Transcript of Is Malik Willis... Good? | Local Hour

You are listening to the Dan Levitan Show in partnership with the DraftKings Sports App, now live in all 50 states. You know, as, as everyone knows, we all get here in the morning. I mean, and Roy is usually in a great mood, like always really chipper and jovial is how one could describe him when he walks in in the morning. But I was able to tell this morning that Something was bothering him.

Hmm.

Something was bothering him over the weekend. So Roy, you, you took your— was it your— was it anniversary or was it her birthday?

It was her birthday.

Her birthday. So Roy's going to take her out on, you know, for, for a nice meal, you know, just the two of them. And Roy, where did you go?

We went to a Michelin star-rated restaurant. It was French. La Terre Lière. Bouchon.

Yeah, I'm sure you're saying it right. I'm sure you're saying it correctly.

You just said a French restaurant.

Yeah, it's French, so I'm not French, but it was in Design District, so you know how that goes.

And it's a 2-star Michelin restaurant.

Whoa, they doubled up.

Yeah.

Now, Roy, just for clarification, are you still dry? I know you've been dry for a while. Is that still going?

Yes, sir, and my wife does not drink, so it's okay.

Okay, there you go.

All right.

Big savings there on drinks, by the way.

Okay, yeah, so that's important, right? Because Roy, Roy has been taken aback by how much this meal cost him to take his wife out for her birthday. And that's important that you mention that she doesn't drink and that Roy is dry, because, you know, like, my favorite restaurant is Joe's Stone Crab.

Flanagan's? What?

My favorite restaurant is Joe's Stone Crab. Oh. And Joe's Stone Crab can obviously be very expensive, but if you don't drink, you can get out of there with a decent bill, you know?

What's a decent bill?

If I went to Joe's and I didn't drink, You and the missus? Yeah, me and my wife. Let's not order drinks because the drinks are what really gets any bill up there. I can get out of Joe's with a great meal for $150.

Was not that—

$150 for 2 people?

You think that's too much?

I think that's not enough. Or Joe's—

I'm saying no drinks.

No, even with no drinks, I'm, I'm okay.

I'm impressed. Yeah, no drinks, I can get out of there for $150.

Dude, it feels like recently you can't get anywhere for less than $150.

Yeah, I'm talking about like Man, like, like, two bills. Hillstone is up.

I spent $180 at Hillstone like 2 weeks ago.

Yeah, but I'll tell you, at Joe's, you know, the move is you, you get the fried chicken for the appetizer. The fried chicken is so cheap. That move, it's so cheap. And then you also get, you know, you get your, your, your stone crabs, and you gather for $150.

So I gather from Roy that it was north of $150.

Yeah, so I want to hear this, all right, because it's no drinks. And, okay, you're going into the meal You got a number in your head, like what are you comfortable with spending? You're like, yeah, you know what, this is what I expected, and of course my wife is worth it. What's the— what's that number?

Yeah, uh, first of all, it was Miami Spice, all right? So it was supposed to be a discount on it.

Supposed to be a big discount.

Yeah, supposed to be a giant discount.

So I love the word supposed to being in this conversation.

Yeah, so obviously there's a caveat there. Supposed to.

And the first word in Miami Spice is always Miami, so always remember that.

Supposed to be— was it not applied or it was applied?

But it was applied.

Whoa. Okay.

And that number, by the way—

No, but I want— again, I want to know what the number in your head is that you are planning on spending that you feel good about your night.

Yeah, that number in my head was maybe $200.

Maybe.

All right, maybe $250. Maybe.

That's a pricey night.

Yeah. Okay.

Yeah.

And obviously she deserves that.

Yes.

I'm saying that right now.

So it's a 4-course meal, right?

Yeah.

Yeah. Plus some extra stuff.

Yeah. Great.

Yeah.

And, and you, you don't know what this bill is going to be, right?

No. In fact, when I got the bill, I stared at it blinking for maybe 45 seconds. And now I looked at her, and then I looked back at the bill, and then hoping it changed. Yeah, yeah.

Now, does your wife say anything to you while you're staring aimlessly at this piece of paper?

I did not dare tell her.

Oh wow, Roy, she knew.

I bet she did.

The moment you looked up at her and then looked back and then looked back at her, she knew it was over.

Did she pick the restaurant?

No, I picked it. Oh, I picked it. I didn't look at the prices though.

I'm gonna tell you, well, look, if I'm picking somewhere 'cause of Miami Spice, I'm definitely gonna look at, okay, what deal are we running here? For those that don't know, Miami Spice is a great kind of restaurant food week for the entirety of Miami.

It's a lot of participating restaurants.

A lot of participating restaurants, and what they'll do is they'll have like a 4-course meal.

A prefixed menu.

Prefixed menu.

Essentially to get you in the door when otherwise you would think this is a place that might be too expensive for you.

And it's true, like, you know, you can get, at one of these places, a typical, you know, one of these fancy chichi places, like $75, 4 courses. And so, and that's like appetizer, you know, a little thing, and the main course, and a little dessert. So all of that, Roy, I would say still $200 sounds pricey, elevated for Miami Spice.

Yeah, yeah.

What was the number?

$475. Oh no way! Whoa!

Oh no way! With or without gratuity?

With, with tax and tip, that's going to be like whatever, $140, $150 a head. No, not a head, but together. Like, let's say, let's say you're— let's say your course is about $1.80 per person plus tax and tip. Yeah, you're gonna spend like almost $500.

Yeah, but that's on a regular night, not during Miami Spice.

Yes, exactly. Probably on a regular night, I have to say, if it's almost $500, it could very well be $750.

What, what was the—

was it yummy?

Yeah.

Oh yeah, it was, uh, yeah, yeah, it was delicious. It was some of the best food I've ever had.

Okay, you know what, that softens it a little bit. I don't know, I'm gonna tell you why, Zazz. I'm gonna tell you why. Because as you know, I used to travel to Los Angeles a lot. In LA, these restaurants get super pricey, and you go there and it's like, oh my God, it's like the only reservation we have is 3 weeks from now and it's at 9:30. On a Tuesday. And you're like, you know what? I've heard so much about this restaurant. I'll do it, right? Taking out someone, I'm going on a date, we're going there. And it's like, you get there at 9:30, they can't seat you yet. And there's like paparazzi outside taking pictures. Like, oh my God. And you sit down and the food, the food is pleasantly mediocre. And I said, what did we pay for? It's like, oh, because this is the in place. And I'm like, get outta here. LA is very big on overpriced and overhyped because this is where all the celebrities wanna eat. And my thing is like, hey, I don't even mind the price hype. But the food has to be. You gotta be good.

You can't come here with a lot of flash and Instagrammable moments and the food is very mediocre. And so that's what I appreciate, at least for many of the bigger name restaurants here in Miami. The food tends to be good. Yeah, it's overpriced, but it's like, at least it was good. Now it's no $8 burger from out back from Mike's bar.

Chote.

Chote, chote at Las Rosas. They have like a rotating thing where it's like different food vendors come in and they come in the back and they set up shop. And I went last Thursday with Mike and they had this burger called chote. And man, Zazz, Mike says it's the best one he's ever had.

Smashburger?

It's a Smashburger. But it is, it's certainly the best Smashburger I've ever had. It's definitely top 3 I've ever had in my life. And it was $8. Hey man, let me tell you something. If I had a date take me on my birthday to chote and say, here you go, just have as many as you want, I would cry. I'd say, this is my life partner.

A little solo tear?

Oh my God.

A little Shawn Moreno tear?

Yep.

And then trickle down, straight down.

Woo!

$8, it was amazing.

I had 3 of them.

I just can't get it.

Not all in one trip either.

Yeah.

And there was a line. And he was like, I'm gonna—

He went back in line 2 more times.

I'm not waiting this line. I'm gonna pay this money.

Of course you had 3 of them. The Smashburgers, you know how thin those patties are, man?

Yeah, but that's part of the appeal.

That's the— yeah.

You could pop—

keep popping them. Popping it, get little potato straws on it too. You know about the potato straws?

Of course.

Oh my God. Potato straws. Spicy sauce on it. Whew, I'm about to go back. Is he out there right now?

He was out there last night.

Ah, damn.

So Roy, your wife is going to see the bill at some point.

No, I tossed that receipt in the garbage.

Oh, no, but like, she doesn't check your checking account, like, see what we've been spending lately?

Yeah, but it won't be for another few weeks before she sees it.

Okay, yeah, you buy yourself some time.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Have you ever had that where the bill is so out of whack from what you expected it to be?

Yeah, yeah, this happened to me one time. This is like, this is a while ago, maybe like 10 or so years ago. My wife and I, we were going to a concert at Caseya Center, and we got there early. We got there before the show started, so we went underneath to the club, you know, and we We got a drink there. I got a drink. My wife's not a big drinker. I got a drink. I'll order it, the double, whatever it was.

Arena bars, they would— would you like to make that a double?

Yeah, of course.

So, so the bill comes. I'm like, I'm gonna cash out right away, you know, because the show's gonna start. The bill comes. I haven't even started drinking it yet. I open up the bill and I'm, I'm just staring at it. I mean, just, just staring at this one drink bill.

They're more expensive at Hyde.

Just staring at it. And then I look at my wife, and then I look back, and like, I gotta say something. I go, "Look at this. This can't be right, can it?" And she's like, "Wow." And I'm just staring at it, and it has to be what it is, you know? It's not incorrect. The server sees me just staring at it, and she goes, "I know." She goes, "Let me top you off a little more." I'm like, "Oh, okay, thank you. Thank you." You know? It was— I got a double, it was $45. Yeah. Like, what?

Scotch? No, what they do is they just double the price.

Yeah.

Like, you think, oh, I'm getting a deal. No, it's like, it was $22 before.

They should say, would you like to get a second one for the same price?

We'll put it in the same glass even.

I think I've— right now as I sit here and I think about it, I think I know why. Because they have limits to how much alcohol they're allowed to sell you in terms of vessels.

Yeah, at arenas they have stoppers.

You can't be like, hey, you can't— hey, let me get 3 beers. Like, they're like, no, no, where's the other person? That's to stop from, like, stealing, right? No, it's to stop people from like—

From over-serving?

From over-serving. But then the workaround is, well, if I serve you a double, that just counts as one vessel, so that was only one drink. So you can still double fist, but it's two doubles, so now you got four drinks instead of two. But they're not gonna give you any price break on that. They're just trying to sell you more alcohol.

So that was the one time I remember I'm like, this is appalling.

By the way, isn't it funny that the move always— 'Cause I think about my experience like that, and it's the same thing. You look at the bill and then instinctively you can't even control it. You look up at the other person and then you look back at the bill like just to make sure. Are they paying attention? They're not paying attention. All right, cool. I can, I can process this. Dude, $45 for one drink is— did you drink the rest of the night?

Yeah, but probably inside. Like, I got my next drink at the concession bar, you know, in the lower level.

Place I can get.

Yeah.

And it was, it was a beer, right?

I don't know, but it was— yeah, I want We weren't pounding them that night.

I don't think there's a time that I've gone to a restaurant and been surprised by a bill because I always do my reconnaissance work early and often, right? I'm on van scouting here. I mean, you know about that. You go through. All right. Hey, I'm always like, I want to go to Hillstone. Can we do whatever? And then I'm like, let me check the menu, see what I would get. Then I start looking at the price. I'm like, okay, I'm like, I'm in for about $1.80. And I'm usually really close on the money because I know my wife likes to drink. She'll drink a super dirty martini that's going to run me about $22.. And I know if I get a tequila, if I get something, it's going to be another couple $22. Start adding up. All right, that's 82 drinks each, this and that, whatever. And I'm usually pretty on the money.

Wait till you get to the time where you start taking your kid out with you to these expensive restaurants because they don't give a shit about—

Let me tell you something. Taking my child to an expensive restaurant in Vegas was the dumbest thing I've ever done in my life because my child's like, let's try— like, just let's try this. Oh, I'm not made of money for that. Yeah, you got that kind of money? Oh my God. And then like, once I order the mocktails—

biggest scam in the world.

It's just sugar and they charge you the same as if it had alcohol in it. And so my kid is thinking like, this is like going to freaking, uh, Olive Garden where you just get— hey, you know what, I don't want Coke anymore, give me a Sprite. Like, oh, let me try this one. I'm like, you're trying multiple mocktails?

$17.

I wish it was $17. This is a nice place, man.

I'm on the cruise last week. We go to one of the specialty restaurants. My son, he's 14 years old.

He—

we open up the menus. It's a steakhouse, right? It's expensive. Go over the menu. We're picking the steaks, whatever. I have the tomahawk. What? I'm like, you're an asshole. Okay, like hell you will.

With who else?

You sharing?

I'm, I'm going to tell you my, my story about the, the bill, cuz it's tied in all this. This is a few years ago, my parents' 50th wedding anniversary. We did a whole surprise trip to, uh, to Hawaii. We went out there and had the restaurant, it was the nice steakhouse. Everyone's there, my whole— my kids, my sister, my brother, his wife, his kid, my parents, right? So it's a long table, right? And so going around, hey, what are you gonna get? And then the twins are like probably 10 at the time and they're like Filet mignon. I was like, you little son of a— there's a kids menu. There's a kids menu. They're ordering filet mignons. I'm like, okay, whatever.

So you're like, play it cool, play it cool.

So the food comes out. It was fine or whatever. The check comes out and that's when I did the legit— like, it's the biggest bill I ever seen in my life. I looked at it and I looked up and the only person who noticed was my oldest. He said, Dad, what's wrong? I was like, nothing. So I'm looking around. I'm trying to make eye contact with my siblings like, hey, which one of y'all gonna kick in on this?

They're just doing it like they're Neo in The Matrix.

Oh my God, you motherfucker, you're gonna make me— okay, I put that card down my hand and I just slammed it shut and I handed it and my kid was like, how much was it? I said, I can't tell you. I knew if I told my child how much money this bill, it would blow brain, you know, liquidating. But I just remember seeing that bill and Zazz, I did the same thing. I looked up and I was just trying to find eye contact with someone. I didn't even mean it. I just like, just like, holy shit, this is real. Yeah.

Just so you know, Iran does not have a nuclear weapon. It's important to remember that.

Down, Lebanon!

Analytics have/are ruining the game. We're playing AI hoops.

That's his team. His team's at the forefront of all that.

Zazz, don't steal my thunder.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

Sorry, Jonathan Sasslo. I get carried away. This is the Dan Levatar Show. So the Dolphins made their preseason debut. Terrible game. I mean, you know, they lost at the Commanders, but whatever. I'm there watching. I'm watching the game. I got it on the smaller TV. I can't really call it the small TV in the Sasslo Mansion family room anymore because I got a new TV. It's actually a really good size now. So it's kind of just the smaller TV in the Zazzle Mansion family room. And I got that on the smaller TV on mute because obviously on the big TV I'm watching my stories. All right. We, you know, SmackDown going on, but we got on the smaller TV, we got the Dolphins game. All right. And I'm going to tell you something, Malik Willis.

Mm-hmm.

He looked awesome. He looked great. Like, I even turned to my son at one point when the Dolphins scored the touchdown on that drive, you know, Time ago, hey, Dolphins just scored. It's like, yeah, so what? It's preseason. Like, all right, but I, I'd rather my team look good than look bad in the preseason.

That's the, that's the double-edged sword of the preseason, right? When your team looks good, you're like, oh, it's just preseason. When they look bad, it's like, oh my God, you guys got your ass whooped.

But I'll tell you, Malik Willis, who I thought looked fantastic— I don't think there's any other way to sum it up— he looked Great. The best part of that experience— and yes, it's just preseason— but the best part of that experience watching Malik Willis for that drive out there was every time they snap the football to him and he's dropped back to pass, I'm not wondering if my quarterback, if he takes a hit, is he going to be out for the season? I'm not wondering. Literally every single snap that my quarterback takes is he going to get hit? And then is the camera going to pan back to him and he's on the ground and he's not getting up? That's been the experience for Dolphin fans for the last 6 years. Every time Tua dropped back to pass, oh my God, please don't get hit. It's like, it's anxiety-inducing every single play. And again, it was one series, but for one series, I was able to experience something that I haven't experienced in over 6 years.

I remembered that it's like fun to watch my football team. Like, even when the Dolphins— because the most fun we had with the Dolphins obviously was when they were scoring a million points.

We'll always have the 70-point game.

Yeah, the Denver game, the Ravens comeback. Like, we'll always have that. But basically every snap after that It was anxiety-inducing, and it was like, I reached a point last year, I think I said it on the show, where I was like, I don't think I'm gonna watch the Dolphins anymore until this guy is not my quarterback. Not just because they're bad, but because every single time he had the ball in his hands, I'm holding my breath for 4 seconds, praying that he gets rid of the ball without getting hit. And now watching Malik Willis, I have no idea if they're gonna be any good. I almost wish they didn't waste good offensive series in the preseason. They only have so many of those, right? Why waste one in the preseason? I don't want them to be good in the preseason.

They're not going to be good, but at least my experience is not going to be I'm panicked every time my quarterback is back to throw a football.

Now, my bad, is that some of that like expectation also? Because like with Tua, some of that fear was also because you expected the team to be good because of the early offensive explosions in the tenure, right? Whereas now you expect them to be trash. So whether Malik Willis gets killed or not—

No, I think it's just we got a normal guy back there where, okay, everybody gets hurt playing football. Football, but it's not a thing where I have to worry about it. If it happens, it happens, but I don't have to worry about it every single play. Like, you can't tell me, Tony, every time Tua went back to pass the last few years that that, that it wasn't on your mind. Don't throw the ball, throw the ball, throw the ball. Like, that, that was every single play. Please throw the ball fast and don't get hit.

Zazz, I still have tattooed in my memory Dan talking to a guy who wanted to charge the Dolphins franchise with murder because of what happened to him in the, in the Cincinnati Bengals game. Chris Nowitzki or Nowitzki, whatever the guy's name was.

Oh, that guy, he watches football. He waits, he loves head injuries. He waits for head injuries.

Dan was like, him and Dan were just going together. They were having a good big old time. But that is burned into my memory. So anytime I see Tua, I see that. And funny enough, didn't really have a great showing in his preseason game over there.

We'll talk about that in a little bit.

But man, I was super encouraged with Malik Willis.

Like, he obviously—

they script the first couple of plays and obviously they go into the week knowing, all right, these are the 10 plays we're going to run, these are 15 plays we're going to run. But man, he was super poised, make— made quick decisions, made the right decisions. It's like you look at what he has as a base from a skill perspective. He's got the long ball. He can make moves with his feet. It's like, I think this guy's going to be pretty good. They don't have anybody else around him, but I think he's going to be good.

But the more important thing is Tua looked bad.

Oh yeah. How long are we going to keep track of how Tua does?

This season, I think.

The whole season for this whole season for sure.

One thing that I noticed because the two things were happening at the same time, is, yeah, Malik Willis looked good, but thank God Tua looked terrible.

Put it on the poll, Juju. Will you be keeping track of Tua's performance this entire season?

And it looked the way it was supposed to, that you feared it might if he were in a Dolphin uniform. You didn't want him to go in Stefanski's offense and all of a sudden look like a new guy. It was just the clumsy stuff.

But you weren't worried about that though. Like, you, you knew this was what it was going to look like.

What's better? Tua plays and plays poorly, or Tua doesn't even win the job?

Uh, I think if you're a Dolphin fan, you want him to play and play poorly because you want, you want the— like, you want the nail in the coffin that, yeah, like, this— it's not like the Dolphins made a mistake moving on. It wasn't the Dolphins' fault that it didn't work. It's just this is not a good player anymore, and now we know it.

Play poorly and then lose the job. Play 4 games.

Well, if he plays poorly, he wins the job.

And then Michael Penix take over.

I mean, he lost the job here playing poorly, right? And we had all the money invested in him. Like, if he plays poorly, he will lose the job. So the idea is playing poorly.

They have a great offense. So you got Bijan, you got Kyle Pitts, Drake London.

Like, that's why you want him to play and play poorly so the Dolphin fan knows, yeah, like, this is just not a good player anymore.

Did you see— you mentioned Quinn Ewers and what happened there. Reports are he's a cut candidate.

Well, the— okay, so the Dolphin— the Dolphin game was a brutal watch because the, the first drive was Great, exciting to watch Malik Willis out there. He's throwing great passes. I mean, the, the one catch that Caleb Douglas made where he bottled the, you know, bobbled the ball around and made the great catch, that was an incredible throw from— I mean, he put it right on the mark there. It's funny, the one incompletion that Malik Willis had was to a wide open Caleb Douglas who decided he's just gonna catch the ball with a foot out of bounds. Uh, that was the only incompletion that Malik Willis had, but Willis ran for a couple times, one of them for a touchdown— uh, for a first down, excuse me. Let me ask someone again, was anyone watching Malik Willis scamper up the middle to pick up a first down and you were screaming at the television, please get down? Like, you haven't had that experience in a really long time, because that's what it was when Tua had the football and the odd occasion that he would run up the middle for, you know, yardage. I, I just, I found it, Mike, I found it a pleasure watching Malik Willis out there.

He was terrific.

Got some more positive vibes for Miami Dolphins fans just this morning. According to ESPN, the Dolphins have activated rookie wide receiver from Louisville, Chris Bell.

And people love him.

Guy killed the Canes.

He was one of the best football players I saw last year.

Right. People love him. And you know what? Look, we made a thing of this last week, so let's be fair. All right. We made a thing of this last week where we— no matter how good Caden Proctor's career might turn out to be, we, you know, if we wanted Reuben Bain, because we all believe Reuben Bain is going to be a great player. And even if Reuben Bain is great and Caden Proctor is great, I'm still gonna wish they picked Reuben Bain, alright? Like, we said that last week. But let's be fair, Caden Proctor— again, preseason, who gives a shit, right? But still, you'd rather you guys play well than not play well. And Caden Proctor, in his debut for the Dolphins this past week, he was awesome. He was awesome. And that whole offensive line was really good. So again, not trying to say the Dolphins are gonna be something they're not.

They lost 20-7?

24-7.

Okay.

Yeah, and well, after that opening drive, I mean, the quarterback play was a vomit.

Yeah, I don't even know who the last student was.

Quinn Ewers was 1-for-8.

Was that Quinn Ewers that I saw playing the last snaps?

Well, no, he was the second quarterback who played.

It was some bad quarterback play every time I glanced.

Yeah, it was very bad, but the opening of that game was fun. Dan Lebatard! Ahh! Jonathan Sasselow!

Thank you!

This is the Dan Lebatard Show!

Back to Tua here. Tua bobbles the very first passing snap. Like, his very first snap, he took a handoff, but his very first passing play, he bobbles the handoff. He fumbles it. He lies on top. It's like, Falcons fan, that will happen every game. Every game at least once, he's going to fumble a snap. Okay. And if you, if you're chasing him in the pocket, he will fumble there also at least once. He might recover it himself, but he will fumble the football at least once every single game.

Dolphins quarterbacks, uh, combined for 8 of 24 and 3 picks and 109 yards. That's with Malik Willis going 4 of 5.

Yeah, no, it was a brutal watch after Malik Willis, but I'll tell you, man, Tua He was 4 for 5, I think, for 22 yards, completed for one first down, 19 total yards of offense while he was out there, which is obviously abysmal. All right, and what we saw last year, you saw in the preseason game for Atlanta. Every pass he makes, it's 3 yards in the air, it's 4, 2 yards, 4 yards. He— they're quick little dinky donkey passes. He's terrible. Here's Tua after the game speaking to the Atlanta media.

Uh, definitely not up to standard, um, not even up to par. You know, we'll start with the first drive, um, was the second play, just being able to catch the snap, you know, little things like that.

I got to tell you something, all right, he's going into this, he said not up to standard, not even up to par, in his seventh year in the league, all right. If you're a starting quarterback in the NFL, starting caliber quarterback who's been in the league for 7 years, you're lighting up the preseason. You're not having a preseason game that's not up to standard or not up to par. If you're a starting caliber quarterback, 7 years— go look at all the other starting quarterbacks in the NFL in their preseason debuts. You're lighting it up. You're not— you're coming out and saying it wasn't even up to standard, wasn't up to par. He is washed.

Sometimes you're so good you don't even play in the preseason. Like, think about where he is in his career that he's having to play in some of these preseason games.

Okay, though. I mean, like, Burrow plays. You got, you got guys who play and then you look at their numbers. 11 for 13, 130 yards.

I know he's at a new spot and it's an interesting point in his career, but at year 7, damning to be talking about just the basics of the game as if, like, catching a snap, as if you're new to this whole thing.

Yeah. You're in the league 7 years as a starting quarterback. And after a preseason game, you're talking about your play is not up to standard? That's not an NFL quarterback.

Case Keenum isn't even a starter. He went 9 of 10 yesterday for 151 yards.

He's been in the league a long time. If you're a veteran quarterback who's worth anything, you crush the preseason.

Where is Case Keenum?

Backup for the Bears.

Yeah.

Oh, good for him.

He's been in the league a long time. You know, go look up like Gardner Minshew or like any of these guys who have been in the league for a little while. Heck, even Fernando Mendoza, rookie obviously, He looked awesome in his debut there for the Raiders. If you're a quarterback who can play in this league, you light up the preseason. You can't come out of the preseason talking about, my play today was not up to standard, I gotta work on the simple things like, you know, catching a snap to quarterback.

Gardner Minshew, 14 of 16, 101 yards, 2 touchdowns.

It's preseason.

Where is he?

Uh, he's with the Cardinals.

Nice.

That's what happens when you've been in the league for a long time at the quarterback position. Preseason is easy.

Kirk Cousins, 5 of 6, 50 yards, 1 touchdown.

Of course, Tua's thrown 2-yard passes. Can't catch a snap. He's awful. So yeah, to answer the question, I think if you're a Dolphin fan, you want him to win the job. You know, I mean, heck, Michael Penix isn't healthy. You want him to go out there and win the job, and you want him to look bad because you wanted to prove that, yeah, like, this wasn't just organization. This— not only is he terrible, but also, see, here's the biggest thing for me, Amin, because obviously it sounds like I'm piling on Tua. I don't think he's the same guy as he was when they drafted him. No, no, I'm not talking about physically. Oh, mentally he changed. Something changed about his brain.

But I see what Zazz is going, right? Yes. On the one hand, his brain is French toast, right? Scrambled eggs, maybe some chicken sausage in there. It's not brains anymore. But also that has to have an impact on your confidence, right? Like part of this game, especially this game, is all fearlessness. There has to be a fearlessness in it, because if there wasn't, you wouldn't play football. You'd do something else, right? So when you've gone through as much mind scrambling as he's gone through, at some point you just can't play with the same reckless abandon that the game demands of you. And a scared athlete, to me, in any sport—

and he looks scared—

a scared athlete is, is not a good athlete. Doesn't matter how talented, how high of an IQ, if you're out there playing scared, you can never— you'll never be successful. And I think that's where he's at, probably.

But here's the thing, so like, I sound like a dick, right? That I—

that you're rooting for his downfall, yes.

When he gave his body and he gave his brain and his brain is scrambled. So I sound like an asshole when I'm speaking like this, but somewhere along the way in his time with the Dolphins and You know, it kind of feels like it coincided with him signing the huge contract. All right. There was something different about him when he comes out at the beginning of the training camp and has the balls to grab the microphone and tell everybody, show me the money. Okay. Which, oh my God, was so cringe. It was. It was so cringe. And he was coming off a good season. You're kind of like, what are you doing, man? And even from, you know, postgame prep, throwing the teammates under the bus, you know, like we're attributing every Every weird thing he says now we're attributing to he got concussions?

No, no, he's always struck me as a little bit— I don't, you know, I don't follow as close as you guys. Always struck me as someone who's like sheltered and now trying to play a role.

He's always said too much. But like, remember that Game Day piece where he's like, yeah, my dad hit me, and you're like, what?

Yeah, but also like trying to be what he thinks we want, right? So wait, what would they want? They want their cocky leader to say, "Show me the money," right? Okay, let me— not like, I don't know if these are his actual feelings or if he's just trying to play a role. Like I said, he always just struck me as someone who was not in touch with reality, even before all the injuries, just everything he would say.

And while I don't have all of the details, there's a lot of conversation, or at least there was a lot of conversation, about his behavior behind the scenes with Mike McDaniel. And to me, like, disrespectful.

Yeah.

The— how the relationship deteriorated.

How?

Like I said, I don't have all the details, but like, give me the gist of it.

Blame, blame game.

Wow.

And I mean, Tua got paid because of Mike McDaniel.

Yeah, he made him look like the best quarterback in the league.

Mike McDaniel's M.O.

He was the leading passer in the league.

Mike McDaniel's M.O. when he took the job was, you, I'm going to make you— you're my res— you're my number one responsibility.

And this is coming off the heels of Brian Flores saying, yeah, you're a bum. Yeah. So it's like, if I'm Mike McDaniels, not only did I, like, did I, you know, I won't say make you—

And that shit bothers me.

But like, I didn't just help you reach these heights, I dug you from the depth when they were saying that you couldn't play. So yeah, that would bother me too, man.

That stuff bothers me. I mean, look, let's, your best guess, who winds up overall having a better career in the NFL? Mike McDaniels or Tua Tagovailoa?

Mike McDaniels with Justin Herbert. I think I'm gonna go with Mike McDaniels.

He's been a part of a bunch of great staffs already, right? So it's like his longevity, he's going to be coaching for another 30 years and like Tua is going to be gone in 2.

Well, let's do this one, Tony. Stop their careers right now. Who's had the better career?

Tua. Got to say he was leading passer.

Yeah, probably Tua.

Really?

Yeah.

His contributions are more lasting. And I do think like right now it's a punchline, needs a little bit of separation away from Miami and the fan base right now.

You're talking about McDaniel?

No, no, no. I mean, well, probably both.

Both.

Yeah, but I do think Dolphin fans will come around and be like, all right, he did give us some good moments. Kind of like Tannehill. It's like, yeah, Tannehill, like at the time that he left, people felt some sort of way.

But the laughing on the sideline when the Dolphins are getting blown out, I hate that shit.

I do think like we're about 10 years away from Tua becoming a luminary.

Really?

Wow.

Will he be like, let's go Dolphins?

Here's the thing, guys. Here's, here's the thing. For a team that You grew up and you watched all the '72 Dolphins do their thing. You don't have that many living luminaries anymore.

Jay Fiedler.

You haven't been good this century.

Aarondale Gatson.

Chris Chambers.

You've been really bad this century. So your living luminaries are quite limited.

Sam Madison.

And when Jason Taylor and Zach Thomas are too busy, and when Marino is getting up there.

Keith Byers.

You're going to need to call a Tua to show up to an opening.

Derky Williams, Lusaka Pollard, Tim Bowens.

Mike, are you annoyed that Brad Marchand just now had surgery, which is likely going to make him miss the beginning of the season for the Panthers?

Yes. Unless we can circumvent the salary cap, then I'm cool with it.

Like, what is that? Why did he just have the operation?

I don't know.

Something must have just happened.

I'm, I'm not worried about Brad Marchand this coming season in the sense that, you know, that this injury is going to keep him out at the start of the year. What I am worried about is Brad Marchand was amazing when, when he debuted for the Panthers 2 seasons ago. Like, he was, he was good late in that regular season when he finally played and then was amazing in the playoffs. And last year he only played the first half of the season and he was on pace for a 40-goal season. He was amazing. And then he got hurt and maybe he would have returned, you know, if the season was still, you know, worth anything. But the part that I am concerned about with Brad Marchand is Is he still at a place in his career where he's able to play 82 games? Because when he debuted for the Panthers 2 years ago, he had missed like the final 2 months of his tenure with the Bruins.

My concern is he's already up there in age. There are signs of his game diminishing.

Can he play 82? I don't know.

Yeah, although he was phenomenal in the postseason, and yes, he was really good last year to start the season, but the next time you see Brad Marchand, he's at an age where it's just like, hey, I haven't seen this guy play hockey, right? You know, in a, in a really long time. How is he supposed to just pick up where he left off?

Yeah, so that part concerns me a little bit, but But we're getting close. I mean, Panthers, oh yes.

I like how we batted the local sports cycle.

We did good.

We— except for the Marlins are in the playoffs.

Jansen Junk, 1.93 ERA in his last 4 starts.

I mean, what up?

Miami spies.