How Miami Is Perfecting the RB By Committee Approach
Photo Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports
Editors note: This article was published prior to the De’Von Achane injury news.
The numbers were gaudy.
Coming into Sunday, the Miami Dolphins had averaged 177 yards rushing per game through the first four outings. Their 6.31 yards per rush average was the highest four-game average for the team since 1971. Their 10 rushing touchdowns were the second-most through four games in the Super Bowl era behind only the 1995 Super Bowl Champion Dallas Cowboys.
And then Sunday they became gaudier.
SIX TOUCHDOWNS IN TWO GAMES
DEVON ACHANE IS CRAZY
pic.twitter.com/DdAeeUrXVG— JPAFootball (@jasrifootball) October 1, 2023
A whopping 223 yards on 23 carries for a 9.7 yard average led the way as the Miami Dolphins trounced the New York Giants 31-16. That’s right, Raheem Mostert, De’Von Achane, and the offensive line put a performance on the board that equaled the Dolphins’ 9.7 yards per pass average.
Despite the giant point totals and the comparisons to the Greatest Show on Turf, Miami is succeeding in a way that would please even the gruffest of football traditionalists. They are just flat-out better in the trenches and on the ground than every other team in the NFL. But while those championship Cowboys teams and many of their competitive peers were built around superstars like Emmitt Smith, the Dolphins are leaning modern and perfecting the running-back-by-committee approach.
In an NFL where the running back position has become devalued, Mike McDaniel has found a perfect offensive equation that allows lower-profile backs to thrive.
Superstar deep threats + athletic offensive lineman + speedy backs = devastating ground game.
Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle are gamebreakers. When their deep-threat ability is combined with an accurate and efficient quarterback, the opposing defense would be insane to consistently put large numbers in the box. You would get killed all day.
With smaller boxes, the super athletic offensive linemen who love to get out in space and open up holes can build an environment where speed in the backfield can kill at any moment.
And to be clear, speed in the backfield is the main variable here.
Mostert might be a late-career veteran, but he can absolutely burn. Even with Hill, Waddle, and Achane on the team, the 31-year-old Mostert is happy to tell you he is the fastest player on the field. Achane will disagree.(and he’s right too). The fastest player in last years draft is so quick he’s capable of catching up to Tyreek Hill on a breakaway.
While many teams have tried to combine different running styles to make a complete running back room, the Dolphins have shed the idea of one bruiser and one speed back and just stuck two of the fastest guys they could find behind the quarterback.
The results speak for themselves. We haven’t seen this sort of homerun ability out of a running game since the days of Chris Johnson.
That’s not to say they have no interest in north and south running. The pending return of Jeff Willson will add a third, more powerful threat to the Dolphins running game, potentially making them a force unlike anything we’ve seen. Perhaps Wilsons absence forced his coach into finding ways to scheme around his back’s speed and now he can return to reap the benefits of his absence
If the Dolphins’ offense has a kryptonite, it may be Tua having to progress through his reads. After hitting his first read an impressive 71% of the time through three games, the Buffalo Bills were able to keep Tua off track by disguising coverages and forcing him to make quick and bad decisions as he moved off his primary target. The New York Giants tried to replicate this and at times succeeded, forcing two interceptions and a few bad throws, but ultimately they didn’t have the horses to run the race.
Defensive coordinators will gravitate towards this strategy moving forward. With some of the league’s best team’s possessing some of the league’s best defensive fronts, the Bills game won’t be the last time Miami finds itself behind the eight ball if they intend to compete in a big way.
Too often last season McDaniel was quick to go away from the run game when he felt he needed to keep up. That mentality will have to change if this team wants to make a deep run. McDaniel has built a modern football monster in his rushing attack. It’s old school football one in a new school way. He is becoming the grand marshal of the running back by committee parade. If he can trust what he’s built, the sky is the limit in Miami.
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