How Mike McDaniel is mixing the 49er offense with Miami flair

The Miami Dolphins defeated the New England Patriots 20-7 on Sunday in head coach Mike McDaniel’s debut in South Beach. All eyes would be on the offense, as new receiver Tyreek Hill would combine with Jaylen Waddle and QB Tua Tagovailoa to create an offense that would hopefully lead the Dolphins into the playoffs.

Upon first return, I would say the offense looked smooth in the right places. They finished No. 13 in the NFL in EPA per play in Week 1, and had an overall success rate of 48.3%. However, I do think there was some meat left on the bone, per se, when it came to the offense on Sunday, but that’s what the film room is for. So let’s take a look at the good and bad from the Dolphins offense on Sunday.

Creative uses of motion and personnel to create advantages

We know that coming from San Francisco, McDaniel would bring some of the Shanahan flavors to the Dolphin offense. Much like anything that hits South Beach though, McDaniel has juiced the Shanahan offense up and added flavor, flavors that match the personnel that he has in Miami.

For example, in San Francisco Jimmy Garoppolo spent most of his time under center, 380 dropbacks of his were from gun last year, 22nd in the NFL per Sports Info Solutions. It was where he was comfortable as a QB. In the early returns from the Dolphins offense, Tua is going to spend a lot of time from the shotgun, because that’s where he’s comfortable as a QB. When the Dolphins went on scoring drives, they combined Tua’s quick release and point guard playing style to get the ball to their playmakers, namely Tyreek Hill, who saw 12 targets on Sunday.

Hill’s usage was also intriguing to me, as they put him in motion a lot just to create favorable matchups in the passing game. Hill’s speed is like nobody else in the NFL, and with that threat McDaniel is getting him the ball out of jet motions into stacks, like this early chunk completion:

The Dolphins motion Tyreek and end up getting he and Jaylen Waddle in a stack alignment when the ball is snapped. Hill reads the leverage of the DB who has to run across the formation and over another DB to get to Hill, who breaks off the route due to the leverage. Easy chunk play. Miami is going to hit a lot of explosives in the passing game if McDaniel can continue to use his personnel and motion to put the game on easy mode for Hill and Waddle.

McDaniel didn’t forget about his roots in San Francisco’s run game, however. The Dolphins used a lot of Shanahan’s outside zone concepts with some success, such as this outside zone toss, that the Shanahan tree calls 18 or 19 Zorro:

McDaniel ran this multiple times in Miami’s first game, but this one stands out because of the personnel. TE Durham Smythe goes goes into motion and blocks the inside of FB Alec Ingold’s block, instead of the other way around. Ingold was in for a lot of snaps in the first game, lined up flexed as an h back, in line as a tight end, or in the backfield as a fullback. McDaniel may not have Kyle Juszczyk at fullback, but Ingold is doing a lot of the same things.

Look at what the motion does to the second level of the Patriots defense. It bumps them out, creating favorable angles for the linemen to reach them and create a cutback lane for Chase Edmonds. McDaniel has a supercharged offense in Miami, and his usage of motion is helping the Dolphins offense create favorable opportunities for their skill player room, which is extremely fast.

The Bad: offensive line play and predictability on offense

I feel like these two go hand in hand, because a lot of the problems that the Dolphins faced on Sunday were because of the right side of the offensive line being poor, which made their offense predictable.

Remember what I said about Tua being more comfortable passing out of shotgun than under center? Yeah that was very clear on Sunday. Most of Tagovailoa’s straight dropbacks on Sunday were out of the shotgun, and he could get the ball out quickly. However, the interior of the offensive line was the problem for the Dolphins, lots of pressure came from over the guards. On this play, they just get beat up front, no blitz or simulated pressure, just New England’s guys were better.

Later in the game Miami would start leaving their backs and tight ends in the protection or adding chip help, which is something you can do, but you don’t want to continue to live in that world. Being able to get all your guys into the passing concept is key to an explosive offense, and if the offensive line can’t hold up on the interior, the Dolphins won’t be as explosive.

It would also help Miami’s offense a lot if they were able to run the ball out of shotgun. Because Tagovailoa is a more talented passer out of the gun, being able to show different looks and keep the defense guessing is key to keeping the Dolphins offense steady. On this run play, the Dolphins pull their left guard, and Durham Smythe goes to block the LB. Big problem though: nobody blocks Deatrich Wise Jr, the end on the play.

Overall, I think the Dolphins had a good offensive performance. You can see what McDaniel wants to do and how he’s mixing the San Francisco offense base with the personnel he has. You can see how Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle are going to be used as well. For Hill, it’s touching the ball however McDaniel wants to get it to him. Designed runs, screen passes, downfield targets. You have the queen on the chessboard. Waddle will do a little more of the traditional receiver stuff, but the gameplan is simple: get the ball in their hands and let them run.

However, there was some meat left on the bone with the offense, especially in the run game.

Miami runs the risk of being the 2022 version of the Bengals last year (and this year honestly) if the offensive line can’t execute and if they can’t vary up their passing game in standard dropback situations. Their success rate running the ball wasn’t as high as expected, and it was clear in high leverage situations (such as when they were backed up on their own 5) they were going to resort to the tempo, quick game passing out of the gun. If the goal is to help Tua, the best way to do that is take some responsibilities off of his plate, and Miami can do that by simply executing better in the run game and blocking better up front.

The offense can’t remain in the quick game and tempo base that the Dolphins ran last year. Part of the reason they went and traded for Tyreek Hill is to create more big plays downfield. It was clear in the first game that they’re still working out the kinks in that area, but if you have two of the fastest receivers on Earth on the same team, it raises your floor. The question becomes: how high is the ceiling?

For now though, it’s smooth sailing in South Beach.