Dolphins restrict Tannehill's freedom to change plays and why they do it

[Daytona Fin]

There always seems to be something exasperating and puzzling about how the Dolphins operate their offense.

Under Mike Sherman, everyone wondered why Ryan Tannehill shouted “go” before snapping the ball on most passing plays and “go go” before running plays.

Under coordinator Bill Lazor, two different issues have surfaced that irritate fans and elicited recent criticism from CBS analyst Rich Gannon, both on air and off:

### Issue 1: Why doesn’t Tannehill have the freedom to change to any play he wants?

As a Dolphins player explained, Lazor gives Tannehill two options on some plays (usually one run, one pass) and Tannehill can call either, depending on the defensive look. But he cannot call anything other than those two plays. But on many other plays, Tannehill goes to the line with one play and isn’t allowed to change that play at all.

“It’s a big mistake,” Gannon said last week. “If you can’t change protections and change plays on the fly at this level, you’re in big trouble.”

I asked Tannehill if he’s tempted to ask Lazor to give him permission to change to any play he wants or a lot more than two.

“We’ve had conversations,” Tannehill said. “But he’s the coordinator.”

This isn’t the way every team does it.

Receiver Kenny Stills, who spent his first two seasons in New Orleans, said Drew Brees had the authority to audible to any play he wants at the line of scrimmage. Does that make it more difficult or confusing for the other players?

“No,” Stills said. “It gives us an advantage because we can see what the defense is giving us” and the quarterback can then adjust.

Dolphins and former Green Bay receiver Greg Jennings said Aaron Rodgers “had a lot more freedom that Ryan does. We don’t run audibles here. The adjustments we make are with protection, not changing the play.”

So why don’t the Dolphins give Tannehill the freedom to change to any play he wants?

“When you do that, there’s two schools of thought,” interim coach Dan Campbell said Thursday. “When you do that, certainly Ryan can handle that mentally but you take the chance it slows him down in his rhythm. You open the full playbook up, those are sometimes the problems you run into. I’ll be honest with you. His first few years with Mike Sherman, he somewhat had that a little bit.

“He had a lot of options he could do. He did a good job of getting us into the right plays and protection, but we felt like it slowed him down a little bit with his rhythm. We felt like he could be a better passer by taking a little bit of a load off of him. And he is throwing the ball better.”

Gannon criticized the Dolphins’ restrictive audible policy after unblocked Eagles players sacked Tannehill twice on blitzes last week.

Tannehill said on the first one, which resulted in a safety, he had the option to make a short throw before the blitzer swallowed him up on his blind side.

That throw, if attempted, likely would have gone to tight end Dion Sims, who said his assignment on that play was to go out in coverage. “That was my fault,” Tannehill said.

But Tannehill said on the other sack, the play called by Lazor did not give him the ability to change to a quick, short throw, which seemingly could have helped avoid a sack.

“We felt we were all right on those plays, but they got us,” backup quarterback Matt Moore said. “Our execution has to be on point when we don’t have the freedom to change the play.”

Center Mike Pouncey said “me and the right guard [Billy Turner] have to do a better job coming over” and picking up the blitzer on those plays. He made clear that right tackle Jason Fox wasn’t to blame on either.

Lazor continues to play the semantic game with the audible issue, saying he believes there were four occasions last week when Tannehill changed the play. But he changed the play to a second option that Lazor had made available to him.

“I watched in the Jet game, him walk up, make the call, change it,” Lazor said. “He changes it with words, he changes it with hand signals, hopefully subtly. He audibled at the line of scrimmage against the Eagles. Certain play we could have called the play with motion or line up and shift to it, and he had a chance to call the way he wanted it to, run and pass. You know me enough to know I'm not lying.”

He's not lying, but he's telling only a small part of the story. And the full story is Tannehill cannot go to the line of scrimmage (or the huddle, for that matter) and call any play he pleases.

### Issue 2: Gannon, like fans, wondered why the Dolphins --- on third down --- run so many routes that are short of the first-down marker.

Two issues are at play here: “Sometimes, we allow the defense to dictate our routes, and that’s our fault,” Stills said.

But Stills said other times, the routes called are intentionally short of the yardage needed to make the first down because Miami’s offense is “designed to catch and run.”

The Dolphins’ 5.8 yards-after-catch average ranks 11th in the league. But the Dolphins nevertheless are converting only 29.5 percent of their third downs, second-worst in the league and ahead of only St. Louis.

Lazor said on one occasion last week, a receiver did not run a route deep enough.

“There was a play run last week that was caught short of the sticks that was disappointing,” Lazor said. “Sometimes on third and long, we complete a decent number of passes that have been short of the sticks. He shouldn't be short of the sticks, but the guy getting the check down ends up getting [the ball]. If they cover what you have intended down the field, that happens.”

http://miamiherald.typepad.com/spor...lack-of-freedom-on-audibles-um-coach-sea.html

 

[J. David Wannyheimer]

Lazor said on one occasion last week, a receiver did not run a route deep enough.

He ran a 3 yard crosser instead of a 4 yard crosser.

 

[tcdrover]

He can always RUN if he feels pressure...

The problem is that he does not feel the pressure, and does not make the read.

Giving him more options doesn't make ANY SENSE if he can't handle the available options right now.

 

[russianbear]

He can always RUN if he feels pressure...

The problem is that he does not feel the pressure, and does not make the read.

Giving him more options doesn't make ANY SENSE if he can't handle the available options right now.

what? quarterbacks can "always" run when they feel pressure? did you watch jax/ten game last night? quarterbacks most certainly can NOT "always run when they feel pressure". if tannehill did in fact run everytime he felt pressure, he'd be dead from all of the hits he would take, and matt moore would be our qb.

now, here is something "most" quarterbacks can do in this league. AUDIBLE.

it's a joke that Lazor won't give up the control and let tannehill have more freedom at the line, and there's a reason why "most" quarterbacks do have that option. because it makes ****ing sense.

the problem is we can't audible out of dead plays and all it does is help prevent us from staying ahead of the sticks and getting into 3rd and manageable. that's a big part of why were bad in 3rd down conversion, and a big part of why there has been so much frustration among the fan base in regards to our offense.

sorry man, but the problem isn't tannehill feeling pressure. the problem is lazor handcuffing the qb and the offense as a whole.

 

[hoops]

"As a Dolphins player explained, Lazor gives Tannehill two options on some plays (usually one run, one pass) and Tannehill can call either, depending on the defensive look. But he cannot call anything other than those two plays. But on many other plays, Tannehill goes to the line with one play and isn’t allowed to change that play at all."

ok what this "some plays" means is in the read option he's got the run pass option which is where we see a lot of the bubble screens...but the traditional pass sets and drops etc are all play called in from the sideline...in other words other than counting the box and deciding to hand it off or throw outside in the read option looks he has ZERO freedom

pretty much what I have been saying all along...this oc has neutered the qb...get rid of bill lazor

get me in the damn building i'll right this freaking ship

 

[hilslo]

He can always RUN if he feels pressure...

The problem is that he does not feel the pressure, and does not make the read.

Giving him more options doesn't make ANY SENSE if he can't handle the available options right now.

I agree that Tannehill doesn't have a great feel for pressure but that doesn't mean he can't read a D pre-snap and change to a more favourable play. He did it just fine under Sherman.

 

[J. David Wannyheimer]

"As a Dolphins player explained, Lazor gives Tannehill two options on some plays (usually one run, one pass) and Tannehill can call either, depending on the defensive look. But he cannot call anything other than those two plays. But on many other plays, Tannehill goes to the line with one play and isn’t allowed to change that play at all."

Okay, that's a lot worse than I thought. It was my understanding that he had something more like four options at the line on most plays.

Yup, done defending Lazor.

 

[hoops]

the short of the sticks play lazor is speaking of was the little out cut to Cameron where he ran it 2 yards short...tackled and we punt...

he ran a route short of the sticks and he fell down on another at the sticks

I'm glad someone finally spilled the beans on the ocs offense...but it was like this last year 2...its why I kept saying the offense neuters the qb

 

[pmj]

I get the concept Lazor is trying to do, but it's what you would do if you had some random young QB that you were just trying to make sure would not lose the game for you. Once we decided to pay Tannehill franchise QB money, you let them be a franchise QB, sink or swim. If he's not understanding and being able to exploit matchups, then it's never going to become natural for him. You have to take the training wheels off and let people make their own mistakes to grow.

 

[russianbear]

Okay, that's a lot worse than I thought. It was my understanding that he had something more like four options at the line on most plays.

Yup, done defending Lazor.

seems like lazor has been intentionally dishonest about tannehill's ability to audible. trying to save face and at the same time he sorta throws tanne under the bus.

"tanne can audible!" - lazor
"uhhh, yea I guess you can call it that" - tannehill

"obviously tannehill can't read defenses and call the correct play at the line!" - fans

 

[hoops]

I get the concept Lazor is trying to do, but it's what you would do if you had some random young QB that you were just trying to make sure would not lose the game for you. Once we decided to pay Tannehill franchise QB money, you let them be a franchise QB, sink or swim. If he's not understanding and being able to exploit matchups, then it's never going to become natural for him. You have to take the training wheels off and let people make their own mistakes to grow.

basically we are running an offense for a qb you can't trust to take care of the ball and set up protections id blitzers and make good decisions when he checks out of a play...basically our offense is made for a mark sanchez level qb

you don't give freedom to qbs that shouldn't have it by showing in game scenarios they can't handle it...but ryan tannehill shouldn't be on that list...he's more than capable

oh and when someone starts something with "i'll be honest" its likely he's not giving you the whole truth cause tannehill under Sherman had full freedom not "some"

 

[DolfanISS]

So I guess the question is why do they think this is the right thing to do? Even Campbell seems to back it. Is it:

A. Lazor is a control freak and Campbell doesn't want to piss in his corn flakes? (probably the popular answer on Finheaven, but if Campbell is scared of upsetting Lazor he's in the wrong business :))
B. Right or wrong they both agree that Tannehill can't handle the extra responsibility.

I think you have to let your QB audible with 100% freedom if you're going to be successful. I will mention I heard Baldinger (probably another guy who doesn't know what he's talking about :)) point out that Tannehill did a poor job getting his team into a good play on a few occasions, much like Gannon did, during that AFC Playbook show when Sherman was the OC. Not sure if that's concerning.

 

[hoops]

and this is YET another example of how incompetent that damn building is when it comes to this game

fire every last one of them...shackles on ryan tannehill...moronic

 

[J. David Wannyheimer]

Eh, the way I see it, even if he's not great at changing plays at the line, you let him get more experience doing it since you've made an investment in him for the long haul.

 

[hoops]

I saw no evidence those first 2 years that he can't change plays properly based on what he sees from the defense...none

it's another reason I was so high on him...he knows how to set up protections he knows how to account for blitzers and he knows how to check in and out of things...amazing how stupid this team can be...absolutely amazing