Dolphins' Mike Wallace tells media to ask his coach about his one-catch day

Mike Wallace did not appreciate the way he was used by his new team. (J. Pat Carter/AP) The Miami Dolphins started their 2013 season with a 23-10 win over the

Doug Farrar | Sep 8, 2013

Dolphins' Mike Wallace tells media to ask his coach about his one-catch day /

Mike Wallace did not appreciate the way he was used by his new team. (J. Pat Carter/AP)

The Miami Dolphins started their 2013 season with a 23-10 win over the Cleveland Browns, and you'd think everyone on the Dolphins' side would be happy about that. Most everyone was, but receiver Mike Wallace, signed to a five-year, $60-million contract with $30 million guaranteed in March, was not.

The former Pittsburgh Steelers' star, known as one of the NFL's most dangerous deep threats, was targeted just five times by quarterback Ryan Tannehill, and caught just one pass -- a 15-yarder with 11:30 left in the third quarter. After the game, Wallace said that he did not feel like talking about the performance.

"Ask coach," Wallace told the media. "It's not my gameplan."

As we pointed out in this week's "Playbook" preview, it's an issue that may have had its roots in the preseason. For all the talk about Wallace as a deep threat, he caught exactly one pass over 20 yards in the exhibition campaign.

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When asked this week about Wallace's matchup against Browns cornerback Joe Haden, who shadowed Wallace and is one of the league's most impressive young cover men, Dolphins head coach Joe Philbin said that that matchup might be a consideration in the gameplan.

“It’s very important as we put together the passing game," Philbin said on Tuesday. "Obviously, the passing game again starts with protection, No. 1. But then No. 2, what kind of pass concepts are you going to use, and No. 3, how are they going to match up to your formations, your personnel groupings and how we could potentially take advantage of that? It’s a very big part of it. Obviously Haden is an excellent player.”

Brian Hartline

Brandon Gibson

Published Sep 8, 2013

DOUG FARRAR

SI.com contributing NFL writer and Seattle resident Doug Farrar started writing about football locally in 2002, and became Football Outsiders' West Coast NFL guy in 2006. He was fascinated by FO's idea to combine Bill James with Dr. Z, and wrote for the site for six years. He wrote a game-tape column called "Cover-2" for a number of years, and contributed to six editions of "Pro Football Prospectus" and the "Football Outsiders Almanac." In 2009, Doug was invited to join Yahoo Sports' NFL team, and covered Senior Bowls, scouting combines, Super Bowls, and all sorts of other things for Yahoo Sports and the Shutdown Corner blog through June, 2013. Doug received the proverbial offer he couldn't refuse from SI.com in 2013, and that was that. Doug has also written for the Seattle Times, the Washington Post, the New York Sun, FOX Sports, ESPN.com, and ESPN The Magazine. He also makes regular appearances on several local and national radio shows, and has hosted several podcasts over the years. He counts Dan Jenkins, Thomas Boswell, Frank Deford, Ralph Wiley, Peter King, and Bill Simmons as the writers who made him want to do this for a living. In his rare off-time, Doug can be found reading, hiking, working out, searching for new Hendrix, Who, and MC5 bootlegs, and wondering if the Mariners will ever be good again.