OJ McDuffie Discusses NFL Changes and Dolphins Insights
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Welcome back to Newswire here on Sports Grid.
00:05It is always such an honor for me to have one of the greatest players who ever wore
00:09a Miami Dolphins uniform to join me on my show here.
00:13It is OJ McDuffie, former Miami Dolphins wide receiver, also a great player, of course,
00:17at Penn State, sweating through Dolphins games, sweating through Nittany Lions games, and
00:22at the same time doing the Fish Tank podcast and having some of the greats that played
00:26for the Dolphins on his show as well.
00:28OJ, man, it is great to see you, my friend.
00:31How are you?
00:32Craig, man, it's always great to see you, man.
00:34And let's not get it twisted here, man.
00:36If it weren't for you, I probably wouldn't be doing this sort of thing, man.
00:39You know, you gave me opportunities back in the day, man.
00:43I've tried to continue and hopefully make you proud along the way, my brother.
00:46No, you're doing awesome.
00:48I listen to the pod every week, and OJ is being too kind, one of my favorites in the
00:52game.
00:53All right, before we get to the Dolphins, because OJ has some great insight on what's
00:56going on there, you know, it's sort of crazy these days in the NFL where, you know, back
01:02when you played, you know, OJ, if you were upset, you just ate it and you went home.
01:07These days, if you don't like where you play, you make enough noise, you get traded.
01:11I can't make heads or tails as to what the Jets are doing.
01:14Last night, they looked awful on Monday Night Football.
01:17I guess they must have had a trade for Devontae Adams because he's already in New York there.
01:22I don't get it.
01:23I don't understand how this makes them any better whatsoever.
01:27I think the Raiders, OJ, are going to end up on the good side of this, getting draft
01:31picks.
01:32That's not to say Devontae Adams isn't great.
01:33He is.
01:34But, OJ, I mean, like, what are the Jets doing here?
01:37I'm having a hard time figuring this out.
01:39Maybe you have better insight than me.
01:40Yeah, I really don't have much insight on it, but, you know, I mean, once Aaron Rodgers
01:45speaks, it seems like things happen, you know, in New York.
01:51You know, they say nothing happened with him, and there's no coincidence with him and Salah
01:55being fired last week.
01:58I just know that they have a comfort level with each other, he and Devontae Adams, and
02:01I think that, you know, he needs that blanket.
02:04You saw that a little bit last night where Williams had some opportunities to make some
02:07plays for him, he did not, but the other guys he's really comfortable with.
02:11Aaron's going to get his guys, man, and here's the thing about it, you talk about how guys
02:15usually just have to deal with what's going on, the NFL is becoming more like the NBA
02:20right now.
02:21It seems like some players are more like GMs.
02:23You see that the players are able to have more control and be able to go where they
02:26want to go, and good for them, because obviously the money's a lot better than when it was
02:30back in the day, and control is okay for the most part, but you also want to see these
02:35guys stick it out, try to find a way to win with their teams, but, you know, I think that
02:41Aaron Rodgers, the GM, head coach, quarterback, has pulled a lot of strings here, and, you
02:47know, and for me personally, you know, I mean, look, Craig, you know me, I'm the biggest
02:50Dolphin Homer out there.
02:52I really hope it does not work out for them.
02:54Yeah, I know that, at least OJ's the one honest guy when it comes to that.
02:59Yeah, again, Mike Williams, $10 million to probably not play anymore.
03:03It's sort of, how anybody can trust what the Jets are doing is beyond me.
03:07All right, so the Dolphins have made all kinds of headlines, OJ, this year.
03:11I mean, you guys have been busy.
03:12I mean, from Tyreek Hill on and off the field, to the injury to Tua, to them looking so good
03:18initially out of the gate, to now down to like the third quarterback.
03:23Let's start off with the receiver position, because this is what you know best.
03:26You know, Tyreek Hill, probably the single best or second best wide receiver in the NFL
03:31is just simply not getting the same amount of opportunities.
03:34I thought the last game against the Patriots, I saw a little bit of a silver lining coming.
03:39Do you think that that continues against the Colts, who looked like maybe, you know, they
03:44looked a little defensively challenged, a little bit more against Tennessee than they
03:48had looked early in the season?
03:49You know, Craig, I hope so.
03:51You know, as Tyreek goes is how we go, you know, most of the time.
03:54If we don't get Tyreek going, then everything else is bottled up.
03:59We get those guys down the field, he and Jalen Waddle down the field, and we can get A-Chan
04:03going, we can get Mostert going.
04:05You know, one thing I do know about this team is, when we decide to run the football between
04:09the tackles, we've been pretty good.
04:11But we abandon that a lot because we're such a speed team, we want to use speed.
04:15Speed usually works on the edges.
04:18So we kind of rely on that a lot, way too much in my opinion.
04:22But I think we're starting to learn a lesson.
04:24These guys that we have up front, you know, they're good blockers, they're athletic blockers.
04:29But I think it's more about positioning.
04:31But I think the inside game has been great.
04:33So if we can get the run game to work, which is, you know, a lot of teams are playing this,
04:37we see a lot of cover two, whatever it might be, two man, two regular two, just a two high
04:42shell all the time.
04:44They're inviting us to run the football, we have to continue along that path.
04:47But they're also, Craig, there are a lot of two man, there are a lot of cover two beaters
04:52out there.
04:53We have to find those two beaters for our guys to get open and get going.
04:56Yeah.
04:57And, you know, Huntley looked better, at least in the last game, than he had in the past.
05:00But that opens up the door now to this conversation.
05:02We know that Huntley starts this week against the Colts.
05:06The following game is the Arizona Cardinals.
05:09And you know, all I can do is watch these press conferences from Mike McDaniel.
05:13I don't think anybody really knows anything.
05:16But to me, he definitely left that door wide open, OJ, for Tua to come back.
05:21And to me, it sounds like a couple of weeks may be the case if he was this close to potentially
05:27returning for the Colts.
05:29I guess he's going to come back, OJ.
05:31I just don't know when.
05:32I'm sure you don't know when either.
05:33What do you make of this whole situation?
05:35Yeah, you know, Tua, this offense is totally designed around Tua's abilities and his attributes,
05:42whatever he brings to the table.
05:43I know that they want Tua back.
05:46If Tua can come back healthy, you know, and he's cleared, obviously, he's going to come
05:49back.
05:50I mean, it makes no sense for him not to.
05:52So with that being said, you know, this offense needs Tua.
05:56But when Tua was there, you know, we struggled.
05:58We did struggle as an offense, which is surprising.
06:01Three years in, Craig, it's kind of amazing that we didn't get better as an offense from
06:04the beginning of the season.
06:06When you look at the fact that you've got the same coordinator and head coach, you've
06:09got the same quarterback, you have all the same weapons.
06:12This offense should have gotten better, and it wasn't.
06:14We just led for the first time in the last game we played.
06:17We just led for the first time in regulation in five games, man.
06:20You know, that's hard to imagine a team that put up a 70 spot, you know, not so long ago.
06:25The fact that we're going to score five touchdowns is a big problem for this team.
06:28We got to figure something out, and Tua is probably the best guy to remedy that.
06:33But I think another game with Huntley, he can be pretty good for us, but Tua's got to
06:37be the answer for this offense.
06:39Yeah, I mean, I think he'll be back against the Cardinals at home.
06:42Just a guess for me.
06:43Again, I'm just reading people.
06:45That's kind of what I'm trying to do here.
06:47All right, OJ, we got to go here.
06:50Penn State, in or out of the college football playoff in the top 12 when it comes down to
06:54it.
06:55What do you think?
06:56In or out?
06:57We're at three now.
06:58If we drop out from three to out of 12 right now, Craig, I'd be totally disappointed, man.
07:01We've got some tough games coming up, of course.
07:04The Wisconsin's, the Washington's, the Ohio State's, we've got some big Indiana things
07:07on the schedule.
07:08We've got some tough games coming up.
07:09All right.
07:10Thanks again, OJ.
07:11Great to catch up with you.
07:12You too, brother.