The backstory on why the Dolphins changed offensive coordinators

[CF DolFan]

It seemed pretty crazy at the time so you knew there had to be more to the story. Especially when right afterwards we lost our DC to the Giants and he was supposedly Flores' friend.

BY BARRY JACKSON, ADAM H. BEASLEY, AND ARMANDO SALGUERO
MAY 20, 2020 03:34 PM , UPDATED 10 HOURS 43 MINUTES AGO

When Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores fired Chad O’Shea the day after last season ended and brought 68-year-old Chan Gailey out of retirement to run the team’s offense, there was some level of bewilderment in NFL circles.

But conversations with multiple sources close to last year’s team — including player feedback — have offered clarity about why Flores opted for a change, and why multiple players supported the move.

One player described the situation on offense last season as a

[fyo]

Except for 37-year-old Fitzpatrick, the Dolphins don’t have a single player on offense who has turned 30.

Wow.

[EDGECRUSHER]

I think a few of us called this when it happened. The players weren't responding and they wanted something simpler for their young team. Fitzpatrick taking the reigns as a de facto OC is new but I guess not that surprising. He is a very valuable member of this team and hope he stays on in 2021 as well as Tua's backup.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

Pretty old debate.  Expect the players to rise to the occasion and learn a pro-offense or dummy it down.   While you can’t win if the players don’t know the playbook, you aren’t going to win many games with an offense so simple it doesn’t offer any challenges to the opposing defense.

[CF DolFan]

It depends. If you have a young team you can't add in principles that took the vets years to adjust to. Can't put the cart before the horse. Every offense is capable of becoming more intricate than a team of rookies can handle. You have to teach the base and then add to it. This is also why Tua has no chance of looking better than Fitz to start. With no off season he will be basically learning on the fly.

[fyo]

Pretty old debate.  Expect the players to rise to the occasion and learn a pro-offense or dummy it down.   While you can’t win if the players don’t know the playbook, you aren’t going to win many games with an offense so simple it doesn’t offer any challenges to the opposing defense.

Not quite. Try teaching mathematics, for example, sometime. It's easy to lose people completely by starting out with something that's too complex. On the other hand, if you make sure ppl have good fundamentals and introduce the more complex elements gradually, they will learn a heck of a lot faster.

Same with football.

Judging by the article, it seems like O'Shea introduced some of the really advanced stuff Brady & Co. were running, right off the bat, because he liked those elements. If so, that's just bad teaching. The quickest way to get there would almost certainly have been to chart a path through fundamentals and gradual build-up. But he was a rookie and that's the kind of mistakes that happen sometimes.

[Tenshot13]

Not quite. Try teaching mathematics, for example, sometime. It's easy to lose people completely by starting out with something that's too complex. On the other hand, if you make sure ppl have good fundamentals and introduce the more complex elements gradually, they will learn a heck of a lot faster.

Same with football.

Judging by the article, it seems like O'Shea introduced some of the really advanced stuff Brady & Co. were running, right off the bat, because he liked those elements. If so, that's just bad teaching. The quickest way to get there would almost certainly have been to chart a path through fundamentals and gradual build-up. But he was a rookie and that's the kind of mistakes that happen sometimes.

2 + a = 5

You can't solve for "a" when you don't even know 2+3=5.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

Not quite. Try teaching mathematics, for example, sometime. It's easy to lose people completely by starting out with something that's too complex. On the other hand, if you make sure ppl have good fundamentals and introduce the more complex elements gradually, they will learn a heck of a lot faster.

Same with football.

That is true.  But if you are playing checkers and your opponent is playing 3D chess you aren’t going to win.

[masterfins]

Pretty old debate.  Expect the players to rise to the occasion and learn a pro-offense or dummy it down.   While you can’t win if the players don’t know the playbook, you aren’t going to win many games with an offense so simple it doesn’t offer any challenges to the opposing defense.

I have to say I agree with you.  Simple Offense = Opposing Defense easy to figure out what your play call is.  Maybe he tried instituting too much too fast, but I think the fact they performed much better the second half of the season says something.  Not to mention you can't expect a first time OC to be anything close to perfect, he's learning too, and last year was the perfect opportunity to do it.  I'm worried that Chan Gailey is past his prime, 68 is pretty old for a guy that has to put the long hours necessary during the NFL season.

[SilentTJ]

so going with a simpler offense doesn't always mean less complexity of play calls and such... it means the terminology and concepts being used are easier to grasp. NE is known for using a very complex offensive system that's based on the Erhardt-Perkins system. It's simple but complex all at the same time. players have to learn full play concepts rather than just learning their responsibilities for a given play. the idea being, once you know how a play is supposed to look from all angles, you can then run it from any formation, but that means as a receiver or back you need to know what each position is supposed to do on any given play because you may be lined up in any spot pretty much. for a lot of guys coming out of college this can be difficult as they're used to basically being told where in the formation they line up, and they line up there every time, and more importantly, they're told exactly what route to run in the play call. you end up with longer play calls in terms of verbiage, but it's actually simpler in a sense because you're just telling each guy what to do. that's not the case with the NE playbook. so for a young team trying to learn this offense brand new, with basically no veterans on the team to help them along, that's a tall order. there's a reason not many rookies jump into NE and succeed right away, and even a lot of veterans struggle when they go there at times. from what i've read it sounds like o'shea basically went about the playbook as if he was still in NE and expected 75% of the room to already understand what he was saying, but that wasn't the case.

[EDGECRUSHER]

A simpler offense doesn't mean 60% of our plays are "go long". Gailey has been round for a long time and while his offenses are usually mediocre, his supporting cast is usually dogshit. I think we will do pretty well offensively this year if the O-Line comes together, it's always about them.