Why Tyreek Hill & Jaylen Waddle will be Miami Dolphins’ best WR duo since Clayton & Duper | Opinion
Famous duos pop up across sports history, two people linked like peanut butter ‘n’ jelly, often teammates, full names seldom needed. Brady and Gronk, Jordan and Pippen, Venus and Serena, Ali and Frazier, Magic and Kareem. Were Ruth and Gehrig the first?
In Greater Miami sports lore one harks back to the eve of the Dolphins’ glory days and how running backs Larry Csonka and Jim Kiick, in 1969, were nicknamed Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid, after the popular movie of the day starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford, by the late, great Miami Herald sports writer, Bill Braucher.
(I’d fight you on nominating LeBron and Wade in this category, because that team was nicknamed The Big 3, so let’s not disrespect Chris Bosh like that.)
If there is a famed duo that stands taller than even Csonka and Kiick in South Florida annals and rates nationally and across time, it is the Marks Brothers, a.k.a. Duper and Clayton, or Clayton and Duper or, if you prefer, the greatest receiving tandem in Dolphins history and the two most indispensable elements of Dan Marino’s superstardom and legacy.
(Time has lost who should get credit for coining “Marks Brothers,” but one assumes the impetus was the Marx Brothers, the family comedy act of the first half of the 1900s led by Groucho.)
As a quick aside, there’s a strong argument the Marks Brothers, especially Clayton, should be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, with his 582 career catches for 8,974 yards and 84 touchdowns, the TD receptions ranking 20th all-time — and the 19 men ahead of him including 14 Hall of Famers. Duper’s numbers are 511-8,869-59.
There is a point coming. We have meandered but finally reached it:
For the first time in 30 years — since Clayton left the Dolphins and Duper retired after the 1992 season — the Fins and Miami sports have a pair of receivers capable of challenging the Marks Brothers’ long and uncontested reign.
Their names are Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle.
The similarities between the Marks Brothers and the Fins’ new twin terrors are notable.
Clayton and Duper both were only 5-9. Hill and Waddle both are only 5-10. The two Marks did and the present two do use speed to make up for size. Oh, and the attitude! The Marks Brothers, especially Clayton, were cocky. Today’s duo, especially Hill, bring the same to the game.
Hill calls himself “The Cheetah,” for his blur-speed, and calls Waddle “J-Dub.” Waddle’s touchdown celebration, playing off his surname, is a shoulders-shimmying waddle.
The Cheetah & the Penguin? Waddle ‘n’ Hill? Cheetah & J-Dub?
The nickname can wait.
The other wait is finally over as the Dolphins open the NFL regular season this Sunday at home vs. New England and the era of quarterback Tua Tagovailoa throwing to Hill and Waddle finally begins.
We have seen what Hill did with the Chiefs: six seasons, six Pro Bowl appearances.
We saw what Waddle did in Miami last year: a Dolphins rookie-record 104 catches.
What they might do in tandem is enough to jump a dead battery. Enough to stir the imagination. Enough to turn Tagovailoa into a star. Enough to lead the Fins to the playoffs and to the club’s first postseason win in 22 years.
New coach Mike McDaniel, asked during camp if it was difficult to devise an offensive scheme with such speed from the wideout duo, had to laugh.
“It’s kind of like the difficulties a guy has who has [two] yachts and deciding which one to pick,” said the coach. “No, there’s no difficulties with that. It’s very desirable. We’re very fortunate. Those guys are competitive and willing and want to prove it.”
Hill calls he and Waddle the fastest WR duo “of all time.”
A glimpse at the duo’s potential in historical terms:
▪ The Dolphins’ record for combined catches by two receivers in one season is 177, by Waddle and Mike Gesicki last year. Hill (in Kansas City) and Waddle combined for 215 catches last season.
▪ Miami’s record for combined receiving yards by any duo in one season is 2,695, by Clayton and Duper in 1984. Hill and Waddle’s combined 2,254 yards last year would have ranked third all-time, after Clayton/Duper in ‘84 and again in ‘86.
▪ Fins’ season mark for combined TD catches by a duo is 26 by Clayton and Duper in ‘84. Hill and Waddle’s combined 15 scores last season would tie for sixth all-time in Miami.
The “yeah, but” in the discussion, of course, is that Hill was playing catch with proven superstar Patrick Mahomes in Kansas City. And that Tagovailoa has had as many doubters (including his own team) than believers his first two seasons, with 2022 seen as his make-or-break chance with Miami.
Then again I think back to a long-ago conversation with Clayton and Duper late in their Miami careers (I covered the Dolphins full time in 1990-91). I mentioned how lucky they must feel to have been on the receiving end of the record-setting prime of Marino.
They gave a quick glance at each other.
“How lucky must Dan feel to have us?” Clayton said, a small smile softening the moment.
Tagovailoa must yet prove a receiver is lucky to have him.
Hill and waddle have proven a quarterback is lucky to have them.
in either case, Hill and Waddle increase boundlessly the potential of Tagovailoa to finally be the QB Miami hoped it was getting fifth overall in the 2020 draft. They know it but know it isn’t all them. What they’ve seen of their QB is not a minor slice of the pie.
Hill had Waddle as a guest on his “It Needed To Be Said” podcast recently.
“Lot of people gonna be taking their words back what they said about Tua,” Hill said.
Added Waddle, Tua’s former college teammate: “What I seen at Alabama, he’s there. I’m excited for everybody else to see it.”
Tagovailoa is 24. Waddle is 23. Hill is 28 but just coming into the fat of his prime, and signed for at least the next four seasons. The Dolphins’ most exciting stretch of offense since the 1980s is in the offing, teasing us. I say that even as McDaniel in his career has leaned run game. He might still, but the success of that would in turn only open things further for what’s coming through the air.
Trash talk is a part of Hill’s arsenal, as it was Clayton’s. And Hill doesn’t want it one-sided.
“Yeah, man. I feel like if I don’t talk, I don’t perform, because I perform better under pressure, “ Hill said after a recent practice at training camp. “That’s my mentality. If I’m relaxed, just chillin’ and vibin’, then I go with the flow. But [I prefer if an opponent] is engaging me and talking trash. If I’m going against a DB and he doesn’t say nothing the whole game, I’m like, ‘OK, we’re brother-in-lawin’ it.’ But if he’s sitting there talking trash, and doing what he’s got to do, in my face every play, then I’m going to challenge him back.”
Hill enjoys informing opposing cornerbacks thusly: “You cannot cover me, dog. You cannot. Three of you couldn’t cover me.” Then knows he must back that up, saying, “I might be the highest-paid receiver, but all that s--t disappears when you go between the lines.”
Waddle isn’t as loquacious but says of himself, “I’m just more confident, especially in this system. Got another year with Tua. Got some new weapons. A year under my belt. Know what to expect. And [Tyreek and I] complement each other. I think it opened up for him and it opened up for me. Our short time together, it’s been great.”
Waddle admitted on Hill’s podcast he was concerned a diva was arriving from K.C., but said, “Now, I’m talking about the complete opposite of that.”
Hill also didn’t know what to expect.
“I look at you every day, you got the right values, you was raised right,” Hill told Waddle on the pod. “The way you approach practice, your unselfish mindset, It speaks for itself, my dog. Mindset. Confidence. Determination. You got all three, the world is yours.”
The Dolphins’ most dynamic wide receivers duo since Clayton and Duper gives Tagovailoa his best chance yet to prove all the doubters wrong, and gives Miami a chance to have its most exciting offense in at least three decades.
Hill is OK mentioning a phrase hardly anyway has dared utter around this team for a long while now. Super Bowl.
“I’m here to win, dog,” he says. “I ain’t here to do nothin’ else.”
