Miami Dolphins offensive coordinator Chan Gailey has been around the block a few times before. The 2020 season will mark the tenth season Gailey has held the title of offensive coordinator — and when you add on five years of serving as the head coach in Dallas (1998-1999) and Buffalo (2010-2012), it is clear Gailey has seen just about everything there is to see in the NFL game.
His first year as an offensive coordinator? That would be 1989, when he helped coach the Denver Broncos and QB John Elway to an AFC Championship before losing to Bill Walsh’s 49ers in the Super Bowl.
The game has changed a lot since then — as so has Gailey. So as Dolphins fans ponder what to expect from their new play caller, it is important to remember that the evolution of the game makes some of Gailey’s experiences moot. In order to decode what “average” looks like under Gailey, a proverbial line in the sand has to be drawn somewhere.
We draw it at 2008. Gailey was the Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator that year — and it was close enough to the modern rules that the statistics can be considered measurable. His most recent stop ahead of that was with the Dolphins in 2000 and 2001; providing a clear gap in his career and a natural starting point for adding up passing totals.
So, Dolphins fans, you want to know what we should expect from Gailey’s passing offense in 2020? Understand that the personnel here in Miami is unique and no two teams are equal. But here are the average passing numbers per season for Gailey’s offenses since 2008.
Years: 2008 (Kansas City), 2010-2012 (Buffalo), 2015-2016 (New York Jets)
Average Passing Yards: 3,638 yards
Average Passing Touchdowns: 23.7 touchdowns
Average Interceptions: 19 interceptions
Average Sacks: 30.2 sacks
In all, these average stats aren’t too dissimilar to what the Dolphins saw from QB Ryan Fitzpatrick in 2019. There are fewer sacks and more turnovers — but those figures are also boosted by the presence of quarterbacks such as Bryce Petty, Damon Huard and Brodie Coyle collecting starts between 2008 and 2016.
For the Dolphins, having Fitzpatrick potentially be the backup quarterback by the end of the season will mark the best quarterback situation Gailey has had since 2008 — and hopefully brings above average results versus what his passing offenses have fielded to this point in recent memory.