- 1 day ago
Omar Kelly joins the show to break down the Miami Dolphins’ quarterback situation and offseason strategy. He says the team is likely out on Malik Willis. Joe and Omar also discuss the broader QB market, including Kyler Murray, Geno Smith, and Kirk Cousins, and debate whether bringing in a veteran quarterback to mentor the roster could help. The conversation wraps with a look at the Dolphins’ roster holes and what the team should prioritize this offseason.
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00:00All right. Thank you, Woody. Omar Kelly, Miami Herald Dolphins columnist joins us.
00:04Morning, Omar. How are you doing, man? Have a good weekend?
00:06I had a great weekend. Phenomenal weekend, Joe.
00:12I'm good. I'm not getting into it on a Monday morning.
00:16What did you do, Omar? How'd it go?
00:21How'd it go? It went phenomenal. It went phenomenal.
00:24Did you meet somebody that you're kind of crazy about? It sounds like. Maybe.
00:30Could be. Could be. Could be.
00:33That smile says it all, man. We see a smile for people who don't, you know, get to see it
00:37today.
00:38You're pretty fired up. I know you're not this excited about free agency starting up here.
00:44That excited as you sound right now. But hey, I do want to ask you.
00:49So Jason Sanders and Alec Ingle, gone. Alec Ingle, by the way, already picked up by the Chargers.
00:55Yeah, got a big deal, too.
00:56Yeah, he did. He did get a nice little two-year deal with them.
01:01So as all these guys go, we got to fill up this roster. Got limited money.
01:06I'm not exactly sure how this whole thing's going to work.
01:09But it's getting back to Malik Willis.
01:12If they really like him, do they find a way no matter what to get this done, in your opinion?
01:17Or will money, if somebody offers too much money, they're going to back out of it?
01:22What would be your take with this group?
01:24I think they went to the Combine and they announced to the world that, hey, we're not in the Malik
01:29Willis sweepstakes.
01:31While we respect his talents and his ability, we're basically, they say, we're not willing to pay the price that
01:38we hear that he's going to get on the open market.
01:42More than likely, Phoenix is going to be his next home.
01:45They've got a LeFleur brother who's going to be their head coach.
01:50And it's going to be a situation where, hey, man, Malik is going to be handsomely paid, might be the
01:58largest contract of the free agent cycle.
02:02And truthfully speaking, the Dolphins with $5 million in cap space, they're just not ready or capable of doing it.
02:10They'd have to get to about $8 or $9 million in cap space just to get him to a Justin
02:15Fields-esque contract.
02:17And there's nothing else they can take from him right now.
02:22Other than trading Minka Fitzpatrick or maybe Devon H.
02:29And I know that's sacrilegious for anybody who's listening, but somebody offers a second round pick for Devon H.
02:36And trust me, see you.
02:39He's going to be a very highly compensated player.
02:44And they have to decide whether or not they're going to give him that five-year $50 million contract.
02:49Hey, Omar, help me out with this one.
02:51I just went on this thing about we need a veteran quarterback to come in there and work with the
02:57young guys.
02:58Yeah, I'm not for three young – I don't want three young guys that have a total of three starts.
03:03I think three.
03:04What's the benefit of Joe Flacco being here?
03:07Or I don't think Jimmy Gagoropolo is going to be here.
03:10I think – so my take is – and I go back and I called it the Don Strzok.
03:15The Don Strzok theory was so good with the young quarterbacks.
03:19And when they needed him, he was ready to go.
03:21But it wasn't – he could put the coach cap on.
03:25It's got to be the right guy.
03:26It can't be a guy that's coming in here.
03:28But the right guy that's got experience, I just think you can't get that from coaches.
03:33And it's nothing against coaches.
03:35It's just in a unique situation that Don Strzok could do stuff that our coaching staff back then with Dan
03:42Marino and David Woodley that other guys just couldn't do.
03:46And it's playing time.
03:48It's, hey, look this off.
03:50I'm watching you.
03:51You're not looking it off.
03:53Absolutely.
03:53And I just think having a guy – and, again, it's got to be the right guy because if the
03:57guy's going to sit and pout and why am I not –
03:59Who's the right guy, though?
04:00Who's the right guy?
04:01There's a whole bunch of old veteran guys out there.
04:04And you get –
04:04You want Geno Smith?
04:06I'd take Geno in a heartbeat if Geno's – but I think Geno still wants to start.
04:10Geno knows there's jobs out there.
04:12I think Geno's going to get one of those.
04:13Yeah, I don't think it's going to be hard for anybody who comes here to beat out, you know, Quinn
04:17Ewers or Ty Simpson.
04:20I don't think it's going to be tremendously hard.
04:22The question is, do you want to go that bridge quarterback?
04:25Do you want to go the Ryan Fitzpatrick route?
04:27And if you do, that's cool.
04:29No, no, no, I don't think that helps development except, you know, bringing in a better guy helps everybody else
04:35and morale and, like, what we're talking about right now.
04:39You think that player has to be, like, a coach, like a Don Strzok?
04:43I don't know.
04:44Is that Andy Dalton?
04:46I'm not certain any of that gets me going or solves any problems that this team has.
04:55You're not getting all those problems taken care of most likely this year anyway.
04:59Well, you get him taken care of.
05:03Yeah, I mean, if you want, you know, an easy way to keep Mr.
05:12An easy way to sign Malik Willis, which is not going to happen, keep Tua.
05:17Save yourself $11.1 million.
05:20But nobody's doing that.
05:22Nobody wants to do that.
05:23You think he's gone?
05:24Tua's gone, for sure.
05:26Yeah, yeah.
05:27Yeah, from what I'm hearing in Atlanta, which I'm like, doesn't necessarily make any sense, but it's a dome team.
05:35We had a great game against them last year.
05:37He certainly did.
05:39I also think Indianapolis, I mean, we're really going to be focused and obsessed on dome teams with Indianapolis.
05:48They've got Daniel Jones.
05:50I think he's going to be a great bridge quarterback to take you to Daniel Jones if that's the situation
05:56that he wants to put himself in.
05:57But truthfully speaking, there aren't that many situations for Tua that are out there.
06:01Maybe the Raiders, if you want to become a backup to a number one pick.
06:10You know, I think Tua's looking for a fair opportunity.
06:13Is that going to be out there for him?
06:15I doubt it.
06:18I don't know.
06:19Look, I'm curious, like everybody else here, whether you like Tua or you don't like Tua as a quarterback.
06:25I think we're all curious to see how this thing ends.
06:27Is there another part to it?
06:29Do we see this great comeback?
06:30Do we see a guy become a full-time starter again in the right system?
06:36Nobody expected Ryan Tannehill to have the kind of career he had after he left the Dolphins.
06:41Imagine if Tua puts that kind of career together.
06:43That would be crazy.
06:45That would be comeback player of the year in the NFL if it's that good, right?
06:49Pretty much.
06:50I mean, Ryan Tannehill was a quarterback that got to two AFC East championships, was a number one seed, like
07:00Pro Bowl player.
07:02Yeah.
07:02You know, we never saw that here.
07:04No, he had the big horse running behind him.
07:06He hates that, by the way.
07:07He had the big guy running behind him.
07:09And nothing wrong with it.
07:12Hey, man, he's mine.
07:13So what?
07:13I'm not.
07:15I don't think Ryan Tannehill is complaining or crying at all with any way that he walked away with like
07:21$216 million in his NFL career.
07:24That's right.
07:24I think he did just, I think he did.
07:27For being an average quarterback, I think that's a whole lot of money, Joe.
07:30He did very, very well for himself.
07:32Hey, so how do you think the quarterback thing plays out?
07:35I gave you my idea about just having a veteran to help the other young guys as well as be
07:40able to play a little bit.
07:41But for you, do you think they just draft a guy and go with these three guys?
07:45I think they go cheap.
07:47I think the recipe and the right formula for an NFL team that's rebuilding.
07:52And I know they want to avoid the R words, but that's what you're doing.
07:57You're literally going into free agency with your pockets pulled inside out, emptied out, like looking at people like, I
08:05got no money.
08:06Like, what do you want me to do?
08:08They are going to be signing players for $1.2 million because that's all that's going to be able to
08:13be on their books financially.
08:15So we're going to get a whole roster full of Nick Westbrook Aquinas and Melifon Woos and Ashton Davises and
08:24Willie Gays.
08:25And that's just where you are as an organization right now.
08:28Hey, so I don't know if you had a chance to see your good buddy Dave Hyde talking about, well,
08:34forget the number one pick.
08:36I understand the 11th pick is too important to the Miami Dolphins.
08:39Throw that in for a team that will try to pick up.
08:42You can throw to us most of that salary in there.
08:45And that doesn't benefit you.
08:47And that's the one thing I don't understand.
08:48That doesn't benefit you financially.
08:49You're still going to lose $11.1 million in cap space.
08:52So, he wasn't about the number one pick, but what about one of the three third pick or a third
09:00and a fourth pick?
09:01No, these guys have made it clear.
09:03We're not giving up resources to get rid of Tua.
09:06And that doesn't make any sense when you need those resources to build your team.
09:10Like, as I've said, and I know you're fundamentally against it, you can just keep Tua and do nothing and
09:16be in a better financial position.
09:18Now, obviously, nobody wants that because Tua being around is apparently some major distraction.
09:25And I'm sure he wants an opportunity to go be a starter somewhere and become a legitimate competitor.
09:33But you could sit here and say, okay, we'll just let you compete here.
09:37Not that anybody wants that, but it's a viable option on the table.
09:44I think the guy who probably doesn't want it the most is the owner, Steve Ross.
09:48And if he's willing to pay the tab to make this guy go away, I guess they will.
09:53Hey, Omar.
09:54He just got $125 million, Joe.
09:57I think he'd be all right.
09:59Hey, Omar.
10:00You know what?
10:00I keep thinking of that day that Tua walked in to meet the new general manager and head coach, and
10:06they said, we're not sure what we're going to do with you.
10:08That had to be a crushing day.
10:10Like, we're not sure if we're going to cut you.
10:12We're not sure if we're going to trade you, and we're not sure if we're going to keep you.
10:15Those are the three things.
10:16But we're going to keep you up.
10:18You're going to be the first to know.
10:19We're not going behind your back.
10:21We're not leaking it to anybody.
10:23You'll know.
10:24And when he walked out, I don't know what he thought walking in there like.
10:30Everybody who's around Tua is basically like, yeah, we don't have that conversation with him.
10:34We don't talk about it.
10:35And the one thing about, because Tua had this big birthday bash in the Bahamas, and everybody who apparently was
10:41around, it was just an unspoken thing.
10:44Like, okay, where Tua is going to be moving on from the Miami Dolphins.
10:48The one thing that I think is very important that people understand is that quarterbacks call their shots, and they're
10:55the first domino to fall.
10:57And none of the dominoes have fallen yet.
10:58Kyler Murray hasn't agreed to terms with the team.
11:02Geno Smith hasn't settled in.
11:04Kirk Cousins, we don't know.
11:05Who's going to be the quarterback in the New York Jets?
11:08Is it going to be Kirk Cousins?
11:09Is it going to be?
11:10It's definitely not going to be Geno Smith.
11:12I don't see that happening again.
11:14He's going to go back for another appearance in a Jets uniform.
11:18No, but you're right.
11:19There's a good chance all those guys are going to be starters, so.
11:22Oh, yeah.
11:22They're going to be starters.
11:23I think, to me, Kyler Murray and Kirk Cousins are the first domino.
11:27And then what happens after that, what does Minnesota do?
11:30Does Minnesota go back to Kyler?
11:32Does Minnesota, I mean, sorry, does Minnesota go to Kyler, or does Minnesota go back to Kirk Cousins?
11:39I mean, like, and the thing about it, Joe, is these things are usually figured out already before today.
11:45And they're in the works.
11:49Like, you know, Roc Nation has been negotiating on behalf of Kyler Murray, and I'm of the opinion he's not
11:54going to be playing for the minimum.
11:56I think he's going to be walking away with a $100 million contract.
11:59You're just going to get that money on the back end, and the bill's going to be really low while
12:04the Arizona Cardinals are still paying for it.
12:07But for an agent, when you sign for that money, that's a $100 million contract that they get right now.
12:13That's 3% of $100 million.
12:15They're going to want that as opposed to, oh, let's go take the veteran minimum and figure out, you know,
12:20figure out where we go the next season.
12:22Like, no, there's money on the table to be had if you're Kyler Murray.
12:27When you got people come up to you, what do you tell them about what you expect this team to
12:31look like when it's put together?
12:32I'm just curious.
12:33What do you say when you have a little bit?
12:35Yeah, 2019 all over again.
12:39And, you know, the only thing is I don't think there are any assets left to be traded except for
12:44Minka and maybe Devon HN.
12:47I don't think you trade Waddle.
12:48I don't think you trade Zach Seeler because neither one of those things financially benefits you.
12:54This is as much of a stripped-down job as it's going to get.
12:59I mean, this is what you do in the beginning stages of a rebuild.
13:02The question is, how do you find the quarterback?
13:04And I personally don't believe that Malik Willis is that quarterback.
13:06I'm sorry.
13:07I can't watch his 35 legitimate passes last year and be like, oh, man, that's what I got to have
13:13on my team.
13:14Like, it's – and pay him $30 million.
13:17The sample size is way too small.
13:19And the thing about it is these guys have seen him and know way more than anybody else.
13:25And I'm of the opinion that they realize is the price is ridiculous.
13:29Well, I think they just want to see if it's real.
13:31I think they called their little shout-out to he and his team and his agent to let them know,
13:36hey, we like him.
13:37We know him real well.
13:38We're not paying that.
13:40We're not paying that.
13:40I agree.
13:41I think everybody's playing their games right now, and we're throwing out all these numbers, and agents are great, and
13:47agents use the right people, the right national reporters.
13:51Yes, they do, Joe.
13:52You know how the game is played, and the right national reporters will say whatever they are told to say.
13:59Yeah.
13:59And that's the game that we play.
14:02I saw Schefter and Florio going at it.
14:05Florio called Schefter out a little bit on that with the Drew Rosenhaus.
14:09Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
14:11And, oh, yeah, he didn't run that time.
14:14Yeah, yeah, yeah.
14:16No scout had him on that time.
14:19Yeah.
14:20We've only timed 300 players at the combine.
14:23That one was wrong, you know.
14:25So you're still with me, though, that we're definitely on the cheap, and I got you there.
14:30Draft-wise, though, we're just going to fill it in with best players as this thing goes, right?
14:35As picks come up, we're going to – because we got holes a lot of different places right now, including
14:41tight end and wide receiver, which nobody talks about.
14:44A lot of different places.
14:44You're talking about holes all over the roster.
14:46Quarterback holes, tight end holes, wide receiver holes, offensive line holes, pass rusher holes.
14:53A lot of holes out there.
14:54A lot of holes, Joe.
14:56A lot of holes.
14:58Safety hole.
14:59Or cornerback hole.
15:00And it's not like you need one of them.
15:02You need three of everything.
15:03Three of everything, Joe.
15:05Right.
15:06Like, it's not a good roster, and you're going to be playing a lot of young players.
15:10And just like last season, you're probably going to take a lot of unnecessary lumps and losses just because those
15:19young players are going to be giving it up on the run,
15:21like the defensive tackles did early in the year, or the safeties are going to be giving up game costs
15:26and plays, like Dante Trader did early in the year.
15:30And you're just going to learn from them and grow from them.
15:33The question is, how quickly is that turning point to the point where you're actually going to be good and
15:39competent at your job?
15:40So, last year, it took them half a year for the rookies to really, like, wake up.
15:45And I agree.
15:47That's just good.
15:48That's just where you are as an organization right now.
15:50Let's hope you could actually do a better job drafting than the last GM did.
15:54Let's hope.
15:55Hey, listen, man.
15:56That's why he's here.
15:57If you really want to break it down, there's a lot of different things, including final say and all that
16:02stuff that needs to be stronger than it's been.
16:04But the biggest thing is we got to draft some guys that end up being stars, man.
16:10We got to get some guys that aren't just good players.
16:13I'm with you, and I don't know.
16:14I can't tell you right now how many of the guys that were rookies last year, draft picks,
16:20how many of those guys are going to take the next step up and be really good players?
16:25When you say you got to define really good players, NFL starters, maybe a couple of them, but really good
16:30players.
16:31Yeah.
16:32Yeah, but if the puppy don't bite, a dog don't bite as a puppy, a dog don't bite.
16:36Well, there's a big jump.
16:38See, I disagree with that.
16:39I think there's a big jump to be had in year two.
16:42Okay, that's fair.
16:44That's fair.
16:44Now, if we don't see it, like the Chop thing kind of worries people because Chop went quiet,
16:49and now Chop's in year three.
16:51And Chop had the good second half of a rookie year, and then I don't know what happened,
16:57and it was what Phillips was playing a lot.
16:59Well, then he got his chance.
17:01Didn't even start when he got his chance.
17:03Listen, it's 14 tackles, 14 tackles, 15 tackles, four sacks his junior season at Penn State,
17:11and still a first-round pick.
17:13Imagine that.
17:15Potential.
17:16Great.
17:16Yeah.
17:17No, that compound potential, they get you in trouble a lot.
17:20You know, when you –
17:21There's a potential of having a reputation of having a lot of good passers.
17:25Well, that vertical jump and that broad jump and the three-cone, all that athleticism stuff,
17:32Joe, is off the charts.
17:33But the college production, not so much.
17:36Yeah.
17:36Not so much.
17:38Omar, thank you, man.
17:39I appreciate spending some time with you.
17:41I'm glad to see you had a good weekend, too, man.
17:43I can tell.
17:44Seriously.
17:44I'm going to send you a picture, Joe.
17:45I'm going to send you a picture.
17:47I know you like those pictures.
17:50I'd love to see that picture.
17:52I told you I lived through you.
17:53I lived through about three of you guys right now, man.
17:57I got you, Joe.
17:58It's coming right your way, my buddy.
18:00This is what old guys do, man.
18:02Live through young guys.
18:03Omar, thank you.
18:04I appreciate it.
18:05All right.
18:05Talk to you later, Joe.
18:06All right.
18:06Omar Kelly, Miami Herald Dolphins columnist joining us this morning to talk a little bit
18:09about the Dolphins.
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