Dolphins offense chasing history: How Tua Tagovailoa and Mike McDaniel are point men of Miami’s lethal attack

“Speed kills,” the past due Hall of Fame Raiders proprietor Al Davis famously stated. “You can’t teach speed. Everything else in the game can be taught, but speed is a gift from God.”  

If Davis was once round as of late to peer the rate, plus scheme aggregate brewing throughout the Miami Dolphins 2023 offense — between their explosive playmakers and head trainer Mike McDaniel’s playbook — he would have a smile from ear to ear. The Dolphins dropped 70 facets, tied for the second-most facets scored in a regular-season sport in NFL historical past in addition to essentially the most in a sport since Year 1 of the Super Bowl generation (1966), comfortably at the visiting Denver Broncos in a 70-20 Week 3 victory. Their 726 yards of overall offense produced had been the second-most in a sport all time (1951 Rams, 735).

Through 3 video games, the Dolphins have produced essentially the most yards (1,651) and the second-most facets (130) in NFL historical past to start out a season. Their 8.4 yards in step with play this season are essentially the most for any time thru their first 3 contests within the Super Bowl generation. Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning’s 2013 Denver Broncos cling the report for essentially the most facets scored in season with 606, and the 2023 Dolphins are on tempo for precisely that many facets throughout their ultimate 14 video games with their league-leading 43.3-points-per-game reasonable. That quantity does not simply stem from Sunday’s efficiency: they dropped 36 facets at the highway in a 36-34 Week 1 win over the Los Angeles Chargers. In overall, Miami is on tempo to spoil the 2013 report with a projected 736 this season.

The dynamic talents of All-Pro large receiver Tyreek Hill, large receiver Jaylen Waddle, operating again Raheem Mostert and rookie operating again De’Von Achane — plus quarterback Tua Tagovailoa’s skill to temporarily distribute the soccer round to all of them — are why the Dolphins are chargeable for the 5 quickest performs of the 2023 season, consistent with the NFL’s Next Gen Stats. Tagovailoa leads the NFL in fastest reasonable time to throw (2.28 seconds), yards in step with go strive (10.1), completions of 15 or extra air yards (16) and passing first downs (53).

Fastest ball-carrier speeds
2023 season

* According to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats

“This is the fastest group of individuals I’ve ever seen assembled,” All-Pro Kansas City Chiefs tight finish Travis Kelce, a teammate of Hill’s for 6 seasons in Kansas City, said Wednesday on his “New Heights” podcast. “They have a full-on track team right now.”

Achane, a third-round select (84th general) within the 2023 NFL Draft out of Texas A&M, totaled 203 dashing yards and two dashing touchdowns on 18 carries, plus two receiving touchdowns within the jaw-dropping dismantling of the Broncos to earn AFC Offensive Player of the Week. However, the offensive eruption in South Beach basically has to do with the continuity that includes McDaniel, Tagovailoa and Hill all of their moment season running in combination, plus McDaniel’s willingness to don’t have any finish to what number of other motions he can scheme as much as get his pace out in area. One of the issues Tagovailoa facets to being a lot progressed in 2023 is the conversation each he and McDaniel have with each and every different when relaying the play calls to the remainder of the offense. 

“We all know that 15 seconds cuts out for the quarterbacks and play-callers,” Tagovailoa said postgame Sunday. “In practice, we run plays and we try to get our personnel in. We call our personnel while I’m getting ready for Mike [McDaniel] to tell me what number it is, and we operate in that sense. It’s a little more challenging when you’re the head coach because Mike has to talk to guys, guys want to talk to him while he’s calling the plays for us, so it was also a challenge for him. But yeah, we try to see, all right, how much time do we have left of the period if we start out with eight minutes, like how much time do we have left? Two minutes and we finished our plays. That’s good operation from play-caller to the quarterback, quarterback to the huddle.”

McDaniel concurred after the historical win on Sunday, confirming he’s far more ok with the sport day operation of calling performs in his moment season as a head trainer. Prior to 2022, McDaniel spent 15 seasons as an assistant trainer, however he by no means referred to as performs whilst basically running beneath present San Francisco 49ers head trainer Kyle Shanahan. 

“A huge one,” McDaniel said postgame on Sunday when requested about how potency with getting play calls into Tagovailoa. “I speak a lot to the players about getting better, and I think last year was the first year that I had done a lot of stuff, and my expectation was to be what everyone deserved. But that being said, you know that there’s going to be things that you can get better at. Well, getting used to calling plays, I think there’s the tempo with which we operate and the speed with which my decisions are just very much enhanced from a season’s worth of reps. I think that’s very nice of Tua to say; don’t let us equate our growth to anything that has to do with me. My job is to set forth a standard, and I’d better be getting better at everything. That’s what the team needs and deserves.”

Ultimately, his gamers make the ones performs come to lifestyles at the box, and McDaniel’s heavy usage of movement — provide on 70.1% of the Dolphins performs (the second-highest fee within the NFL at the back of the Chiefs 70.6% fee in 2023) — places the electrifying pace of Miami’s playmakers into open area with the aide of his play designs. In McDaniel’s tenure operating the Dolphins because the get started of the 2022 season, no offense has integrated movement extra continuously into their offense as Miami’s 74.3% proportion because the get started of ultimate season — just about 10 proportion facets upper than the 49ers’ 66.7% fee. It’s a dangerous aggregate and person who places so much on Tagovailoa’s plate. 

“I could call plays fast as all get out, and they have to execute them,” McDaniel stated. “What Tua is doing is beyond the stat sheet because we’re doing a lot of movement. We’re moving a lot of pieces every snap. There’s a lot of timing involved with a lot of things that he’s doing, not just passing. All of that orchestration and the lack of pre-snap penalties, starts with the quarterback position, the immense amount of stuff that he has to learn and execute every week, and then it goes down to the entire offense. They’re fully committed to their techniques and fundamentals that we ask, and they’re starting to really gain that hunger of the continued growth, which is never at rest. It’s always there. We have to grow from this game, and we will continue to focus on that, which is the biggest reason why you’re seeing some extra — you’re just seeing some growth in our production from an offensive standpoint.”

That enlargement manifests itself in limitless mixtures of McDaniel hanging his rapid burners in movement. An instance from Sunday is the use of Mostert to attract the protection’s eyes into the backfield, faking a run to him and then bringing Achane over from being covered up as a large receiver to run the soccer again towards the aspect of the sphere the place Mostert was once in the beginning aligned. The outcome: a acquire of over 40 yards for Achane. 

“No, I mean, there’s multiple jet tempo motions,” McDaniel said Monday when requested if he has a suite quantity on what number of varieties of motions are found in his offense. “You’re kind of always problem-solving and sometimes those things are given birth by the nature of necessity or certain skill sets that individuals have or different things that affect the defense. I think there’s been motions that we utilized yesterday that were from this offseason, problem-solving for some things. But then there was a bunch that we’d employed last year and this year, the only difference is, we’re not having near the pre-snap penalties while we’re doing them. That’s just something that at first, it’s hard for a coach because it’s not clean when you first start doing stuff like that and moving all the time. But when it becomes your norm, guys kind of get uncomfortable now when there isn’t a motion on a play. They’re like, ‘where’s the rest of the play?’ But that takes a total commitment of everyone, including the offensive line, because you have to get used to the different types of snap counts that Tua uses to not only execute some of those motions, but then make sure that the defensive line can’t tee off on snap points, and then have variations of cadence on that, too. So everybody plays a part in it and it’s something that takes a village to execute.”  

Their 31 pre-snap/dead-ball consequences in 2022 ranked because the ninth-most within the NFL ultimate season. The Dolphins best have 5 such consequences in 2023, hanging them on tempo for an progressed quantity of 28 by means of the tip of the season. Another part that has led the Miami’s upward push is Tagovailoa permitting his dynamic guns do extra of the heavy lifting and taking extra completions on shallow crossers and beneath routes. His 478 passing yards after the catch lead the NFL this season. 

“Yeah, he’s learning every week, man,” McDaniel said postgame on Sunday when speaking about Tagovailoa being higher at taking beneath throws and now not simply searching the deep ball. “He is one of the — I’ve said it before on record; he’s like the most coachable, best learner that I’ve ever been around. Everything that happens, you guys — have you heard adversity is an opportunity? Yeah. Well, that’s how he looks at it. For instance, he thought he was short-changing how fast I was getting the plays in last week and wasn’t looking at his wristband fast enough, so he kept the tempo moving. Then you have to execute aggressively what the defense is giving up while they take something away. When safeties are super high and wide and deep, he learned from his interception from the Patriots game [in Week 2]. In that moment, he was trying to win the game and threw it up to Tyreek [Hill]and he had a checkdown to Raheem Mostert. I think it was on a very similar play — it wasn’t the same play, but a similar situation where he threw in the second half a checkdown to De’Von [Achane] that last week he would have thrown into tight coverage. That’s all you’re trying to do is a lot of people — it’s hard to get better continually because it’s exhausting, and you just want to feel like, man, I’ve arrived. That’s not him. That’s why we’ll continue to see a better version of him as he progresses.”

To be truthful to Tagovailoa, his reference to Hill is what lets in McDaniel’s offense to really open up for everybody else. Hill leads the league with 4 touchdowns this 12 months, together with his 54-yard bomb on Sunday. That landing additionally highlighted one thing the Dolphins offense does another way: play-action passing out of the shotgun. Their 20.7% play-action fee out of the gun beneath McDaniel leads the NFL in that span. Hill’s 144 catches and 2,122 receiving yards since changing into a Dolphin are each the second-most within the league at the back of best 2022 Offensive Player of the Year Justin Jefferson. 

As lengthy as Tagovailoa and Hill keep wholesome, McDaniel’s offense has the possible to proceed buzzing at a historical fee. In the 16 video games, the previous similar of a complete NFL steady season, that Tagovailoa and Hill have performed in combination, the Dolphins reasonable 6.9 yards in step with play. That would rank as one of the absolute best by means of an offense for a unmarried season in NFL historical past, forward of some Hall of Fame-caliber devices.

Notable offenses in NFL historical past

Perhaps essentially the most wild part of the Dolphins’ 70-point tsunami on Sunday was once their offense wasn’t even entire. Waddle, whose 18.1 yards in step with reception led the NFL in 2022, was once out with a concussion. Tagovailoa, plus Hill, plus Waddle of their moment season in McDaniel’s offense will indubitably result in many extra fireworks. 

“Yeah, I mean, we always have the next-guy mentality going, but when we do have Jaylen Waddle, it does present a lot more challenges for defenses,” Tagovailoa stated. “But needless to say, we’ve got our run game going. We had our deal with our pass game, our play-action game. I’m very proud of the guys and the way they came out.”