All today proved is that Dan Henning is seriously uncomfortable with having a Brandon Marshall on his offense.
This is exactly what happened to the Carolina offense when Steve Smith started to reach god-like status. In 2003 he was still a guy that was coming out of nowhere, not a guy you consistently want to send extra coverage toward. He spent the entire 2004 season on Injured Reserve with a serious injury, and the ancient Muhsin Muhammad, who hadn't been super productive in probably five years, became the go-to. Defenses didn't roll coverage to Muhammad, they weren't convinced he could kill them.
Then in 2005 for the first half of the season, Steve Smith was fresh off the big injury and I don't think defenses recognized how god-like he was in their game plans. He averaged 113 yards and 1.1 TDs per game over those first 8 games, and the offense scored 27.5 points per game. But over the final 8 games? I think defenses saw Steve Smith ascend and they started to roll coverage to him. Once that happened, Smith's numbers dropped to like 83 yards and 0.4 TDs per game, and the offense scored 21.4 points per game, a whole touchdown's worth difference in scoring.
And then in 2006, the trend continued, and the offense scored something like 17 points per game.
Dan Henning is a guy that appreciates freedom and variety in the offensive and defensive schemes. His route designs and key reads are pretty simple, but the variety in the direction that the ball goes keeps defenders from catching up to it. He likes to get everyone involved. He's been saying for years now, don't give me Brandon Marshall. Not in so many words, but he says things like what he loves about Miami's WRs is that there are no b-tches. He says he feels like Miami has four #1 guys rather than one #1 guy and he likes that. He talks about how a "guy like that" can really drain the energy out of an offense. What he's getting at is he doesn't like for the defense to consistently take away the same of one of his main options, because the reading between the other options becomes predictable, and smart defensive players can start to figure it out.
There's nothing simple about it, of course, but think of it this way. We know Miami uses a lot of extra protection, right? They keep their backs and tight ends in to block a lot. The flip side to that is, on any given pass play, Miami is sending on average either the fewest or among the fewest receiving options out on routes, in the entire NFL. I actually tallied that up once, on Pro Football Focus, and found that in 2009 we did send out the second fewest number of receiving options on any given pass play. So what happens if every game, a passing offense just up and decides, ok we're going to take away this one guy that we know is going to be a receiving option on every play?
If Miami averaged 3.0 receiving options per pass play, they now average 2.0 receiving options per pass play. But those 2.0 receiving options should be open, right? Or they should be able to get open against single coverage, right? Well, yes but not necessarily with consistency, because defensive players are smart too, and when they see the same thing too many times, they can start to figure it out. Think of what Ed Reed and Cortland Finnegan said about the offense.
Think about how Reed told Marshall straight up that they're going to be doubling him every single play, and they have no problem with that. If you think about it, if you've got FIVE receiving options out on plays, what the hell does it matter if they're consistently taking away one of those guys? You've got four other guys. It makes it harder for defenders to start to cut their corners and start figuring things out. But if you've got only three options on a play and the defense starts to take away one of those options every play, Miami's attack strategy between the other two options starts to get redundant.
I don't think Dan Henning can adapt to that situation, work more options into the passing game to make up for the fact that the defense is trying to take away that one guy consistently. That's why things turned into such a mess in Carolina and it's why things are turning into a mess with Brandon Marshall here in Miami. He hasn't prepared his offensive players to play the way they would need to in order to combat that defensive strategy effectively.