Miami Dolphins were exposed and now the blueprint to beat them is out
Everyone understands that the NFL is a copycat league, and that is really unfortunate news for the Miami Dolphins following their traumatic loss to the Buffalo Bills yesterday afternoon. The Buffalo Bills created and implemented a schematic change on defense that exposed a weakness that unfortunately wasn’t corrected and by doing that a blueprint has been created to expose the Miami Dolphins.
Listen, the Blueprint was one of my favorite albums from Jay-Z. Jay-Z went on to create 3 additional albums on top of that foundation and the rest as he would say is history. Blueprints are meant to be used to build something special, however for the Dolphins it will be the opposite. New England Patriots started the first layer, by exposing an offensive line that couldn’t deal with multiple stunts and formations. Sean McDermont, the Bill Head Coach, used what the Patriots did and added an additional layer, a 5-2 front.
A 5-2 front is 5 Defensive Linemen and 2 Linebackers. The two linebackers could come from any side, but the Dolphins saw yesterday was mainly A gap presence. Meaning they were lining up on the left or the right of Michael Dieter, the Dolphins starting Center. The Dolphins lined up with their starting offensive line which, if you remove Jesse Davis, has a total games played of less than a full season. What McDermont did was expose a unit that hasn’t seen the speed of the NFL game nor understand how to adopt to a new formation.
What’s worse, the Miami Dolphins never adjusted to this technique all game. Maybe they did, but you could never tell by watching the game. The reasoning why? The Dolphins didn’t go out and sign an experienced Offensive Linemen coach, rather they assigned a first year candidate who was a rotational player. This is where it gets confusing. As the Dolphins front office, headed by Chris Grier, didn’t go out and sign veteran free agents for their offensive line rebuild, rather their focus was solely on obtaining and starting youth talent. The Dolphins actually traded away Eric Flowers, and failed to re-sign David Andrews, their prized free agent acquisitions two years ago. Which left them with no veteran leadership or mentor that this young group could turn to. Add in the fact that you have a brand new coach with less than one year experience, you can now see why the Dolphins failed to establish the run, or protect their starting or even back up quarterback.
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This is the mess that the Miami Dolphins are in right now. To be honest, the Las Vegas Raiders will look to copy the Bills and the Patriots this upcoming week, as the blueprint is out. How do the Dolphins fix this? You bring in veteran free agents right now. Kelechi Osemele and Richard Wagner are on the top of the list and I’m calling their agents right now. These two players have a combined 10+ years experience and for a group of rookies they need mentorship. Then you call Hudson Houck and ask him to come out of retirement and become a special advisor for the Miami Dolphins. He could then mentor the Dolphins rookie coordinators to at least understand how to adopt and change when things don’t go right.
The good news is that the Dolphins have to play again on Sunday, the bad news is that they can’t play the same way they did this past weekend. The Blueprint is out and Coach Flores is a Jay-Z fan, it’s now his turn to lay down how to fix his foundation.