The Audible Ep. 43 | Week 17 Preview

for their Christmas. Uh, the Christmas. You know, my daughters that wasn't written years old. Two miamies is seven. And they just get more and more and more expensive every year, and it's it's getting out of control. Now, you know what. I've got twenty six and twenty four in my house, and it seems like it does the same thing. The bigger when would they say when we were just young parents, Right,

the bigger they get, the bigger the problems you'll have. Well, now they're in their twenties and you're just crusting on the thirties and it's still getting larger. Right, Yeah, It's like I want to purse? What do you want to Louise? Your talking about what Louis? Who wants Louis's hang? Where do you go to? Where you go to to Kmar to get that? I want this one? I'm like, I've never heard of this one. Yeah, I need one for my friend. It's just not one for winter, and I

need one for the fall now, you know. It's one of those kinds of things. So anyway, but I hope everyone had had a great Christmas. I hope that there you have a happy New Year looking forward. But let's

let's kind of get to the fact at hand. And in the Miami Dolphins and and and John, it's funny, you know, you lose that game, and to me it was just a just a total disappointing game from start to you know, you get you come out in the first series, you just boom take you know, we all right, and you guys are jumping around and you can see then and then they come down saying you, hey, look this is that's fine. It's gonna be a twenty, it's gonna be a thirty two, thirty four games something like that.

It's gonna be a high scoring game. And then boom, the brakes went on both sides of the team, but but both sides of the field. But boy, the Dolphins the inability offensively to really just get anything going. And the only time they had drives going, they hit a big I think there was a thing like a third and seventeen that they converted. Boom, then you get a

penaltally comes back. I think there were three times where they converted for pretty good third down situations only to have penalties call them back and and ultimately stalled the drives.

You know, it was funny watching that game because, as you said in the beginning of the game, when the Dolphins took the opening drive and they went down and they you know, get to shovel pass and it looked like and they even overcame a penalty in that drive, you know, down deep in the red zone and they were able to find a way to get into the

end zone. You felt like, Okay, you know what this They're gonna take a four and ten team and they're gonna punch him right in the face and they're gonna do it all day long because this team only is looking for a reason to lay down, and they're gonna lay down. Well, Jacksonville comes back and they go down the field and they score and they tie it at seven. And I'm sitting next to Sam Madison. I said, Sam,

better get your pillow out because that's it. You better get your pilled out because it's gonna be for two and a half quarters. A bunch of crap going on in between the thirties and maybe the twenties, but that's about it. And then whoever blinks, whoever has that bad fatal mistake, is going to find a way to over you know, one team is gonna overcome it, and one team is gonna take advantage of it and win a game.

And he looked at me like I was crazy. So we're going to the post game and he looked at me. He nodded his head. He said, well, you were close parts. I said yeah. I said, I don't know why, but I don't know why after yeah. And and for the Dolphins, this goes back to the two weeks for the Dolphins to come out and play the way they did of

lack of execution in terms of the little things. It's not the interception for a touchdown, it's not the you know, the fumbles, it's not it's it's the little things that add up during a game that gives the other team confidence or lets him hang around, or when you get back into a game, you just don't have that play

off mentality, that that knockout mentality. And it goes back to just fundamental symbol mental fund mental discipline, and physical fundamentals that this team seems to When they're good, they really get you know, they'd get by. When they're not good, it's really exposed. And I don't know if that's because there's a ton of starters that aren't playing. There's a lot of you know, mix and match on the team. I just don't know what that is, but but I'm

with their everyone else. And look, the Dolphins have had, no question, we've had their fair share of injuries. And it seemed like for a while there, every week you're getting a gut punch by a big guy, you know, a big name, booming right off the bat. You get sit and kill Gore, uh William and then Wilson and then Wilson. It's so bang, bang bang, you're getting the

gut punches. And then there was a little while where and then all of a sudden you start But having said that, I still don't think that's an excuse for where they're at or what their shortcomings have been. But and and and the other thing is it. Look, everyone in the league is deal. You have to go with the injuries and the way they can so so I'm gonna take that off the board. Um, But I'm with you. I just I just to me, Um, and we're talking.

I was talking with somebody after the game and we're talking. I think I was talking with Sam as we were walking out, and I said, Sam, I I just to me. It's the it's the attention to small details that make a big difference. And when I talk to when I talk about this, I always go back to I go, I go back to one of one day in New England. I'm watching and and and they're just just they're just dismantling this football team right the way that New England does,

you know, on defense, playing small. I think it may have been the game where they did the fake punt on third and long, right, four and long and they run the winner. So now I start watching, I said, what's going So I'm watching one of their outside linebackers and the running back is in the backfield. He shifts out into the slot. So it's a linebackers man there, a man of man coverage. Linebackers got the back, so

he goes out to cover him. Well, when he goes out to come him, he takes a heart inside technique. I mean, he's you're you're you're not coming through me. So I'm gonna cover you from here to the sideline. I'm taking away the rest of the field, right, So I'm watching an okay, and and and look, I understand that because that's how I was taught to play the game,

you know, take take something away from him. And so then all of a sudden, you know, we get down it's the third quarter or whatever, and I and I look at it. So now now New England does it. They take it back. They they put him on the slot. Our linebacker goes there, stands head up on him and gives him a two way go. And you're never gonna win that. And to me, when I say details, to me, those are the little details that make a big difference

in the success of your football team. If you're not gonna pay attention to those details, then then then you're gonna be in the You're gonna be in the quagmire of of you know eight and eights is you know seven and nine was six and ten or whatever. To me, it's those teams. Those teams are always at ten, eleven, twelve wins. Their detail oriented details are important. Those things backside contain, you know, all these kind of things that

you see. I I agree with you because it's it's not only it's hand placement on blocks, it's it's leverage, it's being able to take on a double team and that's your job and not worrying about who makes the tackle. That's your job. Do your job. And it comes down

to those teams that are in the playoffs. Those teams that are successful in the playoffs, and those teams that that continually get there seem like they either have those types of players on their roster for quite a long time, and while they're on that roster, those players are developing other guys to have those traits and those work habits that continue on and they pass along a legacy of success. The Dolphins have not had a legacy of success over

the past ten, twelve, fifteen years. They've had some very brief reads of time when they've been up and most of the time they've been, you know, like the sea, they've been kind of rolling back and forth in between having a couple of really good weeks, win two or three in a row, and then all of a sudden, the bottom falls out, and and somebody or something has to be able to turn that around it. And and I don't have to look at my head coach or

my owner or whoever it is. I gotta look in the mirror, because it comes down it's a players league. You can prepare, you can you can give them, you know, exotic plays, you can give them basic plays, but how they execute those things in all three phases is ultimately going to determine if I have a chance to win in the fourth quarter, because basically, you look at the Steelers in the Saints this past week, it's gonna come down to the fourth quarter and who makes a mistake.

The Dolphins Jaguars come down to the fourth quarter and two mediocre teams are going at it, but somebody's gonna blink, somebody's gonna make a fatal mistake that the other team is in elite enough to find them, you know, a way around it. And that's just the NFL, yea it is. And in in the halves. To me, it's the halves are the discipline teams that that that do the small things and and do it right. And you talk about

you know guys. To me, if I'm a coach and I've got a team and I've got the guys that are they pay attention to details, they may not be they may guy may not. I'll get an example. You know, I was a detailed guy when I played. They told me the two gap by two gap. They told me to be on the outside shoulder. I'm gonna do whatever I can to be on that outside shoulder. And I'm gonna don't never cross the face. Never never run behind the defeat. Uh, someone's blocking, you always cross their face.

Simple rules that And you know, you give me a real final I'm gonna stay. I'm a I'm a I grew up in a military family. That's what I tell you. That's what I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do exactly how you tell me to do it. And that's and that's what I'm gonna do. And so you do that. And and if you're that kind of person, if you're that kind of player, and so we drafted a kid from Syracuse. Mike Charles good player, big guy, strong guy, and I was kind of down at the end of

my career. I'm just kind of, you know, kind of got tasted spit at the time to keep myself together. And I'm going, hey, this guy's gonna knock me out of my jib. But you know, instead of doing the details, he's trying to make big plays, he's throwing an arm over and you know when he's supposed to be too gaping and there goes a guy running on the outside. So so he never made that. He never he never, never, never knocked me off my pedestal because he was a

better player than me at the time. But I know that coaching staff knew that I was gonna be exactly where I was supposed to be, and I learned, hey, look, being exactly where you're supposed to be sometimes doesn't mean you're gonna make the play, but it means you're gonna be a part of a part of the situation that allows somebody else to make that play. And there's value

in that. So so if I'm a coach and I've got I'll keep all those guys, even though they may not be quite as talented as the next guy behind them. If I can't trust the next guy behind him to be where he's supposed to be when I need him to be there, you know. And and so there's a lot to be said about that. You see how you saund like how those guys stick around for what will they stick around for a long time because as a coach,

I don't have to worry about him. I don't have to worry because I know he's gonna be And and the smart players that are coming in to take those jobs and replace those guys see that. The ones that don't are gone anyway. The guys that see that and recognize that are the guys that follow in line that start getting more snaps, you know, because they're younger and they may be a little more affordable at certain times in the NFL the way it goes now, and those

guys seem to hang around a little bit longer. And and you see that happen a lot in the National Football League, and you're just hoping that it starts happening a little bit more with the Miami Dolphins now. Especially, take for example, this year, where you had a lot of backups, you had a lot of guys that you get off the street. You had a lot of guys come in to play do too, guys you know, with injury. So now you have all this on tape and a lot of opportunity, and you've had some guys that have

taken it vantage, you had some guys that didn't. One good example for me would be a guy that really showed up yesterday because of Keiko's injury. My call. You know, kind of an underachiever guy. You look at him walking down the street, You'd say he'd never play linebacker in the National Football League. Now you watch him go practice, you watch him play, he's where he's supposed to be. A great example yesterday, he scraped off a block, got into his hole, uh you know, triggered, got up into

the whole, made a tackle along with McMillan from the inside. Perfect. It was exactly the way it was drawn up. You know, I don't know if it was Ziggy or William. Somebody took a double team. There was a two way a go, but there were two backers in the hole. Perfect. Right. But that's a guy that watches that's a guy that came from a program that was you know, a linebacker

eccentric program. And and he played that way, I guarantee you when he was a little kid, when he was in high school, and when he when he was in college, because that's the only way he was going to be able to stay or hang or advance was to go by be disciplined, disciplined, don't freelance. Do your job. And he did his job yesterday. And I think that I think that, you know, from a from a personality standpoint, I'd like to see this team move into that more

of a personality type of thing. But you know, it's it's it's you know, there's different things. As talking before Jeff Lockerman, who used to play for Jackson, I was talking to him before the game of Tony Baselli was down. There was talking to both of those guys and we're kind of talking about the old and said and just just you know, now, it's there's so much emphasis on rushing on on on whether it's sacking him or disturbing him whatever, just rushing the passer and and takeaway and

and and stripping the ball, taking the ball. I'm not talking about the interception. Punch the ball out to the point where you know, now now pass rushers and I watched all the time where they're coming and boom they spin inside and there's nobody outside in the quarterback, you know, jumps outside, buys a little time, boom, can he completes playing moves down, you know, And I understand you want to get so but it's at you want to get there.

You want to put the pressure on the quarterback, but you still have to play live by the rules a little bit. I don't know if he was Kessler or or Bordles, just say they did that exact same thing. Going towards the east end zone. We had a pass rusher come inside. I don't know if it was an end and tackle twist, but nobody came outside and they

gave him the short side of the field. He rolled out, was able to you know, hit for net in the flat and almost scored the same thing on run, like with in running places where guys are they're supposed to be holding their edge and all of a sudden the guy maybe takes a dip inside and they just throw it away come inside and the guy bounced. It's just you know, it's and it's a it's a new era.

And the other thing with the tackle is it Now you get see guys, they're coming up and the first thing you're doing is going for the ball and trying to maybe throw one arm around for a tackle, and and and so meanwhile the guy gains six or seven yards before they before you bring him to the down to the ground before he put you know, are the old rule that we used to go by was the first guy stands him up. Second guy then comes in and tries to dislodge the ball. Now it's a different philosophy.

Now it's a different deal. But um, I think there's some value in the old school that's not being And I'm gonna look, I'm not I'm not talking strictly about this team. I'm talking about across the board. When when I watched the National Football I watched one highlight uh from Sunday's games, and there was one defensive back that came from behind and punched the football out. It was

a great play. But I guarantee you that one great play, I don't know if it lead to points or not, but that one play will lead to probably seventy hundred yards over the next four or five games of yards after contact because that guy's not going to get it every time, he's gonna fall off the running back because he's not really tackling him, he's just trying to get the ball out, and they're gonna stay on the field for four or five more first towns because he'll continually

do that until he's one play away from from being next to the defense coordinator exactly. So, but anyway that that's kind of just you know, that's the truth that But those are the things, those are the little details that everybody's talked about that win or lose football games ultimately, because if you've got one guy doing it, you've got multiple guys doing it, and you just got to get more guys that are that are playing the way they practice on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday instead of all of a

sudden it's for real and you're you're out of position or you're just not doing the things you've done to get you that. But you know, I was, I was walking by somebody on the way out of the game, and I and I and he was talking to his buddy and he goes, you know, yeah, these guys, you know, they weren't even ready to play. They came out and they were just I don't think they even cared about IM some wait am and I watched the football team that came out. I thought, on both sides of the ball.

Now they had their success in the first drive. But you know that to me is a That to me is a bullshit. You know that that's a anybody? To me, it's like, oh I can tell, but I can tell what they're calling every time before they were they they know the play call. Yeah, they know the play call before anybody. And yeah, okay, I got you. You know it because you saw what was running. It didn't work and you just use, well, why didn't throw it on

that kind of a situation. But all that stuff. But anyway, so let's let's kind of look at where we're at seven and eight. Buffalo closed the season at best you hope for an eight and eight season, and and you're going you're going into an environment that's uh, last game not fun in December, last game on the road out of it. I looked yesterday, I looked on on some on an app. I got on my phone with the for the weather and it said high of thirty two,

low of four. That's not a good range. Not a good range, man, bo what you what's your packing arrangements these Uh there's a trip going to Buffalo in late December. A so, so, I tell you, I last year we went to our two years ago when we went to Pittsburgh for it was cold, cold, cold. I remember it was the playoff games. It was a game they needed to get in. I remember one of the games in Pittsburgh. I was talking to Logan about it and he said that at halftime, I think Jeff or or somebody want

to go get him hot chocolate. Hot chocolate was just a term he said. By the time he got it, it was cold, he couldn't put a stick in it. So, yes, I get the UH friends up with Peter Glenn's Vermont hooked me up. We're going up there. So I got a nice big coat, perfect got long John's, I got boots, and I hate every piece of it. I hate every piece. A Florida guy into California. I don't want it. I

don't I don't want to own a heavy coat. I don't want to go somewhere I need a heavy cl I'll wait until it warms up, then I'll then I'll go up there. And it's kind of my philosophy on that kind of thing. But you know, well, no, no, they're not gonna be far around. They're gonna be so my here's my deals. I hate wearing it. I won't wear my jacket up there. I'll throw it in my bag or I'll carry it or whatever. I'll wear it

in the field. I'll have my big boots on, but in my bag traveling back, I'm gonna have my flip flops right there, So before I get in that airplane, throw them on on in those boots. As far as I concern up front concerning I'll leave on the tar Max. Uh so I had three hours. We'll make it through. But but just just a miserable It's gonna be miserable for them. It's gonna be miserable for the Dolphins. And

it's gonna be one of those games. I think John that it much like I thought about this game last week with jackson or the last week with Jacksonville, would be that after if the Dolphins, if the Dolphins would have stopped Jacksonville on their first drive, came down even kicked a field goal, I'm going these guys are done. You can stop, get up, tend nothing and there and

and and it's done. Their their their their toasts, but didn't work out that way, And I got a feeling the same Buffalo is gonna be the same kind of mentality. If some team jumps out and gets on you early, the other teams canna have a hard time muster in the uh uh you know, the the need or the want to uh to fight back, especially with the if the weather is as bad as it as it possibly could be. Well, the range from thirty two to four doesn't indicate that it's gonna be a pleasant day in Buffalo,

New York. Right when you're praying for the high and the highest. That's not that's not the best of uh of most situations. Well, you know, Buffalo is a five and ten team, okay, and they've gone they've gotten their new quarterback, they've gotten their rookie quarterback last year's draft. And he's a guy that ran all over us, you know, down here in South Florida hard Rock Stadium ran for over a hunter in three yards if I remember correctly,

straight games. So you've got a guy that's still learning the position, the guys still kind of figuring it out, how he wants to play, how he can accentuate some of some of his qualities, and he's got a strong arm. He's a big kid, he's athletic, he moves around the pocket, extends plays, he does all those things. I'm just wondering what our mentality is going to be going up and playing, because the last two weeks were huge disappointments for the Miami Dolphins in terms of what was on the line

and how we performed. I'm not saying I think we're ready to play. I don't think there was an effort problem. I think that we got beat We got beat by ourselves number one in a couple of those instances. And you have to give credit to Minnesota and Jacksonville because they took advantage of our miscuse and turn them into points. So I just think that that that's the thing I'm gonna be watching. I'm not I'm sure we're gonna give effort.

I'm sure gonna be prepared, but execution wise, if if the last two weeks we had the playoffs still in the horizon and we didn't get it done, now everything's out out of our control. We're done, and and it's and to me, it's a little more difficult being the road team. It is. It is it's like, hey, you know we're going home after going home, you know, no

flight in this and that. So and remind you the audible is brought to you by Verise and the best unlimited is on America's most awarded network are Good Friends Advertising, UH seven and eight and all the speculation, now, John, I mean, as soon as that game ended is I think as soon as the uh the pick six came up, speculation began on what was gonna happen, what they're gonna do, what's the shape of this team is gonna be next year? And you know, I'm a you know, I'm a stand

pad guy. Right now. I I believe in coach Kase. I believe he's the guy that can get the job done. If I had my druthers, I would I would. I would rather see him maybe step back a little bit from the game day play calling and be a little bit more of a head coach to the defense, special teams there and look, I'm not asking to be the

defensive coordinator, but participate, you know. I you know, look Coach Schula, and again I every time I bring up Coach Sula, He's the only coach I had in the National Football So he's on my MO only frame of reference. But if the defense was playing well or playing bad, he would always come by and let you know, hey,

we need you know. Just and he but and he's and and I would like to see Adam be a little bit more of of of a team manager as long as as well as you know, I think with him, and now you know they work together all a week on the plane, you know what we want, you know what we like. You still communicate with them. But with that, but I certainly the last thing I want to do

is see him leave. I just think I think it would be very premature and unfair, especially with a football team that most people say we're gonna be the thirty fet or thirty second best team in the national football at the big beginning of the season, and most everybody that put pen to paper said this team is gonna

be lucky if they win three or four games. You've gone through a rash of injuries, you've had those issues, and you lose your quarterback for four or five weeks, however long that was, and you still end up eight and Nate. Maybe if you end up eight and Nate, I don't see how. I don't see how you make that move. You know, maybe now maybe now when you start looking down the the staff situation, and I'll and I'll say this before I go, I'm gonna move forward.

There's always gonna be staff changes. Some guys are gonna get a better offer somewhere else. Some guys just you know, for whatever reason, they're gonna go somewhere else, and then they're gonna be changes, maybe because they're not satisfied with with the job that's gonna be done. And if there's moves like that down the road, then then then maybe there's And and I'm not I'm not touting this, I'm not you know, pressing it. But example for me would

be if Todd Bowles became available. Now you've got a guy that you know, I know that every time we get ready to play the Jets, Adam talks strongly about Todd Bowles, how how good he is it setting up his defense, is doing things, so you know, he's got him in the back of his mind. A guy like that becomes available, now, then I've got I've got a choice, I gotta I've gotta make a I got at least think about it. Am I happy here with with Matt Burke.

Is it an improvement here? Is there some way I can get Todd here and keep Matt and do some kind of you know, where it's equitable over something. I don't like to see guys fired. I don't like to see guys leave. But but as far as as far as a staff standpoint, John, that's kind of where my head is on this thing right now. Yeah, I think income kind of along the same lines as you bo. I don't want to see Adam gaze U be fired.

I think his work is is yet to be determined on where his success rate is going to be in the National Football League. I do know that he's really good in front of the team. I know that the team's prepared. I like the way he his interaction is on the offense. Now, whether he gets more involved in the defense moving forward, that's probably something he's gonna have to think about in the offseason when he when he goes back and he feels like, how can I improve

as a head coach? Is he given more time on game day to certain situations where maybe it's not neglected. It just wasn't my role going in over the past three years as the head coach of the Miami Dolphins, So I think, you know, he would probably entertain. You know, he's gonna self scout himself, just like he self scouts every opponent and every every game that his team has played. He's gonna go back over and say, hey, we were

we doing the right things in these situations. My play calling was I was I getting too far out of the box, and maybe you should have I repeated a couple more plays are gone through this a little bit simpler than than what I thought and did. I like a lot of the things I added. I mean just about you could go through the litany of of trick plays that we've used, and most of them, from the majority of them have turned out either really huge or or it was one of those things where no harm,

no foul. They made good decisions and it didn't work out, but they got made the best out of the place. So there's a lot of things to go through when you're play caller slash head coach and and you're trying to go through the best way to move this team from five hundred. If you win in Buffalo and five hundred for three years, how do I take the next step? Because you had so much success in year one you tried to duplicate that and grow from it and improve.

In year two you go backwards and now you're kind of you know, you're you're in the middle of the sea, floating around, going how how do I get out of here? How do I get back in that jet stream where I can kind of contine in you that upwardly trend. So I'm competing with New England, I'm competing with Pittsburgh, I'm competing with some of those teams that are in the a f C that are there on a regular basis,

no doubt. And then look, and then you get to the personnel side, and that to me is a little more dicey, you know, a little more dice you just from the standpoint that you know, it's easy to point at people and you know, whether it's Chris Greer, whether it's Mike Tannenbaum, whoever it is um but people don't know what they do, you know, people don't really. I think it's just across the board, you know, and you

hear someone says, oh, yeah, I like that guy. Like I'm looking on line today and I'm seeing their airyone. Just fire everyone, just good rid of everybody. And and do the whole thing. I'm looking I think that's the worst I just think that's the worst case scenario because it wasn't You're going not going from a ten win team to a six win team to a two win team,

and everybody's abandoning ship. This is a team for the past two weeks that if they have taken care of their business, they'd still be in, you know, a pretty

good spot, and they didn't. Yeah, no doubt, I'm looking for I'm just looking up some I I just I do bo I. I kind of agree with the theme that you're getting to whereas every year you go back to you know, God rest his old Tony Sperrano and you you go back and you feel like, you know, Tony Sperrno was a good football coach and he got run out and a lot of there were a lot of takers for his craft and maybe not at head coach. But I like the way he motivated his team. I

like the way he stuck up for his team. I like the way that he backed his players, and I like the way he prepared his players. And I feel the same way with Adam Gates. I all those qualities are are there with with Coach Gayson, and I think he deserves to have another at bad at the plate and see where can we can go? And John and I I think, and look, I've been around here long enough. I've been watching I've watched this since since I came

here in nineteen seventies six. So I've seen all different kind of peaks and valleys and you know, and and good teams and not so good teams and then this and that and and I just feel like this team and and sometimes I think sometimes I think the organization pays a little too much attention to the noise out there with the fan base. Because the fan base, I'm look, I'm looking on I'm watching Coach Gaze's press conference today, and they were not fire and fire and fire and fire. Well,

we'll have some give us some background, give us some reason. Why, why why would you do that? You know, and so the whole thing. But we're not. This town is not willing to let somebody finish the job two years and three, so I'll get rid of these guys. So so let's I'll give you a good example to me. Coach Gays came in and tried to start starting want to turn this team into more athletic football team. We're a little bit more of a bigger physical team before he got here.

And he goes out and Jachem Grant becomes part of the game. Albert Wilson, Kenny Kenny stills, these guys. The offensive linement got a little more athletic, right, defensive linement a little more. Your linebackers a little smaller, a little more athletic. So so it takes time him to change a football team from you know, big strong power to so give these guys to me. It's like building us. If you hired me to build your house, I come

build your house now. I got the founder, I put the two by four's up, I got the foundation up, and you know you know what up? Yeah, I don't like what you're doing. You're fired. Then you bring somebody else, and what do they do? Take everything down and start from scratch again. And now now you're back two years back.

Now you're two years behind where you started from. That's my problem with multiple changes every three years, one step forward, two steps back, And I think that's why this franchise has been in this holding pattern. And look, we've had one year of one and fifteen other than that, we're seven and nine, eight and eight, nine and seven. Oh, you got a ten year ten win you know, you're you're And so if this team wins, if this team finishes eight and eight this year, two wins away from

being in the playoffs, it's in there, in there. Their legacy for the past ten years has been two wins or two losses. You know, Cincinnati loss, the Indianapolis Indianapolis loss. Those You you think, Jesus, we just have those two, we'd be sitting here right now. You know, we'd be nine and six right now. But you know, and that seems to be the So I guess the point I'm making is you can talk about fire and all these people, but the margin between being the middle of the pack

and a playoff team, it's two games. I I think that all the people that would say that, uh here, here's the way I would feel. Let's go back to that. Those two those two losses. There's a seventeen point lead in one game, there's a ten point lead in another game. You feel like, there's no way that this football team

is gonna lose those games. And all the other people and all my friends are saying, well, John, you can't point to those games not pointing in New England and then the miracle finish and you can't point to that game without point of Buffalo and they should have caught the ball, And I go, yeah, I understand all that. I understand all that. Usually in games, in seasons, all

those things kind of even out. All I'm saying is that this team was a lot closer than they were at at any point over the last I don't know, you take out the playoffs, seaton the season over the last ten years from being a really good football team because of the way they started. They started three and oh, and they started out with everybody kind of going, you know what, we're not We're not that bad. You know, we're not as bad as the national media tends to

think we are. We're not as bad as we are. And then they went up and they got they got slapped in the face by New England. That brought him back to reality. I think this team would have rebounded a little bit differently had they had those components in place. I'm not blaming injuries. I'm not saying that as an excuse.

I'm just saying the way this team was built, they would have reacted a little differently through this season with half of those rash of injuries to key components because Adam Gates had to completely change the way he called games. He relied on a thirty five year old running back to set the table for this football team and this franchise for this year. And it was unbelievable that Frank Gore and all of his talents were able to carry this team on offense until they got their you know,

legs underneath them in games and in series. But you you lose, you know, you lose Tannehill for x amount of for a month, month and a half, and you and you you have to change again. You have to change the way that you call games because it's just it's just different. I think that when you look at other teams where you lose Sin and kill Gore, I know those two guys, those two and don't discount how

important those guys were. They're important a lot because first of all, they're better players and then took their everybody's better better players than anyone else they had playing that offense in those positions. I'm talking about Tonslan and Juan Um, but not only that, they brought in here toughness with them. They brought that. They were they were leaders of the team. Don't pick that guy, don't don't get that guy a

hand up. Let him get his own. As all the culture change in the off season, we're bringing guys of the character in like that. That not only character, the guys that could play. And the point I was trying to make was simply this Adam Gates changed the way he called this game and his offensive philosophy three or four times this year. And the best ways were the first couple. As he as he got it watered down. As he got watered down, we got to take this out.

This guy's hurd we gotta trade. Just look at the explosive plays to where they went to in the first month of the season and comparatively, on an average, where they are over the last month, month and a half. There's not a whole you know, you had the seventy five yard run with ballaj, you had, you know, the miracle play at the end of the game. But we take a look at average explosive place, what do we have a twenty yarder and maybe a thirty yarder last

week against Jackson that was it. Yeah, I mean that was nothing else, and you go prior before you lose your team and you lose Albert, you know, those those things were there were common regularity. Yeah, and so you take half of that out and so yeah, it's uh, look,

it's it's it's it's disappointing. Um and there's gonna be a lot of you know, a lot of shrapnel flying flying around here over the next week or two before things get to uh get par I just kind of hope that everyone takes a step step back, takes a deep breath, and I know that Mr Ross and everyone that whatever whoever he's taking the information from whatever he's doing to to do his research and to do his his background before he makes a big decision on any of these guys and looks at it and um, it

doesn't just doesn't just make a move because oh this team seven and eight right now or or the end of day of eight and eight, so they're airgo I better let these guys go. The percentage of the if you do make a move, the percentage of improvement is far less than than negativity. Where you're gonna go backwards before you get going forward. You're gonna be in year three again looking around going and what the hell did I do? And now I gets start over again because

we didn't have success. But you talk about Klin Blas, you know, one of the byproduct of losing guys, you get to see guys like Kalin because you know, if you don't have Frank, if Frank's healthy, you're you're not seeing him on those plates. And so now all of a sudden, Kalin's become He goes, hey, there's a guy that you look forward to and and and you look at so you look at Xavien. Xaviens to me, x is a good example when you look at where those teams at right now. X comes in his first year

pretty spotty. You know, next year better, third year, and he's a pro bowler. You look at and you I'm looking at guy. I'm looking at ray Kwon McMillan and Jerome Baker. I don't know if either one of those guys can be a pro bowler, but I know this, they're gonna be better next year than they were this year they were. They'll be better the year after than

they were. And that's why I kind of talked about let's let's let the let the team mature, let the team grow with the picks that these guys are brought in. They're gonna look at Jesse Davis. Jesse Davis. You know he was scrambling just to be a backup last year. You put him in there. He got all that work last year because of injuries, comes in as a starter

and is they're all all year long for you and played. Look, he had his hat, his days and his days where you go, you know, you gotta play better than that. But I think for the most party is pretty consistent and so but and you got those guys, and then you go back another year to the rookies because I think there are I think there are enough young guys, the got Shaws and the Vincent Taylors and and those guys out there that if you give them time, they can be the core of what's gonna be a ten

year run of you know where you're now. You're challenging now, you challenge the playoffs every year, and you're getting in the playoffs and if you hadn't you get in the playoffs. You know, the first really serious time we got in the playoffs, we won the division, got the home field, got the home field advantage, win one game. We go, hey, we win the next game, we're going to super Bowl, you know, and and that's where you know, you get to there. That's one of these super Bowl trips. Show up.

They don't show up when you're the last team getting in there and and you're limping into to try to snatch a wild card spot, get the should beat out of the first week of the playoffs, and you feel just as bad as if you if you hadn't gone. But but I I feel like there's a core there two that if buttured it brought along the right way, it's gonna be pretty solid core on both sides of the football. Yeah, I mean I was. I was shocked how good some of them, our young players played this year.

And I'm talking about even second year and third year. But you know, you just take a look at makea Fitzpatrick what he's done over the course of playing safety, playing corner, playing nickel corner, playing everywhere in a pinch, and a guy that may get a position right off the bat next year, and say this is your position, this is where we want you to play, because this is your this gives us the best chance to be

successful on defense. And it goes for Baker and it goes from McMillan and it goes for Taylor and Gotcha and all those young kids with absolutely absolutely another guy that that played at a really high level for the majority of the season. So you marry that with your Drakes and your Bellage and all those guys, and and Isa of Ford who came along didn't get a lot of playing time, but you know he was up and down off of the regular roster and and really doing

it with regularity at practice every day too. So you've got a nucleus, as you said, of young and now getting experienced guys. And with the example of of X making the Pro Bowl, there's other guys that are that are going to crest that level of being able to continue to take the Dolphins where they need to go with youth. Now you have to back that up with a really good job of another class that comes in in the draft and a couple of experienced veterans that

key positions in free agency. Look at you look forward, you said, Look, you can see him. It could be a pro bowler within a year or two. You can be tons Will b mc touns will being a pro bowler next year? Maybe I I mean I know it missed a field goal against Jacksonville, but look at Sanders. I mean he came and missed two kicks all year. I mean he did a heck of a job. So

you've got you've got there to me. I think they've got Matt and Hawk, you know, the same thing as a specialty teams were you know, those two guys came in big time for us. Yeah, so I'm maybe I'm just not. I don't know. I just I think I try to look a little deeper than the surface. Um. You know what gets you know, it gets really overlooked. You know, we talked about offensive injuries. Oh we gotta rash it defense on. We're gonna imagine Darren Rizzy and

special teams. Every every injury on this football team gets compounded on special teams. And they've been you know, pretty solids throughout throughout the season. Yeah, well you get you know, the issues they've had have been late last couple of games and the two block punts and you had, you

had that was more technique than anything exactly. So you know, and like you said, every time someone gets hurt on the regular roster, he's losing somebody from his or else or else he's got him playing whatever he's getting on fumes right the games or whatever like that. Anyway, So that's where we are, and that's what uh, that's what we've got to look forward to in the off season is is trying to get this team built. And again, I'm just throwing my two cents out there. I like

this staff. I like the staff, and anim will make his change where he wants to do. I'm just uh, I mean, I'm just not uh. I just want to see I just want to see him stay here and and give him a chance to to fulfill his job. Yeah. I just don't see any growth and and and absolutely blowing the whole thing up because we've we've seen and done that and we're back. We're we're here, and you feel like you have a good nucleus of young players.

And I I think I just like the job Adams done around the team and getting these guys motivated to play. I just think we need to do a better job of individually playing, playing a little bit better at each position.

Apple Music, tune in Radio, Dolphin app, Dolphins dot com, and remember the Audible is brought to you by Verise and the best Unlimited on America's most awarded network, good friends at Audible and all that stuff, and our sponsor Deezer has been with us and UH for this year and UH, I think next time we're on, next time we're on, it will still be too ius in eighteen, right, next time we're on, No, it'll be two thousand. This

is our last year of the year. And we all know noisemakers, no confederate to just have Trey come in here and pass some of that gas. He's been passing that room, and we'll we'll call that our our New year celebration. He can knock out some some folks. Think I've seen those guys back there, their faces are turning in front. Well, you get these guys coming back from lunch. Anything can happen. Yeah, that's right, Okay, that's gonna do a John. It's been a great year, Happy new year,

looking forward to a new and happy new year. And happy new year to everybody out there. Keep yourself safe and UH and let's get a winning buffalo and come home mate, and and move on. Can't wait, alright,