Let us start with some stipulations: #1) We assume the Miami Dolphins’ coaching staff knows more about football than we do. As they put it in the U.K., “Is that strictly true?” I have been watching football for at least 55 years. This is how we true Phin fans can tell aurum (Latin for gold) from pyrite (fool’s gold). We’ve seen the one-year flashes (Gase, Sparano, and McDaniel) all end in first-round WIMPY playoff losses, and not even make it back the second year (except for McDaniel). Wanny won
the last playoff game. I was there. Sorry for repeating myself. We all knew these teams were mirages in the Phins’ playoff desert. We see inferior QB play, inferior, untimely defense, inferior play calling, and, most importantly, inferior talent. If we dumbutt fans (who supposedly know zero about football—infinitely less than the all-knowing coaches) can see these flaws, why can’t the GMs and coaches? Why can’t the coaches elevate these players? You may say… Paul: “Maybe they elevated them as far as those players could go?” Hmmm, perhaps.
Malik, Malik, Malik – why isn’t he getting better? Stipulation #2) do the coaches really, really want him to get better and maybe win us 3 to 4 games this year(yes, laugh with me, please)? To counter that, under the prior regime with Grier, good draft positions and quantities DID NOT pan out. With Mr. Sullivan making the picks, I do feel much better about us making the safe/prudent pick VERSUS reaching for potential (Dion Jordan, Ryan Tannehill, etc). All that said, I want Malik to work out for us, as a starter or maybe the Don Strock/Earl Morrall role. I will defend Malik for a second: He originally went to Auburn under Gus Malzahn and did NOT develop because he is NOT a Cam Newton or a Nick Marshall (who was born to run Malzahn’s offense). Malzahn’s offense revolves heavily around the run game and DEEP SHOTS (aka receiver go long). The deep shot plays usually revolve around one WR going long. And virtually no check-downs. These are exceptions to everything I am saying right now. This is the OPPOSITE of McDaniel’s timing-and-precision offense (which is why Herbert has had trouble running it). So Malik was corrupted by Malzahn (Michael Silver wrote an entire article on how Malzahn ruined Jarrett Stidham). Anyhoo, Malik ended up at Liberty under Hugh Freeze, who runs similar concepts to Malzahn (they are friends in real life). If you recall Malik’s Liberty highlights, they were long shots were the WR tried to set up post corners to freeze the safety until the WR commits, then pray the WR can split the corner and the safety for long gains. The offense relies on the run game forcing safeties and corners up, then taking deep shots. The problem is you’ve gotta hit the deep shots, and this all goes back to expected probability (I think I mentioned previously that Howard Schnelleberger would routinely spout the average completion percentages of every pass play). Malzahn and Freeze figure that if they get the right defense shown to them, they can call seven deep shots and maybe hit three for 40–60 yards each. That adds up to 120–180 yards per game on the deep shots, plus 220 rushing yards (at a minimum), for 400 yards per game. A normal passing offense throws, let’s say, 25 completed passes for an average of 10 yards, for a total of 250 yards, requiring 20–25 completions on 40 attempts.
Malik hit his share of deep shots at Liberty, and those “go” routes made him look like Joe Montana. Not really. Montana is the definition of precision throwing, and Mark Schlereth repeated the mantra this past Sunday: “There is no defense for the perfect throw.” For you younger readers, look up the pass play the 49ers pulled off with Dwight Clark against the Cowboys in the NFC Championship Game. It looked like playground stuff, but it was a play they practiced ad nauseam.
Since we don’t know as much as the Phins’ offensive staff about the other stipulations, that leads us to stipulation #3: The coaches ARE probably coaching him, and he is not absorbing it. One of our collaborators in the feed, Gilmiaspr, wrote a beautiful piece about 10 Malik plays from the Bengals game. Well done piece, sir! I would challenge you (if you had time) to look at his feet placement on his throws, and I will wager they are wrong. He has lots of trouble with pocket awareness and premature pocket escapulation (sorry for the obvious pun). You may ask yourself: when Marino had a collapsing pocket, why/how was Marino able to fire passes off almost every time? First, he had an innate sense of how much time he had to throw. Yes, he had a quick release, but that alone doesn’t put the ball generally where it needs to be. He had to know, I am hitting Duper on a crosser, and that takes him 3 seconds to flash in front of me. So if they blitz, I know I can’t wait that long, so I will go for Tony Nathan on the checkdown or throw the ball in the dirt. Or, oftentimes, Marino simply took a step left or right, planted his right foot, and fired his weight forward to drive the ball. I honestly don’t recall Malik planting and firing like that. He runs too quickly, which puts his feet out of position (he ain’t Mahomes-the absolute G.O.A.T. of making precision throws while contorting himself). This is the number one reason his throws are off target. He must plant and fire. This is the step where the coaches need to coach! Give the man a friggin check down. After Nathan retired, Marino had fullback Tony Paige (remember him?) to check down. Paige would torture teams who doubled whatever WRs, or if they copied the Marino kryptonite from the 49ers, and rushed three and dropped eight. He would catch a 3-yard pass and turn it into seven to ten yards. And they would move Paige around like a rook in chess so teams couldn’t get a read on where he would be.
ACTION PLAN
So to wrap up for now: an action plan that we all know but we must say it loud.
- Malik, stay in the pocket, and maybe a take sack when YOU are looking downfield. You gotta dive into the deep part of the pool. Yes, it is scary but you make millions of dollars. You gotta lean forward and throw on your front foot. The ball will obey. Photo of #13 as a guide.
- If you feel the pocket collapsing, step up or to either side.
- Work on the internal brain clock. You have 4 seconds to throw. Or less.
- If you run, don’t go all the way back into your drop before making your decision to run. Run then! Many DL don’t even look up until they pushed their guys back a yard or two. This eye discipline is how teams take out Lamar Jackson in the playoffs. IF you take off a couple of times before they push all the way, then you can plant the seed in the DLs mind.
- Every second that passes in the pocket the LBs can drop back 2.5 yards in their zones which allows them to cover more side-to-side space. Think of a right triangle. I will draw that out soon. Turns out trigonometry applies to football. Who knew?
- Find you a reliable check down player (Tony Paige, Tony Nathan, Terry Kirby, Troy Stradford, Keith Byars….I love you all) Make then spy you and also make them spy the check down.
- Reconcile in your mind how the most unathletic physical specimen to ever play QB (I won’t say his name)has 7 Super Bowl rings.
Allow me this one indulgence, please! War Damn Eagle! Finally beat the UGA Bulldogs. Reminded me of JJ’s first year with the Phins when we broke the Buffalo streak against us. 16-14 in Miami.
