Miami Dolphins offense was never set up to succeed now
By Brian Miller
The Miami Dolphins are one of the worst five teams in the NFL offensively and one of the worst five defensively, but the offense shouldn’t be a surprise.
While many fans are questioning the defensive struggles and rightly so, the offense was often over inflated during training camp and if you really dug into what Miami was dishing out on that side of the ball, you really shouldn’t be all the surprised by the ineptitude of the unit.
Let’s be honest, the signs were all there we just chose to avoid noticing. We summarily dismissed them all and said, “there is enough talent to win with”. So, let’s dive in to the problems that continue to dog the Dolphins offense.
Myles Gaskin
Entering the 2021 season, Myles Gaskin was supposed to be the top Miami Dolphins runner. The signs pointed to it. Miami didn’t draft a running back, didn’t chase a name in free agency, and Gaskin was coming off a pretty good year. Add to that the elevation of Eric Studesville to co-OC and his own position coach was calling the shots.
The signs we missed.
Gaskin entered the 2020 season as the top back but it was Jordan Howard who started the first month and then Gaskin platooned with Salvon Ahmed through the rest of the year as a team. Studesville was the RB coach then too. He never truly gave over the job to Gaskin.
2021
Gaskin should be on the field but instead, he is sitting on the sidelines while Malcolm Brown takes the ball. Brown is a situational player at best these days but he is on the field way too much. And let’s be honest, his blocking skills haven’t been all that impressive.
Brian Flores
Flores took the team to 10 wins in 2020 and fans expected the team to be elite this year because the defense was elite last year but the offense? We should have known something was wrong when he couldn’t settle on one of the top young innovative OC candidates after Chan Gailey, umm, “retired”.
Flores made the decision to go with two OCs and there is still some who wonder whether or not Charlie Frye is calling the actual plays during the game.
Flores hasn’t just missed on OCs. If we look at the “signs” we can tick off the four offensive line coaches he has had in his three seasons. Let’s not forget his original OL coach was fired about three days into training camp.
Flores has managed to hire four line coaches with no experience and two OCs with no experience and then a young college kid with no experience to call the plays. Poor Tua Tagovailoa.
Offensive Line
We could spent days talking about this. Why is Jesse Davis starting, why did it take so long to move Austin Jackson inside, and why did the Dolphins pass on a top graded center for a short-armed tackle that they had to trade up for?
The signs have been there all along, the Dolphins have zero ability to coach or recognize talent from left tackle to right tackle. It doesn’t really matter that Davis is starting because Miami lacks true quality from left to right. This past off-season, Chris Grier added Matt Skura, D.J. Fluker, and Jermaine Eluemunor. All three were released and all three are now starting on other teams. Fluker was signed by the Raiders recently.
The Dolphins are banking on their ability to coach and develop the talent but how should we believe they can when their own coaches don’t have the experience to do so?
Wide Receivers
Remember when the Dolphins WRs were going to be so hard to contain that Tua Tagovailoa would have a problem deciding who to throw to? Remember when everyone said that the Dolphins were putting all of their resources into names with injury baggage but it wouldn’t matter because they were going to be elite?
Will Fuller has an injury history. DeVante Parker has an injury history. Preston Williams has an injury history. All three have missed games this year already. Fuller has only played in one game.
Albert Wilson, you may ask but he has done nothing. The Dolphins vaunted pre-season receiver group is nothing more than Mike Gesicki and Jaylen Waddle.
2022
The 2022 season is already starting to move its way to the forefront of Dolphins fan’s minds. Now it appears that Miami will need to retool the receivers, redo the RBs, sign more offensive lineman, and since we all already know that Mike Gesicki will not get paid, we can prep to complain about the TE situation as well, which brings us to a 3rd round surprise TE, Hunter Long, who continues to remain inactive on most Sundays.
And we are only heading into week 7. The Dolphins believe they can turn it around but does anyone actually believe that? The only two players that really stand out are Tua and Gesicki and the media believes Miami should move on from one of them. And that is how we got here.