0:02

It's the Lockdown Podcast

0:04

Network, your team every

0:06

day. Mike

0:12

McDaniel addressed the media for the first time since

0:14

the end of the 2023 season at

0:17

the NFL scouting combine today. What

0:20

did he have to say about Tuatangamaloa,

0:22

the offense and special teams coordinator

0:24

Danny Crossman, we're here to talk about that here

0:27

today on Lockdown Dolphins. You

0:31

are Lockdown Dolphins, your daily

0:33

Miami Dolphins podcast, part

0:35

of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your

0:38

team every day. All

0:42

right. My Yeme,

0:45

welcome to another episode of Lockdown Dolphins.

0:48

It's your team every day

0:50

here on the Lockdown Network. I'm your host Kyle

0:52

Crafts, a lifelong Miami Dolphins fan, host of Lockdown

0:54

Dolphins, co-host of locked on NFL scouting. You can

0:56

find our shows on YouTube or wherever you listen

0:59

to your favorite podcast, tip of the cap to

1:02

our every dares because it is your team every

1:04

day. We don't just say it. We live it

1:06

here on the Lockdown Network. Today's episode of Lockdown

1:08

Dolphins is brought to you by Fandule. Make every

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fandule.com/locked on to get

1:21

started. Mike McDaniel spoke

1:23

at the podium in typical

1:26

Mike McDaniel fashion at the 2024 NFL

1:28

scouting combine

1:31

today. And he had some

1:33

interesting things to say. He was asked about Tuatunga

1:35

below and the efforts towards a contract extension.

1:37

He was talked about the evolution of this offense

1:40

from 2022 to 2023 and 2023 to 2024.

1:45

He was asked about special teams coordinator

1:47

Danny Crossman and the decision to retain

1:49

his services for the upcoming season. Lots

1:52

of interesting talking points. We're

1:56

going to get into those three in

1:58

particular here on this. Second

2:01

Tuesday episode of locked on dolphins. I'm here

2:03

in my hotel room in Indianapolis Back

2:06

from the media workroom back from

2:08

podium sessions hearing Mike

2:10

McDaniel speak and I have some clips

2:12

and the first comes

2:14

when asked Mike McDaniel if he hopes

2:16

that the Dolphins can come to a

2:19

contract agreement with

2:21

to a tongue of a loa Absolutely,

2:24

you know, I I think one of the

2:27

cool things in

2:29

this organization is it's

2:32

how you know communicative and how well

2:34

I work with Chris

2:36

Greer and and As

2:40

well as how I can separate what

2:43

my job is and what his job

2:45

is and how we see forward work

2:47

I'm very encouraged there. They're you

2:50

know both to his representation and

2:52

and our Organization's hard at

2:54

work. Those timelines are

2:56

impossible to predict and I'm

2:58

not you know My main

3:00

concern this offseason has been

3:02

communicating what what to us

3:06

needs from Which

3:09

is what things can

3:11

we identify to continue the

3:13

progression Of your

3:15

game the same way that we have a

3:18

one who I believe Has

3:21

always been strong from day one into

3:23

it stronger Then

3:25

it was the first day I met him and

3:27

that's because of that

3:30

relationship where I'm focused which is

3:33

continuing to provide the coaching so he can

3:35

continue to evolve his game as So

3:43

the couple of key buzzwords here from Mike

3:45

McDaniel Very

3:47

encouraged as vocabulary in

3:50

talking about a contract extension If

3:53

you are a Dolphins fan who is

3:55

not a fan of the

3:57

quarterback or would like to see the team go in a different direction just

4:00

start mentally preparing yourself. This is

4:02

going to happen. And

4:06

this team feels as though based

4:08

on the conversations, based

4:11

on the vocabulary, based on what has

4:13

been reported, that

4:15

the direction that they want to continue

4:17

in at the quarterback position and offensively

4:19

is tying Mike McDaniel to Tua Tunguvaloa

4:21

and trying to maximize that relationship as

4:24

best as they possibly can. Well,

4:26

Mike was very deliberate to say that you

4:28

can't put a timeline on something like this

4:30

specifically because it's very difficult to project what

4:32

that's going to look like, but

4:35

that both sides were hard at

4:37

work in trying to come

4:39

to an agreement on a long-term contract

4:42

extension. And he, when asked

4:44

if he would like to see it

4:46

done, said, yes, absolutely. So

4:49

whether or not this gets done in time for the

4:51

start of the league calendar year, which is two weeks

4:53

away, I think is

4:56

a storyline and focus for the Dolphins

4:58

because that's one way for them to

5:00

tap into some of

5:02

the salary cap space that they can

5:04

open up to

5:06

make themselves more competitive in the free

5:09

agent windows starting in the middle of

5:11

March. Now, you certainly would not want

5:13

to acquiesce on all

5:15

of your price points and

5:18

assumptions for what

5:20

you want to spend on the quarterback in

5:23

order to just open up the cap space.

5:25

But that is something that does, I think,

5:27

work against the Dolphins in having some leverage

5:29

in getting this done unless they are willing

5:31

to go the mile, the full mile, and

5:33

then some with the other alternatives

5:35

that they have to tap into at

5:38

least for the start of the league calendar year, not

5:40

to necessarily get you cap compliant. They'll

5:43

have no problem getting there without help from

5:45

a two or talking below a contract extension.

5:48

But if you want to have a

5:50

competitive window to add

5:53

a tier three free

5:55

agents to this roster,

5:58

very unlikely to see them add any tier. tier

6:00

one or tier two free agents just because of

6:02

the dollars involved. But if you

6:04

want to add fringe quality starters in

6:06

one or two key spots, maybe non-premium

6:08

positions, that

6:10

cap space is going to be important for Miami's on the

6:12

books for $23 million to seize.

6:16

Get the contract extension done. This

6:19

could float somewhere between 12 and 13, 13 and a half, $14 million

6:21

in cap space. Depending

6:25

on how big of a signing bonus they want to

6:27

give to Tuatang Llewellah. So

6:31

continue to expect this storyline to continue

6:33

to unfold for Miami in a way

6:35

that bodes well if

6:37

you are a fan of Tuatang

6:39

Llewellah. If you're not a fan of Tuatang Llewellah, I

6:42

get it. People have different tastes. But if you're a

6:44

fan of the Dolphins, just be

6:46

mentally prepared. This is coming. This

6:48

is going to happen. And

6:51

when it does, I'm sure there will

6:53

be some sticker shock involved because of

6:57

the dollars involved and that

6:59

there's no greater market expansion right

7:02

now than in quarterback contracts. You

7:04

saw the market reset four times

7:06

last summer between Lamar

7:09

Jackson, Jaylen Hertz, Justin

7:12

Herbert and Joe Burrow. Do

7:14

I think Tuatang Llewellah ultimately gets a top

7:17

of market contract? I'd

7:19

be surprised if he did. But

7:21

I do think he is in route

7:23

to probably a top eight,

7:26

top six annual

7:28

average salary. And

7:31

there's ways that you could dress that up depending

7:33

on when and where you put the guarantees or

7:35

the upfront cash that would give

7:37

Tuatang a record setting. And

7:39

I'm using air quotes here for those of

7:41

you not watching on YouTube, a record setting

7:43

contract in some capacity, even if you

7:45

don't say, well, we're going to pay him on average more than

7:47

Joe Burrow because that's the buzz average

7:50

that everybody likes to look to in

7:52

terms of quantifying a player's pay in

7:54

the NFL. But

7:59

Mike, listen, just Asked about Tua and

8:01

he wasn't just asked about the things we're gonna talk about here

8:04

on the show But these were the three things that that I

8:06

came away with the biggest impressions on He

8:08

was also asked about the evolution of the

8:10

offense this upcoming season That is our focus

8:12

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slash locked on I Thought

9:08

this one was a really

9:10

interesting answer from Mike McDaniel because there's

9:12

an assumption that You

9:14

know year one to year two to

9:16

year three in a system Which is what the Dolphins

9:19

are now facing year three in this offensive system with

9:21

Mike McDaniel That there's

9:23

just gonna be a stacking and a compounding and

9:25

to some degree there is It's

9:28

not necessarily through

9:31

the lens however of 100

9:35

level to 200 level to 300 level of

9:37

the same exact core concepts and

9:39

principles I do

9:42

think it is interesting that That Miami's

9:47

Passing attack in particular had an evolution from

9:49

2022 to 2023 It

9:51

became much more play-action pass oriented versus RPO

9:54

Passoriented much less of the RPOs that the

9:56

Dolphins ran to death in

9:59

2020 to with two if we're being honest. So

10:03

there's not

10:06

a one for one, but there

10:08

is a greater understanding of the why

10:10

in how you're applying things. And then

10:12

as you build a larger catalog of

10:15

year over year, if you have some

10:17

guys who are sustained throughout

10:19

the entirety of this era with Mike McDaniel, you

10:21

could get into a game situation where depending on

10:24

what a team is doing to you and trying

10:26

to defend you, you guys can

10:28

tap back into, hey, remember in 2023 in

10:31

week three, we

10:34

did this offensively against Denver based

10:36

on their front. Let's

10:38

run that. And guys can have a recall

10:41

in that and understand here's the adjustment and

10:43

how it's going to work, even if it

10:45

wasn't necessarily front row center in your install

10:47

in a game play. But

10:51

Mike McDaniel was asked about his offense

10:54

in year three versus

10:57

what it has been in 2022 and

10:59

2023, and

11:01

in particular how it will evolve this

11:03

upcoming season. Yeah, you know, it's

11:05

an interesting question that I regard.

11:10

You know, it's not like I

11:12

look at every offseason, every

11:15

year's offense is a constant evolution

11:17

to your players and to

11:19

what defenses are doing. So what

11:22

we're doing, I'm never going to copy paste

11:24

and be like, well, we did, this is

11:26

what we did in 2023, and

11:30

let's work off of that. I

11:32

think that's part of the way

11:35

that you can stay, ultimately trying

11:37

to create some uncertainty and indecision

11:40

with offensive scheme. And

11:44

inherent in that is your

11:46

constant evolution. I'm

11:48

not really ever gloating

11:51

on any successes of past.

11:54

You're more, what are we going to do with

11:56

this set of players in

11:58

this? We're

12:01

going to have some guys who are

12:03

going to be here three, some guys

12:05

here two, some new

12:07

guys, but ultimately one of the better things to serve

12:09

them. And it's

12:11

not that naturally

12:14

evolving. There's never been

12:16

one year from an authentic perspective

12:18

that I can remember that we've stayed

12:20

exactly the same, particularly since I got

12:22

started here in 2022. There'll

12:26

be exciting things

12:28

that we do different. There's going to be

12:30

exciting things that we'll evolve from and there's

12:33

exciting things that

12:35

we will build upon the

12:38

success of the first two years. I

12:41

think the interesting thing that Mike says here is

12:45

talking about servicing the players that are

12:47

there in that given year. And

12:51

when you contrast and foil

12:54

that for

12:57

where the dolphins are at from

12:59

a personnel standpoint on offense, think

13:02

about their core pillars. They

13:04

have two offensive tackles under contract, although Mike

13:06

McDaniel did say he's continuing to give Toronto

13:09

Armstead space to finalize a decision.

13:11

Barry Jackson, the Herald had reported that Toronto Armstead

13:13

is expected to play this upcoming season, but that

13:16

has not come from the horse's mouth yet in

13:18

Toronto Armstead. So

13:20

you have two tackles under contract. You

13:23

have a fullback and a tight

13:25

end and Durham Smythe and Alec Ingold, who

13:27

I think are good assets. You have cornerstone

13:30

players and Jay Lamott, Lintower, Reek Hill. You

13:32

have the quarterback position and you have

13:35

Devon H. Hanna, Rahimosa, the running back. You

13:39

have a potential need for

13:41

a power back. You

13:43

have potential to upgrade your tight end

13:45

to situation with Julian Hill. You

13:48

have a wide open wide receiver room behind

13:50

it, and you're into your offensive line is

13:52

a blank slate. Some

13:55

people will look at that and say that

13:57

is a daunting list of things to address.

14:00

And it can be there.

14:02

There's not we're not buying top

14:04

shelf items in all of those needs for

14:06

Miami. But the

14:09

Dolphins do have. Some

14:12

ambiguity here with what direction they choose

14:14

to go. Do you want to be

14:17

more of a 12 personnel team versus

14:19

a 11 personnel or 21? Can

14:23

you run more 22, which is two backs

14:25

and two tight ends on the field? Like

14:28

there's you want to

14:30

keep Jaylen Waddle and

14:32

Tyree Kill as the centerpieces of your

14:34

offense, rightfully so. But how

14:37

do you compliment around that and how much

14:40

diversity can you create based on what

14:42

direction you choose to go? Are

14:44

you going to go out and get maulers up front

14:46

on the interior to try to run more between the

14:49

tackles and add a second tight end and be more

14:51

of a 12 personnel team? So like they

14:54

did their assessment of the

14:56

season that was and

14:58

now their personnel decisions are

15:01

going to give you clues as

15:03

to what they are going to choose to

15:05

try to be. And

15:08

they have a unique situation

15:10

in being able to dictate

15:15

tailoring the offense to the players by

15:17

picking the players that are going to

15:19

be the complimentary pieces around the cornerstones

15:21

that they have. Committed themselves

15:23

to. So

15:25

the Dolphins go out and they sign a tight end and

15:27

they sign big body guys to match

15:29

inside and they go out and they

15:31

add a big bodied running

15:33

back. That

15:36

tells you one possible direction if they

15:38

continue to go out and get separators

15:41

and wide receiver. They don't really address

15:43

the tight end position. They

15:46

get continue to pursue maybe

15:48

lighter or more athletic into your offensive

15:50

lineman. That

15:53

would seem to indicate a different direction and

15:55

what way they're choosing to go and how

15:57

they're going to tailor their offense around the

15:59

talents. by picking the talent to

16:01

fill out the offense, if

16:03

that makes sense. So Mike

16:06

McDaniel kind of left it open, but

16:09

he also did kind of cue that on

16:12

a year by year basis, your personnel,

16:14

you're tailoring your personnel as

16:17

the means in which you're deciding what

16:19

your offense looks like. Mike

16:24

McDaniel was also asked about Danny

16:26

Crossman, the special teams court aired, and the

16:28

decision to retain Danny Crossman for the 2024

16:30

season. And

16:33

he said some stuff about Danny Crossman, but he also

16:35

said a quote, which I think is really enlightening for

16:37

Mike McDaniel and their approach

16:39

as a whole to this football organization.

16:42

That's next here on this episode of Lock

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partner of the NBA. No

17:16

fancy quote here for Segment 3

17:18

and Danny Crossman. This was a

17:20

long-winded answer from Mike McDaniel. But

17:23

again, it peels

17:25

back the curtain a little bit on

17:28

how this team operates and why they operate the way

17:30

that they do and the decisions

17:32

that they make and what leads into

17:34

those decisions. Mike

17:37

McDaniel was asked point blank about the decision

17:39

to retain Danny Crossman as the special teams

17:41

court heir. And Mike, to his credit, acknowledged

17:44

the thing and said the thing out loud that we

17:46

all have thought. The performance

17:48

of the special teams unit has not

17:50

been to the standard that

17:54

anyone should have expectation for. It

17:57

has not been good, special

17:59

teams. I think

18:01

it was better this year than last year, but that's

18:03

also not saying much,

18:06

right? But

18:09

Mike McDaniel also said that there

18:11

is a lot

18:13

of layers involved

18:16

in the special teams performance,

18:20

and that it's not as simple as

18:22

saying the production is not

18:25

here, and therefore

18:27

you should not be either. There's

18:31

a complexity of peeling back compounding variables,

18:33

which was the words that might make

18:35

you unused, compounding variables as far as

18:38

special teams performance, including this team, the

18:40

players, injuries, all that kind

18:43

of stuff. And

18:46

I think that's something that really I took too,

18:48

because I know in our

18:50

conversations and how I present this football team

18:52

and how we have conversations about this football

18:54

team and decisions that the team is

18:57

making and breaking

18:59

down what goes right and what goes

19:01

wrong. We talk about force multipliers. We

19:03

talk about complementary

19:05

elements of the game. We talk about

19:08

complementary players. That's

19:11

an admission of that for Mike McDaniel. And

19:14

it's affirmation for me that when I say

19:16

it, I'm not just saying it to you

19:19

to necessarily be noncommittal

19:21

or unnecessarily optimistic or

19:23

unnecessarily pessimistic or anything

19:25

like that. Isolating

19:28

a singular variable in

19:30

football can be very difficult. And

19:32

for special teams, when if

19:35

there's an injury on defense, you

19:37

can lose a special teams guy because he's got to go up

19:39

and play defense now. And now somebody

19:41

else has to step in

19:43

and play the special teams role. That can lead to

19:45

miscommunications from personnel calls because the guy's not used to

19:47

being on it. It

19:51

can lead to a lack of execution and

19:53

performance because maybe a player didn't get the

19:55

practice reps because the special teams guy was

19:57

healthy and took the practice reps all week.

20:00

And then a guy goes down and gets injured. And I get

20:02

it. Nobody wants to hear these excuses. At

20:04

the end of the day, performance was not

20:07

to the standard that anybody needs on specialties.

20:09

I get it. I

20:12

really do. It might make Daniel say it out loud,

20:14

so he gets it too. But

20:16

in assessing

20:19

the performance of the unit, an

20:22

acknowledgment that

20:24

there are compounding variables that make

20:27

this a very layered

20:29

decision as compared to binarily

20:32

saying, the

20:35

results aren't here, so you're not here, is

20:39

I think a proper perspective. It

20:43

is a good

20:45

process. And

20:48

I know we get the process versus results talking about

20:50

this podcast and postseason success and playoff wins and all

20:52

that stuff too. And you

20:54

know what? What Mike

20:56

McDaniel's talking about with the decision to keep

20:58

Danny Crossman is another embodiment of process versus

21:00

results in the same way as

21:03

looking at Chris

21:05

Greer, who people like to assemble

21:08

every bit of blame on the face of the planet

21:10

too for why this team hasn't won a playoff game

21:13

in a longer span of time than any other team in the

21:15

NFL, which is an unfortunate truth. But

21:21

to just isolate an

21:23

individual for the things that

21:25

went wrong and prevented that win from happening is

21:31

too, in my opinion, too narrow of

21:33

a scope of the world. How

21:36

many things in the world, let alone in the

21:38

game of football or the world, are

21:41

that black and white, that absolute,

21:44

this yes or no? Or

21:46

are there not a thousand shades of gray?

21:49

So when you step back, as Mike McDaniel

21:52

did after the season, and remove the emotion

21:55

from any decision that you make, when

21:59

they assess... that

22:02

element of the football team, Mike

22:05

McDaniel has now told you,

22:08

we found enough compounding variables

22:12

that led us to the decision that

22:15

moving on from a coach that the

22:17

players positively responded to was

22:19

not the right decision. Do I agree

22:21

with it? No. I

22:24

would have made the decision to move on from there. But

22:28

I am not in the building and I was not a part of

22:30

the conversations for what the compounding variables were.

22:34

So if the

22:38

Dolphins have a better performance on special teams

22:40

this upcoming season, credit to them for

22:42

the decision that they made. And if

22:44

they don't, then there will be a lot of people

22:47

who will cross their arms and

22:49

sound their feet and say, this should have been done two

22:51

years ago. And

22:54

we'll see if they then make the decision. At some

22:56

point, everybody's grace runs

22:58

out. Mike

23:00

McDaniel, however, has told

23:03

all of us now that Danny Grossman

23:05

heard not. That's

23:07

going to do it for this episode of Lockdown Dolphins.

23:10

It is your team every day here on the Lockdown

23:12

Network. I hope you guys enjoyed this

23:14

recap of Mike McDaniel talking to

23:17

the media about this

23:19

past season, the offense,

23:21

Teron Armstead to a tongue of a low

23:23

on a contract extension. Whole lot

23:25

of good stuff. And we'll have more

23:28

good stuff coming your way here from Indianapolis. I'm

23:30

Kyle Krabs. Keep it locked up right here on

23:32

Lockdown Dolphins. I appreciate you guys checking out the

23:34

show. See you tomorrow.