FIRST TAKE | You have to bench Tua before firing Mike McDaniel – Stephen A. on Dolphins’ 1-6 start

FIRST TAKE | You have to bench Tua before firing Mike McDaniel – Stephen A. on Dolphins’ 1-6 start

Welcome back to First Take. Things just keep getting worse for the Dolphins. Miami fell to the Browns 31-6 on Sunday and are now 1-6 on the season. Tua threw three interceptions and Miami was outplayed in every phase of the game. Postgame quarterback Chua fielded questions about the loss while head coach Mike McDaniel feeded questions about his job security. Yeah, definitely not happy, not proud of of where I’m at with my play, with how I’ve I’ve gone about things this year. I I know I got to be a lot better, and I’ve I’ve been better for for the Miami Dolphins years past, but this isn’t years past. This is this year. For as long as um I coach for the Miami Dolphins in this organization, they’ll get everything from me. You have a job. You do your job. Um, and you do it to the best of your ability. And that’s where my concern lies. I think it’s offensive to all coaches, players, and the organization if I’m spending that precious time thinking about myself. Well, it has been a mess down there in Miami from player only meetings to them now dropping to one and six. So, Chris, I’ll start with you. Uh, what should come first? Tua being benched or Mike McDaniel being fired? Yes. Oh, yes to both. The answer is yes. Nobody nobody is safe down in Miami. I mean that organization, they need to flush it. They need to take a laxative. They need to take they got to get they got to get all of that crap out of the building cuz nobody is a part of the solution right there. And everybody’s fingers are dirty when it comes to why the product on the field is so bad. But here’s the thing. You’re paying the quarterback to be able to raise the floor of the organization to be able to elevate the play of everybody around him. They call them being force multipliers. It’s what Cam Newton spent the majority of his NFL career be. And Tua has yet to be that for the Miami Dolphins despite them giving him a contract paying him north of $50 million a year. This is a guy that leads the NFL in multi-interception games since 2022. So when he’s talking about he’s been a good player for the Dolphins in years past, I’m waiting to see that good player show up when the team needs him the most. And yet that hasn’t been the case. the head coach, he ain’t no better, right? Mike McDaniel, he’s three and 16 against teams that have a winning record. At some point, in order for the franchise to get to where they want to go, you got to beat good teams. And the last time McDaniels did that was Christmas Eve of 2023. So, it’s been a while. So, everybody everybody’s hands are dirty when it comes to the mess that is the Miami Dolphins. I saw where you’re looking. I listen listen. I I want to say this, man. It’s um I think you I think you bench a quarterback before you get fired a head coach. Um and the reason I and the reason I say that is um you got to be careful find a head coach because you don’t even know if you have an interim on the staff. Like this Miami Dolphins team, they’re bad all across the board. I’ve seen a situation last year. Last year, okay, with the Jets, the Jets were two and three. They fired Robert Salah and they actually got worse because they didn’t have a competent interim head coach on the staff. And so listen, I think at the end of the day, we all know change is coming in Miami. And when I say change, wholesale changes, not every not Sam Cook. Yeah. Change change is going to come. Oh, it’s coming, baby. It’s coming. Like they getting rid of they they cleaning. Everybody’s going to be held accountable for the Miami Dolphins. But I think right now, like the quarterback, it’s got to be the Tua Tua is not getting it done down. Cam, what say you? Okay, here we go. Uh, well, we’ve all heard about Miami Vice. Well, this about to be the Miami slice because it’s about to be some people sliced up all up out of there. But the question is, I don’t blame Mike McDaniels more so than I blame Tua Tonga because Tua Tonga Valoa has been on one dating back to the offseason and now we find ourselves in this type of situation. The play of Tua has not been what it’s supposed to been in your label franchise player. When you say certain things, you have to do your job and do your job well from Mike McDaniels. Well, is that a innuendo that he was talking about Tua? Because Tua has had multiple multiple interception games, multiple multiple times that he hasn’t been doing what we paid him to do. He’s been doing the bare minimum and it’s sad that good coaching can get guys paid above what the asking price should be. Well, it’s unfortunately, like I said before, bad play can get coaches fired. And it’s unfortunate that two things can’t be true. Whether from the Mike McDaniels being a good coach to to a tongue of Aloa really not upholding his end of the bargain and it’s going to cost somebody and it may cost them both. Well, well, it already cost Brian Flores his job down in Miami, and now two is working on getting Mike McDaniel fired. At some point, we got to look at the common denominator, which is the quarterback. Forget about all the excuses, the injuries, the offensive, forget, everybody’s got to deal with that. You think Baker Mayfield cares about the injury excuse? No. People want to see whether or not he can produce. And that’s where we’re at with Tua. Can you produce? And we’re getting the answer in real time. And the answer is no. The Miami Dolphins need to move on from tour. Period. Yeah. Hard stop. Small injuryp prone quarterback. No, it’s time. That has flaws being a leader, right? Yeah. Yeah. Look, the common denominator, just like you said, uh one and six in the number one. It’s over for Mike McDaniels in Miami. This is the long goodbye, y’all. The players have quit and the quarterback ain’t it. McDaniel took the podium after Sunday’s loss to the Browns and soft launched the idea of benching players that are routinely problematic for the team. And my question to him would be, does that include the quarterback? And if not, why? Money isn’t a good enough reason to keep playing a quarterback that leads the league in multi-interception games since 2022. 12 such games to be exact. Tu is on an awful contract. We all know that. He’s already guaranteed 2026’s salary of 54 million. And on the third day of the league year in 2026, $3 million of his 2027 salary becomes guaranteed. To be clear, there’s no world that exists where a new head coach should be forced to rebuild that program with an offjured, mistakrone quarterback that has real flaws when it comes to leadership. If it’s about holding players accountable while evaluating other players on the roster, why not bench Tua and get a look at Zack Wilson andor Quinn Uris who we saw yesterday. At 1 and six with the Falcons, Ravens, and Bills on deck, the season is over. Time to plan for the future. And for the Dolphins, that future should not include Tua being a part of it. I think that future start right now in terms of the Tua conversation. We will get to that. CC referenced what Mike McDaniel had to say. Wait till you hear what the coach and quarterback had to say after a 316 loss at the hands of the Cleveland Browns yesterday. We’ll get to that now. Next number two. Don’t look now, but the Dallas Cowboys have a path to the playoffs, y’all. They do. Dak continued his MVP campaign torching the Commanders for 260 yards, three touchdowns, and a 130 passer rating. He improved, to get this, 35-9 against the NFC East and 21-2 at home against division opponents. The number one offense in the NFL was back to full strength with CD Lamb and George Pickkins back on the field together. The two combined for nine catches, 192 yards, a touchdown, and multiple first downs due to forced penalties. The ground game got involved and there was even a hint of some defense with a big six, four sacks, and a pass rush that knocked out quarterback Jaden Daniels. With a road trip to Denver and a home date against Arizona before the by-week, if Dallas is 500 or better, they can absolutely add to this team. Also, keep in mind that they’re getting DeMarvian overshown back in November. The Dallas Cowboys could be a team that improves enough to push out a team that we currently have penciled into a playoff spot. NFC North, NFC West, I’m looking at y’all. Do you believe that Monday through Saturday for the Dallas Cowboys right now is a more peaceful place and a happier place and an easier place to prep with the current roster versus last year’s roster? Please explain. He’s trying to bash Micah Parsons in the podcast and the headlines. I’m Matt. That’s I was very specific in what I said. Monday through Saturday. I’m just explain it to Micah Parsons not being there has quieted the headlines, has it not? I think it has changed our expectations which has quieted the headlines. Okay. But the Dallas Cowboys are only a couple of wins away from that getting ratcheted up. If the Dallas Cowboys win the next two games and go into their by-week at what, 53 and one, you don’t think we’re having conversations about Jerry Jones and what he’s going to do and Dak Prescott and paying George Pickkins who happens to have the same agent as Micah Parsons. It it becomes a spectacle. It becomes a show once again. And Micah is so good stats yesterday that 41 and one for your team. It’s like, oh, they stink. But they’re 4101 because he does raise the but I don’t know that this is a Micah Parson’s phenomenon as much as it is about us changing our read on what we think the Dallas Cowboys are. I think a lot of people with Dak and Micah CD Lamb and that offensive line assume that the Dallas Cowboys should be in the playoff conversation. We just took them out of it when they traded Micah Parsons at the beginning of the season. I took them out of it because you said at one point that it wouldn’t shock you if it was a top five team in the draft because of the way that their defense was playing early. Yeah. But to be clear, I didn’t think the Dallas Cowboys were a playoff team even with Michael Parsons coming into this season. That’s right. That’s right. But I think we also really did not think about how impactful George Pickkins would be. We knew that it was going to give Dak another option. Obviously, it was Dak to CD that was the offense. We knew it was going to give this offense a different complexion. I don’t think we really realized how impactful he was going to be for Dak in this off. But I don’t blame us. his actions and his his getting himself removed from Pittsburgh caused us to feel that way. Like he can cause the negative vibes just like he caused the positive vibes. Well, he he actually did the best thing for his career because Pittsburgh had a revolving door at quarterback. So, it actually worked out for George Pickkins. Worked out for everybody, I guess, to get him. I guess DK and Rogers. It’s been pretty good. I guess guess it works out. Yeah, I guess it works out. Next number one. It’s over.

FIRST TAKE | You have to bench Tua before firing Mike McDaniel – Stephen A. on Dolphins’ 1-6 start