00:00Perk, thanks for the time, man. It's good to see you. How you doing?
00:03Oh, man, I'm doing good. I'm still trying to recover from dinner last night.
00:07Me and Omar and David Faronis and Hal Habib of the Palm Beach Post went to Chinatown, my idea.
00:14And we go to this place that's kind of like a Korean barbecue type place.
00:19So we order all this meat, man, just like, you know, pork belly and short rib and ribeye.
00:26And we're throwing it on the grill. And like three-fourths of the way through, we realize we've hit a
00:31wall, man.
00:31So we're just stuffing this red meat down our gullet for the next 30 minutes because it's a place that
00:37says if you order too much meat,
00:39they'll charge you for what you leave uncooked on the tray.
00:42Oh, challenge accepted.
00:44Yeah, so I'm doing all right other than that.
00:48I love a good Vegas Korean barbecue, though. I tell you, those places, they hit the spot.
00:53But you got to be careful with that. They also have a time limit.
00:56But did you know they have a time limit there?
00:57Yeah, yeah, with 90 minutes.
00:59It's defined for the menu.
01:00Yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:0190 minutes, they're very, you know, and they do stuff.
01:03Like, you know, I went with a guy who had been a bunch before.
01:06I'd never been.
01:07And they have, like, these moves that they do.
01:08Like, they'll come and they'll trade out your grill.
01:11And they'll move real slow.
01:12Kind of, like, you know, speed you up a little.
01:15Give you less time to order.
01:17Yeah, man.
01:18Before we jump in all this Dolphins stuff here, I do, Perk, it is important.
01:23It is more important than ever that people subscribe to the Sun Sentinel, the Miami Herald,
01:30the Palm Beach Post.
01:31I just want to make sure that everyone is out there doing that because it is very important
01:36for sports and news and everything in our community.
01:40It was a rough weekend for the Miami Herald.
01:44So we want to make sure everyone is subscribing to our local papers here, Perk.
01:48It's more important now than ever.
01:50Yeah, no, I appreciate that.
01:52And you know what?
01:53And I try to do different stuff for the readers as far as the stories.
01:57Like, last year, I did a column on why Mike McDaniel was carrying a baseball bat around
02:01the facility for the last few weeks.
02:03I did a story on when the Powerball was at a billion dollars, what players would do if
02:08they hit the Powerball.
02:10Yeah, yeah.
02:11So Zach Wilson said, maybe I'll buy the New York Jets, which I thought was a great answer.
02:15So, yeah, I try to do a lot of locker room type stuff that you won't read anywhere else
02:21from the players or they use in social media, what they think of Transfer Portal and NIL.
02:26So, yeah, subscribe.
02:27You can get some exclusive stuff.
02:30All right, Perk.
02:31Let's dive into this one here.
02:33And you did your deep dive on the Sun Sentinel, but not a ton of positives to take out of
02:41this
02:41one, at least from what Dono and I have been discussing here this morning.
02:45Perk, did it look worse than you had anticipated?
02:50Did you think it was going to be this bad?
02:53Right now, you know, Dono and I would look at the schedule and like, where is the win?
02:57I'm not even going to put an S after that.
02:59Where is the win going to come from at this point?
03:02Did it look worse than you thought it was going to?
03:06No, this is what it looks like.
03:07So, I've been through rebuilds, right?
03:10I went through the 2019 Dolphins rebuild.
03:12My first year on the Miami Heat was 2002, the year before they got the number five pick
03:18and got Dwayne Wade.
03:19I went through that Heat team that got the number two pick in the draft, Michael Beasley.
03:24I've been through bad seasons.
03:26This is what a bad season looks like.
03:28And I keep telling Dolphins fans, and I know this is a tough message to understand,
03:32and don't judge this team by September and October, judge it by December and January.
03:38We all remember 2019, right?
03:40They started off 133-16 in those first three games.
03:45They fall to 0-7, but then they win five of the last nine.
03:49So, that's kind of what I'm going by.
03:51The first half of the season is going to be ugly.
03:54Can they put something together in the second half?
03:56I know fans don't want to hear that, but prepare for more ugliness in the next few weeks.
04:01Sorry.
04:02Well, Perk, you just said something really important.
04:06The Dolphins started a rebuild in 2019, and yet here we are again with rebuild 2.0.
04:14So, in your mind, why – and I know it may be hard to simplify it the way I'm asking
04:20you,
04:20but why did the 2019 rebuild fail, and do you feel like the philosophy this time around
04:27with a different GM and a different head coach?
04:30Like, what can they learn from the failure of that 2019 rebuild?
04:34Why can this one work?
04:36Oh, Dono, well, you know me.
04:37I think that they failed.
04:39I thought that Chris Greer and Mike McDaniel amassed the best talent that the Dolphins had in 20 years.
04:45The Brian Florence end of the – or beginning of that rebuild, you know,
04:52there were lots of problems with Flo and getting along with people
04:55and changing offensive coaches, especially offensive line coaches.
04:59That part of it just didn't work.
05:01I like Flo's philosophy and his message of toughness and all that,
05:05but Flo was not a good head coach.
05:07He was not equipped.
05:08So, then you come to the win now era with Greer and McDaniel.
05:11The talent was great.
05:13I put that on mostly on Mike McDaniel.
05:16I thought it was strategic and philosophical going with the speed, speed, speed,
05:21and the finesse instead of the muscle and the toughness.
05:25I like the message that John Eric Sullivan and Jeff Halfley are preaching right now.
05:30Physicality.
05:31You're going to run the ball.
05:32You're going to play defense.
05:33You're going to build up the trenches.
05:34You're going to start building this team from the inside out.
05:38Yesterday, we saw the growing pains of a rebuild once again,
05:41but I like the philosophy.
05:43I like what they're preaching.
05:44I like what they're thinking.
05:46I think that this rebuild is going to have more success than the last rebuild.
05:51What that means, are they going to win a playoff game?
05:54Well, they damn well better, right?
05:55They damn well better win a playoff game,
05:58but I just have a feeling that this rebuild is going to be more successful.
06:02I don't know if they get to an AFC championship or get to a Super Bowl,
06:07but I just think philosophically and strategically,
06:09it starts from a much better place.
06:13Now, Perk, fans are upset, and rightfully so, this morning,
06:17and the coach and GM have gotten a little bit of heat.
06:20Although, when you talk about a rebuild, Perk,
06:22I don't know that there's ever been a rebuild where guys have been this,
06:26you know, hand tied behind their back.
06:29Perk, as far as cap money and just a roster that is, you know,
06:35kind of there's just not a lot of talent on this roster right now,
06:38and it's not their fault, right?
06:40I mean, they inherited a massive mess here.
06:43Like, this is, as far as rebuilds go, this is not your average rebuild, Perk.
06:48No, no.
06:49This is a – look, they opted to take all this financial pain in one season,
06:53right?
06:53They could have made this a little bit better.
06:56They could have gone after a more veteran quarterback.
06:58They could have kept Jalen Waddell on the roster.
07:01Then you would have had Waddell and A-Chan to start the offense with, right,
07:05and a decent offensive line.
07:06But they chose to take all this financial pain in one season.
07:11So, you know, some of this is self-inflicted.
07:15Some of this is inherited.
07:17But, look, there's kind of – so you understand that part of the rebuild,
07:21but the other part is look at how fast teams have been turning it around.
07:26Jacksonville last season and Seattle never – their rebuild – they sunk to, what,
07:32seven and eight wins with Geno Smith as their quarterback.
07:34Look at what Detroit did.
07:36Look at what Chicago has done.
07:37Look at what Denver has done.
07:39Teams are coming back in two and three years.
07:41And so that's kind of the pressure that you know that there's going to be pain
07:46because they chose to take on a lot of pain.
07:48But on the other end of it, hey, this is a big boy league.
07:52You better turn this thing around in two or three years or else, you know,
07:55you're going to be answering some tough questions about your future.
07:58So, you know, it's one of those things for Sully and Half that we understand
08:04that it's going to be tough.
08:05But if you don't get this thing turned around in two or three years,
08:08it's going to be even tougher.
08:11What was your biggest disappointment, Chris,
08:15with all the things that went wrong against the Raiders?
08:18Because I know we've had a lot of nasty comments towards Chop Robinson
08:23in our chat today.
08:25I mean, before we talk about the few things that went right,
08:28what were your biggest regrets?
08:31Man, I would say that – boy, I don't know where to start.
08:35Okay, let's just start here.
08:37The tackling and the physicality.
08:39You know, the physicality is one thing that Jeff Hathley demands, right?
08:43No compromise.
08:44Him and Sully have talked about this,
08:46and I asked Caden Proctor about the physicality offensively.
08:50He said, eh, it was there sometimes.
08:52Other times it wasn't.
08:53I asked Jordan Brooks about the physicality.
08:56He said, yeah, it could have been better.
08:57So that's my biggest disappointment is they didn't play physical.
09:02And you don't have to win a game to play physically.
09:06A lot of missed tackles out there.
09:07So that was the biggest disappointment.
09:09After that, probably the penalties, right?
09:12You have so many penalties.
09:14I mean, 8 for 61 isn't a total disaster, but a lot of untimely penalties.
09:20The back-to-back holding penalties.
09:22The Juju Brent's penalty.
09:24You know, the taunting.
09:25I think that was a little bit questionable, but a penalty nonetheless.
09:28And then not taking advantage of situations, right?
09:33Jalen Wright gives you a 79-yard kickoff return.
09:35You start at, what, the 18-yard line.
09:37You were in the red zone, and you end up missing a 41-yard field goal.
09:42So those are things that, regardless of talent, that some of that stuff ought to be, you know,
09:48you shouldn't be doing it.
09:49And so that was kind of the biggest disappointment for me.
09:52It's just some of those talentless miscues that we saw out there.
09:56I still want to find out what he said, what Juju Brent said to get that flag.
10:01I mean, he must have said something horrific that the officials heard, I'm guessing.
10:06I don't know what.
10:07We don't know what he said yet, right, Perk?
10:09No, no.
10:09And I didn't get a chance to talk to Juju in the locker room.
10:12I only saw him very, very briefly.
10:14So I don't know what that penalty was about, but, man, you just can't have stuff like that
10:21after Zane Anderson makes a nice play.
10:23And, again, I don't think it was egregious.
10:25And I wonder if that's one of those things that the Dolphins will turn into the league
10:30for clarification.
10:31After a lot of penalties and plays, they're the system where you can kind of, you know,
10:35right into the league.
10:36And, you know, knowing that they can't reverse the outcome, but you just get clarification.
10:41Or, to me, it's I know that you messed up, and I want you to know that I know that
10:48you
10:48messed up, and I've got my eye on you.
10:50So I hope they do get some clarification.
10:53Or just, you know, just for the referees to say he said X, Y, and Z, and that won't
10:59be tolerated.
10:59If they don't know, I hope they get final clarification.
11:03Well, Perk, you're going to hang with us here for the hour.
11:06I want to get your take on what you saw from Malik Willis in his first regular season game
11:12with the Dolphins.
11:13So we're going to take a quick pause.
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