WesternNYDolfan
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-dolphins-ills-heres-the-real-answer/?ref=yfp
[h=1]Stop blaming Ndamukong Suh, Ryan Tannehill for Dolphins’ ills. Here’s the real answer.[/h]
The Dolphins are in shambles. To have any chance of saving the season, the Dolphins had to move on from Joe Philbin. The former head coach’s inability to scheme to his lineup is a big part of the reason they lost their last three games and why he’s currently unemployed.
The good news is that the talent that had prognosticators predicting a playoff berth prior to the season didn’t suddenly disappear. This was an 8-8 team a year ago that actually added talent to their roster. There is no reason to think that ship can’t be righted and the Dolphins season salvaged.
[Maske: Philbin firing won’t stop Dolphins’ dive]
Interim head coach Dan Campbell has no shortage of problems to address, but the big one everyone wants to talk about is their well-paid free agent addition, Ndamukong Suh. Miami made him the highest paid defensive player under the pretense he’d transform a front four that disappeared down the stretch in 2014. That hasn’t happened.
Fans are unhappy with Suh’s performance, but he can only play the hand he’s dealt. As of right now he’s actually on pace to eclipse his overall Pro Football Focus grade from a year ago in Detroit. So if he’s playing at a high level, then why do the Dolphins have PFF’s 30th-ranked run defense?
There are few better at eating up both blockers on a double team and keeping linebackers clean than Ndamukong Suh, just ask DeAndre Levy, the Detroit linebacker who benefited greatly from Suh’s play in the Motor City. But in Miami, Suh’s being asked to do it snap after snap. This becomes an issue when you don’t have another defensive lineman or linebacker that can take advantage. The Dolphins have basically asked Earl Mitchell to be their play-maker and he’s never been that guy. Mitchell’s 4.1 run-stop percentage is sixth-worst among starting defensive tackles.
[Early Lead: NFL’s hot seat rankings]
The problem is compounded when you see that Miami’s defensive ends are asked to make tackle reads on most snaps. This means that they basically stand up at the snap of the ball and wait until they see what the tackle is doing before they execute their assignment. This works well if you have strong and long defenders that can immediately control an offensive linemen, but not so much when you have quick defenders used to winning with their agility and get-off. Reading slows down the pass-rush because the ends have to wait an extra beat to recognize the linemen getting into pass sets. That’s a big reason why Cameron Wake, our top pass-rushing 4-3 defensive end from a year ago — by a long shot — has graded out negatively as a pass-rusher in three out of four games this year.
Ryan Tannehill hasn’t had much time to throw this season. (Stephen Pond/Getty Images)
They’re also devoid of any aggression in play calling and in defensive line philosophy. It’s cliché to say a team should be more “aggressive” and I’m not suggesting the Dolphins blitz more. What I am suggesting is that they scheme to the strengths of their personnel. Give Suh and Wake the freedom to make plays. Let them get upfield. Let them stunt off each other. It can and will at times put stress on the linebackers and creates wide running lanes, but they need someone to make plays. Quite frankly, with Miami as the 30th-graded run defense at PFF they can’t get much worse.
The Dolphins’ offensive problem is oddly almost the exact opposite of the defensive problem. On defense they are trying to protect players who don’t necessarily need protecting, while on offense they have given little help to a porous offensive line. They have the worst guard tandem in the NFL and it isn’t really close. Dallas Thomas and Jamil Douglas rank 77th and 79th out of 79 guards that have received meaningful snaps this year. Mind you there are only 64 starting guards in the NFL at one point in time.
The Dolphins “solution” to having our 28th ranked pass protection unit has been to become the most pass heavy team in all of the NFL, dropping back to pass on a ridiculous 73 percent of their offensive snaps. They have been trailing a lot, which adds to that number, but it’s utterly ridiculous to ask that much of an offensive line that’s been without their best lineman, left tackle Branden Albert, since Week 2.
An emphasis absolutely needs to be put on the run and the quick-passing game to bring balance and ease pressure on the line. Right now 33 percent of Ryan Tannehill’s attempts have come within two seconds or less, almost exactly the league average. With a leaky offensive line and a myriad of playmakers on the outside, one would expect them to be among the league leaders in that category. They’ve schemed an offense that has been completely dependent on Tannehill’s performance and the results speak for themselves.
I truly believe coaching in the NFL is more important than any other major professional sport and I’m not sure it’s even close. The Dolphins are a team where a real change can actually be made and they had to push reset on the season. There’s no way to completely overhaul a scheme midseason, but it’s clear the coaching and the talent were not aligned and tweaks can be made to fix that.
They may be 1-3 right now, but the Dolphins are just one game out of the last wild card spot in the AFC. There’s a lot of work to be done, but Miami’s season is far from over.
Mike Renner is a writer for Pro Football Focus and a contributor to The Washington Post’s NFL coverage.
[h=1]Stop blaming Ndamukong Suh, Ryan Tannehill for Dolphins’ ills. Here’s the real answer.[/h]
The Dolphins are in shambles. To have any chance of saving the season, the Dolphins had to move on from Joe Philbin. The former head coach’s inability to scheme to his lineup is a big part of the reason they lost their last three games and why he’s currently unemployed.
The good news is that the talent that had prognosticators predicting a playoff berth prior to the season didn’t suddenly disappear. This was an 8-8 team a year ago that actually added talent to their roster. There is no reason to think that ship can’t be righted and the Dolphins season salvaged.
[Maske: Philbin firing won’t stop Dolphins’ dive]
Interim head coach Dan Campbell has no shortage of problems to address, but the big one everyone wants to talk about is their well-paid free agent addition, Ndamukong Suh. Miami made him the highest paid defensive player under the pretense he’d transform a front four that disappeared down the stretch in 2014. That hasn’t happened.
Fans are unhappy with Suh’s performance, but he can only play the hand he’s dealt. As of right now he’s actually on pace to eclipse his overall Pro Football Focus grade from a year ago in Detroit. So if he’s playing at a high level, then why do the Dolphins have PFF’s 30th-ranked run defense?
There are few better at eating up both blockers on a double team and keeping linebackers clean than Ndamukong Suh, just ask DeAndre Levy, the Detroit linebacker who benefited greatly from Suh’s play in the Motor City. But in Miami, Suh’s being asked to do it snap after snap. This becomes an issue when you don’t have another defensive lineman or linebacker that can take advantage. The Dolphins have basically asked Earl Mitchell to be their play-maker and he’s never been that guy. Mitchell’s 4.1 run-stop percentage is sixth-worst among starting defensive tackles.
[Early Lead: NFL’s hot seat rankings]
The problem is compounded when you see that Miami’s defensive ends are asked to make tackle reads on most snaps. This means that they basically stand up at the snap of the ball and wait until they see what the tackle is doing before they execute their assignment. This works well if you have strong and long defenders that can immediately control an offensive linemen, but not so much when you have quick defenders used to winning with their agility and get-off. Reading slows down the pass-rush because the ends have to wait an extra beat to recognize the linemen getting into pass sets. That’s a big reason why Cameron Wake, our top pass-rushing 4-3 defensive end from a year ago — by a long shot — has graded out negatively as a pass-rusher in three out of four games this year.
They’re also devoid of any aggression in play calling and in defensive line philosophy. It’s cliché to say a team should be more “aggressive” and I’m not suggesting the Dolphins blitz more. What I am suggesting is that they scheme to the strengths of their personnel. Give Suh and Wake the freedom to make plays. Let them get upfield. Let them stunt off each other. It can and will at times put stress on the linebackers and creates wide running lanes, but they need someone to make plays. Quite frankly, with Miami as the 30th-graded run defense at PFF they can’t get much worse.
The Dolphins’ offensive problem is oddly almost the exact opposite of the defensive problem. On defense they are trying to protect players who don’t necessarily need protecting, while on offense they have given little help to a porous offensive line. They have the worst guard tandem in the NFL and it isn’t really close. Dallas Thomas and Jamil Douglas rank 77th and 79th out of 79 guards that have received meaningful snaps this year. Mind you there are only 64 starting guards in the NFL at one point in time.
The Dolphins “solution” to having our 28th ranked pass protection unit has been to become the most pass heavy team in all of the NFL, dropping back to pass on a ridiculous 73 percent of their offensive snaps. They have been trailing a lot, which adds to that number, but it’s utterly ridiculous to ask that much of an offensive line that’s been without their best lineman, left tackle Branden Albert, since Week 2.
An emphasis absolutely needs to be put on the run and the quick-passing game to bring balance and ease pressure on the line. Right now 33 percent of Ryan Tannehill’s attempts have come within two seconds or less, almost exactly the league average. With a leaky offensive line and a myriad of playmakers on the outside, one would expect them to be among the league leaders in that category. They’ve schemed an offense that has been completely dependent on Tannehill’s performance and the results speak for themselves.
I truly believe coaching in the NFL is more important than any other major professional sport and I’m not sure it’s even close. The Dolphins are a team where a real change can actually be made and they had to push reset on the season. There’s no way to completely overhaul a scheme midseason, but it’s clear the coaching and the talent were not aligned and tweaks can be made to fix that.
They may be 1-3 right now, but the Dolphins are just one game out of the last wild card spot in the AFC. There’s a lot of work to be done, but Miami’s season is far from over.
Mike Renner is a writer for Pro Football Focus and a contributor to The Washington Post’s NFL coverage.
