00:00Isaiah Smalls is on the Toyota of Hollywood Hotline.
00:04He is the newest member of the Dolphins' beat.
00:07You can read all his work in the Miami Herald all season long
00:11or on the Herald app or herald.com.
00:14He was in Detroit for the game on Saturday.
00:17He joins us for the first time.
00:19Hello, Isaiah.
00:20What's going on, y'all?
00:21Happy to be here.
00:22Nice to meet you.
00:23We're going to learn a little bit about him, too.
00:25I need to know everything that's going on with everybody.
00:29But you wrote that seeing the Dolphins cornerback unit on Saturday,
00:36you saw some things.
00:39So what did you see?
00:41What do you think?
00:42Them boys need help.
00:44I was like, quick blame, period.
00:47I mean, look, I think Storm Duck has enough there to man down
00:53one outside cornerback position.
00:55But I've been maintaining since the start of training camp
00:58that they need at least one more guy.
01:02And McDaniel said today that he's more interested in finding plays
01:04that can actually play versus guys that just have that nameplate, right?
01:09The guys that, you know, have some sort of prestige to them.
01:12But I think at some point you might need a guy that has a nameplate
01:15because it's just, I don't know, man.
01:18It's over those two joint practices, those guys got cooked.
01:22And it didn't really matter who was out there.
01:24I know, you know, Channing, you were out there, too.
01:26You saw it firsthand.
01:27I'm on Ross St. Browns.
01:30Jerry Rice.
01:32He is Jerry Rice, Isaiah.
01:34This man was killing them.
01:36I mean, I'm on Ross St. Browns going to make a lot of cornerbacks look bad.
01:39No?
01:39I mean, it's not.
01:40Yeah.
01:41Of course.
01:42But when you get to, and not to say that, you know,
01:44Jamison Williams is a huge drop off of talent,
01:46but Jamison Williams was doing it, too.
01:49And to me, I think it got to a point where, you know, a guy like,
01:53I mean, I don't want to be specific,
01:55but there was one guy in particular who got cooked a lot on day one,
02:00and you didn't really see him get a lot of run on day two.
02:09And I specifically asked Mike right before the second joint practice,
02:13like, you know, what has he seen from this cornerback unit?
02:17And he said, look, like, it's a great challenge to go up against a guy
02:21like Amon Ross St. Brown.
02:23And, you know, you learn a lot by placing these guys in adverse positions,
02:27but at some point it crosses over into malpractice because, you know,
02:32cornerback is a lot, a lot of it is mental, right?
02:34And so if you're still stuck on that last play that happened two,
02:37three days ago, like, you're not going to be as good at, you know,
02:42what's in front of you.
02:43But I say all that to say, like,
02:45I just think that there's one guy that they just need because,
02:49and I understand, I'm going to take a step back.
02:51I understand that, you know,
02:53they're being very cautious with letting people into this locker room, right?
02:56It's a very fragile ecosystem at this point, right?
02:59And so you don't want to bring in the wrong guy,
03:01and then all of a sudden it just, you know, everything hits the fan, right?
03:04But at the same time, I just,
03:08there's a lot of guys that might not be on that level,
03:10but are on the level right below Amarad that the Dolphins will face this year.
03:14I'm thinking of guys like Vlad McConkie.
03:15I'm thinking of a DK Metcalf.
03:17Like, there are guys that they will face this year who can tear them up.
03:21Like, I'm still, like, even though, you know,
03:22Stephon Diggs is still, you know,
03:24you know, rehabbing that injury,
03:26I still think he could put some of these guys in the secondary.
03:28So it's, it's rough.
03:31It was very rough on Wednesday and Thursday for sure.
03:35I got a quarterback question,
03:37but what do you mean a fragile locker room?
03:39Like, get talent and go play ball.
03:42It didn't work for them.
03:43I think, I mean, look,
03:44I know you guys are sure talk ad nauseum about the Tua and Tyreek stuff,
03:48but I think in addition to that, like,
03:51I just think that they're very intentional with letting the young guys run, right?
03:55And so if you bring in a veteran that might be,
03:59and obviously, you know,
04:00Channy, you can speak more to this than I can,
04:01but to me, at least,
04:03if you bring in a guy that is very set in their ways,
04:05that has his own process for getting ready to be able to play on Sundays,
04:10right?
04:10And if that process doesn't necessarily jive with the process that the locker
04:15room has, that the guys already in the locker room have,
04:18I think it might cause a little bit of friction.
04:20Maybe, maybe not, but that's my, that's just my take on it.
04:23The other thing that we've been talking about was the,
04:27the running back situation.
04:29So I think everybody's in love with Ollie Gordon,
04:31other than maybe other than DS bridge,
04:33like the biggest takeaway from Saturday was man,
04:37Ollie Gordon's really good.
04:38Yeah.
04:39Has Jalen right in your opinion,
04:41has he lost the RB two slot and,
04:44and has Ollie Gordon overtaken them or is there still another preseason game?
04:48Is there still more of a process to be played out there?
04:51I think that the, if, if he hasn't overtaken him yet,
04:55if Ollie hasn't overtaken him yet, it will happen this week.
04:57Look with the Vaughn, you know, nursing a calf injury,
05:01as we learned today from McDaniel, right?
05:03It's going to be the Jalen Wright show this week.
05:05You know, we have a joint practice.
05:07They have one practice tomorrow and then joint practice on Thursday against the
05:10Jaguars.
05:11Like, you know,
05:12it will be Jalen Wright's job to lose essentially.
05:15Right.
05:15And you can't ignore the tape.
05:17I've seen a lot more from Ollie Gordon in those two games than I have from Jalen
05:23Wright.
05:23And that's rather unfortunate because I know Jalen Wright kind of came in this
05:26year as, you know, wanting to be the guy, right.
05:29I know Mike McDaniel does RB one, a one B, right.
05:32I think so.
05:33He wanted to be that RB one B to the Bonnie and chance one,
05:36a, but I just haven't seen it, you know,
05:38and plus you think about the way that guys, you know,
05:40I've kind of gravitated to Ollie Gordon, you know,
05:43someone on the communication staff told me that, yo,
05:45Ollie Gordon might be one of the most personable people on this,
05:49on this team, just because of how people gravitate to him.
05:54And that means something, right.
05:55So just from what I've seen on the field and what he is in the locker room,
06:01I mean, I gotta be a fan of Ollie Gordon.
06:03I think if he hasn't overtaken Jalen Wright as the RB one B by, you know,
06:09today it might happen by, by Sunday.
06:12Speaking of jobs and you know,
06:16challenges,
06:16is there any scenario where you could see Quinn Ewers being the backup
06:21quarterback over Zach Wilson?
06:24I don't only, only because look,
06:27I love what I saw from Quinn on, on Saturday, right?
06:30That first wrist flick for that touch on the theory.
06:33That was more akin to what a lot of us on the B had been seeing early in
06:37training camp from Quinn, just specifically that Theo and,
06:40and his connection. Right.
06:42But I've always been the guy that gravitates to the quarterback,
06:47the quarterback, whatever position we're talking about.
06:50I'm always a guy that gravitates to the person who has more NFL systems,
06:54right.
06:54Just at the end of the day,
06:55just because Zach Wilson has played at the level where he hasn't been great
06:59at the, at a high level, but he's played right.
07:01And I think they trust him to be able to be better within this system.
07:06Right now. I'm, I think maybe if we get deeper into this,
07:09into the actual regular season, right.
07:13And if things are cooking and maybe, you know,
07:16God forbid there's an injury and you know,
07:19now it's an actual quarterback battle, you might see something else. Right.
07:23But until then,
07:24I think you've got to go with Zach Wilson as QB to just based off of the NFL
07:28experience that he has.
07:30And what, what update can you give us on Darren Wallet?
07:33Let me know if I'm wrong. Yeah. Tanner Connor, God bless him.
07:36Julian Hill's going to jump off sides eight times a game.
07:38Anyway, like,
07:40are we depending on Darren Wallet to have a tight end threat?
07:44Cause we saw what John new Smith did and it, you know,
07:46we need that tight end threat.
07:48Can those other two guys play?
07:50And are we just waiting for Dan Wallet to be there?
07:53I think Tanner Connor had a Tanner Connor.
07:56That was the game that he had on Saturday was more of the Tanner Connor that we
07:59want to see. Right.
08:00Because he hadn't necessarily been able to translate that into games.
08:04Right.
08:05And so I love what I saw from Tanner, from Tanner Connor,
08:07but essentially you kind of are waiting for Dan Wallet to get back because at
08:12the end of the day, he's the,
08:13he is the guy that has played in a,
08:15has played NFL snaps at a very high level.
08:18He's been a pro bowler back to back a thousand yard seasons.
08:21And to me,
08:21I'm not looking for him to immediately replicate what John would get.
08:25Right.
08:26I,
08:26because if that's what happens,
08:27I think the Dolphins have a bigger issue.
08:30If he comes in and replicates that for me,
08:32I want him to get numbers that are closer to his final year.
08:35Even with,
08:36with New York,
08:36I believe it was like 500 something yards through touchdowns.
08:39Like,
08:39I just want him to be a threat from that tight end position because the guys
08:43that they have right now,
08:44they're not really threats.
08:45So the,
08:46what we got from McDaniel was pretty consistent from what we've got from him.
08:52Anytime we've asked him about Dan Wallet,
08:54he's not really going to bring him back for joint practices because he doesn't
08:58want his first taste of NFL action in over a year to be against players that,
09:04you know,
09:05don't really have his best interests in mind.
09:07Right.
09:07So I think it would be smart to wait until this week's over.
09:11We see him at the beginning of next week.
09:13He starts to ramp up.
09:14He gets,
09:15you know,
09:15two weeks of NFL snaps,
09:17you know,
09:18in practice under his belt.
09:19And then we see him in game action.
09:21But until then,
09:22I just,
09:23and I gotta,
09:24you gotta praise Medano for taking the cautious approach.
09:27I know guys on the internet and a lot of the Dolphins fans see OBJ when they
09:32think of Dan Wallet.
09:33And I just,
09:34I'd be just cautious about that because look,
09:38at the end of the day,
09:39you know,
09:39this is a guy who didn't want to play football last year.
09:42He says he wants to play football now.
09:44So from what I've seen from his conversations with Teron Armstead,
09:47like he's juiced to come back.
09:48He loves his offense.
09:50And so until something changes,
09:53right,
09:53I think you just gotta,
09:54you just gotta pray and hope for the best when it comes to Darren Wallet.
09:57We're running out of time.
09:59And,
09:59and I want to get to know Isaiah Smalls throughout the season.
10:03We'll talk Dolphins with you throughout the season,
10:05but he's a new,
10:05new voice for us when it comes to Dolphins football,
10:09new on the beat for the Miami Herald.
10:11So just,
10:12are you new to Miami?
10:14No,
10:14I've been here for six years,
10:16actually.
10:16All right.
10:16I used to be the race and culture writer for the,
10:19for the Herald for four years,
10:23I think.
10:23Yeah.
10:23Five years.
10:24Yeah.
10:25Five,
10:25no,
10:25four,
10:25four,
10:26four,
10:26four,
10:26four.
10:26And so,
10:27and you're enjoying the Dolphins beat.
10:29Yes.
10:29Doing the Dolphins beat full 10 toes down in it.
10:32So it's exciting.
10:33I'm,
10:33I'm very excited.
10:34I love football grew up in Eagles fan.
10:37Uh,
10:38so it's,
10:38I'm excited just to be here,
10:40man.
10:41All right.
10:41Well,
10:41let me ask you a couple of questions that are specific to our show,
10:44just so we can get to know you a little bit.
10:45When you eat a hamburger,
10:47a big old cheeseburger,
10:48do you cut it in half?
10:50Yeah.
10:51Yeah.
10:52Of course.
10:52Wow.
10:53Of course.
10:53So that's a big mistake.
10:54So right.
10:55Minus right down.
10:56Minus one,
10:57Jimmy.
10:57You got to say,
10:58Isaiah.
11:01It's too messy.
11:02Sometimes if you just go,
11:03go and look,
11:04I do both.
11:05I'm not,
11:06I'm not partial to either one,
11:07but if it's,
11:08if it's served to me,
11:10cut up,
11:10I'm not,
11:10I'm not tripping off.
11:12I'm not.
11:12All right.
11:13Preach if you can do better on this one.
11:15Do you ever refer to pizza as a.
11:18Nah,
11:19no.
11:20Oh,
11:21for two.
11:21I have to stick with park and Omar at this point.
11:26Let's see if he can dig himself out of this.
11:30Our girl scout cookies overrated.
11:33Yeah.
11:33Yeah.
11:34There you go.
11:35That's my guy.
11:36That's my guy.
11:38That's my guy.
11:39There you go.
11:40All right.
11:40Now,
11:41now we're cooking with grease Crowder.
11:42Now we're getting somewhere.
11:45You ever go to Epcot,
11:46Epcot center at Disney.
11:48Yeah.
11:49I've been there once.
11:51Worst experience of your life.
11:52I don't remember it.
11:53I was young.
11:54I was very young.
11:55Yeah.
11:55Okay.
11:55So you don't go as an adult.
11:57You don't go to Epcot.
11:57I haven't gone as an adult yet.
11:59Good for you.
12:00Everybody else.
12:01Everybody that gets kidnapped.
12:02They get kidnapped and taken.
12:04That's what happened.
12:04He's making,
12:05he's making a comeback here at the end.
12:06He's a closer.
12:07Isaiah is a closer.
12:08There you go.
12:09I'm here.
12:10What else?
12:12Let me see.
12:13I don't know.
12:13I'll just,
12:14who has more of a claim to cream soda Jews or blacks?
12:21There's,
12:22there won't be a situation where I vote against black people.
12:25So you're going to take my man.
12:30There won't be a situation where I'm going to choose my people over.
12:35I'm not going to choose my people.
12:36Green soda?
12:37I've been at green soda for years.
12:38I don't even know where this question comes from.
12:41That's right,
12:41but I'm not going to choose someone else over.
12:45Come on,
12:46I like.
12:47I love a good cream soda.
12:49Well,
12:49I guess this one goes without saying.
12:51What's the better TV show?
12:53Friends or Martin?
12:54I told Isaiah in the commercial break,
13:08we get a little weird sometimes.
13:11We got to go.
13:16We'll get to know you better next time.
13:18We ran up against it this time.
13:19Isaiah smalls.
13:20You can read his work in the Miami Herald.
13:22Follow him on Twitter as well.
13:23And make sure you download the Herald app.
13:25Subscribe to the Herald as well for your Dolphins info all season.
13:29Thank you,
13:30Isaiah.
13:30Appreciate y'all.
13:31I think so.
13:31We'll see you there.
13:49- And I'll see you there next time.
