O’Shea faces some fuzzy math as Dolphins’ injury-depleted offense swoons
Add this to the very long list of headaches for the Dolphins’ coaching staff:
They’re a three-wide offense with two healthy receivers.
Jakeem Grant is out for the foreseeable future — if not the rest of the season — after sustaining a high ankle sprain Sunday in Cleveland. And Albert Wilson didn’t make it out of the game unscathed, either. He left with a rib injury and did not return.
That makes for a very challenging week for Chad O’Shea, who was already without Preston Williams (out for the season with a torn ACL) and Kenny Stills (traded to Houston before the opener).
O’Shea’s runs 11 personnel (one running back, one tight end and three wide receivers) as his base offense. That Dolphins have been in 11 on 62.3 percent of their offensive snaps this year, according to statistics provided by the league.
So the Dolphins this week will either have to drastically overhaul their scheme, add at least two more receivers (Isaiah Ford off practice squad makes the most sense) or, most likely, both.
“We’re going to have to do it through a variety of different ways, one being other positions obviously,” O’Shea said Tuesday. “Whether it be the running back position, being creative with the way we’re going to use those guys or the use of the tight end. Mike [Gesicki] has been somebody that’s been productive for us here in recent weeks. I think it’s going to have to be again by committee.”
Part of the challenge of evaluating the Dolphins’ coaching staff this year in general — and O’Shea in particular — is determining how much of Miami’s failures has been based on talent and how much has been on game plan and scheme.
The truth is surely closer to the former than the latter. Of the 11 players who start on offense Sunday against the Eagles, maybe three would start for a playoff team. At least that many will likely be out of the league next season.
So O’Shea has been trying to survive with smoke, mirrors and (Fitz)Magic. The results: An offense that ranks last in rushing (63.2 yards per game), last in passer rating (71.0), 31st in yards per pass (6.2), 30th in yards (264.9) and 30th in scoring (14.8).
The Dolphins tailor their offense to their opponent, which is understandable and admirable. But perhaps the last five weeks of the season would be better served identifying what (if anything) they do well and stick largely to it.
Want to be a power running team? Go for it. They currently have more available tight ends than receivers, and their second-most common formation this year has been 12 (one running back, two tight ends). Expect to see more of that with the Dolphins running out of warm bodies on the outside.
“This week in Philadelphia, we have great challenges of what they’re doing up front,” O’Shea said. “We closely look at what the strengths of the defenses are and try to do the things that we do the best. There’s a lot of things that go into that. Certainly, we’re going to continue to work on the run game, work really hard at it. The guys are going to embrace what we’re doing and be better. We know it’s an area we need to make improvements in, and just like other areas we need to improve in on offense.”
The Dolphins might have found something in Patrick Laird, whose season rushing average is more than twice than that of starter Kalen Ballage.
Of course, the fact we’re even discussing playing Laird instead of Ballage shows how bizarre this season has been. And it suggests the Dolphins’ offense will look markedly different, both in personnel and perhaps in scheme, when O’Shea has a real roster with which to work.
“The most important thing for me as the leader of the offense is to not be too high on the highs and too low on those lows,” O’Shea said. “I think it’s important for me to stay right in the middle. That’s what my belief is as a leader and I think the team responds best to that — or offensively we respond best to that.
“Certainly, there’s times that I would like us to be more consistent and to be better in certain areas, but I think that’s true of any year, in any team,” he added. “I can’t say that that’s been any different on any other team I’ve been on in any other year. You strive for consistency, but I think it’s important just to be right down the middle and I think that’s important as the leader.”
This story was originally published November 26, 2019 at 1:13 PM.
