Dolphins offensive coordinator Chan Gailey admits there are issues to solve with offense
A six-pack of Miami Dolphins notes on a Thursday:
▪ Offensive coordinator Chan Gailey has multiple concerns with the Miami Dolphins offense. But he’s willing to tell you only one of them.
When Gailey mentioned a few communications issues during his twice-monthly session with local reporters on Thursday, it elicited a follow-up question.
“I said we’ve had a couple of issues,” he said of communication problems. “If that was our biggest problem, I would be feeling really, really good right now.
“That’ll be one of the easier things to solve between now and game day than some of the other things that are going on and your next question will be, ‘well, what are those issues?’ And I’m not going to answer that, okay?”
Gailey didn’t want to overstate the communication issues.
“It’s been good,” he said. “It hasn’t been perfect. We still have some people not used to hearing the play call the way we do it. You have to listen in sequence. Linemen hear one thing, the next call in the huddle means something to somebody else, the next call means something to somebody else; so you have to listen to sequence and make sure you’re listening to your thing that you need to pay attention to. We’ve had more mistakes than we would have liked, but they’re getting the hang of it.”
On the surface, the Dolphins have several concerns on offense: a wide receiver group without great depth of established NFL talent and an offensive line that could have two rookie starters.
Meanwhile, Gailey expressed another concern that isn’t specific to Miami.
With NFL teams planning to have either no fans or limited capacity at games, the NFL has discussed allowing teams to pump crowd noise into their stadium. And that has created some concern among NFL coaches.
“I haven’t heard any official word on that,” Gailey said. “I keep asking the same question, though. Is that what’s going to happen and then who controls the volume on that? If you get a homer that slips that volume a little bit louder on third down, I’m not sure I’m for that a lot.
“You have to have that silent count ready to go if they start doing that, so we’ll get that going to make sure we cover all our bases before it’s over with. Who’s going to control that? That’s the key to me.”
Though there will be growing pains, Gailey made clear he’s optimistic overall.
“As a coordinator, you get excited about what guys can do,” Gailey said. “You don’t fret about what they can’t do; so you take the guys and you take their skillset and the things that you’re excited about, and you try to put them in position to be successful.
“I think we have a set of guys on our football team that give me some excitement about what we might be able to do with this group.”
▪ Running backs coach Eric Studesville is impressed what he has seen from the Dolphins’ new top two backs — Jordan Howard and Matt Breida.
“You love everything about both those guys,” he said. “The thing you see is both are competitive people. You see Matt’s burst and speed. Jordan has vision, good feet. They both will be able to contribute as pass protectors. We’ve got to be able to develop that.”
▪ Though the Dolphins have a big offensive line, Gailey takes limited comfort in that.
“There are a bunch of 400 pound people around out there that can’t play football,” he said. “Size is not the only factor. It’s like people used to tell me you’ve got great speed at receiver. If speed was the only factor, we would go sign the Olympic team to go play football. The key is to get those guys using that strength and that weight going in the right direction and doing the right thing.”
New veteran left guard Ereck Flowers is 343 pounds. New left tackle Austin Jackson is listed at 325; fellow rookie Robert Hunt is listed at 323. Rookie guard Solomon Kindley is listed at 336, but has worked his way down to 331. New center Ted Karras is 314 pounds.
So girth and power shouldn’t be an issue with this group.
▪ Players who can handle multiple assignments have a better chance to make the 53-man roster, even more so amid a pandemic, when teams could suddenly lose a player for a couple of weeks.
“The hybrid players and being able to adapt to another role [is important],” tight ends coach George Godsey said.
For example, “could [fullback] Chandler Cox carry the football?” Godsey said of a second-year player who has attended tight end group meetings in the past year. “He’s got to learn some running back stuff. The fullback and tight end, those two positions have a lot of merging roles.”
▪ Quick stuff on some intangible stuff that actually has some measure of value:
Ereck Flowers, Jesse Davis and Ted Karras have shown strong leadership skills, and that shouldn’t be underestimated with such a young offensive line. Flowers has worked with the young Dolphins linemen after practice and Karras has been meeting with the quarterbacks. Davis is a favorite of the coaches because he’s mature and consistently does the right thing….
DeVante Parker, quiet by nature, has been more vocal, receivers coach Josh Grizzard has noticed....
Preston Williams, while recovering from last November’s ACL injury, has become more of a student of the game, studying aspects such as “how can I run this route slightly differently or if I’m seeing this coverage, how can I beat this guy,” Grizzard said. “He’s seeing more defenses and cataloging [so he] can reach back to this somewhere down the line. He’s done a good job at that.”
▪ Two off-field notes: Former Dolphins receiver Brandon Marshall - who impressed as analyst previously on Showtime’s Inside the NFL - has landed a new gig: co-host on FS1’s morning show, First Things First. That’s a good hire for Fox in a competitive morning show environment.
Beginning on Monday, he will join Nick Wright, Kevin Wildes and Jenna Wolfe on the program, which airs at 7:30 a.m. weekdays. In some ways, he essentially replaces former Dolphins receiver Cris Carter, who was dropped by Fox last November.
“Brandon is a rare talent that has achieved acclaim in both the NFL and the broadcast world at an early stage of his career, FS1 executive Whit Albohm said. “In the brief time I’ve worked with Brandon, it is already evident what made him such a successful athlete. He has an unquenchable desire to grow and succeed, which is the secret ingredient for excellent television.”
Marshall has helped multiple Dolphins and Hurricanes wide receivers with on-field mentorship over the past two offseasons, including the Dolphins’ Preston Williams and UM’s Mike Harley Jr….
You want a personal message from Dolphins executive and legendary quarterback Dan Marino? He’s now offering that for $550, via cameo.com.
The message length usually ranges from 10 to 15 seconds to a few minutes; the average length is 45 seconds and the cost is the same regardless of length.
The most common requests are for special occasions (birthday, graduation, wedding shout outs) but one person asked him to tape a message explaining why he didn’t keep the laces out, a whimsical reference to his appearance in Ace Ventura Pet Detective.
ROSTER MOVE
The Dolphins removed linebacker Sam Eguavoen from the COVID-19 list after one day, meaning he was merely in close contact with someone who tested positive and did not have the virus. That leaves cornerback Xavien Howard as the only Dolphin on the COVID list...
The Dolphins brought in quarterback Jake Rudock for a visit and auditioned Auburn rookie defensive end Nick Coe, who was cut by New England last week. Rudock was on Miami’s practice squad last year.
Here’s my Thursday piece with lots of insight from Dolphins coaches on several young offensive players.
This story was originally published August 20, 2020 at 2:11 PM.
