The Miami Dolphins 53-man roster is set, kept 4 WRs, cutting Erik Ezukanma. They also let go of Chris Brooks, kept Jeff Wilson Jr. for the time being, and let go of long snapper Blake Ferguson. We discuss the stature of the Dolphins receiving core and OBJ's role in that system.
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00:00So the Miami Dolphins, their 53-man roster is set.
00:05This is the first time, and correct me if I'm wrong,
00:12where you had 30 to 40 guys get cut,
00:18and you only know two names.
00:21Yeah, I'd say so.
00:22I would say like five guys.
00:25I was like, oh, yeah.
00:27Right.
00:27Well, and two of the guys they brought in.
00:30Right.
00:31And signed, and they just cut bait on them.
00:34Yeah, there was, I would say, out of the maybes, the most,
00:40I don't want to say stunning, but the ones
00:42that were like, all right, which way is this going to go?
00:44Azucama.
00:45Well, I heard something on the way in,
00:48because it took so damn long, was this.
00:57As great as he was in preseason, the last two preseasons,
01:00he is a preseason Hall of Famer.
01:02Yep.
01:03He's only had three catches in the NFL.
01:05Yeah.
01:06So you can wave him and bring him back.
01:09Nobody's going to steal him.
01:10I don't think so.
01:11You see what I mean?
01:12Because he has his own.
01:13And he had a bad injury last year,
01:15a neck injury that derailed him.
01:16And then he's dealing with something here.
01:19And then Chris Brooks, he had the concussion,
01:22and he got hurt in the last game, too.
01:24So both guys that were kind of on the fence,
01:26it's availability.
01:27Like, I don't know if they're going to be good to go or not.
01:29It's weird, because if you're those guys,
01:32and they say it's an availability thing,
01:34and you look around this team, you're like, really?
01:38Yeah, well, you're not Odell Beckham.
01:40I don't have to tell you.
01:43But yeah, so and I would say this, and I was kind of,
01:49remember, I was kind of upset when this happened.
01:52Why would you let Andrew Van Ginkle go?
01:56You know what I mean?
01:58When he was probably your best pass rusher
02:01at the end of the year, and he would
02:03have been one of those guys you could bring back
02:05for that mid-level, not the super high,
02:08but not the super cheap, somewhere in the middle,
02:11you could have brought him back at a reasonable price.
02:14Because there's certain things that we
02:19knew were going to have to improve out of the young guys.
02:24And what did we say about Storm Duck?
02:26Doesn't set the edge.
02:28Chopper Robinson.
02:29Chopper Robinson, sorry.
02:31And so from that standpoint, that is like,
02:37just look at what happened to Dallas.
02:40When their star didn't set the edge well, they ran at him.
02:43So you can't play him a whole bunch of plays.
02:48Well, yeah, they definitely, he was a good player.
02:51They let him go.
02:52And I think that the price there between him and Barrett, too,
02:55I don't think it was that crazy.
02:57So that was definitely a weird one in the offseason.
03:00But yeah, I mean, I think the thing,
03:03you talked about this yesterday with the tight ends, right?
03:05They went double the tight ends they did last year,
03:08because they got Tanner Conner and Jonu Smith.
03:10And that kind of allows them to be.
03:13Flexibility with what they could do with that third wide
03:16receiver.
03:16Right.
03:17Which, I mean, like their receivers.
03:18I mean, they couldn't ride a roller coaster.
03:20I mean, they're all five, eight guys, but two of their five,
03:23eight guys are amazing.
03:24Wait, wait.
03:26Who's five, eight Jalen Waddle.
03:30Jalen Waddle is not five, eight.
03:32Oh, okay, dude.
03:33Sorry.
03:34We'll quibble over five, nine.
03:36No, they got him listed at 510, but they also all right.
03:42So I thought he was taller, which is why I thought.
03:47For sure.
03:47They would keep as a comment.
03:48Yeah.
03:49Jalen Waddle Tyreek Hill are both five niners, and then you
03:53got five, eight Braxton Barrios and five, eight Malik Washington.
03:56Right.
03:57Well, Malik Washington also weighs about a buck.
04:00Yeah.
04:01So tiny, tiny receiver core, but it's very cyclical, because
04:07remember, there was a point in time where everybody wanted
04:10a giant as a wide receiver.
04:11Yep.
04:12And we went through that stretch of what, 10, 15 years where
04:18everybody wanted that big, strong receiver outside.
04:22And you start looking at all the guys who had success in that.
04:25You look at the Randy Moss, the Owens.
04:28You look at Megatron.
04:30You look at just all.
04:32How tall is Larry Fitzgerald?
04:33Is he like six, three Larry Fitzgerald.
04:36Right.
04:36You look at all these guys who were giants, and now it's
04:39kind of switched again and went back to like, I mean, think
04:44about the Dolphins with Dan Marino.
04:45Yeah.
04:46We were doing this yesterday because we were looking at the TV
04:47and like, Anna, Yuka is a giant, and he's really not.
04:50He's not.
04:51He's not.
04:52He's just compared to the Dolphins.
04:53He's compared to everybody else.
04:55The Dolphins receivers are very, very short, very short.
04:58But obviously, like, look, they're going to get at one point.
05:00They'll likely get, I mean, I guess I shouldn't count my chickens
05:04on the Yodell Beckham thing.
05:06Well, and keep in mind, I don't think they thought he would be here.
05:15Right.
05:17But they have him for later on in the season.
05:22Well, you know what?
05:24I'll tell you one thing that kind of annoys me with it, though.
05:27Why so much secrecy?
05:29Right.
05:29Because yesterday, all of the reports came out, and they're like,
05:34oh, yeah.
05:35Yeah.
05:35He had an offseason procedure, and this was expected all along.
05:38I'm like, oh, I know.
05:39Why 24 hours ago?
05:41The coach say, oh, it's TBD.
05:43If he's going to be on the pop list still.
05:44I'm like, you know, like that's that's one of those things
05:47that seems like there's something there.
05:50They're doing some damage control on, you know.
05:51Well, here's the problem.
05:53And here's how you explain this.
05:57He had a procedure.
05:59They knew about it.
06:01Right.
06:03So it wasn't a surprise.
06:05The surprise, however, was how long it's taken to get him on the field.
06:11Right.
06:12So you can't say you didn't know about it.
06:16Right.
06:17You can't say you didn't know about the injury or about the procedure.
06:23And I think a lot of it has to do with, yeah, man.
06:27Like, knees start rubbing.
06:29Bones start rubbing together.
06:31And you see how that affects basketball players.
06:34Well, football is even harder.
06:36Right.
06:37And you got to monitor that.
06:40And you have to be careful with that.
06:41And you have to have these procedures to try to help with that.
06:45But it sometimes takes a while to come back.
06:49So they knew about it.
06:51They knew about the procedure.
06:53However, they're not going to come and say, hell,
06:55we didn't know it was going to take this long for him to come back.
06:57We wouldn't have gave him $3 million.
06:59Right.
07:01So like, yeah.
07:03That's why you kind of get the kind of wishy-washy in this.
07:07Because they kind of knew they don't want to show any frustration with Odell.
07:13Because the injury is the injury.
07:17And you can't have a problem with his recovery
07:20if you knew what he was going to have.
07:23Yeah.
07:24I just think that, like, if this was the case,
07:27why is there always this shroud of mystery?
07:29Like, just say, yeah, hey, he dealt with something.
07:32There's a long-term plan to this.
07:33And I don't even think, like, anybody is going to have issue with that.
07:38You know?
07:38And then, like, when you just leave all this stuff out
07:41in the ether to interpret, you're like, all right.
07:44This kind of comes off as worse.
07:46Let me read this.
07:49I'm a 5'9 or 2".
07:50I think I should try out.
07:52I run a 4'2", but it's in a 26-yard dash.
07:55My nickname is Tyreek Downhill.
07:59Get to going.
08:04But that's, you know, look.
08:08I just think in a season where you have a lot of expectations
08:17and a lot of promise, it just seems like you're starting the season off
08:24kind of like the last season ended.
08:26A little bit.
08:27And I just, I get real nervous about that.
08:33Not because it doesn't happen, but because now in a week and a half
08:41and in two weeks, you are going to play two games.
08:49And you got guys who haven't really done a whole bunch of practicing.
08:53And you're going to have them rev it up to play two NFL games in four days.
08:58That's, I worry about that.