Dolphins offensive coaches dish on two starting linemen, Malcolm Perry, Lynn Bowden, Tua
Miami Dolphins offensive nuggets, by position, with feedback from coaches on Tuesday:
▪ Offensive line: The competence of rookie offensive linemen Austin Jackson and Solomon Kindley, especially in pass protection, was comforting to everyone inside the team.
“Really liked where they are at this point,” offensive line coach Steve Marshall said.
Pro Football Focus graded Kindley as Miami’s second-best player on offense on Sunday against New England, behind only receiver DeVante Parker.
PFF ranked Kindley 20th best among 66 guards who played this week. He allowed one pressure but no sacks, and PFF said he performed the best as a run blocker of the Dolphins’ starting offensive linemen.
“Solomon is a big, strong young man,” Marshall said.
And even though PFF rated Jackson 16th among Dolphins offensive players, he didn’t allow a sack or quarterback hit or quarterback pressure. PFF ranked Jackson next to last among offensive tackles as a run blocker, however. That contributed to PFF ranking him only 61st of 66 offensive tackles who played in Week 1.
“The thing I really was impressed with was his competitive spirit,” Marshall said. “Tough guy; did some good things. We liked Austin coming out [of Southern California]. Like all young guys, there’s a lot of things everybody picks at.
“He has a chance to be a very good player. Still getting started. Long way to go to be a player who can play 10, 12 years, God willing, if he stays healthy.”
▪ Running back: Position coach Eric Studesville declined to say whether Jordan Howard will remain the starter. He had 7 yards on eight carries on Sunday but Studesville downplayed his meager “average yards per carry. Jordan has vision, good feet. I don’t think that’s changed how we feel about Jordan. Jordan being the biggest guy, that’s why he goes in on goal line.”...
Why didn’t Matt Breida play more against the Patriots? (He had five carries and 14 snaps, compared to 39 snaps for Myles Gaskin.)
“We’ve got a really diverse room,” Studesville said. “Myles Gaskin started getting going a little bit. We felt we were getting productive runs out of him, so we stayed with that.
“Of Matt’s five carries, four were productive runs. Matt is doing everything we’ve asked him to do - prepared, working hard. We’re going to try to find more and more ways [to involve him].”...
Studesville said he’s still “feeling out” Breida and Howard because he has never coached either. “That’s still an ongoing process.”...
On fullback Chandler Cox playing 11 snaps on Sunday after logging just 66 on offense all of last season, Studesville said: “He has done a nice job all through camp. The goal-line play — the second-down play — was a pretty big collision in there.
“That has to kind of be what his role is, as a physical presence in the run game. He demonstrated throughout camp that’s something he can do. We’ve got to get him in spots where he can do what he does best — line up against guys and hit them.”
▪ Quarterback: Position coach Robby Brown, on Ryan Fitzpatrick’s no touchdown pass, three-interception day against New England: “We all know the bad part. But he never got in a great rhythm. Need to try to get him in a rhythm and get it going. He did some good and some bad just like we all did.”...
Brown said rookie backup Tua Tagovailoa studied everything during game preparation and during the game — just like Fitzpatrick — and didn’t seem confused by anything. Tagovailoa listened to the plays as offensive coordinator Chan Gailey was calling them on Sunday.
“He’s got a 16-year vet tremendously willing to help,” Brown said. “He’s got a coordinator [Gailey] who’s been around the game for a long time. My job is to figure out what is working that he’s learning and be a translator. You’ve got two guys speaking a language that have been together for a long time — Chan and Fitz — and I’ve got to figure out what’s working for him and go from there.
“He sits in every single meeting that Fitz does. You try to get mental reps and narrow the game plan each and every day. He did a really good job last week, and we’ll try to improve on it and get him more and more in tuned with what we’re trying to do. I’ve talked with Tua a lot about we got to figure out what works for you, and how you learn.”...
Brown said San Diego rookie quarterback Reid Sinnett, who replaced Jake Rudock on the practice squad, “did a good job” during his workout last week, and Brown will try to “accelerate [his development] as fast you can. He’s working trying to learn it.”
▪ Wide receiver: Former Navy quarterback/running back/receiver Malcolm Perry, who made several big plays in training camp while learning the slot receiver position, was inactive in Week 1, and coach Josh Grizzard was noncommittal about whether he’s ready to help in a game.
“He’s done a good job,” Grizzard said. “Developing each day, to continue to improve and get a feel for playing receiver in the NFL. He’s done a great job, still working. We’ll see how that plays out.”...
Grizzard, on what the Dolphins are getting in Lynn Bowden, the rookie third-round pick acquired last month from Las Vegas: “He’s an intriguing player. Tracked him through his college career and the Combine. He’s versatile. I like his route-running ability. Having played quarterback, running back, receiver at Kentucky. Any time you can add a guy like that as a team it allows us to be more flexible schematically and it’s hard on a defense.
“He’s done a great job since he’s been here trying to grasp the playbook. He’s a little behind based on [learning a new team’s system and] not having an offseason.”
Grizzard said Bowden’s history at quarterback “will help him because when you’re back taking snaps from a center you have a feel [for everybody’s job]. It’s nice to have that knowledge coming from college.”
Bowden is working at receiver for Miami….
Grizzard said Jakeem Grant “did a good job” filling in for DeVante Parker after Parker left in the second quarter with a hamstring injury….
The Dolphins used a bunch of players in the slot on Sunday, with Parker catching one pass for 12 yards before leaving with the injury, Grant 1 for 14, Isaiah Ford 2 for 13 with one drop and tight end Mike Gesicki 2 for 12. Remember, those are their slot numbers only.
▪ Tight end: It sounded like position coach George Godsey wants the snaps at least a bit more evenly distributed than they were Sunday, when Gesicki played 45 snaps, Durham Smythe 13 and Adam Shaheen 12….
Asked about Gesicki’s blocking on Sunday, Godsey said: “There were some things that looked encouraging and some things we’ve still got to keep working on. I’ve got to do a good job of rolling those guys and getting a few more reps from Durham and Adam to get the very best of Michael.”...
In general with blocking in the run game on Sunday, Godsey said: “We got to hold up a little bit more and add a little more space for the backs to run. We’ve made some of those corrections. When we started out running the football, we were getting two, three yards where we would like to have more efficient plays. Definitely some room for us to improve.”
▪ FYI: Miami’s top five PFF graders on offense: Parker, Kindley, Gaskin, Gesicki and Cox. The three worst grades on offense went to Howard, Shaheen and Ford.
This story was originally published September 15, 2020 at 1:13 PM.
