Dolphins in Depth: Dolphins must patch up issues Raiders loss exposed

So the Miami Dolphins played their season opening game against the Las Vegas Raiders, a team that was talent deprived, a veteran quarterback in Kirk Cousins who probably was not even close to Miami's first choice, and basically two teams that had comparable talent bases. However, the game was not very competitive. And is that an indicator for what we'll see much of this season? We'll discuss that on this week's episode of Dolphins In Depth. Joining me is Isaiah Smalls. Isaiah, I am in Napa, very interesting place. I say this all the time, I am spoiled because I call South Florida my home. So everything compares to Miami, and this is no Miami. However, it is Napa. If you like wine, I'm sure there are wonderful wines to select from. Unfortunately, wines give me migraines, so I'm looking forward to the Six Flags opening on the weekend on Saturday. But the Dolphins are here all week. They're going to stay out on the West Coast. It's a great bonding opportunity, and a lot of bonding needs to happen in those meeting rooms, Isaiah. What were your impressions of the Dolphins' loss to the Raiders? Yeah, so I had a few things that stood out. I'll start with the positive, right? Caleb Douglas has the potential to be something special. Jacob Rodriguez has the potential to be something special. Those guys really shined for me. Caden Proctor. I think Caden Proctor, I was going to get to Caden Proctor because he's in the middle for me because I think there were some times that he struggled with stunts when I was reviewing the film. The stunts got him at least a few times, right? Granted, he's going up against a premier edge rusher in Max Crosby when they stun it, but at the same time, that's just simple communication along that line, and they need to improve at that. At least on one of those occasions, Max Crosby had a free rush at Malik Willis, which you don't want. Stuff like that, they're going to have to clean up. It's not going to get any easier, unfortunately, for them, right? They go into San Francisco. I don't know if you took a glance at that San Francisco game. That was like San Francisco coming from blood. Let's move on to a little bit of the negatives. Chris Johnson, one thing I will say about him was that they're asking him to do a lot. It didn't necessarily seem that way when I was watching the game on first glance, but when I reviewed that film, oh my God. Outside, inside, sometimes even playing the deep half when they- Picking up the tight end, picking up the back, that teams are going to attack him because he is a rookie, and they are shifts and motions and going to force him to make tough decisions and force them into errors. This was going to happen all season, which is why you might want to consider adding a veteran nickel cornerback. I will say this. He looked good in run support. That's something that I noticed on film. I asked some of the positives from Chris Johnson's game. He was definitely good in run support. He had a PVU. In both instances, to me, what that says is that he's a guy that mentally should be okay. He will, yeah. Talent-wise, he is okay. Talent-wise, he is okay. My fear and concern, and the Dolphins hate this about me because I don't think a lot of them share this experience, but I've got two decades of contextual knowledge and experience. This reminds me a lot about Noah Ibn Agni. Noah Ibn Agni, first round draft pick in 2020, a lot of talent, a lot of talent, a lot of ability, had a very strong training camp, was the number three cornerback. Byron Jones got injured. Preston to duty. Stephon Diggs embarrassed him. The next week, Preston to duty. Russell Wilson picked on him. He was the reason for their loss to the Seahawks in that game. From that point, his confidence was shook. It never returned in four years. Now, mind you, Chris Johnson is probably a more seasoned cornerback. Noah was a former wide receiver turned cornerback, but that's besides the point. My concern about Chris Johnson, and this is a small one, is why are you giving all the rookies small plates, kiddie-sized plates, letting them master the kiddie-sized plates, and then putting more onto the plate? Why does Chris Johnson get the entire buffet? Why did you just go to the buffet and just pile everything onto his plate? I'm not sure that's something that he is ready for. Talent's there. Now, if Jeff Affleck gets him to consistently get better and improve, I will say kudos to you because you did that. Coach, I think he can be a very good boundary cornerback. Now, do they need a boundary cornerback? Not really. They got Juju for now. They got Jason Marshall Jr., and I love the fact that he's starting at boundary, and then he moves inside to Nickel. Nickel's a hard spot to play, and you saw me go tell him, Nickel is a hard spot to play. You better go find you a veteran Nickel that know what the hell he's doing. But I thought he did okay. Let's not forget to single out Michael Tapp because I think that everybody in the South Florida media is overlooking Michael Tapp and what his contribution is. We keep looking at the size. We keep looking at the athletic limitations, and we keep saying, not good enough. He showed in the first open again, good enough. I liked not just the play. You know how I feel about his leadership, his vocalization, his leadership ability. I think he's a future coach. He's a future head coach. I can tell you 20 years from now, I would put $1,000 on him being a future head coach. In that locker room, these are the moments why being in the locker room is important. He saw Chris Johnson hanging his head. He was doing his interview, and I think I shared this without even being asked about it. He's like, listen, Chris Johnson's got the toughest job on this defense, and a lot was put on his plate. He's going to get blamed for two of those touchdowns, but I was responsible for one of them. He took ownership of it. That's what leaders do. I didn't get it at first, but I get it now. I'm curious to see where this goes. Both him and Dante pulled down an interception. I thought coming into this season, the safety unit would be the biggest question mark and troubling area of the defense. Right now, they're the strengths. I mean, outside of the linebacking core, I think between Jordan Brooks and Jacob Rodriguez, I think obviously that's a strength there. Wasn't good enough for me. For real? Wasn't good enough for me. I think in the second half, they really improved from a run defense standpoint. I think- Yeah, yeah. Because in that fourth quarter, and granted fourth quarter- Because the Raiders were trying to run up the game. When the game was not decided, the Raiders were averaging 4.9 yards per carry. And that's fair. I think that's fair. Obviously, there's a lot to look at. I mean, look, I hate to be that guy that prematurely reacts to something, but the way that this run defense looked initially in that first half, it reminded me of the first half of last year, where it was like, you guys are getting no push. Nobody's getting any push. Nobody can disengage. Yeah, and it's like- And I posted a play on my Twitter of Malik Aaron, and he liked the tweet, and I'm probably going to hear from it when I see him next week, but it was one of the most astounding things I've ever seen. He had literally got spun around into the hole and had his back completely in the position to make the play, but his back was towards Jensey, and he was facing the rest of his defense, which I had never seen before. And so, I say that to say, look, they have these big bodies. Malik Aaron is a big guy. And so, I just was expecting a little bit more from them when it just comes to just being a space eater, right? And when it comes to Chop Robinson, unfortunately, that wasn't good enough at all. He was virtually non-existent. He set a few edges, but there was also some times where they ran right at him, and they were able to get around him. And so, it's just- And from a pass rushing standpoint, I think when I review what happened last year when they faced Kirk Cousins, the thing that stood out about that game was that they made sure Kirk Cousins felt them, right? Kirk Cousins was on his butt a lot, and he really didn't have that same pressure, which allowed him to dissect this very young secondary, and that, to me, is an issue going forward. He was comfortable all day. He was comfortable all day. On these veteran quarterbacks. And again, it's not going to be easy. Brock Purdy this Sunday. Pat Mahomes the next Sunday. Granted, you get a break with either Kyler Murray or Carson Wentz, whoever's going to be out there in Minnesota, but you still have to face- It's going to be Carson Wentz. You saw that concussion? I did not see the hit. I have not seen the hit. That's a Tua Tonga Valoa concussion. That is the NFL going to sit you down for a month and be like, chill out. We got to keep this game safe for the next generation of players. We cannot discourage mothers from letting their youngins play this sport. Kyler Murray ain't playing for a minute. And if they do, whoo. But there was no pressure. He was totally comfortable. The entire day. Two quarterback hits. Touched two times. Two times the entire game, whereas Malik Willis was touched 11 times. Pressured 17. Sacked five. I think, and I'm glad you brought up Malik, because I think it was, obviously he's a young quarterback, right? And he showed signs of that on Sunday. However, it wasn't awful. He didn't look like a chicken with his head cut off trying to figure out what's going on. He didn't look rattled, which I think is a big plus. And he did make some big throws. That pass to Chris Bell. 30 yards without stepping into it. That's rare arm talent. And I think, granted, yes, he's held the ball too long at some times. But how do you know that him holding the ball too long wasn't his receivers running the wrong routes, not getting open, not making the right route adjustments? I'm not saying that it was. Because what I loved about Malik Willis was after the game, he fell on the sword for his offensive line. And he will probably fall on the sword for his receivers. But he acknowledged that Chris Bell needs to know his assignments. Caleb Douglas, after the game, acknowledged he needs to know his assignments. And so Malik is out there directing traffic a lot pre-snap and post-snap. Understand that. But that's every quarterback. Tua Tongvaloa had the same excuses that he could have made in the second half of last season. Nobody cared. Those receivers were not out there running the right routes. Not out there running routes to the right route depth. But nobody cares. And with Malik Willis, nobody's going to care either. You get it together. What I did not like about Malik is it- Wait, before we get- I just want to stay here for a second. How much of this you think is just sometimes the route concepts are just too, I don't want to say advanced, but they're doing these long, breaking routes. And it's like, I would hope and would expect, at least early on in the game, that you're doing- like that first series that they had in the preseason, right? Where it seemed like they were doing, not really digging and dunking, but like a five-yard gain here, seven-yard gain here. Where it's not like a deep post, right? And you're not getting these huge chunk plays. How much do you think that is responsible for some of those things? I think Malik's game is getting into that second level and making those throws that most quarterbacks can't make. I think that's his value. Does he need to check the ball down or take the easier route or eat an appetizer before he goes to his full main course? Yes, absolutely. I would have loved to have seen him check the ball down a lot more. But a lot of those times, some of those checkdowns were taken away because of the blitzes that the Raiders applied that forced Devon Achan to stay in and block. And Devon Achan is not a blocker. He's not a blocker at all. But here's my thing. You now see, just like you're game planning for opponents, opponents are game planning for you. And you see what they're going to do. They're going to blitz you on third downs to make sure you do not have Devon Achan as an option unless you put him out wide. It is your job, Jeff Hathaway and Bobby Slowick, to come up with the counter. That is what coaching is. And I'm curious to see what the counter is. And trust me, the 49ers are going to build on that game plan that they saw. And they got a lot of- I think the thing that stood out to me about the Raiders, and yes, it wasn't the most talented team, but that linebacking core of Quaye Walker and N'Kobe Dean, former Eagle, them boys was nice. And again, it's not getting easier because you I think it was more the defensive line that gave them some issues. And Max Crosby, clearly every running play, they ran away from Max Crosby. And then it got to the point where they were telegraphing. And you could telegraph it and then pull out the play action. Okay. But the backside blocker, which is Austin Jackson, he got to win. You don't win. And then you got Max Crosby in your grill. So- That boy Austin Jackson did not look good. I'm sorry. He did not look good. As I continue to say, one, Austin needs a minute to get right. He always has needed a minute to get right. And two, you ain't got no better option. That's very true. So- Let me shut my mouth. You're right. Hey, do what you got. Unless you're ready to put- Unless you're ready to put right tackle, you got to do what you got to do until we get an injury. Let me say the positive because people think I harp on the negative too much. What you laughing about? No, because I literally just thought of somebody on Twitter today literally said that about you. And I'm like, you can't catch a break. He over there in Cali, sunglasses on. Maybe not wine in your hand, but wine around you. You know what I'm saying? I got a Starbucks refresher in my hand. There you go. I'm chilling. I'm chilling. Let me stick with the positive. I like what I saw from the safety. Jacob Rodriguez, Jeff Kiss for game one. I'd like you to hit more on the blitzes. I'd like you to be better in coverage, but everybody's got things that they need to work on. Zeke Biggers wasn't the performance that I expected, but you look like somebody that I can build off. He needs to be the guy doing these tandem stunts with Zach Seeler. I think that that's a problem with Zach. Zach needs a pepper. Salt needs a pepper. Salt needs a running mate. You see what he is when he has a running mate. We ain't got it. I continue to say Christian Wilkins is unemployed. If he wants to play in the NFL, coming home would be a great opportunity for him. Is he a progress stopper? Whose progress are you stopping? Just answer that question. Whose progress are you stopping? That's besides the point. Let me harp on the positives. Continue the positives. Caden Proctor thought he played well. Will Kaczmarek? Good lord, have mercy. I now see why you spent a third-round pick on a blocking tight end. Kudos to you, John Eric Sullivan. That man can lay people out, and he's not even 100%. I want to see what happens when Caleb Douglas loved it, but again, I felt like he teased me. I keep feeling like a tease. You're not finishing me, man. Listen, the second half of the game, where were you? I don't know. I'm glad you brought that up because that is a question that I had as well. I don't know if that was just flow of the offense. Game plan probably took them over. To me, after you catch four balls for 87 yards in the first half, to me, I don't care what the game plan is. I'm kind of throwing that away for a second, being like, okay, I'm going to try to get that man the ball. I was surprised that they didn't do that. Maybe they gave him extra attention, and because Malik was looking towards him too much, there were two series where Malik, incompletion sack, incompletion sack. These were the two critical drives that basically sealed the game. I have to look at those drives very carefully in the 22 just to learn what I need to learn, but let me get back to the positive. Did I say Dante Traynor? I love the fact that he is not responding to not starting by hanging his head. He's going out there hustling and playing hard and getting an interception, getting his first interception of his career. The offensive line wasn't great, but I love the physicality that they play with. There was one play, I think you might have shared, no, somebody shared it on social media where Patrick Paul, what I call Metro Rail, a linebacker, downfield, blocked him, got off of him. Aron Brewer goes to put his hand out like, I'm going to help you out, and they were like, uh. I did not see that, I agree. I did not see that. That's funny. Oh, let me help you out, all right. That's funny, I did not see that. However, somebody said, an announcer said something about Brewer when he got, yeah, the announcer of the game said something about Brewer when he got called for holding in the game. Yeah, he needed to get rid of the orange gloves. I'm going to tell him that when I see him. Yeah, I'm going to tell him that this week. Yeah, tell him that this week. Yeah, bro, you're telling on yourself. I almost said it yesterday in the Zoom, but I was like, I don't need it. Yeah, I remember the text message yesterday, and I was like, all right, let me cool out, let me cool out. Yeah, but I'm going to tell him in person, you're telling on yourself, big dog. Your hands can't glow, especially when you play in a black. My gloves would be the color of the jersey that I'm wearing, the color of the jersey that the opponent is wearing. No, I hear you. I'm right there with you. But I love the effort that I saw from the offensive line. A lot of that that they had is fixable. Now, the fact that they lost the battle at line and scrimmage on both sides of the ball, that I don't know if it's fixable. That's bad. But that's a Jeff Hafley, John Eric Sullivan issue. And I'm not going to let the salary cap excuse or the talent deficiency allow you to get pushed around at the line of scrimmage all game. If I have any standard for this team, it is to play discipline football, which means no penalties. It's to at least equal the special teams battle like you can't take an L on special teams, which they clearly, clearly got dominated. And I need you to do better at the line of scrimmage. I need I need you to do better at line because you can't stop the run and you can't run the ball. You don't have a chance. You do not have a chance on any given Sunday. So and, you know, my standard, which is going to be my consistent standard for all 17 games that they play is I need it to be a game by the time we start the fourth quarter or by the time the fourth quarter ends. I need it to be a game. I agree with you. If if the opponent is there, let's run this thing out. Let's run the thing so we can get finished with this. Get out of here. Yeah, I don't care if you win or I'm not going to sit here and harp on that, even though you say you're not taking. I don't and I believe them. I don't believe they're taking because you have to create a culture. But just half these cultures to be tough and physical. You cannot take a weekly L at the line of scrimmage and claim you are tough and physical. And if the head coach says this is what I need my team to be and by midseason, we are not that you have a problem and that problem needs to be fixed. Let's I say I said I was going to do the positives, and I think I've done with the positives. I tried. I tried. But I mean, at the end of the day, Jalen, right? Listen, big dog. That's a good kick. He had a good kick. Didn't didn't know it was in him. And I'm proud. I'm being real. I'm being real. They say the word right on the return. Like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I didn't say I didn't know he was in the game. I said I didn't know it was in him. Yeah, that's even worse. Listen, speed. But I mean, when is he showing you that he is a good kickoff returner? I haven't seen it happen. It happened on Sunday. So I would love to see them build on that. But I mean, something's got to give with something like something's got to like you got to you got to take your victories when you can take it. I also think Juju Brents and Jason Marshall, they were bad. I would love I would love to have seen them play a little bit more physical game. But and these weren't even great wide receivers. But, you know, baby steps, baby steps. Well, guess what? Your reward is Debo Samuel and Mike Evans. You know, it's funny about Debo Samuels and I'm writing this now. People like to compare Chris Bell to big receivers. And you know how I have an issue with this because he's not big receiver. He's he's got thickness to him and he's got body to him. He has Debo style. Would you consider Debo a big receiver? Well, you're talking about a similar build. Yeah, similar build, similar build, similar style. I looked at a lot of his Louisville film. Yeah, he has that similar style. I don't know if he's going to have it in year one, but he has that similar style of game where you want to give him the run at the catch. You want to you want to give him opportunities to break tackles. I mean, you saw that with the catch that he made, like he caught it and got and unfortunately, you know, got got wrestled down, but no, I see what you're saying. Yeah. So, Debo Samuels is going to be a great guy for him to watch this week to probably see a man. If I'm Bobby Slug, I'm stealing all them Debo Samuels plays at 49 and a half because listen, they they can work for Chris Bell. I'm just saying. On that note, Isaiah, any other takeaways from the game? And what do you what there are concerns? Kyle Lewis suffered a knee injury. He's probably going to be sidelined for knees or probably about a month. Don't know if he's headed to I.R. But and then there was a deal injury. What was his name? Robert Beale. Robert Beale. Yes. He's battling a hamstring injury supposedly flared up on him. Those are pretty much the two injuries from the game next week going to be a physical game. The 49ers, they have a physical offensive line. They have a physical defensive line. They play a physical style. I'm I'm looking forward to the Dolphins being more competitive in that regard. Yeah, I think my biggest thing that I want to see this upcoming week is they have to run the ball better. Like Bruce Bruce said that earlier yesterday when we talked to him and I asked, like, you know, what what needs to change? Right. He said simply, like, they need more reps running the ball. And I think a lot of people took that as, oh, like, that's why they should have played in the preseason. That's not what he was saying. He was saying, like, they need to actually run the ball more in the game. I think that would have gotten some juice because, you know, you ask any offensive lineman, what do you prefer, pass block, run block? They don't say run block. Right. Yeah. You're taking you're taking it to them as opposed to taking it. Exactly. So I just to give them some juice, I think they need to run the ball more. And then also they need to find a way to get Caleb Douglas more involved. I don't like to your point that you had earlier. I don't like that he somewhat disappeared in the second half. Maybe they shaded coverage to him and whatnot. But I think now the secret is out. Right. Caleb Douglas has a potential to be special, especially if he wins the Rookie of the Week award that he's up up and up for the running. So, yeah, you're right. You're right. The secret is out. The secret is out. So now how are you going to creatively make sure that he gets the ball in positions that will make him successful motion? You got to do what you got to do. Yeah. But the thing about when you motion is you're putting a lot on their plate. Remember, the Dolphins had to simplify the motions last year because they couldn't handle it. The veteran receivers couldn't handle it. So now you know you're going to throw some motion on rookie receivers. I mean, look, you have to find a way to creatively get him involved because and I think they showed a little bit of that versatility. Like if you saw he lined up on the inside, he lined up on the outside. Only place he didn't really line up was in the backfield because that's Malik Washington's role. So to me, I just I just want to see them creatively get the ball to him and H. And I think they underutilized like the screen game with H. And I think you only caught like one of them. I think there was at least one more where they were looking his way and it was covered. They took that away. The Raiders took that away. Yeah. When you game plan for the Dolphins, you're going to take away the screen game. You're going to you're going to cover H.M. with a with a cornerback when he goes out wide and you're going to stack the box with running downs. And like, yeah, I mean, this is what happens when you're a star. Like, you know, it's real. And I think that and that's something that I wrote about in my story about because, again, and we should have mentioned this earlier, like he set the rookie record for debut and when it comes to receiving yards and then also tied Tyree Hill for the most receiving yards by a Dolphin in their debut, regardless of years. And so to me, and he could have done more like I was expecting 100 yard game like you get you give me 80 yards at halftime like you only you needed was a little under 20. He could have done more. He should have. I'm just looking to see how they utilize him this week. Right. And we know, I think out of all the receivers, that's the guy that he feels most comfortable with. We saw it during training camp and now we're getting to see on a bigger scale. I'm now I'm just curious to see how they get him the ball, because frankly, he needs the ball more. But I'm just going to say that he needs a ball. Oh, not if not if forty nine is going to take him away from you. But yeah, but you can't do both or you can't stack the box and in Dublin. Right. And so that's what I think. And I forgot to say that, but you can stack the box on early downs and then double him on third downs. And that's fair. And like and again, but if they're stacking the box or early downs, you have to find a way to get him the ball. That's one on one cover. Right. He has to make people miss. And that's that's the thing that I wrote about. But then you throw you throw on first down and and if it's not a completion, then you're dictating what you're doing on second down. That's how teams want you want to get you into playing. It's a chess game. It's a chess game. Right. They can't take away everything. So you have to find out, OK, they want to take away this. That's why we got this. They want to take away that. OK, that's why we got this. And that will be the story of this as far. Yeah. On that note, we are out. We will probably be back later on this week at the end of the week to give you sort of a wrap up. We want to give a special shout out to our producer, Pierre. Big up here. It's a tough time in our business industry. We got mad respect for Pierre because he's done an impressive job running all of the podcasts. And he'll be with us for a couple more weeks. But we thank everybody for watching, supporting, subscribing. Mind me, Harold, you know how we do the coverage. I'm here in Napa trying to figure out if I'm going to like some wine, drink some wine. Why give me migraines, though? So I don't really know. I think you've got to explore that, my guy. Like, that's crazy. Both white and red wine gives you migraines? Always. We're talking 30 years. Wine gives me my migraine. Migraine in five minutes. It's the sediments in it. It is what it is. I'll do my best to enjoy Napa. On that note, we are out. We will see you later on this week.