Tuesday Morning After…Not So Bad

So the Miami Dolphins have a new offensive coordinator and the forums, ours and others, are buzzing over the hire.  Not a lot of positive talk from the fans about Brian Daboll.  In fact, his enthusiasm with the Browns, as seen in various Youtube videos, has only led to more chastising of the coach as it’s referenced to Tony Sparano‘s fist pumps.

So this is the Tuesday morning after.

No more surprises.  No more waiting.  No shock to the system.  So do I feel any better?

To some degree, maybe.  While I’m not 100 percent sold on this guy, I am not quite as upset as I was yesterday.  For me, focus now goes to the hope of a free agency and the draft in April.

First, I want to make this clear.  I do not work for the Miami Dolphins and the Miami Dolphins do not, in any way, tell me what to write, “strong arm” me into towing a company line, or anything else.  I put a self imposed level of accountability on myself.  I hold myself to much higher standards than beat writers who cover the team locally because I’m not trying to sell newspapers.  Here, I’m not trying to sell web hits.  I never have and my numbers could be so much higher if I did.

I want you to read this site.  I want you to come away from this site with some information or an opinion that isn’t company lined, or over reaction.  It’s why I tend to study the issues with say, Chad Henne, instead of throwing him under a bus.  I want you to read my articles but I want you doing so with the knowledge that I keep a completely level head, most of the time, and will not arbitrarily call someone out or bad mouth the organization simply to get a rise out of people to come here so my hit count goes up.  I reserve those stabs for the Jets and Patriots.

I wanted to make that clear because yesterday, I was pissed.  I was not thrilled with this hire and I let that be known.  In fact, I posted an article I wrote for the main page to the forum, after sitting on it most of the day as I felt it said what I wanted to say but may have been far to emotionally driven to really be published.

That is all well and fine and you sure as hell didn’t click over to page two to read that.

So back to Brian Daboll.

There are some close to the situation who have been told that Daboll wants to bring a hybrid offense to Miami that is similar to the one Bill Belichick runs in New England.  It molds some of that with some of Brian Schottenheimer‘s as  well as some of Dan Hennings‘.  I know, but some of what he did was o.k.  Mabye.

In Cleveland, and let’s be honest here, he didn’t have a lot to work with outside of Peyton Hillis. Eric Mangini traded Braylon Edwards and Kellen Winslow as well getting rid of Derek Andersen.  Leaving Daboll with Colt McCoy, Jake Delhomme, and Seneca Wallace.  Not exactly a great QB group to lead an offense that also had Chancey Stuckey, Mohammad Massaquoi, and Brian Robiskie as the WR’s.

Miami doesn’t offer much in the way of QB’s but they do possess a desire, so we think, of upgrading the position. Chad Henne is at least more effective than the three QB’s Daboll had in Cleveland.  Maybe a more open air offense will suit him.

Chad Pennington said that he learned more from Daboll in his one season with him with the Jets than in his career prior to that.  That’s a huge endorsement.  While I really have zero desire to see Pennington on the roster of the Dolphins, I realized that he has had a solid if unspectacular career.  It seems most fans would agree that CP would be a very good addition as a QB coach…so I suppose we should accept his opinion on Daboll with a little more sugar, instead of salt.

The truth is, Daboll could be the next great OC who simply struggled in Cleveland as a result of horrid personnel and a bad HC has well.  I don’t think he will have the same defiant HC in Miami that Eric Mangini has often been rumored to be.

I’m far from sold on Daboll, but the day after has me thinking that it could have been worse.

The flash was Rob Chudzinski but there was little doubt he would follow Rivera to the Panthers.  Furthermore, Chud is a grinder who likes to run the ball and use his TE’s.  Evidenced in portions of the SD offense.  But the reality is, he isn’t a down-field thinker.  He will air it out if he can, but he doesn’t attack that way.

In Brad Childress, the Dolphins would actually have taken a step back.  His system would take a year or two to implement and the imperative nature of finding a QB to run that west coast style  would have made the system a complete failure if that piece wasn’t found.

Say what you want about Tom Brady.  The system in NE is designed to make an average QB look great.  Brady has struggled when the offense doesn’t click the way it was designed, and when he is forced to play outside of that comfort zone, he tends to look pedestrian.  Matt Cassell is another great example of an average QB stepping in and looking spectacular.  Do you think that the QB’s were so good in NE that the team didn’t miss a beat when Brady went down?  No, the system has a lot to do with that.

So the question is, can Daboll successfully bring that system to Miami?

We are going to find out.

For now, this, “day after” isn’t going as bad as it was yesterday.  There is still a little bit of hope.  Maybe, just maybe, this guy won’t be shackled by restraints and be allowed to develop a system that he wants instead of implementing someone elses.

I spoke with a friend of mine who used to work for the Browns.  He asked if the fans were done laughing at the hire yet.  I told him no, not yet.  He said they should that there are a lot of people in the league who think that Daboll will be a very solid OC in the right situation.  He said that situation is on a team that is willing to get talent on the offense that he can work with.  Told me is a very motivating coach who will bring that attitude change that he hears so much about.  He said that in Miami, players on offense will start believing they can win instead of hoping they can.

I would say that’s a pretty good endorsement.

I guess we will see.