Tag: Chan Gailey

Where do the 2020 Miami Dolphins rank in spacing the field?

Where do the 2020 Miami Dolphins rank in spacing the field?

When the Miami Dolphins made the decision to transition from offensive coordinator Chad O’Shea this offseason and move in a different direction, the move caused a lot of speculation about what Miami’s future on offense would look like. The hiring of Chan Gailey was announced as O’Shea’s replacement seemed to have provided a clue of not just what direction Miami was going to go with their quarterback of the future but also the structure of the offense. The expectation was Miami would space the field horizontally, make reads elementary and find quick outlets to throw the football.

Reality has matched that expectation thus far. According to Next Gen Stats, no team spaces the field more than the Miami Dolphins in 2020, with their average width of formations checking in at over 30 yards — far and away the biggest average in the league.

What does this mean with the Dolphins’ quarterback change looming? Theoretically, spacing the field like this will make it easier to identify pressure situations because teams will have to cheat in to close the distance when blitzing or conversely run the risk of not getting home to the quarterback and leaving receivers uncovered. That’s a good proposition for a rookie quarterback — and it is further aided by the expectation that the team is going to begin to implement more RPO concepts with Tagovailoa now at the helm of the offense.

Running RPOs was one of Tagovailoa’s best traits leaving Alabama and the nice thing about them is that on any given play, the quarterback should have answers to what the defense is playing — because the whole point of the play design is to leverage a single defender and make them wrong based on where they flow. With a wide open offense and some new wrinkles — Miami’s plan for Tagovailoa is clear: space the field and take advantage of how teams try to combat getting stretched so thin within 10-yards of the line of scrimmage.

Dolphins OC Chan Gailey hoping for improved communication

Dolphins OC Chan Gailey hoping for improved communication

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.

Another year, another offense for Dolphins TE Mike Gesicki

Another year, another offense for Dolphins TE Mike Gesicki

John Donovan. Joe Moorhead. Dowell Loggains. Chad O’Shea. Chan Gailey. Who are these men? These are the offensive coordinators for Miami Dolphins tight end Mike Gesicki since 2014 — five different coordinators in seven seasons of play between the college and professional ranks. That’s no small number. Continuity among coaching staffs is always easier in theory than it is in application, mainly because the football world will be quick to find coaching candidates and offer a promotion at the first sign of success. Or, in the case of Gesicki’s NFL experience, the tolerance for shortcomings isn’t overly abundant.

They don’t call it the NFL the “Not For Long” for nothing, after all. Gesicki has seen it first hand — Loggains was flushed out along with former coach Adam Gase after the 2018 season, whereas O’Shea was dismissed at the end of the 2019 season for what we’ve since learned was rooted in concerns about the complexity of his offense.

Chan Gailey will be Gesicki and the Dolphins’ third offensive coordinator in as many seasons — but a valuable lesson Gesicki has already learned in his football career is that the concepts are more important the play caller.

“It’s just something new again this year; but at the end of the day, it’s just football, so you’ve just got to come out, know your role, know your assignment and go out and execute to the best of your ability,” said Gesicki when asked about how he’s applying lessons from the past to another year with a new coordinator.

“That’s really all that you can do no matter who’s calling the plays or what the plays are called or all of that kind of stuff.”

Indeed. You’ll often hear players discuss that once you master the concepts and route combinations at the NFL level, the rest of the puzzle pieces are easier to fall into place. Some playbooks use phrasing of coded words, others use a digit system. But mesh is mesh, smash is smash and dagger is dagger. And the little nuances may change from system to system. But ultimately, Gesicki said it best.

“It’s just football.”

Dolphins OC Chan Gailey explains how his offense lets WRs thrive

Dolphins OC Chan Gailey explains how his offense lets WRs thrive

Miami Dolphins offensive coordinator Chan Gailey has been at this for quite a while, now. Gailey has been coaching long enough to say he served as John Elway’s quarterbacks coach in the late 1980s — and here he is all these years later stepping back into a coaching role with the Miami Dolphins as a play caller. Gailey’s short-lived retirement may have recharged his batteries, but Gailey’s offense will retain a critical component with Miami in 2020 — it is going to continue to allow his players the chance to execute while simultaneously giving them the freedom to do it with their own style.

What exactly does that mean? Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick has plenty of experience playing for Gailey — and he offered some context regarding route freedom during a recent press call.

“Stevie Johnson in Buffalo was a guy that didn’t really play a whole lot and as soon as he got with Chan and Chan gave him the freedom to be creative on some of his routes and do some things that were a little unorthodox, it really catapulted his career,” said Fitzpatrick.

“So players love playing for him because he gives them freedom – a certain amount of freedom, not a whole lot.”

Gailey was asked on his press call yesterday to expand on that route freedom his offense provides — and why his offense allows receivers to be creative in the first place.

“The great receivers I’ve been fortunate to be around through my years – and I’ve been doing this for 40-something years now – they’re artists,” Gailey explained.

“They run a route and they never paint the same picture twice because of the way the defender is, because of the route they’re running, because of whatever it might – the coverage – they paint a different picture every time and if you take an artist who knows how to get open and who knows what he’s doing versus a defender and you try to fit him into a box, that’s where you make the guy less of a player than he really is. I want guys to be able to go out and be creative. I tell them, ‘you’ve got to be where you’re supposed to be when you’re supposed to be there, but how you get there – that’s up to you.’ So we give them the freedom to go get open and then we think we have talented enough quarterbacks that can see that and get them the football.”

The appeal to this style of play is that is allows receivers to do what is natural to them. By knowing the timing and knowing their objective, there can be less thinking involved and players can become more instinctive in how they attack defenders. And for the quarterback, timing should be uninterrupted because he’s working to a spot on the field to attack with the ball — not waiting for his receiver to hit a certain step or break off of his route stem.

How quickly the Dolphins will be able to create the chemistry between passer and receiver to allow this all to work without hiccups? That’s the magic question — and the variable that may end up determining the Dolphins’ early-season success in 2020.

Dolphins’ Chan Gailey speaks on return to sideline after retirement

Dolphins’ Chan Gailey speaks on return to sideline after retirement

The Miami Dolphins’ offensive coordinator change this offseason came a little out of no where. The Dolphins were able to build momentum on offense with veteran passer Ryan Fitzpatrick at the helm, but in the aftermath of former coordinator Chad O’Shea’s dismissal we’ve since learned that his teaching style didn’t necessarily go over well and connect with Miami’s young players. And in O’Shea’s place, the Dolphins went off the grid, pulling veteran coach Chan Gailey out of retirement to serve as Miami’s offensive play caller.

And, for the first time since taking the job in January, Gailey spoke with the South Florida media this afternoon. When asked about his return to coaching and why he felt compelled to take the job, Gailey referenced a renewed sense of excitement to a return to the sideline.

“Right at the end of the season, (Coach Flores) called and I was kind of taken aback a little bit; but then we talked about it as a family and we just – I had no idea,” said Gailey.

“I didn’t think so, but we just felt like we were being led to do this and so it was something we felt very strong and very excited and very comfortable with.”

With Gailey being away from the game, there has been some speculation about what Miami’s offense is going to look like. The anticipation from many is that we’ll see the Dolphins adopt plenty of ’11 personnel’ and try to space the field while drawing on Gailey’s college coaching experience to introduce run-pass option concepts to go along with a physical rushing attack. Gailey didn’t necessarily get into the meat and potatoes of his offense today, but he did shed some light on what he wants to accomplish as an offense.

“There’s two things. One thing, we try to stay balanced. I want to be a balanced offense. I want us to be able to run the football and throw the football effectively. That’s really big in the way I see offensive football,” said Gailey.

“And then the next thing is, to me, you adapt to the players that you have. You have to adjust your schemes and see who you have and that sometimes is even on a week-by-week basis and this year, that may be more important than ever, is to have a system in place that you can adjust to make the players that you have be successful. That’s what I’ve always tried to be about, is putting them in position to be successful.”

If Miami is going to adjust to their personnel, look for plenty of targets to DeVante Parker, Mike Gesicki and a healthy Preston Williams. One thing Gailey has always been good at is feeding his best players the ball. Whether it is Ryan Fitzpatrick or Tua Tagovailoa that is dispersing the football is still yet to be determined. But at the very least, we should expect Gailey to be playing with his best quarterback room in the last decade — which should help his offense accomplish their top priority: staying balanced.

What is an “average” season of passing under Dolphins OC Chan Gailey?

What is an “average” season of passing under Dolphins OC Chan Gailey?

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.

What do Ryan Fitzpatrick’s sack numbers indicate for Dolphins 2020 OL?

What do Ryan Fitzpatrick’s sack numbers indicate for Dolphins 2020 OL?

Miami Dolphins quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick was sacked a lot in 2019. 40 times, to be exact. The wily old veteran was taken down on nearly seven and a half percent of his drop-backs last season — a career high for Fitzpatrick over his 15-year (and counting) NFL career. The long-time journeyman hasn’t often led the NFL in passing categories over that stretch, which is exactly what you’d expect from a journeyman quarterback. But of the few times he’s led the league in more advanced statistics, the numbers are pretty telling for what the Miami Dolphins fans should expect for 2020.

No, we aren’t talking about his NFL-leading 23 interceptions with the Buffalo Bills in 2011.

We’re talking about his NFL best 3.3% sack rate back in 2015 with the New York Jets. That year saw Fitzpatrick sacked 19 times of 562 pass attempts — and is one of just a slew of examples of Fitzpatrick’s play under Chan Gailey mitigating offensive line issues. Fitzpatrick has played five seasons under new Miami Dolphins offensive coordinator Chan Gailey.

  • 2010-2012 with the Buffalo Bills
  • 2015-2016 with the New York Jets

And over those five seasons combined, Fitzpatrick was sacked a total of 114 times — for an average of 22.8 sacks per season under Chan Gailey. The highest sack total Fitzpatrick took under Gailey as his playcaller was 30 times in 2012. In both 2015 & 2016 with the Jets, Fitzpatrick was only sacked 19 times each season.

How?

The style of the offense enables a quick trigger throwing the football. And Fitzpatrick was already one of the NFL’s fastest triggers in 2019 to begin with — his 2.61 seconds from snap to release on average last season was only bested by Andy Dalton and Drew Brees.

So take low sack numbers over Fitzpatrick’s 5-year sample size of working with Chan Gailey, add on a drastic shift in offensive philosophy for Miami from 2019 to 2020 and a drastically improved offensive line and what do you get?

Hopefully a lot less plays with the quarterback on the ground this season.

Do the Dolphins have a long-term plan for offensive coordinator?

Do the Dolphins have a long-term plan for offensive coordinator?

The best leaders in all phases of life, including sports, know when and how to delegate responsibilities to those beneath them. That has been something Brian Flores has shown already to be competent in — even after just one year. And, ultimately, if and when Brian Flores reviews the process of those beneath him in the chain of command, he better like what he sees.

The end result if he doesn’t is swift. Just ask former offensive line coach Pat Flaherty, who was fired last summer just one week into training camp as his unit bombed when the team hit the field for practice. Just ask former offensive coordinator Chad O’Shea, whose offense struggled to find life at all in the first half of 2019 before being kickstarted by a herculean effort by veteran quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick.

The feedback from players on O’Shea’s performance as the team’s coach was that the first-time offensive coordinator was too complex with his teachings for such a young, inexperienced team. And ultimately, despite O’Shea himself reportedly griping to Flores that the players simply didn’t know the playbook, Flores saw the root of the issue at hand and made a change at the end of the season.

That change brought in a new presence at offensive coordinator — the surprising hire of veteran coach Chan Gailey to the staff. And while everyone was caught off guard by the hire, we now see some direction for the team and why the decision to hire Gailey makes some sense.

Gailey has experience in college and pro scouting and his style has typically been one of spreading the field and playing physical football — a simpler approach than Chad O’Shea’s Patriots-themed attack. And, in Chan Gailey, Brian Flores gets his experienced offensive mind — something he aimed to get in 2019 with the hiring of quarterbacks coach Jim Caldwell, only to see Caldwell take a leave of absence due to health issues.

Once Gailey entered the picture, Caldwell was out.

A veteran offensive mind makes sense for a delegator like Brian Flores, whose experiences run deep in coaching but ultimately favor the defensive side of the football. By getting a coach who has “seen it all” like Gailey, Flores can trust that his delegated tasks will be executed at a higher level than what we saw under O’Shea in 2019.

The only question is “how long can Gailey keep at it?” The man was a graduate assistant for the Florida Gators the same year the Dolphins last won a Super Bowl (early in 1974). At 68-years of age, Gailey isn’t exactly a coach with a long-term outlook that will inspire continuity. Do the Dolphins have a plan to account for that?

Probably not — other than knowing and embracing what their team identity is going to look like on offense. By knowing who they are, the team can stay rooted and committed to that mold — and coaches will make themselves apparent to the Dolphins as logical fits when the time comes. That’s the whole point of the culture Brian Flores is instilling in South Florida — everyone has a role to play. And if everyone does their job, key cogs can be swapped out and the progress can continue.

Flores has put more emphasis on coaching style than coaching strategy, to date. He’s taken younger, less proven position coaches and he hasn’t been afraid to state that the way a coach teaches and communicates is one of the biggest things the Dolphins need. If they’re on the same page there, this collection of coaches can get on the same page about what message or coaching strategy is required on any given week.

So in short, the Dolphins probably don’t have a long-term succession plan for Chan Gailey at this point. But so long as Flores is at the helm and steering the identity of the team, they’ll be well positioned to figure it out when the time comes.

Report: Coaching issues prompted Dolphins offensive coordinator swap

Report: Coaching issues prompted Dolphins offensive coordinator swap

The Miami Dolphins closed the 2019 season on a 5-4 run — a stunning turnaround that saw the team generate plenty of momentum for the offseason. The Dolphins’ woeful play on both sides of the ball seemed to take well to Miami’s coaching staff and prompted buy-in from many of the team’s players, most of which will serve was the foundation of the roster in year two of the Brian Flores era in South Florida.

But that momentum quickly led to turnover despite Miami’s underwhelming 5-11 overall record, starting first and foremost with the dismissal of offensive coordinator Chad O’Shea, who came to Miami alongside Flores after spending time with the Patriots as the team’s wide receivers coach. The decision to relieve O’Shea was a stunner and generally seemed out of left field — although once Miami’s plan of attack this offseason became apparent it was easy to tell the Dolphins were looking for an identity change on offense as they begin to transition to a new quarterback of the future.

Now, thanks to Adam Beasley, Armando Salguero and Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald, we know more about the decision to relieve O’Shea. The change was rooted primarily in O’Shea’s refusal to water down his offense to make it more easy to digest for a young, inexperienced football team.

“The Patriots offense is considered complex, but a player said O’Shea made the situation worse by trying to install especially complicated, advanced elements of the Patriots offense that Tom Brady and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels used,” wrote the Miami Herald’s trio.

“O’Shea would go to Flores and say a player didn’t know the playbook, but some of the players felt O’Shea wasn’t doing a good job teaching it.”
The Dolphins’ offensive performance did improve throughout the second half of the season — but that apparently wasn’t enough to convince Brian Flores that Chad O’Shea’s complex, nuanced and layered offense was the right fit to carry the Dolphins’ offense into a new era led by a new quarterback. The end result will have some interesting domino effects on personnel — but the change being made as early as it was did allow the Dolphins the chance to attack their offseason with a singular vision in mind. Getting all of that personnel aligned with talent to ensure every piece of the puzzle is as good of a fit as possible is critical for the long-term view — so while Flores surprised everyone by cutting O’Shea go, it was a “now or never” proposition in terms of efficiency in assembling personnel.

Terrell Owens wanted to stick around with the Bills for another season

Hall of Fame wide receiver Terrell Owens taking his talents to the Buffalo Bills is almost still something that’s hard to believe really happened. 

Hall of Fame wide receiver Terrell Owens taking his talents to the Buffalo Bills is almost still something that’s hard to believe really happened.

The 2009 season for the Bills with Owens wasn’t good one. Then-starting quarterback Trent Edwards saw his career fizzle out early that year, which famously included his 185-game streak with at least a single catch in a game coming to an end.

Owens never really caused a scene off the field in Buffalo, something he was known for doing prior to joining the Bills, but clearly there were reasons to be frustrated. But apparently that’s nothing a little Fitz Magic can’t fix.

Owens reflected on his one season in Buffalo with The Athletic this week and like he has many times, praised the heck out of him former home for one season, but added to it. Owens admitted he wanted to stay another year with the Bills.

“Honestly, I wish I could have played another year or two (in Buffalo),” Owens said. “If you look at my stats, they weren’t particularly good in the beginning of the season, but once I got with Ryan Fitzpatrick it was like ‘Fitz Magic.'”

“I’ve spoken very highly of Ryan. People ask me who is your favorite quarterback and people think I’m saying it was a joke but I’m like, ‘Yo, Ryan is one of the better quarterbacks that I played with.’ I say that honestly because of how smart he is. Maybe it has something to do with that Harvard education,” Owens added.

With Fitzpatrick under center, Owens had four of his five touchdowns that season, plus a 197-yard outing. However, staying didn’t happen.

Owens played one more season with the Bengals in 2010 to finish his career. In the piece, former Bills general manager Buddy Nix admits he wasn’t on board to sign Owens in the first place. After the 2009 season, Nix was promoted to that GM position and decided the Bills were one and done in Buffalo. Nix said Owens “wasn’t happy about it” at the time. The Hall of Famer also said former head coach Chan Gailey, who was with the Cowboys, Owens’s former team as well, might have had something to do with it.

T.O.’s ties in Buffalo might’ve been brief, but they’re strong as he’s said on numerous occasions. He revealed the team might have him come back and “lead the charge” pre-game some time in the future. And in a classic Owens way, he still thinks he could help them now. Unfortunately, that’s an answer we’ll never find out.

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