Where should the Miami Dolphins go from here?

When the Miami Dolphins hired Adam Gase to be their next head coach, a lot of enthusiasm came with the decision. While expectations for the season were not high, the first quarter of the year is far from what many imagined.

Gase has benched Byron Maxwell and Ja’Wuan James at different times. He is trying to make his players take accountability for their play on the field. It’s not working.

On Thursday night the Dolphins looked like anything but a pro-football team and their all orange jersey’s made many fans think they were watching the winless Buccaneers of 1976. It was that bad.

Miami showed a lack of leadership, playmakers, and it’s becoming now a question of coaching as well. Gase didn’t go the experience way when he hired his staff. Vance Joseph was a defensive backs coach and has never coached an entire defense. It’s starting to show.

While Gase has a well respected offensive coordinator in Clyde Christensen, Gase has retained play calling duty. At some point, something needs to change and it can’t all be with the players.

Gase and company are trying to get the players to buy into their system but their system isn’t resulting in wins. At some point, the players are going to stop trying.

Of course it’s not like Gase has been given a pro-bowl roster to work with. Ja’Wuan James has struggled with consistency since joining the league, Byron Maxwell wasn’t very good last year in Philadelphia, Mike Pouncey hasn’t played a snap yet, Jordan Cameron is a waste of roster space, and that says nothing  about the two linebackers not named Alonso or the depth at secondary.

The Dolphins don’t need to have the best players at every position but they do need to have talent and frankly Miami lacks a lot of it across the board. Even the running back position is a complete mess.

While Gase hardly tries to run the ball when he does the results are not very good and that often leaves Gase in obvious passing situations of 2nd and 3rd and long. Then of course there is Ryan Tannehill.

Gase believes that he can win with Tannehill but there is also no doubt that he would not say anything different. The Dolphins executives have made it clear that Tannehill needs to succeed but there is a disconnect between Tannehill and the offense. That too needs to change.

When watching other quarterbacks approach the line of scrimmage, many of those quarterbacks are pointing out the MIKE linebacker, or addressing protection schemes, Tannehill doesn’t even look as though he is surveying the defensive alignments but instead looking at the line of scrimmage. Rarely is he seen making adjustments.

Which is why he can’t catch opposing defenses off sides as they try and get off the field. On Thursday night, Vontaze Burfict was able to run off the field during Miami’s uptempo no-huddle offense and Tannehill wasn’t able to get his team to the line and set to catch the Bengals with too many men on the field. It happened three times before the counting stopped.

With so many holes and such a lack of depth to go along with the inexperienced coaching staff, it’s going to be a long season for the Dolphins and frankly, Miami seriously should consider the 2017 season as a rebuild. This is not a team built in the image of Adam Gase or a defense built for Vance Joseph. This is Kevin Coyle style players and Mike Tannenbaums offense. And it all sucks.