Latest / 3 Yards Per Carry - Miami Dolphins / Scouting the Fins-7-27-26

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Scouting the Fins-7-27-26 · 3 Yards Per Carry - Miami Dolphins

0:00
[SPEAKER_00]: What's up everybody and welcome to another episode of Scouting the Fins right here on the 3x precaried podcast network, also part of the five reason sports network.
0:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Once again, if you guys have not already go ahead and join only fins, that's discord.gd slash only fins.
0:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Make sure you join on a desktop or a laptop.
0:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Avoid the $1 extra apple upcharge.
0:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Just on the patron chat, which is, again,
0:28
[SPEAKER_00]: 49.9 a month, you get me, coach, Kyle Krabs, Alf, C.K., Simon, breaking news about the Miami dolphins and things you don't hear online, along with just the read-only, which is 29.9 a month.
0:43
[SPEAKER_00]: So once again, if you guys have not already, go ahead and join Only Fins.
0:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Today we have a great show for you today.
0:51
[SPEAKER_00]: We're bringing back a front of the podcast for the last three years, Tyler Dunn, of Go Long, TD, an independent long form NFL Journalism, podcast, and Substack series.
1:04
[SPEAKER_00]: He's been writing about the Miami Dolphins since 2021, across three head coaches.
1:08
[SPEAKER_00]: So we'll talk about parallels.
1:10
[SPEAKER_00]: The new Aaron Burrow contract has two stories about Aaron Burrower
1:16
[SPEAKER_00]: and we're gonna talk about what he didn't write about.
1:19
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's gonna be about what Tyler has seen a peak behind the current and what's in the future.
1:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Tyler, welcome back.
1:30
[SPEAKER_01]: Always a pleasure, my man.
1:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks so much for having me on the pod.
1:34
[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like it's an annual tradition.
1:37
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's interesting.
1:39
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure we'll get into it.
1:40
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm thinking back to the stories that we've discussed in the Resolues, Hope and Hipe and Big Names and the Fins are scoring 70 points and it's two a time.
1:51
[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like all of us, everyone has to take our medicine, let alone the dolphins who absolutely need to take their medicine, but let a little back to reality this off season.
2:02
[SPEAKER_01]: It was really interesting to get down there and learn about where the dolphins have been, especially in 2024, 2025, and where they're going with a guy like Jordan Brooks leading the way.
2:12
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, yeah, you talk about the Brian Flores here in 2021, then Mike McDaniel comes in.
2:17
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a bunch of hype, you know, a bunch of goodwill hopes that season looks really, really good.
2:25
[SPEAKER_00]: And then now fast forward, Mike McDaniel's gone, you get Jeff Haffley, but we've also profiled so many dolphins players over the years, right?
2:32
[SPEAKER_00]: The first one I read.
2:33
[SPEAKER_00]: was about Chase Edmunds, right, about the Mike McDaniel High.
2:37
[SPEAKER_00]: But before then, just about to a tongue-wide law, what it was like under Brian Flores to the revival of him under Mike McDaniel, then talk about Zack Seeler, right?
2:49
[SPEAKER_00]: He lost or that was a very, very big one, which we went in depth about.
2:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Zack Seeler, we talked about David Long Jr. Julian Hill, which was a very,
2:59
[SPEAKER_00]: you know, got wrenching, you know, it really tugs and pulls on the string.
3:04
[SPEAKER_00]: And then you got, you got guys like the Mar-Hamlin as he's all shy, you're rate-divist, you're on bullet.
3:10
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know, you name them all in the Aaron Brewer piece.
3:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I feel like I'm catching a trend.
3:16
[SPEAKER_00]: There's like a type of player you really go hunting for.
3:20
[SPEAKER_00]: And how did you figure out to target Aaron Brewer first?
3:25
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a really good question because I do think it is a little bit of a six cents, you know, six plus years into this.
3:32
[SPEAKER_01]: I go along.
3:32
[SPEAKER_01]: I just want to sit down with players.
3:34
[SPEAKER_01]: See what makes them take gold beyond the power rankings and the mock drafts and really.
3:40
[SPEAKER_01]: Bring the emotion of the sport, the spirit of the sport to life.
3:44
[SPEAKER_01]: I just feel like in sports media that's sorely missing.
3:48
[SPEAKER_01]: And how do you do that?
3:49
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, there's going to be player profiles.
3:51
[SPEAKER_01]: There's going to be team deep dives, where there's some palace intrigue.
3:54
[SPEAKER_01]: And you try to figure out why something went awry.
3:57
[SPEAKER_01]: There's some of that in this Jordan Brooks story in Aaron Brewer.
4:01
[SPEAKER_01]: But I think to answer your question, what I come back to, it kind of hit me, work it on this Jordan Brooks story, because it's so central to his rise and why he wears that C on his chest with a lot of pride.
4:14
[SPEAKER_01]: The longer you're around pro football,
4:16
[SPEAKER_01]: And you talk to players, and you talk to players about other players and coaches and get a sense for a culture and how cultures can spontaneously combust for all the wrong reasons and how teams build winning cultures that there are players who genuinely love football.
4:35
[SPEAKER_01]: And then there are players who just play because they're good at it.
4:37
[SPEAKER_01]: and I think growing up, I just assumed, of course everybody loves football.
4:41
[SPEAKER_01]: How could you not love football?
4:43
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the number one sport in America.
4:45
[SPEAKER_01]: We all played.
4:46
[SPEAKER_01]: We all wish we were in the NFL.
4:47
[SPEAKER_01]: We're in the backyard, you know, throwing to our dads.
4:50
[SPEAKER_01]: It's fourth down, reenact in these scenes.
4:51
[SPEAKER_00]: And you forget a lot of guys are just really talented.
4:54
[SPEAKER_01]: They're really fast.
4:55
[SPEAKER_01]: They're really strong.
4:56
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a means to an end.
4:58
[SPEAKER_01]: And you can win a lot of games with those players.
5:01
[SPEAKER_01]: The dolphins
5:07
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a lot like the movie The Perfect Storm, where you're catching all these fish, but you know that you got to go through that storm to get back to get back to shore, and it might just capsize your shit and kill you, and that's what happened to Miami.
5:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Like it was fun, there's scoring a lot of points, and Mike McDaniel is his breath of fresh air, moving on from Bryan Flores, but he was really described to me as,
5:32
[SPEAKER_01]: That cool dad, right?
5:34
[SPEAKER_01]: He wasn't laying down the law.
5:35
[SPEAKER_01]: There were no rules that Tyree Kil walks in to a meeting, five minutes late, and he just says, hey, what's up, Reed?
5:42
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a one player told me.
5:43
[SPEAKER_01]: And walk throughs the day before the game.
5:45
[SPEAKER_01]: And this is all in the Jordan Brooks story for those who want to subscribe, check it out.
5:49
[SPEAKER_01]: Because Jordan Brooks, he alluded to a lot of this, and then I talked to some sources on the detail.
5:57
[SPEAKER_01]: Walk through your guys and bring in their cell phones and write in their pocket of their sweatpants, thumb and through text messages and whatnot.
6:03
[SPEAKER_01]: When you're dent in your eyes and you're crossing your teeth and you're figuring out what and hell you're going to do on the field.
6:08
[SPEAKER_01]: So those are the kind of players that just play because they're good at it.
6:13
[SPEAKER_01]: And it drove a leader of veteran like Jordan Brooks, nuts.
6:19
[SPEAKER_01]: Eventually he spoke up.
6:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Nobody else was speaking up.
6:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Nobody else was taking charge.
6:23
[SPEAKER_01]: He did he had an all proceeds an Aaron Brewer Perhaps the best center in football.
6:28
[SPEAKER_01]: Why are the same way?
6:30
[SPEAKER_01]: You can really understand why John Erick Sullivan and Jeff Haffley they came in
6:35
[SPEAKER_01]: They burn $179 million right 60% of their cap this year as a players who aren't even going to play it down They did that for a reason and they kept these two around to be pillars to build around the more you learn about them They're rise.
6:48
[SPEAKER_01]: They're up bringing their background how they're wired.
6:50
[SPEAKER_01]: You see, okay They love football.
6:53
[SPEAKER_01]: They're obsessed with it.
6:54
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean how Jordan Brooks was watching NFL films from the 60s and 70s as a kid There's always one of the do
7:01
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think I've ever went that back far in the history and to watching football.
7:06
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, my growing up watching football was like the very early 2000s, Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, early years, pain-manning, absolutely hated Tom Brady.
7:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Now that he's out of the league, he's a bit more manageable to digest, but
7:26
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, you talk about having just a collection of, you know, superstar players.
7:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Although superstar players didn't necessarily lead this dolphins team and organization into, you know, finishing their goal, which is obviously every single NFL team's goal.
7:42
[SPEAKER_00]: To win the Super Bowl, let alone when a playoff game, right?
7:46
[SPEAKER_00]: They were heralded as, you know, this next up-and-coming offense with Mike McDaniel, which is genius in everything and
7:55
[SPEAKER_00]: after three years, and it seems like with the dolphins every three years, you build up this momentum, you build up what's going to happen, and then it falls flat right on the face.
8:08
[SPEAKER_00]: You've been writing about this franchise since 2021.
8:12
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you've been writing about this team for a while, right?
8:18
[SPEAKER_00]: We talked about tool honeymoon, Chase Edmund,
8:21
[SPEAKER_00]: You also wrote about, now I'm a dolphin's quarterback, Malik Willis, right?
8:25
[SPEAKER_00]: You have this continuity, you have this collection.
8:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, we kind of want to see what his tie-done's read on how the dolphin's building has actually changed.
8:37
[SPEAKER_00]: And is it just hype again?
8:41
[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like it's substantive.
8:44
[SPEAKER_01]: They're finding the right kind of player.
8:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, I took a hooklight and sinker, you know, I think in my younger days covering this league, I would just kind of laugh at the talk about culture and process and it just struck me as cliche BS.
9:01
[SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, of course you want all the talent in the world.
9:04
[SPEAKER_01]: You think of the Cleveland Browns that I've seen and where,
9:07
[SPEAKER_01]: They got Odell Beckham, Jr. Olivier Vernon, and Jarvis Landtree, the train for Demarius Randall.
9:14
[SPEAKER_01]: I remember going down there to Cleveland, talking to all these guys, Baker made field in year two, and then they went six and ten.
9:19
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, all you need to build a true team, I mean, Brandon Bean put it best in one of our one-on-ones.
9:26
[SPEAKER_01]: You have to view a roster as a chemistry experiment, like there's
9:30
[SPEAKER_01]: different elements and they all kind of have to fit together because if one thing is off, the whole thing could blow and that's really what you see in Miami where
9:42
[SPEAKER_01]: got like you said it was a lot of fun.
9:45
[SPEAKER_01]: They put up a lot of points to a time was real.
9:49
[SPEAKER_01]: You had at some point you just have to build with the right kind of player and I think that they're doing that.
9:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I don't know how many games they're going to win this year.
9:56
[SPEAKER_01]: It might be three.
9:57
[SPEAKER_01]: It might be four.
9:58
[SPEAKER_01]: I tend to agree with Jordan Brooks though.
10:00
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, he said, look, we don't have the the big marquee names.
10:04
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't have the super stars.
10:06
[SPEAKER_01]: But we tried that, it didn't work.
10:08
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, he'd lived it.
10:09
[SPEAKER_01]: Aaron Brewer lived it.
10:10
[SPEAKER_01]: I talked to other players in that locker and who lived it.
10:13
[SPEAKER_01]: They saw what it's like when you've got that dead weight.
10:16
[SPEAKER_01]: When captains have a sea on their chest, but they don't deserve to be captains, they're showing up late to meetings.
10:24
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, Tyre Killing, Jalen Ransy were repeat offenders.
10:27
[SPEAKER_01]: They see either not go into a meeting, showing up late, there were other meetings where, again, would a lot of people want to subscribe and check it out, we got it all in there.
10:36
[SPEAKER_01]: but they'll be in a meeting and just up and leave, a player just leaves in the middle of it to get treatment where, like, in functioning buildings that doesn't happen, you get your treatment for injuries in between meetings or on your own time.
10:49
[SPEAKER_01]: You got to hold team of people for every muscle group and you're pouring yourself into this.
10:54
[SPEAKER_01]: In Miami too often, guys are walking in at 759 a.m. for an eight o'clock meeting and when it's done at four, they're screeching out of the park and a lot of 405.
11:05
[SPEAKER_01]: there's a player on that team who said he knew that they were going to be quote unquote trash in the spring of 2024 because there just wasn't camaraderie there wasn't commitment they would schedule dinners as a position group say there's 10 to 15 in that position four would show up and all of that stuff.
11:25
[SPEAKER_01]: matters in the sport of football, where it's the ultimate team game.
11:29
[SPEAKER_01]: It only takes one doofus to screw up on a play to ruin a play and ruin a game.
11:34
[SPEAKER_01]: One mistake, one in the style, and boom, you're done.
11:37
[SPEAKER_01]: It kills you.
11:38
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's very easy to get to that place.
11:41
[SPEAKER_01]: You need true.
11:43
[SPEAKER_01]: Commitment players who are obsessed with it, and I feel like that's why the Miami Dolphins tried to accumulate as many pixels they could define that kind of player.
11:53
[SPEAKER_01]: That's why they jettisoned the players, that they jettisoned, hello to the tongue of Ayola.
11:59
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I think I think that Malique Willis and two of Wolves, we'll see if Malique Willis can be a QB1, but pretty confident they approach things,
12:08
[SPEAKER_01]: differently.
12:09
[SPEAKER_01]: And you're just trying to build this thing from the ground up with the type of player that matters.
12:14
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, Jordan Brooks brought up the 2023 Green Bay Packers.
12:18
[SPEAKER_01]: A generic Sullivan was a part of that front office.
12:20
[SPEAKER_01]: That was the youngest team in the NFL.
12:22
[SPEAKER_01]: Jordan loves first years of starter.
12:23
[SPEAKER_01]: They were one drive away from the NFC championship game.
12:27
[SPEAKER_01]: They can't everybody would be pretty surprised if Miami makes it that far.
12:30
[SPEAKER_01]: But why can't this
12:36
[SPEAKER_01]: hope for the future.
12:38
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that to answer question, yes, there's there's always hope there's always height, but I think it comes from a logical place this time around.
12:48
[SPEAKER_01]: It's it's not hyperbolic just
12:51
[SPEAKER_01]: you know, hot air.
12:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
12:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
12:53
[SPEAKER_00]: There there seems to be and just from talking with everybody within the local beat, the national beat that, you know, it's not the same building as it was in 2025, 2024, right?
13:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it physically feels a little bit different and culture is a really big thing and we talked about it.
13:12
[SPEAKER_00]: on last year's podcast, right?
13:15
[SPEAKER_00]: It's about who are the leaders who are setting that culture, right?
13:19
[SPEAKER_00]: You wrote about the Malik Willis piece.
13:21
[SPEAKER_00]: He could become a captain.
13:23
[SPEAKER_00]: He's the star quarterback of the Miami Dolphins.
13:26
[SPEAKER_00]: He is the guy, right?
13:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Then he played with Aaron Brue or Jordan Brooks's act, Sealer, potentially divine ageing with three how that turns out when they do, you know, those captain patches, right?
13:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Aaron Brewer was with, you know, Malik Willis and Tennessee and he told you that he's going to be scary for this league.
13:49
[SPEAKER_00]: You've talked to both men, they're in the same building.
13:54
[SPEAKER_00]: What do they see in each other?
13:57
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that Malik Willis's story is unique in terms of
14:03
[SPEAKER_01]: He hasn't been so resumed, nothing's been handed to him, goes to Auburn, they basically tell him he's not good enough, doesn't stick, goes to Liberty, it's a different offense, he puts up great numbers, but it's Liberty, gets to Tennessee and he barely even plays like it's, he really never got a true shot there yet, Betrek will love us, ship my first seventh
14:29
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's a back epic green bay.
14:31
[SPEAKER_01]: It's considered a bust.
14:32
[SPEAKER_01]: I remember talking to him at the end of his Titans days, the joint practices with the Minnesota Vikings.
14:37
[SPEAKER_01]: And he was adamant back then.
14:39
[SPEAKER_01]: He's like, look, it's a rookie.
14:40
[SPEAKER_01]: I just didn't know the place, right?
14:42
[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't know the offensive I do now.
14:44
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and year two with the Titans, he just never had the opportunity to truly show it in the games.
14:50
[SPEAKER_01]: So, so much of this is just opportunity, getting with the right coach, getting with a MATLAB floor, backing up Jordan Lobby, how he granted, he was thrown right in the fire.
14:59
[SPEAKER_01]: I think he started.
15:00
[SPEAKER_01]: like 10 days after he was traded to Green Bay, remarkable that he was able to win a couple games, and that was a lot of hand-offs, a lot of using his legs with the timely throw here or there, and then the next year obviously one and a half games he played brilliantly through the air with his legs, all of that.
15:17
[SPEAKER_01]: But I think what impresses you most is who decided to make Malik Willis,
15:21
[SPEAKER_01]: a QB1 and pay him all that money.
15:23
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the people that saw him every single day.
15:24
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, Jeff Hathley's defending the Lake Wilson practice.
15:28
[SPEAKER_01]: He knows his mental approach.
15:30
[SPEAKER_01]: He's running the scout team.
15:31
[SPEAKER_01]: He's probably driving him nuts, emulating other quarterbacks.
15:34
[SPEAKER_01]: And you're seeing what you have out of that position physically and all of that, but just as much behind the scenes and all through the hallways is
15:44
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, it's easy to just bang out a quarterback once, you know, he's let go.
15:48
[SPEAKER_01]: Like a two tongue of Ayola and two was great.
15:50
[SPEAKER_01]: At his peak, that quick trigger, the number C put up remarkable.
15:54
[SPEAKER_01]: It was like handed the baton to Tyree Kill and full strike four by one.
16:00
[SPEAKER_01]: But here's what I'll just say and this is a comment for me this player's on that team a tone was set at that training camp practice When he took the microphone and said show me the money like there are quarterbacks who get paid and then just kind of put their head down Continue to work want to earn every dime and then there's quarterbacks
16:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Who do that?
16:21
[SPEAKER_01]: And he put a lot of pressure on himself.
16:22
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it was a window into his psyche and not a good one.
16:26
[SPEAKER_01]: Remember him speaking up then in 2025 about players missing players only meetings and pointing the finger.
16:32
[SPEAKER_01]: When he's turning it over at a crazy rate.
16:35
[SPEAKER_01]: So it got bad.
16:37
[SPEAKER_01]: It got bad fast.
16:37
[SPEAKER_01]: I think teammates like to a.
16:39
[SPEAKER_01]: They say nice things about it even off the record, but he just.
16:43
[SPEAKER_01]: It was money not well spent.
16:45
[SPEAKER_01]: And when you pay a player, especially when you pay a quarterback, you have to know how he's gonna respond to that contract.
16:53
[SPEAKER_01]: I think the dolphins know with me equals, because they were out of every day.
16:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that was a pretty big hope, where I remember when that happened.
17:01
[SPEAKER_00]: A lot of freezing cold takes was happening around that moment,
17:05
[SPEAKER_00]: They don't work out for the best, right?
17:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Like when you said that tone in the locker room, and people like, okay, he's there for the money, only why should we care, you know, if he's just there for the money, he's not going to perform.
17:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Then on the flip side on the defense, you know, with Jordan Brooks, him nicely confronting teammate.
17:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Being mean, you know, he wants people to do the same as him.
17:26
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, think about what he could be feeling.
17:29
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, Seattle just won a Super Bowl and he was part of that team, you know, a year and a half to a years ago, right?
17:37
[SPEAKER_00]: He could have been on that team.
17:38
[SPEAKER_00]: He could be an eventual Super Bowl champion.
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18:43
[SPEAKER_00]: As a player holding another peer is hard to get out of that locker.
18:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Usually the coaches are supposed to it, but we know the whole McDaniel situation in player to let the locker room, whatever it is, right?
18:56
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, he tried to hold his peers accountable, some work, some didn't, maybe potentially felt like he was shouting into a void for two years.
19:06
[SPEAKER_00]: But,
19:07
[SPEAKER_00]: something that I couldn't necessarily find was that if Jordan Brooks had any allies before Aaron Brewer or his axipler in that dolphin's locker room told everyone else like accountable.
19:19
[SPEAKER_01]: I think so there were some outsiders who weren't there for the floor as days into the Mike McDaniel days and that who just came in, who signed from other teams who are seen some of the
19:37
[SPEAKER_01]: What guys are just up and leaving for treatment during these meetings huh and like Friday's we're kind of a mess Saturdays with those walkers were a mess and yeah, I think you had allies but look it's it's it's it's 53 man roster plus a practice squad training camp you got 90
19:58
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a ton of guys, and that was the point that Jordan Brooks made in this story is in basketball, if there's a bad egg, and somebody's out of line and they're doing their own thing, you're going to stand out like a sore thumb like it's it's going to be pretty obvious that this player is just this malignant cancer that needs to be removed.
20:19
[SPEAKER_01]: and you see it in the NBA all the time.
20:21
[SPEAKER_01]: You guys are moving all over the place.
20:24
[SPEAKER_01]: You just know if somebody's not a culture, but in football, it's a little easier to hide in this stuff kind of festers and festers and gets worse and worse.
20:34
[SPEAKER_01]: And when you've got Tyre Kille and Jaylen Ranzi, two star players showing up late, racking up the fines.
20:41
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, then the younger players are gonna say, I can do that, if the best players, the ones that are captains, the leaders,
20:48
[SPEAKER_01]: If they're cutting corners I can cut corners and it it just builds and builds to the point where Jordan Brooks is looking around this past season they're one and six says hell nobody's going to speak up I'll speak up so he started speaking up and taking charge and it did lead to his own
21:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
21:06
[SPEAKER_01]: What's that?
21:07
[SPEAKER_00]: I remember that comment that soft calming over soft.
21:09
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
21:10
[SPEAKER_00]: That uh, right.
21:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
21:12
[SPEAKER_01]: And that was the year prior, right?
21:14
[SPEAKER_01]: That's in 24 is first year.
21:16
[SPEAKER_01]: So he really kind of took that step in 25.
21:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Day once of games, he played really well.
21:22
[SPEAKER_01]: He backed it up.
21:22
[SPEAKER_01]: And that was his point is if, if you're if you're a captain, if you're a leader, you have to live it out.
21:28
[SPEAKER_01]: You have to clean up your locker.
21:30
[SPEAKER_01]: You have to show up on time.
21:32
[SPEAKER_01]: You have to practice with intent.
21:35
[SPEAKER_01]: do all of these things all of the time and then others will follow you.
21:39
[SPEAKER_01]: It sounds pretty elementary but man it's in a locker room with so many guys it's easy for things to get off the rails especially when the head coach isn't going to put his foot down and the fines aren't mean and a thing to anyone.
21:54
[SPEAKER_01]: They're in a place now where they can start a new start fresh and I think that Jordan Brooks is we talked actually.
22:02
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure people realize this because he just signed the contract, but yeah, you know, this was early OTAs.
22:08
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, this is before he signed that deal and I came away convinced like yeah, I'll get a deal done.
22:12
[SPEAKER_01]: He's going to stay a long term because it really means a lot to him.
22:15
[SPEAKER_01]: You mentioned Seattle like he could have seen that Super Bowl celebration.
22:19
[SPEAKER_01]: his friends, his former teammates, the dark side, living it up and been like, I gotta get the hell out of here.
22:26
[SPEAKER_01]: The dolphins are rebuilding.
22:28
[SPEAKER_01]: I need to feel that what my friends are feeling at the peak of my power is 29 years old.
22:34
[SPEAKER_01]: I think most red blood and football players, even the competitors, they say, yeah, get me, get me out of here.
22:40
[SPEAKER_01]: I gotta go somewhere else.
22:42
[SPEAKER_01]: He kind of flipped it.
22:43
[SPEAKER_01]: He said, I want to be a part of that rebuild in the a leader.
22:47
[SPEAKER_01]: He kind of got biblical with it.
22:48
[SPEAKER_01]: He's telling the story of Adam and Eve at one point.
22:51
[SPEAKER_01]: And how it is, it's like a man's purpose on earth to lead, to set an example, it means a lot to him.
22:59
[SPEAKER_01]: So you knew he was gonna stay.
23:01
[SPEAKER_01]: He got the contract and now he's got a chance to really show everybody how you work day in and day out.
23:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I do want to preview the material because I mean, it was pretty heavy and definitely worth reading.
23:16
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to be a bit too generous and once again go ahead and subscribe to go along TD podcast.
23:21
[SPEAKER_00]: But what Jordan Brooks has lived through, right, the awakening of Texas tech, losing away a family member, the ACL Terence Seattle that everyone knows and
23:34
[SPEAKER_00]: you've been profiling the issues in Miami.
23:37
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it was leading up to what Jordan Brooks was eventually going to do.
23:42
[SPEAKER_00]: He was going to stay throughout the process, help to build a culture, help to lead a team, to be that all pro perennial guy that
23:52
[SPEAKER_00]: People in Miami, John Erick's Sullivan, Jeff Hathley, know and extend that to the greater NFL.
23:58
[SPEAKER_00]: But I wanted to ask you just the building overall and what you're seeing, a cultural reset, yes, for sure, is a very, very expensive one.
24:10
[SPEAKER_00]: But you've seen that happening green bay.
24:13
[SPEAKER_00]: You've seen that happening in Buffalo, when Brandon Bean was there.
24:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you really think a team that's paid almost $180 million in dead money?
24:25
[SPEAKER_00]: It can erase its own recent past.
24:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, because I think that football's a human game, right?
24:34
[SPEAKER_01]: Like this is,
24:36
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think I refer to a coxure calculator, bros at one point in the story.
24:43
[SPEAKER_01]: We're at, we're just anundated with the film experts and look their needed.
24:48
[SPEAKER_01]: It's great that it has become such an industry of.
24:52
[SPEAKER_01]: figure it out why this play worked, why this play didn't, and you see the images on the screen, but you don't know what's going on in that player's life.
25:00
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't know what's going on in that player's head.
25:02
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't know what they're doing.
25:03
[SPEAKER_01]: The other six days of the week.
25:05
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, how?
25:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Anything but those three hours on a Sunday.
25:08
[SPEAKER_01]: There's so much that goes into this sport.
25:11
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that
25:13
[SPEAKER_01]: when you look at the dolphins, and when they're scoring 70 on the Denver Broncos, when two a tonk of oil as an MVP candidate, when it looks like Tyrekeel might get 2,000 yards, we can get caught up into all of that.
25:26
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that there were issues beneath the surface there that eventually rear their ugly head, because this was a Miami Dolphins team that was lacking heart, lacking assault, lacking substance.
25:42
[SPEAKER_01]: and the fact that they get that.
25:45
[SPEAKER_01]: It means something.
25:46
[SPEAKER_01]: It does.
25:48
[SPEAKER_01]: What does it lead to?
25:49
[SPEAKER_01]: I guess we'll find out.
25:50
[SPEAKER_01]: They tried to do it.
25:52
[SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, we talked about it at one point last year.
25:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Like they with the Jalen Ramsey trade.
25:57
[SPEAKER_01]: But they were kind of that was a regime at the end working around the fringes, you know?
26:02
[SPEAKER_01]: Like it was.
26:04
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, let's make this trade.
26:05
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's draft this kind of player.
26:07
[SPEAKER_01]: It was too little too late.
26:09
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think that they now have a head coach and a GM and a quarterback, the spine of the organization, it's wired the right way because look, there was so much that goes into building a winner beyond breaking down the all 22.
26:27
[SPEAKER_00]: you know I'm gonna go ahead and play you something this is you last you're talking about the identity of that dolphins team that you just so spoke about go ahead and play right now yet.
26:38
[SPEAKER_00]: But what does this mosaic of players that the dolphins have collected and even including some of their draft picks like Jalen Wright, Zeke figures and even Quinn ever was facing you know adversity at Texas last season.
26:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Tell us about the culture
26:56
[SPEAKER_00]: My miss trying to construct and if they can find that identity this season They got they have to become a mentally tough football team, right?
27:07
[SPEAKER_01]: It's easier said than done.
27:09
[SPEAKER_01]: I've never said down with Chris Greer or Mike McDaniel I would love to but I always thought that Brandon being here buffalo put it best when he was kind of At a transition point with the bills and they let a lot of veterans go and they're gonna be leaning on some younger players
27:25
[SPEAKER_01]: the metaphor he used is it's it's a true chemistry experiment like you're going to need a little bit of this a little bit of that like you don't want all choir boys you don't want all boy scouts you don't want everybody with an absolute clean you know never swore in their life you know absent rap sheet like you do need some dogs you do need somebody with an edge to them yet you also do need those culture centers we're going to show up
27:53
[SPEAKER_01]: at 4 a.m. 4 30 a.m. to work out to watch film, you'll hope it's one of your best players because that's going to bring along other guys and say, oh, look, if that guy's doing that, I better do the same thing.
28:05
[SPEAKER_01]: It's got to be a blend, right?
28:06
[SPEAKER_01]: It's got to be a mixture in maybe the dolphins are getting there.
28:11
[SPEAKER_01]: Something's missing.
28:12
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's lazy to just sit here and say two mistakes, two a can't win in a cold.
28:18
[SPEAKER_01]: I've seen two a play well in the cold.
28:19
[SPEAKER_01]: A couple
28:23
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you wrote this Jordan Brooks piece, right?
28:28
[SPEAKER_00]: One year later, after the fact, you know, we talked about people not caring on the walkthroughs, whatever it was, what did you know then that you couldn't say?
28:40
[SPEAKER_00]: And what did you genuinely not know?
28:42
[SPEAKER_00]: And then your thoughts on, you know, last year's clip.
28:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Boy, I honestly did not know how bad it was.
28:52
[SPEAKER_01]: day-to-day for the Miami Dolphins culturally that I think that we did know a decent amount publicly when you've got a, what, it was a Tanner Conner, like a third or fourth string tight-ed saying that they got rid of players who weren't being very respectful.
29:08
[SPEAKER_01]: There was, I mean, Mike McDonald right after the season finale, I think they lost at the jets, said, yeah, fines didn't really do anything, so it's out there, then they
29:21
[SPEAKER_01]: What I guess what I really didn't know was it was that rampant and it was kind of past the point and overturned I thought that to a tongue of Ayola would.
29:35
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I think number one, if we're just going to talk football, talk quarterback and the turnovers, we're bad.
29:42
[SPEAKER_01]: He never really did.
29:43
[SPEAKER_01]: He had a couple good games in the cold, I guess.
29:45
[SPEAKER_01]: But overall, when it got colder and you're in the AFC, there's going to be a lot of cold weather games.
29:52
[SPEAKER_01]: he continued to play poorly there.
29:54
[SPEAKER_01]: He just he couldn't move.
29:56
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's probably what surprised me with and anything is how sharply he regressed as a quarterback this past season.
30:04
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think Mike McDaniel got to a point where's like, okay, we're going to run the ball a lot, then they got to the easy part of their schedule.
30:09
[SPEAKER_01]: They started winning some games.
30:11
[SPEAKER_01]: It just the damage the damage was done.
30:13
[SPEAKER_01]: And then what a perfect example that it just you can't fix your issues with transactions.
30:22
[SPEAKER_01]: It seems like you can.
30:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Every spring, we all lose our minds over for agency.
30:28
[SPEAKER_01]: And then a month later, it's the draft.
30:31
[SPEAKER_01]: I still remember where I was when I traded for Tyre Kill.
30:33
[SPEAKER_01]: I was on the road.
30:35
[SPEAKER_01]: It was one of those trades that lights up your phone.
30:38
[SPEAKER_01]: You stop what you're doing, a holy hell.
30:40
[SPEAKER_01]: They just got Tyre Kill.
30:42
[SPEAKER_01]: But every team, not just the dolphins.
30:45
[SPEAKER_01]: You had to figure out how you changed a psyche of an entire team, which isn't easy with 53 guys and 90 guys in training camp.
30:52
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, in Green Bay, I spent some time with Javan Bull or this offseason.
30:56
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a team that used to figure out how to get a killer instinct.
30:59
[SPEAKER_01]: They let the bears off the hook.
31:01
[SPEAKER_01]: It was 21 to 3.
31:02
[SPEAKER_01]: They had them right where they wanted raw on the Caleb Williams and Ben Johnson and the entire Chicago Bears team.
31:08
[SPEAKER_01]: And they let a, how do you just get,
31:11
[SPEAKER_01]: a team that has its foot over an opponent's throat and you kill him, they're trying to figure that out.
31:17
[SPEAKER_01]: And every team has, as has seven months in and off season, to figure out the stuff that transactions can't figure out.
31:25
[SPEAKER_01]: And the dolphins for too long have been looking at the draft and trays.
31:30
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, that the problem was too ingrained.
31:33
[SPEAKER_01]: So I give Stephen Ross a lot of credit for moving out from Chris Greer, who was a lifer, but then also moving on from Mike McDaniel, who was beloved by a lot of people.
31:44
[SPEAKER_01]: Within the entire organization for good reason he was a breath of fresh share.
31:47
[SPEAKER_01]: It was a lot of fun seeing him approach the job on like anybody else that really has I liked him a lot from afar
31:55
[SPEAKER_01]: but the problems were too ingrained.
31:57
[SPEAKER_01]: There was no fixing the issues that ale, the Miami Dolphins, they needed a different voice as had coach, a different voice at GM.
32:07
[SPEAKER_01]: And then those new voices came in and they correctly identified Jordan Brooks, Aaron Brewer as two players who can be stewards of this new vision within the locker room.
32:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Was there anything else maybe from 2024 to even last season,
32:24
[SPEAKER_00]: might have shocked you from what you heard that you couldn't see on record at the time or was it, you know, surfaced once McDaniel and Chris Greer were gone and, you know, everyone else felt safe to talk about it.
32:41
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, nothing overly inflammatory, I think.
32:46
[SPEAKER_01]: And we've got a lot of intel in both of these stories if people want to check them out because yeah, they're profiles of these two players and they're rise and what they've been through.
32:55
[SPEAKER_01]: And they also kind of mirror each other in so many ways where like Jordan Brooks, there in Brewer, both had a coaching college who kind of...
33:02
[SPEAKER_01]: like, woke him up in a big way and pushed him and got to the NFL and that they both had these crazy upper Indians, you know, Aaron Brewer, two of his cousins were involved in a really tragic incident down in Texas that was all over the news.
33:18
[SPEAKER_01]: He could have been with them that day.
33:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Jordan Brooks gets the call that his brother was just shot dead in his truck.
33:25
[SPEAKER_01]: And he's always getting calls.
33:27
[SPEAKER_01]: The childhood friends have passed away.
33:29
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that that perspective for both players is just a service constant reminders that they're heading on the right track.
33:35
[SPEAKER_01]: They're living the right way.
33:37
[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, behind the scenes, I think it did surprise me just to hear
33:45
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, that it was as bad as it really was, you know, with these meetings behind the scenes and that there was no fixing that you've, you've profiled, you know, a lot of players that went through hardship, right, tomorrow, Hamlin, I'll show you our David Long Jr., Aaron Brewer and now Jordan Brooks, you know, they came out of it and they carry it, you see it in their persona.
34:13
[SPEAKER_00]: For you, you know, when you're discussing, you know, when you're writing these stories and talking to them, what does it take out of you personally, you know, to sit in those rooms?
34:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Hear those stories and really just try to absorb that, you know, week after week, year after year?
34:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's a good question.
34:33
[SPEAKER_01]: I think I love my job because I think that it's kind of lost and coverage
34:44
[SPEAKER_01]: These players, there's so many people who do a great job covering the NFL.
34:50
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not just going to bust merch, everyone who covers football.
34:53
[SPEAKER_01]: Because a lot of it's just the nature of the beast and covering teams and why I love being my own boss.
35:00
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't have to chase clicks, right?
35:02
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't have to meet a quota of X amount of stories per day in blog posts and tweets.
35:08
[SPEAKER_01]: chasing ad revenue and a lot of people do like a lot of people just have to show up at the locker room for daily access and go from group interview to group interview and stick a recorder in there and how's the injury doing?
35:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Tell me about this opponent.
35:22
[SPEAKER_01]: Tell me about that.
35:23
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's just becomes like this monotonous day to day grind that doesn't benefit anybody.
35:30
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think it benefits the viewers to just
35:33
[SPEAKER_01]: get all this slop on their social media feeds.
35:35
[SPEAKER_01]: You're not really learning anything about how football works.
35:39
[SPEAKER_01]: The press conferences are all performative.
35:41
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I'm not going to get through honest in a press conference.
35:44
[SPEAKER_01]: So when I create a go long, I'm like, you know, this is a chance to,
35:48
[SPEAKER_01]: Just do what I love and speak your stories.
35:50
[SPEAKER_01]: It's player profiles sitting down with guys one-on-one, getting dinner with somebody, what have they been through?
35:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Everybody has a story.
35:57
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think the players appreciate that.
36:01
[SPEAKER_01]: Most of them do want to sit down and open up in ways that they haven't opened up before.
36:06
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's just the way I want to approach it.
36:09
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that,
36:11
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, if you're a fan of a team and you're, I always say this, but if you're playing, if you're paying 70 bucks for parking in 150 bucks for a ticket at 18 bucks for a beer and that's just the financial consequences, your, your sanity matters to like you're devoting your fine body and soul to a football team.
36:32
[SPEAKER_01]: you deserve to know the good, the bad, the ugly, the raw emotion behind this sport, everything.
36:39
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's my compass.
36:40
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just following that, find a real story and try to deliver
36:48
[SPEAKER_00]: in the coverage of the sport.
36:50
[SPEAKER_01]: Thankfully, there's a lot of people out there who still want that and subscribe and read and support what I'm trying to do here and for that I'm just so grateful.
36:58
[SPEAKER_01]: So everybody listening and watching this podcast would love it, you know, go long to eat.com.
37:02
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just eight bucks a month or 50 bucks for the year and hopefully we can bring you a side of this game that nobody else can.
37:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Yep, go along TD.com at Tydon on Twitter and Blue Sky, the full-bruer article, go along podcast, Jordan Brooks article, is up there along with previous articles and podcasts, as well five years of long-form work on the Miami Dolphins franchise, and before I let you go.
37:32
[SPEAKER_00]: You may be back in the building again, right?
37:34
[SPEAKER_00]: You've built relationships with different players.
37:37
[SPEAKER_00]: They're reading all of this.
37:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Some players feel safe.
37:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Talking you about it, other players might be a bit reserved.
37:46
[SPEAKER_00]: They don't want to be out there in the public.
37:49
[SPEAKER_00]: But for you, who's the next dolphin you want to sit down with?
37:56
[SPEAKER_00]: And why?
37:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Great question.
38:02
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, we know his story, so the Malik Willis piece I did, it really was just the Sean McEvoy, his personal quarterback's coach, and it talking to him about everything he went through is interesting.
38:14
[SPEAKER_01]: I think there's a lot more there, right?
38:16
[SPEAKER_01]: Like we know his arc in the sport.
38:20
[SPEAKER_01]: We've seen the video of him at the combine.
38:24
[SPEAKER_01]: He had no cameras were rolling.
38:25
[SPEAKER_01]: He didn't know he was any of this would be public.
38:27
[SPEAKER_01]: He just did out of the goodness of his heart to give his combine gear to a homeless person on the street in Indianapolis.
38:33
[SPEAKER_01]: I would love to learn more about him.
38:36
[SPEAKER_01]: What makes the him tick would get him up and the more an excited to be the face of the Miami dolphin.
38:41
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, if he's watching this podcast, Malay, let's sit down and chop it up any time.
38:46
[SPEAKER_00]: I hope we can get another Malay who will this article, especially with the Miami Dolphins, and Tyler, thank you so much for being on here.
38:54
[SPEAKER_00]: And as always, you all thank you guys for listening, sick with us here.
38:57
[SPEAKER_00]: On getting the Finns part of the 3rd Recovery podcast, now we're all support of the five recent sports network.
39:03
[SPEAKER_00]: As always, you all, Finns up, baby.