Miami Dolphins early season disappointments

The Miami Dolphins are a disappointing 1-1 in this young NFL season. Naturally fans are already calling for the head of head coach Joe Philbin and defensive coordinator Kevin Coyle. Bill Lazor isn’t that far behind. The fact that Miami is 1-1 isn’t so much the problem as how they are even after two weeks. Couple that with who they lost to and we are talking about a huge disappointment so early in the season.

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There isn’t a lot that the Dolphins coaching staff can say right now. What is being played on the field is as much their faults as anyone else. The Dolphins simply haven’t looked prepared to play a game. The slow start at Washington led to a better 2nd half and the Dolphins started very slow on Sunday in Jacksonville and despite the fact they improved early in the 2nd half it wasn’t enough.

Making matters worse is that there isn’t one singular reason. It’s not just the offensive line, the quarterback, the defensive line, secondary, receivers or running back. It’s all of it. Together. Nothing looks cohesive and it is making fans wonder what exactly the Dolphins accomplished in training camp.

While each unit in it’s own right has had issues there are five players that are, through two games, disappointing. These five players were expected to emerge and be leaders on the field. The systems were almost developed around them or with them in mind. Instead we are getting nothing in return. The Dolphins have one week to figure it out before hosting the Buffalo Bills next week and the Bills, despite their loss to New England this past Sunday looked far better than what we have seen from Miami.

Here is a look at those five players.

Kenny Stills

The Dolphins traded a 3rd round pick to New Orleans for the speedy receiver and might be wondering if they can get a do over. Stills hasn’t looked good. He has dropped a pass or two and hasn’t run crisp routes but making matter worse is the fact that Ryan Tannehill still can’t connect with his receivers down field. Stills missed a lot of training camp and is being outplayed by Rishard Matthews. It was only several months ago that Matthews was asking for his release. Regardless, Stills’ non-production on the field and his lack of chemistry with the quarterback is a concern and that is why he is on this list. New Orleans is looking smart for getting rid of him. So far.

Ndamukong Suh

Suh was the biggest free agent signing in Miami Dolphins history and right now he is basically earning money for doing nothing. Against Jacksonville, Suh was handled most o the game one on one. Something he never saw in Detroit. He lacks the feisty personality that made him mean and it appears that playing for Joe Philbin may have softened him. After the game on Sunday it was reported that Suh wasn’t following the scheme at times and was free lancing his play thus confusing his defensive teammates. Also after the game he said that DC Kevin Coyle needed to figure out the best scheme to win these games. After two weeks is already calling out the coordinator? Suh has one and a half tackles thus far on the year and no sacks. He hasn’t even come close to making a sack. He isn’t freeing up the linebackers to make plays and isn’t as dominant as everyone expected.

The offensive line

Offensive is the right word to use for this line. Atrocious is another. There is absolutely zero continuity and chemistry between the group. Branden Albert and Dallas Thomas both look horrible on the left side and while Albert has been recovering from his ACL injury and obviously out of shape, he and Thomas can’t get on the same blocking page. Tannehill has been sacked five times already this young season. On the right side, Ja’Wuan James had his worst game as a professional on Sunday. Jamil Douglas next to him did no better.

The Dolphins offensive line is struggling to pass block, run block, and can’t hold blocks. Tannehill has little time in the pocket and Lamar Miller can’t find a lane to run through. Yet the Dolphins didn’t want to spend the monty on Evan Mathis or Zach Beadle both of whom would have shored the line up. At least for this year. The Dolphins spend way too much time rotating lineman during training camp and this is what hurts the team early in the season.

Brice McCain

McCain cemented the Dolphins first win with a spectacular interception against Washington but he has been out of place on a lot of plays and is playing too far off the line of scrimmage giving receivers an opportunity to adjust their routes. To be fair McCain is a slot coverage corner who has been asked to play the edge but Jamar Taylor hasn’t been all that impressive thus far either and that has made the Dolphins swap their players around throughout the game. The secondary is as bad as it was last year and once again the continuing trend of giving up first downs on 3rd and long continues. Of course we all knew that the Dolphins secondary would be a problem but one that we believed would be masked by stellar defensive line play. Needless to say the defensive line has been anything but.

Olivier Vernon

Vernon is a contract year and through two games he is giving the Dolphins management no reason to retain him. He is poor off the edge, unable to get by inexperienced offensive lineman and doesn’t contain the edge. He is being pushed around in the running game and taken out of the pass rushing game. Adding insult to injury is his personal foul penalty in Sunday’s game that gave the Jaguars not just a first down but moved them in position to make the game winning field goal. Vernon is playing worse than he did when he was a rookie.

The rest

While I have singled out these four players and the offensive line the reality is this is a team effort or lack of a team effort. Nothing on the field has gone right. Statistically Ryan Tannehill is doing very well but his decision making is coming into question. A delay of game following a big penalty late in the game takes them out of any momentum they may have had. In addition Tannehill is not showing any of the leadership qualities we expected to see this year. Granted he has little time in the pocket but everything seems rushed and inconsistent.

The Dolphins have a lot of work to do this week and while it’s early in the season fans have to be wondering if the talent level on this team is good enough to get it together. The reality here is that the Dolphins have talent but they lack depth at almost every position other than defensive line. That hurts as even the slightest injuries can become a train wreck.

Someone needs to figure this out and someone needs to step up and fix it. Dolphins talk has turned away from post-season aspirations to the sky is falling. That may be a little drastic this early on but thus far the Dolphins haven’t really given fans any reasons to believe that this can be fixed. The team is simply, as a whole, not playing up to the expectations of 2015 and that is the reason Joe Philbin’s name is being tossed around in week two as a likely mid-season casualty.