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Dolphins Locker Room Drama? | Are players already turning on Jeff Hafley's defense? Tobin and Vlad respond to reports of player grumbling three weeks in, is this the fastest a coach has lost a locker room? Plus, updates on the Panthers' road swing and MLB postseason rivalries.
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00:00the dolphins okay so i saw this report yesterday and i first saw it i think on finn's extra i
00:06saw
00:07it uh aggregated and they put uh some notes this is a story in essentially sports.com but it's from
00:14a reporter tony pauline who i feel like tony pauline pops in like once a year with a dolphins
00:18disgruntled story like that's kind of his thing is uh when when you need who's got unrest in the
00:24locker room oh there's a tony pauline story to let you know but uh so the writer's been around
00:29for a while i've never heard of essentially sports.com but here's what it says headlines
00:36sources dolvin's players blame zone scheme and youth for nfl worst defense not lack of talent
00:44before i even start reading this how is that not the most laughable headline you've ever heard of
00:50in your life like what are we talking about we're blaming scheme and not the talent which i mean
00:59what the hell are we talking about anyway so here's his story he writes little was expected from the
01:05miami dolphins this season as some suggested it would be the worst team in the league three games
01:09in those predictions though premature seem to be correct miami is one of a handful of winless teams
01:14with an 0-3 record they are bottom of the league in both offense and defense but some players
01:19believe it's more of a lack of it's more than a lack of talent on the defensive side of the
01:24ball
01:25the offense has struggled to start this season a situation that's only going to get worse after
01:29playmaking running back devon hn was lost for the season after tearing his acl but the dolphins defense
01:34ranks bottom five in the league in points given up per game at 28.7 and the team is far
01:40away uh far and
01:42away the worst team in point differential at minus 50 and a half well that's what's going to happen when
01:46your offense scores you know 13 points a game uh and though the defense has struggled several
01:51players privately admitted that too much of the situation is self-inflicted on the title of all
01:56multiple sources tell me that players point to several factors that are making the bad situation
02:02worse including number one youth in the secondary two scheme and play calling on defense which of
02:09course is jeff haffley calling the defense other than juju brentz the four years uh the fourth year
02:14cornerback the dolphins picked up on waivers from the indianapolis calls in 2025 the rest of the
02:18starters are first and second year players that includes chris johnson selected in the first round
02:23as well as safety michael taff chosen in the fifth round a pair of fifth rounders from the 2025 draft
02:27and dante trader and jason moore are listed as depth chart starters i was told that this has led the
02:34confusion with defensive signals and called plays missed assignments and people aimlessly running around
02:40all right i'll get into more of the story i have a question here in just a second go ahead
02:45with your
02:45question what's this guy's name again tony pauline tony pauline tony p tony p
02:56the new head coach right yeah first year three games three games in three games
03:02it's a brand new roster right yeah so unless he's talking to austin jackson yep zach sealer right
03:13maybe jordan brooks maybe jordan brooks maybe devon hn who doesn't talk at all right
03:23what player on the miami dolphins gonna be bitching and complaining about the the scheme
03:29if there's every mostly 75 80 percent of the players on this team is rookies or two-year players
03:35this is what yeah so then it goes on says the bigger issue is that several players believe the
03:40team is running the wrong defense for the talent they have what miami is the worst bad rushing team
03:46in the league after three games and its defense has not registered a single sack the only unit in the
03:51nfl that hasn't caught the quarterback behind the line of scrimmage this uh this year at the same time
03:55they primarily employ a zone secondary system uh that's a lethal combination and largely why the
04:01dolphins defense is allowing opponents to uh single callers to an 80.3 completion percentage the worst
04:07in the league okay but again this happened back in the day this is like this was part of like
04:14what
04:15minka fitzpatrick was upset about he didn't like the scheme they were running and didn't like the role
04:19that they had him in so it's not flores yeah that was flores it's not like great players even young
04:26can't have an opinion on the way they're being used but dude to come out here all right and write
04:33a
04:34piece about the team through three games is already questioning the scheme of the system that the coach
04:41has been running for again i don't think we can stress this enough three games when they're all
04:48rookies or sophomores and low drafted sophomores who didn't have a ton of reps i guess outside of
04:52dante trader what are we doing and how you forget there's over a hundred million dollars being paid
05:01to players who are no longer on the teams oh my god what are we doing and i cannot stress
05:07this enough
05:07what are we doing dude like i saw this dude i saw this story i said i know it's just
05:12like
05:12hey whatever man you if you if you really let me tell you something right now if you are a
05:19miami
05:19dolphin player on this team and you're going to tony pauline or you're going to your agent who's going
05:26to tony pauline and tell them i have questions about the secondary scheme oh you're high as a kite
05:34yogi like first of all one because it can only be two things you're either a rookie or you're a
05:41scrap heap guy okay there's only two options there if you're going because i can't imagine
05:47maybe i'm wrong i can't imagine jordan brooks off of his extension is going because i just picture
05:54when jordan brooks is not at a podium and not on the field he's chewing glass and not talking to
05:59tony pauline so i'm gonna assume it's not him but to have anybody out here being like you know three
06:08games in we're uh we're really questioning whether or not halfley's got the right scheme for us you
06:13don't even know what a scheme is in the nfl what are we talking about you want to know why
06:19you said
06:19it already you have a youth filled secondary that is full of guys who don't know what they're doing
06:27yet of course they don't have the scheme down of course they don't it takes time look look at a
06:34if
06:35you want to flip the side of the ball look at how boy wonder over in la can't even figure
06:39out mike
06:40mcdaniel's system bum system as it may be these things take time if you wanted to come out with
06:46this story after the season i could give it a little bit more grace okay hey we went through our
06:53first year we were the worst and by the way i tell you i don't think the system was the
06:56greatest
06:57at least i'll give that a modicum of like consideration that it should matter but this is
07:04like you you get anonymous leaks after three games from the youngest team in the league that's full
07:12of scrap heap guys and rookies what what what are we doing what in the hell are we doing we
07:21are
07:22wasting our time here no with this you know what it is tobin and this is the part i hate
07:27about
07:28content because when you have when you have you create your own channel and you're a content creator
07:34you gotta every daily have content to put out so therefore this is the content he's gonna be putting
07:42out for the rest of the year if the dolphins aren't winning it's just gonna they gotta get something they
07:47gotta garner some type of traffic for people to uh read his content or watch his content and this is
07:54what's gonna this is where they're gonna start so this is how you're gonna get people to view i've
07:59talked to players and this is what players are saying even though they're gonna be anonymous but oh
08:05you're talking to players and these are what players are gonna say then this is this is if their players
08:10are saying the same thing that the fans are thinking then boom there you go multiple players have
08:14privately complained that the defense should line up more in man-to-man coverage as it fits the talent
08:18on the field man coverage will also abate the team's inability to get to the uh opposing passers
08:24and players believe it will significantly get the completion percentage down from the quarterbacks oh
08:28yeah what is it gonna get to 75 percent and here's the other thing what this what these damn players
08:32know they just played three games they haven't even come on they don't even know what's going on in
08:36the end in the nfl they don't even know if they're coming or going please stop what are we talking
08:40about dude like are you kidding me oh that that would have done it oh okay they know like they
08:47know schemes they barely don't know imagine grumbling you're on the dolphins right now
08:54oh and three and this is like oh man oh we should run man more man because uh we can't
09:00get to the
09:00quarterback we could be the we could be the vikings we just got to do more man-to-man
09:07maybe if you guys say so and you know what's sad about this but like is that the fact that
09:11he could
09:12write this and they're oh and three and everybody has like so such low expectations that people gonna
09:17run with this they and they're gonna and run with it as if it's truth good hey listen i hope
09:23that what
09:24happens is if even if that is the case who gives a rat's ass half of these guys probably more
09:29will not
09:30be here next year and the rookies that will be will probably stop complaining you want to know why
09:34because they would have actually played a season and they know it works now and they could actually
09:38communicate with each other because they've actually played a season together just stop i'll tell you
09:43this though as bad as they are they're not the titans yeah and this is no shot at cam ward
09:50but i mean
09:51this is my former coach robert sala is not changing anything like this to say you would think he's
09:56new head coach new ideas no the titans still stink at least with athlete you could see
10:06what he's trying to implement sure yeah and you can understand that he doesn't have all the pieces
10:12to this puzzle he's 150 million dollars short of you know making this puzzle work let it be man
10:22it says the dolphins are franchise in the midst of major transition
10:27and there's no easy or quick fixes yet talk to the players on defense and they'll tell you that
10:33the team is shooting itself in the foot with the zone scheme they run every sunday well you know
10:37what how about this maybe a little for the ones that are there and again i have very little uh
10:43i have
10:43very little thoughts on those players who are already whining about this three games into the season
10:48how about a little less yapping to tony pauline and a little more learning the scheme then
10:51how about that how about that you know like all of you babies who are just into the into the
10:58league
10:58or you're barely hanging on to the league right now you're on the dolphins dude how about you how
11:05about you all get on the same page and stop being like you know if we were doing man to
11:09man the
11:10completion percentage would be 74 instead of instead of 81
11:17this is crazy unbelievable
11:23i'm like that's a good question is this the fastest a coach has ever lost the locker room
11:27maybe i just want to say though like hey and i'm not here to tell you jeff halfley's a good
11:32coach
11:32i don't know if he's a good coach i'm trying to do that with all of these guys i'm trying
11:36to give
11:36them some grace on the season but i just think that whining about this to anybody who's looking
11:43even if they're digging for it and they're trying to get content being like anything other than hey
11:48dude we're not even a month into the season maybe we should just see if it works you know let's
11:52talk
11:53to me in another even even if this guy saddles up to you either at a locker room or via
11:57text or
11:58whatever or your agent whoever shouldn't the answer always be hey give me another month then i'll give
12:04you a i'll give you let me let me give you a month of not taking on undefeated teams and
12:10then maybe
12:11i'll have a better idea of it actual jobs give you 90 days yeah they only gave the man three
12:16weeks
12:16three weeks that is like that's not even rats off a ship that's rats not even getting on the ship
12:22we haven't even left the port port you still docked maybe maybe jeff halfley stinks maybe he does
12:31but you don't want to know something i'm not i'm not ready to to bring that case i need to
12:35hear the
12:35case can i have the season as the trial and then we can get through it and then we can
12:40determine
12:40even after one season if the guy's a good head coach or not i mean other than who he plays
12:45clint
12:46kubiak in the battle of you know first time head coaches yes this guy's had to go against
12:50kyle shanahan and andy reed yep and now he's got to go against uh against you know brian flores
12:56and kevin o'connell angry brown yeah two of these guys he's worked with and are very close with so
13:02they know him well and he goes this is boldly everybody knows my stuff you know he's like can
13:07i get you know can i get a rip anybody oh you know i tell you what if we if
13:12we played man to man
13:12you know we would have shut down patrick mahomes no you wouldn't have hey you would have shut
13:16down brock freddy no you wouldn't have what secondary is gonna say play man to man when
13:21the whole secondary is young yeah by the way did you guys have like three interceptions against
13:25kirk cousins yeah again the rookie secondary didn't they didn't intercept the ball i know i
13:31know it was jacob rodriguez but they intercepted patrick mahomes party was another thing party was
13:37just slicing and dicing them but you know i'm not here to tell i'm not here to tell anybody you
13:41can't
13:42have mixed opinions on your team and maybe you can suggest some things to your coach and the
13:46captains can go to the coach but i just think like taking this to the media and even if the
13:51media guys like one it's it's a heinous article to write something like this after three weeks
13:55so tony pauline like that's bum behavior like this is this is a ridiculous thing to bring to anybody
14:01you should probably get a couple more weeks under the belt to get people's feelings because by the
14:05way who's not going to be frustrated after being oh and three literally like it's like you want to talk
14:10about taking candy from a baby and second of all if you genuinely have those complaints to jeff
14:15i would bring them to jeff halfley and not to tony pauline and i hate when well you're expected
14:20to be bad and then you're bad and then now you're complaining oh man i can't believe it it's not
14:25talent it's not time no no no no no it is talent it is youth now that there won't be
14:31other ways and
14:32people suggesting things it is a lack of talent you got a hundred million in dead cap and it is
14:38youth
14:38you guys haven't even played football for a month no bleep dude anyway rose says that cam is still
14:45playing better than drake may that's true super bowl quarterback god if you could have just had
14:50that game winner last week i keep waiting for cam ward to have this moment like please that was
14:54bad because it was a former miami dolphin wins i know javon holland's playing he's having a great
15:00season he's having a great season he's having a great season who by the way javon holland remember
15:03him back that he hated vick fangio hated him and like look vick fangio was not like the most
15:09adorable guy but he's a good defensive coordinator let's be real nice great he's a great he's a great
15:13defensive coordinator javon holland hated his ass mink if it's magic great safety brian floors hated
15:18his ass on how he was doing things i was there so like it's not like just because you know
15:23a guy's
15:24a good coach or great players and coaches can have disagreements on how they're being used and all
15:28that but to do this three games dude i looked up dude you know who the two most tenured miami
15:35dolphin players are one has to be sealer right it's sealer and jackson yeah sealers in 2019 he
15:43started december of 2019 as it claimed off the waivers from the ravens and jackson jackson was
15:48drafted in um five months later april 2020 yeah and and perk thinks uh we've had perk on game man
15:54since he doesn't think that zach sealer is going to last the season that he'll be he'll be shipped
15:58off at some point i believe that as well i and i unfortunately i think if austin jackson somebody
16:05asked for austin jackson i think they'll let him go too man he was better last week at least not
16:10having to go against uh crosby or bosa and then boses and then boses calf goes bad of course well
16:16he's gonna have to go against dallas turner dallas turner is putting guys on their head oh man
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