- 22 hours ago
Josh Appel explains why he’s ready to see the Dolphins move on from Mike McDaniel.
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00:00Josh Appel is a brand new dad.
00:03Josh and his wife, Mara, welcomed a baby boy last week.
00:08And Josh is getting acclimated to being a parent,
00:11which can be quite the shock to the system.
00:16Josh also is going to be rinkside for Panthers Rangers
00:21January 2nd at Lone Depot Park for national radio coverage
00:26of the Winter Classic on Sports USA.
00:30And Josh is going to co-host our show with Solana
00:33on January 2nd as well from the Lone Depot Park media booth.
00:40So very exciting.
00:42You also buried the lead a little bit.
00:44I'm on the call for Bill's Eagles this weekend in Buffalo.
00:47I did not know that.
00:48Look at you already traveling as a brand new dad.
00:51So tell us.
00:52Someone's got to make them out of here.
00:53What's it like?
00:54What's it like being a brand new dad, Appel?
00:56Are you tired?
00:57I'm not as tired as I thought I would be, to be honest.
01:03Our son sleeps well-ish for the most part.
01:07I mean, it's a lot of eating, a lot of sleeping,
01:10and a lot of pooping, and a lot of diapers.
01:13That's what our week is like.
01:15A lot of family coming through, bringing food, which is nice.
01:17We don't have to cook anything.
01:18But it has been a week today, and it has flown by,
01:26and we've learned a ton already.
01:28And it's been the best week of our lives, the time of our lives.
01:34100% a lie, what he just said.
01:36It's been terrible.
01:37You're stressed out.
01:38So every time little Chan and Lita says anything, you get scared.
01:43Come on now, man.
01:44Let's be honest.
01:45You know, today, he's kind of like, I turn to Merrill like every three seconds.
01:49I'm like, is this breathing right?
01:52Does this sound okay?
01:53I don't know anything.
01:57Is this what it's supposed to sound like or anything?
01:59I remember when Lori and I took DJ home, and, like, there's no manual.
02:04There's books that you read, but there's no manual.
02:06And you do, like, there's a little cough.
02:09And you're like, oh, I wonder if that me, you know.
02:13Like, is that rubella?
02:15Like, your mind goes crazy because you have no idea.
02:19Yeah.
02:20Because they stress you out.
02:21There's what to expect.
02:22When you're expecting a book, it tells you everything that can go wrong.
02:25Like, tell me my baby's going to sleep for a couple hours
02:27and then wake up hungry.
02:28Like, don't tell me.
02:29Tell me how great it's going to be.
02:30Stop telling me a list of things that could go wrong.
02:34My son's five right now, and I'm still worried about SIDS.
02:38He can't have SIDS.
02:39He's five.
02:41He's talking.
02:47Oh, gosh.
02:48The thing that is a little comforting, though, is that, like,
02:50the routine is basically the same every day when it's just, okay,
02:54they wake up, change them, feed them.
02:56Okay, they go back to sleep.
02:57Okay, then they wake up, you change them, you feed them,
02:59and they go back to sleep.
03:01So, in that sense, like, you get that routine down pretty quick,
03:04but then they, like, throw a curveball at you, and it's like, oh,
03:06now they're breathing a little heavier, and now he's crying.
03:09He stayed awake for three hours today.
03:10Normally, he's awake for, like, an hour and ten minutes.
03:13What are we doing wrong?
03:14Once you think you have them in a routine, they will show you really quickly
03:18that you were mistaken.
03:20Right.
03:21I've been very hesitant to be like, oh, he hasn't really cried much today,
03:24because I know 30 seconds later, he's going to be screaming bloody murder.
03:28In fact, while I was sitting on my laptop, I was trying to get some work done
03:31on my charts before I hopped on with you guys, and I had gone up to the office,
03:36and Mera was downstairs with him.
03:38And through the closed door and over to the radio show,
03:42I just heard the loudest cries I've heard since we were in the hospital.
03:45And I rushed back down there.
03:46Turns out, he just needed a diaper change.
03:48Hey, welcome to the next 11 and a half months of your life, brother.
03:54I'm sorry.
03:54So, I'll be honest with the new college.
03:56After we get to a year, he's on his own?
03:58We're good?
03:58Pretty much.
03:59They can handle their business.
04:01A year, cut him loose.
04:02Yeah, give him a bus pass, let him get a job.
04:04They can handle everything.
04:06Much mazel, Joshua.
04:08We're very excited for you and Mera.
04:10Much mazel.
04:12Let's talk a little sports.
04:14We were talking, would you make the trade, Kyler Murray?
04:18For Tua Tonga-Vailoa?
04:21I mean, sure.
04:24Because I think if Kyler is healthy, he at least gives you the threat of using his legs.
04:29I think that for both guys, we've kind of realized, all right,
04:35like maybe they're starters in this league, but probably not much more than that.
04:41The tiebreaker here is obviously, as Solana said in the last segment,
04:44that Kyler's got the threat of his legs.
04:46And that's something that this offense has not had at all under Mike McDaniel
04:51outside of the Tyler Huntley experience at the end of last season.
04:55So in that sense, yeah, because you're not really tying yourself long-term to Kyler either.
05:01I don't know the specifics of the contract, but I would imagine there is an out there.
05:06The Dolphins are not going to be a good football team next year.
05:09With their cap situation and the guys they're going to have to get rid of to manage that cap situation,
05:14it's just 26 is a wash.
05:17Maybe they surprise everybody, but like 26.
05:20There's no scenario that you can come up with in your head where they're able to get a quality quarterback.
05:25Like, because we were asking, we were asking ourselves the question yesterday.
05:29Weren't we Crowder where it was like, if they, is there, is there a scenario with a new coach
05:34and a new quarterback where this roster is currently constructed could be a 10 or 11 win team?
05:40But the problem is, is that the guy, again, the guys that they're going to have to restructure
05:46or move on from you're like, you're talking about like Bradley Chubb and Mika Fitzpatrick
05:51and some of these guys that are their better players.
05:54Like they're not going to get rid of Devon H and I can't see them getting rid of like Jordan Brooks,
05:57but some of these more inflated contracts.
05:59Yeah.
05:59Like those guys might not be here next season, but you know, I wonder, cause I was thinking
06:04about it when he came in against the bears the other night, Malik Willis, he's a free agent.
06:09I wonder what that contract looks like for him in this off season, because I think that
06:14there's going to be a team out there that will sign him to be a starter.
06:19And if I'm the dolphins and I can make that work, that might be someone I kicked the tires
06:24on been with Matt LaFleur for a couple of years.
06:27Uh, I don't know what's going to happen with Mike McDaniel, but there are some general similarities
06:32between the two systems that are both McDaniel and LaFleur are from the same tree, obviously.
06:37And so I wonder if that's someone the dolphins kick the tires on, or do they just say, all
06:43right, 26 is lost and Quinn Ewers, maybe he showed enough in these last three games where
06:47they roll in the next year and he's competing for the starting job and they view next year
06:51as a, uh, transitional year anyways, where they can finally reset for 2027 with cap space
06:58and picks and all of that.
07:00Maybe that's their plan, but you know, I, I know I'm assuming this question's coming.
07:05I've been wishy-washy on this and I hate how volatile my opinion is on this, but after
07:12watching Mike McDaniel on this team on Sunday, I think I'm good on that.
07:17I think I'm good with moving on from Mike McDaniel because I was thinking about it and
07:23I'm listening to him in the press conference in year four, talk about, well, we need to
07:28find guys that want to be here.
07:30You know, that whole cliche spiel that coaches say, and it's week 16 of your fourth season
07:36and you just got blown out.
07:39I know that they're a different five win team now with burrow chase Higgins and all that
07:44healthy, but it's still the worst defense in the NFL that the dolphins played on Sunday
07:49in the Cincinnati Bengals and you get so severely outplayed in the second half.
07:56And that's like what I'm hearing in the press conference afterwards.
07:59It's like, man, I know I've heard Crowder say this, like the issues procedurally, they're
08:06the same that they've been for four years.
08:09And it's like, what's the point here?
08:12Like, what, what are you really trying to accomplish by keeping him another season?
08:18Is it that, all right, it's lost anyways.
08:20So what's the difference?
08:21We're already paying him then whatever.
08:23Fine.
08:23But status quo that Steven Ross wants to get out from under keeping Mike McDaniel is not
08:30the solution to that.
08:31So I think, I think I'm, I'm not going to go back on this.
08:34I'm putting my, my line in the, drawing my line in the sand.
08:39I think that the dolphins should at this point, move on from McDaniel.
08:43I was getting back there.
08:44I said, I'm going to put up 70 on Tampa Sunday and I'm all back in.
08:48I'm glad you talked about the Shanahan's and McVeigh's.
08:55I'm, you said the same tree, that coaching tree.
08:57And I'm with you.
08:58And I believe in coaching trees.
09:00You know about Parcell's coaching tree.
09:01You know about Bella's coaching trees and all that.
09:04But we all know, we all bought grapes from the gas station or from the grocery store,
09:09or we've bought bundles of grapes.
09:12There's always that little ugly grape at the bottom and there's good grapes.
09:15I think we got the little ugly moldy grape when we bought off the Shanahan tree.
09:20McDaniel is not that guy.
09:22And you said it.
09:22I've been, I've been on this path for about three weeks now.
09:25It's just not there.
09:27Why would you show it?
09:29Show us that you gave up on the quarterback.
09:31Because what Hawk calls it, the big three, Solana and myself take, we have a little problem
09:36with that because our big three was LeBron, Bosh, and Wade.
09:39So the big three name needs to be taken.
09:41But if your big three is Greer, McDaniel, Tua, you fire Greer, you put Tua on the bench as
09:49a third string damn scout team guy.
09:51What the hell are we doing worrying about or looking into or putting any more efforts into
09:56McDaniel being a good coach?
09:58That's the part.
09:59Now, you kind of hit on it with your last answer.
10:01That's the part that's puzzling me about this whole thing.
10:04Isn't it so Dolphins that of all the Shanahan tree assistants that have been hired, they end
10:10up with this one?
10:11We get the moldy grape.
10:11Like Kevin O'Connell's been really good.
10:14Matt LaFleur, Kyle Shanahan, all these.
10:17Like Kevin Stefanski, I know it hasn't gone well, but he was coach of the year at one point.
10:20Like the Dolphins end up with this.
10:24And it looked like it was going to be really good for a little bit.
10:26It really did.
10:27But it seems like this should be coming to a close because amongst the guys that have
10:35gotten head coaching jobs from that tree, it is fairly clear that the Dolphins ended
10:39up with, as Crowder described, the mushy grape.
10:42He's the mushy grape.
10:43But to your point, do you keep him around?
10:46And Solana's made this point.
10:47Like if you're going to reset, like just get somebody you love, like it's almost like
10:51this buffer year.
10:52And y'all can't sell me on an NFL team buffer year.
10:56That's what I do.
10:57The only way to do that though.
10:58I do not want a buffer year.
10:59The only way to do that.
11:01I really believe this is to be honest with the fans where Steven Ross or Champ Kelly comes
11:07out and says, listen, we're going to be terrible next season.
11:10We know it.
11:12So why should we throw money away and pay McDaniel not to coach when whatever happens, we're
11:17going to have a crappy season anyway.
11:19So we're going to bring them back.
11:21We're telling you we're bringing them back only because of money.
11:24In fact, we're bringing back Tua only because of money.
11:28You guys are going to have to sit through a crappy season in 2026.
11:31Anyway, you've already saved a little bit of money.
11:34Another one gives us an opportunity to spend a little more money in 27 and we appreciate
11:38your patronage.
11:39No, but, but Appel, that's what I was going to ask you.
11:42The saints are kind of the blueprint for, for whatever it is we're talking about here,
11:46not keeping Tua, not keeping McDaniel.
11:48They did it differently, but the saints are essentially in a buffer year this year.
11:53They had the Tyler Shuck behind Spencer Rattler.
11:56They don't really believe in either of them, but they're like, whatever.
11:58We'll, we'll kind of kick the, the, I think Shuck's got, I think, I think Shuck might
12:02be a guy.
12:03I think Tyler Shuck might be a guy.
12:06Mark that sound, Jimmy.
12:08Well, I said, I think so.
12:09If he's not, that's the blueprint.
12:11Jimmy edited it to, I think Shuck is the guy.
12:17That's the blueprint Appel because it's not the Broncos.
12:20They, they got the quarterback and it's not the Patriots.
12:22They have the quarterback.
12:24It's the saints where it's like, well, maybe we'll, we'll give somebody a chance here.
12:29Whether it's Quinn yours, we'll draft somebody.
12:31Maybe it's them, but it's a reset year next year for sure.
12:34And it just kind of depends also, like, can you sell a coaching candidate on enduring one
12:42year of that?
12:43Can you sell a new general manager on like, Hey, like you're going to have to just kind
12:48of weather the storm here.
12:49But again, before 2027, you've got all this cap space.
12:53It's your show to kind of mold it, how you see fit.
12:56Or can they just do that after 20?
12:59It's like, depends what candidates that are out there.
13:02Like I like, they did it with flow.
13:03They did it with flow, right?
13:05They, they hired flow and they said, Hey, you're, you're tanking this year because we
13:08want to, I mean, they did it, except he didn't tank.
13:13Why not?
13:14Joe Burrow said it wasn't how to go for first round picks.
13:16Like they reportedly tried to, um, I like, I like Kellen Moore a lot, but Kellen Moore's
13:22name had been in hiring cycles for a couple of years now, the dolphins had interviewed
13:27him at least once, maybe twice.
13:31Um, the last two times the job was open.
13:34So it kind of was like, all right, Kellen Moore, if you're going to get one of these
13:38jobs, it's going to be a situation like the saints.
13:41So I don't know, like what candidates are out there that are kind of kind of like been
13:47through this already been through the hiring cycle and not gotten jobs.
13:51And it's like a last resort.
13:52And like, as much as I like Kellen Moore and think he's done a nice job with that, given
13:56the circumstances, like it might, as much as I don't want him back, I don't know that
14:04it's, and I realize I'm contradicting myself at the end of this interview after I said at
14:07the beginning, like, I mean, you were emphatic.
14:09Yeah.
14:10But I was like, I don't, I don't think Mike McDaniel should be back, but like, what's the
14:14point in paying him to not coach here if next year's lost anyways, give it like, what's
14:20the candidate pool going to be like, how attractive is this job going to be for some of these up
14:25and coming guys?
14:26Like they don't need to hire John Gruden.
14:28I like that's, that's a non-starter, but like, is this going to be the end of the, we've
14:33talked about this before.
14:34Is this going to be the end of the line for Harbaugh in Baltimore?
14:38Would Harbaugh come here?
14:40Steven Ross loves a Harbaugh.
14:41And I love Harbaugh's too.
14:45Solana brought this up a couple of weeks ago, where if you fire somebody, who are you going
14:49to hire?
14:49You fire somebody.
14:50If I'm in a relationship that's nasty, abusive, ugly, you know, we can't, we can't stand each
14:57other's in-laws.
14:57Like I just get out of that relationship.
15:00I'll figure out my next girlfriend on the, on the path down, but it's so much more permanent.
15:05It's so much more permanent with a head football coach.
15:08You can't get into something quick and go, I'm still going to keep my eyes open.
15:13Like when, if you're severing a relationship with a head football coach, you're getting
15:18in minimum another three-year relationship, you know, there's the one-offs, the Cam Camerons
15:24or whatever, but you, but that has to be an epic disaster.
15:26You're entering another long-term relationship to do it again with another up and comer who
15:33you're rolling the dice on, how many times can the Dolphins do that?
15:37So in the, in that instance, you need to wait for a Harbaugh or a Tomlin or someone who's
15:45got winning experience and experience putting together winning stable football teams.
15:52And, and I don't know if that'll exist this off season, but I would say a Liam Cohen in
15:57Jacksonville, who's 11 and four right now, want to be on a top season, the AFC.
16:01We all laughed at him, right?
16:04But, but you're rolling the dice again is my point.
16:06They've tried that with Gase.
16:08They've tried that with McDaniel.
16:11Who am I missing?
16:11It's every coach that they've hired since Don Shula has been, Hey, we'll roll the dice
16:16and see if this guy, other than Jimmy Johnson, I guess.
16:19But by the way though, like I'd obviously didn't amount to a playoff win, but like Adam
16:23Gase and Mike McDaniel both made playoff appearances as a head coach.
16:26And then it just kind of spiraled out of control after that.
16:29And like the common denominator there is Chris Greer was in this front office as a decision
16:34maker and now he's gone.
16:36So we really don't know big picture wise what, uh, what comes next from this.
16:41There was something that you had said too, that sparked a different thought.
16:44Now I can't find it.
16:45It's fatherhood.
16:45Fatherhood has made my brain mush because there was a point that I wanted to make.
16:50And now I can't find it.
16:51That's yeah.
16:51That's a inevitable.
16:52Don't let that baby sleep in the bed with you, Josh.
16:54Don't let the baby start sleeping in the bed because it never stops.
16:58I slept in the bed with my parents until I was 12.
17:01Jimmy still sleeps in his parents' bed, right?
17:03Jimmy.
17:04To this day.
17:04I don't.
17:06Are you sure, Jimmy?
17:07I'm sure.
17:08I remember you telling me when you were 39 that you were going to stop that at 40.
17:12So you've stopped since you turned 40.
17:14Josh, we love you.
17:17We love Mara.
17:18We love your new baby boy.
17:20We wish you nothing but the best.
17:21Mazel mazel.
17:22And we will speak with you next week, buddy.
17:24Can't wait.
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