OJ McDuffie on Adam Gase: “He’s a brilliant mind.”

(Listen to the full interview here with OJ McDuffie and Seth Levit of “The Fish Tank” and Matty Infante here.)

As tempted as I was to ask the 4th-leading pass catcher in Miami Dolphins history about his playing days with Dan Marino, or about funny stories from the locker room, I reflected on OJ McDuffie being blessed with the coaches he’s been around. During the interview, he gave credit to his coach, Cliff Walton, at Hawken (high school near Cleveland), as well as Joe Paterno at Penn St., another Cleveland guy in Don Shula, and Jimmy Johnson.

I naturally wanted to know what OJ thought about Adam Gase; here’s a guy who’s been around some special coaches. After the 2016 season, the team rallied to make the Playoffs and Adam Gase is being anointed the young Don Shula we’ve been looking for all this time. Then we go 6-10 in 2017, and fair or not, question marks have their way of snowballing onto the doorstep of the coach or the quarterback. Fortunes in the NFL can change that quickly.

“Do we have a keeper in Adam Gase?” I asked OJ.

He went on to mention the common thread of some of the great coaches he’s been privileged to be around: the ability to adapt to change. Adam Gase has that ability, according to OJ. And when you hear OJ use the term “a brilliant mind” on top of Gase’s adapting to the ebbs and flows of the professional game, I’m reminded that Adam Gase still has a high ceiling as a young head coach, despite the heartache that came from the 2017 season.

Don’t forget to listen to the full interview and let us know what y’all think down below! What would you have asked OJ McDuffie?