00:00And before we talk with Josh Appel here, a reminder, if you need new Canes gear for the
00:05upcoming season or Dolphins gear, make sure you visit Caneswear in Davie or check them out online
00:10at caneswear.com. Josh Appel is on the Toyota of Hollywood hotline. He's an NFL play-by-play
00:16announcer nationally for Sports USA. He was on the call for Tua's Falcons debut Friday night,
00:23which we'll get to. Josh will be on the national radio call this Thursday. Raiders and Texans
00:29and then on Sunday, Seahawks and Titans. And Josh, I'm going to start with Malik Willis,
00:37though. I know you've watched the game because you were calling the Falcons game on Friday.
00:43The one drive that Malik Willis orchestrated, I immediately said this is the best quarterback
00:49since Dan Marino, maybe better than Dan Marino. So when you look at that drive, did you feel good
00:57as a Dolphins fan watching Malik Willis bring the Dolphins down the field, score a touchdown,
01:02seem composed and and had a multifaceted attack? Certainly an encouraging performance from Malik
01:10Willis. Before we get to that, though, I do have to say Solana's thumbs up coming at a break. Not
01:16as
01:16it doesn't get me going quite like a bed bug point for the ready to go to start a segment.
01:22I got to be
01:22honest with you. Jimmy the bed bug has become South Florida's favorite in a short period of time like
01:28that. That nickname appell you would acknowledge because at first Jimmy would bristle Jimmy the
01:35bed bug. It works. Yeah, totally. Yeah. Yeah. People are talking about him just like they're talking
01:40about Malik Willis. Hey, no. Look, how refreshing was it to go from what you've had at quarterback since
01:482020 to the style that you saw, if only for one drive in game one of the preseason by Malik
01:55Willis
01:55against the commanders over the weekend. It just it felt nice. It felt like a breath of fresh air.
02:01The thing that was most encouraging to me about it is just the decisiveness. It was I'm going to drop
02:08back at my back foot. I'm delivering the football. All right. Nothing's open. I'm going to take off and
02:12I'm going to get some positive yardage like it felt nice to have a quarterback who's capable of running,
02:17not just someone who's running for their life. And if they get the over a half a rushing yard,
02:22Hawk hits his prop bet type, which I'm going to be betting again this season to for as long as
02:26Tua has the starting job in Atlanta, which I'm not certain, which I'm not certain will be that long.
02:33Right. I want to get to that in a minute, though, like you said, but for Malik Willis, I mean,
02:38you can just tell that a guy has spent a lot of time learning under a coach the caliber of
02:47Matt
02:48LaFleur in Green Bay. Everything looks calm about his mechanics. Everything looks decisive when he's
02:54out there. And I think that is super, super encouraging, even though it's one drive of the
02:59first preseason game. But my takeaway, Appel, was I wasn't expecting not to be wowed per se,
03:07but to just be confident in Malik Willis after one drive. So what was it just Malik or was it
03:15the
03:16offense in general that made me feel confident because I thought the offensive line really
03:21showed its flowers? Even Jonas of Inaia had had one block for Devon Achan, like 12, 13 yard run,
03:29where I said, okay, maybe the move to right guard is, is, is going to make something of this guy's
03:35career. Like, was it the offense in general, not just Malik Willis? I certainly both go hand in
03:41hand. The Dolphins put out this screenshot. There were other film gurus who do that for Dolphins
03:48football and social media. The screenshot of Malik Willis throwing from the cleanest pocket I've seen
03:54offense quarterback operate from in at least 10 years was so refreshing to see. Again, it was
04:00exciting. Only the first drive of the first preseason game, but the idea that they're capable
04:05of that after what we've seen from this offensive line for so many years, Jonah looks like he's a
04:10natural at his position at right guard. He's wearing his number 71 from college. He's playing the
04:16position. He played in college. Uh, Proctor looked really good at left guard as well. Uh, I mean, I
04:24don't know how you're not encouraged. I mean, Ollie Gordon ran for, uh, 40 yards as well. HN
04:29obviously looked great. Jalen Wright had a couple of explosive runs. So I think on the whole, from what
04:34you've seen of the guys who are going to be the key quote unquote key contributors, you have to be
04:40encouraged and Solana, you're absolutely right. Again, the caveat first drive of the first game
04:47of the preseason, but that was really good stuff from the old liner from Malik Willis.
04:52Well, it's just so refreshing. We just hadn't seen that in so long. The question now is do you play
04:59Malik Willis on Saturday against the giants? I think maybe one or two drives be fine.
05:07You can't feel good with what you saw behind them. No. And, and Devon HN got some run on Friday
05:14night
05:14as well. Do you play Devon HN on Saturday? No. And I, that I would not, because I mean,
05:19you know what Devon HN can do. He got out there, he got some work and that's that. I think
05:24you don't
05:24want to risk having your best player take any extra hits in a preseason game that he doesn't
05:30necessarily need. Doesn't necessarily need, uh, Malik Willis, new guy with new receivers, trying to build
05:36that chemistry. Obviously you can do that in practice. They'll have joint practices as well.
05:41So there's time in those settings to do it. Um, I mean, I could go either way on this because,
05:46you know, we always play the result of, Oh, if he gets hurt, then why are you playing him? But
05:50how often does that actually happen? Uh, I like seeing the guys in game, getting game reps. I
05:55don't know the health of Quinn yours. I know that he, uh, was dealing with something, uh, this week
06:00and tried to play through it. And that might've contributed to his, uh, one for eight performance
06:06against the commanders on Friday. But, uh, wouldn't mind seeing Malik Willis again, at least for another
06:11series or two. And then what about Caleb Douglas? You get excited about Caleb Douglas. We were having
06:15this conversation earlier in the show and Solana's like, I think we've got something here working in
06:20the receivers room. And I'm like, well, let's slow our roll a little bit. But Caleb Douglas did look
06:25great on that first drive. Like if you're going to see that kind of action between Malik and Caleb
06:31Douglas, that's exciting. Right. And I think it kind of gets you excited about, I, I, I know I keep
06:36repeating myself, but like you, you want to get excited, but it's only the first preseason game,
06:41but that catch was unbelievable. One handed tip it to himself, caught it on a bobble going to the
06:46ground. That's big time stuff. They're going to get Chris bell back this week. He was activated
06:50off the NFI list. So you're going to get to see him hopefully in game action,
06:54either this week or next week. And that's going to be fun. That guy's a good player.
06:58A lot of people thought he was going to be a first round pick before he got hurt last season
07:03for Louisville. But yeah, you got to be excited about Caleb Douglas. You should be excited about
07:06Will Katzmerich to the tight end, the blocking tight end, an extra O-lineman out there. And he
07:10was phenomenal in that role as well. John Eric Sullivan called him already one of the best
07:15blocking tight ends in the league before he even took a preseason snap. So from the guys they
07:21drafted Douglas, Katzmerich, Willis, who they brought in, Savanaya, the position change,
07:27Caden Proctor. I don't know how you're not walking away from this really, really encouraged.
07:33Yeah. Had they, had they played more than one drive? I mean, like you, you'd have been,
07:37I think wildly excited about the upcoming season. And I tell Dolphins fans like temper it a little
07:43bit because they went four and oh, the season they went one. Yeah. And it's one drive in a
07:48preseason game, but it could have felt like the game you were calling, which is two was debut with
07:54the Falcons and it's his first drive and he looked like absolute garbage. Yeah. I mean, it was not
08:05pretty. And the sequence on the first drive of handoff for no gain, drop a shotgun snap, lose five
08:13yards, third down and 14. I'm going to dump it off to Kyle pits for six yards, five yards and
08:19punt go
08:20three and out. I got to tell you, obviously you keep a professional over the air, but in my head,
08:24I'm like, Oh my goodness, this is bringing back some real bad memories of what I've seen over the
08:29last five years, the last couple specifically, we seemed, at least you guys seemed pretty certain
08:36that Tua was going to be the starter going into week one for Atlanta and not that they're going
08:42to make a decision off of two drives, especially if Penix can't get back and get healthy. And we said
08:49this on the air during our broadcast, not that you root against your teammates, but there's definitely
08:56a part of Michael Penix watching that on the sideline. Cooper rush as well thinking, all right.
09:01Okay. You see what else is here? Yeah. Like quick to anoint this guy and, uh, you kind of see
09:08what,
09:09what you're getting. And then even the second drive, I mean, when a play is blown up, he doesn't extend
09:15plays. It's just not part of his skillset. Uh, he must've targeted Kyle pits four times total on the
09:23two drives. And I think what he threw five or six passes. Like it was, it was not pretty.
09:30And I, I, the much like we talk about, well, it's only one drive of the dolphins and you know,
09:35it's great that it looked like that, but can you really extrapolate much? I don't know how much
09:39you extrapolate from those two drives to a tongue of Iloa, obviously no B. John Robinson in the game,
09:46uh, no Drake London. So like, what are you really judging on? But man, that did not look good at
09:52all.
09:52And if I'm a Falcons fan, I am hoping and praying that Michael Penix gets healthy
09:58ASAP and gets cleared so that he is the week one starter.
10:02What a troll. John Michaels a little bit, just start setting them texts of two, a tongue of Iloa,
10:06just, just a waiver out. He was, he was going crazy on social media, but I'm imagining the,
10:11the Falcons fans were booing them there at the stadium. No, they were getting booed in the first
10:16half. It was well, because they went from two, a tongue of Iloa and then Cooper rush came in
10:21and he threw an interception on his first drive. Then they finally put together like this 14 play
10:26long drawn out drive. They're facing a third down inside the Denver 10 tries to force one in pick
10:33six, 98 yards the other way. And that's basically how the first half ended for Atlanta. It was so
10:38rough. You said a Pell, you're not sure what to extrapolate from an offense that's missing its
10:44horses, which is totally fair. And it's, it's not fair to judge to, uh, after one preseason game
10:50and two drives that very clearly, um, you know, he doesn't have his guys, but what I did extrapolate
10:56was he is who he is. This idea that two is going elsewhere and two is going to turn into
11:01something
11:01that he wasn't over six years in Miami. He can't throw the ball very far and he needs everything to
11:09be timed out perfectly for him to be successful. And he needs that cohesiveness with his receivers
11:16and with his targets and like the fumble stuff, like that, that's him to a T that that's him
11:23to a T. And I think that's what you're going to get from two of the rest of his career,
11:27no matter
11:27where he is. And thank goodness. He didn't come out after the game and blame fans for eating greasy
11:32potato chips on their couch, getting mad at him on social media for dropping a snap. He did when he
11:37was
11:37down here, uh, to his credit, he took accountability and said, it has to look better.
11:42But Solana, I think you're absolutely right. He is what he is at this point. I know that there
11:47was some hope where all right, different play call or different coach, maybe better weapons
11:53when healthy and Atlanta, better offensive line. I think we would all agree. There's more continuity
11:58there. They keep him upright. Maybe Tua can look closer to what we saw at his peak in 2023. He's
12:05probably well past the point of being that productive in this league anymore, but maybe
12:09it'll look better than it did last year. And you're absolutely right for two drives. It just looked
12:15like the same guy that we saw in Miami finish out his tenure with the dolphins. And that spells
12:22bad news, uh, for the Falcons. He's cooked officially cooked. We saying that after one preseason game,
12:29man, it's hard for me to say that he's not, I mean, he, I think at this point, he's probably
12:35someone who can play a little bit for you and maybe get you by and keep you competitive in games.
12:40But if you're going into a big game with him as your quarterback in 2026, good luck to you.
12:46How about the Marlins big series coming up before you get out of here. And, and all you want to
12:50do
12:50is win series, right? And they just want another series. Like they're there, they've still got a
12:54fighting chance. No, there are three games back. Philly's one of the teams they're chasing in the
12:58wild card, three games in Philadelphia. They've played well against the Phillies. As of late,
13:03they avoid facing Jesus Lizardo, who dealt in the previous series for Philadelphia going there is
13:10always tough, but this is as big of a series as they've had, uh, in the last couple of years,
13:16mid August, thick of the wild card, a chance to gain some ground on a team that's currently in that
13:22position. And every time you think about writing this Marlins team off, you know, Kyle Stowers goes
13:27down. All right. Where are they going to get offense from? They trade, they trade William
13:31Wicks to Tampa. Uh, some of the, the two of the best hitters this year, here they are still rolling.
13:37Uh, the pitching's been phenomenal. How about Uri and Sandy? How excellent.
13:40How about we give Sandy a little run support? How about, how about we do that?
13:43Oh, the guy has a scoreless hitting streak going. They lose the game one, nothing. And it's crazy.
13:48Yeah. But I mean, the good thing is that he's throwing the way he is and he looks like vintage
13:52Sandy and Uri looks like what we all envisioned a one, two of Sandy and Uri to be, I mean,
13:59this team
14:00battles, they play hard. I know Clayton McCullough catches a lot of flack for some of the decisions
14:04he makes, but Hey, we're what? 125 games into the season. They're three games over 500, three games
14:10into a wild card. They overachieved last year. How about you stop Mike? Well, it's interesting to say,
14:14how about you stop micromanaging when his entire job is micromanaging, but as a fan, like sit back
14:19and appreciate what he's been able and this staff to lead this team to right. The sample size is big
14:24enough where we know this team is probably overachieving again this year. Right. And Clayton
14:28McCullough has been the one constant the last two years pushing all the buttons. Sometimes it works.
14:34Sometimes it doesn't that's baseball, but the bottom line is they're right there. Three games out
14:38playing a team this weekend that they are chasing for a playoff spot. Yeah, no, I, I, there's obviously
14:45decisions he makes that sometimes I criticize, but if you look at them in totality, they've given us
14:51two fun seasons. He's been here. This is second season, right? Yep. This is, I mean, like I'm with
14:56you. They're overperforming both seasons and man, it's August 17th and they're in the thick of it.
15:02So I ain't complaining. Baseball, you know, sometimes the decisions work. Sometimes they
15:07don't, especially when there is data heavy as they are, you know, you, you follow it to the best
15:12that you can. You play the percentages and roll the ball out there and hope it goes your way.
15:17And sometimes the Jack McKee and world series year. I mean, the dude was just making decisions.
15:21Every single one of them worked. Yeah. Baseball. Yeah. Baseball. Baseball. All right. Josh Chappelle,
15:27Josh Chappelle will be on the call Thursday nights. You got two preseason games coming up
15:32Thursday night. Josh Pell will be on the call for Raiders Texans. A little preview of the,
15:38uh, Dolphins week one, regular season opponent, and then Sunday Seahawks Titans on sports USA.
15:44Thank you, Joshua. Thank you guys for having me. Jimmy, the bed bug. Always a pleasure, brother.
15:49Give him the point, Jimmy. Yeah. It's a lot of game at the point too, just with the different finger.
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