The Dolphins need to clean up offensive issues ahead of divisional matchup against Patriots

You don’t have to be an expert to know that something is wrong with the Miami Dolphins offense.

Just think back to the gut-wrenching sequence late in the fourth quarter of Monday’s Tennessee Titans team. Down 22-6 with roughly 10 minutes to play, the Dolphins’ offense committed three illegal shift penalties. The infractions didn’t ultimately end up killing the drive — Tyler Huntley later scored the Fins’ first touchdown since Week 2 — yet in an offense that relies so much on timing, it became very clear that something was off.

“We’ve got to stop shooting ourselves in the foot in those moments,” Dolphins offensive coordinator Frank Smith said Thursday morning, “and it doesn’t get any worse than that. So as we assess it and figure out how we’re going to get better, that’s a big area that we think that we can get better with just limiting those instances of where all of a sudden, we’re moving backwards.”

As the Dolphins prepare for Sunday’s AFC East divisional matchup against the 1-3 New England Patriots, it will take a more polished offense for the team to eek out a win. Huntley’s third week within the offense certainly helps, however, with injuries across the board, it’s worth wondering if the team itself has given up.

Spoiler alert: they haven’t.

“It’s the NFL — every game is going to be hard,” running back De’Von Achane said Friday afternoon. “You try to go out there and win every game but we got a few losses. We just got to go out and play. We’re always going to try to win. Just because we got a few losses that don’t mean we go out there and expect to lose.”

Part of the Dolphins’ offensive futility is linked to their run game. In 2023, Miami’s 135.8 rushing yards per game ranked sixth in the NFL. Now, the Dolphins occupy one of the 10 worst rushing offenses in the league with a per-game average of 97.8. The inability to run the ball has negatively affected other parts of the offense, according to coach Mike McDaniel.

“We haven’t been able to run the ball the way that we hoped,” McDaniel said Friday morning. “We haven’t been able to get everyone involved in the pass game the way we’ve hoped, and that’s kind of a residual of going on three games of more drives being under five plays than over five plays. Those short drives really take away your run game, they take away targets for a lot of players.”

The other thing that takes away targets? Presnap penalties. The Dolphins had more than their fair share of them against the Titans. No team used more presnap motions than Miami in 2023, according to ESPN. But as the offensive production has slowed early in 2024 season, the illegal shift or illegal motion penalties have begun to pile up. After not committing any in the first two games, the Dolphins offense committed two against the Seattle Seahawks and five against the Titans. It could be the changes at quarterback. It could be the receivers not being set in time. Or, as Smith said, it could be a combination of the two.

“It’s all of us really understanding what gave us success last year was in our ability to line up and move,” Smith said, “and this year, it’s just making sure that we understand to get what we’ve had, we have to make sure that we’re collectively understanding if we’ve got to get set and move.”

Added Smith: “And as you change quarterbacks, it’s like knowing the pace at which we operate. So I don’t think it’s just to say it’s one person. I think it’s collectively, and ultimately it starts with us as coaches, making sure that we’re teaching like ‘Hey, there’s one movement here to that; we’ve got to make sure we’re set.’”

Huntley, however, feels confident that another week in the offense will help eliminate those penalties.

“Just knowing exactly what your snap point is and actually repping them, you’ll feel way more comfortable,” Huntley said Wednesday, later adding “we just had to be set in certain areas while sending the motion, and we just had a couple people moving at the same time. We’ll get that cleaned up.”

The idea that anyone can run McDaniel’s offense has longsince been proven wrong. Dolphins fan who took quarterback Tua Tagovailoa for granted likely has had a change of heart. But having only scored four touchdowns in as many games is unacceptable for many reasons but especially because the Dolphins have the best player in the league, according to the NFL Top 100. The Dolphins obviously need to find a way to get Tyreek Hill the ball in space, something they haven’t been able to do since Week 1, but more than that, they need to just eliminate the mental errors.

“I’m not happy with the way anything has really been executed thus far,” McDaniel said. “I do think it’s equal parts across the board on offense from operation to execution of run and pass plays. They all have been emphasized, all things because we need improvement and the team is counting on it.”

Time will tell whether or not the Dolphins’ offensive issues will be solved. After the then-winless Titans blew them out by 19 points, McDaniel promised “significant changes.” The first test of those changes will arrive 1 p.m. Sunday against the Patriots.