Day 1 of OTAs is in the book, and it’s way too early to become judgmental of the Phins, but the one most glaring observation is that the Phins have a really long way to go if they want to be in the playoff hunt. Obviously there is a lot of rust that needs to be shaken off, and guys have excitement jitters because its the first time they have been on the field together in months.
There is no reason to look to deeply into anything but there were some interesting developments. For starters I like what I see from new offensive coordinator Bill Lazor. He brings a lot of energy to the team, and it is going to be exciting to finally see his up-tempo offensive in action. The Dolphins have been victimized for many years in the AFC East by teams using the hurry up no huddle offense during games. It goes as far back as Jim Kelly and the Buffalo Bills, to as recently as Tom Brady and Bill Belichick and the Patriots sprinkling it in on the Dolphins when they are looking to catch the Dolphins defense on their heels. Sports gambling fans should be very excited that Miami is finally planning to wake up and use the no huddle approach during regular times in games. The no huddle offense is hard enough for defenses to defend, because most team’s defenses aren’t conditioned well enough to be able to keep up with a fast past offense. Then add in the intense heat in Miami early in the season, which will cause visiting defenders to expend even more energy, and the Dolphins may finally get some early season home field advantage. Sports gambling fans should not be surprised if the Dolphins start the season against the Patriots with a heavy dose of the no huddle offense.
However the main component in having a successful no huddle offense lies on the shoulders of the team’s QB. It was only one practice but Lazor was not thrilled with what he saw from Ryan Tannehill. His biggest concern, is that Tannehill needs to start practicing at real game speed for his offense to be effective. He said as long as Tannehill can increase his speed then the rest of the offense will catch up to him. So as the OTAs and mini camp progress it will be interesting to see how much Tannehill’s practice speed increases. Don’t forget that during Tannehill’s first two seasons he was running the same offense that he ran in college, so it will be interesting to see how he deals with learning and installing a new type of offense. Tannehill is a hard worker, and a very intelligent young man so he should be able to handle the transition to a new offense.
The other observation was that Misi was moved to inside linebacker, and Ellerbe was moved to strong side linebacker. The Dolphins have talked about making this move during the off-season, so it was telling that on the first day of OTAs they actually implemented it. Philbin says there is nothing set in stone, but it appears that this linebacker swap may be more than just a fantasy. Unfortunately I fear that the line-backing group, which did not perform up to expectations last season is going to continue to struggle this up coming season. The line-backing group reminds me of last years offense line unit. We all knew coming into last season that the offensive line was not properly addressed in the 2013 off-season, and the result was a horrendous 2013 season for the offensive line. All of the phins’ fans were waiting for the Dolphins to address the linebacker position early in this years’ Draft. Instead they decided to wait until the 5th round to draft OLB Jordie Tripp from the small-school Montana who is expected to be primarily a special teams player. I hope I am wrong but I feel like the Phins made a mistake by ignoring the linebacker position this off-season, and the result will be a lack of game changing plays from the linebackers and the phins using the 2015 off-season to address that position.
Lastly the most impressive player in the first day of OTAs was clearly Cortland Finnegan. He was a lot bigger than most sports gambling fans expected, and he was all over the field. He even had a nice interception against Tannehill. If he can keep it up and return to his former pro bowl form, then the Dolphins are going to have their best pair of cornerbacks since Madison and Surtain.