Long, too, wasn't it?

It was very long.

It was longer than usual.

It was longer than usual.

Longest practice in Miami Gardens.

I was not full disclosure.

I was not at the joint practice in Washington.

Yeah.

Alain, do you think it's possible on the offensive side going to Davone Chan, do you think it's possible that, you know, we see him maybe have a, a bit of a step back this season? Not because of anything ability-wise, simply just because he's gonna be the main focus for every single team, for every single defense that they play this year without, you know, as I mentioned, Jalen Waddell, Tyreek Hill not being there and, and us waiting to see how Caleb Douglas does in regular season.

Bingo.

You absolutely nailed it.

And I made this point quite a bit over the past few years that the contributions Tyreek Hill made to this offense went way beyond the crazy stats that he was putting up.

The amount of attention that dude was getting from opposing defenses who were so scared to watch him sprint by them for an easy touchdown, that opened up everything for everybody.

And even in 2024 when his numbers dipped, not even talking about last year 'cause he only played four games, but in 2024 his numbers dipped, but the fact that defenses were so concentrated and focused on making sure Tyreek doesn't beat us, it opened up the middle of the field, and this is w- how you wound up with Jonah Smith setting a, a record for the franchise for tight ends for catches and receiving yards in a season.

And it opened everything up for, for Davone Chan as well.

Um, from what you know about the kinda offense that he called with the Texans and in his, uh, subsequent, you know, kinda stops along the way, um, what kind of a challenge is that going to be for him to be able to scheme some of these guys open?

... after, you know, mandatory mini camp, press conference, and stuff like that?

Y- yeah, you know what? Can I, can I have the right to separate them into two categories as former NFL head coach and first time head coaches? 'Cause that's kind of different.

Like Jimmy, when Jimmy Johnson was hired, it was like, "This is a big timer you got here.

I mean, it's gonna be great." Uh, so if I go by first time head coaches, in terms of how impressive he is, h- he's right up there.

Uh, if not at the top, right near the, like Joel Filben, with all due respect, wasn't somebody who like jazzed anybody up.

Cam Cameron was, for lack of a better term, I think my daughter uses that term, a little bit goofy.

Um, Tony Sparano, the thing with him is you could tell he was hard nose, all football, grunt, grunt, snarl, snarl, except that you couldn't escape the idea that Bill Parcells was the one calling all the shots.

[laughs]

What are your thoughts on what you've heard from first-time head coach in the NFL?

Oh, without question.

I mean, it's really impressive.

And I think part of it, too, though, and we're going to be honest about it, is He follows a guy who wasn't exactly succinct and to the point in answering questions.

That is part of it.

Yeah, it was what it was.

I mean, Mike was so deliberate in making sure that he got his thought precisely across the way he wanted it.

What do you think this adjustment's going to be like going back to his old position from college, but a position he hadn't played in a year?

What were some of your takeaways from what you heard?

Yeah, pretty much the same things you hear every year at this conference.

Everybody's looking good.

Everybody's making progress.

One thing that stood out to me came from Zach Yenzer, the new offensive line coach, where he talked about Jonas and how excited he was to be making the move from left guard to right guard in its second season.

Along with the fact that he said that he liked a lot of the things that he saw from Sabayona in run blocking, and there are some issues in pass protection, as we kind of all saw.

But it brought back to me, you know, I like the fact that maybe this will make a difference and unlock Sabayona's potential, and maybe he'll take a big step forward in 2026.

a

What about for you off looking what they've done on their roster so far?

Oh, my number one concern is nothing you've mentioned to me.

It's safety.

I mean, it's like, holy smokes, I'm sorry.

But right now we're looking at A fifth-round pick who got some snaps last year but not a ton, that's Dante Trader Jr. You're looking at a former second-round pick who's bounced around and really hasn't found his footing since starting a lot of games early in his career.

That's Lonnie Johnson Jr.

And then you have a rookie fifth-round pick with Michael Taft.

Can Malik go in that category?

What did you see week to week from him, and was there any part of his – trademark game that got them the giant contract with the Dolphins in the first place that was missing last year in your estimation?

Yeah, it was missing, and I'm going to be honest.

I like Riley.

He's a really good dude.

I mean, quality guy, great leader, good in the community.

But the eight-and-a-half sacks last year were very, very misleading because there were a lot of those that were cleanup sacks.

And, in fact, Jalen Phillips easily was the more impactful pass rusher of the two before Phillips was traded to the Eagles, except Phillips had a problem finishing, and Chubb was very good at doing that.

Do you see him strictly as a bridge quarterback, knowing they're going to be lousy this year and they might be looking for another quarterback in the 27 draft? Or do you think Malik Willis has a chance to be the long-term starter if he can demonstrate some of the same resourcefulness that he did with the Packers last year when he stepped in for an injured Jordan Love?

What do you make of those two wins?

Well, a couple of things I think you're looking at, and part of the reason why I'm projecting Mike Mignone being back as a head coach is the team clearly is still playing hard for him.

So what you noticed against Buffalo, I think against Atlanta as well, is a very high level of effort.

The operational issues being... a lot more limited than they were in other games, even though we did have the false start to start the game against Buffalo on Sunday, bogus call, but still a false start.

And then a timeout on top of that.

And part of the timeout, I believe from what Mike McDaniel said that day after the game is he wanted to give the officials an earful of like, you're not going to be doing that to us the whole game.

And then they executed in those games and if they execute very well, they have the ability to have a very, very good running game.

Where did Chris Greer go wrong as Dolphins GM?