00:00Josh Appel is on the Toyota of Hollywood hotline.
00:03He's an NFL play-by-play broadcaster nationally for Sports USA.
00:07Preseason football is almost here, Solana,
00:10and he's going to be on the call in August for a preseason matchup
00:14between the Broncos and the Falcons.
00:18I don't know if you're aware of who the quarterback is potentially
00:21for the Atlanta Falcons, but I will start with this,
00:25and I'm very serious about this, Josh.
00:27I placed a future, I had a bonus bet on the Hard Rock app,
00:31and you had to use it in an NFL market.
00:35So I want to make it something worthwhile.
00:38I bet Tua as comeback player of the year at plus 4,000.
00:44What do you think?
00:46Hmm.
00:47I mean, value, I guess.
00:50There is value.
00:52But I feel like they'd be more inclined to...
00:57allow Michael Penix to play out the season.
01:01Like, Penix would have to either get hurt or perform poorly
01:05for Tua to have a shot to win this award.
01:07We're all of the...
01:09for Tua to win the award?
01:12In other words, you don't think Tua's going to win the starting job?
01:16I don't think it's a sure thing.
01:19Because we're all of the opinion that Tua is going to win the starting job.
01:22We've talked with John Michaels in Atlanta.
01:25I think we've talked with Ben Volan and a number of others.
01:29And Penix might not even be healthy at the beginning of the season, right?
01:32That's true.
01:33I mean, he's coming back from a partially torn ACL.
01:35He's got injury issues throughout his entire career,
01:37but they invested a high draft pick in him.
01:40I would imagine they're going to give him every opportunity,
01:42if he's healthy, to play.
01:44Now, whether or not he's ready at the beginning of the season,
01:46that's something to be seen.
01:48But I'm fairly certain I saw them both on the field
01:51while they had to be there for OTAs.
01:53Who's a better quarterback?
01:55Michael Penix or Tua Tonga-Vailoa?
01:58Oof.
01:59I mean, 2025 Tua is barely a starting NFL quarterback.
02:03But Michael Penix was not much better.
02:05So I think you have to give the edge to Tua
02:07just because you have more of a track record there with Tua.
02:10But, man, I look at what the Falcons have put together on offense
02:15and what they have at the skill positions
02:17with Bajon Robinson, with Drake London, with Kyle Pitts.
02:22That's some pretty good weapons right there.
02:24And they've got a pretty big hole at quarterback.
02:27But I would imagine part of their calculus in the front office
02:32is that, hey, we got Kevin Stefanski in here as the head coach.
02:35Stefanski is a quarterback guy.
02:36He got Joe Flacco to resurrect his career
02:38and take the Browns to the playoffs.
02:40Or at least come close to it a couple of years ago.
02:44Maybe they think he can do that with Tua.
02:46Maybe they think he can do that with Penix.
02:48But that team just feels like they're going to be stuck
02:50in the place they're always stuck,
02:53which is 7-10, 8-9, 9-8,
02:57playing for the NFC South title
03:00and finishing in a tie for third
03:01because everybody's the same team in that division.
03:03I will say.
03:04I just don't know.
03:05What are you supposed to expect from Tua at this point?
03:08I don't know.
03:09I mean, I still expect 2023,
03:11but I've been a Tua stand for a very long time.
03:14But I will say you mentioned Kyle Pitts.
03:16Did you see anyone?
03:18There was a top 10 tight ends in the NFL list that came out today.
03:22I can't remember if it was CBS or ESPN that put it out.
03:26Everybody sleeping on Greg Dulcich here?
03:30Listen, you don't have to convince me.
03:32I'm Dulcich.
03:32I'm a Dulcich guy.
03:33I mean, a guy's not even in the top 10 on this list.
03:36I mean, what are we even doing?
03:38I mean, he was producing with Quinn Ewers.
03:41Josh Bell is with us.
03:43Are you excited?
03:45This is what I said to Crowder and Solana a couple days ago.
03:48I said, I'm not very excited about the upcoming Dolphins season.
03:52I was more excited last season because I thought Tua would return to who I
03:57thought he was or what I saw he was in 2023.
04:02And so last season, going into the season, I was kind of like, hey,
04:05they're going to be okay.
04:06Like, I'm going to watch them compete.
04:08And we found out week one that that was a fallacy.
04:13But this season, I keep saying to Crowder and Solana, it's tough for me to get.
04:18I'm excited about the Halfley era and the John Eric Sullivan.
04:21I think the three contracts that they've given out are very worthy.
04:25Like, I like the moves that they're making.
04:27But the actual football we're going to watch on the field, tough for me to get
04:31excited about this upcoming season because the mantra seems to be don't worry
04:35about wins and losses.
04:38Yeah.
04:38I mean, I don't know how you could expect really anything given the situation
04:43that they're in.
04:44And it's not like they weren't up front about what the plan was going to be.
04:49They've been pretty open.
04:50And, hey, like, we have to dig ourselves out of some cap hell here,
04:54in more words or less.
04:56We just talked about Tua.
04:58There's $100 million for the cap space that's in Atlanta right now.
05:00And it's tough to build a competitive team with what they're dealing with.
05:04This is a transition season for the Dolphins.
05:06And I was thinking about it because I saw that clip and I was thinking about how
05:10similar this feels to 2019 with Brian Flores and how there were – was it Ryan
05:18Clark who was saying that the organization was putting players in harm's way because –
05:25Oh, I think Ryan Clark did have something similar, but there was someone who actually said that.
05:32It was either Louis Riddick or – who's the ESPN personality that every time there's a GM opening,
05:42people want him to get it?
05:43Do you guys know him?
05:44Oh, it's Riddick.
05:45It's Riddick.
05:45It's Riddick.
05:46I think it was Riddick who said that.
05:48Like, he was, like, saying, hey, the courts need to look into this.
05:52It's an unsafe work environment, essentially, that he was creating.
05:55But what we noticed after that debacle in week one against the Ravens is that Brian Flores – say
06:02what you will about him – Brian Flores got the most out of that roster as humanly possible.
06:07They won five games that season and spoiled Tom Brady's final season in New England by
06:13costing them home field advantage.
06:14Everybody remembers the classic Kevin Harlan calling two games at once in the final week
06:18of that regular season.
06:20For me, that's how I'm judging this season.
06:22Are we going to see individual players develop, especially in the trenches?
06:27How are the draft picks going to do?
06:29How is Malik Willis going to look?
06:31And are you going to see something similar that we saw with Brian Flores from Jeff Halfley
06:36in that, hey, we might not be winning, but we're competitive, the process is good, and
06:42certainly I can see what they're building towards.
06:46That schedule is hell.
06:48Like, they're going to find their way into two to four wins somewhere because that's
06:53just the NFL.
06:54But that schedule is hell for this Dolphins team.
06:58And, you know, in a way, going in with no expectations and expecting them to be – to
07:05finish with a brutal record, honestly kind of makes it more fun and more enjoyable.
07:10I don't know, Pell.
07:11I have the Dolphins.
07:12They got the Raiders on the road week one, week two the Niners, at home against KC, at
07:17Minnesota, and then at home against the Bengals.
07:21Those are the first five weeks before the bye week.
07:22I have them going 4-1 in that entire stretch.
07:26Actually, I have them going 5-1, even though they only play five games.
07:29I've got them going 5-1.
07:31Listen, that electrical grid out in San Francisco might help out the Dolphins in that week two game.
07:37Yeah, 0% chance Christian McCaffrey plays in that game because as a proud Christian McCaffrey
07:42fantasy football owner last year who took him with the second overall pick, he doesn't
07:46play any game.
07:47That's just the way it goes.
07:49Appel, because you mentioned all the things we'll be looking for this year, which, you
07:54know, we know that's what this season's about.
07:56What's the most important one?
07:57Like, if I had to tell you this one thing that Sully or Halfley will accomplish this
08:03year, is it we find out Malik Willis is a starting caliber quarterback and that signing
08:09and that amount of money was worth it?
08:12Is it the rookies developing, Caden Proctor, whoever, right?
08:16Go down the list.
08:17Or is it the year two and three guys, Patrick Paul, Chop Robinson, and Halfley being able
08:22to actually put those guys, Kenneth Grant, in a better position than we saw under Mike
08:27McDaniel?
08:28Which one of those three is more important?
08:30I think all of those are obviously important or else you wouldn't be asking, but the obvious
08:35one is Malik Willis.
08:36But I think that that works twofold, right?
08:39Like Malik Willis can play well.
08:42They don't have a good record, but at least you see, all right, like there is something
08:45there with Malik Willis.
08:48But then if there's not, they're going to be bad anyways.
08:51They're in a prime spot to draft a quarterback high.
08:54They're not tied to Malik Willis financially after next season.
08:58So at worst case scenario, he's the bridge to whatever rookie they bring in.
09:03And if those second or third things that you listed, if those guys develop, all right,
09:07you've got a pretty good foundation for whatever quarterback they're going to bring in after
09:12this season in the draft.
09:13But it always starts with the quarterback position.
09:15They made an investment in Malik Willis.
09:18Whether or not they're tied in long-term financially or it's financially crippling for them, that
09:23doesn't really matter.
09:23They gave him the money and they said, we believe in this guy.
09:27And to me, that'll be the most important thing.
09:29Can he perform, especially in adverse situations, which is what he's going to have here?
09:33Because, you know, as much as I like Bell from Louisville, who is going to start the
09:40season probably on the injured list, as much as we love Tutu Atwell and Malik Washington
09:46and Jalen Tolbert, like those are twos, threes, and fours on a lot of other teams, if even
09:52twos.
09:53So, sorry, the disrespect to Greg Dulcich would not stand for me in that answer.
09:58Well, we're speaking specifically on wide receivers, not tight ends.
10:01Yeah, yeah, tight end, they're set.
10:04Can he make that adverse situation work?
10:08And does he look like a quarterback that can play if you get him at a higher level with
10:14better weapons, kind of like what we saw in Green Bay?
10:17So, the long-winded answer to that is it's Malik Willis and then everything else, not discounting
10:23that you need to see development in those other young guys.
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