00:00Chris Perkins is on the Toyota of Hollywood Hotline.
00:03He's a columnist for the Sun-Sentinel, covers the Miami Dolphins.
00:07And you can also hear him on Game Day Uncensored here on 104.3 FM, WQAM,
00:12along with Brendan Tobin and our very own Solana.
00:16So, Perk, is there a growing divide, I guess I would say,
00:22in your estimation with Dolphins players and Mike McDaniel
00:27and now Tua because of his post-game comments?
00:31Is this thing being held together with scotch tape at this point?
00:36Maybe masking tape, you know?
00:38Maybe some masking tape, some a little bit stronger,
00:41but maybe some electrical tape.
00:43But you know what?
00:44We don't know yet because we didn't have access to the locker room on Monday.
00:49Today is a day off.
00:50I'm actually down here at Feedin, South Florida, Jason Jenkins' service day.
00:55Jason Jenkins, the former Dolphins media relations guy,
00:58vice president of the Dolphins.
01:00We're helping package food for the homeless.
01:05So, there's a couple of players down here, Malik Washington and Jonas Vainaya,
01:09Kenneth Grant.
01:10But I don't know that there's a divide.
01:12We haven't been able to talk to the players.
01:14I would think that they're not happy.
01:16I think the biggest thing that I noticed was yesterday when we talked to players
01:20on the podium, Patrick Hall and Aaron Brewer, we asked them what they thought
01:25about what Tua said, and they didn't go anywhere near it.
01:29They said in-house stuff should stay in-house.
01:32And I thought that was a big example of how they think that this matter should
01:37have been handled.
01:38So, that's pretty much all we know right now.
01:40But I thought those few words and that gesture said a lot about what they think
01:44about maybe how Tua handled the situation.
01:48Hey, Perk, you got a guard and a deep tackle down there.
01:50Let them get some one-on-ones in.
01:52Goodness gracious.
01:55Let's go from techniques.
01:57Oh, man.
01:58Kickbacks, pass rush.
02:00Let's work on the man movement.
02:02All right.
02:03I'm looking at Jeff's net.
02:05Perk, you were there when Tua – it makes no sense to me.
02:09Went off the rails with the player-only meeting attendance.
02:13Like, where is that coming from in your estimation?
02:16Why the hell did he do that post-game?
02:19I don't think Tua gets it.
02:20I think he's tone deaf to things that – how they're going to be received.
02:26And, you know, Tua's not a mean-spirited guy.
02:29He's not a guy who wants to put people on blast.
02:31But I think he's also a guy who doesn't understand how the public is going to
02:36receive things.
02:37And I think he badly underestimated how this was going to go over publicly.
02:41You know, the thing when he said something about, I go home and play video games with
02:47my kids after games, and that didn't go over well.
02:50I think what Tua meant was, if I have a bad day at the office, I can go home and play with
02:56my kids, and they don't care, and I'll immediately feel better.
02:59But it's not what he said, and it's not how the message was received.
03:02And so I think that probably this was one of those situations where he put something
03:08out there that shouldn't have been out there, and he had no idea how it would be received.
03:13And this thing is blown up into a national story.
03:16And he should know, though.
03:18He should know.
03:19I know that he gets counseled on this stuff.
03:21I've been told he's been counseled before when he stuck his foot in his mouth.
03:25But for some reason, it just doesn't register with him.
03:28And so I think that that's what this is.
03:31I don't think he was trying to really put anybody on blast or put their business out
03:35there, but he did it, and he should have known better.
03:39Is it possible, Perk, that there's a divide between Tua and Mike McDaniel?
03:44Because there was some takes from some national pundits and former players where they're saying,
03:49hey, Tua is basically asking for help here.
03:52Tua is saying, why won't our head coach be a bit, I don't want to say meaner,
03:58but a bit more of a disciplinarian against some of these guys who maybe aren't respecting
04:03Tua, aren't respecting the process that Tua is trying to abide by.
04:06So I wonder, like, these two guys who we all feel are joined at the hip, do you think there's
04:11a divide between the two of them right now?
04:15That's the first sign that I've seen that there would be a divide.
04:19And you know what, it kind of, that explanation doesn't really make sense to me, Solana,
04:25because these are player-only meetings.
04:28And let me, I'll say this.
04:30I wrote back in November about players-only meetings that they had all 53 players on the
04:38active roster, the 16 from the practice squad, and they would have them in a big conference
04:42room.
04:43And those meetings are called by the leadership council.
04:46You know, I talked to Kendall Lamb, Zach Seeler, Teron Armstead, and Alec Engold about those
04:52meetings, and they gave me the details of it, and I wrote a column about it.
04:57That's not what Tua is talking about.
04:59He's talking about player-led film sessions that happen on Thursday morning, Thursday afternoon,
05:04Friday morning.
05:05Mike McDaniel has no control over who shows up at those meetings and whether they're tardy.
05:11That's all player-led.
05:12And so for Tua to talk about leadership, you're talking about yourself, like players.
05:18You know, the team captains or the offense is in charge of that.
05:21As a matter of fact, after the game, I was talking to a veteran offensive player, and
05:27I was telling him about how Kenneth Grant said that coaches go to some of the defensive
05:32meetings, defensive line meetings at those film-watching session meetings, and he looked
05:37at me like I had a third eye.
05:39He was like, what do you mean coaches go to the defensive meetings?
05:42And I was like, well, KG said, you know, such and such.
05:45And he was like, I don't know anything about that.
05:47So I guess, you know, that's just a defensive line, and we later found out defensive back
05:53thing.
05:53But yeah, Mike McDaniel would have nothing to do with players coming late to player-led
06:00film-watching sessions.
06:02So I have a hard time believing that.
06:05But, you know, look, when you lose, there is finger-pointing and there are rifts that
06:10form.
06:11And so maybe this is the first public indication that maybe there is something going on there
06:15between McDaniel and Tua.
06:16And Perk, you've been, hell, you've been, you covered me.
06:19I don't know exactly how long you've been covering the Dolphins, but you've been around a lot
06:22of teams.
06:23This player-led thing, I'm glad you brought it, the player-led meeting thing, it's just
06:27guys getting together to get ready to play ball.
06:30Like, we would go, when I played, we'd go and watch film or look at the run game if they
06:34have a crazy run set.
06:36We didn't call it player-led meetings.
06:38We called it getting ready for Sunday, and they're making this big deal about now this
06:42player-led meeting thing, like you're saying, the Kenneth Grant coach is coming.
06:46It started back in November, you know, started before, and now it's Tua calling people out.
06:50Like, have you ever seen an emphasis put on player-led meetings?
06:54We didn't have a name for it.
06:56It's calling getting ready for damn Sunday.
06:59Exactly.
06:59And that's part of Tua, like, being tone deaf.
07:03Like, the wording means something here, and you've got to be specific.
07:09And, you know, and Tua also said that there's guys that are missing these meetings and showing
07:15up late, and then somebody said, as a follow-up, to be specific, Tua, do you mean players are
07:21missing the meetings or they're late?
07:23And he said, late.
07:24Yeah.
07:25And it's like, but you said missing.
07:27And you talked about, should we make them mandatory?
07:29So I don't know.
07:30I think Tua just temporarily lost his mind.
07:33And like I say, I think he's tone deaf.
07:35He doesn't understand, you know, if you're talking about player-led film-watching sessions,
07:41say that.
07:42That's different than the players-only meetings that are everybody, all 53, and that are called
07:48by the leadership council.
07:49We're talking about two different things here.
07:52You know, Tua's got to be more specific when he communicates.
07:56Because it can, it leaves room for interpretation, and then that leaves room for people to speculate.
08:05And that's the situation we're in.
08:06Is there a risk between Tua and McDaniel?
08:09And why are coaches having to be being invited to player-led meetings?
08:13And why are players late?
08:14Did they not respect each other?
08:16Has McDaniel lost control of the team?
08:19And it just opens the door for all of these questions.
08:23Who do you think he was referring to?
08:25He was referring to a specific player.
08:28I know it.
08:29Who do you think it was?
08:31Oh, I'm not even going to speculate.
08:33I don't know.
08:33You know, last year-
08:35I love reckless speculation, Perk.
08:37This show is built on reckless speculation.
08:41My business has a surprise on that also now.
08:45But, you know, last year, everybody would have pointed to Tyreek.
08:48But, you know, you don't, you know, say goodbye to the bad guy, right?
08:53You can't say that about Tyreek anymore.
08:55So, I don't know.
08:57I honestly have no idea.
08:59And I don't even know if he's talking about, you know, quarterbacks, running backs, receivers,
09:05offensive line.
09:06I have zero idea who he's talking about here, how many people he's talking about, what late means, five minutes, 30 minutes.
09:15Like, you know, and the bad thing is, Tua talks tomorrow.
09:18You know, quarterbacks talk on Wednesdays.
09:21He's going to get peppered with all these questions.
09:23I bet there's not one Cleveland Browns question asked tomorrow.
09:26It's going to be, specify this, specify this, specify this.
09:30That's exactly what I was going to ask you.
09:31What do you think he's going to say tomorrow?
09:33Because he's got to try to make this go away.
09:36So, what do you think he's going to say?
09:38I think he answers three, four, five questions.
09:42And after that, I just want to talk about Cleveland.
09:45I just want to talk about Cleveland.
09:46I'm only answering questions about Cleveland.
09:48That's probably what I would recommend, even though it's going to come off as kind of BS.
09:52Because you've opened this box, and now you need to put everything back in it.
09:56But you can't put everything back in it.
09:59Probably, probably the smart thing to do is field four or five questions, and then just change it.
10:04Just try to change the narrative.
10:06I'm only going to talk about Cleveland.
10:08I've answered your question.
10:09That's looking back.
10:10I prefer to look ahead.
10:12You know, I'm taking care of this internally now.
10:16It's a team in-house matter.
10:18You know, I've given you some answers, but we're not going to do this for 30 minutes.
10:23That's what I would advise, but we'll see what happens.
10:26Perk, we talk about it on Game Day Uncensored, where I told you, look, I don't think this roster is very good,
10:31and I don't think they're going anywhere.
10:32But earlier in the show, I was just trying to build a case.
10:35Just trying to build one about, hey, the Dolphins' season, while they're not going to the playoffs,
10:41it's salvageable in the sense that they could still win some games here.
10:45I don't think they're going to end up 1-15.
10:48All these games that they've played where they lost, you know, you could make the case.
10:53They're one-score games.
10:54They had the ball down the end of the game with a chance to either tie or take the lead.
10:58Or in the sense of the other day, they did take the lead.
11:00They had the game-winning drive, and they ended up losing the game.
11:05Like, is there anything to build on at all?
11:07Like, can Mike McDaniel point to something and say, hey, there's still hope here?
11:11Yeah, yeah, yeah, there is, because you have seen flashes of things, right?
11:17I mean, Malik Washington had the 74-yard punt return, so that's a special team thing.
11:23You've had the comebacks on offense.
11:26Jack Jones punches that ball out against the Jets on defense.
11:30By the way, it would be easier for them to be 0-6 than, you know, 4-2 at this point.
11:35But we digress.
11:37Good point, good point.
11:39But, you know, I know, I'm such a downer.
11:42That would ruin Solana's moment there, if you pointed at that.
11:47He's so right, though.
11:49You're so right.
11:51They're closer to being 0-6 than they are.
11:54As close as they are to being 4-2 or whatever, they're way closer to being 0-6.
11:57You're right.
11:58They are, they are.
12:00But there's things you can point to.
12:01Darren Waller, Patrick Paul, Devon Achan, Aaron Brewer, Jordan Brooks.
12:08You know, sadly, you can't point to Minka.
12:10I don't know.
12:11I don't know if he looks at the standings and he gets more and more pissed off that he's not in Pittsburgh anymore.
12:15But I'm surprised.
12:17And, you know, you can't point to Zach Seeler or Chubb or Phillips.
12:21But there are positive things going on with this team.
12:24They just have to cross some T's and dot some I's.
12:27And that's kind of the difference between good teams and bad teams, though, right?
12:31I mean, the good teams are able to take care of those details and bad teams can't.
12:36But there are a few positive things for this team to point to, definitely.
12:39Speaking of those positive things, I would say, all these positives, this is something else Solana brought up earlier in the show.
12:50All these positives you're talking about.
12:52So, is there a team in the league that would trade any position group with the Dolphins?
12:57Not just Waddle.
13:00They have to take all their receivers and take all our receivers.
13:03Take all our corners.
13:04Give them all their corners.
13:05Do you think there is a group, there is a position group that would be traded by any other team?
13:11Hmm, maybe inside backers where you got Jordan Brooks, Terrell Dodson, KJ Britt, and Willie Gay, although they aren't making many plays.
13:20On paper, you would take the edge rushers, but they aren't making any plays.
13:25That's about it, right?
13:26Oh, a kicker and punner.
13:28I mean, Jake Bailey has been balling, and Riley Patterson has been a good kicker, but that's kind of weak, huh?
13:33Give me your kicker and punner for my kicker and punner.
13:36Plus, he can't hit a long one, so it doesn't matter.
13:39No one's taking Riley Patterson.
13:40Then he can't hit a long field goal.
13:42You can't even have him out there.
13:43Debatable.
13:44Yeah.
13:45Yeah, no, it's crazy how nothing is really going right for this team at this time.
13:51It's just absolutely crazy.
13:53And you know what?
13:54I said this on my podcast today with David Peronis.
13:58You know, if this team gets to like 2-9 or 2-8 or something, I wonder if they would trot Zach Wilson out there wondering,
14:05do we have the next retread quarterback?
14:08In the tradition of Daniel Jones and Baker Mayfield and Sam Darnold, are we sitting on our next first-round washout in the retread?
14:18Let's hope not.
14:18If you're at 2-9, you might.
14:20You might try to melt there.
14:22We'll see.
14:22Yeah.
14:22Well, I'd rather see Quinn Ewers out there.
14:25All right, Chris Perkins, go continue doing good work in memory of Jason Jenkins.
14:30He was a good man, and everybody misses him.
14:32Yes, sir.
14:33We appreciate everything the foundation does there.
14:35Thank you, Perk.
14:36Yep.
14:36All right, guys.
14:37We'll talk.
14:37We'll talk.
