Good coaches are always proficient in putting their players in the best position to be successful. This has been the case in the National Football League since the beginning of time — whether it was Lambeau, Landry, Shula, Parcells, Belichick or anyone in between. All the best coaches know what their players are capable of and more often than not never ask them to do much more than that.
Based off what we’ve seen from Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores over the first 22 games of his NFL tenure, he appears to be a good coach. Nay, a really good coach. He’s been able to develop players, he’s shown a strong sense of organizational awareness, he’s got good player relations and now he’s beginning to see some of the fruits of his labor as the Dolphins currently sit at 3-3.
But yet despite all the evidence that Flores is indeed a good coach, there are plenty of questions as to why Miami is making the quarterback change that so many have been waiting for now. Just like so many people questioned why Flores was willing to let both his coordinators walk at the end of the 2019 season despite the momentum. And the truth is, Brian Flores knows more about the team that anyone else — because that’s his job. He sees it daily. And he is presumably quite good at his job.
So, how can Flores continue to be the good coach we think he is and ensure that Tagovailoa is put into the best position to have success? You can expect a very different offense with Tagovailoa at the helm. Miami has flashed a little bit of a staple concept we should expect under Tagovailoa: the RPO.
Miami hasn’t run them with consistency this season to this point, but then again the Dolphins weren’t overly impressive with their handful of reps in the first few weeks. The Dolphins will still break it out once or twice a game as a nice reminder that this package is still there in the playbook, quietly collecting dust. But now? This should be a core principle of the Dolphins’ offense moving forward. Because Tagovailoa, for all his merits, was as good at the RPO as he was at any other concept in college.
QB Tua Tagovailoa — Here’s what I anticipate in the MIA game plan.
• RPO + Play-Action
• Levels, Hi-Lo, Mesh
• Schemed overs/verts
• Zone runs with GaskinPass concepts that fit Tua’s traits as a thrower (rhythm + anticipation) @NFLMatchup #Dolphins pic.twitter.com/PGl2vL6a4a
— Matt Bowen (@MattBowen41) October 20, 2020
The appeal of morphing Miami’s offense from one point of emphasis to another with Tagovailoa now at the helm isn’t the same thing as breaking out an entirely new offense — and that is an important differentiation. Miami isn’t creating new plays from scratch this week, they’re simply focusing more time on a portion of Chan Gailey’s offense that hasn’t been a focal point until now because Fitzpatrick hasn’t been super proficient in limited looks. That’s hard to shame Fitzpatrick for, too — given that one anonymous NFL general manager told NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah in the spring that Tagovailoa was the best RPO quarterback prospect he’d ever seen.
So when the Dolphins return to the field to play the Rams, don’t expect to see Tagovailoa running the offense of the past six weeks. Expect to see Tagovailoa running the offense as it was meant to be all along — tailored to his strengths.
Because that’s what good coaches do.