Miami Dolphins have talent so coaches need to do better
By Brian Miller
The Miami Dolphins are 1-1 and in normal years, that would be perfectly fine but with the talent on this team, we should expect more.
2021 has just started in the NFL and while the Dolphins are at .500 the reality is they played average football week one and got blown out in week two. It was the second blowout in a row to the Bills dating back to the final game of the 2020 season.
Miami addressed deficiencies on offense this past offseason but we have to wonder if the attempts were misguided. Miami’s failure to address the offensive line is a big question mark and directly lands on the shoulders of Chris Grier and Brian Flores but in reality, it’s more on Flores right now.
Liam Eichenberg needs work on the field and as a high 2nd round pick, he should be on the field. Instead, he is playing musical chairs and last week started the game on the bench, coming in late when Jesse Davis got hurt. Throw the kid in and let him learn.
What we know through two weeks is that Flores’ decision to name two offensive coordinators doesn’t seem to be working. We don’t know who calls the plays or who does most of the game plan but what we do know is that Mike Gesicki is a weapon that is not being used. We know that Myles Gaskin can handle the running back job and isn’t being used enough either.
Albert Wilson has two drops but has only been targeted a handful of times, the Dolphins kept five tight ends and leave their 3rd round rookie on the inactive list week two. The list goes on, especially on defense where Noah Igbinoghene has been inactive both weeks and the Dolphins pass rush is only getting pressure, and not much consistency.
These are not player problems. These issues are not talent problems. These are coaching problems. There is a lot to like about Brian Flores but he is accountable for the two OCs. He is accountable for the inexperienced offensive line coach, Lemuel Jeanpierre. Jeanpierre is in his second season with the Dolphins as the Oline coach and the line wasn’t that good last year.
We should expect the line make strides from one year to the next especially with the same coach but instead, Solomon Kindley and Austin Jackson both have taken a big step back and the Dolphins additions in free agency were so bad that several didn’t even make the roster.
Gaskin, Gesicki, Rowe, Howard, Jerome Baker, Hunter Long, Adam Shaheen, DeVante Parker, Preston Williams, I can keep ticking off names of talented players and then ask why are they not more involved? Why is this talented on-paper roster not performing? Sure Howard is but Howard is playing an individual game on the outside.
The only answer is coaching and maybe Flores is starting to realize that it isn’t as easy as he thought it would be. There are some who believe that Miami will get it together and I think they can but I’m not sure when that actually might be. It is going to take some time and the offensive line especially is a long way from being a unit that can be relied upon.
We can blame players like Tua Tagovailoa but the reality is coaching and game planning is a question. This team did not look ready to play last week against the Bills and that was evident after the first quarter. That is not on the players, that is on the coaching staff and specifically Brian Flores.