For the 2021 Miami Dolphins, the running game consistency is going to be a big test of this regime’s ideologies. Because the Dolphins entered the offseason in desperate need of a better rushing attack and the team thinks they’ve found one — but not by making the moves you’d typically expect.
Dolphins fans everywhere were anticipating the team getting their running game fired up with extra firepower in the offensive backfield. The team’s actual plans? The Dolphins passed on drafting a running back five times in the top-100 selections. But Brian Flores is still confident that the Dolphins’ rushing attack will be much improved.
Why?
Because his team is much more dynamic on the outside with their skill group after the additions of Will Fuller and Jaylen Waddle.
“I think if you’ve got guys who can run on the perimeter, if you load the box, there’s more opportunity for one-on-one matchups and opportunities downfield. Defenses have to make that decision when you have those types of players on the field and again, if you don’t load the box and you play for those big plays, then there’s less people in the box and less people to block and I think it really becomes kind of a numbers math game,” said Flores during the post-draft press conference.
“If you get those guys blocked, there’s more space to run. So there’s a lot to this and as you guys know – you guys watch and have seen a lot of football and understand the game – so when you have guys on the perimeter and guys who demand some attention – that kind of attention – then there could be more space and there may not be. And if that’s the case, then we’ve got to take advantage of those matchups on the perimeter. It’s a chess game, as you all know, and obviously the run game and how you attack the run game, that’s part of it.”
And Flores is, of course, right. Opposing teams did not offer much in the way of respect to the Dolphins’ offense down the stretch last year — challenging the passing game to beat them over the top and rarely causing much noise when the Dolphins did take their shots. Fuller and Waddle figure to change that. And such successes will pull opposing defenses into two-high safety looks more often.
And that, if all goes to plan, will go a long way in helping Myles Gaskin, Malcolm Brown, Salvon Ahmed and Gerrid Doaks picking up chunks on the ground all year long.