After less than a year of playing for the Miami Dolphins, DeShon Elliott hasn’t held back on his comments about his former team.
Appearing on the Punchline Pod with former teammate and Baltimore Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey, son of Dolphins running back Bobby Humphrey, Elliott called the 2023 Dolphins “soft” and the Dolphins will never win much.
Elliott is in his first season with the Pittsburgh Steelers, and they will face the Ravens this weekend. Elliott began his NFL career with the Ravens from 2020-22, spent one season in Detroit, and joined the Dolphins last season.
“I couldn’t play against Baltimore the way I wanted to, because last year I played for a team that was as nice as I was.” [explective]…Oh my God, I can’t put that in there, that was so soft. There were some strong players, but as with the majority of the team, there were no mentally strong individuals. So, to be on a team that has a whole team of mentally tough players going against another mentally tough team and AFC North football, it’s going to be fun, man.”
Oh!
Of course, the Dolphins were beaten in a Week 17 game in Baltimore last season, in a matchup between two teams vying for the top seed in the AFC playoffs.
Judging by another Elliott comment, he’s not surprised the Dolphins reached the finish line after starting with an 11-4 record.
Elliott suggested that focusing on soccer in cities like Baltimore and Detroit would be easier.
“Miami, it’s a distraction,” Elliott said. “I would say we didn’t spend a lot of time as a team, because there’s so much to do in Miami. So, the guys get separated a lot, and everyone thinks they’re somebody because of the ‘Oh, I’m somebody’ mentality. ‘In Miami, I can be a different person,’ and then we went to That city, and I felt like we were a really good team, and then the injury hit, and after the injury hit, we played Tennessee and we lost to Tennessee. You could say that team was gone… Guys started going out to strip clubs more often All week long.
“You could say Miami’s culture is the reason why Miami will never be good. Like Miami will never be a good football team. I don’t care. They’ll never be good because of Miami’s culture. I think they did.” The culture won’t be there, I don’t care what anyone says.
Lest you think Elliott hated everything about Miami, that’s not true.
“I love the culture of aesthetic sites out there,” he said. “Being able to see the sun every day was fun. Obviously the people. Come on now, the people are great out there.”
Elliott left the Dolphins almost immediately after his arrival – via free agency in 2023 after signing just a one-year contract, and it’s fair to wonder if the Dolphins should have made a better effort to re-sign him.
Safety play for the Dolphins has been spotty so far this season, with age and injuries slowing down Jevon Holland.
Elliott has started all nine games for the AFC North-leading Steelers and leads the team in tackles with 64, with three tackles for loss, one interception, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery.
The word out of Pittsburgh is that he was as good as anyone on the Steelers’ defense not named TJ Watt.
