Overall, I think this is a great post even if there’s a couple of things I disagree with.
- When I initially read that McD might be considering giving up the play calling, I found that interesting and thought it seemed like a pretty logical step, but as I’ve had more time to think about it, I’ve decided that I’d really like to see him continue calling the plays. Not only is McD a very young HC, he’s pretty much still in the infancy stages of being an OC. From an ownership point of view, I think it’s extremely short sighted to hire a guy that young, with little to no experience as an OC or an HC and expect him to have all of the nuances down inside of 24 months. Another way to say it: If you’re gonna hire a guy that young and green, you damn well better be willing to let him grow, find his footing, and push through the rough spots that we’re bound to happen early on. If Ross isn’t willing to go through that process, he had absolutely no business hiring McD and should have turned his focus to one of the many retread coaching candidates that are available in bunches each and every off season. I think the adjustments McD has made to facilitate Tua playing behind an Oline that is still pretty bad and lacks serious depth at all 5 Oline positions shows that he is up to the task. There wasn’t one damn media member or Dolphin fan that thought Tua would start each and every game this season and yet he did.
McD could have easily spent the entire season banging his head against the wall and demanding his Oline to perform at a level that they couldn’t realistically achieve. Instead, he developed a passing game predicated on Tua getting the ball out in under 3 seconds. It’s just my opinion, but that shows me that McD is a guy who’s going to build his system around the strengths of his players, which is a trait shared by any HC in the NFL that’s worth a damn. I honestly believe that if the front office can continue to deliver Oline improvements, McD will be able to run a great offense as the play caller.
I also think the play clock issues are a massively overplayed subject. While certainly still not perfect, I saw improvement from his first year, which leads me to believe we’ll probably see more improvement next season. Not only that, you’ll be hard pressed to watch a single NFL game without seeing a QB burn a timeout because the play didn’t come in on time. Hell, in all honestly, you’d be hard pressed to watch a game and see it happen less than 2 to 3 times. I doubt there’s a site that tracks that stat, but if there were, I’d be really interested in seeing how many times McD had to burn a TO as the clock ran out compared to the rest of the NFL. It would be extremely interesting to see how he compares with other coaches.
I find myself agreeing with your first paragraph. He has shown flashes of brilliance in play design for sure, and has called some great games as well, so it’s a bit like the QB. You’ve seen the flashes that he can be elite, so can you widdle down the dead wood that is keeping from arriving at the desired destination?
But, there is no question that he’s also made some obvious mistakes, especially on the road against good teams. Those losses all had similar elements:
1. Excessive penalties on the offense
2. Clock management issues
3. Often foolishly not taking the field goal in the red zone in the first quarter (poor judgement)
4. Too much passing on short yardage
5. Abandoning the run game in the second half when it was working in the first half (Play calling)
6. Clock management issues - Combo of operation being too slow, so going to the line of scrimmage not having enough time for the play to develop with all the motion and such before you snap the ball
7. Communication issues because of the crowd noise, so offense out of synch
8. And yes, injuries on the offensive line. We need to upgrade the depth here.
9. Tua’s turnovers, both fumbles and interceptions.
So, many of those issues are on McDaniel, and are pretty apparent to everyone watching the game which is why so many people are calling for him to relinquish play calling duties, and some overreacting and saying he should be fired. However, all of those issues are fixable, and if he can get it right, and fix those issues, then he has shown enough brilliance to potentially evolve into one of the most brilliant play callers in the game. That’s the upside which we shouldn’t be so quick to throw out.
Having said that, he needs to re-architect the offense for sure to incorporate:
-No Huddle Offense.
-simplified with less motion on the road and perhaps more audibles for Tua To get out of plays that aren’t likely to work based on what the defense is showing you.
-Run the ball in short yardage situations, and stay balanced
-And yes, you can keep the explosive stuff, but you can’t rely on it for everything and force it.