OJ McDuffie Discusses NFL Changes and Dolphins Insights

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00:00Welcome back to Newswire here on Sports Grid.

00:05It is always such an honor for me to have one of the greatest players who ever wore

00:09a Miami Dolphins uniform to join me on my show here.

00:13It is OJ McDuffie, former Miami Dolphins wide receiver, also a great player, of course,

00:17at Penn State, sweating through Dolphins games, sweating through Nittany Lions games, and

00:22at the same time doing the Fish Tank podcast and having some of the greats that played

00:26for the Dolphins on his show as well.

00:28OJ, man, it is great to see you, my friend.

00:31How are you?

00:32Craig, man, it's always great to see you, man.

00:34And let's not get it twisted here, man.

00:36If it weren't for you, I probably wouldn't be doing this sort of thing, man.

00:39You know, you gave me opportunities back in the day, man.

00:43I've tried to continue and hopefully make you proud along the way, my brother.

00:46No, you're doing awesome.

00:48I listen to the pod every week, and OJ is being too kind, one of my favorites in the

00:52game.

00:53All right, before we get to the Dolphins, because OJ has some great insight on what's

00:56going on there, you know, it's sort of crazy these days in the NFL where, you know, back

01:02when you played, you know, OJ, if you were upset, you just ate it and you went home.

01:07These days, if you don't like where you play, you make enough noise, you get traded.

01:11I can't make heads or tails as to what the Jets are doing.

01:14Last night, they looked awful on Monday Night Football.

01:17I guess they must have had a trade for Devontae Adams because he's already in New York there.

01:22I don't get it.

01:23I don't understand how this makes them any better whatsoever.

01:27I think the Raiders, OJ, are going to end up on the good side of this, getting draft

01:31picks.

01:32That's not to say Devontae Adams isn't great.

01:33He is.

01:34But, OJ, I mean, like, what are the Jets doing here?

01:37I'm having a hard time figuring this out.

01:39Maybe you have better insight than me.

01:40Yeah, I really don't have much insight on it, but, you know, I mean, once Aaron Rodgers

01:45speaks, it seems like things happen, you know, in New York.

01:51You know, they say nothing happened with him, and there's no coincidence with him and Salah

01:55being fired last week.

01:58I just know that they have a comfort level with each other, he and Devontae Adams, and

02:01I think that, you know, he needs that blanket.

02:04You saw that a little bit last night where Williams had some opportunities to make some

02:07plays for him, he did not, but the other guys he's really comfortable with.

02:11Aaron's going to get his guys, man, and here's the thing about it, you talk about how guys

02:15usually just have to deal with what's going on, the NFL is becoming more like the NBA

02:20right now.

02:21It seems like some players are more like GMs.

02:23You see that the players are able to have more control and be able to go where they

02:26want to go, and good for them, because obviously the money's a lot better than when it was

02:30back in the day, and control is okay for the most part, but you also want to see these

02:35guys stick it out, try to find a way to win with their teams, but, you know, I think that

02:41Aaron Rodgers, the GM, head coach, quarterback, has pulled a lot of strings here, and, you

02:47know, and for me personally, you know, I mean, look, Craig, you know me, I'm the biggest

02:50Dolphin Homer out there.

02:52I really hope it does not work out for them.

02:54Yeah, I know that, at least OJ's the one honest guy when it comes to that.

02:59Yeah, again, Mike Williams, $10 million to probably not play anymore.

03:03It's sort of, how anybody can trust what the Jets are doing is beyond me.

03:07All right, so the Dolphins have made all kinds of headlines, OJ, this year.

03:11I mean, you guys have been busy.

03:12I mean, from Tyreek Hill on and off the field, to the injury to Tua, to them looking so good

03:18initially out of the gate, to now down to like the third quarterback.

03:23Let's start off with the receiver position, because this is what you know best.

03:26You know, Tyreek Hill, probably the single best or second best wide receiver in the NFL

03:31is just simply not getting the same amount of opportunities.

03:34I thought the last game against the Patriots, I saw a little bit of a silver lining coming.

03:39Do you think that that continues against the Colts, who looked like maybe, you know, they

03:44looked a little defensively challenged, a little bit more against Tennessee than they

03:48had looked early in the season?

03:49You know, Craig, I hope so.

03:51You know, as Tyreek goes is how we go, you know, most of the time.

03:54If we don't get Tyreek going, then everything else is bottled up.

03:59We get those guys down the field, he and Jalen Waddle down the field, and we can get A-Chan

04:03going, we can get Mostert going.

04:05You know, one thing I do know about this team is, when we decide to run the football between

04:09the tackles, we've been pretty good.

04:11But we abandon that a lot because we're such a speed team, we want to use speed.

04:15Speed usually works on the edges.

04:18So we kind of rely on that a lot, way too much in my opinion.

04:22But I think we're starting to learn a lesson.

04:24These guys that we have up front, you know, they're good blockers, they're athletic blockers.

04:29But I think it's more about positioning.

04:31But I think the inside game has been great.

04:33So if we can get the run game to work, which is, you know, a lot of teams are playing this,

04:37we see a lot of cover two, whatever it might be, two man, two regular two, just a two high

04:42shell all the time.

04:44They're inviting us to run the football, we have to continue along that path.

04:47But they're also, Craig, there are a lot of two man, there are a lot of cover two beaters

04:52out there.

04:53We have to find those two beaters for our guys to get open and get going.

04:56Yeah.

04:57And, you know, Huntley looked better, at least in the last game, than he had in the past.

05:00But that opens up the door now to this conversation.

05:02We know that Huntley starts this week against the Colts.

05:06The following game is the Arizona Cardinals.

05:09And you know, all I can do is watch these press conferences from Mike McDaniel.

05:13I don't think anybody really knows anything.

05:16But to me, he definitely left that door wide open, OJ, for Tua to come back.

05:21And to me, it sounds like a couple of weeks may be the case if he was this close to potentially

05:27returning for the Colts.

05:29I guess he's going to come back, OJ.

05:31I just don't know when.

05:32I'm sure you don't know when either.

05:33What do you make of this whole situation?

05:35Yeah, you know, Tua, this offense is totally designed around Tua's abilities and his attributes,

05:42whatever he brings to the table.

05:43I know that they want Tua back.

05:46If Tua can come back healthy, you know, and he's cleared, obviously, he's going to come

05:49back.

05:50I mean, it makes no sense for him not to.

05:52So with that being said, you know, this offense needs Tua.

05:56But when Tua was there, you know, we struggled.

05:58We did struggle as an offense, which is surprising.

06:01Three years in, Craig, it's kind of amazing that we didn't get better as an offense from

06:04the beginning of the season.

06:06When you look at the fact that you've got the same coordinator and head coach, you've

06:09got the same quarterback, you have all the same weapons.

06:12This offense should have gotten better, and it wasn't.

06:14We just led for the first time in the last game we played.

06:17We just led for the first time in regulation in five games, man.

06:20You know, that's hard to imagine a team that put up a 70 spot, you know, not so long ago.

06:25The fact that we're going to score five touchdowns is a big problem for this team.

06:28We got to figure something out, and Tua is probably the best guy to remedy that.

06:33But I think another game with Huntley, he can be pretty good for us, but Tua's got to

06:37be the answer for this offense.

06:39Yeah, I mean, I think he'll be back against the Cardinals at home.

06:42Just a guess for me.

06:43Again, I'm just reading people.

06:45That's kind of what I'm trying to do here.

06:47All right, OJ, we got to go here.

06:50Penn State, in or out of the college football playoff in the top 12 when it comes down to

06:54it.

06:55What do you think?

06:56In or out?

06:57We're at three now.

06:58If we drop out from three to out of 12 right now, Craig, I'd be totally disappointed, man.

07:01We've got some tough games coming up, of course.

07:04The Wisconsin's, the Washington's, the Ohio State's, we've got some big Indiana things

07:07on the schedule.

07:08We've got some tough games coming up.

07:09All right.

07:10Thanks again, OJ.

07:11Great to catch up with you.

07:12You too, brother.

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