By Jason McCarthy Sr
In just four short weeks the Miami Dolphins have gone from preseason favorites to at least reach the wild card round of the playoffs, to reevaluating the talent on the roster and the coaching staff. Where do we go from here, how did we get here and what is the answer to the woes of the Miami Dolphins?
First off we will have to take a look at the expectations of the season and go from there and see if we cant facilitate some answers for the Dolphins.
Expectations were sky-high for the 2021 season, Brian Flores had installed a winning and team-first culture. I say had because that seems to have fallen by the wayside, the effort does not seem to be there not only from some of the players but from the coaching staff as well. WE have to focus on the elephant in the room that is the dual offensive coordinator role right now in Miami. The real question is why even have a dual coordinator role, it doesn’t work with quarterbacks and can’t work with offensive coordinators. People will always have their own agendas and goals for the team. As well as favorites that they want to get the ball to. when you have more than two people making that decision the waters get muddy and we end up having what happened Saturday where Devante Parker and Mike Gesiki aren’t even involved until the fourth quarter. Two of the best players on the Miami Dolphins offense can not be ignored until that late in the game.
Jacoby Brisset seems to be lost and frequently looks lost and they need to focus on building a gameplan around his skillset, yes Tua should be available after the buy week, however that does not excuse the lack of using Jacoby’s strengths and hiding his weaknesses this applies for when Tua returns as well you cant create a roadmap for games based on the skills of another quarterback if they weren’t sure of the evaluation of Brisset they should have been. There is more than enough game and preseason film plus practice time to highlight what he does best and what not to give him the proper game plan to at least be reasonably successful with the defense the Dolphins have you don’t have to ask Brisset to win games, however, you do have to have him ready to manage them and not put the Dolphins into a hole early on. Yes Tua got hurt early in the season That is no longer an excuse perhaps for the first game Brisset started but not after 2 games.
The inexperience on the offensive line is also a huge factor in what the quarterback is able to do and we lost our best lineman to injury during the week leading up to the game against the Colts, however, that falls on the coaching staff and the front office as well for not keeping at least two experienced veterans or trading for an experienced veteran to help these young players learn, coaches can teach the gameplan and assignments but the real value in veterans on the roster not only from an experience standpoint but also in realtime adjustments and advice to the players still learning the NFL speed of the game.
The defense in the first three games played admirably and did everything they could to keep the Dolphins in a position to win but when you are on the field twice as long as the offense by the time the fourth quarter comes around they are exhausted and frustrated after multiple three and outs and or turnover. On Paper the Dolphins have one of the best defenses in the league however the numbers arent showing this because the offense just can’t stay on the field, this was an issue even when Tua was healthy. Look the easy answer is to get Deshaun Jackson but in this article that will be the only mention one the off the field issues would he even be able to play two I don’t know if even Jackson would be able to improve this offense the way the line is playing not even a hall of fame quarterback would be able to create plays with the swiss cheese line play we are having right now.
Special teams are making non-focused mistakes as well, last year the Dolphins shined not only on defense but also on special teams there is a lack of focus on all three phases of this football team, what seems to me is that the lack of focus comes down to the staff not implementing things properly or the rollercoaster of the last 12 months at the quarterback position, from playing Tua way too early last year instead of letting Fitzpatrick run the team until Tua was 100 percent both health wise and scheme wise I feel that is the biggest detriment to the mindset of this football team, perhaps the players feel that the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing which in any industry creates not only confusion but reduces faith in the staff putting the people in the right place to succeed.
The last point I will mak is that maybe we drafted the wrong quarterback but with the issues this team is having in the 2021 season even a different starting quarterback would not be the answer, we still don’t know what Tua can do with injuries and the constant issues on the offensive line. We need top down changes in decision making and play calling to even remotely turn this season around into a respectable season, there’s still time to fix things but no one on the remaining Dolphins schedule can be considered an automatic win no teven the Jets the way this football team is playing.
IN short I’ve been a Dolphins fan since the glory days of dan “The Man” Marino and will continue to support this team, we have been through worse in my tenure as a dolphins fan however if the home town fans are booing the team off the field, the offensive coordinators cant get the team together and Brian Flores can take a decision on who has the overall power to call the plays we will have another opportunity to draft a star in the making quarterback and you almost have to at this point, maybe the Dolphins players have lost faith in the staff and the quarterback situation of that’s the case Flores needs to address all these issue up front and honestly with his football team I don’t believe he has lost his team but if this continues they may lose faith in him and the Dolphins cant afford another mistake at head coach.
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