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00:00You're all dolphins, right? Yes. All right. I'm sorry. I should know you.
00:07That's good. You're all dolphins. I'm all 49ers.
00:10All 49ers. There you go. We got this. We're all that.
00:16No, let's go. Let's start. Let's start right now.
00:19I'm going to try to see if my kids can stay out of the shop because they tend to like to be involved.
00:24That's fine. Do you have anything to edit a video at your house? No.
00:30If I get an mp4, I have quick time player. Cool. All right. Because that way you can
00:34just edit out this part right here. Got it. All right. Sounds good. All right. Three, two, one.
00:39Hello, everyone. My name is Grant Cohn with all 49ers. I'm joined by Alan Pupar with
00:45all dolphins. The niners and dolphins are playing this each other this week.
00:48I have five questions for Alan. He has five questions for me. Hopefully you'll find this
00:54interesting and you'll learn something. I hope I will. Alan, first question about the dolphins.
00:59What is the biggest strength of this team? People on the West Coast know nothing about the
01:02Miami Dolphins. They're a rather nondescript team, aren't they? Here's the thing. They're one in three
01:12on the season. They've actually played four decent games. They put themselves in a position to win.
01:16Every one of them couldn't pull it off against New England in the opener, Buffalo in week two,
01:21and then Seattle in week four. The thing is they haven't done anything particularly well
01:26consistently. What they have done well, if you have to point to some, actually the thing that
01:32they've done best is their kicking with their punter Matt Hawk and their kicker Jason Sanders.
01:39Truth is that's only going to win you so many games once every three years maybe
01:44for a punter and a kicker. We'll stick to offense or defense in this particular situation.
01:49I guess the thing they've done best maybe would be the connection between Ryan Fitzpatrick and
01:53Devontae Parker, who's kind of picked up where he left off last year at a 1,200-yard season.
01:58That really should have gotten him to the Pro Bowl. It didn't, but part of it was because he
02:02came on late this year. In addition to putting up the numbers, what he's shown is the ability to
02:07play through injury, which is something he didn't do early in his career as a first-round pick
02:11coming over in 2015. Again, as I said, there's nothing that really stands out when you say
02:17about the Dolphins. Man, that's their forte. That's what they do really, really well.
02:22What they've done best would be the Fitzpatrick to Parker connection.
02:25Well, the Niners are so depleted in the secondary. Hearing that a team
02:28has a wide receiver like that raises concerns. So on the other side,
02:33what is the biggest weakness the Dolphins have?
02:38Again, it's like with the strength is they haven't done anything consistently poorly.
02:43What they have done the worst on a regular basis has been defending the pass. That's been an issue,
02:49but a lot of that has been because they haven't had Byron Jones since the fourth play of the
02:53week two game against the Buffalo Bills. We all know the Dolphins paid a lot of money
02:57to Byron Jones to bring him over in free agency after he had a really solid career with the
03:01Cowboys. The expectation is that he will play Sunday, and that's going to make a big difference
03:06because then that alleviates a lot of the pressure that's been put on Noah Igbenagany,
03:12the third of the Dolphins' three first-round picks in 2020, who's got a lot of physical ability,
03:17but also needs a lot of seasoning. He's gotten caught peeking into the backfield
03:22time and time again so far this season, and it's cost some big plays.
03:26With having Byron Jones in the lineup, then you have Byron Jones on one side and Xavier Howard on
03:30the other side and gives the Dolphins two really good cornerbacks. Igbenagany can be more of a
03:34backup-type role and then an extra DB in obvious passing situations. But that's been a concern.
03:39The run blocking also has not been very good, which has led to a lot of inconsistency in the
03:45running game. A lot of games where the biggest factor in the running game is Ryan Fitzpatrick
03:49scrambling out of the pocket, and that's not a good sign. Mind you, he led the team in rushing
03:54last year, which was kind of catastrophic and symptomatic of just how poor the run blocking was.
03:59It's a little bit better this year, but it's still not where it needs to be.
04:02Okay, two-parter. First is, why is Ryan Fitzpatrick starting for this team and not two,
04:08and is that the right call? And two, the Niners have shown that they've had a real issue containing
04:12mobile quarterbacks, whether it be from scrambling, extending plays,
04:16zone read, whatever. Is that going to be an issue for the 49ers again in this week? So that's my
04:20two-parter. Why is Fitzpatrick playing and is he an actual run threat that the Niners have to worry
04:26about? Oh, he's definitely a run threat. I mean, it's interesting because he doesn't look like
04:31your prototypical scrambling quarterback because he's not necessarily fast. He just makes very good
04:36decisions as to when to get out and scramble and he gains a lot of valuable first downs that way.
04:42So if he can't find anybody open, and that's another issue that's really hurt the Dolphins
04:47at times, is their wide receivers don't necessarily create a whole lot of separation
04:50on a consistent basis. So Fitzpatrick, by necessity, has had to scramble and I'd be
04:55shocked if you didn't see him scramble three, four, five times against the 49ers because he's
04:59done it pretty much every game. As far as to whether he's the right guy to be in the lineup,
05:03absolutely he's the right guy to be in the lineup because he's clearly the best quarterback on the
05:07team right now. This is not what the Dolphin fan base wants to hear. They want to hear that Tua
05:12Tango Viola is ready to come into the lineup and be a star the second he takes a snap in the NFL,
05:18but that's just not reality. We have not seen him in practice other than basically just warm-up
05:24drill or one-on-one tossing against there since the end of August, but in the practices that were
05:30open to the media, it was crystal clear to anybody watching that Fitzpatrick was the guy who was
05:34clearly in command of the offense and much better than Tua. Now, Brian Flores said this week that
05:41Tua has checked all the medical boxes, so the hip is not an issue, and if the hip were an issue,
05:47then he shouldn't be on the active roster. So going by that and assuming that Tua is fine
05:54medically, it's a question of being ready to really make an impact at the NFL level.
05:59And what also irks Dolphin fans is they're seeing Tua there sitting on the bench after he was the
06:06fifth pick, and they not only see Joe Burrow, the first overall pick, playing and playing very well
06:11in Cincinnati, but now they've seen Justin Herbert, who was picked one spot after Tua,
06:15get in the lineup for the Chargers and playing really well. So that's not helping the fan base.
06:22But again, maybe. And the whole thing about Tua is he was so polished. He's got all the
06:27intangibles. It shouldn't take him long to make an impact. Well, it's not there yet. And again,
06:32I refuse to believe for a second that the Dolphins think that Tua is better, but they don't want to
06:37put him in there for some reason. I mean, I understand everybody loves Ryan Fitzpatrick
06:42in Miami. He's a great guy. He's a great teammate. But still, if Tua was clearly better,
06:46he'd be in the lineup. So you're saying already questions are popping up as to whether this was
06:51the right pick. You're bringing up that question. Well, it seems like it. I mean,
06:59Herbert looks good. I preferred Herbert. I'm not. I mean, what do I know? But I liked Herbert.
07:04So, yeah, I would imagine people are wondering. Yeah. Well, it's not being brought up by anybody
07:10right now. I mean, he's got like he's got a lot of that must not be discussed right now.
07:16No, that would not go over well. But you know what? There is some merit to what you're saying.
07:20The thing with Herbert that a lot of people didn't like was the quote-unquote personality
07:25issue and whether he had the it factor. Yeah. And well, and I just noticed the expression that you
07:32just made. But here's the thing. The Dolphins went through seven years of Ryan Tannehill,
07:36who was a good athlete, who did not have the it factor. And he went through seven years of
07:42correct. And in fact, I saw Ryan Tannehill as being Herbert's NFL comp in quite a few places.
07:48Yeah. And I don't think I don't have dolphins or they or their fans want to deal with another
07:53situation like that. And great for Ryan Tannehill that it's going great in Tennessee. But he's also
07:58playing behind a great offensive line with a monster running back at Derek Henry. So the
08:03thing about Herbert, he just, to me, looks huge. And two of probably when he gets on the field
08:07is going to look pretty small. So we'll see. Anyway, no, I mean, I basically I mean, real
08:12quickly, I meant to it looks like a high school senior. He just really he really physically he
08:17does not pass the eyeball test. And again, he had the great career at Alabama. I don't want to
08:21take anything away from that. But that's how many first round picks were playing with them. I mean,
08:28every one, every spot on the offensive line, the running backs might wind up having four of them
08:33in the first round. That's crazy. It's crazy. Real quick, Niner fans are curious about Matt
08:38Brita. They traded him to the Dolphins. We don't see him used much. The Niners have been hurting
08:43for running backs. If he were on the Niners right now, he'd be starting. So what are they doing with
08:47him? And what's kind of like the future outlook for his production in Miami? Well, the whole
08:52running back thing in Miami is kind of crazy because they went on in the offseason. The
08:55running game was atrocious last year. Again, I mentioned a lot of it was the run blocking,
08:59but they went on in the offseason. They signed Jordan Howard as a free agent from the Eagles,
09:02and then they made the trade for Brita. And then the season starts and the guy getting all the
09:06reps pretty much is Miles Gaskin, who has said a seventh round pick out of University of Washington
09:11last year. And heading into training camp, you would have made that prediction. Everybody would
09:16have told you to turn in your PFWA card because you don't know what you're talking about. Well,
09:21again, in those practices open to the media, I'm watching the running backs, and I'm like,
09:26A, Gaskin looks like a totally different back. He looks really, really good, and he looks just
09:30as good as anybody else. And he's the one who's been productive. Howard was the one who's gotten
09:34the starts early on, but his numbers are like right now he's still not at a yard per carry.
09:41And then Brita also hasn't gotten used very much because they're using Gaskin in the passing game
09:46as well. Now, Brita made a little bit more of an impact last Sunday against Seattle. He had
09:51three catches out of the backfield, including a 26-yard gain. So logically, you would think that
09:57the Dolphins would want to use a little bit more and more and more, especially considering Gaskin
10:01is not a particularly big guy, and at some point you don't want to wear him out either. And Brita
10:06has the ability to make plays in open space. So my expectation would be that he would become more
10:11of a factor in the passing game. I don't expect him to get a ton of carries because right now
10:16they have Gaskin as the quote-unquote change of pace back. And if they want to go with a power
10:20run, I don't think they're quite ready to give up on Jordan Howard yet, but it may come to that soon
10:25if his numbers don't improve. Well, from what I've watched with the Dolphins, Gaskin looks terrific.
10:29I really like the way he runs. But it seems like what the timeshare should be Gaskin and Brita.
10:36I've seen a lot of Brita. It seems like Gaskin runs hard. Brita is really explosive. I don't know
10:40what Jordan Howard gives you. He was good three, four, five years ago, whatever, but he'll figure
10:44it out. The final question, I'm not going to ask it like who's going to win. The Niners are favorite.
10:49I guess I'll ask it like this. What do the Dolphins have to do to pull off an upset on the,
10:53on the West Coast? Like, well, what is one thing they need to do to take care of business? Because
10:56they've come close with three other teams. I mean, theoretically, they should be able to make
11:01this a game. No, they shouldn't. I would expect them to make this a game, but here's the thing.
11:05And it's, it's going to be very bland answer, but that's going to be the truth. My expectation is
11:09it's going to be close until the fourth quarter. And then the Dolphins have to find a way to make
11:13the big plays down the stretch. And this is what good teams do, right? I mean, the good teams find
11:20a way to win and the bad teams just aren't quite good enough to do it. And the Dolphins are not a
11:24great team. They're eons better than they were last year, but they're not there yet. And then
11:31if you want to get simplistic, another thing they have to do is cash in when they have scoring
11:34opportunities and not let what happened against Seattle happen again, because they drove inside
11:38the Seattle 35 times and had to settle for field goals five times and then wound up killing him in
11:44the end. And also if they have a fourth and five from the 49ers, 11 yard line after four
11:50failed attempts at getting into the end zone, maybe they'll go for it this time.
11:54Well, here's the thing, you know, the Dolphins aren't great, but neither are the Arizona Cardinals
11:59and the Cardinals beat the Niners with Jimmy Garoppolo, Nick Bosa, D Ford, Richard Sherman,
12:03all of them. So I'm really eager to see this game. I expect the Niners to win it too, but
12:08I think it'll be a game to the end. And what the Niners did last week is they'd let the Eagles hang
12:12around and hang around and the Eagles gained confidence and won the game. So maybe Ryan
12:17Fitzpatrick can do something like Carson Wentz. I mean, it seems like he has the same amount of
12:21confidence or more. Ryan Fitzpatrick is not short on confidence. And I like that about him.
12:27No, no, he's not short on confidence. So let's turn it around. Let me ask you some questions
12:31about the 49ers because you're at the other end of the country. So we don't get to see the 49ers
12:35a whole lot. The one thing that we do know about the 49ers is my Lord, the injuries, holy moly.
12:40So you're looking at a team that went to the Super Bowl last year. And before the season
12:44even starts, it's one injury after the other. So how are they managing? I guess to say to survive
12:53their two and two after four games, which is not horrible. And that the expectations kind of
12:57change to where maybe, maybe there's a realization that it's going to be one of those years.
13:02Yeah, that's a great question because I think most people, maybe other parts of the country,
13:06look at the Niners and say, well, it's a 13 and three team last year. They're dominant.
13:09They must have all this top end talent and they do to an extent, but I think what makes the Niners,
13:14the Niners uniquely excellent is their depth, their ability to develop undrafted guys and late
13:21round picks. Like every time someone gets hurt or they have a busted draft pick or a trade or
13:26a signing that doesn't live up to expectations, they have an undrafted guy who saves them.
13:32I mean, originally it was Matt Brita. He was the guy. And then Nick Mullins up until last week,
13:37he's won four games for them as a backup. They have backup tight ends, backup linebackers,
13:41corners. So I think what makes the Niners, the Niners is how well their position coaches
13:47develop guys. I mean, George Kittle was a fifth round pick. I don't know if people remember that.
13:51So that's kind of been the Niners calling card. They've had a lot of busts. They drafted Solomon
13:55Thomas with the third pick and it hasn't hurt them at all because they have an endless supply
14:00of undrafted guys that by the second year in the league are ready to contribute. So I think that's
14:06what's going on right now. Speaking of injuries, the main guy in San Francisco, Jimmy G,
14:16you mentioned the depth of the position. We saw the depth kind of hurt the 49ers last week with
14:20Nick Mullins and CJ Beathard who didn't exactly light it up. So what does Jimmy G bring to the
14:28offense that maybe the other two guys can't do? And would your expectation be that he'll play
14:32Sunday? Well, I think when Nick Mullins and CJ Beathard are on the field, well, Beathard came
14:37in against prevent defense at the end, but when Mullins is on the field, the defense is going to
14:40sell out to stop the run right away. So that's going to hurt the run game. I think when Jimmy
14:45comes back defense, the dolphins are going to respect him more as they should. They're going to
14:50back off a little bit and you're going to see the Niners run game work a little bit better. So his
14:54job will just be easier. The passing game will be there. The play action game will be there.
14:59And I don't know if he's a hundred percent healthy. I don't know how mobile he'll be,
15:02but I think Shanahan will make his job pretty easy. A lot of quick passes and he'll just be
15:06much more confident. What happened last week was Nick Mullins kind of crumbled on national
15:10television. It's like, he wasn't quite ready for the stage. Jimmy's not going to do that.
15:14Jimmy crumbled in the fourth quarter of the Superbowl. That's different, but I mean,
15:18it's just mid-October. It's a big game for the Niners, but I think he'll give the entire team
15:25a boost of confidence because I think if either of those backups go out there this week,
15:29the Niners will look like, well, who knows? All bets are off.
15:33So you mentioned the fourth quarter of the Superbowl, which brings me to Kyle Shanahan
15:37and his offense and don't want to take a shot, but outside of fourth quarters,
15:41Superbowl is when he has a lead. Kyle Shanahan's offense has been problematic for every opposing
15:47defense in the NFL. What makes it so difficult to defend?
15:51Well, if you look historically, he's always got an offense that ranks top half of the league in
15:56yards. He's going to get a lot of yards. The points, I think, depends on how good his players
16:03are, but he statistically is going to rank high in yards and how he does it is his offense is
16:10built around the run game and he pairs it with a play-action passing game that looks exactly like
16:16the run game. It's what his father did in Denver. It's really hard to stop, especially in the first
16:22quarter, the first half when the game is close and the defense has to honor both run and pass.
16:27You don't know. On first and 10, the run looks exactly like the play-action pass and you get
16:31linebackers biting. So it's tough. But then when you get into the fourth quarter of a game,
16:37usually the score, the time, the situation dictates what you have to do on offense.
16:42You're up and you have to run or you're down and you have to pass. And so that advantage that
16:50Shanahan has where you don't know what he's going to do goes away. So it's like in the second half
16:54of the Super Bowl, he's up big. You have to run. The defense knows it. They load up to stop it.
16:58And Shanahan's instinct is, I'm going to pass. I'm going to trick him. It's like, no, that's not what
17:03you do in the second half with the lead. You just actually have to find a way to run it when they
17:07know you are going to. And that's why he's lost two Super Bowls, because he's still in the,
17:12I got to trick you. I got to trick, I got to do what you're not expecting. And he acts,
17:16he overthinks it. It's like, he's one of the most creative coordinators in the league,
17:20but in terms of game management as a head coach, he might be one of the worst.
17:24Interesting. Yeah. He outsmarted himself a little bit in that Super Bowl,
17:29especially the one against the Patriots when he was with the Falcons. Hate to harp on injuries,
17:35but there was a huge one. And it's interesting, there's a Dolphin connection here because Nick
17:39Bosa obviously is the son of former Dolphin first round pick John Bosa, brother of Joey as well.
17:45So when Nick Bosa gets hurt and gets lost for the season, just how devastating does that become for
17:51the pass rush and who takes over as the main guy? I know you kind of weren't happy with Eric
17:56Armstead and the wide rushes that he takes to the quarterback, but so how was the pass rush
18:00without Nick Bosa and who's the guy to watch? Armstead. I mean, it's not just that they don't
18:05have Bosa, they don't have DeFord either. And those were their two big additions last year
18:09that made their defense go from being decent to dominant. And now, so those two were gone
18:14and they've taken Armstead. Buckner's gone too. He was great. So they've taken, he was the number
18:20four threat and an interior rusher and moved him to DN because that's the best option.
18:26And so I was being really hard on Eric Armstead for giving a contain, but this 295 pound man
18:32who's trying to chase Carson Wentz, that's hard. I was being a little harsh on him. Sorry, Eric.
18:37He's having a terrific year. He's playing out of position. He's playing very hard. He just needs
18:42to maybe be a little smarter. And if he rushes wildly at Ryan Fitzpatrick, Fitzpatrick will burn
18:48him too. So that's really, I mean, he's playing out of position. That's what's going on. In the
18:52interior, they have a first round pick, Javon Kinlaw, who's flashed, but has no sacks, one
18:58quarterback hit. Maybe this will be the week that he breaks out. Cause from what I've seen,
19:02the Dolphins offensive line is a little shaky. But really the Niners pass rush isn't what it
19:08used to be. And on third downs, you're going to see the Niners blitz a lot.
19:11The Dolphin offensive line is, again, with everything else much better than it was last
19:16year. It's not great, but it's serviceable. You mentioned DeForest Buckner. Do you think
19:22the 49ers regret that trade? If they don't, they're in denial. I'm sorry. Because the reason
19:27they kept Armstead instead is that they also could keep Jimmy Ward. Jimmy Ward is overrated.
19:34He's okay. They like that they can put him in Nickelback and he can play man-to-man coverage,
19:39kind of like Teron Matthew. But when Jimmy does it, he just commits horrible penalties.
19:44And he doesn't force turnovers. He's not a playmaker. DeForest Buckner is a playmaker.
19:50He's better than Eric Armstead. I think, yeah, the Niners probably, if they don't regret it yet,
19:55they'll probably regret it in a couple of weeks. Yeah. I remember when I saw the trade to me,
20:00cause again, we don't see the 49ers very much, but I know I've seen DeForest Buckner and if
20:06maybe it's not a coincidence that the Colts defense is so good this year,
20:09now that they have DeForest Buckner. No, it's no coincidence. I think what happened
20:14is the Niners got this new defensive line coach who you know, Chris Kosterik. He was with the
20:18Dolphins for a second and Kosterik comes to the Niners and Buckner is already great.
20:22Armstead isn't. Armstead is the guy who was the first round pick who hadn't lived up to
20:25expectations and that became Kosterik's project and Armstead had a breakout year. And I think
20:32Kosterik is, you know, sort of in love with his project. I guess that's human nature,
20:37but I think that's what happened. Okay. Yeah. The last question I had for you,
20:41and you mentioned former Dolphins and it involves a couple of former Dolphins because
20:45the 49ers roster includes two guys who were very high draft picks for the Dolphins.
20:50And that would be Dion Jordan and Jamar Taylor. Dion Jordan, don't need to remind Dolphin fans,
20:54was the third overall pick in 2013. To say he busted out in Miami would be very,
21:00being very, very polite. Jamar Taylor was a second round pick.
21:04Come to think of it, I think it was the same year as well. And also flamed out. No,
21:07he wasn't the same year. Anyway, whatever year it was, he also didn't pan out. Now they were,
21:12they're winding up with the 49ers. How are they playing? What are their roles? What's the
21:18expectations for them moving forward? It's like they're saving the Niners, right? They're important
21:23on the Niners right now. Like the Niners had D Ford and they brought in Dion Jordan as kind of
21:27like a just in case, but D Ford seems like he was kind of nearing the end of the line. It's just
21:32injury after injury. Now he's got a neck slash back thing and the Niners needed a speed rusher
21:38because all of, I mean, their best edge rusher is 295 pounds, Eric Armstead. So Dion Jordan
21:43actually has a role on the team and has made a couple of plays. He had a sack against the
21:47Giants a couple of weeks ago against the Eagles. He came in and didn't seem like he was in tune
21:53with the game plan. I mean, he made mistakes that cost the Niners a touchdown in the red
21:57zone. So he's athletic. He doesn't, I don't know how prepared he is, but they need him.
22:02And then Jamar Taylor, he'll be the starting nickel back this week because starter Kaywan
22:07Williams is on IR for three weeks with an ACL sprain. So I assume it's going to be Jamar Taylor
22:12unless the Niners have something up their sleeve. Taylor was a starting nickel all through training
22:16camp while Kaywan Williams was out with a calf strain. And the Niners play a lot of zone coverage.
22:22I mean, which means he'd be in the flat a lot, but if he's in man, he's going to get targeted.
22:26And last week he did have a sack, uh, blitzing the quarterback. So maybe the Niners will use
22:32them that way. Interesting. Yeah. All right. Well, I, I learned, I, I learned about the
22:39Dolphins. I hope I helped you with the Niners. This was a lot of fun. And, uh, when the Niners
22:44and Dolphins meet in the Superbowl, we'll do it again. Yeah. And about, in about seven years,
22:49I'll be a lot more white hair by then. Yeah, me too. All right. This was great. Take care, Alan.
22:55You take care, Grant.