00:00Simon Clancy, he used to cover the Dolphins, I believe.
00:03He posted, whoever Miami's new GM is,
00:08they're going to have a big decision to quarterback.
00:10Do they give Quinn Ewers the reins
00:12based on what looks like three pretty encouraging starts
00:15or chase Malik Willis in free agency,
00:19knowing they've got no money to spend
00:21and with what looks like an incredible 2027 draft approaching,
00:29there are just so many questions,
00:31kind of like what you were asking Clay there,
00:33is like, is it as simple as find a quarterback
00:36or are there more pieces to fill?
00:39But the quarterback question is so difficult
00:43that unless you can get, to me,
00:46unless you can get Joe Burrow or Lamar Jackson,
00:51it's almost an impossible question to answer,
00:55especially if you end up having to eat the Tua money
00:59against the captain.
01:00Oh, 100%.
01:01And like you're saying, if it's Burrow or Lamar, I'm with you.
01:05But we don't know if Mendoza's going to be,
01:08are you going to give up three years of drafts for Mendoza?
01:11You don't know.
01:12We don't know.
01:14Tua was better than Mendoza in college,
01:17numbers-wise and all that stuff.
01:18Like, we don't know what the hell these guys are going to be.
01:21And to that point, too, because Solana brings up
01:24that you're couching this GM with Mike McDaniel.
01:28And some GMs don't want to do that.
01:30Obviously, this is their opportunity.
01:31They don't want you just to give them something.
01:33Clay kept saying it.
01:34But bigger than that, you're eating the Tua money.
01:37You have no proven young stars.
01:39Your stars are H-Han and Jordan Brooks,
01:41who both need new money.
01:43This job without the names behind it,
01:46this is not a great GM opportunity for that next upcomer
01:49with what the money they have to spend
01:51and the roster that they're dealing with.
01:54We're old.
01:55Anybody young that's good wants to make a whole bunch of money.
01:58We don't have that mid-ground player.
02:01The Grans and the Savanyayas and all those guys aren't great.
02:04They're starters, but they're not the future of football.
02:07It's a tough, it's a tough, I would say,
02:09it's a tough sell, Hawk.
02:10This GM job is a tough damn sell.
02:13Savanyaya, by the way, has been so roundly criticized
02:17since the season has ended officially by so many of the podcasters,
02:23the people who really follow it and grade it out,
02:24just saying that he's one of the worst offensive linemen
02:29they've ever seen come out of the draft.
02:32It's not just that you traded up for him, too.
02:35I mean, literally, you gave up capital to move ahead in the draft
02:39to draft what they all believe to be the last offensive lineman available
02:43that could be a day-one starter, and he is laughably bad.
02:49But just name our young stars, the future of this team.
02:53The guys in five or six years are still,
02:55we're going to be selling Chop Robinson jerseys?
02:59Well, no, I mean, Chop had an extremely disappointing season.
03:04Extremely disappointing.
03:05And I don't know.
03:07I mean, Kenneth Grant had his best game against the Buccaneers.
03:10I haven't seen his grades for yesterday.
03:12At least he looked like he belonged.
03:14There are a couple stars on the team.
03:16Devon A. Chan, Jordan Brooks, right?
03:18Those are the offensive and defensive stars.
03:21Easily.
03:21Stars, MVPs, pro bowlers.
03:24I'll even give you Riley Patterson.
03:26I will.
03:26I'll give you Riley Patterson.
03:27He's a special team star.
03:29And I think Jake Bailey had the best season statistically
03:33for a Dolphins punter in history.
03:36In history.
03:37No, not over Matt Turk.
03:39No, Reggie Robey, man.
03:41But no, I think he statistically had the best season ever for a Buccaneer.
03:45I saw that from Joe Shad.
03:47No, but you can't build it because they had to pay, to your point, Hawk,
03:50yes, their stars are A. Chan and Jordan Brooks.
03:53They're about to have to pay both of those dudes a whole bunch of money
03:55to keep them around because another team that's already set
03:58is going to be willing to give those all pro players money.
04:01It's a tough sell.
04:03The thing is, you asked,
04:04who are the stars for the next four or five years?
04:06Is Devon, I love Devon A. Chan.
04:08I want him back here next year.
04:09I've changed my entire tune on him.
04:11You pay the guy.
04:12But with the way that they use him, Omar was saying this yesterday,
04:14Perk maybe, with the way that they use him,
04:17I mean, the amount of touches he's getting, Crowder,
04:20and then they pay him and they continue to use him that way,
04:23he's not going to be that dude anymore in four or five years.
04:26Just wear and tear.
04:27But I hate doing that where you go, hey, he's going to be really good,
04:32but at some point he's not going to be really good.
04:35I just hate that.
04:36Remember they did that?
04:36Who was that Nationals pitcher, Strasburg, Steven Strasburg,
04:40who was like, hey, shut up.
04:41They were having that record-breaking season.
04:43It was like, hey, shut him down at the end of the season
04:44because you want to make sure you have him for the next few seasons.
04:46And they missed the playoffs,
04:48and they didn't go back to the playoffs for several seasons after that.
04:51I understand what you're saying, but I hate the notion of, yeah,
04:54Devon A. Chan is great.
04:56He's the best thing we've seen on offense in a long time,
04:58but you can't give him a contract because he's not going to be great
05:01three or four years from now.
05:03It's not what I was arguing, though.
05:04I'm saying pay him, but understand that in the four- to five-year rebuild,
05:10I'm not talking about next year, but if we take the longer approach,
05:13which you don't have to, he may not be the guy that you're paying right now.
05:18So you can't just say, hey, we've got Devon A. Chan,
05:21we've got the running back position.
05:22No, no, no, no.
05:23And it comes from the tree he's coming from, the Shanahan tree.
05:27Devon A. Chan is Christian McCaffrey.
05:30Passing, running, catching out of the backfield zone scheme,
05:33small guy that pounds of rock as well, can run and short yardage,
05:37but he's not Christian McCaffrey.
05:38I'm not saying he's that.
05:39I'm saying you would have said that about Christian McCaffrey six years ago.
05:43When he was in Carolina, he kept getting hurt.
05:45But they pay him, and now he's the best running back in football.
05:48So if he can Christian McCaffrey this thing, we have a chance.
05:52There is wear and tear on running backs.
05:54That's why their careers are short.
05:55But it's funny.
05:56I'm going the other way.
05:57You ought to say he's the white something.
05:59He's the black Christian McCaffrey.
06:01You never go that direction.
06:02And it's what he is.
06:04Yeah, usually not complimentary.
06:05But in this, in this, it's complimentary.
06:08Yeah.
06:09Mike Cuno is going to join us this hour,
06:12so I want to make sure we have enough time for him.
06:13By the way, I had seen a tweet.
06:1551 years since the last Dolphins Super Bowl win.
06:1941 years since their last Super Bowl appearance.
06:2225 years since their last playoff win.
06:26Five playoff games in the last 25 years.
06:30Five playoff appearances in a quarter century.
06:33No playoff wins in a quarter century.
06:36It could be.
06:37I'm not kidding you because I was texting with some friends over the weekend.
06:41It could be one of the worst franchises in all of sports.
06:45And Stephen Ross, as much as I am a fan of his, we've had the conversation we had it last week, I remember.
06:51As much as a fan I am of Stephen Ross, his 17 years as owner of the Miami Dolphins has been a gigantic exercise in futility.
07:05They have zero to show from him.
07:09And they're trying.
07:12They're trying more.
07:13The Marlins don't even try and mess around and go to World Series.
07:17Yeah.
07:17As bad as the cap situation is and the overall roster situation is that Crowder was saying earlier that this is not an attractive destination for an upcoming GM or for the next big GM.
07:33I don't know, man.
07:34I still think.
07:35I go back to what you guys are saying.
07:37The idea of what you want in an owner as a general manager is Stephen Ross.
07:42You're still in Miami.
07:43You're in a prime market.
07:44You've got an owner who will give you all the resources you need.
07:48He'll go out and get Troy Aikman in 2026 if you need.
07:52I'm not defending Stephen Ross.
07:54I'm just saying as bad as the situation is, and it's bad, I don't think this is a bad job for a general manager.
08:02If they have the job security of, hey, this is going to take a couple years.
08:07Give me a couple years to turn it around.
08:09If Stephen Ross is bringing somebody in and saying, you have a year to figure it out.
08:13I want to be in the playoffs next year.
08:14Then, yeah, I mean, this is a brutal situation to be in.
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