Have The Miami Dolphins Made A Transformation NO ONE Expected?

Have The Miami Dolphins Made A Transformation NO ONE Expected?

On this episode of the finish line, it’s myself and Richmond Webb. Ballgame should be joining us at some point and we are going to discuss the Miami Dolphins taking on their AFC East rival, New York Jets this week. Also, we got to have a serious conversation about something. Has a narrative been killed? Have the Miami Dolphins transformed into something offensively no one expected them to? We got to have that discussion. We’re going to go in depth about it. But do me the favor. Smash the like button. Subscribe if you are new. And as always, let’s get into this. All right, huddle up. Huddle up. We’re going to crank these engines up on one. On one. All right. Wait. Wait. Set. Drivers. Start your engines. [Music] The Larry Vodka. This is the finish line. I coach a great office in the past. Larry Little Stevenson, all Hall of Famers, and Richmond Web Launch that same group. Here are your hosts, legendary Miami Dolphins left tackle Richmond Web, Reasonz, and Mr. ball game. [Music] What is good Finn Nation? What’s good? It’s your boy Reason and we are back here for another one. It’s me and Richmond to start this out. Son’s ball game as he’s stuck in traffic, you know, about to go Home Depot on the interstate right now. Hey, I hate traffic. Like I like, man, cuz he’s been stuck in that. I mean, man, that’s been almost an hour he’s and he was since he was supposed to be home, it’s been an hour. So, shout out to Ball Game. Hopefully he’s listening to us on the way in and hopefully we can at least make you laugh a little bit on your way home. Richmond, man, this is becoming a routine here. Look at this. We’re getting together every time the Dolphins win now. They’ve now won what? Four out of the last five. And um but I mean we’ll talk about it, but and I’ll ask you your thoughts on it, but we’ll start off with this. How you feeling? I mean five and seven. I mean, eking back to 500, where you at? Hey, I’m I’m along with everybody else. Um, man, it’s it it feels good to be a Dolphin. Um, you know, it’s almost to me the fact that it had went so bad the the uh first half of the season that you were like, “Okay, yeah, we won a game, then we win another one.” And it’s almost like you try not to believe too hard, but then when you watch the game on Sundays, it’s it’s a difference out there. I mean, they they go out with a different swagger or the defense is it don’t seem like they get rattled. You know, a bad play happens or whatever. And um it seems like they’re having fun. Um even McDaniel, the coaches and all that, it it’s something different. and and the defense looks like what we we thought they would, you know, from the jump start of the season kind of way they finished last year. And uh man, it’s it’s been man, it’s been fun to watch football again, especially, you know, if if you’re a Dolphin fan cuz I’m telling you, I you know, I had went to Charlotte and I was at the San Diego game and I was actually at the Bills game. in the Bills games. I was shocked that, you know, playing the Chargers and and and and the Panthers and then at the last minute losing both of those and then, you know, you try not to go back and say, “Man, if we would have, but if we would have, we would be seven and five right now.” So, it’s like I I I I think about that, but I try not to think about that because we would be in just such m much better, you know, situation, but it is what it is. But I’m just happy and overjoyed. Uh my man Han went over a thousand yards and I saw the thing in the locker room how everybody was really happy for him. This and that and you know we’ve talked about he’s probably MVP for this this team, right? I mean it’s just um the play mink man. It’s it’s it’s things now we can talk about that we’re making plays on both sides of football and it’s been a it’s been we had to wait half a season for that but man it feels good and uh I’m I’m happy and I’m I’m sure ball game is happy especially you know he loves that defense and that secondary so his man Minka caught that uh that two minute that two point and took it back to the house I’m like he’s been fantastic Ma oh man it’s just man we we we we got to figure out a way to keep a core a nucleus of those guys together to because you you got to keep certain guys I know you got to pay certain guys this and that but you got to keep because that that’s what kind of holds a locker room together but yeah it’s it’s been really good lately I can’t say that um you know what’s interesting too uh did I don’t know if did you see his Instagram what he what he what he put out a chan he said uh I ain’t need no gender reveal moms knew I was He dropping bars. Yeah. Yeah. He was already world class track. Now you thousand yard rusher. Now you want to be a rapper, man. Come on now. Don’t don’t don’t do us like that, brother. We on your team. So yeah, I like that. I might have to start using that. H Yeah, he’s uh he’s been fantastic. But let me ask you this. Um, does it worry you how ugly the last two wins have been in terms of it’s not like they’ve been against good teams. You blew out a good team. Well, I don’t want to say you blew out, but you put belt to ass on a good team in the Buffalo Bills and since then you’ve struggled to Hey, man, a win is a win. I get all that, but it’s two weeks in a row. And what’s especially concerning is one of them is coming off a buy where you had a chance to adjust the struggles you had against the Commanders and again it looks like you you know you struggled to cross the finish line once more against another weak team. Um does that have you concerned at at all? Yeah, anybody I mean we’re not going into the games with blinders on. Um, we’re doing some good things and we’re winning the game, but it’s some it’s some things like you said the last couple of games that, you know, you look at it and say when you kind of get teams up, you don’t let them back in the game. And we kind of did that even with the Saints and then, you know, um, Minka did that, but then they was able to come down and then the, um, the onside kick. That’s what got me. I was like, man, I I really got concerned in cuz I was like, wait a minute. all he needs is a field goal or whatever and you know that’s it and and and I think what disturbs you know you’ve worked that hard you’ve let some things slide and if you clean up some more things these some of these games won’t even be close so um I always say it’s easy to correct things after a win but you don’t want to keep making the same bad habits or mistakes you want to see some improvements okay yeah two weeks ago we were doing this but we not doing this anymore we’re not doing things so I I would love to see them lock in a little bit more and stop giving teams an advantage or a way to get back into the game when you’ve basically taken out of them. And uh like we got the Jets this week, but you can’t just look at them as a Jets and you can’t you can only have so many opportunities against teams like the Saints or whatever to where they’re not as good a team, but when you face a good team a lot of time they will expose you and say, “Okay, you can’t we ain’t gonna let you get away with what you did with those other previous teams.” So, um, just holding out hope that they can correct this and keep it going and taking it one game at a time, but the way things are setting up, man, um, I I don’t think I keep saying take it one game at a time, but it we still three or four games behind, but this thing could get interesting in another couple of weeks if we keep winning uh, if we keep winning football games. Yeah, that’s the problem. E, like the teams ahead of you, like you’re not catching any breaks, right? Like literally Justin Herbert breaks one of his hands but it’s his non-throwing hand. You know what I mean? And like the problem like the Chargers they’re what three games ahead of us. They’re like that’s the thing like all these teams you know since we were at goheading into the bye-week at four wins and they were at six wins. All these teams have continued to win and now they’re at eight wins. You’ve got the Texans surging a little bit, right? because they’re playing really good ball, especially defensively, and it’s paying off for them, right? So, like nothing’s kind of breaking your way with this situation, too. Like that’s what’s that’s what’s very kind of disheartening about it is it’s like I did the math and like without getting into every other team’s win loss just us straight up from this point on if we were to win out no matter what other teams win and lose just us winning straight out we like it’s like a 14% chance to make the playoffs. It’s down from 21% last week cuz everyone won. Now, if the Bills lose a C, like the basic way that it goes is like, you know, if the Colts go one and four or worse down the last five games, if the Chargers go one and four or worse, or if the Bills go two or three or worse, the Texans go two or three or worse, and the Chiefs go three or two or worse, if we win out, we’ve got a chance with all those scenarios of getting into the playoffs. Yeah. and and and that’s you need a lot of help. You need a lot of help and you don’t have room for error. I think that’s the thing that you can’t afford to drop one. Even if all that happens, you got to win every single game to even have an opportunity. And and and that’s, you know, that’s why I was thinking like a couple of those games we dropped earlier on. If you win them, you know, you’re right in the hunt. You’re right in the thick of things. But, you know, we didn’t. You can’t cry with spill milk. But, um, you do Chargers game, Richmond. Like think about that. You lost you lost that game. You had the miss field goal early on, but you lost that game. The defense didn’t finish it off. If the defense was playing like how it is now, they would have finished they wouldn’t have lost the Panthers game. They wouldn’t have lost the Chargers game. But anyways, I digress. But you know what the problem was? Okay, now the Chargers, they’ve they’re like three I think they’re 3-1 or 3-0 against their division, right? So like they’ve got the divisional tiebreaker against you and they’ve got the head-to-head tiebreaker against you. Yeah. So that like that and they’re and they’re three games ahead of us. They’ve got eight wins. We’ve got five. Yeah. I I think you just playing for pride every week. And if it happens by some wild chance, you know, you you cherish the moment and you go on. But other than that, you’re playing for pride and saying, “Hey, let’s keep going one week at a time and let’s this year for real, let’s carry this over to the next season and let’s not start like we’ve started the last couple of years and get this thing right from the jump and and we’ll be in much much better position.” I think that’s that’s the approach that we we definitely got to take. Yeah, the Chargers are 4-0 in their division. We are currently two and two, but we got the Patriots and the Bills and the Jets left. Isn’t it crazy? Like Richmond, I was having this conversation with someone yesterday. You know, you go back two years ago. Remember this time in 2023, right? Mhm. All the way up until week 17. Yeah. Weeks Yeah. Week 17 because there’s 18 weeks now. So all the way up until week 17, two is in the talk for the MVP. Week 17, we’re playing the Ravens, you know, in late December for the AFC crown. Not the AFC East, but the AFC crown, right? Lose that game, get blown out, right? Tyreek drop in the end zone, switches momentum, and get blown out. And then the next week, it’s okay. Playing for the AFC East crown against a surging Bills who started off really slow. They ended up squeaking out. Like that’s how close we were. Our quarterback was in the MVP talks. We were fighting for the AFC crown right in until the very 11th hour. And now we’re sitting here talking about two years later. We started the season 1 and seven. And the Patriots are currently what 10 and two. And they may they may be benching their starters when we face them in the final. No, they’re 11 and two, right? They’re they’re they may be benching their starters in the final week when we play them. That’s we like we never even in that 2023 when we thought we were close, Richmond, we weren’t in the beginning of December saying, “Oh, we’ll probably be benching starters by week 18, right?” Like, no way. And and I guess the the bad part about bringing that up is you get rid of Brady, he goes to Tampa Bay, you know, they get rid of Bellich. They have a couple of bad years and it was kind of dwindling down, you know, last couple of years with Bellich. And so you think, hey, it’s Oh, there you go. There you go. Don’t do that. Don’t do that. Yeah. Out there doing burnouts on Come on now. Come on now. We waiting on you. Come on, man. People want to hear from you. We’ve been waiting on you, bro. Come on. Man, they had to take over, man. He’s not driving that people, bro. It’s crazy, bro. This crap. I know. It’s wild, dude. Car pile up, bro. Yeah. Where we at? Where we at? It’s on you, bro. Come on. Give him Get So, basically, we’re talking about I was saying to him, “Isn’t it wild how two years ago in this time, right, in December, right, we were about to clinch the playoffs? we had clinched or were no we were about to clinch the playoff spot against uh in a couple weeks we would have clinched against Dallas and then in week 17 we were playing for the AFC crown and our quarterback was in the MVP conversation and then Tyreek drops the ball swings momentum we get blown out by Baltimore and then in the final week we’re playing for the AFC East crown and we all thought we were so close and we were there fast forward two years later we start off one and seven. We’re looking for all these different scenarios to get into the playoffs and one of them includes final week of the season. Patriots are probably already thinking about benching their starters because they’re 11 and two right now. Like we never even got to that level even when we thought we were close to winning the division and dethroning the Bills of talking about benching our starters at the beginning of December. Yeah, don’t people gonna hate me for this, but them damn Patriots look like I thought we was going to look. I like them. They they don’t take many chances. They they got the coach right. Yeah, the defense is the defense is physical. He put his ego aside and said, “Go get me Josh McDaniels to get Drake May right.” And look at how it’s worked out. Yeah, man. It’s just crazy. Now, I just I think I think McDaniel’s getting it and he’s doing great things offensively like the six the six offensive line package. He’s figuring out his I think you’re seeing the offensive mind start to come to the forefront, but I still think he’s behind the curve in terms of as a head coach and an overseer of everything and play caller. Right. Well, I think that Yeah, I think the benefit of of Rael is that he went somewhere and then wasn’t as successful. So, he has an opportunity to to fix the wrongs. Yeah. Yeah, from the previous stint Tennessee and now he can go forward with guys who had nothing to lose. He went and got a he went out and really brought in too a lot of guys that are no-name guys that have a chip on their shoulder want still prove that they belong in the league. Yeah, he can relate to those guys cuz you know and they believe in him you know I mean that’s one of the things that I was hoping that Mike would do is come in focus on the coaching thing for a bit you know what I mean? Let these guys get to know you. let them know that you got, you know, they got your back, you got their back. Worry about, you know, finessing the the referees on Sunday, doing all that stuff and give all the other stuff over to somebody else that’s a little more seasoned than it. And then you can you you still have, you know, you have control. You just don’t have direct control, but you still get all the credit. Who is this paralleling? I’m going to tell you this. I’ll give you a guess. Who is it? What head coach is this par is this parallel of in the last 25 years? But the difference between him and Vrabel is he was an offensive coach for us. No, no, no. Think about a coach who was like Vrabel finding playoff success but couldn’t get over the hump. Like you said, got a second chance, identified all of his problems, got a young quarterback, and Yes, sir. Yeah. Yeah. That’s exactly what this is. Think about it though. Bill did it too though. Bill did it when he was in Cleveland. Bellich. He did it when he was in Cleveland. He didn’t have a lot of success there and then went to New England and then was able to kind of move on from by luck. Move on. Yes. Move on from um Isn’t that what we’re worried Mike Isn’t that what we’re all worried Mike McDaniel could turn into if we fire him? Yeah. He’s going to be he’s going to get head coaching interviews and he’s going to be the top sought offensive coordinator on the open market if he gets fired. that I’m telling you that’s something that’s scaring Ross. That’s another reason why Ross and you’ve heard people report on it. Ross is being told by people next to him that McDaniel is the best second chance coach out there probably. Don’t let him go. Just stick it through. But I’ve said from the beginning though, man, my only frustration with him is that he was just trying to do and handle too much. Let You have guys around you that have NFL experience. They know what they’re doing. and they’re in there in the league for a reason. Lean on them. Yeah. But the one thing that your job is going to always fall back on and you got to always get a really good grade in is being the leader of these men, right? The X’s and O’s and all that stuff. You got coordinators that are well known. You can trust them to do that piece, but you got to be able to take that 53, those 53 and convince them that it’s okay for them to run into this wall over and over again until you bust through that wall together. He has to he has to own that piece. Otherwise, they’ll have some success, but you won’t have the level of success that’s necessary because everybody got to be bought in all 53. And they got to believe that he going to be willing to ride for them just as much as they willing to ride for him. You know, you see I saw him and I saw him and Weaver on Sunday do the whole, you know what I’m saying, hug each other and do their high five and that type of thing. That’s good, too. But in the same sense, somebody else should be calling them plays so Mike can focus on just being the coach. But can I say this? This is what the mo one of the most frustrating things about like watching the game on Sunday was. And this is actually where I was heading with you, Richmond, when we were taking that trip down 2023 lane. This is where I was heading with you. It feels like McDaniel’s starting to figure it out. And it feels like you look at last game, right? Richmond, the throw we were talking about backstage, the interception to Waddle. I’ll add on the missed angle route to Achan where he’s wide open and that was a walking touchdown. I’ll add in the Listen, was it a bad throw? Should he He got both hands on it. Should Julian Hill maybe have caught that? Okay, sure. But the placement was bad, the throw was bad, and Julian Hill has never been that type of guy that’s going to bail out a bad throw. So, who are you what are you expecting this guy to turn into? Darren Waller. So my point is it looked like can I be honest with you guys? It looked like Tua was holding back McDaniel on Sunday. Like it that’s and you know where I’ve stood. I thought McDaniel should have been fired when we were one and six last year or two and six or whatever. You know like him and Greer should have been gone. It for the first time I really felt oh my god McDaniel’s calling a good game. He’s got a good game plan. We should have scored. Think about this. Richmond, the interception where we got that ball. Well, you should have came away with minimum three, maximum seven. The miss throw to achan. That’s another seven, right? Then then you look at the Julian Hill could have continued to drive. We should have scored over 31 points on on We should have had over 31 points. And Daniel did what he had. You were going to score 30 over 31 points on a bad team. Yeah. Yeah, they made that game extremely more difficult than it had to be. And our defense has turned the corner and is looking like what we wanted it to be in the beginning of the year. And the run game is the best we’ve had since arguably Ricky was here or Jay Jai’s final season with Tanahill that magical season 2016 or whatever. And and two ain’t got the excuse of well you need to get a run game cuz you got the run game. And and it for the first time I’m like oh my god two is holding back Mike McDaniel like like wow. Now I I was one thing to say two is holding the offense back but I’m like yo McDaniel’s calling a good game. Tu is just not executing. Yeah. And and and and you bring up a good point because a a head coach, offense coordinator, whatever you want to call it, if he’s calling a good game that if your quarterback can’t either deliver the throws or keep everything going, he’s going he’s got to try to figure out a way to dial it back to still try to get you plays in there to still be successful to win the game. So now you got to adjust what you really want to play to try to, you know, help him out and this and that. And you know, I I think that’s the thing like when we were talking backstage about the throw and he threw in the double coverage. I’m like, don’t force that cuz you’re not that far out of field goal position. You can get points out of this and and it was the defense had just got a turnover. So I’m like you want to capitalize on that because that what gives you the momentum to keep going. But right yeah, that’s a different perspective you you brought up there and I you you possibly right but no everybody will just either blame McDaniel or Tua or whatever. But if he’s calling a good game and you because you want to set up a rhythm and this and that and I think the running game is really setting up really the passing game because if they start focusing on that it’s gonna create opportunities. in Richmond, you played with Marino, you played with Sheila, you know the trust between a coach and a quarterback like that. I don’t care what anyone tries to tell me, guys. Did you notice on that final drive of the first half when we settled for the field goal how they let over 20 seconds just roll off the clock, it really came off like McDaniel didn’t trust to put the ball into his hand and get aggressive. Remember, they were even asking him after the game, why didn’t you get aggressive there? Why all of a sudden did you slow down? And it really feel felt like because of the waddle interception, Richmond, he’s like, “Man, this guy’s not even making good decisions right now. I’m I’m not I’m not letting points slip away.” Yeah, that’s an executive Oh, I’m sorry. No, no, no. Only thing I was going to say was You’re right. And or you’ve got 20 seconds left. You don’t want to have a turnover and then it turns into the other team scoring a field goal or touchdown. You be like, “Now everybody’s mad at you saying you didn’t have to be that aggressive.” But that’s all I want to say. Go ahead. Go ahead. Ball game. Yeah, I think there’s I think there’s a a a real shift right now in that relationship happening. And I think it’s unfortunate that it’s happening because the kid had things around him that were keeping him. He had people around him too that were keeping him regimented, keeping him on his, you know what I’m saying, on the things that make tour. you can see, and I think this is an unfortunate slide that he’s going to have to address as a professional to figure out or come down and sit down to the table with somebody and just say, “Listen, I know y’all don’t like my guy, but he had me playing the best I could ever play and I need it back.” Right? And he just got you got you got if if if this team is going to achieve any level of success moving forward to as a quarterback, they’ve got to get back to the things that made him um without a shadow $22 million contract. Yeah. Yeah. You got to do it. You have to do it. Like, and boys, imagine if we had the 2023 version of Tua with this run game where McDaniel’s at and this defense how it’s playing right now. Yeah, it’s it’d be different. We wouldn’t have started one and seven. Ain’t no way. Ain’t no way we would have started We would have finished off the even with the defense playing bad. We would have finished off the Chargers. We wouldn’t have blown that 17-point lead to the Panthers. Now, if the defense was playing good, we wouldn’t we would have won those games either way. But my point is even two of that return from the concussion last year when he threw for 1642 yards, 13 touchdowns, and one pick and had a 77 completion percentage of it better than this version right now. But that’s because he was at least working with 3D QB last offseason. Yes, he might not have been with perform, but he was with 3DQB. Now he’s with neither. And look at the results you’re getting. Yeah. You can’t do it by yourself. No man’s an island, especially as a quarterback who’s still working through some of the nuances of some of the bad habits that he picked up after trying to overcompensate early on. And you got those worked out and now you’re going back to watching him do the exact same things again. Like he’s not setting his feet. He’s on the balls of his feet instead of planting. You know what I’m saying? He’s not driving. He not no drive on the ball throwing off his back foot. All things that attribute themselves to sloppy and lazy Yeah. mechanics that Nick Hicks would have never let happen. No, never. Never. Never. And that’s what me and Richmond were talking about. Like you signed this man to a $212 million deal. How are you not saying go back there? We don’t care. Don’t matter what we think about him as an organization. He’s the he’s one of the reasons why we paid you that money. You know what I mean? Like but like like I said to Richmond, go back to when they made two of the starter and they pulled in Flores and they left Chan Gayy out meddling. Go back to when they hired McDaniel. You got to keep Crossman. You got to keep Boyer. You got to keep Tua. You got to keep Iikenberg Jackson meddling. Now here we are again meddling. You know what I mean? Like you’re an insurance liability. We want to oversee. We want to approve everything. You know, boy looked kind of good Sunday though. Oh, Austin Jackson. He looked pretty decent. I thought he looked better in the run game than he did in the run game. Yeah. Yeah, definitely in the run game pass, bro. Yeah. Yeah. I like the physicality. I like the fact that he was committed to the physicality. What are the haters, bro? Yeah, they gone, bro. Yo, is anyone Hold on. Yo, hold on. Hold on. Listen, listen. That kid that kids playing phenomenal right now, bro. Where are they? Where are they? Where are the Jo? He’s playing He’s playing out of his mind right now. I gotta I got I gave some credit last week, bro, to um to Phillips. I also got to mention Zeke Bigggers, bro. Like, those these I was going to say, where are the Kenneth Grant haters, too, bro? Yeah, these kids up front, bro. These dudes are ch once once Weaver decided to get these dudes back into these gaps, bro. These kids are gamechanging, man. They are they are growing up. Chris Greer has, like I said before, he deserves more credit than people want to give him to. Yeah, he’s gone and they’re undefeated since he left. But some of these free agents like Jack Jones and Razul Douglas with that big pick. We won the Minka trade. I don’t care what anyone has told wants to tell me. He’s back to all pro form now that they got him playing in the slot more. He played dude. He played dude so bad on that damn interception though, man. That’s a ve that’s a rookies are turning the corner like man. Yeah, he he hit him. He hit him. He he hit he hit him with the slingshot. I’mma get in his pocket and as soon as I see him release it, I’mma shoot around him and take it from him. Bam. Yeah. Out of there. Gone. Two points. Gone. Yeah, bro. He just I mean, yeah, man. You got to bring him back, dude. You got to find a way to get him new money and bring him back. Get rid of that chub contract because it’s over $30 million capit. Get rid of that somehow. Restructure it. And you got to get money to Minka, man. You know, and Jonah’s at I’m telling you, Jonah’s turn. I said I said, “Hey, this weekend I said, listen, we got a small sample size and everyone was worried about Patrick Paul, me included. Now look at Patrick Paul in year two.” Yeah. Who’s going to be more ahead in year two when they start? Jonas of Patrick Paul? Jonas of Ianiah. So, and he’s starting to turn that corner, right? Like Robert Thompson in my chat said on the weekend, usually guys come out hot and then they hit that rookie wall, right? So what do we do? We’re reverse. We come out hitting the wall and then they get hot. Chopped it last year. These guys are doing it. And guys, Phillips have all of a sudden gone quiet in Philadelphia while our defense is dialing it up a little bit since Phillips got traded. They got worked by Detroit, bro. They got worked. They couldn’t stop the run to save their life. Both of them running backs had a buck a buck a dollar 20 20 something um on equal amount of carries. They equally distributed the rock to them and both of them got off on them for over 256 yards. Man, they couldn’t stop to run. Fanio couldn’t stop to run and save his life and lo and behold there are flaws. Yeah, they ran right at him too. That’s the cold part about it. They ran right at him, bro. stopping the run and they start not being able to stop. They ran they ran right at him all game. They they tried to hide him and they just You can see um you can see G at the line of scrimmage, bro. Just uh uh Caleb at the line of scrimmage. He just looked went and recognized him and flipped the play, bro. Flipped the play at the line and ran. They tried to move Jayen from left side to right side. They tried to move him, they just ran at him, bro. Yeah. And uh listen, man, they ain’t got a Jordan Brooks to scrape behind that defensive line, too. That guy’s playing out of his mind. That guy’s playing phenomenal right now, man. All I got to say is this, cuz you’ve been with me since day one ball game. You know how big of a Jerome Baker hater I was. And I’m like, this is not a real Mike. This is not Wait till we And then we got Jordan Brooks and I told everyone, just wait. Now you got to see what a real linebacker about. And where is Jerome Baker right now? Has it is he on the side of a milk carton? I don’t even know where he’s playing right now. He in Cleveland, is he? He in Cleveland. Yeah. Yeah, cuz he left Seattle. He didn’t even make the whole full season up there. Get out of here. Yeah. But you know, people got to remember, man, Jordan Brooks was one of the reasons why um the Seattle decided to walk away from Bobby Wagner. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He put he put Bobby Wagner out of a job in Seattle. So Yeah, man. And then he got He was a first round pick, too. Was he picked in the 20s? 20s. Yeah. He was I guess like 22nd 23rd but then we picked we um him falling to us I was like oh my god okay this we come back healthy. Yeah man just stunned. There’s a a a film guy that covers the Seahawks that I follow on Twitter buddy. He was heartbroken when we got Jordan Brooks because that was like one of his favorite defensive players because every week he’d break down Jordan Brooks film and like show the crazy athleticism, the instincts, all that kind of jazz. He’s prototypical what you want from your Mike linebacker for this era of football. I just wish he’d want to take on the responsibility of the green dot. That’s Tyrell cuz then that makes more expendable. Yeah, but make not you know he also gets a lot more flexibility not having to worry about that too. Free thought is what you need bro to be able to meet be your best. So if I if I don’t have to worry about all that alignment assignment [ __ ] I can just play my position and be the best. Yeah, man. That’s what he’s doing. Flying back since Kiko, eh? Probably we’ve had. Yeah, hands down. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Every time I think of Kiko, I just picture him hitting Flaco. Remember that? Remember when that was Flaco, wasn’t it? When Flaco scrambled and he lit him up. Do you guys remember that? Yeah. I’m pretty sure that was Flaco, wasn’t it? He laid him out. Let me know, chat. I’m pretty sure. He caught a couple though. He caught a couple bodies though. He was Flaco lost his helmet. Helmet. Yeah. remember like and he was sitting up and he looked like the Undertaker when he rides from the dead and his eyes rolling back in his head. Oh my god, Kiko was the man. I loved it. Even dude, I got two. I got the white and I got the Aqua. One of my favorite players. I know he was only here for a couple years, but he won comeback player of the year. Joey Porter. Remember how good Joey was with us for a couple years? Man, I loved him, man. He was a dog for sure. And we just had coaching staffs that were afraid of dogs at that time, bro. You know, we had just Yeah, we had just come off of Well, we know we had through a bunch of Man, we been through so much. Like, I don’t understand how you how you how you how you get in trouble for bullying in football, telling somebody they too soft for the game, bro. Like, and riding them about the fact that you need them to be tougher. Like, come on, man. Like, I I never understood. That’s when I realized, you know, society things were changing, too. That I can’t walk up to you at your locker room. I can’t walk up to you in a locker room and tell you to get your ass together. Like, I need you I need you to play better. I need you to be tougher. I need you to not be soft as baby poop. And then you can go run and tell somebody and then they report it and now I get in trouble and I get suspended cuz incognito wasn’t wrong. Well, not even wasn’t the Christian the Christian Wilkins thing felt like something like that. Remember they went to HR about something? It felt like maybe he was doing a little bit of hazing or something like that and that wasn’t going down in the locker room. Hell, I think I’m going to be honest with you. Old school or not, this guy’s going to You better not come on here. You’re about to What? It’s a little hazing is necessary. Oh, I thought you were going to call him a fruit booty or something like that. No, no, no. That route with him. But I think Listen, I think I think I think some people have to go through it, man. People don’t know a lot of times. Sometimes cats, you know what I’m saying? They don’t never face no levels. What I’m just saying is they don’t ever face no real levels of adversity cuz you got to think a lot of these guys, right? You think they a lot of these guys have been at most points the best athletes in their spaces. But then when they hit a wall where they’re not and they they you know, you shine away from contact or you shine away from the adversity that you facing, you hanging out the man next door to you. You know what I mean? And everybody up front, especially offense in the trenches, everybody got to be on the same page. It’s our job on offense to destroy them. And on defense, we want them to know that we own them. You feel me? And if that ain’t your mindset, you don’t get somebody hurt. Yeah. My He hurt my feelings. He called me soft, man. Please, bro. I’m glad Jordan Brooks is on this team, though, cuz you can tell these guys run. They rally to the tackles, too. They rally to run. They always looking around, you know. There’s some there’s some check in it. They checking in with him and Minka. They’re looking to see where they are at all times to make sure that they did what they were supposed to do. You know, and you know, I saw me I seen M a couple times give dudes, you know what I’m saying? Keep doing it. Keep doing it. You know what I mean? But that’s what you need from your veterans. Yeah. Yeah. I just, you know, and I just wish they had done it a lot sooner. Just hold people accountable, right? Hold people accountable, man. That’s it. That’s it. Well, let’s talk about this because you kind of, you know, you’re talking about like the soft narrative and that soft narrative, that finesse narrative has kind of been around this team for the last couple seasons. Yeah. And, you know, have the Miami Dolphins made a transformation that no one really expected or saw coming. Are all of a sudden we one of the more physical teams right now? Cuz I mean, that’s how we’re winning. We’re winning physically on defense right now. We’re winning with a physical run game. Like it’s not all outside zone off the hip of tackle stuff. We’re running inside with a 5’9 quarterback and making things happen. You know, like we’re throwing out a six offensive lineman to try and punch you in the mouth and move bodies. Now, we’re still having some issues pop up in terms of short yardage situations that and you know, half of that is on Ollie Gordon dancing east south. Sorry, east west instead of going north south. Yeah. This guy does a toe toe tap before like, you know, like does his best Shirley Temple routine before he actually hits the hole. So, you know, like it’s ridiculous. So, um, what do you guys think? Like, we’re all of a sudden a physical team and gentlemen, the Bills made this switch took James Cook. The Kansas City Chiefs made the switch to Kareem Hunt, Pacheco, etc. trying to become more physical, right? They’ve always been physically on the physical on the defensive side of the ball with the Chris Jones and etc., etc. Are we are we seeing the early seeds of maybe that transformation long term because it’s working for McDaniel and he’s figuring it out. I think I I’ll take it first. I I think so. a bit reason I think it was either beginning this year or maybe last year but you and Ball game kind of mentioned that before how the uh offensive schemes are changing to where we’re getting back to running the football uh not only just the Dolphins but even other teams you look at you look at Detroit you look at even the Eagles it’s it’s going more to you know run yeah we still throw the football and stuff but the game is kind of changing back to like when I first got in the league that’s all it was, you know, smashmouth football and and getting back to that. But, uh, I’ve been really impressed by the way, like you say, HN is 5’9, you know, for him to be that smaller back and he can do run in between the tackles outside, you know, catch the ball screens. He’s a down back and and typically you see some a guy that size typically not going to be that effective or play on all three downs. But, um, uh, I’m loving it. And then uh like you said, the the defense is just it’s just hitting you in the mouth and just say, “Hey, even if we don’t, we going we going to hit you in the mouth and see who going who going to be left standing.” And it’s definitely a change, but even with the change, you can see the results that we’re starting to get and buy into it. So, um, the running game has definitely been a blessing to us because like you said, when two when Tua struggles or whatever, it still gives allow us an opportunity to move the chains and keep everything going and maybe dial it back until where, you know, McDaniel can cause certain plays to try to put him in the best position to, you know, throw the football in certain instances to keep the keep the keep the chains moving. But you can definitely see a difference. It’s definitely we’re way more physical than when we started out the first half of the season. I I agree with that. Yeah. I think I I think across the board, bro, there’s a certain I said it from the beginning that your commitment to running the ball lets your opponent know how how willing you are to be physical. um the narrative in terms of soft now associated with this group. Yeah, I’m going to go ahead and put that on the shelf because when you when you go through the process of consistently running the ball, even in downs where we would normally before have passed the ball, we’re handing the ball off to the running backs. Yeah, that’s that’s that’s a different level of mentality. And I like it. I like it because everybody’s not going to be willing to match you in that arena, especially when you know what I’m saying. They don’t there’s a lot of physicality in practices anymore. So, when you show up on Sundays willing to hand the ball off 22, 23 times a game, that says a lot about where your mindset at. It doesn’t say anything about the ability of your players. It just says that you’re committed to playing the phys, you know, you embracing the physicality of this. And I think that’s something that we need to stick with even after this season going into next season. And you know, it doesn’t matter to me the size of the guy. It matters to me how big his heart is. And I don’t think there’s a running back in the league with a heart bigger than a chain. Man, no hole is too small. No task is too big. And they don’t have a middle linebacker willing to engage him every down because then you see guys as they start to get wore down trying to side, you know what I’m saying? Even him, they trying to tackle him from the side and all these type of things. saying, I’m I’m I’m okay with it. You know what I’m saying? I think that’s what Mike needs. Mike needs a uh a structural piece for him to build his identity of what this offense is going to look like upon. And if it can be the run game, then okay, let’s get back to the basics of what it really means to be a smashmouth play actionbased football team. And I think that fits Tour’s if that’s that that really fits all of the skill sets that T brings to the forefront. Anyway, that’s one of the primary reasons why, you know what I’m saying? He’s highly regarded as one of the most accurate quarterbacks in the game because he can put the ball in those spaces, you know, that a lot of other quarterbacks can’t. He don’t need a lot of arm strength. I think he has perfect arm talent for the NFL, but at the same time, his decision making in those instances where he’s got the run game going, it opens up those, you know, opens up those alleys to allow them to do things. But the physicality, it all starts up front. and the fact that they’ve committed to it. I think yes, that’s why they having this me they’re having this success they’re having now. And this late in the season as you start to get further and further, teams start to try to really the teams that are accustomed to it, they embrace it. The ones that aren’t, you know, they they shy away from it. They try to figure out other ways to go about the thing. What did I just say? Hate to say it because I love Tyreek, but best thing was having him out of the lineup to force the offense to evolve. We said that though, right? Think about it. If you got a guy right, he comes in and in practice your quarterback throw 50 passes and 40 of them go to one receiver. You giving scraps to the other guys that at some point unfortunately something happens and look what happened to us. He took the lion and shell most of the reps and then at this point now we got guys we got to figure out what we have left. When you had a guy prior to Tyreek even coming here was catching 100 plus balls a year, thousand yard receiver. He was the number one and then you relegate him to the Batman. You going to get into the rock and roll, but you forgot about it. When you have two alphas out there that you could effectively be able to dictate the terms like Dallas does now. You see how they use Lamb and how they use Pickkins. Yeah, that’s what we should have been. You can’t double both of them dudes and you have to take you have to take with Slo Ferguson in the middle. He eating too cuz you got two best out there and instead of So Javvante Williams the Devonte Williams. Exactly. You know, that’s what we were supposed to look like, bro. It’s But I don’t know if I answered your question, but yeah, this I, you know, I’m I’m all about them. I’m all about punch you in the mouth over and over again. You know what I’m saying? I want to see you spitting up blood and I want to see you with your hands on your hips and your hands on your knees, breathing heavy, trying to figure out how you going to stop. Yeah. And we gonna look at you, smile, and say, “Here we come again.” Hey, ball game. Yes, sir. Uh he was claimed by the Buffalo Bills, but if you’re really trying to make a push to the playoffs, why wouldn’t you go claim Darius Slay with all the injuries at corner this year? Because they probably think Razul, Jack, and those guys are working. Yeah, they they I I I I think those guys have effectively built a a level of chemistry between them and established some trust to the point that they they they believe in each other and you you know, you infuse a personality like slay into the process that could essentially disrupt a little of that. You know what I mean? There’s a reason why, you know, Pittsburgh going ahead and got off of him. You feel me? And I I would do a deep dive to make sure like, you know, even if they even considered it, hey man, do all your due diligence to ensure and see where this guy’s head’s at because if he’s really if he’s really still capable of playing the game at a high level, why did they let him go? Those always the questions that come up in my mind when you got a when you got a player who’s had a really good career and then all of a sudden out of nowhere, he’s hopping from place to place. Is he an individual now? Is he really about team ball? Is he going to fit in with what we really trying to establish here? You only need so many veterans because you gonna have opportunities taken away from younger guys to develop too if you bring in too many. You feel me? And game m game reps matter more than anything else to the younger players. So as long as they can get quality game reps and you got somebody back there to be able to tie them in and hold them together, you can still do things without bringing in that extra, you know, tumultuous force, you know, that maybe a slave would bring cuz he ain’t going to come cheat. And at the same time, I just I’m I’mma go back to why Pittsburgh let him go then because you had Ramsey, you had Porter, you had Slay, you had all these guys over there that should not. Well, then yeah. No, we’re not doing that then cuz it got like, you know, like Jack Jones has his moments. I don’t like the fact that he stopped his feet on Sunday cuz he got dead in the water thinking that the kid wasn’t going to make the throw and then he stopped his feet and the receiver kept moving behind him. So, he got out of phase with the receiver. But that’s rule number one as a quarterback. You never stop your feet. You stop your feet, you’re dead in the water. Especially when the receiver is moving away from you. If you can’t touch him, he’s you a liability to the play. And he couldn’t touch him and the kid just kept extending himself to the back of the end zone and made a hell of a catch for the touchdown. And that’s all on Jack Jones cuz he got lazy. He didn’t continue to follow through. So no, I need him to fix that. and you bring in a sle, they might not have him because then they’ll probably try to throw slay out there on the opposite side of um uh Rasul and then you know what I’m saying now Jack’s you know Jack Jones for what for whatever is not getting the reps now you got the cension in the right so no let’s stay we stay what we got we good all right so we got the Jets this week second time last time facing them obviously we all remember we beat them 2721 in our fancy new rivalry um jerseys for the first win of the season in week four. Now we are facing them coming off winning four of our last five three in a row in New York. The weather it’s I mean you know where I am right now it’s cold it’s nasty outside it’s not fun. Um, and listen, right now we’re heading into it to a tongue of Aaloa. Right now he leads the NFL with 14 interceptions. But guess what? The Jets defense, they don’t have a single interception on the season yet. Knock on wood. Oh, [ __ ] The Dolphins. Yeah, the Dolphins, their offense ranks third in the NFL in rush yards per game. They’re averaging 151.6 six since week eight when they beat Atlanta. The defense since week eight, they are allowing a league leading only 16.2 points per game to opposing offenses. In six since week 10, the Dolphins lead the league in points allowed per game. It’s actually 14.3. And they’re tied for second in red zone efficiency at 33.3% only allowing two touchdowns on six red zone visits. That’s only second to Baltimore. Um gentlemen, where are you at with this game? We’ll start with you, Richmond. Where are you at? What what what how do you think this goes down score prediction wise? Do you think this is another game where defense and a running attack, rushing attack is what’s going to help us cross the finish line? Yeah, I think uh I think the defense is going to continue to set the tone. I don’t see a reason why they’re going to, you know, dial back or regress. Um, offensively, I think we should be able to run the ball on on the uh on the Jets. I think uh uh McDaniel will come up with a with a good game plan, good scheme, this and that. And then uh like you said, we just need to we can get to it or just dial in a little bit more and just make better decisions at it’s not all game. It’s just it seemed like at critical times or or different times of game when sometime you should just throw it away or or get rid of the ball, he’ll do something that you’ll always question and say, you know, why did he do that? that um just process it a little bit better and and and make make better decisions with the football. I think that’ll definitely um that’ll definitely play in our favor. Uh for me, I I I think this is a winnable game for me. Um I will say uh Dolphins 274 or 13 uh winning against the Jets. Where are you at? Yeah. My only concern is what? Um, who’s the starting quarterback? Tyrod. Tyrod again. Yeah. I think they’re in a better position to win with him than they were with Justin Fields. Fields. For sure. Tyrod his expert, his experience kind of, you know, makes makes things a little bit of a toss up for you. But he’s had success against us in the past. Yeah. Yeah. That’s that’s that’s that that always comes to the forefront for me when facing that guy. But with no Quinton Williams in the middle of the defense, no sauce gardener anymore. I just don’t think that the Jets are equipped right now to deal with this this running attack that we have. Quinton Quint Williams is a monster, man. That that’s the reason why Jerry said, you know, I rather give up Parsons and then go get me somebody that can stop the run. And Dallas been stopping the run like nobody’s business since um they made that trade, too. So, um, I I I would like to think that this would be a game that we could showcase a lot more of the abilities of the other players. I’m still a fan now, becoming a huge fan of Greg Doas. I think that they need to give him more reps. Um, I think they need to, yeah, find way this week to the Lions. Yeah, I saw that. But, um, I mean, I hadn’t seen much of him anyway, so that’s fine. Adulture, he will make catches that I think nobody really thought he could. He did that again on he did that on Sunday as well to keep a drive going for us. And um I don’t know, man. I just I just don’t really have a lot of faith that the the the Jets have it together enough to be able to effectively um match the energy that we have currently right now and willing to put on the field um for four quarters. So, I would say 20 I’m going to go 24-10 cuz I think that’s a manageable range for this group of um stars on the offensive side of the ball. You know, Tyrie was obviously be a little more, but um I think they’re capable of putting up 24 and the defense the way they’re playing should be able to hold the Jets to 10 points. I saw a lot of mistakes that previous um like last week when the the Jets won that the teams made that I don’t think we’ll make. So those opportunities won’t be there for them and I just feel like we are a better team than them overall. So yeah, um the Dolphins are one and four on the road this year. Yeah, you got to break that at some point. It’s also expected to be 35 degrees Fahrenheit and it’s going to feel like 28 degrees Fahrenheit. So many things to push through to get yourselves mentally and physically prepared for what’s coming down the pipeline. You have to remove all the narratives about who you are. Can’t play in the cold weather. Let me let me tell you this, okay? All right. Tuang Waloa. He’s 0 for seven in his career when temperatures are 46 degrees or colder at kickoff. He’s 1 and8 when it’s 50° or colder. This is the best. He’s won He’s won in late November twice against the Jets in their in Metife and obviously he’s 6 and0 against the Jets, right? Um so, but hey, we saw his winning streak against the Patriots go out the window this year. So, yeah. Yeah. Gonna have to run the ball, man. Mind over matter. That’s That’s how you get through playing in the cold. could have swore. We were just talking about him mentally potential mental regression on his side. So, I know I’m talking about I’m talking about I’m talking about them committing to the run game. Oh, yeah. And just saying, you know what, three running backs we got are capable. Let’s hand it off as much as possible and just beat these dudes down. Yeah. Cuz once you got them, listen, once you got them reeling, it’s cold for everybody. But once you get momentum going, they don’t want to get hit just as much as you don’t want to get hit. But when you get warm and you get going, it’s different then. You know what I mean? And all offensive line needles just need a kickstart. Once they get the kick start, cold weather don’t matter no more. Which will tell you that once you get moving, the cold weather goes away. When you out there, you know, unless you get unless you take a helmet to the wrong sideline, you know what I mean? You got to go stand over there. You know what I mean? And that’s different. But when you in the midst of it, it don’t matter, man. You forget about that win, you know? Especially is a No, you know what a smart team would do? Turn those blue medical tents into like warmth tents and have your units that aren’t on the field go in there and just sit there till they got to go back out there. Have little TVs set up in there so they can see what’s happening on the field. That that that that’s what would be smart. They ain’t gonna come out of there. You you making it way. We have a problem with personnel getting out on the field on time now. guy guys reading the newspaper eating hot dogs and popcorn chilling feet up. They got HBO on the games off there on the PS5 [Laughter] flat screen TVs on the sidelines be watching the game. They in there playing video games and [ __ ] Oh man, is it is it us? Oh, my bad. Yeah. All right. Um and hey, uh college football playoffs are almost upon us. Hurricane fans are feeling quite the way of being left out so far. So they didn’t deserve it. Virginia was better. [ __ ] them. Virginia was better. Um, all right guys, smash that smash that like button. Over 200 of you in the chat. Let’s get over 150 likes on this video. Smash that like button. If you’re new, go ahead and subscribe. I want to shout out the sponsor of today’s video. That of course is Sleeper. If you think you know football, then try to turn your football knowledge into real money with the Sleeper app. Just download the Sleeper app and pick more or less on your favorite players. Pick from the predicted stats. You win up to a thousand times your money if your picks win. Use promo code Finsside. 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On this episode of the Phinsh Line, Reason, Richmond Webb and Mr. Ballgame discuss everything surrounding the Miami Dolphins as they prepare for their week 14 matchup with AFC East rival New York Jets!

Have the Miami Dolphins made a transformation that NO ONE thought they would make?

Will Tyrod Taylor pose a bigger threat than Justin Fields did the first time these two teams met this season?

Plus they’ll cover much more!

PHINS UP! SMASH THAT LIKE BUTTON!

Time Stamps:

0:00 – Opening

0:37 – Intro

1:48 – Thoughts On Miami’s Turnaround The Last 5 Games, The Way Miami Is Winning Still Leaves Questions, Dolphins May Be Playing For Pride & More

12:01 – The Patriots Turn Around Compared To Miami’s 2023 Season

19:40 – One Of The Most Frustrating Things Watching The Miami Dolphins Is…

27:05 – Where Are The Jonah Savaiinaea Haters At?

30:45 – Jordyn Brooks Is Showing Dolphin Fans What A Real MIKE Is

36:09 – Have The Miami Dolphins Made A Transformation That No One Saw Coming?

43:50 – Why Didn’t The Dolphins Claim Darius Slay?

46:35 – Does Tyrod Taylor Make The Jets A Tougher Opponent For The Dolphins?

55:13 – Final Thoughts

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