Leroy Hoard, Former NFL Running Back

I'm Listening reminds you that you are not alone, and that talk saves lives. There's a new national hotline for mental health-related distress, 988. When you call or text 988 from any phone, you will be connected directly with trained counselors in over 200 crisis centers nationwide. They can get you the help you need anytime, anywhere. 988, the new National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

Talk saves lives, and with 988, talking is only three digits away. Find out more at I'mListening.org. Looking for stories about Black culture, Black news, all Black everything? Then listen and subscribe to the podcast Beyond Black History Month. From influential newsmakers like Soledad O'Brien. I try to use Twitter to explain this thing is not good, but let me explain to you why it's not good. And let's talk about what framing is. To why Game of Thrones fans can believe in dragons, but not a Black Targaryen.

Or Valerian, technically. Find Beyond Black History Month on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts from. How you been, my friend? What's happening?

What's going on? I gotta eat some crow here. I was very skeptical about the dolphins.

They're making the plows this year. Why? Why? Why were you skeptical? Like, like, I love the way we take situations and pull out of them what we want.

OK, and I'll give you a perfect example. What do you think of Josh Allen after year two? Yeah, you didn't think he was going to be a superstar. There's no doubt about that. Right. But, you know, it's funny because we live in a day and age in sports where development, God forbid a player should develop because he's only a prospect. Right. And that's what these guys are.

And so, you know, we look at these situations after a year or two. Oh, he's a bust. But here's what's happened in football that I think teams are being pressured to find out if their quarterback is good sooner than they've ever had to because of the contract.

Right. So they're forced into situations where, you know, you drafted a prospect and he may need some develop. And if you don't have the tools around him to develop, then, yes, he's not going to be able to perform. And two came into the league hurt. OK, down here in Miami, we didn't even think he was going to play this rookie year. And all of a sudden he started playing the next year.

He got a little bit better, a little bit stronger. The coach didn't like it. The reason I can't explain the only problem I ever had with Brian Flores was this. You were given talent and it's your job to get the most out of that.

End of story. The fact that you said a quarterback can't make it after that amount of time without actually putting forth the effort to get the best out of him. I think that's a poor job of coaching. So now to get the guy who the second Mike McDaniel took over, he prays to put him in the best possible position to succeed.

They got weapons around. Right. And now he's succeeding. And would you believe people have the audacity to say the reason why he's succeeding is because of all the talent he has around. So he can't win. You're exactly right.

The throw that he made on third and twenty two. I know you got to have talent. There's no doubt about it. Everyone has to have talent in the NFL.

Not one person could win, but playing hurt. It's like, what else can you say at this point? Like, I'm not ready to tell you he's going to be a top five quarterback. He's going to be an all time great quarterback, but he'll be on the team next year. There's no doubt about it. And this team should be in the playoffs.

Wait, wait. Let me get this straight that let me let me get on you for a second. So your conclusion for the first three weeks and how to play who basically lead the league in most quarterback stats right now is he'll be on the team next year.

That's all you got. Yeah, he's going to be on the team and I'm going to feel a whole lot better about him because they're going to the playoffs. It's not me knocking the guy. But when we talk about top five quarterbacks in the league, the guy's off to a wonderful start. But I'm not ready to go put him there in that category yet. Let's start this way. Let's say the things that we saw out of him, which got him a top five pick, made him a top five pick.

He started the show. I think we're starting to see. Yes, absolutely. Hundred percent. When that ends up, we don't know.

But as far as being able to throw the ball downfield, as far as being accurate, as far as being able to move the pocket and make throws on the run, check, check, check. That's what we saw in Alabama. That's what we got. Good job. Let's keep it going.

Leroy horde here with us. I will say this. I didn't know what Mike McDaniel was.

I'm not one of those talk show hosts that try to tell you I know everything, but you're exactly right. The support McDaniel has given to a, it seems like, and I know it's there three and oh, and it's early, but this dude right now, it just seems like he has such a good pulse of that locker room and he hits every right button when connecting with his players. I just think that his relationship and how he does things kind of rejuvenated guys. You know, when you've been getting yelled at for two or three years, and then you have a guy that comes in and he could be just as much of a hard ass as all the other guys, but the way he delivers that message may be refreshing to the team and makes them feel more accountable that the coaches are yelling at him, but he's coming at them in a way that puts the onus on them to succeed. And I've had coaches like that and you almost feel worse when the coach doesn't yell because you think, Oh man, I got, I got to, I got to work at this. I don't want to let anybody down. And I think everybody feels that way.

It's also crazy too. You look at the Eagles at three and oh, you look at the dolphins who are three and oh, the amount of similarities that both those teams have, because I know how he rose. We won a super bowl. People were ready to fire him in Philadelphia.

Chris Greer, a lot of people were losing patients. They not only said, okay, we have a franchise quarterback. We have our guy, but they made moves in the last off season or two to go put Jalen hurts into in a position to succeed. Cause you know that how many times we see quarterbacks get drafted to bad spots, bad situations, and they're never really given a chance, right? I mean, look at Josh Rosen. I don't know what kind of quarterback he could be, but did he ever really get a shot to play quarterback to develop?

Well, how about my guy, Mac Jones, like, Hey, that's the team I root for. I know Bill Belichick is one of the greatest, if not the greatest coach of all time, but you're dealing with Patricia, Joe judge, you have no number one weapon. That's a mess. You're not setting your quarterback up to succeed in new England. Here's the thing. They think they got the next Tom Brady that they can just plug him in and he'll make the pieces work. And well, no one's Tom Brady. Let's just be real on that. That's a mistake.

There's only, there's only one of those guys. So, you know, I think you have to do things a little bit different. You have to start surrounding, you know, your investment with talent. And if anything, Zach, it gives you a better chance to evaluate what type of player Matt Jones could be. It's hard to evaluate when you get inside every other play or he, nobody's creating any separation. You want a young quarterback because look, let's think about this. When the quarterback comes from college to the pros, one of the biggest differences is your receivers are NFL players too.

And they're open all the time. When you get to the NFL, you have to anticipate, you have to throw them open. You have to be able to look a safety off to create a little more space for your receiver. So it's a little bit different and you see two is picking up on that. He's throwing the ball and putting it in right spots and guys are covered. So it's an adjustment that they have to make.

If you don't ever have anybody who creates separation, then it becomes a difficult job to enter into the lead and be able to do the things that are expected of Leroy horn here with us. So how good could this dolphins team be? It's one thing to be three notes of the first three weeks, but at the end of the regular season, how do you view them? We were just, we just going to ignore who they beat, right? So you talk about older three and Oh, and, and we hear people talking about all the different ways that the other teams blew it. But guess what? They beat new England, Baltimore, and the bills.

Yeah. You have to give the dolphins credit. You're full of excuses at this point and BS. If you're not giving them credit, I don't want to hear about the heat. I don't want to hear about the Ravens choking.

You could talk about that stuff, but you have to say first and foremost, Miami won those games against two really great teams and one team that has an unbelievable coaches. You know, right now I would say this about the future of the dolphins. Here's the one thing that I think when you look at all the other teams who are leading this league that the dolphins don't have, and that's a consistent run game. And when you look at all these other guys, either with their quarterback, either with running backs, they all have a very formidable run game.

And it's a threat during any point on the game. And as the season goes on, you're going to have to rely on that a little bit more. And so I want to see them get to the point where they can rely on that run game, where they can, you know, create some type of offense to kind of get the run game going.

I see him trying a lot of different things. And I think eventually they'll get there. But for right now, they're winning games and just continue to be successful doing what you do. There's the truth. And then there's what a team says with this whole to a situation with the injury. Was that a concussion that now they're just calling a back like what happened there?

Well, here's the deal. The doctors that check to pass, right? Yeah, they have nothing to do with either team. They're independent doctors. So anything that the team would tell you, if they're saying that's not a concussion, it came from those independent doctors, not from the dolphins checking them out. So there's some legitimate legitimacy to that, that it was a back and not a concussion. If it were the team doctors, then maybe I'd raise an eyebrow, you know, but it wasn't. When you go into concussion protocol, it is independent doctors independent of either team. Great point Leroy Hoard here with us for tomorrow's game.

What do you look for? What do you think decides this game and who you're rolling with? Well, I think here's what I think. I think the dolphins will win for this reason. I don't know what the hell, Cincinnati didn't off season. But they get nobody to help Joe Bo stay upright.

He's getting pummeled back there. And that's what the dolphins do. They put pressure on you. They get after your quarterback.

Now we'll say this, if by some chance, he finds a way to get some time. It could be a long day for the dolphins because they have three receivers that can flat out get it done. And so from that standpoint, they also do a pretty decent job with Joe mixing up running the football. So I'd be interested to see if Cincinnati doesn't open the game trying to establish the run and then use more play action versus having Joe Bo just drop back.

As far as the dolphins, if Tua is healthy enough, and I think it's still a question of if he's healthy, then just do what you've been doing. They've done an amazing job offensively of creating space for Tyree Hill and Jalen Waddell. And when you see those guys that wide open, I mean, everybody knows where they're going with it. How do you guys end up that open?

It has to be from the scheme that the offense is one exploiting certain areas of the field. And, uh, this isn't a bring us heavy. Why Apple is my BFF your co's Brendan Tobin like losing his mind. Is he just delirious with the dolphins full of excitement? Oh, I know he loves me. I'm his face. He is. He loves me. I'm his favorite national radio host. You know what he's been doing for the last week?

Cause we got this week off cash and receipt. And those aren't Robert Sala receipts with the Jets. I'll tell you that you've heard that he is on Twitter. He's going back to the beginning of the year.

Twitter last year, Twitter years ago, Twitter, he is catching those receipts as we speak. By the way, I saw you guys were at what heat media day since I love following you on Twitter. Jimmy Butler going to give you some hair. Oh dude.

I will. I don't need his hair. I just need to know where he bought it. Right. He says that's real.

You think that's real? Oh, he's had pretty long hair. Yeah. He's a great flow, but, but I mean like, I don't know what type of products that you could leave during the LA at the end of the season and come back two months later and your hair is down to your butt. That's good.

Like I like to know what products he's getting. Cause maybe I can just get a little dust up top. Well, not that I give you guys programming advice, but if I'm Brendan Tobin, maybe instead of all the songs, maybe you should just start growing out the Jimmy Butler hair and you know, he would be down. Hey, that ship has failed, man. I tried, I tried to let it grow out and the top of my head, it's like a old cowboy stadium.

Wrap it up with Leroy hoard. Hey, I've been watching a lot of Michigan football. My two best friends went there. I've been to a bunch of games. I love JJ McCarthy.

Coram is phenomenal. The defense better than what I've thought should be good test this weekend against Island. Cause they really haven't played anybody Michigan. But where's your confidence at with the Wolverines? It's kind of, I'm confident against Iowa because Iowa can't score. Yeah. Um, but I liked the way that they run the ball as of late.

They've really done with corn. They've done a hell of a job establishing the run and, and believe it or not, the running game is a quarterback's best friend. And, and people don't realize that, that when you run the ball well, and the defense has to bring more people in the box to stop the run, it gives the, the, the quarterback room to throw the ball. But if you put yourself in passing situations, if you have a quarterback that you have questions about, that doesn't help. So I liked the way that they're establishing the run. And I will say this, that the challenge is a little greater against Iowa at a place they always struggle. So let's not, let's not discredit that.

I don't know what it is. They always struggle playing up in Iowa. You're starting to sound like, you're starting to sound like Hickey because Hickey's already telling me about Penn State having to go to Iowa and whenever they go there, like they can't, I know they have a good defense.

I know it's a tough place to play, but you said it, they have no offense. You should be able to outscore him. Put up 21, you win the game. Hey, you want it? You want to hear something crazy?

Yeah. Kurt Firenze was my offensive line coach with Bill Belichick and Kudia. Ah, so that's why you have a lot of respect for him. I tell you what, of all the coaches I've ever had, he's probably one of the best dudes as far as, he doesn't really yell. He'll have a conversation with you just real straight forward.

And I would believe that that's probably one of the reasons why he's had that job so long is that he's really good at communicating and kind of working through things. So they'll figure it out. But I just don't think at this point in time that the way they're playing offensively that they have a chance against anybody who puts up, can put up 20, 30 points because they're just not there yet. Last thing I'll ask you, what's your order, by the way, at the Cheesecake Factory? Because I hear next time I'm coming down to Florida, that's where we're breaking bread. First of all, I'm taking the Prime 112, brother. We don't go to Cheesecake Factory.

Oh, thank you. I was going to say maybe Cardone or Joe's, but if we go to Prime 112, I'm in. I take my special guess. It depends if Joe Stone Crab, if they got the good crab, we'll go there and crack some crab or we'll go to Prime 112. We don't go to Cheesecake Factory. Cheesecake Factory because then, keep in mind, we can basically do a radio show because the way they seat you, you sit next to the five people ordering next to you. I need some room.

I love it. Maybe we'll invite Brendan Tobin. You could be the peacemaker between the two of us. I tell you what, if you want to keep him quiet, eat a meal with him. My man does work at a meal.

Let me tell you. That sounds good to me. If you eat food, I somewhat like it, even though he ended up being right about the dolphins, so I can't even give a crap for that anymore. Anyway, good to talk to you as always Leroy Hoard. Thanks so much. How's your mental health? I'm listening with Charlie Puth. I just surround myself with my family.

And if you don't really have a big family, just surround yourself with some of your closest friends. And it's pretty amazing how other people can lift one up just from their energy alone. Mental health in general is not to be looked down upon. It's a very serious thing.

And it's important that your mind is healthy just as much as your body physically is healthy. More at I'm listening.org Talk saves lives. Looking for stories about Black culture, Black news, all Black everything? Then listen and subscribe to the podcast Beyond Black History Month. From influential newsmakers like Soledad O'Brien. I try to use Twitter to explain this thing is not good, but let me explain to you why it's not good. And let's talk about what framing is.

To why Game of Thrones fans can believe in dragons, but not a Black Targaryen or Valerian technically. And Beyond Black History Month on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts from. I'm listening reminds you that you are not alone and that talk saves lives. There's a new national hotline for mental health related distress 988. When you call or text 988 from any phone, you will be connected directly with trained counselors and over 200 crisis centers nationwide. They can get you the help you need anytime, anywhere. 988 the new National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Talk saves lives. And with 988 talking is only three digits away. Find out more at I'm listening.org.