The Miami Dolphins’ offense hasn’t been performing like it usually does, due in large part to the absence of quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. But Tua played in more than half of the three 2024 games. So maybe the issue goes deeper than the quarterback position.
Regardless, there’s no doubt that something is off. The Dolphins have scored only 33 points in three games.
“Yeah, 33 points, that sucks, right?” receiver Tyreek Hill told reporters on Thursday. “Yeah, man, it’s not fun being on the short stick of a bad offense. I look at it like this — I’d rather us go through adversity early, figure it out and then begin to gain momentum towards the end. Usually we start off hot. My first two years here with Coach [Mike] McDaniel and staff with the Dolphins, we started off hot every year and we slowly begin to slowly trend down. Now we have a chance to start slow and then build momentum up towards the end. We’ve got a beautiful thing going right here, man. It’s either we’re going to be a part of the problem, or we’re going to continue to add on to the problem. We got a lot of great guys on this team who’s willing to be part of the solution.”
It sound good, but there’s no real logic in it. We’ve gone from good to not good in the past. Now that we’re not good, we can go to being good.
But Tyreek and his teammates need something to hang their hat on; they still have 14 games left to play in 2024.
“We’re just not doing a lot of things right,” Hill said. “We got a great team. When we get a big gain, we’ll either get illegal formation or we’ll get a holding. We’re always starting drives behind the eight ball. We always shoot ourselves in the foot. We always have a lot of penalties. We’ll get a big 12-yard gain, flag. It will be first-and-20. It’s tough. As a head coach or offensive coordinator, it’s tough calling plays whenever it’s first-and-20 and it’s like you already got plays designed for second-and-three or second-and-five or whatever. We’ve got to stop shooting ourselves in the foot and start trusting our fundamentals, trusting our technique, relying on each other, and playing as a team. Leaders and captains, we’ve done a great job of telling both sides of the ball that. I’ve done a great job of telling the young guys, ‘Hey, trust your technique. Trust your fundamentals. Don’t try to go outside of that to make a play,’ you know what I’m saying? It’ll all fall together.”
The next chance for it to fall together comes on Monday night, against the Titans.
“Very confident, man,” Hill said of the Week 4 game. “We have a heck of a coaching staff who’s able to put together a crazy game plan. It’s going to be a crazy game Monday night. I’m looking forward to it. Obviously today I feel pretty strong [with] what we did as an offense. Everything looked the way it normally looked and it normally felt. So it was fun today, man.”
It’s still not clear who the quarterback will be. Hill was asked about working with Tyler Huntley on Thursday. Hill was coy.
“I worked with Tim Boyle, so I really don’t know,” Hill said. “Like I said, Tim Boyle was out there throwing, they even had [Jaylen] Waddle throwing. We are in the process of looking for anybody who can throw — open applications.”
Whoever is throwing, Hill is no longer going to clamor for throws.
“I got out of that,” Hill said. “I’ve grown through that stage of my life. I’ve been talking to my therapist and she said, ‘Don’t get into arguments on the sideline,’ so I’ve let it go. I’ve let that side of me go of demanding the ball.”
So is there reason for hope?
“We’re still fast, ain’t we?” Hill said. “We’re still going to be able to separate, but obviously there is a lot of things that go into that. There’s a lot of things that play into it — offensive line, running back, DBs getting their hands on it. There’s a lot of things that go into it, because a lot of people see things differently. Tua may see something different than Boyle. Boyle may see something different than Skylar [Thompson]. Snoop [Huntley) may see something different than Tua. It’s all about timing and trust, building that relationship with the quarterback.”
It’s still not clear which one it will be on Monday night — Thompson, Boyle, or Huntley. In his last word from Thursday, while praising Huntley, Hill seemed to narrow it down to two options.
“I’ve been watching film of him since he’s got here, I’m like, ‘This dude can make every throw. This dude is special with his legs.’ He’s a special talent. The only thing — we’ve got a lot of things that go into this offense. We got motions, we’ve got getting the play out before, so he’s done a good job of staying in the film room learning all of that stuff. Excited to see if him or [Tim] Boyle goes, it should be fun.”
It can be Thompson or Boyle or Huntley. After Tua Tagovailoa misses three more games, it could be him.
Whoever it is, the Dolphins need to average more than 11 points per game. Otherwise, they won’t have to worry about losing in the wild-card round of the playoffs.
Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel noted it’s “a little premature” to name a starter at quarterback for Monday night’s game against the Titans. But Skylar Thompson was at least on the field for Miami’s first practice of the week.
The team listed Thompson (ribs) as a limited participant in Thursday’s session.
Thompson started the Week 3 loss to Seattle and was 13-of-19 for 107 yards before exiting the contest.
Running back Raheem Mostert (chest), cornerback Storm Duck (shoulder), fullback Alec Ingold (shoulder/knee), and receiver Malik Washington (quad) were also limited. Mostert has not played since Week 1.
Offensive tackle Terron Armstead (concussion), cornerback Kendall Fuller (concussion), linebacker David Long (hamstring), and cornerback Siran Neal (hamstring) all did not practice.
Defensive tackle Calais Campbell also did not practice with a rest day.
Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel didn’t name a starting quarterback for Week Four when he spoke to reporters on Tuesday and he’s still not ready to make an announcement.
McDaniel said, via multiple reporters, that it is “a little premature” to name a quarterback for multiple reasons. One of those reasons is a competitive one and the other is the status of a couple of the options for the position.
Skylar Thompson left the team’s Week Three loss to the Seahawks with a rib injury and is not expected to be a full participant in practice on Wednesday. Tyler Huntley signed with the team last week and McDaniel said he is more comfortable with the idea of playing Huntley, who he also said has been gaining the confidence of his teammates.
Huntley and Thompson are on the active roster while Tim Boyle, who replaced Thompson last week, is on the practice squad. One of the three of them will start against the Titans, but they and the rest of us will have to wait to find out who it will be.
Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores filed a landmark lawsuit against the NFL and multiple teams in February 2022. More than two and a half years later, much of the case is still stuck at square one.
Part of the case is finally starting to move toward square two. Which has sparked a skirmish as to the portion of the case that remains stuck at square one.
Flores has sued the NFL, the Dolphins, the Giants, the Broncos, and the Texans. Horton has sued the Titans. Wilks has sued the Cardinals.
Some claims have landed in arbitration. Other claims are pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit as to the question of whether they should be arbitrated. One of the arguments made by Flores and his co-plaintiffs (Steve Wilks and Ray Horton) relates to the question of whether Commissioner Roger Goodell should be permitted to resolve disputes involving the teams that employ and compensate him.
On Tuesday, the NFL sent a one-page letter to the appeals court for the express purpose of “bring[ing] to the Court’s attention that, on September 17, 2024, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell exercised his discretion to appoint the Honorable Peter C. Harvey as the arbitrator over the claims in this case that the district court ordered to proceed in arbitration.”
That same day, Flores’s lawyers responded with a letter that accused the league of “attempt[ing] to falsely create an appearance of impartiality in the arbitration proceedings.”
The letter attacks Goodell for making the threshold decision that the dispute is or is not “football-oriented.” If it is football-oriented, Goodell resolves it; if it’s not, the dispute goes to third-party arbitration. Flores’s lawyers contend that the league’s in-house policies specify that a dispute is not “football-oriented” if it is “a dispute relating to or arising out of discrimination, wage and hour or family and medical leave issues.”
“Mr. Goodell self-servingly determined that the dispute was ‘football oriented’ and kept the administration of the dispute in-house at the NFL,” the Flores letter alleges.
The letter then explains that Goodell’s appointment of Peter Harvey, who will be assisted by former NFL G.M. Bill Polian, does not cure the bias.
“Mr. Harvey has an ongoing professional relationship with the NFL, including being a member of the Diversity Advisory Committee created in response to the filing of the Flores lawsuit in a purported effort to address the racial inequities set forth in this action,” the letter asserts. “Mr. Polian is a lifelong NFL executive, having worked in management for at least four different teams over more than 40 years. Together, Mr. Harvey and Mr. Polian’s relationships and connections to the NFL and its member teams, and its lawyers, is sure to be extensive.”
As we’ve said before, Goodell should not want to be responsible for these decisions. Goodell’s insistence to control the outcome of cases involving the league and its teams — and the league’s obsession with confidentiality of the proceedings — creates the impression that the NFL maintains a secret, rigged, kangaroo court.
Even if the courts are inexplicably going to allow it, the public needs to understand how the league handles its internal business. Basically, it’s the equivalent of allowing one of the two teams in a football game to appoint its own employees to serve as the on-field officials.
Last night, the NFL staged a pair of staggered Monday night games — Jaguars at Bills and Commanders at Bengals. The first game started at 7:30 p.m. ET, and the second one started 45 minutes later, at 8:15 p.m. ET.
Most didn’t like it. A Twitter poll posted after the second game started asked a simple question. Do you like two games being played on Monday night?
Of more than 27,000 votes, 66.9 percent said, “No.”
People prefer to watch one game at a time. It’s impossible to closely follow two at once.
This new periodic habit of overlapping doubleheaders has one major benefit. One game becomes insurance against the other game not being very good.
That happened last night. By the time the Jaguars-Bills game was out of hand, Commanders-Bengals was getting good.
Like it or not, it’s coming again. Next Monday, Titans-Dolphins starts at 7:30 p.m. ET, and Seahawks-Lions begins at 8:15 p.m. ET.
