For the first time in 16 years, I do not have NFL Sunday Ticket. The good news is that NFL+ has a condensed version of the game, so I can skip a lot of the talk and in-between play stuff that the normal podcast. I can watch kickoff to final whistle in about 45 minutes. The bad news is that I can’t watch live via that source. I say all of this to preface the fact I watched the game LATE Sunday night, and that process will not likely change this season. With weekends being what they are for me, all my
immediate takes will be from the perspective of watching the game late and trying to remember everything I saw. So if things seem off, perhaps that’s why. Perhaps. Anyway, here we go.
Youth and experience was front and center
This has been THE major talking point all offseason and we all knew coming into this season that rookies were going to play a major factor. This Miami Dolphins team is loaded with players who have not played many NFL snaps on both sides of the ball. Profootballreference.com has the snap counts and starters from the game on their site. On offense, Miami started 3 rookies: Caleb Douglas, Will Kacmarek, and Kadyn Proctor. On defense, Miami started 3 rookies: Jacob Rodriguez, Chris Johnson, and Michael Taaffe. The Douglas, Kacmarek, and Proctor played 51, 14, and 56 snaps respectively, with 56 being all the offensive snaps. Rodriguez, Johnson, and Taaffe played 68, 68, and 51 snaps respectively, with 68 being all the defensive snaps. Other rookies like Chris Bell, Kevin Coleman Jr., and DJ Herman saw significant snaps.
But it wasn’t just the rookies. There were several starters who have limited playing time at the pro level. Starting safety Zayne Anderson played 53 snaps yesterday, which represents over 25% of his career total. Malik Willis, whom I highlighted as an “experienced rookie” played 56 snaps, which represents about 10% of his career total. Jordan Phillips, Jason Marshall Jr., Dante Trader Jr., and Zeek Biggers are all second-year players who played significant snaps against Las Vegas that all have less than 500 NFL snaps in their careers.
That’s a long-winded way of saying the Dolphins are about as wet behind the ears as they can be across the board. That is going to lead to sloppy play from everyone. There are going to be missed assignments. There is going to be miscommunication. I saw more than one occasion where the offensive line looked more confused than the defense.
There is going to be a lot of splintery wood to sand down before this looks like what we want it to be. That doesn’t make it any easier to watch, but it does add some perspective when you realize that of 22 starters, only 8 had more than 1000 career snaps entering this contest.
Coaching is a concern
I read something somewhere that this game was only like the 6th time in NFL history that 2 rookie head coaches faced off against one another. Maybe that’s true; maybe it’s not. What I can say is that one set of coaches looked like they knew what they were doing and the other did not. The Raiders are not a good team and they know that. They have limited weapons and an older QB that is only there as a bridge for their rookie. That coaching staff knew that and did what any good coaching staff would do: protect their QB and let their one top playmaker carry the load. And by protect their QB, I mean get the ball out of his hands and don’t let him do stupid stuff. One might look at Cousins’s stat line and see 21-30 and 3 TDs. But he only threw for 160 yards on those 30 attempts. A high completion percentage and low YPA means what class? That’s right… Captain Kirk was Captain Checkdown. I don’t blame them one bit. They were smart to lean on the running game. They were smart to target a rookie cornerback – and Cousins is savvy enough to do that. When Cousins did look downfield, it was usually bad. He had a few completions. He also completed a few to the Dolphins. Cousins wasn’t particularly good this game despite his stat line looking somewhat nice. That team just played smarter and looked better coached.
To counter that, the Dolphins didn’t sell out to stop the run. Or maybe they did. I don’t remember. It was late. But I would have had 8 in the box at all times and forced Cousins and limited pass catchers to beat me. Only one WR on the Raiders had a YPC average over 10 and that was because he caught the one decent downfield throw from Cousins. But no… the Raiders ran over the Dolphins and ran over them some more. It was a disappointing showing from a defensive calling standpoint. Now, I will give Hafley a slight break… typically offensive head coaches have an advantage over defensive head coaches starting out. But Hafley will need to improve. If he is going to sink or swim with rookies and green players, he might as well go all out with them.
On the flip side (hat tip to WZB), Miami’s offense was like that annoying card player at the poker table that goes all-in every hand. Everything was a run or deep pass. I saw a screen pass or two, but that was it. No checkdowns, no easy passes, no “drive starters.” I recall the Raiders having several plays where Cousins threw a quick out for a 4-5 yard gain at most. Where was that for Miami? That’s how you protect your quarterback. That’s how you stay on schedule and maintain proper down and distance. I get the game script got out of hand late, but the play calling was very suspect (also hat tip to JUK – I was preparing this before I read his post, so make sure you read it).
This and that
- Caleb Douglas may be for real. I’m going to be a little hesitant because the Raiders don’t exactly have a shutdown secondary. But a “reach” in his debut game going 5-94 on 7 targets is nothing to write off. He should only improve. Sully may have struck gold here.
- Kadyn Procter looked ok out there. Perhaps an All-22 review is in order. I saw a player who missed several assignments, which is a communication issue. That’s not necessarily a rookie mistake, but the 1st team OL has been the same from day one. That’s something that should be mitigated by now. I also saw Achane get dropped for a loss because Proctor got obliterated. A 360 lbs. OL should NOT get pushed THAT far back on a run play. That is simply unacceptable. But he also had some good run blocks and held up decent in pass pro. OL reviews really require All-22 film and the condensed replay doesn’t rewind the easiest (on the TV anyway), but from what I could see, he had good and bad moments.
- Malik Washington can be a reliable target for Willis, but if he is used the right way. McDaniel had him running sweeps and behind the LOS kinda stuff and that’s good. But Slowik has a 6’4” and 6’2” receiver at his disposal and he’s running deep sideline routes to a 5’8” WR? Come on now. This comes back to the play-calling. Putting Washington in position to catch the underneath stuff and use RAC skills will best fit what he can do AND give Willis the needed “easy pass” option.
- Malik Willis was… ok. I don’t think he played poorly overall, but there were some issues that need to be addressed. Aside from the playcalling aspect, he took some bad sacks. Before fans jump on the “oh noes, the OL sucks again”, this is very likely ALWAYS going to be a part of Willis’ game. He is going to hold the ball longer than we have seen under the previous regime. Yes, some of it was poor blocking. Let’s give the Raiders some credit. They have one of the game’s best pass rushers in Crosby and edge rushers Kwity Paye and Malcolm Koonce are solid players. But Willis is going to take sacks that his predecessor never would because of how he plays. Play-calling can also help with the sack numbers. Getting the ball out quickly became a standard thanks to the McDaniel era, but it is a tool that most good play-callers use to their advantage. Willis also provides the rushing element that Miami has never truly had outside of an occasional run from Ryan Tannehill. Still, he made some good throws, and I think the overall game script just got away from him. I believe he tried to play some hero ball and he really didn’t need to do that.
- Maybe the safety room isn’t ALL that bad. Ok, they were out of position some and missed some tackles. But they also made some plays. Taaffe had 4 tackles and an INT and SHOULD have had a forced fumble. Trader had 3 tackles and an INT. Anderson had 5 tackles, a TFL, and a PBU. There is talent here. How quickly can it come together?
- Speaking of Anderson’s PBU, that “taunting” call… that’s weak sauce. That was potentially a momentum-shifting play. The Dolphins had given up a score and then gone 3-and-out. The pressure was on the defense to get a stop and they did. But because Juju Brents stood near an opponent and made the “incomplete” sign, that’s a penalty? Get ALL the way out of here with that. Unless he said something to the player, which didn’t appear to be the case, that’s a horrible call for a silly infraction. It was a big hit that jarred the ball loose, and he got a needed stop. He celebrated with his teammate, and because the opponent was nearby, it was “taunting”. No Fun League indeed.
- Kenneth Grant is sorely missed. He may not be the interior pass rushing specialist worthy of a high first round pick yet, but he is a solid run defender at worst. The run defense was gashed, and his presence would have made an impact. The fact DE Clelin Ferrell was elevated from the practice squad and not DT Mazi Smith for THIS game was… puzzling. That goes back to the coaching decisions.
- Special teams was special indeed. Patterson missed a 41-yard field goal. Pinion’s 45.8 yards per punt and 37.0 net yards per punt are 23rd in the league after one game. The coverage units were atrocious, allowing a 2nd worst 17.5 yards per punt return and absolute worst on yards per kick return at 47.5. The next worst is Jacksonville at 38.0, nearly 10 yards less per return. The Dolphins allowed the 2nd best average starting field position to the Raiders, who started on their own 36.9 yard line on average. On a positive note, the Dolphins averaged 17.0 yards per punt return, which is 3rd best and 6th in yards per kick return at 32.4. The Dolphins are 8th best in terms of starting field position at their own 33.5, but that is likely buoyed by the 2 INTs, which allowed them to start in or near Raiders territory.
I said what I said
I’m going to try to put on my optimist hat for a moment and tell you that everything will be ok. It’s a VERY inexperienced team and there were some positive moments that came from this loss. I also know that I made a bold prediction about wins last week. But the most concerning part of this game is a potential cause-and-effect. Being bold is nice and fun to write, but being realistic is looking at the schedule and not seeing a potential win until week 7 against the Jets. Even though they looked feisty, albeit against a team in the Titans that may be worse than the Dolphins. This Dolphins team is nearly a 2-TD underdog against the 49ers. We haven’t seen Kansas City yet (as of when I’m actually writing this), but the Dolphins will not be favored in that game, even at home. They go on the road to Minnesota, who managed to whip Hafley’s former team at home pretty soundly with a backup QB. Their starter went down with a concussion and may or may not be available in the Dolphins game. That could be a factor, but it’s not likely to be a win. The Bengals will be favored in Week 5. Coach Hafley said not to measure success in wins and losses this season, and it looks like there will be nothing but losses for the foreseeable future.
That’s the cause of the possible unfortunate effect, which very well could be another one-and-done head coach for the Dolphins. Coaches generally don’t survive going 0-fer. I expected the Dolphins to be rough this week but still be able to pull out a victory. They weren’t particularly close. The good news is that no one can measure development after one game. We should expect tighter communication in the next game and then the next. We should see incremental improvement. If we don’t see it by about midseason, that’s a problem. The bad news is even if they do improve a little, that it may not be enough. The wild card factor is new CEO Daniel Sillman. We don’t know how much control he has over the decision-making process. Stephen Ross has been rather patient with coaches and staff. Sillman may not be. There is twitter speculation that the decision to give season ticket holders free jerseys may be getting rid of backstock due to a potential jersey change. That may be nothing and may be completely irrelevant, but if he’s wanting more “new and fresh”, keeping a 0-1 win head coach may not be his idea for that.
I’m not saying that Hafley WILL be out, but we’ve seen this movie before. Miami wanted to clear payroll and start over before. They hired a defensive head coach that struggled putting together an offensive staff and even with 2 winning seasons, he was ousted. For Hafley, there needs to be significant improvement. I don’t expect it this week against SF or even next week against KC. But they must look like a team that can fight for a win by season’s end. The 2019 team went into New England in week 17, with New England playing for playoff positioning, and got a win. The 2026 team needs to show improvement like that, because right now, I’m not confident they can even score. I’m not trying to be an alarmist, but if the one-and-done scenario happens, good things don’t normally follow. Instead of GM-HC synergy, you get power struggles and conflict. It’ll be even worse if Sillman decides for “splash” and goes for a known coach like Mike Tomlin. It’ll be deja vu all over again. Things will go south much quicker and much easier than it starts to turn around. We need to see more this week, even if the opponent is tougher. If the same sloppy play, mistakes, and coaching issues could be a bad sign for Hafley.
I know what this season is, so I’m not gonna complain. But I’m tired of failed rebuilds after failed rebuilds and I would like to see one go right. Game one provided more questions than glimmers of hope.
But enough of that ranting… enjoy some greatness to brighten the rest of your day!
