Dolphins Are Being Undone By Core Contradiction
Credit: Jasen Vinlove-Imagn Images
Tyler Huntley made his Miami Dolphins debut on Monday Night Football against a horrid Tennessee Titans team. That’s right, a Will Levis-led team that had the sixth-worst overall team DVOA in the NFL heading into Week 4. With few practices under his belt, the former Baltimore Raven struggled running the offense and could not establish a rapport with his receivers, and the Dolphins (for the second time in three weeks) got their butts whooped on primetime television.
Sure, Huntley isn’t familiar with the offense, but he’s still a viable backup quarterback. There should’ve been at least some glimmers of competence from the Dolphins’ offense, and the fact that there weren’t any shows how much this entire offense is a house of cards held up by Tua Tagovailoa. And Tua isn’t walking in through that door anytime soon.
Despite knowing that the only person keeping their offense afloat was prone to concussions, Chris Grier didn’t bother to start the season with a competent backup who is acclimated to their system in case Tua suffered another concussion. Yes, every offense would take a hit if they lost their starting quarterback, but the Dolphins have been ghastly ever since Tua got hurt.
Not only has the quarterback play been suboptimal, but the run game has been non-existent, even with speedsters De’Von Achane and Jaylen Wright in the backfield. Achane has gotten the bulk of the carries and has averaged 2.1 yards per carry over the past two weeks. If Mike McDaniel is a play-calling savant, and there’s all this talent at the skill positions, then why is the Dolphins offense this bad?
The problem goes far deeper than backup quarterbacks being inserted before they’re not ready. What we’ve seen on the field is the domino effect of Miami’s roster contradiction. Mike McDaniel is a Kyle Shanahan disciple who wants his offense to emulate the San Francisco 49ers. At their core, the Niners are a team that plays with lots of physicality. That’s not to say they’re akin to, say, the Detroit Lions under Dan Campbell whose identity revolves around grit. But guys like Deebo Samuel, Christian McCaffrey, and George Kittle are all tough, hard-nosed players who are hard to bring down.
San Francisco has the right kind of players for the style of football they’ve adopted. Miami? Not so much. This Dolphins roster is chock-full of track stars like Tyreek Hill and Odell Beckham Jr., who are better suited to blaze past defenders rather than run right through them. That would be great if McDaniel ran an Air Raid offense, but he doesn’t. McDaniel is trying to adopt the 49ers toughness mentality, without the tough players to implement it on the field. The end result is a team that talks about playing with toughness, but can never back it up.
Raheem Mostert is the only player that fits the Shanahan mold, and that’s because he played for the Niners. Mostert was heavily relied upon last year to get those tough yards in the red zone. In 2023, he set the Dolphins franchise record for most rushing touchdowns in a single season. Now that he’s hurt, Miami is having a much harder time getting those yards in between the tackles.
As for the quarterback position, Jaylen Waddle hinted at Huntley’s inexperience being the main culprit behind the Dolphins’ struggles on offense. “When your starting quarterback is out, you have to be extra open to clear it up for the quarterback. He’s new here, and we just got to go out there and make plays for him,” Waddle said. Even Huntley himself admitted that he wishes he had more reps. “You wish you had 1,000 reps that you went through the playbook, but you know, it is what it is.”
McDaniel said that he tried to adjust the playbook to fit Huntley’s skillset. “There were calculated decisions made based on what he was comfortable with from the previous game plan that he was a part of for Seattle and then some stuff that he had done in his career. So it was abbreviated to an extent and all things he was pretty comfortable with.”
The film backs this up, too. The Dolphins’ offensive game plan was built on quick passes, a lot of running the football, and QB draw plays. That’s the sort of offense that fits Huntley’s skill set, but he got here two weeks ago and the chemistry isn’t quite there with his receivers yet. The lack of deep passing attempts also made it easier for the Titans defense to keep the safeties down low, which made it harder on the Dolphins’ RBs on early downs.
If McDaniel wants to build a culture built on toughness, he needs tough players and he needs to be equally tough on his players. That hasn’t been the case, and one could argue that McDaniels’ laissez-faire, player empowerment approach to coaching doesn’t lend itself well to replicating the Niners’ identity. That being said, most of the blame falls on Grier for failing to add players who fit the style of play that McDaniel wants to embrace, and that core contradiction is why we’re seeing these results.
Up Next