Mike McDaniel Has High Expectations For Miami Dolphins Running Backs De'Von Achane and Jaylen Wright

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The NFL Combine is this week in Indianapolis, Mike McDaniel says it's finally time to address the O-Line... Terron Armstead took his salary down to the minimum to give the Dolphins cap room. What is McDaniel's need to attend the Combine?

Transcript

00:00It, the combine gets going tomorrow with the big guns, with a defensive lineman and line

00:07backers.

00:08And, uh, yesterday Mike McDaniel spoke to the media, um, the news with that might be

00:16Daniel said that the basically going to move forward.

00:20They have, they have now decided Leroy that the offensive line is no laughing matter and

00:26they're not going to laugh at concerns.

00:29And they're going to invest free agency.

00:35What gave that away?

00:36The fact that your quarterback who you just gave hundreds of millions of dollars to is

00:43getting killed.

00:44Yeah.

00:45Yeah.

00:46It's crazy.

00:47And so like, here's the deal, like I appreciate the fact that he acknowledged it and in fact

00:58acknowledge something that we already knew.

01:03This probably wouldn't have been as big of a deal.

01:07Like we would all kind of went into it like, okay, there's a couple of guys not working

01:12out.

01:13We got to improve that or whatever.

01:14And we would have that conversation with no big deal happens to every team.

01:19You think certain things are going to play out right.

01:21And they don't.

01:24But Chris Greer got us in this mode when he said, I laugh at you, right.

01:34And the offensive line wasn't good.

01:36So that's why we are where we are now.

01:40Yeah.

01:41Yeah.

01:42Yeah.

01:43So there you see, he said, they're going to go through 2025 as if Toronto Armstead is

01:47not playing Toronto Armstead has reduced his salary all the way to the minimum.

01:54I don't even, I don't, I was like, you can do that.

01:57What just happened?

01:58I guess he can do that.

02:00Well, you can do it when your ass is going to get cut and get nothing.

02:05Yeah.

02:06So like, what's the difference?

02:07Yeah.

02:08So it's like a, like a $2 million party gift in order.

02:12And let's think about it this way.

02:14In order to redo somebody's contract, technically you have to cut them and resign them.

02:20So like to just say Toronto walked in and said, Hey, you know what, I'm gonna give 26

02:28million back to you guys.

02:29I'm like, what is this?

02:30I'm like, what is this?

02:31Mario brothers?

02:32Like you just give up a couple of mushrooms and do that and whatever.

02:37So he reduced it.

02:39It looks like Patrick Paul is going to be your left tackle and not necessarily.

02:45So you think there's a chance he comes back?

02:47I like, I don't, I don't, I don't know.

02:51I mean, he can't listen.

02:55He can't do anything less on a football field, right?

02:59He doesn't practice.

03:01He just plays in the games, right?

03:03Well, that's another thing too, right?

03:04Like if you're him, you're like, he feels like a, do I feel like playing football on

03:10August 1st type of age, right?

03:14That that's, that's where I got, I got to when it was almost time for camp to start.

03:19I was still limping.

03:20I'm like, do I want to do this really?

03:25Um, yeah, but, but here's the thing though, you're going to have three new offensive linemen

03:38and that's not conducive to success either because we can't just assume that everybody

03:44that they plug in is going to be good.

03:47I can't assume that Paul's going to be Toronto Armstead.

03:53Yeah.

03:54That's the big thing.

03:55Like the big key to it is did the guy they draft last year, is he any good?

03:59We have no idea.

04:00No, I, and that's fine because if you play, you brought him in a left tackle, he can only

04:06play left tackle, right?

04:08And he didn't play.

04:10That's okay.

04:11Because you knew that the guy he was playing, that playing behind was really good.

04:15However, the problem that I have with these things, and I'm going to say it's the same

04:21problem that I have with Spoke.

04:24When you start the process of getting reps later, because you trying to, you know, work

04:33with the player, that in game, you know, knowledge only comes from playing games.

04:41I don't care whether it's basketball, I don't care whether it's baseball, I don't care whether

04:45it's football.

04:46So as good as you think Paul could be, he's still going to have to go through his bumps

04:52and bruises of playing on game day and playing every snap and having all the things that

04:58can happen to him.

04:59You can only experience that during the game.

05:02You want to hear from Mike McDaniel?

05:07We got some time.

05:08We got some time.

05:09Mike McDaniel was asked, why does he feel the need to go to the combine?

05:12Not every coach does.

05:13It's because Mike McDaniel feels like he needs that face-to-face time.

05:17Here was Mike McDaniel.

05:18I can't replace that face-to-face energy and human element that is so important, like,

05:30in this game.

05:31It's the one time that you, you know, however, it is for us a little inefficient in terms

05:36of time.

05:37There's some downtime in the middle of the day, but for me, I'm hard pressed with how

05:43important the decisions are for the fabric of your team when it comes to the NFL draft.

05:48You know, everybody can do it a different way.

05:51I need to see people in person for me to kind of complete the whole picture of what I'm

05:58seeing on film.

06:01I like that the guy who wants to talk about inefficiencies of time, who has 45 minute

06:06press conferences every day based on the amount of work and how hard it is to call

06:14one of his plays.

06:16I know one thing though, when we get the weird questions, like when we start getting into

06:19these rookies leaking, the weird questions asked, we're going to know which one is him

06:23because there's going to be some like Toledo cornerback.

06:26Who's going to be like, Hey, ask me something about Socrates.

06:29And I was like, what?

06:32What would Socrates say to that?

06:34Huh?

06:36You know, the philosopher, I don't, I don't quite follow coach that a boy, like he's got

06:45to be a doozy in these, right?

06:47Um, yeah, I'm trying to think of who the guys that I spoke to, I spoke to Marty Schottenheimer.

06:56He was with the chiefs.

06:57What was the weirdest thing you got asked?

07:00Nothing really, nothing, nothing, nothing.

07:04Well, he asked me, which I always find a little weird.

07:14And I thought it was weird at the time.

07:17What can you do to help the Kansas City Chiefs win?

07:22Um, what?

07:25Like, is it?

07:29So how do you answer that?

07:32Sometimes the best things that you can say are to say nothing.

07:36Imagine that like this guy, right?

07:39But like, so, so that was the only question that really caught me off guard.

07:44I talked to the Giants.

07:47Um, and that was a couple other teams.

07:53Who was there at the time with the Giants?

07:55Was that Parcells?

07:57Yeah.

07:58Classic.

08:00Cause I think they won a Superbowl my rookie year or my second year.

08:07I don't think it is.

08:09Washington won a Superbowl when I was in 91.

08:13In 90, I think it was the Giants.

08:17Um, and that was also when Cincinnati was in the Superbowl.

08:26Cincinnati won our division.

08:28Mike McDaniel says that Mike is only there for the 40 times.

08:30You just think he's going to look at somebody at a 4-2

08:32and he's just going to drool and be like, that's my guy.

08:34He's new Al Davis.

08:35Ain't nobody running a 4-2 this year.

08:39You don't think, let me explain something to you.

08:43You throw that number out there like it's just,

08:47there's a lot of guys doing it.

08:49That don't happen every year.

08:53Here's a little bit more.

08:54Speaking of fast guys, Mike McDaniel on his running backs coming back this year.

08:57No mostert.

08:58He got kicked to the curb.

09:00But he says high expectations for A-Chan and Jalen Wright.

09:04Right now, I feel extremely strong about who's in the room

09:08knowing that it will grow by 2-3 people.

09:12But, you know, I think part of, you know, our vision moving forward

09:21is we have high expectations for that tandem of Devon and Jalen

09:26and think that they give us an opportunity to really be effective

09:32handing the ball off and doing stuff in the pass game.

09:34So I'm excited to see how the room fills out

09:40knowing that we only have two under contract.

09:42But I'm very excited about those two

09:44and motivated to make that more than two.

09:47That's not what I want to hear.

09:50Motivated to make it more than two.

09:52Here.

09:54Here.

09:55What do we say?

09:56Hold on.

09:59I want to hear somebody acknowledge that this team needs to be more physical

10:05up front.

10:08Right?

10:09When you start talking about in the run game, in the pass game,

10:13you're not devoting a whole bunch of time to being more physical.

10:17So, I need some rump shakers on both lines of scrimmage

10:27and I wouldn't mind having a running back that weighed more than 215.

10:33Take a break.

10:34Because when you get to those crucial moments in a game,

10:39the last thing you want to do is have your offensive lineman pulling

10:44and tossing the ball to an ant.

10:47Well, he's going to be RB1 this year.

10:50That's fine.

10:51That's fine.

10:52But you're still going to need, okay, when you're first and ten on the four

10:59and you acknowledge the fact that you need to be physical and pound the ball,

11:05you need somebody who can push the pile a little bit.

11:10This is Damian Martinez.

11:12Ooh, yes.

11:14Something along, yeah, something like that.

11:17Smash mouth.

11:19But that commitment also has to start up front.

11:25Right?

11:26Because the thing about this offensive line,

11:31they do a lot of pulling and running and all that.

11:35You're going to need some guys who are going to hit folks in the face.

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