The Miami Dolphins are installing their second consecutive offensive playbook in as many seasons under the watch of Brian Flores. And, as is to be expected when you turn in your old playbook in favor of a new one, there are some growing pains throughout the course of Miami’s first few padded practices of the season. New offensive coordinator Chan Gailey met with the South Florida media yesterday and was asked specifically about the communication of his offense — and Gailey was pretty frank.
“It’s been good. It hasn’t been perfect. We still have some people not used to hearing the play call the way we do it. You have to listen in sequence,” said Gailey.
“Linemen hear one thing, the next call in the huddle means something to somebody else, the next call means something to somebody else; so you have to listen to sequence and make sure you’re listening to your thing that you need to pay attention to. We’ve had more mistakes than we would have liked, but they’re getting the hang of it.”
This is a pretty standard approach to play calling and not an abnormal mental hurdle for young players to have to clear. Football is a world where “Deuce RT Jam Scat RT 525 H Short Post” (not necessarily a Dolphins’ specific example — this example comes from a Mike Martz playbook) is a play call. Formation, motion, protection, route assignments and a special primary route are all relayed in that individual call — but as Gailey says, you have to know what part you’re listening for.
But communication isn’t the only issue Miami has had over the first few days of practice.
“If (communication) was our biggest problem, I would be feeling really, really good right now,” said Gailey.
“That’ll be one of the easier things to solve between now and game day than some of the other things that are going on and your next question will be, ‘well, what are those issues?’ And I’m not going to answer that, okay?”
Gailey keeps his press conferences light-hearted — his preemptive shutdown of what else ails the Dolphins’ offense in these early portions of the install got a laugh. But Gailey will have to keep plugging away, as a bad start to the season for the Dolphins’ offense will be no laughing matter for anyone.