To me the quest is to build a team that the QB doesn't have to 'win' every game, but if he's good enough to be the difference in 2-3 games and 1-2 in the playoff's then you have a every year contender.
I agree. IMO, Miami's recent (Philbin and Gase regimes) offensive philosophy is the reason why their offense is so bad, and it will continue to be bad until either Gase changes his offensive scheme or he is replaced. I believe you should use the old-school method of building a team with big, mean, and physically dominating players in the trenches, a strong running game, and a nasty, hard-hitting defense. (Football is a tough, physical sport... why wouldn't you want tough physical players?) Add to this a good QB who can make all the throws and you'll have a competitive, well-rounded team. If you happen to have a decent, game-manager type QB you can still win games without putting too much pressure on the QB.
But, Philbin and now Gase are into "finesse". (I guess it's because so many view the NFL as strictly a passing league, and copying fancy college offenses is trendy.) This is what I believe is Philbin's offensive philosophy (and Gase admitted to liking the same): The short pass is the basis of the entire offense. The short pass for the most part replaces the running game. Multiple receiver sets are meant to create mismatches. The QB should be able to recognize these mismatches and throw the ball to the receiver with the most favorable mismatch almost immediately after the snap. The success of this style of offense is then reliant upon the receiver getting yards after the catch. (The proof of this is seeing Miami repeatedly throw 3 or 4 yard passes when they need 7 or 8 yards for the first down.) I firmly believe the entire reason for the o-line woes is because they're getting the wrong type of o-linemen and running the wrong blocking schemes. They don't want old-school road-graders; they want quick, athletic linemen who can execute their zone-blocking schemes and get out to the second level to block for the receiver or the occasional run. Because the QB should be getting rid of the ball almost immediately after the snap there is no need for the linemen to sustain their blocks for too long, so big, strong, powerful linemen aren't wanted for this style of offense. However, the end result of Philbin and the Front Office building a line to suit their scheme/philosophy is a line that allowed Tannenhill to be sacked more than any other QB over a 4 year period. Philbin's "finesse" line was extremely weak, and was constantly pushed around and dominated by tough, physical d-lines. As for relying on the receiver making yards after the catch, Philbin's offense placed far too much emphasis on the short pass. This allowed defenses to move up and stack the box, putting them in position to both stop the run and limit the yards after the catch. Add to this a weak o-line that couldn't block a girl scout troop and the results were pathetic. The fact that Miami occasionally had a good running game or numerous successful deep balls was in spite of the offense... not because of it.
Today, Gase is running a similar style of offense, and using most of Philbin's o-linemen. Yes, they did add a few band-aids to the o-line, but it doesn't seem to be working because they're adding the wrong type of players and running the wrong style of blocking schemes. To actually achieve success with this style of offense you need an elite QB, a competent o-line, and a strong defense for when the offense stalls. Miami doesn't have an elite QB, and their defense is like their offense; weak and ineffective. They were using three first round draft picks on the o-line, and yet still couldn't effectively and consistently run block and pass block. Tannehill is NOT elite, but evidently his skillset was able to mask a lot of deficiencies on this offense... especially on the o-line. Without him, we can see that this style of offense run by an average (or worse) QB is worthless. Being probably the worst offense in the league is proof!
Miami needs to completely change its philosophy on both offense and defense, replace a lot of players on the roster, and get new Front Office personnel. This finesse garbage isn't working, so go back to "real" football. But, I don't think that Gase will ever change, so it looks like I'll have to wait until the next regime change and hope for improvement.
