Was Chan Gailey to blame for Miami Dolphins’ offensive woes in 2020?

Much was made about Chan Gailey’s influence on the lack of fire power from the Miami Dolphins offense last season. But how much of the blame does he deserve?

Tua Tagovailoa and the Miami Dolphins offense have been praised heavily during their first week of training camp. There are videos of touchdown passes that catch plenty of attention on social media, and local beat reporters have been gushing about the big plays in tweets sent from the sideline. Even the most critical of the local writers have been impressed with the offense. While we are just a few days in and have plenty of time to go before the season begins, early reviews from camp are positive. Many of the “issues” that Tagovailoa had and was ridiculed for are looking like they are on their way to being solved.

Nothing will be known for sure until the first game of the year, but things are looking good so far. The chemistry between Tagovailoa and his new targets is developing nicely, and there are clips of plays and throws that we saw very little or none of last season. One question that begs to be answered, and will be after the season, was if Chan Gailey was holding back Miami’s offense last season. And if so, how much?

The 2020 hiring of Gailey by the Miami Dolphins to be their offensive coordinator was always questionable. The 67-year-old had been retired for three seasons, and the last offense he coached was one of the worst in the league. But he had an extensive history of offensive coaching and play calling that head coach Brian Flores apparently valued. But perhaps most importantly, Gailey had a great deal of familiarity with then-starting quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick; he was the Buffalo Bills head coach from 2010 to 2012, and was with Fitz again as his offensive coordinator with the New York Jets in 2015.

In 2020, a mid-season quarterback change by the Dolphins highlighted just how much of Gailey’s offensive game plan was geared towards the quarterback that he knew so well. When Tagovailoa took over for Fitzpatrick in Week 8, the offense became condensed. The long balls that Gailey trusted Fitz to throw were called as bubble screens when Tua was playing, and passing attempts per game numbers dipped.

Even in the infamous games that Tagovailoa was benched, the change in the play calling for the two quarterbacks was noticeably different. The offense showed a balanced attack when the rookie played, despite Miami’s running game being a below-average product for a large portion of the season. But when Fitz was under center, the attack was overwhelmingly pass happy. The situations certainly called for comeback attempts that required the ball to be in the air, but that doesn’t mean that Gailey’s play calling wasn’t handcuffing Tagovailoa’s opportunities.

It will be a long time until we will be able to tell just how detrimental Gailey’s presence was. There is of course the possibility that he was calling abbreviated plays for Tagovailoa due to the rookie’s shortcomings. There has been plenty of speculation about Tua’s ability to be the starting quarterback, and perhaps Gailey was one of the first people to notice the issues. Or maybe Tagovailoa’s hip injury only allowed for a limited play book, and Gailey was doing his due diligence of protecting the potential franchise quarterback from any further damage.

But the one thing we do know is that there were limited weapons at the offense’s disposal, and there were very few receivers who could create the type of separation that Tagovailoa was used to. That problem has been solved, and it looks like he is building a solid rapport with multiple players in just the first week. There are clips of Tua completing deep, difficult throws to speedy wideouts, something we saw next to nothing of last season.

The multitude of factors related to the situation will make it difficult to ever fully place blame on Chan Gailey for the Miami Dolphins’ (and Tua Tagovailoa’s) offensive woes. But the team has moved on, and Gailey likely won’t coach again. Things will be even harder to dissect in the near future as the Dolphins have a rare dual-coordinator situation on offense. Eric Studesville and George Godsey will split play calling duty in some way, so placing any potential blame will be even more of a struggle.