Miami acquires Tyreek Hill and Terron Armstead in the blink of an eye. But were they the right moves?
With Terron Armstead signed and Tyreek Hill acquired via trade, all eyes are on the Dolphins. That’s why Conor Orr and Gary Gramling welcomed a very special guest to this show: NBA writer, podcaster, esteemed colleague, friend of the show and expert in all things Miami: Rohan Nadkarni.
The three-man booth discusses, among other things: Was the Hill trade worth it? Does it make sense considering the quarterback situation? Who should be the starting quarterback for the Dolphins, anyway? And what do we make of Tyreek Hill’s history of off-the-field problems, especially just days after Deshaun Watson’s arrival in Cleveland sparked outrage?
Then, what to make of the Chiefs after losing their most potent speed weapon? Does Patrick Mahomes have what he needs to win more Super Bowls?
Plus, our takes on Pringles and more!
Have a comment, critique or question for a future mailbag? Email themmqb@gmail.com or tweet at @GGramling_SI or @ConorOrr.
The following transcript is an excerpt from The MMQB NFL Podcast. Listen to the full episode on podcast players everywhere or on SI.com.
Gary Gramling: The Dolphins acquire Tyreek Hill, they sign Terron Armstead; things are happening here in Miami. And I don't want to alarm you, but we brought in a special guest, a third man in the booth and I'd like to welcome ...
Conor Orr: ... my replacement.
GG: I mean, we’ll see how it goes. But with that, I’d like to bring in NBA staff writer, podcaster, Miami Dolphins’ No. 1 fan in my book, Rohan Nadkarni joins us. Rohan, you must be feeling yourself right now.
Rohan Nadkarni: First of all, it’s about time you guys had me on. Every week I have to see the coastal elitists at Sports Illustrated, the national media just ignore what’s happening in Miami, ignore the brilliance of Tua Tagovailoa. I have to read Gary’s just disgusting, awful power rankings every week ...
CO: Gary doesn’t like them, either, by the way.
RN: Putting the Dolphins at, God knows, 20th in the league after beating the Patriots twice, et cetera. All kinds of injustices that we have to address on the podcast today. And it just so happens that once again, just like in ’72, just like in ’84, just like when Ricky Williams ran for 1,800 yards, the Dolphins are once again the center of the football universe. So it’s a very exciting time to be on with you guys.
GG: I just want to be clear before we start, Miami is on the coast, and you’re in Los Angeles—also on the coast.
RN: I don’t know what you’re talking about.
Gary Gramling: O.K., inland L.A.
RN: I’m on the east side. I can’t see the water from where I am so ...
GG: All right, l’ets get to it. Let’s start with Tyreek. This happened really fast, I mean, the report started trickling out sorta early afternoon that he might get traded very soon. There was an impasse with contract talks with the Chiefs, and we’ll get to this really wild wide-receiver market in just a moment. But yeah, the Dolphins are basically giving him the contract and also giving up the draft compensation that includes, a 2022 first-round pick, a second-round pick, some other stuff, a lot of draft picks, you know how it goes. And then he gets … what’s it being reported as? Like four years ...
RN: It’s four years, $120, but it’s like $70 million guaranteed, which makes me believe they have a three-year out or something along those lines.
GG: Yeah, it’s usually three years. Three years is a good rule of thumb for any of these contracts. But what does Tyreek make this offense into now? Because they have Jaylen Waddle, who in a lot of ways, is very similar to him. So now you have basically the fastest receiver tandem, probably in the history of the NFL. And you have a very unique quarterback situation to go with it. But I mean, just putting these two guys on the field at the same time creates an immense number of problems, not only from a big play/downfield passing type of thing, but they’re both excellent in catch-and-run situations. They are guys you can get the ball into their hands quickly and just watch them go.
RN: I’m really fascinated to see how it works, to say the least. I do think people are talking about the downfield passing game—does Tua have the arm strength? Et cetera. You mentioned it, Gary. What they can do for their running game, just what they can do horizontally as opposed to vertically, right? Like, how many times did the Chiefs just get Tyreek Hill the ball on a crosser or a drag route or something along those lines, and let him create after the catch. I mean, I think that’s Tua’s bread and butter.
In all seriousness, to me, the most interesting part of this trade … again, I cover the NBA, I think about it in NBA terms. We don’t know if Tua is great or not, right? But we do know he’s on his rookie contract. We know that he’s never going to be more affordable than where he is right now. Like now’s the time to go all-in, acquire these types of players and find out what you have at the very least. We’ve seen the quarterback carousel, especially this offseason it’s been spinning out of control. I do think that they can look at the situation, and it also makes them more attractive for a quarterback in the future after whatever clarity they get on Tua this season.
CO: At some point, Gary, when you said this is going to cause a lot of problems, I thought you were going to say for the Dolphins’ offense and not for the teams that they were going to be facing. I think this is horrible trade. I think Chris Grier continues to be nakedly the worst general manager in football. And I’m not just saying this as a bit because Rohan’s on, but like, the reason you needed to sign Terron Armstead is because you traded your first good left tackle and recoup nothing with the draft capital. So now your owner allows you to go out and do crazy stuff again, basically use the shadow of the Deshaun Watson trade to be able to acquire Tyreek Hill consequence-free in the media this week.
But yeah, just this entire thing is laughable. It’s such a luxury and you’re taking someone that basically was created by Patrick Mahomes in this offense and hoping that it can work with Tua Tagovailoa, who I agree, Rohan, I don’t think the book is completely out on yet—unlike Gary. But this is not what you need. You need 50–50 ball guys. You need people who are going to win with catch rate over expectation. And I think Tua is a little bit like Kyler Murray. Like I think that there is an issue with getting your intermediate targets the ball. Teams are just basically going to—to borrow an NBA term—full-court press the Dolphins and be in their face on every down. I don’t see how this works. He’s 28 also; he’s a 28-year-old speed threat. How is this any different than the worst years of the Raiders in terms of how they viewed their roster construction?
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