What Chan Gailey offense will look like, and how it can be unkind to players at one position
Miami Dolphins offensive players have been in daily Zoom video conferences learning new offensive coordinator Chan Gailey’s scheme, which will look a lot like the scheme he’s used over the nearly four decades he’s been coaching with a couple of wrinkles.
And everyone’s excited.
Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick is excited because he’s played under Gailey for five years and knows the system better than anyone not named Gailey.
Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is excited because he’s a rookie and all rookies are excited, but also because Gailey’s system typically stretches the field horizontally and to the outside. Gailey’s offense over the years has usually focused the passing game outside the hashes, where Tagovailoa excelled at Alabama, and on slants, which was another staple for Tagovailoa at Alabama.
Quarterback Josh Rosen is excited because Gailey won’t be running the New England Patriots system the Dolphins ran last year -- a system which Rosen struggled to fully integrate in his mind.
Wanna-be quarterbacks on the roster should be excited because Gailey has in the past used athletic players who weren’t his starting QB -- such as Kordell Stewart and Bert Emanuel -- to run plays out of the quarterback position.
Running backs are excited because Gailey’s offense isn’t ground and pound but is based on the Ron Earhardt-Ray Perkins scheme used by the New England Patriots of the 1970s Chuck Fairbanks days. That system’s operating philosophy is “pass to score, run to win.”
But don’t make the mistake of thinking Gailey’s offense will be a fossil in the space age.
Gailey’s base offense during his first stint with the Dolphins in 2000 and 2001 was a spread look with three wide receivers. Gailey’s offense used the spread and even used early concepts of the run-pass option.
So even as the team isn’t going through a traditional offseason with camps, a conditioning program and light practices, as in past years, all of Miami’s players on offense have reason to be excited.
“I am excited for this upcoming season and we’ll just continue to work and get back there whenever we can,” Dolphins tight end Mike Gesicki said Thursday.
And, oh yes, that brings to mind the tight end position.
Gesicki is coming off a productive second season in which he dramatically improved in that since-discarded Bill Belichick-era Patriots offense that former offensive coordinator Chad O’Shea installed. Gesicki caught 51 passes for 570 yards and five touchdowns, which was second on the team in all three categories.
And now Gesicki ostensibly will try to improve on those numbers as he begins his third NFL season and first in the Gailey offense.
“I’m excited just for another opportunity to go out and do what I love to do and I’m sure every guy … whatever scheme you’re in, whatever system you’re in, I think that you earn the opportunities that you’re presented with,” Gesicki said.
“So regardless of what the X’s and O’s are and the play calls and that kind of stuff, I think that what you do in practice on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and what you do in training camp or what you do before the game starts on Sunday, I think that those are the opportunities that you earn for yourself.”
Gesicki is obviously embracing the idea that the process will make him a better player.
“I’m excited for whenever practice rolls around to just kind of go out there and kind of prove myself to a new offensive coordinator and a new guy calling the plays, because it’s exciting,” he said. “As a competitor, it’s something I look forward to.”
That’s great. Because Gailey’s offense showed one shining example in which the tight end could do significant damage:
In 2008 when Gailey was the offensive coordinator in Kansas City, tight end Tony Gonzalez caught 96 passes for 1,058 yards and 10 touchdowns. It was a typically outstanding season for a player who was arguably the best at his position at the time.
The small problem with that is when tight ends haven’t come to the field with Pro Football Hall of Fame ability, the Gailey offense has not typically been kind to them.
The tight end has actually been something of an afterthought in the Gailey offense in those other instances.
In 2016, the last season Gailey ran an offense before retiring for three seasons, New York Jets tight ends caught 18 passes for 173 yards with zero touchdowns.
Combined.
That was actually an upgrade from 2015 when Jets tight ends caught eight passes for 95 yards and one touchdown the entire season.
The results were better for Gailey’s tight ends when he was the head coach in Buffalo. But they still weren’t good.
Bills tight ends combined for 47 catches, 584 yards and eight touchdowns in 2012. They combined for 44 catches, 427 yards and six touchdowns in 2011. And they combined for 23 catches for 287 yards and one touchdown in 2010.
All those years came with Ryan Fitzpatrick at quarterback. All those numbers combined the production of two or three players at the tight end position.
The numbers for Dolphins tight ends during Gailey’s first stint in Miami -- in 2000 and 2001 -- also were modest.
Dolphins tight ends combined for 16 catches and 215 yards with one touchdown in 2000, then improved to 22 catches for 242 yards and one touchdown in 2001.
And that raises the question why non-Hall of Fame caliber tight ends haven’t played much of a role in Gailey’s usually successful offenses?
I don’t know the answer. Gailey, hired in January, hasn’t been made available to reporters at all to discuss this or any other issue.
My guess is the reason these many tight ends on these many different teams all were limited to similar unremarkable production is that the football found a better place to be. A place that helped the team more.
It’s hard to believe Gailey has some weird blind spot for tight ends, making them virtually obsolete. He used double tight end sets a lot in 2001. He has used tight ends in the slot a lot throughout his career. He sometimes motions them into the backfield and sometimes lines them up as outside receivers.
It’s just that the ball has, well, gone elsewhere.
So Gesicki faces a dual challenge in 2020: Yes, he must learn the offense and show himself worthy of getting the ball during practices. But he also will be competing with teammates -- receivers and running backs -- on game days to prove himself more trustworthy with the football than them.
That’s simply how it has been for a tight end who wants the football in the Chan Gailey offense.
This story was originally published May 28, 2020 at 4:35 PM.
