the
(11:19):
causes a problem, and I'm excited to see what coach
McDaniel does to try and to and rectify it. You know,
that's I think part of being a young coach. And
I think we saw a lot of nonsense in the
national media as to whether Mike McDaniel was on a
hot seat. You know, with young coaches, you have to
go through some you know, growing plaints is maybe the
(11:40):
wrong word, but it's that sort of thing. Do you
know what I mean? You can only learn on the job,
Like there is no kind of like. You can do
all the training as an assistant or in another position
on the coaching staff, but nothing replicates being a head coach.
So there has to be some some learning that you know,
there's going to be stuff that isn't perfect and stuff
(12:01):
that he's going to lookack and say, Okay, I need
to do that there, or I need to make sure
my team is in a position by doing this. But
the only way to experience that, unfortunately, is by riding
those lows as well as the highs.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
And I mentioned during the season as well, you talk
about inconsistency, and that was clearly evident a lot of
the time, where one week you have the offensive side
of the ball playing well and the defense didn't, and
then it was quite often reversed, especially earlier in the season,
when the offense struggled, it was the defense that kept
the team in games. But it's finding that level where
they both perform well every week, and there weren't too
(12:33):
many games where that actually occurred. I think we had
a couple perhaps at the end of the season, but overall,
it was one side of the ball was performing well
and the other one wasn't. And that's probably a nice
little segue into that defensive review, isn't it. Now we've
started to talk about them. Obviously, Anthony Weaver in the
first years as a defensive coordinator, he's gone for several
(12:56):
head coaching interviews and as yet we don't know the
outcome of those to view, So for now he's going
to remain as the DC. But what did you think
of the defense overallly and in particular how Anthony Weaver
developed that unit.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
It felt like the players got kind of adjusted to
his system far quicker than they did the previous year
under Vic Vangio, which I think was interesting. I thought
that their play was a little bit more, maybe a
bit more consistent than the offense. I thought we saw
some good performances they seem to find I don't know,
(13:33):
I'm not sure what the word I'm looking for here is.
It didn't seem like last year where there was obvious
holes at positions. It just seemed like when there was breakdowns,
it was just accidental break you know. It wasn't a
fundamental scheme problem. It was just a player making a
mistake on a play, which is going to happen as
opposed to we have a hole here. What we're going
to do on a week to week basis to try
and mask that deficiency?
Speaker 2 (13:56):
I think as well. You look at the again, the
overall ranking for the defense in terms of yards per game,
they ranked fourth in the NFL, which when you look
at it on a game by game basis, where they
were those mistakes made by individual players and the wear
issues around tackling or the wear issues around not getting
(14:18):
enough turnovers. That's quite a remarkable stat isn't it when
you think of it like that, and like say, fourth overall,
ninth against the past, ninth against the rush, and tenth
in terms of points allowed per game. So if you
would have been given those rankings at the start of
the season, we'd have probably taken it, wouldn't We Absolutely?
Speaker 1 (14:37):
And I think I think it's an interesting one because
I mentioned this on Kadem's show a couple of weeks ago.
The stats don't necessarily feel like what you watched did
that make? Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Like?
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Yeah, if I said to you were does the defense
rank without you knowing it ranked fourth against the run?
I don't know if that's where you would have put
them in the top five in you know what I mean.
I don't know if it's because maybe they were a
little bit lowering turnovers and there's some other teams big
splash he plays because they were getting off the field consistently,
So maybe that's what kind of like makes it feel
(15:11):
a little bit different to watching some other teams. But
I mean, overall, they said the performance was good. I
felt like they were heading in a good direction, they
were getting better. They obviously missed some pass rush with
you know, when Jane Phillips got hurt and Bradley Chubb
obviously not chaining late season, you know, but they still
found a way to create pressure. They got elevated performance
(15:32):
out as Zach Sealer with him really being the number
one guy there on the d line, which I thought was,
you know, great, because when you let a player like
Christian Wilkins walking free agency, there's always a risk that
the other guy doesn't take the step that you think
he's going to take. But z actually they did that.
You know he's going to give you maximum effort. And
(15:52):
then obviously you got huge play out of Claires Campbell.
Well yeah, I mean he was sorry. He was fun
to watch but also really productive.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Yeah, I mean, yeah, so there's obviously, I said earlier,
there's still question marks over whether Anthony Weaver will return
next season, depending on the outcome of those head coaching interviews.
But if he does, then obviously they've got some foundation
to build on, haven't they. And we know there's going
to be some player turnover regardless of who's DC. But
if they do manage to keep the same scheme next year,
then obviously that bodes well for next season. And they've
(16:20):
got some standards to maintain now and hopefully any new
players that come in will help elevate that even further.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Absolutely, and you know, the fact that your DC is
being interviewed for head coaching jobs is a huge It's
something you should be proud of. I mean, it means
it's a great high by moment. Daniel and other teams
have seen and respect what he's done here in the
first year, not enough just to get one interview, but
to be back for second interviews in places as well.
You know he's in serious consideration for the job, and
they're not just really putting feelers out. So I mean,
(16:49):
obviously i'd love to see him be the DC here,
maybe he gets their head coaching job, but also wouldn't
be a surprise. I don't because comes across incredibly well
we're speaking to the media, makes a lot of sense.
His team go out perform the way you'd expect them to,
not many issues in regards to discipline and stuff like that.
You know, that's the kind of guy you wanted a
hit coat. It loes like a leader.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Absolutely. I just want to mention special teams very briefly,
Lee in that Jason Sanders had an outstanding season in
the kicking game and making thirty seven or forty one
field goal and twelve or fourteen from fifty yards, which
is an incredibly high percentage conversion rate for fifty plus yards.
(17:31):
And also I wanted to give an out nod to
Many Washington as well, who took over the return job
from Braxton Burios when he got injured and has performed
pretty well, averaging thirty one yards per kickoff return, which
is pretty good to start from him. And obviously again
one of his plays on a kickoff return we might
even refer to later. But just wanted to give a
(17:52):
nod to those two individuals Lee because I thought they
planned outstanding on special teams last year.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Yeah. Absolutely. And it's funny, isn't it, because you know,
we were talking there about, especially on our fence, we
were talking about the wide receivers not having the year
that we expected, and you know, the year that not them,
just that we expected that we'd be. You know, you
almost seemed like it would just happen because it's what
(18:18):
they've done over the last couple of years. They were
still kind of close, do you know what I mean?
You know, Toyko's got forty one yards away from a
thousand yard season, and with every with everything that went
on throughout the season, that doesn't feel like that's too
far away from from a thousand yards General Models on
(18:39):
seven forty four but Johnny Smith on eight hundred and
eighty four yards. You know it's Yeah, it's the little things,
isn't it. It all mounts up, he does. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
So should we should we move on to our end
of season awards?
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Yes? Please?
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Yeah, I know we don't. I know, we haven't got
much to celebrate in the overall scheme of things because
the ultimate goal was not achieved. But we do do
these awards for these categories regardless every year, don't we lease,
So I think we still need to to make those awards.
And do you want to kick us off with a handful.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Yeah? Absolutely, And I think it's like you say, it's
important to note that the season may not have found
out the way that we wanted a too or the
players wanted to, but it doesn't mean there wasn't really
good performances throughout the season by players as well, and
they still absolutely deserve recognition for that, even if it
is just from us two podcasters here in the UK.
But let's let's start off with our pre season predictions
(19:35):
for best Fantasy Player. And this is a clean sweep
across the board and it was Devon Chan And so
who who do you have your award game to this year?
I think there's going to be a clean sweep across
the board. It seems to make sense. He was electric
both in the past and run game. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
I mean he had six tds rushing, six tds receiving.
He was, by father standout fantasy player this past season,
and I think he was probably a stud in both
redraft and dynasty leagues. He would have helped many teams
to a championship as an RB two. So next season,
I think he'll be in RB one, so pressure will
be on to maintain that consistent level of scoring. And
(20:17):
I see no reason why he can't do that.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Absolutely, And then we move on to the best free
agent signing. You and Travis both had Jordan Brooks as
your free agent signing and I had Jordan Poyer. Sorry,
who are you giving them a Ward II for best
free Agency?
Speaker 2 (20:35):
I'm going to give it to Jordan Brooks. Actually, he
had a team high one hundred and forty three total tackles,
which was way higher than any other player on the
defensive side of the ball, with no one else six
seeding one hundred. You also got three sacks, didn't record
an interception, and perhaps that's an area he could look
to improve on for next season. But his overall players
was outstanding. I think Lee and did you go for
(20:57):
him as well or did you go for somebody different?
Speaker 1 (21:00):
No, because I knew you guys had put that down
and absolutely he was deserving of that award. But I
wanted to give a shout out to Senator Aaron Brewer,
who I thought was excellent throughout the season. I was
even watching some players back earlier today and watching him
in the New England game chasing down the fumble that
was returned for a touchdown. I mean that guy's giving
maximum effort in a game that the Dolphins were up
(21:20):
big at that point in time, and I got a
chance to meet and talk to him, like super nice
guy at the time. Was playing with the hand injury
early in the season, didn't let that affect him. We
heard all during the preseason that snapping was an issue.
We didn't really see that throughout the season that was
cleaned up. Yeah, I thought that was an excellent signing
by Chris brew. That's not me disagreeing with Jordan Brooks.
(21:43):
I think it's just an opportunity to give another award
to somebody else. There's probably more the case for me
in that instance that you say. There's a few deserving
people that could have had that award. So with that
being said, we move on to an unsung hero. I
had Claius Campbell in this category. You went with Voston
Accent and Travis went with Robert Jones. So, SIY, who
(22:04):
is your own song hero?
Speaker 2 (22:05):
This might sound like a strange one, but I'm going
for Jason Sanders. He quietly went and had a really
good season, which I think he slipped under the radar
a little bit, and that was through no fault of
his own, with focus being put on the more explosive
playmakers on offense for various reasons. As I said, he
made thirty seven and forty one field goals and going
twelve or fourteen from fifty yards and had a long
(22:27):
and fifty seven. So I think that's a really great
effort and a high level of performance right across the
whole season. Actually, so he at which he thoroughly deserves
my nomination forront Sung Hero.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
I think absolutely it's funny, isn't it. The kickers. They
don't get enough love ever, really, and they just get
a lot of hate when things aren't going well. It's
almost one of those positions where if you don't hear
their name, it's usually a good sign as opposed to
because it means they're just going and doing their doing
the job well. And I think word was efficiency that
sprang to mind that you were talking about Joseph Sounders
(23:03):
there with his season was really good throughout, especially for
fifty plus. I'm going with my preseason prediction and giving
it to Khallais Campbell because I not I'm sung hero
makes it sound like someone that people forget, and I
think my reasoning for giving it to Khalais Campbell here
is a lot of the time in the broadcast you
(23:25):
hear people talking about it almost like it's a fun story, like, oh,
it's great Kalais Campbell's back and he's playing for the Dolphins.
But that kind of diminishes from his actual impact on
the game as well, which I thought was his impact
came early and often, especially in a lot of games,
especially at the start of the season. He sed to
be making the first play on defense in the games
early in the season, almost every week. So yeah, I
(23:48):
think it's for his impact as opposed to the great
story is as well, and obviously what a great person
he is, But this was truly based on his performance
where I thought he was throughout the season for the Dolphins.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Yep, can't discree that one.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
And that brings us on to my final category for
the moment, which is Rookie of the Year. So I
had Jalen Wright Simon, you had Elite Washington, Elite Washington,
and Travis had Chop Robinson, and.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
I'm going to give it to Chop Robinson. It has
to be him, really, and we saw him develop throughout
the year, certainly more so when Phillips went down for
the season. I think he ended up with six sacks,
which was only two and a half shy of Phillips's
franchise rookie record, and he had the fifth highest pass
rush rate in the entire NFL over the course of
a season. So he was by far and away my
(24:39):
nomination for Rookie of the Year. I thought he's a
tremendous and it just gives you really high expectations for
him next year as well, when hopefully the likes of
Jalen Phillips and Bradley Schubb will be back to form
a formidiball pass rush. Do you want to give a
shout out to Jalen Wright who showed the occasional flash,
but playing behind a Channa most that really didn't help
(25:01):
his scores there, And he's he's for me, He's very
much one for the future.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Absolutely. I had to go chop Robertson as well, not
just for his I think it was the rapid growth
when Jalen Phillips went down. He did everything he could
to mitigate that and keep this team on track. And
you saw a real elevation in his play. You saw
him doing a lot of work talking to veterans on
(25:25):
the team on the sideline, and you can see how
that was paying off in his play. I did feel
sorry for him on that one snap with Josh Allen
got him after he'd sacked Josh Allen. Josh Allen got
him to jump there late in the game, and I
felt for him on that, And I'm sure that's one
of those things he will look back on with a
bit of a smile and say, yeah, he got me there,
that that won't happen again. But I thought he's in
(25:47):
play accelerate his play accelerated. That's such a high rate
through the season where he was a finalist for Rookie
of the Year sorry across it as the NFL. So
that's high praise and well deserved.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Yeah, absolutely absolutely. Okay, should we move on then to
another set of categories defensive MVP. We shall start with Lee.
You went for Jayalen Ramsey, I went for Jordan Brooks
and Phillips. Travis went Jalen Phillips. Who was your defensive MVP.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
I gotta go back to the defensive line here and
I'm going with Zach Sealer. I thought he was exceptional
throughout the year and again a little bit like we
spoke about an offense when two was out the couple
of games. Was it two games that sexe they missed
with the eye which handed like a horrendous injury. I
thought we saw how much we missed him in those
two games. I thought it really did leave a hole.
(26:42):
And that's not surprised at all, with not only his
effort and work rate, but the fact that he played
such a high percentage of snaps as well. So yeah,
I had to go with Zach Sealer.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
I'm going to go with Collex Campbell. It's not just
his production on the field that has won Hi this
award for me, but just as much credit, if not more,
must go to the impact he made off the field,
being voted a team captain, a leader, and of course
winning the Don Shuler Award as voted by the players
for his leadership on and off the field. So can't
underestimate the impact he made on this team. Whether it
(27:14):
continues into year two remains to be seen. But a
fully deserving of my defensive MVP. I thought our offensive
MVP League went for Tyrek. In fact, we all went
for Tyreek Hill last year, but who has actually won
the award or Tyrek Hill may have won the award
in your eyes, Lee, but please please share who you've
picked this year.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
I had to go with Devon ah Chan. I thought
he was exceptional and did everything, did it in the past, game,
did it on the ground, was consistent throughout. Yeah, I
mean just looks like a wonderful pick, doesn't He And
an exciting future and it's just amazing to have just
to see someone who is so versatile. They give you
so many options, really exciting to watch. But I had
to be more offensive MVP.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
At the start of the season. He had have fought.
There have been plenty of candidates for this award, Tour
most a, Chan, Hill Waddle to name a few, but
apart from Han, like you say, it could be argued
the rest didn't perform up to their high standards and
lofty expectations for long enough. I suppose Tour played well
when he was on the field, but maybe missed too
(28:18):
many games to clinch this award. So I'm going to
give it to someone who played consistently well. Recording franchise
season records at this position with ah eight catches, eight
hundred and eighty four yards and eight touchdowns. And that's
John OU Smith and as he as we know, he's
now been rewarded with a Pro Bowl Games roster as well.
So John O. Smith my offensive MVP. So the final
(28:41):
player awardly is the team MVP. And last year we
all went for Tour. Who have you gone for this
year as the actual winner?
Speaker 1 (28:52):
I mean, I definitely think based on what we were
saying earlier, there is an argument that Tour is the
most valuable player based on performance when he's not there.
But I went with Johnny Smith because I just felt
he deserves on the award based on, like you say,
breaking the franchise records, his own personal records. I thought
(29:13):
it was a stellar performance under difficult circumstances with the
changes at quarterback, and that's not just two of being out,
but also then moving between different backup quarterbacks as well.
His first year in the team and the system, we
saw how much the changing quarterbacks really affected the wide receivers.
He was the one constant throughout and that's how you
(29:35):
get to that number. Can you just imagine what his
numbers would have been if to played the entire season,
but that side, I thought he was excellent in a
lot of games. It kept us in a lot of games,
especially in those periods or two wasn't playing.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
Yeah, absolutely is the player I'm going to give the
award too, because he could easily have come toping of
a couple of the other categories, but he deserves to
be given our top award in that Zach Sealer playing
at high level week in week out, winning AFC Defensive
Player of the Week in Week fourteen, registering a team
high ten sacks, fifty five tackles and one interception, also
(30:09):
leading the team in TFLs and QB hits, which demonstrates
his importance to the team. And of course he is
the Dan Marino Most Valuable Player as voted by the
South Florida Media. Interestingly, his AfD Performance of the Week
award was the first one of his career and it
was achieved after registering two sacks, three QB hits and
(30:30):
two TFLs against the Jets. So great season from Zach
celer and it could all have gone a little bit
pair shaped with that unfortunate incident with his eye, but
he certainly bounced back from that Dinnee and play played
out standingly well. And I know Chris Greer in his
end of season presser presser showed a little bit of
disappointment he wasn't voted to the Pro.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Bowl, absolutely, and I think he absolutely deserved to go
to the Pro Bowl. And I think we've seen this
in the past, so sometimes players end up there a
year after the season that they really should have been there,
and he feels like he feels like maybe he was
let down a little bit there by us as a
fan base going through a bad season and not putting
(31:11):
our enough votes. That might be controversial to say, but
I think, you know, we saw a lot when things
are going well last season, we saw a lot of
a lot of us voting for a lot of the players.
I think if you just detect the mood on social
media may have impacted the way some of these votes went.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
Yeah, agreed, right. Just to wrap up our preseason predictions,
then we all went for twelve and five end of
season ended regular season record. Unfortunately it was eight and
nine and our Super Bowl predictions were so Travis went
for Casey versus the forty nine ers. I went for
the Ravens versus the Packers, and you went for the
Dolphins versus the Lions, so nobody got close. Although Travis
(31:52):
predicted the Chiefs. We should perhaps talk a little bit
more about the Super Bowl in a moment, where do
you see that one going? Then the Chiefs are playing
the Eagles difficult one to call or who you're rooting for?
Or where do you see this one going? Or how
do you see it panning out?
Speaker 1 (32:12):
I think this is the matchup that I personally wanted
to see once we got down to the divisional rounds.
I know there was a lot of a lot of
online hate not wanting the Chiefs to get there, but
this felt like the best match up to me. I'm
just hoping that we see a really good game of football.
That's what I've enjoyed about the last couple of weeks.
It's never as much fun with the Dolphins are not playing,
but it's always good to see good football being played
(32:32):
as well. And at the moment, these teams are playing
incredibly high level footballs looking forward to and I think
the Eagles might have a chance to get their revenge.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Yeah, I'm not disagreeing there. I think they've certainly of
the two teams I know, the Chiefs only lost a
couple of games, but I saw an interesting start towards
the end of the regular season where there are only
a handful of teams that had not scored thirty one
points in a game this season, and remarkably, the Chiefs
were one of those teams. But then you look at
the Eagles racking up fifty five points in the NFC
(33:02):
Championship game, and you think, what an unstoppable machine that
was behind the running of Saquon Barkley and the efficiency
of Jalen Hurts. But then you've got the Chiefs of
the Chiefs with Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes who were
there yet again going for a three peach. So you
can't really rule them out the fact that they're in
the big game again, and you know how you've seen
(33:23):
them before. They pull these performances out the bag, don't
they league, even when they're not playing particularly well, and
I know it was, but to be fair, they did
play well against the Bills and managed to squeak past
them in the end. That's not to say the Bills
didn't give it a good go, because they did, and
it was a great game to watch. But I think
the Eagles are going to present just as difficult opposition
(33:46):
as what they've seen this season.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
Yeah, I think the Bills is a really interesting one.
It obviously I don't want to talk too well of
a division rival, but I'll start. You know, the off season,
they made an awful lot of changes, end up at
exactly the same point they were before. You know, I
mentioned this to a friend of mine. This wasn't trying
to be me, it was just at the start of
the season. The Bills are one of those teams where
(34:09):
people like they could either be really good or this
could go wrong because you've made so many changes. As
you're going through the season, it's like, Okay, this is working.
It feels like they've made the steps. But then you
still end up on the road. You still end up
on the road in Kansas City, and he still end
up losing in the same basically the same fashion You've
lost to them every time in the playoffs. So kind
(34:30):
of all that change was the same outcome, which I
find really interesting, especially at this time of year when
fan bases are blowing all up and do everything different
and we should do it like that team does it,
which you know, insert whatever team you want to hear.
So that's what I find very interested this time of year.
It will be loads of teams saying you need to
start rookie quarterbacks because Jane and Daniels played well. After
(34:52):
Patrick Mahomes started playing well, it was when you need
to sit quarterbacks because they sat Patrick Mahomes for a year.
It's that Ebb and flow of the Rams don't want
to keep their picks, so they trade them all away
and they win a super Bowl. That's the only way
you can win a super Bowl. But now they go
into the playoffs and it's full of draft picks, and well,
that must be the way to win the Super Bowl,
do you know what I mean. It's there is a
(35:12):
lot of different ways to bake this cake. And yeah,
it leads to a final off season, I think it does.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
So hopefully the Super Bowl will be a good game.
They played in the game a couple of years back,
didn't they, And that was a tremendous game. Going backward
and forwards, I'd like to see a similar game. To
be honest with you, I think that both teams are
capable of producing a really good performance, and you know,
I quite like the Eagles to win it, having got
some work colleagues in Philadelphia. I know what the city's
like after a Super Bowl win. You know, the Chiefs
(35:39):
keep winning it every year, don't they. So for me,
I'd like to see a different winner for a change,
and hopefully it'll be this year. Like you said, it's
an obstacle everybody has to overcome, isn't it. The Bills
have been trying so desperately hard. Now four years in
a row they've lost to the Chiefs, I think, or
something ridiculous like that, and they're finding it ifficult to
overcome the Chiefs, as are we all. So we've just
(36:01):
got to find a way and keep trying.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
Absolutely, But that will lead us into a fun off
season of moves, player acquisitions and the draft, and that
is a lot of fun for us to start focusing
on for our Miami Dolphins.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
Yeah, and we'll be bringing you all of that sort
of stuff. When we will talk about the combine, we'll
start thinking turning attention towards free agency and then the draft,
and then before you know it, we've hit the summer
months and then season will be hon us fairly soon
after that.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
So that being said, that brings us to the end
of our end of season review and awards. Next week
we will bring you our top plays of the season,
because that is always exciting. They are players that are
obviously big for the team. There are players that mean
a lot to us personally because we were there. But
until then, side, do you have anything else for us?
Speaker 2 (36:48):
Like I said, we'll continue to bring some content throughout
the off season, so looking forward to doing all of that.
Hopefully we'll have a few guests on as well, just
to keep the momentum going. But yeah, in the meantime,
we'll catch everybody soon.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
Don't get to check out the Dolphins social media channels,
especially for the upcoming Pro Bowl games. I'm sure there
will be some opportunities to follow Johnny Smith's journey there
and anything else that's going on with the team and
their news. Don't hear to check out the fish Tank.
I believe Jason Taylor is a guest this week, so
look forward to looking listening to that, especially if there's
video version of that as well, because I do like
(37:21):
to watch the video version as well. But yeah, the
off season, I love listening to the fish Tank in
the off season. It is my Yeah, get all that content.
I had to listen to it again, especially ones that
I've listened to during the season. Check out trying this
On his daily content, he is deep into some looking
forward to the off season, looking at positions on the
Dolphins team, and where we stand right now. But until
(37:43):
next week, we will talk to you again soon
What's up Dolphins is juice and big Seth. You're listening
to the Dolphin UK podcast and juice, I can't wait
to dive in. Let's go on, Jeep, Steve take them
(00:29):
away around. Hello and welcome to the Dolphin UK podcast
and our much awaited season review. We finally got there
(00:49):
after some breaking Spanish news last week. First of all,
I want to introduce my host Simon. How you do Simon?
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Yeah, well, very well, thank you Lee. Yeah, looking forward
to doing this episode as always. But it was nice
to chat with Hugo on the back of the Madrid
announcement last week, wasn't it. So some good insights into
what we can expect going to Madrid, but that's in
the future course. And obviously today we'll focus on the
end of season review and one or two other bits
and pieces.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Absolutely, and I think to start off, should we go
through some notes and some news notes that just pupped up.
The Dolphins are reportedly hiring a new wide receiver coach
to replace Where's Welker aside don't give a little bit
more information.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Yeah, the news broke via Tom Pellisiero last week that
the Dolphins have reportedly turned to Dallas Cowboys wide receiver
coach Robert Prince to fill the vacancy following Were's Welker's
departure of the team. He brings with him a wealth
of experience on the offensive side of the ball, both
at the NFL and college levels, and he had his
first NFL position came with the Atland Falcons in two
(01:56):
thousand and four. But he's worked his way up the
ranks now and he was a similar wide receiver coach
at the Cowboys. Actually, so later or move for him,
but obviously it feels the need for the Dolphins, so
we'll look to see what different team makes to that
wide receiver corps. But pleasing to know that he brings
a wealth of experience at that kind of role, which
is great for the team.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Absolutely always needed when you're replacing someone with experience on
the team. And in exciting news, Johnny Smith has been
named to the Pro Bowl Games as an alternate.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Yeah, it's great. I mean, the Dolphins didn't have any
phnominees this year, did they to the Pro Bowl. So
it's at least recognition for the efforts he made. And
you never know, he might crop up in one or
two of our end of season awards that we're going
to give out later we shall see, but great to
see his efforts being recognized and awarded a spot on
the Pro Bowl Games roster, should.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
We say, Yeah? And I think it's kind of I'm
sure not at the end of the season that he
would have wanted in regards to I'm sure he would
rather have been playing in the Super Bowl than going
to the Pro Bowl Games. But it feels like an
app ending at Cherry on top of the season, you know,
breaking Dolphins records, breaking personal records, and then getting your
first provoal not as well, even if it is an alternate,
(03:11):
I think you know it deserves that for the tremendous
season that he put together this year. Yeah. Absolutely, So
that being said, let's move on to some of our
thoughts for the last season starter review, and let's just
start really high level. What were your thoughts on the season?
Speaker 2 (03:27):
So, I think one word disappointed springs to mind. I
think considering we came into the season with very high
expectations and they felt they were quite justified as well,
giving given the performance certainly on the offense last season
and with a new defensive coach hoping to make an
impact this year, and anthink weaver, of course think I
(03:49):
don't think it was unreasonable to expect a little bit
of progress on last year. Obviously, last season they got
to the wild card against the Chiefs, and you're looking
to take the next step beyond that, and that was
a realistic goal. Over the years, I've come to expect
not a lot when it comes to the Dolphins and
(04:10):
getting the playoffs, and this year was the first time
in a long while I thought they had a really
good opportunity to do something good and better than the
previous season. So to not achieve that goal was disappointing
the end. And obviously they had a four years in
a row with a winning record, and that streak also
(04:30):
came to an end. And that was a streak to
be proud of because only three other teams in the
whole of the NFL had got that, with the Chiefs,
the Bills, and the Steelers alongside the Dolphins the only
teams to have a winning record over the last four seasons.
So that was a streak I was quite proud of
the team having, and of course they've relinquished that now
and because in these days of the NFL's that's not
(04:53):
an easy thing to maintain, so overall disappointing. How about
ye Lee, what were your thoughts? I know you're always
is the optimist coming into every season. You're always hoping
for a Super BOWLD appearance. Of course, what your thoughts
in terms of how the season turned out?
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Yeah, I mean, obviously I think you summed it up right.
You know, disappointment has to be the way you look
at I think when you we'll go through it later.
But when we looked at our season marks that we predicted, you,
me and Travis all came up that I think the
same answer. I think we all went twelve and five,
and yeah, you know that didn't feel unrealistic. It's probably
(05:37):
a little bit of case of the same old story
in regards to it feels like there was enough talent
and enough games there to be one to put this
team into the playoffs, but ultimately it was injuries that
held the team back. And you know, I said a
couple of weeks ago, it's where do you see that
as a reasoner or an excuse? Is? You know, is
(05:59):
in the eye the beholder? Either way? You know, effectually
there was weeks there where you were not fielding your
strongest team due to injuries. It's a tough one to swallow,
isn't it, because you know that there was so much more,
and as it's always the case in the NFL, you
know that change is ultimately coming across the roster because
that's just the nature of the NFL and the way
(06:21):
these teams were.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Should we go break down our thoughts on the offensive
and defensive side of the ball league, because I think
there are cases to be had for good and bad
in terms of looking at both sides independently. I know
we've just given a high level overview, but there were
periods where the offense were good and not so good,
and the same on the defense. Really, so shall we
(06:45):
split the review and look at each unit independently.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Yeah, let's do that. Let's start on offense. I thought,
for me, on offense, the offensive as far as Tour went,
and that's not meant disrespectfully to the other guys that
came in and played, I thought they did the best
they could in in you know, difficult circumstances, in a
difficult system. We were a lot of expectation. There's a
lot of people that thought that they would be able
(07:09):
to come in and just continue on the way Tour
plays in the offense, and then I think we found
that that's not necessarily a easy or the case that
someone could just come in and do that. I think
we saw to a player an incredibly high level at times,
I think, and this would be reflected later in our
plays of the year. For me, there were some plays
too and made where I thought he showed real growth
(07:31):
from the player that we've seen over the last few years,
and it's it's what gives me cause for optimism. But yeah, essentially,
it was games that we went into to a start
and felt like games we could win. The games we
went into with him start and felt almost like don't lose,
as opposed to I think you can win.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Yeah, yeah, I absolutely agree with what you were saying there.
It became obvious, didn't it. As soon as Tour when
out injured early in the season. The performances dipped quite tremendously,
didn't they, And then conversely when he returned they picked
up again. But I still look at the picture and think, well,
(08:15):
there are still a lot of unanswered questions even when
Tour was playing. For example, the production of the wide
receivers Jalen Woddel and Tyreek Hill, for example, even with
Tour in the play in the offense, they weren't as
productive as they were last year, and that's something that
they're going to have to figure out ready for next season.
(08:35):
But it ultimately impacted on their production on their performance
levels this season. So it's not just all about Tour,
It's about finding ways to get your skill players involved
more as well. I mean, Rauhie Moster was one of
the best in the NFL at running back last year,
league leading number of touchdowns and this coming season didn't
(08:57):
play a lot and certainly in comparison last year, and
obviously Dane a Chan was clearly that the RB one
and he performed at a very high level. So you
can see where I'm coming from in terms of some
players playing at a high level as expected and some
players not playing at the level they were expected. And
that's a that's an issue to address going into next season.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Yeah, I think there's a Sorry, I just I think
it comes into I think there's a bit of a
consistency issue, isn't there there's games that you go into thinking, know,
this is a game where you're playing a team. Let's say,
for instance, that don't play well against the run for
some reason. Those would be games that we wouldn't necessarily
have our best games on the ground, and it's like,
(09:41):
why is it playing out that way when for every
other team that seems to be the only way to
combat this, whereas we would go in there and then
it'd be Jonny Smith and tour because we know the
wide receivers were struggling more than usual, but that seemed
to be kind of a consistent but it was the
up and down of the performances throughout the season. So
being interesting to see how they can take what they've
(10:02):
learned from this year and use it to move forward
and try and get that consistency.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
And it's reflected in the overall rankings. You look at.
The last year, the Dolphins ranked number one in yards
per game. This year they were ranked eighteenth. The passing
game was ranked fifteenth, and the Russian game twenty first,
So quite a fall from grace compared to what we
were seeing last year. And it's finding the answers to
those unanswered questions, if you like that, as to why
(10:30):
that was the case, and obviously improving it on it
ready for next season.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Yeah, it feels like there's a sustainability question, doesn't there
where you need to be a little bit more versatile
in regards to things that you can do at a
higher level rather than having a large gap between Plan
A and what Plan B might be. It seems to
be it causes some head scratching performances, doesn't it. I mean,
(10:56):
we were there in Week two and I know two
have got hurt in that game, but up until that
point that game was not going well on either side
of the ball. It was, oh no, this is another
one of those performances. But then the Dolphins go up
to Buffalo and play that same team and play them
close again like they have done over the last couple
of years. Is that inconsistency that causes you know, the
(11:19):
causes a problem, and I'm excited to see what coach
McDaniel does to try and to and rectify it. You know,
that's I think part of being a young coach. And
I think we saw a lot of nonsense in the
national media as to whether Mike McDaniel was on a
hot seat. You know, with young coaches, you have to
go through some you know, growing plaints is maybe the
(11:40):
wrong word, but it's that sort of thing. Do you
know what I mean? You can only learn on the job,
Like there is no kind of like. You can do
all the training as an assistant or in another position
on the coaching staff, but nothing replicates being a head coach.
So there has to be some some learning that you know,
there's going to be stuff that isn't perfect and stuff
(12:01):
that he's going to lookack and say, Okay, I need
to do that there, or I need to make sure
my team is in a position by doing this. But
the only way to experience that, unfortunately, is by riding
those lows as well as the highs.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
And I mentioned during the season as well, you talk
about inconsistency, and that was clearly evident a lot of
the time, where one week you have the offensive side
of the ball playing well and the defense didn't, and
then it was quite often reversed, especially earlier in the season,
when the offense struggled, it was the defense that kept
the team in games. But it's finding that level where
they both perform well every week, and there weren't too
(12:33):
many games where that actually occurred. I think we had
a couple perhaps at the end of the season, but overall,
it was one side of the ball was performing well
and the other one wasn't. And that's probably a nice
little segue into that defensive review, isn't it. Now we've
started to talk about them. Obviously, Anthony Weaver in the
first years as a defensive coordinator, he's gone for several
(12:56):
head coaching interviews and as yet we don't know the
outcome of those to view, So for now he's going
to remain as the DC. But what did you think
of the defense overallly and in particular how Anthony Weaver
developed that unit.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
It felt like the players got kind of adjusted to
his system far quicker than they did the previous year
under Vic Vangio, which I think was interesting. I thought
that their play was a little bit more, maybe a
bit more consistent than the offense. I thought we saw
some good performances they seem to find I don't know,
(13:33):
I'm not sure what the word I'm looking for here is.
It didn't seem like last year where there was obvious
holes at positions. It just seemed like when there was breakdowns,
it was just accidental break you know. It wasn't a
fundamental scheme problem. It was just a player making a
mistake on a play, which is going to happen as
opposed to we have a hole here. What we're going
to do on a week to week basis to try
and mask that deficiency?
Speaker 2 (13:56):
I think as well. You look at the again, the
overall ranking for the defense in terms of yards per game,
they ranked fourth in the NFL, which when you look
at it on a game by game basis, where they
were those mistakes made by individual players and the wear
issues around tackling or the wear issues around not getting
(14:18):
enough turnovers. That's quite a remarkable stat isn't it when
you think of it like that, and like say, fourth overall,
ninth against the past, ninth against the rush, and tenth
in terms of points allowed per game. So if you
would have been given those rankings at the start of
the season, we'd have probably taken it, wouldn't We Absolutely?
Speaker 1 (14:37):
And I think I think it's an interesting one because
I mentioned this on Kadem's show a couple of weeks ago.
The stats don't necessarily feel like what you watched did
that make? Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Like?
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Yeah, if I said to you were does the defense
rank without you knowing it ranked fourth against the run?
I don't know if that's where you would have put
them in the top five in you know what I mean.
I don't know if it's because maybe they were a
little bit lowering turnovers and there's some other teams big
splash he plays because they were getting off the field consistently,
So maybe that's what kind of like makes it feel
(15:11):
a little bit different to watching some other teams. But
I mean, overall, they said the performance was good. I
felt like they were heading in a good direction, they
were getting better. They obviously missed some pass rush with
you know, when Jane Phillips got hurt and Bradley Chubb
obviously not chaining late season, you know, but they still
found a way to create pressure. They got elevated performance
(15:32):
out as Zach Sealer with him really being the number
one guy there on the d line, which I thought was,
you know, great, because when you let a player like
Christian Wilkins walking free agency, there's always a risk that
the other guy doesn't take the step that you think
he's going to take. But z actually they did that.
You know he's going to give you maximum effort. And
(15:52):
then obviously you got huge play out of Claires Campbell.
Well yeah, I mean he was sorry. He was fun
to watch but also really productive.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Yeah, I mean, yeah, so there's obviously, I said earlier,
there's still question marks over whether Anthony Weaver will return
next season, depending on the outcome of those head coaching interviews.
But if he does, then obviously they've got some foundation
to build on, haven't they. And we know there's going
to be some player turnover regardless of who's DC. But
if they do manage to keep the same scheme next year,
then obviously that bodes well for next season. And they've
(16:20):
got some standards to maintain now and hopefully any new
players that come in will help elevate that even further.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Absolutely, and you know, the fact that your DC is
being interviewed for head coaching jobs is a huge It's
something you should be proud of. I mean, it means
it's a great high by moment. Daniel and other teams
have seen and respect what he's done here in the
first year, not enough just to get one interview, but
to be back for second interviews in places as well.
You know he's in serious consideration for the job, and
they're not just really putting feelers out. So I mean,
(16:49):
obviously i'd love to see him be the DC here,
maybe he gets their head coaching job, but also wouldn't
be a surprise. I don't because comes across incredibly well
we're speaking to the media, makes a lot of sense.
His team go out perform the way you'd expect them to,
not many issues in regards to discipline and stuff like that.
You know, that's the kind of guy you wanted a
hit coat. It loes like a leader.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Absolutely. I just want to mention special teams very briefly,
Lee in that Jason Sanders had an outstanding season in
the kicking game and making thirty seven or forty one
field goal and twelve or fourteen from fifty yards, which
is an incredibly high percentage conversion rate for fifty plus yards.
(17:31):
And also I wanted to give an out nod to
Many Washington as well, who took over the return job
from Braxton Burios when he got injured and has performed
pretty well, averaging thirty one yards per kickoff return, which
is pretty good to start from him. And obviously again
one of his plays on a kickoff return we might
even refer to later. But just wanted to give a
(17:52):
nod to those two individuals Lee because I thought they
planned outstanding on special teams last year.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Yeah. Absolutely. And it's funny, isn't it, because you know,
we were talking there about, especially on our fence, we
were talking about the wide receivers not having the year
that we expected, and you know, the year that not them,
just that we expected that we'd be. You know, you
almost seemed like it would just happen because it's what
(18:18):
they've done over the last couple of years. They were
still kind of close, do you know what I mean?
You know, Toyko's got forty one yards away from a
thousand yard season, and with every with everything that went
on throughout the season, that doesn't feel like that's too
far away from from a thousand yards General Models on
(18:39):
seven forty four but Johnny Smith on eight hundred and
eighty four yards. You know it's Yeah, it's the little things,
isn't it. It all mounts up, he does. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
So should we should we move on to our end
of season awards?
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Yes? Please?
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Yeah, I know we don't. I know, we haven't got
much to celebrate in the overall scheme of things because
the ultimate goal was not achieved. But we do do
these awards for these categories regardless every year, don't we lease,
So I think we still need to to make those awards.
And do you want to kick us off with a handful.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Yeah? Absolutely, And I think it's like you say, it's
important to note that the season may not have found
out the way that we wanted a too or the
players wanted to, but it doesn't mean there wasn't really
good performances throughout the season by players as well, and
they still absolutely deserve recognition for that, even if it
is just from us two podcasters here in the UK.
But let's let's start off with our pre season predictions
(19:35):
for best Fantasy Player. And this is a clean sweep
across the board and it was Devon Chan And so
who who do you have your award game to this year?
I think there's going to be a clean sweep across
the board. It seems to make sense. He was electric
both in the past and run game. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
I mean he had six tds rushing, six tds receiving.
He was, by father standout fantasy player this past season,
and I think he was probably a stud in both
redraft and dynasty leagues. He would have helped many teams
to a championship as an RB two. So next season,
I think he'll be in RB one, so pressure will
be on to maintain that consistent level of scoring. And
(20:17):
I see no reason why he can't do that.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Absolutely, And then we move on to the best free
agent signing. You and Travis both had Jordan Brooks as
your free agent signing and I had Jordan Poyer. Sorry,
who are you giving them a Ward II for best
free Agency?
Speaker 2 (20:35):
I'm going to give it to Jordan Brooks. Actually, he
had a team high one hundred and forty three total tackles,
which was way higher than any other player on the
defensive side of the ball, with no one else six
seeding one hundred. You also got three sacks, didn't record
an interception, and perhaps that's an area he could look
to improve on for next season. But his overall players
was outstanding. I think Lee and did you go for
(20:57):
him as well or did you go for somebody different?
Speaker 1 (21:00):
No, because I knew you guys had put that down
and absolutely he was deserving of that award. But I
wanted to give a shout out to Senator Aaron Brewer,
who I thought was excellent throughout the season. I was
even watching some players back earlier today and watching him
in the New England game chasing down the fumble that
was returned for a touchdown. I mean that guy's giving
maximum effort in a game that the Dolphins were up
(21:20):
big at that point in time, and I got a
chance to meet and talk to him, like super nice
guy at the time. Was playing with the hand injury
early in the season, didn't let that affect him. We
heard all during the preseason that snapping was an issue.
We didn't really see that throughout the season that was
cleaned up. Yeah, I thought that was an excellent signing
by Chris brew. That's not me disagreeing with Jordan Brooks.
(21:43):
I think it's just an opportunity to give another award
to somebody else. There's probably more the case for me
in that instance that you say. There's a few deserving
people that could have had that award. So with that
being said, we move on to an unsung hero. I
had Claius Campbell in this category. You went with Voston
Accent and Travis went with Robert Jones. So, SIY, who
(22:04):
is your own song hero?
Speaker 2 (22:05):
This might sound like a strange one, but I'm going
for Jason Sanders. He quietly went and had a really
good season, which I think he slipped under the radar
a little bit, and that was through no fault of
his own, with focus being put on the more explosive
playmakers on offense for various reasons. As I said, he
made thirty seven and forty one field goals and going
twelve or fourteen from fifty yards and had a long
(22:27):
and fifty seven. So I think that's a really great
effort and a high level of performance right across the
whole season. Actually, so he at which he thoroughly deserves
my nomination forront Sung Hero.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
I think absolutely it's funny, isn't it. The kickers. They
don't get enough love ever, really, and they just get
a lot of hate when things aren't going well. It's
almost one of those positions where if you don't hear
their name, it's usually a good sign as opposed to
because it means they're just going and doing their doing
the job well. And I think word was efficiency that
sprang to mind that you were talking about Joseph Sounders
(23:03):
there with his season was really good throughout, especially for
fifty plus. I'm going with my preseason prediction and giving
it to Khallais Campbell because I not I'm sung hero
makes it sound like someone that people forget, and I
think my reasoning for giving it to Khalais Campbell here
is a lot of the time in the broadcast you
(23:25):
hear people talking about it almost like it's a fun story, like, oh,
it's great Kalais Campbell's back and he's playing for the Dolphins.
But that kind of diminishes from his actual impact on
the game as well, which I thought was his impact
came early and often, especially in a lot of games,
especially at the start of the season. He sed to
be making the first play on defense in the games
early in the season, almost every week. So yeah, I
(23:48):
think it's for his impact as opposed to the great
story is as well, and obviously what a great person
he is, But this was truly based on his performance
where I thought he was throughout the season for the Dolphins.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Yep, can't discree that one.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
And that brings us on to my final category for
the moment, which is Rookie of the Year. So I
had Jalen Wright Simon, you had Elite Washington, Elite Washington,
and Travis had Chop Robinson, and.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
I'm going to give it to Chop Robinson. It has
to be him, really, and we saw him develop throughout
the year, certainly more so when Phillips went down for
the season. I think he ended up with six sacks,
which was only two and a half shy of Phillips's
franchise rookie record, and he had the fifth highest pass
rush rate in the entire NFL over the course of
a season. So he was by far and away my
(24:39):
nomination for Rookie of the Year. I thought he's a
tremendous and it just gives you really high expectations for
him next year as well, when hopefully the likes of
Jalen Phillips and Bradley Schubb will be back to form
a formidiball pass rush. Do you want to give a
shout out to Jalen Wright who showed the occasional flash,
but playing behind a Channa most that really didn't help
(25:01):
his scores there, And he's he's for me, He's very
much one for the future.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Absolutely. I had to go chop Robertson as well, not
just for his I think it was the rapid growth
when Jalen Phillips went down. He did everything he could
to mitigate that and keep this team on track. And
you saw a real elevation in his play. You saw
him doing a lot of work talking to veterans on
(25:25):
the team on the sideline, and you can see how
that was paying off in his play. I did feel
sorry for him on that one snap with Josh Allen
got him after he'd sacked Josh Allen. Josh Allen got
him to jump there late in the game, and I
felt for him on that, And I'm sure that's one
of those things he will look back on with a
bit of a smile and say, yeah, he got me there,
that that won't happen again. But I thought he's in
(25:47):
play accelerate his play accelerated. That's such a high rate
through the season where he was a finalist for Rookie
of the Year sorry across it as the NFL. So
that's high praise and well deserved.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Yeah, absolutely absolutely. Okay, should we move on then to
another set of categories defensive MVP. We shall start with Lee.
You went for Jayalen Ramsey, I went for Jordan Brooks
and Phillips. Travis went Jalen Phillips. Who was your defensive MVP.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
I gotta go back to the defensive line here and
I'm going with Zach Sealer. I thought he was exceptional
throughout the year and again a little bit like we
spoke about an offense when two was out the couple
of games. Was it two games that sexe they missed
with the eye which handed like a horrendous injury. I
thought we saw how much we missed him in those
two games. I thought it really did leave a hole.
(26:42):
And that's not surprised at all, with not only his
effort and work rate, but the fact that he played
such a high percentage of snaps as well. So yeah,
I had to go with Zach Sealer.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
I'm going to go with Collex Campbell. It's not just
his production on the field that has won Hi this
award for me, but just as much credit, if not more,
must go to the impact he made off the field,
being voted a team captain, a leader, and of course
winning the Don Shuler Award as voted by the players
for his leadership on and off the field. So can't
underestimate the impact he made on this team. Whether it
(27:14):
continues into year two remains to be seen. But a
fully deserving of my defensive MVP. I thought our offensive
MVP League went for Tyrek. In fact, we all went
for Tyreek Hill last year, but who has actually won
the award or Tyrek Hill may have won the award
in your eyes, Lee, but please please share who you've
picked this year.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
I had to go with Devon ah Chan. I thought
he was exceptional and did everything, did it in the past, game,
did it on the ground, was consistent throughout. Yeah, I
mean just looks like a wonderful pick, doesn't He And
an exciting future and it's just amazing to have just
to see someone who is so versatile. They give you
so many options, really exciting to watch. But I had
to be more offensive MVP.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
At the start of the season. He had have fought.
There have been plenty of candidates for this award, Tour
most a, Chan, Hill Waddle to name a few, but
apart from Han, like you say, it could be argued
the rest didn't perform up to their high standards and
lofty expectations for long enough. I suppose Tour played well
when he was on the field, but maybe missed too
(28:18):
many games to clinch this award. So I'm going to
give it to someone who played consistently well. Recording franchise
season records at this position with ah eight catches, eight
hundred and eighty four yards and eight touchdowns. And that's
John OU Smith and as he as we know, he's
now been rewarded with a Pro Bowl Games roster as well.
So John O. Smith my offensive MVP. So the final
(28:41):
player awardly is the team MVP. And last year we
all went for Tour. Who have you gone for this
year as the actual winner?
Speaker 1 (28:52):
I mean, I definitely think based on what we were
saying earlier, there is an argument that Tour is the
most valuable player based on performance when he's not there.
But I went with Johnny Smith because I just felt
he deserves on the award based on, like you say,
breaking the franchise records, his own personal records. I thought
(29:13):
it was a stellar performance under difficult circumstances with the
changes at quarterback, and that's not just two of being out,
but also then moving between different backup quarterbacks as well.
His first year in the team and the system, we
saw how much the changing quarterbacks really affected the wide receivers.
He was the one constant throughout and that's how you
(29:35):
get to that number. Can you just imagine what his
numbers would have been if to played the entire season,
but that side, I thought he was excellent in a
lot of games. It kept us in a lot of games,
especially in those periods or two wasn't playing.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
Yeah, absolutely is the player I'm going to give the
award too, because he could easily have come toping of
a couple of the other categories, but he deserves to
be given our top award in that Zach Sealer playing
at high level week in week out, winning AFC Defensive
Player of the Week in Week fourteen, registering a team
high ten sacks, fifty five tackles and one interception, also
(30:09):
leading the team in TFLs and QB hits, which demonstrates
his importance to the team. And of course he is
the Dan Marino Most Valuable Player as voted by the
South Florida Media. Interestingly, his AfD Performance of the Week
award was the first one of his career and it
was achieved after registering two sacks, three QB hits and
(30:30):
two TFLs against the Jets. So great season from Zach
celer and it could all have gone a little bit
pair shaped with that unfortunate incident with his eye, but
he certainly bounced back from that Dinnee and play played
out standingly well. And I know Chris Greer in his
end of season presser presser showed a little bit of
disappointment he wasn't voted to the Pro.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Bowl, absolutely, and I think he absolutely deserved to go
to the Pro Bowl. And I think we've seen this
in the past, so sometimes players end up there a
year after the season that they really should have been there,
and he feels like he feels like maybe he was
let down a little bit there by us as a
fan base going through a bad season and not putting
(31:11):
our enough votes. That might be controversial to say, but
I think, you know, we saw a lot when things
are going well last season, we saw a lot of
a lot of us voting for a lot of the players.
I think if you just detect the mood on social
media may have impacted the way some of these votes went.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
Yeah, agreed, right. Just to wrap up our preseason predictions,
then we all went for twelve and five end of
season ended regular season record. Unfortunately it was eight and
nine and our Super Bowl predictions were so Travis went
for Casey versus the forty nine ers. I went for
the Ravens versus the Packers, and you went for the
Dolphins versus the Lions, so nobody got close. Although Travis
(31:52):
predicted the Chiefs. We should perhaps talk a little bit
more about the Super Bowl in a moment, where do
you see that one going? Then the Chiefs are playing
the Eagles difficult one to call or who you're rooting for?
Or where do you see this one going? Or how
do you see it panning out?
Speaker 1 (32:12):
I think this is the matchup that I personally wanted
to see once we got down to the divisional rounds.
I know there was a lot of a lot of
online hate not wanting the Chiefs to get there, but
this felt like the best match up to me. I'm
just hoping that we see a really good game of football.
That's what I've enjoyed about the last couple of weeks.
It's never as much fun with the Dolphins are not playing,
but it's always good to see good football being played
(32:32):
as well. And at the moment, these teams are playing
incredibly high level footballs looking forward to and I think
the Eagles might have a chance to get their revenge.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Yeah, I'm not disagreeing there. I think they've certainly of
the two teams I know, the Chiefs only lost a
couple of games, but I saw an interesting start towards
the end of the regular season where there are only
a handful of teams that had not scored thirty one
points in a game this season, and remarkably, the Chiefs
were one of those teams. But then you look at
the Eagles racking up fifty five points in the NFC
(33:02):
Championship game, and you think, what an unstoppable machine that
was behind the running of Saquon Barkley and the efficiency
of Jalen Hurts. But then you've got the Chiefs of
the Chiefs with Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes who were
there yet again going for a three peach. So you
can't really rule them out the fact that they're in
the big game again, and you know how you've seen
(33:23):
them before. They pull these performances out the bag, don't
they league, even when they're not playing particularly well, and
I know it was, but to be fair, they did
play well against the Bills and managed to squeak past
them in the end. That's not to say the Bills
didn't give it a good go, because they did, and
it was a great game to watch. But I think
the Eagles are going to present just as difficult opposition
(33:46):
as what they've seen this season.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
Yeah, I think the Bills is a really interesting one.
It obviously I don't want to talk too well of
a division rival, but I'll start. You know, the off season,
they made an awful lot of changes, end up at
exactly the same point they were before. You know, I
mentioned this to a friend of mine. This wasn't trying
to be me, it was just at the start of
the season. The Bills are one of those teams where
(34:09):
people like they could either be really good or this
could go wrong because you've made so many changes. As
you're going through the season, it's like, Okay, this is working.
It feels like they've made the steps. But then you
still end up on the road. You still end up
on the road in Kansas City, and he still end
up losing in the same basically the same fashion You've
lost to them every time in the playoffs. So kind
(34:30):
of all that change was the same outcome, which I
find really interesting, especially at this time of year when
fan bases are blowing all up and do everything different
and we should do it like that team does it,
which you know, insert whatever team you want to hear.
So that's what I find very interested this time of year.
It will be loads of teams saying you need to
start rookie quarterbacks because Jane and Daniels played well. After
(34:52):
Patrick Mahomes started playing well, it was when you need
to sit quarterbacks because they sat Patrick Mahomes for a year.
It's that Ebb and flow of the Rams don't want
to keep their picks, so they trade them all away
and they win a super Bowl. That's the only way
you can win a super Bowl. But now they go
into the playoffs and it's full of draft picks, and well,
that must be the way to win the Super Bowl,
do you know what I mean. It's there is a
(35:12):
lot of different ways to bake this cake. And yeah,
it leads to a final off season, I think it does.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
So hopefully the Super Bowl will be a good game.
They played in the game a couple of years back,
didn't they, And that was a tremendous game. Going backward
and forwards, I'd like to see a similar game. To
be honest with you, I think that both teams are
capable of producing a really good performance, and you know,
I quite like the Eagles to win it, having got
some work colleagues in Philadelphia. I know what the city's
like after a Super Bowl win. You know, the Chiefs
(35:39):
keep winning it every year, don't they. So for me,
I'd like to see a different winner for a change,
and hopefully it'll be this year. Like you said, it's
an obstacle everybody has to overcome, isn't it. The Bills
have been trying so desperately hard. Now four years in
a row they've lost to the Chiefs, I think, or
something ridiculous like that, and they're finding it ifficult to
overcome the Chiefs, as are we all. So we've just
(36:01):
got to find a way and keep trying.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
Absolutely, But that will lead us into a fun off
season of moves, player acquisitions and the draft, and that
is a lot of fun for us to start focusing
on for our Miami Dolphins.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
Yeah, and we'll be bringing you all of that sort
of stuff. When we will talk about the combine, we'll
start thinking turning attention towards free agency and then the draft,
and then before you know it, we've hit the summer
months and then season will be hon us fairly soon
after that.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
So that being said, that brings us to the end
of our end of season review and awards. Next week
we will bring you our top plays of the season,
because that is always exciting. They are players that are
obviously big for the team. There are players that mean
a lot to us personally because we were there. But
until then, side, do you have anything else for us?
Speaker 2 (36:48):
Like I said, we'll continue to bring some content throughout
the off season, so looking forward to doing all of that.
Hopefully we'll have a few guests on as well, just
to keep the momentum going. But yeah, in the meantime,
we'll catch everybody soon.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
Don't get to check out the Dolphins social media channels,
especially for the upcoming Pro Bowl games. I'm sure there
will be some opportunities to follow Johnny Smith's journey there
and anything else that's going on with the team and
their news. Don't hear to check out the fish Tank.
I believe Jason Taylor is a guest this week, so
look forward to looking listening to that, especially if there's
video version of that as well, because I do like
(37:21):
to watch the video version as well. But yeah, the
off season, I love listening to the fish Tank in
the off season. It is my Yeah, get all that content.
I had to listen to it again, especially ones that
I've listened to during the season. Check out trying this
On his daily content, he is deep into some looking
forward to the off season, looking at positions on the
Dolphins team, and where we stand right now. But until
(37:43):
next week, we will talk to you again soon
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