A Waddle trade suggestion from ex-Dolphins exec. And what’s fascinating about Redick rant

The Dolphins, in the next year or two, will need to decide whether to give Jaylen Waddle one of the richest contracts ever for a team’s No. 2 receiver.

On Tuesday, former Dolphins executive vice president Mike Tannenbaum offered an interesting idea about how the Dolphins could perhaps help their team and avoid that potential financial conundrum.

In a segment on “Get Up” in which he offered purely hypothetical trades, Tannenbaum suggested that the Dolphins deal Waddle for Chiefs first team All-Pro cornerback Trent McDuffie.

The view here is that the idea makes some sense, and not because of any shortcoming with Waddle.

In McDuffie, the Dolphins would be getting one of the league’s best young cornerbacks to pair with Jalen Ramsey, a player who is still cheap the next two seasons (at $1.5 million and $2.6 million) and isn’t eligible for unrestricted free agency until 2027.

The Dolphins have an early May deadline to exercise Waddle’s $15 million fifth-year option for 2025, then likely would need to commit big long-term money to him at some point in the next year. Tannenbaum did not cite the Dolphins’ significant future salary cap challenges in pitching the trade.

“I love this one,” Tannenbaum said. “Two great young players. Trent McDuffie straight up for Jaylen Waddle. Here’s why: If you’re Miami, you’re probably going to cut Xavien Howard as a cap casualty. So you get Trent McDuffie, who is a great young player. That’s for Miami. You still have a great receiver in Tyreek Hill.

For Kansas City, you need a No. 1 receiver. Waddle really has a chance to be a No. 1. The other neat thing about this trade is it’s really like the second half of the Tyreek Hill trade, which you could argue was also a win/win.”

Tannenbaum explained the Chiefs could afford to do this because they can place the franchise tag on top corner L’Jarius Sneed and also have several good young cornerbacks in their pipeline, besides McDuffie, who was rated the fourth best cornerback in football by Pro Football Focus for the 2023 season.

ESPN’s Jeff Darlington, a former Miami Herald Dolphins writer, called Tannenbaum’s Waddle/McDuffie idea “a really fun trade on paper. It’s a really cool idea.”

Here’s why I think the trade makes sense for Miami: It should be easier to find a No. 2 receiver to complement Hill than a second elite cornerback (presuming they’re moving on from Howard).

Tannenbaum is very good on TV, and his work at ESPN has shed light on what he would have done if Dolphins owner Stephen Ross had retained Tannenbaum instead of general manager Chris Grier, or in a position of authority over Grier. Justin Herbert, not Tua Tagovailoa, would assuredly be the Dolphins’ quarterback in that scenario.

THE REDICK/RIVERS RANT

Network broadcasters spend time with both head coaches before every ABC, ESPN or TNT NBA broadcast. That, in my view, is one reason why you almost never hear a network game announcer voraciously and personally criticize a head coach beyond politely questioning strategy or substitution decisions.

And that’s one reason why what happened on ESPN Tuesday morning is so fascinating.

Last week, ESPN formally named J.J. Redick as Doc Rivers’ replacement on its lead NBA announcing team after Rivers left ABC (after just three months on the job) to become head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks.

Redick will make his debut alongside Mike Breen and Doris Burke on Celtics-Knicks on ABC on Saturday night and that trio will call this season’s Eastern Conference Finals and NBA Finals.

When Redick joins Breen and Burke for their pre-game meeting with Rivers before their next Bucks game, it’s probably going to be awkward, after Redick’s angry - but justified - rant against Rivers on Stephen A. Smith’s ‘First Take’ on Tuesday.

Rivers, off to a 3-7 start as Milwaukee’s coach, said over the weekend that it would have been ideal if he had taken over the team during the All Star break instead of before a Western road trip.

“I’ve seen the trend now,” Redick said, voice rising, face reddening. “I’ve seen the trend now for years. The trend is always making excuses. Doc, we get it. Taking over a team in the middle of a season is hard. We get it. We get it.

“Just like getting traded in the middle of the season is hard for a player. We get it. But it’s always an excuse. It’s always throwing your team under the bus. They lose to Memphis; oh, it’s his players’ fault. Memphis was playing G-League guys and two-way guys!

“You look at his quotes over the weekend. Now he wants to take credit for the James Harden trade to the Clippers working out. He wants credit for that!? There’s never accountability with that guy! There’s never accountability!”

Keep in mind that Redick played four years for Rivers, with the Los Angeles Clippers.

Rivers, who served as one of the All Star Game coaches because Boston’s Joe Mazulla was ineligible, said over the weekend: “Taking a job when you’re about to go on the toughest road trip of the season is not the smartest decision. I even told [the Bucks] that: ‘Can we wait ‘til All-Star break?’ It would have been a lot nicer.”

He added that the job has “been probably more difficult than I thought.”

Redick is far more measured - and less prone to angry rants - when he works games than his studio appearances. If Redick can inject more opinion into game coverage, it will elevate the dialogue on ABC’s lead team, which has been much duller since Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson were dismissed as part of company layoffs last June.

MEDIA NOTES

NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah has the Dolphins selecting UCLA edge player Laiatu Latu in his mock draft released Tuesday, noting that selection “would give the Dolphins three outstanding pass rushers with Bradley Chubb and Jaelan Phillips already in place. Keep in mind: Miami could lose Andrew Van Ginkel in free agency.”

▪ Bally Sports Florida will carry seven Marlins spring training games: five against the Cardinals on Saturday, March 3, March 10, March 15 and March 22; plus games against the Phillies March 16 and Mets March 20. All start at 1 p.m. except the March 15 and March 22 games, which start at 6 and 6:30 p.m., respectively.

▪ ABC picked up the Panthers’ March 2 game at Detroit, at 3 p.m. ABC also has a prime time Panthers game, at the Rangers, on March 23, opposite NCAA Tournament coverage and a Panthers-Bruins game at 3:30 p.m. April. 6.