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Key excerpts, full article linked below:
In 2023, the Dolphins had 59 passing plays of 20 yards or more, which was eighth most in the league. This season, they had 37; only the dreadful Giants and Patriots had fewer. And there’s this: This past season, no team had fewer passing plays of 40 yards or more than Miami, which had three. In 2023, the Dolphins had the fifth most (12). In 2024 on passes that traveled at least 20 air yards, Tagovailoa was 27th in passer rating, at a poor 78.5, and went 9 for 24 for 364 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions, completing just 37.5 percent of those passes (23rd in the league). Conversely, in 2023, among quarterbacks who threw at least 40 such “20-plus-air-yard” passes, Tagovailoa completed the fourth-highest percentage of them (50.8) and had the third-most completions (32).
McDaniel said: “All defenders were deeper, wider and there’s probably two safeties standing deep presnap where they were vulnerable in years previous. So the system, if you execute it appropriately within it, you have to make people pay for what they are taking away. And once you make people pay, then it opens it back up for those short drives that we all love and those explosive plays. And I think it took us a little bit longer for various reasons, including Tua’s first injury that I feel like we didn’t start seeing a normal defense until the Raiders…“We probably have gone 25 games in a row where teams are playing or introducing different coverages or different personnel groups or matching personnels differently than what they’ve put on tape, but as you grow as an offense and execute the finer details of all three levels, you are best prepared to make people pay for defending the deep stuff.”
The problem is that the short stuff, while often effective, is difficult to sustain against good teams. Drives against the Bills, Packers and Houston kept being interrupted by penalties and fumbles and interceptions and breakdowns by a deficient offensive line and other things that typically make it difficult to mount 16-play drives against stout defenses. Whatever the answer, McDaniel needs to fix it. You simply cannot have two of the league’s highest-paid receivers and not change your approach after they finish 30th (Hill) and 44th (Jaylen Waddle) in receiving yards.
Also hurtful was the reduction in running plays of 20 yards or more from 17 in 2023 (third most) to 11 (eighth fewest). The substandard offensive line remains at the core of the reduction in big plays both running and passing: The offensive line couldn’t be trusted to give McDaniel and Tagovailoa enough time to allow deep throws to develop. And the line couldn’t create enough holes to spring big runs, one reason why Miami’s yards per carry dropped from a league-leading 5.0 in 2023 to 4.0, which was tied for 27th.
One of the frustrating elements of the Dolphins regressing to 8-9and missing the playoffs is the fact that Miami ended up squandering the league’s easiest schedule. Dolphins opponents won just 41.9% of their games, the worst in the league.
In 2023, the Dolphins had 59 passing plays of 20 yards or more, which was eighth most in the league. This season, they had 37; only the dreadful Giants and Patriots had fewer. And there’s this: This past season, no team had fewer passing plays of 40 yards or more than Miami, which had three. In 2023, the Dolphins had the fifth most (12). In 2024 on passes that traveled at least 20 air yards, Tagovailoa was 27th in passer rating, at a poor 78.5, and went 9 for 24 for 364 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions, completing just 37.5 percent of those passes (23rd in the league). Conversely, in 2023, among quarterbacks who threw at least 40 such “20-plus-air-yard” passes, Tagovailoa completed the fourth-highest percentage of them (50.8) and had the third-most completions (32).
McDaniel said: “All defenders were deeper, wider and there’s probably two safeties standing deep presnap where they were vulnerable in years previous. So the system, if you execute it appropriately within it, you have to make people pay for what they are taking away. And once you make people pay, then it opens it back up for those short drives that we all love and those explosive plays. And I think it took us a little bit longer for various reasons, including Tua’s first injury that I feel like we didn’t start seeing a normal defense until the Raiders…“We probably have gone 25 games in a row where teams are playing or introducing different coverages or different personnel groups or matching personnels differently than what they’ve put on tape, but as you grow as an offense and execute the finer details of all three levels, you are best prepared to make people pay for defending the deep stuff.”
The problem is that the short stuff, while often effective, is difficult to sustain against good teams. Drives against the Bills, Packers and Houston kept being interrupted by penalties and fumbles and interceptions and breakdowns by a deficient offensive line and other things that typically make it difficult to mount 16-play drives against stout defenses. Whatever the answer, McDaniel needs to fix it. You simply cannot have two of the league’s highest-paid receivers and not change your approach after they finish 30th (Hill) and 44th (Jaylen Waddle) in receiving yards.
Also hurtful was the reduction in running plays of 20 yards or more from 17 in 2023 (third most) to 11 (eighth fewest). The substandard offensive line remains at the core of the reduction in big plays both running and passing: The offensive line couldn’t be trusted to give McDaniel and Tagovailoa enough time to allow deep throws to develop. And the line couldn’t create enough holes to spring big runs, one reason why Miami’s yards per carry dropped from a league-leading 5.0 in 2023 to 4.0, which was tied for 27th.
One of the frustrating elements of the Dolphins regressing to 8-9and missing the playoffs is the fact that Miami ended up squandering the league’s easiest schedule. Dolphins opponents won just 41.9% of their games, the worst in the league.
