New Dolphins’ coach on position uncertainty. And new coordinator ‘super excited’ with Tua
A six-pack of Miami Dolphins notes on a Thursday:
▪ New tight ends coach Jon Embree spoke with both Mike Gesicki and Durham Smythe on Wednesday.
My impression is that he hopes it’s not his last conversation with both of them.
Both are impending unrestricted free agents, and Embree said “hopefully the guys are here” next season.
“One is in New Jersey, about to get married,” Embree said of Gesicki. “The other was golfing down in Austin, Texas. Both are doing well. Had great conversations with them. They’re both excited about what’s on the horizon. We’ll see if it’s here or wherever. We understand it’s a business. They seem like very nice guys.”
Is Embree under the impression that the team wants both players back? “You have to ask Chris Grier that,” Embree said of the team’s general manager, who hasn’t yet fielded media questions this offseason but traditionally speaks to reporters at the NFL Combine, which begins next week.
In the meantime, Embree said he will begin studying tape of both Gesicki and Smythe “because I don’t want to be like, ‘they’re re-signed’ and you don’t know anything about them. So what I’ve been doing is working through the college guys [heading into] the Combine.
“During the Combine, I’ll put some stuff on my iPad and look at the guys and start making my evaluations and see where I can help them and how they fit what they do in the scheme. Hopefully the guys are here. If they’re here, we’ll coach them. If they’re not, we’ll coach whoever is here.”
Gesicki was asked to pass block only 11 times all last season and run block 234 times, which was 34th most among tight ends.
While not speaking about Gesicki or anyone in particular, Embree said blocking is “important” for tight ends in this system. “Our system is based off of outside zone, so get on the edge, get the corner so to speak. It starts with the tight end. [Tight end blocking] is an integral part of our offense.”
FYI: Before last year’s draft, Embree studied tight end Hunter Long, the Dolphins’ third-round pick last April, “a little bit, not in great detail. I knew we weren’t really going to get [a tight end in the draft with the 49ers]. It was his rookie year so I’m not going to judge him harshly about what he did.”
▪ Embree — who played three seasons for the Rams (1987-88) and Seahawks (1989) before sustaining a career-ending injury — has coached 13 seasons in the NFL, including the past five overseeing the 49ers’ tight ends, where he worked with McDaniel.
Asked which of McDaniel’s characteristics give him confidence that he’s ready for his first head coaching job, Embree said: “There are a lot of things. The first thing is what he’s done with the run game and all the different processes that he’s had to go through to get here. First time, second time head coach, none of that stuff matters.
“Good organization, you have good players, you’re going to be a good coach. You look at Matt LaFleur, who went to Green Bay. He was a first-time head coach. How did that turn out? Pretty good. Mike has done a great job. You look at everywhere he’s been, he’s had success. He’s learned and he’s learned the right way, by failing, by trying and by knowing what works and what doesn’t work.
“He does a good job of relating to players. You talk to the players he has helped throughout his career, especially back in San Francisco, they give him a glowing recommendation. He’s earned this opportunity.”
▪ New offensive coordinator Frank Smith — who was run game coordinator/offensive line coach for the Chargers last season after serving as Raiders tight ends coach the previous three — won’t call the plays; McDaniel will handle that responsibility.
So what does he envision his role being?
“Whatever Mike needs me to do, assisting with the overall position and implementation of the offense,” said Smith, who has never coached with McDaniel but has known him for several years. “You’re the conduit for the staff, understanding what we want to execute in this offense.
“[Quarterbacks coach] Darrell [Bevell] has been calling plays for 15 years. Embree and Wes [Welker] have been with Mike in San Fran. [Running backs coach Eric Studesville] has been in a similar system in Denver. I’ve been in similar situation in Chicago. All of us together assisting and coming together with what’s best for the players we’re able to acquire this offseason and draft and help the guys that were here master what they do well.”
▪ Smith, incidentally, said he’s “super excited” to work with Tua Tagovailoa.
“Coming in, I can say I didn’t know a whole lot [about Tagovailoa’s game],” Smith said. “As I’ve been here and you’re studying him as a player, super excited. Extremely accurate passer. His patience with things and what we’re going to be able to do is going to be really, really cool.
“More and more tape, you get more and more excited. This is going to be really, really cool to have him as quarterback for us.”
▪ Quick hits from new cornerbacks coach Sam Madison, who spent the past three seasons coaching cornerbacks for Kansas City after an illustrious career with the Dolphins from 1997 to 2005:
Madison said during the decade that he spent as a team announcer on the “Finsiders,” he had eight coaching internships, including one with the Dolphins, learning the craft of coaching during OTA sessions and the first few weeks of training camp with several teams.
“I was doing work when people weren’t looking,” Madison said of learning to become a coach. “Coaching youth football, coaching high school, coaching 7-on-7. Doing the Shrine Bowl. I’ve been all over the place. I love coaching, I love teaching, giving the knowledge I have and communicate it to our players.”....
He said he’s not a yeller but already told some of his defensive backs that “I’m going to push you, I’m going to challenge you and they’re up for it. That’s what they brought me here for, to get our guys better.”....
He said of Noah Igbinoghene, who has played just 78 defensive snaps last season after logging 287 as a rookie: “He’s got a clean slate. Whoever they bring in and give me, I have to get those guys to be their best within the scheme of the defense that Josh [Boyer] is going to call. It’s not my first rodeo.”
▪ Two more mock drafts were released this week, and NFL Network lead draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah has Miami taking Tulsa offensive tackle Tyler Smith at No. 29.
“Smith is a mauler with outstanding quickness and agility,” Jeremiah said. “He needs to clean up the penalties (16 last season), but I love his upside and temperament.”
Jeremiah has three other appealing options for Miami going a bit earlier: Georgia middle linebacker Nakobe Dean 24th, Arkansas receiver Treylon Burks 25th and Alabama receiver Jameson Williams 27th.
Pro Football Focus has Miami taking Central Michigan offensive tackle Bernhard Raimann at No. 29, one spot after Georgia’s Dean comes off the board.
PFF sizes up Raimann this way: “One of the biggest risers following the 2021 college football season, the 6-foot-7, 305-pound Raimann earned a 94.6 overall grade, 88.7 pass-blocking grade and 94.6 run-blocking grade with Central Michigan this year. He didn’t earn a PFF grade above 75.1 in any season prior. Expect his 2021 campaign and a strong Senior Bowl to vault him into the first round.”
PFF then has the Dolphins selecting Cincinnati edge player Myjai Sanders in the second round. He had 6.5, 10.5 and 7.5 sacks in 34 games over the past three seasons.
These mock drafts are all over the map. ESPN’s Todd McShay has Northern Iowa offensive tackle Trevor Penning going 29th to the Dolphins; Jeremiah has him going sixth overall to Carolina. PFF has him going 31st.
Here’s my piece on the incumbent coaches retained from Brian Flores’ staff and their comments on Wednesday.
Here’s my piece on what quarterback coach Darrell Bevell had to say about Tua Tagovailoa.
Here’s my piece on new offensive line coach Matt Applebaum’s plan.
This story was originally published February 24, 2022 at 5:34 PM.
