Someone said be yourself. In 2019 I obliged. Unapologetically , relentlessly, passionately . I decided to push @arietemiami to the next level and my company along wit. The job is not done 2020, I am coming for you.
Miami ,let’s ride.
#arietemixtape#COMINGSOON
📸 @frodnesor
Former Miami Dolphins head coach Dave Wannstedt, a mentor to Jeff Hafley, and former player Trace Armstrong. Hafley’ agent, attended practice today. So did Zach Thomas and Dan Marino. Wannstedt is the last coach to lead the Dolphins to a playoff victory. It was December 2000.
Tua had weapons with size. Devante Parker, Darren Waller, Mack Hollins.
Let’s not do this. Tua had the most dangerous receiver in the NFL for two plus seasons
That series was a full-blown WWE
Texas Tech heads to WCWS, beating Florida
Gators plunked former player Mia Williams' numerous times, tempers were 🔥🔥
Florida doesn’t shake hands.
This is an AMAZING story of a former NFL player, Jared Odrick, going after his passion in life after football.
Football teaches these players the foundation for success - drive, determination, focus, hard work - and it translates to whatever they put their minds to.
I’ve never seen someone’s defense be simply repeating the exact behavior they’re being criticized for.
“I KNOW (waves hands) THINGS ABOUT YOU, TOO! I won’t say them and they’re total figments of my imagination… but I KNOW THINGS! I’ll leave it at that!”
10 out of 10. No notes.
New Orleans has one lane as a food city. It’s a good lane, and Cajun seafood is one of my favorites. But show me what else they do well.
Miami does seafood, steak, Italian, sushi, Caribbean and Latin food well
Dolphins practice brief recap:
Highlight of the day was Kyle Louis undercutting a route to the perimeter, picking it off and taking it back for six. I’m pretty sure he put the “fins up” hand to the helmet as he high stepped it in.
That was from Mark Gronowski, as was the next pass that got tipped and pick by A.J. Green.
On Louis and the rookie LBs, (Rodriguez, Moore) it was fun to watch them go through their indy periods. Constant tinkering, working on techniques, hand placement, constant conversation.
Thought there was some highlights from each of the QBs. Malik Willis drilled a laser to Jalen Tolbert on a 3rd and long period for about 15. Malik worked the middle of the field splitting defenders a few times.
Malik, Quinn and Cam can all thread the needle. They showed off their arms quite a bit in Indys.
Malik Washington made a bunch of catches. He looks sudden/explosive off the line and at the top of routes. Lonnie Johnson did get a nice breakup covering him on a deep shot from Willis.
Theo Wease, Caleb Douglas, and Greg Dulcich had some nice chunk plays. Tutu Atwell and Tahj Washington got open deep, Atwell twice but not targeted, and Tahj couldn’t real in a really good ball from Cam Miller (who I thought was sharp).
Kenneth Grant and Jordan Phillips caught my eye. Phillips stood out in his individual work. He looks bigger, stronger, technique looks good, posture on stack and shed – I think he’s poised for a big year. With Grant, it’s easy to see what Coach Clark was talking about in terms of his body.
Juju Brents and Alex Austin had two breakups.
Jordyn Brooks had one where he had to cover a ton of ground to get to the sideline.
Trader picked off Willis on a ball to Douglas that he didn’t squeeze, was batted into the air and right to Trader.
There was no 11-on-11, so I don’t really have any trenches talk for you guys outside of the individual work. Full pod and story covering the day coming your way this evening.
I’m one of the select media members invited out to see the Dolphins practice on their second day of OTAs.
It’s one of the most exclusive days in sports, and I don’t take these opportunities for granted. I don’t take this job for granted (not anymore).
I’m honored to be there as your eyes and ears.
Chris Broussard believes SGA has PASSED Dwyane Wade all time after winning back to back MVPs:
“You got Jordan, Kobe, and SGA. I think you already can put him ahead of Jerry West and Dwyane Wade. If he wins this championship he definitely goes ahead of Wade”
(Via @FTFonFS1)
Whoever this guy is has taken a solid amount of drugs in the last 24 hours.
This is a pretty wild take.
Did he play for a Better organization, that won way more. Yes.
But better pure QB. Nah.
Keldon Johnson on his role with the @spurs: “I remember a couple years ago, I had a hard conversation with Pop. One morning, we were getting ready to play Dallas, and he pulled me to the side and told me that he thought it would be best for the team if I started coming off the bench. I said, ‘Yeah, of course. Whatever’s best for the team, I’ll do it.’ And I truly meant that, too.
But I’m also just human, man. And I was like 24 years old. If I said that I fully bought into this role from the jump, I’d be lying. I had averaged 22 points in the NBA. I’d won a gold medal with Team USA at the Olympics. So I just didn’t understand. I couldn’t wrap my head around it. And ultimately, I didn’t take it well. I sulked. I let the outside noise affect my play. I didn’t present the best version of myself as I was coming off the bench for the rest of that season. And I knew that I was much better than that.
I’ve been reflecting on that part of my journey a lot lately, with the position we’re in right now.
To backtrack a little bit…. When I was drafted in 2019, that was probably one of the most stressful nights of my life. I’d had a great year at Kentucky, and I thought I was going 9 or 10. In my mind, my floor was 15 to Detroit. The crazy thing is, I didn’t even work out for San Antonio. We talked a little bit on FaceTime, but I honestly didn’t think I’d still be on the board at 19 when the Spurs picked. Definitely not at 29, where I ended up going. I don’t know why I slipped so much, but thank God I did, because I landed at a proven organization with vets who could mold me.
That situation could have gone one of two ways. Thankfully, it went the good way.
Dejounte was young, too, but he knew the ropes better than me, and he made sure that I did everything the right way. I can’t thank him enough to this day for how much he’s helped my career. Same thing with DeMar DeRozan. Those guys really embraced me and took me under their wing as a young guy, and showed me how it was done. I feel like I had such a great group of vets, whether it was LaMarcus Aldridge, Patty Mills, Rudy Gay — all those guys went out their way to make sure I was solid. I feel like they knew how good I could be before I even knew how good I could be. They didn’t let me skip any steps, which was huge for my career early on.
And yeah, fast-forward to summer 2024, and I got to thinking back on my first couple years here in San Antonio, and how I could get that spark back, get back to being me. That’s when I started to see the bigger picture. We had picks. There were all these signs that we were building something that was gonna be special, all these bright green flags.
But there was this one red flag.
Me.
In that moment, I had to take a hard look in the mirror. And man, I just got embarrassed. I hated that feeling — the feeling that I had let my vets down, and especially let my younger teammates down.
This organization believed in me since day one, when Pop and our GM at the time R.C. Buford took a leap of faith on a player who was sliding in the draft and didn’t even have a workout at their facility. They had a plan, and I was a big piece of that plan. I just needed to get out of my own way. Period.
I knew that I could either be the person who tries to fight the change, who makes it about them and their ego, and tries to do everything their way (which never really works). Or, I could trust the process. And the Spurs never gave me a reason not to trust it. So I bought into my role, and I put my best foot forward each and every night. Whatever I had to do to be the best version of myself, I did it. And I feel like this season has been a testament to that.
I’m just really at home here. I think that’s probably obvious, right? The cowboy hat isn’t a gimmick. San Antonio is all me. Being a country boy, that’s just a part of who I am. From Huntington Prep to Oak Hill Academy to Kentucky, I feel like I just carried that country boy vibe with me everywhere I went.” https://t.co/WnVP4cXPll
Dolphins have so few resources this off season, but are intentionally placing the bulk of them in the most historically established pathway for outperforming expectations - QB and Run Game. It's old school. Spoiler: I'll be taking the OVER on Miami's win total in 2026.
Each year @JFowlerESPN does a survey of NFL executives who rank the top players at all positions. You end up with a list of top 10 players, honorable mentions, and also-mentions, maybe 20 to 30 players depending on the position, and it gives you a de facto feel for how respected each team's roster is in the eyes of the pros whose job it is to evaluate talent.
In 2023 the Dolphins had one of the top 5 most respected rosters in the NFL. Former GM Chris Grier was on top of the world. But that decayed over time, to barely top 10 in 2024, bottom 10 in 2025, and I'm quite certain when this year's surveys are in, Miami will be at or near the very bottom. This is why Grier is no longer Miami's GM.
There's actually a decent relationship between these survey results and follow-on win totals, particularly if you factor in something as basic as prior year win totals. Teams in the top 5 have averaged about 12 wins (playoffs included) over the last three seasons. And about half the teams in the bottom 5 go on to win 3 to 5 games. Not just bad, but REAL bad.
But it's not a perfect predictor, and that's important. Some of those bottom-feeders surprise with 7, 8, or 10 wins. A few others REALLY surprise by being among the best teams in the NFL.
Question is, do the over-performers share common ground? Yeah, they kind of do.
You see a lot of outperformance specifically at the QB position, whether it be a QB regarded to be "done" or "failed" having a bounce back year, or a relatively inexperienced/unknown QB making an unexpected splash.
Think about rookie performances nobody saw coming from CJ Stroud or Jayden Daniels, or a second year Drake Maye suddenly making a run at MVP.
But also think about a 35 year old Matt Stafford bouncing back from an injury-plagued, down year where the Rams only won 5 games. Or Russell Wilson going from that disastrous 5-win season in Denver that first year HC Nathaniel Hackett didn't even get to finish, to having a little bit of a bounce under Sean Payton. Think of Trevor Lawrence going from the butt of jokes to scoring 41 touchdowns this year.
I find it interesting a lot of the QBs who stewarded these over-performances (e.g. Jayden Daniels, Drake Maye, Trevor Lawrence, Kyler Murray, Justin Fields) were dynamic, mobile guys who contributed strongly to renewed ground games, and how they and even their less-mobile colleagues benefited from offensive line revamps and newfound run religion.
It's a classic approach. Those who have watched decades of football will have seen a lot of teams widely disrespected from a pure talent standpoint outperforming with gritty, old school ball. Think Tony Sparano and Bill Parcells. Think Dave Wannstedt and Jimmy Johnson.
That's where the Dolphins find themselves. What is old is new again.
In an off season where the team is setting records for the size of their dead budget bloc, the only sizable contracts they've given out were to Malik Willis (another dynamic QB who forces defenses to play 11-on-11 ball) and RB De'Von Achane. They spent the #12 overall pick on a 352-pounder they plan to play at Left Guard.
And while we can't say how the story ends, whether the team will ever find itself "getting over the hump" so to speak, I think we do know how this very familiar story has a tendency to begin. Place your bets.