Dolphins coordinators address Fuller return and a policy again Miami tormentor Josh Allen
A 10-pack of Miami Dolphins notes on a Tuesday:
▪ Perhaps no team is getting back a more talented player in Week 2 that the Dolphins with wide receiver Will Fuller.
Fuller — who missed Miami’s opener while serving the final game of an NFL suspension for violating the league’s performance-enhancing substance policy — is the only NFL receiver with at least 20 touchdowns while being targeted less than 250 times during the past four seasons. For his career, Fuller has 24 career TDs on 343 targets covering 53 games, which is exceptional.
“Will has been a high performer in his career,” co-offensive coordinator George Godsey said Tuesday. “We’re excited to get him back. He’s excited. He’s been itching a bit to get back. He had a little setback with injury [during training camp but] now he’s back out there. It will be good to see him out in practice and fit him in. We’ve got a lot of weapons. Getting open vs. certain matchups, his catch and run [ability] will be a factor with his speed.”
Last season, on passes thrown at least 20 yards in the air (from Deshaun Watson), Fuller caught 8 of 15 for 314 yards and four touchdowns, with no drops.
Fuller’s 16.5 yards per catch last season was sixth highest in the NFL and second most for any player who caught at least 50 passes, behind only Carolina’s David Moore.
Entering this season, Fuller’s 14.9 yards-per-catch average ranked 10th among active players.
▪ Bills quarterback Josh Allen, whose team visits Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday, has tormented Miami in his career, He’s 5-1 with 17 TDs and four interceptions and a 114.3 passer rating against the Dolphins.
What’s more, he has rushed for 340 yards in the six games against Miami on 35 rushes, which converts to a 9.7 average. That yardage total and per carry average are his high marks against any team.
Without giving away the game plan, defensive coordinator Josh Boyer made one thing very clear on Tuesday:
“We’ve got to play good assignment football. Guys assigned to play the pass need to play the pass. Guys assigned to play the run or quarterback scramble need to play that.
“He does a good job extending plays. It’s very challenging. [Bills offensive coordinator] Brian Daboll puts them in very good schemes to make that difficult to defend.”
Last season, Allen threw for 415 yards (146.7 passer rating) and four touchdowns in a 31-28 victory at Miami in Week 2, then threw for 223 yards and three TDs in a half of work in a season-ending 56-26 shellacking of Miami.
“Josh plays the quarterback position as good as anybody,” Boyer said. “He can make all the throws. You don’t want to sit in the same thing over and over again [defensively]. That would make it easy for him.”
What about using a QB spy on him? “There’s a time and place for everything,” Boyer said.
▪ Boyer said he has watched Buffalo’s regular-season ending annihilation of the Dolphins — a result that kept Miami out of the playoffs — several times.
“You like to study players, schemes call,” he said. “It’s definitely something we look at.”
What’s one thing he wishes he could change from that game, aside from the result?
“If I could change one thing, I hope I’m going to work a little harder, a little better, put the guys in better positions. Try to put together a sound game plan that the players can execute.”
▪ ESPN’s Mike Greenberg and the producers of “First Take” seem obsessed with Tua Tagovailoa. At least eight times in recent weeks, the program has presented a tiresome discussion regarding how much pressure Tagovailoa faces this season.
Though Greenberg typically doesn’t bash Tagovailoa, there’s more criticism of Tagovailoa on that show than any other on the network.
ESPN analyst and former Steelers safety Ryan Clark said not only was New England’s Mac Jones “the best QB on the field between him and Tua Tagovailoa, that was also not close!”
I would disagree; Tagovailoa led his team to two touchdowns and a victory, Jones only one in a loss. Jones had the better stats and made one less glaring mistake, but the gap between the two was hardly seismic.
▪ Though Dolphins rookie Jaelan Phillips had a nondescript debut (one pressure in 20 pass rush chances), Patriots coach Bill Belichick offered high praise before the game on his television show: “Explosive, probably one of the top test athletes honestly that I’ve ever evaluated. His numbers, size, athletic skills go up against anybody in any era.”
Asked Tuesday why the Dolphins didn’t have Phillips focus primarily on pass rushing in training camp instead of having him working in pass coverage, Boyer said: “With all players you expose to a variety of different things and ideally utilize their talents to what they do best within the scheme and structure of what we’re trying to do in a game plan. Jaelan did some good things [Sunday]. Like all of us, some things [he] can improve.”
▪ The Dolphins have had a takeaway in 23 consecutive games; the last time an NFL team had a takeaway streak this long was New England, which had a 36-game streak from Oct. 16, 2011 to Nov. 3, 2013.
The Dolphins forced four fumbles on Sunday and recovered two. Boyer said they begin every practice with a drill designed to strip the ball or create turnovers.
“Throughout training camp, we preach ‘Attack the ball!’” safety Eric Rowe said.
▪ Jaylen Waddle’s 63 receiving yards on Sunday were the most ever by a Dolphins receiver in his first game. Among players at all positions in Dolphins history, only fullback Stanley Pritchett (77) and tight end Randy McMichael (73) had more receiving yards in their first game.
“Really liked the way the Dolphins used Waddle,” ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky tweeted. “Lots of motions into bunches or stacks to help at the line of scrimmage. Used in quick/RPO game… More and more touches in the future.”
▪ The Dolphins had success with the up-tempo offense early in Sunday’s win at New England. But Miami intentionally used less of it after the Dolphins had multiple three-and-outs, and as New England built a large edge in time of possession.
“Three and outs [are things] we talk to the group about eliminating,” Godsey said. “There are self inflicting plays and some things we have to do, from a coaching staff, to get them in better position. More opportunities we have on normal [first and second] downs, the more opportunities we have to use or not use the [fast] tempo.”
▪ Among development that pleased Godsey about Sunday:
“From an operations standpoint, it was pretty clean from our perspective. We’re playing on the road. That environment is not an easy environment. We saw some teams in the first week where maybe it wasn’t clean with delay of game penalties,... having to call time out. Tua did a good job of getting us out of the huddle to the line of scrimmage.
“We’ve got to eliminate the turnover [the Tagovailoa interception]. We know we can do some better things in the run game and pass game. We need to be correcting the mistakes now and make sure by Sunday those fires have been put out.”
▪ Defensive tackle John Jenkins, who played 45 defensive snaps on Sunday, will need to carry a bigger load again on Sunday if Raekwon Davis (knee) isn’t able to play.
“John did a good job, solid veteran, thought he played physical,” Boyer said. “There were some good things and some things we can get a little better at.”
This story was originally published September 14, 2021 at 11:31 AM.
