How the Dolphins can turn their first year under Mike McDaniel into a ‘physical track meet’
Alec Ingold sat at his locker at the Baptist Health Training Complex on Wednesday and chuckled. The 26-year-old fullback had waited nine months for his return to the field after tearing his ACL in November 2021. It would have to wait another week.
The team’s preseason finale against the Philadelphia Eagles was the target date for his Dolphins debut — head coach Mike McDaniel even said as much in a rare pregame reveal. That is until Ingold was one of several players who contracted the stomach flu 48 hours before the game.
It likely won’t be until the Week 1 opener against the New England Patriots on Sept. 11 that we know the extent of the role for Ingold, an under-the-radar but potentially key cog in McDaniel’s grand scheme. Tackle Terron Armstead once said the Dolphins offense would turn Sunday afternoons into a “physical, track meet.” He, Ingold and a number of the team’s speedy offensive additions will all need to have a hand in that, with McDaniel as the orchestrator.
Here’s a look at how the Dolphins’ offense could use various personnel groupings in 2022.
11 personnel
Through the years, 11 personnel — featuring one running back, one tight end and three wide receivers — has become the preeminent grouping in the NFL. It’s become used more and more as teams pass the ball at increasing rates. Last season, the NFL used 11 personnel on 61 percent of plays, according to Sharp Football Stats.
The 2021 Dolphins, though, were nonconformists. They used 11 personnel on a league-low 28 percent of plays as injuries thinned out what was billed as a promising receiving corps. The team’s success play rate — when a play gets 40 percent of yards to go on first down, 60 percent on second down and 100 percent on third or fourth down — was 45 percent, below the league average rate of 48 percent.
The 2022 Dolphins shouldn’t be as much of an outlier. Without Jaylen Waddle playing a down in the preseason and Tyreek Hill playing one series, the offense used 11 personnel on 44.8 percent of its offensive plays, according to NFL’s Next Gen Stats. The success rate in that personnel grouping trailed last season’s mark at 46 percent. However, the usage of 11 personnel — and its success — could seemingly increase in the regular season with the dynamic pairing of Waddle and Hill, as well as Cedrick Wilson Jr., who will likely log most of his snaps in the slot.
12 personnel
The Dolphins used 12 personnel — one running back, two tight ends and two wide receivers — on a league-leading 61 percent of plays last season. This rate far exceeded the league’s usage of the grouping on 21 percent of plays. Last season’s San Francisco 49ers — with McDaniel as offensive coordinator — only used the grouping on 10 percent of plays. It was the third-lowest rate in the NFL, but tight ends remain an important piece to McDaniel’s offense, not only to catch passes but anchor the outside zone running scheme as inline blockers.
In the preseason, the Dolphins used 12 personnel on 26.7 percent of their plays. Their success rate was 52 percent, which exceeded last year’s rate of 48 percent. The Dolphins kept five tight ends on its initial 53-man roster, signaling that 12 personnel should remain a favorite for the offense in 2022. Though Mike Gesicki’s role in the offense will be one to monitor, the team still has Durham Smythe, who features the best combination of blocking and catching at the position. Second-year player Hunter Long had a good camp and could be a factor.
A wrinkle in this personnel grouping could be using Gesicki in the slot, where he lined up for the majority of his snaps in 2021. The Dolphins could place a second tight end inline and retain its advantage in the run game on the edge while keeping the threat of the pass; it would effectively be 11 personnel with Gesicki as a big slot receiver.
21 personnel
The Dolphins didn’t have a traditional fullback on the roster last season but that will change with the signing of Ingold. The offense’s usage of 21 personnel — two running backs, one tight end, two wide receivers — should rise dramatically from 2021 when it only ran 10 plays out of that grouping; only four teams ran fewer such plays.
If 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk’s responsibilities are any indication of what awaits Ingold in Miami, he could be in store for his most significant role yet. Juszczyk has played at least 40 percent of the 49ers’ offensive snaps each season since arriving in 2017. He’s often been used as a de facto tight end, helping open running lanes and catching an average of 26 passes per season. In three seasons with the Raiders, Ingold caught 28 passes.
“I think we’re going to have a smashmouth, physical run game, and those guys are going to bring the speed and we’re going to mesh well,” Ingold said in August. “Hopefully I can open some things up for them. That’s why I’m here. I’m here to serve everybody else on this offense. Hopefully I can do that for the passing game as well.”
