Miami Dolphins 2025 Training Camp Preview!

Miami Dolphins 2025 Training Camp Preview!

Universal casualty. Super cool. North Miami Dolphins World Super Bowl. Miami Dolphins Miami Dolphins Miami Dolphins Super Bowl Miami Dolphins Miami Dolphins Miami Dolphins dolphins Miami Dolphins Miami Dolphins Miami Dolphins Super Bowl Miami Dolphins Miami Dolphins Miami Dolphins Super Bowl Red Chargers Dolphins Miami Dolphins Miami Dolphins Miami Dolphins Super Miami Dolphins Miami Dolphins Miami Dolphins Miami Dolphins Miami Dolphins Miami Dolphins Miami Dolphins Super Bowl Miami Dolphins Miami Dolphins Miami Dolphins Rob Miami Dolphins Super Bowl Miami Dolphins Super Miami Dolphins may super Miami Dolphins Super Universal Casualty Super I’m able super We super Super Bowl Super my super ball. Super. Super. Super. You’re listening to the dolphins.com podcast network. the king to our hearts. He’s our love and his heart. We are all wing those dolphin fans by waiting room for dolphins. Am I my dolphins? Dolphins. Am I my dolphins? Hello. Hello. Hello Miami Dolphin fans and welcome to the same old dolphin show part of the dolphins.com podcast network. I’m Josh Katsker. With me today and every day is my brother from the exact same mother, Aaron the brain. Aaron, say hello to the people. Hello to the people. You can tell it’s the beginning of the new season because we we got we got the old countdown clock leading into the episode. We got an overlay when I start talking. We got we we just got we’re working out the kinks just like the Miami Dolphins. We’re working out the kinks right now. Uh it’s training camp for us, too. But we’re back. the same old Dolphins show back again for another fantastic season here on the dolphins.com podcast network. So, thank you to everybody who has been a subscriber, everybody who has reached out saying, “Hey, when are you guys doing a show? When are you guys coming back? I really need my same old dolphin show fixed. We need you guys back.” We’re back. We’re back. And you know, barring catastrophe, we’re going to be back in your ears with at least one show every week from now until, you know, probably a few weeks after the season ends because it’s football season once again. And then, of course, once the season gets going, we’ll be back with multiple shows a week. We’ll have our our game recap episode. We’ll have our next game preview episodes. And uh you know, we’re gonna we’re gonna have a lot going on. And then if that’s not enough, because don’t forget, you get all the other stuff that is going on on the dolphins.com podcast network. I mean, Marissa Marino has been absolutely crushing it uh this off seasonason as we as we head towards training camp. All kinds of fantastic interviews. She just had another one today with Chris Cody from the Dan Leitard show. So, I mean, she’s she’s been plugging them out. If you haven’t checked those out here on the dolphins.network.com podcast network, check that out as well. And uh if you know, like I said, if that’s not enough, you can also join dolphins extra, which is our Patreon. So, you can go to patreon.com/dolphins talk. And for as little as $3 a month, you’re going to get bonus segments, exclusive segments from us talking Miami Dolphins, talking all kinds of other things. We just did a draft. Uh Aaron, Mike, and I did a draft of what we thought the Miami Dolphins win total was going to be this season, and we did that as a uh Patreon exclusive episode. You get bonus episodes like that. Once college football season gets going, Mike will be talking college football over there. You’ll get, you know, some gambling advice. We join us for fantasy football. Oh, we got it. We’re in the process of figuring out how many people want to join the fantasy football league this year, and that’s going to dictate how big the league is, how many conferences there are, all kinds of things. So, if you want to join Dolphin Stock Extra, you also get our Discord server, you get contests, all kinds of other stuff. All you got to do, patreon.com/dolphinstock. Join join for as little as $3 a month, and we would be happy to have you with us. So, think about that. And of course, a special shout out to all of our friends at caneswear.com or canwear just the store because that is the spot where Miami fans shop. Brain, you know, we were going to talk on this episode about training camp and we’re going to do that. We’re going to bounce around from position to position group and we’re going to talk about how we’re feeling about all of those different places. But we got a like a an enormous football breaking news bomb. You know, you got a passing bomb in in baseball. You got a woouge bomb. Although, you used to have a wge bomb. You don’t really have a woge bomb anymore because now he’s like the general manager of a Catholic university. But whatever. Uh, we got a shfter bomb where the Las Vegas Raiders have released Christian Wilkins. Uh, the Christian Wilkins who of course came up with the Dolphins and was a a fan favorite for many years. And then the Dolphins just never they kind of miss their opportunity to pay Christian Wilkins and and give him a a new contract that would maybe be a bit more reasonable or team friendly. They never made that deal happen. And so when his rookie contract ended, he went to the highest bidder and that bidder was the Las Vegas Raiders. And now the Raiders have released him reportedly because of the way that he recoup he chose to recuperate his foot injury. And now we don’t know the whole story yet. We primarily know the Raiders side of the story at this point in time, but it sounds like he they were upset when he injured his foot last year. They wanted him to have surgery. They had several doctors share that um share that uh opinion with him. and he decided he did not want to have surgery. He was going to rehab his foot in a different way and the Raiders I guess took exception to that and they have since released him um and voided a bunch of money from his contract. So now Christian Wilkins is a free agent which is not really Dolphins related news, but of course because he’s a former Dolphin, you’re going to have, you know, Dolphin a a segment of the Dolphins fan base who’s going to be like, “Well, we got to bring him back. We got to reunite Salt and Pepper. We got to bring him back.” Um, I don’t know. What you have any thoughts on this Christian Wilkins situation? I mean, I It’s surprising. I My initial thought was, whoa, I didn’t see that coming. Um, it tells me that there’s significant concern about him being able to play this season. Yeah. Because if he was able to play this season, uh, I don’t think they’d be voiding his contract. But given everything that happened, if he’s not ready to go, then you know, they’re basically like, well, you’re basically just collecting a paycheck after signing all this guarant signing for all this guaranteed money that we just gave you, and now they’re just trying to recoup it. I don’t really know. I There’s so many questions that need to be answered there before I can even begin to say, “Yeah, the Dolphin should go after him.” Um, but first and foremost, it’s well, what’s what’s it like health-wise? Two, um, what was the exact situation there? And three, like how much money is he going to command on the open market? I I don’t think he’s in the Dolphins price range. I mean, he like, let’s face it, this guy’s not going to come back and play for like a vet minimum deal. Uh, so I I think it’s a pipe dream to even think that the Dolphins are going to be able to get him back. And if the Dolphins were to get him back at some, you know, extraordinarily cheap contract, that would signal to me that this guy probably isn’t going to be able to play and isn’t getting offers from anybody else. Uh, so I wouldn’t Well, I mean, at this point, he’d be a Chris Greer special. Exactly. Exactly. It would be a Chris Greer special. It would be uh you know signing a cornerback to who hasn’t played meaningful downs in in three years and uh hasn’t been any better than like a fourth or fifth best quarterback. Having him be, you know, battling for a starting job and then tearing his ACL on the first day of camp and then going out and saying, “Okay, well now we’re finally going to sign a quarterback.” And signing former sixth round draft pick Cornell Armstrong. Yeah. Well, listen. Yeah, that listen, let’s let’s get into that, right? Let’s get into that. It’s a nice transition point that you’ve uh provided us with. Uh so, we’re we wanted to talk real quick about any news from the first couple of days of Dolphins training camp. And really, the biggest piece of this the single biggest piece of news that has come out of Dolphins training camp is that uh you know, Arty Burns is gone for the season with a partially torn ACL or I don’t know if it’s completely torn. Either way, his season is over. And uh so the Dolphins already thin cornerback room. It gets a little thinner. They bring in Cornell Armstrong to replace him. Um I mean, I I for one did not have terribly high hopes for Arty Burns. You look at like Arty Burns, talk about a Chris Greer special. This is a guy Arty Burns is one of those guys that just can’t stay healthy ever. Uh so the Dolphins you went out of their way, brought him in on a very cheap deal and you know lo and behold you bring in an often injured player and an often injured player gets injured. Obviously you wish the guy the best you hope you know for his you hope the best for him long term. But I mean it is a very Dolphins thing to do to take a flyer on a player that has an injury history and for that player to then get hurt. So, I mean, not, you know, so it’s I guess it’s not a it’s unfortunately not a surprise that Arty Burns got hurt. I guess maybe it’s a surprise that it happened this quickly. Um, and it is unfortunate. You never want to see anybody get hurt, but you know, it is what it is. Um, but I think he is a guy that probably the Dolphins were not counting on. It was this was a guy that they were probably bringing in as a camp body. maybe there was a chance that he could be, you know, depth in the cornerback room with primarily, you know, being an eye towards being a special teams guy, but he gets hurt and he goes down and they bring in Cornell Armstrong. And I think Cornell Armstrong is probably you’re looking at him in the same way. He this is going to be a guy that has not played a whole lot in his career. Um, has done more made more contributions in special teams. And so that’s probably what you’re looking at with him is that this is a guy that if he’s going to make the team is going to make his make the team because he’s performing well on special teams and not because of what he’s bringing to the table in terms of actual cornerback depth. So at any rate I think uh I don’t know that’s kind of my thought on that. Yeah, I wish that that were the case because that would be the prudent thing to be doing with a guy like Arty Burns is bringing him in to be a camp body who maybe challenges for a roster spot. I don’t think that was the plan, unfortunately. I mean, coming into training camp, there’s obviously there’s a lot of guys in that room that are unproven. There’s a lot of youth there and I’m sure that they would like the Cam Smiths and the Isaiah Johnson’s and the Ethan Bonners and Storm Ducks of the world to step up and push Arty Burns down down, you know, off of this roster, you know, prior to the injury obviously. Um, but the fact is is that outside of Kater Coo, RD Burns was really your most solid corner, which is the, you know, a sad truth of the state of affairs of that room right now, the cornerback. Um, and so it just further underscores that they need to bring in somebody. And I’m not talking about Cornell Armstrong. Like I know that Rasool Douglas is not going to wow anybody. And some people might say that Russul Douglas is Eli Apple 2.0. Well, Eli Apple 2.0 know would be the second best cornerback on this football team right now. You know, and if Cam Smith is to step up and earn himself the starting job, then Eli Apple 2.0 would still be the third best corner back on this roster right now. And you need to have at least three cornerbacks playing a large amount of snaps in this league. So, they absolutely need to I mean, whatever lack of depth that they had has just gotten thinner and now your cornerback room right now is Kater Kohu, Cam Smith, Storm Duck, Ethan Bonner, Isaiah Johnson. Who am I missing? Cornell Armstrong. Is is did they back there? You got Ethan Bonner back there. BJ Adams. Did they bring back Jason Matri? I don’t know. Jason Marshall back there. Oh, right. The rookie. Yeah. I mean, it’s a it’s a room of a bunch of unproven talent and you’re getting ahead and a lot of young guys are not highly drafted either. So, it’s not like, hey, this guy came out of college and was highly touted. Like, your best player is an undrafted free agent there. Cam Smith is the only person in that cornerback room that they spent any reasonable amount of draft capital on. So there’s very little reason to believe, not that, you know, that that’s the end all beall. Obviously, Kater Co is the best quarterback on your roster and he was undrafted, but you know, do you want a whole quarterback room of undrafted guys? Storm Duck undrafted. Ethan Bonner undrafted. Jason Major undrafted. Brain, we’re gonna we’re gonna we’re going to go around. And we’re going to talk about all the position units in a minute. You’re getting a little carried away. You’re getting so excited. I’m pumped. I was a little low energy. But then I got on here and that waiting room music hit. Got a little Hansel and I Raul and I’m pumped. I’m like ready to go. I’m like, “Hey, let’s it it’s football time.” That’s right. It’s football time. And you know it’s football time because cap for life is in the chat ladies and gentlemen which is that Listen, if you’re listening to this in podcast form, we appreciate you very much. By the way, download, rate, review, subscribe to the Sam Old Dolphin Show, on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, Soundcloud, everywhere you get your podcast. But you you want to be watching live on the Dolphin Talk YouTube channel. Smash that like button, subscribe to the channel because then you can interact with us live. like we got a lot of people uh interacting with us live tonight and we appreciate each and every one of you. But yes, tonight tonight Oh. Oh, Mike in the comments says the brain is hulking up. Um and uh yes, in in memory of the uh of the uh immortal Hulk Hogan, which I guess he’s not really the immortal Hulk Hogan because he’s he’s dead, but you know, that happens. Anyway, the plan for today’s show is going to be to bounce around to talk about all the different uh position groups that the Dolphins have and tell you whether we think they are whe whether that group we feel good about it, we feel bad about it or if we have questions. There is no gray room in between. It’s going to fall in each of those groups is going to fall into one of those three categories. We’re doing that on purpose. So, we’re going to go around the position groups and we’re going to talk about that today on the show. But before we do that, another story out of Camp Brain. Uh, largely everybody’s healthy except for Liamberg, which you know, big loss there. I don’t know. You never The Dolphins signed Daniel Brunskill to to go perhaps in front of Liamberg on on the depth chart in terms of interior offensive line and that’s a good thing. I’ve got a lot of lot of people, you know, banging down the door about how great Daniel Brunskill is. And, you know, listen, I’m I don’t want to downplay it, but, you know, he’s a guy. He’s a guy and the Dolphins signed him. And so, we’ll see where he is. We’ll get to that when we talk about the offensive line in a little bit. But, we’ve got Daniel Brunskill in the house. Um, but other than that, the story thus far has been that, you know, you you’ve got all your questionable guys on the defensive side in terms of health are all there. Bradley Chub is there. Jaylen Phillips is there. They seem to be on track. Knock on wood. James Daniels, who was an injury, question mark, is uh available. He’s playing. He’s not on pup. He’s participating. That’s a good thing. Um, and you know, the only people that are on PUP other than Iber is Darren Waller. And my understanding is that that is more of a he’s kind of in a ramp up period because he just hasn’t played football in a little bit. So he’s they’re kind of ramping him up and that’s why he’s on pup. We’ll keep an eye on it. I’m not saying that we all need to take Mike McDaniel exactly at his word, but you know, let’s let’s see. So that’s where we are right now. As Mike says, Daniel Brunkill is no Danfeny. And as everybody knows, this is a pro Danfeny podcast. Um, and if you have any doubt about that, go back and check the archives because we’re we are uh in in in honor of Hulk Hogan. We’re big Dan feeling marks on this show, I’ll tell you that. But let’s get right into it. Brain, enough beating around the bush. Let’s do this training camp pre preview. Let’s talk about the position groups. We’ll start on offense because why wouldn’t we? And let’s start with quarterback. The Miami Dolphins quarterbacks are obviously to a tongue of Aloa and Zack Wilson and Quinn Eers. Brain, how do you feel about the Miami Dolphins quarterback room? Good. You got questions or bad? I mean, I’m not going to say that I don’t have questions, but generally I feel good. I think this is the best the quarterback room has been. Uh really? I mean I mean do you feel did you feel better when Teddy Bridgewwater or Jacobe Brassette were the backups? I don’t know. I mean now you have a third string quarterback who was drafted who has some potential um and knows the offense. Do I feel great about it? I mean at the end of the day it’s it’s really do you feel good about Tua? Do you feel good, bad, or have questions about Tua? I think we all have questions about Tua’s durability when he’s on the field. We have questions about his ceiling, but generally I think he’s a good quarterback. I think he’s a legitimate above average to good starting quarterback in this league at worst. Yeah. And that’s a good Yeah, I I agree with you on that. Listen, everybody’s got questions about Tua’s durability, but in terms of what he can do for the Dolphins when he’s on the field, you’re going to feel you feel as good about that position as you could possibly feel about it. You know, I I think is the way to say it, right? you feel as good about it as you possibly can because when Tu is on the field and he is playing at the height of his game, the Dolphins are a can be a very good team and they’ve shown an ability to do that. So, you know, having him at full health is a really good thing I think for the Dolphins. You got to feel good about that. Um, and then you look at Zack Wilson as the backup. He’s the backup who’s again a little bit of a reclamation project, but if if he’s that guy that has that upside, he was drafted as a top tier draft pick, an elite draft pick in in the NFL. So, you know, you feel like he has he’s got to hopefully have a ceiling somewhere and maybe if he ends up having the opportunity to to play meaningful snaps, you know, maybe he can reach that ceiling. Although the last time the Dolphins had a quarterback that was taken with, you know, premium draft capital um that they were trying to reclaim, it did not go so well. But Josh Rosen, yeah, that’s that was a Josh Rosen reference. But anyway, and then Quinn Ears is is a rookie and he’s a little bit of a project as well. But I mean, you know, I feel the same way about Quinn as I felt about Skyler Thompson or Mike White or Tim Bole. You know, it’s fine. So I feel good about the Dolphins quarterback room. Let’s go to the running back room. How do you feel about the Miami Dolphins running back room? Uh again, that’s Devon Achan. It’s Jaylen Wright. It’s Alexander Madison. It’s Ali Gordon. It’s Nate Now Noel. And it’s Alec Ingold. I think this is a good room. Um it’s not without its questions because the question is can Devon Chan get back to the player that he was his rookie season compared to last year? Will Jaylen Wright get in a in a in a more expanded role, which we assume is going to be a more expanded role? Will we see him pop? This is a guy the Dolphins uh you know traded up for uh to draft. So, we we know they believe in his talent and we saw flashes in the preseason and even a couple of flashes in the regular season. So, I I like that. And I think Ali Gordon gives us a bigger physical runner that can run between the tackles. And you know, Ingold is a is a a good quality fullback. And then you brought in Alexander Madison. And you’re I think what you’re going to have is you’re going to have Olly Gordon and Alexander Madison battling it out for for RB3 on this football team. And I think Ali Gordon has the inside track being that he was a guy that’s drafted and is cheaper and is going to be on team control if he makes the the roster. But if it doesn’t pan out, you brought in a veteran who at the very least can can do some things, can take some snaps, can be a short yardage back, even if I don’t think he’ll be a great one, I think it fills out the the room pretty well. I feel good about this group. Yeah, that’s, you know, it’s the Alexander Madison is the quintessential when you need three yards, he’ll get you three yards. And when you need five yards, he’ll get you three yards. So, that’s exactly who he is. Um, and that’s fine. Yeah, put him in there when you need five yards. Exol running back room. I I really would like to see uh Jaylen Wright utilized a bit more this year and maybe take some more of those Raheem Mostard snaps and let him you know I it would I think it might even be better depending on game flow but I think we may see times where Jaylen Wright is getting the ball or is on the field for more snaps than Devon Chan is and that’s fine um based on usage just depends but that’s an interesting take I I the way I see it is that he there may games where he potentially gets more carries but not more snaps because Devon Achan is one of the most important pieces to this offense as a weapon that can be not just in the back field can be can be played on the in the slot is not just a ball carrier is a is a receiving threat. Um, so I I think Devon Achan I mean Devon Achan has as good a shot as anybody that’s not a quarterback or offensive lineman to lead this team in snaps. I that’s actually something that I want to talk about in a later episode this training camp when we get into talking about what are things that the Dolphins are going to need to do differently this season to improve on. And one of the things that I’m going to talk about is that they need to do a little bit better dis disguising their packages. And you know, they’ve become very easy to read, you know, over the years when certain personnel is on the field, you know, exactly what they’re going to do. They they they don’t they have it’s been something that McDaniel, I think, has struggled with. And I there are a number of reasons for that, but that’s something that we’ll talk about on a later episode. Let’s talk about the wide receivers brain. Uh the Miami Dolphins wide receivers. Obviously we know up top Tyreek Hill, Jaylen Wadd. You’ve also got Malik Washington. They’ve now brought in Nick Westbrook Aina. They’ve got Erica Zukanma who’s still there. Taj Washington who we never saw because he got hurt in training camp last year. They also have D. Espridge. They’ve got Andrew Armstrong, Theo Whis, TK Black, AJ Henning, and Monterey Baldwin. Brain, how are you feeling about the Miami Dolphins riches at wide receiver? I think it’s a good group. It’s been a good group, but I think this is actually the deepest the group has been. Um, I think the addition of Westbrook A gives them a different body type and a guy that can block and be a little bit more of a red zone threat. Um, I thought Malik Washington came on strong towards the end of the year and I think there’s a definitive role for him here as a as a slot receiver. Whether he’s wide receiver three or wide receiver four, I don’t think it really matters because he’s probably I mean I realistically I I don’t think he’s going to be third or even fourth on this roster in in in target share. Um because I think you know the lion share of the targets are going to go to Tyreek Hill and to Jaylen Wadd and I think next on the list is probably going to be Devon Achan and then you know we’ll see what happens at the tight end position but then you’re looking at like I think a pretty even share of things getting spread around there and I think this is you know the deepest this room has been. Uh so uh I I think it’s a good group. Yeah, I I can’t disagree. I really like it and I like the idea of Nick Westbrook Aina being that, you know, physical blocking wide receiver, that kind of Robert Woods type blocking receiver, the uh, you know, that that can be physical and help you in the run game as well. I I I think he’s going to be a major contributor in that way and I’m excited to see that. Uh, let’s go to tight end. Darren Waller, Pharaoh Brown, Julian Hill, Tanner Connor, Jaylen Conurs, Hayden Ruchi. Brain, good, bad, or questions about the tight end room. I mean, it’s impossible to feel good about this room. Uh, well, I I mean, you remember what which football team’s fan base you’re speaking to right now. Well, I think every team’s fan base could, you know, be applied to that logic, especially this time of year. But um I don’t think you can feel good about this. I think there’s a pathway to where you don’t feel bad about this this group. Um because I think look, Julian Hill has gotten a lot of hate from this organization because he’s he’s been asked to be like the number one tight end. Like people have been thinking that Julian Hill is going to like develop into like this great tight end, but this was like an an undrafted guy that they brought in um to really be like a number three tight end and he’s turned into a decent player that can help a little bit in the blocking game. He’s not going to give you a ton in the receiving game, but he can do a little bit and I think he’s fine for that. I think that’s what he is. He’s a depth piece. Um, Pharaoh Brown was brought in to be a physical blocking tight end. That’s fine. He’s a depth piece. That’s what all of these other guys that are in this roster, they’re either depth pieces or they’re projects. I don’t have a lot of faith in the projects. Darren Waller is the question mark. If Darren Waller comes in, we don’t need Darren Waller to be John John Smith of of 2024. If you expect that, you’re gonna be disappointed. We don’t even need Darren Waller to be the Darren Waller of 2023. If Darren Waller can come in and be like a 40 catch guy that can be sort of a poor man’s 2024 John Smith, he will fill a very nice role for this football team as an added big receiver in the short to intermediate game. And I think that would be very valuable for this for this offense as a whole. How do I feel about the room in general? It’s bad to I’ve got questions. If you know, if Darren Waller is good, then it the room will be fine. If Darren Waller is not good, this room will be bad. That’s is that’s where it is. Yeah. Uh I I would say that I’m feeling bad about the tight end room at the moment. um like overall, but like if I had to pick one or the other, whether it’s bad or I’ve got questions, I it would probably, you know, honestly, I’d probably be somewhere in the middle. But I’m we’re not playing that game. We’re playing a game where you have to pick one side of the other. And I’m saying that I don’t I don’t feel good about it. I don’t feel good about a tight end room where you you’re number one the guy that is in line to become the number one tight end for your team is has been out of the league for over a year. We’re hearing that he’s in very good shape which you know that’s all fine and dandy, but you know he hasn’t played for a while. Um and it’s really hard to feel good about that. And then the the guy who’s your number two tight end is designed to be a blocking tight end. Now, I my I also understand that my view is skewed by the fact that this Dolphins offense was broken last year and relied heavily on John Smith as a kind of release valve for their offense. And so that gave him the opportunity to put up huge numbers and now he’s gone. The team have traded him away. Um, and so I I understand that that’s where it feels like, but where I feel right now about the Dolphins tight end room is I I feel bad. And that’s okay because we still have training camp and preeason and the regular season. Plenty of time for them to get me on board with the tight end room. But as of right now, I feel bad about the tight end room. I I I just don’t like it. Should we answer this question? What is the question? If Waller was a bagel, what bagel would he be? Oh, well, you do come to the same old Dolphin show for bagel talk. That’s part of it. I’m going to get real Jewish here. Oh, I’m I’m gonna get real Jewish here. So, do I have music for that? Let me see. Well, if if you if you get the music, just play it. Just interrupt me. um after your Saturday morning uh service um they have what they call an ONIG and that’s where you you you finish the service and you go out in into like their little like lobby area and there’s just like a giant buffet of food and there’s bagels and and and you know it’s sponsored by the family that had the per that had the bar mitzvah our bot mitzvah that that day that morning. And so sometimes you get an on egg, it’s kind of skimpy, and sometimes you get a really great one egg and there’s like all kinds of like white fish salad and all kinds of different cream cheese or whatever. Anyway, at most on eggs you’re going to have bagels. Sometimes you are late to the on egg because, you know, you just kind of dragged your feet. Maybe you were sticking around. You were talking to your family. Maybe you’re in the the Barabot Mitzvah party, so you stay back and you’re like congratulating the the family and everything. So by the time you get to the on egg, everything’s been kind of picked clean. Darren Waller is like the last bagel that’s left on the on table. And it’s like, I’m not saying that the bagel’s going to be bad, but it got everybody everything else got picked over that bagel. So, you’re still going to take a shot at that bagel. It might be good. It might not be good. Odds are it’s not going to be great. It wasn’t the top choice of anybody, but it still might be decent. That is that is quite a ways to go to get to that answer, but wow, that is that’s good stuff there. Okay. Well, that’s why people come to the same old Dolphin show. And let’s talk about the offensive line here, Brain. Um because uh that’s the last unit on offense that we have to talk about. So, let’s talk about it. You feel good, you feel bad, you got questions, here are the guys, here are the players. Patrick Paul, James Daniels, Aaron Brewer, excuse me, Aaron Brewer. Uh, and then you’ve got Jonah Savania, Austin Jackson, Larry Boram, Liam Iikenberg, Andrew Meyer, Daniel Brunskill, Keon Smith, Ryan Hayes, Josh Prey, Addison West, Jackson Carmen, and Obina Eay. Oh, and then of course you got uh Braden Daniels and well, we had Bon Matoss, but that was the other story was that he was flown to a hospital with uh apparently lack of feeling in one side of his body. So, uh you feel good, bad, or do you have questions about the offensive line? Can I go first on this one? You can go first. I got questions. That’s where I am. I’ve got questions. Uh I I am not going to fault anybody from saying that they are, you know, fired up about the offensive line because the Dolphins have made investments in the offensive line like you’ve we’ve been asking them to do for a very long time. But I can’t accept that the investments that they’ve made are automatically making the unit better than they’ve been. Um you have a significant downgrade at left tackle from Terron Armstead to Patrick Paul. Is it possible that Patrick Paul could play well and end up being a very good player? And by all accounts, he’s, you know, looking like he’s in fantastic shape and he’s ready to go and, you know, sure it’s very possible that he could have it together and the Dolphins, you know, might have really gotten a heck of a draft pick there a couple of years ago. Um, but it’s a question at this point. I can’t take it on its face and say I feel good about that. Um, you have a rookie in Jonas of Ianiah at one of your guard spots. I cannot feel I can’t say I feel good about a rookie starting on the offensive line. It took Robert Hunt a while to become Robert Hunt. It doesn’t happen immediately. I’m talking about when I say about how I feel about it, I’m talking about this season, 2025. Uh, so I have questions about that. James Daniels was a guy that a lot of people feel very strongly about and they really like James Daniels and I I I think frankly I like James Daniels a lot too but he’s coming back from a major injury and while the early reports in camp when you know seeing him running around in shorts are that he is looking good and is looking explosive and is getting off the line of scrim scrimmage very quickly. Um, that’s all well and good, but until I see it in a game against real opponents, you know, like they say, live bullets, um, I have questions about that. Um, and then my right tackle is Austin Jackson, who again is one of those guys who just cannot seem to stay healthy. So, I got questions about that. Aaron Brewer, I feel good about. He’s our undersized center, who I like. Um, you know, I I the Daniel Brunkill as a depth piece to potentially be in front of Liam Iikenberg is is fine and dandy. You know, Larry Borum I’m really worried about. Um, you know, Dan Daniel Brunskill, you know, we’re happy about that. I’m Andrew Meyer is remains a question mark. Keon Smith remains an enormous question mark. And, you know, the rest of the guys there are just guys. Um, and so my my thought on the offensive line is I just think if you’re walking if you’re looking at that offensive line and you’re saying right now, I feel good about the Miami Dolphins offensive line, I got questions. Yeah. I I think at the very least you have to have questions. I think if you are are literally saying, “I feel good about this offensive line,” you’re looking at the world through aqua and orange glasses and you probably think this is a you know a Super Bowl contending team because I mean quite frankly it I mean it’s the biggest question mark on the offensive side of the football. We’ve all said I mean aside from Tua’s durability but we’ve all said that you know when two is healthy he’s he’s a good quarterback. You feel good about that position. We feel good about the running backs. We feel good about the wide receivers, the tight ends. We have questions. Even if we feel bad, it’s like whatever. This is not a team that, you know, granted Jonnu Smith had a big role last year. I don’t think the idea of this offense is to have the tight end have that big of a role as John Smith had last year. Um, that was kind of a a symptom of everything else that went wrong for this team last year. The inability to to block for more than two seconds, the inability to run the ball, the inability to stretch the field because you couldn’t keep defenses honest because you couldn’t run against light boxes. I think ideally you want to be able to run the ball against light boxes and uh when teams load up the box then you can beat them down the field. That starts with the offensive line. That starts with your guards playing much much better so that you can actually run the ball uh on early downs and not get put into these third and long situations that they were in far too many times last season. and you could feel better about the offensive line this year because you like the pickup of James Daniels and you like Jonah Savana and you are, you know, optimistic about Patrick Paul and, you know, Austin Jackson went healthy the last two years has looked very good. I can understand the argument there, but there’s a lot of ifs. There’s a lot of questions to get to the point where you feel good about this offensive line. We’re just not there yet. And the addition of Daniel Brunskill. Okay, that’s fine. I’m not going to jump up for joy because we got an interior offensive line. I like the move. That’s fine. I think we needed some depth on the interior offensive lineman. That on the interior offensive line. That’s great. But who’s your swing tackle right now? the it it’s it seems like the plan is that your your starting tackles are Patrick Paul and Austin Jackson and you have a battle for swing tackle of Keon Smith who has had no real playing time. He’s had some playing time mostly in mopup duty. Nothing no legitimate shot and he did not play at all last year because he was injured in the preseason. and Larry Boram who is objectively bad, you know, in his previous spot and came here with the stigma of Aaliyah Mikeberg. So, um I don’t know how you can feel good about your swing tackle situation. Now, if you say I feel good about our starting five, I’d still say I have questions, but I’d understand it. But how many Dolphins seasons do we need to watch where there are multiple injuries on the offensive line to where you can say, “Well, I feel good about my starting five and thus I feel good about the offensive line.” There haven’t been any in like the last decade. Yeah. I mean, that’s that’s really the thing. So, yeah, I think it’s fair to say that we’ve got questions about the offensive line. Um, let’s get the let’s get good answers to the offensive line. And if the Dolphins can answer those questions in the positive, then that’s going to be the kind of thing that points us in the right direction going forward. Um, I guess we should touch on special teams here. I we we’ve gone a little long in the show here. We’re a little long in the tooth here. We haven’t even gotten to defense yet. Brain, do you think we ought to keep going? We’re going to chug all the way through and brain says keep going. I don’t think we need to spend that much time on special teams. How do you feel about special teams? Uh, good, bad, or questions? I mean, I got questions, but I feel better about it knowing that Danny Crossman’s not here. Yeah, there you go. That’s all you need to know. So, so the answer is good. All right, let’s move to defense. Brain, I’m going to save the best for last. So, let’s start on the defensive line, which and and this is great because uh the defensive line has uh Zack Cer, who as was pointed out in the chat here, uh Zackman 56 says, “If Jonah is moving Zack Cer off the line, I feel comfortable with him.” And you know, I mean, fair, fair. Although, I’ll say shorts, right? And no pads with shorts. So, you got to take all that with a grain of salt. Um, so let’s take a look at um that offensive line. Kenneth Grant, Bonito Jones, Zack Cer, Matt Dickerson, Jordan Phillips, Matthew Butler, Ben Stilly, Zeke Biggers, Alex Huntley. Um, we can include the linebackers and edge guys in that. Uh, Jaylen Phillips and Bradley Chub, Quinton Bell, Chop Robinson, Cameron. I think we should I think we should address those separately. Okay, great. So, let’s let’s talk about that. The intern the uh let’s let’s talk Kenneth Grant, Bonito Jones, Zack Cer, Matt Dickerson, Jordan Phillips, Matthew Butler, Zeke Biggers, Ben Stilly, Alex Huntley. How do you feel about those guys? I lean good, but I have questions about the depth. Yeah, I feel good. I feel good. It’s a depth question ultimately, but I feel good about the unit as a whole. I think that they’re relying a lot on on two rookies. Um, I I look, you’re asking a you’re you’re you’re clearly needing Zack Caler to play a lot and play at a high level, which he’s done. And you’re look, you invested a first round pick, the number 13 pick on Kenneth Grant, and you need to see him im come in and immediately make a big impact. But he’s a rookie. Like if you’re gonna say what you’re gonna say about Jonas Savana as a second round pick, you I think it’s fair to say the same thing about Kenneth Grant even though he’s a first round pick, which is like, do we really know that Kenneth Grant is going to come in and and be great right off right out the gate? Because if he’s not, then this group is not good. That’s true. because there’s not a lot because if Kenneth Grant isn’t really good out of the gate, well, how do you feel about Jordan Phillips coming out of the gate as a fifth round pick? Because right now Jordan Phillips probably has the inside track as being your, you know, your third best interior defensive lineman. Like they need a guy there. There’s they need a veteran there. I don’t know that they’re going to sign one. And so if Kenneth Grant and I look and the thing is with Kenneth Grant, the biggest question mark coming out of college is like what does he look like when he plays a lot of snaps because he was at his best when he was being rotated in and out as part of just a incredibly deep and talented defensive line with Michigan. If Kenneth Grant is going to have to come in and play 40 to 50 snaps as a rookie, is he in shape to do it? Can he be consistent enough to do it? And if not, you know, is this just going to be what we saw last year, which was when Kus Campbell and Zack Celler were on the field together, this interior defensive line was great, but when one of them went out, it was a mess. I think we’re probably closer to that. Yeah. Well, I mean, that’s that’s fair way of looking at it. So, you feel you got questions? I got questions. Yeah, I would say I’ve got question. I would say I’m leaning more towards the bad side, but I, you know, I see a p like if Kenneth Grant is great, then I feel good. All right. Well, fair enough. Well, let’s talk about those other guys. The guys on the outside, Jaylen Phillips, Bradley Chub, Quinton Bell, Chop Robinson, Mo Kamar, Cam Good, Grayson Murray, Derek McClendon. Feel about that edge group? The Edge group is the most interesting group on the entire roster to me because it is the most talented group. Maybe saved for wide receiver, but it I’ve got questions. You can’t feel good about it because your two best players in the edge group can’t stay healthy historically. So, if Bradley Chub and Jaylen Phillips stay healthy and you get the first off, if those two guys stay healthy and Chop Robinson stays healthy, you’re going to see an even better Chop Robinson because all three of those guys will have an amplifying effect on each other. If you get those three guys healthy together for the entire season, this will be one of the best edge groups in the entire league. That’s my take. But that’s a huge if because Jaylen Phillips and Bradley Chub historically can’t stay healthy. Yeah, that and that is that is again that’s the key to the entire thing. It’s the key to the entire thing. If that unit can stay healthy and play at the height of their abilities of what they’ve been kn, you know, they can reach their ceilings as players and stay healthy and do it all season. You’re talking about a group that is going to be able to to some extent minimize some other questions that we have about other units on this team defensively. If that unit can like I would I might I I would probably argue that that unit is the key to the entire defense having success this season. I I I think you could make that argument. Um so I’m I’m with you. I got questions. But let’s keep going. Let’s take a look at those linebackers. Tyrell Dodson, uh Jordan Brooks, Willie Gay, KJ Britt, Channing Tindall is still here. Eugene Asante, Dacoin Jackson, Brain, how do you feel about that linebacker core? I feel good. I I don’t think it’s like an elite group, but I think it’s a good group. I think it’s the deepest and best this group has been as a whole in a while. Uh Jordan Brooks had a really nice year for this team. I think we’re good there. I think Dodson did enough last year to where you feel o you feel at the very least okay with him being there and then adding KJ Britt and Willie Gay you’re bringing in depth at linebacker with guys that can get the job done that can play meaningful snaps for you if need be so that you’re not relying on Channing Tindall who’s probably going to be shown the door after this preseason. Yeah, totally totally agree with you there. I’m I’m feeling very good about that unit. Let’s go to the safety room. And I’m kind of moving through these a little quickly because I know we’ve got a big conversation coming up here. Let’s go to safety. Ifatu Meloponu, Minka, Fitzpatrick, Ashton Davis, Elijah Campbell, Dante Trader Jr., Patrick McMorris, Jordan Colbert, John Saunders Jr. Brain, the safety room. How do you feel? Um, I got questions. Well, I I think when when they brought in Minka Fitzpatrick, it went from bad to I’ve got questions. Yeah. Because I think Minkov Fitzpatrick to some extent legitimizes the group. It gives you somebody that has played safety at a high level. Yes. Um, and so I think it it definitely raises the floor of the group. I’ve got questions as to how good Melanu will be and how many games he will play. I have questions about how good Ashton Davis can be. I have questions about you know can Patrick McMorris crack uh you know safety three and like how are these guys going to be used? I I’ I’ve got legitimate questions. I think if you’ve got two safeties that stick out as being your two best safeties, it’s clearly Minka Fitzpatrick and then it’s uh Melanu. Um and so I have questions as to how that’s that whole thing is going to shake out. But I do think bringing in Minka Fitzpatrick and it should be said, you know, Mike McDaniel had a really interesting answer to the question about Minka Fitzpatrick, who I, you know, he’s not talking to media, but Mike McDaniel’s answer to the question about that and saying that we would not have made the trade if we didn’t, you know, I’m paraphrasing here, but if we didn’t first make sure that that player was okay to be here, Now, I’m not saying that you can take Mike McDaniel at his word for everything, but Minka Fitzpatrick is out there. He’s practicing Mike McDaniel saying that. I have no reason to believe, as much as so many people want to make something of it, I have no reason to believe that Minka Fitzpatrick is going to lay down or not play because he’s upset about not having guaranteed money left on his contract. I’m of the belief that Minka Fitzpatrick after having two relatively down years and is in a contract year essentially. Um I think he has everything to play for and you know does that mean that Miami couldn’t necessarily give him some guaranteed money in a contract extension because that could free up cap space? No, they could. Um, but even if he doesn’t, I think that Minka Fitzpatrick is fine. And I fully expect him to play and I think if he plays, he’s the best player in the room. And I think, you know, I still have questions, but I think he legitimizes the group. Yeah, I I agree with you. I got questions about that group. I I do. I got questions. Let’s go to cornerback. Storm Duck, Cam Smith, Cateroo, Ethan Bonner. Jason Marshall Jr., Kendall Sheerfield or Sheffield, excuse me, uh BJ Adams, Isaiah Johnson, Ryan Cooper Jr., Cornell Armstrong, Ethan Robinson, Rain, I feel bad about this year. Yes, it’s the only way I feel. I feel bad. Like I mean at this point I look at that group and it’s like you got Kater Coo that’s your number one corner is Kater Kohoo. And listen I know Dolphins boy the Dolphins crack social media team wasted no time putting Kater putting a clip of Kater Kohu breaking up a pass to Tyreek Hill on the social media platform today because they want to make everybody true believers in Kater Kohoo. But if that’s your number one cornerback, I got questions. And listen, if you can answer those questions, great. But I got questions. And among those questions is who’s your number two quarterback? Is it Storm Duck? Is it is it Ethan Bonner? Is it, you know, is it is it Asante Samuel Jr.? Is it Rousul Douglas? Is it I don’t know who it is, but that’s a big question. Uh, you know, you I have a question. Is Cam Smith going to be on this roster when the season starts? Is he going to be somebody that you’re finally going to rely on? I don’t know. I just That group is is that is the group that I think needs a lot of improvement. It’s going to need to do a lot to make me feel good about it. Um, I’m not even at like I got a lot of questions, but I feel bad about the fact that the about the kind of questions that I have. So, I feel bad about the group. Yeah. When you have questions about literally every person in the room, then you have to feel bad. It’s the only way to feel. Cam Smith is definitely going to be on the roster. The question is, is he going to be the number two corner or even the number three corner? Because if he’s not even the number if first off, if he’s not the number three corner, he’s an absolute bust. absolute bust even as a se I mean look at at this point the way the the way this league is second round picks are treated almost like first round picks and so much so that now they’re getting fully guaranteed contracts yeah and and you know Mike made a good point he thinks that that’s going to be the new normal and you know with the way second round picks are treated like all you you don’t even have to look further than look at you know how difficult it is to get get a second round pick back in a trade. Yeah, PE people value teams value second round picks. They even value third round picks, but second round picks right now are valued almost as much as first round picks. And so if that’s the case, if Cam Smith and and like I’m gonna invoke the name Noah Igbon here. Noah Igbon was the number 31 pick. Or was he number 30 or 31? I think he was 31. Um maybe he was 30. Either way, a late first round pick, almost a second round pick, and the Dolphins third pick in that draft. Cam Smith is quickly approaching Noah Igbon territory. If he can’t break through this year, he’s never going to break through until he goes to his next team and then is in the NFC Championship. Yeah. Right. Exactly. So there we are. So there’s the Miami Dolphins. So, so overall, I would say looking at everything, I mean, you you would weigh it. I guess I don’t know how you average it out. You don’t give things a point total based on how it is. But overall, I think I got questions is where I land on this team. I don’t feel bad about the team. It’s that I feel like I feel like I got questions about what this team is going to be actually be able to do this year. Every team has questions. Really good teams have fewer questions. The Dolphins have too many questions at too many spots. Yes, there could be a situation where you hit everything right. that doesn’t typically happen and it certainly doesn’t typically happen to this with this organization. Um, and if they hit everything right, they could absolutely surprise people, but they’ve got too many questions. I mean, you’ve got like even the rooms that you feel the best about. You feel good about quarterback and you’ve got a question about your starting quarterback’s durability. You feel good. You feel like your most talented group might be your edge group, but two of the three guys that you’re counting on to make that group, the elite group that it is, have injury issues. you feel good about, you know, the the the additions that you’ve made on the offensive line, but where’s the death? And who, you know, how’s Patrick Paul going to play at left tackle? If Patrick, if any one of those players don’t work out, it’s going to become a nightmare very quickly. And that’s the case at offensive line. That’s the case at defensive line. Maybe not so much the case at at edge, but it’s certainly the case at safety. And it’s already a nightmare at corner. So, there’s just there’s too many questions. Inevitably, you’re not going to you’re not going to have all of the answers that you want, and that’s going to cap the ceiling of this team. Now, does does that mean that this team is going to be awful? No. Does that mean that this team is definitively not going to contend to be a playoff team? No. I think I’m more bullish on this team than most people on this podcast network, which is crazy to me because that’s not historically how it’s been. But I still am not going to sit here and say that I have high expectations to the for this team because there are just far too many questions. I think that’s well said and I think that’s where we’re going to wrap up this episode of the Same Old Dolphin Show. Make sure that you download, rate, review, and subscribe to The Same Old Dolphin Show on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, Soundcloud, everywhere you get your podcast. Make sure you go to kaneswear.com and get yourself some gear. Make sure you go to Dolphins Exxtra, patreon.com/dolphinstock, folks. $3 $3 a month. And if you subscribe for the year, it’s even cheaper than that on a monthly basis. So join the fun over there at Dolphins Talk Extra. We’d appreciate that. Leave us a rating. Leave us a review. We appreciate all of that. Make sure you’re visiting dolphins.com each and every day for all the latest Dolphins news and information. Thank you, Phil Montgomery. We’re very happy to be back. Very happy to be back with John Featherlin and Finn Spin and uh Malcolm Stewart and Robert Ashton and David Degraphen Reed and Jimmy Todd Willhigh. I mean, we got all we got all the buds here. We’re we’re super stoked to be with all of you. Um really excited to be back for football. So, make sure you’re checking everything out. Check out Marissa Marino’s all the great work that she’s done um this off season. And here we go. We’re doing we’re doing it. We’re going to we’re going to be back here in your ears every week. And of course, remember extra shows on Dolphin Sock Extra. So, be a subscriber today. Thank you as always for listening. Brain, any final words for the people? Hey man, it’s football time. Buckle up. Let’s go. Let’s go. Well then, for Aaron the Brain, I’ll talk to you again next time. Take care of yourselves and each other. And as always, go Dolphins. Not going to lie, a really good oneg right now would hit the spot.

Aaron and Josh are back for their first official show of the 2025 season! They look at all of the Miami Dolphins’ position groups at the start of training camp and make their early assessments: are the units good, bad, or questionable?

The guys also touch on early news out of camp surrounding the team and say what they are most excited about as the NFL returns!

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